Jochen Arbeit, best known as the guitarist of Einstürzende Neubauten and Die Haut, will be releasing an album called Solo. While the exact contents are still not known, we do know that it will be a compilation of music he has made over the last 10 years for films, theater, and other non-band-related projects, coupled with a DVD containing some video material. Solo is expected to be released on October 17th.

An introduction to Resonator

Resonator is a duo from Münster, Germany, who makes some of the most unique and creative music you can find. Kai typically writes music for theater and works on film soundtracks, while Anja is a formally trained musician who plays the accordion for the Resonator project. Ambient electronic music mixed with accordions is certainly not a common combination of sounds, but I can assure you it’s something very special when you hear it.

Enter the Red Room Diner

Red Room Diner is Resonator’s first full length album, originally released in 2003. It starts out with the mysterious sounding intro “Avis De Securite”. Coming in at under a minute in length, the song doesn’t really give you much of a clue about what you’re in for. This could be the introduction for anything, it’s very abstract. What’s to come? It might surprise you…

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Since the movie EuroTrip first came out in theaters in 2004, a lot of people have been asking about the song that plays in the background when Cooper Harris (played by Jacob Pitts) is in Club Vandersexxx. The song sounds like it’s industrial-metal in style and you can clearly hear some counting in German. Everyone wanted to know who made it so they could find the full length version and get more of the musician’s songs. Some though it might have been a remix of Rammstein’s song “Links 234″ while others guessed it could be Laibach. There was also the belief that is was made by some yet-to-be discovered band.

The truth is, everybody was wrong. Back in March of 2006, Jen from RammsteinNicCage.com got in contact with someone related to the film’s composer, James L. Venable, and found out the facts. The Club Vandersexxx song wasn’t made by any band. Mr. Venable himself created it especially for EuroTrip. There is no full length version of it, and it can’t be found on the EuroTrip soundtrack, either. As a further disappointment to would-be fans, Dreamworks owns the copyright to the song (because it was made exclusively for the movie) so it is highly unlikely that it will ever be released on CD.

There is some good news, though. You can actually download an MP3 of “Vandersexx” from James Venable’s website. The song is only slightly over a minute in length, but it still sounds pretty cool.

You can also watch the whole scene from EuroTrip where “Vandersexx” is played. The song starts around the 2:00 mark. Please be aware: There is some nudity in this video.

Many of you flocked to the theaters this weekend to see the new Simpsons movie, pushing it to the #1 spot this week, but you probably don’t know much about the music featured in the movie. The soundtrack for The Simpsons movie was put together by the world famous German composer Hans Zimmer. Hans has composed music for dozens of major movies like The DaVinci Code, Pirates of the Caribbean (movies 2 and 3), Gladiator, and The Last Samurai. And for his work, he has won many awards including an Academy Award, a Grammy, and 2 Golden Globe Awards.

Composing a movie soundtrack takes a whole different set of skills than recording a regular album. This just goes to show that there are very talented German people in all areas of the music world. To listen to songs from a number of Hans’ soundtracks, check out the player on his Myspace page.

The Simpsons Movie soundtrack will be released on July 31st. It is available in a few different formats including a CD in a special donut-shaped package.

The Simpsons Movie soundtrack
01. Simpsons Theme (Orchestral Version)
02. Trapped Like Carrots
03. Doomsday Is Family Time
04. Release The Hounds
05. Clap For Alaska
06. What’s An Epiphany?
07. Thank You Boob Lady
08. You Doomed Us All…Again
09. …Lead, Not To Read
10. Why Does Everything I Whip Leave Me
11. Bart’s Doodle
12. World’s Fattest Fertilizer Salesman
13. His Big Fat Butt Could Shield Us All
14. Spider Pig
15. Recklessly Impulsive