If they made The Crow today.....

 

What bands and artists would you think would be on the soundtrack? That OST for The Crow is still just a great alternative music compilation album, some big acts and some slightly more obscure ones but all good repping different parts of what the scene was back in the mid 90s.  But if they were doing one now, with the dearth if not the death of MTV and alt radio its hard to really say whats big or current in underground music, unless you're in a major urban centre with a healthy live scene (or like, usually when the apocalypse lurghy isn't haunting us around every corner). I myself have a few ideas of what I'd like to see which I will share but I'd like to hear from other people (assuming anyone actualy reads these things which doesn't appeear to be the case :)).

What artists do you think would be a good representation of where the scene is at right now, or what alt music have you heard recently that you think would match any of the emotional beats of the comic(s) if you're familliar with the source material (O'Barr himself said the music he was listening to which fed into the vibe of the comic book as he was creating it was Iggy Pop, and all your classic 1st wave goth and alt rock groups, Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Cure)?

The following is my personal recreation of what I personally think would / should be on there.

1. 3Teeth

                                   

Yeah? I mean in terms of bands that have come up in the last decade or so are really flying the flag for our thing and doing it well 3Teeth have been at the forefront of a revivial of the old WaxTraxx sound and returning a bit of cred to a scene mired down in cheese.

2. She Wants Revenge

                                

This track has been used on AHS and is I think a recognised classic and their stuff is mostly pretty good (decent live too). Seems like a no-brainer. Probably the closest non-legacy band to the sounds that inspired O'Barr, mostly for the fact that they're just straight up doing the goth post-punk formula really well.

3. Chelsea Wolfe

Just as the original had some slower more emotional moments and some transcendently pretty female vocal led tracks to bring the punch of those moments out, if we're looking at contemporary artists I think a bit of Chelsea would do rightly for capturing the more melancholy emotional beats of the story.

4. Ghostemane

I feel like this is an artist that should be on there as much because he represents something genuinely new thats happened to the scene and something very current because he's fucking sick and has a range of tracks already that could be inserted into that narrative.

5. Adam X

 

Hearing some genuinely good contemporary techno during the nightclub scenes in The Batman when I went to see it last weekend is one of the things that had me on the train of thought that led to this post, like if there was something simmilar happening in The Crow, what would be appropriate? I was thinking some german EBM-Techno like this or some Ancient Methods, Vatican Shadow, Regis or something like that, or maybe something a bit harder like:

6. Paula Temple

which bangs a bit more, is more discordant, abstract and aggy in general.

7. Bob Vylan

Coming back around to more guitar led music, RATM had a track, as did the Henry Rollins band so you'd want some sort of punk represented and Bob Vylans grime inflected-punk, usually with very angry political messaging would seem like a good succesor

8. Turnstile

These lads dropped one of the big scene albums of last year and they've done some really interesting electronic crossover stuff with Mall Grab so you could go that way instead?

9. Spirit Box

Feels like this group could be part of the conversation here as well, since they blew up pretty big very recently and represent a more contemporary sound in Metal that feels very now

10. IDLES

Harking back one again to contemporary takes on the sounds of Post-Punk that inspired the comic. IDLES is one of the groups out now taking on and pushing that sound. 

11. Rein

Now, getting abck to the more traditionally Gothic. There's been an explosion of bands that have given this old genre a shot in the arm, Linea Aspera, Boy Harsher, Azar Swan, Drab Majesty, Perturbator, Riki and so on, but this girl, who's concept album is very much a cyber-punk conceptually oddessy about life and coming back from death. Sounds like our girl if you ask me.

12. Petbrick

Something that wouldn't have been on the original because it wasn't a thing at that point but could be now, I feel, would be the metal-fusion stuff in the far left field of the electronic music scene. Projects like Drumcorps, DJ SkullVomit and Igorrr have been leading the way but of all that sound the best thing I've come across recently was Petbrick, a side project of the drummer from Sepultura Iggor Caldera and Wayne Adams who's been doing simmilar music for years. This is good aggy fight scene music, perfect for a stand off with a major villain.

 

13. Roly Porter (for the score)

 

The original fampusly also had an excellent score even aside from the OST by Graeme Revell of the legendary pioneering Industrial Noise music group SPK. Few there are who would be a worthy successor, though one could make a case for Merzbow or maybe Orphyx, personally I think Mr Porter here, formally of the dubstep bassweights Vex'd who I personally feel have been responsible for some of the absolute best and most industrial music of the last couple of decades and Roly's ambient works could do absolure wonders on the film score.

14. Ice Nine Kills

And finally, this has all been pretty speculative so far, these guys already have one in the bag waiting to go. BTW the video starts with a bit of a skit and the actual track is about halfway through the video if you're watching the link. I dunno how much I like this band in general, feels a bit gimmicky because thats exactly what it is, but it also is kind of good, so....? eh. People do seem to like them though.

If we're talking about bringing anyone back, of the artists that were on there originally The Cure and Nine In Nails (or Trent paired back up with Atticus Ross) would be great. Trent would indeed be worthy and experienced candidate for just score duties.

You know its going to happen one day, in fact the latest seems to be that its on its way out of development hell and looking like a real prospect for some time before the middle of the decade (not that we haven't heard that one before, but still). Lets hope at least one of the producers will get to read this (Lily, or Lana, girls, I know at least one of yous got a secret account here, c'mon lets make this happen!), or at least that as much care is taken with the OST and score and any other musical content with the new one as was with the original.

If anyone reading this has suggstions, feel free to comment!