JM on Jim Jarmusch

"I finally got to sit down and watch catch Only Lovers Left Alive by Jim Jarmusch. It’s a wonderful story of two very old and very wise vampires, and is chock full of other cultural references. Old guitars, old books, and old tunes. Very, very cool flick, which is taking up more time than I like, because I have to go and check all the names of authors and musicians and even the audio equipment Jarmusch ever so nonchalantly zoomed in on. As I was falling down the rabbit hole of culture references, I took some time off to watch another Jarmusch film, Ghost Dog, with Forest Whitaker. This film was a bit more grimy and not as polished, but full of literary references all the same. The one guy I didn’t have to look up though was RZA, who did the score. Now, RZA is guy who’s crafted one of my many soundtracks of my life, but what I have not known, until recently, was where he sourced some of his great music. Two years ago or so, I came upon a very cool record shop, who makes a banging podcast of 60’s and 70’s (and right on up to today) of dub, reggae, ska, and rocksteady. One show in particular features a couple of tracks right of the bat that are, to a RZA fan, are instantly recognizable. Give it a listen here, and lets hope Jim connects again with one of the sharpest producers of our time, who has crafted his style based on obscure references."




Jim Jarmusch