Some Casio for Zissou

One of the first things I noticed about director Wes Anderson's films was his music choices. He always seemed to have the best balance of great scoring and the choicest cuts from artists like Nico, Bowie, Cat Stevens, the Ramones, Elliot Smith, the Who, etc. etc......his soundtracks remind me of a really eclectic and well thought out mix tape. When Anderson's last film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was released the first thing you probably noticed musically was Seu Jorge doing Bowie classics in Portuguese, but what I noticed this time, more than ever before was the score, written by Mark Mothersbaugh.DEVO frontman Mothersbaugh has been doing the scoring for Wes Anderson since his first movie Bottle Rocket and the two are a great fit, but Mothersbaugh never really ventured back to the sounds he created for The Rugrats or DEVO. However, on one track, Anderson requested that Mothersbaugh dig into his collection of outdated keyboard technology looking for that old school "Casio" sound. You hear this homage to the Casio in one Zissou track that accompanies an onscreen rescue operation from a band of pirates. I can't think of anybody better suited to this task than Mothersbaugh and he certainly delivers with a terrific piece that begins by setting the musical theme with his Casio-esque sound then deftly switches to a full on orchestra, pulling out all the stops in a wonderful compliment to what's taking place onscreen.