Following the June 18th opening of the feature film Jonah Hex, Reprise Records will release a 6-track EP from Mastodon from the film's original motion picture score Jonah Hex on June 29th, 2010.
Jonah Hex features an original score by Reprise recording artists Mastodon and Oscar®-nominated composer Mario Beltrami (The Hurt Locker, 3:10 to Yuma). Mastodon were asked to create the score personally by the film's director, Jimmy Hayward who was inspired by repeated listenings of Mastodon's 2006 album Blood Mountain. "Jimmy called us out of the blue as a fan," bassist Troy Sanders told Paste magazine in an interview. "It was the most beautiful, authentic way to collaborate."
Reprise Records will also release an exclusive EP of six of Mastodon's tracks from the film Jonah Hex score on June 29th. For their first film scoring experience Mastodon recorded the tracks for Jonah Hex by viewing movie footage and actually composing the score spontaneously on the spot in the studio. This method of experimental and immediate composition proved to be a daring, daunting and ultimately fun way of creating music together over a short period of time. The resulting sessions yielded incredibly exciting results produced in a completely different way than they normally would approach writing and recording for a Mastodon album. Fans will get a chance to hear the four new tracks: "Death March," "Clayton Boys," "Indian Theme," and "Train Assault" with two bonus versions as they become available through iTunes and all other digital outlets.
Based on the legendary character from the comic book series from DC Comics, Jonah Hex is an epic action adventure about one man's personal quest for redemption against the canvas of the battle between good and evil. The film stars Academy Award® nominee
Josh Brolin (Milk, No Country For Old Men), two-time Academy Award® nominee
John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire, Places in the Heart),
Megan Fox (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen),
Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds),
Will Arnett (Blades of Glory) and Academy Award® nominee
Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road).
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Legendary Pictures, a Mad Chance/Weed Road Production: Jonah Hex. Jimmy Hayward directed the film, marking his live-action directorial debut. The screenplay is by Neveldine & Taylor from a story by
William Farmer and Neveldine & Taylor, based on comic books written by John Albano, illustrated by Tony DeZuniga and published by DC Comics. The film is produced by Academy Award® winner Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) and Andrew Lazar (Get Smart). Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni,
William Fay, Matt LeBlanc, John Goldstone and Ravi Mehta served as executive producers.
Globally-celebrated and critically-revered hard-rock masterminds Mastodon have created one of the most daring and highly praised albums in recent years with their current and fifth full-length effort, Crack the Skye, which entered the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart at #11. Following a spate of late-night TV appearances and a pair of groundbreaking Roboshobo-directed videos, the band toured the world non-stop following the album's March 2009 release. Crack the Skye placed on numerous "Year End / Best of 2009" critics lists and readers polls, including an impressive No. 8 entry on the prestigious Village Voice Annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll's "Top 25 Albums of 2009" list. Time magazine placed it third on its list of the top ten "Best Albums of 2009," writing, "Thunderous, disciplined and expansive...the ambition and tenacity of Mastodon's music makes Crack The Skye sonically unforgettable." In recent months Mastodon has performed on their own, co-headlined with Dethklok and toured Europe and Latin America with Metallica, further expanding their notoriety as a peerless live force of nature.
Photo credit: James Minchin 2009
