Songs for a Freaky Hollywood Hotel!

Influenced by ‘50s/’60s cocktail culture, the exotica of Martin Denny and a passel of other mid-century thrift-store denizens, Combustible Edison’s music already seemed like the lost soundtrack to some early-’60s Hollywood farce. With its woozy beatnik jazz and seductive bongo beat, this hip-swiveling score gets a first ever vinyl release!

“That might be our Magical Mystery Tour,” says Combustible Edison bassist Nick Cudahy of his band’s experience creating the Four Rooms soundtrack. When you consider that the process involved a whirlwind trip to Hollywood, quirky legends like Quentin Tarantino and Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh, and a film where Madonna commands a coven of witches and a drunken Bruce Willis recounts TV trivia wearing a women’s 1920s flapper-style headdress, Cudahy's assessment starts to make a lot of sense. 

Influenced by ‘50s/’60s cocktail culture; the exotica of Martin Denny, Esquivel, and Les Baxter; the slinky film scores of Henry Mancini; and a passel of other mid-century thrift-store denizens, Combustible Edison’s music already seemed like the lost soundtrack to some early-’60s Hollywood farce. So, they couldn’t have been better suited for a film that opens with a Pink Panther-esque animated sequence and maintains a darkly comic, highly stylized, somewhat surreal feel.

Nearly three decades down the line, the Four Rooms soundtrack’s first-ever vinyl release offers a chance to lend a fresh ear to a cracking collection of tunes by a band in its prime; the Four Rooms soundtrack is a door to an intoxicating alternative dimension that only ever existed in the minds of the musicians and the ears of their audience. Open it. 

– Jim Allen