Craig Crumpton
08-08-2001, 09:58 AM
Thanks to <a href="http://www.rhino.com/">Rhino Records</a> representatives present at the San Diego Comic-Con last month, we have an exclusive and detailed first look at the upcoming September 18th release of <b>The Powerpuff Girls - The City Of Soundsville: Music From The Powerpuff Girls</b> from <a href="http://www.kidrhino.com/">Kid Rhino</a>.
Here's the CD cover artwork:
<img src="http://www.toonzone.net/gookie/cn/ppgcd.jpg">
And here's the current tracklist:
1. Main Title
2. Townsville
3. Mojo Jojo
4. Blossom
5. Gangrene Gang
6. Boogie Man
7. Pokey Oaks
8. Mayor
9. Fuzzy Lumpkin
10. Buttercup
11. Amoeba Boys
12. Professor Utonium
13. Princess
14. Him
15. Hearts & Stars
16. Super Secret City of Soundsville Song
When this article was first published here at Toon Zone, I had stated, "Early promotional descriptions of this album as a 'soundtrack' for the TV series are somewhat misleading. While it does include character themes and other music from the TV series, they are not the exact compositions heard on the show.... It appears as though it will not be an actual soundtrack from the show."
Craig McCracken, creator of The Powerpuff Girls and executive producer of this album, posted to the <a href="http://powerpuff.com/gt/">GirlTalk</a> forum at Powerpuff.com yesterday with the following correction:
<i>The album IS the score from the show it's just that the PPG music library is on 7 cds and about 600 tracks, So the City of Soundsville is a more economic and tollerable way of presenting the score.</i>
Also, some fans have since asked why there was no song for Bubbles included in the tracklist. Craig says, "Don't you worry - there is and always was a Bubbles track." The album text and liner notes on the album that was on display at Rhino's booth at the San Diego con was "not the finished product," according to Rhino representative Mike Angstrom, after I pointed out typos in the liner notes. Apparently, the missing Bubbles track was also an accidental omission.
Angstrom was also kind enough to answer a few questions and provide some insider info on <b>Soundsville</b> to share with fans via Toon Zone:
"Craig McCracken and Jim Venable have been working on it with us," Angstrom says. "Craig didn't want to just cop-out and make what he called 'a lame soundtrack album' where we just took the soundtrack score music and just dumped it on a CD. So what he and Jim have done is come up with a concept of taking the tracks and enhancing them and adding loops and doing all this kind of stuff to make it into a dance album. It's really cool."
"If you look [at the tracklist] you can see that there's obviously a lot of the main characters. 'Pokey Oaks' is one of my favorites - I think it's going to be really strong," Angstrom says confidently. "They've [also] extended the main title. And we're also going to do a vinyl release - a 12-inch vinyl release with the 'Super Secret City of Townsville' song."
Angstrom added an insider bit here on what this "super secret" song will be and the guest artist performing the track, but unfortunately, the news was given to me "off the record" and I don't wish for my eyeballs to rot out of my head and my tongue to adhere itself to the roof of my mouth. (And don't e-mail me to ask either - my lips are sealed.) You'll have to wait until September.
"Hopefully, the vinyl will be on the street on the 4th of September, and the album will be out on the 18th of September," Angstrom adds.
<B>Soundsville</b> will not include any interactive CD-Rom extras. However, Rhino is working with a company to have a Powerpuff Girls trading card included with each CD as a bonus.
What fans have really been wanting to know and have been perpetually clamoring for is a CD release of the irresistably cute, fan favorite song "Love Makes the World Go Round" performed by The Powerpuff Girls (or more precisely--by Tara Strong, Cathy Cavadini and E.G. Daily) in the episode "Mime For A Change."
While this song WAS included as a bonus "hidden" track on Rhino's previous PPG album, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004TZZO/ref=ase_toonzone03/104-2096601-7031901">Heroes & Villains: Music Inspired By The Powerpuff Girls</a>, it is not the original version heard on the show. It's a campy but amusing performance that sounds a bit like something you might have heard on some low-budget educational program on your local PBS station when you were a kid. It's a clever bonus track and I'm pleased that they went to the effort to produce it just for the album, but I think I speak for all PPG fans everywhere when I say that I would have much rather preferred the original version on the CD.
[Note: If you own this album and you haven't yet heard the bonus track - when the last track ends (the PPG closing theme), allow the CD to continue to play and after a moment or two, the song will begin playing.]
Unfortunately, as of right now, there are no plans for this song to be included on <b>Soundsville</b>. If you really want to see/hear this song on the upcoming album, I encourage you to write drrhino@rhino.com and make your opinions known. It may not be too late, and Angstrom also says it wouldn't hurt to try. We fans made quite an impact on the PPG voices recasting issue - let's see if we can show them that there's enough interest in getting this song on the next album that they'll consider adding it.
Rhino is also doing a rather unique promotion for the release of this album. Angstrom says, "We're also working with Cartoon Network - they're doing a custom Daisy rock guitar... a Powerpuff Girls guitar that we're going to do an <a href="http://www.ebay.com/">eBay</a> promotion around that hopefully we'll get Jim and Craig to sign. Rhino has an eBay site that benefits charity and that we use as a promotional tool. We're going to try to get that up on the site and do some buzz around that."
In the liner notes for the album, Craig describes the album as "the best blips, beats and loops [from PPG composer Jim Venable's musical score]... remixed... down to a tasty musical treat that you can dance to." And in yesterday's message board post, Craig says, "Hope you all like it, I'm really pleased with it."
I think it's safe to assume that this album's gonna be, to paraphrase the Boogie Man, "a grand master jam."
Next week, I hope to share a bit of insider news on the PPG movie that may be surprising to many fans. I'll also have a few San Diego convention exclusive items to show off, as well as a few photos of Tom Kane (voice of Professor Utonium and Him) and some of the PPG comic artists and writers too.
Here's the CD cover artwork:
<img src="http://www.toonzone.net/gookie/cn/ppgcd.jpg">
And here's the current tracklist:
1. Main Title
2. Townsville
3. Mojo Jojo
4. Blossom
5. Gangrene Gang
6. Boogie Man
7. Pokey Oaks
8. Mayor
9. Fuzzy Lumpkin
10. Buttercup
11. Amoeba Boys
12. Professor Utonium
13. Princess
14. Him
15. Hearts & Stars
16. Super Secret City of Soundsville Song
When this article was first published here at Toon Zone, I had stated, "Early promotional descriptions of this album as a 'soundtrack' for the TV series are somewhat misleading. While it does include character themes and other music from the TV series, they are not the exact compositions heard on the show.... It appears as though it will not be an actual soundtrack from the show."
Craig McCracken, creator of The Powerpuff Girls and executive producer of this album, posted to the <a href="http://powerpuff.com/gt/">GirlTalk</a> forum at Powerpuff.com yesterday with the following correction:
<i>The album IS the score from the show it's just that the PPG music library is on 7 cds and about 600 tracks, So the City of Soundsville is a more economic and tollerable way of presenting the score.</i>
Also, some fans have since asked why there was no song for Bubbles included in the tracklist. Craig says, "Don't you worry - there is and always was a Bubbles track." The album text and liner notes on the album that was on display at Rhino's booth at the San Diego con was "not the finished product," according to Rhino representative Mike Angstrom, after I pointed out typos in the liner notes. Apparently, the missing Bubbles track was also an accidental omission.
Angstrom was also kind enough to answer a few questions and provide some insider info on <b>Soundsville</b> to share with fans via Toon Zone:
"Craig McCracken and Jim Venable have been working on it with us," Angstrom says. "Craig didn't want to just cop-out and make what he called 'a lame soundtrack album' where we just took the soundtrack score music and just dumped it on a CD. So what he and Jim have done is come up with a concept of taking the tracks and enhancing them and adding loops and doing all this kind of stuff to make it into a dance album. It's really cool."
"If you look [at the tracklist] you can see that there's obviously a lot of the main characters. 'Pokey Oaks' is one of my favorites - I think it's going to be really strong," Angstrom says confidently. "They've [also] extended the main title. And we're also going to do a vinyl release - a 12-inch vinyl release with the 'Super Secret City of Townsville' song."
Angstrom added an insider bit here on what this "super secret" song will be and the guest artist performing the track, but unfortunately, the news was given to me "off the record" and I don't wish for my eyeballs to rot out of my head and my tongue to adhere itself to the roof of my mouth. (And don't e-mail me to ask either - my lips are sealed.) You'll have to wait until September.
"Hopefully, the vinyl will be on the street on the 4th of September, and the album will be out on the 18th of September," Angstrom adds.
<B>Soundsville</b> will not include any interactive CD-Rom extras. However, Rhino is working with a company to have a Powerpuff Girls trading card included with each CD as a bonus.
What fans have really been wanting to know and have been perpetually clamoring for is a CD release of the irresistably cute, fan favorite song "Love Makes the World Go Round" performed by The Powerpuff Girls (or more precisely--by Tara Strong, Cathy Cavadini and E.G. Daily) in the episode "Mime For A Change."
While this song WAS included as a bonus "hidden" track on Rhino's previous PPG album, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004TZZO/ref=ase_toonzone03/104-2096601-7031901">Heroes & Villains: Music Inspired By The Powerpuff Girls</a>, it is not the original version heard on the show. It's a campy but amusing performance that sounds a bit like something you might have heard on some low-budget educational program on your local PBS station when you were a kid. It's a clever bonus track and I'm pleased that they went to the effort to produce it just for the album, but I think I speak for all PPG fans everywhere when I say that I would have much rather preferred the original version on the CD.
[Note: If you own this album and you haven't yet heard the bonus track - when the last track ends (the PPG closing theme), allow the CD to continue to play and after a moment or two, the song will begin playing.]
Unfortunately, as of right now, there are no plans for this song to be included on <b>Soundsville</b>. If you really want to see/hear this song on the upcoming album, I encourage you to write drrhino@rhino.com and make your opinions known. It may not be too late, and Angstrom also says it wouldn't hurt to try. We fans made quite an impact on the PPG voices recasting issue - let's see if we can show them that there's enough interest in getting this song on the next album that they'll consider adding it.
Rhino is also doing a rather unique promotion for the release of this album. Angstrom says, "We're also working with Cartoon Network - they're doing a custom Daisy rock guitar... a Powerpuff Girls guitar that we're going to do an <a href="http://www.ebay.com/">eBay</a> promotion around that hopefully we'll get Jim and Craig to sign. Rhino has an eBay site that benefits charity and that we use as a promotional tool. We're going to try to get that up on the site and do some buzz around that."
In the liner notes for the album, Craig describes the album as "the best blips, beats and loops [from PPG composer Jim Venable's musical score]... remixed... down to a tasty musical treat that you can dance to." And in yesterday's message board post, Craig says, "Hope you all like it, I'm really pleased with it."
I think it's safe to assume that this album's gonna be, to paraphrase the Boogie Man, "a grand master jam."
Next week, I hope to share a bit of insider news on the PPG movie that may be surprising to many fans. I'll also have a few San Diego convention exclusive items to show off, as well as a few photos of Tom Kane (voice of Professor Utonium and Him) and some of the PPG comic artists and writers too.