This blog post originally appeared on myPiecing It Together Podcast Website.Since it’s my movie podcast, it makes sense to start doing these end of the year movie wrap-ups over there now, but because I always post my ranking on this website every year, I figured I’d repost it here too.
Number of Times I saw a movie in the theater (including repeat viewings and classic films): 106
Number of Movies we covered on Piecing It Together (released episodes only): 41
2018 started off slow but honestly looking at this list, the quality doesn’t really drop off until the 40s, which is pretty amazing. There’s been some years that I had trouble even making a Top 10! Now that’s not to say I LOVED the Top 40, but I at least liked them. Probably love up until somewhere in the 20s. Still, that’s a great year in my book.
Most years I do an Albums list and a Video Games list as well, but lets just say between my own music and getting this podcast going, I’ve been pretty busy and haven’t kept great track of those things. What I can tell you is every video game I’ve played this year has been on Nintendo Switch except for the new God Of War (which i never did finish), and as far as new albums are concerned, I probably listened to the A Star Is Born soundtrack more than any other 2018 release.
What a great year. Can’t wait for 2019! And before I go, remember, if you haven’t yet, listen to my 2018 Top 10 Lists Special Episode featuring Josh Bell and Jason Harris!
UPDATE: Just when I thought the year was over, I found out that Forbes picked “PalinDRONE 360” as one of the Essential VR Music Videos of 2018! How amazing is that? So I wanted to update this blog post in case any of you happen to see it after the fact so you’d know about this awesome piece of news. You can read the article at:https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2018/12/28/the-essential-vr-music-videos-of-2018/#608d921e16d4
It’s the end of the year so you know what that means… Time to look back at 2018 with another year in review blog post.
2018 was a weird year… There were some great things, there were some not so great things, and it was overall very unpredictable, but it’s another year on the books. Lets take a look at some of the stuff that happened.
Of course the biggest thing that happened this year was the release of my 4th album, A Different Kind Of Dream. After three albums that followed a formula (16 tracks, then a free bonus album of B-Sides & Remixes), A Different Kind Of Dream took a different approach, with only 10 songs and then a series of singles throughout the rest of the year (“Secrets,” “Artificial (Extended Video Remix)” and “Stalker”). I believe the album has some of my best work to date. It’s done quite well too overall. It didn’t really have the impact I exactly planned for though. I didn’t release a CD copy, and although the CD format is basically dead, it did make selling the album sort of difficult. Also the limited 10 song track-list I think lent itself to a sort of wait-and-see feeling from many people. Even though the data says that shorter albums and EPs are more popular nowadays, it seems when you’re operating on this level of the game, people want more value. It’s going to be interesting to see how people respond to my next “album” which will come as three separate 10 song releases. I held a poll and people said it was a great idea, so I’m probably going to stick with the plan. Hopefully the definitive promise of the 30 songs will help make sure people are interested. That’s going to probably not come out until 2020 though, so we’ll see what happens by then haha.
The second best thing to happen was the release of “Artificial” the music video directed by Ben Yonker. I wrote the video and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. It came out so amazing and did incredible at film festivals. A dozen fests and multiple awards and nominations. The response was incredible. “Artificial” was from my last album Head Like Fire. You can also check out an interview I did with Ben about the video on my Piecing It Together Podcast at https://www.piecingpod.com/2018/12/17/special-episode-artificial-ben-yonker-interview/
Another amazing release this year was the first and only music video from A Different Kind Of Dream, “PalinDRONE 360.” This was my 2nd VR music video with NewLine Videography. It’s an incredibly cool video (another trippy concept I came up with) and I’m really happy with how it came out. It was the featured video on YouTube, SamsungVR and Veer, which led to a ton of views. It wasn’t quite as big as our previous video “Constellations 360” but it still did great and I’m very proud of it.
The biggest film project this year was “Bus Party To Hell.” I talked about this last year (I actually made the song and other music that was in the film last year), but it finally was released this year. The release went amazingly and they ended up getting a ton of press on it and it was available in 50% of all the Redboxes across the country and on many VOD services. I released the song on SoundCloud and got a ton of press about it as well.
I didn’t get much other film work this year though unfortunately. I’m not gonna sit around and mope about it, and I did get quite a few TV placements through libraries which is great. I also scored a web series called Copper Creek that will come out in 2019. But yeah, 2018 was not the best year for my film scoring career. But to be honest I was probably way too busy to take on a lot of projects… That’s because of the next point…
Podcasts. I guess I’m a full time podcaster now haha. Who would have thought? Last year I had started the Bird Road Podcast with my best friend Q. Then in March of this year, while continuing to do Bird Road, I branched off and started my own podcast, Piecing It Together. It’s a movie podcast where me and a guest look at a new movie and try to figure out what other movies inspired it. It’s a weird thing to say after 15 years of building my composing career, but I am more invested in and loving spending time with this podcast than I am with my music career right now. Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT going to stop making music haha. And on Piecing It Together, I always close up every episode by talking about what I’m doing musically and playing a piece of my music. So it all ties together. But yeah, I’d be lying if I said that Piecing It Together isn’t my new main focus for the time being. You should check it out over at https://www.piecingpod.com or on your favorite podcast app.
And it wouldn’t be another year without more of my various comedy projects. We released a new D-Mize & Dee. Rockz album called D & Dee. Tox. As much as I try to NOT promote my comedy-rap stuff too much because it’s so awful and offensive… this album rules. The single “Space Force Anthem” was probably the biggest “hit” we’ve ever had. Also, a project I’ve had on the shelf for 10 years called The Pup Pups which is all folk songs about my dogs (and some sung by them) is finally almost done. I just started finishing up after letting it sit for 10 years, and in one weekend I got 5 more songs almost done haha. It’s coming out amazing and will come out in 2019 for sure. We’re also planning another D-Mize & Dee. Rockz album in 2019 haha. Why? I have no idea.
And that’s basically that! Yes it was a strange year. I’m glad I kept this blog up (although I didn’t do a particularly great job at that… especially This Thing Rules haha… RIP?). But overall there were some amazing things that happened this year… mainly A Different Kind Of Dream, “Artificial,” and Piecing It Together. So if you haven’t, make sure to check them all out. And comment on them. And share them… Thanks for the support. Here’s to a great 2019!
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David Rosen is an award-winning music composer. He composes original music for films, commercials, jingles, video-games and all other kinds of media projects. He has a vast music library of original tracks available for licensing and is also available for custom compositions. Contact him on the ABOUT page for pricing and availability for your next project.
So… A Different Kind Of Dream came out last month and that was kind of that… What’s happening now? The answer is plenty, and lots will be coming soon… Here’s some updates…
NOTE: This was supposed to be posted around New Years but I got super sick… I’m still getting over it actually… So here it is, a little half-assed because now that I’m finally getting through this cold, I want to move on to new things and not keep working on this old stuff haha. But here it is anyway. Enjoy!
It’s that time of year again. As I did last year, it’s time to look back at the things that kept me entertained in 2017. I sort of have enough music, TV and video-games this time to do proper lists, but I figured for the sake of consistency, I’ll do like I did last year and do my big Movies list, and then a separate overall list combining everything else. You can also check out 2016’s list for a refresher if you want, or just jump into my 2017 lists. Enjoy!
15 Things from 2017 That Kept Me Entertained (In No Particular Order)
Nintendo Switch – The biggest non-movie thing that happened in 2017 for me was Nintendo’s insane comeback with the Switch. Who would have thought that 30 years after the classic NES originals in the Mario and Zelda series, that Nintendo would pretty much make the new best entries? The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey are two of the best video-games I’ve ever played. Period. The Mario game is just pure non-stop fun, and the Zelda game is a revelation. If it holds up when I eventually go back to play it again one day (and keep in mind I beat it with only 19% – yes, NINETEEN percent of the game completed), I might even call it the best game ever made. On top of that we also got the crazy Mario Vs Rabbids game, a bunch of other first-party Nintendo games that I didn’t even have that much time for, and some excellent third-party games like Steamworld Dig 2 and Blaster Master. The Nintendo Switch is just weird and unique enough to be Nintendo, and is the most fun video-game system to come along in a long time.
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit – “The Nashville Sound” – The next album on this list, Ryan Adams’ “Prisoner” in any other year would have easily been my favorite album of the year, but Jason Isbell may have made the album of his career… Which is saying a lot when I considered his “Southeastern” album one of the best albums of the decade. The rock songs freaking rock and the sad songs are sad as hell. It’s poignant, every song is great. It’s just a perfect album and a hell of a surprise.
Ryan Adams – “Prisoner” – Not so much a surprise is how great Ryan Adams’ new album is. Along with his also released collection of B-Sides, this was my most listened to album of the year, and one of my favorites of my favorite solo-artist’s career. The song “Outbound Train” may possibly be my favorite song. He rules.
The War On Drugs – “A Deeper Understanding” – Definitely my 3rd favorite album of the year… But to say that means I listened to it maybe a half dozen times because pretty much all I listened to were the previous two and podcasts haha. But this is a fantastic album.
Nine Inch Nails – “Add Violence” – I would have stuck with just listing my Top 3 but I wanted to add NIN’s new EP because first of all it’s the first NIN album in a decade that I’ve continued to listen to on occasion after the first week of release (sorry Trent), and second of all, even though I had already been considering this long before these EPs came out, my new direction of planning on releasing EPs in 2018 is at least partially influenced by NIN’s new EP direction.
Fargo – My favorite show of the year. I don’t get why people didn’t like Season 3 as much as previous seasons. It was FANTASTIC. All the best parts of a movie and all the best parts of this new age of Television combined. The best cast on TV. Everything about it was amazing.
Vice Principals – Vice Principals was such a great series. As much as I hate to see it go, I think two seasons was the perfect length for this crazy story and insane characters.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia – This show shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. I hope it’s on the air forever.
Curb Your Enthusiasm – Finally, more Larry David. And he’s as great as ever.
GLOW – Hey, Marc Maron can act good! The show was great too. Can’t wait for Season 2!
At Home With Amy Sedaris – It’s been too long since we’ve had a show with Amy Sedaris in the center. She is the freaking best. So funny.
Episodes – The Series finale of Episodes. It’s not the best show, but I love it, and it was a perfect ending.
Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later – Also not the best show, but it’s still David Wain and crew being ridiculous. Such fun.
American Horror Story: Cult – Last year I said that the season of American Horror Story was the first one I truly liked… Who would have thought I’d like two in a row? This was definitely the best season of the show.
Facebook – I hate to give Facebook any credit because it’s a terrible thing and ruining all of our lives and I’m probably physically addicted… But man did I have fun on Facebook this year… Dammit…
And now on to the movies. I thought last year was a big year for movies but wow did I see a lot this year haha. It was a pretty great year too. Lots of truly amazing films. I’m not going to stop and talk about each one or anything like that, but rather list them all out, in order from Best to Worst, and then a separate list of movies that technically were 2016 movies but didn’t open in Las Vegas until 2017, and then a short list of movies from 2017 that I’ve been dying to see but aren’t open here yet.
mother!
War for The Planet of the Apes
Ingrid Goes West
Good Time
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
The Big Sick
A Ghost Story
The Disaster Artist
The Florida Project
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
The Shape of Water
Logan
Thor: Ragnarok
Last Flag Flying
Alien Covenant
Wind River
Get Out
Brigsby Bear
Colossal
It
Lost In London
Baby Driver
Stronger
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Free Fire
Wonder Woman
King Arthur
The Babysitter
Lady Bird
Power Rangers
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Kong: Skull Island
Logan Lucky
It Comes At Night
The Meyerowitz Stories
Battle of the Sexes
The Lego Batman Movie
John Wick: Chapter 2
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
XXX: The Return of Xander Cage
Happy Death Day
Split
Wilson
Justice League
The Fate of The Furious
Detroit
Downsizing
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man Tell No Tales
Transformers: The Last Knight
Rough Night
The Great Wall
Snatched
American Made
The Glass Castle
Spider Man: Homecoming
Blade Runner 2049
The Mummy
The Hitman’s Bodyguard
The House
The Beguiled
Ghost In The Shell
Home Again
Atomic Blonde
American Assassin
A Cure For Wellness
All The Money In The World
The Belko Experiment
The Foreigner
Valerian
Annabelle: Creation
Suburbicon
Landline
Dunkirk
Life
Daddy’s Home 2
Fist Fight
LBJ
A Dog’s Purpose
Roman J Israel, Esq
Baywatch
The Dark Tower
All Eyes On Me
2016 Movies I saw: A Monster Calls, Live By Night, Silence, 20th Century Women, The Founder, Patriots Day, Jackie.
2017 Movies I didn’t get to see but I’d probably love: I, Tonya, Phantom Thread, The Post… a bunch more but I think it’s time to close up 2017 and move on! Haha.
Hope you enjoyed the listings. Here’s to a great 2017, and here comes a great 2018.
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David Rosen is an award-winning music composer. He composes original music for films, commercials, jingles, video-games and all other kinds of media projects. He has a vast music library of original tracks available for licensing and is also available for custom compositions. Contact him on the ABOUT page for pricing and availability for your next project.
As 2017 comes to a close, I wanted to take a quick look back and go over everything that’s happened in this crazy year.
I’ll follow this up with my usual “My Favorite Stuff of” post with my favorite movies and music and stuff like that, but this is about me and my career. What did I accomplish? Lets make a list…
It has been a nice break, let me tell you. A few good naps… I beat The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, watched a ton of movies, hung out with friends, cleaned my house, relaxed, thought about future plans, and did all kinds of other stuff. And now, it’s time to get started on new music!
First up, I’ll be releasing the music video for “Trying Again,” which is a beautiful story created by Free Your Mind Films and director Christopher Johnson, who previously did my “Never” music video. That’s coming before the end of May.
Up next will be the wide release of … Like Asheson Bandcamp. You should have already done the simple, simple act of sharing my blog post to get a copy already, but if you didn’t… You’ve still got a little time. You can even share THIS blog post. Just make sure to tag me so I know! But soon enough, … Like Ashes will just be available for everyone as I move on to the next album.
Speaking of which… The next album. It’s a ways off. Definitely not jumping right back in after this break. I have a feature film I’ll be scoring first, and a few music compilations I’m planning on putting together. But album #4 will definitely be taking some time. Maybe next year though. We’ll see haha.
Last but not least… This Thing Rules is coming back in a major way. I already have two done. I’m trying to get four finished and then I’m going to start posting one every other week. I have 12 lined up. I’d love to get two a month done for the rest of the year to really get this blog series going again. It’s been way too long and I feel awful for taking so long on it. But life gets in the way and this break was much, much needed.
That about does it. I’m back. Time to get some stuff done. I’ll be posting a couple other blogs and the “Trying Again” music video in the next couple weeks!
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David Rosen is an award-winning music composer. He composes original music for films, commercials, jingles, video-games and all other kinds of media projects. He has a vast music library of original tracks available for licensing and is also available for custom compositions. Contact him on the ABOUT page for pricing and availability for your next project.
It’s that time of year again. “Best of lists” here we go! Actually this year I kind of got lazy and just did 2 lists… One is a list of every theatrically released movie I saw, in order from best to worst. And two is a list of other stuff I loved that came out this year from every area of entertainment. Let start with #2
15 Things From 2016 That Kept Me Entertained (In no particular order)
The Raveonettes Anti-Album – Technically this album comes out in 2017, but every month of 2016 The Raveonettes released a new song, for the eventual album release in January 2017. It was a fun, exciting way to keep putting out new music, and it just so happens to be some of the best songs of their career as far as I’m concerned.
Butch Walker – Stay Gold – I’ve loved Butch Walker since the days I used to work at Sony Music and this is probably his best release in almost 10 years. He rules and this album rules.
Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide To Earth – Apparently I like country now. I blame Ryan Adams and Jason Isbell, but Sturgill Simpson is the most country album I’ve probably ever listened to and I love it.
Inside – One of the most mind-blowing video-games ever made. It’s really no surprise since it’s the follow-up (sort of sequel but not really) to Limbo which is easily one of my Top 10 favorite video-games ever made. This game is insane and beautiful and haunting and I’ve been dying to play it for my 3rd time already…
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End– The conclusion to the Uncharted series. It was a perfect ending. One of the best games in the series, and they really managed to tie it up perfectly. No game tells a story like Uncharted and this finale did not disappoint. Now lets hope they make more.
Horace & Pete– Louis CK’s gamble of a TV series that was produced with his own money and released only on his own website. It is one-of-a-kind, hilarious and heartbreaking, and one of the best things I saw all year. Leave it to Louis to try something completely new and unlike anything else I’ve ever seen.
Silicon Valley – A great new season to one of the best shows on TV.
Ash Vs Evil Dead – Another of my favorite TV shows got a great new season as well. The season finale was a little bit of a let down, but I can’t wait to see where it goes in Season 3.
Vice Principals – A new show from Danny McBride and Jody Hill. It started off… different and not quite what I was expecting. But then it got weirder and weirder and darker and darker and it’s just amazing. I can’t wait for the next season.
Stranger Things – Honestly I’m a little burned out from Stranger Things-mania, but it really was a fun, exciting show. And the score definitely influences some of the synthier moments on my new album Head Like Fire.
The People VS OJ Simpson – Who would have thought this mini-series would be so perfect and so compelling? Great performances and an insane amount of tension considered we all knew what would happen. This was a huge surprise and I loved it.
American Horror Story: My Roanoke Nightmare – I don’t know that I ever truly liked American Horror Story. From the first season I’ve done nothing but complain about it, and I downright hated a few of the seasons. But this was definitely my favorite one and a really fun, inventive story made it one of the best TV moments of the year.
The Night Of– Awesome show. I kind of hope it doesn’t come back though. It’s perfect as is. I think it is coming back. Ah, whatever. Great show.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt – I love this show. I love everything about it. And I loved the new season.
The Election – I don’t know if you heard, but there was a presidential election this year. My guy lost in the primaries. A con-artist won the whole thing. It was a major shit-show. But hey, I like to laugh and it was non-stop gold. Lets hope these next 4 years foster some great music and movies haha. And who knows… Maybe he won’t be so bad. Maybe…
And now, on to the movies. For me, movies are my year, and this was a pretty big year for movies for me. I saw a lot of them. And I managed to list them all out (not counting made-for-TV/Video movies or older movies that I saw for the first time). In order of how much I liked them. Here’s the list with no added descriptions or anything because it’s time to go make some New Years Eve snacks. Enjoy, and don’t tell me it was a bad year for movies! Every year is a great year for movies!
Swiss Army Man
10 Cloverfield Lane
The Nice Guys
Anomalisa (Technically a 2015 Movie that didn’t open until 2016 here)
Nocturnal Animals
The Jungle Book
Manchester By The Sea
The Lobster
Hacksaw Ridge
La La Land
The Neon Demon (saw At home)
Moonlight
Sausage Party
Deadpool
Hail, Caesar!
Miss Sloane
Fences
American Honey
Green Room
Midnight Special
Lion
The Accountant
Loving
Don’t Breathe
Don’t Think Twice
Ghostbusters
Bloodfather
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (saw at home)
Neighbors 2 (Saw at home)
Allied
Passengers
Sully
The Witch
The Brothers Grimsby
Captain America: Civil War
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
The Girl on the Train
Arrival
Bridget Jones Baby (saw at home)
Doctor Strange
Hell or High Water
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
TMNT: Out of the Shadows
Bleed For This
Demolition
The Conjuring 2
Zoolander 2
Yoga Hosers (saw at home)
Everybody Wants Some
Independence Day: Resurgence
The Birth of a Nation
War Dogs (saw at home)
Mojin
Gods of Egypt (saw at home)
Suicide Squad
The Magnificent Seven
The Legend of Tarzan
Ben Hur
Movies I didn’t get to see that I plan on seeing ASAP: The Monster, Kubo, Jackie, Silence, The Founder… And I’m sure a ton more haha.
See you all next year!
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David Rosen is an award-winning music composer. He composes original music for films, commercials, jingles, video-games and all other kinds of media projects. He has a vast music library of original tracks available for licensing and is also available for custom compositions. Contact him on the ABOUT page for pricing and availability for your next project.
2016 will pretty widely be regarded as one of the worst years ever. Beloved celebrities dropped off at a rate that seemed like almost one a day, the election turned us all against each other, murder and death and sadness were in the news more than ever… But hey, over-all it was a pretty good year for me haha. Not the best by a long-shot, but there was plenty of good stuff that happened… So lets stop being so negative and take a look back at the good stuff.
I am so amazingly happy to be writing this blog post right now… My new album Head Like Fireis available NOW! You can stream it right here in this blog post or buy it from the following stores:
Today’s blog is just going to be a quick little update to let you all know how things are going with all the projects I’ve been working on.
Yes, I’ve fallen a little behind on the to-do list, but don’t worry, that doesn’t mean I’ve fallen behind on making music.
Nope, during this little bit of radio silence from me, I’ve been working hard on a number of things. Most importantly, album #3 is WAY past the 50% finished mark. It’s currently sitting at 23 started tracks, 14 of which I’m almost certain will make the album. That leaves two more perfect tracks that need to somehow materialize before I start focusing in on going back and finishing each song to get the album done (16 songs is sort of a tradition for my main albums and will continue to be). Expect to see a lot of news about the third album, and hopefully some more tastes of it too over the coming months… If you haven’t already listened to “Burnout,” the first track I’ve released from the album, check it out on my Soundcloud page.
Along with album work, I also did music for a few projects and have been finally actively engaging with music libraries, which are one of the better ways to make a living in this business, although something I’ve been putting on the back burner for far too long. Thanks to that work you should be hearing some of my music in some TV shows soon. Hopefully some of them I can let you know about ahead of time. But regardless, that stuff is happening.
I also am seriously backlogged with This Thing Rules reviews. I have demos made for two of them right now (so I just need to write the actual review), but I have four more to do after that. I definitely plan on finishing all six by the end of the year. I have big plans for This Thing Rules and am working to grow it for 2017 and start taking on bigger software and putting more into these reviews. The feedback on them has been great and useful and I want to make sure everyone knows that I am listening… and I want to make sure that YOU are all listening.
I’m also in the planning stages of some EPs that will end up being little collections of even more music that will get released in between albums. I’m not going to go into detail on those right now, but it should be a cool series and allow me to release a lot more music for all of you. I’m currently debating releasing the first one before or after the next album. We’ll see what happens…
Lastly, I’ve been writing some music video ideas for songs from the next album that hopefully can be turned into reality. I have a few already that I’ve been discussing with some of my collaborators and we’ll see… There could be some really cool videos coming soon. Fingers crossed.
That’s it for now. Thanks for hanging in there. Thanks for listening. If you haven’t already, you can check out all the This Thing Rules reviews and listen to the music demos I include in each one at the This Thing Rules Archives. I’ll be back really soon with my review of The Riser from Air Music Tech. Now it’s time to get back to working hard.
– David
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David Rosen is an award-winning music composer. He composes original music for films, commercials, jingles, video-games and all other kinds of media projects. He has a vast music library of original tracks available for licensing and is also available for custom compositions. Contact him on theABOUT page for pricing and availability for your next project.
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