Hard Boiled in... pop music

[Sonali]

Loved it.

[Melki, Femme fatale]

Death Cab For Cutie's Underneath the Sycamore video features nifty neo-noir style animation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txndHN...

[Michael]

This isn't pop so it might be disqualified, but I think it's pretty noir/pulp/hardboiled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmEUGD...

Another non-pop song, but probably the best IMO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCfvkp...

[Michael]

I thought of another one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAmw6x...

[Lawyer]

Pop Noir 1949--Theme From The Third Man. They don't write 'em like that anymore. Nice mix of scenes from the movie with Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten. R.I.P.

[Steve]

The Black Keys - Howlin' For You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLSpj7...

Sir Todd - You Rock.

[Kurt]

The Blue Hawaiians - Their CD SAVAGE NIGHT, with a shout out in the liner nights to Jim Thompson. Worth getting if you see it.

[Cathy]

Mike Hammer anyone? Stacy Keach as Mike.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTua5y...

Danny Gatton's version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BiYcH...

Real noir if I've ever heard it. Great stuff.

[Dan]

Guitar Noir by the Aqua Velvets

[Dominick]

Someone mentioned Death Cab for Cutie above. Their name comes from this slightly noirish song by the Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band. (As performed in The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0h7-i...

And here's their "Big Shot," a hilarious noir satire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-znH5...

[Melki, Femme fatale]

Aaaa! I used to have the Bonzos' greatest hits on 8-track! I LOVED Big Shot. Thanks, Dominick.
I haven't heard that song in years.

[Dominick]

I got the CD reissue of Gorilla a couple of years back, which actually includes BOTH the songs I linked to, plus a whack of extras. The Bonzos were a great band, sadly largely forgotten today....

[Tom]

Noir/Hardboiled enough for this page...?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uee_m...

Die Antwoord seem to be defining the current zeitgeist, with a little help from David Lynch...

[Cathy]

Jeeezzzz...you guys are something else.

[Dan]

There's a Croatian surf band called The Bambi Molesters that plays a lot of noir and spaghetti western-inspired tunes.

[Cathy]

Dan wrote: "There's a Croatian surf band called The Bambi Molesters that plays a lot of noir and spaghetti western-inspired tunes."

Croatian surf band? Named The Bambi Molesters? OMG, Dan, this is sooo funny to me just saying it out loud.

Thanks for sharing that info. Never would have imagined.

[M.]

Shawn Mafia is totally hard-boiled. Not pop, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d62K...

[Algernon (Darth Anyan), Hard-Boiled]

I don't know if Tom Waits could be considered a pop artist, but his Closing Time album is one of my favorite picks as soundtrack when I'm reading. The fact that I hardly understand a word he says, probably helps me not get too distracted.

[Melki, Femme fatale]

It's funny you brought him up. I watched Seven Psychopaths last night, and Waits turned in a fine performance. I'd love to see him play a hard-boiled, down-on-his-luck private eye...or maybe he already has, and I missed it...

[Algernon (Darth Anyan), Hard-Boiled]

He played in some Jim Jarmush movies.

[Toby]

Yeah there's something of the Elliot Gould/Long Goodbye in his performance in Wristcutters

[Kurt]

Dan wrote: "There's a Croatian surf band called The Bambi Molesters that plays a lot of noir and spaghetti western-inspired tunes."

I'll be hunting their music down. I love that kind of stuff.

[Dominick]

There's something hard-boiled about a lot of Nick Cave's stuff, especially on the Murder Ballads album. Or noirish, anyway. Check this one out, for instance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__obh4...

or this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXfNhH...

or this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTSpvC...

or this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm1Mbh...

[Dennis]

Not pop but Iv'e always liked the opening music in the 1974 version of "The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kYR3l... . It really set the mood for this film.

[Mathew]

When I worked in Moscow, there was a pop-punk band that sorta gave that noir vibe. Glyukoza was the name of the band, their album was "Glyukoza Nostra" (a wordplay on Cosa Nostra).

I was going to recommend "Guitar Noir" by the AquaVelvets, but was beat to the punch... Maybe a few of Morphine's albums give the same vibe - "Like Swimming" in particular. Brian Setzer also has a lot of material that fits the bill.

[Simon]

Some of the songs on the German progressive electronic group Cluster's "Zuckerzeit" album give off a sleazy 1970s/1980s crime vibe.

[Jim]

Just ran across Gin Wigmore. "Dirty Love" is pretty hard boiled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enALIr...

[Still]

How about Derek Raymond reading from I WAS DORA SUAREZ with music provided by Drunk Gallon?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nkaOk...

You can never beat Johnny Dowd when it comes to noir especially in "No Woman's Flesh":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZeyd...


And if Carroll John Daly had been a 60's Brit pop prankster he might have sounded a bit like this little cut by Vivian Stanshall fronting The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-znH5...

[Lucy]

Great thread!!!

[Darren]

John Zorn has a Spillane album. Also Naked City. Not remotely pop, but still great.

[AndrewP]

Cathy wrote: "Mike Hammer anyone? Stacy Keach as Mike.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTua5y...

Danny Gatton's version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BiYcH...

Real noir if I've ever heard it. Great stuff."

Yeah, 'Harlem Nocturne' just fits so well with the whole Mike Hammer/New York/Noir theme.

Stacy Keach narrates several of Spillane's audio books and does a very good job. But did you know that the incidental sax background music on the Blackstone Audio plays was also written and performed by him? Not sure if he also did that for the TV show, I will have to dig out my DVD set and look at the credits.

[Simon]

I always get a Jim Thompson-y vibe from noise-punk group The Jesus Lizard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdhRN...

[Evangeline]

Portishead is noir as fuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMAFDe...

Massive Attack too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOgBa2...

(You really must watch that vid)

And I think Neko Case has a very noir vibe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50dzxk...

[Kurt]

Evangeline wrote: "Portishead is noir as fuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMAFDe...

Massive Attack too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOgBa2...

(You really must watch that vid)

And I think Neko Case has..."

Love Neko Case! - Check out "Furnace Room Lullaby" for a nice "murder ballad" as she calls it.

[David]

I write about music and program music for internet radio stations and other online sites. I'm especially interested in film music. The music that came out of film noir and later inspired recent artists came from the 1940's and it mixed swing,bebop, and jump blues often blurring the boundaries.

Here is a film noir playlist that I complied and put on playlists.net If you have Spotify you can listen to these playlists.

http://playlists.net/film-noir-1

If you like that, check out my other playlists:

http://playlists.net/members/david-wi...

[Chris]

I wouldn't call them pop, but Drive-By Truckers have some great noir lyrics and vibe.

[Kurt]

Chris wrote: "I wouldn't call them pop, but Drive-By Truckers have some great noir lyrics and vibe."

I think so too.

[Susan]

Jonathan wrote: "If hardboiled has a sound, it's definitely 'Harlem Nocturne'!

Well, then again, there's always the soundtrack to The Man With the Golden Arm.

[Simon]

Time to resurrect this thread, since the wonderfully-named doom metal group Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats' new record is apparently a concept album about the "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe and the police manhunt for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbwk2...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zDT_...

I wonder if the band members have been reading David Peace's quadrilogy about same?

[Michael]

Two oldies:

"The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34)" Elton John

"Machine Gun Kelly" James Taylor

[Algernon (Darth Anyan), Hard-Boiled]

I have another haunting tune from a noir movie:

the introduction solo on trumpet by Miles Davis to "Ascenseur pour l'echafaud", just as the camera moves real close on the face of Jeanne Moreau.