Pat Irwin most recently completed the score for HBO’s “Bored To Death.” Â He also just finished the score for “Pervertigo” which was selected for the 2011 edition of the IFP Narrative Independent Filmmaker Lab.
Pat has composed the scores for many independent films including, ”But I’m A Cheerleader,” “My New Gun,” and “Bam Bam And Celeste.” He has also written music for cartoons such as “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Rocko’s Modern Life,” “Pepper Ann,” and “Class of 3000.” He was awarded a 2011 ASCAP Film & Television Award for his contributions to the “SpongeBob” soundtrack.
He was a founding member of the “Raybeats” as well as “Eight Eyed Spy” and later joined “the B-52s” from 1989 – 2008. He has a new band in the works called “Command V” with recordings to be released on Mush Records.
“Queen Of Siam” was recorded under the direction of Lydia Lunch just as Eight Eyed Spy was starting to form. Lydia had had enough ofTeenage Jesus and was looking for a change. “Queen Of Siam” was recorded with a core band of Pat Irwin, George Scott and Doug Bowne. Bob Quine from Richard Hell and the Voidoids also played some awesome guitar all over and around some big band charts by Billy Ver Planck. At around the same time, Eight Eyed Spy was formed with George Scott from the Contortions, Jim Sclavunos from TeenageJesus, Pat Irwin and Michael Paumgardhen.
Lydia tells me that “Queen of Siam” will be reissued by Atavistic (U.S) and Cherry Red (Europe and Japan) in April.
Check out Lydia at:
www.lydialunch.org
www.myspace.com/lydialunch
Vernon Gravely has put up a wonderful Raybeats tribute page.
The Raybeats existed from 1979 – 1984 and were an all instrumental band formed from members of the Contortions and Eight Eyed Spy. (George Scott (bass), Jody Harris (guitar), Don Christensen (drums) from the Contortions and Pat Irwin (guitar, keyboards, sax) and George from Eight Eyed Spy. Danny Amis from Los Straitjackets later joined the band on bass) A couple records were released but aren’t available on cd, hopefuly that will change in the near future. There’s some great info up on this site.
Look for some new recordings soon. I just got out of a great studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where I cut 16 new tracks with Marco Benevento (piano, organ); Marc Friedman, (bass, from The Slip); and Kevin Norton, (drums, vibes, from Anthony Braxton, etc., and just about every cartoon I’ve ever scored and recorded). I’m on guitar, and Patrick Derivaz did the recording.
Most of the music was composed with some room for improvisation. There’s more room in some places than others. A handful of tracks were improvised on the spot. The traditional sounds of guitar, piano, bass, vibes and drums are mixed up with vintage rhythm machines, bent circuits and some customized toys. I’ll post some mp3s soon.
A friend sent me this link to a new page on Joe Murray’s website. Joe is the creator of Rocko’s Modern Life. It’s a classic cartoon and Joe gave me a lot of room with the music. I was lucky enough to put together a great live band for a thrilling run.
Pat has been collaborating on writing songs with Cynthia Sley (lead singer of The Bush Tetras). Check out The Scene below, and for more songs see their MySpace music page.
The Scene – Cynthia Sley & Pat Irwin
A while back Pat found an old electric organ, abandoned on the street here in NYC. It was full of fantastic built-in beats (like Samba, Rhumba, Jazz Rock I, and of course, Jazz Rock II) and inspired a slew of new music. Check out Last Moonlight below, and see the music page for more tracks.
Catch Drop Back Ten, a film by Stacy Cochran with music by Pat Irwin, when it airs tomorrow evening (January 5th) at 9pm EST/PST on the Sundance Channel. See the announcement poster here.
Look for brand new episodes from the second season of Class of 3000, December 18th on the Cartoon Network. Check listings for exact showtimes in your area.
The Class of 3000 one hour Christmas Special will premiere November 30th on the Cartoon Network. Check listings for exact showtimes in your area.
Bam Bam & Celeste, a film starring Margaret Cho, with music score by Pat Irwin, is now available on DVD. Check it out!
