TROMA DOES AURAL

Greetings from Tromaville!

Music has long played an important role in Troma movies. What would that scene in the Troma classic Mother's Day have been without Tommy James and the Shondell's "I Think We're Alone Now"? The importance of music in Troma movies has only grown over the years, culminating in the movie musical Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, Troma's latest 35mm feature film. New Found Glory AKA Calamari Safari, who can be seeing getting killed in Tales from the Crapper, wrote Poultrygeist's theme song. Watch the video here!

I've also cast several musicians in my movies. The Smithereens play their hit song "Much Too Much" in Class of Nuke Em High. Lemmy from MotÃ¶rhead plays the narrator in Tromeo and Juliet and stars in a PSA from Terror Firmer with Trey Parker and Matt Stone!

In my career, I've been asked to direct several music videos, usually by bands that are outside of the mainstream cookie-cutter world of VH1. I directed one such video for the Lunachicks for the song, "Say What You Mean." The version that we shot and edited was great and the band loved it. Their record label, Go-Kart Records, however, asked for a second version. Our original footage was re-edited and that second version eventually ended up on MTV. The good news is that my name was still on it. The bad news is that I'm pretty sure my name was spelled incorrectly. That shoot was also the last time I did a whippit, so the version I put together might have been a little out there.

If I like the band's music, I'll direct a video for free. It's important for independent artists of all kinds to get their work seen, and these videos are great opportunities for bands to get attention. Here are some videos that I directed for up-and-coming bands for free.

"Milk, Milk, Lemonade" by Dingleberry Dynasty

"Midnight" by Not the Government

"Seeing Red" by Entombed

"Wild Man" by Korable (Inspired by the band's fanaticism for Terror Firmer)