Thursday, March 18, 2010

The best new TV theme right now, hands down

I saw an actress do a dead-on Luis Guzman impression on a talk show a while ago. I'm hella pissed that I can't remember who the actress was. I love a chick who can bust out a Luis Guzman impression.
If you're wondering about that terrific Bill Withers joint that opens episodes of HBO's new Big Apple fashion industry dramedy series How to Make It in America, it's not by Bill Withers. Like all other great TV themes (and most of them these days belong to shows from ad-free HBO, where opening themes are actually allowed to last more than 10 seconds), the tune beautifully sums up the show's premise and tone, even though it wasn't written especially for HTMIIA. It's the very timely "I Need a Dollar" from Stones Throw soul artist Aloe Blacc's not-yet-released album Good Things.

Aloe Blacc
"I Need a Dollar" is also one of the tracks on what has to be a first in both TV history and hip-hop history: a mixtape (instead of an official soundtrack) of a show's featured songs that was circulated by one of its cast members (in HTMIIA's case, Kid Cudi) before the show even premiered. The full version of Aloe Blacc's HTMIIA theme can be heard during "The F Zone" on A Fistful of Soundtracks (Mondays at 4-6am, 9-11am and 3-5pm and Fridays at 5-7am, 9-11am and 3-5pm). To log on to AFOS, hit the "Play" button on the widget on the right side of this blog.

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