Pyramid, the eight-piece moody, orchestral indie collective from North Carolina have scored the upcoming Danny McBride comedy, “The Foot Fist Way.”
McBride is seemingly Hollywood’s favorite new comedian golden boy and this cult film was adored in L.A. circles that Will Ferrell and Adam Mckay (the pair behind “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights”) quickly snatched in up at Sundance ’06 and compelled Paramount Vantage to back the film’s distribution (fans also include Jonah Hill and much of the Apatow crew, “I’m calling it right now: [McBride]’s the funniest person on the planet,” “Superbad” star Hill declared to EW a few months ago.).
In the comedy, McBride plays a doughy, buffoon strip-mall tae-kwon doe instructor who belittles his students while simultaneously trying to teach them the tenets of the martial art. The film was shot three years ago on a shoestring budget, and much of the crew comes from the extended-David Gordon Green family from North Carolina (McBride got his start in “All The Real Girls”; Pyramid had song in both ‘Real Girls’ and Green’s 2004 film, “Undertow”).
But there’s even deeper connections to the film, Pyramid member Ben Best not only co-wrote the film with McBride and director Jody Hill, he also has a starring role in the film as the main antagonist, Chuck “The Truck” Wallace.
We spoke to Joey from the band, who also gave us two exclusive score tracks (bel0w) from the film which open us this Friday (May 30) in limited release.
The goal from the outset was something sounding dated and over-the-top. “During production Jody and I talked a lot about the score. My mind set was always: ‘Iron Eagle II’ meets ‘Karate Kid II’ meets ‘Flash Gordon.’ Some cues have 80’s synths while others have Queen-esque guitar solos while others have Steve Vai-esque solos with some electronic Genesis style drums thrown in here and there.”
Pyramid teamed-up with Memphis indie-rockers Lucero on the film “Shotgun Stories” and did wrote the opening sequence score of Craig Zobel’s “Great World of Sound” (the rest of the score was composed by another NC alumni, David Wingo). The film ‘Foot Fist Way’ also features tracks by other locals, Chapel Hill rockers Dynamite Brothers, Kung Flude, Birds of Avalon, Sexual Warriors and trip-hop act Uno Dose who were recently featured in DGG’s “Snow Angels.”
The biggest piece of news we got here, which should probably be its own blog post (aside from the fact that it would be probably two sentences) is the fact that director Jody Hill’s next project “Observe and Report,” will star Seth Rogen (another vocal fan of ‘Fist Way’). Pyramid will be composing the score to this film as well (but we just realized news of the project itself is slightly old). A ‘Foot Fist Way’ soundtrack will come out later this summer as digital download on ITunes, Amazon, etc. from Lakeshore Records and you can preview it early below. A new Pyramid full-length should be out by year’s end.
Watch: “The Foot Fist Way” trailer
