Pitchfork

When he's not watching hockey, updating his blog, or trying to figure out the world of podcasting, Mac McCaughan writes (and sometimes records) film scores. One of these scores, the soundtrack to Canadian indie film Who Loves the Sun, will come out June 6 on Merge under McCaughan's Portastatic moniker.

The film is described on the Portastatic website as the story of "two life long friends who spend a summer competing for the attention of the woman they both love," and the soundtrack will feature "lots of strings, oboes, and acoustic guitars," in addition to more traditional rock fare. The movie, which stars Lukas Haas and Molly Parker, does not yet have a release date, which is good because such a lovely story should be saved for the winter, when we're all getting down with our seasonally affected selves.

Who Loves the Sun:

01 Will's Return
02 The Sunset Rock
03 Maggie at the Dock
04 Fighting Music
05 Seems Like a Long Time Ago
06 The Search for Daniel
07 Nice One
08 Lively Chase
09 Snake Music
10 Nice Strums
11 Do You Want to Know?
12 Maggie and Mary
13 Stretch Waltz
14 Tremolo Chase
15 A Bit Pastoral
16 Just Like a Real Book
17 Is That Mars?
18 Will's Return Complete
19 Fishing Music
20 Once Nice Piano
21 Last Kiss Music
22 Older Summers

The Portastatic website also reports that Double Mac is currently in the process of writing a score for The Unknown, Tod Browning's 1927 silent film starring Lon Chaney as a man with three thumbs (Ultimate Thumb War Champion!) and Joan Crawford as "a woman afraid of the embrace of men." Yikes! McCaughan's score will be performed live, alongside the movie, June 16 at Seattle's Moore Theatre, as part of the Seattle Film Festival. The full band from the last Portastatic tour will play the accompaniment, supplemented with an oboe-trombone-violin mini-orchestra.