- Tue Jan 31, 2023 2:21 pm
#149865
OK, I found the FB post. Here it is in its entirety. For the short read, shipping is from US.
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First off thanks to Ryan Will for posting about the vinyl release FINALLY happening to one of my favorite cult classics “The Exterminator”.
Many moons ago the now defunct label Pure Destructive teased a release of this and those of us that preordered know the rest to be a train-wreck and epic disappointment of never getting our copies. (Some of us even preordered the liquid filled copies. 🥴)
Cut to now when the vinyl is out and had 500 copies pressed by a company called “xrosscounter”.
To be honest I wasn’t quite sure if was a bootleg or even real but I took a shot and yes it’s real and is actually shipping out of Los Angeles and not Japan as I thought was the case from their website.
I emailed them thanking them for the fast shipping and great packaging on this release and I almost immediately received a note back from company co-founder Ryuhei Kitamura. Yes that Ryuhei Kitamura that directed “The Midnight Meat Train” with Vinnie Jones and Bradley Cooper!
We’ve been talking ever since and he hopes to do more releases but he must first sell these 500 copies of “The Exterminator”. (Buy with confidence as this release is finally real.)
I was asking Mr. Kitamura about this release and how it came to be and he was gracious enough to tell me the ENTIRE story which is wildly fascinating.
Here is that story, in unedited form, directly from Mr. Kitamura himself:
“I’ll write down back story of this project.
My regular job is a movie director.
Back in 2020 I teamed up with my friend and top notch fashion designer Tomoyuki Kitayama and started our own new brand making goods inspired by what we love.
Our main thing is apparel but one day I just thought “I’ve been waiting 40 years and nobody is doing The Exterminator soundtrack…Maybe I should just do it myself”. My partner loved the idea and we started searching.
First I contacted the composer Joe Renzetti. He told me that he still have music files in his DAT but no one is doing anything, and he’s happy to do it if I can license it. So I reached out to director James Glickenhaus’s lawyer and able to officially license to do Soundtrack and apparels.
Then I close the deal with Joe to do restore and remaster. However he told me that the music he did for the movie was very little and didn’t have enough material for Side-B. So he came up with the idea to do “re-imagined” version. Using materials he had, add new elements, remix and create new version for Side-B.
This was all great until he told me that he doesn’t own or control the rights for the song “Heal It” by Roger Bowling.
I asked James Glickenhaus and he told me that even he doesn’t own the rights.
Roger passed away back in 1982 and very few info on internet.
I’m a hard core fan myself and there’s no way to release soundtrack without the song.
I was really disappointed when Nightmare on Elm Street vinyl box set came out they didn’t include the ending song “Nightmare” by 213, so I couldn’t do the same.
After long negotiation, paid expensive license fee I felt like this dead end.
I had no idea how to find the rights holder of the song never published and the singer died in 82.
Then one day I was watching The Exterminator again, probably my 123rd times…Then I realized something I never before.
Roger Bowling did sing the song, but the song was written by someone else…Byron Hill.
I found his official site and sent him the message, and he replied and sent me full version of the song.
Byron introduced me to Roger Bowling’s widow and finally, I clear the rights for the song too.
Then I had to find vinyl pressing company.
As I said this is all new for me and my partner is in Japan and can’t speak English so it was long journey while I was making my own movie.
But anyway, we finally did it and I’m very proud of the final product.
While we were working on the soundtrack, another idea came up.
I wanted to do 7 inch single vinyl for “Heal It” but to do that I needed something for Side-B.
So I emailed Byron and asked if he can do his own remake version of “Heal It” and yes he did it.
Took as more than a year to do all this, but we did it.
Okay I guess that’s all I can tell you about The Exterminator and Heal It journey.
Thank you so much for your support!!”
Ryuhei
Lately I have been frequenting bad record stores/Places no respectable man would be seen