Rob Zombie loves two things: monsters and rock. Even if he hadn’t made it perfectly clear with the title, everything about his new album “Hellbilly Deluxe 2” is intended to evoke associations with his monstrous, sexy 1998 solo debut. Although I personally hear a little more of sneer than I’d prefer in his voice, and not enough of the roar he’s employed on previous records, Hellbilly Deluxe 2 is certainly worth a listen if you’re a fan of anything Zombie’s done in the past two decades. This isn’t a music blog, though, and there’s a reason I’m posting about Zombie’s latest here: there are two werewolf-themed songs on the album, and both of them kick ass. John 5′s southern-fried slide guitar on “Werewolf, Baby!” will have you combing your fur into a pompadour before you climb into your ‘59 Cadillac Coupe to menace Little Red down at the drive-in. And although Zombie confirmed that his “Werewolf Women of the SS” Grindhouse trailer won’t be expanded into a feature film, he turned the concept into one hell of a jack-booted, crop-wielding song. You can check out both of the songs below. Howl, baby, howl!

In what appears to be a fortuitous glitch, Danny Elfman’s soundtrack to The Wolfman is available for purchase on iTunes, two weeks ahead of its posted February 23rd release date! All 19 songs for $9.99. Quick, before Apple catches on! Thanks for the heads-up, @hey_frey.

Varese Sarabande has made available the full track listing and some audio samples for Danny Elfman’s “classically Gothic, Transylvania-flavored score” to The Wolfman. Interesting that no other musicians are credited, despite last month’s rumblings that “additional composers” would fill out Elfman’s work. Here’s the track listing, and direct links to the four sample-enabled songs. Enjoy!

1. Wolf Suite Pt 1 (4:12)
2. Wolf Suite Pt 2 (5:55)
3. Prologue (2:57)
4. Dear Mr. Talbot (1:45)
5. Bad Moon Rising (0:59)
6. Gypsy Massacre (2:24)
7. Wake Up, Lawrence (5:17)
8. The Funeral (4:13)
9. The Healing Montage (2:50)
10. First Transformation (3:30)
11. You Must Go (3:46)
12. The Antique Shop (3:32)
13. Country Carnage (2:31)
14. Be Strong (2:31)
15. The Madhouse (5:32)
16. Reflection / 2nd Transformation (4:12)
17. The Traveling Montage (4:27)
18. The Finale (4:11)
19. Wolf Wild #2 (1:27)

Okay, everyone, you can relax! According to MovieScore Magazine, Universal has confirmed that they will not be using Paul Haslinger’s music to score The Wolfman. In a twist that would be crazy for any other film but which seems to be par for the course on this one, Danny Elfman’s back in… or at least, his ideas are. Elfman is still too busy with Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland to return to his work on The Wolfman, but Cinemusic.net reports that a number of additional composers (including Conrad Pope) will be brought in to stitch together the material Elfman’s already recorded with another 25 – 30 minutes of music. Word is that test audiences didn’t like Haslinger’s score, which (given his history with Tangerine Dream and his work on the Underworld films) may have been a bit too bleepy-bloopy for such a gothic, old-world looking film.

So, uh, yeah!

If you haven’t already heard this from the many news sources that exploded with panic over the subject last week, let me break it to you gently: Danny Elfman will not be composing the score to The Wolfman. I know. I’m sorry. He’s really very busy composing the score to Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland. It’s going to be okay, don’t worry. Here is a picture of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter you can look at while you regain your composure.

Taking Elfman’s place is Paul Haslinger, whose music you may have heard while watching Underworld, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Crank or While She Was Out.  He was also a member of Tangerine Dream, which is a qualification I dare you to denigrate. Haslinger will be recording the score in January 2010, which is cutting it pretty close to the February release, but everything else in this production has gone haywire and then (seemingly) gone right at the last moment, so why not the score?

I’ve heard some people bemoaning this change as further proof that The Wolfman will stink, but I’m actually vaguely cheered by this news. I like Danny Elfman’s work, don’t get me wrong, but I’m of the opinion that a composer’s score should blend into the film, just as an actor should become invisible in the role of a character. Elfman’s music is always appropriate but never blends… the moment I hear that jaunty-yet-morbid brass section kick in, I think well, here’s Danny Elfman again.

Werewolf News reader Leon Kruse sent me a link to this music video for “She’s a Genius” by Jet, from their album Shaka Rock.

“In the interview that Video Hits had with Jet,” writes Leon, “they said that the werewolf in the video is meant to be a cross between teenwolf and chewbacca, and the original video idea came from a 60s bike safety video were all the people were wearing animal masks.” I’ve seen that bike safety video (“One Got Fat“) and I’ve seen Star Wars, and I don’t recall Chewbacca being as big an instigator as this leonine werewolf girl. That poor guy’s ice cream! Thanks for the link, Leon.

Although I can’t tell exactly what DIALOKOLECTIV is rapping about here, it appears to be something bristly, snarly, lycanthropic and cool. And while that’ll be my Abercrombie & Fitch logic for the day, I promise to make up for it with a new feature / review that I have in the works.

Shakira has a new single called “She-Wolf”. Ugh. Just ugh.

Straight from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs MySpace page comes news of a remix EP for Heads Will Roll, a spendidly dancy single from their latest record It’s Blitz. You may remember the track’s video from last month, which featured the sharp-dressed werewolf shown on the EP cover above. The EP will be available from iTunes and digital retailers on July 14th, and features remixes by Passion Pit, Tommie Sunshine, Nick Zinner and James Iha. You can listen to the Passion Pit remix on Stereogum right now. Dance ’til you’re dead!

Rock band EELS is set to release their new album Hombre Lobo on June 2nd (preorder at Amazon.com), and the werewolf theme extends much deeper than the album title (which means “werewolf” in Spanish– but you knew that, right?). Hombre Lobo is written from the perspective of a lonely werewolf living in a world of indifferent humans. He’s “enraptured by the beauty of his muse, and frustrated by his desires… It’s about the beginning. About what kind of shape you’re in when you’re alone and you don’t want to be alone… sometimes your instincts become unbearable.”

The lead single is “Fresh Blood”, a sinister electronic prowl fueled by those unbearable instincts. It’s available on iTunes now, and I’ve listened to it over a dozen times in the three hours I’ve had it. You can check it out here, in the official video.