DEAN AND BRITTA

Presented with Western Front

"One of the most influential sounds to emerge out of the ‘80s rock underground...seductively drowsy and intimate." - Rolling Stone

Jan 30 2009, 9pm (doors/bar 8pm)


Andy Warhol lecture Jan 29 2009, 7pm Emily Carr University

Singer/guitarist /composer Dean Wareham (formerly of Galaxie 500 and Luna) was commissioned by The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh to compose music to accompany some of Warhol’s rarely seen silent-film portraits, which the artist called Screen Tests. These extraordinary documents of the 1960s New York art scene constitute a voluminous portrait gallery of well-known celebrities, Factory superstars and anonymous teenagers. The Screen Tests - four-minute black-and-white silent film portraits from the 1960s - were used, as were other Warhol films, as part of the light show for Warhol’s 1966 multimedia happening, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, which showcased the radical art rock of the Velvet Underground.

Wareham’s pensive tenor and dreamy songs and Britta Phillips’ wistful harmonies make the perfect live soundtrack for Warhol’s simple yet transfixing films. The husband and wife team (who also scored the acclaimed feature film The Squid and the Whale) probe the subtle nuances of mood reflected in the Screen Tests’ portraits, including Lou Reed, Dennis Hopper, and Edie Sedgewick, lyrically and musically illuminating the shadowed psyches of the candidates for Factory Superstardom who willingly submitted to Warhol’s cool cinematic gaze.

13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests is a project jointly commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust for the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts 2008. click to check out a clip of 13 Most Beautiful on YouTube

Image from Andy Warhol, Screen Test: Jane Holzer (1964) 16mm film, black and white, silent, 4 minutes at 16 frames per second ©2008 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved.

Tickets $25.00

This show is fully eligible for Push Pass access. Group sales available, $20 for groups 10 or more, contact groups@pushfestival.ca for more information