Dean & Britta: 13 Most Beautiful ... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen T
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - Between 1964 and 1966 Andy Warhol captured
approximately 500 intimate film portraits of celebrities and nobodies alike. Warhol's Screen Tests with their iconic imagery have become emblematic of Warhol's portraiture, as well as his transition from the medium of paint to film. Commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Dean & Britta (a.k.a. Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, formerly of the storied band Luna) have composed music to accompany Warhol's short silent film portraits. In an event titled 13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests Dean & Britta will perform their haunting, seductive scores and show a selection of the short films at MASS MoCA on Saturday March 28 at 8pm in the Hunter Center.
Warhol's Screen Tests are revealing portraits of hundreds of different individuals. The subjects were visitors to his studio, the Factory, who were asked to pose, lit with a strong key light, and filmed by Warhol with his stationary 16mm Bolex camera on black and white, 100-foot rolls of film. Each screen test lasted only as long as the roll of film. The resulting 2¾ minute films were projected in slow motion so that each lasted four minutes. Many of the Screen Tests were included in shifting compilations such as the flatteringly-titled 13 Most Beautiful Women, 13 Most Beautiful Boys, and 50 Fantastics and 50 Personalities, which were often projected in different versions, depending on who was in the audience or who Warhol wanted to please.
The Screen Tests were also used, as were other Warhol films, as part of the light show for his 1966 multi-media happening, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. In these shows The Velvet Underground and Nico performed their ear-splitting music, accompanied by Superstar dancers bathed in light from large projections of slides and films. 13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests will take the form of a multimedia performance featuring large scale video projection of the Screen Tests above the musicians performing live on stage.
Singer/guitarist Dean Wareham is, according to the New York Times, "a respected cultural figure who cut a wide swath through the '90s independent music scene." Often sounding like a depressed slacker, Wareham has inspired a number of indie rockers to express their sadness with a wistful tenor. In 1987 Wareham formed Galaxie 500 with his high school and college buddies Damon Krukowski (drums) and Naomi Yang (bass). Galaxie 500 released their first album, Today, in 1988, and were then signed to Rough Trade Records internationally. Although Galaxie 500 received little mainstream recognition, the band's languorous, narcotic rhythms - recalling the Velvet Underground and Joy Division - had a significant impact in shaping alternative subgenres such as shoegazer and slowcore. Wareham recorded three albums with Galaxie 500 before leaving the group in 1991.
A year later Wareham started Luna with Justin Harwood (bass) of the Chills and Stanley Demeski (drums) from the Feelies. Named after Diane Keaton's character in the Woody Allen film Sleeper, Luna recorded five well-received albums for Elektra Records through the '90s -- all were college radio staples. In 1999 Britta Phillips, formerly of the UK-based shoegazer band Belltower, replaced Harwood on bass, and Luna recorded another two albums for the independent label Jetset. Luna played their final shows in 2004, and Wareham and Phillips now perform as Dean & Britta. Together they have recorded two breezy albums of covers and originals, both produced by Tony Visconti, and have also been active scoring films, notably Noah Baumbach's acclaimed feature, The Squid & the Whale.
Tickets for Dean & Britta's 13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests are $18 in advance/ $22 day of show/ $15 for students. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams, open from 11 A.M. until 5 P.M., closed Tuesdays. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413-662-2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.
