Whether it was on Sunday afternoons or when he would let me stay up past my bed-time to enjoy a movie with him, some of my strongest childhood memories are of watching Westerns with my Dad.  He was always more partial to John Wayne but, when I was younger, it was Clint Eastwood’s interpretation of a cowboy in films like, The Good The Bad and the Ugly, that really made an impression on me.  Eastwood was the type of gunslinger that I wanted to be; the way his eyes squinted and the way he smoked his cigar.   Both a quiet enigma and a force to be reckoned with, he was an outlaw and the quintessential anti-hero.  Equally as important was that he had a bad ass theme song, to boot. Like the late-60s equivalent of a modern day internet meme, Ennio Morricone’s title song paints the audio picture of a showdown.  Even if you have never seen the movie or heard the actual song, that classic two-note melody is so ingrained in the annals of pop-culture, the odds are that you’ve probably heard some sort of reference to it somewhere.  That soundtrack to The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly was in my father’s vinyl collection and I distinctly remember listening to it, imagining the scenes in my head, and, with the help of my action figures, reliving them in my pretend world, while playing the record in my basement.  The music was so powerful that it made as much of an impression on me as the movies themselves or Eastwood’s portrayal of “Blondie” in those spaghetti westerns.

It has now been 45 years since The Good , The Bad, & The Ugly (1966) was released and it has, obviously, earned its place in pop-culture history.  Evidence of Morricone’s lasting influence is supported by Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) and composer, Daniele Luppi’s latest project, ROME. Scheduled for a May 16th release date, ROME is essentially a soundtrack for a Spaghetti Western that, as of now, only exists in Burton and Luppi’s imagination. Their work on this current collaboration began 5 years ago, but it sounds as if these two may have had their own make-believe showdowns to the same music that made such an impression on me when I was young.  DM’s controversial and critically acclaimed 2004 release, The Grey Album has made him an outlaw/hero of sorts in the music industry.  Despite EMI’s objections to his unauthorized sampling of The Beatles‘ White Album and Burton’s intention to only distribute 3000 copies, both the project and his name gained instant and widespread popularity in the internet age.  In 2010, “Sheriff” EMI also made attempts to block the distribution of DM’s Dark Night of the Soul, a project that Daniele Luppi was also involved with.  Luppi‘s work primarily consists of accomplishments behind the scenes as a producer, composer, orchestrator, and even conductor.  He was responsible for the string arrangements for Burton and James Mercer’s (The Shins) project, Broken Bells and contributed additional arrangements and MiniMoog to Gnarles Barkley’s (DM, Cee-Lo Green) St. Elsewhere album.  Additionally, Luppi has worked with artists that range from the likes of John Legend to Mike Patton (Faith No More, Fantomas, Mr. Bungle).  When Luppi and Burton collaborate together, the resulting work’s influence on pop-culture is subtle but prolific; not unlike Mo-Town’s legendary, The Funk Brothers, who made their mark in music history, quietly recording hit after hit for the label.

It was while working together on all those influential projects that the production duo first began laboring on ROME.  The process of which has been long and intensive, reflecting the two’s passion for the work.

Via press release:

“Writing separately at first, and then together as the songs evolved – they travelled to Rome in October 2006.  Luppi made some calls and they assembled the original musicians from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West – including the legendary Marc 4 backing band and Alessandro Alessandroni’s ‘I Cantori Moderni’ choir. Most of the musicians were in their seventies and hadn’t worked together for several decades. They booked time in Rome’s cavernous Forum Studios – formerly Ortophonic Studios, founded, amongst others, by the great Ennio Morricone”

ROME is definitely a labor of love for Burton who, along with Luppi “scoured the city for vintage equipment, using bottles of wine as payment.”  They researched the recording methods of the ones who inspired them and made “Every effort…to replicate the practices of the 1960s/70s golden age, recording live and straight to tape, with overdubs but no electronics, computers, 21st-century effects or studio trickery.” Burton, who financed the entire project himself, has stated that the album is built on “perfectionism, patience, being ambitious and two people who were prepared to go to great lengths to ensure the end result is exactly at it should be.”

After laying the original groundwork, Luppi and Burton needed to find the perfect male and female vocalists to capture the mood and ambiance of the project.  While on tour with Gnarls Barkley, Burton had the opportunity to connect with fellow “outlaw”, Jack White [okay, so he hasn’t gotten in any legal battles over his music like DM, but he certainly dresses the part!]   Jack’s work with the White Stripes alone, has already made its mark and carved out a place in music history.  Outside of the group, White has also managed to bridge generational gaps and defy genres by working with greats like Jimmy Page, Loretta Lynne, and Alicia Keys.  Taking this into consideration, it really seems right that Burton would ask the guitarist/vocalist to join the posse.  On the hunt for a female lead, Burton was searching for a “softer, any-girl” type of voice.  Five-time Grammy award winner, Norah Jones was chosen to fill the role. Although it is not like anything that Jones has recorded up to this point, Burton states the he “knew she was really up for it”.

ROME looks to transport the listener to a visceral place; much like music for The Good The Bad & The Ugly did for me when I was a kid.  With its melancholy feel and haunting melodies, Burton describes ROME as a visual album which is, essentially, about love.  Considering all of the time, money, and talent invested into the project, that would definitely make sense.  With any luck, this collaboration will be able to forge it’s own unique place in pop-culture, alongside all of the previous works by ROME‘s individual contributors.

Click here to view the embedded video.

First Ever Live Show – TONIGHT 2/19!

Broken Bells has confirmed the details of its first ever live date. The band will perform TONIGHT (February 19) at the Fold In Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles located at 2220 Beverly Boulevard just west of Alvarado (Across the street from Brooklyn Bagel).

Doors are at 8 pm. Free parking available on Roselake Ave. directly behind The Praise Christian Church. A LIMITED number of tickets are available now via http://www.inticketing.com/evlist.php?events=search&v=6117

2 ticket limit.

For anyone who is unaware of the project, Broken Bells is the new collaborative effort between DJ/super-producer, Brian “Dangermouse“ Burton and James Mercer of The Shins.  If you live in the Los Angeles area and act fast, tonight could be your opportunity to see if it it lives up to all of the hype.

Here’s the first video to come out of the project:  “High Road”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Additional Dates:

March 1 -  Nouveau Casino (Paris, France)
March 3 – ICA (London, England)
March 17 – Stubb’s (Austin, TX)*

*Part of NPR MUSIC SHOWCASE
(also feat. Spoon, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, the Walkmen, & Visqueen)

BROKEN BELLS The debut album featuring “The High Road” Free download of the single with every preorder of the Deluxe at Brokenbells.com More Details »

David Lynch is best known as an Emmy, Academy Award, and Golden Globe nominated Writer/Director/Producer.  He is the creator of such films as The Elephant Man, Dune, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet , Wild At Heart, and Mulholland Dr., as well as of the television series Twin Peaks.  With such a prolific and influential career in film making, it’s easy to understand why any of his outside ventures may be over shadowed.  Last year Lynch made one such venture with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, in which the director provided vocal contributions to the Dark Night of the Soul album, as well as accompanying photographs for the project.  A subsequent gallery show of the photographs took place at Los Angeles‘ Michael Kohn gallery from May 30 – July 29 of 2009.

With the hype surrounding EMI‘s refusal to release the music for DNOTS, we posted an extensive two-piece article about the project.  Unfortunately however, we entirely overlooked the fact that Lynch had a completely unrelated gallery show  later in the year.  “David Lynch : New Paintings“, was held from at the William Griffin gallery in Santa Monica from Sept. 12th – Dec. 12th, 2009.  Although Lynch was actually a painter, prior to ever beginning his film career, this collection represents the first of Lynch‘s original paintings to be displayed in the United States in more than a decade.

Due to our past coverage of Lynch‘s art, we were contacted and offered the opportunity to premiere the following footage by DFL.TV (The David Lynch Foundation).  The video not only contains exclusive coverage of the gallery opening, but celebrity interviews as well.  Among those interviewed are actress, Laura Dern, award-winning film-maker, Roger Corman, and even Lynch himself.

According to DFL.TV, the 6 core pieces in the exhibit weigh “around 300 pounds each” and “are each displayed in a shadow box that was inspired by the artist Francis Bacon, a key influence on Lynch’s artistic life.”

When asked about this by Brian Rich, producer/director of the above video, Lynch elaborated by saying the following:

“I went to the Marlborough gallery in New York City in the 60’s. I don’t know if it was ’67 or ’66 … I think it was 67, I don’t know, Marlborough gallery…I walked in, I almost passed out. The work was so incredible…and it was framed in a similar way to this. Glass floating in front of the paint… gold leaf frames… And it just, the whole presentation just shot me through the roof and I said, if I ever get any money…I wanna frame my stuff like that. They were destined for this kind of frame. And the thing is, they’ll live in this frame now. Whatever happens to ‘em, they’ll live in this frame. It’s like their house.“

When questioned about future plans for the pieces, Lynch laughed and answered by saying:

“Um…they’re close to 300 lbs each…the paintings…and I need a crane to get’em in my house… you gotta help me sell these things.“

The song playing throughout the video is called “Revenge“.  It is a track from the Dark Night of the Soul album and features Dangermouse and Sparklehorse in collaboration with The Flaming Lips.  For access to MP3s of the entire album, please visit our past coverage of the project by clicking HERE.

To view images of the DNOTS photographs from the previous gallery show, you can link to our coverage of that through HERE.

To inquire about purchasing any of the pieces from the exhibit and/or find out more about The David Lynch Foundation, please check out DFL.TV.  We highly encourage you to do so; it’s a fascinating non-profit and their site provides endless content and information.

Banksy is one of the most influential and forward thinking graffiti artists of the last 20 years. He is well known for his stenciled bombing which he honed in the Bristol area of the United Kingdon.  In his book “Banksy: Wall and Piece” (2005) he states that he decided to start doing his tagging with a stenciling format after being caught and running from the cops at the age of 18.  He claims that, while hiding, he “spent over an hour under a dumpster truck with engine oil leaking all over (him)“.   He looked up at a stencil on the fuel tank and realized that he had found his answer to cutting his painting time down to a fraction of what they currently took.

I highly recommend “Wall and Piece” because it is, not only an impressive composition of his collected work, but also full of quotes and passages that display the artist’s distinct vision and philosophies.  What makes Banksy’s work consistently relevant isn’t his ability to draw or paint, or even his cunning vandalism, but his voice.  I’m not going to claim that all graffiti is vital and has something to say beyond simple territorial pissings or blind destruction, because much of it is done ignorantly, but I will openly argue with anyone that claims that Banksy’s work isn’t absolute art in its purist form.  His graffiti work evokes thought, inspires hope, and contains strong social commentaries about capitalism, politics, and, most of all, humanity.  Like artist Ron English, Banksy’s hopeful, yet “illegal“, art pieces are often created in response to the corporate advertisements and “legal” oppressive imaging that we are bombarded with on a daily basis.

Wikipedia describes Banksy as “pseudo-anonymous“.  This is because he is obviously well-known enough to publish books and have gallery shows but it’s doubtful that you will see his actual face on the cover of any magazine, or program any time soon.  You won’t even find it on his website.  He’s been able to achieve the oft-elusive feat of transferring from underground renegade artist into one that commands universal respect, but continues to enjoy the freedom and versatility of street art that warrants such anonymity.

Galleries are great, but they sometimes have the ability to almost quarantine art and remove it from the rest of society.  They don’t provide the same effect as a giant, unexpected, apocalyptic mural in the center of Wall Street.  In the past, the tagger has altered large building walls, in both the UK and in San Francisco, to read as “Designtated Graffiti Areas“.  The scheme encouraged locals to come and vandalize the properties based on the fact that the walls were labeled to infer that the areas were permitted by the local authorities and government agencies.  In 2006, Banksy teamed up with DJ Danger Mouse in London to replace hundreds of copies of the Paris Hilton album with hoax versions.  Danger Mouse remixed tracks and renamed songs to have titles like, “Why am I famous?” while Banksy slipped the copies with alternate booklets into local retailers.

This August, Banksy spent time throwing up some new work in the New Orleans area, in his classic stenciled graffiti street art style.  The paintings were done to commemorate the 3 yr anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and has been chronicled nicely on sites like Wooster Collective.  For this month of October, however, Banksy has made his way up to New York and it appears that the artist has been able to find himself the perfect middle ground between gallery-style artist residencies and the awe-inspiring specatacle of street art.

Banksy’s “Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill” has a giant storefront window located at No.89, Seventh Ave. South in Greenwich Village, New York.  It’s set up with the motif of a pet store but all of the “creatures” inside are constructed using animatronics.  I write “creatures” because, although there is a lifelike robotic rabbit with full make up, filing it’s nails in the mirror, there is also everything from fishsticks swimming in a tank to chicken nuggets with feet eating out of a BBQ sauce container.

His art has often contained images of rats and other animals in the past and his 2003 animal rights activist enraging work “Turf War” had the artist spray-painting graffiti directly onto the sides of cows and pigs.  There is a quote from Bansky on Wooster Collective where he says the following of the animatronic pet store:

“New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead. I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing. I took all the money I made exploiting an animal in my last show and used it to fund a new show about the exploitation of animals. If its art and you can see it from the street, I guess it could still be considered street art.”

The project is scheduled to run until Halloween and is open daily between 10am-12am, but is also viewable at night.  If you are in the area we suggest going down there and checking it out.  If you are able to make it down but choose not to do so, we suggest punching yourself in the genitals.

For those of us who will not likely be able to view the splendor first hand a video is provided below.  The site Notcot.com commissioned artist filmmaker Seth Brau to make the following film which, at least at this point, appears to be the best video document of the exhibit available.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Big Cats
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IpriP5Bl20

Sausages
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVJtXiujDVQ

Fish Fingers
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbsPCaxS-ec

Rabbits
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emFgmo1UeQM

Nuggets
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxNjikJNjdk

Primates
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZAwOMrpCSU

CCTV
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u239zSO1tQ

For coverage on more amazing artwork, make sure to check out he following sites as well:
www.Banksy.co.uk
www.Woostercollective.com
www.Notcot.com

-Dead C