cheating slightly… Artist of the Month: Dean and Britta

The first of regular monthly featured Artists.

Here is my first ‘artist of the month’ selection and, already, I am breaking one of the guidelines.

On Friday, January 30th I went to the “13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests”.

Some time ago, I had heard that 13 of  Andy Warhol’s screen tests were going to be shown at the Warhol museum and that Dean & Britta were composing a soundtrack for the show.

I considered traveling to Pittsburgh for the show.

I first became a fan of Andy Warhol in high school, when I discovered his biography in our school library. Dean and Britta used to be in a band called Luna, one of top 5 favorite bands. I discovred Luna through a roommate who said they had been compared to the Velvet Underground (also in my top 5). I’ve seen Luna perform several (four or five?) times over more than a decade. The first night I saw them play, I was performing on stage with a band for the very first time - when our set was over, I ran down the road to go see them play. We had all bought tickets to Luna so most of my friends missed my first show (they didn’t miss much, I played most of the set with my back to the audience).

When I found out that “13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests” was coming to my town as part of performance art festival, I had to buy tickets.

Actually, my husband bought them and then took them to Las Vegas with him on a business trip. His plane was delayed on the way home, on the day of the show, so we almost missed it. Or he did, anyways - my plan was to go down to the show alone and buy myself another ticket - but it all worked out and we both got to go.

We even got seats in the second row, which was amazing.

The show consisted of 13 screen tests, 4 minutes long each. Four minutes is actually a very long time to stare at a close up of someone’s face, but it was never boring. Once in a while my eyes would move to the band performing, but rarely - I felt the subdued stage performance was appropriate. In fact, I was sad every time the face started to dissolve away - partially, I think, because I knew the faces weren’t around any more and I might not see them again. Once in a while my eyes would move to the band performing, but not very often.  I felt their subdued stage performance was appropriate: Britta Phillips even spent some time with her back to the audience (she was watching the screen tests and playing along with them).

I don’t want to share too many observations and ruin any future audience member’s experience so here are just a few comments:

Some of the screent tests were of famous people like Dennis Hopper and Lou Reed. (Skip to the trailer if you are concerned about spoilers…)

I really came to appreciate Andy Warhol’s cinematography during Dennis Hopper’s screen test. The shadows accentuated the symmetry of Hopper’s young, sculpted face. There were also triangular shadows under Hopper’s eyes that made him look like a clown. I guess I’d overlooked his photography before, distracted by his bright commercial/graphic style art.

I found staring at someone’s face for four minutes very interesting, particularly with Nico - the beautiful model and sometimes, singer, with the Velvet Underground. I spent the first three minutes admiring her beauty and the last minute shocked by how her beauty seemed to dissipate up closer study… it was the weirdest experience. Later, I wondered if she had let her guard down and stopped showing her good angles - she did start to look bored and restless at the same time, if that’s possible. Or perhaps no one should be stared at for that long, even the most beautiful faces suffer under that kind of scrutiny…

I was surprised (pleasantly) to hear Dean & Britta use their song Teenage Lightning for one of the screen tests - some of the best lyrics ever written in my opinion. They also covered a Velvet Underground song which I only noticed when I read the playlist afterwards (and I call myself a VU fan, how embarassing…)

Trailer

Coming Soon to Your City if you live in San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Boston, or North Adams

Dean and Britta and Andy Warhol’s screen tests are going to be at The Palace of Fine Art tomorrow night (isn’t that the building from the movie Vertigo? I think so…). For other dates, visit their website.

Missing the live show? You can buy the dvd at Plexifilm.

Bonus Book Reviews

Swimming Underground by Mary Woronov (photos by Billy Name)

Mary Woronov is also one of the screen tested. I own her book Swimming Underground: My Years at the Warhol Factory and I’ve read it a few times over the years, so I relished the opportunity to read her book into her face. It brought back memories from her book and made both the book and the screen test more meaningful.

Swimming Underground

Black Postcards: A Rock and Roll Romance by Dean Wareham

Dean Wareham has written a book called “Black Postcards”. I ordered a signed copy from their website at deanandbritta.com, not something I would normally do but I guessed that he would probably get a bigger chunk of the profit if I ordered it directly.

I would recommend the book with a warning. If you have a huge crush on Wareham, his honest account of his experiences may make him more like a real live human being (often dampening big crazy crushes). During the performance I write about above, I suddenly saw a resemblance between Dean Wareham and Lyle Lovett’s silhouette that I hadn’t noticed before. Sigh. All crushes must come to an end. Just like when I saw Slash perform live and I found the unusually high placement of his belly button very disconcerting… This hasn’t had any effect on my admiration for their talent, I just don’t want to make out with them any more…

Luna Store at Amazon

Here is a Dean and Britta video “You Turn My Head Around”. I think my crush on Dean Wareham has now been replaced by Britta Phillips’ amazing red cycling jumper - on my shopping list of outfits for Spring…