It looks like director Tony Pemberton’s Kickstarter drive for post-production funding for his three-years in the making film, Are We Not Men? The Devo Documentary, has reached its goal and then some with about a month to go.
I just caught wind of the project myself, but my oh my if this trailer isn’t mighty tasty looking:
From their origins during the 1970 Kent State shootings, to their latest album and tours, this documentary offers a funny and fascinating story that appeals to generations of art and music aficionados. Featuring new interviews with contemporaries (Iggy Pop), and followers (Dave Grohl, Tony Hawk), the official documentary reveals the truth about this important and misunderstood band with rare archival film, private home-movies, and recent concert footage.
The ARE WE NOT MEN? film delves into the brains — and the souls — behind the concept, music, and spectacle of Devo. Sculpting its music, lyrics and visuals are two men whose personalities seem different but whose worldviews are the same: introspective Mark Mothersbaugh and outspoken Gerald Casale. It is Mark and Jerry’s cataclysmic, sometimes contentious, collaboration that birthed what we know as Devo. Rounding out the group are two more members whose position cements the group as a literal band of brothers — Bob Mothersbaugh and Bob Casale. Yes, behind the curtain of this art-school façade are two fascinating and sometimes fractious families, led by Akron, Ohio’s twisted version of Lennon & McCartney — with all the genius and precariousness that would imply. It is the stories of these men — together and apart — that drive the engine that is ARE WE NOT MEN?
Literary outlaw, word virologist and post-modernist punk rock scum Kathy Acker and her mentor William Burroughs, the hombre invisible, smartly crack linguistic whips in this insightful conversation from 1988, which took place at the October Gallery during Burrough’s first British art exhibition.
What a pleasure this is - two artists clearly enamored of each other and pleased to be in each other’s presence. Burroughs is particularly open and fluid in this chat which includes some fascinating, but all too brief, stuff on Scientology, EST and Buddhism, and space travel. Burroughs goes on at the greatest length when dealing with the subject of Jesus and the Christ virus.
This is a guest post by Nick Abrahams, co-director of the new documentary film, The Bruce Lacey Experience:
Bruce Lacey is the invisible man of British art. “Many people who know me in one of my activities think there are in fact several different people called Bruce Lacey” he wrote in 1975. Lacey’s constantly inquiring mind has meant that he has evolved too quickly to maintain a level of success, constantly moving from one form of expression to another, and leaving a trail of confusion in his wake. If you are British, and of a certain age, you probably remember him from his appearances on kids TV shows like Blue Peter. He made cameos in the Beatles’ movie Help and swinging London feature films including Smashing Time and The Knack…and How to Get It. Bruce and The Alberts, the band he regularly shared an anarchic stage with, performed at Peter Cook’s Establishment Club, helping kickstart the nascent satire boom in Britain. It was there that Bruce encountered comedian Lenny Bruce, who consequently offered to manage them. Unfortunately by the time Bruce and the band had crossed to the USA by boat (performing on board, no doubt to the bemusement of their fellow passengers), their American mentor was under arrest, and he was unable to follow through on his offer. Safely back in the UK, Bruce went on to record a live album with George Martin at Abbey Road (By Jingo, It’s British Rubbish), but its cover of a torn and defaced Union Jack was rejected by EMI and the record was never released. This was in 1963…. The Alberts were the first performers on BBC2 when it was launched in 1964, and were offered a showcase TV series which failed to materialize when the producers discovered Bruce’s aversion to rehearsals.
Bruce made props for many different television shows, including gadgets for Michael Bentine’s Potty Time. Within his own work these gadgets evolved into full scale robots and automatons. He claims he hated working with actors so much that he felt compelled to invent robots to take their place, the most famous of which was ROSA BOSOM, who in 1985 won Andrew Logan’s Alternative Miss World pagent- a subversive counter culture institution in England, beating style icon Leigh Bowery and future potter Grayson Perry to the prize. Fairport Convention wrote a song, “Mr Lacey,” about him, and he has brought his robots on stage with them.
Although Bruce’s work has influenced artists as disperate as David Bowie and Genesis P. Orridge, success on a wider commercial scale has eluded him. Some of this seems to be down to the way in which Bruce has had an amazing ability to grasp failure from the jaws of victory. He is very vocal about embracing mistakes, accidents and deliberately sabotaging his own work. It is not enough to do a magic trick, it must be a magic trick that goes wrong. I sat through an amazing magic lantern show that Bruce gave in his local village of Wymondham last Christmas. Slides were upside down, often in the wrong order…total chaos! Bruce was obviously loving it, and the audience tittered nervously, not quite sure if it was funny or not, or how intentional any of this was. It seems to be what keeps him interested, these moments of total spontaneity. Is it performance art? Music hall gone awry? Or is he just, as he sometimes claims, simply “playing silly buggers”?
Over the last three years Jeremy Deller and myself have spent hours in the company of Bruce, who, at the age of 85 is very much still an active artist. Very little of the above information made it into our film. Hopefully you get a taste of what Bruce is like today, as he let us document some of his private rituals and public performance art pieces. I hope that what comes across in our film The Bruce Lacey Experience is a man who is unable to stop creating, someone constantly following his dreams, worlds away from the careerism of the Tracey Emins and Damien Hirsts of this world. The film is an attempt to get inside Bruce Lacey’s head - a document of England’s greatest surviving bohemian in his own words. There are no talking heads, no academics ‘explaining’ Lacey’s work, no celebrity endorsements, just a man at work, and a partial tour through the back catalog of his life so far. One other stray voice, from an interview with his son Keith, enters into the film, but otherwise it’s just a strong dose of extremely concentrated Bruce Lacey.
It seems perhaps that the world has come around to Bruce again at last, with a major retrospective exhibition at London’s Camden’s Art Centre opening on July 7th, and for those unable to get to London, the British Film Insitute are releasing a double DVD of some of film works on July 23rd, mainly by Bruce but also including films that Bruce appeared in (including rareities by Harrison Marks, better known for his nudie cutie reels, and films by Beatle collaborator Dick Lester and cult animator Bob Godfrey), as well as The Bruce Lacey Experience. We are hoping to screen the film in the USA later in the year.
Below, the trailer for Jeremy Deller and Nick Abrahams’ The Bruce Lacey Experience:
After the jump, the trailer for BFI’s The Lacey Rituals DVD release…
No, ‘Bounce Bounce’ has got nothing to do with the New Orleans dance scene of the same name. Rather, it’s a lovely fusion of minimalist electronics and live violin by Hahn and Hauschka, aka double Grammy winning violinist Hilary Hahn and the German pianist Hauschka.
Taken from the duo’s improvised collaborative album Silfra, which was recorded last year in Iceland, the video was directed by Hayley Morris and features some beautiful old school, underwater-styled, stop motion animation. There’s something of the Surrealists and Max Richter to this clip. The rest of Morris’ work is also highly recommended, and you can see it on her website.
The visuals compliment the music perfectly. It’s no real surprise to learn that Hahn and Hauschka are influenced by, amongst others, Bjork and John Cage, though they claim the biggest influence on the recording of their album was the location of their sessions - “silfra” being the part of Iceland xwhere the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet
Fittingly, then, this is music that crosses the divide between the visceral and the cerebral. And it’s nowhere near as pretentious as that sounds. Silfra is available now through Universal/Deutsch Grammophon, and for more info on Hahn and Hauscka, visit the duo’s website.
German TV program Durch die Nacht mit (into the night with) puts together a couple of artists/celebrities and lets the cameras roll as they hang out together and shoot the shit. It’s all rather loosey goosey.
In this show, Asia Argento visits Joe Coleman’s home in New York City and together they take a trip to Coney Island, visit magician David Blaine and eat at Keen’s Steakhouse. The show includes a clip of Coleman in Scarlet Diva which starred and was directed by Argento.
This episode was directed by Berlin’s infamous Jörg Buttgereit, known for his early experimental films and splatter fests like Necromantik. Argento, Coleman and Buttgereit constitute a triad of some the art world’s most fascinating provocateurs.
Austin, Texas has some of the finest examples of street art of any city on the planet. Here’s something that recently went up in the downtown area. I don’t know who did it and they may want to stay anonymous. If not, and you see this, let us know who you are so we can give you credit for this splendid piece of art.
To the right of the portrait is the famous Bukowski quote: “Some people never go crazy, what truly horrible lives they must live.”
It’s Ken Russell’s birthday, and what better way to celebrate the genius of British film, than to share one of his classic biopics. From 1968, here is Delius: Song of Summer, the story of a young amanuensis, Eric Fenby, and his relationship with the monstrous, blind, womanizing and syphilitic composer, Delius. Perfect material for a Russell film, but here Unkle Ken shows his mastery as an artist by creating a subtle, moving and highly effective tale of the relationship between composer and his assistant. The film was co-written by Russell and Fenby, and based on Fenby’s memoir, Delius As I Knew Him. It contains excellent central performances from former ballet dancer, Christopher Gable, and the great Northern Irish actor and founding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Max Adrian. Song of Summer also shows why Ken Russell was such a brilliant director, and why he is still sadly missed.
I love this. Artist Judith Mascolo makes these wonderful one-of-kind glass pieces of pretty much anything you wanna nerd-out to like Dungeons and Dragons, Doctor Who’s trusty TARDIS, Futurama , superhero logos and much more.
Mascolo takes custom orders, too. I wonder if she’d make a stained glass Troy and Abed for me? Now that would be somethin’!
