13 MOST BEAUTIFUL…SONGS FOR ANDY WARHOL’S SCREEN TESTS

13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests

Dean & Britta (New York)

Music/Film

Presented by Theatre Junction

September 19-22, 2012

Canadian Première

” In a word, mesmerizing. “  

– The New York Times

Dean & Britta (of LUNA, GALAXY 500 and JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS) have selected 13 of Andy Warhol’s most beautiful screen tests (shot during his famous Factory Days and which feature the likes of Lou Reed) which will play as a backdrop to enchanting pop-rock rhythms composed specifically for the films by the duo.

A meditation on the act of looking and the construction of identity, the Screen Tests reveal a fascinating variety of physical and emotional responses elicited from its subjects, as they are each confronted with the gaze of the ‘other’. In “13 Most Beautiful…Songs For Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests” Dean and Britta bring the Screen Tests to life, not just as images, but as the act of looking itself, of the time it takes for our resistance to slowly slip away. The shows has been presented by some of NYC’s most prestigious arts centres, including the Lincoln Center, and has had rave reviews by the city’s leading art and music critics.

Between 1964 and 1966, Andy Warhol shot almost 500 Screen Tests: revealing portraits of various individuals – both famous and anonymous – who visited his studio, the Factory. The legendary Screen Tests have become a sort of yearbook for the mid-1960s avant-garde, revealing a fascinating variety of physical and emotional responses elicited from its subjects as they are each confronted with the gaze of the ‘other’. Jointly commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and inspired by the mythos of The Factory, songwriters Dean & Britta have composed a live score for a selection of the films; evoking the legacy of Warhol’s era with their dream-pop sensibility and entrancing rock rhythms. Dean & Britta are Dean Wareham and Britta Philips, formerly of iconic 90s band Luna. Prior to Luna, Wareham fronted Galaxie 500, an influential late 80’s band that has been compared to the likes of Jonathan Richman and The Velvet Underground.

Only in the Screen Tests does Andy Warhol on film achieve the ethereal beauty of his best paintings. 

– The Guardian

MORE ON THE ARTISTS >>>>

Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips are both former members of Luna, an iconic 90′s indie rock band started by Wareham in 1992. Luna made 7 studio albums and played their final shows in February 2005. “Tell Me Do You Miss Me” is the film documentary about the band’s final tour. Prior to Luna, Dean fronted Galaxie 500. Britta joined Luna in 2000. Before that, she played in several bands, starred in the movie Satisfaction (with Julia Roberts and Justine Bateman and Liam Neeson and Steve Cropper), and was the singing voice of 80s cartoon character, JEM.

Dean & Britta have also scored several films, most notably Noah Baumbach’s “The Squid & the Whale ”. One of their recent hits, “Come On, Come On” appeared in the 2012  blockbuster film “The Vow”.