sundance

Will Country Music come out of the closet?

A few years ago, Willie Nelson released an iTunes single called “Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other.” As a novelty tune prompted by the popularity of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, it hardly represented a serious attempt to introduce gay subject matter into country music. But, in its own jocular way, it did break through a verboten barrier for the genre and cause some folks in Nashville to look around at each other and think: Just how many music-industry “cowboys” are we talking about here? And just how necessary is the secrecy?

Not Your Mom’s Baryshnikov

Baryshnikov | Photo Credit: Kah Poon

We know you’re probably wiped out after the double wammy of Proper Villains and Valissa Yoe last week, but we here at Sundance Channel urge you to party onward, always with Garo in your fiery dancing hearts.

The sixth installment for all you ladies, gents and gender benders is here — The Baryshnikov Mix. Coming to you once a week as tribute to couture fashion designer Garo Sparo, all thanks to our lovely friends over at Garo’s workshop.

Watch as Garo, part-time psychiatrist and full-time dream weaver, helps his clients battle their inhibitions and unleash their true selves in our all new original series UNLEASHED BY GARO, Fridays at 9p!

Jessica Rabbit is a DJ?!

DJ Valissa Yoe

Announcement! Garo’s workshop has decided that this week shall have twice as much popping and locking as previous weeks!

After downloading yesterday’s mix tape, all you ladies, gents and gender benders can grab the fifth mix right here — DJ Valissa Yoe Mix. Coming to you once a week (maybe twice) as tribute to couture fashion designer Garo Sparo, all thanks to our lovely friends over at Garo’s workshop.

Watch as Garo, part-time psychiatrist and full-time dream weaver, helps his clients battle their inhibitions and unleash their true selves in our all new original series UNLEASHED BY GARO, Fridays at 9p!

Properly Villainous Beats

Proper Villains

Had enough booty boppin’ after last week’s mix tape? Of course you haven’t!

The fourth installment for all you ladies, gents and gender benders is here — Proper Villains Mix. Coming to you once a week as tribute to couture fashion designer Garo Sparo, all thanks to our lovely friends over at Garo’s workshop.

36 covers, 1 Radiohead song

of this song by people from all corners of the world. I can’t imagine how much time this took, but the end result is surprisingly coherent and listenable. I forecast that there will be a trend of others doing similar stitched covers.

Bike-touring musician inspired by “the trembling music of water”

As a musician who tours by bike and train with the Pleasant Revolution, and also powers performances by pedaling, Heather Normandale already has a lot of green cred. But her environmentalism doesn’t stop with her methods of traveling or amplification; She also finds the inspiration for her music in the natural world. Her current project looks to the source of all life on the planet: water.

More remixed music from Pogo

Previously mentioned artist Pogo née Nick Bertke is back with another in his popular series of remixed ambient songs created by incorporating sounds from Disney and Pixar films. His latest, “Bloom” is made from various Disney films with the chord sampled from “A.I: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE” and the harp sound from SLEEPING BEAUTY.

Animated mash-up GIF “music” video

Ani Up – Animated Gif Mashup from Evan Roth on Vimeo. Evan Roth created this bizarre, but brilliant video mashing up a few items from the “low brow” pop-culture menu. He incorporates the popularity of animated GIFs typically used as avatars on message boards with a robotic 8-bit re-voicing of MOP’s song “Ante Up.” The [...]

Warm Up all summer long at MoMA/P.S.1

It’s been four months since we announced the winner of P.S.1/MoMA’s Young Architects Program. Now that summer is officially upon us, the museum has opened up its courtyard and unveiled Interboro Partner’s winning design, “Holding Pattern,” which will play host to the annual Warm Up party series. One of the first things you notice when you enter the space, aside from the fact that it seems to be undergoing some last minute construction, are the bright yellow tags on nearly every item in the courtyard (pictured below). They read “Hold For” and are stuck to the chairs, benches, planters, trees, chess boards and ping pong tables. The tags are marked with the names of local businesses and organizations who will receive the tagged item after Warm Up closes in September. When Interboro Partners was conducting their initial research they went out into the neighborhood and asked people, “Is there something you need that we could design and use in the courtyard and then donate in the Fall?” The community seems to have answered eclectically. In addition to seating, there’s a sandbox, foosball table, lifeguard chair and even a self-misting modular stage for breakdancing performances.

John Turturro’s PASSIONE for Naples

Filmmaker John Turturro on the set of PASSIONE.
Photo credit: Iole Capasso / Squeezed Heart Productions.

John Turturro’s latest film PASSIONE opens on Wednesday June 22^nd at the Film Forum in New York. The film, his fourth as a director (MAC, ILLUMINATA, ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES), is a “musical adventure” through the beautiful, mysterious, and often misunderstood city of Naples. With 23 songs performed by Napoli’s contemporary musical artists, Turturro and cinematographer Marco Pontevecchio create a visual representation of the history, emotion, and perseverance captured in the city’s music. Sundance Channel met with Turturro to discuss the film, his musical influences, and his love for the city of Naples.

What is PASSIONE and how did you become involved with the film?

It’s a musical adventure through Napoli. And you see various aspects of Napoli through songs that we chose, through the thousands of songs to choose from, and there are many great artists and songs that are not represented. So we were trying to find something that would have a balance like when you write a symphony. You have something legato, something very strong, something that builds. We wanted to have a balance of the old and the new.

(Producers) Carlo Macchitella and Alessandra Acciai invited me to make a BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB from Napoli. I realized it’s not a Communist country, it’s not about a band reuniting, and also because of the longevity of (Naples’) music history it would be interesting to maybe explore various aspects of it because it’s such a complex city. So we didn’t know if it would be a documentary…they wanted different singers…they wanted some old footage. They had made some documentaries for (Italian television company) RAI, five hour versions, and Federico Vacalebre is a musicologist and co-author. He’s a journalist, he introduced me to a lot of music and different arrangements of songs I was interested in, and I thought it would be great to have living artists connected to some of the artists of the past.

15 must hear songs from around the world

The Los Angeles Times Magazine asked 15 music critics and writers from around the world to nominate one track by one homegrown artist from that person’s country and “the result is a true rhythmic patchwork of intercontinental sounds, proving that though we all dance to different drummers, they always have a great beat.” Broaden your [...]

Robyn’s Call Your Girlfriend

My obsession with Swedish singer Robyn is ever further cemented with her new video for the single “Call Your Girlfriend.” In a textured sweat top, leggings, and sneakers she makes a video fascinating only because of her spunk. It was recorded in a single take in Los Angeles at an abandoned warehouse by Max Vitali, who often collaborates with the singer. It’s emotional and fun. And you’ll keep watching, I promise.

Hey you! What song are you listening to?

Tyler Cullen stops random Manhattan pedestrians lost in their headphones and asks them what song they’re listening to in this video. Conclusion: appearance is not always an indicator of musical taste.

Kanye music video animated with home-made GIFs

KANYE WEST Power (Unofficial) from WE ARE FROM L.A on Vimeo. This music video for Kanye West’s “Power” by We Are From LA created with home-made animated GIF images is genius! I predict this “organic” and “grassroots” technique will be “borrowed” by a creative director for a commercial coming soon to you.

Vegan cooking meets heavy metal

“Heavy metal vegan” may strike you as an oxymoron… but, then, until a few months ago, Fair Trade organic coffee by Rob Zombie may well have had the same effect. Despite the head-banging, leather-wearing clichès, veganism has found its way into metal culture… and a couple of web-savvy headbangers are creating online cooking shows devoted to this niche.

Dreaming with Mike Gordon: We’re in That Deeper Place

DreamStates: Mike Gordon
Animation by : Bran Dougherty-Johnson

The bassist/vocalist for the band Phish, Mike Gordon is also a multi-instrumentalist and filmmaker. In 1983, he formed the band Phish along with guitarists Trey Anastasio and Jeff Holdsworth and drummer Jon Fishman. On his own, Gordon has an inclination toward bluegrass and folk music and plays a variety of instruments including guitar, banjo, and piano. An avid filmmaker and photographer, Gordon has shot music videos for Phish and directed the 2000 feature film Outside Out. He released his debut solo album, Inside In, in 2003. Green Sparrow followed in 2008 and Moss in 2010. Mike has kept a dream journal since 1977 and had so many dreams to talk about it was hard to pick just one for our new video series DreamStates. The DreamStates series takes a look into our dreams through the eyes of creative innovators from the worlds of music and film. In Mike Gordon’s episode of DreamStates, Mike discusses how sometimes when playing live – he gets to a “place” that connects him to one of his “night dreams” and he’ll literally see a “vision” from a recurring dream. Intense.

Gawker vs. Gaga

Gawker’s Brian Moylan rips Lady Gaga’s new column for V Magazine to shreds. In a post entitled “Lady Gaga’s First Magazine Column Is as Annoying as You Expected” Moylan lets us in on the fact that Gaga spells Marc Bolan’s name wrong and laughs at her lecture on art and fashion. Moylan’s not buying it: [...]

Student music video trains peers on recycling

Ever get frustrated when you see someone throwing away a recyclable item… right next to a recycling bin? Or throw a recyclable item in the wrong container? High school junior CJ Joseph certainly has, and has played the role of “recycling police” (or “recycling nazi” if you prefer) at Queens’ The Renaissance Charter School: “If I see somebody I’m like, ‘You’re throwing that out in the wrong bin. Follow the signs people! I know you’ve heard it: Papers go in the blue (bins), and bottles in the green.”

But as many of us have learned, badgering only gets you so far… so CJ decided to apply her other passion, music, to her recycling fervor, and wrote the song “R to the E to the Cycle.” If you read the lyrics, you’ll see they’re not much different from her “recycling police” instructions… but definitely more catchy!

Japanese World Order featuring amazing dance

This new music video and catchy song out of Japan is one of the more remarkable things I’ve seen lately, especially the unique synchronized dance choreography. Also, the song’s message is more of a hopeful manifesto, as explained in the video description: Many disasters are ongoing in Japan; earthquakes, Tsunami, and nuclear accidents. These unprecedented [...]

Dreaming with Questlove: Soul Train Pressure

DreamStates: Questlove Animation by Nessim Higson

Questlove is an American drummer, DJ, music journalist and record producer. He is best known as the drummer for the Grammy Award-winning band The Roots, which is now the in-house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He has produced for artists such as Common, D’Angelo, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Jay-Z, Nikka Costa and more recently, Al Green, Amy Winehouse and John Legend. He’s also featured in our new animated web series, DreamStates, talking about his crazy, bizarre recurring dream. DreamStates takes a look into our dreams through the eyes of creative innovators from the worlds of music and film. In Questlove’s dream he is watching himself on a movie screen while he waits for a train at 30th St. Station in Philly, worries about failing out of school and is plagued with the daunting task of coming up with a new theme song and animation to Soul Train. What? We can’t make this up. Check it out.

Night of 1000 Stevies Hits NYC!

Once a year in New York, Steve Nicks is wearing a fringed shawl and twirling, ever twirling, as she sings (or more likely lipsynchs) “just like the white winged dove” and other familiar lyrics to a packed house of fervent admirers.

Well, not Stevie herself, if you want to get technical. It’s actually scads of Stevie impersonators and worshipers, who convene at the “Night of 1000 Stevies” event to pay tribute to the Fleetwood Mac waif who went on to ethereal solo stardom complete with all kinds of witchy/hippie/gypsy paraphernalia and a pronounced catch in her throat.

Questlove: Coming to Sundance Channel in May…… and lots of other places too!

Image from DreamStates, featuring QuestLove. Questlove is a very busy man! Drummer, DJ, blogger, producer. He seems to do it all. However, he wasn’t too busy to sit down with us and tell us about his very bizarre recurring dream for the new series DreamStates – which launches on SundanceChannel.com on May 2nd. You can check out [...]

Earth Week music: Gulf Coast musicians mark BP oil spill anniversary

As I noted in a post last year, musicians in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast have worked as hard as anyone to keep last year’s Deepwater Horizon explosion, and the subsequent oil spill, in the public mind. This week, as we celebrate Earth Day, and mark the one year anniversary of the disaster in the Gulf, musicians will again go to work to memorialize those killed in the explosion, and to raise awareness of the ongoing struggle with oil and dispersant pollution faced by coastal residents.

Music video starring exploding cakes

To wake you up this Monday morning, Miles Jay and Derek Blais directed this official new music video for Autoerotique’s the electropop goodness “Turn Up the Volume” starring exploding cakes. Get those fist pumps in the air!

Depeche Mode remixed

Depeche Mode, the U2 of electronic music, is releasing a remix album this summer. And I am freaking out!

The 4-disc set will feature remixes of tracks from all their albums, spanning 81-11. Included will be new and old remixes. The band’s releases have also become a wonderful study on package and graphic design. By the looks of the above image, this release continues on that tradition. Here’s to a summer of Depeche Mode blaring from speakers in gay clubs across the world. More info below: