Saturday, February 2, 2013

Little Annie on Morricone Youth, Sun 2/3 @ 2p ET

Little Annie, also known as Annie Anxiety, is a singer, writer, composer, and against all odds, survivor. She is a raconteur and bon vivant. Annie was the resident dub chanteuse for Adrian Sherwood's On-U Label and has collaborated with everyone from Crass to Coil to Antony and the Johnsons. Join Gray Dolores on Morricone Youth this Sunday at 2pm ET for an afternoon of sonic wit and glamour, as Annie will be playing some of her favorite soundtracks - ranging from Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra to music for the films of Spike Lee.
 
 
For more on Little Annie, check her out here.  LISTEN LIVE HERE!


Feb 2/3: Morricone Youth and Django Country Brunchin' Pre-Show

 COUNTRY BRUNCHIN’ with DJANGO and MORRICONE YOUTH.

Country Brunchin’ gets down to our Spaghetti Western roots with the original DJANGO and a live Pre-show all Spaghetti Western music performance by MORRICONE YOUTH!

Mosey on over to Nitehawk the first weekend of every month to get your Southern-style music, movie, and food fix with Country Brunchin’! Each Country Brunchin’ event begins with a thirty-minute set of the sweet live sound of local country bands and is then followed by the most high octane, emotionally moving, six shootin’, car chasin’, down and dirty movies all set below the Mason Dixon line. And did we mention the food? We’ll be serving up a heart-breaker of a Southern menu with items like Chicken Fried Steak every week so tasty you’ll think you died and went to Publix.

Band starts playing at 11:30am, 30-40 minutes before film begins.

DJANGO

Feb 2 at 11:30 am
Feb 3 at 11:30 am
Rating: NR/R
Length: 87 minutes
Director: Sergio Corbucci
Year: 1966
Language: Italian with English Subtitles
Age Policy: 18 and up

Considered one of the most violent films of its time, Sergio Corbucci’s Django is all about revenge and being the ultimate bad-ass. Django, played by the striking Franco Nero, ominously carries a coffin behind his horse as he saves a woman named Maria from bandits, seeks revenge for his wife’s murder, and steals gold from a Mexican fort. The film is worth seeing alone for the cemetery gunfight scene involving Django using the cross of a deceased friend as a trigger substitute for his totally smashed hands.

Thanks to Rocket Rob Patton for the flyerage.

Buy advance tickets here:
http://www.nitehawkcinema.com/series/country-brunchin/


TimeOut NewYork's "A Perfect Sunday" Critic's Pick: 
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/things-to-do/country-brunchin

Jan 27: Legendary Songwriter Paul Williams on Morricone Youth [ARCHIVE]

Paul Williams is still alive and guesting on Morricone Youth this weekend!
Listen to the special ARCHIVE on Sunday, January 27 as host Devon E. Levins welcomes triple-threat Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe Award-winning singer, songwriter, soundtrack composer, actor, Tonight Show favorite and squid connoisseur Paul Williams for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to the legendary lyricist’s storied career in film, television and music.

If you don't know the name, you likely know the face and definitely know the music. Paul Williams is synonymous with the 70's and perhaps best known for Three Dog Night's Old Fashioned Love Song, Helen Reddy's You and Me Against The World, David Bowie's Fill Your Heart and the Carpenters' We've Only Just Begun and Rainy Days and Mondays. His songs have been recorded by such diverse musical icons as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Curtis Mayfield, R.E.M., Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughn, Johnny Mathis, Luther Vandross, Weezer, My Morning Jacket and Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies.


So why is he guesting on East Village Radio's premier film soundtrack program? Well, for starters, Mr. Williams is is the subject of the entertaining and illuminating new documentary Paul Williams: Still Alive and is being honored this weekend with a concentrated retrospective film series at the prestigious Museum of the Moving Image with some of his most exciting scored films, including the Brian De Palma cult favorite Phantom of the Paradise, Jim Henson's The Muppet Movie, Elaine May's Ishtar and, of course, his new documentary. Williams will be present at all screenings (except the Saturday, January 26 screening of Ishtar).


Yes, this is the guy who wrote Barbara Streisand's Evergreen (Love Theme for 1976's A Star Is Born), Kermit The Frog's Rainbow Connection from 1979's The Muppet Movie (both gracing American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 movie songs of all times) as well as host E. Levins' all time favorite Somebody Super Like You (Beef Construction Song) from 1974's Phantom of the Paradise let alone co-wrote with film composer legends John Williams, John Barry and Jerry Goldsmith. And let's not forget his high profile acting roles such as Little Enos Burdette in 1977's Smokey and the Bandit, the villainous Swan in Phantom of the Paradise, Virgil the genius orangutan in 1973's Battle for the Planet of the Apes and his unforgettable guest appearances on Hawaii Five-O, Police Woman, B.J. and the Bear, Baretta, Odd Couple, The Muppet Show, The Fall Guy, Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show (48 times!), The Gong Show and The Love Boat (oh yeah, he wrote the lyrics to that unforgettable theme song as well).


In 2009, Paul Williams was elected President and Chairman of ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) representing 450,000 current songwriters in collecting their performance rights royalties and has been currently working with Guillermo del Toro to adapt Pan's Labyrinth into a stage musical and collaborating with an undisclosed international dance music sensation on a new album set for release this year (which once revealed, will strangely make sense if one thinks back to the Phantom of the Paradise soundtrack). So yes...Paul Williams is still alive...and is as busy as ever!

Check out the playlist HERE and Mr. Williams' web site HERE.

Jan 20: Listen to Soundtrack Composer Bobby Johnston on Morricone Youth [ARCHIVE]

On Morricone Youth this weekend, host Devon E. Levins welcomed film and television soundtrack composer Bobby Johnston for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to his music. Listen back to the on-demand archive HERE.
LA-based/NYS-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Bobby Johnston has composed over 25 original film and television scores, including those for Wristcutters: A Love Story, Spooner, No Impact Man: The Documentary, horror director Stuart Gordon's King of the Ants, Edmond and Stuck, and "Splat Pack" director Darren Lynn Bousman's The Barrens and Mother's Day. Emerging in the indie film scoring scene in 2001, Johnston is known for an unconventional approach to film composition using only acoustic instruments and usually performing every instrument himself, with the exception of an occasional instrumental soloist such as Ozomatli trumpet player Asdru Sierra, Big Sir vocalist Lisa Papineau or percussionist Greg Ellis. Johnston has been hailed as "a new voice in film" by Film Score Monthly and his scores have been featured extensively on the radio program This American Life as well as on two of the show's greatest hits CDs. Many of Johnston's scores have been commercially released by La-La Land, Lionsgate, Citadel and Lakeshore Records. 2012 was a busy year scoring four films, including Larry Clark's most recent Marfa Girl which won the Marcus Aurelius award for Best Film at the Rome International Film Festival, while Lakeshore released three of his soundtracks on CD and digitally (No Impact Man: The Documentary, Crazy Eyes and Mother's Day). Learn more by visiting Mr. Johnston's website.


...and the playlist can be found HERE.

Morricone Youth Plays Dances of Vice NYE 2013

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Carter Burwell Guests on Morricone Youth, Dec 9 Sunday @ 2-4p ET on EVR

Host Devon E. Levins is excited to welcome one of his favorite film soundtrack composers working today, the acclaimed Carter Burwell live in the studio for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to his music on Morricone Youth this Sunday at 2pm ET HERE.

With over 80 feature film and television credits, composer Carter Burwell is best known for his longstanding relationship with the Coen Brothers, scoring every film to date (with the exception of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, of course).  His identifiably haunting and brooding style has graced films in nearly every genre, using the occasional big-studio project to finance his work on groundbreaking independent films.  New York City born and bred, Burwell never really considered music as a career while studying animation at Harvard with Mary Beams and George Griffin, electronic music with Ivan Tcherepnin, and independent study at the MIT Media Lab (then known as the Architecture Machine Group).  Upon graduation in 1977, he became a teaching assistant in the Harvard Electronic Music Studio, animated the film Help, I'm Being Crushed to Death by a Black Rectangle, which won first place at the Jacksonville Film Festival and second at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and worked as Chief Computer Scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, where he wrote software for image processing, lab automation and protein analysis.  Simultaneously, he moonlighted in punk and no wave bands for fun including The Same, Radiante and Thick Pigeon with Stanton Miranda (Factory Records) while writing music for dance (RAB, which premiered at the Avignon Festival in 1984) and theater (The Myth Project at Naked Angels in 1989).


A mutual friend referred Burwell to Joel and Ethan Coen for their debut feature, Blood Simple (1984), leading to the kidnapping caper Raising Arizona (1987), his first fully orchestrated work for gangster film Miller's Crossing (1990), groundbreaking Barton Fink (1991), seven-time academy award nominated Fargo (1996) and through to the ten-time academy award nominated western remake of True Grit (2010).  Burwell's workload increased steadily in the '90s as he took on more mainstream projects: Doc Hollywood (1991), Wayne's World 2 (1993), and Airheads (1994), and winning wide acclaim for Rob Roy (1995), kicking off his most prolific period of over 35 films in the next five years including Conspiracy Theory (1997), The Jackal (1997), Gods and Monsters (1998), glam rock chronicle Velvet Goldmine (1998), Spike Jonze's debut Being John Malkovich (1999), and Gulf War epic Three Kings (1999).  Burwell remained in-demand through the 2000's, reteaming with Spike Jonze for Adaptation and Where The Wild Things Are, Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls (2000) and several installments of the Twilight Saga movie series, while teaching and continuing to compose for dance (The Return of Lot's Wife) and theatre (Cara Lucia, Theater of the New Ear).
Carter Burwell's most recent score was for Seven Psychopaths, a British comedy written, co-produced and directed by Martin McDonagh starring Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits and Christopher Walken released in the United States on October 12, 2012.  The film marks the second collaboration between McDonagh and Burwell, following In Bruges (2008).  It's a tale about a struggling writer who dreams of finishing his screenplay, "Seven Psychopaths," only requiring a little focus and inspiration.  His best friend, an unemployed actor and part-time dog thief, wants to help by any means necessary along with a partner in crime, a religious man with a violent past.  For some reason the writer has failed to notice that he is a character in a film of the same name, and that nearly every other character in the film and his life is a psychopath.  Lakeshore Records released the soundtrack digitally on October 23, 2012 via iTunes, with a physical release November 20, 2012. For more information on Carter Burwell, visit his website.

Morricone Youth Live Scores The Adventures of Prince Achmed @ Nitehawk 12/7 and 12/8


Lotte Reiniger • 1926 • 65 Mins. • Germany • English & German Subtitles • Digital

This is a LIVE + SOUND + CINEMA event!
MORRICONE YOUTH play live music & soundscape to the film.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is boldly innovative in its approach to animation and charmingly in its adaptation of the ancient “Arabian Nights” tales. The rarely-seen animated feature was produced and directed by Lotte Reiniger, one of the very few women animators to achieve international recognition. The film brilliantly invents a variety of remarkable characters, frightening creatures, exotic locations and challenging topographies using silhouettes, providing a unique monochromatic experience which, in its bold simplicity, puts today’s complicated digital animation to shame. The story is rich with wildly imaginative scene. The film also serves up a wonderfully old-fashioned sense of exotica with glorious Arabesque architecture and set designs, and even the characters’ costumes. The film’s artwork is fluid and graceful, spiced with humor. "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" is not only the oldest surviving animated movie, it's a beautifully innovative and enchanting masterpiece.

The last live scoring screenings sold out so buy tickets in advance HERE!


Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Chess Music For The Moving Image 11/30/12 Philadelphia Museum of Art



Chess Music for the Moving Image: The Queen Stripped Bare By Her Pawns, Even 
November 30, 2012  Performed by: Morricone Youth

"Chess Music for the Moving Image: The Queen Stripped Bare By Her Pawns, Even" is an interactive multimedia performance  of chance in the spirit of composer John Cage and dance choreographer Merce Cunningham performed by MORRICONE YOUTH, a New York City collective dedicated to the music of  film and other visual medias.  Audience members will be invited
to participate in a game of chess that determines the musical progression of reinterpreted iconic French composed soundtracks interwoven with dance performances and video projections based on the movements of the chess pieces.  The performance is inspired by Marcel Duchamp's painted works leading up to and including The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even (1915-1923).  In 1912, Duchamp began to depict  motion and introduce concepts such as "the moving image" into his two-dimensional painted works, influenced by the then emerging new art form known as "cinema."  In 1918, Duchamp took leave from the The Bride Stripped Bare and the art world in general to focus on studying the game of chess before returning to the work in 1920.  In the live and projected chess match, the Bride will be represented by the Queen and the Bachelors by her  Pawns, Knight and Bishop.  

The intersecting work of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Marcel Duchamp explored the collision between chance, collaboration, and often the game of chess.  The chess game will determine the musical progression of the concert and the movements of the dancers. Matthew Caron and Rebecca Gaffney will create spontaneous visual juxtapositions for each move on the chess board using an array of live cameras, prepared video clips and "ready made" objects curated in the spirit of Marcel Duchamp. This program is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Dancing around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp, on view October 30, 2012–January 21, 2013. Two time American Women’s Chess Champion Jennifer Shahade emcees.  

_______________________________________________________________

The Bride (Queen) 
 "Un Homme et Une Femme" from Un Homme et Une Femme (1966) 
composed by Francis Lai 

Station Master (Rook) 
"(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story" from Love Story (1970) 
composed by Francis Lai 

Servant/Flunky (Pawn) 
"Ballade of Melody Nelson/L'Hotel Particulière" from Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971)  
composed by Serge Gainsbourg 

Gendarme (Knight)
 "Where Did Our Summers Go/I Don't Know Why" from La Leçon Particulière (1969) 
 composed by Francis Lai 

The Priest (Bishop) 
"Hello Goodbye" from Hello Goodbye (1970) 
composed by Francis Lai 

Delivery Boy (Pawn)
 "La Valse d'Amélie/L'Autre Valse d'Amélie" from Amelie (2001) 
composed by Yann Tierson 

Cavalryman (Pawn)
 "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) 
 composed by Michel Legrand 

Undertaker (Pawn)
 "Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) 
composed by Michel Legrand 

Busboy (Pawn)
 "Yesterday Yes A Day/First Class Ticket" from Madame Claude (1977) 
composed by Serge Gainsbourg 

Policeman (Pawn)
 "Strip-Tease" from Strip-Tease (1963) composed by Serge Gainsbourg

------------

MORRICONE YOUTH
www.morriconeyouth.com
info@morriconeyouth.com  

Guitar    Devon E. Levins
Bass/Vocals    John Castro 
Keyboards   Dan Kessler 
Tenor/Soprano Saxophone    Fraser Campbell 
Drums/Percussion    Timur Yusef 
Vocals/Accordion    Magda Giannikou 
Live Video Projections    Matthew Caron    Rebecca Gaffney 
Dancers     Medianoche    Ariel Rios 

The Copycat Tribute to Serge Gainsbourg 11/28/12



November 28, 2012
TrashyTravel.com presents
The Copycat Tribute to Serge Gainsbourg
Bands play sets of originals and covers in the back room
DJ Xerox spins all covers up front.
Tonights Bands
Les Sans Culottes-10
Morricone Youth-9

NO COVER
$5 Intoxicated Man Cocktails all night at 
Ottos Shrunken Head
538 East 14 Street, Near avenue B
9 pm to 4 am
L Train to First Avenue