David Binder, Josh Wood and David Bowie Announce the H&M High Line Festival May 9th-19th in NYC Featuring Superstars And Emerging Talent
Curated by David Bowie
Inaugural Festival is a 10 Day Cultural Mash-Up Featuring Performances by Ricky Gervais, Arcade Fire, Air, Laurie Anderson, Ken Nordine, Deerhoof, The Polyphonic Spree, The Secret Machines, Meow Meow, Daniel Johnston, Bang on a Can All Stars, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Exhibitions of Claude Cahun and Laurie McLeod and
A 100 Year Retrospective of Spanish Language Film
H & M High Line Festival To Be Curated by Different
World-Class Artist Each Year
New York, NY (March 26, 2007) ? David Binder and Josh Wood today announced the line up for the H&M High Line Festival, a new festival of music, performance, film, comedy and visual art that will be curated each year by a different world-class artist. David Bowie, a co-founder of the Festival, is curating the inaugural season to be held May 9th- -19th along New York City?s West Side.
The H & M High Line Festival will kick off the summer with a roster that features David Bowie?s favorite artists – both superstars and emerging talent. The festival will include: Ricky Gervais? American stand up comedy debut presented by Jetblue Airways; concerts by Arcade Fire, Air, Deerhoof, The Polyphonic Spree, The Secret Machines, and a triple bill of Daniel Johnston/Bang on a Can All Stars/The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, co?produced by Live Nation; performances by Australian chanteuse Meow Meow incited by John Cameron Mitchell, an evening with Laurie Anderson, and 87-year-old spoken word poet Ken Nordine; an exhibition of the work of photographer Claude Cahun, and a night-time public art event by artist Laurie McLeod; and a retrospective of David Bowie?s favorite Spanish language films culled from the last one hundred years.
Tickets for individual festival events will go on sale on March 30th at highlinefestival.com, ticketmaster.com and ticketweb.com.
The H & M High Line Festival will take place in venues near New York City?s High Line ? the elevated rail structure soon to open as a public open space, running through the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea and Clinton/Hell?s Kitchen. The venues include Hiro, Hammerstein Ballroom, Theatre at Madison Square Garden, The Kitchen and the High Line Ballroom. Additional events will take place at Radio City Music Hall and Irving Plaza. A portion of proceeds will go to benefit Friends of the High Line, the 501(c)3 organization currently working with the City of New York to transform the 1930?s rail structure into a park, set to open in 2008*. Please note, no festival events will take place on the High Line itself.
As the festival?s co-founder and curator, David Bowie programmed the diverse array of art and music, choosing some of the most interesting and provocative work he finds personally inspiring.
“I thought it a very cool deal to be asked to curate the High Line Festival. The request was for me to choose artists and acts that I myself would go out of my way to see. Although this inaugural year will be modest in scale, we’ve been pretty lucky in that many whom I asked have accepted,” said David Bowie. “I’m also pleased that many emerging artists are participating alongside more established talents that represent a fairly wide cross section of disciplines within the arts community. I would really hope that the exposure this festival affords will help these folk get the attention they deserve.”
“When we set out to create our inaugural festival, we knew we needed a visionary curator ? an artist who has excelled in many arenas,” said Wood. “Throughout his incredible career David Bowie has been a pioneer of music and art. His eye for talent and his passion for emerging artists is nothing short of spectacular, and the festival he has curated is such a wonderful reflection of that.“
In subsequent years, David Bowie will help Binder and Wood select an artistic icon to serve as festival curator.
“One of the most exciting things about the Festival for me is how different curators will actually change the landscape and flavor of the event each year ? curators can be filmmakers, musicians, artists. The curators and the performances they choose will be as diverse as the City itself,” said Binder.
Highlights of the inaugural H & M High Line Festival include:
- Ricky Gervais making his American stand-up debut at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden on May 19th;
- An evening with Laurie Anderson at High Line Ballroom on May 17th and 18th;
- Concert by The Arcade Fire on May 9th at Radio City Music Hall;
- Australian chanteuse Meow Meow who mixes a potent cocktail of cabaret, multimedia, operatic machinations, and screamin? fun. She joins the Festival from a sold out run at the Sydney Opera House and will perform at Hiro Ballroom on May 18th in a show incited by John Cameron Mitchell;
- An outdoor exhibition of riveting 20th Century photographer Claude Cahun whose gender bending work predated Cindy Sherman, Cecil Beaton and Lyle Ashton Harris;
- A personal selection by David Bowie of ten of his favorite Spanish language films from the last 100 years;
High Line Festival Strategic Partners
The inaugural High Line Festival will also be bolstered with support from the business community. Retail giant H & M comes on board as the festival Title Sponsor. The H& M High Line Festival is presented by Garnier, Grolsch and Jetblue Airways. Time Inc. serves as the festival?s Official National Media Sponsor and will be supporting The H&M High Line Festival in People, Entertainment Weekly, and Time magazines. As the Official New York Media Partner, Time Out NY will be contributing promotion and advertising for the Festival.
“H&M is excited to be a part of this unique program that supports New York?s Highline District and features trendsetting artists from around the world,” says Sanna Lindberg, H&M?s U.S. country manager. “We are committed to New York, the first city where we opened stores back in 2000, and we look forward to a fantastic partnership.”
“We are thrilled to be able to bring this vibrant, unique event to New York City?s High Line series of neighborhoods,” said Wood. “The tremendous support and feedback from the arts community has only been equaled by the encouragement of our strategic partners who are as committed to seeing the arts continually thrive in New York.”
Additional information on the H&M High Line festival can be found at
www.highlinefestival.com. The full H & M High Line Festival slate includes:
Music
May 9th ? THE ARCADE FIRE
Radio City Music Hall-1260 Avenue of the Americas, 8:00pm.
May 10th ? AIR
Theatre at Madison Square Garden ? 4 Penn Plaza, 8:00pm.
May 11th ? POLYPHONIC SPREE
Hammerstein Ballroom ? 311 West 34th Street, 8:00pm.
May 16th ? DANIEL JOHNSTON/BANG ON A CAN ALL STARS/THE LEGENDARY STARDUST COWBOY
High Line Ballroom ? 431 West 16th Street, 8:00 pm.
May 17th ? DEERHOOF
Irving Plaza ? 17 Irving Place, 8:00pm.
May 19th ? THE SECRET MACHINES
High Line Ballroom ? 431 West 16th Street, 8:00pm.
Comedy
May 19th ? RICKY GERVAIS – **American Stand Up Debut
Theatre at Madison Square Garden – 4 Penn Plaza, 8pm.
Performance
May 16th & 17th ? KEN NORDINE
The Kitchen ? 512 West 19th Street, 8:00pm.
May 17th & 18th ? LAURIE ANDERSON
High Line Ballroom ? 431 West 16th Street, 7:30 pm.
May 18th ? MEOW, MEOW INCITED BY JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL
Hiro Ballroom – 371 West 16th Street, 7:30pm.
Visual Art
CLAUDE CAHUN PUBLIC ART EXHIBITION
Featuring Photography from Jersey Heritage Trust & Panel Discussion at Aperture
Under The High Line.
LAURIE MCLEOD PRESENTS “WATERHAVEN” UNDERWATER FILMS
Location TBD.
Film
May 11th – 18th ? “BOWIE?S PICKS”10 Spanish Language Classics of the Last 100 Years
Clearview Chelsea Cinemas,
260 West 23rd Street.
Friends of the High Line Community Events
May 10th, 13th, 15th, 16th, ? HIGH LINE NEIGHBORHOOD WALKING TOURS
Led by architectural historian Matt Postal. All tours begin at 5:30 PM, except for May 13, which starts at 1:00 pm. RSVP for meeting location to Friends of the High Line:
rsvp@thehighline.org.
May 14 ? HIGH LINE DESIGN PREVIEW
With High Line landscape architect James Corner of Field Operations. Great Hall, Cooper Union ? 7 East 7th Street, 6:30 pm. RSVP to Friends of the High Line: rsvp@thehighline.org.
About the Curator and Co-Founder
David Bowie was born in 1947.  Between the late ?60s and the mid-?70s, he experimented with multi-media, also recording the albums The Man Who Sold The World, Space Oddity, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Station to Station and Young Americans. The track Fame taken from this album was to be his first US No 1. In 1976 he relocated to Berlin, recording Low and Heroes with Eno and Tony Visconti.  In 1979 he made his Broadway debut in The Elephant Man and released the Visconti co-production Scary Monsters and Super Creeps followed by Let?s Dance. Between the mid-?80s and the present, he has worked with his band Tin Machine, collaborated with the dance company La La La Human Steps, and written music for Hanif Kureishi?s Buddha Of Suburbia.   1992 brought one of rock?s first CD-ROMs, Jump. In 1994, he reunited once again with Eno and produced the experimental Outside album followed in 1997 with Earthling and in 1999   hours?, his twenty third studio album. Bowie?s next project in 2002 was a further recorded collaboration with Tony Visconti entitled Heathen.  The accompanying live dates in Europe and America saw full performances of both the Heathen and Low albums. A year later the Reality album was launched with the world?s largest interactive ?live by satellite? event and was followed by the rapturously received A Reality Tour of the world. He has appeared in 18 movies. In 1999 he became a Commandeur dans L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.  In 2000, Bowie was voted the #1 Most Influential Artist of All Time by the U.K.?s tastemaking tome the NME.
About the Producers
David Binder
has spent the last decade bringing new artists and audiences to the theater. He produced the first Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry?s classic “A Raisin in the Sun,” starring Sean Combs, Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad and Sanaa Lathan. The production, directed by Kenny Leon, won two Tony Awards and was widely recognized for bringing in the most diverse audience Broadway had seen in decades. He is an Executive Producer of the upcoming television movie based on the Broadway production. David is the original producer of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask?s rowdy, loud, and ultimately sweet rock n? roll musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” Off-Broadway, at “De La Guarda,” a group of flying Argentines literally lifted a young international crowd off its feet for more than six years. David has brought the show everywhere from London to Las Vegas, Tokyo to Tel Aviv. With Lisa Kron?s “2.5 Minute Ride” (New York and San Francisco), and Kenny Lonergan?s “Lobby Hero” (with the Donmar in the West End), David has showed his support for new writing that is polemic, political, and hilarious. David recently produced “The Public Sings: A 50th Anniversary Celebration for the Public Theater” with Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Ben Stiller and Mike Nichols, among many others. He is currently represented in the West End with the Donmar production of “Guys and Dolls” and on Broadway this season with “Legally Blonde” and “Frost/Nixon.”
Josh Wood
has dedicated his career to producing provocative, politically-charged work. Wood?s production credits include the “Bring ‘Em Home Now!” concert for Peace with Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Fischerspooner, Bright Eyes, Peaches, Rufus Wainwright, Susan Sarandon and Devendra Banhart. The marriage equality tour “Wedrock” with Lou Reed, Pink, Moby, Sandra Bernhard, Margaret Cho, Henry Rollins, Alan Cumming, Andy Bell of Erasure and Kelly Osbourne; the Broadway special performance of Tony Kushner’s new play about Laura Bush with John Cameron Mitchell, Patricia Clarkston and Kristen Johnston to support MoveOn and Downtown for Democracy; Margaret Cho’s “State of Emergency” shows at The Apollo during the Republican National Convention; Oxfam’s Tsunami Relief concert with Cyndi Lauper, Nancy Sinatra and Sandra Bernhard; and productions of David Sedaris’ short stories to raise money for children’s literacy performed by Liev Schreiber, Molly Shannon, Rosie Perez and Alec Baldwin, as well as numerous commercial concerts and productions.
His productions have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities and non-profits. Additionally, Wood is one of the leaders in New York City’s nightlife and throws parties and events attended by thousands every week. Time Out, New York Post, New York Times, Variety, Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, New York magazine, Paper magazine, HX, Next, Out magazines and many other national and international publications have written about him and his work. He is a MFA graduate from UCLA’s School of Film, Theater and Television and began his producing career working for Jodie Foster at Paramount Pictures.
About the Artists and Programs
Music Program
May 9th ? The Arcade Fire
Radio City Music Hall – 1260 Avenue of the Americas, 8:00pm.
The Arcade Fire spent most of 2006 holed up in a small church in a small town outside of Montreal. They were recording their second album NEON BIBLE. And while that was mostly a slow year, the couple years before that had been rather hectic. Funeral, their first album, was released in September of 2004 and from the moment it came out, the Arcade Fire were caught up in a flurry of activity that left none dead but several wounded. A lot of people liked Funeral a lot. Reviews were insanely positive and shows were selling out. By the end of 2005, the Arcade Fire were playing largish venues packed to the gills with thousands of people, in shows that had sold out in ridiculously short amounts of time. They played a Talking Heads song with David Byrne at one of their shows, and then got to open for him at the Hollywood Bowl. They got to perform with David Bowie, both in concert and on national TV. They got to go to Japan and Sweden and Brazil. They got to perform a very poorly rehearsed version of “Love Will Tear Us Apart (Again)” with U2.
Coming off an intense year of touring, they wanted to just sit down and write some songs. And then record them. So they found a church out in a small town and turned it into a studio.
Working with Markus Dravs and Scott Colburn, slowly the songs came together. They found a huge pipe organ in a huge church in Montreal and recorded it. They bought some bass steel drums and some bass synths. They got a hurdy-gurdy. They called in friends for help: Martin Wenk and Jacob Valenzuela, the horn players from Calexico, came in for a song. Hadjii Bakara from Wolf Parade added some bleep and bloops and sonic weirdness. Owen Pallett, aka Final Fantasy, helped to orchestrate (as he did on Funeral). Pietro Amato and his horn playing associates added some brass. The band traveled to Budapest to record an orchestra and a military choir. And besides all this, the band just played music together.
For a year, The Arcade Fire worked and played and worked, and as Christmas 2006 approached the recording was finished. NEON BIBLE was full of both half-assed punk rock mistakes and meticulously orchestrated woodwinds. Processed strings and mandolin. Quiet rumbles and loud rumbles. But mostly just eleven songs that the band thinks are really good. And that might be of some public interest.
May 10th ? Air
Theatre at Madison Square Garden ? 4 Penn Plaza at 8:00pm.
Air
, Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin are modernists. Air embrace the new. Each album is a move away from the last and a journey towards something else. Their music is intellectually stimulating yet intuitively simple; elegiac and triumphal; beyond pop and yet resolutely of it, too. Yet Air are no academically dry intellectuals either. If their music is full of French-style clichés about boy meeting girl, it?s done so playfully, with a knowing wink. They know their way round a good joke and can deadpan for the Republic.
Pocket Symphony
is their fourth studio album proper and the follow up to 2004?s Talkie Walkie (although if you include their Allessandro Baricco City Reading collaboration, the Virgin Suicides soundtrack and their recent Charlotte Gainsbourg production 5:55 they could claim seven). It?s also the fourth album they have done in conjunction with English producer Nigel Godrich (“he?s so cool, he could be French,” quips Air?s Nicolas).
Pocket Symphony is a return to some of pastoral atmospherics of their now seminal debut album Moon Safari. Yet paradoxically it?s a far cry from the series of pop hits they enjoyed in 1998, with clear notes of minimalism among the clingy hooks and deceptively complex piano lines. The most obvious difference from previous recordings are the Eastern influences throughout the whole set. Taking Talkie Walkie closing track “Alone In Kyoto” as the catalyst, the duo built Pocket Symphony around this precedent. Nicolas spent a year learning Far Eastern classical instruments the koto and shamisen, through an Okinawa master.
Despite this organic approach, they have been embracing the joys of modern technology, seeing it as the tool that it is rather than the straitjacket it often becomes. The most surprising additions to the Air canon are the collaborations with Neil Hannon and Jarvis Cocker. Given ample Air time with which to play, Hannon and Cocker deliver brilliantly understated performances, yet still not without grit and attack and, in Jarvis? case, quiet menace.
Pocket Symphony is Air at their most sparse, the excess trimmed to the bone as they seek to reach a simple purity in what they do, aided in their efforts by producer Nigel Godrich. It is these delicate palettes that make the album such a delight, like the smoky aromas of Lapsang Suchong.
May 11th ? The Polyphonic Spree
Hammerstein Ballroom ? 311 West 34th Street at 8:00pm.
The Polyphonic Spree is a self described “choral symphonic vocal group” who?s collective of members, led by founder and musical director Tim DeLaughter, play a mélange of instruments that range from drums to harp. Founded in Dallas, the group first gained notoriety in the United Kingdom when they were invited by David Bowie to support the Divine Comedy at the Meltdown Festival at Royal Festival Hall in 2002. They subsequently also joined Bowie?s “Reality Tour” as an opening act and their hit single “Light and Day/Reach For The Sun” was used in a joint VW/iPod advertising campaign in 2003. They have two full length albums to their credit including 2002?s The Beginning Stages, and 2004?s Together We?re Heavy. Recently, they have signed to TVT Records for the upcoming release of their third full-length album The Fragile Army. Described as a diary and slice of life depiction of the ongoing struggle of artistic expression in an oppressive political climate, The Fragile Army is the Spree?s “own battle cry” and “an ode to Bush song” currently slated for release in June 2007. The Polyphonic Spree will perform songs from this upcoming release, along with their hits, at the High Line Festival.
May 16th ? Daniel Johnston/Bang on a Can All Stars/The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
High Line Ballroom ? 431 West 16th Street at 8:00pm.
Daniel Johnston
: As with other talented but troubled artists such as Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson, and Roky Erickson, Daniel Johnston fights a daily battle with the chronic mental illness that has plagued him nearly his entire life. However, despite recurrent bouts of delusional behavior wherein he has physically endangered himself and others, Johnston has carved out a respectable, influential career as a singer/songwriter of extraordinary talent which has grown since his first crudely recorded cassette was released in 1980. He became the singer/songwriter of choice of the alternative/underground rock scene, and at various times has had his work championed by members of Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Butthole Surfers, Half Japanese, Nirvana (Kurt Cobain was often photographed wearing a Daniel Johnston T-shirt), and numerous others.
Until the ’90s, Johnston’s recordings were basically homemade affairs, his plain voice accompanied by crude piano and guitar playing. His narrative concerns focused mainly on lost love, the pain of miscommunication, his love for the Beatles, and comic-book superhero Captain America. Johnston’s music is unflinchingly direct, almost embarrassingly and painfully honest. Because of this and his increasingly erratic behavior, he was considered a local hero in his home of Austin, TX (where he moved from rural West Virginia), but too extreme to engender the interest of a record label. That situation changed in 1985, when MTV filmed a program on the Austin music scene. Johnston’s performance brought him almost overnight acclaim, and he went from local legend to national cult figure. Soon, many of his self-released cassette recordings (on his appropriately named Stress label) began showing up in hip record stores from Boston to L.A., and the buzz was that Daniel Johnston was the coolest. There was, however, a grim side to this “success,” as if his mental illness was the primary component of his hipness; therefore, there was a feeling that those not close to him were marketing his illness as much as his talent. Sadly, Johnston’s behavior wasn’t helping, and he was institutionalized twice in the late ’80s after his refusal to take medication led to two dangerous episodes.
In the late ’80s, indie label Homestead issued some of Johnston’s early recordings on vinyl and a full-blown appreciation of Johnston’s work was well underway. Soon he was recording solo and with Half Japanese mastermind Jad Fair on the Shimmy Disc indie label, and later with Butthole Surfer Paul Leary, who may well be the best producer/musical accompanist Johnston ever had. Johnston, to the amazement of virtually everyone, recorded for Atlantic, and despite occasional behavioral lapses, seemed more self-assured than ever. As a result, in the late ’90s and 2000s, he recorded some of the best music of his career: smart, ebullient pop with ringing guitars, primitive keyboards, and a wonderfully naïve way of looking at the world. Although he sometimes becomes sad and bitter, cynicism and self-pity aren’t his style, and that makes the little tragedies and epiphanies he writes about all the more compelling. Daniel Johnston’s world may seem small, but it’s much bigger and friendlier than that of our wildest imaginations.
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Bang on a Can
All-Stars: Robert Black, bass; David Cossin, percussion; Lisa Moore, piano/keyboards; Mark Stewart, electric guitar; Wendy Sutter, cello; Evan Ziporyn, clarinets; Artistic Directors Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe –  Recently named Musical America?s Ensemble of the Year 2005,  Bang on a Can All-Stars have come to be known worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today?s most innovative music. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble from New York plays music from uncharted territories, defying categories, and has shattered the definition of what concert music is today.  Recent & upcoming projects and collaborations include their landmark recording of Brian Eno?s ambient classic Music for Airports and live performances with Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Meredith Monk, Don Byron and more.  With occasional homages to living masters, the heart of the repertoire is the sound of the new generation.  The All-Stars appear annually in New York at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall and more. Other recent concert appearances include Singapore Arts Festival, Bergen International Festival, Venice Biennale; Holland Festival, Hancher Auditorium, Iowa, UCLA, Mass MoCA and more.  The All-Stars now record on Cantaloupe Music (www.cantaloupemusic.com) and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal and Nonesuch.
Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Norman Carl Odam was born in Lubbock, Texas in 1947. Inspired by Chet Atkins, he learned to play the guitar, and started playing on the steps of his high school, attracting crowds of kids before school started for the day. Realizing that Lubbock, Texas, was far from the action he decided to go to New York City, so that he might appear on the Johnny Carson Show. The odyssey begins.
The Ledge, as he is affectionately known to his friends, loaded up his car, grabbed $160, and headed to Fort Worth. I guess this is where you go if you’re headed to New York City from Lubbock. There he was spotted in a parking lot by two guys who worked at a vacuum sweeper repair shop. They were intrigued [who wouldn’t be?] by his demeanor, and spirited him to the local recording studio.
At the helm of the studio was T Bone Burnett, who must’ve been all of about 20 then, and not yet famous. All were intrigued by the sound of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, recording engineer and vacuum cleaner repairman alike. The Ledge played “Paralyzed,” and the frenzy began. T Bone played drums, the tapes rolled, and the first single was recorded.
The studio was located on the first floor of a building that housed an AM radio station on the second floor. T Bone took the master tape upstairs to his pal the DJ, and played it for him.
T Bone says that he waited several minutes for a response, expecting the worst, but the DJ screamed, “This is it! This is it! This is the new music!”
All day long the radio station hyped the single, tantalizing listeners with the promise that it would be played at 5pm. Finally the moment arrived, and the station was flooded with more calls in 30 minutes than in any entire day prior to the time the Legendary Stardust Cowboy got into town. They knew they had something. T Bone quickly pressed 500 copies of the 45 rpm record, and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy hit the happy trails to success. Less than a week later, he was signed to Mercury Records, and later appeared on “Laugh In.”
“Paralyzed” hit the Billboard Top 200, and the world was a changed place. Since then he has recorded and toured worldwide extensively. His latest CD “Tokyo” appeared on Crack’d Piston Records. He is currently in the studio working on his next CD.
May 17th ? Deerhoof
Irving Plaza ? 17 Irving Place, 8:00pm.
Deerhoof
is truly turning out to be one of the most unlikely success stories in contemporary pop music. An improbable group with nothing apparently in common starts a band, makes some of the most difficult and unclassifiable noise of the mid-nineties, and unexpectedly rises to international prominence as one of indie rock’s most renowned and influential groups. Deerhoof first formed in 1991 when classically trained Greg Saunier moved to San Francisco and joined forces with Rob Fisk in the goth/metal band Nitre Pit. When the two guitarists of this short-lived project suddenly departed Nitre Pit, Saunier and Fisk quickly concocted an elastic, hyper-expressive style that made up for their stark instrumentation.
In 1995, Fisk and Saunier met Kill Rock Stars founder Slim Moon, who signed them on the spot following a Bay Area festival appearance, and they release their first 7″, Return of the Wood M’Lady. Embarking on a search for a lead singer who could lend some vocals to their melodic ideas, they find Satomi Matsuzaki, who has just arrived in San Francisco from Tokyo. She has no musical experience whatsoever, but remarks dryly that she couldn’t possibly make Deerhoof any worse, and is on tour with the band within a week. By the time they release their first album The Man, the King, the Girl in 1997, a vast stylistic difference from the first single is apparent and Matsuzaki’s calm, angelic voice brings a disarming humor and a bizarre tension atop the raw, swirling, seemingly improvisatory noise that would be a Deerhoof hallmark to the present day. The next two albums, Holdypaws and Halfbird, reveal an increasing compositional sophistication, as well as a more subtle and layered orchestration that belies their modest DIY recording method.
In 1999 Fisk quits, but Deerhoof quickly found a replacement in John Dieterich and essentially start the band over from scratch. They spend two years crafting a new approach to writing, playing, and recording that result is Reveille, and to the surprise of naysayers, Deerhoof starts to garner some serious critical attention. Friend Chris Cohen is added to the lineup before the band embarks on the first of many international tours. Following, Deerhoof releases self-produced albums Apple O’ and Milk Man in surprisingly rapid succession.
With the release in 2005 of The Runners Four, Deerhoof is widely recognized as a unique treasure, so much so that Deerhoof’s music old and new is featured prominently in Dedication, the directorial debut of actor Justin Theroux, due out later this year and starring Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore. In 2006 Deerhoof is tapped for two coveted summer tours ? The Flaming Lips and Radiohead. And in another surreal twist their album Milk Man is performed as an elementary school ballet at the North Haven Community School in Maine in late October, 2006. Later that year, Cohen decides to leave Deerhoof to pursue another band and now Saunier, Matsuzaki, and Dieterich, not only return to the lineup of Reveille, but also to that same blank drawing board that has proven to be such a source of inspiration for Deerhoof time and again…
May 19th ? The Secret Machines
High Line Ballroom ? 431 West 16th Street, at 8:00pm.
The Secret Machines
was formed in Dallas, TX in the summer of 2000 and since then has spun a cache of songs that reveal individuals in the stages of isolation and change. Now New York based, the trio of drummer Benjamin Curtis, Josh Garza, and Brandon Curtis (vocals, bass) rely on a signature blend of sharp songwriting and an ever evolving, distinct indie rock sensibility that effortlessly capture singular themes and refined songs within the alternative, pop/rock landscape. The trio?s sound is mostly due to a common musical background and experiences in Dallas. Before forming the Secret Machines, the Curtis brothers played with the punk rock squad UFOFU, with Brandon Curtis in particular participating in projects alongside Josh Garza such as Comet, Tripping Daisy and Captain Audio. Two years after their formation and months of rehearsals and recording sessions in Chicago, the Machines released their debut EP “September 000,” in March of 2002. After touring throughout much of 2002 in support of the debut, the band began recording their follow up release and first full length album “Now Here Is Nowhere.” To record “Ten Silver Drops” the band?s sophomore full length album, the Secret Machines booked themselves into an isolated studio in upstate New York for five weeks to really get to the essence of the music. Self produced (as was the predecessor “Now Here is Nowhere”), “Ten Silver Drops” saw the band explore music that can only be described as three dimensional and “spacious.” The Secret Machines continue their musical ascent at the High Line Festival with a show at the High Line Ballroom.
Comedy Program
May 19th ? Ricky Gervais – **American Stand Up Debut
Theatre at Madison Square Garden 4 Penn Plaza, 8:00pm.
Ricky Gervais
was born in Reading, England in the early sixties. After graduating from university with a degree in philosophy, Gervais embarked on a career in pop music, first in front of the mic as a member of a nascent pop band, and then behind the scenes as a manager for the band Suede, and a promoter for a Queen tribute band. His music roots earned him gig at a new radio station called Xfm which would later morph into Britain?s successful Capital Radio. It was there that Gervais took on a new assistant, Stephen Merchant, who would later become his co-conspirator, co-writer and director in “The Office.” BBC aired the first episode of “The Office” in 2001 and in the six years since, it has become a sensation on both sides of the pond. His current venture, “Extras” is now also a hit on HBO. In his spare time, Gervais put together a stand up show which he debuts Stateside at the High Line Festival. In the late 1990s Gervais wrote and starred in a one-off called “Golden Years” about a businessman obsessed with becoming a David Bowie look alike. As Gervais says “Remember, write about what you know.”
Performance Program
May 16th & 17th ? Ken Nordine
The Kitchen ? 512 West 19th Street at 8:00 pm.
Ken Nordine
is a performer and writer who has been recording “Word Jazz” albums since 1955. Among these albums, standouts include: “Word Jazz,” “Son of Word Jazz,” “Next,” and “Volume Two.” In 2006, Universal Records released an archival box set of the Dot Masters 1957-1960 called “You’re Getting Better” consisting of Nordine’s first four albums. Other albums, include “Stare with Your Ears,” “Colors” and “A Transparent Mask.”
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Nordine received Grammy Award nominations in 1984 for “Stare with your Ears” and in 1992 for “The Devout Catalyst,” recorded with Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead. Recently, Nordine released a DVD called the “eye is never filled” a k a “Word Jazz in Morphing Pictures,” featuring graphics done with vector math. Nordine’s voice is familiar to NPR listeners where he is an occasional contributor to the show “All Things Considered.”
May 17th & 18th ? Laurie Anderson
High Line Ballroom ? 431 West 16th Street at 7:30 pm.
Laurie Anderson
is one of today?s premier performance artists. Known primarily for her multimedia presentations, she has cast herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist, and instrumentalist. Her recording career began in earnest with the release of O Superman in 1980, which rose to number two on the British pop charts and subsequently appeared on Big Science, the first of her seven albums on the Warner Brothers label. In 2001, Anderson released her first album on Nonesuch Records, entitled Life on a String, which was followed in 2002 by Live in New York, recorded at NYC?s Town Hall. Anderson has toured the United States and internationally numerous times with shows ranging from simple spoken word performances to elaborate multimedia events. Major works include United States I-V (1983), Empty Places (1990), The Nerve Bible (1995), and Songs and Stories for Moby Dick, a multimedia stage performance based on the novel by Herman Melville.
Her visual work has been presented in major museums throughout the United States and Europe. In 2003, the Mus?e Art Contemporain of Lyon, France produced a touring retrospective of her work, entitled The Record of the Time: Sound in the Work of Laurie Anderson. This retrospective included installation, audio, instruments, video and art objects and spans Anderson?s career from the 1970’s to her current works.
As a composer, Anderson has contributed music to films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme; dance pieces by Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, Molissa Fenley, and a score for Robert LePage?s theater production, Far Side of the Moon. She has created pieces for National Public Radio, The BBC, and Expo ?92 in Seville. In 1997 she curated the two-week Meltdown Festival at Royal Festival Hall in London. Her most recent orchestra work Songs for A.E. premiered at Carnegie Hall in February 2000 performed by the American Composers Orchestra. In 2002, Anderson was appointed the first artist-in-residence of NASA out of which she developed her solo performance “The End of the Moon.” Other recent projects include a commission to create a series of audio-visual installations and a high definition film, Hidden Inside Mountains, for the World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan and a series of programs for French radio called “Rien dans les Poches/Nothing in my Pockets”. Anderson was also part of the team that created the opening ceremony for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Anderson has published six books and written the entry for New York for the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Currently she is working on a series of very long walks, a new album for Nonesuch Records and an accompanying touring performance.
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May 18th ? Meow Meow at Hiro Ballroom ? Incited by John Cameron Mitchell
371 West 16th Street at 7:30pm.
Meow Meow?s work thrives in the crevices between the middle ages, 1930?s Shanghai show tunes, 60?s French pop, witty, wicked Weimar and post-punk thrash. From the psychotic to cool to kitsch cabaret, multimedia performance and virtuosic contemporary opera, Meow-Meow performs solo and with companies including Opera Factory (London), Elision Ensemble (Australia), Robyn Orlin (South Africa/Berlin), John Jesurun and Mikel Rouse (NYC), in venues as diverse as NY?s Lincoln Center, Berlin?s Philharmonic, the Hebbel Theater, B-Dungeon, Sydney?s Opera House, Theater Spektakel Zürich, Joe?s Pub NY, Tokyo?s Saitama Theatre, The Glamour Room Shanghai, the Dublin Spiegeltent and numerous international arts festivals. At each stop, Meow Meow has wowed audiences with her own brand of vamped-up kamikaze cabaret and exotica around the globe. She?s a recipient of numerous awards including for Theatre in Berlin, The Dance Paris residency, and the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art Award (New York). This year she will collaborate with China?s most controversial contemporary dancer and first acknowledged transsexual, Jin Xing, in Shanghai; create works for a number of international arts festivals; and perform a special Mardi Gras season of “Beyond Glamour,” with Pink Martini?s Thomas M. Lauderdale for the Sydney Opera House.ÂÂ
John Cameron Mitchell
directed, wrote and starred in the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), for which he received the Best Director and Audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival and the Grand Prix at Deauville. The film was honored as Best Directorial Debut by the National Board of Review and the L.A. Film Critics Society. John was also nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor. He was executive producer of Jonathan Caouette’s award-winning documentary Tarnation (2004). His latest film Shortbus (2006) won awards at the Zurich, Athens and Gijon Film Festivals. He has directed music videos for the bands Bright Eyes and Scissor Sisters.
Visual Arts Program
Claude Cahun Public Art Exhibition
featuring photography from Jersey Heritage Trust & Panel Discussion at Aperture
Under The High Line.
Claude Cahun – Best known for her riveting photographic self-portraits that seem eerily ahead of their time, Claude Cahun has attracted an almost cult-like following. Acting out diverse identities?both male and female?in scenes ranging from severely simple to elaborately staged, Cahun was a pioneer of the gender-bending role-playing now seen in works by artists such as Cindy Sherman (born the year Cahun died), Nikki S. Lee, and many others.
Lucy Schwob (pseudonym Claude Cahun) (1894?1954) was a French photographer and writer, born in Nantes to a family of prominent Jewish intellectuals. In her early teens she began what would become a deeply devoted lifelong relationship with Suzanne Malherbe (pseudonym Marcel Moore) (1892?1972). An extraordinary couple who worked and lived together for more than forty years, Cahun and Moore created images and writings of startling originality. Avid participants in the cultural avant-garde in Montparnasse during the 1920s and ?30s, they ultimately moved to Jersey, in the Channel Islands (the only part of Great Britain to be occupied by the Germans during World War II). Both Cahun and Moore were part of the Resistance during the occupation. In 1944 they were arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Their sentences were never carried out, and they were released after liberation in 1945. Cahun never fully recovered from her treatment in prison. She died in 1954.
Laurie McLeod?s Waterhaven – Underwater Films
Location TBD.
Laurie McLeod
has been creating invigorating artwork for over twenty years. As a choreographer, filmmaker and performance maverick, her award winning creations have been seen around the world. Since 2001, her work has focused exclusively on the creation of short underwater films. These shorts have been seen nationwide in a variety of venues including Lincoln Center, San Francisco Performances, Jacob?s Pillow and on PBS. Summer 2004 marked the beginning of McLeod?s large-scale Waterhaven Project, wherein underwater films are projected onto moving water in public spaces, as well as unusual parts of museums. Waterhaven #1 (Luo Yong’s Dream), the first of these creations, received high praise in the national press and was seen by tens of thousands of visitors to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). For the High Line Festival, McLeod will be creating Waterhaven #3, a public art event involving an outdoor night-time installation of her work.
Film Program
May 11th-18th ? “Bowie?s Picks” 10 Spanish Language Classics of the Last 100 Years
Clearview Chelsea Cinemas, 260 West 23rd Street Ticket prices: TBD
High Line Community Events
May 10th, 13th, 15th, 16th, ? HIGH LINE NEIGHBORHOOD WALKING TOURS
As part of the High Line Festival, FHL will lead a series of historical walking tours of the High Line neighborhood. Led by architectural historian Matt Postal. All tours begin at 5:30 PM, except for May 13, which starts at 1:00 pm. RSVP for meeting location to Friends of the High Line:
rsvp@thehighline.org.
May 14 ? HIGH LINE DESIGN PREVIEW
Landscape architect James Corner of Field Operations, will give a special free preview presentation of the design for the High Line park at Cooper Union?s Great Hall.
7 East 7th Street, 6:30 pm. RSVP to Friends of the High Line: rsvp@thehighline.org.
