Latest news with #BurningDowntheHouse
San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Talking Heads' Jerry Harrison is touring live with ‘Stop Making Sense.' Here's how to get tickets
Talking Heads guitarist and keyboardist Jerry Harrison isn't just letting the days go by. The Marin resident is set to travel with the band's legendary concert film ' Stop Making Sense ' on a national tour with stops in the Bay Area. Presented by A24 and restored for the film's 40th anniversary with Harrison's involvement, 'Stop Making Sense' will travel to 29 cities, beginning on Sept. 13 in Norwalk, Conn., and ending Jan. 17 in Bellingham, Wash. Harrison, 76, is scheduled to introduce the film at each show, share behind-the-scenes stories from the making of the film, and host an audience Q&A following the screening. Harrison's Talking Heads bandmates — vocalist-guitarist David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth — are not scheduled to appear in person. Northern California stops include the Golden State Theatre in Monterey on Oct. 2, the Mondavi Center in Davis on Oct. 3, the Gallo Center in Modesto on Oct. 4, the Bankhead Theater in Livermore on Jan. 9 and the Uptown Theatre in Napa on Jan. 10. Pre-sales begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 31. General sales begin at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 1. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit 'Stop Making Sense,' directed by Jonathan Demme, is widely considered one of the great concert films of all time. Filming took place during four live shows at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles between Dec. 13 and 16, 1983, and featured such now-classic songs as 'Once in a Lifetime,' 'Burning Down the House,' 'Psycho Killer' and 'Girlfriend Is Better.' The movie made its world premiere April 24, 1984, as the closing night film of the San Francisco International Film Festival. It was released nationwide in October 1984 and made more than $13 million against a $1.2 million budget. The soundtrack album from the film was released in September 1984 and spent over two years on the Billboard 200 chart. The 4K restoration, which includes a Dolby Atmos soundtrack painstakingly remastered by Harrison and veteran engineer and mixer Eric Thorngren, was re-released in September 2023 and was an unexpected IMAX and arthouse hit, leading to Harrison's tour. The tour coincides with the 50th anniversary of the band's founding in 1975, a time chronicled in Jonathan Gould's new book 'Burning Down the House: Talking Heads and the New York Scene That Transformed Rock.' Harrison has been revisiting the band's legacy through live performances of songs from the band's 1980 album 'Remain In Light' with guitarist Adrian Belew, including a performance at 2022's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco.
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Visual art reviews: David Mach's exploding cottage impresses at Galway Arts Festival
Galway International Arts Festival David Mach, Burning Down the House, Festival Gallery, William Street David Mach has become something of a regular in Galway, this being his fourth major show at the International Arts Festival in twenty years. The Scottish artist likes to work at scale, and his installation this year is a huge sculpture of an exploding cottage called Burning Down the House. No explanation is given for the explosion; all the viewer is presented with is the work itself, a 3-D model of a traditional stone cottage that one can walk around and see from all sides. A sofa, a television, a fridge/freezer and the front door blown off its hinges are clearly discernible amidst the debris and bursts of flame. The explosion has clearly come from within the building, which suggests it might have been a rural meth lab, or a bomb factory, in which the process of creation has gone drastically wrong. One of David Mach's pieces at Galway International Arts Festival. It's an intriguing piece of work, one that inevitably recalls Cornelia Parker's Cold, Dark Matter: An Exploded View, for which the artist invited the British Army to blow up a shed, but goes beyond it again in terms of its theatricality and impact. Burning Down the House is augmented by an exhibition of Mach's 'coat hanger' sculptures, striking figurative pieces constructed entirely of wire. The Thief depicts a nine-foot human figure suspended from the ceiling; Spike (The Cheetah) captures a big cat mid-prowl; while Arms I-IV is, as its title suggests, a series of human arms in various poses. All are covered in spikes, simultaneously inviting the viewer to look closer while ensuring that they can only come so far. This is art that could, quite literally, poke your eye out. Conor Moloney & John Conneely, Funeral for Ashes, Festival Printworks Gallery, Market Street Conor Moloney and John Conneely's Funeral for Ashes is a hugely enjoyable immersive installation, in which the viewer is invited to stand in the midst of processed film images, inspired by the native Irish ash tree, projected on the walls and floor of the exhibition space. An outline of the viewer then appears amongst the projections. Funeral For Ashes. One visitor took the experience to extremes, standing on his head, to the delight of the children present. As a project intended to draw attention to the demise of the ash, it is perhaps less successful than it is as a participatory artwork. Jane Cassidy and Arts Alive, Tactile Tunes, Aula Maxima, University of Galway Jane Cassidy and Arts Alive's Tactile Tunes installation at the Aula Maxima at the University of Galway is a series of sculptures that produce sounds as one engages with them. Touch a series of seashells, and they each create a jingle. Stroke a rock form, and it produces a deep bass drone. The overall effect is mesmeric. Jane Cassidy and Arts Alive, Tactile Tunes. Cassidy is a local artist, and her work with Arts Alive, a community-based arts programme for adults with intellectual disabilities, deserves every support available.
USA Today
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
New Talking Heads book: Band's song roots, breakups and makeups
For a band that broke up under a cloud of bitterness, Talking Heads still appreciate a good celebration. The belated first video for the band's 1977 cult favorite 'Psycho Killer' debuted in early June; a live rendition of their thumping rendition of Al Green's 'Take Me to the River' from 1978 just landed; and a new CD box set, 'More Songs About Buildings and Food (Super Deluxe Edition)' is due July 25 to celebrate the quartet's 50th anniversary. The recently released biography 'Burning Down the House' (HarperCollins, 512 pages) from New Yorker contributor Jonathan Gould ('Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America'), takes its name from Talking Heads' biggest hit, an idiosyncratic Parliament Funkadelic-inspired slice of New Wave funk. The book's 42 chapters dutifully cover the journey of singer David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth – who met at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1975, moved to New York and recruited guitarist Jerry Harrison – through years of fractured existence until they disbanded in 1991. But Gould also digs into the grimy club scene of Lower Manhattan in the 1970s, with colorful reminders of Max's Kansas City – a club where musicians including Velvet Underground, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel played foundational shows – and the illustrious CBGB, an art rock/punk playground for Patti Smith, Debbie Harry and a burgeoning Talking Heads. 'This could be our Cavern Club,' Frantz said when the band played a four-night stand at CBGB in 1977, likening it to The Beatles' formative haunt in Liverpool. Major albums augmented by a visual boost from MTV ('Speaking in Tongues' with 'Burning Down the House,' 'Little Creatures' with 'And She Was') and a landmark 1984 live concert film from Jonathan Demme ('Stop Making Sense,' which revived the singles 'Girlfriend is Better' and 'Once in a Lifetime') solidified Talking Heads' worthiness as Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. Here are a few book highlights that showcase how they got there. More: ABBA book revelations: AC/DC connection, the unlikely inspiration for 'Mamma Mia!', more The biblical roots of 'Once in a Lifetime' Gould explores how the band's fourth studio album, 1980's 'Remain in Light,' was sequenced dichotomously. The first side of the album brought 'a dance party unlike any dance party ever heard on a commercial recording before,' he writes. But a flip to Side 2 spotlighted Byrne's influences from months of Bible study for his esoteric solo project with Brian Eno, 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.' 'Once in a Lifetime,' the first song of the album's second half, is delivered as a sermon almost by default, with each lyric prefaced with Byrne's spoke-sung, 'and you may find yourself …' before the inevitable big question of, 'how did I get here?' Gould also points out the religious metaphor of the song's chorus, 'letting the days go by, let the water hold me down' as well as its famous repeated refrain, 'same as it ever was,' which provides a 'born-again edge.' By the time Byrne completes this existential exercise, he's looking back at his choices and exclaiming, 'My God! What have I done?' The Tom Tom Club offered an escape from Talking Heads In 1981, Frantz and Weymouth – who married in 1977 – splintered from home base to create Tom Tom Club, named for the Bahamian club where they rehearsed for the first time while on break from Talking Heads. The spinoff that included Weymouth's sisters and King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew formed because, as Frantz says in the book. 'We wanted to make a real musical anti-snob record, because we're fed up to here with all of the seriousness that surrounds Taking Heads.' The musical approach inspired by the 'happier … Island people,' as well as the kitschy spirit of The B-52s, yielded the dance hit 'Wordy Rappinghood,' anchored by Weymouth's delivery which Gould describes as, 'prim elocution of a grade-school teacher intent on imbuing her students with a lifelong love of words.' But the lasting takeaway from the project is 'Genius of Love,' a blipping ditty that skitters through a lyrical tribute to Bootsy Collins, Smokey Robinson, Bob Marley and James Brown. Its clever hook has been interpolated for decades, from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's 'It's Nasty' in 1981 to Mariah Carey's mega-selling 'Fantasy' in 1995 to Latto's 2021 resurrection of the sample in 'Big Energy.' More: New music documentaries rock the big screen at Tribeca A Talking Heads breakup, and brief makeup The band essentially dissolved in 1991 when Byrne abruptly left, which Frantz says he and Weymouth discovered by reading about it in the Los Angeles Times ('David never called us to say we broke up,' Weymouth recalls). Predictably, lawsuits over trademark use of the band's name followed, along with the equally predictable acrimony between Byrne and the rest of the band. But a 1999 anniversary screening of 'Stop Making Sense' provided a brief ceasefire, although the foursome never made eye contact while sitting on a panel to discuss the film. In 2001, their first year of eligibility, Talking Heads were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Following tradition, a live performance was expected, which would be their first in 18 years. For three songs – 'Psycho Killer,' 'Life During Wartime' and 'Burning Down the House' – a truce was in place, sparking a standing ovation from the audience filled with music-industry types, the very people, Gould says, whom the proudly eccentric band 'had done their best to have as little as possible to do with over the course of their professional careers.'
Toronto Star
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
A new biography goes long and deep on the rise and fall of rock band Talking Heads
Talking Heads fans, rejoice! Hard on the heels of the re-release of 'Stop Making Sense,' the 1984 Jonathan Demme film widely considered the best concert movie ever made, Jonathan Gould has published a comprehensive biography of the seminal band that injected an art school vibe into popular music and forever changed rock 'n' roll. Gould, the author of well-received books on Otis Redding and the Beatles, chronicles in meticulous detail the rise and fall of the band that got its start in New York City's underground punk scene and ended up touring the world with a repertoire shaped by blues, funk and jazz. He begins 'Burning Down the House: Talking Heads and the New York Scene That Transformed Rock' with a vivid description of the drizzly June night in 1975 when the original trio – singer/songwriter David Byrne, bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz – made its debut at the seedy club CBGB in downtown Manhattan, opening for the Ramones before a handful of patrons. With their 'unremarkable haircuts' and 'nondescript casual clothes,' they offered a sharp contrast to the 'baroque turn' that rock fashion had taken in the 1970s, Gould observes. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'The qualities that characterized this neophyte group in their first public performance centered on the awkward, disquieting intensity of their singer-guitarist, David Byrne, their sketchy, skeletal arrangements, and the quirky intelligence of their songs,' Gould writes. 'Tall and thin, with a long neck and an anxious, wide-eyed stare, Byrne stood stiffly at the microphone, his upper body jerking and jiggling like a shadow puppet as he scratched out chords on his guitar.… Instead of doing his best to command the stage and the room, Byrne looked trapped by his surroundings, as if he were prepared, at any moment, to make a break for the door.' Within a couple years of their zeitgeist-changing performances, they enlisted keyboardist/guitarist Jerry Harrison, adding a much-needed dose of professionalism to the band. Gould, a former professional musician, writes exceedingly well about music but suffers from a kind of completism, cramming in an almost mind-numbing level of detail including the name of the elementary school in Pittsburgh where a young Frantz first took up drums to every military posting of Weymouth's naval aviator father. Though much of the material is fascinating, including his observations about how Byrne's then-undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome may have influenced his music and relationships with the other band members, it is likely to be a bit too much for all but the most diehard fans. ___ AP book reviews:
Los Angeles Times
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Talking Heads — and ‘70s N.Y. music scene — deserve better than ‘Burning Down the House'
When an author decides to tackle the story of a popular and important band like Talking Heads, the contours of which are familiar to many of its fans, the remit should be to illuminate the unexplored corners, the hidden details and anecdotes that provide a more full-bodied narrative and ultimately bring the band into sharper relief than ever before. Unfortunately, Jonathan Gould has almost completely ignored this directive in 'Burning Down the House,' his new Talking Heads biography. This lumpy book, full of redundant stories and unnecessary detours that provide little illumination but plenty of needless bulk, lacks participation by the group's members and is not the biography that this great and important band deserves. As fans of the Heads already know, three of the four members met as students at the Rhode Island School of Design in the mid-'70s, children of privilege with artsy aspirations and not much direction. David Byrne came from Baltimore by way of Scotland, a socially awkward dabbler in conceptualist experiments with photography and a veteran of various mediocre cover bands. It was drummer Chris Frantz who enlisted Byrne to join one such band; bassist Tina Weymouth, Frantz's girlfriend and the daughter of a decorated Navy vice admiral, played bass. They were an anti-jam band and pro-avant; the first decent song they came up with was a shambolic version of what became 'Psycho Killer,' with Weymouth contributing the French recitatif in the song's bridge. For the emergent Heads, timing was everything. When Frantz signed the lease on a spacious loft on Chrystie Street in East Village in October 1974, he had unwittingly found the practice space where the three musicians would hone their craft. The loft was also a short walk to CBGB, soon to become the proving ground of New York's punk revolution and the Heads' primary live performance venue at the start of their career. In March 1975, Byrne, Weymouth and Frantz attended a gig by Boston's Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers at the Kitchen, an arts collective space in Soho, and it showed them a new way to approach their music. Richman, 'who dressed like a kid that everyone laughed at in high school,' influenced the band's preppy visual template and Byrne's clenched singing voice. Within a year of moving to the city, Talking Heads had found its look, sound and favored club. When Frantz bumped into Modern Lovers bassist Ernie Brooks in a West Village Cafe, Frantz inquired about keyboardist Jerry Harrison; Brooks gave him Harrison's number, Harrison joined the band and the classic Talking Heads lineup was complete. What followed was a contract with Seymour Stein's label Sire and the band's collaboration with producer Brian Eno, beginning with its second album, 'More Songs About Buildings and Food.' By the time the band released 1980's groundbreaking 'Remain in Light,' Eno's role had expanded beyond his production duties. He was now writing songs with Byrne, which created friction within the band. When Byrne allegedly reneged on songwriting credits (the album listed 'David Byrne, Brian Eno and Talking Heads,' rather than the individual band members), it created a rift that never healed, even as the band was selling millions of copies of its follow-up 'Speaking in Tongues' and the soundtrack to the Jonathan Demme concert film 'Stop Making Sense.' The final act was recriminatory, as Byrne commanded an ever greater share of the spotlight while the other members quietly seethed. The band's final album, 'Naked,' was its weakest, and Talking Heads dissolved in 1991, after Byrne removed himself from the lineup to explore outside projects. Gould does a serviceable job of telling the Heads' story in a book that arrives 50 years after the band's first gig at CBGB. Curiously, for someone who has tasked himself with explaining Manhattan's late '70s downtown renaissance, Gould regards many of the key players in that scene with derision bordering on contempt. Gould refers to Richard Hell, a prime architect of New York punk, as a mediocrity whose 'singing, songwriting and bass playing remained as pedestrian as his poetry.' Patti Smith's music 'verged on a parody of beat poetry,' while the vastly influential Velvet Underground, a band that made New York punk possible, is hobbled by its 'pretensions to hipness, irony and amorality.' Even Chris Frantz's drumming is 'exceptionally unimaginative.' Gould is also careless with his descriptors. Jonathan Richman's band displays a 'willful lack' of commercial instinct, the Heads assert a 'willful conventionality' to their stage appearance, Johnny Ramone is a 'willfully obnoxious' guitarist and so on. It's hard to fathom how a biographer intent on cracking the code of one of rock's seminal bands can do so with so much contempt for the culture that spawned it. An inquiring fan might want to go to Will Hermes' 2011 book 'Love Goes to Buildings on Fire' for a more nuanced and knowledgeable portrait of the creative ferment that made the Heads possible. As for a biography of Talking Heads, we are still left with a lacuna that Gould has unfortunately not filled. Weingarten is the author of 'Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown.'
