If your vibe is psychedelic free-jazz grooves set to experimental live movie projections, Sean Ono Lennon has your ticket to boogie with a limited-edition record from his new project called Mystical Weapons. Teaming up with fellow multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, drummer Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), and projection artist Martha Colburn, Mystical Weapons will release their new record on November 29th for Record Store Day. Entitled Crotesque, the 20-min one-sided album includes a live broadcast on WNYC's Spinning On Air from last January, with Side Two sporting an original screen-printed illustration by Sean Lennon. The record is a one-time pressing by Northern Spy Records and is limited to 1,500 units. Spy Music Festival here.
WNYC's Garland wrote "Both Sean and Shahzad share electric
guitars, basses, and keyboards. Martha Colburn handles her films the way a
performing DJ handles records: using the projectors like turntables, the images
are mixed and manipulated live, with visuals forming an essential component of
the Mystical Weapons experience.” The band will hold a release party on December 5th at Union Pool in Brooklyn. Check out their self-titled debut album here. Image above from their experimental video Mechanical Mammoth. Video links on Chimera Music here. In related news, I was one of the winners of a remix competition held by Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band a couple of years back, which evolved into one of my experimental films on the festival circuit, The Sun is Down. Spy Vibers can also check out the soundtrack to my award-winning film I Was a Dancer and a collage I made as a gift for Ono called Lennon70. More info at my website. Image of Mystical Weapons below from Chimera Music. Enjoy!
Yoko Ono's work is often whimsical and philosophical, offering ideas of global peace to inspire us and, sometimes, emotional rawness to invite the brave to face tough realities head on. Her work can also offer simple gestures of innocence and magic, as in the new book, An Invisible Flower, coming out this month from Chronicle Books. I had the pleasure to make a re-mix for Yoko Ono a couple of years back, a project that developed into an experimental film, The Sun is Down. Spy Vibe celebrates pioneer artists who worked in unusual areas in the 1960s and who continue to challenge us to 'think different'. I hope readers will check out her current work. See below for two additional books about Yoko scheduled for publication this year.
From Amazon: "Yoko Ono created An Invisible Flower when she was just nineteen years old, at the very start of her artistic career. Recently rediscovered in her archive by her son, Sean Lennon, who also provides a foreword, this jewel of a book tells the heartwarming story of the invisible beauty we all know is there—and of the one man, "Smelty John", who catches sight of it. Written years before Ono met John Lennon, An Invisible Flower offers a glimpse into the early process of a brilliant conceptual artist and, it will transpire, presages the love of her life. Simple pastel drawings complement the book's affirming message, and a new afterword by Ono makes this small treasure even more special."
When Yoko announced the book on her website, she added this comment:It just made me choke up re-reading “An Invisible Flower.” I thought of the drawing of two people on horseback John made in 1952 (the same year I made “An Invisible Flower”).The two people on horseback look very, very much like John and Yoko. And the date, 18th February, was my 19th birthday.It seems like we both knew in 1952 that we would fall in love with each other in 15 years time… yoko"
In addition, there are two books about Yoko coming out in the next year. Reconsidering Yoko Ono by Lisa Carver is due in October from Backbeat Books. From Amazon: "John Lennon once described her as "the world's most famous unknown artist: everybody knows her name, but nobody knows what she does." Many people are aware of her art, and her music has always split crowds, from her caterwauling earliest work to her later dance numbers, but how many people have looked at Yoko Ono's decades-spanning career and varied work in total and asked the simple question, "Is it any good?" From her earliest work with the Fluxus group and especially her relationship with John Cage, through her enigmatic pop happenings (where she met John Lennon), her experimental films, cryptic books, conceptual art, and her long recording career that has vacillated between avant-garde noise and proto-new wave, earning the admiration of other artists while generally confusing the public at large who often sees her only in the role of the widow Lennon, Reaching Out with No Hands is the first serious, critical, wide-ranging look at Yoko Ono the artist and musician. A must-read for art and music fans interested in going beyond the stereotyped observations of Yoko as a Lennon hanger-on or inconsequential avant noisemaker."
And Yoko Ono: Collector of Skies by Nell Beram and Carolyn Boriss-Krimsky is due in January 2013 from Amulet Books. From Amazon: "This lyrical biography explores the life and art of Yoko Ono, from her childhood haiku to her avant-garde visual art and experimental music. An outcast throughout most of her life, and misunderstood by every group she was supposed to belong to, Yoko always followed her own unique vision to create art that was ahead of its time and would later be celebrated. Her focus remained on being an artist, even when the rest of world saw her only as the wife of John Lennon. Yoko Ono’s moving story will inspire any young adult who has ever felt like an outsider, or who is developing or questioning ideas about being an artist, to follow their dreams and find beauty in all that surrounds them.
In related news, The Beatles Yellow Submarine Blu-ray is available for order in Spy Vibe's secure Amazon Associates Store. Also, consider supporting a new documentary film about the Fluxus art movement (includes interviews with Yoko!). Info at our post here.
In conjunction with the launch of an official Linda McCartneywebsite and retrospective book by Taschen, photographs by McCartney are now on exhibit at Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York through July 29th. Limited-edition prints are also for sale. Linda McCartney began her photography career in 1966 shooting portraits of rock musicians. By 1968, her portrait of Eric Clapton was on the cover of Rolling Stone and she made history as the first woman photographer to achieve this milestone. Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono visited the exhibit together on June 23, 2011 (photo below from Imagine Peace). More info at the Yoko Ono website here, Bonni Benrubi gallery here, and Paul McCartney website here.
McCartney and Ono met earlier on June 8th with the Beatles community to celebrate the 5th anniversary of Cirque du Soliel's LOVE show in Las Vegas. The anniversary prompted new remix ideas for Spy Vibe's Jason Whiton, who created a short sound collage about friends and lovers, reunions and reconciliation. Hear "Love Peace" on SoundCloud here. Whiton was a winner in The Sun is Down remix competition held by Ono and the Plastic Ono Band last year. His award-winning experimental film for the piece is screening at film festivals, museums, and galleries. Related recent Spy Vibe posts: Paul McCartney's new tape-loop project and 60s experimentalhere, BBC Radiophonic Workshophere.
“When I made my first tape loops, man was it a buzz!” McCartney said. “Bringing tape loops into the studio as I did, finding out that John has got a really funky tune called ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ that needed a solo…. Well, what was better than the crazy stuff I was doing? (Wired)." Paul McCartney has dusted off his original tape machines and is planning a new experimental project!
At the heart of "1960s Style in Action" remains the magic cocktail that blended space-age experimentation and artistic flair. It's what I love about the combination of Ken Adam set designs with the larger-than-life adventures of 007. It was an era of invention, like Rabanne molding industrial and sculptural materials into new fashion. For songwriter Paul McCartney, who was a fan of musique concrete, Stockhausen and avant-garde expression, the cultural soil was ripe for the planting of a new hybrid of pop music- one might say that hybrid has blossomed as the mainstay of contemporary, loop-based production.
During the mid-1960s, Paul McCartney became fascinated with tape loops and experimental film. As he described in a recent interview for Wired, Lennon's song Tomorrow Never Knows provided a perfect opportunity to bring his experimental work into a Beatles production. Lennon himself would catch the loop-buzz and added his Revolution 9 to the 'White Album' and in three experimental records with Yoko Ono. McCartney revisited the approach again electronically in McCartney II (remastered release out this Tuesday), in his three Firemen projects with Youth, and in his collaborations with Sgt. Pepper cover artist Peter Blake on Liverpool Sound Collage (a fave of mine!).
Maybe it is because I have been working more on experimental projects myself lately and my ears are fascinated to hear and to create in that sandbox of 'chance' and playfulness, but I am excited to learn that McCartney has literally dusted off his original tape machines from the Tomorrow Never Knows sessions and is planning a tape loop project. Read the complete article by Scott Thill at Wiredhere. You can learn more about McCartney's travels off the pop-path in the books, Many Years From Now and The Unknown Paul McCartney: McCartney and the Avant-Garde. Listen to Tomorrow Never Knows on SoundCloud here. Check out Spy Vibe Jason Whiton's music and remix for Yoko Ono on SoundCloud here. Below is one of my fave documentary clips about how to make analogue tape loops.
Check out 60s experimental: BBC Doctor Who here. Learn about avant-garde composers the Avant-Garde Project here. Readers might also like to check out the series Obscure Tape Music of Japan, which includes Yoko Ono's first husband, composer Toshi Ichiyanagi. Nice overview of the series here, and Julian Copes introduction to Ichiyanagi here. Being a fan of Noh music, I particularly like Vol #1 in the series, which featured Joji Yuasa's Aoi no Ue ("blue above"), and Ichiyanagi's Opera From the Works of Tadanori Yokoo.
Paul McCartney has explored music from the top of the pops in 1960s Swinging London, to the avant-garde and electronic, to classical. In 1991, the former Beatle collaborated with Carl Davis to compose his first major classical work, Liverpool Oratorio. The piece was performed live on Saturday, May 21st, by the San Francisco Sinfonietta.
Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio was created to commemorate the 150th anniversary of The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The piece is structured around eight movements that are loosely based on McCartney's life, entitled War, School, Crypt, Father, Wedding, Work, and Crisis. The narrative and spirit of the music should appeal to readers because it provides a unique snapshot into the world of post-war Liverpool. The final movement includes the song, Do You Know Who You Are?. McCartney once remarked that the idea for that phrase came from the final moments in John Lennon's life, when the ambulance team presumably tried to keep him conscious with questions. McCartney implied that, even in that moment of crisis, his friend was hassled by identity. Liverpool Oratorio was recorded in June, 1991 with Kiri Te Kanawa and other notable performers, and released the following October (two days after Lennon's 51st birthday).
Here are segments of a 13-part documentary about the making of Liverpool Oratorio, in which McCartney talks about the people and places of his past and about his process as a composer. Readers interested in McCartney's other journeys outside of pop music should explore recordings and documentaries for his works A Leaf, Standing Stone, and Working Classical. His 1967 score for the film, The Family Way, will be re-released on CD by Varese Sarabande on July 26th. More info at the Paul McCartney website here. Also of interest are the new book and website projects celebrating the career of Linda McCartney here. More on Spy Vibe's Beatles page here. Spy Vibe, 1960s Style in Action home. More Beatles-related weekend news below.
Also on Saturday, May 21st, Spy Vibe creator Jason Whiton screened his experimental film for Yoko Ono at the New Media Film Festival in Hollywood, where it won the best mobile film award. More information on the film website here.
The experimental film for Jason Whiton's winning-remix for Yoko Ono celebrates the meaning of her name, ocean child, with images of sea creatures. Next screening is at the New Media Film Festival in Hollywood on May 21st. More info at the film's website here. Additional Yoko Ono and Beatles-related news on our Beatles page here.
The creative force of The Beatles community continues with some exciting new projects and special releases. Here are a few of the major works on our radar to help fans keep track. More Beatles news on our page here. Beatles images by Richard Avedon.
George Harrison: Director Martin Scorsese will release a documentary film next fall about George Harrison called Living in the Material World. Scheduled to be published at the same time, Olivia Harrison is working with Abrams on a companion book that will include George's own personal archives of never-before-seen photographs, diaries, and memorabilia. The book will chronicle his life, and his career from The Beatles to solo years and the Traveling Willburys. Press release here. The all-star tribute Concert For George was recently released on Blu-ray. You can see a clip of Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton from the concert on Spy Vibe here.
John Lennon: The first collection of personal letters and cards written by John Lennon will be published next fall by Little, Brown and Company. More info at Reuters. In movie news, Lennon's collaboration with Richard Lester on the anti-war film, How I won the War (1967), has been remastered and is available on-demand. The highlight of the release is a limited-edition book filled with never-before-seen photographs and contact sheets that document the making of the film. More about Lennon, Lester, and surrealism in the 1960s on Spy Vibe here. The excellent documentary, Lennon NYC, is now available on Blu-ray. For readers interested in studying John Lennon through the lens of Jungian archetypes, I recommend viewing the recent films, Nowhere Boy, Lennon Naked, and Lennon NYC as an illustration of the Journey.
Paul McCartney: There is a wonderful series of deluxe editions from Paul McCartney's catalog being produced. Following the release of Band on the Run last fall, the next albums to get the archival treatment are two projects that Paul made alone in his home studio in times of great transition. McCartney (1970) was recorded during the end of The Beatles and included an interview, enclosed in the record sleeve, that announced the break-up of the band to the world. Highly recommended! The second album is McCartney II (1980), a post-Wings experiment with early electronic beats. Although the album doesn't reach the heights of Liverpool Sound Collage (2000) or McCartney's electronic duets with producer Youth under the Firemen moniker (1993 to 2008), McCartney II remains an interesting document of musical ideas from the era. Both will be released on June 14th, 2011, in CD, deluxe CD/Book, and vinyl editions. More info here. The excellent limited-edition book, Paul McCartney Paintings, is now available in paperback through the Fest for Beatles here. Paul also appears to be compiling a new CD of Beatles/Wings covers. His son, James, recently joined The Cure to record a piece for the project.
Linda McCartney: Paul's family recently launched an official (and beautiful!) website dedicated to Linda McCartney in advance of the new Taschen book, Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs. The book will span her career as a photographer, from iconic 1960s rock images to photojournalism and fine art projects. It will be available in trade, collectible, and art editions. The rarest printings will include limited-edition photographs signed and numbered by Paul McCartney. Above image by Linda McCartney.
Yoko Ono: Spy Vibe creator, Jason Whiton's remix and experimental film tribute to Yoko Ono screens next at the New Media Film Festival in Hollywood on May 21st, 2011. Above image and current interview with Yoko at Spinner here. News about Yoko's exhibits, music, and charity efforts on her official website here.
The Beatles: Readers looking for limited-edition art books should explore the many projects created by Genesis Publications. A recent Beatles release, A Day in the Life, is a photographer's chronicle of the day in February, 1963 that the band hit #1 (Please Please Me/NME charts). According to Barry Miles' Beatles Diary, the band played a gig at the Cavern, saw their original drummer, Pete Best, for the last time, and drove to London with excitement about their chart success. This collection of photographs should bring this historic day to life. Here in the States, Cirque Du Soleil continues its fabulous run of The Beatles show, LOVE, in Las Vegas. A new iTunes APP is available that offers fans show content, music and videos. Finally, Beatles scholar Bruce Spizer will publish his new illustrated history of the Beatles recordings on Parlophone this summer.
Jeannie and the Big Guys I Want You (1964) is cool for this Op Art and Mod-influenced video of 1960s graphics.ModCentric quotes the All Music Guide: "Jeannie and the Big Guys were a Chester quintet, originally called Four Hits & A Miss, the "Miss" being teenaged lead singer Rita Hughes, the daughter of a Chester pub owner, who fronted the group as lead singer for a year or so. As Four Hits and A Miss, their repertory included songs like "Lullaby of Birdland." They became the hottest group in Chester and were signed to Pye in 1963, when Hughes was 17, changing their name to Jeannie and the Big Guys in the process. They cut "Boys" by the Shirelles, which they'd likely heard the Beatles perform, and "Sticks and Stones," an old Ray Charles number, but saw no chart action." Despite their somewhat forgettable sound, it is fun to hear a lesser-known band of the era, check out the graphics, and to set us up for some hotter acts.
JASON WHITON YOKO ONO SCREENING My experimental film and remix for Yoko Ono, The Sun is Down, is an Official Selection for the Park City Film Music Festival. The film's big screen debut will be held at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City Utah on May 22 at 6PM (my birthday- great timing!). "The Sun is Down- very cool!"- Park City Film Music Festival. More information about film and other projects at JasonWhiton.com.