JG Thirlwell performs Lou Reed at Lincoln Center

On July 30 2016, Reed_by-Julian-Schnabel-and-courtesy-the-Lou-Reed-ArchiveJG Thirlwell will be performing the Lou Reed song “Men Of Good Fortune” at Lincoln Center Out Of Doors as part of an all-day celebration of Lou Reed curated by Laurie Anderson and Hal Willner entitled The Bells. Thirlwell will perform with a band comprised of Don Fleming (Gumball), Sal Maida (Roxy Music), Kenny Margolis, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) and Matt Sweeney (Chavez). Other guest singers performing in the same set include Joanaspolicewoman, David Johansen, Lenny Kaye, Jesse Malin, Kembra Pfahler, Felice Rosser, Harper Simon, Jon Spencer, Bush Tetras, JG Thirlwell, and Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. The set begins at 11.30am.

The day will also include a Tai chi lesson with Master Ren GuangYi; Lou Reed DRONES: an immersive sound installation created from six of Lou Reed’s guitars and amps in a feedback loop; readings of Lou’s lyrics from Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe, Natasha Lyonne and many others; and a set of Lou’s love songs in the evening performed by the likes of Laurie Anderson, Anohni, Emily Haines, Mark Kozelek, Bill Laswell, Maxim Moston, Jenni Muldaur, Jane Scarpantoni, Jim White, John Zorn and many more.

The concert will take place in the Damrosch Park Bandshell on the grounds of Lincoln Center at Amsterdam Ave. and W. 62 St., New York, NY 10023 and admission is free.

JGT on board for pirate-themed "Son of Rogues Gallery"

Son of Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys, produced by Hal Willner, will be released February 19 on Anti Records. Executive produced by Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski, the compilation two-disc recording of sea shanties features Tom Waits, Keith Richards, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Sean Lennon and many more. Thirlwell mixed the track “Barnacle Bill The Sailor” by Kembra Pfahler (of The Voluptuous Horror Of Karen Black infamy), on which she was joined by Antony Hegarty, who sings the refrains, and Joseph Arthur.

While working on the two “Pirates Of The Carribean” films, Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski became fascinated with the lore and fable of the pirates and sailors who ran the high seas. Enter legendary producer Hal Wilner, who brings his knack for matching maverick musicians with extraordinary material. The “Rogue’s Gallery” albums offer a look at the hardships, the horrors, the lusts and lurid depths, and the crystal beauty that led men to the sea in ships for hundreds of years.

The Cinema of Transgression exhibition in Berlin

YOU KILLED ME FIRST at KW Institute of Contemporary Art in Berlin is the first exhibition on the Cinema of Transgression. The films are being displayed as an installation, and many of the key players from the movement will be making appearances, leading talks and discussions.

The “Cinema of Transgression” a term coined by Nick Zedd, describes a loose congregation of filmmakers in New York’s Lower East Side in the 1980’s, including Zedd, Richard Kern, Cassandra Stark and Tommy Turner. JG Thirlwell scored many of Kern’s films, as well as contributing to the films of Turner and Stark.

To quote the exhibition catalog : “Nightmarish scenarios of violence, dramatic states of mind, and perverse sexual abysses – the films of the Cinema of Transgression that were consciously aimed at shock, provocation, and confrontation, bear witness to an extraordinary radicality. In the 1980s a group of filmmakers from the Lower East Side in New York went on a collision course with the conventions of American society. Transcending all moral or aesthetic boundaries, the low budget films reveal social hardship met with sociopolitical indifference. Sometimes shot with stolen camera equipment, the films contain strident analyses of life in the Lower East Side defined by criminality, brutality, drugs, AIDS, sex, and excess. Even though the movement has remained largely unknown, the Cinema of Transgression has been a significant influence for later generations of artists.”

February 19, 2012 – April 9, 2012

KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststr. 69
D-10117 Berlin