re; the Warhol

[manny at garfieldartworks.com]

The Warhol's presentations are not 'inconsistent'.

They are *varied*, and almost always at a high level - 'Wire-level', if
you understand what that means (it's become a common phrase over at the
NTMTO Board, thanks to my coining). It means
the kind of acts that you would read about in UK magazine The Wire, which
is the best music
mag in the world (the 2nd best is US-based Signal to Noise). Some, like
Matmos and Joanna Newsom, have been on the cover of the Wire before
playing the Warhol.

When an institution has a programmer that has the insight to bring quality
acts which vary
from The Mekons to Antibalas to Kahil El-Zabar (who was my suggestion, but
they took it!)
to Adult (the very band about whom my comments on the gothlist back around
1999 inspired some unknown individual to design that infamous post
generator, if you recall) and Matmos (another band which, as per our
discussion on Girl Talk, takes sampling to a high, arty level), that is
only a good thing, especially when he is willing to take losses on many of
these shows. He works within the same network that the Wexner in Columbus
and the Walker in Minneapolis program. There are only a handful of Midwest
funded institutions that have that programming insight, in other words,
and one of them is here. The curator at the Wood Street Gallery (a
different person) also helps on a smaller level as well, fronting some
small but important funding for the
use of experimental and jazz concerts at Space & WSG. Those guys are the
two bright spots in what would otherwise be considered an extremely
upscale approach to programming in the
Cultural District and its environs.

One of my few complaints is that the Warhol programmer often works within
a predictable stricture, avoiding what really would be independent
'curation' by relying on the rosters of maybe 6-7 hip booking agents. I
mean, the guy flew around the world to recruit acts for the International
Festival of Firsts, so you'd think he'd get on the computer or read a few
magazines and get some music acts at the Warhol who are not booking by
those agents. And sometimes, he also doesn't look around town to see what
other concerts he can avoid competing against, or which locals can open -
the Carnegie/Warhol is an island in itself that doesn't care about the
outside world - at least I *never* see the guy in the outside world,
*ever*. But just because I don't ever run into the dude at shows doesn't
mean he isnt doing his job - he definitely is. And then again, those
agents are also the ones with a ton of good acts so they're easy quality
pickings.

And now, you're also going to be able to benefit from his expertise at the
Three Rivers Arts
Festival, so the fest will start looking a bit more like Pitchfork each
year and a bit less like the boring middle-aged WYEP boomer songwriter
brigade. That's also a good thing - it raises the summer touring profile
for Pittsburgh, bands and agents notice that it's a place to play more
often.

None of which is going to help if your main goal is life is just to see
the likes of Wumpscut or VNV Nation. You'll have to keep supporting the
valiant Distortion Productions to get bands like that (and I hope people
supported the Imperative Reaction show, if they didn't go to Freezepop!).

But then I would hope that we are a varied erudite bunch on this list ir
we can drop names like
Matmos and Jason Forrest. :)

> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 6:42 PM, Jeremy <epistemology at gmail.com> wrote:
>> FWIW, the behavior surrounding Girl Talk is kind of interesting in
>> that it's sort of a one-off experiment in the value of celebrity.
>
> Andy Warhol (also a long-time Pittsburgher) would have loved Girl
> Talk.  He also would have loved Paris Hilton, who was seen dancing on
> stage at a Girl Talk Show.  I think he would have loved viral videos
> on YouTube, too.
>
> To bring this back to topic, the Warhol can also be a good resource,
> if inconsistent.  I can't believe they brought French band Stereo
> Total (and that I didn't know about the show until afterward).
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