Tag Archives: Thurston Moore

June 10, 2016 · 9:08 am

Music Box Village

MBV

New Orleans Airlift is pleased to announce a new, ambitious endeavor to build a permanent home for their collaborative Music Box installation —The Music Box Village. Each Music Box house is a one-of-a-kind, interactive musical instrument disguised as a whimsical house, allowing visitors to explore, play, and create sound. Originally conceived by artists Delaney Martin, Taylor Shepherd, Callie Curry (SWOON) and Jay Pennington, and built in collaboration with dozens more local and international artists to date, each house is outfitted with hand-made pulleys, levers and other interventions, which are activated by guest musicians and visitors. The nonprofit organization recently acquired a 55,000 square foot forest with an adjoining metal fabrication warehouse in the Bywater, and plans to hold a grand opening of the new cultural destination in October 2016.

Since its creation in 2011, in part as a response to destruction and decay after Hurricane Katrina, Airlift’s flagship project The Music Box has drawn tens of thousands of people to experience a unique mix of ambitious sound art, memorable performances by local and world-renowned musicians, and one-of-a-kind musical architecture. Performance highlights include Thurston Moore, Wilco, Solange Knowles, Preservation Hall, Andrew W K, Mannie Fresh, Lost Bayou Ramblers, and Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, just to name a few.

This summer, musical houses from several nomadic iterations including New Orleans City Park, and houses built in Georgia Tech, Tampa Bay and Shreveport, along with some other surprises, will be installed for the grand opening. In the 2016–2017 season, Airlift will present an exciting lineup of local and international performers as well as new collaborative musical houses, including a Mardi Gras Indian house with Big Chief Darryl Montana of the Yellow Pocahontas.

New Orleans Airlift is known for organizing large-scale collaborative art and performance works, crossing cultures and expanding upon tradition. For the first time, the organization will offer a membership program to support their organization, in addition to tax-deductible giving, partnerships, volunteering and more.

To celebrate this announcement and invite the public to get involved, the organization is running a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter to support the major build out and site improvements.

“Feel It In Your Guts” – Thurston Moore & Bernie Sanders

bstm

Joyful Noise Recordings recently brought together two inspiring individuals for a very special release: a brand new composition by Thurston Moore, created in collaboration with the Bernie Sanders campaign. Titled “Feel It In Your Guts,” the track is a twelve-string acoustic piece laced with excerpts from Bernie Sanders’ speeches, touching on topics like the worship of money, economic inequality, social justice, and the need for basic human rights for all people.

“Feel It In Your Guts” is limited to 1000 hand-numbered copies on square, white flexi-disc vinyl. All records are given away for free to those who make individual donations to Sanders’ campaign. More details here.

Throughout his political career, Sanders has been a strong supporter of the arts. “You have my promise that as President, I will be an arts President,” Sanders said in a video recorded for the Arts Action Fund. “I will continue to advocate strongly for robust funding of the arts in our cities, schools and public spaces. Art is speech. Art is what life is about.”

bstm1

ORDER HERE

Explaining how the Bernie Sanders & Thurston Moore collaboration came to fruition, Joyful Noise’s Karl Hofstetter says:

Bernie Sanders inspires us. In a political and business climate which is increasingly self-interested and money-driven, Bernie Sanders alone remains uncompromisingly focused on the issues that affect 99% of us. Which is to say, he’s talking about the things that will improve the lives of ourselves, our families, and basically everyone we have ever met. As the only presidential candidate who refuses bribes from big business, his agenda is unswervingly focused on the people over special interests. As Bernie himself has said, “The reason why we are doing well in this campaign is because we are telling the truth.”

We at the label were inspired to support the campaign, and we thought it would be best to use our curatorial talents to this end. Being a weird-o indie rock record label, we are fortunate to work with a variety of incredible musicians; including, on occasion, the great Thurston Moore. So we decided to ask him. And we were delighted that in a matter of minutes after posing the idea, Thurston excitedly agreed.

Next: the task of getting a major presidential candidate involved. Fortunately, one of our employees was already friends with the good folks of the Bernie campaign, so we reached out. Amazingly, the Bernie campaign responded, and within a week or so, we heard that Bernie himself was into the idea. The amazing folks at the Bernie campaign have worked closely with us to make this crazy collaboration a reality.

– Karl Hofstetter

The Music Box in New Orleans

Watch a video of a past performance at The Music Box

The Music Box is an interactive installation comprised of musical architecture. It was created by non-profit organization New Orleans Airlift in collaboration with 25 artists including the international street art star Swoon. The Music Box features a collection of purpose-built shacks and miniature houses, each containing an instrument or having instruments built into its structure. The wooden shacks that make up this “shanty-town” are constructed from salvaged materials reclaimed from a late-18th-century Creole cottage that collapsed on the site several years ago.

Housing a slew of unconventional and inventive instruments, The Music Box offers its visitors a blank canvas to create music in an entirely new way. Between now and the end of June The Music Box will host a series of recordings sessions and pop-up performances in the space by amazing and diverse musicians including Thurston Moore, longtime Swoon collaborators Dark Dark Dark, the beloved Cajun musician Jo-El Sonnier, the sample-based band Javelin, the Brooklyn pop punk duo Japanther, and noise heroes Black Dice.

A final performance by the Shantytown Orchestra will feature an unexpected and eclectic line-up including local musicians like Donald Miller (of the legendary 1980’s noise band Borbetomagus), to Rosalie “Lady Tambourine” Washinton, a familiar New Orleans character who plays with gospel acts as well as the Neville Brothers. They will be joined by out-of town performers including the transgendered harpist Baby Dee, (a collaborator of Will Oldman and Antony and the Johnsons), Magas, the electronic wizard of Chicago, and the Brooklyn-duo Javelin. These June 8^th and 9^th concerts mark the very last chance to experience a full orchestral performance at The Music Box before the installation is taken down at the end of June 2012.

The Music Box: Artists Turn Shanties into Musical Instruments in New Orleans (Video) (treehugger.com)

Tag Archives: Thurston Moore

Music Box Village

“Feel It In Your Guts” – Thurston Moore & Bernie Sanders

ORDER HERE

The Music Box in New Orleans

Stats

Older posts you should check out…

Tweet Tweet

Tag Archives: Thurston Moore

Music Box Village

Like this:

“Feel It In Your Guts” – Thurston Moore & Bernie Sanders

ORDER HERE

Like this:

The Music Box in New Orleans

Related articles

Like this:

Stats

Older posts you should check out…

Tweet Tweet