We have a redesigned shop where you can place orders for a new T-shirt themed for the Andy Warhol Screen Test show. The shirt lists all 13 Most Beautiful subjects plus Dean, Britta and Andy. Silver and white lettering on a black American Apparel shirt . . . it’s hard to see the silver in this photo but we promise it is there. July 27 will see the release of the limited edition 13 Most Beautiful double-CD - if you pre-order you will also receive an 11×17 poster designed by Frank Olinsky.  July 30 will see us performing the Andy Warhol Screen Test show at the Barbican Theatre in London.

http://deanandbritta.11spot.com/

We will be playing a series of shows with the band this fall where we perform a set of Galaxie 500 material. Shows confirmed so far are:

8/19 Bowery Ballroom, NYC
8/20 The Trocadero, Philadelphia
9/16-17 The Earl, Atlanta (second show added)
11/11 The Troubadour, Los Angeles
11/13 The Fillmore, San Francisco
12/3 Lincoln Hall, Chicago

Also a reminder, the limited edition (3,000) double-CD package, 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests, will be released on July 27, and can be pre-ordered from our site now. Those who pre-order will receive an 11×17 poster created by long-time Luna designer Frank Olinsky.

On July 27 Double Feature will release a deluxe gatefold double-CD package by Dean & Britta

13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests. This limited edition (3,000 copies) package contains a 12-page booklet with an essay on the project by Dean, still photographs from Warhol’s films, and two discs of music: the original 13 studio recordings created for the Screen Test DVD, plus an additional 8 remixes by Sonic Boom, Scott Hardkiss, My Robot Friend, and Anthony LaMarca. The songs are a blend of instrumentals, originals and covers (including Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Keep it With Mine.”) This project was initially commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum. Dean & Britta created 13 songs and instrumentals to perform live in a multimedia show, with Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests projected on a large screen above the band while they play.

Pre-order from our website and receive an 11×17 poster, designed by Frank Olinsky.

Best album of 2009 – Time Out New York

More sad news; Dennis Hopper finally succumbed to cancer. Hopper was himself a wonderful photographer, a collector, and an early supporter of Andy Warhol; he was the first person ever to buy one of Warhol’s soup can paintings, when all 32 paintings were put on sale at the Ferus Gallery in 1962. Unfortunately the dealer (Irving Blum) canceled the sales and decided to keep the entire series together.

We were there as part of the Art Rock Festival. Also at the festival were the Go Team, Jacques Dutronc, and Air (with members of Supergrass) performing the Virgin Suicides soundtrack from beginning to end.

En route to St Brieuc via high-speed train, we passed through the town of Le Mans. I read the TGV magazine, which featured Dutronc’s wife Francoise Hardy on the cover.

Then it was on to Bilbao, where we performed the 13 Most Beautiful show at the Sala BBK. Here is Britta sitting next to me at a local radio station.

On to my hometown of Wellington, New Zealand. The windy city. Our Qantas flight attempted to land in the teeth of a strong northerly wind. We approached the airstrip gingerly, felt the back wheels of the plane touch down, but then a gust  hit and the pilot decided to take us up again. After flying another pattern over the Cook Strait we came in safely on the second attempt.

The show at Wellington’s Town Hall was especially fun. I had been in this room twice before, first as a 5-year-old in 1968, and then as a teenager in 1980; my brother and I saw the Knack live in concert. Not that we particularly liked the Knack, but that’s what was happening on a Friday night in Wellington. .

Wellington Town Hall

And then it was back to Adelaide, Australia, where we played three shows at the Womadelaide Festival, alongside world artists like Ethiopiques, Eliades Ochoa, Ravi Shankar and the - the Transe Express company, pictured here. They are drummers and clowns too.

Our February tour started with a date in at Duke University’s Reynolds Theatre in Durham, North Carolina. For Matt and Lee (longtime residents of Chapel Hill) it was a homecoming — though they would have preferred we play at UNC. Britta and I took the morning before sound check to visit Double Feature’s distribution office — Red Eye Distribution out in Haw River. “Where should we eat?” I asked as we left. They sent us to Biscuitville, and it was yummier than it looks.

Three days later, after 30 hours of flying, we found ourselves in Perth, Western Australia, performing a short, informal set outdoors at the Perth Festival (we came on right after a set by Robert Forster) in the shadow of this Ferris Wheel.

We had a great time in Perth; the festival promoters really took care of us. We swam in the Indian Ocean, ate passionfruit yoghurt and the best mangoes ever, took in an excellent Brian Jonestown Massacre gig, and hung out with Rick Maymi  and Matt Hollywood and Joel Gion.

After four days in Perth, it was on to Sydney. We were picked up at Kingsford Smith Internatonal Airport in a white minibus and driven to our hotel on Kent Street. I walked out onto the balcony and realized that we were right across the street from St Andrew’s Cathedral School, which I attended in 1975. Or rather, we were across the street from the Cathedral — the school had been moved around the corner, but our hotel was built on the exact spot where I attended 5th grade.

We’ve been playing in some beautiful venues around all the world, but tonight’s show at the Sydney Opera House probably takes the cake.  I was here in 1973 on the day that the Opera House opened, and it was pretty special to be back in Sydney, playing in the Concert Hall. All the more so because my parents had made the trip from New York, bringing my son along too. He slept through the performance but was awake for post-show drinks  – outside on the Opera House terrace.

The view from our dressing room at the Sydney Opera House

Cheval Sombre emailed this morning with the terrible news that Alex Chilton has passed away far too young, the author and singer of so many great songs: “Thirteen”, “The Ballad of El Goodo,” “I’m in Love With a Girl,” “Nighttime,” “Oh Dana” etc. Big Star’s Third (aka Sister Lovers) of course is one of the all-time great albums, one of those rare and beautiful records where you get to know every nook and cranny by heart. Last week I took this photo of Big Star Records in Adelaide, South Australia.

Some people read idea books / some people have pretty looks / but if your eyes are wide / and more words aside / take care.

Big Star in Adelaide

We are working on final mixes for a CD and vinyl edition of the songs we recorded for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests, which will be released this summer. Meanwhile you can download a special re-mix/re-arrangement that Anthony LaMarca did of our “International Velvet Theme.”  All proceeds go to Target Cancer, an organization dedicated to researching and promoting new treatments for rare forms of cancer. Click here to listen and download the track:

www.righttracktunes.org

We are opening for Charlotte Gainsbourg next Tuesday at the Bell House, but it is already sold out, I’m afraid. http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009/12/charlotte_gains.html

Interview with Dean in Perth Now: http://www.perthnow.com.au/entertainment/famous-faces/story-e6frg3gl-1225817425111

Interview with Dean for Womadelaide Festival: http://www.departmentforsound.com/2010/01/11/womadelaide-2010-dean-and-britta-interview/

Interview with Dino Stamatopoulos about new Adult Swim show: “Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole”

Nice little blurb about My Robot Friends song, “By Your Side,” which Dean plays on.

Source: The Sunday Times