Thursday, February 01, 2007

News: Ed In Burn To Shine DVD

From Seattle Weekly:

"Fugazi percussionist and filmmaker Brendan Canty was in town this Friday shooting footage for the Seattle edition of his Burn to Shine documentary series (previous cities covered include Wash-ington, D.C., Chicago, Louisville, Ky., and Portland, Ore.).
The series' premise involves a handful of locally curated bands playing one song each in a building that is slated for imminent demolition.
In this case, the curator was Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard, who pulled together an impressive array of local talent, including Blue Scholars, Tiny Vipers, Eddie Vedder, the Long Winters, the Can't See, Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death, the Cave Singers, and Kinski.
The beautiful, older Phinney Ridge home where the filming took place made for a bittersweet set, with everyone admiring the antique fixtures and lamenting the space's impending demise.
Still, the passionate, purposeful nature of Canty, his crew, and the participating artists, combined with the fleeting nature of the moment, created a relaxed, reverent vibe that was downright magical. This was especially true when Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter performed the last song of the shoot, and insisted that the remaining musicians and audience members sing along on the song's final round of choruses.
When I remarked to Canty that it felt like a highly appropriate benediction to the ceremony of the day, he agreed wholeheartedly. "That's true, and that's sort of the goal," he said. "The first film [in D.C.] happened because a friend of mine had a house that he had to demolish and he felt bad about it—he knew the woman that used to live there. It was a way to honor her life, the house itself, and to get a snapshot of where the bands are at that particular moment in time." No firm release date for the film is available, but I will cover it in this column when it's announced. DVDs of previous editions can be purchased at www.trixiedvd.com."

By Hannah Levin

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