david byrne

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Watch Glenn Branca Hold Forth On Bowie, Byrne, CBGB, Sonic Youth + His Own Bad Self

As excited as we were to celebrate Glenn Branca’s 65th birthday at the B+B Newsroom last week, we didn’t expect our discussion with the trailblazing composer to be as epic as, say, the time in 2001 that we were blown away by his 100-guitar symphony beneath the Twin Towers, and (more recently, in 2010) the debut of his 15th symphony at Le Poisson Rouge. How wrong we were: the master rolled into 155 Grand with a bottle of whiskey and, just like when New York spoke to him in 2004, immediately lit up a cig. We weren’t about to tell him to put it out.
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When Solange Plays a Laundromat, This Guy Makes It Look Fresh

(Photo: Caris Reid)

Alan Del Rio Ortiz painted by Caris Reid.

What do Florence and the Machine, St. Vincent, Smith Westerns, Drowners, and Spector have in common? Alan Del Rio Ortiz has directed videos for all of them. (Also, they are all insanely talented.)

You probably saw the clip of Solange performing at a laundromat near Barclays Center earlier this week. Yep, Del Rio Ortiz shot that one too. While the 30-year-old filmmaker specializes in music videos, his portfolio also includes live concerts, tour videos, a documentary special on Blood Orange, and several short film collaborations with Slutever’s Karley Sciortino. He’s spending his summer shooting a series of live performances (including the Solange one) as part of the Uncapped series for Vitaminwater/The Fader.
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