At the Hollywood Theatre, the Organ Grinders silent film series takes on a classic folktale in a neoclassical way. On November 18th, the 1939 Ensemble takes the stage with secret laboratory worth of drums, mallets and chimes. Their target: Goethe’s tale of the Alchemist and the Devil, the 1926 Silent film by F.W. Murnau. Led by Jose Medeles of the Breeders, the 1939 Ensemble mixes a gaggle of percussion influences into their exciting live performances. In a special one-time performance, the Hollywood Theatre is transformed back to its vaudeville days of bowler hat bedecked musicians and big screen spectacles.
ORGAN GRINDERS: FAUST
November 18th – 8pm
Hollywood Theatre – $12
Tickets available at Filmusik.com and the Hollywood Theatre box office
Click here for tickets: bit.ly/tpKpD7
1939 are an instrumental duo from Portland Or. with an unusual line-up: drums, vibraphone & noise. drawing influences from Jazz, Krautrock and No Wave, 1939 Ensemble moves between ominous dissonance and noise to sharp bombastic beats. The duo features Jose Medeles of The Breeders and David Coniglio . Check out their music online at mysp.ac/vbxcaP
Jose Medeles is the drummer for The Breeders and 1939 Ensemble. In 1998 played drums for Face to Face as a touring member. He also played drums in 22 Jacks, appearing on Overserved and their final album Going North.
David Coniglio played with Either/Orchestra and side projects with Dana Colley of Morphine. David moved to Portland, OR in 2006, and is now actively gigging with 1939 Ensemble and M. Village.
ORGAN GRINDERS – From under the screen, the sounds of modern groups are paired with movies from a different era, updating the genre of Silent Film accompaniment to the sounds around us today. Organ Grinders revisits the original vision of the Hollywood Theatre, built in 1926 with an orchestra pit and a hydraulically ascending theatre organ.
FAUST – God and Satan war over earth; to settle things, they wager on the soul of Faust, a learned and prayerful alchemist. During a plague, Faust despairs and burns his books after failing to stop death; Satan sends Mephisto to tempt Faust, first with insight into treating the plague and then with a day’s return to youth. Mephisto is clever, timing the end of this 24 hours as Faust embraces the beautiful Duchess of Parma. Faust trades his soul for youth. Some time later, he’s bored, and demands on Easter Sunday that Mephisto take him home. Faust promptly sees and falls in love with the beautiful Gretchen, whose liaison with him brings her dishonor. Is there redemption? Who wins the wager?
This Friday night at the Hollywood Theatre, we turn back time to a simpler age of celluloid and sound. As part of the new Organ Grinders series taking place at the Hollywood Theatre this year, Portland instrumental duo Sallo premieres an original soundtrack for some of the strangest film of the silent era: Mest’ kinematograficheskogo operatora or The Cameraman’s Revenge. Made in 1911 by Vladislaw Starewicz, it is one of the first works of stop motion animation. Painstakingly posing dead insects, the Russian filmmaker crafted his story of infidelity in the lives of beetles complete with a grasshopper on a moped and a projectionist diving from a flaming booth.
ORGAN GRINDERS: The Cameraman’s Revenge October 14th – 9:30pm Hollywood Theatre – $12 Also featuring original scores for Starewicz’s short films Nightingale, Frogland and Mascot.
SALLO is a Portland based instrumental duo. A combination of dreamy, dark, and driven instrumentals with playfully subversive song structures, Sallo’s compositions routinely test the boundaries of traditional songwriting. Sallo uses drums and keys, usually treated as mere supports in most of today’s popular music, and makes them the epicenter. Their songs range from melancholic tremors to chaotic crescendos . Sallo has collaborated with a variety of local artists including the Portland Cello Project, The 3rd Floor comedy/theater group, the Curious Comedy Theater and the Castiron Carousel marionette troupe. www.sallo.bandcamp.com
kinematograficheskogo operatora: Vladislaw’s Childhood passion was entomology. Began his film career in Russia around 1909 making little shorts on insects in and around Moscow. Later educated as an entomologist, he passionately wanted to film two stag beetles fighting, but they didn’t like his camera lights and would not fight. However, the film idea led directly to his animation of insects by stop-motion photography; which in turn gave him the idea for his masterpiece “The Cameraman’s Revenge.”
ORGAN GRINDERS – From under the screen, the sounds of modern groups are paired with movies from a different era, updating the genre of Silent Film accompaniment to the sounds around us today. Organ Grinders revisits the original vision of the Hollywood Theatre, built in 1926 with an orchestra pit and a hydraulically ascending theatre organ.
A note for subscribers:
The new Organ Grinders series is somewhat different from our “mainstage” shows with live Foley and voice acting. If you’d rather not receive e-mails about the Organ Grinders series in this newsletter, simply click the update profile link at the bottom of the email and select “No” under Organ Grinders.
As part of the new Organ Grinders series taking place at the Hollywood Theatre this year, Portland instrumental duo Sallo premieres an original soundtrack for some of the strangest celluloid of the silent era: Mest’ kinematograficheskogo operatora or The Cameraman’s Revenge. Made in 1911 by Vladislaw Starewicz, it is one of the first works of stop motion animation. Painstakingly posing dead insects, the Russian filmmaker crafted his story of infidelity in the lives of beetles complete with a grasshopper on a moped and a projectionist diving from a flaming booth.
Also featuring original scores for Starewicz’s short films Nightingale, Frogland and Mascot.
ORGAN GRINDERS – From under the screen, the sounds of modern groups are paired with movies from a different era, updating the genre of Silent Film accompaniment to the sounds around us today. Organ Grinders revisits the original vision of the Hollywood Theatre, built in 1926 with an orchestra pit and a hydraulically ascending theatre organ.
SALLO is a Portland based instrumental duo. A combination of dreamy, dark, and driven instrumentals with playfully subversive song structures, Sallo’s compositions routinely test the boundaries of traditional songwriting. Sallo uses drums and keys, usually treated as mere supports in most of today’s popular music, and makes them the epicenter. Their songs range from melancholic tremors to chaotic crescendos . Sallo has collaborated with a variety of local artists including the Portland Cello Project, The 3rd Floor comedy/theater group, the Curious Comedy Theater and the Castiron Carousel marionette troupe. www.sallo.bandcamp.com
A note for subscribers:
The new Organ Grinders series is somewhat different from our “mainstage” shows with live Foley and voice acting. If you’d rather not receive e-mails about the Organ Grinders series in this newsletter, simply click the update profile link at the bottom of the email and select “No” under Organ Grinders.
Next month we’re hosting Sallo as part of our new Silent Film series. Check them out at www.sallo.bandcamp.com and check in for more info about the show this week.
Here’s the poster design for the concert just out today. Yes the film does feature a grasshopper with a movie camera (a real one too mind you), and yes it was made in 1911.
