Andy Warhol: By Sight and Sound

In the hip, psychedelic 60s, superstar pop artist Andy Warhol often combined his 4-minute, 1-character films called screen tests with live performances by his favorite band the Velvet Underground for the multimedia happenings at his New York studio The Factory.

So when the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh authorized a new performance commission for Warhol's screen tests, it seemed fitting that they chose Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, whose dream pop music with their previous bands Galaxie 500 and Luna had been favorably compared to that of the Velvet Underground, to compose and perform the song cycle for the project.

And this afternoon, Dean and Britta, with Warhol's short films on a giant screen in the background, performed live all the selections from their creation 13 Most Beautiful ... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Test at the National Gallery of Art as part of the events surrounding the museum's current exibition Warhol: Headlines.

Some of Warhol's 13 subjects such as Dennis Hopper and Lou Reed and Nico went on to find national fame. Others such as Paul America, Billy Name, Ingrid Superstar, and Jane Holzer, saw their moments in the cultural spotlight remain contained in that brilliant period when Warhol's world dominated the New York scene.

Judy's favorite song from 13 Most Beautiful

Wareham and Phillips, who are husband and wife, composed all of the songs for 13 Most Beautiful except 2. For the Nico film, they chose Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It With Mine," which the singer recorded for her 1st album. The Reed short is accompanied by Dean & Britta's version of "Not a Young Man Anymore," a long-lost Velvets number that recently surfaced as an internet bootleg.

My Favorite Song from 13 Most Beautiful 

Wareham gave a brief explanation of each song before it was played and, following  the captivating hour-long performance, Wareham and Phillps came back out on stage to describe their involvement in the project which began with viewing most of the 272 such films Warhol had created.

"The more we looked at these, and the more research we did, the more we became interested in the people who were at the Factory on a daily basis," Wareham said. "So we decided to focus on them."

Some of the songs were written to evoke the essence and mood of the filmed subject, while others were created to provide a more direct homage, Wareham noted.

Tales, Tidbits, and Traveling Tips
Sometimes what seems bad at first turns out to be a blessing. Originally, before heading to the art museum, we had intended to attend the Inside Media program at the Newseum entitled The Mirage Man: Bruce Ivins, the Anthrax Attacks, and America’s Rush to War,” where Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Willman would  talk about the story of the hunt for the anthrax killer he details in his new book.  However, when we arrived at the Newseum, we discovered that the auditorium there was already filled to capacity. We then walked to the National Art Museum, where we found that an incredibly long line had already formed for the Warhol show, which was still more than 90 minutes away. There's no way we could have gotten into the show had we arrived after the Newseum book talk and I am absolutely certain that of the 2, we saw the more magnificent, one-of-a-kind performance.