|
|
MOST RECENT ITEMS ADDED TO TOP — CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES |
Creative Time Presents
Playing the Building: An Installation by David Byrne

31 May – 10 August 2008
Open Friday, Saturday, Sunday: Noon – 6PM (Free)
Opening Reception: 31 May, 6–8 PM
The Battery Maritime Building:

10 South Street, New York, NY (Map)
Playing the Building is a sound installation in which the infrastructure, the physical plant of the building, is converted into a giant musical instrument. Devices are attached to the building structure — to the metal beams and pillars, the heating pipes, the water pipes — and are used to make these things produce sound. The activations are of three types: wind, vibration, striking. The devices do not produce sound themselves, but they cause the building elements to vibrate, resonate and oscillate so that the building itself becomes a very large musical instrument.
|
|
Hal Willner's Stay Awake Live

The 20th Anniversary Concert
Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films
St. Ann's Warehouse Gala Benefit, 4.2.08
|
SPEAK UP!

A benefit for peace in Iraq & justice at home
St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY, 3.18.08
|
|
Visionaire #53: Sound

"Multi-format album of fashion and art" Visionaire will take the form of five 12" vinyl picture discs for its 53rd issue, "Sound". "Sound" features contributions from David Byrne, the Knife, Animal Collective, Cat Power, Michael Stipe, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Antony and the Johnsons, Andrew WK, Yoko Ono, Beastie Boy Adrock, Danger Mouse, U2, Courtney Love, Malcolm McLaren, Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Sylvian, Laurie Anderson, UNKLE, Sunn O))), Gang Gang Dance, Christian Marclay, Miss Kittin, Trevor Jackson, Nigo, Robert Wilson, DJ Spooky, Doug Aitken, Karl Lagerfeld, Alexander McQueen, and Helmut Lang, among many, many others from the worlds of art, fashion, and, of course, music."
—Pitchfork [link to review]
|
Plum: 7" Limited Edition Box Set
Thrill Jockey 15-year anniversary 7" single box set with covers of songs by Thrill Jockey bands by Tortoise, Arbouretum, The Sea and Cake, Pit er Pat, Directions in Music, DB, Archer Prewitt, Bobby Conn, Califone and Thalia Zedek, Freakwater, The Zincs, Howe Gelb, John Paris, Sue Garner & Rick Brown, Adult., Angela Desveaux, Eleventh Dream Day, Mouse on Mars. Link to Pitchfork review.
|
|
Furnishing the Self — Upholstering the Soul [Chairs]
Hemphill: 1515 14th Street NW Washington, DC
3 November – 22 December 2007
|
the Knee Plays

David Byrne & Robert Wilson’s 1984 collaboration from the theatrical epic
the CIVIL warS available on CD for the first time. Includes 8 bonus tracks plus full-length DVD slide show featuring JoAnn Verburg’s photographs of the performance with music.
Release date: 11.7.07 [Nonesuch]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Resonating Frequencies

Panel discussion: DB, Liz Diller and Christopher Janney
Center For Architecture, New York NY • 2.23.07 • 7 p.m.
|
|
|
|
Arboretum

Straight from the sketchbook, smudges and all, plus a four-foot foldout guide. It’s an eclectic blend of faux science, automatic writing, satire, and an attempt to find connections where none were thought to exist—a sort of self-therapy, allowing the hand to say what the voice cannot. Irrational logic, it’s sometimes called. The application of logical scientific rigor and form to basically irrational premises. To proceed, carefully and deliberately, from nonsense, with a straight face, often arriving at a new kind of sense. The world keeps opening up, unfolding, and just when we expect it to be closed—to be a sealed, sensible box—it shows us something completely surprising.
Published by McSweeney's:
Hardcover, 92pp, 7x9", 14-pp gatefold; Pencil drawings & essays/addenda
Now available for purchase from the McSweeney's Store
|
Revenge of the Book Eaters
Beacon Theatre, New York, NY • Wed 23 August 2006 8:00 PM

826NYC and The Bowery Presents present REVENGE OF THE BOOK-EATERS, a star-studded night featuring some of today's most recognized names in indie-rock, literature, and comedy, including SUFJAN STEVENS (in a rare solo acoustic performance), JON STEWART, DAVID BYRNE (alone, onstage, with a guitar), DAVE EGGERS (best-selling author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius), SARAH VOWELL (best-selling author and This American Life contributor), JOHN HODGMAN (Daily Show regular and author of The Areas of My Expertise) and JOHN RODERICK (The Long Winters) and special guests to be announced in an evening that promises once and for all to settle the debate: words or music — which is better? The evening will benefit 826NYC, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students aged 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.
|
|
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Remastered + bonus tracks: 24 Track downloads

In keeping with the spirit of the original album, Brian and David are offering for download all the multitracks on two of the songs. Through signing up to the user license, and in line with Creative Commons licenses, you are free to edit, remix, sample and mutilate these tracks however you like. Add them to your own song or create a new one. Visitors are welcome to post their mixes or songs that incorporate these audio files on the site for others to hear and rate.
|
|
I ♥ PowerPoint
Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts: Artists' Week: 5 March 2006 |
|
DB receives 2005 Les Paul Award
"The Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards is the foremost program recognizing the achievements of audio professionals. …[T]hrough the Les Paul Award [TEC] pays tribute to musical artists and others whose work has furthered the art and science of sound." |
Talking Heads Brick Released

"This specially packed boxed set contains all eight of Talking Heads' studio albums, expanded and remastered as two-sided DualDiscs featuring audiophile DVD-A sound, rare and previously unreleased material, and video tracks."
|
|
Parting the Waters
The New Yorker Hurricane Katrina Benefit
24 September 2005, 7:30 p.m. , Town Hall, NY
• • •
In keeping with the New Orleans theme for this show I am reuniting with Les Misérables Brass Band. They are a local group that I collaborated with on the live performances of a theater piece I did in the in the mid 80s with Robert Wilson called The Knee Plays. Musically the inspiration came from New Orleans brass bands, like Dirty Dozen and Rebirth, but I somehow mysteriously managed to stiffen it up and skew the music towards my own jerky style. We’ll do the piece "In The Future". —DB
[Link to journal entry]
|
|
|
|
|
Stefan Sagmeister wins 2005 Grammy
Art Director, Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package
for "Once in a Lifetime" Talking Heads Boxed Set

|
|
The WIRED CD --- { - Rip. Sample. Mash. Share.}/+
CD included in the November 2004 issue of WIRED magazine
with 16 tracks released under Creative Commons licenses

Featuring Beastie Boys, DB, Zap Mama, My Morning Jacket, Spoon, Gilberto Gil, Dan the Automator, Thievery Corporation, Le Tigre, Paul Westerberg, Chuck D with Fine Arts Militia, The Rapture, Cornelius, Danger Mouse & Jemini, DJ Dolores and Matmos
|
|
|
The Voting Booth Project
A group of prominent designers and artists re-imagine actual Florida voting booths from the 2000 Presidential election, commenting on design, democracy, and related themes.
Parsons Gallery, 2 W. 13th Street, New York, NY • October 8 – December 5, 2004

Itsy-Bitsy Democracy / Big Fucking Democracy [DB + DS, 2004]
|
Art Exhibit: Trees, Tombstones & Bullet Points
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY • October 2, 2004 - February 6, 2005
Works Featured: EEEI, Corporate Signs, Tree Drawings

I ♥ PowerPoint
DB talk: October 1st, 5:30 p.m.
Dryden Theater, George Eastman House, 900 East Avenue, Rochester, NY |
Ilé Aiyé
released on Plexifilm August 31st, 2004
DB's "breathtaking impressionistic 1989 documentary on Candomblé,
the African spirit cult of the Bahia region of Brazil" |
WIRED presents a benefit for Creative Commons
Town Hall NYC, Sept. 21st, 2004 : performances by David Byrne and Gilberto Gil

Wall Street Journal Article • Newsweek Article
|
Future Soundtrack for America

CD Featuring DB, OK Go, Jimmy Eat World, Death Cab For Cutie, Blink-182,
Mike Doughty, Ben Kweller, Sleater-Kinney, R.E.M., Bright Eyes, The Long Winters,
will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, They Might Be Giants, Clem Snide,
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fountains of Wayne, Nada Surf, The Flaming Lips, Old 97's,
Laura Cantrell, Tom Waits and Elliot Smith.
:::
Proceeds support the MoveOn PAC. Available from Barsuk Records,
or (along with The Future Dictionary of America) from McSweeney's.
|
"Democratic Victory 04" Auction
DB/DS Corporate sign lenticular photograph triptych currently up for bidding:

|
826NYC Benefit
DB, David Gates and His Enablers, and readings by Robert Coover,
Susan Choi, Dave Eggers, Elissa Schappell, Rick Moody and host Jonathan Ames.
The Old First Reformed Church, 729 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, N.Y.
24 June 2004, 8 p.m.
—> Link to Susan Choi's piece written after the evening's performances |
DB + band on "On The Record with Bob Costas" season finale
Friday 18 June 2004, 11 p.m. ET/PT & 10 p.m. CT on HBO |
|
|
|
|
• • •
MOST RECENT ITEMS ADDED TO THE TOP — CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES |
|