Minneapolis, July 6, 2011— The Walker Art Center and 89.3 The Current present the return of Summer Music & Movies, August 1-22. Taking its theme from the Walker exhibition Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera Since 1870, this year’s series, I’ve Got My Eyes on You, features movies about spying paired with the best of Minnesota music including Haley Bonar (Monday, August 1), No Bird Sing (Monday, August 8), and Buffalo Moon (Monday, August 15). Celebrating the Walker’s very first outdoor screening series in 1973, when all of the programs were of silent films with live accompaniment, on August 22 Summer Music & Movies moves to the Walker’s Open Field for a special one-night event featuring Fritz Lang’s silent film Spies (Spione) with a live score commissioned from Dark Dark Dark, aka “Dark, Dark, Dark and the Modern Times Spychestra.”
MONDAYS, AUGUST 1–15 IN LORING PARK; AUGUST 22 AT
WALKER OPEN FIELD, FREE
MUSIC BEGINS AT 7 PM, FILMS BEGIN AT DUSK (APPROXIMATELY 8:45 PM). IN CASE OF RAIN, EVENTS MOVE TO THE WALKER CINEMA.
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Monday, August 1
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Music: Haley Bonar
“The same ingredients that propel a Feist or Neko Case into the national consciousness are alive in Bonar: tactful songwriting, pop sensibilities, charisma, and arrangements that fit.” —A.V. Club Twin Cities
Traveling the byways between indie rock and new folk, enchanting singer/songwriter Haley Bonar has grown wise beyond her year 28 years. Now breaking big nationally with her latest release, Golder, she returns to Loring Park for a shining evening of incandescent pop and alt-country stomp. Joining her are Luke Anderson, Jacob Hanson, and Jeremy Ylvisaker.
DJ: Bill DeVille
Movie:
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Rear Window
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Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
“It’s funny, tart, tender, thoughtful, desperate, and as neat and tidy a moral parable about looking at things and getting involved as you’re ever going to find.” —author/film critic David Thomson
In Hitchcock’s dark thriller about voyeurism, Jimmy Stewart stars as a photographer cooped up in his apartment with a broken leg. Using his camera lens as a telescope, this peeping tom gets more than he bargained for when he thinks he’s witnessed a murder. A luminous and feisty Grace Kelly costars. 1954, 16mm, 112 minutes.
Monday, August 8
Music: No Bird Sing
“Nearly everything about No Bird Sing is innovative and artistic. Just the musical makeup of the group is gutsy: essentially a hip-hop band built on the raw sounds of one guitar, one microphone, drums, and little else.”
—Star Tribune
Hailed as a heady harbinger for the local music scene, No Bird Sing makes whip-smart indie- tinged hip-hop that’s ripe with mood and might. Their rap and rock recipe combines toothy hooks, fiery freestyle, and meaty riffs with equal parts ire and inquisition.
DJ: Mary Lucia
Movie: 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse
Directed by Fritz Lang
“Operates an entertaining and charming game with suggestively ambiguous perspectives, mirages, and false appearances.” —Lexicon des Internationalen Films
Lang’s final film is one of the first to deal with the surreptitious use of video surveillance. In Cold War Berlin, the maniacal Dr. Mabuse has installed 1,000 video cameras in the rooms of the Hotel Luxor, where top diplomats stay. While ensconced behind his video displays, the paranoid Mabuse plots to control the world. 1960, video, 99 minutes.
Monday, August 15
Music: Buffalo Moon
“Midwestern charm with that instantly recognizable South American allure … just take the leap into this adventurous sound.” —City Pages
Describing their sound as “South America meets South Dakota,” the breezy beach pop of Buffalo Moon conjures sultry bossa nova, samba soul, and dreamy Tropicalia all whirled together by Karen Freire’s infectious Spanish/English vocal style. Imagine Astrud Gilberto chillin’ poolside with Stereolab and you’ve got the perfect soundtrack for the setting summer sun.
DJ’s: 89.3 The Current’s Morning Show Hosts Steve Seel and Jill Riley
Movie: Blow-Up
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
“A fascinating picture, which has something real to say about the matter of personal involvement and emotional commitment in a jazzed-up, media hooked-in world …. vintage Antonioni fortified with a Hitchcock twist…”
—New York Times
David Hemmings stars as cynical and mod Thomas, swinging London’s top fashion photographer, in this classic about the power of the image. One day, upon enlarging seemingly innocuous photos taken in a park, he uncovers in the blow up a potentially deadly secret. With Vanessa Redgrave and Veruschka. 1966, 16mm, 111 minutes.
Monday, August 22
Music: Dark Dark Dark and the Modern Times Spychestra
Start: Dusk (8:45 pm)
Walker Galleries Open, 6–9 pm Free
“Dark Dark Dark’s true accomplishment here is how they mix sounds and influences so effortlessly. They comprise a tight, intuitive unit, especially when the instruments swirl together into an otherworldly eddy of sound.” —Pitchfork
At dusk at the Walker’s Open Field, the captivating chamber-folk sextet Dark Dark Dark unveils a new score for the movie Spies, joined by guest musicians and singers for a spellbinding evening of silent film and live sounds. Rising players on the national indie scene, they make music like no other and smartly fuse disparate influences such as minimalism, New Orleans jazz, Americana, pop, and Eastern European folk. Lush and layered, haunting and homespun, the band’s sonic landscape features an eclectic array of acoustic and traditional instruments, complemented by Nona Marie Invie’s singular voice. Commissioned by the Walker.
DJ: Barb Abney
Movie: Spies
Directed by Fritz Lang
“[A] tour de force of serial thrills, megalomania, and oppressive but thoroughly justified paranoia.” —New York Sun
In Lang’s exciting film, tonight with a new live score by headliners Dark Dark Dark, the criminal mastermind Haghi controls all activity through his incredible oversight. When an undercover agent threatens him, he sends in the lovely Sonya to subvert his efforts. 1928, 16mm, 80 minutes.
Stop by the galleries this special Monday evening to see the exhibitions Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870 and Midnight Party from 6–9 pm. Free admission.
Summer Music & Movies is sponsored by Barrio. Additional support is provided by the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board.