Morricone Youth

Morricone Youth

Origin New York, New York, United States
Genres rock and roll, surf rock, bossa nova, progressive rock, jazz,
Years active 1999––
Labels Country Club Records
Associated acts Creedle
The Rugburns
Crash Worship
Palomar
Pretendo
Pain Teens
Yellowbirds
Fruit Bats
Pronto
Website morriconeyouth.com
Members Devon E. Levins
John Castro
Dan Kessler
Kenny Shaw
Eric Reeves
Evan Francis
Past members Robert Conroy
Dreiky Caprice
Karla Moheno
Jefferson Rabb
David Spinley
Frank Molina
Tony Roth
Dale W. Miller
Steve Walls
Nervous Neal Smith
Timur Yusef
Sal A. Mander
Greg O'Keeffe

Morricone Youth is a New York City band formed in 1999 dedicated to writing, performing and recording music written for the moving image (e.g., film and television soundtrack and library production music). The band is composed of present or past members of Creedle, The Rugburns, Crash Worship, Palomar, Pretendo, Pain Teens, Yellowbirds, Fruit Bats and Mikael Jorgensen of Wilco's Pronto.

The band regularly composes and performs original music to projected films (e.g., silent films, midnight movies, animated films) in live settings including Jean Rollin's Fascination (1979), David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977), Rene Laloux's Fantastic Planet (1973), Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), Ron & Valerie Taylor's Inner Space (1972), Robert Clouse's Enter The Dragon (1973), Jack Hill's Foxy Brown (1974), Mario Bava's Danger: Diabolik (1968), Saul Bass's Phase IV (1974), George Miller's Mad Max (1979), Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925) and F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) and Sunrise (1927). In addition to composing its own compositions and themes for such films, the band is committed to reinterpreting portions of the original score for each film it performs. Morricone Youth is currently in the process of recording and releasing a vinyl (and digital) LP or EP for each of the fifteen live scores it has performed to date. The first two, EPs for "Night of the Living Dead" and "The Adventures of Prince Achmed," were released in September 2016.

Morricone Youth recorded its debut full length album of original music entitled "Silenzio Violento" in 2004 with Martin Bisi at B.C. Studio in Brooklyn, New York released on October 8, 2005 by Country Club Records. Four songs from "Silenzio Violento" were used in documentary film Second Skin (film) directed by Juan Carlos Pineiro about MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) and the people who play them. The film premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March 2008.

Although the band was mostly inactive from 2007 to 2010, Morricone Youth resumed performing live in 2011. Current members include Devon E. Levins (guitar), John Castro (bass/vocals), Dan Kessler (analog keyboards/percussion), Evan Francis and Fraser Campbell (saxophone, flute, clarinet), Aaron Bahr (trumpet), Ayo Awosika and Bliss Blood (vocals), and Kenny Shaw, Eric Reeves and Brian Kantor (drums).

Guitarist/founder Devon E. Levins hosted a weekly Internet radio show from 2007 to 2014 under the same name on East Village Radio playing primarily obscure film and television soundtracks and library music and interviewing soundtrack composers such as Lalo Schifrin, Howard Blake, Irmin Schmidt of Can, Claudio Simonetti and Maurizio Guarini of Goblin, Sven Libaek, John Lurie, Danny Elfman, Elliot Goldenthal, Cliff Martinez, Carter Burwell and Alan Howarth. The radio show has since moved to WFMU under the new name Morricone Island.

Discography

Albums:

EPs:

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.