Tav Falco
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Gustavo Antonio "Tav" Falco is an American-born filmmaker, actor, musician, author, photographer, and dancer. Falco has fronted the experimental band Tav Falco's Panther Burns since 1979, and founded a parallel solo career that incorporates other styles such as cabaret, tango, and vocal jazz. He has directed one feature film and numerous short films, and has played minor acting roles in motion pictures filmed in both North America and Europe. He is the author of two books, one a psychography of the city of Memphis, and the other a collection of his photography.
BiographyEdit
Falco was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania<ref name="AZ_Daily_Star_2-11-1988">Template:Cite journal</ref> to a family of Italian descent<ref name="rec_collector_10-2012">Template:Cite journal</ref> but grew up in rural southwest Arkansas<ref name="Atlanta_Const_10-2-1987">Template:Cite journal</ref> between Whelen Springs and Gurdon.<ref name="Enc_of_Arkansas">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> After studying theater and film at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Falco moved to Memphis in 1973.<ref name=Atlanta_Const_10-2-1987 /> In the mid-1970s, he started the nonprofit Televista "art-action" video group with fellow Arkansas poet/performance artist/videographer Randall Lyon to create art and to document local musicians and artists.<ref name=Enc_of_Arkansas /><ref name="1st_Ave">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> While with Televista, Falco worked with and trained in photography and filmmaking under Memphis color photographer William Eggleston.<ref name=Enc_of_Arkansas /><ref name=1st_Ave />
In 1978, Alex Chilton teamed up with Falco after being impressed by Falco's performance of the song "Bourgeois Blues"<ref name="Memphis_mag_protest_songs">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> at The Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, which culminated in the chainsawing of an electric guitar.<ref name=Atlanta_Const_10-2-1987 /><ref name="The_Age_1-16-1987">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Albq_Jrnl_5-31-1996">Template:Cite journal</ref> The two founded the self-styled "art damage" rock and roll band Tav Falco's Panther Burns in 1979.<ref name="Please_Kill_Me">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="LA Record">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The group was named after lore surrounding a plantation in Mississippi.<ref name="psychbaby_ccz_intv_10-2021">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Panther Burns' debut album, Behind The Magnolia Curtain, was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis and released by Rough Trade Records.<ref name=Albq_Jrnl_5-31-1996 /><ref name="Local_Voice_6-29-2012">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A December 3, 1980, session recorded at Sam Phillips Recording Service was released in 1992 on Marilyn Records as The Unreleased Sessions.<ref name="unreleased_marilyn">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Falco moved to New York in 1981, and released his official follow-up album, Blow Your Top, on Chris Stein's Animal Records imprint, which was distributed by Chrysalis Records.<ref name="dntn_81_8-19-2022">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Tav Falco's Panther Burns celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2019 with a tour dubbed the "40th Anniversary Howl", with its prime show taking place May 21 of that year in Memphis at Lafayette's Music Room.<ref name="comm_appeal_5-18-2019">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Alt URL</ref>
Falco devoted portions of his musical career to highlighting traditional regional artists from Memphis and Mississippi who had not gained media attention. He filmed a black & white short film of blues artist R.L. Burnside performing at Brotherhood Sportsmen's Lodge in Como, Mississippi, on September 28, 1974.<ref name="aqua_burnside">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After assembling The Panther Burns, Falco performed and collaborated with legacy rockabilly and blues performers such as Charlie Feathers, James Luther Dickinson,<ref name="arthur_mag">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Cordell Jackson.<ref name="sf_exam_5-8-2019">Template:Cite journal</ref> His photography was used for the Charlie Feathers album Honky Tonk Man (New Rose Records, 1988).<ref name="c_feathers_1988_lp">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>
Falco would also promote and work with lesser-known regional contemporaries.<ref name="Art_Fein_1988_1">Template:Cite AV media</ref> His record imprint, Frenzi Records, released a 1986 compilation of area artists entitled Swamp Surfing in Memphis,<ref name="ssim_1986_lp">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> as well as a 1988 studio EP by female-led group The Hellcats.<ref name=Art_Fein_1988_1 /> These records received respective international distribution from Au Go Go Records (Australia)<ref name=The_Age_1-16-1987 /> and New Rose Records (France).<ref name=Art_Fein_1988_1 />
In 2014, Falco compiled a double album of some of his favorite tracks from his music collection, Tav Falco's Wild & Exotic World of Musical Obscurities, which was released on Stag-O-Lee Records. The album set included a cover song by The Panther Burns and liner notes by Falco.<ref name="The_Quietus_2014">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="wire_11-2014">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In the 1990s, Falco relocated from the United States to Paris, and then to Vienna, where he lived for nearly two decades. In January 2022, he located to Bangkok, where he currently resides.<ref name=dntn_81_8-19-2022 /> Often Falco has claimed his main artistic purpose is "to stir up the dark waters of the unconscious."<ref name="LA_Beat">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In a 2019 interview, Falco described himself as a "Utopian anarchist".<ref name="Please_Kill_Me" />
Work in filmsEdit
As filmmakerEdit
Starting in the 1970s, Falco created a number of short films on varying topics focusing on "underground" art-actions and cultural assets around the mid-American South.<ref name=Enc_of_Arkansas /><ref name="louder_than_war">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Cinémathèque Française in Paris accepted and archived six<ref name=Please_Kill_Me /> of Falco's short films into its permanent collection.<ref name=louder_than_war /> Among the titles archived are Masque of Hôtel Orient,<ref name=Please_Kill_Me /> Born Too Late, Helene of Memphis, Memphis Beat, Shadetree Mechanic, and 71 Salvage.<ref name=The_Quietus_2014 /> A selection of Falco's short films were shown in a retrospective at the Cinémathèque Française in 2006, with Falco himself in attendance.<ref name=Please_Kill_Me />
Urania Descending, the first feature film directed by Falco, was completed in 2014<ref name=LA_Beat /> and released in 2016 by Lamplighter Films.<ref name="am_ctheque_urania">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film consists of portions of what was intended to be a film trilogy.<ref name=LA_Beat /> As of February 2024, Falco completed the full Urania Trilogy. Avant-premieres were held at key cinematheques in America and in Europe including a special event at Cinéma Saint-André des Arts in Paris presented by avant-garde cineaste, F.J. Ossang.<ref name= psychbaby_ccz_intv_10-2021 />
In addition to the Cinémathèque Française, Falco's film work has been screened at The Horse Hospital, London;<ref name="Guardian 10-25-2003">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Outsideleft">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the David Lynch-designed Silencio Cinema, Paris;<ref name="Ark_Times_12-17-2015">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Dezeen_9-7-2011">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Anthology Film Archives, New York; Roxie Theater, San Francisco; Oxford Film Festival, Mississippi; Austria Film Archiv Metrokino, Vienna; and by the American Cinematheque in the Steven Spielberg Cinema at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.<ref name=Please_Kill_Me />
As actorEdit
Falco appeared as an actor with minor roles in the feature films Great Balls of Fire!,<ref name= Albq_Jrnl_5-31-1996 /> A nagy postarablás (The Great Post Office Robbery),<ref name="IMDb_PO_Robbery">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Highway 61,<ref name= Albq_Jrnl_5-31-1996/> Downtown 81,<ref name="Slant_Dntn_81_Review">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Wayne County Rambling.<ref name="PopDiggers_1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Downtown 81 was shot in New York in 1981 and was directed by Edo Bertoglio.<ref name=Slant_Dntn_81_Review /> The film starred artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and featured Debbie Harry, James Chance, Arto Lindsay, and August Darnell in supporting roles. Falco was featured in a cameo role shot on Super 16mm film, where he created and then recited improvised dialogue with Basquiat. Basquiat hated the dialogue so much he walked off the set.<ref name=dntn_81_8-19-2022 /> Initially abandoned, the film was released by Metrograph Pictures in 2000.<ref name=Slant_Dntn_81_Review />
After taking an interest in tango dancing in the 1990s and devoting time to studying the dance in Buenos Aires,<ref name=The_Quietus_2014 /> Falco appeared as a tanguero in the 2003 film Dans Le Rouge du Couchant.<ref name=Enc_of_Arkansas />
As authorEdit
Falco has collaborated with Erik Morse, an American underground author, music writer and journalist, on a two-volume book series about the city of Memphis entitled Mondo Memphis.<ref name="powerhouse">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Falco's book, Ghosts Behind The Sun: Splendor, Enigma, and Death/Mondo Memphis: Volume 1, is a 450-page encyclopedic history and psychography of Memphis,<ref name=Please_Kill_Me /> beginning well before the Civil War and moving forward to more recent autobiographical accounts set in that city.<ref name="LA_Record_11-10-2011">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Morse's Bluff City Underground/Mondo Memphis: Volume 2 roman noir follows a West Coast graduate student and his encounters with a Memphis secret society.<ref name=powerhouse />
In 2015, Falco's book of photography, a collection of black & white images of the American South entitled Iconography of Chance: 99 Photographs of the Evanescent South, was published by Elsinore Press and distributed by University of Chicago Press.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
As solo musicianEdit
After moving to Vienna, Falco took an interest in tango, cabaret, and similar continental musical styles.<ref name="LA Weekly 6-7-1996">Template:Cite journal</ref> The 1995 Tav Falco & The Panther Burns album Shadow Dancer introduced these influences to his music.<ref name="Orlando Sentinel 8-11-1995">Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1996, he released two 10" LP releases, Disappearing Angels and 2 Sides of Tav Falco, under the "Tav Falco" name.<ref name="disappearing_angels">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref><ref name="2_side_of_tf">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>
In 2016, Falco released the holiday-themed album A Tav Falco Christmas on the Los Angeles-based record label ORG Music.<ref name="tf_xmas_cd">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Recorded at Sam Phillips Recording Service, the album featured Mike Watt on bass,<ref name="ark_dem-gaz_12-10-2019">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and was produced by guitarist Mario Monterosso.<ref name="PopDiggers_2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Los Angeles Times called it "gloriously demented enough to act as a tonic for anyone who can't bear the thought of another dose of sugary sentimentality."<ref name="LA Times 12-26-2017">Template:Cite journal</ref>
In a 2018 interview with Adam J. Harmer of the British indie rock group Fat White Family, Falco stated, "I'm getting away from the rock and roll world to get a little peace of mind."<ref name="blues_kitchen_tv">Template:Cite AV media</ref> In April of that year, Falco recorded the sessions that would become the album Cabaret of Daggers at Terminal 2 Studio in Rome, with Mario Monterosso producing once again.<ref name="thestrangebrew">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Two of the album's songs, including the anthemic "Red Vienna,"<ref name= Please_Kill_Me /> are Falco originals. The remainder includes selections from the Great American Songbook such as "Strange Fruit" and "Born to Be Blue," and veers far enough away from The Panther Burns' signature sound that Falco opted to present it as a solo album, despite Panther Burns members being featured prominently on the album.<ref name=thestrangebrew /><ref name="the13thfloor">Template:Cite AV media</ref> Cabaret of Daggers was released by ORG Music on limited edition yellow vinyl on Record Store Day on November 23, and on black vinyl and digital formats on November 30.<ref name="blackbook">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mojo magazine stated that the album "conjures up a potent mix of blues, jazz and tango rhythms in which 1920s Vienna café culture seamlessly rubs shoulders with Beale Street juke joints," and rated the album four stars out of five.<ref name="CoD_Mojo_review_2019">Template:Cite journal</ref>
WorksEdit
FilmographyEdit
| Title | Film type | Role | Year | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 71 Salvage | Short | Actor | 1971 | USA |
| Shadetree Mechanic | Short | Actor | 1986 | USA |
| Memphis Beat | Short | Director | 1989 | USA |
| Great Balls of Fire! | Feature | Actor | 1989 | USA |
| Highway 61 | Feature | Actor | 1991 | Canada |
| Helene of Memphis | Short | Director | 1991 | USA |
| A nagy postarablás (The Great Post Office Robbery) | Feature | Actor | 1992 | Hungary |
| Born Too Late | Short | Actor | 1993 | France |
| Masque Of Hotel Orient | Short | Actor | 1996 | Austria |
| Downtown 81 | Feature | Actor | 2001 | USA |
| Wayne County Rambling | Feature | Actor | 2002 | USA |
| Dans Le Rouge du Couchant | Feature | Actor | 2003 | France/Spain |
| Urania Descending | Feature | Director | 2016 | Austria/France |
| The Urania Trilogy | Feature | Director | 2024 | Austria/France |
BibliographyEdit
| Title | Year | Publisher | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ghosts Behind The Sun: Splendor, Enigma, and Death/Mondo Memphis: Volume 1 | 2011 | Creation Books | Part of a two-part book collaboration with Erik Morse |
| Iconography of Chance: 99 Photographs of the Evanescent South | 2015 | Elsinore Press (Dist. by University of Chicago Press) |
Photography book |
Solo discographyEdit
| Title | Type | Year | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albums | |||
| Disappearing Angels | 10" LP | 1996 | Frenzi / Sympathy for the Record Industry (USA) |
| 2 Sides of Tav Falco (live) | 10" LP | 1996 | Frenzi / Helter Skelter Records (Italy) |
| A Tav Falco Christmas | 12" Mini LP | 2016 | Frenzi / ORG Music (USA) |
| Cabaret of Daggers | LP | 2018 | Frenzi / ORG Music |
| Club Car Zodiac | 12" EP | 2021 | Frenzi / ORG Music |
| Singles | |||
| "Torture" b/w "Garda Che Luna" | 7" single | 1991 | New Rose Records (France) |
| "Ghostwriter" (Tav Falco) b/w "Into the Garden" (JE & III) |
Split 7" Single | 1992 | Buback Tonträger GmbH (Germany) |
| "The Drone Danger" b/w "Tram?" | 7" single | 2017 | Blang! (UK) |
| Compilations curated by Falco | |||
| Swamp Surfing in Memphis | Full Length | 1986 | Frenzi / Au Go Go (Australia) |
| Tav Falco's Wild & Exotic World Of Musical Obscurities | Double Album | 2014 | Stag-O-Lee (Germany) |
| Other compilation appearances | |||
| XO for the Holidays, Vol. X | Digital compilation | 2021 | XO Publicity |
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
- Gordon, Robert (1995). It Came From Memphis. New York: Pocket Books. Template:ISBN.
- Hart, Gabe. (November 10, 2011). "Tav Falco: Sexual, Abandoned, Political". L.A. Record. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
- Jordan, Mark (February 11, 1999). Midnight in Memphis. Memphis Flyer (archived at archive.org). Retrieved October 3, 2021.
- MONDO MEMPHIS: TAV FALCO & ERIK MORSE website by Creation Books (archived at archive.org from original MONDO MEMPHIS page by Creation Books). Retrieved July 29, 2014.
- Needs, Kris. (November 17, 2014). "Vienna And Voodoo: Tav Falco Interviewed". The Quietus. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- O'Brien, Glenn (August 1988). Memphis Blues Again; Tennessee's Most Evasive R&B Man – Tav Falco of Panther Burns. Interview magazine, pp. 50–51.
- Stephenson, Will. (November 21, 2014). "Tav Falco on his new Arkansas-set film, 'Urania Descending'". Arkansas Times. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- Turner, Jeremy (December 2003). "07: Interview With Tav Falco About Early Telematic Art at Televista in Memphis, New Center for Art Activities in New York and Open Space Gallery in Victoria, Canada." Outer Space: The Past, Present and Future of Telematic Art (archived at archive.org). Retrieved October 3, 2021.
External linksEdit
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- [[[:Template:Allmusic]] Tav Falco biography at Allmusic]
- Official site of Urania film trilogy by Tav Falco