twi-ny talks

TWI-NY TENTH ANNIVERSARY TALK: DEAN HASPIEL

Dean Haspiel will participate in twi-ny’s tenth anniversary celebration on May 18 at Fontana’s (photo by Seth Kushner)

Fontana’s
105 Eldridge St. between Grand & Broome Sts.
Wednesday, May 18, free, 7:00 – 9:30
212-334-6740
www.fontanasnyc.com
www.deanhaspiel.com

For more than two decades, Dean Haspiel has been a comic book force all his own. A wildly talented and gregarious writer, illustrator, promoter, creator, and organizer, Dino works nonstop to build up his own expansive resume as well as the industry itself. In February 2006, he started ACT-I-VATE, a web-based comics collective that features such series as Josh Neufeld’s “Lionel,” Kevin Colden’s “Fishtown,” Nick Bertozzi’s “Iraq War Stories,” and his own “Billy Dogma” and “Street Code,” the latter a terrific semiautobiographical tale set in New York City, where Dino was born and raised. Along the way, he has collaborated on prestigious projects with Harvey Pekar (American Splendor, The Quitter), Jonathan Lethem (Back on Nervous St.), Michael Chabon (The Escapist), and Jonathan Ames (The Alcoholic), and he contributes drawings and illustrations to Ames’s HBO cable series Bored to Death, which features Zach Galifianakis playing a character inspired by Haspiel’s real life.

On May 14, Ames and Haspiel will be honored at the “100 Works on Paper” benefit at Kentler International Drawing Space in Red Hook, where attendees donate $200 and go home with an original work of art. On May 18, the Emmy-winning Haspiel will be presenting a new Street Code comic as part of twi-ny’s tenth anniversary celebration at Fontana’s, which will also feature readings from Nova Ren Suma, Andrew Giangola, and Kyle Thomas Smith and live performances from James Mastro and Megan Reilly, Paula Carino and the Sliding Scale, and Evan Shinners.

twi-ny: You’ve collaborated with such talented writers as Harvey Pekar, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon, and Jonathan Ames; who is your next dream collaborator?

Dean Haspiel: I’ve been itching to collaborate with author Tim Hall on an original graphic novel and we have something planned. I’d also like to collaborate with mystery writer Joe R. Lansdale on adapting his brilliant Hap and Leonard characters into comics form. Plus, I don’t think my career would feel satisfactory if I hadn’t collaborated with some of my favorite comic book writers, the likes of Mark Waid, J. M. DeMatteis, and a handful of others.

twi-ny: Who is your favorite character to draw, whether created by you or another artist?

DH: My favorite characters to draw are my creator-owned Billy Dogma & Jane Legit. But I love drawing Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s the Thing from the Fantastic Four, and I was recently afforded the opportunity to write and draw a short Thing story in an upcoming issue of Marvel Comics’ Strange Tales sequel.

Jane Legit shows her love for Billy Dogma in Dean Haspiel’s “Bring Me the Heart of Billy Dogma,” from THE ACT-I-VATE PRIMER

Jane Legit shows her love for Billy Dogma in Dean Haspiel’s “Bring Me the Heart of Billy Dogma,” from THE ACT-I-VATE PRIMER

twi-ny: On Bored to Death, Zach Galifianakis’s Ray Hueston character is based on you. Is it easy to watch him, or does it hit a little too close to home?

DH: The Ray Hueston character on Bored to Death is loosely based on some events that happened to me, but I don’t think Zach Galifianakis was subjected to a parallax view of my life and my behavioral traits by any stretch of the imagination. So, I can safely declare that Zach and Jonathan Ames have wholly created Ray from spirited, albeit inspired, cloth. However, I was recently privy to the filmmaking of a certain scene in the upcoming season and I remarked how bizarre it was to watch my proposed doppelganger play out an important event, something I never got the opportunity to do in my own life, and how frustrating yet weirdly cathartic that was for me.

twi-ny How do you find the time to do all the things you do, including serving as a relentless promoter of the comics industry?

DH: Don’t even get me started. If everyone on their chosen social networking sites would just share what they liked with the simple click of a button rather than whine about this and that and publish what they had for lunch, I might be able to shrug off my self-imposed burden to cheer what is good and, instead, produce more stories and eat dinner before ten pm with the people I love to spend time with. Alas, the internet accesses a dark gene in humanity that encourages some folks to constantly complain and act like jerks and do things they wouldn’t dare do in front of real people. I don’t do anything that we all couldn’t do together if we just took a minute to think straight and understand our information and entertainment values.

TWI-NY TENTH ANNIVERSARY TALK: ANDREW GIANGOLA

Mario Batali, Andrew Giangola, and Rachael Ray party it up at Texas Motor Speedway

Mario Batali, Andrew Giangola, and Rachael Ray party it up at Texas Motor Speedway

Fontana’s
105 Eldridge St. between Grand & Broome Sts.
Wednesday, May 18, free, 7:00 – 9:30
212-334-6740
www.fontanasnyc.com
www.theweekendstartsonwednesday.blogspot.com

We’ve known Andrew Giangola since we were kids, playing baseball in the street, sledding down what we thought were enormous hills in the local park, and going to semipro football games. Although New York is far from the center of the auto racing world, we did go to the track once, when a cigar-chomping family friend took us behind the scenes and into the pit. That apparently rubbed off on Giangola, who was the director of communications for NASCAR for nine years, traveling around the country chaperoning star drivers and meeting the fans. Last February he turned his adventures into an entertaining book, The Weekend Starts on Wednesday: True Stories of Remarkable NASCAR Fans, which looks at dozens of NASCAR’s most dedicated fanatics, from movie icons and beauty queens to military heroes and astronauts, from news anchors and celebrity chefs to an acrophobic mountain climber and a dude who wears nothing but a tire.

“After sleeping in their buses, watching races in their homes, spending countless hours on the phone, sitting in the grandstands, and walking campgrounds on the circuit,” Giangola writes in the introduction, “I’m convinced NASCAR’s ‘core’ fans are a special, different breed…. I want to perpetuate a new stereotype of NASCAR fans. They are, at their core, very good people.” Giangola, who lives in New York City with his wife, daughter, and dog — and whose last driving ticket was for going zero miles per hour, blocking the box at the Holland Tunnel — will read from The Weekend Starts on Wednesday as part of twi-ny’s free tenth anniversary celebration May 18 at Fontana’s, which will also feature readings from Dean Haspiel, Nova Ren Suma, and Kyle Thomas Smith and live performances from James Mastro and Megan Reilly, Paula Carino and the Sliding Scale, and Evan Shinners.

twi-ny: You grew up on the South Shore of Long Island, not exactly a hotbed of auto racing. You’ve always been a huge sports fan, but tell the truth — what did you think of NASCAR when you first applied for the position, and how do you feel about it now?

Andrew Giangola: Your father took us to a stock car race at the old short track in Freeport, LI, when I was eleven and I loved it. (That track is now a strip mall.) I also watched [Richard] Petty and [David] Pearson and [Cale] Yarborough on Wide World of Sports when NASCAR snippets were shown between Ping-Pong and cliff diving. When I was exposed to the sport, I always liked it. But growing up on Long Island in the ’70s, you didn’t see a lot of NASCAR; the sport might as well have been racing on Mars. There was no ESPN or 24/7 sports coverage. I was by no means a fan.

When I got the job offer, after a quick web search it was pretty clear pretty fast that this was a big, powerful brand with a lot of company involvement. My real shock was at the first race; it happened to be Talladega, NASCAR’s biggest and rowdiest track, in the heart of Alabama. I was wearing black slacks and a black shirt. A fan gripping a large beer yells down from the top of his converted school bus, “When are the aliens coming?” It was immediately clear NASCAR fans were familiar with the film Men in Black and that I’d need to learn the rules of the road, so to speak. Seven years later, I was sleeping with those fans — not in the biblical sense; it was research — and published The Weekend Starts on Wednesday about the most amazing fan stories.

weekend starts 2

twi-ny: You’ve worked in communications for Pepsi and Simon & Schuster, spent nine race seasons at NASCAR, and now are brand new at IMG. What was the hardest part of the NASCAR job? You’re also a wise-ass who was once championed as the savior of the PR business. How do you get away with your sarcastic sense of humor at such giant, serious companies?

Andrew Giangola: I’m not sure anyone ever championed me as a savior but that’s awfully nice of you to say, and please let me introduce you to my new boss. At NASCAR, I really had a blast. Workplace humor is a dicey proposition. You have to pick and choose your spots and make sure you’re overdelivering, because a comedian who puts up weak numbers is nothing but a liability. Of course, we dealt with some serious issues at NASCAR. It’s such a decentralized, multifaceted industry. You have NASCAR the sanctioning body, teams, tracks, drivers, sponsors, licensees, media partners. In a sense, in my job in PR out of NASCAR’s New York office, I had to serve them all. It kept a man busy. I literally wore out about five BlackBerries. (When I left, I offered to donate one to the NASCAR Hall of Fame; no one got back to me.) My daughter, Gaby, once said, “If work were crack, you’d sell me for a bag of it.” The toughest challenge was keeping some semblance of family balance while attempting to make every man, woman, child, and dog in the US of A a stock car racing fan.

twi-ny: You’re a die-hard Rangers fan, but you’ve claimed on your blog and in the book that NASCAR fans are the greatest in the world. Is that a diss to the Garden Faithful?

Andrew Giangola: When the Rangers play on Saturday night, do the fans start sleeping in front of the Garden on a Wednesday? That’s what it’s like in NASCAR. But I think Ranger fans and NASCAR fans have a lot in common in their tremendous passion for their sports. (Go to a NASCAR track like Pocono Raceway or Dover and you’ll see a lot of cops and firemen in the infield who are big Ranger fans.) Remember, on any given Sunday in NASCAR there’s one winner and forty-two losers. Ranger fans can relate to that continual, gut-wrenching, seemingly endless heartbreak. All that said, I still tell my wife, Viviane, that the day we were married was almost as good as that warm night in June of 1994 when the Rangers finally won the Stanley Cup.

TWI-NY TENTH ANNIVERSARY TALK: EVAN SHINNERS

Evan Shinners will give an all-Bach solo upright piano recital at Barbès on May 10, then play twi-ny’s tenth anniversary party at Fontana’s on May 18 with a full band

Tuesday, May 10, Barbès, 376 Ninth St. at Sixth Ave., Brooklyn, strongly suggested donation $10, 347-422-0248, 7:00
Wednesday, May 18, Fontana’s, 105 Eldridge St. between Grand & Broome Sts., free, 212-334-6740, 7:00
www.evanshinners.com

Juilliard graduate Evan Shinners has been playing the piano since he was nine and made his orchestral debut when he was a mere twelve years old, with the Utah Symphony. But the Bach-loving New Yorker is not your average classical musician. In addition to having appeared at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, and other prestigious venues around the world, he leads a band that pounds away at aggressive pop music in smaller clubs. Shinners, who sees a melding of styles as the future of classical music, will be at Barbès in Park Slope on Tuesday night as part of the Upright Piano Brigade series being presented by the Concert Artist Guild, a Tuesday–night residency through July in which musicians will perform solo classical works on upright piano. Shinners will be playing an all-Bach program that includes Toccatas in E and D, a “wild” prelude and fugue in A, an early version of the triple concerto, a partita, and a few smaller rarities. Then, on May 18, Shinners and his band will be the closing act at twi-ny’s tenth anniversary party at Fontana’s on the Lower East Side.

twi-ny: You recently played Beethoven at MoMA in a mobile, cut-out piano followed by onlookers who were snapping photos in your face as you all moved around the space together. What was that experience like?

Evan Shinners: One of my goals is to bring classical music to people in a setting where they would not normally hear it. If someone hears Beethoven’s Ninth from that piano all hollowed out in an art museum and they appreciate it, it only proves the universality of the great classical composers and speaks volumes about how classical music can reach the masses anywhere outside the concert halls.

twi-ny: What are a bunch of Juilliard graduates doing playing punk rock?

Evan Shinners: Well, I wouldn’t call the band punk by any means, and I have my own theories about what classical music of 2011 is and what it isn’t. If I had to briefly touch on that, we play what is closer to classical than what classical pretends to be today. I could argue that for a while. . . . Essentially, it is important to know that most of the band did not get their first music lessons in classical or jazz. In fact, three out of five of them started learning rock/pop songs first before taking up their Juilliard “callings.” I am lucky that the members can play all styles, and I wouldn’t have it any other way as we often jump from Bach to rock within one piece.

Evan Shinners was one of six pianists who performed Allora & Calzadilla’s moving “Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared Piano” in the MoMA atrium (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

twi-ny: Your upcoming album, @bach, which will be released later this month, is a collection of live Bach works performed on keyboard. What is it that draws you to Bach? What about other favorites?

Evan Shinners: The universality of Bach is it. No other music is so adaptable. Rappers rap over him, saxophones blow over him, I lift chord progressions directly from his cantatas and make rock songs based on him — his music is perfectly timeless. With Bach I can take up all my influences, from [Thelonius] Monk to Eminem, and have them come out in the same piece of Bach’s. . . . Try doing that with Schumann (no disrespect to ol’ Robert, though).

twi-ny: What is on your iPod these days?

Evan Shinners: On the iPod it is either [harpsichordist] Wanda Landowska or rap.

twi-ny: Do you get different types of satisfaction when playing classical music as opposed to when you play pop and rock? How do the very different kinds of audiences, and their energy levels, affect or influence your playing?

Evan Shinners: I love the rock audiences. I love getting yelled at, taunted, rushed, et cetera. I’m also tired of musicians complaining about noisy audiences — try being Bob Dylan (or anyone else who dealt with it) and get booed everywhere you go and still play your heart out; I have respect for those musicians who can. A goal of mine: all Bach in Carnegie Hall where everyone sits down with red wine in paper cups, claps between the pieces (gasp!), yells, taunts, boos, screams, riots, mosh pits in the aisles. . . . You want the classical audiences to start growing? Try that atmosphere for starters; Paganini’s crowds used to be a lot more rowdy than the crowds of today.

TWI-NY TALK & GIVEAWAY: DANIELLE MONARO & SELF WORKOUT IN THE PARK

SELF magazine’s Workout in the Park returns to Rumsey Playfield on Saturday — and twi-ny has free tickets to give away!

SELF WORKOUT IN THE PARK
Central Park, Rumsey Playfield
Enter at 72nd St. & Fifth Ave.
Saturday, May 7, $20, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm (registration begins at 9:00 am)
www.selfworkoutinthepark.com

New Yorkers of all sizes and abilities will be getting long and strong with seventeen different classes at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park this Saturday during SELF magazine’s annual Workout in the Park. SELF tapped innovative fitness specialist Crunch to present everything from Masala Bhangra’s Bollywood-flavored moves to Retro-Robics (anyone remember the eighties? Jane Fonda?) and the classic Beach Body burn to brand-new workouts such as LaBlast, cardio fat-burning ballroom moves inspired by Dancing with the Stars; a special Glee class where you’ll learn songs and dances from the show; KAMA Strength, inspired by the Kama Sutra (which muscles will you be using for that class?); and Reebok Toning Zone, a total-body regimen that exploits the training advantages of Reebok EasyTone sneakers. Participants will also get style, beauty, and nutrition consultations, plus a goodie bag with exclusive freebies from sponsors PopChips, Garnier, and more. The special guest emcee for the four-hour event is Z100’s Danielle Monaro, the self-described “tough chick from the Bronx” who brings the Sleaze to Elvis Duran and the Morning Show every day at 6:30, 7:30, and 8:30. In between exercising and gossiping, Danielle talked to twi-ny about getting pumped up.

Danielle Monaro, who brings the Sleaze to Z100’s morning show, will aim to please as host of the annual SELF Workout in the Park on Saturday

twi-ny: When we New Yorkers get outside, we’re crazy for parks. What’s your favorite park? What’s your favorite indoor way to keep fit?

Danielle Monaro: I love Overpeck Park in Teaneck, New Jersey. It’s great for rollerblading! When I work out inside I got to Tiger Schulmann’s mixed martial arts classes.

twi-ny: As a Z100 personality, you’re around some pretty hot music all day long. At Workout in the Park, SELF is featuring workouts inspired by Glee and Dancing with the Stars. What’s your favorite workout song or type of music to exercise to?

Danielle Monaro: Right now I work out to the Jessie J CD (Who You Are)! I also love Adam Lambert, Jesse McCartney, Pink, and Craig David. They all get me pumped.

twi-ny: New Yorkers are known for being a bit obsessive about fitness. We’ve seen a guy swing a golf club on Madison Avenue and people X-country skiing down Park Ave. during a blizzard. What’s the wackiest workout you’ve ever tried?

Danielle Monaro: I have tried many workouts, but to be honest they are pretty normal! Lollllllll

TWI-NY GIVEAWAY PACKAGE: Tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance, but twi-ny has a pair to give away right now for free, along with a water bottle and an iRenew bracelet. Just send your name and daytime phone number to contest@twi-ny.com by Thursday, May 5, at 12 noon to be eligible. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; one winner will be selected at random.

TWI-NY TALK: ANNE BOGART

UNDER CONSTRUCTION will hold its New York premiere April 21 - May 7 at Dance Theater Workshop (photo by Michael Brosilow)

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th St.
April 21 – May 7, $20-$35, 7:30
212-924-0077
www.dancetheaterworkshop.org
www.siti.org

Founded in 1992 by Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki, Manhattan-based SITI Company specializes in presenting original multidisciplinary works that examine the nature of theater itself as well as unique interpretations of plays and text by such writers as August Strindberg, Virginia Woolf, Noël Coward, and William Shakespeare. In 2001, artistic director Bogart and playwright Charles L. Mee began a four-part road trip through the concept of the United States with bobrauschenbergamerica, followed in 2006 by Hotel Cassiopeia, set in the boxlike world of Joseph Cornell. The third part of the American Museum Cycle, Under Construction, which melds the down-home charm of Norman Rockwell with the visual flair of contemporary installation artist Jason Rhoades, holds its New York premiere April 21 – May 7 at Dance Theater Workshop as part of DTW’s Guest Artist Series. The always engaging Bogart and Mee will participate in preshow Lobby Talks April 25-27 and May 2 at 6:30, but you can get some of the inside scoop from her now in the below twi-ny talk.

twi-ny: You recently wrote on your blog that SITI “offers a gym for the soul.” How would you say Under Construction fits that description?

Anne Bogart: Because the play has no obvious narrative structure, Under Construction asks the viewer to put together the pieces. But when you do put the pieces together, using your associative and imaginative toolbox, the journey will be a buoyant and adventurous one.

Artistic director Anne Bogart and SITI Company are on a mission to redefine and revitalize contemporary theater (photo by Michael Brosilow)

twi-ny: Under Construction is the third part of the American Museum Cycle, in which the work of American artists influences the productions directly and/or indirectly, including Robert Rauschenberg in bobrauschenbergamerica, Joseph Cornell in Hotel Cassiopeia, Norman Rockwell and Jason Rhoades in Under Construction, and James Castle in the upcoming Soot and Spit. How do you and Chuck decide which artists to build your stories around? Were there any artists you wanted to use that just didn’t work out?

Anne Bogart: It was Chuck Mee who suggested Robert Rauschenberg, Joseph Cornell, and James Castle. But for many years both Chuck and I had secretly harbored a fascination for Norman Rockwell. This mutual interest led toward Under Construction. But, in typical Chuck fashion, it was he who had the brilliant idea to juxtapose Norman Rockwell and his vision of America with the wild and woolly world of installation-artist Jason Rhoades. I once suggested to Chuck the idea of doing a play based upon Andy Warhol, but Chuck did not take the bait. The subject matter must be of interest to both of us. But in general, it is Chuck Mee who takes the lead in the choice of subject and the format of the play.

twi-ny: SITI’s stated mission is “to redefine and revitalize contemporary theater in the United States through an emphasis on international cultural exchange and collaboration.” How would you say the company is doing as it looks toward its twentieth anniversary next year? Do you think contemporary theater in general still needs to be redefined and revitalized?

Anne Bogart: Theater is the art form that perhaps, more than any other, needs to be redefined and revitalized on a regular basis. New forms and audience/actor relationships are in a constant state of flux. What was revolutionary fifteen years ago now feels antiquated. As for how SITI Company is doing, as we move into our nineteenth year of existence, we are reevaluating our processes and our methods of existence and looking with fresh eyes at our mission statement. Here is the new one that we just composed:

“SITI Company was built on the bedrock of ensemble and we believe that through the practice of collaboration, a group of artists could make a life together and have a significant impact upon both contemporary theater and the world at large. Through our performances, educational programs and collaborations with other artists and thinkers, SITI Company will continue to challenge the status quo, to train to achieve artistic excellence in every aspect of our work, and to offer new ways of seeing and of being as both artists and as global citizens. SITI Company is committed to providing a gymnasium-for-the-soul where the interaction of art, artists, audiences, and ideas inspire the possibility for change, optimism, and hope. We are hopeful for the future and look forward to the adventures that lie ahead.”

TWI-NY TALK: BEN KATCHOR

Since 1988, Brooklyn-born artist Ben Katchor has been exploring urban decay and disappearing aspects of culture and society in such comic strips as Hotel & Farm, The Jew of New York, and Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer as well as in such musical theater pieces as The Rosenbach Company and The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, or, The Friends of Dr. Rushower. He focuses on old-fashioned characters who wander through cities mumbling and grumbling about the way things were, seeking out blue-plate specials and marveling at old signage from a bygone era. Katchor has just released his latest book, The Cardboard Valise (Pantheon, March 2011, $25.95), a collection of “picture-stories” published in Metropolis magazine that detail eccentric xenophile Emile Delilah’s surreal existence, including his journey to the Tensint Islands, an exotic land known for its rest-room ruins and boardwalk ice-cream licker. The book comes with fold-out carrying flaps, mimicking Emile’s valise, which is filled with an array of things, as is Katchor’s book. On April 2 at 2:00, Katchor will present A Checkroom Romance at the New School Presents Noir festival; the free musical production features text and images by Katchor and music by Mark Mulcahy. On April 9, Katchor will be signing copies of his books at the Pantheon booth at the MoCCA Festival of Comic Art at the 69th Regiment Armory at Lexington Ave. and 26th St. Katchor recently discussed travel and the future of the book in our latest twi-ny talk.

Ben Katchor’s latest collection is another genius examination of eccentricity in a surreal, old-fashioned world (photo by Jeff Goodman)

twi-ny: Your previous book, The Beauty Supply District, came out more than ten years ago. Why such a long wait?

Ben Katchor: I got involved in working on music-theater productions over the past ten years. In collaboration with composer Mark Mulcahy, we produced four shows: The Slugbearers of Kayrol Island, The Rosenbach Company, A Checkroom Romance, Memorial City, and, premiering in October 2011, Up from the Stacks. All along, I continued my weekly and monthly picture-stories but didn’t feel the need to compile them into a book — until now.

twi-ny: In The Cardboard Valise, Emile Delilah packs a heavy suitcase and heads to the Tensint Islands. You’ve also taken readers on a journey to Kayrol Island. When you go on vacation, do you prefer bustling cities, dusty towns, or exotic islands? Are there certain items that you always pack that you don’t necessarily really need, as Emile does?

BK: I like cities and the countryside of Europe. I tend to bring along piles of research material that I rarely get to use.

twi-ny: One of the major themes of your work has always involved disappearing parts of culture — outdated factories, old-fashioned signage, and people lamenting the way daily life is changing, missing how things were. With the growing success of electronic books, there are some sounding the death knell for the physical book itself. What are your thoughts on ebooks, specifically as it relates to the kind of picture-stories that you tell? Are you afraid the physical book might be a disappearing part of American culture?

BK: The repurposing of physical books for electronic distribution is an awkward and limited activity, mainly for archival purposes. The possibilities of electronic storytelling go far beyond the confines of the printed book and I look forward to seeing what develops. Physical books will be around for a long time — I see them used as window and door props, and as structures to support laptop computers. I’m used to looking at picture-stories on large high-resolution screens; modern printed books seem to me like an unfortunate reduction of the information in the original digital file. The publishing industry began to dematerialize books with the introduction of the disposable paperback — the ebook is the logical expression of this impulse.

TWI-NY TALK: KIDS OF 88

Kids of 88 will be playing their sweaty, sexy electro-pop at Piano’s on March 28 (photo by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Piano’s
158 Ludlow St.
Monday, March 28, $8-$10, 9:00
212-505-3733
www.myspace.com/kidsof88
www.pianosnyc.com

Best buds Jordan Arts and Sam McCarthy have been making music together since they were twelve years old, banging pots and pans and listening to Hendrix. The Auckland duo known as Kids of 88 — vocalist McCarthy and programmer and keyboardist Arts were both born in 1988 — burst onto the scene a few years back with the sexy, steamy electro-pop hits “My House” and “Just a Little Bit” and have gone on to make remixes for Cobra Starship and Ke$ha, even going out on the road with the latter on a recent brief European tour. On such big-sounding dance-club songs as “Downtown,” “Sugarpills,” and “Just a Little Bit,” they sing about slutty sex, getting unprofessional, and, well, just having a damn good time. Upon returning from their highly praised shows at SXSW, Arts and McCarthy, who will be playing Piano’s at 9:00 on March 28 on a bill with Cassette Kids, K. Flay, Bo Bruce, and the Lopez, answered questions about Austin, their friendship, and ’80s theme songs.

twi-ny: You’ve just finished several gigs at SXSW, where the raves keep pouring in. What was the overall experience like? Did you get to see other bands play as well, or were you too busy with your own shows and press?

Sam McCarthy: The overall SXSW experience was festively turbulent. We had been tipped off about how crazy things can potentially become, so we were well prepared when it came to maneuvering our way about the town, meaning we could focus on what we were there to do and have an amazing time doing it! Unfortunately we only managed to capture a few other bands. Surfer Blood on the Tuesday night was great, If only we could have caught the amazing Gayngs, then we would have been set for life.

Jordan Arts: South by South Swag was what Theophilus London called it when he took the stage for the MTV Garage showcase, which we were also playing at. To be on the bill with the likes of him and Friendly Fires and Matt & Kim was awesome, so that was a highlight for me. It was a bit of a whirlwind experience but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

twi-ny: The two of you have been making music together now for more than half your lives. Do you ever get sick of seeing each other, or are you more like kindred spirits, meant to be together?

JA: I think kindred spirits is a nice way to look at it. We are more often than not on the same wavelength, which doesn’t always happen with everybody. To be experiencing parts of the world we’d never had imagined we would be in together can only mean that we’ll be reminiscing about the past when we’re sixty years old!

SM: We have moments where we can clash, but they are always positive disagreements, whether that results in an idea that neither of us would have conjured up or it keeps the other on their toes; however, most of the time it’s a happy band-ship. We’re both Aquarian, so even if we wanted to tiff it’d be forced.

twi-ny: On your website, you describe your music as “a cross between a late ’80s police drama intro theme and a sophisticated super hussy.” What is your favorite late ’80s police drama intro theme, and who is your favorite sophisticated super hussy?

SM: Beverly Hills Cop is up there. I also think a disco rework of the America’s Most Wanted song could be pretty epic. Top bird? Daryl Hannah in a pant suit is a sight for sore eyes; I could have easily bitten off a bit of Sharon Stone in her heyday also.

JA: Although bending the rules a bit, my favorite theme would probably be the Beverly Hills Cop intro or maybe the amazing Knight Rider theme. As hussies go, I think Lisa [Kelly LeBrock] from Weird Science takes the cake. She’s oh so sexy, but the fact that she can do out-of-this-world things makes her very sophisticated!