The long-awaited primal scream from the bowels of NYC!
Definitive Protest Art for Our Times!
"A must-see for any true New Yorker!" - 'Rise Up', WBAI 99.5
GENTRIFIED
MINDS
(the N.Y. Horror vol.2)
Written & Performed By
Dennis Leroy Kangalee "the Nomad Junkie"
Music By The Children of Warhol
Designed & Directed By Nina Fleck
Gentrified Minds (the NY Horror Vol.2)
A performance piece by the Children of Warhol
(c) 2010-2011 by Dennis Leroy Kangalee
info
The Children of Warhol is the Nomad Junkie's theater for a new age. They are the musical extension of his poems and dramatic etudes.
Less a typical "band" and more of a Brechtian theatrical experience, The Children of Warhol are Dennis Leroy Kangalee' syntheis of the fervor of punk music, revolutionary politics, the absurd, & urgent spoken word that explode into a cocktail of literary & sonic performance art.
In "Gentrified Minds" , his theories are embodied by the passion of his neurotic vocals, the guts of the band's music -- arranged by guitarist Bob Kuch, and the minimalism of Nina Fleck's staging.
THE CHILDREN OF WARHOL on April 22, 2011:
Two Irishmen, A Black Indian, a Mongolian Puerto Rican,...Sounds like either the beginning of a bad joke or a Republican nightmare. (Mind you, they're being directed by a German!) Does it get any more punk than that??
Left to Right: Pete O'Connell (bass), Frank Coleman (drums), Dennis Leroy Kangalee/The Nomad Junkie (vocals), Bob Kuch (guitar).
With a sophisticated swagger, The Nomad Junkie declares the 21st Century up to this moment to be the "Gentrified Generation." And the rise of Starbucks, phony Liberalism, computers, globalization, cultural appropriation, displacement, severe unemployment, and trashy consumerism have given birth to this "gentrified mind."
The title-song itself, like Richard Hell's "Blank Generation" 30 years earlier -- counters the false sentimental hip-hop kitsch of Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind," because it does not believe "its lights will inspire you," and while it is aesthetically influenced by the perfunctory blast of punk music -- it's spirit has more in common with the truth of Gil Scott Heron's haunting "NY is Killing Me."
Imagine Living Colour doing a Joy Division cover with the mischievous adoration of Antonin Artaud and the Dead Kennedys.
It is through this prism that the concept behind The Children of Warhol & The Nomad Junkie's musical experiments could be understood...
Declaring we are not an "empire state of mind" but a "gentrified mind," The Children of Warhol perform their blazing title song for the first time in public, April 22, 2011. [photo: jessica lehrman]
SUFFERING WAR-HOL-IA
Andy Warhol was both antidote and poison. Today gotham areas have become Ronald Reagan's "shiny cities," built according to grids and sterile efficiency and governed with a thick-steel corporate hand. NYC is no exception and could easily be divided into two parts: Pre-Warhol and Post-Warhol. While Warhol gambled and bet and teased and taunted New York and contributed to its culture, the New 21st Century Metropolis culture has foisted something upon us, brought us all closer OUTSIDE of our actual daily life and made us compatible in our virtual villages via the Internet, giving us Warhol’s maxim “Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.”
Warhol's quote has run amok and has come home to roost. Look no further than the end of your block. And with that is the smugness, trash, corporate loyalty, stupid irony, and gentrification of our souls and a new generations entire way of life.
Gentrified Minds (the NY Horror Vol.2)
A performance piece by the Children of Warhol
(c) 2010-2011 by Dennis Leroy Kangalee
info
