When a friend offered Brendan Canty, former member of Fugazi, a chance to put on a show in his Bethesda house marked for demolition, he created a project of monumental proportions. Capture a cross-section of a city's music scene in one day in a house that is going to be destroyed, burn it down and then repeat for cities across the United States. "Burn to Shine" was born.
Fugazi's Canty and filmmaker Christoph Green have made three films so far, the newest of which was released in August. The music scene of the city of Portland, Ore., is crowded into a small living room on the DVD, with performances by Sleater-Kinney, the Shins, the Decemberists and nine other local acts.
Chris Funk of the Decemberists helped Canty choose the artists to represent the Portland music scene. Canty initially had wanted an old friend, John Mowan, to curate the project, but Mowan suggested he call Funk.
"Chris gets out and about so much and loves all sorts of music in Portland," Canty said. "He was the real source of energy behind the project. I had to talk him into gathering fewer bands. He wanted to do 25."
Canty tells the artists the same thing every time. To play whatever they've been working on in the studio, whatever they have been working on that week.
"We're trying to create a time capsule," Canty said. "When we made the D.C. one, my musical scene was in a real state of flux. I thought it would be interesting maybe not this year, maybe not next, but in about 20 years as a document."
It turns out that Canty underestimated how interesting the project would be. Once the D.C. disk came out, Bob Weston of Shellac suggested setting the second installment in Chicago. The momentum hasn't stopped since.
"We're trying to make something, then take it away from people," Canty said. "By making a somewhat utopian environment of bands getting together on a nice day and playing in your living room, then burning that space down, it changes perspective on bands and relationships with the entertainment industry."
One of the performances on the Portland disc is The Ready, a band of young girls from the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls. The Portland camp was founded in 2000 to provide young girls with positive role models in music and to help them develop as musicians.
"Chris thought it was a very interesting and cool thing going on in Portland," Canty said. "All the older rock and rollers like Sleater-Kinney have all volunteered time at that camp. It seems to be a very cool and unusual thing."
Canty admits that he did have concerns about including a band that didn't have significance to the Portland scene.
"I was incredibly dubious about it, but now I'm really glad we did it," Canty said.
"The Ready gets a lot of attention on this thing. As well they should. It's a testament to the fact that if you frame something well, it changes the way that you view them. It makes me want to go out and film more bands that nobody has ever heard of," he said.
The next city in the series is Louisville, Ky. Featuring Palace Music's Will Oldham, the film is curated by William Benton of the band Lucky Pineapple. The real star of this episode may very well be the house.
"It looks like a poor man's San Simeon," Canty said. "It has all these weird towers that go up to nowhere. It's very funky and very underdone. The owner fell off the roof and had to tear the house down. The neighbors were probably dying to have them get rid of it."
The Louisville sound is a far cry from the past three cities that have been filmed. Most of the bands on the disk are unknown.
"I remember being really excited the day of shooting," Canty said. "I was thinking, 'Oh this is great. These bands are totally fucked up.' It's definitely more back to the roots, compared to Portland."
For now, Canty and Green are waiting to hear about more houses marked for demolition. With four cities under their belts, they've got a long road ahead of them.
"This thing is a great equalizer," Canty said. "It puts all the bands in the room together. Bigger bands feel like human beings and all the little bands feel like real bands"
