Bands, Demos: 'Burn to Shine' DVD Series

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IN 2004, FUGAZI'S BRENDAN CANTY and director Christopher Green set out to capture the constantly shifting tides of D.C. music scene.

Through various connections and acquaintances, the duo came upon a Bethesda, Md., house scheduled to be demolished, and Canty and Green hatched an idea to document local friends and artists at a specific time and place.

Ted Leo, The Evens and Bob Mould were among those chosen to participate in this event, all of whom given very simple instructions: perform one song in a space that by the day's end would no longer exist.

Equal parts DIY ethos and existential philosophy, the "Burn to Shine" DVD series has evolved from a simple, one-off experiment into one of today's most consistently interesting music series. It has steadily grown since its Bethesda beginnings, moving through various cities and scenes and including performances by Wilco, The Gossip, Sleater-Kinney, The Shins and more.

Canty and Green recently released the fifth volume of "Burn to Shine," enlisting Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie as curator for this Seattle edition. Gibbard's vision of the city in 2007 isn't quite the one captured in the city's "Singles" heyday, although Eddie Vedder does appear, this time with ukulele in tow. There is a familiar sense of brooding, but the city's current incarnation relies more heavily on acoustic guitar than crunchy distortion to express its angst. The Seattle volume includes everyone from indie rock mainstays David Baazan (Pedro the Lion) to one-hit wonders Harvey Danger, both of whom help to provide an appropriately forlorn soundtrack to the gloomy but ultimately triumphant proceedings.

Express spoke to director Christopher Green about the series' beginnings, its future plans and the difficulties in meeting the demands of the DVD-buying public.

» EXPRESS: The first "Burn to Shine" took place here. Talk a little bit about how you came into that house.
» GREEN: The first house was in Bethesda. [It] belonged to a friend of Brendan's who had bought it from the woman who eventually died in the house. He let us in to "do something cool" with it. We decided on the band filming idea and just sort of went with it. At that point, we didn't really know what we were going to do with it. We tried different approaches until we came up with the current "format". At one point, I think we had filmed Brendan driving around D.C. talking about Washington and we also thought about involving artists at one point.

» EXPRESS: What does the curatorial process look like? I read that finding the house is the most difficult aspect. Does that imply that once you find the locale, a good curator is easy to track down or do you they generally seek you out?
» GREEN: It varies. When you have found the right person it's so obvious. I think Ben Gibbard pulled the whole Seattle list together in two days. With organizing schedules and commitments, that's no easy feat. For the upcoming Vol. 6 in Atlanta, the curator, Lee Teshe, worked on it for two years. The house part is really the biggest pain in the ass. We are still waiting for the Atlanta house to come down.

» EXPRESS: I'd imagine you have the ultimate say on the bands that participate and what the performances look like. Has there ever been disagreement over things like this?
» GREEN: Not really. The only thing we do is push for more diversity within the lineups. In the Portland edition, Tom Heinl had actually started the day but I really didn't want to start the day with a comedy song — even though it was awesome — so it became an extra. That was a debate.

» EXPRESS: From what I can tell there seems to be an intentional effort to feature both established bands as well as relative unknowns. Besides simply offering the exposure, what is the rationale behind this?
» GREEN: I think that part of the excitement is the pairing of things you know with the unknown. Also, it's a realistic depiction of a local scene so you get a cross-section of different types of bands. For me, it's a lot like punk rock compilation albums that I would buy when I was a kid. You would buy it for the Black Flag song and then discover Flipper.

» EXPRESS: The ending of the Seattle DVD is quite different than the rest — the house was saved. How did this happen?
» GREEN: The Seattle ending was total chance. The house was slated for demolition and a guy found out about it while we were filming and ended up buying the house and having it moved. It stressed us out for a while, but now I really like how it turned out. Even though it is a documentary series, some of it has to be a little constructed. A lot of the elements are out of our control and we just have to roll with it and make our document. At first it was kind of a bummer but the result was really gratifying. We received some angry emails out of that — someone wanted their money back!

» EXPRESS: Is reinventing the series an issue that you and Brendan have considered or discussed for future volumes?
» GREEN: I think it basically comes down to the choices that I can make at the outset, which is basically the choice of house and town. For example, in Portland, choosing a new house was a jump in context from the first two. Some people didn't relate to it as well. I'm guessing that it didn't have the same sentimentality as when a beautiful house is destroyed. Maybe it's just a personal preference. I grew up in a new house and I really got off on seeing the Portland house burn. We really want to do one in another country. That should shake the whole thing up a bit.

» EXPRESS: I read somewhere that the offers of locales have gone up exponentially since the series began. Obviously this process takes a lot of time as well as the desire to keep things genuine and special. Has the process of picking places become more difficult?
» GREEN: As of right now, we can't shoot any more until we get both Vol. 4 and Vol. 6 — both of which are done — out the door. We do, however, get a lot of offers from folks who have great scenes that want us to document them. I wish we could do more. It's really a labor of love for us. At this point the only money we have made from "Burn to Shine" has gone into making the next one. There are a few cities we are dying to get to.

» EXPRESS: Do you guys have a favorite anecdotal story about something that's happened while filming?
» GREEN: I think the forthcoming Atlanta [edition] has the most insane stories. The Black Lips were preparing to play and kept whispering to each other in a conspiratorial way. I heard them looking for a knife and then asked them what they were planning so at least we could be ready for it, but they wouldn't let on. They ended up spraying beer all over two of our shooters — the knife was for cutting holes in beer cans — smashing a bottle against the wall, which showered us with glass, and spitting on one of our cameras. All of the shooters were a little freaked out afterward but then they ended up being the nicest fucking guys and we all forgave them. The footage from their song is really good. I think that everyone who commits to their performance works. There are performances coming up in Vol. 4 and Vol. 6 that will blow your mind.

Written by Express contributor Matthew Siblo

Photos: Brendan Canty and Christopher Green by Nikos Kourkoulakos; Ben Gibbard by Jim Saah