Could there be a band with a bigger breakout in 2011 than tUnE-yArDs? The group’s album w h o k i l l was consistently praised as one of the best of the past year (according to NME, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, the Guardian, Paste and other publications). The band’s leader, Merrill Garbus, has been featured in the New Yorker, NPR and Wired. Her method is madness. Equipped with drums, ukulele and electronics, Garbus often establishes a song’s theme with a beat, plus a melody, plus a vocal track that she records live and loops. She then takes those musical motifs and layers them, adding her own accompaniment while backed by a powerful band. The results are mind-bending, fun and frenzied songs, satisfying even as they threaten to careen out of control. It’s no surprise, then, that for her live performance at SFIFF 55 she’s decided to provide scores for short films starring Buster Keaton by reinventing some previous work and collaborating with local wunderkind guitarist Ava Mendoza. Like Garbus, Keaton (as both actor and director) often uses a few basic props—a house askew, a slippery floor, a piece of trash—in absurd and incredibly nuanced ways, often escalating into a cacophonous riot. For this night, Garbus and Mendoza will be joined by the entire tUnE-yArDs crew. The band accompanies the films One Week (1920), Good Night, Nurse! (1918), The Haunted House (1921) and—with Fatty Arbuckle—The Cook (1918).




Tickets $20 for SFFS members, $25 for the general public. Box office now open for SFFS members online and in person at SF Film Society Cinema (1746 Post Street, Webster/Buchanan). Box office opens February 9th for the general public.