13 Most Beautiful Songs for Andy Warhols's Screen Tests

The past is always auditioning for us, demanding our increasingly fractured attention as the present advances. Pop art and music fans had a chance to see this at first hand on Saturday at the ICA, where indie rockers Dean & Britta played a live soundtrack to a series of Andy Warhol films. Billed as "screen tests", each black-and-white film is silent and features a single subject shot in close-up. The duration for each piece is about about four minutes, which happily matches the length of a rock song. The duo composed or chose from their work the "most beautiful" songs to accompany the shorts, and also included several covers.

At times, the combination of film & music was very moving, as when Ann Buchanan stares unblinking at the camera for almost three full minutes before tears begin to run down her face. As each segment finishes, the film flares and light consumes the face, as though we are losing that person forever. Some of the vignettes really are memento mori, the last view and testament of doomed hipsters and "stars" of the Warholian universe. We see Freddy Herko, a dancer who later waltzed naked out the window of a 4th floor apartment. And then there is Edie Sedgwick, famously famous and dead, and looking, as Wareham sings, "beautiful at first sight".

Naturally, this being Warhol, all the subjects are young & beautiful. Some, like Paul America, are clearly uncomfortable under the long gaze. Others are inscrutable, like Mary Woronov, who runs a gamut from somewhat- to mildly-annoyed. Dennis Hopper, looking positively boyish in jacket & tie, seemed to listen to the music with bemusement, then pass on to a private reverie.

If the past wants something from us, we also measure ourselves against these icons, whose greatness only increases with time. Are Dean & Britta as cool as Andy & Edie? Are we, the denizens of the ICA, as hip as those of The Factory? Wareham, who bears a passing resemblance to Bob Dylan, introduced the latter's "I'll Keep It With Mine". The song was written for the beautiful blonde chanteuse Nico, and sung by the equally lovely Britta Phillips (she also excelled on bass). Nico seems as cool as her reputation, remaining almost entirely self-contained and barely glancing at the camera. Finally, when Lou Reed, whose work strongly informs Wareham's own, appears on film above the stage, he seems to shine down with literal influence on the band, playing a cover of the Velvet Underground's entirely appropriate "Not a Young Man Anymore".

Some of the subjects are hidden in shadow, much like backup musicians, Matt Sumrow and Anthony LaMarca, who did a fine job on second guitar and drums. For most of the show, I focused on the films rather than the live performers. However, before the last song, Wareham announced that a DVD of the project would be made available. This had the curious effect of switching my focus to the band. It helps you decide where to look, when you know what's going to last and what isn't.