Tav Falco

Starting in the 1970s, Falco created a number of short films on varying topics focusing on "underground" art-actions and cultural assets around the mid-American South.[4][25] The Cinémathèque Française in Paris accepted and archived six[9] of Falco's short films into its permanent collection.[25] Among the titles archived are Masque of Hôtel Orient,[9] Born Too Late, Helene of Memphis, Memphis Beat, Shadetree Mechanic, and 71 Salvage.[22] A selection of Falco's short films were shown in a retrospective at the Cinémathèque Française in 2006, with Falco himself in attendance.[9]

Tav Falco with Tav Falco's Panther Burns member Giuseppe Sangirardi performing in Kuudes linja, Helsinki, Finland, 2019

Urania Descending, the first feature film directed by Falco, was completed in 2014[24] and released in 2016 by Lamplighter Films.[26] The film consists of portions of what is intended to be a be a film trilogy.[24] As of October 2021, Falco is editing the full Urania trilogy.[11]

In addition to the Cinémathèque Française, Falco's film work has been screened at The Horse Hospital, London;[27][28] the David Lynch-designed Silencio Cinema, Paris;[29][30] Anthology Film Archives, New York; Roxie Theater, San Francisco; Oxford Film Festival, Mississippi; Austria Film Archiv Metrokino, Vienna; and by the American Cinematheque in the Steven Spielberg Cinema at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.[9]

Falco appeared as an actor with minor roles in the feature films Great Balls of Fire!,[8] A nagy postarablás (The Great Post Office Robbery),[31] Highway 61,[8] Downtown 81,[32] and Wayne County Rambling.[33]

Downtown 81 was shot in New York in 1981 and was directed by Edo Bertoglio.[32] The film starred artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and featured Debbie Harry, James Chance, Arto Lindsay, and August Darnell in supporting roles. Falco was featured in a cameo role shot on Super 16mm film, where he created and then recited improvised dialogue with Basquiat. Basquiat hated the dialogue so much he walked off the set.[14] Initially abandoned, the film was released by Metrograph Pictures in 2000.[32]

After taking an interest in tango dancing in the 1990s and devoting time to studying the dance in Buenos Aires,[22] Falco appeared as a tanguero in the 2003 film Dans Le Rouge du Couchant.[4]

Falco has collaborated with Erik Morse, an American underground author, music writer and journalist, on a two-volume book series about the city of Memphis entitled Mondo Memphis.[34] Falco's book, Ghosts Behind The Sun: Splendor, Enigma, and Death/Mondo Memphis: Volume 1, is a 450-page encyclopedic history and psychography of Memphis,[9] beginning well before the Civil War and moving forward to more recent autobiographical accounts set in that city.[35] Morse's Bluff City Underground/Mondo Memphis: Volume 2 roman noir follows a West Coast graduate student and his encounters with a Memphis secret society.[34]

In 2015, Falco's book of photography, a collection of black & white images of the American South entitled Iconography of Chance: 99 Photographs of the Evanescent South, was published by Elsinore Press and distributed by University of Chicago Press.[36]

After moving to Vienna, Falco took an interest in tango, cabaret, and similar continental musical styles.[37] The 1995 Tav Falco & The Panther Burns album Shadow Dancer introduced these influences to his music.[38] In 1996, he released two 10" LP releases, Disappearing Angels and 2 Sides of Tav Falco, under the "Tav Falco" name.[39][40]

Tav Falco in Bangkok, Thailand, July 2022.

In 2016, Falco released the holiday-themed album A Tav Falco Christmas on the Los Angeles-based record label ORG Music.[41] Recorded at Sam Phillips Recording Service, the album featured Mike Watt on bass,[42] and was produced by guitarist Mario Monterosso.[43] The Los Angeles Times called it "gloriously demented enough to act as a tonic for anyone who can't bear the thought of another dose of sugary sentimentality."[44] A track from the album, "Santa Claus is Back in Town," was included on the 2021 digital compilation album XO for the Holidays, Vol. X.[45][46]

Also in 2016, while on a European tour, Falco recorded the single "The Drone Ranger" b/w "Tram?" with producer Sterling Roswell. The single was released in February 2017 on the Blang! label.[47]

In a 2018 interview with Adam J. Harmer of the British indie rock group Fat White Family, Falco stated, "I'm getting away from the rock and roll world to get a little peace of mind."[48] In April of that year, Falco recorded the sessions that would become the album Cabaret of Daggers at Terminal 2 Studio in Rome, with Mario Monterosso producing once again.[49] Two of the album's songs, including the anthemic "Red Vienna,"[9] are Falco originals. The remainder includes selections from the Great American Songbook such as "Strange Fruit" and "Born to Be Blue," and veers far enough away from The Panther Burns' signature sound that Falco opted to present it as a solo album, despite Panther Burns members being featured prominently on the album.[49][50] Cabaret of Daggers was released by ORG Music on limited edition yellow vinyl on Record Store Day on November 23, and on black vinyl and digital formats on November 30.[51] Mojo magazine stated that the album "conjures up a potent mix of blues, jazz and tango rhythms in which 1920s Vienna café culture seamlessly rubs shoulders with Beale Street juke joints," and rated the album four stars out of five.[52]

Falco and producer Monterosso performed with British television and radio personality Jools Holland on BBC Radio 2's The Jools Holland Show on December 15, 2019.[53][54]

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Falco began a musical collaboration with Mike Watt at the latter's suggestion. The project developed into a five-song EP entitled Club Car Zodiac, which featured Watt as well as other performers such as The Stooges percussionist Larry Mullins (aka Toby Dammit) and Argentine surf guitarist Didi Wray. The album was produced by Mario Monterosso.[11] Club Car Zodiac was released as a purple vinyl 12" 45 RPM EP on Record Store Day Black Friday, November 26, 2021.[55]