Formed by San Francisco producer and multi-instrumentalist Marc Capelle in 2017, the Red Room Orchestra is a collective of popular, jazz, classical, and electronic composers and performers who’ve played and recorded alongside the Bad Seeds, the Plastic Ono Band, Cibo Matto, Oingo Boingo, Sonic Youth, CAKE, American Music Club, Lou Harrison, the Steve Reich Ensemble, the Nels Cline Singers, Rodriguez, Iggy Pop, Tune-Yards, Bill Frisell, and more. They’ve offered live renderings of the music of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, reinterpretations of the soundtracks of Wes Anderson’s Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, and Alex Cox’s Repo Man. At Netflix is a Joke: The Festival, they were the house band for Seth Rogen’s Live Reads of Seinfeld, When Harry Met Sally, and Clueless at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. For SFFILM they composed and performed original scores for the short films from Stephen Parr’s Oddball Films archive. They have performed at The Chapel and the Great American Music Hall for SF Sketchfest, at Outside Lands, Clusterfest, and at Symphony Space in NYC. The Red Room Orchestra projects are co-curated and produced by SF Sketchfest’s David Owen.

Depending on the project, members of the ensemble have included Tom Ayres, Allyson Baker, Larry Carr, Eli Crews, Toby Dammit aka Larry Mullins, Bart Davenport, Karina Denike, Ben Goldberg, Tom Griesser, Petra Haden, John Hofer, Devin Hoff, Yuka C. Honda, Jess Ivry, Scott Larson, Dina Maccabee, Lisa Mezzacappa, Todd Roper, Pete Straus, Michael Urbano, William Winant and more. Special guests have included James Adomian, Peter Asher, Andy Cabic, Margaret Cho, Chrystabell, Alex Cox, Blag Dahlia, Rebekah Del Rio, Adam Dubov, The Flamin’ Groovies, Hether Fortune, Jon Glaser, Dave Hill, Michael Horse, Jon Langford, Tito Larriva, James Marshall, Kevin McDonald, Thao Nguyen, Chuck Prophet, Chris Redd, Eugene Robinson, John Roderick, Zander Schloss, Kelley Stoltz, Carel Struycken, Ray Wise and James Williamson of the Stooges.

 

PROJECTS

The Music of Twin Peaks

A fully-immersive live concert experience featuring the beloved classic instrumental score and pop vocal tunes from every season of the show plus “Fire Walk with Me,” with a bit of “Blue Velvet” and “Eraserhead” thrown in for good measure. Special guest performers have included cast members Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Chrystabell, Sherilyn Fenn, Harry Goaz, Michael Horse, James Marshall, Kimmy Robertson, Amy Shiels, Carel Struycken, and Ray Wise.

 

Music from the Soundtracks of Wes Anderson

In addition to performing the scores and soundtracks from “Rushmore” and “The Royal Tenenbaums” in their entirety as stand-alone events, the Orchestra also presents an evening of the best of all of Wes Anderson’s soundtracks, featuring the films’ iconic original score cues combined with rock, pop, jazz and classical songs featured on the soundtracks. Past special guest performers have included Peter Asher, Andy Cabic, The Flamin’ Groovies, Hether Fortune, Jon Langford, Thao Nguyen, Prairie Prince, John Roderick, Kelley Stoltz, Pete Straus, Chris Von Sneidern and Laura Weinbach.

 

Music of The Big Lebowski

The Red Room Orchestra recreate the soundtrack of the Coen Brothers’ classic comedy “The Big Lebowski.” From Bob Dylan and Meredith Monk to Kenny Rogers and Yma Sumac, no musical stone will be left unturned. Hold out some hope for the Creedence, and love it or hate it, we’re playing the f*ckin’ Eagles, man. Come dressed as your favorite Lebowski character, order a white Russian, and abide.

 

Music of Boogie Nights

You will Feel The Heat as the band tackles all the disco and funk and yacht rock you can handle. From Michael Penn’s haunting orchestral cues to the heavy metal power ballads, no musical stone will be left unturned. And never forget, You Got the Touch.

 

Music of Repo Man

The Red Room Orchestra, under the direction of co-bandleaders Marc Capelle and Allyson Baker, set their sights on the music, spirit and vibe of Alex Cox’s cult favorite “Repo Man” in this debut performance of the entire soundtrack plus songs and other surprises from the era. Special guests include the Director himself, Alex Cox, the soundtrack’s own Tito Larriva (The Plugz) and Zander Schloss (Circle Jerks), who also played ‘Kevin the Nerd’ in the film, plus Toby Dammit aka Larry Mullins (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), Blag Dahlia & Ralph Champagne (The Dwarves) Pete Straus (The Dwarves), Petra Haden, Chuck Prophet, Eugene Robinson (Oxbow), Dina Maccabee, Tom Ayres, Scott Larson, Adam Dubov, Karina Denike (NOFX) and guest comedians and actors including Kevin McDonald (The Kids in the Hall) and Dave Hill (Valley Lodge).

 

A Celebration of Oddball Films

An original No Wave/disco score commissioned by the San Francisco International Film Festival for a series of short films from Stephen Parr’s Oddball Films archives, a collection of 16 mm industrials, educational films and mind-roasting ephemera. With bold interpretations Lou Harrison’s “Simfony #13,” The Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs,” and Italian disco classic “Spacer Woman,” along with original compositions by the ensemble’s Ben Goldberg, Devin Hoff, Tom Ayres, Marc Capelle, Yuka C. Honda, and Dina Maccabee. This sonic and visual funhouse also features percussionists William Winant, Toby Dammit and Todd Roper, guitarist and arranger Allyson Baker and the voices of Hether Fortune, Phil Crumar, Karla Milosevich and Arline Klatte.