A vintage promotional shot of the folk punk duo known as Guitar Boy and best known for their song “Don’t Fall Off the Getty Center.” (photo via Guitar Boy)
In the late 1990s, the folk punk duo Guitar Boy was playing small music venues in Los Angeles and building a fan base. Unfortunately, the group consisting of Nancy Agabian and Ann Perich slowly faded away.
This Saturday, Guitar Boy will reunite to perform as part of the Wonder Cabinet showcase at Occidental College, a day-long event curated by Lawrence Weschler.
Wonder Cabinet is the last event in Weschler’s residency at Occidental College as the school’s Remsen Bird Artist in Residence. While Weschler is the director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, he is best known as the author of many books, including Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, Vermeer in Bosnia, and Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences, which was the winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
Guitar Boy may be an unknown band nowadays but I couldn’t resist posting (with their permission) their still relevant song about the Getty Center, “Don’t Fall Off the Getty Center.” ENJOY!
Guitar Boy – Dont Fall Off the Getty Center
I asked Agabian, who is also a contributor to Hyperallergic, about the song and she gave me some historical background about the tune:
Before the Getty first opened, there were signs all over LA [that read] ‘It’s YOUR Getty.’ And then when they did open, they were inundated by visitors and there wasn’t enough parking so they ran ads that said something to effect of ‘Come Visit, Just Not Right Now,’ or ‘Take Public Transportation’ — as if anyone ever rides the bus in LA.
While the Guitar Boy tracks aren’t available on iTunes, people can email: glibrecords [at] aol [dot] com for CDs. For more tunes, check out their MySpace page: myspace.com/guitarboymusic
Guitar Boy will perform this Saturday at 7pm at Occidental College. For more information about the Guitar Boy performance and the complete day of curated events, visit here.
