Karen O to Premiere 'Psycho-Opera' in Brooklyn

Karen O performs at the MOMA in New York City

Jim Spellman

Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O will premiere her new "psycho-opera" Stop the Virgens at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn on October 12th as part of the Creators Project multimedia arts series. "I'm hoping to create an original live experience. It should feel like a psychedelic ride laced with catharsis," O said in a statement. "This piece isn't aiming to be all about spectacle or abstraction, though there is a good helping of both in the production."

The project, which was co-created by O along with design director KK Barrett, will be directed by Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp and feature musical direction by her YYYs bandmate Nick Zinner and frequent collaborator Sam "Squeak E. Clean" Spiegel. Other Karen O associates contributing to the show are YYYs drummer Brian Chase, actress Lili Taylor, keyboardist Money Mark and members of the Greenhornes and Raconteurs.

Photos: Yeah Yeah Yeahs Rock Chicago
Stop the Virgens is set for eight performances at St. Ann's Warehouse, concluding with a final show on October 22nd.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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