Graham Reynolds - Ruin the Holidays

Graham Reynolds brings Ruin the Holidays to the Rollins Studio Theatre on Friday, December 11, at 8 PM. It's exactly what the title suggests: the Austin-based composer and bandleader taking holiday favorites and running them through his particular filter—raucous, minor-key versions of the songs you've heard a thousand times, played by Reynolds and his big band with special guests joining in.

If you're not familiar with Reynolds, he's one of those Austin figures who works across a few different worlds. He writes for film, theater, dance, rock clubs, and concert halls, and has collaborated with Richard Linklater, Jack Black, DJ Spooky, and Ballet Austin. His score for Robert Downey Jr.'s A Scanner Darkly was named Best Soundtrack of the Decade by Cinema Retro, and he recently scored Bernie, starring Jack Black, and the Hulu series Up To Speed. With Golden Arm Trio, he's released five albums, including The Difference Engine: A Triple Concerto and DUKE! Three Portraits of Ellington on Innova Records.

That range carries over into his other projects. As Co-Artistic Director of the Golden Hornet Project, he's produced more than fifty concerts of world-premiere alt-classical music, and with Forklift Danceworks, he scored pieces involving 18 trash trucks and 200 two-steppers. He's also a company member and sound designer with Rude Mechanicals and a resident composer with Salvage Vanguard Theater. Over the years, he's picked up the Lowe Music Theater Award, four Austin Critic's Table Awards, the John Bustin Award, an AMP Award, and five Austin Chronicle Best Composer awards.

Ruin the Holidays puts that big-band sound to work on the holiday songbook, with the minor-key tilt giving the familiar tunes a darker, more raucous edge. It's Graham Reynolds and his big band with special guests, playing at the Rollins Studio Theatre, 701 W. Riverside Dr., on Friday, December 11, at 8 PM.