Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch—one of the creative avatars of downtown New York cool since the mid ’80s—was asked a while back what he thought were some of the key innovations of the 20th century. “My answer was the mapping of the human genome, the Hubble Space Telescope, the French bikini, and the electric guitar,” recalls the director of such arthouse wonders as Mystery Train, Dead Man, and Only Lovers Left Alive. “My favorite of those might be the electric guitar. I just love guitars and musical noise.”