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The Mid-Week Beat: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement

Dr.-Martin-Luther-King-Jr-005With Martin Luther King Jr. Day coming up this Monday, this week is a chance for us to remember this great man and the incredible struggle that he helped spearhead: the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.

And, since this is the Mid-Week Beat, it’s also important to remember what a key role music played for those involved in the struggle. When one thinks of the music of the civil rights era, we largely think of so-called “freedom songs”: African-American gospel hymns like “Go Down Moses” or “We Shall Not Be Moved,” that had deep roots in the African-American churches and socially concious folk songs sung by artists like Julius Lester, Odetta and Pete Seeger. The freedom songs were collaborative in nature and they served as a tool to bring people together in the struggle and to gain strength from one another.

Many younger African Americans involved in the movement, however, sought to separate themselves from the old church tradition and wanted music that was more revolutionary in spirit. Music that could be cranked at parties and was more receptive than participatory. Therefore, it was the soul and r&b that was being produced in Detroit by Motown or in Memphis by Stax, that spoke to this, more militant, generation.
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Music >

The Mid-Week Beat: Happy Birthday to Elvis and Bowie!

Happy-Birthday-Elvis-Presley-David-Bowie-elvis-presley-18274375-500-311Today marks the birthdays of two major forces in modern popular music, one has sadly passed on and the other continues to create original and challenging music. I am, of course, referring to the legendary and iconic Elvis Presley and David Bowie.

Elvis Presley was born on this day in 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi. It was in the Assembly of God church in Tupelo that Elvis first discovered his love for music. He entered a singing contest at the age of ten at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, winning fifth place, and, a few weeks later, got his first guitar for his birthday. He would take lessons over the following year and would watch and learn from other guitarists but he remained shy and nervous about performing in front of other people.

He eventually began bringing his guitar to school on a daily basis, playing and singing during his lunchtime, despite being teased for playing “hillbilly” music. He became a fan of Mississippi Slim’s radio show on the local radio station WELO, and Slim’s younger brother, who was a classmate of Presley’s, began taking him to the station. Slim begain showing the young Presley guitar chord technique and eventually scheduled him for two on-air performances. He chickened out of the first one but made it to the second.
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Music >

Artist Ticket Picks: Doktor Dolittle, Blackheart Romance, Chastity Belt and more!

lotte_reiniger_doctor_dolittleWelcome to this week’s Artist Ticket Picks! The Artist Ticket program gives our customers a way to donate to causes that we care about.

If you’re an event producer, you can allow your ticket buyers to purchase limited-edition tickets printed with original artwork in your event settings. The ticket buyer will pay a small, additional charge of $0.25 and receive a limited edition, collectible ticket imprinted with original artwork. The current charity of our choosing will receive 100% of the additional charge. Physical tickets must be enabled on the event.

If you’re a ticket buyer, you can check to see if the limited edition ticket is available to you at the beginning of the ticket checkout process or by visiting the Artist Ticket page. You receive a small piece of collectible art and support a valuable cause just by checking the box in the Artist Ticket widget when you’re purchasing your tickets!

See a full list of events carrying the tickets on the Artist Ticket page, as well as find out more about the beneficiary for the current run of Artist Tickets.

So, without further ado, here are this week’s Artist Ticket picks:

DVD_Dolittle_800Thursday, January 23 and Saturday, February, 1 I Do the Doktor DolittleSeattle, Washington

Long before Eddie Murphy or Rex Harrison appeared in the role on the big screen, Lotte Reiniger, a 29-year-old German animator, created the first feature film about Doctor Dolittle and his thrilling journey to Africa.

Reinger’s film, made near the end of the silent film era, is a masterpiece of intricate silhouette-animation techniques that weaves a magical tale of talking animals and the benevolent doctor who understands what they say.  We have commissioned Seattle musicians and composers Miles and Karina (Dave Keenan and Nova Devonie) to compose and perform a new score for the film, featuring guitar, violin, accordion, banjo and other instruments. To sweeten the deal, they’ve also scored three more short films created by Reiniger: her haunting 1922 version of Sleeping Beauty, and two other exquisite short films created as advertisements for, of all things, Nivea Creme and the British postal service. Special thanks to Allison Das, translator.

Program:
Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty, 1922, 9 min)
Das Geheimnis der Marquise (1920, 2 min)
Doktor Dolittle (Reels 1 & 3, 1928, 22 min)
The Tocher (1937, 5 min)


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Film >

Artist Ticket Picks: Americana Music, Children’s Films, Pancakes and more!

Chatham+County+LineWelcome to this week’s Artist Ticket Picks! The Artist Ticket program gives our customers a way to donate to causes that we care about.

If you’re an event producer, you can allow your ticket buyers to purchase limited-edition tickets printed with original artwork in your event settings. The ticket buyer will pay a small, additional charge of $0.25 and receive a limited edition, collectible ticket imprinted with original artwork. The current charity of our choosing will receive 100% of the additional charge. Physical tickets must be enabled on the event.

If you’re a ticket buyer, you can check to see if the limited edition ticket is available to you at the beginning of the ticket checkout process or by visiting the Artist Ticket page. You receive a small piece of collectible art and support a valuable cause just by checking the box in the Artist Ticket widget when you’re purchasing your tickets!

See a full list of events carrying the tickets on the Artist Ticket page, as well as find out more about the beneficiary for the current run of Artist Tickets.

So, without further ado, here are this week’s Artist Ticket picks:

Friday, January 24 I CHATHAM COUNTY LINE and guestsSeattle, Washington

Chatham County Line is a four-man American roots band that emerged from the bluegrass scene in Raleigh, North Carolina at the turn of the millennium. In their matching suits and ties, gathered around a single microphone, they look like a traditional bluegrass band, but in the words of the Washington Post, “the minor chords, patient tempo, and bittersweet irony owe more to Neil Young than to Bill Monroe. This blend of bluegrass arrangements and folk-rock songwriting has led to five terrific, if under appreciated, studio albums from the North Carolina quartet since 2003.” Their newest album, Sight and Sound, is a live album that captures their rich blend of  bluegrass, country, and folk.

The band features Dave Wilson on guitar and harmonica, John Teer on mandolin and fiddle, Chandler Holt on guitar and banjo, and Greg Readling on piano, pedal steel, and standup bass.  All four sing, with Dave most often taking lead.  Their vibrant harmonies, poignant arrangements, incisive lyrics, and catchy tunes deliver a contemporary take on timeless traditions.


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Arts >

The Pronto Podcast — Brown Paper Tickets’ Event Guide for Seattle

BPT_buttonWelcome to The Pronto! Brown Paper Ticket’s event guide for Seattle.

Tune in every Tuesday to check out a few of our favorite events in the Emerald City! You can check back to the blog every Tuesday at 10am or hit “subscribe” on the player and get each week’s Pronto delivered right to your computer.

Have a friend that’s visiting Seattle this week? Why not share this podcast with them and give them ideas of something to do? 

This week’s podcast features our top picks including a belly dance dinner, an improv happy hour and a benefit concert for the Philippines.

By tomorrow, Thursday, December 26, it’s probably time to get out of the house. So head on down to High Dive for Hip-Hop at the High Dive featuring Dirtay, Mike G. and M.A.R., and the The Sav among others. Good tunes in Fremont.

It is the giving season. On Friday night, December 27, help people who are in serious need. Roosevelt High School in Ravenna hosts An Evening with Stephanie Reese & Friends : A Benefit Concert for Victims of the Typhoon in the Phillippines. Great music, great cause.

Sick of Santa? Weary of wreaths? Tired of Tinsel? Unnatural Redhead Productions brings Midwinter Madness to the Jewelbox Theater in Belltown on Friday, December 27. That’s all kinds of burlesque for your viewing pleasure.

Friday, December 27, and Saturday, December 28, head on over to Unexpected Production’s Market Theater for Improv Happy Hour. That’s a sampler of improv formats and styles during what some would consider the best hour of the day.

Saturday, December 28, catch La Faux at Julia’s on Broadway on Capitol Hill. This show features a full cast of impersonators, dancers and outrageous acts. And if you’re hungry, chow down on some dinner while you enjoy the show.

Saturday, December 28, have a nice meal and check out some belly dancing at Kezira Cafe in Columbia City. The show is free with dinner. You really can’t go wrong with this one.

Dress up in your favorite handmade attire or make something new for Maker’s Masquerade at Jigsaw Renaissance in the ID on Saturday, December 28. While you’re there, learn how to make simple circuits using aluminum tape and LEDs. Pretty fun, right?

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Arts >

Spit Take Saturday: Bo Burnham

2DEBB37CE-9098-46A3-23A54EE7C0FBE15E.jpg.pagespeed.ce.rY-nXBGn_lWelcome to Spit Take Saturday, courtesy of Brown Paper Tickets’ Comedy Doer Julie Seabaugh and her professional comedy criticism site The Spit Take. Julie’s goal with the site is to “elevate the public perception of stand-up comedy to that of a legitimate art form, and to enable comedy criticism be taken as seriously as that of theater, film, music, food, even video games. No a**-kissing. No bias. No mercy. Just honest, unfiltered, long-form reviews written by professional, knowledgeable comedy critics.” 

Every week Julie will select an entry from the site to be included on our blog and hand-pick some related events happening that week that So, without further ado, let us introduce you to this week’s Spit Take Saturday!

__________________________________________

Earlier this spring, I spoke with Bo Burnham for The Boston Globe, and the subject of his two-year hiatus between specials came up. Burnham had developed a lot of career momentum when his YouTube videos led to his first EP, Bo Fo Sho, in 2008, on through his second special, Words Words Words in 2010. He has been working on the material for his new special, what., since at least 2011, when he performed much of it at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, his last show before moving to LA.


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Comedy >

Artist Ticket Picks: Mighty Boosh, Maurice Sendak and 80’s Cinema Go Burlesque, Bitter Poetry and more!

The_Mighty_Boosh_Wallpaper_by_JWoods07Welcome to this week’s Artist Ticket Picks! The Artist Ticket program gives our customers a way to donate to causes that we care about.

If you’re an event producer, you can allow your ticket buyers to purchase limited-edition tickets printed with original artwork in your event settings. The ticket buyer will pay a small, additional charge of $0.25 and receive a limited edition, collectible ticket imprinted with original artwork. The current charity of our choosing will receive 100% of the additional charge. Physical tickets must be enabled on the event.

If you’re a ticket buyer, you can check to see if the limited edition ticket is available to you at the beginning of the ticket checkout process or by visiting the Artist Ticket page. You receive a small piece of collectible art and support a valuable cause just by checking the box in the Artist Ticket widget when you’re purchasing your tickets!

See a full list of events carrying the tickets on the Artist Ticket page, as well as find out more about the beneficiary for the current run of Artist Tickets.

So, without further ado, here are this week’s Artist Ticket picks:

Saturday, January 4 I Come With us on a Journey Through Time and Space: A Mighty Boosh Burlesque TributeSeattle, Washington

The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six-episode radio series, it has since spawned a total of 20 television episodes for BBC Three and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the United States.

In May 2004, after the success of a Boosh pilot, Steve Coogan’s company, Baby Cow Productions, produced the first television series of The Mighty Boosh for BBC Three, before it moved to BBC Two in November that same year. Though each episode invariably starts and ends in Dixon Bainbridge’s dilapidated zoo, the “Zooniverse”, the characters of Vince and Howard often depart for other locations, such as the Arctic tundra and limbo.

A second series, shown in July 2005, saw Howard and Vince sharing Naboo’s flat in Dalston with previously minor characters Naboo and his familiar, Bollo, a gorilla living at the “Zooniverse”. This series had an even looser setting as the four characters leave the confines of the flat in every episode, travelling in their van to a variety of surrealistic environments, including Naboo’s home planet “Xooberon”.

Series three started in November 2007, still set in Dalston, but this time the foursome are selling ‘Bits & Bobs’ in their shop, the Nabootique. Their adventures and outings in this series focused more on the involvement of new characters (e.g. Sammy the Crab, or Lester Corncrake etc.) rather than just the two of them.

This burlesque tribute to the cult hit will take place at Belltown’s Rendezvous/Jewelbox Theater and is lead by the board of Shaman (aka L’Orchestre D’Incroyable) and hosts Morbid Curiositease will take you through a journey of time and space featuring: La Petite Mort, Czech Mate, Dogwood, Penelope Rose, Amy Corinne Dougherty and a few surprises. Electro Boy/Girl dance party in the Grotto to follow with a DJ battle Kevin Incroyable vs Dominick J Kreep!

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Arts >

The Mid-Week Beat: Paying Tribute This Weekend

elvis-impersonators-590x310As many musicians out there know, a large portion of learning to be a instrumentalist or songwriter is learning to properly steal from your influences. Many musicians struggle to be original but chances are, someone has played the combination of chords and notes that you “wrote” before. That said, if you really get down to it, the actual notes and chords don’t really matter. It’s what you bring to those chords that matters; your unique perspective and individual playing style. No matter what you do to differentiate your sound from sounds of the past, there’s bound to be a little of your influences in there somewhere. That’s okay, as long as you also bring a little of yourself into the mix as well.

With that said, there are two very different ways to approach a tribute show. Some artists attempt to re-create the exact sound of the artist they’re paying tribute to, others choose to re-interpret an artists songs in their own unique way. I find the latter to be more enjoyable because it really distills music down to its pure form and pays homage to the folk tradition, where songs were passed down over the years; constantly changing and being re-interpreted. By interpreting a song in their own voice, a musician ensures that those songs will continue to grow and change for years to come. Songs by revered songwriters like Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen are constantly being changed and re-interpreted by musicians, while artists like Elvis or Neil Diamond often get impersonated, with musicians donning their cadence, look and stage presence.

Today on the Mid-Week Beat, we feature both kinds of tributes: impersonations and interpretations. If you’re a fan of the original artists, chances are you’re going to enjoy hearing the songs you love regardless of whether they’re done straight or in an entirely different style. What matters are the songs.
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Music >

Artist Ticket Picks: Marlene Dietrich, Warren Beatty, Elvis and more!

devil_is_a_woman_xlgWelcome to this week’s Artist Ticket Picks! The Artist Ticket program gives our customers a way to donate to causes that we care about.

If you’re an event producer, you can allow your ticket buyers to purchase limited-edition tickets printed with original artwork in your event settings. The ticket buyer will pay a small, additional charge of $0.25 and receive a limited edition, collectible ticket imprinted with original artwork. The current charity of our choosing will receive 100% of the additional charge. Physical tickets must be enabled on the event.

If you’re a ticket buyer, you can check to see if the limited edition ticket is available to you at the beginning of the ticket checkout process or by visiting the Artist Ticket page. You receive a small piece of collectible art and support a valuable cause just by checking the box in the Artist Ticket widget when you’re purchasing your tickets!

See a full list of events carrying the tickets on the Artist Ticket page, as well as find out more about the beneficiary for the current run of Artist Tickets.

So, without further ado, here are this week’s Artist Ticket picks:

Friday, December 13 I The Devil Is A WomanSeattle, Washington

The Devil Is A Woman is the last and most stylized of the Von Sternberg/Dietrich films. Stunning in bright black and white, it’s the story of Concha Perez (“The most daaangerous woman aliiiive” drones Lionel Atwill as a bitter and broken-hearted cast-off, filling in quite nicely for Von Sternberg).

Concha begins as a poorly dressed cigarette-maker with curiously impeccable make-up and hair in 1890’s-ish “Spain.” Cesar Romero, handsome as a God, plays the gay, young patriot enthralled with Concha after seeing her in perhaps the most intriguing Spanish-comb/pom-pom/mantilla combination ever enshrined on film.

The Travis Banton costumes for Miss Dietrich are over-the-top stunners, and really her hair is worth mentioning again: an ever-changing kaleidoscope of lace, Spanish combs, spit-curls and carnations. There are a lot of squawking, messy, flapping birds, so if you get bored waiting for Miss Dietrich to show up while the plot advances (an adaptation by John Dos Passos, but you’d never know it) those birds will give you something to think about.

Selected by the artist Mark Mitchell.


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Film >

The Mid-Week Beat: Rachel Wong – Here’s to the Indies!

rachel_wong_9This week on the Mid-Week Beat, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we want to say how thankful we are for all the incredible independent musicians out there. We are thankful that these musicians continue to get out there and  make great original music despite all the hardships that go into trying to build a music career.

If you are an independent artist, don’t get discouraged if you haven’t achieved “success” in the industry sense of the word. You are doing something that most folks don’t get an opportunity to do: pursuing your dream. You do what you love, often times while working day jobs, raising kids and enduring all the other stresses of daily life.

Independent musicians’ undying perseverance is something to be admired. Many nights are spent loading gear in and out of venues, waiting around for hours during soundchecks, sometimes to only play to a handful of people. But if they weren’t out there persevering, music fans would never be fortunate enough to discover the musical gems that sometimes appear out of nowhere. Chances are your favorite artists had many years of hard work behind them before they got the recognition they deserved.

Case in point, Brown Paper Tickets’ own Rachel Wong. When Rachel isn’t working wonders with our digital marketing, she’s often found playing her unique brand of acoustic pop in local coffee shops, at community festivals or, sometimes, on TV!

Influenced by the late Michael Jackson, John Mayer, Lauryn Hill, James Morrison and Sara Bareilles, Rachel mixes a soulful vocal style with beautiful pop melodies. Her music is infused with self-determined passion and her unique perspective as an Asian American woman. This determination has helped her garner international recognition as tracks off of her debut album Curtain Fall can now be heard on radio stations in Canada and the Philippines.

Rachel beat out over 3,000 bands in the US to secure her top 12 finalist spot for Ford’s Gimme the Gig II Contest. As part of the contest, she was able to showcase her original music in front of Grammy-award winning producer Don Was and renowned sound engineer Krish Sharma for a KTLA TV feature.


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