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Spit Take Saturday: Bo Burnham

indexWelcome 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 she feels all you comedy lovers out there will appreciate.

So, without further ado, let us introduce you to this week’s Spit Take Saturday!

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The most informative bit in Bo Burnham’s book of poetry, Egghead: Or, You Can’t Survive on Ideas Alone, comes at the end in the acknowledgments, in which Burnham thanks George Carlin and Shel Silverstein. Both had a deep appreciation of language and love for playing with it, a quality Burnham shares. Both also enjoyed decidedly adult material, as does Burnham. That’s how Burnham winds up with a collection that includes a contemplation on the shock of empathy (“The Party”), what could be the start of a science-fiction novel (“Xia Cobolt”), and a meditation on crapping philosophers (“Socrates”).



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Comedy >

The Mid-Week Beat: Kurt Vile, Neil Pennycook and Amy Ray

20055613-40654Welcome to Brown Paper Tickets’ newest weekly, music-centric blog feature The Mid-Week Beat.

Every Wednesday, Brown Paper Tickets will be introducing you to bands and musical events from around the globe. In the future we’ll feature interviews with some of our favorite bands, record reviews of upcoming releases, music-related stories, previews of specific genres, suggestions of upcoming music festivals and much more. We hope this will become a weekly stop for all the music lovers in the Brown Paper Tickets universe so be sure to check back each week and discover your new favorite band, song, festival, venue or genre.

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This week we are looking at three singer-songwriters who have shows coming up in Northampton, Massachusetts, Edinburgh, Scotland and Asheville, North Carolina in the next couple of weeks.

Kurt Vile was a founding member of indie rock outfit The War on Drugs but is now better known for his solo work. As a musician and producer he draws on indie folk, indie rock, psychedelia and lo-fi to produce songs which are introspective and full of wistfulness and beauty.

Kurt has released three solo ablums to date with “Constant Hitmaker” (2008), “Childish Prodigy” (2009), and “Smoke Ring for My Halo” (2011), his first album for famed independent record label Matador Records.

Our featured track this week is “Baby’s Arms” from Kurt’s 2011 release “Smoke Ring for My Halo”:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63KB-EJKdyI?rel=0]

Kurt will be appearing at The Elevens in Northampton, Massachusetts on Friday, January 25th. You can pick up tickets right over here.

UPDATE! Advanced tickets for this show have SOLD OUT! Note from the producer: “There’s a slim chance that people can get a ticket at the door. Potential ticket-seekers should get here early (doors will be at 8/8:30).”
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Music >