Double Tee & Soul’d Out Productions Present:
YASIIN BEY (fka Mos Def) – Performing “Black On Both Sides”
Saturday, September 2, 2017 8:30pm
Roseland Theater
21 & Over Only
We present to you, the unique opportunity to attend the earthly premiere of Cocky Stevens! The very first show! The place where it all (will) began. With Vendetta & Mouthbreather.
The Ape presents CAT PATROL, an hour of character-driven sketch comedy that explores bad spoken word, the creepy lives of twins, one-woman shows and the musical stylings of Darth Vader. Directed by Chris Caniglia, CAT PATROL marks the first major debut of a sketch comedy production at The Ape theater. It is also the first full length production produced, written, directed and starring the founders of The Ape - Brooke Totman (MADtv, The Benefits of Gusbandry), Alissa Jessup (The Mindy Project, True Blood) and Chris Caniglia (30 Rock, The People’s Improv Theater of N.Y.).
After years of performing and writing sketch shows in Portland, Brooke Totman was hired to cast and direct a new sketch company at a comedy club in town. Alissa Jessup came in to audition (Alissa and Chris Caniglia had just moved to Portland from Los Angeles) and immediately caught Brooke’s attention. “Alissa got on stage and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her comedic timing was spot-on and she was the only person on stage creating characters!” says Brooke. “I scanned her resume and saw that like me, she trained at The Groundlings. - I knew I had found a comedy soulmate.” (The Groundlings is known as the foremost sketch comedy training ground in Los Angeles and has been the launch pad for countless careers including: Melissa McCarthy, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Phil Hartman, Lisa Kudrow, Paul Reubens, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, and Kathy Griffin.)
The two women became fast friends and collaborators, creating sketches for the show Identity Crisis at Portland Center Stage. “After Identity Crisis, we knew we had something special and we had to make our own show,” says Alissa. “We sat down with Chris (a veteran of New York and Los Angeles comedy) and the three of us started to dream up all the things we could do if we joined forces on CAT PATROL and beyond. What if we started our own comedy-based theater? A theater where as artists, we can create the kind of acting based, character-driven comedy that we love? And while we’re at it, why don’t we kick off our debut season with CAT PATROL?” “The collaboration chemistry was immediate.” says Brooke. “Alissa and I both grew up watching funny women like, Carol Burnett, Laverne & Shirley, Gilda Radner, Lily Tomlin, and Lucille Ball.” “And then you add our Groundlings sensibilities to the mix, it’s magic.” adds Alissa, “When we write it’s so easeful. It’s like we share the same twisted comedy brain, it just works.” Chris adds, “We all offer something very different and distinct to the process. Brooke is a master of both subtle and bold, physical comedy. She can transform into a character so completely, that you literally forget she’s on stage. Alissa is an amazing actor with the comedy chops to match. Nothing is too big, too broad or off-limits. If a seemingly impossible idea is pitched, Alissa is the one to figure out how to make it work on stage” “Chris brings a very calm, intentional focus to the process.” says Alissa. “He has this knack for listening, processing and with one or two suggestions, making the entire piece stronger. He’s the CAT PATROL whisperer.”
THE APE FOUNDERS
About Brooke Totman
Brooke is an actor, writer and sketch comedy performer. After receiving a degree in Theater performance, Totman headed to the bright lights and smoggy hills of L.A. to train at acclaimed sketch and improv company, The Groundlings.
Brooke became a member of The Groundlings Sunday company, performing alongside Melissa McCarthy, Mitch Silpa and Michael McDonald. It is here that her skills for writing sketches and creating unique comedy characters were developed. Auditioning with characters created at The Groundlings, Totman was cast on MADtv as a featured cast member during its 5th season. Other selected TV credits include: The King of Queens (CBS), Less Than Perfect (ABC),Judging Amy (CBS) and Life After First Failure (The CW). She is currently starring in the critically acclaimed series, The Benefits of Gusbandry, available on Amazon Prime. Brooke is co-founder of The Ape Theater, a comedy based theater and training ground committed to creating new work that ignites, engages and entertains. She also heads The Ape’s Sketch Comedy division, teaching, coaching, producing and directing.
About Alissa Jessup
Alissa is a writer, director, and actor with over 20 years’ experience creating and working in theater, film, and television. She likes that clowns are kind of creepy. As an actor, she has performed and developed new plays with Sundance Theatre Lab, The Flea Theater, ACT Theatre, 13P, Soho Rep, P.S. 122, and Playwrights Horizons. Selected T.V. credits include The Mindy Project (Hulu), True Blood (HBO), Grimm (NBC), and The Mentalist (CBS). She has written and performed comedy at The Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade NYC and U.C.B. Los Angeles. In 2015, Alissa founded Growly Pictures to produce content that is made by women for women. Alissa wrote, directed, and stars in the comedic short film, ‘chickadee’, which she produced with an all-female cast and crew. Alissa is co-founder of The Ape and serves as the Artistic Director, where she also directs, teaches acting, directing, writing and collaboration classes.
About Chris Caniglia
Chris Caniglia started his improv career in 1986 with a group called Mental Floss in Miami. He performed over a crappy little garage that worked on foreign cars. After a little more seasoning and a move to the Big Apple he founded Big Black Car, New York City’s longest running long form improv team, and winner of Emerging Comics of New York’s award for best improv group. That group was Tom Ridgeley, Justin Akin, Ellie Kemper, Chris Caniglia, Megan Martin, Kristin Schaal, Scott Eckert and Matt Oberg. This was at the Peoples Improv Theater, where he was also a member of the teaching faculty. Chris has performed at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, The Magnet Theater in New York, where he was a member of House team Sweet Crude, directed by Armando Diaz, U.C.B. L.A., I/O West, the Chicago Improv Festival, and the D.C. Improv Festival. Chris is co-founder of The Ape and also serves as the head of its Improv division, where he coaches, teaches, produces and directs.
About The Ape Theater
With a mission of making serious sketch comedy (for people who aren’t that serious), The Ape is a comedy-based theater & training ground committed to creating new improv, sketch and theater work that ignites, engages, and entertains. Classes and workshops are offered in long-form improv, sketch comedy, writing, performance, and collaboration. The Ape’s training is deeply rooted in the belief that solid acting is the key to great comedic performances.
The Ape is an underground theater. Literally. It is located in the basement of The Alberta Abbey. The Ape is founded by working professionals with over 20 years experience working in New York City and Los Angeles in TV, Film,Theater and Comedy.
Alumni: Upright Citizens Brigade NYC & LA, The Magnet, The P.I.T., The Groundlings. www.theapetheater.com
Foster the People was founded by Mark Foster in Los Angeles in 2009. The group achieved success with the 2011 release of their debut album Torches, which has sold nearly two million albums and over ten million singles worldwide. Torches features the #1 hit single “Pumped Up Kicks,” which was declared “the year’s anthem” by SPIN, and also spawned the chart topping singles “Don’t Stop (Color On The Walls),” “Houdini,” and “Helena Beat.” Foster the People garnered three Grammy nominations for their monumental debut, including Best Alternative Album, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Pumped Up Kicks” and Best Short Form Music Video for “Houdini.”
Foster the People’s sophomore album, Supermodel, was released on March 18th, 2014. Produced by Paul Epworth and recorded in various locations around the world, the album reached number three on the U.S. album chart. Two singles, “Coming of Age” and “Best Friend”, hit the Top Ten of the alternative chart.
About Sir Sly
Hello, this is Hayden from Sir Sly and I am writing the press release for our new single "High." At first, we used a biographer and they did a nice job--in fact, my favorite quote said that our new song "turns a hotel-room panic attack into a creative breakthrough" (true!). Still, I wanted to give you a bit more background, in chronological order, formatted by bullet points:
April 20, 2014: It's a day off on tour with The 1975. We're colonizing a beige, spartan room at the Courtyard Marriott in Oakland. Landon, our frontman, steps out for a smoke.
Shortly thereafter, he becomes one with the universe. Additionally, my man sprawls out on the bathroom tile, smiling, scared, and stoned, naming off a list of people to whom he must give this newly discovered, all-encompassing, cosmic love.
September 16, 2014: The trip subsides, we finish the tour, and release an album called You Haunt Me. It does pretty well. My Mom tells all her friends about the time we played Conan, and how she heard us on the radio.
Deep inside, I'm a little disappointed because I read somewhere on the internet that we were supposed to be the next Coldplay, yet I still drive a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder with a check engine light.
Over the next six months, we start, and later abandon, a sophomore album full of minimal electronic songs. The lyrics are mostly outward facing, obtuse, anxious. It was good, but Jamie xx we are not.
June 2015: Back at square one and thinking hard about words like "sonic" and "identity," Jason makes a round, booming instrumental in his studio in Costa Mesa. I cobble together a sampled, sauntering drum beat on a bus in Italy. Landon comes up with this sticky melody that's part talking, part singing, all feel. We get in a room and they meld together.
It ends up being a revisionist retelling of that April 2014 night with a wink and some rose-colored glasses, borne of a desire to have a song to dance to every show.
I play it for an anonymous Uber driver and he's all in. My Dad hears it and says it is "poppier" than our old stuff. My brother loves it and posts it to his Instagram months before it's released because he thinks it's already out.
Now: "High" comes out. "It's an upbeat anthem about ego death" lead singer Landon Jacobs told the biographer, while I was on the other line of the conference call. "It really opened up the honesty of the record."
Fittingly, it's the first song from a forthcoming album that is lived-in, loose, and against all odds, a celebration. Thanks for listening.
The Easy Leaves are very top of the Country heap in San Francisco, headlining and filling big rooms (Great American Music Hall, The Independent, Mystic Theatre), main stage set at last year's Outside Lands Festival (Willie Nelson told them 'We should play together again'!), CMT premieres their videos ... But more to the point, they write, record, and perform incredible songs. Songs that are meticulously crafted, and have great capabilities of (just plain) moving people. Under the guidance of Merle Haggard's music, and countless other important poets, The Easy Leaves have written their own great collection of poetry for the common man.
Zach Bryson opens. Zach Bryson "The One and Lonely" is a Country Songwriter and Hillbilly Yodeler from Portland, OR who plays original Country music with the help of his Honk-Tonk backing band The Meat Rack.
The Ape presents CAT PATROL, an hour of character-driven sketch comedy that explores bad spoken word, the creepy lives of twins, one-woman shows and the musical stylings of Darth Vader. Directed by Chris Caniglia, CAT PATROL marks the first major debut of a sketch comedy production at The Ape theater. It is also the first full length production produced, written, directed and starring the founders of The Ape - Brooke Totman (MADtv, The Benefits of Gusbandry), Alissa Jessup (The Mindy Project, True Blood) and Chris Caniglia (30 Rock, The People’s Improv Theater of N.Y.).
After years of performing and writing sketch shows in Portland, Brooke Totman was hired to cast and direct a new sketch company at a comedy club in town. Alissa Jessup came in to audition (Alissa and Chris Caniglia had just moved to Portland from Los Angeles) and immediately caught Brooke’s attention. “Alissa got on stage and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her comedic timing was spot-on and she was the only person on stage creating characters!” says Brooke. “I scanned her resume and saw that like me, she trained at The Groundlings. - I knew I had found a comedy soulmate.” (The Groundlings is known as the foremost sketch comedy training ground in Los Angeles and has been the launch pad for countless careers including: Melissa McCarthy, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Phil Hartman, Lisa Kudrow, Paul Reubens, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, and Kathy Griffin.)
The two women became fast friends and collaborators, creating sketches for the show Identity Crisis at Portland Center Stage. “After Identity Crisis, we knew we had something special and we had to make our own show,” says Alissa. “We sat down with Chris (a veteran of New York and Los Angeles comedy) and the three of us started to dream up all the things we could do if we joined forces on CAT PATROL and beyond. What if we started our own comedy-based theater? A theater where as artists, we can create the kind of acting based, character-driven comedy that we love? And while we’re at it, why don’t we kick off our debut season with CAT PATROL?” “The collaboration chemistry was immediate.” says Brooke. “Alissa and I both grew up watching funny women like, Carol Burnett, Laverne & Shirley, Gilda Radner, Lily Tomlin, and Lucille Ball.” “And then you add our Groundlings sensibilities to the mix, it’s magic.” adds Alissa, “When we write it’s so easeful. It’s like we share the same twisted comedy brain, it just works.” Chris adds, “We all offer something very different and distinct to the process. Brooke is a master of both subtle and bold, physical comedy. She can transform into a character so completely, that you literally forget she’s on stage. Alissa is an amazing actor with the comedy chops to match. Nothing is too big, too broad or off-limits. If a seemingly impossible idea is pitched, Alissa is the one to figure out how to make it work on stage” “Chris brings a very calm, intentional focus to the process.” says Alissa. “He has this knack for listening, processing and with one or two suggestions, making the entire piece stronger. He’s the CAT PATROL whisperer.”
THE APE FOUNDERS
About Brooke Totman
Brooke is an actor, writer and sketch comedy performer. After receiving a degree in Theater performance, Totman headed to the bright lights and smoggy hills of L.A. to train at acclaimed sketch and improv company, The Groundlings.
Brooke became a member of The Groundlings Sunday company, performing alongside Melissa McCarthy, Mitch Silpa and Michael McDonald. It is here that her skills for writing sketches and creating unique comedy characters were developed. Auditioning with characters created at The Groundlings, Totman was cast on MADtv as a featured cast member during its 5th season. Other selected TV credits include: The King of Queens (CBS), Less Than Perfect (ABC),Judging Amy (CBS) and Life After First Failure (The CW). She is currently starring in the critically acclaimed series, The Benefits of Gusbandry, available on Amazon Prime. Brooke is co-founder of The Ape Theater, a comedy based theater and training ground committed to creating new work that ignites, engages and entertains. She also heads The Ape’s Sketch Comedy division, teaching, coaching, producing and directing.
About Alissa Jessup
Alissa is a writer, director, and actor with over 20 years’ experience creating and working in theater, film, and television. She likes that clowns are kind of creepy. As an actor, she has performed and developed new plays with Sundance Theatre Lab, The Flea Theater, ACT Theatre, 13P, Soho Rep, P.S. 122, and Playwrights Horizons. Selected T.V. credits include The Mindy Project (Hulu), True Blood (HBO), Grimm (NBC), and The Mentalist (CBS). She has written and performed comedy at The Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade NYC and U.C.B. Los Angeles. In 2015, Alissa founded Growly Pictures to produce content that is made by women for women. Alissa wrote, directed, and stars in the comedic short film, ‘chickadee’, which she produced with an all-female cast and crew. Alissa is co-founder of The Ape and serves as the Artistic Director, where she also directs, teaches acting, directing, writing and collaboration classes.
About Chris Caniglia
Chris Caniglia started his improv career in 1986 with a group called Mental Floss in Miami. He performed over a crappy little garage that worked on foreign cars. After a little more seasoning and a move to the Big Apple he founded Big Black Car, New York City’s longest running long form improv team, and winner of Emerging Comics of New York’s award for best improv group. That group was Tom Ridgeley, Justin Akin, Ellie Kemper, Chris Caniglia, Megan Martin, Kristin Schaal, Scott Eckert and Matt Oberg. This was at the Peoples Improv Theater, where he was also a member of the teaching faculty. Chris has performed at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, The Magnet Theater in New York, where he was a member of House team Sweet Crude, directed by Armando Diaz, U.C.B. L.A., I/O West, the Chicago Improv Festival, and the D.C. Improv Festival. Chris is co-founder of The Ape and also serves as the head of its Improv division, where he coaches, teaches, produces and directs.
About The Ape Theater
With a mission of making serious sketch comedy (for people who aren’t that serious), The Ape is a comedy-based theater & training ground committed to creating new improv, sketch and theater work that ignites, engages, and entertains. Classes and workshops are offered in long-form improv, sketch comedy, writing, performance, and collaboration. The Ape’s training is deeply rooted in the belief that solid acting is the key to great comedic performances.
The Ape is an underground theater. Literally. It is located in the basement of The Alberta Abbey. The Ape is founded by working professionals with over 20 years experience working in New York City and Los Angeles in TV, Film,Theater and Comedy.
Alumni: Upright Citizens Brigade NYC & LA, The Magnet, The P.I.T., The Groundlings. www.theapetheater.com
Assembling a dynamic combination of never-before-seen home video footage, candid interviews and raucous performances; director Sarah Price explores the rise and fall of the seminal grunge punk band L7 . Chronicling the early days of the band's formation in 1985, to the height of their fame in the 90's; the film takes a roller coaster ride through L7’s triumphs and failures, and provides insight into the band's eventual dissolution in 2001.
The Portland Mercury and XRAY.FM Present an end of summer celebration with Wild Ones on 9/1, Blitzen Trapper on 9/2 and Orquestra Pacifico Tropical on 9/3!
- Like A Villain -
With her voice, a clarinet, a glockenspiel, and a loop pedal, Holland Andrews of Like a Villain weaves haunting faerie tales of songs, capable of ethereal beauty and deafening, cathartic discord. Over the past few years, Andrews has established herself as one of the Northwest's most daring and captivating performers. "Great, big sonic constructs that crash through your expectations of what music is supposed to be" - Willamette Week
- Golden Retriever -
Golden Retriever is the duo of Matt Carlson (modular synthesizer) and Jonathan Sielaff (bass clarinet), two musicians who blur the line between sounds created electronically and acoustically. The pair formed Golden Retriever in 2008 and began to develop a project in the tradition of American experimental electronic composers like Alvin Curran & David Behrman. Golden Retriever creates music that is structurally complex while remaining inviting and emotionally dynamic.
- Sporting -
Sporting is a duo from Portland that plays ecstatic polyrhythmic songs for keys, voice, and drums.
Together, Luke Wyland and John Niekrasz have been testing the limits of rhythm and melody in various formations for over ten years. Their other established duos, AU and Why I Must Be Careful, have been lauded as groundbreaking and breathtaking.
Sporting delivers compelling new compositions based in non-traditional tunings and the cadences of language. Borders between strict structure and improvisation blur as the players attune to each other with an almost telepathic zeal. Deep uncanny grooves, subliminal melodies, synapse-quick changes, and involuted polyrhythms make for a powerful and thrilling live performance
Springtime Carnivore with Balto
About Springtime Carnivore
In 2004 while still in high school, Greta Morgan was a founding member of The Hush Sound and found herself on tour at sixteen opening for artists such as One Republic, Fall Out Boy, OK GO, and The All American Rejects.
In 2009 she formed Gold Motel and opened for Butch Walker, Hello Goodbye, and Cold War Kids. Greta now has her own solo project called Springtime Carnivore and her new album has been produced in part by Richard Swift (of The Shins) and will be released on Autumn Tone (via ANTI/Epitaph).
Website:
http://www.springtimecarnivore.com/
About Balto
Balto’s return to the LP after a 5 year absence lands with a swell of feedback, a heavy downbeat, and a punch to the gut. “I’ve known love asa fleeting beauty lost upon the young.” It’s a coming of age album in the fullest sense, a 10-cut meditation on the realization that time is pushing us all closer to the void and away from one another, and that the doe-eyed romanticism of Balto’s early writing has long since sobered. Yet underneath that disillusionment is a sense of confident celebration in not only knowing a craft, but loving it. It's an album of unbridled american rock’n’roll – steeped in the mythology of the legendary songwriters and Motown's almighty groove. Biting cynicism, instant classics, tear-your-heart-out live energy, a willingness to swagger, rip hard, and live behind the beat.
Los Angeles-hailing post-punk trio Adult Books head north to play a free show in support of their 2016 full-length, Running from the Blows. Portland's own punk and pop stalwarts the Woolen Men lend their support to the bill.
Portland's Adam Pasi starts the night.
Iggy Pop, Beck, Nas, Spoon, and Father John Misty will lead this summer's MusicfestNW presents Project Pabst festival.
In 2016, MusicfestNW and Project Pabst joined forces for one summertime Waterfront Park festival in Portland, and the partnership will continue this year on August 26 and 27.
The lineup, a mix of rock, indie and hip-hop, speaks to Project Pabst's Generation X sensibilities and MusicfestNW's focus on upcoming artists--with a few slots on the bill saved for Portland artists.
The fest has booked three of them this year: rising hip-hop star the Last Artful, Dodgr; Corin Tucker/Peter Buck supergroup Filthy Friends; and artful punks Lithics.
Beyond the local acts and the bigger names, the fest will include Die Antwoord, Fidlar, Lizzo, Pup, White Reaper, Whitney, Noname, San Fermin, Frankie Cosmos and Rvivr.
Chicago MC Noname, is fresh off a life-giving NPR Tiny Desk performance: we would be remiss not to tell you to see her on any stage possible this summer.
Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via projectpabst.com. Early-bird rates will run $85 for the weekend and $55 a day, with prices rising to $99 and $65 after.
RICH MAN IS ACCLAIMED SINGER-SONGWRITER-GUITARIST DOYLE BRAMHALL II’S FIRST RELEASE SINCE 2001
Concord Records released singer-songwriter-guitarist Doyle Bramhall II’s latest album Rich Man on September 30, 2016. The album, long awaited by fans who have followed Bramhall’s collaborations with artists as far-ranging as Tedeschi Trucks Band to Roger Waters, is his first in over a decade. The album reflects both his extensive experience in the interim with such artists as Eric Clapton, whom he’s worked closely with for more than ten years (and who hails him as one of the most gifted guitarists he’s ever heard) and Sheryl Crow, for whom he produced and composed songs for on the 2011 album 100 Miles from Memphis, as well as an intensive spiritual and musical journey that took him to India and Africa in search of new sounds and an inner peace sought following the death of his legendary father Doyle Bramhall.
“I’d been writing pretty consistently for other artists and projects since my last album and had stored a lot of songs, sort of documenting my life story,” says Bramhall, whose long list of collaboration credits further includes the likes of Roger Waters, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, B.B. King, T-Bone Burnett, Elton John, Gary Clark Jr., Gregg Allman, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Billy Preston, Erykah Badu, Questlove and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Most recently Bramhall has teamed with ace guitarist Derek Trucks (both proclaimed as “The New Guitar Gods” by Guitar World when they served in Clapton’s band in the late 2000) in the Tedeschi Trucks Band, also starring Trucks’ wife Susan Tedeschi. Bramhall’s collaborations with Tedeschi Trucks have included production and standout tracks on each of their three acclaimed albums.
“I’d been busy touring and producing for other artists, and so I took a hiatus from recording and performing as a solo artist. All those experiences actually helped me develop new skills and I learned how to facilitate my own sound. I feel like the stars finally aligned to allow me to be completely myself as an artist for the first time—singer, guitar player, songwriter, producer- and take things that were happening in my life and put them into music.”
But Bramhall correctly notes that his desired sound is “not one thing stylistically, but an amalgam of lot of influences that come out of my life experiences and travels—and what I’m affected and inspired by.” To be sure, there’s blues on Rich Man, but there’s also influences of R&B, Indian music and Arabic music, as well as Bramhall’s distinctive guitar work.
“There’s a lot to each song, and at the end, when I was sequencing them, I realized they tell a story,” continues Bramhall. “It’s hard to summarize 70 minutes of music in a couple sentences, because all the songs have dual meanings and themes that apply to a collective experience that parallels my personal experience . Basically, all the songs are steps on a personal journey back to my truth, which comes around full circle from beginning to end on this album . It's a very personal record for me.”
Rich Man opens with the pointed “Mama Can’t Help You,” a “call for a reckoning,” says Bramhall, about “entitlement, accountability and taking responsibility for yourself, your circumstances, actions and resulting consequences.” It begins with the voicing of R&B drumming great James Gadson (Bill Withers), and Bramhall, in fact, wrote the tune expressly “for his groove—because no one has that groove!” Guitar World has the track premiere for “Mama Can’t Help You” here.
The second track “November,” being “a love song to my late father,” has the essence of their favorite R&B records the two listened to as Bramhall grew up.
The contemporary groove easily recalls the horn arrangements they loved, but with a decidedly personal statement.
“His words and who he was resonates with me now, and through his passing I was inspired to take a journey to find my voice and my truth and begin fully living.”
Doyle Bramhall, who composed for and played drums with Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan, died in November 2011.
“I loved him dearly, but there were things in our relationship that we hadn’t voiced or reconciled,” says Bramhall. “Before he passed, I experienced an awakening where the burden of all that stuff was lifted and I went through a spiritual metamorphosis. I just didn’t get the chance to tell him, because he died unexpectedly.”
“The Veil” comes out of “the breakthrough” of discovering “a person’s dark, ugly, true nature, hidden by a veil of contrived charm,” Bramhall continues. “It’s a warning to look beyond the veil and a call to do better.”
“My People” is distinguished by instrumentation including baritone 12-string guitars, harmonium, and sarangi—the North Indian classical bowed string instrument performed here by one of its top players, Ustad Surjeet Singh.
“It’s a statement about human connectivity between cultures and the hope of continuing to evolve with mutual respect and understanding,” says Bramhall. “Mystics say that the sarangi is the greatest of all instruments because it comes closest to the human voice. I practice meditation daily, and meditate to it. The music portrays the meaning of the lyric and merges elements of traditional blues with Indian classic music, drawn from my travels and experiences in India and Northern Africa over the last four years.
He adds, “People focus on our differences, but we’re really all the same.” “New Faith” likewise expresses his hope that “we can start looking at things differently. We fixate on what divides us as human beings and it isn’t working. We need new inspiration and different thinking to find a peaceful way forward.”
“New Faith” features Norah Jones: “We were cutting the song in Brooklyn, and I’d been playing live with her on a concert series we do every six months or so. I felt like the song needed somebody to duet, and she was perfect for it. She came over and we cut it live in two hours.”
“Hands Up,” is titled with the phrase associated with last year’s racial unrest in Ferguson, Mo, and elsewhere: “It has a connection with ‘New Faith’ and ‘My People’ and is a reaction to Ferguson and at the same time a personal resignation: We need a more empathetic way to overcome adversity—a spiritual awakening.”
“Rich Man,” the album’s title track, says Bramhall, “is about living for the day, recognizing it’s all we have and finding strength and personal spirituality. It's about gratitude for spiritual and personal peace.” It also plays on the word “lowly”: "It has a dual meaning. It expresses the difficulty in achieving spiritual peace and gratitude, and represents getting close to the earth and the truth of who you are as a human being- in that state, you have everything you need.”
“Harmony,” like the preceding “Rich Man” and other album tracks, is marked by a string arrangement from multi-instrumentalist Adam Minkoff, a Bramhall band member.
“He came up with an interlude intro that set the tone for the song and completely blew me away. Lyrically, it’s a love song about the things I can’t talk about, directed at someone whom I couldn’t really tell how I felt because of circumstances.”
“Cries of Ages” is “inspired by great leaders in our history and the hope that the goodness fostered by their teaching will help us overcome this moment of crisis,” says Bramhall, again citing Ferguson “and the racism in this country.” “Saharan Crossing” then jumps the Atlantic to North Africa, employing the melon-shaped Arabic oud (lute) played by his own oud teacher Yuval Ron, the renowned Israeli composer/player/arranger.
“I’ve been traveling to India and spending a lot of time in Morocco and have been influenced by a lot of different styles of music that comes from there—traditional Berber music, Andalusian, Moroccan flute music and Sufi trance music of Jajouka introduced to the West by the Rolling Stones. I first became acquainted with Gnawa music and went there to spend time with musicians and masters who heavily influenced me. I then connected all the dots from the Delta and Texas blues that I grew up playing to the Sufi chants and African rhythms from Mali and Morocco and saw that all music everywhere was connected.”
The melody for “Saharan Crossing,” adds Bramhall, “has elements of Arabic music, and felt to me like a mixture of musical styles from the regions surrounding the Sahara. I remembered it the last day or two of mixing, and wanted to do one last ‘interlude’ connecting the influence of Arabic music to my own sound. In 2008, I spent a month in Mali and Morocco and it changed my life and was the beginning of a personal spiritual breakthrough.
“Saharan Crossing” naturally segues into “The Samanas,” which addresses Bramhall’s “journey into the world to find who I was.”
“It comes out of Hermann Hesse’s main character in Siddhartha, who becomes a Samana, or seeker. But it’s a musical odyssey of three movements representing a personal journey through different musical influences and a spiritual journey back to the truth. Through that, it’s about finding peace.”
Rich Man concludes with an evocative reading of Jimi Hendrix’s “Hear My Train a Comin’.”
“When I played the album in sequence I realized that it ties everything together and brings the journey full circle: I start and end with American blues influences, which are the fundamental foundation of my music, and then also incorporate other influences of Eastern, African, Arabic and classical music which have always deeply affected me.
Rich Man, then, manifests Bramhall’s “life journey to find my voice and grow as a creative person and as a man to get to this place, which feels like a new beginning for me.”
“I read a quote from Charles Mingus,” he concludes. “He felt that he was not just playing a style of music so much as expressing the sounds of his life and experiences through the medium of music. I very much relate to that.”
Iggy Pop, Beck, Nas, Spoon, and Father John Misty will lead this summer's MusicfestNW presents Project Pabst festival.
In 2016, MusicfestNW and Project Pabst joined forces for one summertime Waterfront Park festival in Portland, and the partnership will continue this year on August 26 and 27.
The lineup, a mix of rock, indie and hip-hop, speaks to Project Pabst's Generation X sensibilities and MusicfestNW's focus on upcoming artists--with a few slots on the bill saved for Portland artists.
The fest has booked three of them this year: rising hip-hop star the Last Artful, Dodgr; Corin Tucker/Peter Buck supergroup Filthy Friends; and artful punks Lithics.
Beyond the local acts and the bigger names, the fest will include Die Antwoord, Fidlar, Lizzo, Pup, White Reaper, Whitney, Noname, San Fermin, Frankie Cosmos and Rvivr.
Chicago MC Noname, is fresh off a life-giving NPR Tiny Desk performance.
Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via projectpabst.com. Early-bird rates will run $85 for the weekend and $55 a day, with prices rising to $99 and $65 after.
$10
WIMPS:
thesewimps.com/
MASCARAS:
mascaras.bandcamp.com
BLESST CHEST:
blesstchest.bandcamp.com/releases
The Ape presents CAT PATROL, an hour of character-driven sketch comedy that explores bad spoken word, the creepy lives of twins, one-woman shows and the musical stylings of Darth Vader. Directed by Chris Caniglia, CAT PATROL marks the first major debut of a sketch comedy production at The Ape theater. It is also the first full length production produced, written, directed and starring the founders of The Ape - Brooke Totman (MADtv, The Benefits of Gusbandry), Alissa Jessup (The Mindy Project, True Blood) and Chris Caniglia (30 Rock, The People’s Improv Theater of N.Y.).
After years of performing and writing sketch shows in Portland, Brooke Totman was hired to cast and direct a new sketch company at a comedy club in town. Alissa Jessup came in to audition (Alissa and Chris Caniglia had just moved to Portland from Los Angeles) and immediately caught Brooke’s attention. “Alissa got on stage and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her comedic timing was spot-on and she was the only person on stage creating characters!” says Brooke. “I scanned her resume and saw that like me, she trained at The Groundlings. - I knew I had found a comedy soulmate.” (The Groundlings is known as the foremost sketch comedy training ground in Los Angeles and has been the launch pad for countless careers including: Melissa McCarthy, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Phil Hartman, Lisa Kudrow, Paul Reubens, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, and Kathy Griffin.)
The two women became fast friends and collaborators, creating sketches for the show Identity Crisis at Portland Center Stage. “After Identity Crisis, we knew we had something special and we had to make our own show,” says Alissa. “We sat down with Chris (a veteran of New York and Los Angeles comedy) and the three of us started to dream up all the things we could do if we joined forces on CAT PATROL and beyond. What if we started our own comedy-based theater? A theater where as artists, we can create the kind of acting based, character-driven comedy that we love? And while we’re at it, why don’t we kick off our debut season with CAT PATROL?” “The collaboration chemistry was immediate.” says Brooke. “Alissa and I both grew up watching funny women like, Carol Burnett, Laverne & Shirley, Gilda Radner, Lily Tomlin, and Lucille Ball.” “And then you add our Groundlings sensibilities to the mix, it’s magic.” adds Alissa, “When we write it’s so easeful. It’s like we share the same twisted comedy brain, it just works.” Chris adds, “We all offer something very different and distinct to the process. Brooke is a master of both subtle and bold, physical comedy. She can transform into a character so completely, that you literally forget she’s on stage. Alissa is an amazing actor with the comedy chops to match. Nothing is too big, too broad or off-limits. If a seemingly impossible idea is pitched, Alissa is the one to figure out how to make it work on stage” “Chris brings a very calm, intentional focus to the process.” says Alissa. “He has this knack for listening, processing and with one or two suggestions, making the entire piece stronger. He’s the CAT PATROL whisperer.”
THE APE FOUNDERS
About Brooke Totman
Brooke is an actor, writer and sketch comedy performer. After receiving a degree in Theater performance, Totman headed to the bright lights and smoggy hills of L.A. to train at acclaimed sketch and improv company, The Groundlings.
Brooke became a member of The Groundlings Sunday company, performing alongside Melissa McCarthy, Mitch Silpa and Michael McDonald. It is here that her skills for writing sketches and creating unique comedy characters were developed. Auditioning with characters created at The Groundlings, Totman was cast on MADtv as a featured cast member during its 5th season. Other selected TV credits include: The King of Queens (CBS), Less Than Perfect (ABC),Judging Amy (CBS) and Life After First Failure (The CW). She is currently starring in the critically acclaimed series, The Benefits of Gusbandry, available on Amazon Prime. Brooke is co-founder of The Ape Theater, a comedy based theater and training ground committed to creating new work that ignites, engages and entertains. She also heads The Ape’s Sketch Comedy division, teaching, coaching, producing and directing.
About Alissa Jessup
Alissa is a writer, director, and actor with over 20 years’ experience creating and working in theater, film, and television. She likes that clowns are kind of creepy. As an actor, she has performed and developed new plays with Sundance Theatre Lab, The Flea Theater, ACT Theatre, 13P, Soho Rep, P.S. 122, and Playwrights Horizons. Selected T.V. credits include The Mindy Project (Hulu), True Blood (HBO), Grimm (NBC), and The Mentalist (CBS). She has written and performed comedy at The Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade NYC and U.C.B. Los Angeles. In 2015, Alissa founded Growly Pictures to produce content that is made by women for women. Alissa wrote, directed, and stars in the comedic short film, ‘chickadee’, which she produced with an all-female cast and crew. Alissa is co-founder of The Ape and serves as the Artistic Director, where she also directs, teaches acting, directing, writing and collaboration classes.
About Chris Caniglia
Chris Caniglia started his improv career in 1986 with a group called Mental Floss in Miami. He performed over a crappy little garage that worked on foreign cars. After a little more seasoning and a move to the Big Apple he founded Big Black Car, New York City’s longest running long form improv team, and winner of Emerging Comics of New York’s award for best improv group. That group was Tom Ridgeley, Justin Akin, Ellie Kemper, Chris Caniglia, Megan Martin, Kristin Schaal, Scott Eckert and Matt Oberg. This was at the Peoples Improv Theater, where he was also a member of the teaching faculty. Chris has performed at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, The Magnet Theater in New York, where he was a member of House team Sweet Crude, directed by Armando Diaz, U.C.B. L.A., I/O West, the Chicago Improv Festival, and the D.C. Improv Festival. Chris is co-founder of The Ape and also serves as the head of its Improv division, where he coaches, teaches, produces and directs.
About The Ape Theater
With a mission of making serious sketch comedy (for people who aren’t that serious), The Ape is a comedy-based theater & training ground committed to creating new improv, sketch and theater work that ignites, engages, and entertains. Classes and workshops are offered in long-form improv, sketch comedy, writing, performance, and collaboration. The Ape’s training is deeply rooted in the belief that solid acting is the key to great comedic performances.
The Ape is an underground theater. Literally. It is located in the basement of The Alberta Abbey. The Ape is founded by working professionals with over 20 years experience working in New York City and Los Angeles in TV, Film,Theater and Comedy.
Alumni: Upright Citizens Brigade NYC & LA, The Magnet, The P.I.T., The Groundlings. www.theapetheater.com
"I have never seen a performer so in love with the act of singing. That's the gospel truth, and from what I've subsequently learned I'm not the only one to believe or state that. Onstage Elkin was simply a force of nature..." -Maverick Magazine
Carrie Elkin is one of those rare artists with a tidal wave singing voice, and a stage whisper writing voice that brings you to the edge of your seat, emotionally. Like Patty Griffin or Brandi Carlile, she straddles the Americana, Folk, and Indie Rock worlds, where meaningful songs meet the fierce-yet- fragile voices of powerful women. Like these other seminal artists, Elkin has the gift of projecting very personal intimate moments into transcendent universal experiences that move us all.
SUNBATHE
thisissunbathe.com/
&
SAD HORSE
sadhorse.bandcamp.com/
$7 (Kids 12 & under FREE with adult)