Kimmel Center, Philadelphia May 19: Tix from $20

May 19, Philadelphia: Gustavo Dudamel leading LA Philharmonic, Jazz vocalist Lizz Wright & GrooveLily at Kimmel Center

We are so delighted to return to Philadelphia and be a part of this exciting event, which is the spring fundraiser supporting the Kimmel Center’s educational offerings. This will be a very special evening (”red-carpet attire” encouraged, says the Kimmel Center), so dig some festive clothes out of the closet and come join us. Tickets for the show are $20. (There are also $100 “VIP” tickets which include cocktail reception, meet-and-greet with Gustavo Dudamel, etc. – but the GL concert itself is just $20. See below for details.)

Kimmel Center Presents GrooveLily In Concert
Kimmel Center’s Innovation Studio
300 South Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
May 19, 2010
7:30 PM
215.893.1999

Kimmel Center

Kimmel Center

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WC Demo #3: Crazy For You.

Take a listen at the link directly below this sentence, and download a copy if you like (and throw the band a little cash).

courtesy of Wikipedia

courtesy of Wikipedia

A couple of years ago, our manager Ben asked us if we might want to submit a spec song for inclusion on the soundtrack (and perhaps in the film) of an upcoming Tim Allen movie called “Crazy on the Outside.Read More »

WC Demo #2: That Technique.

Take a listen at the link directly below this sentence, and download a copy if you like (and throw the band a little cash).

This week, it’s a song intended for a young female singer–maybe late teens, early 20’s–who is trying to maintain a reasonably “nice girl” image, and yet find her own identity. And rock out a bit.

Back in 2004 and 2005, Val and Jon Spaihts and I were meeting once a week, trying to keep our creative juices flowing by making *something* new every week. Jon had not yet become a famous screenwriter; Val was still contemplating a book about her experiences on the road with GrooveLily, Cyndi Lauper, and Joe Jackson; and I was doing web design (well, email newsletter design, mostly) and trying to keep my songwriting muscle in shape.

I got a couple of verses and choruses done in 2005, and brought it in–but I had made an odd choice which hampered clockability. Here’s a rough draft of the first verse and chorus: Read More »

Softball … and wheelhouse

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the suburbs.  Early April.  The time when every self-respecting suburban dad’s mind turns to … well … softball. Read More »

WC Demo #1: Up, Up, and Away.

I've always been aching to fly... --image courtesy of Kush on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kush757/4030326060/

I've always been aching to fly... --image courtesy of Kush on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kush757/4030326060/

If you want to simply hear the song, dive right in with the play button beneath this sentence.

If you like it, do us a favor and buy a download in the format of your choice (including FLAC for all you audiofile geeks). The money goes straight to us, not to Apple or Real Networks or anybody else.

(Facebook GrooveLily fans: you might have to actually visit www.GrooveLily.com to get the song–not sure if our Facebook GrooveLily page will let this flash movie pass through to be able to play the music for you.)

First: a little backstory. A year ago, Val and I finally inked our first-ever music publishing deal with Warner-Chappell. (Previously blogged about here.) One of the terms of the deal was that we needed to write and deliver demos of 10 non-theater songs to WC within a year’s time. Read More »

Grandpop Sam singing to my yoga class

I’ve been doing various kinds of yoga for a few years now (and recently Brendan has gotten into it too, specifically the bikram variety) – and I absolutely swear by it. I feel more relaxed, serene, stronger, and even a bit taller…and the yoga is a perfect balancing counterpart to what I’ve done for many years, a road-warrior-worthy military-style workout of cardio/pushups/situps. All three of us in the band are now into yoga, and it’s doing each of us a world of good.

The other day I went to a class where there was some vaguely eastern-sounding music playing in the background, and I paid it little attention (I actually prefer it when there is no music because I get distracted)…until I suddenly heard a very familiar voice coming from the speakers: it was my grandfather!

Samuel Vigoda

Samuel Vigoda

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A Val + Bren (+ Joel McNeely) Song at Carnegie Hall Fri Mar 12

We wish we could be there…for the first time ever, one of our songs is going to be performed at Carnegie Hall!

Méav Ni Mhaolchatha will be singing “Where the Sunbeams Play,” a closing-credits song for the movie TINKER BELL AND THE LOST TREASURE that we wrote with brilliant composer and great guy Joel McNeely. Méav will be performing as part of the “Celtic Music: A Saint Patrick’s Day Celebration” concert with the New York Pops.

Joel will be there, flying in for the event from LA; it’s a first for him as well. If you get to go to the concert, please tell us all about it!

The venerable old building itself

The venerable old building itself

Who needs a bass player when you have a sousaphone

Paul Sabourin, of Paul and Storm, just turned 40, and his wife threw him a surprise birthday party. We weren’t able to be there, but Storm invited us to participate in a mashup video where we would reminisce about something absolutely fictional in Paul’s history. Accordingly, we filmed a little something in the lobby of the hotel before the gig in College Station, TX, earlier this week.

The resulting video, below the break, is HI-larious, but much of it is, well, implications are made. Be forewarned.

Our segment is about how Paul used to play Sousaphone with our band. Storm got all photoshoppy and included these photos:

We can only say: Happy Birthday, Paul, and thank you, Storm! It’s clear that a lot of peculiar people love you a lot. Including us. Read More »

We’re going to finish Wheelhouse. I swear.

The wheel is spinning madly...

The wheel is spinning madly... (image courtesy of boardgamegeek.com)

Okay, we’re going to do it. We’re going to finish Wheelhouse. For real.

For those of you who don’t know anything about this, Wheelhouse is the 2nd GrooveLily concert-musical-hybrid thing, the one we started in 2004-5, after Striking 12 was proving to be a successful venture and we wanted to do more of the same.

TheatreWorks supported us with a writers’ retreat in January of 2005, and a workshop in their New Works Festival in April-May of 2005, and we made significant progress. Then we stopped.

Why? Read More »

Returning to College Station, TX Thursday Mar 4

Really looking forward to this! We played STRIKING 12 a couple of years ago here at Texas A&M, in a cozy cabaret space for 3 nights in a row, and had a blast. Now we’re returning to play the larger Rudder Theatre, with SLEEPING BEAUTY WAKES in concert, this Thursday, March 4, as part of the MSC OPAS “Intimate Gatherings” series. We like the sound of that, and hope to see you there.

Rudder Theatre, Texas A&M

Rudder Theatre, Texas A&M