A Mad, Mad World

June 11
Saturday night
50 Mason Social House
San Francisco

No Cover!

The Mad Maggies and Go Van Gogh
Two Septets, Two rounds each

Come cheer us on. This is our third match with our pals, GVG. Training has been intense. Tensions are high. The competition will be fiercely fun.

Musician Ed Ivey opened this hip beer and wine lounge in 2010 so it is fairly new and quickly gaining a very good rep. Check out the positive Yelp reviews to give you an idea of how cool 50 Mason Social House is.

Trivia
Ed and I played together years ago in Polkacide. In fact when I auditioned for that band it was at a place that Ed shared with trumpeter, John Lieb.

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We’re joining forces with the fabulous Go Van Gogh this Thursday night June 4th, at Ashkenaz in Berkeley.

Doors open 8:00
Show starts 8:30pm – only $7!!

Wear your dancing shoes!

A céilidh (kay-lee) in modern usage is a traditional Gaelic social dance originating in Ireland and Scotland, but now common throughout the Celtic diaspora. Before discos and nightclubs, there were Céilidhs in most town and village halls on Friday or Saturday nights; they are still common today.*

Klezmer describes music of traveling Eastern European Jewish musicans who played largely dance songs for weddings and other celebrations. Originally, klezmer (plural klezmorim) referred to musical instruments, and was later extended to refer to musicians themselves. It was not until the mid-to-late 20th Century that the word was used to identify a musical genre. Early 20th Century recordings and writings most often refer to the style as "Yiddish" music, although it is also sometimes called Freilech music.*

yours in a mad, mad world,

Mags

*Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceilidh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klezmer

http://borzykowski.users.ch/EnglMCKlezmer.htm
 

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Already 2009 has been busy. Our first gig of the year was at Ashkenaz in Berkeley. This was our triumphant return to this venue and boy did we make sure that people got a taste of what they had been missing.

Tara Linda organized “Wild Accordion Women” (co-produced with Down Home Music). This Accordion Babes event showcased more talented female accordion players from the Bay Area. As we know, accordionist Mad Mags is very talented as she writes and arranges the majority of our tunes, plays with great style and looks wonderful as she does it!

The other acts really warmed up the audience for us, It has to be said that we got the place jumping; seats were for coats and nothing else! Everyone was taken by the music and just let us do what we do best- play well, play out and play often!

Marin Music Live also saw a protracted performance with other local world musicians. Once again we showed how it is done. Our friends Djiin also played – there is talk of us playing together in the future. It is hoped that video taken at the event will be shown on a local access Comcast station – dates unknown as yet but stay tuned! The event was free to all and we hope that the publicity will help secure more gigs.

We made out and as such a large group of mad musicians this is no mean feat! Go Van Gogh threw us a musical gauntlet and we accepted. The Make Out Room in San Francisco hosted this Klezmer battle of the bands. There was dancing, merriment and a fun time was had by all. JB and I took the boxing theme rather seriously and came armed with boxing gloves. I even dropeed my skirt to reveal leggings and boxing shorts- sorry you missed this gig now? There was no knock out but we are hoping for a rematch as we would like to flex our musical muscles with this fine band once again!

THE event of February is our upcoming release party which is on February 7^th and promises to be a night of pirates, folk music, shanties, costumes and recreations of days of yore. More details will be posted nearer the time. The event ties in with the piratical theme of our newest CD, Skull and Magpies. Costumes are not optional and the visual extravaganza that is to be our evening of musical mayhem should not be missed.

Here is a review of the new CD from our fan, Alex:

“A big big thank you for my CD. It looks absolutely amazing! I love the artwork, the new logo and the new songs.
Studio simply cannot imitate the dynamics of a live band playing in front of a crowd of cheering audience. I would say your new album is a perfect teaser for people who can’t wait to see you playing live. I am definitely one of them. Favourite song – it must be: Morning Star! ”

Come and see what he is raving about! Choose your own favourite from Skull and Magpies.

And we’ve been podcast. BilgeMunky.com played “Rough Music” (listen to show 65 ) and Wild Wilson has spun us several times on his show in Minnesota.

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Off to rehearsal shortly to prepare our chops for two, that’s right, two battles of the bands this week.

Wednesday night we are in Mill Valley at a Comcast video production of the “Battle of the Bands – World Music“. Oooh TV exposure for the mad ones! And it’s a FREE, all ages event.

Then on Friday night we look forward to playing with Go Van Gogh for the first time at the Make-Out Room in SF. The bout is entitled “Battle of the Twisted Klezmorim” so you know there will be some body-moving, energetic tunes.

And the winners are … YOU all who get to hear so much good local music!

THINK BOOTY!
Our CD release party is coming up
Feb 7 – Sat night

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