Entertainment

Prince has been in the music news lately, having released two rather good albums simultaneously, rejoined Warner Bros., got control of his back catalog, and appeared on SNL.

He’s notoriously hard to find on the internet, but somehow we are (for the moment, at least) able to peer back to 1982, just as he was ascending. Note that this linked file may vanish.

This is from the Controversy tour, just before 1999 and Purple Rain, when many were still just finding out about him and trying to figure out what exactly they had found. Punk? Funk? New Wave? What was this? A controversy.

Come in out of the gray and add a little sunshine and laughter to your day with a screwball comedy film! Free! At Brooks Library at 2 pm today, November 12th. 

Sponsored by the Brattleboro Film Festival and Brooks Memorial Library, this is the last film in the free film series of nine Hollywood classic screwball comedies from Tinseltown’s Golden Era. Brattleboro Film Festival Advisory Board member Tim Metcalfe and journalist Tom Bedell will host post-screening discussions in the library’s Meeting Room.  

Hi, Hullabalooers. Someone did a great job assembling home movie footage from numerous sources to recreate the Beatles performance at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964. What we end up with is a rather full look at the show

I’ve heard the album of this performance, but had never heard the complete introduction, in which we learn that Bob “Newlywed Game” Eubanks was one of the people who helped pay to bring the Beatles to the bowl.

PUTNEY- On November 7th and 8th at 7:30pm, Sandglass welcomes the Dolly Wagglers from Northern Vermont, with their brand new Work in Progress, Gross Bliss. This new piece of puppet theater is a hilarious look at the terror of modern life and the wisdom of swamp plants.

Two aspiring and clumsy artists are in search of examples of true happiness. The quest brings them far and wide to visit “happy” events. One of which is the blooming of a swamp flower. They realize that pure bliss is somewhat gross. The more “happy” things they see and experience the more exasperated they become, eventually declaring happiness to be, among other things, a rainbow that you can’t even see when you are actually in it.

On Saturday night, November 8^th Sounds True recording artist Yofiyah brings her Kabbalah Kirtan ensemble to the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro, Vermont. Kabbalah Kirtan is a unique fusion of Jewish, Middle Eastern and Indian melodies with audience participation via call-and-response singing, along with musical accompaniment.

 “Kabbalah Kirtan brings a musical experience that joyously celebrates ´da ´at d´vekut´, union with the oneness of all.”, explains Yofiyah. Revered Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi called Yofiyah and her style of Kabbalah Kirtan “A marvelous gateway to the spirit, a true energizer of the soul.”

Great jazz show from 1970 at the Festival de jazz de Chateauvallon featuring the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Prepare to go on a sonic journey.

Not sure why Europe reveres jazz from America seemingly more than Americans themselves, but I’m thankful for all of the Italian recordings, and here, French film of groups like this at that time.

Boston Gay Men’s Chorus Performs Live at the Latchis -Fundraiser for Brattleboro Retreat’s LGBT Program – Draws Attention to Celebrating Our Differences

BRATTLEBORO, VT—The Brattleboro Retreat presents the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus Live at the Latchis (Brattleboro) on Saturday, November 1 at 7:30 pm. In this first-ever performance in Brattleboro and rare performance in Vermont, the event will raise funds for the Retreat’s program serving Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender (LGBT) individuals.

Time for some magical keyboard playing by master funkateer Bernie Worrell. This show has him playing in Minneapolis with the Bernie Worrell Orchestra, touring after a release of an album of jazz standards.

This show mixes his classics with these new interpretations, and is quite the hour and half of musicianship.

In addition to seeing him with P-Funk many times, I had the pleasure of seeing Bernie play in Boston at the Middle East as a solo artist. It was an embarrassingly small crowd for someone of his musical stature, but he played as if his life depended on it and we were treated to an excellent small show.

This is a 1996 concert film by Laurie Anderson filmed at the Park Theater in Union City, New Jersey a year earlier. It’s filled with music, stories, vocoded voices, and electric violins. Also keep an eye out for guests Adrian Belew and William S. Burroughs.

The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library will host a fundraising concert on Friday, November 7, 7:30 PM in the Library, with Hungrytown, a Vermont folk-based duo. Hungrytown is the musical and married team of Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson.  They have released two highly acclaimed CDs, Hungrytown (2008) and Any Forgotten Thing (2011), both of which continue to receive much airplay on folk and Americana stations worldwide. 

Rebecca and Ken tour full time; their adventures have taken them throughout the US, Canada, Europe and New Zealand.  Their songs have been performed by many other artists, including Nashville songwriting legend David Olney, and bluegrass veterans the Virginia Ramblers. Hungrytown’s music has also appeared on several television shows, including the Independent Film Channel’s hit series, Portlandia. 

Here’s a concert featuring the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a roots, bluegrass sort of group that has been playing since 2005, growing in popularity, winning awards, and appearing to have a good time doing it.

This is a well-filmed show at Nancy Jazz Pulsations in October of 2012. It’s a french show, which makes for interesting multilingual stage banter between songs from this very American group.

The reason to watch, though, is for the musical performance. It has an old-timey feel to it, and is a perfect laid back accompaniment to your weekend.

Next show, Wednesday, October 8th at 2p.m. in the Library Meeting Room. “Ellen Arden arrives 7 years after being given up for dead in a shipwreck, to find her husband Nick just remarried to Bianca…” With Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. Post-film discussion hosted by Tim Metcalfe and Tom Bedell.

Continuing through November 12th, (on select Wednesdays) the Brattleboro Film Festival and Brooks Memorial Library will present free afternoon screenings of nine Hollywood classic screwball comedies from Tinseltown’s Golden Era. On October 8th at 2 pm, please join us for a hilarious retread of the old “Enoch Arden” legend stars Irene Dunne as Ellen, who returns home to her husband Nick (Cary Grant) and children Tim (Ann Shoemaker) and Chinch (Mary Lou Harrington) after being marooned on a desert island for seven years. 

This isn’t exactly a concert, but it does contain live performances by the Firehouse Five.

Who are the Firehouse Five? It is a dixieland band (comprised chiefly of Disney animators) that was most popular in the 1950’s. They released 13 records, are a lot of fun, and are thus is deserving of another look.

The leader is Ward Kimball, trombone player and animator of characters such as Jimminy Cricket and the Mad Hatter. Harper Goff is on banjo. He did concept drawings for Disney World, and art direction for the original film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Frank Thomas, on piano, is animator of such characters as Bambi and Thumper on the ice, the dancing penguins in Mary Poppins, and King Louie in Jungle Book.

Ahh, Styx. Make me think of my high school neighbor, Jack. He and I used to have arguments over the best bands. I tended toward Beatles and Stones. He insisted Kiss and Van Halen were the true rulers of rock. We’d each take turns playing songs for each other in an attempt to convince the other.

Jack liked Styx while they were rocking hard with albums such as Cornerstone, Pieces of Eight, and Grand Illusion. He wasn’t so sure about Paradise Theater, their 1981 release. It was a rock opera and a new direction. Still, it was Styx and it eventually won him over.

Please join us for a free Screwball Comedy Film Series at Brooks Library. On Wednesday September 24th at 2 pm, come and see Paramount’s first collaboration between director Mitchell Leisen and screenwriting duo Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder.

The film merges Brackett and Wilder’s early emphasis on repartee and masquerade with ex-costume designer Leisen’s flair for high style and sophistication. Continuing through November 12th, (on select Wednesdays) the Brattleboro Film Festival and Brooks Memorial Library will present FREE afternoon screenings of nine Hollywood classic screwball comedies from Tinseltown’s Golden Era. Brattleboro Film Festival Advisory Board member Tim Metcalfe and journalist Tom Bedell will host post-screening discussions in the library’s Meeting Room covering a wide range of topics related to the screwball comedy era, filmmaking and Hollywood trivia in general.

We’ve featured them before, but why not take another look at the Talking Heads? Here they are performing at Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin Texas on September 15, 1979.

Fear of Music was the 1979 album from the band, their second with Brain Eno and third overall. It was released in August, just prior to this show.

A benefit concert by the Paul Winter Consort will be held at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, Vermont, on October 25 at 7:30 p.m.

The performance, a fundraiser for the Guilford Community Church’s green-up efforts, will highlight soloists Paul Winter, Eugene Friesen, and Theresa Thomason, three Grammy Award-winning and internationally recognized performers, in addition to Todd Roach on percussion and Jeff Holmes on piano. The Greater Brattleboro Choir of the Community, under the direction of Peter Amidon, will join the Consort on stage to perform several songs, including ones made famous by folksinger Pete Seeger.

Yet again..its time for another experience that you won’t soon forget..this time join us this tuesday the 16th when Vidda Crochetta,co-founder of marijuana will be our guest. The topic? Marijuana.. medical, decriminalization, legalization, etc… and the witty musical stylings of the Stupor Bothers.

Tune in,get turned on and drop out of the rat race! Brattleboro Community Radio-107.7fm and www.wvew.org

1978 was the year that the Blondie took the world by storm. Sure, they had been around for a while and had even released a couple of albums, but it was their third record, Parallel Lines that gave us Heart of Glass, One Way or Another, and Hanging on the Telephone.

A bit of disco, a bit of punk and new wave, a bit of rock and rap, and a lot of Debby Harry made them a unique and lasting staple of radio and dance floors ever since.

This weekend we present the ska-punk-funk-rock of Fishbone, live in Amsterdam at the Melkweg Theatre in 2002.

They first caught my eye with a video for a song called Modern Industry. The group was literally bouncing off walls to a reggae-ska dance number, and shouting out names of radio stations. Very unusual, I thought.

I first saw them live in the 1980’s in Cleveland opening for the Beastie Boys, who were touring to promote a new record called Licensed to Ill. Before the show, Angelo Moore, Fishbone’s singer, wandered the big hall carrying a cane with him as he slowly made his way through the audience. None of us knew who he was, but we all noticed the well-dressed cane-carry gentleman. A while later, he was on stage. Great show.