The Blog

Dear Friends,


BIG NEWS! The Public Theater is producing an extended run of NO PLACE TO GO, our musical ode to the unemployed, starting March 14 in Joe’s Pub!

If you’ve already seen the show and liked it, how about bossing a friend into seeing it? We’ll be doing it 23 times in four weeks, so there’s a performance for every schedule.

If you haven’t seen the show, we think you should! The incredible Leigh Silverman is directing, the band has never sounded better, the show comes from the heart, and we do kung fu in it!
(Alright, we don’t really do kung fu, but we try to get at some serious things in a real way that won’t make you feel icky, which is a kind of kung fu.)

To be fair, if you’ve never had a job or friends or a family or a country, this show might not be up your alley. But if you have had any of those things, we think there’s something in NO PLACE TO GO for you.

More info about the show here.

Tickets are on sale TODAY!

just did a lickety-split recording of the upcoming show (thanks, matt + carin!!)

this is the first file back.

Gift Basket


yuppers. its that time of year again …

Encore Presentation

We invite you start 2012 right with an encore presentation of “No Place to Go,” our snappy new music theater piece about the demise of an American workplace. Saturday, January 7 @ 7:00pm

No Place to Go
Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette
$15
Buy tix

And to help ring in the season, our annual free offering of Gift Basket. Enjoy!

Have a great holiday, and all the best to you and yours.

Website transition

Hi there. We are in the midst of transitioning our website to this here sexy new v. If there’s something you’re seeking and don’t find, it may still be on the old site. And if you can’t find it there, just ask: theliptonorchestra@earthlink.net. Thanks for your patience and happy new year!

Honker

Our newest album (June 2010), funded entirely by our fans through Kickstarter.

20 songs including I’m Sorry, You Were Right and It’s Okay, We Would Have Never Met and When You Die.

Guest artists: Matt Berninger, Cynthia Hopkins and Gary Seligson.

so, how did the whole thing start anyway?

It started with me just singing, which was a bad idea by anyone’s estimation, especially my own.

I didn’t play any instruments, but I had years of songs in my head, songs I’d written while driving around my hometown (L.A.) and walking around just about everywhere else I’d been.  Songs I wrote to cheer myself up after a hard day of work or playwriting.

One cold night in 2003, at a downtown variety show in the West Village, I sang a few of these songs for an audience of strangers. When I awoke the next morning to find that it hadn’t killed me, I decided to do it again.

Continue Reading →

Ethan

Ethan Lipton writes plays and songs.

With his band (“Best Lounge Act” New York Magazine), he has released four albums (two studio, two live) and played throughout New York and beyond (Joe’s Pub, Bryant Park, Celebrate Brooklyn, MASS MoCA, Camden Opera House…). Ethan Lipton & his Orchestra has been featured on radio shows such as “Weekend Edition,” “The World,” and “Soundcheck,” and contributed songs to Clash cover album “Sandinista” and the film “The Shift.”

Ethan was commissioned by Joe’s Pub through the National Endowment for the Arts to write “No Place to Go,” a song chronicle about the demise of an American workplace. As a performer, Ethan has worked with Laurie Anderson, Matt Berninger of the National, Cynthia Hopkins, Elevator Repair Service and dance company El Gato Teatro.

Ethan grew up in the San Fernando Valley and now lives in Red Hook, Brooklyn, with his wife, photographer Heather Phelps-Lipton, who designs the band’s website, as well as all of its CDs and promo materials.

More about Ethan’s plays here.

Eben

Eben Levy was co-leader of the 90s cult-favorite funk band Chucklehead and was the group’s guitarist, emcee and a principal songwriter. Years and years of Chucklehead live shows are online.

Eben later led the organic/electronic funk band Ejectrode, putting out Accident Theory in ’02.

Eben writes music for film and television. More at www.shackedupsound.com.

Eben grew up in sunny New York City and just moved to frickin’ Jersey with his wife, children and dog. Go frickin’ Jersey!

No Place to Go

This November, as part of the “New York Voices” series presented by Joe’s Pub, our band will be premiering NO PLACE TO GO, an original song cycle about the demise of a local workplace and the diminishing returns of the American dream. The show features a boatload of new songs and a narrative that’s funny, sad and cranky, and it’s not quite like anything we’ve done before.

The series also features evenings of music by Lady Rizo, Allen Toussaint, Toshi Reagon and Angelique Kidjo, and is made possible through a grant from the NEA. We’re honored to be in such butt-kicking company, and we hope you’ll come out to see these shows.

Nov 10th, 11th & 12th @ 7:00pm 
Ethan Lipton & his Orchestra
Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette
$15
Buy tix