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!

this is the first file back.

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.

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.

I hear music in my head when I’m writing a song, and from the start, that’s how I sang: as if a band of smashingly talented, super-sensitive, snack-loving musicians was playing alongside me. And it warmed my heart when, after my first shows, people began coming up to me to say things like, “I could hear the band. I could hear the whole arrangement.”

That’s where the idea of the Orchestra came from: the mouths of strangers who said they could hear the band I’d been hearing in my head for years. I turned it into a joke, I’d say “Hi, I’m Ethan Lipton, and this is the Ethan Lipton Orchestra.”  And people would laugh because there was nobody there.  But I wasn’t exactly kidding

Then something glorious happened: Living, breathing musicians started playing with my imaginary Orchestra.  There was Eben Levy and his guitar, and Mike Stumm on uke, and Lem Jay Ignacio, who came from L.A. to play keys on our first CD, recorded one raucous night at Ariana Smart’s Low bar in DUMBO and released on Home Office Records.  Others sat in, and the Orchestra became a mutable organism, changing lineups from show to show.  And for the first time, I started writing songs with the knowledge that human beings other than myself would be playing them

Ian Riggs later joined us on bass and Vito Dieterle came aboard with his sax, and after putting out a second live album (Baby, I Feel the Same Way), it seemed there was only one thing left to do: We decided to start a band.

Mr. Softy was the first studio album by that band, which features Eben, Ian, Vito and myself. Now comes Honker.  I wrote the songs and we arranged the music as a foursome, just as we did on Mr. Softy.  And once again, producer Huck Bennert helped witch it into a record.

I think Honker is our most sophisticated album yet, the most subtle and soulful of the bunch.  And intimate, I hope.  I tried to leave more room for the band in the compositions, and they rose to the challenge, filling that space with virtuosity or, sometimes, more space. Eben took a huge role in shaping the overall sound of the album and composing extra parts, and he’s a big reason why the album feels as modern as it does, even as it skips through various styles from the past.  And Ian and Vito both did a ton of work on the arrangements, Vito making sure we didn’t settle for anything easy, Ian making sure we stayed true to ourselves.  We also invited some new special guests to join us this time: Gary Seligson on drums; Matt Berninger, Cynthia Hopkins and a chorus of middle school students on vocals.

In short, Honker is the work of a band that’s been playing together for five years — a band that sounds a whole lot better than the one in my head ever did.

Thanks for your support. Stick with us. We’re not done yet.

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 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!

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
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