Joey Arias, Brenda Russell & More Set for Joe's Pub this Week

Joe's Pub at The Public has announced its slate of performances for this week, Jan. 6-12, including BEST OF CRAIGSLIST, SCREAM ALONG WITH BILLY, JEFF SLATE, EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH SHOW, CHAMPAGNE JERRY, TRIBECASTAN, SUN RA VISITATION SERIES, THE HOT SARDINES, MEKLIT HADERO/LEIF VOLLEBEKK, FREDERICKS BROWN, FEDERICO AUBELE/KEREN ANN/DOM LA NENA, RED BARAAT/METAL TONGUES/PATTEN, REVEREND BILLY, Brenda Russell, and Joey Arias.

BEST OF CRAIGSLIST
January 6 & 7 at 7:30 PM
$15
The Best of Craigslist started in 2012 as a comedic web series on Funny or Die starring John Pick. It has gotten over 250,000 hits and was nominated as Best Webseries by the LA Weekly. The project has moved from the small screen to the stage, and is now a critically acclaimed bimonthly live show in Los Angeles (South Coast Repertory, MiMoDa Studio). A rotating ensemble-based performance which uses Craigslist posts as source material, it has been running to great crowds in Los Angeles. It is our distinct honor to start 2014 in New York City at the venerable Joe's Pub. Directed and Produced by John Pick. Featuring Ian Forester, Caroline Lindy, George Ketsios, Molly Leland, Dana DeLorenzo and more.

NOBODY BUT LOU: SCREAM ALONG WITH BILLY
January 6 at 9:30 PM
$20
Downtown provocateurs Billy Hough and Susan Goldberg bring their punk cabaret act "Scream Along with Billy" back to Joe's Pub for an all-star, one-night only tribute to Lou Reed. Based on Lou Reed and John Cale's 1991 tribute to Andy Warhol, and featuring recreations of "Blow Job" and other early Warhol classics, the evening promises to be as controversial as their recent tributes to David Lynch and Robert Altman. With GarageDogs, The Albrights and surprise guests. Leave the kids, bring the drugs.

JEFF SLATE'S DYLAN OBSCURA
January 7 at 9:30 PM
$15
This show is for die-hard Bob Dylan enthusiasts, trivia buffs and anyone just discovering Dylan's vast and varied catalog. You'll be treated to the Dylan composition recorded by George Harrison that Dylan himself has never recorded, gems he rarely plays in concert and some of his best but least known songs, as well as original music inspired by Dylan.Jeff Slate returns to Joe's Pub with an all-star band, including the legendary Earl Slick, who will bring the signature guitar sounds he's lent to David Bowie and John Lennon's best work, Steve Holley from Wings on drums, crack guitarist Jimmy Mack, and Don McLean veteran Rick Mullen on bass. In 2012 Slate debuted his solo album Birds of Paradox to a sold out Joe's Pub crowd. Since then he has toured, released a new album of original music inspired Elvis Costello, and written extensively about some of music's biggest names for Esquire, Guitar World and elsewhere. In February he will be a featured performer with his Birds of Paradox band at the 40th anniversary Fest For Beatles Fans here in New York City.

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH SHOW
January 8 at 7:00 PM
$20
Ever wonder what it's like to have a dreamy job? Comedian Catie Lazarus did too, so she created an utterly addictive, candid, fun talk show about work. Come see why The New York Times calls Employee of the Month "beloved" and Blackbook calls it comedian Catie Lazarus's "hilarious podcast talk show" and The New Yorker calls, "her line of inquiry is decidedly unorthodox." Catie Lazarus honors and interviews January's Employees of the Month: Jad Abumrad (Host of WNYC's Radiolab), Daryl Roth (Tony Award winning producer Clyborne Park, Proof, Kinky Boots, August Ausage County), Lewis Black (The Daily Show & Old Yeller) and Nellie McKay. Plus music from BEYONDO band,Shockwave, special surprise guests and more! This show could change your life, I mean depending on your life.

CHAMPAGNE JERRY
January 8 at 9:30 PM
$12 Advance / $15 Door
Champagne Jerry continues to roll out the hits every month on champagnejerry.com, and now each hit will be paired, like champagne and brie, with a show at Joe's Pub! Every month, each of the remaining singles for Champagne Jerry's forthcoming album "For Real, You Guys" will be paired with a show themed to that single at the legendary Joe's Pub. Champagne Jerry, also known as Neal Medlyn, is a rapper and performance artist who, along with his main producer, Max Tannone and his onstage entourage, the Champagne Club, seek to transform the world every single time they hit the stage. Real beats, real rapping, real champagne, real realness.

TRIBECASTAN
January 9 at 7:30 PM
$20
Radically multicultural and poly-stylistic, New York City's TriBeCaStan is one of contemporary music's most vibrantly eclectic ensembles, using diverse instruments from around the globe to create an exotic palette of sonic colors and melodies. The band features some of New York's finest jazz and world musicians-many of whom have played and collaborated with legendary innovators, including Ornette Coleman, Violent Femmes, John Corigliano, JAmes Brown, Taj Mahal, Willy DeVille, and Eddie Harris. The New York Times describes TriBeCaStan's sound as "genre-bending jazz and world-music" and The Washington Post hails them as "an international jazz and folk festival unto itself, fusing Balkan, Middle Eastern, Indian, Latin American, and African musical elements to bold and dazzling effect". According to The Village Voice the band embodies "New York cool, explorer energy, and outer space vibes."

SUN RA VISITATION SERIES
January 9 at 9:30 PM
$20
The spirit of Sun Ra touches down at Joe's Pub for this series of evenings led by director Charlotte Brathwaite pairing Sylvan Oswald's play SUN RA with live music by the Burnt Sugar Arkestra. Each night features an eclectic mix of guest artists who share a connection to Sun Ra's call to dream beyond the limitations of this physical world. Don't miss Burnt Sugar, "a fleet-footed big band, sliding and swaggering" (Rolling Stone), Oswald and Brathwaite as they explore a portion of the play each night of the series in preparation for a 2015 run at LaMaMa E.T.C.

THE HOT SARDINES
January 10 at 7:00 PM
SOLD OUT
Take a blustery brass lineup, layer it over a rhythm section led by a Fats Waller-style stride-piano virtuoso, and tie the whole thing together with a magnetic, one-of-the-boys frontwoman whose voice recalls another era, and you have the Hot Sardines, an NYC outfit (with a tap dancer) that's been called "consistently electrifying live" (Popmatters). The Sardine sound - wartime Paris via New Orleans, or the other way around - is steeped in the kind of music Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt and Waller used to make: Straight-up, foot-stomping jazz. Pianist-bandleader Evan "Bibs" Palazzo and Paris-born singer Miz Elizabeth (who owe their collaboration to meeting via Craigslist) describe their band as "born in the 1920s, but raised in the '00s," reflecting a philosophy that hot jazz, dixieland and Tin Pan Alley tunes are all pop music, not historical artifact to be handled with kid gloves. In 2013 The Sardines headlined the TCM Classic Cruise, played Great GoogaMooga Festival, the Spiegeltent and the Blue Note Jazz festival, and continue to turn regular haunt The Standard Hotel into a "saloon in the sky" (The Wall Street Journal).

MEKLIT HADERO/LEIF VOLLEBEKK
January 10 at 9:00 PM
$25
If Joni Mitchell were East African, sang duets with Norah Jones and met Nina Simone for tea in San Francisco, it just might remind you of MEKLIT. Born in Ethiopia, based in San Francisco for the past nine years, singer/composer/cultural activist Meklit became a sensation with the release of her debut "On a Day Like This " in April 2010. An enchanting album featuring luminous, original songs, and some traditional Amharic music as well. It got rave reviews across the board. NPR called Hadero's sound, "a unique blend of jazz, Ethiopia, the San Francisco art scene and visceral poetry ; it paints pictures in your head as you listen." Leif Vollebekk spent two years searching for perfect takes. This search took him from his home in Montreal to a studio in Manhattan, from a farmhouse in Woodstock, NY to a mansion outside Paris, and the result is a dusty, polished, new, old record called North Americana. But when you're searching for the perfect take, recording is no small task. It happened only piece by piece, session by session, song by song, over the course of seasons. The Players were these: Vollebekk, singing, playing guitar and piano, harmonica, rusty fiddle on "When the Subway Comes Above the Ground"; the jazz musicians Hans Bernhard (bass) and Philippe Melanson (drums). "I wanted to be able to roam with them wherever I go," Vollebekk says. Arcade Fire's Sarah Neufeld played violin, arranging her own parts. Joe Grass played pedal steel, and Adam Kinner played tenor sax. The heart of the songs were always recorded live, to tape. Old school, spontaneous, one real captured moment.

FREDERICKS BROWN
January 10 at 11:30 PM
$15
Six years ago, two young artists relocated independently from New Zealand to New York to pursue their individual careers. Vocalist Deva Mahal and keys player Steph Brown crossed paths in the East Village and unearthed a common passion for storytelling - creating compositions with lyrics that combined imagery and narrative to deliver a startling blend of strength and intimacy. Moreover, their wide-ranging cultural heritage, with Deva, daughter of legendary blues musician Taj Mahal, drawing on her rich organic soul and blues roots; and Steph, shimmering with sublime grooves - it truly set the song-writing sparks flying and Fredericks Brown was formed. Together, they have performed alongside Etta James, Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, The Roots, Meshell N'Degeocello, Patti Smith, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Jean Grae and more. They have worked with artists from Kanye West and Common, to Fat Freddy's Drop and Che Fu. Their newest release is an E.P. entitled "Glass House Mountains " which they have co- produced and written with producer Fen Ikner.Fredericks Brown have embarked on their first national tour as a part of the CAMI World Blues Tour along with South African artist Vusi Mahlasela and Taj Mahal.

FEDERICO AUBELE / KEREN ANN / DOM LA NENA
January 11 at 6:30 PM
$25
Federico Aubele's haunting Signature Sound, with its precise beats, scattered bandoneon samples, nylon string guitar, dark atmospherics and male and female vocal contrast give space this time also to several cinematic tripped out tango infused instrumentals. "I always loved instrumental music. From Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother, to Piazzolla's album Pulsacion, to Baden Powell's Afro Sambas to Boards of Canada. It grabs you in a different way than if you have vocals. When there's no lyrics, a barrier lifts up and the music connects direct with other areas of your subconscious, often with emotions that are hard to put in words". Brazilian born cellist and vocalist Dom La Nena released her debut album, Ela, on Six Degrees Records in January, 2013. Ela is a stunningly intricate and understated collection of thirteen original compositions, sung in Portuguese and Spanish. Dom's delicate vocals and multi-tracked cello on the album are supported by spare, minimal arrangements by co-producer and label mate Piers Faccini. Singer-songwriter, composer, sound designer and producer Keren Ann Zeidel has released six solo albums up to date "101" (2011), "Keren Ann" (2007), "Nolita" (2005), "Not Going Anywhere" (2003), "La Disparition" (2002), "La Biographie De Luka Philipsen" (2000). She has provided diverse soundtracks including a recent original score for Eytan Fox's latest feature Yossi, and songs for TV series (Grey's Anatomy,Six Feet Under, Big Love) and TV campaigns (H&M, Galia, SkyTeam, Orange). Her songs have been performed by many internationally acclaimed artists including Jane Birkin, Francoise Hardy, Rosa Pasos, Henri Salvador and Iggy Pop.

FOUND SOUND: RED BARAAT, TETAL TONGUES, PATTEN
January 11 at 9:30 PM
$23
Found Sound is a one-night festival introducing vanguard artists creating incredible new music. Happening during the APAP Conference, there are a limited amount of tickets for sale to this one-night only event. Found Sound is presented by the Mat Hall Agency. Red Baraat: There is no other band in the world like Brooklyn's Red Baraat. Using North Indian Bhangra music as a foundation, this eight piece ensemble integrates the brass sounds of New Orleans, rhythms from DC's regional Go-Go music, hard funk, and jazz. Hailed by NPR as 'The best party band in years," Red Baraat perform all over the world from Central Park to the White House. This is a rare opportunity to see this high powered live band in such an intimate setting. Metal Tongues: In Metal Tongues, Elliot Bergman's electric kalimba loops create the groundwork for funky experimentation moving from drones to throbbing electronic beats and euphoric melodies. Using the elemental materials of wood and metal in his arsenal of homemade instruments, Bergman (also of Wild Belle) summons other-worldly textures and rhythms out of his electrified creations. He's joined be a rotating cast of collaborators that include some of his favorite drummers, Chad Taylor and Gerald Cleaver, and fellow synth explorers Ben Vida and Justin Walter. patten: Making his North American debut is the multi-media producer and composer patten, who has performed at the Yoko Ono curated Meltdown Festival and London's Tate Gallery. He is a recent signing of WARP Records, who announced his new EP along with a video by visual artist and frequent collaborator Jane Eastlight -- that is representative of his live A/V show which he will be performing at Found Sound. patten has been highly praised across experimental avant circles from The Wire to DAZED, identifying him as a unique voice emanating from an intersection between a number of London's underground scenes.

REVEREND BILLY & THE STOP SHOPPING CHOIR
January 12 at 2:30 PM
$15
Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir sprang, full throated from the forehead of New York City a decade ago. They have been performing their remarkable show in fields, parking lots, theaters, malls, churches, government buildings and bank lobbies all over the world ever since. Serious political satire and driving gospel music invite audiences into a state of euphoric soul searching. In recent years the company has turned their attention toward climate change and the crisis of the earth. The Stop Shopping Choir's third full length CD Earthalujah! is just completed. Reverend Billy is the recipient of an Obie award, The Alpert award for theater and has been arrested more than 50 times.

Brenda Russell
January 12 at 7:30 PM
$15
With a unique musical perspective, intimate voice and prolific treasure-trove of lyrics, singer-songwriter Brenda Russellproves that a truly glowing talent only deepens with time. Composer of the classics "Get Here," "If Only For One Night," and the Grammy-nominated "Piano In The Dark," Brenda's songwriting prowess and chameleon-like ability to shift between musical genres and combine styles trumpeted ovations in 2005 with the opening of the Tony Award-winning hit Broadway musical The Color Purple--a show for which she, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray co-wrote the music and lyrics. Brenda and her co-authors were also nominated for a 2007 Grammy in the Best Musical Show Album category for the original cast album.

Joey Arias: Billie Holiday CENTENNIAL CONCERT
January 12 at 9:30 PM
$35
Following 2 sold-out residencies at Joe's Pub; a headlining Valentine's Day show at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco; an Australian tour; and a 9-show run at the Soho Theatre in London, Joey Arias returns to the Pub with a sneak peak of a concert celebrating the centennial of Billie Holiday's birth (April 7, 2015). Famous for 'channeling' Holiday for over 20 years, Arias anticipates the centennial with a lushly orchestrated concert celebrating the singer in her prime, the trailblazing vocalist who left an indelible mark on the worlds of both jazz and pop music. "The shock is not in the imitation of Holiday's sound but in the intensity of Mr Arias' feeling." -John Lahr, New Yorker