21

The Cedar's 21st season begins this coming Labor Day weekend, with two local CD releases by political hippity-hoppers Junkyard Empire and Olive Oyl impressionist Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles, kicking off an extremely active fall schedule.

Last year we printed a special Season Highlights brochure to launch our 20th. We started down that path again a few months back for the new season, but decided instead to opt for upgrading our monthly newsletter to an all-color piece on whiter paper (still recycled stock, don't you worry). September's is now in the mail and at all of our usual newsletter distribution outlets:



Because we book the season on an ongoing basis, any schedule that extends beyond the next 30-45 days becomes obsolete before it arrives in peoples' mailboxes. So the monthly format makes more sense for us, although of course the best and most up-to-date way to keep up with our activities is the website.

People are always asking me to make sure to let them know if there's a Cedar show I think they "really need to see." But our bookings are diverse enough that without having a truly intimate knowledge of another person's taste in music, that is a pretty impossible request.

However, everyone once in a while a show gets booked that seems to charge the Cedar office with unanimous excitement, and we just put tickets on sale yesterday for one such show coming November 11: Dirty Projectors. Their most recent CD, Bitte Orca, is one of those rare recordings which is in heavy rotation with every member of my family (plus a few good friends), and if I ever actually made "album of the year" lists, I'm sure this would be on top in 2009. Ticket sales were strong in the first 24 hours, so I suggest snapping some up soon if you want to see these guys. Here's an arty video for the "hit single:"



Once the season is underway, I'll try to get back to alerts on shows in the coming week which I think are of particular interest.

A new development which will impact our programming for the 21st season is the addition of high-definition video playback capabilities and a brand new 10-by-20 foot screen behind the Cedar stage. Those of you who came out to see Béla Fleck host his excellent filmed documentary "Throw Down Your Heart" got a taste of the possibilities of a music film being shown in a venue with an actual music sound system.

We'll have an even better opportunity to show it off when we host the final day of this year's Sound Unseen Music and Movie Festival. Among the films we're slated to show: a documentary on the "gypsy punk" band Gogol Bordello called Non-Stop Gogol Bordello:



Look for more film/video programming to be added to the mix this season.

Meanwhile, everyone lift your glass in appreciation of The Cedar's 21st! But no beer bongs, please.