14th and finished August 20th. There was alcohol involved both times...)Well. I have a beer. I've spent the day immersed in music and gay television. I am ready to start gushing (again) about The Ditty Bops. Yay Ditty Bops. Except I had this whole post worked out in my head last night and now I can't remember everything that I wanted to say. So, yeah. It'll all work out. Just stick with me.
I first heard of the Ditty Bops (comprised of Amanda Barrett and Abby Dewald) way back in 2004 when their first album came out and we had some of the songs as an in-store play at Barnes & Noble. Shortly after that I had the opportunity to 'see' them open for Tori Amos in the first rock concert at Millennium Park. I say that I went to 'see' them because during their set we were so far back on the lawn that we couldn't actually see the stage. But they sounded amazing. Soon they had a few cute videos out and a second album, Moon Over the Freeway, came out in 2006. They had a funky website (http://www.thedittybops.com/) with strangely elusive bios and such. But that was when they were with Warner Brothers. They aren't anymore. And we all know how *lovely* WB has been w/r/t their music videos being on YouTube. So sadly I cannot link you to any old stuff that isn't some kind of live performance. Also, the old site is no more. It reroutes to a new site with very little information on it. They have a MySpace and Facebook with music and newsletters, though. They are self-produced. They do awesome things like bicycle across country to lower tour emissions and make cute art out of recycled objects to auction off at shows. And they are fun and silly and don't take themselves too seriously. At least Amanda doesn't. Last night (at the Old Town School of Folk Music) she auctioned off her 'ugly art' starting with prices like $.19...
(that was the part from June)
Shift gears. I'm starting this post again. Amanda and Abby are married. They got married in the short window of time that it was legal in California last fall, but they've been together about 10 years. During the concert I saw in June Amanda told a cute story about growing up as a Ren Faire nerd and how Abby almost wouldn't go on their first date because it was at a Renaissance Faire and it wasn't her thing. Lucky for us they did go and it went well and so began their personal relationship. Their quirky musical performance career started shortly (a few years) thereafter. They are a fun mix of folk, jazz, swing, musical, western, acoustic. Their performances are part concert, part theatrical, with costumes, props, funny stories, and sometimes, a shadow puppet show. They play guitar, ukulele, mandolin, dulicimer, piano... and they sing beautiful harmonies. They are off the beaten track, but once you give them a listen, once you hear an interview or story, you'll be hooked. I'm going to try and show you guys a few good/fun videos AND I'll put up some fun pictures from photoshoots and such. Enjoy!
Shadow puppets!
Amanda is the tall redhead, Amanda is in the red shirt. This is one of my fav songs from them, Walk or Ride:
Fun live performance of Sister Kate with full band and period costumes:
One of my favorites of their new songs, Skinny Bones:
This is a little interview clip- they got a grammy nomination for their latest full length album (it’s eco friendly!)
And now, pictures!!
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