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Event
Pasta!
Please join the award winning Pop Ups in their Los Angeles return engagement of PASTA for two days only! Be prepared for an exciting and educational musical adventure through their magical land of Brooklyn. Fun for the whole family, you can help Jason and Jacob find local ingredients to make a robust organic pasta sauce or just sit back and enjoy the rocking music from their critically acclaimed CD "Outside Voices".
Best for ages 2 and up
45 minute performance
Singing and dancing appreciated
In and out allowed during show
Food on premises
Plenty of parking in lot adjacent to theater as well as on 18th street and Olympic.
CDs available at show for $10
Hand printed and painted organic cotton Pop Up tshirts for $20
CD & T-shirt combos for $25
DAILY CANDY KIDS recommended:
http://www.dailycandy.com/kids/los-angeles/article/91585/IndiB-Launches-Modern-Nursery-Rug-Collection
$15 tickets for sale at door when available, cash or check only
ITunes preview of The Pop Ups CD, "Outside Voices":
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/big-wheel/id377913783?i=377913923&ign-mpt=uo=4
Rave review from Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8, 2010:
The Goofiest of Garage Bands
With Its Fuzzy Puppets and Clever Tunes, a Duo Aims for Children's Music Stardom
By KATHERINE ROSMAN
Not many garage bands perform with puppets and sing about shapes in songs called "Apes in Capes." But the Pop Ups, a pairing of two Brooklyn-based musicians, are a quintessential independent pop group: They have no record deal. They have day jobs to support their music habit. And they really do practice in a garage - a tiny one in Park Slope. The Pop Ups reflect the creativity percolating on the independent children's music scene, as well as the word-of-mouth culture that dominates the niche.
In this market, live performance is essential to any real success. Earlier this week, the Pop Ups- Jason Rabinowitz, 32, and Jacob Stein, 31 - were in Brooklyn rehearsing for their first big New York engagement, "PASTA! A Pop Ups Puppet Musical," which runs from Saturday to Oct. 17 at 45 Bleecker: The Green Room. The show is based on songs from the duo's self-produced first album, "Outside Voices."
The men are high-spirited types: Mr. Rabinowitz can speak with a sing-song lilt. And when Mr. Stein performs, he literally bounces up and down with the energy of someone who doesn't yet have children. The vim is on display in one of the show's opening numbers, in which Olivia DiPesto, a blue fuzzy creature operated by Mr. Rabinowitz, dispatches the Pop Ups to Bay Ridge to buy the best tomatoes in Brooklyn. The guys hop on the subway, sing a bit about animals - "The apes on the A-train go 'ooh ohh, ahh ahh'"; "the bees on the B-train go 'buzz buzz buzz'" - and emerge in Bay Ridge.
"How cool is public transportation?' says Mr. Rabinowitz, excitedly. "Take that, L.A.!" adds Mr. Stein.
Like many in the music industry, the stars of children's music are often anointed by large companies like Disney. But since the breakthrough in the last decade of musicians like Dan Zanes (another Brooklynite) and Elizabeth Mitchell, more musicians have been drawn to the genre and not necessarily because they've failed in adult markets.
"The door is wide open in this kind of music," Mr. Stein said. "We can take the songs in any direction we choose."
For "Apes in Capes," the Pop Ups employ an electro sound that incorporates acoustic elements. "If you changed the lyrics, it could be an adult song," said Mr. Rabinowitz.
The lyrics explain how different shapes can be arranged to depict animals. ("Billy took two triangles, put them in the middle, now it's a nose. Janey drew some ovals, hands and feet and fingers and toes.") As Mr. Rabinowitz plays guitar and sings, Mr. Stein draws the various shapes with a fat magic marker.
As they near the end of the song, the small garage, which remained closed during the rehearsal, is almost vibrating, and it's filled with the powerful odor of dry-erase marker.
"And now we're high!" said Mr. Stein. "Not how most indie-rockers get high," responded Mr. Rabinowitz.
They are having a great time, but it's a difficult genre. To succeed, children's musicians must appeal to moms and dads as well as their kids. And if the kids don't like something, they tend to make their feelings known.
Mr. Stein knows the drill. He is the son of a children's musician, and he's part of his family's band, known as the Rolling Steins. Mr. Rabinowitz, a pianist and guitarist, was raised in the Bronx. After college, he submerged himself in the city's music scene, founding an indie-pop band called the Bloodsugars. (He's a diabetic.)
The musicians met in 2008 when Mr. Stein hired Mr. Rabinowitz to play guitar in his band for a Passover musical. In 2009, the two decided to collaborate on a children's album. They hunkered down at Mr. Rabinowitz's apartment and gave themselves a week to write and record "Outside Voices." Then in May, the duo attended the inaugural KindieFest, a children's music conference held in Brooklyn. They gave their CD to anyone who would take it. On the final day, Mr. Stein approached the conference's co-founder, Bill Childs, and foisted "Outside Voices" upon him.
Mr. Childs, a law professor from Northamtpon, Mass., and a DJ with a children's music radio show, is a tastemaker in the "kindie" world. "No one had ever heard of the Pop Ups before," he said. "And their sound really caught my attention."
He recommended the album to Stefan Shepherd, who writes the influential children's-music blog Zooglobble. In his review, Mr. Shepherd called "Outside Voices" "nothing less than the kids music debut of the year." As more bloggers took note, more DJs began playing Pop Ups tunes. On "Kids Place Live," a children's music channel on SIRIUS XM, the band's song "Pasta" is one of 17 tracks played about four times a day.
The lyrics target both finicky-eating kids and foodie adults: "Gotta have my spaghetti, it wakes up every meal. I get down with fusilli with the zest of lemon peel!"
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LocationHighways Performance Space
1651 18th St.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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