The Good Person of Szechwan

It's been an absolute revelation working with the cast and creative team on this show. I wrote 7 songs for the production and the other members of the Lisps will be on stage rocking every night. Here's a demo/download of one of my songs from the show:



La MaMa presents the Foundry Theatre production of 
Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan.
Directed by Lear deBessonet
Featuring Taylor Mac
Music by César Alvarez with The Lisps

New York Times REVIEW

WEBSITE

Dates: Feb 1st - 24th, 2013
LaMama's Ellen Stewart Theatre 66 East 4th Street
NYC (between 2nd Ave & Bowery)
Tickets: ONLINE /// or call: 212.475.7710

World Premiere

Tickets and show times HERE

This Machine Creates Peace

FUTURITY at HERE by Sam Hough

Dear Friends, Family, and Readers,

Since 2007 I've been working on a musical called FUTURITY. Some of you have seen it and many of you have heard me yammering on about it. In a few months it will World Premiere and run for 5 weeks at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA. This is a HUMUNGOUS deal for me, my band, and everyone that's been working on the project all these years.

The musical is about a soldier in the Civil War who tries to invent a steam-powered mechanical brain, which, through its great intelligence, can solve all of humanities problems. The most pressing of these problems, from his perspective, is war itself. In the musical he proposes to invent a "Machine that creates peace." The central question of the piece is whether or not our imaginations can ultimately devise a more humane and peaceful society. It calls into question the role that we all have in designing the future we will inhabit. I think, and hope, that all of our imaginations working together could create a better and more peaceful world than we have now. And I hope that this musical helps to enliven that conversation.

We are currently in the process of recording all of the music I've written for the show (17 songs) into an album that will be pressed to Vinyl and CD. If you are interested in the the piece and would like to support us you can pre-order the album HERE. It is HUGELY helpful to pre-order because otherwise the entire bill for recording and pressing gets put on credit (boo). And just fifteen bucks gets you the album!

Follow the link to watch the Official Trailer and Pre-order: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thelisps/futurity-the-album

Thanks so much for reading. I hope you are well and I'd love to hear from you all.

Hugs and kisses,

César

3 2's or AFAR by Mac Wellman (The Devil's Butthole)

I've been collaborating on a piece with Mac Wellman and director Meghan Finn. This has been a wild ride. Part japanese tinged puppet theater, part philosophical absurdist performance art, and then I added the childlike musical theater earnestness.

Devil's Butthole (DEMO) by musicisfreenow

"His script is a meditation on Heidegger’s Dialogue on Language Between a Japanese and an Inquirer. The Japanese philosopher in the dialogue, named Kuki Shūzō, spoke and wrote about iki, the concept of coquetry which influences Japanese culture on many things from architecture to the clothing of geishas. 'It’s basically teasing, like parallel lines that never meet,' Wellman says. 'It’s not about consummating anything, it’s about always maintaining that type of tension.' "

From an article in the Brooklyn Rail about the piece.

The play opens October 6 at Dixon Place.

UPDATE: New York Times Review

Try

Try is one of the most ridiculous songs I've ever written. But it is pretty fun to perform if we can remember all the words. Here's a video from our CD Release on May 20, 2011. Lyrics below.

Thanks to Paul Snyder (edit) and Ben Chace (camera)
Buy the song Here.
Studio Recording Here

Lyrics:
Try to tell the truth about how you feel
Try to take responsibility for your crappy life
Try to eat the seeds
Try not to peel the skin
Try to be in the place that you're already in.

Try a blind date
Try to get on TV
try a vigilante way of life
Try a poison ivy tea
try to go to mexico
make a rabbit out of wood
Try to get lost in your own neighborhood

Try to sing on the beat
try to talk to a cat
try to be authoritative
try to completely avoid trans-fat
try a robot broom
set it loose in your room
Try a passive aggressive tone with your family and friends

Try to go a week
without checking your mail
Try a business meeting on a raft
Try to fall in love with a whale
Try to bring it all home
Try a predatory loan
To to make a case for something you don't believe in

Try to start a farm
Try to take it like a man
Try to write a letter to the government
Try to live on Rasin Bran
Try to be the black sheep among the cows
Try to watch the olympics without being proud

Try to change your mind
about a person you hate
try to go to taco bell
on a very first date
Try to make a mistake
try a misery cake
Try Puerto rico as the 51st state

Are We at the Movies? - The Movie

Are We at the Movies?
Release Date: May 17, 2011 (Extropian Records)

thelisps.com
facebook.com/​thelisps
extropian.org

Directed by The Lisps & Pamela Romanowsky
Art Direction by Emily Orling
Edited by Nick Patten
Cameras - Pamela Romanowsky and Ben Chace
PAs - Stephanie Eiss, Conrad Kluck and Mark Rutan

The Lisps: César Alvarez, Lorenzo Wolff, Eric Farber, Sammy Tunis

Human Theremin - Lady Rizo
Burlesque - Lil' Miss Lixx
Tap Dancing - Sylvia Chen
Salsa Dancing - Contra-Tiempo
Puppeteer - Jason Rabinowitz
Hangman - Andrew Hoepfner and Leah Hayes
Couple Making Out - Dan Fishback and Santiago Venegas

Lady Rizo's gowns by Marchesa

Contra-Tiempo: Ana Maria Alvarez, Bianca Blanco, Jasmine Burgos, Mike Butler, Cesar Garfiaz, Marina Magalhães, Richie Marin, Omar Rodriguez-Diaz

Additional Revelers: Leola Bermanzohn, Stephanie Eiss, Radio Halfar, Paula Kadanoff, Jeri Keimig, Conrad Kluck, Dani Leventhal, Adepero Oduye, Elias Orling, Brett Price, Latasha Pugh, and Tina Vasquez

Refresh - Performance at The New Museum

Kristin Lucas 2007 – 6 sections: newspaper announcement, two pencil drawings by Joe McKay, two court transcripts, and decree-changing name

I'm honored to have been invited to perform at The New Museum Saturday 12/11/10 for the phenomenal Artist Kristin Lucas. Her Refresh Project has to do with multiplication of identities in the internet age. She chose me to read because of the specific history of my name.

Refresh Cold Reads with César Alvarez
December 11^th, 2010 – 5:00 PM – New Museum 2nd floor

New technology doesn’t just offer new conveniences; it also equips us with new metaphors. In 2007, Kristin Lucas told a judge she wanted to legally change her name from Kristin Sue Lucas to Kristin Sue Lucas, in order to refresh herself as though she were a web page.

Museum visitors are invited to perform live impromptu cold reads of the Refresh transcripts with guest readers who have been cast by Kristin Lucas. The Refresh transcripts document an exchange that took place between Lucas and a Judge in name change court in 2007. Lucas will be present to introduce the guest readers who were chosen based on their own life experience. César Alvarez will read for the part of Kristin because of his personal name story.

César James Alvarez is named after César Cauce and Dr. James Waller, two victims of the Greensboro Massacre. On November 3 1979, members of the KKK caravaned through an Anti-Klan protest at a public housing project in Greensboro, NC. After verbal altercations the Klansmen pulled guns from the trunks of their cars and opened fire on the demonstrators, killing 5 and injuring 11 others. Alvarez grew up with 2 other Césars who were named for Cauce. He has lived, together with the others, in remembrance of those who died. His name has always signified the loss of a close family friend along with the hope for rebirth, healing, and courage to stand up for justice. There are many others who share the names of the 5 victims of the Greensboro Massacre. The multiplication of these names represents a ripple of loss sent through a community and the desire to keep their memory and values alive.

Paralyzing

New video From Zoe Boekbinder's Album Artichoke Perfume.
You can buy it HERE
The song is produced and co-written by yours truly.

Artichoke Perfume

So I labored all summer producing Zoe Boekbinder's debut solo album. It was really an interesting journey and ultimately a really great time. Zoe is a very talented individual and has a formidable career ahead of her. I was sufficiently happy to get my fingerprints all over her first solo effort. I contributed lyrics some of the songs and Typewriter Girl is a song I wrote for Zoe in 2007.

Here are a couple mp3s:
Paralyzing [mp3]
Typewriter Girl [mp3]

Order/Download the album HERE.

Artichoke Perfume by Zoe Boekbinder

All Songs written by Zoe Boekbinder with César Alvarez
except December, Mean, and Going Home written by Zoe Boekbinder
and Typewriter Girl written by César Alvarez

Produced, Engineered, and Mixed by César Alvarez
Mastered by Myles Boisen
Assistant Mixing Engineer - Mike Williams

Peter Evans - Trumpet
Sam Kulik - Trombone
Kyle Forester - Organ, Piano and Keyboards, Acoustic Guitar on Skeletons
Elias Orling - Bass
Eric Farber - Drumset and Objects
Kim Boekbinder - Background Vocals on Inexorably
César Alvarez- Tambourine (December, Typewriter Girl), Guitar (Adventures of Turtle and Seahorse), Organ (Typewriter Girl), Background Vocals (Inexorably)

FUTURITY
A Musical by The Lisps

January 9th and 10th at the Zipper Factory in Manhattan.



Buy TIX
FUTURITYTHEMUSICAL.COM

Country Doctor Museum
Release Show January 5th 2008, Joe's Pub 11:30pm



I'm very pleased to announce the release of The Lisps' debut full length album, Country Doctor Museum. We've been working on this for a while and I'm very pleased with how it came out. Here's what I have to say about it:

1. The album puts on display the anatomy of relationships while using the distorted understanding of science as a metaphor for the nostalgic confusion of true love.

2. Peter Evans plays some amazing trumpet.

3. The release show is going to be a very elaborate performance featuring guests and all sorts of hijinks,

4. Buy your Tickets as it will sell out.

5. Buy the album before the show and you'll be able to sing along.

6. here are some mp3 for you:

The Lisps [mp3] - Heaven
The Lisps [mp3] - The Familiar Drunk
The Lisps [mp3] - Documents
The Lisps [mp3] - I'm Sorry

The Lisps Homecoming Bash!!!!!
This Monday, Doors at 7:30



The Lisps
Salt and Samovar,
The Shivers,
Double Dutch Will Take You Higher!

This is a Tour and We're on It, Part II


When I last posted we had just finished our show at emos Austin, this was a wonderful show, we liked Austin so much that we stayed an extra day and went to the Whole Foods mothership twice.

we stayed with our lovely new friends Reena, Rico, and Ajay (not pictured)



Our Mexicali show was cancelled and our Denton show got hit with a tornado (literally) so we had a whole 6 days to get from Austin to San Francisco. So we did what any reasonable group of self respecting rock musicians would: VEGAS!!!!!!!

we were impressed with how pretty texas was




We went to Stein's Ghost Town and met some donkeys and friendly people.



eric: When you suck the marrow of life you are battered by it.
jeremy: When you suck on the bones of life you get a face full of marrow.

It's a long drive:



Stopped over for a good time in tuscon.
Ate some Trail Mix



sammy: Today I was told for the second time that I look "like a little doll." Jeremy speculated that perhaps I am indeed a doll that has come to life.

Las Vegas was amazing:


We lost some money on the "Wheel of Fortune" slot machines, but it was money well wasted.
We also went up to the Stratosphere:


There was a shark tank with a slide through it:


Quotes:

sammy: I decided that I won't ever sign to any record label that doesn't refer to a feline in its name. i.e asthmatic kitty or fat cat.

sammy: we passed lots of joshua trees today and cacti that looked like cartoons.

friend quote: I'm going to run to the supermarket. I don't know why I said that, I'm actually going to drive to McDonalds.

jeremy: "I wouldn't drink puke but I'd get cut to see nakedness"

Tonight we get back down to business. With 11 shows straight back to brooklyn hope to see you!

Remaining dates:
Tuesday 5/1/07 @ The Make Out Room - San Francisco, CA
Wednesday 5/2/07 @ Record Club - Sacramento, CA
Thursday 5/3/07 @ Silverlake Lounge - Los Angeles, CA
Friday 5/4/07 @ Che Cafe - San Diego, CA
Saturday 5/5/07 @ Scene Bar , Los Angeles, CA
Monday 5/7/07 @ Brooks Center Arts, Denver, CO
Tuesday 5/8/07 @ Replay Lounge Lawrence, KS
Wednesday 5/9/07 @ The Way Out Club - St. Louis, MO
Thursday 5/10/07 @ The Darkroom - Chicago, IL
Friday 5/11/07 @ The Dreamland Theatre - Ypsilanti, MI*
Saturday 5/12/07 @ The Parish Hall - Cleveland, Ohio*
* - w/ Double Dutch Will Take You Higher

****Monday 5/14/07 Homecoming Bash @ Luna Lounge - Brooklyn, NY
w/ Salt & Samovar + The Shivers + Double Dutch Will Take you Higher****
buy tickets!!!!

Beautiful Posters, Wonderful Music

Dear Everybody,

The Lisps are going on tour for a month. Without you there is nothing. No tacos, no cheerios, no heroes. You are everything to us. Be with us. Complete us. Come with us.

Love, The Lisps

National Tour Dates:
Friday 4/6/07 @ Galapagos Artspace - Brooklyn, NY
Thursday 4/12/07 @ Six Points Music Festival (Red & Black Bar) - Washington DC*
Friday 4/13/07 @ The Werehouse - Winston-Salem, NC*
Saturday 4/14/07 @ The Space - Greensboro, NC*
Tuesday 4/17/07 @ The Spazzatorium Galleria - Greenville, NC*
Wednesday 4/18/07 @ Joli Rouge - Asheville, NC*
Thursday 4/19/07 @ Electric Ballroom - Knoxville, TN*
Friday 4/20/07 @ Club Detour - Athens, GA*
Saturday 4/21/07 @ Nophest at 11:11 Tea House - Atlanta, GA*
Sunday 4/22/07 @ Cafe Brasil - New Orleans, LA
Monday 4/23/07 @ Neutral Ground - New Orleans, LA
Tuesday 4/24/07 @ Emo's - Austin, TX
Tuesday 5/1/07 @ The Make Out Room - San Francisco, CA
Thursday 5/3/07 @ Silverlake Lounge - Los Angeles, CA
Saturday 5/5/07 @ Scene Bar , Los Angeles, CA
Wednesday 5/9/07 @ The Way Out Club - St. Louis, MO
Thursday 5/10/07 @ The Darkroom - Chicago, IL
Friday 5/11/07 @ The Dreamland Theatre - Ypsilanti, MI#
Saturday 5/12/07 @ TBA - Cleveland, Ohio#
Monday 5/14/07 @ Luna Lounge - Brooklyn, NY#

* - w/ Senryu
# - w/ Double Dutch Will Take You Higher

SD, KC, Tuscon still TBA

the lisps - myspace - website

My Friends' Shows

This is a new part of my blog where I randomly and undemocratically post my friends shows. I'll post my friends shows on a strictly irregular basis.

Wednesday March 21st - Bell @ Rockwood Music hall 10pm

Friday March 23rd - The Lisps + Breathing for the Whale @ Mopitkins 12am
Breathing for the Whale is my friend Michael Turvin's new band which includes, among many other celebrities, Scott Winegard (of texas is the reason fame...am I allowed to say that?)

Saturday March 24th - The Music Slut's Spring Fling!!!! @ The Delancey. 8pm
Featuring - Locksley, The Silent Years, A Brief Smile, Cassettes Won't Listen & The Midnight Hours The combined myspace friends of these bands is actually 27 billion. Unbelievable.

Monday March 26th - Vague Angels @ Union Hall.
Chris Leo has brought truth and justice to the entire European continent in the last
3 months. Come see if he's washed his hair and hear his amazing band.

Visual Art:
Elliott Hundley's terrifyingly detailed, cluttered, colorful, and brilliant work is on display until April 21st at the Andrea Rosen Gallery.

Savoir Faire Tonight!

Alright guys. This is it....please come out and get down with us tonight!



Fontana's is at
105 Eldridge btwn Grand and Broome
(B,D to Grand or F, J, M, Z to Essex/Delancey)
Fontanas is 1.5 blocks south of Delancey on Eldridge which is s one block west of Allen

click here for map

Featuring!
8pm The Subway Band
9pm Bell
10pm The Lisps
11pm Scary Mansion
w/ The Music Sluts DJing!!!

Savoir Faire Pre-Game Part IV:
Sammy Tunis

It is an impossible affair to comment publicly on a person with whom you share nearly everything. So I've offered this photo essay for Sammy.

Sammy is the lead singer of The Lisps
Here is some or her artwork

see them lisps at Savoir Faire