NY Sun has Risen, Don't Leave The Basement

* * * * * * * Out of a smoky haze, as a guitar wails and flames lick the doorway, a man leaps onto the stage. He's tuxedoed, dangerous, a rock 'n' roll screamer - and he's a clown. A little forelock of red and yellow licks out of his forehead, his eyebrows scroll calligraphically, and it looks as though he's rouged his ears.For the edgiest of the hip-hop crowd, or for those who remember KISS with any fondness, clowns and loud music aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. But this guy isn't just in whiteface. He has a tricycle, a brace of puppets, and no trouble doing half the show in his bunny slippers.In "Uncle Jimmy's Dirty Basement," Uncle Jimmy (James Godwin) and his band forge bravely into new puppet-rock territory. Taboos written long ago, like "Never use your own cat in a rock montage" or "Try not to smell the audience's feet" crumple and die before their onslaught. Sense and logic also wither on the vine in Uncle Jimmy's basement, but for most of the evening no one will miss them.Uncle Jimmy and friends have long been a fixture in venues like the Bowery Poetry Club. The screeching audience occasionally sings along, greeting old favorites with yowls of appreciation. The show can stretch to two hours, which will feel long, especially during certain bits with a puppet sidekick named Chuck-Bob. But once Uncle Jimmy starts singing again, or wandering into the audience, or stripping, you won't want to leave the basement.

The NY Times Has Spoken, UJDB ROCKS!

In the Monday 23, 2005 Arts section Page 2 there is a review of the Dirty Basement show at PS122. (http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/05/23/theater/reviews/23uncl.html) Please click on the link to read the entire review. Go and see the show if you have not already. If you have we would be interested in hearing what you have to say. Please do not let this legendary New York experience pass you by.

Opening Night

Attention all UJDB lovers... Tonight is opening night for the PS 122 show. Please see the press release below. Come out and support the masters of puppet rock.



UNCLE JIMMY'S DIRTY BASEMENT
premieres AT PERFORMANCE SPACE 122
ON THURSDAY MAY 19th

Performance Space 122 presents Uncle Jimmy's Dirty
Basement beginning
performances on Thursday, May 19th and running
through Sunday, May 29th. Tickets can be purchased by calling the P.S. 122 Box Office at 212-477-5288 or online at http://www.blogger.com/www.ps122.org

When downtown art-rock stalwarts Coocoohandler
joined forces with James
Godwin' s avant-puppet ensemble The Elementals to
create Uncle Jimmy's
Dirty Basement, no-one knew what to expect. Over
the past several years of live performances the two groups have fused together to create a unique rock-theater hybrid. The Dirty Basement combines the irreverence of Frank Zappa, the hipster irony of They Might Be Giants and the theatricality of Alice Cooper with surreal, imaginative and bawdy puppetry. Both excellent musicians and extraordinary puppeteers, Uncle Jimmy's Dirty Basement is a one-of-a-kind spectacle, an ongoing, always-changing post-punk art-rock cabaret.

Uncle Jimmy's Dirty Basement has been accumulating rabidly devoted fans and love slaves over the course of its long-running engagements at The Bowery Poetry Club and sold out shows at the Bowery Ballroom, Toyota Comedy Festival and Joe's Pub. Now they are setting
up shop at the only place brave enough to give them whatever they want -- Performance Space 122. Whether you seek a joyride through the underbelly of the American Psyche, enjoy being whacked on the head with an oversized phallus, or long for everything in between, The Basement is the place to be. Uncle Jimmy's Dirty Basement is a place, a band and a state of mind; these undisputed godfathers of puppet rock create a fever-pitched naughty nightmare that dares to ask the question, "Do Manipuloids dream of electric guitars?" Our P-Funk Pinocchio Uncle Jimmy, accompanied by his foul-mouthed furry friend Chuck-Bob, sets out on
a psychedelic mystery tour in search of the human within. Along the way, and with the guidance of his band mates, we meet a cast of twisted characters like Piranha Man, Hot Robots in Love, Hat-Humpin' Cats, Grandmas, Grandpas and Bedbugs. It's like Frank Zappa and Fraggle Rock hanging at the nitrous tank.

Built, Created, Conceived, Composed, Directed, Designed, Dressed, Delivered, Performed, Puppeteer-ed, Played and
Penned by: Tom Burnett, Ceili Clemens, Jennifer A. Cooper, James Godwin, Andrew Innes, Tom Kazumplik, Tim Lagasse, John Pavlik, Leigh Secrest, Martin Small, Russ Tucker, Dave Yearwood

Special Basement inductee: John Creery Lighting by Paul Jones
Production made possible in part by AREA grant
through Chashama