The Melly & Mafoo Variety Hour, my duo with Mellissa Hughes, has a show this Saturday, 8pm at the Gershwin Hotel.
In the spirit of television variety shows from the 70s, we play covers and medleys of “popular music”. I put that term in quotes because our pop songs come from a variety of sources: mainstream pop, internet memes, TV themes, songs written by our friends, and hits spanning almost a century. We have covers of Beyonce, Burt Bacharach, Gene Austin, Linda Ronstadt, The Magnetic Fields, and Corey Dargel (amongst many others).
The thing is, our covers tend to be pretty vast departures from the originals. For example, we just recorded our new cover of Paula Abdul’s Straight Up. Check it out below:
We’re going for a different aesthetic for this show, as opposed to our other shows and projects. The tunes are all live – as in no track – and tend to be simpler and more stripped down. It’s an interesting exercise, as opposed to working in the practically infinite world of the DAW. It forces you to be smarter and more creative about the arrangements.
So please come check us out, it will be great fun! Also on the program will be Galen Brown, who will dazzle you and mess with your head with his very unique covers and mashups. For example:
Here’s the details about the show:
Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 8:00 PM
The Gershwin Hotel
7 East 27th Street
New York, NY 10016
Read more about the show on Sequenza21.com and Mellissa’s blog.
And view more Melly & Mafoo videos HERE.
Matt Marks Music 