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King to join Remainders for their last-ever gigs
They'll be playing two shows: June 22nd in Los Angeles and June 23rd in Anaheim for the ALA Conference.
Sadly, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, the lady whose idea it was to form the band and was one of the back-up singers, lost her battle with cancer yesterday.
Sadly, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, the lady whose idea it was to form the band and was one of the back-up singers, lost her battle with cancer yesterday.
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Marking the band's 20th anniversary, the band has decided its 20 year run will mark the end and will host their final public concert at the El Rey Theatre on Friday, June 22. The show is part of the band's final two city concert tour --The Past Our Bedtime Tour -- which also includes an appearance not open to the public at the American Library Association convention in Anaheim.
Confirmed for the concert are Stephen King, who hasn't performed with the band since 2007; Amy Tan, Dave Barry, Mitch Albom, Scott Turow, Matt Groening, James McBride, Greg Iles, Ridley Pearson, Roy Blount, Jr, Kathi Goldmark and Sam Barry. Roger McGuinn of The Byrds joins them as musical guest. The El Rey show features a meet and greet reception prior to the show and a 9pm concert.
On the upcoming concert Stephen King, who plays rhythm guitar says, "A few years ago, Bruce Springsteen told us we weren't bad, but not to try to get any better otherwise we'd just be another lousy band. After 20 years, we still meet his stringent requirements. For instance, while we all know what 'stringent' means, none of us have yet mastered an F chord." King adds, "I'm looking forward to reuniting with all my bandmates. We're older but not dead. Some of us can remember all of the words; all of us can remember some of the words; but NONE of us can remember all of the music. That's why they call it rock and roll."
Dave Barry, co-lead guitarist, chimes in, "It's not that we had a 'creative differences' issue, or some in the band wanted to launch solo music careers, but the fact is that we can no longer play an entire set without having to pee." Barry adds, "We realize the Rolling stones are celebrating 50 years this year, but we don't want to reach the point where our stage moves involve motorized scooters."
Since the band's founding in Anaheim in 1992 -- at a book convention -- they have raised over $2 Million for various literacy causes. Proceeds from the El Rey show will benefit First Book, the Los Angeles Downtown Women's Center and the launch of an Emerging Author Series at Live Talks Los Angeles.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-0620-rock-bottom-remainders-20120620,0,1306035.story
They're famous authors by day, garage band by night. But after 20 years, the Rock Bottom Remainders — the group made up of best-selling writers like Stephen King, Dave Barry, Amy Tan, Matt Groening, and Mitch Albom — are packing up their gear for good
[media]
They promised a party, and a party it will be.
Stephen King will be there, with his guitar. So will Mary Karr, Marlon James, Amy Tan, Natasha Trethewey, Dani Shapiro and about 100 others.
Wordplay — a new book festival to be hosted in May by the Loft Literary Center — will open with a rollicking concert at First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis starring the all-author supergroup the Rock Bottom Remainders.
The Rock Bottom Remainders is a fluid band, its members changing depending on who is in town, but it’s anchored by King, Tan and Karr, as well as humorist Dave Barry and sportswriter Mitch Albom, all of whom will be in Minneapolis for the festival.
“We really believe that books deserve a party,” Loft Literary Center executive director Britt Udesen said last year when announcing Wordplay.
The festival, which will take place May 11-12 in downtown Minneapolis, will include readings, conversations, panel discussions, craft lectures, writing workshops, cooking demonstrations and children’s activities — including a real-life “Where’s Waldo?” After-hours events will include a lit crawl.
Events will be scattered among the Guthrie Theater, Mill City Museum and the Open Book building. Streets behind Open Book (3rd Street and 11th Avenue S.) will be closed to accommodate outdoor tents, three stages and food trucks.
Steph Opitz, the founding director of Wordplay, said the lineup offers something for everyone. There’s no real theme to the festival other than the broad theme of new books.
“When people see this list they’ll say it feels all over the place, to which I would say, awesome!” she said.
The full list — about two-thirds national writers and one-third local writers, all of whom had a book published in 2018 or the first half of 2019 — was announced Thursday and can be found online at loft.org/wordplay.
“I really can’t believe Jamaica Kincaid is coming,” Opitz said. “I found that out over Thanksgiving break, and I was at my in-laws’, just running around with excitement. I’m thrilled she’s going to be here. I’m excited by the list as a whole, and what it can offer.”
Book festivals have been growing in popularity across the country over the past 10 years, with Miami’s the biggest and one of the oldest, at 35 years. It runs for a full week, bringing in about 600 writers and attracting 300,000 to 400,000 people each autumn.
Other festivals — the Portland (Ore.) Book Festival, the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., and Printers Row Lit Fest in Chicago — are more modest, usually held over two days.
Still, they bring in thousands of people and are designed to attract a wide audience. Portland, for instance, has, in addition to author events and writing workshops, a beer tent, concerts and pop-up readings at the Portland Art Museum.
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books bills itself as “a two-day celebration of music, comedy, photography, film, art, food — and, of course, books.”
Minnesota has long been home to a multitude of literary events — public library programs such as Talk of the Stacks, Pen Pals and Club Book; the MPR- and Star Tribune-sponsored Talking Volumes lecture series; and author events hosted by colleges, universities, the Loft Literary Center and bookstores.
And the metro area is home to the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosted by the nonprofit literary journal Rain Taxi, which has been held each autumn for 18 years.
That festival, which takes place at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds over the course of one day, is free and draws about 6,000 participants.
Wordplay, Opitz and Udesen have said, is meant to complement, not compete with, the Rain Taxi festival.
Opitz, who has also worked on the Brooklyn Book Festival and the Texas Book Festival, estimates that about 10,000 people will attend the inaugural Wordplay, but she envisions the festival growing over time.
Ticket information
Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. March 14 for Loft members and on March 15 for nonmembers. Prices start at $10 and top at $400 for a VIP pass. Children under the age of 17 can take part at the $10 level for free. The Rock Bottom Remainders concert is $40. Tickets are available through First Avenue.
The festival will be cashless, so it’s recommended to buy tickets in advance. More information is at loft.org/wordplay- registration.
The Rock Bottom Remainders made a video! We're not saying it's a *good* video, but it's for a good cause. It will "drop" (music lingo) tomorrow (Fri.) at 9a eastern
The Rock Bottom Remainders VIDEO TO SUPPORT The Book Industry Charitable Foundation:
@Hedda Gabler
I can't wait to see this. I'm actually going to set my alarm.
Does he have a sense of humor? His face always has this look about it like, holy crap, what am I doing with these people? He even had that look when he did that BINC thing with stephen a few weeks back.
So funny.