LIVE DIRTY CURLS! “Pity Phuck” at The Cabooze, May 9, 2013

Another video from Fearless Comedy Productions and Bob Alberti! This one’s for our newest song, “Pity Phuck.” NSFW lyrics, obvy. Enjoy!

LIVE DIRTY CURLS! “Do You Mind?” at the Cabooze, May 9, 2013

Mr. Bob Alberti from Fearless Comedy Productions came out to the Cabooze and taped us doin’ our thing! This video is missing the ending to the song, but if you don’t know the song already, you will!

LET’S GET GAY MARRIED, MINNESOTA!

As you may or may not have heard (maybe out-of-staters aren’t up to speed on local Minnesota news; that’s cool), Governor Dayton just signed marriage for EVERYONE into law yesterday.  And a great, big bunch of us are just so happy we finally have caught up to the rest of the progressive states.  I personally hate that we even VOTE on marriage, but as there is the civil side to it, we do and we won.

Last year, I did a house fundraiser for Minnesota United for All Families.  Of course I played “Gay For You,” but I also wrote a little ditty about love and everyone’s right to have who they want in their life to love and sometimes, want to smother with a pillow.  C’mon, you’ve never wanted to make your loved one STFU already?  I mean, that’s what love is all about. Your soulmate will do or say something that is so infuriating you get a flash of homicidal  tendency, but because you love them more than life itself, you get over it. At least, that is my wish for you.  So, the song is about whomever is singing it and how they knew the subject of the song was the One and they just want to have all the same rights to love them like anyone else.   Enjoy!

We are so proud of Minnesota for making marriage available for all its citizens!

Dirty Curls Cabooze Debut! (Heyyeayeayeaaaaa)

Well, folks, now we’ve played the motherfuggin’ Cabooze.  I’ve played on the same stage as Snoop Dogg.  Next stop – actually playing with Snoop Dogg.

They spelled my name wrong. And were immediately forgiven.

Okay, that’s not the next stop, but why can’t it be a stop?  If life is a subway train, you gotta make stops along the way before you get to your destination, yeah?  (Now I have this song stuck in my head.  Click the link and you will too.) You guys, shut up. I’m a cheeseball and you love me for it. But seriously, what if they last stop is Snoop Dogg and The Cabooze is 1000 miles away from that, but I’ll eventually get to Snoop if I just stay on this train.

Oh, the italics!  I have so much to emphasize today!

But seriously, do you get my point? This is why I’m still chugging away at something when I supposedly should have been married, owned a home, and popped out a couple of tykes by now. Not to imply having a home and a family isn’t many peoples’ dreams in our culture!  I am doing comedy music in my mid-thirties for a few drinks and a chance to play on The Cabooze stage.  Because each bigger stage means bigger chances, even if you were light years away from filling the place.  And that’s my dream: making the masses laugh and living the life of a rockstar.  With only the natural drugs, please.  Okay, okay, synthetics here and there, once in a while.  But I’m not fucking paying for them!

Enough of that crap. You came here to hear about the show. I’ll be talking about my missed chance to have a family a lot here (no emphasis mine), so I won’t vomit it all out in one fell swoop.

THE SHOW WAS AWESOME.  We had a mere 25-30, maybe? people in the audience and in a place like The Cabooze, which has a capacity of about 1200 I think, that can seem like nobody.  But what I need from an audience can come from one person: captivity. If The Curls are holding the audience hostage with laughter and shock and awe, we’ve done our job. And dammit, we did our job last night. We got a nice handful of new fans, methinks. Welcome to the world of the Curls, new Curlfriends! We’re so happy you’re here.

The Bitterroot Band opened up and we noticed they played the same instruments we had that night: banjo, upright bass, and guitar.  And then the bass player, Vinnie, whipped out a fiddle!  And then the guitar player clawhammered a banjo and the banjo player strummed a guitar! Love me some multi-talented musicians! They were wonderful and warmed up the audience really nicely for us. Please check them out and go see them when they’re playing around town! (And from their Facebook page, you can see they’re doing a mini Midwest tour, so keep an eye out, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Chicago!)

The Bitterroot Band!

Diet Folk was the headliner and by the time they got on stage, beers had been consumed for a couple of hours and the crowd had grown to about 100 people! There were many fans dancing and clapping and we were all having a great time. Our booker, Tony, is the banjo player (and plays guitar too) for Diet Folk and Saint Anyway and he’s amazing!  He’s a nice guy and his bands are fabulous.  We’re so lucky to be working with him!

That’s Tony in the foreground. Yes, he’s playing guitar, not banjo. He’s great at it!

Back to my original point, though, guys: ever since I realized that I am a musician, I have had little goal posts of places to play here in the Twin Cities. The 501 Club was one of them and we played there 3 times in 2010.  The 331 Club was a goal, as was the Turf Club (we still need our own show there, though, for sure), and the Cabooze was a goal.  Now, perhaps, First Ave!  Comedy Music Festival at First Ave?  LET’S DO THIS, MINNEAPOLIS!

Anyhooters, thank you Diet Folk and Bitterroot Band and The Cabooze for making a girl’s dream come true. One down, many more to go… to my destination.

Your long awaited Dirty Curls update!

Hi Curlfriends.  I’ve been horrible at keeping up this blog.  If I had a nickel for every time I’ve said that on a blog, I’d have, like, 65 cents.

Veldie, me, and Kevs at Town Hall in Chicago, IL!

First off, tonight?  Veldie, Kevin, and I (Court) (quite possibly also with Lacey!) play The Motherfucking Cabooze tonight with Diet Folk and The Bitterroot Band.  Here’s the Facebook invite if you choose to let us know you’re coming out.  It’s going to be straight-up banjo baller action, y’alls.

Second, we’ve got a LOT of great shows coming up. I’ve been a very typical lazy creative lately by not posting our upcoming shows.  But, you like us on Facebook, right?  Because I update that way more often.  But just slightly more often after today.  I PROMISE YOU THIS CURLFRIENDS!  This blog will be kickin’ by the end of next week.  AW YEAH.  But seriously:  here’s some upcoming shows.

May 9th (Thurs) - The Dirty Curls at The Cabooze! with Diet Folk and The Bitterroot Band! More info here!

May 22nd (Wed) - The Dirty Curls at The Valley Meadows Show! at Camp Bar in St. Paul - 8:30pm

May 23 (Thurs) - The Dirty Curls play Hysterical - Women’s Comedy Showcase at Club Underground - 8pm, Cover $5

June 11 (Tues) - The Dirty Curls at The Kitty Cat Klub - 11:30pm

June 12 (Wed) - The Dirty Curls at 331 Club with Armstrong Clawhammer! - 9:30 FREE

June 30 (Sun) - Courtney McClean & The Dirty Curls at Amsterdam Bar & Hall with Diet Folk - 8pm FREE

 

And, well, we’re going to be playing a big Minnesota event in early July.  If you guess what it is, you win the knowledge that you are intuitive and a good guesser.  But the official schedule hasn’t been released, so we’re not sure if we can talk about it yet.  But yes, it’s that.  We’re playing that big thing.

And thirdly, we are putting out a record.  A full-length CD of new recordings of all your favorites (or most of them).  It won’t be new music, but you will have a quality aural version of the Curls for your very own.  More details on this too, later, because nothing’s been signed yet.  But it’s happening for sure, so stay tuned.

But let me tell you something… great stuff is a’brewin’.  See you tomorrow!  Hopefully I won’t have to recap the Cabooze show because you’ll have been there.

This is what you miss when you miss Dirty Curls shows.

McClean may have actually gone gay at this moment. Photo by DZ Photography

That, Curlfriends, is Queenie Von Curves, one of my very favorite burlesque dancers in the Twin C — make that anywhere!  She guested on the Rockstar Storyteller Erotica show last night with a striptease to “I Would Go Gay For You!”  We played it live while she rubbed up on us and stuff.  It was pretty awesome.  I guess all you’re missing then is the overwhelming jealousy of not being me.  Ha!

So.  To make sure you don’t ever miss this sort of sauciness again, please head on over to our Upcoming Shows page, and burn that shit in your calendar of stone!!

Sunrise, Sunset, little children, where do they go?

That title comes from an inside joke in my high school drama department, which is probably why it sucks.  Heh.

But what *I* mean by it is… we’ve changed our lineup again!

I built the newest incarnation of this band to be a self-contained thing I could, by my lonesome, take anywhere in the world.  The Dirty Curls songs work without a band, but dammit, the band sounds so goddamn good.  Which is why it’s never easy to lose a member.  From the band, not life.  Though that would feel way worse!!  I’m confusing you!  Let me continue.

Within the last few months, Ray Ray and Cherry Mae have both stepped away from the band to pursue opera and raise a baby, respectively.  I will miss them both like crazy, but I don’t really have to because they’re my friends. And I’m over-the-moon happy for them both; starting a family and knowing that you need to devote more time to the art that feeds your soul are the best reasons for a life change. But I will miss them in the band very much.

That’s not to say that they won’t *ever* play with us again!  We’ll definitely let you know  here if we have a reunion show. (Cherry Mae just did our January 12 gig with Fearless Comedy and might be doing our Jan. 30 at Amsterdam)!

BUT that means we got a couple of new people (who have already been playing with us for the past month!) and I’m so thrilled for you to get to know Lacey and Kevin.

Lacey is a buddy of mine and Anna’s from the theater scene who I had no idea was a drummer!  When I discovered she always wanted to be a Curl, but was too shy to ask, I immediately contacted her.  And now she shakes shakers and tambourines and plays a wicked triangle at the perfect moment.

Kevin and I hosted a trivia show together in 2011 and we just grew to be friends!  He’s a fantastic bassist and I’m really happy to have him on board.  He’s our Dude Pube!

So that’s the update on the Curls lineup, Curlfriends!  Change is good.  Every one of our Curls has given their piece to this project and it wouldn’t be what it is without any one of them.