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Ass-kicking Gigs Awesome-sauce HB! EP Recording Todd Chappelle Uncategorized cool projects

GIG: Hot Breakfast! and Friends Present: A Very Dorky Christmas. 12/17/16, 8PM, World Cafe Live at the Queen

It’s true, and it’s so sad… but Matt and Jill have lost the holiday spirit this year. Will the company and incredible music of their friends John Faye & Sarah Herbert, Todd Chappelle, Dan Kauffman, Boy Wonder, The Honey Badgers, Rachel Schain, Sharon Sable, Brian Turner, and The Lords of Aspirin help them find their Yuletide joy?

Get ready for a fun and funny night as Hot Breakfast!, with the help of host and “narrator” Mark Rogers (Hometown Heroes WSTW), takes good-natured aim at the TV holiday variety shows of their youth in this unique concert event. It’ll be a live show filled with original music, laughter, surprises, and plenty of holiday cheer – the perfect way to celebrate the end of your Christmas shopping.
And as if that’s not enough – this will be your first chance to purchase the brand-new Holiday EP from Hot Breakfast!

So yep, it’s true… we have been recording a Christmas EP, and so far we’ve got four songs done out of the five. The song titles so far are “Everyone’s a Child When it Snows,” which is not particularly “Hot Breakfasty” in that it’s not funny or dorky, but quite sweet and a touch precious even… but we’re OK with it. Next is “Don’t Get Me Anything,” which is an upbeat fun thing which parrots our “anti-noun” “experiences over things” stance on gift giving. Up next is “Christmas is for Believers,” which is also not particularly funny, but has Matt’s clever wordplay and also a very honest, even-handed and kind way of approaching what could be a controversial topic: non-Christians who celebrate Christmas. The song that’s been sticking most in my head is a song called “Clean Blank Slate” which is a New Year song. It starts off saying something like “It’s January 1st and everything magically resets and all the bullshit that was going on last year just disappears,” and then the rest of the song is saying, “Yeah, wouldn’t it be nice if it was like that, but it isn’t.” When we were recording the backing vocals, we got the idea of burying a subliminal message in there… so we added some lyrics waaaay low down in the mix, and I’m really proud of what we did and how it came out.  The final song we recorded is “The Holiday Shift” which has a similar feel to our 2013 hit “An Idiot for Christmas“, and is about a person who has to work on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day for the sales, but our hero actually likes the extra hours and overtime pay, and is happy to have an excuse not to hang with his family.  We’ll also include our 2014 holiday song ” I’ll Be Home on Christmas Eve.”  We weren’t going to include “An Idiot for Christmas” on this CD, but we realized it’s never been available on a CD before other than as a bonus track on 2015-printings of our 2012 self-titled EP.  We know people love that song, so we wanted to make it more readily avilable.

We’re releasing this new Christmas EP at the show! We’re excited.

DEETS:

WHO: Hot Breakfast! Plus Mark Rogers of WSTW serving as the Narrator, along with a zillion other artists, including Rodd Chappelle, John Faye & Sarah Herbert, Dan Kauffman, Boy Wonder, The Honey Badgers, Rachel Schain, Sharon Sable, Brian Turner, and The Lords of Aspirin (Randy America and Dave Janney).

WHERE: World Cafe Live at the Queen, Upstairs. 500 N. Market St., Wilmington DE.

WHEN: Saturday, December 17, 2016, 8pm sharp!

WHY: To take an evening off from the hectic holiday season, and to spend it with friends, laughing and listening to music.

WHAT: A PG-13 family-friendly, non-denominational celebration of dorkitude and music!

TICKETS: Tickets are $16+fees. Buy them at the World Cafe Live website.  NOTE: After purchasing your ticket, you MUST reserve a table at World Cafe Live at the Queen. Call (302) 994-1400.

FOOD: Plenty of food and drinks are available at World Cafe Live. It’s a restaurant as well as a music venue! Eat while you rock out. Don’t forget to make a reservation!

PARKING: There’s a parking lot right next to the venue on 5th St. between King St. and Market St. It’s usually $5.  There will also be free street parking all around the venue. (Street Parking is free in Wilmington  after 6pm.)

See you soon!

Your pals,

Jill and Matt

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Ass-kicking Gigs Awesome-sauce Comedy gig SXSW Thank you The Big Reveal The Dead Milkmen Todd Chappelle Uncategorized interview music industry radio

NPR INTERVIEW: Listen to Hot Breakfast! on WDDE/WMPH – Delaware’s own National Public Radio station!

Look ma! We're on NPR!
Look ma! We’re on NPR!

The fabulous Cathy Carter reached out to us a few weeks ago asking if we could make time for an interview. We said “Of course!”

We had the honor of visiting their studios on the campus of Delaware State University and not only chatting with Cathy, but also playing two songs live in studio. The purpose of the interview was to hype our upcoming Comedy Music Show this Saturday, 2/6/16 at 7pm (that’s tomorrow night, and it’s early!) at the Smyrna Opera House with Todd Chappelle and the Mean Wendy Band.

So clicky the image below to be brought to the article written about us, as well as to hear our interview.

DPMWebLogo

 

 

Or you can just click this link here.

Hope to see you tomorrow at our 7pm comedy music show at The Smyrna Opera House!

Your pal,

Ji11

ps: And to the editor who works there: My good sir/madam, we owe you 17 fruit baskets and a TON OF LOVE AND HIGH FIVES for the way you edited our blathering stutteriness into something coherent. THANK YOU! Really. You’re the real MVP. xoxo!

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Ass-kicking Gigs Awesome-sauce Comedy gig Todd Chappelle Uncategorized collaboration

GIG: Comedy-Music Night, Milton Theatre, Saturday, January 24, 8 PM

Considering we are internationally known as Delaware’s Premier Acoustic Dork-Rock Power Duo, we don’t get to the lower half of our home state very often.

Sure, we’ve done some rocking in Clayton and some face-melting in Lewes, and we’d do it again in a heartbeat. But we admit we tend to gravitate toward the north end of our small-but-we-make-up-for-it-with-good-technique state, especially since it butts (huh huh) right up against Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

But we still love our brethren and sistren to the south. So when our brotha-from-anotha-(or possibly the same)-motha Todd Chappelle asked if we would join him for a comedy-music show at the Milton Theatre in lovely Milton, Delaware, we jumped for joy. Then we took some Advil and went straight to bed, because really, we should not be jumping at this age.

This is what we get for expressing joy.
This is what we get for expressing joy.

But I’m burying the lede. The point is this: Hot Breakfast! is joining forces with Todd Chappelle and Nancy Huebner as the Premier Centre for the Arts presents one fantastic night of comedy and music at the Milton Theatre on Saturday, January 24.

You know this already, but Todd’s a comedy songwriter in the vein of Tom Lehrer, Weird Al Yankovic, and Mark Russell. That’s a mighty fine vein, but his style is all his own. We just love this guy – not only is he one of our favorite performers, he’s one of our favorite people. He gets around, too; he’s performed at the New York Funny Songs Festival, the Philadelphia Funny Songs Festival, and the Chicago Comedy Rock Festival. You might know his Homey Award-winning parody tune “I’m From Delaware,” but did you know he won another Homey Award last year for collaborating with a couple of dorks?

This is what happens when we get together. WE WIN SHIT.
This is what happens when we get together. WE WIN SHIT.

Piano-playing singer-songwriter Nancy Huebner draws her inspiration from folk, vaudeville, pop, and showtunes, but like Chappelle, she puts her influences in a blender until they create something unique and original. We love how she combines clever lyrics with eclectic melodies and styles, creating music that’s always thoughtful, whether the song is hilarious, heartbreaking, or somewhere in the middle. We cannot wait to join forces with the lovely Ms. Huebner in our quest to entertain you.

So come laugh with (and at) us at the Milton Theatre. We’ve may have had our differences1 with you in the past, Kent and Sussex Counties, but we cannot stay away for long. Maybe it’s your beaches, your world-famous breweries and ironic hotels, your temporary housing of R. Crumb, or your sadly defunct pan-fried muskrat, but we could never quit you.2

DEETS:

What: Premier Centre of the Arts Presents: A Night of Comedy Music at Milton Theatre
Who: Hot Breakfast!, Todd Chappelle, and Nancy Huebner.
When: Saturday, January 24. 8 pm.
Where: The Milton Theatre, 110 Union Street, Milton, DE 19968 (link goes to Google Maps)
Tickets: $15. You can get ’em online by clicking here. (Clicking. What can’t it do?)
Food & Drink: There might be snacky-food, but you’ll wanna eat dinner before you arrive.
Parking: Plenty.
Facebook Event: You kids and your Facebook. Oy.

Again – come join us, and together we shall end the bitter North-South Delaware feud that has claimed dozens of side-eyes and middle fingers.

Yours and yours alone,
The Suburban Legend (Matt)

– – – – –

1 Confession time. A dozen years ago, my BFF and I nabbed a sweet gig at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware several years ago. We were part of a jazz ensemble put together by Joe Trainor for a Bob Newhart concert. We played a couple standards, then we played Newhart on with the theme to The Bob Newhart Show. Later, we played him off to the theme to his 80s show, Newhart. Anyway, an hour before the show, we were backstage, heading out for some fresh air, when Bob’s manager stopped us.
“Hey guys, I have a question for you.”
“Sure thing, sir.”
“Who do you make fun of around here?”
We were puzzled. “Huh? You mean, like…Steve?”
“No, I mean, is there a city or state that Delaware likes to pick on? Like, say, New Jersey?”
“No, if anything, they pick on us,” my friend offered. “But you know who we really like to make fun of?”
“Who?”
We said it together: “
Lower Delaware.”
“Lower Delaware?” the manager repeated.
Suddenly, a small, energetic man appeared behind the door.
Lower Delaware?” the incredulous man asked. “There’s a lower Delaware?”
“There sure is, Mr. Newhart.”
“And you’re sure they make fun of lower Delaware in Wilmington?”
“We’ve never been more sure of anything.”
“Well, all right then. Southern Delaware it is.”
“No no – ‘lower.’ It’s gotta be ‘lower.'” So we’re clear: at this moment, my friend and I were explaining to Bob Newhart
how to deliver his joke.
“Ah. Well, thank you, gentlemen. If the joke bombs, I’ll know who to blame. What are your names?”
“Joe Trainor.”

Nah, I’m just kidding about that last line. We gave him our real names. We had no fear – we knew. And sure enough, he slayed ’em with the “lower Delaware” jokes he told. Bob didn’t turn around and give us a wink or anything (at that point, we were sitting behind him on the bandstand), but that’s okay. As I said – we knew.

Anyway…I’m really sorry about that, Lower Delaware. You deserve better than “Recipient of Cheap Shot” at a Bob Newhart concert. He didn’t really mean it, either. But man, can that guy tell a joke. When those pilots from Lower Delaware had a really difficult time landing their plane, because they found the runway really short, but also quite wide? Damn near busted a gut on that one…

2 I’m sad the Wagon Wheel is defunct because it was an institution, and because my grandmother’s wonderful boyfriend Harry enjoys the occasional pan-fried muskrat. But I just made the mistake of viewing a few photos of said muskrats as they’re being prepared for the pan. They make the dog-head-spider creature from John Carpenter’s The Thing look like Chick-fil-A. I’m pretty sure I’m vegan now.