Climatastrophunk is here!!

Buy the new album today!! Go to myspace.com/jonbraman - this site is under construction.

Climatastrophunk dropping August 2007!!!

It's true, and a new website is on the way, too. For now please go to myspace.com/jonbraman for album previews...updates and show dates.

'Guru' video!!

Couldn't be prouder to be posting my first ever music video. Shot over the spring and summer with our good friend/independent film-maker Mark Betancourt. It was a mighty collaboration - sort of took shape as it went. Mark (who by chance was blessed with equal and unusually heaping portions of creativity and heart) pushed us, pulled us, woke us up in the middle of the night, and occasionally cooked us dinner. Lisette generously bestowed up on us her time and magick, I tried to stay focused and not act like a 6 year-old. Carrie and Lindsay and Heather and this great dude in front of our apartment helped us out, too, with secret low-budget special effects and stuff. Bryan lent Mark the camera. Not to mention the other people who helped us in ways I'm not supposed to talk about, or in ways they weren't even aware of. (Mwa ha ha) . Please enjoy, pass on to everyone and anyone, and keep passing it.

Here are the words in case you were wondering:

Guru

boodoodbabababdodbaodbdoddoodwabadayda da da

i met you at the moment rain turned into snow, said "you wanna go back to my place and drink a bowl of cocoa?" oh no, am i going loco for the this lady so so fast? i've only been solo since last week, but you know i can't keep my dreams to myself, she said "please help yourself, there's a box on the shelf, why not at least share the wealth?" i think i was hearing bells, but the landlady smelled something funny coming from the other room, peaked under the window, kicked us out the next afternoon. i was like, "oh well-" wasn't too early to tell that baby living without you would be hell.

hook:

cause you're my
guru my rugu my shoobeedoowop pop stop before i get a booboo
cause you knew just what to do: voodoo,
it's up to you, true blue and stuck like glue cause i must have you....my....

(repeat)

boodoobapo ba do ba dabda bdo.....


well there was
something between us and nothing inbetween, know what i mean? lean mean rabble rousing machines. well you remember the scene, right? it was halloween night, and you looked so dream like, queen like, it was almost movie-screen like, when you gave me the green light to hook up my steam-pipe, and i could have beamed right up up to heaven no second guessing no stressing no lessons learned from past transgressions, the last weapon in the battle against depression is re-setting, and you keep letting on that your feelings are getting strong, maybe we're getting to where we belong, getting up at the break of dawn, to catch you getting out of the shower with your towel on, smile on, and i'm thinking, "how long can these wonders pile on?" but anyway meanwhile, lets ride on, uh.

cause your my guru...
hook

life
life is long
longer than this song
as long as it takes to make it to find where we belong

love
love is true
true as me and you
and blue as you'd be knowing there's nothing you could do

repeat

scat. out

climatastophu*k!

phunk, phunk, plunk plunk. sorry guys, i'm way behind updating all this, and on finishing up my album. life intervenes. summer's hot. please keep checking www.myspace.com/jonbraman for the latest while i get my oh my together...meanwhile check this recent review and thanks for all the support... from In-Tune magazine:
http://www.northeastintune.com/index.php?bd=reg&sb=land&article=080613

text: By: Lauren Proctor
No one is quite sure where the next cult hit will come from but there’s one thing that’s sure. There’s always a cult audience out there, patiently waiting for a new inspiration for their obsession.

Jon Braman has the potential to become a new figurehead to whom these fanatics can cling. He found his instrument in a trashcan and decided to teach himself to play. The playing evolved into writing songs about life, and now Braman raps and croons while strumming a ukulele; producing music that falls into the genre he calls Acoustic Hip Hop and Rap.

While it seems that those who listen to rap wouldn’t ever listen to folksy acoustic songs played by a hippy, and that the folksy audience wouldn’t dare bother with rap, Braman has an indiscriminate way of blending the sounds of each genre in a way that might draw a completely unpredictable niche audience of its own.

When explaining how Braman’s music developed he writes, “I felt like people needed these songs – songs that are unabashedly political but also intimate, funky music to move to, laugh to, get dumped and fall in love to, music that got to the heart of what was happening to us.”

As crazy as a twangy ukulele rap song might sound on the surface, or as much as it sounds like this unfamiliar genre might distance us, Braman’s warm ukulele and lyrics that fall so close to home are actually quite welcoming. He sings about everything from politics and the environment to his grandma’s car.

Braman’s wife joins him in some of his songs about life. Braman describes his wife’s voice like “a mermaid” but for a more tangible sense of her contribution, her voice resembles the vocals of Bill Frissell’s recent duo partner, Petra Haden. Regardless of how much Mr. Braman raps, Ms. Braman tends to shy away from the rap to sing in a more harmonious role.

The music Braman produces, including songs from his debut album “Sprouting Daisies Out of My Hair,” isn’t touched up to sound professional. Sometimes Braman’s voice isn’t very impressive either. But Braman isn’t concerned about that. He’s all about making music about the human condition from the people, for the people.

new record in the works....

a little hiatus from shows . . . working on finishing up this next album tentatively titled "climatastrophunk" . . . tentatively to be released at the same time Outkast releases Idlewild . . . late august . . . check myspace.com/jonbraman for updates . . . new jonbraman.com coming out sometime late summer, too. did i mention a new music video for the new single "guru" . . . stay tuned . . . www.myspace.com/jonbraman . . . www.cdbaby.com/jonbraman for cd's . . . yeah . . .

"Father of ukulele Hip Hop"

Check www.mysapce.com/jonbraman for most current updates...

Early June: Fridays 9pm, check Arlington Independent Media for a 30 minute segment of me, channel 69 if you live in Arlington, VA. Here's the site, although I don't think you can fully tune in online:

http://www.arlingtonmedia.org

Just in time for my brithday, the Washington Citypaper named me the "Father of ukulele hip hop" Check it:

www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/2006/arty0512a.html

music video, new album ("Climatastrophunk") in the works...stay tuned for a website makeover midsummer, 2006

Thanks everyone form Boston to Brooklyn to D (dot) C (dot) for listening and bopping along...

on april shows and global warming

first off, you can always check www.myspace.com/jonbraman for the most up to date show listings and new song posts...

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who's been coming out to shows and buying cd's and spreading the word in the past month or so...like a solar-powered little engine that could i keeep chugging away, i think i can i think i can, with more than a few moments of sheer uke-hoperiffic bouncing-bliss along the way. No full-blown gig-by-gig diary here...but a couple highlights (DANGER unedited rambling unlicensed-blogger at work):

Northeast Climate Conference at Yale: a cozy swaying swarm of college+high school climate warriors hailing from canada to maryland all rocking to me and lisette and this great kid (if you're out there...tell me your name again) who just hopped onto a drum set, the boomiest most gothic chapel I've ever played in, no breaks between songs, just jamming and riffing new hooks, scatting, lisette getting into it, amazing audience participation on my "get the motherfucker out: RIGHT NOW" trick. yeah. what can i say? it feels pretty good to be on edge of the wave of clean-energy inevitably sweeping the nation...it's building, it's building...even Time magazine thinks global warming's newsworthy...damn, that night was a sorely needed shot of hope to my leafy-future-father-heart. as scary as it is, despite all our smarts and big talk, to be continually pushing our atmosphere (not to mention our woods and oceans and swamps and deserts and grasslands and cities and farms) toward the breaking point of no-fucking return, i really believe, ludacris as it sounds, that we could pull together and take a real stab at stopping the worst...at least if josh and billy and meg and matt and david bronzstein have anything to say about it....so chin up everyone (like me) who's kids may live in a world sans glaciers but with monthly killer storms + droughts + malaria in new england. chin up and then go join the movement: www.climatecampaign.org

Potter's House Shaw EcoVillage Benefit: after more than a couple DC shows at which less than 5 folks showed up with the express intention of hearing me (others may have unknowingly walked into that dubious predicament) I decided to try to do some actual promotion, and to focus on this show in particular: I dropped the bomb on a bunch of neighborhood listserves, emailed every earthday related group in DC I could think of, littered area record and book stores with some new slick posters + flyers my aunt margo of studio D (www.thestudiod.org) helped me put together, got some little blurbs in DC North, the Dupont Current, a surprise listing in OnTAPs Mr. Joel's DC shows, even a myspace event invitation, not to mention a 4 foot poster of me and lisette on the window of the potter's house in adam's morgan, and guess what? it worked... we had almost 40 folks show up, including a whole bunch I'd never set eyes on before, raised $300+ for shaw ecovillage and got taped for "Songs of Significance," a live music show on Fairfax public access cable! If you live in Fairfax County, check it out on cable channel 10 on Monday, May 8th, at 11:00 AM; Tuesday, May 9th, at 9:00 PM; and Saturday, May 13th, at 2:00 PM. Let me know if you get to see it!

R&R in NYC: this place was a trip...black and white shiny couches, $300 bottles of something, red velvet rope at the door, from the moment we arrived i think they decided we weren't rock and roll enough for them (get it? R&R =rock and roll, it took me a little while)...they had double-booked the slot and were pushing us to start before they opened the doors! luckily i stalled until most of our eager fans, friends, family, etc. (my dad and cousin joel are a mean promotion team, geez!) got downstairs. the stage actually had a curtain, which made us feel very famous + I wore my grey hat, which makes me feel cooler than i actually am. it was a short set but we played hard and the audience, though a little stunned by the chop chop attitude of the place, was focused. in my opinion, we rocked. just nailed it. and they seemed to like us more since we brought a good crowd. then afterwards we followed julie to this prohibition era bar through a small cellar door and a time-warp across the street from the free-jazz-klezmer spot Tonic i played at in college on the lower east side. that's ny for ya. next one in ny (may 20th with david A at freebird) will be free.

African American family celebration at the national zoo: i was signed up to play at 12, after Baba C, but by 12:15 the stage was still empty, and the zoo soggy and cold...i heard some rumors that things might clear up so I waited it out in the great ape-house. orangutans have unbelievable hair, not to mention those throat pouches. what would you do if you had a throat pouch? it's something i think about often...ah, the possibilities...despite my soaking socks and a thin, shivery crowd, I did end up playing, a short set after Baba C and his troupe of story-telling/acting boys. Baba C gave me the sweetest intro a white ukulele-rapper could have possibly hoped for, and to top it all off, Strong Rhythm (aka Steve), one of the kids who played djembe with Baba C, joined me on my songs. they don't call him strong rhythm for nothing! Wow! That kid rocked, by the time i'd gotten through one measure of each song he'd picked up the feel perfectly and was putting my bounce-o-meter reading way higher than it had ever been before...if only he was 10 years older, we'd have a band...but we'll stay in touch and hopefully jam again. if only i had gotten into hip hop 15 years earlier, ah... thanks again, Baba C and Strong Rhythm ...hope to see you guys again soon.

you can see this kind of thing is new for me...if you made it this far, thanks. let me know if this is interesting, or what else you'd like to know.