Tonight at Joe's Pub: Our Hit Parade
I'm kind of obsessed with Kenny Mellman, Neal Medlyn, and Bridget Everett's blog, where the trio posts a reworked pop song every day. The best is "Medley Mondays," when they combine two songs with the same names, like the brilliant slow-dance mashup of "Rehab" (Rihanna and Winehouse), and an examination of same-sex desire in two very different "I Kissed a Girl"s (Jill Sobule and Katy Perry). Miley Cyrus, Riskay, and Madonna all get their magical treatment, and Mellman's brilliant version of Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" could be a standalone hit.
Tonight, these geniuses reprise Our Hit Parade, the cabaret act that spawned this Top 40 takedown, and which premiered at Zipper Factory last month. Our Hit Parade is based on Your Hit Parade, a radio and TV program that ran from 1935 to 1959 and featured a squeaky-clean cast doing live-action, literally interpreted performances of such chart-toppers as "Love and Marriage," "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," and "Hound Dog." These weekly performances yielded the ur-music video by being the first to lend visual artistry to the songs most frequently selected at the jukebox. And now, there's a revival starring Downtown's most ingenious musicological crew.
Special guests at tonight's installment include Lady Rizo and Moby, who make TI's "Whatever You Like" sexy in an entirely different way.
At 11:30, Joe's Pub (http://www.joespub.com), 425 Lafayette Street, 212-539-8777, $15
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