The Current presents

The Aimee Mann & Ted Leo Christmas Show!

with Paul F. Tompkins, Nellie McKay and Josh Gondelman

Doors 6:00 p.m. | Show 7:00 p.m. | All Ages

INFORMATION | TICKETS

Aimee Mann

Aimee Mann is one of the most distinguished singer-songwriters of her generation. Her successful solo career has spanned several decades with several Grammy nominations, two Grammy awards, and the release of nine critically acclaimed solo albums, including the profoundly popular soundtrack for the film Magnolia, which garnered an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for Best Song in 2000. Time magazine has said, “Mann has the same skill that great tunesmiths like McCartney and Neil Young have: the knack for writing simple, beautiful, instantly engaging songs,” while NPR voted her one of the “TOP 10 Best Living Songwriters” along with Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. Her latest release is called Mental Illness, which won her a Grammy for Best Folk Album.

Earlier in her musical life, Mann fronted the band Til Tuesday, releasing three albums. She has also made numerous memorable cameo appearances in films like The Big Lebowski and TV shows such as Portlandia and The Daily Show.

Ted Leo

Ted Leo is one of the finest songwriters of our generation, even if it’s not entirely clear what generation that is. Starting in New York Hardcore with Citizen’s Arrest, making the ‘90s safe for power-pop and Weller-esque hair with Chisel, then singing our turbulent lives like we were smarter than we were with The Pharmacists, and most recently providing equal parts sweetness and solace with Aimee Mann as The Both, Ted never let us down. And now, seven years after The Brutalist Bricks, he has a new solo album. And it’s wonderful.

The songs on The Hanged Man (2017), recorded at a home-studio-in-transition in Wakefield, RI, with Ted playing almost all the instruments, are some of the finest and most finely wrought of Ted Leo’s career. Ted describes the time working on the album as one of “personal desolation that felt fallow but was actually very fertile” and, indeed, lyrically, The Hanged Man is suffused with hope of sorts but crushingly heavy. The concerns addressed, whether personal trauma or the national disaster we’re all currently existing in, matched with the range and vitality of the songcraft is inspiring, even uplifting.

The Hanged Man offers the sharp bursts of skinny tie pop-punk fury one would expect from Ted—and even these feel streamlined like never before—but they are offset with an adventurousness in both tone and structure. The intention was to upend expectations but, on songs like the bookends of “Moon Out of Phase” and “Let’s Stay On The Moon,” the intention never gets in the way of the result. There’s no strain of effort in songs that are unlike anything Ted has done previously. The Hanged Man is a career high, born through industry soul sickness, nausea-inducing crisis, and a talent that feels like secular grace.

Paul F. Tompkins

Paul F. Tompkins is a comedian and actor. He stars as Dean Rosedragon on Seeso’s Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ as well as providing the voice of Mr. Peanutbutter for the Netflix animated series Bojack Horseman. He hosts the podcast Spontaneanation on the Earwolf network and has appeared on Scott Aukerman’s Comedy Bang! Bang! more than any other guest (both the television and podcast versions!).

In the past Mr. Tompkins has hosted the television programs Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins and No, YOU Shut Up!, and his previous podcast work includes The Pod F. Tompkast, The Dead Authors Podcast, Superego, and The Thrilling Adventure Hour. For a full list of Mr. Tompkins’ stage, television and film credits, ask your teacher or a policeman.

Nellie McKay

Nellie McKay has released an eclectic bunch of critically acclaimed albums, her songs and sound ranging from jazz to pop to indefinable, and with her latest, HEY GUYS, WATCH THIS, ably assisted by The Carpenter Ants, she taps into the soulful sounds of West Virginia. This past May, she released the GET AWAY FROM ME demos on Omnivore Records.

She's won a Broadway Theatre World Award for Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, co-created/starred in off-Broadway's Old Hats, created musical biographies of Barbara Graham, Rachel Carson, Joan Rivers, & Billy Tipton ('Best Concerts of the Year' - The New York Times).

As well as acting in the films PS I Love You and Downtown Express, Nellie provided music for Rumor Has It, Monster-In-Law, Last Holiday, Gasland, Private Life, and PS I Love You.

Her TV appearances include David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Craig Ferguson, and The View, and her music has been heard on Mad Men, Weeds, Boardwalk Empire, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, and Nurse Jackie.

Most recently, Nellie was nominated for an Ovation Award for her performance in Ethan Coen's A Play is a Poem at the Mark Taper Forum.

McKay is a recipient of PETA's Humanitarian Award for her dedication to animal rights, & she is a vocal critic of endless war, capitalism, and the two-party system that sustains them.

Josh Gondelman

Josh Gondelman is a writer and comedian who incubated in Boston before moving to New York City, where he currently lives and recently worked as the head writer and an executive producer for Desus & Mero on Showtime. Gondelman also contributed to the final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which was a thrill for both him and his parents. Prior to that, he spent five years at Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, first as a web producer and then as a staff writer where he earned four Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and three WGA Awards. His debut standup special People Pleaser (2022) was produced by Comedy Dynamics and is available to stream now.

If his face seems familiar, you may recognize it from his appearances on Conan (TBS), Late Night With Seth Meyers (NBC), and The Late Late Show with James Corden (CBS). But you may also know his voice from his regular appearances on the NPR news quiz show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me. Gondelman is also the author of the essay collection Nice Try: Stories of Best Intentions and Mixed Results published September 2019 by Harper Perennial. And, if you remember this far back, he was the co-creator of the popular Modern Seinfeld Twitter account.

Josh’s album Dancing On a Weeknight came out in 2019 on Blonde Medicine Records. His prior album Physical Whisper debuted in March of 2016 at #1 on the iTunes comedy charts (as well as #4 on the Billboard comedy chart) and stayed there for…well…longer than he expected, honestly. Additionally, Gondelman is also the co-author (along with Joe Berkowitz) of the book You Blew It, published October 2015 by Plume. In the past, Josh has written for Fuse TV’s Billy On The Street. His writing has also appeared in prestigious publications such as McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, New York Magazine, and The New Yorker. For a while he had his own game show podcast called Make My Day that was a lot of fun. You can still listen to it if you’d like. Why wouldn’t you? It’s new to you.