YOUNG & PARANOID - the second album composed entirely on the haunted electric mandolin Ira Lawrence received from his estranged grandmother- features cathartic and distorted post-folk songs about ditch-digging vagabonds, bedbugs, killer cops, mimes, and murderers.
After a brush with Filipino Soap Opera stardom on his summery 2016 debut album MAPAGKAWANGGAWA, Ira returned to New York with no fixed address and fell into a deep depression after the death of David Bowie and his non-estranged grandmother Jean Satisky. Young & Paranoid's raw and emotive songs emerged from an ether of loneliness, loss, displacement, fear for the future, and finding hope in the darkest of times.
Young & Paranoid was self-recorded by Ira in various bedrooms and cat-sitting gigs in Brooklyn between Christmas of 2015 and Christmas 2016. It was mixed and mastered by John Jagos AKA Brothertiger in Greenpoint in March of 2017.
It features: NO GUITARS and NO DRUMS
ONLY IRA LAWRENCE'S HAUNTED MANDOLIN
Check out the inaugural album Ira recorded, cowrote, and produced with Sion Edmonds (Bronze Age Boats UK) and some enormously talented 8-12 year old campers at Indian Head Camp via The Music Ascension program.
GHOST ROOM AT 2017 CHASHAMA GALA (photo by GUEST OF A GUEST)
Thanks to everyone who checked out GHOST ROOM at CHASHAMA's Gala!
I'm making an immersive GHOST ROOM for Chashama Gala After Party - Art is Everywhere on June 8th. What'a a Ghost Room? It's an interactive theater piece where audience members get life advice from the dead. It's part of Chashama's ART IS EVERYWHERE Gala- Artists take over spaces in the old Vanity Fair office at 4 Times Square and turn the whole floor into an art party. It's a super fun affair if you need an excuse to dress up fancy and see cool installations! After Party is 9pm-12am on Thursday JUNE 8th
Use this code for a $25 discounted ticket: artiseverywhere2017
Tickets: chashama.org/after_party_tickets
New Headshots Courtesy of ZACH DEZON
CAST ME IN YOUR MOVIE
2016 FALL TOUR DATES
9.15 Brooklyn, NY @ Friends & Lovers (MONDO)
9.18 New York, NY @ Pianos (MONDO)
9.24 Boston, MA @ House Show (W/ Bedbug, Looks Like Mountains, Tuxis Giant)
10.13 Kansas City, KS @ Buffalo Room (W/ The Vi Tran Band)
10.17 Saint Louis, MO @ Foam (W/ Dubb Nubb & Bryan Ranney)
Ira Lawrence's Debut album MAPAGKAWANGGAWA is out 10/7/16
PRE ORDER IT HERE: iralawrence.bandcamp.com
Thanks so much for coming to "JEFF'S JEWISH DATING SERVICE" AT THE FLEA #SERIALS! We made it all the way to Episode 2. Enjoy this photo of Tressa Preston and Thomas Muccioli by Scott Fetterman.
Ira's new play "Jeff's Jewish Dating Service"- about a struggling faith-based dating service in 1984- is coming to The Flea's Serials: July 14-16 @ 11:00pm. https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/960989
In #serials@theflea, five teams of actors perform original ten-minute episodic plays. The audience votes for its three favorite plays, which return the next week with a new installment. The teams with the two least popular stories are voted off the island. All tickets are $12 and include a beer! Love to see you there!
Check out this interview with Ira about the show: http://thefleatheater.tumblr.com/post/147455443427/wild-new-ideas-energetic-performers-sleep-an
5.11.16
HAPPY BIRTHDAY IRA!
IF YOU ARE IN NEW YORK CITY, COME CELEBRATE ON FRIDAY MAY 13th at Cake Shop's MILLION BAND PRINCE TRIBUTE NIGHT. FREE!
https://www.ticketfly.com/event/1185473-gonna-be-beautiful-night-new-york/
IRA LAWRENCE'S HAUNTED PRINCE REVUE will go down around 9pm, he'll be playing covers, telling stories, and getting possessed by the spirit of the purple one, alongside tons of other amazing bands who will play Prince songs 'til the break of dawn.
3.29.16
Ira Lawrence's self-recorded debut album MAPAGKAWANGGAWA is mixed! There's a few more tweaks left and then it's off to mastering.
Track List:
1. All My Fake Friends
2. Inconsistency
3. Jeff Said Play Dead
4. Filipino Soap Star
5. Come Again Camiguin Jean
6. Perpetual Bachelor Party
7. Bong Sung Thai
8. My Double Nickel Diamonds
9. Leave It In The Philippines
10. Scot In Spacehotels
11. Blue Wide Hours