The new album is out!

The new album is out and already receiving great reviews! Get your copy of "Sombule" now on CD Baby--and see below for the great review they gave me.

"Drawing from his finesse and facility as a "real-life circus composer," Sxip Shirey's imagination for sounds, sound combinations and textural color -- ranging from experimental and far-out electronically-enriched nuggets to slow and heavy gypsy folk songs to eccentric Wurlitzer organ pieces to the odd country folk song -- makes him one of the most curious combinations of composer-sound designer-performer meets storyteller-curator. As dramatically different as his stylistic signatures may be, and while the album may seem to have multiple personalites, there is a hard-to-define consistent character to it all; a playful, mischievous wink-and-nudge, up-to-no-good theme that ties it all together under one title. Some have called his style a combination of gypsy, tango, klezmer and punk and along with that, you could throw in some circus effects and a little tickling psychosis. With all that genius wrapped up into one little package, you've certainly got a peculiarly addictive album here." --CD Baby

YOW!!!

Yow! You know when Bugs Bunny slugs down a shot of something from a bottle marked XXX, his face gurns sideways, he coughs and his eyeballs roll like winning slots, mouth opens and he deposits his soul into his lap.. I'm drinking a shot of Slivovitza, the plum moon shine of Eastern Europe. I was contacted by a friend and told to go to asterisk, the underground rock n' roll party space in Brooklyn and Serbian Chef Vule would be throwing a Serbian New Years party. So me lovely and talented Larisa and I gussied up and here we are.

Now the first time I had Slovitza was the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where I was performing with the pyro-technic clown troupe The Daredevil opera Company. I has hanging out with this Serbian girl I saw performing at a show. One of the members of her company gave me a shot of something and I thought "My god my tongue has literally become numb". Serbian Girl is later baffled that I don't want second helpings of food. "The men in my country eat..allot." She is further baffled when I do the dishes.

Here at New Years, Vule is happily wielding a machete. He's hacking apart a whole pig that he has deep fried into edible chunks, amid a field of absolutely delicious Serbian delicacies. There is cheese, sausage, fresh bread, pepper spread, egg plant spread, nuts. There is even something like my Albanian Grandmother's "Peta", which is a dish somewhat like spinacopita, made of leaves of dough butter, egg and cheese. Yum.

A little muscular pit bull is running around and being fed hunks of pork by everyone. The friend who told me about the party is eyeing the basoon player who is jamming with the sax player, and two percussionists from The Hungry March band. She is single for the first time in 8 years and really wants an basoon lesson suddenly. We are all dancing. (except of course the hipsters who stand on the side lines looking like nervous kids at a junior high school dance). Her friends come across as these amazing crazy sexy librarians.

Later I am talking with the cymbal player's boyfriend... "You!" I say. "You are going out with Lucky!"

"What?" he says.

"Don't you know that your girlfriend is known as "Lucky" among the Burning Man people. She's got a reputation that if you get your hair cut from her, you'll get "Lucky" that night."

"Maybe" he says." That's why she refuses to cut my hair!"