David Liebe Hart Band

David Nkrumah Liebe Hart is a local legend. A former actor in the 70's (and who wasn’t) since 1988, as the mastermind and puppeteer behind the Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show, a weekly L.A.-based public access show, David has promoted Christian Science doctrine with a special aim at our young people. With puppets and song and puppets singing songs. No doubt most of you have surfed across one of the over 12,000 shows he has produced on the odd lazy Saturday morning. Perhaps it was Chip The Black Boy (his primary puppet and star of the show) that grabbed your attention. Or maybe it was the psychedelic shifting greenscreen backgrounds that did it. Better yet, maybe it was the message contained in the Bible readings that hooked you. The luckier among you might have had an audience with David in person, while he’s working a puppet and a boom box, performing songs from the show for donations outside the Hollywood Bowl. The luckiest among you might have even been on the set of JCSBLS and taken the guest office chair amidst the plastic trees and puppets and aided David on his mission to spread Christian Science one half-hour at a time. And to keep kids off drugs. Crack, heroin, cocaine, speed, psychotropics, the weed.

Losanjealous’ own Ryan was a recent guest of David’s. Below he describes how his life is better for it.

Q: So how did you meet David Hart? What were the circumstances that led to your appearance on the JCSBLS?

Special FX!A: I’d seen Dave Hart for years outside the bowl. When I discovered that a movie titled ‘Public Access Hollywood’ featured the maestro himself and was playing at the Valley Film Festival, I knew I had to see it. I met Dave right after the screening. I bought one of his CDs and he promptly told me he needed me to host his show the following Thursday. He then began to explain that UFOs were entwined in official church business. I wasn’t too sure what to make of that, but as for the hosting request I really couldn’t turn him down. It genuinely seemed to come from a higher source. It could not have been coincidence.

Q: Were you nervous going in? I mean, besides his legend, David preaches a mean gospel. Did you feel up to the task of being his co-pilot? What is your understanding of Christian Science?

A: I have nerves of steel, my friend. I was ready for this. From what I understand, Christian Scientists don’t take drugs. At all. And if there’s one recurring theme of Dave Hart’s show (UFOs aside), it’s the anti-drug bit that’s hammered religiously every week. “Crack, heroin, Marijuana, Pills, Cocaine, Uppers, Downers, all of that…Stay off it.” You hear the same words every episode. That confuses me, because if he preached true Christian Scientist philosophy I might expect him to tell kids to say no to Children’s Chewable Aspirin(TM)… Dimetapp… Triaminic (do they still make that or am I dating myself?)…Flintstone Vitamins… then again, that’s just my understanding. I could be way off base.

I did read someplace that Dave had his arm twisted by the Christian Science church to change the name of his show, in order to not (misleadingly) appear to be directly affiliated with the church. Thusly you get the lengthy show title you have today.

Q: Did you get a sense of the preparation that David puts into each half-hour? And what is with the huge sheet of paper with the readings that is passed around the set? Doesn’t he have access to a photocopier? Small things like that reveal a lot about a person, I think. What do you think?

A: In my case, the huge sheet of paper that housed my script was a wall calendar. Nothing could better illustrate the auteur process at work. The man gets inspired for an upcoming segment…BAM! Out of the blue. Such is his inspiration that he can’t hold it in. He grabs a pen and grasps the nearest writable object to put down those words, those infinite words that might otherwise float out of reach, up to the puppet-laden stratosphere. If that nearest object be a - Los Anjealous

David Liebe Hart
Actor, Musician, Puppeteer
Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Program (1994-2008), Good Times (1976), Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job (2007-2010)

For 14 years David Liebe Hart produced a public access show called the Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Program starring a small cast of puppets that sang songs about the teachings of the Church of Christian Scientists. Each episode began with a puppet who welcomed you to a place where “all are accepted and none are rejected.” Then it barks orders to start the music.

His show became a staple of Hollywood public access and a part of the neighborhood’s history. In 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that eliminated the requiring cable television companies to give back to the public by providing them a studio to exercise their First Amendment rights and make non-commercial television. By 2009 all the stations in Los Angeles were gone and the television programs by the outcasts of Hollywood were cancelled.

Showbiz hasn’t been easy for David Liebe Hart, even after considerable recognition from his appearances on Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show Great Job. He still pays his rent by singing outside of the Hollywood Bowl and selling portrait sketches and CDs of his music at the La Brea Tarpits. Recently he started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to record a new album and it’s got a long way to go. When we met he told me he was hungry and asked if I would treat him to lunch. As he scarfed down a sandwich we talked about his career in Hollywood.

VICE: Did you move to Los Angeles to become an actor?
David Liebe Hart: Yes. I moved to Los Angeles in 1976 to pursue a career in acting and music. I thought I had a pretty good chance at being a comedian, and always had the dream to be on TV. When I was younger, I had the chance to come to Hollywood to be in Porgy and Bess. I wanted to play Opie’s brother on The Andy Griffith Show. My mom did not want her child getting into acting at such a young age so it didn’t happen until I was older. I moved to LA when I was about 22.

What was the first thing you did when you came to Los Angeles to try and break into the industry?
I was raised Christian Scientist so I went to the local church in Hollywood and met a lot of the famous Christian Scientists who helped me get auditions on different TV shows. I was on Good Times, What’s Happening, Star Search, and The Gong Show. I also took acting classes, music theory, voice, and piano at LA City College.

How did you become interested in puppeteering?
I grew up in the south side of Chicago area during the 1950s. Back in the 50s they had puppet shows galore. They had Howdy Doody, which was a marionette with Clarabelle Clown, Garfield Goose, and Buffalo Bob. These were local shows that aired in black-and-white and the shows were funny.

Is this what lead you to create the Christian Science Bible Lesson Show?
Before Jim Henson became famous he had a local show that had a lot of strange puppets. He was also a Christian Scientist and he was my Sunday school teacher. After he died he visited me and said, “I want you to teach kids about Christian Science and I want you to do it on Public Access.” Right now I really just want to get back on television and I want to be on a series working Monday through Friday. I’m tired of being a street performer. It’s very hard to pay the rent this way.

Do you feel safe talking to me about your abduction experience?
When I was a child I was abducted by Korendian aliens. They took samples of my skin and my blood. They hadn’t tested a black species yet. Many, many years later right at this very bench is where I met a beautiful woman who looked like Bettie Page. She told me she was an extraterrestrial. At first I didn’t believe her. She took off her sunglasses and I saw that she didn’t have pupils like we do. Then she pulled off her shoe and her big toe was in the middle instead of on the side like us humans.

I have - VICE

Through his work on Los Angeles-based public access television program Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show, actor/musician David Liebe Hart began working with cohort Adam Papagan as well as catching the eye of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, creators of the Adult Swim program Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! on which Liebe Hart has made frequent appearances. With his assortment of eclectic puppets and performances of quirky songs about aliens and life lessons Liebe Hart quickly became one of the program's most popular of personalities.

As it turns out, everything he does on camera is really just David being David, the bits about communicating with aliens included. With the show currently on hiatus, Liebe Hart has been taking his act on the road, touring the country with a full punk rock backing band. So before he performs at Bryan Street Tavern tonight, we thought we'd give the performer a call.

Check out the full Q&A after the jump in which Liebe Hart talks about his alien genetics, an infiltrator in the Christian Science Church and why he should have been casted as Opie's friend on The Andy Griffith Show.

Hi David, this is Cory Graves with the Dallas Observer ...
Wow, the Dallas Observer. I read that paper every now and then when I go and visit my sister. Yeah, my mother passed on in Lancaster this year, which was really painful.

I'm very sorry to hear that. I didn't know you had ties to the area. What did you [trails off] ...
Yeah, sure you can interview me. I just finished the Tim and Eric Billion Dollar Movie, but they cut back everything I did and only kept the part at the end of the movie when I'm talking to the guy that looks like Steven Spielberg's lookalike.

When is that movie supposed to come out?
Well, that's going to come out in March 2012.

So how has the tour been going?
Well, I've been touring. I just got over a terrible flu; I'm feeling better now. I just want to talk about Fall River, Massachusetts. It was sad. I called a lot of people from my church, and a lot of fans that said they were going to show up, and they didn't show up in Fall River, Massachusetts. That was a disappointment.

That's a bummer. Hopefully you'll get a better turnout in Dallas.
I'm hoping so. I'm hoping that my sister will show up. My sister has been living there for quite some time, and I like Dallas a lot. I was there in February to go to my mother's funeral which was very painful.

Has your sister seen you perform before?
No, she's not into [trails off]. She's a very talent artist and painter, but she has a regular job working at [a financial services company]. She's strictly business. She's just into working her regular job, but I'm the only one that pursued a music and acting career. I've been writing music and creating songs since the '70s when I was a young kid. A lot of the songs I've written the words and music to and some songs I've co-written with Adam [Papagan], but I've written songs way before I knew him with words and music, like, "All My Friends Like Asian Girls".

How did you first get into songwriting?
I started music in the '70s. I was inspired by different rock and roll musicians. I listened to WLS radio station. They played a mix of country and western, rhythm and blues and gospel and jazz music. I started writing my own songs after being inspired by the songs I heard on the radio. I first started writing religious music, and then I branched out into writing love songs.

Who are some of these artists that inspired you?
My songs are with CCLI, Christian Copyright Licensing International. Like 480 of my songs are with CCLI; they're my gospel songs and my contemporary Christian songs. Some have rock and roll melodies or jazz or classical or country and western melodies, and a lot of them are words and music by me. A lot of large churches in Dallas use my music, from Calvary Chapel to the Lutheran, Foursquare, Methodist, Presbyterian. All the churches that have a praise band for their music.

Has anything wild happened to you on tour?
Are there any crazy stories? I was just shocked that all these people I called that promised they were going to show up and didn't. I don't know what my phone bill is going to be like, but I called the people from the Christian church and other people that I thought were really top-notch fans -- I called them on my cell phone to remind them and they all said they were going to show up -- and none of them showed up like they said they were going to do. It was really a disappointment. This guy named [name redacted] said he was one of my biggest fans and said he was going to be in Fall River, Massachusetts, and I was kind of disappointed that he didn't show up.

Was that the only show like that?
Have people been showing up to the other shows? People have showed up to the other shows, but what was really a disappointment is people acting like they were really hardcore fans and church members that I knew that just didn't show up at all. Another weird situation was when I was in Queens, New York. I was supposed to be picked up and taken to the Christian Science Church and the woman never showed up. Then she told me that she was a Catholic that had infiltrated the Christian Science Church and she says, "Why do you want to go to church with a bunch of losers? There's nothing but a bunch of senior citizens there." I thought that that was pretty crappy. I was waiting outside for two hours for her to pick me up and she kept on saying she was coming, and she never showed up, and she told me she was pulling my leg. And she said she was buying clothes in the Queens Christian Science Church so she was a Judas amongst Jesus and she was a phony. She's going to have to pay for her negative karma because that was pretty ice cold.

Why do you think negative things like these incidents keep happening to you?
It's not just happening to me, it is happening to a lot of people. That's like saying a terrible storm like [Hurricane] Irene, it was the people's fault when it came through, but it came through. Sometimes bad things just happen to good people. David Letterman told me if I was ever in New York that he would let me be on his show. That didn't happen.

You say that a lot of your songs are love songs, do you meet a lot of women on tour?
I met the prettiest woman in Philadelphia that reminded me of my cousin Phyllis that died. I met a beautiful brunette woman that looked just like Mary Tyler Moore that was extremely attractive, and she told me that she was a songwriter and that she did rock and roll music, and she was in a band. I'm hoping that she calls me back, she was very attractive. She played some of her songs on her cell phone for me and it sounded really good. I'm hoping that she'll follow through and contact me because she was the prettiest and nicest girl fan that I met in Philadelphia.

How did you first get into using puppets, and when did you get your first puppet?
Well, Jim Henson was my Sunday school teacher in the Christian Science Church and so was Buffalo Bob from Howdy Doody Time and Burr Tillstrom that did Kukla, Fran and Ollie. I have a lot famous puppeteer Sunday school teachers that were in the Christian Science Church. The first one I had was Burr Tillstrom and I second had Jim Henson and they taught me how to build hand puppets and about the Bible and the beatitudes with Kermit the Frog and Kukla, Fran, and Ollie and it was a fun way of teaching me. When I was going to college I went to a place where they taught puppeteering and taught people how to build puppets, and I built some of my own puppets. I have 44 puppets. I toured with Tim and Eric for the first five years. I got replaced on the last tour they did with Neil Hamburger. When I toured with Tim and Eric they were sold out everywhere. I did a comedy skit with them then Tim and Eric got me to bring four of my puppets to sing songs. Now the sad situation is even though I wrote the words and the music to the songs I performed on the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Warner Brothers owns them. They will not let me use those songs. They told me I am not allowed to use the songs that I wrote for Tim and Eric because they own them. I did create other songs that I have written about aliens and about a lot of different situations.

Why do you have so many songs about aliens?
Aliens are real. For some strange reason society doesn't want people to accept it. It's where all of our factory engineering technology comes from. On my Caucasian side I'm related to Orville and Wilbur Wright who made the airplane, and my grandmother told me on her deathbed before she passed on in '68 that Orville and Wilbur Wright had worked with an alien race. Right after she passed on I met Jesedel Ordius at the La Brea Tar Pits where I sold my artwork and she shared a lot with me about her alien races that were vegetarian and lived to be 3,000 years old because they don't eat meat or salt. They're vegetarians, so they live to be very old. I found out a lot of races of people from Earth are descendants of extraterrestrials and don't even know it. Like the Irish come from the Omegan race, which come from the Star Kaladan, the Swedish and Norwegian people are descendants of the Paladians, and the Armenians and East Indians and Iranians and Germans are descendants of the Corinians, which is interesting -- they were the ancient astronauts. The Bible talks about angels that blended in with mankind and took wives in the book of Genesis. It's an interesting thing.

Are there places on the Internet where readers can find out more about these kinds of things?
Oh you can, you can. Jesedel Ordius and Bob Renaud who was in contact with the Korendians , their phone number has been disconnected and their email hardly works anymore. The Paladians are good friends of mine and the Korendians. I don't like the negative stuff they put online about the Omegans though. All of the stuff about the Korendians, Bob Renaud who has been working with the Korendians in an underground base in Massachusetts put up a lot of stuff, and so did the Korendians themselves. So their language, their alphabet, and everything about them is on the Internet. All you have to do is type in "Korendian" or "Paladian" and everything about them comes up. I've seen UFOs as well when I was going camping in Wisconsin and fishing with my dad. I saw unexplained objects the military calls "fast walkers" because they move at a fast speed. Our military hasn't been able to catch them because they aren't able to move at that speed.

How often do you get recognized by fans?
It happens all the time. People ask for my picture. I was in a grocery store earlier when we stopped to get gas and a man asked for my autograph and asked for a picture and he bought a couple of CDs from me. All the time. There was a waitress at a restaurant. By a lot of people.

Have you ever run into an obsessed fan that's said or done something weird to you?
One fan lied and said he worked for NASA, and he didn't. He said he liked to talk about the UFO phenomenon and the songs I wrote about that. He called me in the middle of the night making weird sounds and everything and I found out he didn't work for NASA. He was just a young kid trying to be a smartass.

What instruments can you play?
I play keyboards and accordion, but I haven't played in a while. My keyboard is in storage. The landlady said I had too much stuff in my apartment so I had to put a lot of stuff in storage. I been doing work with Adam and a lot of work with Tim and Eric and then playing at these different places and doing a movie and television work and all kinds of odd jobs have blocked me from [trails off]. I haven't driven a car since my divorce in 1994. When I go on tours I haven't been able to stop and enjoy myself, it's been just stopping and going and touring. We went to New York, and I wanted to ride on the trains back and forth but we weren't able to do it this time. Next time I travel I'm going to travel by myself so I can really enjoy these cities because I haven't been able to enjoy these cities at all. Another tragedy happened; Chase Bank sold me a box of old checks so my rent check bounced even though I paid it ahead of time. And of course people didn't want to drive me to the bank. They didn't understand I have to get to the bank to get that straightened out. And now I found out four or five other checks bounced and I need to get to the bank and the post office to take care of that, and sometimes the people that I travel with don't understand that I have to go to these other places. When I was touring the West Coast I wanted Adam and the other guys to drive me back because I left my jacket and my wallet behind and they didn't want to drive me back and I had to cancel all my stuff and get it all over again.

How far away from your wallet were you before you realized?
It was like less than 10 miles. I thought they could have taken me back. I had to get all my identification over again. They were a bunch of young kids that were disrespectful. I didn't like that at all.

Other than that though, things have been going all right?
Other than that, I'm grateful to work with them and they are very talented musicians.

How would you describe your new tour and new songs to somebody who hasn't seen you live before?
I want to do a mixture of all the different kinds of music, but Adam is only into the punk rock. I like punk rock, I like all kinds of music, but I also want to do religious songs. Out of the people I'm in the band with, I'm the only religious person. Everybody else is either atheist or not into religion. I want to do the religious songs as well so there's always a struggle about that. Spiritual songs are very inspiring. Way before I started playing with Adam, way before he was even born, I did standup comedy with Robin Williams at The Comedy store. There was a big gap -- we were separated from each other for 30 years -- and he forgot about our contact that we had together. Then I had an ex-girlfriend named Sonia that I did music with at different churches. Then there was George [name redacted] who I did music with. The sad situation with George and with Ruth is they were brainwashed by [trails off]. Sonia I had a good relationship with. We had a good girlfriend and boyfriend and music relationship together but Mark [name redacted] told her she'd burn in hell if she had a black boyfriend and she just gave me the silent treatment after that. We were very close before that. I had another close friend named George [name redacted] that was a very talented violinist and you could see the good work he did on the Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show that is on the Internet now. My show used to air in Dallas but they made a strict rule that if you didn't live in Dallas [trails off]. Nobody makes money off of public access. Dallas TV was charging me $500 to air my shows every year, but I don't think they should be making money off the public access people. Public access people don't even make any money producing their shows.

With television and movies there's that gap between the time you make it and then for audiences to see it, but with live performances you get that instant feedback. Which is more gratifying for you?
What is more gratifying is seeing work that I've done. I've been doing television work ever since I got out of the Navy in '76. I also want to explain to you my parents paid for me to go to Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and I took piano lessons and voice lessons. Then I went to college and took music. What I wanted to say was that Danny Thomas discovered me way back in the '60s when he had his own show Make Room For Daddy. He had a spinoff called The Andy Griffith Show, and I was supposed to be Opie's best friend on that. They paid for my mother and my dad to take me to California for a cold reading and I got to meet Ron Howard when he was a young, young, young boy, and Aunt Bea and the cast of The Andy Griffith Show. That was filmed at the Desilu Studios which is now the Paramount Studios. But my parents did not want me to get into the business at such a young age, and so my acting career was put on hold until I got out of the Navy in '76 and came out to California to live on my own. When I met Danny he was at a bookstore in Beverly Hills signing his biography and I apologized that my parents didn't want me to get the show because he invested a lot of money. Marjorie Lord, who played his wife on Make Room For Daddy, was a Christian Scientist, and she wanted me to be on that show. A lot of actresses in the Christian Science Church believed in me and gave me free acting lessons, like Vivian Vance (I did gardening and yard work at her house up in the Hollywood Hills). She was a member of the church and so was Ginger Rogers and many of them gave me free acting lessons. Also Meredith MacRae, who played on Petticoat Junction and My Three Sons, believed in me and gave me free acting lessons. She would worked with me in the Christian Science Reading Room and helped me out with my career. They taught me to know that God was my agent and I was able to get a lot of work. That was very inspiring to me. - Dallas Observer

David's world
David Liebe Hart may believe in aliens, but he still has to pay the bills
By Peter Holslin
16Share
music2Ask David Liebe Hart about the Corinians and you'll get an earful.
David Liebe Hart, the snaggle-toothed puppeteer who regularly appeared on the Adult Swim sketch comedy series Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, fancies himself a Jack of all trades. He hosts The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Program, a Los Angeles-based public-access television show. He puts on puppet shows and draws portraits outside the Hollywood Bowl. He sells sheet music for Christian hymns online.

But times have been tough. The 55-year-old L.A. resident hasn’t worked for Tim and Eric for a year (he got laid off, he says), so he can’t afford to let any opportunity pass him by. These days, he’s been putting up Christmas decorations on store windows to scrape up enough money to cover his December rent.

“The rotten Republicans are cutting off everybody’s unemployment starting January the 1st, so I’m walking on a tight rope,” he says. “It is scary.”

Hart, an avowed Christian Scientist and a believer in UFOs, has been a fixture in the margins of Hollywood for decades. With his goofy croon and his puppet collection (including several giant animals, an alien and a little guy named “Chip the Black Boy”), he commands a formidable cult following. At Tin Can Ale House, where Hart performed on Nov. 23 with a rock band headed by Adam Papagan, his young sidekick, a gaggle of 20somethings eagerly shook Hart’s hand, bought up his handmade CDs and autographed photos and sat down for quick $5 portraits.

What’s the allure? The weirdly hilarious puppetry and silly songs, of course, but also the man himself. He’s a harmless eccentric who lives in his own world—and he’ll happily welcome you in. Just ask him about the Corinians, an alien species that lives on a planet 411 light years from Earth.
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“They look like Italians,” he tells me at Tin Can. “Real white skin and black hair. They blend in so well.

“Their women are beautiful,” he adds, noting that he once met a Corinian woman at the La Brea Tar Pits. “This woman looked like Bettie Page.”

Aliens allegedly abducted him when he was a child. They took hair, blood and skin samples. In the years since, he’s become an expert on the alien universe. He pulls a glossary of Corinian words from his backpack. He shows me the Corinian alphabet, printed on one of his autographed photos. He tells me that the Corinians have been engaged in star warfare for 200 years with the Omegans, another alien species who are ancestors of Irish and Scottish peoples.

“They got people brainwashed that the UFO phenomenon isn’t real,” he says, without explaining who “they” are. “It’s real. It’s where most of our technology comes from. And most humans are descended from them.”

As a performer, it isn’t clear whether Hart’s trying to entertain or simply being himself.

On the Tin Can stage, he told anecdotes about Asian girls, bedbugs, trains and his divorce, punctuating each with the line: “And I wrote a song about it.” Then, as the band rocked out, he’d repeat the story he’d just told, almost word for word, but in song. After requests from the packed crowd, he concluded the set with a rousing a cappella take on “Salame,” his trademark song, in which he belts out the Corinian greeting: “Go into the light, until we meet again.”

For all his crowd-pleasing moments, Hart can come across as a bitter man in conversation, as he hurls accusations at religious leaders and former employers who’ve crossed him. His rage shows through in Monsters, a record he and Papagan released this year. Over the grinding punk riff and fevered drums of “Politricks,” the opening track, Hart takes on one of his biggest adversaries yet: Republicans.

“The Republicans lie!” he shrieks. “They don’t care about the poor and needy!”

It’s a telling track: He may live in his own reality, but he knows he’s got bills to pay.


David Liebe Hart performs with Flesh the Racist Crayon, The Yiffs and DJ Thomas K Bohan at Soda Bar on Tuesday, Dec. 14. www.myspace.com/liebehart








- San Diego City Beat

The gentleman hiding behind the tote bag is David Liebe Hart. He is an actor/comedian/musician/public access host. He has appeared on such television programs as "Good Times," "What's Happening," and "Tim And Eric Awesome Show Great Job." He recently performed in Portland, Oregon at Valentine's, and I was lucky enough to attend.


It was a bit of an odd night.

Bearing in mind that this was some of that "outsider art" that people go on about, I showed up an hour late, hoping to bypass at least one of the opening acts. Unless they are legitimately nuts themselves, the class of people who get roped into opening for this sort of thing are either half-assed "experimental" "artists" or annoyingly unfunny "comedy" acts. My luck running true to form, there was one of each on the menu, and no, I hadn't managed to miss them.


The first act was called "Sustentacula" (I know, right?) and it was one of those two-dudes-and-a-ton-of-gear-making-white-noise propositions, which is usually fine with me as long as the set stays under twenty minutes. Unfortunately, one of those dudes (I think his name is Dude With Beard) started singing.


He had one of those affected, pseudo-folky, Neutral Milk Hotel/Decemberists kind of voices, and the fact that he was singing over a bunch of atonal electric gurgles meant that he didn't really have to stick to any sort of melody, instead opting to intone lyrics like "Fish tale mammary inside the pelvic womb, impale the menstrual heart June cocoon." Not exactly, but you get the idea. He'd also get up occasionally from his bank of whoosh-makers and do some preposterous performance-arty antics... hopping on one foot while windmilling his arms, or leaning backwards while flapping his lyric sheets like flippers and then scowling. That sort of crap.


It was while he was doing this second bit that something amusing actually happened. When Dude With Beard finished flapping his lyric fins, he tossed them "contemptuously" toward the audience, then sat back down at the Gurgle Controls. At this, David Liebe Hart LEAPED to his feet and scrambled over to pick up the lyric sheets. He carefully dusted them off, stacked them neatly, and placed them on top of DWB's stack of gear. It was great. DWB is trying to be all "I'm a Supes Intense Artist" and Liebe Hart is just like, "Oh, dear, you dropped these. Let me help you out, buddy." Classic.


Eventually, the gear stopped burbling and the dudes went off to shave or something. Then a group of ladies (allegedly) got up, all dressed in fancy-ish dresses with loads of makeup on (one lady also had her hair tied under her chin like a beard, which I guess created a bit of artistic unity with the first act) and began doing some of that "performance art" you kids seem so keen on these days.


They were called "Galactic Daughters of Passion", and I include their name here so you will be able to AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS. Their act basically consisted of a bunch of tantric breathing exercises done at irritating volume into a microphone... and then they started rubbing their crotches on each other's legs... and talking about how they're "gonna come". And then one of 'em tore her dress and put on a warped old blues tape and stood on a table... and then I don't know what happened because I got out my Mike Tyson book and focused on my Manhattan. People were laughing, so I guess it was supposed to be funny... question mark.


Look, I can find transcendent qualities in art that is stupid, in art that is vulgar, in art that is amateurish, in art that is awkward, and in art that is annoying. But when your art is stupid AND vulgar AND amateurish AND awkward AND annoying? You can pretty much fuck off and quit wasting my time.

Thankfully, David Liebe Hart finally got up and did his thing. He did not bring any puppets with him, which was probably for the best, as it allowed us to focus on the man and his music. He was accompanied by his partner Adam Papagan (visible at extreme right in the video) on guitar and THAT'S IT. No frills. No antics. Just a man with delightful, life-affirming songs sung with a strong voice and a rockin' guitar. And the occasional interlude about being seduced by alien women who look like Betty Page.


And sometimes, that's all you need. Easily the best live performer since Jonathan Richman, and all the idiots who walked out (passing DIRECTLY in front of David Liebe Hart, btw) are the worst sort of scum.


Which is to say, they were fans of the opening acts.

Anyway, here's yr ipod filler for the day. Only one jam, 'cos David Liebe Hart really needs yr money. This is off the "Public Access" album from 2008. - All Music is Shit To God

David Liebe Hart, the middle aged crooner from Tim & Eric, blew some minds at Bruar Falls on Monday night. David, who’s best known for singing songs with puppets on Tim and Eric, is touring the country with a bunch of young kids playing as his backing band. It’s a little like the Wesley Willis Experience but it’s clearly it’s own animal and this animal is genuinely great.

I had shown up at Bruar Falls in order to get some advice on interviewing the Dead Milkmen and was initially pissed off to find that I had to pay ten dollars to get in. Then I saw David Liebe Hart‘s name at the top of the bill for the evening and forked over a tenner, not knowing what it was exactly that I was paying to see.

The first band up was fronted by the club’s owner, Andy Bodor, and his childlike girlfriend. The next band was Paperfleet, a band fronted by my good friend, Angry Jim. While he played I drew pictures of his girlfriend with increasingly large boobs, or as I like to refer to them when I am trying to be gross, sweater potatoes.

While I was doing this David came up to me to let me know personally that he had CDs and T-shirts for sale. He also told me he could draw any cartoon character for me. I looked at my buttons to see what I had on me that he could use as reference and seeing a button that Greg had given me, I asked for a drawing of R2-D2. He said he didn’t know what that was so I pointed at the button. He did a loose drawing based on the button but it was backwards which was odd.

David went on stage with his band and asked the guitarist what their first song was. He responded with,”What song have we begun every show on this tour with, David?” in a tone that was somewhere between a patient parent and the annoyed son of a parent with dementia.

David then began his show by singing this song that went “I’m an artist and creator, I sing from the heart! I sing about art!” and I think everyone collectively thought,”Holy shit, this is legitimately great!” Here’s a video of that song. I thought I filmed his show but I think my camera fucked up.

He sang a song about how “All my friends love an Asian girl! She is loyal to her man!” He sings with a dead-ahead stare and open mouthed croon while occasionally motioning with his hands.

One thing that’s funny about this video is that there’s an Asian girl in frame laughing her head off. This happened when he performed it in New York as well. At one point he took off his green windbreaker and held it while performing until the drummer asked him if he wanted him to hold onto it until they finished the set.

Here’s a video I did shoot. After he and his band did their set he took requests to sing songs from the Tim and Eric show which he wrote. Here’s a video of him performing “I’m the Best Dad.”

After the show David kept harassing me to buy a $10 CD-R but I kept telling him I didn’t want one so he offered to do more drawings for five dollars. I asked him to draw me with Garfield but he drew me and Garfield separately and kept all of the ten dollars I gave him.

I didn’t mind. He seems like he needs the money and the show was honestly great.

I did some shots with the bassist of David’s band and we talked about the guy. I mentioned that he didn’t recognize R2-D2 and he mentioned that when they went to the Smithsonian with him that he thought C-3PO was the Tin Man. He also mentioned that he’s a really horny guy who talks about how they should go scoop up some babes all the time. This seems likely. My sister said he flirted with her at Awesome Con.

David Liebe Hart is on tour now! Don’t fucking miss it if possible. It’ll be easy to miss since there doesn’t seem to be tour info anywhere on the internet. - Mishka NYC

I don’t think I have been to a better house show. In fact, the night was so good that it could lose the caveat of great “house show” and go toe to toe with some of the best concerts/shows I have been to. David Liebe Hart really snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on a night that started off with an awkward case of mistaken identity perpetrated by an even more awkward, and possibly stoned/drunk, person and punk kids with no sense of irony/humor and too many studs/patches on their jackets. I don’t think I have ever been so grateful as I was to see the usual Davis crowd show up. Everything came up roses by the end though and I even walked away with a portrait of myself and a friend drawn by David Liebe Hart with real Corrinian writing. Score.

David Liebe Hart is from Los Angles and is best known for his work on Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job though he has been a fixture of L.A. cable access for some time. The music he and his band preformed consisted of David crooning about railroads, Corrinians, asian girls, and not allowing coffee in his car anymore, all set to a punk-rock beat and riffs. Without getting to flowery about the set, they nailed it. Everything was spot on and executed with a sincerity that allowed the music to transcend any goofy first impressions. I will admit some initial voyeuristic guilt from being entertained by a man who is, to put it bluntly, a little off, however, by the end of the night I felt I was rocking-out along with him and not at him. Honestly, if he comes to your neck of the woods go see him, you will not be disappointed. Salame.

Art Lessing are from Sacramento and, if I’m not mistaken, share some members with another band from the area, Buk Buk Bigups. The band is a noise act but are much less drone-y that others I have heard. There was a lot of pedals and a few homemade instruments looking like planks of wood with guitar strings nailed on to them. They weren’t exactly my kind of music but I can’t say they were that offensive. It was also fun to put my hand inside of the amp one of the band members was playing though and feel the air rushing in and out though.

I honestly can’t tell you how many songs Oakland band Lecherous Gaze played as they all ran together for me. The group has a sound that could be described as “punk influencing metal influencing punk”, with the ethos of a punk band but the riffs and sound of a metal band. A friend of mine joked about them being “classic rock” in the sense that they sound they have is at least 30 years old. Can’t disagree with that one. - Scoliosis Racoon