LATEST NEWS!

Lise Uyanik and Mobile City Band play to a sellout crowd at the
Blue Dot Ball!

MCB was the featured band at the Blue Dot Ball in January -- an event described by the organizers as being "for all those who helped make the NC Triangle a BLUE DOT in a Red State in the 2004 Election!"

Earlier, in December, the band played at a rocking benefit for IPAS --an organization that has been "protecting women's health and advancing reproductive rights" around the world for three decades.

If you are interested in booking Lise and the band, please contact Jay Miller, 919.616.2190


CLICK ON CD <---HERE TO ORDER NOW!

LISE UYANIK AND THE MOBILE CITY BAND RELEASE 25th ANNIVERSARY CD

Lise Uyanik’s “Song For Us All” was released November 2003 to local press love! In a full page feature, The Independent deemed it “a wide open, 17-tune collection that blends R&B, rock and acoustic music as deftly as it alternates originals and covers,” and dubs the album “lively,” “spirited,” and notes, “Uyanik’s ability to hush things down and make room for introspection.”

The Durham Herald-Sun and the Chapel Hill Herald both gave the album’s release a full-page feature story with color photo entitled “Bonding of Band and Fans Grows over 25 Years,” and noted in particular two of the album’s most unique songs, “W,”an original anti-war song and the lovely cover of the standard “I’ll Be Seeing You.” The new album, "Song For Us All," was recorded in Durham in the summer of 2003 as part of a community-funded project with the assistance of Chapel Hill-based Minnow Media. Minnow Media has produced Emmy-winning documentaries, soundtracks and albums, and is now turning its considerable talents to making a documentary about the band itself, due out in 2004.

Lise Uyanik and the Mobile City Band were a fixture at parties and late night venues in Durham and Chapel Hill in the Triangle region in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Fans loved their raucous dancing tunes and Lise's remarkable voice. Their debut album, Shut Up and Dance in 1981, captured the energy of the times. In the 25 years since, Lise and her cohorts had intended to record another album. But life got in the way---children, marriages, careers, and divorces -- the usual ups and downs.

In the last few years, Lise and the band have reunited for a series of parties -- mostly 50th birthdays, second weddings, or 25th wedding anniversaries, they say. But a rocking concert at the Carrboro Arts Center in November 2002 brought back memories for hundreds of now gray-haired dancing fans. "Life is a chronic degenerative disease," Lise Uyanik explains. "I just happen to be on the fast track." Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis three years ago, Lise knows that her days of playing rock and roll may be limited.

Her desire to record a CD was instantly answered by the community. Jeanette Stokes, director of The Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South (RCWMS), agreed to spearhead the fundraising effort from her Durham headquarters. RCWMS is a twenty-five-year-old non-profit organization that produces programs, books, and conferences on women, ministry, social justice, and spirituality. The organization already had a grant program in place to support the creative efforts of women writers, artists, and musicians.

The Resource Center then approached a Carrboro firm, Minnow Media, about helping with the CD project. Although Minnow Media mainly produces documentaries for public television, the company also has a small, independent record label and agreed to produce the CD. Captivated by the band's story and music, the Minnow creative team has also been filming the band throughout the year.

Through concert footage and intimate interviews with band members, family, and friends, the hour-long documentary - to be released next year - will illustrate how a group of old friends has stayed connected for over two decades through their love of music and the Durham community that loves them. In 1978, Lise Uyanik, a gifted singer of Turkish descent and the daughter of an NC State University structural engineer, brought together the Mobile City Band -- a group mostly comprised of recent Duke University graduates who had just elected to make Durham their permanent home. They have since made significant contributions to the area over the years.

Today the Mobile City Band is:

§ Lead guitarist Charlie Ebel, a founding employee of Africa News Service, now a writer and development officer for American Social Health Association in Research Triangle Park.

§ Back-up singer Mary Rocap, a founder of Durham's first natural foods restaurant, Somethyme, and the recent recipient of an NC Arts Council Songwriting Fellowship.

§ Drummer Rodger Tygard, who came to Duke as a student in 1970 and became co-founder of the Salaam Cultural Center.

§ Bass player Lew Wardell, assistant director of public safety for Duke University for a number of years, now a planner with the Durham Police Department.

§ Back-up singer Donna Giles, staff member at Duke for 29 years, including stints in the Music Department and most recently as an associate dean of the Graduate School.

§ Keyboard and sax player Jay Miller, founder of the Music Loft in Durham, now a chain of instrument stores across the Triangle and Triad.

§ Percussionist Sue Sneddon, a painter and illustrator who worked for the NC Museum of Life and Science and now regularly shows her work in galleries across North and South Carolina.

§ Back-up singer Ann Alexander, co-founder with her husband, Lex, of Wellspring Grocery.

Lise Uyanik herself was also a key player in the revitalization of Durham's Ninth Street district, having launched a crafts and clothing store which she sold in 2000 when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
CDs are available on 9th Street in Durham at Cozy, the Regulator Bookshop, and by clicking on the CD jacket right here....

FOR more information on the CD, contact Georgann Eubanks, Minnow Media, 919.454.7429 or write: GE@minnowmedia.net.