The Mad Tea Party (originally Ami Worthen's Mad Tea Party) is an eclectic uke-abilly band based in Asheville, NC. The high energy group was formed by Ami Worthen (vocals, ukulele, and other occasional instruments) and Jason Krekel (guitar, ukulele, slide whistle, kazoo and other assorted items), who performed and recorded as a duo for several years. The duo quickly caught the attention of the indie scene in their hometown. National Public Radio stations across the country began picking up their 2004 album 73% Post-Consumer Novelty. Lora Pendelton joined the band on bass later that year. The trio released Flying Saucers in 2005, also to great response on NPR stations.
Mad Tea Party regularly tours on the southeastern circuit and occasionally opens for Southern Culture on the Skids.
Mad Tea Party's album Big Top Soda Pop came out in October 2006. It was enthusiastically received at college and NPR stations nationwide, and charted on the CMJ’s Top 200. Pendleton left the band at the time of the album's release, and Joe Edel stepped in for a year. The band returned to a duo format in 2008 and soon after signed with Nine Mile Records. Their song "Baby, It's Time to Vote" (from their 2004 album 73% Post-Consumer Novelty) is particularly popular during election years, as well as with high school SGA elections.
Famous quotes containing the words mad, tea and/or party:
““With your air indifferent and imperious
At a stroke our mad poetics to confute—”
And—”Are we then so serious?””
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“When the tea is brought at five o’clock,
And all the neat curtains are drawn with care,
The little black cat with bright green eyes
Is suddenly purring there.”
—Harold Monro (1879–1932)
“... the idea of a classless society is ... a disastrous mirage which cannot be maintained without tyranny of the few over the many. It is even more pernicious culturally than politically, not because the monolithic state forces the party line upon its intellectuals and artists, but because it has no social patterns to reflect.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)