New York, NY - June XX, 2020 - This Friday, June 5, Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman will release a digital EP of live Kiki & Herb recordings called Whitey On The Moon EP on Bandcamp.com, with all profits going to Black Visions Collective (BLVC), a Minnesota-based organization committed to a long term vision in which all Black lives not only matter, but are able to thrive. Bandcamp is waiving artist fees on the first Friday of June, so the full cost of this purchase will go directly to the artists, which will therefore go to BLVC. The cost is $5 or pay-what-you-wish above and beyond. 

Whitey On The Moon EP will be available here:
kikiandherbwilldieforyou.bandcamp.com 

Black Visions Collective is a Black-led, Queer and Trans centering organization whose mission is to organize powerful, connected Black communities and dismantle systems of violence. They do this through building strategic campaigns, investing in Black leadership, and engaging in cultural and narrative organizing.

Included in this release are three live recordings from the 2000s: “Whitey On The Moon Medley,” “King’s Crossing,” and “First Day Of My Life.” These live tracks are not perfect as they are almost 20 years old, but the fire and intention behind them are still maddeningly relevant. The revolution will be live.

“Kiki & Herb was born as a direct reaction to the AIDS Crisis and the government’s lack of response to it. We feel like in these times, unable to exist on stage, we wanted to give back to communities who are under assault by this administration,” said Bond and Mellman. 

1. Whitey On The Moon EP Track Listing:
   “Whitey On The Moon Medley”
   “Whitey on the Moon” By Gil Scott Heron 
   © Bienstock Publishing Company 
   “Lose Yourself” By Marshall Mathers, Luis Resto, and Jeffrey Bass 
   © Eight Mile Style Music and Resto World Music 
   “Once In A Lifetime” By David Byrne, Brian Eno, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Martina Weymouth 
   © Universal Music Mgb Songs o/b/o Eg Music Ltd. and WB Music Corp.

2. “King's Crossing” 
   By Elliott Smith 
   © Universal Music-Careers

3. “First Day Of My Life”
   By Conor Oberst 
   © Sony/ATV Songs LLC o/b/o Bedrooms Bedrooms and Spiders

BIOS
Kiki & Herb are the creation of Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman. Kiki is a washed up, boozed up chanteuse, with a voice that is a mixture of Tom Waits and Ethel Merman with a dash of Judy, whose middle age passed her by some time ago. Herb, her piano-battering, lifelong accompanist provides support both musically and emotionally. They dementedly perform gutsy renditions of songs popularised by artists such as Nirvana, Kate Bush, Radiohead, Eminem and Britney Spears. At any given moment the duo are likely to twist and warp a tune until Kiki is screaming the lyrics and Herb is pounding the piano keys with a vengeance. Interspersed with the songs are Kiki’s hilarious and often tragic monologues about her life, her career and anything else that happens to be on her mind. Show business has destroyed her, but she cannot, ladies and gentlemen, live without it. 

As Kiki & Herb, Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman dazzled audiences around the world for almost two decades with their ground-breaking wildly popular cabaret shows. They scooped up awards and rave reviews for many of their shows, eventually conquering some of the world’s most hallowed rooms like the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre, the Sydney Opera House and New York’s Carnegie Hall. The duo have also appeared at the Bonn Biennale (Germany), On The Boards (Seattle), the Great American Music Hall (San Francisco) and the Knitting Factory (L.A.). They have also performed and toured with The Scissor Sisters and Rufus Wainwright. 

Kiki & Herb have released two albums: Do You Hear What We Hear? featuring Deborah Harry, Isaac Mizrahi, Molly Ringwald and Rufus Wainwright and Kiki and Herb Will Die For You, a live recording of their Carnegie Hall show. They reunited in 2016 for 22 sold out shows at Joe’s Pub.

Mx Justin Vivian Bond has appeared on stage (Broadway and Off-Broadway, London’s West End), screen (Shortbus, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Sunset Stories) television (High Maintenance, Difficult People, The Get Down), nightclub stages (most notably a decades long residency at Joe’s Pub in NYC), and in concert halls worldwide (Carnegie Hall, The Sydney Opera House). Their visual art and installations have been seen in museums and galleries in the US (Participant, Inc, The New Museum) and abroad (Vitrine, London). Their memoir “Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels” (Feminist Press) won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction. 

They are the recipient of an Obie, a Bessie, and a Tony nomination, an Ethyl Eichelberger Award, The Peter Reed Foundation Grant, The Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant for Artists, and The Art Matters Grand. They have self-released several full length recordings: most notably Dendrophile and Silver Wells.

Mx Bond has been at the forefront of Trans visibility and activism since the early 1990s. They have a Masters Degree in Live Art from Central Saint Martins College in London and have taught performance composition and Live Art Installation at NYU and Bard College. Currently, Mx Bond divides their time between residences in New York City’s East Village and the Hudson Valley. In December of 2019, they made their debut at The Vienna Staatsoper in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s “Orlando” as Orlando’s child. 

Kenny Mellman began his life in queer performance doing blacklighted fluorescent body paint protest theater in the window of his friend’s Castro Street apartment. Coincidentally, Justin Vivian Bond’s friend had the apartment directly across the street, so they would watch from their rooftop. Later the two were introduced and began to create shows which led to the almost two decade rocket ship that was Kiki & Herb. In 2016, Mellman and Bond reunited as Kiki & Herb for 22 sold out shows at Joe’s Pub.  Along the way he also toured his one-person show Kenny Mellman is Grace Jones, co-created the long-running show Our Hit Parade at Joe’s Pub, and was animated for Bob’s Burgers, singing the song “Electric Love” with Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. He is in The Julie Ruin, with Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre) and Kathi Wilcox (Bikini Kill) and they have released two records including their latest Hit Reset.

Press contact: Yuri Kwon, yuri.kwon@gmail.com or 917-514-5515