Rasputina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Rasputina | |
|---|---|
 Sarah Bowman, Melora Creager, and Jonathon Tebeest.
Photo by Ryan Obermeyer, courtesy of Virtual Label LLC. |
|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Genre(s) | Alternative rock Cello rock Dark cabaret |
| Years active | 1992 – present |
| Label(s) | Filthy Bonnet |
| Website | http://www.rasputina.com/ |
| Members | |
| Melora Creager Jonathon TeBeest Sarah Bowman |
|
| Former members | |
| Zoë Keating Julia Kent Kris Cowperthwaite Agnieszka Rybska Nana Bornant Carpella Parvo Serena Jost Lisa Haney Perry James Tom Martin Mark Hutchins |
|
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Cello Appalachian Dulcimer |
|
Rasputina is a band consisting mostly of cellists. The band officially began in Brooklyn, New York in 1992, when Melora Creager put out an advertisement requesting members to form an all-cello band. Cellist Julia Kent responded and the two formed what was dubbed the Traveling Ladies' Cello Society.
Creager writes all of the lyrics for Rasputina, save the cover songs, performs most of the vocals, and creates some of the art for the band's albums, singles, and website.
Contents |
[edit] History
Melora Creager, an accomplished solo celloist known for touring with Nirvana (playing on live renditions of songs like "All Apologies" and "Dumb"), formed her own cello-focusing band from members who attended the same nanny school in Manhattan (which wasn't known until post-formation). Creager, a Howard Hughes afficianodo, named the band after a song she wrote, "Rasputina", which came of a fondness for Rasputin of Russian fame.
Forming in 1991 (the official website claims "1891"), the popular local band, without a label, was largely untouched until an A&R department representative named Jimmy Boyle saw them at a festival concert and signed them to Columbia Records. In 1996, Thanks for the Ether was released, and afterwards Rasputina toured with such bands as Bob Mould, Porno for Pyros and, notably, Marilyn Manson. In 1997 Transylvanian Regurgitations, a follow up EP remixed by Manson, was released.
On their second full-length album, How We Quit the Forest, Rasputina signed on Chris Vrenna (from Nine Inch Nails) as their drummer and producer, influencing them to go ahead with the distortion they had been experimenting with. He provided electronic drums, and other electronically produced sound effects in the rhythm department.
As Rasputina toured and recorded, Creager and Kent took on other members for short periods of time. A cellist named Lisa Haney played third chair for a couple of years before they signed to Columbia Records. Carpella Parvo was credited as the third cellist on Thanks for the Ether, but Melora has since admitted that Carpella never existed, and her name was a play-on-words joke representing the carpal tunnel syndrome that Kent and Creager developed after playing all the second chair parts. Agnieszka Rybska performed on How We Quit the Forest and is listed in the "special thanks" section for Thanks for the Ether. In 1998, Rybska became pregnant and temporarily left the band. Drummer Perry James toured with the band in 1998-1999. Julia Kent left during the four year hiatus between their 1998 album How We Quit the Forest and their 2002 debut Cabin Fever on Moby's record label Instinct Records. In 2004 they released a rather quick follow up album, Frustration Plantation. One of the driving forces behind that album, Zoë Keating, left the band in 2006,[1] Creager's current assemblage consists of her and Jonathon TeBeest. Ex-Graces cellist Stephanie McVey occupied second chair from September of 2006 to January of 2007. Sarah Bowman rejoined Rasputina on their spring 2007 tour of the U.S.
All of the members seem to share an interest in the Victorian era, and express it most obviously through their clothing, appearing in costume at concerts and in photographs. However, despite their love for antiquities, and their sometimes dark, ethereal sound, they don't easily fit into any well defined genre.
[edit] Band members
[edit] Current members
- Melora Creager is a former jewelry designer. She has been playing the cello since she was 9 and maintains that her teacher, an old man from Boston, would call her a pickled herring if she made a mistake. Creager grew up in Kansas but moved to New York in 1984, where she attended Parsons, an art college. Melora has performed with many bands, including Ultra Vivid Scene, Nirvana, Screaming Trees, Pixies, Marilyn Manson, Belle & Sebastian and Babe The Blue Ox.
- Jonathon Tebeest was raised in the Midwest, and recently moved back to Minnesota after a stint in New York City. He has always lived a life of music - he has been playing the drums since the age of 3. With this talent and a fervent love of music, Jonathon has been touring and recording with bands since the age of 19. Along the way, he has also had training on the piano and all things percussion, has picked up the guitar, bass, and pretty much anything else he could get his hands on. Jonathon started his professional career with the intense horn-driven party band, 3 Minute Hero in his homeland of Minnesota. That band started his love of performing live as the boys were playing about 250 shows per year during its existence. Eventually it was off to New York, where Jonathon hooked up with Ms. Melora Creager and her group Rasputina. He has since appeared on five of the group's albums, including the recently released Oh, Perilous World!. He has also had the opportunity to tour the nation with Rasputina. In the past, he has worked with many other bands including New Professionals, Mink, Gravity, THIS, Strangelove, Goodfinger and Dirty Excuse. Jonathon is a songwriter and has just started a band of his own.
- Sarah Bowman
[edit] Former and tour members
- Zoë Keating began playing the cello at age 9. She grew up in Canada and attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York. In addition to having worked with Rasputina, Zoe is also a soloist and composer. She has two recordings, a CD called One Cello x 16: Natoma, and an EP titled One Cello × 16. She wrote music for the documentary Frozen Angels, which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.[2] Zoe is also an information architect and has worked on projects for the Research Libraries Group and the Database of Recorded American Music.
- Julia Kent is a Canadian musician who is best known as a founding member of all-cello group Rasputina. She began playing the cello when she was six. She left Rasputina in 1999 and has played cello with a variety of bands since then, including the goth/surf rock band, Bela. She also has played with Black Tape for a Blue Girl, and Joe Gallant's Illuminati. With Illuminati, she appeared on the albums Terrapin, Live Vol. 2, and Shadowhead. She is now the first chair cellist with the musical group Antony and the Johnsons and has played on albums by Delerium, Rachael Sage, and Sheryl Crow. She has now a CD of her own, of looped cello tunes titled "Delay".
- Kris Cowperthwaite was with the band from 1999 to 2002.
- Serena Jost was with the band prior to their signing with Columbia Records.
- Carpella Parvo was with the band from 1995 through 1996. She was thought to be missing, but it was revealed that she was a fictitious cellist created by Melora Creager and Julia Kent.[3]
- Lisa Haney was with the band prior to their signing with Columbia Records.
- Perry James toured with the band during 1998 and 1999 as drummer. Later he was drummer and musical director of the Boston and San Francisco stage productions of Hedwig and the Angry Inch as well as the movie soundtrack of the same name.
- Agnieszka Rybska was with the band from 1996 through 1998. She left because of pregnancy, and now has 2 daughters.
- Nana Bornant was with the band from 1998 through 2001.
- Tom Martin was the original drummer, although he wasn't really a drummer. He is now a tattooist.
- Norman Block is credited for playing drums on Thanks for the Ether.
- Chris Vrenna, drummer and producer for How We Quit the Forest
- Sarah Bowman performs with her twin sister Claire as The Bowmans, both formerly of the rock band Lowry. She toured with Rasputina for the first part of their 2006 tour and into 2007. Her vocals appear on Oh Perilous World!.
- Erica Mulkey, or Unwoman took the second half of 2006's tour. Notably, she recently performed with Rasputina at Convergence 12 in New Orleans and has been a long time fan.
- Steph McVey of The Graces was appointed as third-chair cellist, and was with the band for a few shows. Steph is from San Antonio, Texas, and her band attributed their influences to Rasputina and others.
- Serena Tideman is the most recent touring cellist. She is a composer and solo cellist and has in the past performed with the Dead Science, Eyvind Kang and the Icelandic group Múm. She has released one album of solo compositions entitled "Kalakala: Songs from A Parallel Universe". She joined Rasputina for their sold-out tour with Siouxsie Sioux in February 2008.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Thanks for the Ether - Columbia Records, 1996
- How We Quit the Forest - Columbia Records, 1998
- Cabin Fever - Instinct Records, 2002
- Frustration Plantation - Instinct Records, 2004
- Oh Perilous World - Filthy Bonnet Co., 2007
[edit] Live albums
- A Radical Recital - Filthy Bonnet Co., 2005
[edit] Singles and EPs
- The Olde HeadBoard - Columbia Records, 1998
- The Lost & Found (1st Edition) - RPM Records, 2001
- My Fever Broke - Instinct Records, 2002
- The Lost and Found, 2nd Edition - Instinct Records, 2003
- Transylvanian Regurgitations - Columbia Records, 1997
[edit] Promotional
- Transylvanian Concubine/The Vaulted Eel, Lesson #6 - Oculus Records 1993
- Three (3) - (promo), 1994
- Three Lil' Nothin's - (promo), 1996
- Transylvanian Regurgitations - Columbia Records, 1997
[edit] Misc
- "Transylvanian Concubine" on the television soundtrack album Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Album.
- "Transylvanian Concubine" on The Black Bible, a 4 disc compilation album released by Cleopatra Records. (October 27, 1998) [1]
- Our Lies - 2001
- "Hunter's Kiss" on the compilation album 12 Tales - 2002
- "Coraline" on the Neil Gaiman tribute album Where's Neil When You Need Him? Dancing Ferret - 2006
- "A Skeleton Bang" on the charity album Colours Are Brighter - 2006
[edit] Song Inspirations
Creager is a self-proclaimed history buff and often bases Rasputina's lyrics on said history. Some of these include:
- Thanks for the Ether
- "My Little Shirtwaist Fire" is based on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911.
- "Howard Hughes" is about legendary aviator Howard Hughes.
- How We Quit the Forest
- "Rose K." is about Rosemary Kennedy who was lobotomized at the age of 23. Although Melora jokingly refers to this as her " Alzheimer's Song" on A Radical Recital, neither Rosemary Kennedy nor her Mother Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy are known to have suffered from Alzheimer's disease.
- "Herb Girls of Birkenau" expresses the sympathy, confusion, and anger of a powerless witness to a group of enslaved holocaust victims.
- Cabin Fever
- "Rats" is about the 16th century decision by the then Pope to declare capybara as fish for Catholics to eat during lent.
- Perplexions
- "Warbots" is about how robot soldiers are being made. The Pentagon's Gordon Johnson of the Joint Forces Command told about the prototypes that have been invented to make this a reality. Mr. Johnson, the weapons inventor, stated, "The lawyers tell me there are no prohibitions against robots making life-or-death decisions." There was a debate on whether the robots can distinguish innocent life against enemy life.
- "Sky Is Falling" is oddly similar to the storm events in California in February of 2005. In an article written by the Associated Press writer Ryan Pearson, some of the events that took place with these killer storms are similar to some of the lyrics of the song. Some of the article that seems to mirror the song (whether they be the events or the wording itself) include, "...oozing mud blocked highways..." (similar to lyrics) "...surging river carried away part of an airport," (similar in context) "..one man who was killed by a falling eucalyptus tree..." (similar to lyrics) "...teenage girl crushed by rocks..." (similar in context) "...mudslides and a huge boulder that threatened to roll onto the highway" (similar in context).
- "Krakatowa" is about Krakatoa, an island in Indonesia that is volcanic. In 1883, a large eruption of the volcano occurred.
- Oh Perilous World
- "1816, The Year Without a Summer" is about during the Little Ice Age, the year 1816 had an unusual weather pattern (due to the volcano Mount Tambora erupting) and was known as the Year Without a Summer. The song also makes mention of author Mary Shelley writing her infamous novel Frankenstein, Freemasons and Benjamin Franklin.
- "Choose Me For Champion" is about islanders' sufferings due to Western European invasions and mentions Thursday October Christian.
- "Cage in a Cave" is about Thursday Christian's father, Fletcher Christian, who was an 18th century man who was part of the Mutiny on the Bounty in Tahiti.
- "Incident in a Medical Clinic" is about the disease Schistosomiasis (also known as Snail-fever).
- "Child Soldier Rebellion" makes mention of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda's usage of children as soldiers.
- "Oh Bring Back the Egg Unbroken" is about the Tangata manu competition of the inhabitants from Easter Island.
- "We Stay Behind" is about the people who stayed behind in New Orleans during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. An article from the AP by Allen G. Breed exclaims, "I've never even had a nightmare or a beautiful dream about this," about watching the warehouses burn. "People are just not themselves."[4][citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Newsbunny". Rastputina: A Division of the Ladies' Cello Society. Retrieved on 2006-06-29. "Unfortunately, Zoe has left the group to pursue her solo work."
- ^ Keating, Zoë (June 2006). About zoecello. ZoeCello. MySpace.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.
- ^ "Synthesis.net". Melora Creager Takes on a Perilous World. Retrieved on 2007-07-05. "On the first record, Carpella Parvo. [Julia] Kent and I just made that up. Carpella was like carpal tunnel, because we gave ourselves carpal tunnel playing the other parts."
- ^ Allen G. Breed. "New Orleans Evacuation Picking Up Steam", 2005-03-09. Retrieved on 2008-01-11. (English)
[edit] External links
