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'Rasputina' History: 


Info



Oh Perilous World, the sixth full length album from chamber-rock trio Rasputina, was performed by the band's creator cellist/lead singer Melora Creager and drummer Jonathon TeBeest with second chair Sarah Bowman contributing additional vocals. The album will be released this Summer by the Filthy Bonnet Recording Co.with distribution through Ryko.


Creager wrote the songs featured on Oh Perilous World over the last two years after deciding current world events were more bizarre than anything she could scrounge up from the distant past. She obsessively read daily news on the Internet, copying words, phrases and whole stories that especially intrigued her. She compiled a vast notebook of this material from which the Oh Perilous World lyrics are culled. "Champion" is mostly the translation of an Osama Bin-Laden speech; "Child Soldier" references the phenomenon of African children's armies; "In Old Yellowcake" utilizes imagery of the destruction of Fallujah. This is coupled with the albums overall narrative of Mary Todd Lincoln as Queen of Florida, with her blimp armies having attacked Pitcairn Island, where Fletcher Christian's son Thursday emerges as a resistance icon, before the record's grand end and subsequent denouement. The songs were recorded primarily with cello and drums, but despite this simple palette Rasputina create a wide range of textures and affects, including what seems to be electric guitars and violins — but is actually cunningly played and recorded cello. Born and raised in Kansas, Creager comes from a musical family and received classical training. At 18 she moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design. While majoring in photography she began playing her cello in rock bands and became involved with drag performers. She formed "The Fingerlakes Trio," a falsely geeky classical group that performed covers of disco hits, before joining NYC's Ultra Vivid Scene who recorded three albums for cult British label, 4AD. It was her first exposure to the professional rock world — UVS opened for label mates like The Pixies, Belly and Throwing Muses. Following a tour with Nirvana as a cellist on their In Utero tour she desired to do a project of her own, and she created Rasputina.


The concept for the group came to her fully formed; the idea was written as a manifesto. Her intention was to create an electric cello choir — no boys or guitars allowed. Through want ads she recruited like-minded young cellists. Rasputina evolved, employing elaborate costuming, as they were unable to move about while forcibly stationary in their chairs. What began as strictly "Victorian Whites" — bloomers, corsets and hoopskirts, has evolved into an amalgam of historical feminine icons — Indian princesses, Hawaiian handmaidens and fallen medieval queens, Rasputina keeps their cultish following enthralled with intimate recitals and post-show receiving lines. Rasputina works as an anomaly in popular music. By ignoring fashion trends and maintaining artistic integrity coupled with musical enthusiasm, the group has thrived as time has passed. They expose passionate fans to historical tales, and inspire young string players to seek alternatives to the classical world. Rasputina have released two albums on Columbia Records, Thanks For the Ether and How We Quit the Forest. Following a short break after the birth of Melora's daughter Hollis, the group returned with two more studio albums on Instinct Records, Cabin Fever, and Frustration Plantation. The live CD A Radical Recital was released in 2005 on Creager's own Filthy Bonnet Recording Co. record label.


Oh Perilous World was co-produced by Melora Creager and Charlie Campbell (who mixed the live A Radical Recital), mixed by Dae Bennett and recorded at the Clubhouse in Rhinebeck and Soundcheck Republic in Chatham near Melora's new home in New York State's Hudson Valley.
source: http://www.rasputina.com/history.html





Tracks by 'Rasputina' 


AHHRDS, We're Not Gonna Take It 
All Tomorrow's Parties 
AntiqueHighHeelRedDollShoes 
Any Old Actress 
A Quitter 
At the State Fair with a White Trash Sucker (Joseph Bishara Remi 
Baby Got Back 
Baby Got Back, State Fair 
Bad Moon Rising 
Barracuda 
Brand New Key 
Christian Soldiers 
Clipped 
Cooped 
Crazy Swan 
Crazy Swan (Cabin Fever remnant) 
CrossWalk 
Crybabies 
Deep in the Sweet Water (Joseph Bishara Remix) 
Diamond Mind 
Dig Ophelia 
The Donner Party 
Doomsday Averted 
Dried Up, Tied Up, and Dead to the World 
Dwarfstar 
Endomorph 
Fire and Ice 
Five Fleas 
The Fox in the Snow 
Gingerbread Coffin 
Girls School 
Herb Girls of Birkenau 
High On Life 
Howard Hughes 
How We Quit the Forest 
Hunter's Kiss 
If It Wasn't For Dicky 
If Your Kisses Can't Hold... 
If Your Kisses Cant Hold the Man You Love 
If Your Kisses Can't Hold The Man You Love 
IfYourKissesCan'tHoldTheManYouLove 
Infidel 
Intro 
Kate Moss 
Leechwife 
Mama Was an Opium-Smoker (Melora Mix) 
Mayfly 
The Mayor 
Momma Was an Opium-Smoker 
Momma Was An Opium Smoker 
Momma Was an Opium Smoker (Melora Mix) 
Mr. E. Leon Rauis 
Mr. Romberg 
Mr. Romberg (from Lakme by Delibes) 
My Captivity By Savages 
My Little Shirtwaist 
My Orphanage 
My Soul (traditional) 
The New Zero 
New Zero 
Nov 17dee 
November 17dee (long version) 
Nozzle 
Oh, Injury 
Oh Injury 
Oh, Injury Reprise 
The Olde Headboard 
The Olde Headboard - Album Version 
The Olde Headboard - Callout Hook #1 
The Olde Headboard - Callout Hook #2 
The Olde Headboard - Radio Edit 
The Olde Headboard - The Weathered Mix 
Our Lies 
PJ and Vincent & Matthew and Bjork 
Possum of the Grotto 
Quitter 
Rats 
Remnants Of Percy Bass 
Retinue Moons 
Rock and Roll 
Rock & Roll 
Rose K 
Rose K. 
Rusty the Skatemaker 
Saline 
Saline The Salt Lake Queen 
Sanchez 
Sanchez (Frustration Plantation sketch) 
Secret Message 
Secret Message (Melora Mix) 
Secret Messages 
Sign of the Zodiac 
Signs Of The Zodiac 
(silence) 
Sister Sleep 
State Fair 
State Fair - Tweaker Ambient Remix (Chris Vrenna Remix) 
State Fair - Tweaker Remix (Chris Vrenna Remix) 
Stumpside 
Sweet Water Kill (The Ocean Song) 
SweetWaterKill - Soft Kill R-Mix (Dimitri Tikovoi Remix) 
Thanks For The Ether 
Thimble Island 
Things I'm Going to Do 
Things I'm Gonna Do 
This Little Piggy 
Tourniquet 
Transylvanian Concubine 
Transylvanian Concubine (The Manson Mix (Radio Edit)) 
Transylvanian Concubine (Spooky Version) 
Transylvanian Concubine (Yes Sir, Mr. Sir Mix (Club Mix)) 
Trenchmouth 
Trust All-Stars 
Watch TV 
Watch T.V. 
When I Count 
When I Was A Young Girl 
Why Don't You Do Right? 
Why Don't You Do Right 
Wicked Dickey 
Wicked Dickie 
Wish You Were Here 
Yellow Cake 
Yellow Fever 
Yellow Fever (Frustration Plantation Out-Take) 
You Don't Own Me