Howlin Wuelf Media :: Rasputina

Seminal cello-driven trio Rasputina will release their eighth album, Great American Gingerbread: Rasputina Rarities and Neglected Items on April 5, 2011. Rasputina directress, Melora Creager assembled it at the beginning of the New Year in the Hudson Valley.

Great American Gingerbread features one disc fourteen jewels of audio arcana discovered in Melora’s musical treasure chest, comprising film scores, demos, compilation tracks - one dating back to the last millennium! Many of these recordings are essentially solo works, Melora’s initial compositional impulses sprung fresh from her formidable creative process. The package also includes a bonus DVD of a live performance and Q&A recorded in 2002 at the Knitting Factory, NYC.

Melora describes her motivations in currating this collection thus:

“I know super-fans expected certain unreleased songs, but I wanted to surprise them with some totally unknown music- a look into how I create songs. Also, I wanted to put some of these soundtracks and tribute pieces all in one convenient place.

“These are mostly from the early 21st century. I can't wait to get into remixing my 20th century 4-track demo tapes! Unfortunately, the whole How-We-Quit-the-Forest-era is lost as I was working at that time in the notoriously unstable format of mini-data-disc.

Back to Clients

-------------------------------

“The interest potential in the live DVD is not to be underestimated. This concert was beautifully filmed. It is a fairly obscure Rasputina line-up: the moment when we were 3 cellos and Jonathon TeBeest on drums. There is a Q & A with the audience between songs.

Melora has maintained the Rasputina group for 20(0) years. Genres come and go and Rasputina often gets mistakenly lumped into passing fancies, but Rasputina manages to survive and defy categorization by maintaining a child-like delight in music making alongside a clear & true integrity.

In recent years, Rasputina has release several full-length recordings 2010’s Sister Kinderhook and 2007's Oh Perilous World, as well as a number of limited edition short-works: Melora a la Basilica (live duets w/Daniel De Jesus), The Willow Tree Tryptich (3 ancient folk songs titled “The Willow Tree”), Ancient Cross-Dressing Songs (self-explanatory), and The Pregnant Concert (a full live show from September 2009). Rasputina has regularly toured as headliners, and also been special guests touring with Siouxsie Soux and Gary Numan.

Melora grew up in Kansas in a musical family which did play together as an ensemble, though certainly not publicly. At 18 she moved to NYC where she studied photography at Parsons School of Design. While there, she began playing the cello with drag performers and eventually the 4AD band, Ultra Vivid Scene. That exposure to the glamorous world of professional rock music led her to found Rasputina. She thought it would be easy. Touring with Nirvana taught her lessons in avoidance of immense fame, which she has successfully practiced since.

Rasputina made two albums for Columbia/Sony (Thanks for the Ether, How We Quit the Forest), two albums for Instinct Records (Cabin Fever!, Frustration Plantation) and then inaugurated her own Filthy Bonnet Recording Co. label with A Radical Recital.

For more information visit www.rasputina.com.