Historical Cello-Rock Band Rasputina Rides Again, In-Studio
New York-based Rasputina, the steampunk cello-rock outfit led by Melora Creager, draws lyrical inspiration from history and the headlines. What began as an ad seeking women for an electric cello choir became a touring electro-chamber outfit known for original songs with unsettling perspectives and inventive arrangements of rock classics, all with an eye for retro fashion of the 19th century.
Grigori Rasputin, the Russian mystic and faith healer, is the figure after whom the band is named - although their lyrics may look further back in history to the 1590’s with the Shakespearean authorship controversy (The Oxford theory that the actual author was Edward de Vere), show music of Elizabethan times (the first) by Thomas Weelkes, and madrigals. (During their interview, Creager seemed open to the suggestion to adapt the J.S. Bach Cello Suites with pedals, and invoked My Ladye Nevells Booke, a collection of works for keyboard by English Renaissance composer William Byrd.) Even as inspiration may also come from macabre events – mutiny, disease, war, and/or news headlines over the centuries, the storytelling is always front and center.
Rasputina’s trajectory from major label to indie cello rockers happened early on in the 1990’s (despite the origin myth of having formed in the 1890’s), when after having toured with Nirvana, Creager made a choice to opt out of fame and world domination. Recently though, Rasputina has been offering some music online, yet some things are still kept old school and in limited runs; their latest release, Daddy Likes Bread, is a three-song seven inch vinyl record, available only in person, at “recitals” where the band does public performances. Rasputina, the “Traveling Ladies’ Cello Society” (Bandcamp), is once again coming to a music hall near you after a years-long break; they play live, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik
Watch the video performances on the New Sounds YouTube channel:
Set list: 1. Draconian Crackdown 2. Hunter’s Kiss
