Rasputina

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Rasputina

Cover from "The Lost and Found" by Ryan Obermeyer
Origin Brooklyn, New York
Country United States
Years active 1992 – present
Genres Alternative rock
Cello Rock
Gothic music
Labels Filthy Bonnet

Columbia Records

Instinct Records
Members Melora Creager
Jonathon TeBeest
Past members Zoë Keating
Julia Kent
Kris Cowperthwaite
Agnieszka Rybska
Nana Bornant
Carpella Parvo
Serena Jost
Lisa Haney
Perry James
Tom Martin
Mark Hutchins
Website(s) Official Website
Official Myspace profile

Rasputina is a varying collection of cellists playing alternative rock. 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. Julia Kent responded, and the two formed what was dubbed the Travelling Ladies' Cello Society.

Creager writes all of the lyrics for Rasputina (save for the cover songs), performs most of the vocals, and creates a lot of the cover art for the albums.

While Rasputina was locally well-known and somewhat popular with audiences, their music didn't seem to fit into any category. For this reason, the band 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, in particular, 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 into 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 the third cellist on Thanks for the Ether, but left the country afterwards. 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 lable Instinct Records in 2002. In 2004 they released a rather quick follow up album, Frustration Plantation. Since then, 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. It is unknown and unspeculated as to whether or not one of The Bowmans or Unwoman will take up the second chair.

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 the goth genre[citation needed], or any other for that matter.

Contents

[edit] Band members

[edit] Current members

  • 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-drivin 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 four of the group's albums, and will appear on a fifth that begins recording in the spring of 2006, allegedly titled Thursday's Christian. 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. There are no further details as of yet.

[edit] Former and tour members

  • Zoë Keating (no longer with the band) 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 was 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.
  • 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 is apparently missing.
  • 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.
  • 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 and was therefore present for the band's appearance on Late Night With Conan O'Brien.
  • Tom Martin was the original drummer. Although he wasn't really a drummer [1], 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 and in the rock band Lowry. She is touring with Rasputina for the first part of their 2006 tour.
  • Erica Mulkey, or Unwoman will be performing during the remainder of the tour. Notably, she recently performed with Rasputina in New Orleans and has been a long time fan.
  • Steph McVey of The Graces is rumored to have been appointed as third-chair cellist, and is touring with the band for a few shows. Steph is from San Antonio, Texas, and her band attributed their influences to Rasputina and others.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Live albums

[edit] Singles and EPs

[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

[edit] Trivia

  • Creager, Kent and Rybska realized soon after they met that they had all attended the same nanny school in Manhattan.
  • Creager is a self-proclaimed history buff and often bases Rasputina’s lyrics on said history. For example, the song "My Little Shirtwaist Fire" is based on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911.
  • The song "Rose K." is about Rosemary Kennedy.
  • The band's name itself came from a song Creager had written called "Rasputina," which in turn was conceived from her obsession with Rasputin at the time.
  • Creager is obsessed with Howard Hughes and, at live performances, frequently relates facts and anecdotes related to his decline in mental and physical health in his later years.
  • The band's official website claims that the trio was formed in 1891.
  • Melora Creager was a touring cellist with Nirvana, playing on live renditions of songs like "All Apologies" and "Dumb."

[edit] References

  1. ^ "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."
  2. ^ Keating, Zoë (June 2006). About zoecello. ZoeCello. MySpace.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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