the origins: rasputina officially began in
brooklyn, 1992. melora creager put out an
ad requesting members for an all-
cello band. when
julia kent responded, the travelling ladies' cello society was formed.
melora and julia have been with the band since
the beginning, but the
third member took a little more doing.... several
women have filled this
role for varying amounts of time throughout rasputina's
history. there is a
mystery woman named lisa haney who toured with the band for a while. carpella parvo was the third cellist on the debut album,
thanks for the ether, but left the
country afterwards. agnieszka rybska, who performed on the
second album and became a somewhat
regular member, is listed in the
special thanks section for
thanks for the ether. (
side note: when melora met
julia and agnieszka, they had a weird-ass
deja vu moment when they realized that they'd all attended the same nanny school in
manhattan).
then, just when you thought rasputina had finally become
stable, agnieszka got
pregnant in 1998 and some chick named
nana, from bordeaux,
france, was brought in as a touring
substitute,
possibly permanently.
the band's
name, according to melora, came from a song she'd written called
rasputina: "i was just into
rasputin at the time, and it seemed to have all the
perfect connotations for who we wanted to be, or what we were trying to do."
the members: melora, a former
jewelry designer, is the frontwoman for the band and has been playing the
cello since she was
9. her
teacher, an
old man from
boston, would call her a
pickled herring if she made a
mistake. she grew up in
kansas and moved to
new york in
1984, where she attended
parsons, an art college. melora has performed with many bands, including
Ultra Vived Scene,
Nirvana,
Screaming Trees, the
Pixies, and
Babe The Blue Ox.
a self-proclaimed history
buff, she writes all of the lyrics for rasputina, oftentimes basing them on actual past events. says melora:
"what makes me feel excited and passionate is usually something i'm reading about, a historical character or a city at a certain time; and i think if i write about that, it's inescapable that my feelings are going in there. and the drier the book, the more i get to use my imagination; that's what gives me pleasure.... the fact that what is reality changes is exciting to me. i feel false and uninspired writing about modern settings. the emotions are from any time."
some history lessons from melora:
melora also does all the
vocals on the albums, explaining in an early interview that "it's so
physically difficult to play and sing, that
julia and lisa aren't interested in trying." although it may seem like that's someone else performing such spoken word pieces as
nozzle,
the donner party, and
christian soldiers, it really is just melora with
voice distortion.
finally, melora does all of the
cover art for the
albums herself.
thanks for the ether featured her
talent for
embroidery, while
how we quit the forest showed how creative one can really get with
sandylion stickers.
julia kent is from
canada and has been playing the cello since she was 6. she also seems to be a
goth. I would write more about her, but apparently "julia keeps what she does a
secret." i caught sight of her on a
projekt compilation of
christmas tunes once. according to the official website, her favorite hobby is "
worrying and waiting. her practice routine is
daily."
agnieszka rybska came from
poland, where she was performing with the
Tarnowska Orkestra. She likes to set
diamonds. right now i assume much of her time is taken up by her
two-year-old child, but since nobody has updated their information on rasputina, who knows what has
befallen her?
as for the
music: rasputina was
well-known, and, of course, liked very much but didn't seem to fit into any category. for this reason, the band was largely
untouched until jimmy boyle, a "very zealous
A&R person," saw them at some festival shows and got them signed to
columbia's label. in 1996
thanks for the ether was released, and afterwards rasputina toured with such bands as
Bob Mould,
Porno for Pyros and
Marilyn Manson ("i like
contrast, and when we think of tour pairings i like to think of very constrasty pairings," explains melora). in 1997
transylvanian regurgitations, a followup ep remixed by
marilyn 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/producer, resulting in songs with more distortion, drums, and weird
sound effects. the title's meaning is explained by melora in many interviews:
"there's a certain feeling, and it seems like a very modern feeling among people i know, to just be in a constant state of quitting. it would be the present tense, rather than you have quit and something's over. but to maintain a state of quitting, to go from quitting one thing to the other, from quitting smoking to quitting a relationship, quitting things in your diet. that's a strange state, and imagining the forest as your society or your community. just kind of taking yourself out of a scene or something while being in it."
all of the members share an interest in the
victorian era, and express it most obviously through their clothing. here is a "costume
inventory" from their
official website:
"shoes omitted without implication."
however, despite all of their love for
antiquities, and their sometimes rather dark,
ethereal sound, they don't like being thought of as a
goth band. as melora puts it, "we don't wear
black, we wear
white."
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Stage/3388/,
www.rasputina.com, and
http://www.chaoscontrol.com told me much more than i'll ever need to know about rasputina