Hiya Friends.
We just completed a 4.5 week tour around the U.S. That is a very intense undertaking, no matter how you slice it. I’ve toured the U.S. on this scale for soooo long. Let me do the math…say, 2.5 months a year since 2002, that would be… No, do it like 2 times around the country per annum for 10 years= 20 times around America. Always in a van. I’m not counting my early bus tours when I was on Columbia either, but I certainly went around the country a few times then too.
The Recitals went great! I loved playing and traveling with Daniel and Dawn. The audiences were consistently involved and enthusiastic. In turn, we perform even better from that energy. Cool cycle!
Dawn and Daniel are great with costumes. We three have so much fun with make-up- talking about it and doing it. I’m blessed to have something as fun as costumes & make-up be part of my job.
It’s unnatural for 6 people to be with each other 24 hours a day for 35 days. And one of those people is only 20 months old! Dawn and Ivy spent approximately 5 hours a day, strapped in and directly facing each other. Imagine! But we all worked and lived together very well- as a company and a family.
After you’ve become accustomed to life and the road (and enjoyed it), it’s hard to re-acclimate to normal home-life. Upon my return, I cleaned the bathrooms hard. For me, that helps.
Working on: How We Quite the Forest re-release, collaboration w/Joe Bishara (Insidious), collaboration w/Melora Kuhn… Well, I better get at it!
Love,
Melora
Halo me honeys.
Ehh… I feel so busy!
We prepare for the tour. Practice, take care of the baby, get merch in order, do a little press, take care of the baby, mend costumes, dye Hollis’ hair pink, take care of the baby.
Our new album, Sister Kinderhook is being pretty well-received. If you want to hear a particular song from it on our tour, please let me know.
Look for our dates on the “Recitals” page.
Dawn Miceli’s documentary of us on the road — Under the Corset — is ready for sale. It’s really good.
She calls this web-address the “one-stop doc-shop”:
www.underthecorset.com
Do you remember that movie I starred in and scored many years ago — On My Knees? The one where I played a 19th century maid? The director, Kim Wood, found a box of shrink-wrapped VHS tapes somewhere and gave them to me! (And some posters.) I’ll be a-selling them on the road. A true & lovely rarity.
Please join me on Facebook. I don’t like that stuff really, but I am able to speak often and casually there.
www.facebook.com/OfficialRasputina
All for now.
Love,
Melora
Halo deers.
Oh my, I’m sorry not to have made an announcement yet. I wanted to present a beautiful portrait of us and this & that, but really, just real life gets in the way.
Ivy was born November 20th at 3 pm. She is very dainty and fascinating.
Hollis whispers weird things in her ear. Ivy likes that.
I did manage to get the Knitting Factory live recording mixed as I recovered, and it will be available, gee, next week or so.
All for now.
Love,
Melora
Hello dear All.
Our recital at the new Knitting Factory in Williamsburg was quite fun. I thought it would be a trial because of my pregnancy, but not at all. I was so glad to see everyone and play some music before I lay low for a while. My baby is due in November.
My dear old friend Julie Griner filled in for Catie D’Amica on drums. Catie is leaving the band to go to massage therapy school. She said she would make a public proclamation of of my fun-ness so as not to contribute to some reputation of me being difficult or something like that.
I am really tired of talking about the numerous line-up changes. It’s no mystery. Rasputina is not a full-time job with benefits. People can only stay so long. I’ve been doing this almost 20 years! Subject officially over.
New album should come out in February or Spring, when I’m ready to perform for you again.
Live recording of the Knitting Factory show should be available in a month or so (I’m guessing).
I do have some “Ancient Cross-Dressing Songs” cd’s left from Sunday’s show. You may purchase them from the handicrafts page.
It’s interesting to me that today’s music fan sees recordings as “cost per song”- a real iTunes mindset. You will feel better if you look at it like, “Melora made this thing for me with her bare hands.”
Love,
Melora
Halo Sweets.
Cello-string necklaces are back! There are only a few. Get them while you can.
I had so much fun recording the new album with Daniel and Catie. I am still working on it myself and hope to mix in August.
Daniel is a talented dear and his singing makes me crazy with happiness.
We took some Rasputina Field-trips™ to historical houses in the area for inspiration- Martin Van Buren’s Lindenwald and Frederic Church’s Olana.
I’m glad it’s been cool & rainy here in the Hudson Valley. When we record, we shut all the windows and doors to keep out sound, so that tends to be pretty sweaty. But not this season.
Dawn Micelli visited us while we worked. She wanted to get some last bits for her rockumentary. She is a crack-up and we love to hang out with her.
Hm, did I mention that I am pregnant? WHa-ha, it’s true! I am to have a baby in November. I am quite overjoyed about it. The father is my dream-man that turns out to be a real person.
Please enjoy yourself and I’ll see you later,
Melora
Hi Dears.
I have been completely focusing on writing new music. Therefore, I just now got the Willow Tree cd’s ready for you. And hand-merch has been extremely late! Thank you for your great patience.
No news as I am just enjoying writing, looking forward to intense recording in June, and hence know not when we shall see each other for recitals.
Please to purchase Willow Tree from handcrafts website page so I can continue to eat and make songs.
Thank you,
Melora
P.S. We have changed companies for the more commercial Rasp. web-store. There is some problem with the change-over. That is why you cannot go there. I know not when it will be corrected, and apologize for the inconvenience.
Origivation
Yes, that is Melora on the cover of Origivation’s Spring Fashion Issue with insightful interview and fashionable photos inside:
“The artists featured in our SPRING FASHION ISSUE all represent different styles that are popping up all over the musical board – from Melora Creager of Rasputina’s Bohemian Goth nostalgia, Muhsinah’s urban chicness and Ruby Throat’s deconstructed kinderwhore hipness to River Monroe’s rock star threads and Goodbye ETC’s throwback basics (Origivation photographer James Jackson captured the fabrics of these ladies and gents for the spread). And we picked them because their garb is as personal as they are relative: it’s not about how cool they look – it’s about the celebration of their music as told through their clothes. These artists aren’t fitting an image – wearing “costumes,” if you will – they are just being themselves. And we think that, in today’s music, that’s unique.”
(Origivation Magazine Web site)
Hello All.
We had a nice little West Coast tour. All the audiences were fun and sweet. I cried a little behind my cello when Daniel led the Eugene crowd in singing happy birthday to me. I was so touched! I never had a birthday on the road before.
It was very fun to have Dawn Micelli with us, filming her documentary. She is, of course, a crack-up. Maybe the film will be available toward the end of the summer?
We went to a ‘Repo the Genetic Opera’ screening in Hollywood. It was very fun! They had performers a la Rocky Horror, I met my daughter’s idol- Alexa Vega, and Rasp got introduced to the crowd. It was my first time seeing the movie. Although it’s fairly gory, I thought it was great.
I am again offering a charity auction item to benefit Hawthorne Valley School. It’s a 3 hour rock-cello lesson for any string instrument (excluding guitar!).
http://web.me.com/laurateague/Spring_gala/items_to_be_sold.html
Although the Willow Tree Triptych sold out, I’m going to make some more and put them up on the crafts page next week. It’s an edition of 100 total. I won’t make anymore, nor put them on an album.
Well, I’ll see you later,
Hello, my friends.
The flowering trees are blooming where I live. Lately, I have been living life outside of Rasputina. Last year, I studied a form of music therapy where you play live and one-on-one with ill or dying people. I have been doing that a little bit. It’s a completely new type of playing, with different skills. I formed a duo called “Sparkle-Frau” with a friend. She was turning 40 and I wanted to make her dream of being in a rock band a reality. You should have seen us at the open mic night. We played “Hush-a-bye Mountain” from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and “The Theme from the Thomas Crowne Affair”. I did a solo “Cage in a Cave” just to make sure they weren’t listening. I gave cello lessons to a couple of Hollis’ classmates. I expect a long attention span, which doesn’t seem to exist in little people anymore.
Ah, but just a couple of months ago, we were rocking it out with Siouxsie. That was fun- she was an amazing performer. Sarah Bowman quit — on amicable terms. After the madness of the freak-folk all-stars playing with us at the Dances of Vice Ball, February 2008, we had the lovely Serena Tideman on cello, and dear friend Dawn McCarthy of Faun Fables singing back-up and playing percussion. Although it was good musics, we can’t technically have that line-up again. So please let me know if you are a genius cellist/singer with a free-style schedule and a taste for last-minute, grass-roots, whirlwind tours.
At my homestead, we are practicing Depressionists. We’re practicing for the Depression, get it? We choose not to waste our breath on bogus elections, fake news, celebrity drivel, internet diversion, or tv. We look for ways to be and eat as locally as possible. Touring the nation in a van, with $5. a gallon gasoline? Come on! I mean it — Come on. You will have to get yourself over here to Hudson, NY to see me play. And I’m getting better all the time, I tell you.
Love,
Melora
New Year’s Greetings From Melora
As the lights come up, Melora is chopping wood on her 1 acre farm and brushing up on her Greek. Jonathon is in Minnesota continuing his musicology studies, and Sarah is in Los Angeles for the month, playing lots w/Claire as The Bowmans.
Then Rasputina goes to London for just a few days. We will be glad to see you there. Oh Perilouous World will be released in the UK around that time. January 26-29.
As January turns to February and the band gears up to create Valentine gifts for eachother, The Dances of Vice soiree occurs in NYC on Feb. 9. It should be quite something. Will you be there?
Then to California to open for Siouxsie, Feb. 13- 19. We’ll surely be wo-manning the merch-stand ourselves when they let us, so see you there as well.
It was recently discovered that the Rasputina email wasn’t hooked up, so deep apologies for the past 8 months of the silent treatment.
FASCINATING “OH PERILOUS WORLD” SUNDRIES
The Dame Darcy created video for “1816,
The Year without A Summer” is now available on iTunes – it is the perfectly creepy accompaniment to the song (and slightly shorter in length than the song on the
album).
Also today Rhapsody debuts an exclusive stream of the
full album on Rhapsody. You can join Rhapsody for free a trial to listen to it.
OH PERILOUS WORLD RELEASE DATE JUNE 26
We are counting down the days (seven to be precise) to the release of the new album. For those who didn’t get the deluxe edition in the store
pre-sale, please remember it will be available in stores next Tuesday and we will have copies in the store on street date (but without the postcard offer). And for
those of you special few who ordered the vinyl LP expect a surprise when you receive it!
Remember Rasputina recitals are coming soon to:
Sat-Jul-07 Detroit, MI — MAGIC STICK
Sun-Jul-08 Chicago, IL — THE ABBEY
Tue-Jul-10 Minneapolis, MN — VARSITY THEATER
Wed-Jul-11 Kansas City, MO — THE RECORD BAR
Thu-Jul-12 Denver, CO — BLUEBIRD THEATRE
Sat-Jul-14 Park City, UT — SUEDE
Mon-Jul-16 Portland, OR — HAWTHORNE THEATER
Tue-Jul-17 Seattle, WA — NEUMO’S
Thu-Jul-19 San Francisco, CA — GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL
Sat-Jul-21 Los Angeles, CA — EL REY THEATRE
Sun-Jul-22 Solana Beach, CA — BELLY UP TAVERN
Mon-Jul-23 Tempe, AZ — THE CLUBHOUSE
Tue-Jul-24 Tucson, AZ — CLUB CONGRESS
Tue-Jul-25 Albuqueque, NM — EL REY THEATER
Fri-Jul-27 San Antonio, TX — WHITE RABBIT
Sat-Jul-28 Austin, TX — THE PARISH
Sun-Jul-29 New Orleans, LA — HOUSE OF BLUES
Tue-Jul-31 Birmingham, AL — WORKPLAY THEATRE
Wed-Aug-01 Atlanta, GA — VINYL
Thu-Aug-02 Asheville, NC — THE GREY EAGLE
Fri-Aug-03 Knoxville, TN — BLUE CAT’S
Sat-Aug-04 Lexington, KY — THE DAME
Sun-Aug-05 Newport, KY — SOUTHGATE HOUSE
Tue-Aug-07 Cleveland, OH — GROG SHOP
Wed-Aug-08 Baltimore, MD — OTTOBAR
Also a small number of the limited edition postcard set will be available at the merch tables at these recitals.
NEW RASPUTINA WEB STORE GOES LIVE!
Please check out the new and updated web store live today. All of your favorite Rasputina merch is available again. Coming soon:
a new t-shirt, a bumper sized Oh Perilous World poster and a completely updated web site.
