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Rasputina
The New York City-based trio Rasputina was led by singer/songwriter Melora Creager, a classically-trained cellist who backed Nirvana on the group’s final tour. In 1992, Creager placed a want ad seeking other cellists to form a rock band; among those responding was Canadian musician Julie Kent, and with the later addition of Polish native Agnieszka Rybska, Rasputina was born. The three cellists’ image further developed by the addition of tightly-laced vintage Victorian costumes, their gothic chamber-pop soon caught the attention of Sony, who issued the group’s debut Thanks for the Ether in 1996; Transylvanian Regurgitations, an EP featuring remixes by fan Marilyn Manson, appeared a year later, and in 1998 Rasputina resurfaced with How We Quit the Forest. By the new millennium, Rybska and Kent had been replaced with Nana Bornant and K. Cowperthwaite. A deal with Instinct surfaced in 2001 and the magical mystery of Cabin Fever appeared the following spring. Bornant’s stay was brief; she left in June 2002 and Cowperthwaite followed four months later. Zoe Keating (cello) and first ever male bandmate Jonathon TeBeest were quickly added to the beautiful chaos of Rasputina just in time for the 2003 release of the Lost & Found EP. Frustration Plantation, their most cohesive work to date, appeared in spring 2004. In 2007 the group released Oh Perilous World, a loosely-connected song suite culled from newspaper clippings that lead singer Melora Creager gathered over a two year period, then juxtaposed with the band’s signature 18th century steampunk imagery.
Smoke Fairies
A duo combining the ethereality of British folk with the earthiness of the blues, Smoke Fairies is the project of Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire. The pair met at school in Chichester, West Sussex, and discovered that they felt more of a connection to classic rock, folk, and the blues than the more modern music that the other kids listened to. While they were still in school, they began crafting their own take on those sounds incorporating their delicate harmonies, and named themselves Smoke Fairies after mystical creatures who scare and confuse late-night drivers. After school ended, Davies and Blamire traveled to New Orleans and other areas of the American South, performing at venues like Tipitina’s; they then settled in Vancouver for a year. In 2007, Smoke Fairies went on tour with Bryan Ferry after a mutual friend gave him a copy of the duo’s demos. The following year, Blamire and Davies released their official debut single, Living with Ghosts, as a 7″ on the Music for Heroes label. The buzz around the duo grew in 2009, when releases like the EP Frozen Heart and the single Sunshine won acclaim from artists such as Richard Hawley, who took Smoke Fairies on tour with him that October, and Jack White, who had the duo open for the Dead Weather and recorded a single with them. The single, Gastown/The River Song, was released by White’s Third Man imprint that December and featured White on drums and guitar and Raconteurs/Dead Weather member “Little Jack” Lawrence as part of the backing band. In 2010 the group released the compilation Ghosts, as well as the full-length Through Low Light and Trees.
Doors at 7.