From: owner-goths-digest@smoe.org (goths-digest) To: goths-digest@smoe.org Subject: goths-digest V2 #91 Reply-To: goths@smoe.org Sender: owner-goths-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-goths-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk goths-digest Saturday, July 11 1998 Volume 02 : Number 091 Today's Subjects: ----------------- A Rasputina Article for my Friends :) [GishDrown@aol.com] (no subject) [Highfields ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 09:11:58 EDT From: GishDrown@aol.com Subject: A Rasputina Article for my Friends :) RASPUTINA ROCKS OUT ON HOW WE QUIT THE FOREST Rasputina, those cello- playing classical- turned- goth girls adored by Marilyn Manson, are back. And ironically, although their upcoming sophomore album How We Quit the Forest is creepier than their oft- misunderstood debut Thanks for the Ether, it's also more rock- oriented and accessible. "A lot of times if we sit there and play acoustic in a room, it's really precious and special, and people just want to record that, even though it's not what we do live," says Rasputina's leader Melora Creager about the challenge of capturing their style on record. "People get this hands- off kind of feeling, so that [Thanks for the Ether] was really acoustic and kind of tenuous. I mean, we play with distortion pedals, so you record it that way. The last time, I had to beg, 'Please, please, distort it how we really do it.' And I was told, 'No, you don't want that, little girl. That's not what you mean.'" There was none of that on How We Quit the Forest, which comes out Aug. 4 on Columbia. That's because the album's co-producer -- ex-Nine Inch Nailsman Chris Vrenna -- and recordist/ mixer Critter (Filter, the Jesus Lizard, Ministry) "got" what Rasputina is all about. "He was very organized and hyper, and was good at having an overview," says Creager of Vrenna, who also contributed live drumming and programming to the album. "A lot of it is really from my demos; I'd have the same rhythms, but in a shitty drum machine. So he would elaborate on that with some nice samples, but some of the rhythm stuff is totally him. I had all these great sample sources, but he makes better patterns out of them." Some of those sample sources are from old spaghetti westerns and '40s musicals, and even simple sound- effects CDs. "At the end of the last song, we had a live audience cheering and then a live audience booing, like at a wrestling match, so we have them battle that out a bit," Creager adds. "We also have a bit at the end where it sounds like 'You suck,' but it's really 'You crook.'" Producing a cello group isn't exactly something Vrenna had much experience in. "It's really easy to make things sound fucked-up," says Vrenna, who describes Creager's writing as "dark and sad and kinda creepy." "But it's hard to make things sound very pristine and beautiful, so I think the biggest challenge for me was not going in there and throwing wacky effects all over their cellos, but to also be able to [capture] a song like 'Rose Kennedy,' which is simply just cello and vocal -- it's one of the most beautiful songs on the record. And I obviously credit my engineer Critter for being able to capture the live, beautiful, pristine cello performances. That was the biggest challenge." Vrenna, who was asked to be the touring drummer for Rasputina but had to pass due to a full schedule, will also appear in Rasputina's video for the first single, "The Olde Headboard." Tour plans for the group are still up in the air as their search for a drummer continues. Last time around, Rasputina toured with Marilyn Manson -- who remixed the last album's "Transylvania Concubine" for the Transylvania Regurgitations remix EP -- as well as Helmet, Bob Mould, Kula Shaker, and Porno for Pyros. Of Manson, Creager says she learned a lot from him in regards to making a more accessible album. "I picked it up from people's responses and learned it from Manson that there's certain rhythmic patterns that make people move and make people like something," she says. "And on the last record, the times are almost all in three or six, 'cause I just love three and six. But that is really foreign to people, and you can't dance to it. So I really wanted to make rhythms that make people respond. My big concession was, 'I'm gonna try to write in four.' It was more like an exercise or a challenge." ======== end of article ======== awww... our little girls are all grown up :*( WHAT IF THEY TURN OUT TO BE TRENDY? oh god.. well at least we know that we were the first :*( ~ Ashley -you remind me of that leak in my soul- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 01:56:03 -0400 From: Highfields Subject: (no subject) greetings goths @ smoe i would like to receive goths digest please send to: nicer1@hotmail.com thank you ------------------------------ End of goths-digest V2 #91 **************************