Rasputina
How We Quit The Forest
[Columbia]
Rating: 5.1
How We Quit the Forest is the third release from the "neo- chamber grunge"
trio Rasputina. And even though the inlay book teems with pretty pictures of
elves and cute little woodland creatures, be forewarned: This ain't no fairy
tale, kiddies. (Unless your fairy tales involve Rose Kennedy and the herb
girls of Birkenau, in which case you need to run, not walk, to the nearest
pharmacy and refill your medication.)
Giving their cello strings poundings they won't soon forget, Rasputina fuse
the classical and the modern in a most intriguing way (and what other band
in music today totes 32 pairs of grubby stockings, 21 shirtwaists and 10
corsets along with them on tour?) Cellist and vocalist Melora Creager's
vocals alternate between delicate vibrato- ridden purrs and catlike yowlings,
especially on cuts like "LeechWife" the surprisingly- danceable "The Olde
Headboard."
Thematically, the band is as inherently dark and eerie as ever (an
appropriate soundtrack for upcoming Halloween shindigs) and their lyrics
are, as always, full of the sort of calculating venom exemplified by their
seething cover of Lesley Gore's classic "You Don't Own Me." The Victorian
regalia in which they bind themselves runs quite contradictory to the decidedly
un-Victorian characters they encounter (Space Ghost, anyone?), but that's
all part of their charm. Like ghosts of yourself from a past life, so are
the girls of Rasputina.
-Susan Moll
"The Olde Headboard"
[Real Audio Stream]