Caught in the Carousel

Rasputina

Sister Kinderhook
Filthy Bonnet

Rasputina

The latest release from Rasputina is mesmerizing, fearless and audacious. Like a gaslamp sideshow or a steampunk melodrama, Sister Kinderhook is richly literate and populated by stone giants, wild children, cross-dressing lords, and other fantastic creatures. Melora Creager, the group's founder and driving force, has again written a mythic concept album, a charming American gothic steeped in the 19th century. Heavily influenced by Emily Dickinson, Creager weaves colonialism, folklore, and the heady days of the Industrial Revolution into Sister Kinderhook, and blends 19th century chamber music into the weft of the resulting tapestry. "Sweet Sister Temperance" is a meditation on Dickinson; "Holocaust of Giants" remembers the race of giants whose fossilized bones now fertilize Ohio farmland. "The 2 Miss Leavens" memorializes two sisters separated by two centuries. "My Night Sky" laments a wish made on an eyelash; "Olde Dance" introduces the exotic, mysterious Orient to a marveling 19th century audience. "Calico Dresses" recounts the anti-rent riots in New York in 1844 (think Tea Party with costumes). "Snow-hen of Austerlitz" describes a feral child ("I hear she's pretty but she don't have all her wits"). "Dark February" is as cold as the grave ("in my marble dressing gown"); "Utopian Society" arches an eyebrow at the neighbors; "Kinderhook Hoopskirt Works" ruminates on the pre-union days of the Industrial Revolution and "This, My Porcelain Life" ends the album by wrapping back to Dickinson. Like the Dresden Dolls, Rasputina defies categorization. They are art and theatre, mythic and brash and fun. Completely string-based (with cello, harpsichord, banjo, and the Chinese erbu from Creager and Daniel DeJesus), plus Creager's tremolo vocals and Catie DaMica's percussion, Rasputina wraps the listener in glistening brocade and serves up a wicked pot of mandrake tea. Lean back in your fainting chair and enjoy the show.

—Lyn Dunagan