Shilpa Ray makes the harmonium and essential RAWK instrument...photo by RLC
Brooklyn quartet Shilpa Ray And Her Happy Hookers laid waste to San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill last Thursday night opening for Japanese psychedelic band Acid Mothers Temple. The room was full when Ray and the Hookers took the stage and unleashed a carnival of blues-soaked, often transcendent rock tunes from their recent release, Teenage & Torture. The band is currently on a tour that takes them across the entirety of the country and they sounded battle-tested throughout the nearly hourlong set. Ray admitted to suffering from the effects of a long night in Los Angeles coinciding with “feminine issues” – which, probably no male writer should dare mention in print – Ray quipped, “No Midol can make this happen.” The diverse audience stood enraptured and offered "weed" to help medicate, to which she replied, “Oh, I forgot this is California.”
Happy Hookers, INDEED!...photo by RLC
I use the term unhinged a lot when trying to describe certain artists. In the case of Shilpa Ray And Her Happy Hookers it is a clear use of the word. But, it’s a channeled chaos funneled through some very well-written and performed songs. I went into this show expecting something more reverential and "arty". I left being fully treated to a RAWK show on par with performance heavyweights like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Sonic Youth. The band has the ability to navigate between driving rock numbers like “Hookers” and “Heaven in Stereo” and the dynamic nuances inherent in those songs, with the more trance-inducing, raga-inflected vibe of a “Venus Shaver”. The through-line being the bluesy swagger and committed vocal delivery of Ray.
Shilpa Ray...photo by RLC
If the harmonium reached its peak in the early 20th century as a smaller scale pipe organ in churches, this common Indian instrument played by Ray re-constituted the Bottom of the Hill into a different kind of place of worship. The congregation was led through a mass of inventive and purposeful hymns to femininity, disease, and heartbreak. Despite the seemingly dark subject matter, Shilpa Ray And Her happy Hookers are a joyous live experience, a celebration of performance and craftsmanship. Shilpa Ray is like Patti Smith, just as unique, defiant, and powerful but remade for a generation in desperate need of a kick-in-the ass! Like Smith, Ray’s band is a ferocious contingent, particularly guitarist Andrew Bailey, who is the Lenny Kaye to Ray’s Smith. Bassist Nick Hundley provided the pulse and thunder playing off a fill-in drummer who was only playing his second show with the band – literally not missing a beat.
Hooker, Nick Hundley with Shilpa Ray...photo by RLC
The interesting thing to watch was how inspired the young women looked in the audience. In Ray they could find someone whose talent and force of will was on full display, as she owned every inch of the stage. This seemed to be modeled back by the women in the audience, singly along with straightened spines, owning their femininity in the traditionally male world of rock. This band not only deserves attention, they command it – a rarer feat in the too-kool-for-school, ironical landscape of today’s “alternative rock”. I will be sure to re-beat the drum when Shilpa Ray And Her Happy Hookers come back to San Francisco in mid-May to play Bimbo's with Philadelphia’s RAWK circus Man Man. To hear and learn more about Shilpa Ray And Her Happy Hookers listen to this week’s “What Duvet Said…About Music” Issue 24 podcast, which will feature my interview with the band immediately following their show. The podcast can be found here on Wednesday. Below is some video taken LIVE and uneditied with my trusty FlipCam.
Happy indeed at NYC's Mercury Lounge!...photo by Gulshan Kirat
There are two shows happening in San Francisco this week that got nary a mention in either weekly and seem to have slipped past other local blogs in San Francisco, still reminiscent and power drunk from attending SXSW. They are as it happens, happening back to back. We strongly urge you to brave the rain for NYC's Shilpa Ray And Her Happy Hookers opening for Acid Mother's Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O at the Bottom of the Hill on Thursday night. On Friday night in the Mission district Verdi Club is hosting Nashville's Natural Child on a bill to support Austin, TX's The Strange Boys and SF's Ty Segall. Both shows feature live shows that are often unhinged and/or cathartic performances by still (with the exception of Segall) relative unknowns to the Bay Area. But in the case of Shilpa Ray, the New York Times, New Yorker, and Spin Magazine have all taken notice along with Nick Cave and Patti Smith.
Shilpa Ray And Her Happy Hookers feature Ray on the most RAWKING use of the least used instrument in rock, the harmonium. The four-piece from New York City have the aggressiveness of early Bad Seeds, the bi-polar qualities of PJ Harvey's first two albums, mixed with a poets heart. Bandleader Shilpa Ray is a force on stage, leaving one feeling like they just witnessed an exorcism. The music gets its inspiration from horror movies, the blues and Beat poetry. The rhythm section pounds and churls, guitars alternate between slashing stabs and lilting arpeggios with the organ qualities of the harmonium taking the whole sound to church. The most arresting instrument is Ray's voice which can range from melodious to soaring vociferate howls, often with in a few bars. This music is theatrical and intense, built for big venues and they should lay waste to the relatively small Bottom of the Hill. If Shilpa Ray And The Happy Hookers were a movie genre they would be a redemptive horror/slasher pic. It's no wonder Nick Cave hand-picked them to open up dates on the recent Grinderman tour - the two are musical kindred spirits. Shilpa Ray And Her Happy Hookers are on tour in support of the January release of their second album Teenage and Tortureon Knitting Factory Records. This is a show that will be worth every penny as they are hot on the heels of some white HOTT SXSW shows. Look for a review here on Friday!
San Francisco's Battlehooch living the American Dream...
This weekend the kind folks at BreakThruRadio alerted me to a video by a San Francisco band by the name of Battlehooch. Battlehooch has been one of those bands that has been on my radar but inexplicably I have yet to see perform live. Well, after watching their self-made video for the song "Someone to Remind You", I will no longer be depriving myself of witnessing the purveyors of one of the more singular sounds coming out of the Bay Area - and as in the case of the video below, vans. Battlehooch members seem to number in the dozens and employ some lesser-known instruments de RAWK such as the clarinet and accordion. Their collective approach and unabashed embrace of both headbands and feathers often lead their sound to be characterized as "Psychedelic " but what truly impresses is their songcraft. They will be headlining SF's Bottom of the Hill on February 25th with Oakland's No Bunny and the Downer Party as part of the annual Noise Pop Festival.
What is so wonderful about the video below is how creativity and imagination seem to be winning the day over special effects and budget, in an indie music community that has corralled technology in service of the DIY ethos of it's earlier heros. The video simply places the members of Battlehooch in a slow crawling van as it navigates Brooklyn's Bushwick (the new Williamsburg) neighborhood while they render their song safe in its confines. That's it! Great song teamed with the urban landscape motioning by through dirty windows and the unassuming charisma of the band, make for a very enjoyable ride, indeed! I look forward to more of this marketing aesthetic to continue in 2011 as the word "viral" continues to be uttered and ultimately abused by advertising agencies, marketing departments, and public relations professionals. This, of course, will lead to the complete subterfuge of the term rendering it meaningless, in which time we will see the glorious return of the 3 million dollar video!! To every season, turn, turn, turn...In the meantime enjoy this respite from bloat and self-awareness.
