Steampunk News

Dieselpunks.org | June 4, 2013

 Ah, the glorious American music of the Diesel Age!  The blaring of the horns, the wailing of the clarinets, the tinkling of the pianos, the plonking of the banjos…wait, banjos?

Yes, and fiddles, mandolins, and jugs too!

While the Hot Jazz and Cool Swing of the cities may steal the Diesel spotlight in many people’s minds today, the American countryside had its own musical traditions and innovations, many of which resonate today in modern music.  The traditional American string band sounds of the Steam Era countryside, with roots from Ireland to Dahomey, were themselves undergoing a transformation with new picking styles and melodies, influenced by world sounds, and laying the foundations for much of modern music. Blues (Delta, Piedmont, and others), Old Time string bands, and Jug bands developed new and more complex harmonic structures and arrangements, cross-polinated, and in turn defined the emerging American sounds just as much as Jazz and Ragtime. They formed the basis for such emergent “genres” as Blues, Old Time, Bluegrass, Folk, and Country. [image from crackletonmanor.tumbler.com]

And then fell out of popular favor in many circles.

While the String Band traditions survived and even thrived in many areas, particularly Appalachia, by the 1970s they were often relegated to popular media as the music of “hicks” and “rednecks”, often disparaged as the sounds of an older, more ignorant group, and largely ignored.  These great musical traditions were targeted mainly to more niche audiences, typically older and rural.  Even Country music began to electrify and move in more “pop” directions, ditching the banjo for the most part. A few popular afficionadoes like Roy Clarke, Sam Bush, Garrison Keillor, and Steve Martin kept the sounds alive, and the Folk Music revival gave them a brief popular resurgence with the 60s counterculture, but these often had a passing ”kitch” or nostalgic appeal, rather than seen as something contemporary and relevent.

Thankfully, that has changed.

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Tags: Art Thou, Music, Wagon Wheel, Wait So Long

Steampunk Workshop | May 16, 2013

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Tags: Music

Steampunk Tribune | March 31, 2013

Came across a very nice article regarding Steampunk at Gettysburg: Film, Art, and Music Festival, by, Ms. J. Hatmaker, which touched upon a few intriguing items to consider if one visits a Steampunk convention.  Specifically, her article on the “Five rules for surviving a Steampunk Convention” did elicit a grin, as for those who have made a trek to a Steampunk Con will consider.  I certainly do recommend both articles, and hope that those inviduals who had the opportunity to visit Steampunk at Gettysburg had a wonderful time.  (Also, plenty of excellen photos from visitors embeded in the work – do take a gander that them!)

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Tags: Montegue Jacques Fromage, Music, Steampunk Blog, Steampunk Con

Dieselpunks.org | March 30, 2013

The Flickers, the Silver Screen, the Moving Pictures…call them what you will, I call them GOLD!

[image from solarnavigator.net]

Yes, the Motion Pictures Industry is coming into its own thanks to amazing new directors, stars, and actors with a keen new eye on what’s possible.  Folks in faraway places like Southern California and Paris and Berlin are experimenting with the possibilities of this new medium in amazing ways. And to celebrate this event the Record Cabaret is now, for this special boxed set release, also the Flicker Cabaret, complete with actual moving picture reels for your viewing pleasure!  Simply stop the record while you change the reels following my spoken clues!  Watch them with this accompanying musical record and introductory and be amazed!

Moving Pictures. You’ve by now seen this amazing technological acheivment in some carnival or travelling exhibit, but have you seen it lately?  I bet not! 

For example, chances are that Reel #1 is what you’ve seen before.  Please stop this record and start Reel #1, restarting record for accompanying music. Enjoy!

Welcome back! By now the music and film should both be completed.  If not, please adjust as necessary…done? Good!  As you saw, it was a rather droll ride down main street.  I’m sure such things absolutely amazed you a few years ago, but by now you’ve probably moved on.  We at the Cabaret certainly have!

So, what can be done?  Well, the latest and most visually amazing movie ever made is now out: the incredible work of D.W. Griffith and his blockbuster hit Birth of a Nation.  New and clever techniques like dramatic screen-cuts between scenes and accelerating action and camera angles to highten tension really makes the film a barn burner. Unfortunately, it’s also a cross burner. It is an artistically amazing acheivement, alright, but if you don’t know the Cabaret’s stand on those white hooded idiots the film unfortunately celebrates…well, welcome, new friend! Keep listening and we’ll clear you up on the whole “Klan” business.

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Category: Dieselpunk | No Comments »
Tags: Douglas Fairbanks Cocktail, Douglas Fairbanks Watch, Moving Pictures, Music

Steampunk Magazine | March 20, 2013

BY ELI AUGUST AND THE ABANDONED BUILDINGS
Self-published
Review by Josh Aterovis

A driving guitar is joined by evocative cello and the singer asserts, “No one wants to hear a sad song.” It’s an interesting beginning to an album that is mostly full of sad songs. Impressively, though, the overall feeling isn’t one of depression, thanks in large part to the fact that the main theme seems to be finding hope in a dark world. Eli August and the Abandoned Buildings have crafted a lush, string-filled album that offers a balm to “The Weak and the Weary.” That opening track is called “Alone,” but singer/songwriter Eli August goes on to assure us “you’re not alone” in the chorus.

That tone of hopeful melancholy continues throughout the album. The next two tracks, “The Sounds of Trains” and “The Living World,” both explore themes of loss and yearning. The fourth song, “Warm,” offers a welcome jaunty note that comes with a bit of a gypsy feel. “If your heart has been torn, don’t lose those memories, keep them warm.”

Things slow back down with “Fool’s Philosophy,” about a love gone wrong. “Where No One Knows” finds our narrator searching for a place where he can find a little peace, far from the beaten path. “Kind” picks up the tempo again as Eli loses his faith in humanity.

Track number 8, “Petals,” one of the album highlights, keeps up the upbeat feeling despite moody lyrics like “let the blight eat the petals and your leaves” and “there’s no redemption from the way that we were.” Another standout, “Riverbend,” has some of my favorite lyrics on a lyrically rich album. “Take me down to where the river bends, hold me closer than I’ve been, take me down to where the city lights are fireflies.” In “Rise Above,” Eli hits his most hopeful note yet, singing “I want to rise above this world, I want to learn not to assume, I want to change, you know I do.”

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Tags: ABANDONED, AUGUST, BUILDINGS, Music

Steampunk Magazine | February 16, 2013

BY PEPE DELUXE
Label: Catskills Records
Reviewed by Meg Kingston

Calling itself “An Esoteric Pop Opera in Three Parts”, Queen of the Wave is a bold attempt by the Scandinavian duo Pepe Deluxe to reinvent the prog rock concept album for the 21st century. I love the idea, I enjoyed some of the tracks, but it didn’t really flow in the way I would expect from a concept album. It sounds more like a collection of tracks strung together almost at random. The story they tell is similarly mixed up.

The accompanying book is similar, a collection of images comprising fragments of the story, the history of the group, the lyrics and miscellaneous retro-futuristic machines. It’s appealing at first glance, but I reached the end feeling that my expectations were unfilled.

There’s no denying the talents of the contributors or the scale of their ambitions. I loved several elements – especially the Stalagpipe Organ (exactly what it sounds like). But the overall feel suffers from a lack of coherence.

This work has been submitted to the magazine as a “Steampunk” work. I don’t believe it is, though it’s retro-futuristic, full of references to odd machinery, Atlantis and other trappings that could be part of the Steampunk aesthetic.

Is it Steampunk? No, I’m afraid not. Did I enjoy Queen of the Wave? In part, yes.

Personal Score: 3 stars (out of 5)

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Tags: DELUXE, Music, PEPE, Personal Score

Dieselpunks.org | February 9, 2013

Yet another American musical innovation?  Bully!  It’s Jass Music, the newest sound to emerge from the south!

Welcome again, my friendly (and growing) listenership!  Today the Record Cabaret visits the Jewel of the Delta, New Orleans, Louisiana, where a whole new sound is emerging, the sound of Jass.  My friends in Chicago may have heard this new sound from the same pace I did, the Original Dixieland Jass Band.  This quintet, led by New Orleans natives clarinetist Alcide Nunez and drummer Johnny Stein, has introduced us all to this exciting new sound.  Let’s hear them now:

Wasn’t that just the best?  Like most of the emerging Jass players, they got their start with “Papa” Jack Laine’s Reliance Brass Band, a high-stepping marching band that’s doing things with the march that Mr. Sousa would never have expected.  It seems our recent war with the Spanish has left many a marching band instrument behind here in the army’s disembarkation port of New Orleans, and the locals have gone wild with them!

And yes, sir, you’ve undoubtedly by now assumed the Original Jass Band to be, well, the Originals to deliver that sound.  But they’re not.  It seems a creative young man named “Jelly Roll” Morton beat them to it.  How, you might ask, did he aquire such a strange name as Jelly Roll?  Well, he got his start in the…erm…”sporting houses” of the Storyville district of New Orleans, where Jelly Roll is slang for a…part of a woman…look, you figure it out.  I refuse to smut up my record, thank you very much!  Anyway, here’s Jelly Roll:

Fantastic, yes?  That’s gotta be the original sound of Jass, yes?  Mr. Morton claims as much.  Claims he invented Ragtime too!  But it appears that it’s older than even him.  That man he mentions in the song, cornet player Buddy Bolden, on the other hand…it seems he’s the one the locals here credit most [pictured above: his band - image from wikimedia].  They say he took the simple habanera beat and added a twist: four beats, then a loose couple beats on the end where you kind of just…do whatever you please.  Free form improvisation!  That, it seems, is the beating heart of Jass!  And it appears to have begun there!

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Tags: Brandy Flip, Jelly Roll, Mix Drinks, Music

Steampunk Magazine | January 23, 2013

BY THE LANGER’S BALL
Self-published
Reviewed by John Smith

The latest album from Celtic rock band The Langer’s Ball shows that this Twin Cities five-piece isn’t scared to take sides in that age-old dilemma “The Devil or the Barrel.” And the side they take is pretty clear. Want a hint? It’s the barrel. The International Whiskey Association (if they existed) would have no choice but to give this album the coveted Whiskey-Themed Album of the Year award (if it existed). In fact, if someone would have bet me $100 that any band could successfully include the word “whiskey” in an album this many times, that’d be $100 I’d never see again. The Kickstarter-funded album blends slightly re-imagined traditional Celtic pub favorites with some totally original takes on traditional music destined to become pub favorites. While the album itself is as a matter of fact a revamping of classics, the scarcer picks are truly what make this album worth owning. For instance: the clever “Whiskey Chaser” with the instant-classic chorus: “I used to chase the women, but they left me in a lurch/Then I chased salvation but just ended up in church/Chasing fame and fortune, I got caught up by the fuzz/Now I’m chasing whiskey and I always catch my buzz.”

While it’s only natural to compare The Langer’s Ball with other well-known American Celtic-punk bands like Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphy’s, The Langer’s Ball belongs in a much tamer category; a category where accordions replace bagpipes and step-dancing replaces moshing. It feels more traditional, just enough lilt to be convincing without overdoing it. This album transports you to the Emerald Isle in a grand new fashion. It takes you away to lush green fields and handsome redheads in green plaid. If you close your eyes you can easily drift away to a hazy, poorly-lit ale house, the band in the corner raising the crowd to a frenzy with an energetic whiskey anthem, then bringing the rowdiness down with a strong slow ballad. Ah man, and just when you were about to Lord of the Dance all over this place! No worries, with The Langer’s Ball you can be assured that there’s another foot-stomper coming up soon.

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Tags: BALL, Emerald Isle, LANGER, Music

Steampunk Magazine | January 9, 2013

BY MACHINA SHOGUNATE
Self produced by Machina Shogunate
Reviewed by Lori Holuta

Machina Shogunate has existed since 2007 and are carving their niche through a balance of music and visual performance. Their first EP feels both long overdue and at the same time the work of a band still finding their way. Under the Rose takes us on a journey, one that no doubt speaks of their own experiences while resonating with those of their audiences.

The EP leads off with “Jagged Shadow”. To start on a positive note, I love the chorus, during which V-zhon’s sweet voice delivers disturbing lyrics in a perfect pace, not only to my ears but to my spine, in the form of a chill. However. Beyond the chorus lies the verse. I itch to snip away a word or two far too often. The belaboring of as many haunting words as can be welded together gives the effect of a hurried need to sing fast enough to keep up. I should be feeling the desperation of the pursuit, not thinking about running to catch a bus.

But it is only the beginning of our journey.

“To Kill A Demon” is a confrontation. It begins with a moment of upbeat, slick instrumental, then quickly moves to the message. The ultimatum is delivered firmly, the music and lyrics taking full control of the message. The band has not only caught up with the bus now, it’s going to torch it. We hear a sharper focus of concept now, with dreamlike sounds alternating against the heavier instrumentals. I am pleased at the progression of vocal emotion from “Jagged Shadow”–now V-zhon’s living the words, not just reciting lyrics.

And now we delve into “Sub Rosa”. The vocals are stronger, but in balance, not competing against the music but working with it. The lyrics are a wordsmith’s dream, braiding lush and sometimes beautiful imagery with clarity and an awakening realization of the horrors of reality.

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Tags: Jagged Shadow, MACHINA, Music, SHOGUNATE

Steampunk Tribune | January 8, 2013

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Tags: AZ, Desert Rose Theater, DRT, Music

Steampunk Magazine | January 7, 2013

BY VICTOR SIERRA
Label: Sierra Data Studio
Reviewed by William H. Rose, III

One of my great joys in life is discovering exceptional, new, alternative music that moves me. Especially compositions that fill a void, become a part of me, or contain their own unique signature. In my ever-expanding exploration for innovative music I look for sounds that reside outside the monotonous “heard-that” drone of Rock n’ Roll or that exist beyond the boundaries of generic top-40 radio. Electric Rain, the third album by Paris-based Victor Sierra, is just such an eclectic, international mixture of ethereal sounds.

The band features Bob Eisenstein on strings, Anouk Adrien on vocals, and Big Machine on keyboards, synthesizers, and drum machines. Victor Sierra is an alternative trio that blends aspects of punk, industrial-orchestration, and minimalist-electronic influences with Steampunk zest. The lyrics, both original and poetic, could easily be crafted into Steampunk stories, especially The Road Not Taken, Blood in the Skies, and Bridge To Nowhere. The melodies are rhythmic and loaded with swirling, sober and mysterious keyboards, industrial percussion, airy, diverse guitars, and stunning vocal harmonies.

El Topo, perhaps titled after the bizarre Alejandro Jodorowsky western of the same name, brings to mind the sounds of the desert with the swirling miasma of Eisenstein’s strings and Anouk Adrien’s haunting vocals. The Road Not Taken (see Robert Frost but with teeth) is a hard driving, beautiful, steam-powered song with undercurrents of a locomotive standing in for the rhythm section and an otherworldly and memorable hook. Blood in the Skies begins with an industrial, machine-driven drum-beat and an evocative guitar intro and is one of my favorites. Other memorable songs include White Rabbit, a Jefferson Airplane cover, and Scratch My Door, which features excellent guitar work both electric and acoustic and a keyboard pan-flute you’ll find hard to resist.

The only negative thing I might say about the album is that three of the songs are sung in languages that I don’t understand, but that’s my shortcoming not the bands. The addition of an accomplished bass player might help expand their sound, but that’s a very minor flaw. Victor Sierra employs an industrial, Steam-powered sound that grows on you and the more I listened to the album the more enjoyable I found it.

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Tags: Electric Rain, Music, SIERRA, VICTOR

Dieselpunks.org | December 29, 2012

Hey, Cool Cats & Swingin’ Chicks! Welcome back to Las Vegas, the hippest place in the world!

Yep, my ol’ agent and pal Ben Siegel, God rest his soul, dreamed for years about turning this spot of sand into the Atlantic City of the west, and damned if his dream hasn’t come true!  While his grand opening of the Flamingo didn’t quite go as planned I’m sure Ben would be tickled pink to see how his dream has come true, and love to see the show we have tonight with those swingingest, most happenin’ Cats Frank, Dean, and Sammy here at the fabulous Sands Casino.

These three are the epitome of Cool, and we’re lucky to have them here for this New Year’s Gala. And speaking of cool, did you know that those three are pretty much singularly responsible for integrating this town? Yep, Frank and Dean refused to play any Casino that didn’t let Sammy have his own dressing room and place on the stage. Any other cats that tried that would be thrown out of the joint (or, let’s be honest, into a hole in the desert…pretend I didn’t say that out loud, folks!). And now see them all, solo, together, however. Seriously, these guys make it up as they go along.  Who knows what’s going to happen?

And forget the bubbly,folks, ’cause the old classic cocktail the Martini (did you know Dean’s last name pre-Anglicization is Martini?) is on the stage tonight in a triple-feature of its own, in three different versions!

But first, let’s live it up with tonight’s New year’s event, starting, of course, with Frankie, an old friend of the Cabaret himself:

And next, the Dean, with his breakout hit Volare:

And last, but certainly not least, Sammy Davis, jr., with a few friends. You’ll see what I mean:

Bravisimo! What could be better than that? 

How about a Martini or three? First, the Classic itself:

[from tinhouse.com]

Classic Gin Martini Cocktail:

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• 2 oz Gin
• 1/2 oz Dry Vermouth

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Tags: Classic Gin Martini Cocktail, Music, New Year, Vesper Martini