Rasputina Launches Blimp Warfare with 'Oh Perilous World'

Eminent Victorians: Rasputina blends classical cello and rock.

If you’ve grown weary of bands that dress onstage in the same boring t-shirt and jeans ensemble, try the classical trappings of Rasputina on for size. The venerable, self-described "chamber rock trio," based in Brooklyn, New York, today releases its sixth full- length album, Oh Perilous World, on Filthy Bonnet Records.

As part of the recent boom in concept albums, Oh Perilous World presents an alternative history inspired by singer/lead cellist Melora Creager’s reading of daily world events over the past two years. The moral doublespeak of the Bush era ought to be familiar to members of Rasputina, who perform in corsets and are passionate students of the notoriously hypocritical Victorian age. Since the band’s formation in 1992, cited jokingly as 1891, and throughout its multiple incarnations since then, its music has been informed by founder Creager’s obsessions with real historical events and people, like Howard Hughes and Rosemary Kennedy.

Peek into Rasputina’s Oh Perilous World after the jump!

Rasputina's world. Enter at your own peril.

So, the concept of Oh Perilous World finds Mary Todd Lincoln representing the United States as the Queen of Florida, who sends her blimp armies to attack Pitcairn Island, symbolic of the Middle East, where Fletcher Christian's son Thursday leads a rebellion. Don’t be baffled by the plot. Just be grateful this is not an actual scenario that Condi Rice has had to confront.

Rasputina plays a blend of classical cello music and rock, and Oh Perilous World is at its best when the latter element roars front and center. Kansas transplant Creager, after all, did once open for the Throwing Muses and the Pixies, and she supported Nirvana on the European leg of the In Utero tour, including their final show in Munich. Accordingly, she and Rasputina excel on the new album’s noisier tracks, like “Choose Me for Champion,” and “Draconian Crackdown,” which allow waves of rock to crash through and foam with the cellos in a delightful ocean of noise. Also noteworthy is the tune, “Oh Bring Back the Egg Unbroken,” with its sexy, swaggering tempo and call-response vocals that echo the early 1960s Girl Group sound.

Say, Rasputina shows that history can be fun. Watch their cover of Heart’s “Barricuda,” its own kind of blast from the past, to see the proof. Or, better yet, catch Rasputina on their U.S. tour this July and August, with appearances by Jana Hunter and Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond.