Artist: Rasputina
CD: "Great American Gingerbread"
Label: Filthy Bonnet
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Rasputina's newest release, "Great American Gingerbread", is subtitled "Rasputina Rarities & Neglected Items." and that's what we get: a nice odds & sods collection that I really enjoyed.
"Great American Gingerbread" doesn't pretend to be a complete collection of hard-to-find Rasputina songs (I think we've approached boxset stage on that now) and die-hard fans are bound to bemoan the lack of inclusion of certain ditties (personally I'm still awaiting a re-release of the "Ancient Cross-Dressing Songs" triptych). That being said I found the raw, unpolished nature of these songs to be quite compelling.
The unfinished nature of the "demos" on this collection provides a surprisingly intimate look into Melora Creager's (lead Rasputina) song creation process. The result is markedly humble and warm, and fairly enticing. Unlike some albums I review the more I listened to these tracks the more I looked forward to hearing them again.
In addition to the audio CD the set comes with a DVD of Rasputina performing at NYC's The Knitting Factory back in 2002. It's a nicely filmed set and is interspersed with bits of a Q&A session with the band. A nice bit of archival evidence.
