[Rasputina's Melora Creager, the undisputed doyenne of cello-based, kinda-goth, steampunk-avant-la-lettre indie music, has graciously agreed to guest-blog for West Coast Sound in anticipation of their upcoming LA gig at the Troubadour, this Saturday, August 14. She's been sending us these awesome letters from the road, which you can read exclusively here. Click here and here for the first and second installments.]

August 13, 2010

Hello fellow-people,

Sadly, this is my last letter as we've arrived in Hollywood to perform on Saturday night.

We're staying at a futurist hotel. It doesn't fit the Rasputina image, but it is a little known fact that I adore some trendy, moderne things, including colored lucite.

This place is blowing the bank, but it's important to treat myself & the rest of the band, once in a while. (I book all the hotels, plan the fieldtrips, etc.) This is actually a field-trip too. We've got to examine and study trendiness, as well as obscure history. Oh who am I kidding, we just want to feel cool for once. We are the orchestra dorks, all grown up.

I think that's what appealed to me early on about being in a band- the feeling that it was a cool club, but one for misfits, where, perhaps, the weirder you were, the cooler you were.

Sometimes I don't feel very cool when we're actually performing. I can feel like an orchestra dork still–if the audience is very quiet, if I feel that the applause is tepid.

The nature of what I do is advanced multi-tasking. I'm singing and playing the cello. While doing that, I also think of all kinds of things. I have flashes of, “What the hell? This is a weird thing to be doing in front of all these people!”. No grocery lists, but my mind is all over the place. Maybe my mind is being free then.

In April, Rasputina played at a decadent party here in Los Angeles, where I met a genius clown named Maggie. I've asked her to join us for a couple of shows as a Victorian go-go dancer. She'll be with us in Portland & Seattle.

When I was in art school in the 1880's, I used to go see the Butthole Surfers whenever they came to NYC. They had a dancer named Kathleen who really made the show. She was really insane- naked with a rainbow afro wig and tin-foil on her teeth, but with a crazy peacefulness about her.

Dancers can be good muses to musicians/composers. Stravinsky & Najinksy, Antony & Johanna, now Melora & Maggie.

After LA, we go up the West Coast, across to play Boise, Idaho for the first time, and end in Denver. When we get home it will almost be time for school to start. My 11 year old daughter will be starting 6th grade. Now that's a different head, but I can get into it.

So please, thank you for reading and I cordially hope to see you at our recital at the Troubadour.

Love from,

Melora Creager

Directress, Rasputina.

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