the GHASTLY GRIMEY ORCHESTRA of NEW ORLEANS
* THE STORY *
It was 2002 when the Ghastly Grimey Orchestra of New Orleans was drawn together during a New Orleans summer heat that smelled of almost sickeningly sweet flowers.There was a poster on the wall of Edward Gorey's illustrated alphabet, "The Gashlycrumb Tinies." For each letter in Gorey's alphabet a child dies in an unusual way.
For each child's demise the Orchestra created a song. Instruments and musicians were gathered from around the crannies of the city. Theramins, typewriters, little children's toys and clattering teeth were thrown into the mix and from the insides of elevator shafts all the way to living rooms, the Orchestra played. There were simple rules: a song was written just by those present, it was run through twice, recorded and never played again. Ever.
Times flies, as it does and things get lost: memories of who played on which song and even sometimes who was there at all. Even a few songs themselves wandered away. The master tapes are gone; robbed from "Marla's House" along with the recording equiptment. Even the warehouse and the dwellings where the songs were recorded are not as they were, chunks stolen away by a hurricane.
In 2006, four years gone from when it all started, the Orchestra's music was finally released.
* A RECENT INTERVIEW ABOUT THE ALBUM *
Interview part 1 of 2 conducted by Stephen Rennick with Natalia Beylis in March 2009 in Ireland.
* A LIST OF ORCHESTRA MEMBERS *
Lisa Van Wambeck - Theramin, Chattering Teeth, Scratching Nails
Don Godwin - Sousaphone, Precussion, Piano, Coronet, Accordian, Lap Steel, Trumpet, Sousaphone, Engineer:
Plays big brass instruments in The Hungry March Band.
Plays noisey rock instruments in Impractical Cockpit
John Gerkin - Guitar, Bass, Voacls, Banjo:
Writes the zine I Hate This Part of Texas
Natalia - Rhodes Piano, Organ, Royal Deluxe Typewriter, Trombone
Willie Jones - Cymbals, High Hats, Beer Cans, Bottles, Screwdrivers, Poly Poly Chime Ball
Dan Beckman - Guitar, Vocals:
Visit Uke of Spaces for his solo and quiet stuffs
and Impractical Cockpit for the noise.
Eric Martinez - Percussion, Guitar:
read all about him in his virtual journal.
hear him rock n' roll in Red Beards
Casey Cottrell - Bass
Patrick Farell - Accordian
Anikka Lachman - Violin
Michael Tuttle - Stand-Up Bass:
now plays with The Painted Bird
Andy Neubauer - Saw, Lap Steel, Accordian:
Another Impractical Cockpittee.
Shanna Neggins - Singing
Matt Runkle - Singing
Jessie Smaith - Singing, Piano
Kristen - Singing
Amy Moon - Singing
Ryan Burns - Old drill with a rubber bit inserted where the metal bit usually goes against the open back of a piano
Alex - Singing
Brother Clit - Slidey Whistle
Extra Track (Shady Grove played at the old abandoned amusement park down on Lake Ponchatrain):
Burkie - Guitar: spends his days much too busy in Dublin
Amanda - Banjo: spends her days much too busy in Cork
Happy Burbeck - Tin Whistle:
plays in the musical sensation Ixnay
Ethan Clark - Tin Whistle: makes words fall together in a very funny way
* REVIEWS *
"This album is compiled from a summer-long attempt at capturing Edward Gorey's “Ghastleycrumb Tinies” (a collection of charming illustrations of the untimely demises of many sallow-faced tots, one for each of the alphabet) in audio form. It surprisingly holds its own as a document of many gypsy-like musicians (and other assorted performers and carnival types) gathered together in a warehouse in New Orleans in the sweltering summer of 2002. New Orleans is home to many transient people whose power can be harnessed by adventurous types, and Willie and Natalia of Stitchy Press are such people. On holiday from Ireland, these young entrepreneurs assembled many otherwise unoccupied talents into a formidable soundtrack-making force. The sounds range from skewed pop reminiscent of the first Residents LP, or maybe some very disturbed jazz, to very intense atmospheric pieces that retain a very subtle musicality. It should be noted that there are members of this ensemble (including the theremin player) who claim to have spotted a live unicorn on tour with a different group, near an insect museum somewhere in the American Midwest. There is an eclectic and engagingly consistent feeling throughout the album that makes one curious what sort of sounds will come next. Although there are many horns present, it certainly never resembles anything that the average person would recognize as New Orleans music. The record progresses very organically into soundtrack material, and it seems that each member of the orchestra is allowed their own solo moment, as well as songwriting contributions. This makes for constant surprises and many different guises of the ghastly story are laid end on end, one after another. Although sometimes drifting into abstract or atonal music, generally the compositions keep things moving at a distinctive aesthetic pace, much in the morbidly charming style of the strips that inspired them. Several of the pieces are disarmingly captivating, easily causing one to lose track of which instruments are being played as the sonic story unfolds.As can be ascertained by the track listing above, the full ghastly alphabet was not completed during these sessions, and in fact the songs begin to drift from narrative into a deep wellspring of emotional, wordless vignettes that accompany one in pondering some of the gloomier aspects of the topics that the pieces are covering. There are only a few songs with any vocals, and they are generally very tasteful. Mostly, the music and the morbid sounds and percussion tell a story of a place in between worlds, a living death for dead children and others without a physical presence, still trying to work on unfinished business.
Altogether, the morbid state of affairs is rendered with a very generous palatte, and generally the same sounds are never heard twice. Occasionally, it will all come together magnificently, as on “P”, an excited drunken singalong with many participants that resembles a sinister parade marching band singing a particularly morbid Johnny Thunders. This ends with a very atonal jam that conspicuously resembles the sound of many people playing seperately and carelessly among each other as a fire burns in the light of the pervasive moon. A whip of doom carries the orchestra to oblivion, and the dead children just stay dead. A captivating and entertaining album."
Vargr Wulf at Heathen Harvest
"What an absolute treat is in store for you, anyone with a even a slight interest in the likes of the recent beirut album, godspeeds quiet meandering phases or even the sounds of tom waits without the singing will simply fall in love with this real gem of an album, its full of scratchy intimate sounds, violins, bottles clanging, cymbals, accordians, cellos, typewriters and some much abused pianos, the 23 tracks will take you on a journey around the old sounds of new orleans peppered with lots of avant garde minimalism but its all done with a real sense of joy and fun, the album comes in a lovely hand printed cardboard sleeve, its very slowly becomming one of my albums of the year."
Road Records
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