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Black Tape for a Blue Girl (1986 - 2009)
Wikipedia:
Black Tape for a Blue Girl (often stylized as black tape for a blue girl) is an American dark wave band formed in 1986 by keyboardist/songwriter Sam Rosenthal, the founder of Projekt Records. Their music takes on elements of dark wave, ethereal, ambient, neoclassical, and dark cabaret music. Begun in California, Black Tape for a Blue Girl is based around Projekt Records founder Sam Rosenthal, the songwriter, lyricist and producer for the band. The band released seven albums in their first 13 years, covering the mid-80s through late-90s. Black Tape for a Blue Girl released their debut album The Rope in 1986. The band's line-up consisted of a core of Sam Rosenthal, Allan Kraut (on multiple instruments, including drums and guitars) and vocalist and guitarist Oscar Herrera. Guests included Kim Prior (as vocals), Adam Buhler (on guitar), Candy Sherlock and Lara Radford (as violinists).Their second album, Mesmerized by the Sirens, was released a year later, followed by Ashes in the Brittle Air in 1989, A Chaos of Desire in 1991 and This Lush Garden Within in 1993. The core members through this period were Rosenthal and Oscar Herrera, with a variety of guests musicians based on friends Sam chose to work with. Julianna Towns, of the band Skinner Box, provided vocals, flute, and guitar on Chaos. Recording of Remnants of a Deeper Purity began in 1995 in Los Angeles and was concluded in 1996 after Rosenthal's move to Chicago. This was the second album to feature Lucian Casselman on vocals and Vicki Richards on violin. It also featured Mera Roberts on cello. Remnants went on to become Black Tape for a Blue Girl's best selling release, and was the basis for the band's first live performance, Tuesday June 25, 1996 at Projektfest'96 in Chicago, Illinois.
Elysabeth Grant era (1999-2008)
In late 1999, Rosenthal (and now ex-wife Feuer) moved to New York City. Recording began on the band's seventh studio album, The Scavenger Bride, with Elysabeth Grant as lead vocalist and violist. Original vocalist Oscar Herrera was no longer involved with the band, giving up male vocal duties to Bret Helm (of Audra) and Athan Maroulis (of Spahn Ranch). The Scavenger Bride was released in 2002, with only two live appearances, as Rosenthal and Feuer's son was born. Two years later, the band released Halo Star, which shifted the vocal focus to Bret Helm. This album also marked a change in the bands' lush, ethereal sound. It is the band's first journey into a dark cabaret musical style, very similar to the Dresden Dolls and Katzenjammer Kabarett. An 18 city West Coast and East Coast tour wan through September and October 2004, with the band lineup of Rosenthal, Helm, Grant, Bart Helm, Nicki Jaine and Jay.Rosenthal and Jaine (vocals and guitar) spent 2005 recording and performing as Revue Noir. Black Tape for a Blue Girl performed three shows in 2007 with the lineup of Rosenthal, Grant, Helm and Feuer.
Athan Maroulis era (2009-2012)
Athan Maroulis, who appeared on two songs on The Scavenger Bride album, as well as a cover of Dead Can Dance's "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book", took over as lead vocalist. On September 22, 2009, the band released their 10th album, 10 Neurotics, with the lineup of Rosenthal on acoustic guitar, programming and keyboards, Brian Viglione (The Dresden Dolls) on drums, percussion, bass and guitar, and vocalists Maroulis (Spahn Ranch), Laurie Reade (ex-Attrition) and Nicki Jaine on additional vocals. Sam explained that the risque nature of the Neurotics-material caused the previous band members to shy away from singing the songs, though Grant did appear on the song "You Strike Me Down", previously released in a longer and more ethereal form on Projekt200. In August 2009, the band was invited to play at a CD release party for Dreamchild's Sleeping Flowers Severed, Scream of Laughter. Wisteriax performed an opening cello piece, Black Tape for a Blue Girl performed a four-song set from 10 Neurotics, and Dreamchild finished with a final set. The band played East Coast shows and festivals with Rosenthal, Maroulis, Jaine and occasionally Viglione (on guitar). In October 2010, Valerie Gentile (The Crüxshadows) joined Black Tape for a Blue Girl as guitarist and vocalist, replacing Jaine, who retired from music at this point. In October 2011, Pinky Weitzman (Not Waving But Drowning) replaced vocalist Valerie Gentile, who was living in Los Angeles. Maroulis, Rosenthal and Weitzman performed three shows together, including the 2011 Projektfest. With Maroulis as vocalist, Black Tape For A Blue Girl played 31 shows between August 2009 and November 2011. In mid-2011, Rosenthal and Maroulis, with guest cellist Erica Mulkey / Unwoman, recorded a cover of the 1983 David Sylvian / Ryuichi Sakamoto track "Forbidden Colours" which appeared on the Projekt Holiday release Ornamental.[6] The band then entered a mostly dormant phase while Rosenthal wrote (in 2012) and promoted his erotic novel, Rye.
Post-NYC era (2013-present)
In August 2013, Rosenthal moved to Portland, Oregon. His endorsement of crowd-funding grew after the successful 2013 Kickstarter for the vinyl reissue of Remnants of a Deeper Purity. In January 2015, Rosenthal launched a Patreon page to support the recording of new music.[8] In April 2015, the first result of this Patron support was As Lonely As Dave Bowman's Monolith CD, a solo-electronic release from Rosenthal. In September 2015, a Kickstarter was created to fund a 12" single with four new tracks, all sung by Michael Plaster of the Projekt Records act SoulWhirlingSomehwhere. Rosenthal wrote, "The tracks on the EP are a bit of an anomaly from the others I am recording; these are sparse and sensitive acoustic guitar pieces with Michael's vocals." At this time, he announced the name and stylistic change of the spring 2016 Black Tape For A Blue Girl album, "These fleeting moments will be a return to the ethereal darkwave/dark ambient sound of the early 90s Blacktape CDs."
Album List:
1986 - Before the buildings fell
1986 - The rope
1987 - Mesmerized by the sirens
1989 - Ashes in the brittle air
1991 - A chaos of desire
1991 - A teardrop left behind
1993 - This lush garden within
1996 - Remnants
1996 - Remnants of a deeper purity
1996 - The first pain to linger
1997 - With my sorrows
2002 - The scavenger bride
2003 - With a million tear-stained memories
2004 - Halo star
2004 - Scarecrow
2004 - Tarnished
2009 - 10 Neurotics
Media Report:
Genre: Ethereal wave, darkwave
Country: USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Note: the album 'As one aflame laid bare by desire (1999)' got lost, only one song remains, the rest got corrupted. So, you only will see one song, the 12th song. Sorry for that. |
