Black Moth Super Rainbow is an American experimental band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their music contains elements of psychedelia, folk, electronica, and pop. Their distinctive sound is characterized by analog electronic instruments including the vocoder, Rhodes piano, and Novatron.
A Graveface insert included inside the album Dandelion Gum describes them as such: "Deep in the woods of western Pennsylvania vocoders hum amongst the flowers and synths bubble under the leaf-strewn ground while flutes whistle in the wind and beats bounce to the soft drizzle of a warm acid rain. As the sun peeks out from between the clouds, the organic aural concoction of Black Moth Super Rainbow starts to glisten above the trees."
History
Father Hummingbird and former bassist Power Pill Fist
Before adopting the current moniker, Black Moth Super Rainbow existed as two separate entities.
I had started off really noisy and abstract with Allegheny White Fish. We were all so happy with ourselves for coming up with that name in 10th grade, but it wasn’t too funny 4 years later. Then ssc [satanstompingcaterpillars] was like my way to be more melodic all the time, and a little more serious. Then when it started to shift again into something I might be a little more comfortable performing live, I brought in the rest of the band and we changed over again. I’ve always felt like these ideas shouldn’t outstay their welcome. 3 or 4 records is enough, because I get really bored, and I like to keep these bands and ideas as pure as I can, in their places in time, until it seems like I’ve finally gotten it right. Tobacco, via FMLY interview
From 1996 to 2000 Tobacco existed as Allegheny White Fish [Pittsburghese for a condom floating down the river][citation needed] and from 2000 to 2002 were known as satanstompingcaterpillars. Under satanstompingcaterpillars, the band self-released their music on different labels, including Fuckeroo (Flower Slides) and Side 8. After their third album in 2002 (The Most Wonderfulest Thing), the band added three members (Father Hummingbird, The Seven Fields of Aphelion, and Iffernaut) and changed their name to form Black Moth Super Rainbow in 2003. BMSR began releasing their music on the 70's Gymnastics Recording company, which is the band's own imprint (characterized by a tree-person jumping rope in a dress). Black Moth Super Rainbow's first album, Falling Through A Field serves as a best-of collection for satanstompingcaterpillars. Little is known about the band or its members, as they have kept themselves something of an enigma. [1]
On March 17, 2007, the band played alongside The Octopus Project as one band at the South by Southwest music festival, playing music from their collaborative project, The House of Apples and Eyeballs. [2][3]
Black Moth Super Rainbow also opened for the band The Flaming Lips on their Fall 2007 tour. More recently, BMSR performed at the 2008 SXSW music festival in a badges and wristbands only, packed-to-capacity show at The Thirsty Nickel.
Tobacco has released some albums (Fucked Up Friends, Super Gum [Destroying Dandelion Gum] {Rumored to be a remix album}). After 2005, Graveface picked them up with Lost, Picking Flowers in the Woods and bonus re-issued versions of their first two albums. Dandelion Gum was BMSR's third album, released in 2007, and possibly their most successful album with many good reviews. With it came their first music video for the track "Sun Lips". In early 2008, they continued to release Zodiac Girls - Single and Drippers - EP in November. Along with Drippers - EP, BMSR released for MP3 download on their MySpace Bonus Drippers (The Older Unlreased & Hard-To-Find Songs), older and unreleased tracks or bonus tracks like "The Dark Forest Joggers", a Dandelion Gum vinyl exclusive, "Side 9", a Lost, Picking Flowers in the Woods vinyl bonus track. or "Melting in the Meadow", a Start a People outtake track.
The band has appeared at the WIDR Barking Tuna, Sasquatch, and several other festivals.
On November 4, BMSR released Drippers - EP which not only includes new tracks like "Happy Melted City" or "Milk Skates" but also features some lost tracks from the Dandelion Gum era ("We Are the Pagans" and "One Day I Had an Extra Toe") it also features Mike Watt and BMSR's first official remix of Laura Burhenn's song "Just for the Night". Three days earlier, BMSR played their last live show for a while, due to the recording of their fourth full-length album Eating Us, released on May 26, 2009 (however Eating Us leaked onto various file-sharing networks as of April 13, 2009 much to fans' delight).
In recent news under her Myspace, The Seven Fields of Aphelion will be the third member from BMSR to release a solo project. Her debut solo album Periphery has been scheduled to be released in early 2010 on Graveface.
On August 26, 2009 via the band's official forum, bassist Power Pill Fist announced that he would be leaving the band. The reasons were not specified. Ryan Graveface will assume the role of full-time bassist.
Discography
Albums
EPs
Singles
- "Zodiac Girls" (2008)
- "Don't You Want To Be In A Cult?" (2009)
- "Born On A Day The Sun Didn't Rise" (2009)
Unreleased Album
In a Myspace bulletin from July 14 2009, one of the members of BMSR (presumably Tobacco) mentioned an "abandoned" album from 2006. "i made this record for myself but i'm in the mood to post a song from it for a little bit today." One song was posted as a teaser as it was only active for an hour.
References
Notes
- ^ Sahl, Chris (October 31, 2006) ([dead link] – Scholar search), Black Moth Super Rainbow and the Octopus Project: The House of Apples & Eyeballs (prefixmag review), Prefix Magazine, http://www.prefixmag.com/reviews/cds/B/black-moth-super-rainbow-and-the-octopus-project/the-house-of-apples-%26-eyeballs/2745 .
- ^ Powell, Austin (March 23, 2007), Funhouse: Trolling South By Southwest 2007: The Octopus Project + Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Austin Chronicle, http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid%3A458435 .
- ^ Pareles, Jon (March 19, 2007), The Times at the South by Southwest Festival, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/music/sxsw-journal.htm .
External links
