Rasputina

Rasputina is the world’s first all-cello (mostly female) rock band. Melora Creager founded it in 1991 to meet like-minded young women- literate girls who wanted to rock out on the cello. And wear costumes. A la the Dada movement, she wrote a manifesto. The Victorian underthings costumery was inspired by two specific classic movie scenes in which large numbers of girls gather for an afternoon nap wearing their corsets and bloomers. Which movies? Oklahoma and Gone With the Wind. In the early 1990s, corsets were only available by mail-order from fetish catalogs. The costumes have evolved over time to include all epochs and elements beautiful, powerful and historical. Melora’s songwriting covers myriad strange and tragic historical situations. Although renowned for her originality, Rasputina’s covers have always been great crowdpleasers, i.e. Heart's Barracuda and Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. An alum of Parsons School of Design (NYC), Melora designed all but one of Rasputina’s album covers utilizing Victorian ‘women’s work’: quilting, collage and embroidery. With a frequently changing line-up, Rasputina has toured relentlessly all these years holding a devoted and cultish following in thrall. Illustrious past members include Julia Kent and Zoe Keating. Melora played with Nirvana as their cellist on their last tour, in Europe, 1994.