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Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers

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Years active
  
2004-2011

Record label
  
Knitting Factory Records

Website
  
www.shilparay.net

Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers imagesnymagcomartspopmusicfeaturesshilpa1003

Labels
  
Knitting Factory Records, Bad Seed LTD, Northern Spy Records

Associated acts
  
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Warren Ellis, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Sharon Van Etten, Man Man, Nicole Atkins, Acid Mothers Temple

Past members
  
Shilpa Ray: songwriter, vocals, harmonium, piano, organ Andrew Bailey: Guitar John Adamski: Drums Nick Hundley: Bass

Origin
  
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States

Albums
  
Last Year's Savage, Teenage and Torture, A Fish Hook an Open Eye, It's All Self Fellatio

Members
  
John Adamski, Shilpa Ray, Andrew Bailey, Nick Hundley

Genres
  
Punk rock, Blues, Garage rock, Indie rock, Punk blues

People also search for
  
Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, John Adamski, Andrew Bailey, Nick Hundley

Profiles

Shilpa ray and her happy hookers liquidation


Shilpa Ray and her Happy Hookers was an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York with a blues punk sound led by singer-songwriter Shilpa Ray. Her music has been compared to Blondie, The Cramps and Screamin' Jay Hawkins and her singing has been compared to the style of Patti Smith, Nick Cave, and Ella Fitzgerald. Ray is notable for combining an Indian harmonium with a "big-voiced blues-rock howler" vocal approach. The band signed a record contract with Northern Spy Records and has toured internationally.

Contents

A report in the San Francisco Examiner describes Ray's New Jersey upbringing as an Indian American from an immigrant family as contributing to her having a "scrappy" demeanor. As a youth, she was mistaken for an Iraqi and "pelted with beer cans" by hooligans. She dealt with restrictive parents who banned Western-themed music and learned to play the harmonium and piano beginning at age six. In her high school years, she became a stealth Goth and listened to music by punk rock bands such as The Cramps, Stooges and Joy Division. In her twenties, she moved to New York City and worked as a solo artist, singing a cappella at first and later accompanying herself on the harmonium.

Ray formed a band which she named Beat the Devil, combining punk rock music with Indian time signatures in a new format.[1] The group disbanded soon after releasing their first and only album.

Ray formed another band entitled Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers which Boston Globe critic Jonathan Perry described as the "best-named band" in a lineup of numerous indie bands in July 2010.[2]

Ray was the songwriter and band leader, and described her role in her band to being similar to being in a "democracy under a dictatorship".[3] She has performed with Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye.[4] They also toured extensively with Man Man and Acid Mothers Temple. In an interview, she commented about being a female artist: "I think Feminism in America went through a huge backlash during the W. Bush years. We are now going through a cool Renaissance. There are tons of amazing female musicians and artists on the scene with something to contribute and it's not cheesy, kitschy, or female centric. It's universal."

Ray's band performed at the SXSW festival in 2011 in Austin, Texas and was invited to the Billboard event at the Buffalo Billiards venue.[5] She offered advice to struggling artists: "The hardship of being an artist in this country is gender neutral. Own yourself, what you do, how you live and don't worry about the end results."

After splitting with Her Happy Hookers in 2011, Shilpa toured Europe and North America with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds as a backup singer and their supporting act. She recorded a version of "Pirate Jenny" featuring Nick Cave and Warren Ellis for "Son of Rogue Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys released February, 2013 by Anti/Epitaph.

Nick Cave released her EP, "It's All Self Fellatio, Shilpa Ray" in 2013 on his Bad Seed LTD label after touring in Europe and North America with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman. As well as performing with Cave, Ray's current band has performed with Sharon Van Etten, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Nicole Atkins.

A new album entitled "Last Year's Savage" it has been released in 2015 on Northern Spy Records.

Shilpa ray and her happy hookers erotolepsy live music video hd


Reviews

  • Music critics from the New York Times have focused on Ray's lyrics and voice. Jon Pareles described Ray's act as combining punk rock band shtick with a touch of Goth burlesque but with music which deals with the "contradictory pressures women face" such as being "cosmetically perfect but authentic". Another Times critic, Ben Sisario, summed up Ray's act in four words: "that scream is primal!" Critic Jacob Brown described Ray's voice as a "honey-toned wail" along the lines of Patti Smith merged with Nick Cave.
  • Music critic Tris McCall in the Newark Star-Ledger found a feminist message in Ray's lyrics and videos, and described her as "proud to own her discontent."
  • Critics in The Guardian described the music as "grinding blues, sleazy jazz, and bracking rock with punk immediacy and pop appeal." Shilpa Ray was "like a vulgar Ella Fitzgerald" singing songs with a "wall of distortion and thunderous, pounding rhythms." Shilpa responded to this within the biography section of the band's official Facebook, "A vulgar Ella Fitzgerald? More like horny Frank Sinatra."
  • Discography

    with Beat The Devil

  • Beat The Devil, 2006
  • with Her Happy Hookers

  • A Fish Hook An Open Eye, 2009, O-Gun Records
  • "Venus Shaver/Natural Selection" 7", 2010, Knitting Factory Records
  • Teenage and Torture, 2011, Knitting Factory Records
  • Shilpa Ray

  • It's All Self Fellatio, Shilpa Ray, 2013, Bad Seed LTD
  • "Make Up/What a Diffr'nce A Day Makes", 2015, Northern Spy Records
  • Last Year's Savage, 2015, Northern Spy Records
  • Songs

    Venus ShaverTeenage and Torture · 2011
    ErotolepsyTeenage and Torture · 2011
    What the F**k was I Thinking?A Fish Hook an Open Eye · 2009

    References

    Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers Wikipedia