Shilpa Ray and her Happy Hookers
Encyclopedia
Shilpa Ray and her Happy Hookers is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

 from Brooklyn, New York with a blues punk sound led by singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Shilpa Ray. Her music has been compared to Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...

 and The Cramps
The Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band, formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy the only permanent members...

 flavored with the "Goth burlesque" of the Dresden Dolls, and her singing has been compared to the style of
Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....

, Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...

, and Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

. Ray is notable for combining an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n harmonium
Harmonium
A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...

 with a "big-voiced blues-rock howler" vocal approach. The band signed a record contract with Knitting Factory Records
Knitting Factory Records
Knitting Factory Records is an independent American music label that is notable for promoting a variety of artists including deceased Nigerian political agitator and musician Fela Kuti...

 and has been touring nationally.

Beginnings

A report in the San Francisco Examiner describes Ray's New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 upbringing as an Indian American
Indian American
Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestral roots lie in India. The U.S. Census Bureau popularized the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Indigenous peoples of the Americas who are commonly referred to as American Indians.-The term: Indian:...

 from an immigrant family as contributing to her having a "scrappy" demeanor. As a youth, she was mistaken for an Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

i and "pelted with beer cans" by hooligans. She dealt with restrictive parents who banned Western-themed music and learned to play the harmonium
Harmonium
A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...

 and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 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
The Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band, formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy the only permanent members...

, Stooges
The Stooges
The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...

 and Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...

. In her twenties, she moved to New York City and worked as a solo artist, singing a capella at first and later accompanying herself on the harmonium.

Leader of the band

Ray formed a band which she named Beat the Devil, combining punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 music with Indian time signatures in a new format. 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
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 bands in July 2010. Band members were "NYC rock luminaries" with experience in bands such as Creaky Boards, Soft Black
Soft Black
-Music:Soft Black is a four-piece Brooklyn-based band fronted by Vincent Cacchione. Much of Soft Black's lyrical content deals with Cacchione's dreams and nightmares...

, Kapow!, and The Negatones
The Negatones
The Negatones is a Brooklyn, New York based band, founded by siblings Jay Braun and Justin Braun with Jun Takeshta and Jesse Wallace .-Sound:The Negatones have developed a unique, genre-crossing style that often features frenetic...

. On lead vocals, Ray would sometimes scream and growl during songs. In live shows, the audience members would scream as loud as the band, according to one account.

Ray is the songwriter and band leader, and described her role in her band to being similar to being in a "democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 under a dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...

". She sings into a beta 57 lavalier wireless microphone
Wireless microphone
A wireless microphone, as the name implies, is a microphone without a physical cable connecting it directly to the sound recording or amplifying equipment with which it is associated...

 through a Galleon Kruger bass amp
Bass instrument amplification
Bass instrument amplification, used for the bass guitar, double bass and similar instruments, is distinct from other types of amplification systems due to the particular challenges associated with low-frequency sound reproduction. This distinction affects the design of the loudspeakers, the speaker...

. Her band has performed in Chicago, Brooklyn, Boston, Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

, and other cities as a touring band, sometimes opposite a "zombie jazz band". She has performed on the same bill with Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....

 and guitarist Lenny Kaye
Lenny Kaye
Lenny Kaye is an American guitarist, composer and writer who is best known as a member of the Patti Smith Group.- Early life :...

. In an interview, she commented about being a female artist:
Ray's band performed at the SXSW festival in 2011 in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

 and was invited to the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 event at the Buffalo Billiards venue. She offered advice to struggling artists:
She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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
    Punk rock
    Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s 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
    Patti Smith
    Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....

     merged with Nick Cave
    Nick Cave
    Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...

    .

  • Music critic Tris McCall in the Newark Star-Ledger
    The Star-Ledger
    The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...

    found a feminist
    Feminism
    Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

     message in Ray's lyrics and videos, and described her as "proud to own her discontent."

  • Critics in The Guardian
    The Guardian
    The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

    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
    Ella Fitzgerald
    Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

    " singing songs with a "wall of distortion and thunderous, pounding rhythms."

Discography

  • A Fish Hook An Open Eye, 2009, O-Gun Records
  • Teenage and Torture, 2011, Knitting Factory Records

External links

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