New York – Would that the contemporary music scene depicted an equal number of female and male leads, it’d be incongruent to mention the importance of an act like Shilpa Ray. But until that proverbial stage reflects the natural balance of the sexes, it’s important to note the deeply impactful nature of this band. In an awesome shakeup, Friday night on Manhattan’s lower east side felt like a celebratory showcase of female strength. And the evening all but brimmed with a tenacious aura of empowerment.
Suffice it to say, Shilpa Ray is a wildly talented performer. The mastermind behind this band is Shilpa Ray herself, who from 2004 to 2011 led a troupe of three other music makers under the moniker Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers. From inception straight through to today, Ray’s music is crass and cool, and treads steadily and with boldness into contoured punk.
Teenage and Torture, Ray’s second full-length with Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers was released in 2011 on Knitting Factory Records, on the heels of 2010’s Venus Shaver 7”. After pulling the plug on that incarnation in 2011, Ray toured extensively with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds as a supporting singer and opener. In her yet brief career, Ray has also played alongside such sterling acts as Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Nicole Atkins.
Ray leaves behind her Happy Hookers for her most recent release, a four-track EP that’s fantastically titled It’s All Self Fellatio, which surfaced last year.
Those four tracks made an appearance on Friday night at The Cake Shop, as Ray commanded her audience with undulating energy. With a minimalist’s volume of banter, Ray cycled seamlessly from one cut to the next, maintaining a variance of dynamism for each delivery. She had the first rows dancing in no time, and those on the periphery edging persistently closer to the excitement.
Ray’s vocal delivery and range held up impressively live, and watching her on the harmonium was utterly mesmerizing. The risk with garage punk is that sound quality can often suffer in live showings. But Ray’s is the kind of music that’s seemingly engineered to be consumed in a divey, crowded basement venue. An intoxicating, hard-hitting mixture of Patti Smith and Ella Fitzgerald, Ray’s sound hides a shadow of Zooey Deschanel’s sweetened vocalizing sprinkled. And her lyricism’s got the emotional intelligence of Sharon Van Etten to boot. (Ed., one of Best New Bands’ reviews of an earlier Shilpa Ray performance.)
But despite ties to the female greats, Ray maintains an imperative stance on gender nuances in the music industry.
“I think Feminism in America went through a huge backlash during the W. Bush years,” Ray is quoted in an interview via NPR. “We are now going through a cool Renaisance (sic). There are tons of amazing female musicians and artists on the scene with something to contribute and it’s not cheesy, kitchy, or female centric. It’s universal.”
“The hardship of being an artist in this country is gender neutral,” she added. “Own yourself, what you do, how you live and don’t worry about the end results.”
With that in mind, expect more sagacity from this artist in the New Year, as she’s got a new album on deck titled Last Year’s Savage, which is en route via Northern Spy Records. Until then, keep an eye out for tour dates to surface.
Catching Shilpa Ray live is a shock to the system and, without kitsch, univocally leaves audiences wanting more. That alone is deeply important.
Liz Rowley
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