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progreviews wrote: Charming Hostess' big band incarnation is absolutely awesome. Eat, which is only available from the band as it's been out of print for a while, is great, and Punch on ReR USA/Ad Hoc is just as good. Practically indescribably unique stuff. The a cappella albums (Trilectic and Sarajevo Blues) are a totally different animal and probably won't appeal to folks on this site nearly as much, including me. I saw them live a little while back - the a cappella version, the big band no longer exists - and it was a lot of fun. But the big band is where it's at. Lots of crossover with members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and a pretty similar sense of skewed fun. Eat and Punch are essential. review of Eat review of Punch

I can definately say this band is starting to grow on me. I had another more indepth listen to "Eat" last night, and am becoming more impress with each listen. At first I had some problems trying to digest the vocal structure between the singers. I think this is partly because I don't really like there later works which focus around this aspect. Upon this listen the intricate song structures started to become more apparent. I found if just listen to it as background music, it can sound quite simple, but there are some very interesting composition going on in the background.

I'm as yet to hear Punch, but have read a few reviews, it sounds worth tracking down. I have heard the mentions of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum when reading reviews alongside another band which also keeps poping up is Idiot Flesh (or something similar to that). I have also noticed a lot of folk interweaved through out a lot of there songs (but not in the traditional sense).

It would be interesting to see what the RIO/avant team think of them TP has already stated he loves them. But I Eat and Punch (I cannot comment on this album having not heard it) could be worth contenders for inclusion on this site?

Charming Hostess' big band incarnation is absolutely awesome. Eat, which is only available from the band as it's been out of print for a while, is great, and Punch on ReR USA/Ad Hoc is just as good. Practically indescribably unique stuff. The a cappella albums (Trilectic and Sarajevo Blues) are a totally different animal and probably won't appeal to folks on this site nearly as much, including me. I saw them live a little while back - the a cappella version, the big band no longer exists - and it was a lot of fun. But the big band is where it's at. Lots of crossover with members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and a pretty similar sense of skewed fun.

Eat and Punch are essential.

review of Eat
review of Punch

eugene wrote: Black Velvet wrote: I'm thinking it is the Finnish one as I doubt from the description I have heard they wouldn't be classed as symphonic prog I think I will have to try and track down some of their stuff. If you ever need any help with those sorts of thing I'm more than happy... I unfortunatly have more than enough spare time on my hands.      I had one album by some Circle. Judging from track names, the band is Finnish. The album released in 2003 called "Guillotine". If you are talking about this particular band, I think it's avant-garde. I remember that I liked very much tracks one till five. Starting with track 6 it was completely unbearable for me, and then track 11 and 12 were very much likeable again. Difficult band - it would be interesting to learn more about them and their other albums, if any.

Thanks for that.

They do have other albums though I have not heard anything by them, Assaf gave me some links to some information about the band which people might be interested in.

http://www.phinnweb.org/circle/ their home page

http://www.nndb.com/people/511/000079274/

http://progressive.homestead.com/FINLAND_GROUPS.html

Geck0 wrote: Sounds interesting.  If Trouserpress enjoys Eat, then I want that album.  I trust his judgement on this!

Well you can download the album from their website for free if you are interested to see what they sound like I have listened to it once now and it is quite good. Need to give a few listens to let it sink in.

Black Velvet wrote: I'm thinking it is the Finnish one as I doubt from the description I have heard they wouldn't be classed as symphonic prog I think I will have to try and track down some of their stuff. If you ever need any help with those sorts of thing I'm more than happy... I unfortunatly have more than enough spare time on my hands.

Geck0 wrote:   blah blah Charming Hostess blah... Is anyone familiar with them and how Avant Garde are they?

I believe it is, as it incorporates a band (I believe the latter is just three (occasionally 4 or 5) female singers?).

Unfortunately I do not have any tracks to hear.  There are some 30 second samples on last.fm, but I don't think they tell me what I want to hear.

Have you heard their earler Band orientated music, Black Velvet?  I'm just curious, as I believe that maybe the better of the two styles.

I'm not sure, but Carla Kihlstedt has a solo album out as well, I gather.  I'm not sure if this is just a jazz violin album, or whether she also covers avant garde aspects within her music.

I think their first incarnation as Charming Hostess Big Band is likely to be the more appreciable of the two.  I heard a 30 second sample of something earlier and it certainly sounded klezmer!

Here is their biography:

Everybody's favorite Nerdy-Sexy-Commie-Girly band.

As Wikipedia says:

"Current Work
Today, the music primarily springs from three women with an emphasis in the body--voices and vocal percussion, handclaps and heartbeats, sex-breath and silence. The work grows from diaspora conciousness: both Jewish and African. Sylistically, Charming Hostess incorporats doo-wop, Pygmy counterpoint, Balkan harmony and Andalusian melody. Contemporary influences on the band include Meredith Monk and Reinette l'Oranaise. The music often explores existing text and overlays the composer's (Jewlia Eisenberg) own questions of authenticity, montage, and the effect of music on non-verbal languages.
The 2002 CD (Trilectic, Tzadik Records) explored the political/erotic nexus of Walter Benjamin and his Marxist muse, Asja Lacis. The 2004 CD (Sarajevo Blues, Tzadik) sets Bosnian poetry by Semezdin Mehmedinović as a form of love and resistance to the brutalization of war.
Their self-described genre is "Nerdy-Sexy-Commie-Girly". Charming Hostess is Jewlia Eisenberg, Marika Hughes, Cynthia Taylor and often Ganda Suthivarakom and Pameliya Kursten (all vocals).

Early Work
The pre-2002 Charming Hostess (also known as Charming Hostess Big Band) was a rock band that embraced a genderf**k sensibility (the women often wore mustaches while the men wore dresses). Early Charming Hostess music drew on women's vocal traditions (primarily from Eastern Europe and North Africa), and integrated them with American folk forms both white and black. Charming Hostess was founded in the fertile anarchy of Barrington Co-op (aka Barrington Hall), and nurtured by the West Oakland arts community, along with other coeval bands such as Fibulator and Eskimo. Half of Charming Hostess was also in Idiot Flesh/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. The final effect was of a hoedown where bodacious babes belted the blues in Bulgarian while a punk-klezmer band rocked out in accompaniment.

The genre of this incarnation of ChoHo is described by the band as "Klezmer-Punk/Balkan-Funk". Recordings of Charming Hostess Big Band include "Eat" (Vaccination, 1998) and the new "Punch" (ReR, 2005) Charming Hostess Big Band was: Jewlia Eisenberg (voice, direction), Carla Kihlstedt (voice, fiddle), Nina Rolle (voice, accordion), Wes Anderson (drums), Nils Frykdahl (guitar, flute, saxophone, percussion), and Dan Rathbun (bass)."