Rabbit Rabbit, Back Visiting in Berkeley
July 4, 2014 at 12:17 am 2 comments
Now in their third year of monthly song releases, the Rabbit Rabbit duo of Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi are building up quite a catalog. Their second album of songs, Swallow Me Whole, is due out on July 8, and they’ll be coming to the Bay Area with a show at the Freight & Salvage on Thursday, July 10, augmented by Myles Boisen on guitar and George Ban-Weiss on bass.
The songs on come from the Rabbit Rabbit Radio web site, a kind of online multimedia magazine that showcases a new song each month, with an accompanying video, photographs from the couple’s life adventures (including their ever-growing children), and some user-generated input.
And the songs are something else, drawing from pop and Americana but also laced with the edgy experimentalism that’s defined much of Kihlstedt and Bossi’s careers. The styles range from delicate piano ballads to raw-nerve rock. They’ve been getting some deserved notice, too; “After the Storm,” from Year 1 of Rabbit Rabbit Radio, won in the “eclectic” category at this year’s Independent Music Awards.
You can sample the Rabbit Rabbit catalogue on YouTube. They haven’t yet posted this month’s knockout punch (“Nameless,” featuring Shahzad Izmaily on guitar) but here’s a video for “Falling Awake,” with guitarist Joel Hamilton, issued a few months ago.
Rabbit Rabbit is trying out a couple of new ideas. For this year’s songs, they’ve been working with a guitarist each month, and Kihlstedt has set aside her trademark violin, which helped make her name in groups like Tin Hat and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.
Here’s something even more different: In lieu of being a CD, Rabbit Rabbit, Volume 2 — Swallow Me Whole is being sold as a limited-edition poster featuring all the lyrics and credits, and a download code for the songs themselves.
It’s an interesting idea. I’ve been thinking that people buy CDs at shows more as souvenirs than anything else. Even in a digital age, it’s nice to walk away carrying something — so, why not a poster instead of a CD?
Rupa, of local world-music faves Rupa & The April Fishes, will be opening the Freight & Salvage show. The full Rabbit Rabbit itinerary looks like this:
- Thur. July 10 — Freight & Salvage, Berkeley
- Sat. July 12 — The Mint, Los Angeles
- Thur. July 31 — Union Hall, Brooklyn.
Entry filed under: Bay Area music, news, upcoming shows. Tags: carla kihlstedt, matthias bossi, rabbit rabbit.
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markweiss86 | July 4, 2014 at 10:42 am
I did produce a Geraldine Fibbers show, with Carla but pre-Nels Cline, at Cubberley Theatre in Palo Alto, with the notorious Brian Jonestown Massacre supporting, in 1996 and would love to find a space in Palo Alto for something like this.
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Craig M. | July 4, 2014 at 5:36 pm
Hi Mark — Different Carla, I think; the Geraldine Fibbers were Carla Bozulich’s band. They did tour with Carla Kihlstedt’s 2 Foot Yard, I think — I remember seeing them at the Bottom of the Hill, but that was more like 2001 and did include Nels.