Estradasphere is a band of multi-instrumentalists from an unlikely variety of musical backgrounds. Timb Harris (violin/trumpet), Jason Schimmel (guitar/banjo/keyboards/vocals), Tim Smolens (upright and electric bass/vocals), Kevin Kmetz (Tsugaru Shamisen/guitar/keyboards), Adam Stacey accordion/keyboards/clavinet), and Lee Smith (drums/percussion) were trained in disciplines ranging from classical and jazz to metal. This diverse instrumental and stylistic palette enables them to execute a vast array of orchestrations and even forge entirely new genres such as “Bulgarian Surf,” “Romanian Gypsy-Metal,” and “Spaghetti Eastern.”

Estradasphere’s latest album, Palace of Mirrors, marks their first release on New York-based The End Records, home to many of rock and metal’s most eclectic bands. The album’s cinematic music and production connotes a narrative that cuts across time, space, and genre. Estradasphere concerts feature the six accomplished musicians and an innovative visual team. Their live show is an extension of the surreal sci-fi storyline alluded to in the music. In each performance, as the themes of the music associate with the enigmatic video and live-camera projections, a dynamic film is created in which the members of Estradasphere are both the characters and the soundtrack orchestra.

More great videos after the jump

Speck

Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu

(Original)

Klezmer Metal you say? Sure, why not!

Smuggled Mutation

More info:
www.estradasphere.com

http://www.myspace.com/estradasphere

Klaus Nomi was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona. Nomi was known for his bizarrely theatrical live performances, heavy make-up, unusual costumes, and a highly stylized signature hairdo which flaunted a receding hairline. His songs were equally unusual, ranging from synthesizer-laden interpretations of classical music opera to covers of 60s pop standards

MySpace, LastFM, Facebook, Wikipedia, Official page.

Jason Webley is a Seattle-born singer-songwriter known for playing a mix of gypsy, folk, and punk. He has released five albums on his own label, Eleven Records. These feature Webley on the piano, guitar, accordion, and a number of other instruments, though when touring he only brings his guitar, accordion, and a vodka bottle containing coins from around the world, which he uses for percussion.

In high school Webley played in a punk band called Moral Minority. He picked up the accordion in 1996 in his last year in college at the University of Washington when he was part of a performance of Bertolt Brecht’s play The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and wrote a couple songs for the play on the accordion. He later recalled, “I was just a geeky kid; accordion came later. It’s since playing accordion that I’ve become cool. I used to be a geek with an electric guitar. I had a guitar and played in punky bands and I had a computer. I sequenced stuff. I was much geekier.”

Webley is the brains behind the Monsters of Accordion tour, an all-accordion extravaganza that takes place on the West Coast. The tour came together when Webley was invited to play at an accordion shop in Oakland, and met two Bay Area accordionists, Daniel Ari and Aaron Seeman. They decided to do a little accordion only tour, which was the first Monsters of Accordion. The tour has since featured such accordionist as Corn Mo, Geoff Berner, Amy Denio, Mark Growden, (former Gogol Bordello member) Stevhen Iancu, and Eric Stern (frontman of Vagabond Opera).

Icarus (with Amanda Palmer from Dresden Dolls):

Check also this amazing street performance of Icarus here.

Kitchen video clips:

MySpace, LastFM, Facebook, iLike, Internet Archive, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube channel, Official page.

Yidl Mitn Fidl yiddish swing:

Perfect Harmony:

Eshet Chail:

The real tuesday weld is one of those bands that, if you were in highschool again, you would carve its name on the table, graffiti your favourite tune on the wall and faint when seeing the lead man on stage, on TV.

A little bit of drama, cabaret and reverie….

The day before you came (Abba Cover)

The show must go on

Terminally ambivalent over you

Cloud Cuckooland

More videos on the Real Tuesday Weld Youtube Channel.  Maybe you are more fortunate than me, and your country is allowed to see all videos…If you are, please be sure to check Waltz for one 

The band has a very interesting biography, which starts like this:

This is a story of dreams mixed with reality.

I grew up in an old fashioned house where Thirties British dance band music was played (along with a dash of easy listening). I was very reserved -- I played the recorder, piano and trumpet and I read mythology. I developed a prediliction for hallucinogens and became a cross dresser. I was a student at the Royal College of Art in London, dabbled a little with music but started to meditate and decided to become a Buddhist monk. I spent four months in the Spanish mountains abstaining from drink, drugs and debauchery on the path to enlightenment. I came down. I really came down. I collapsed into a psychic heap, split with my paramour and entered into a shadow world. I began to study Jung and James Hillman and to pay attention to my dreams. I visited a shaman and had a series of very strange experiences in London and in the Cambrian mountains in West Wales.

 One night I had a very strong dream in which the British crooner Al Bowlly appeared to me in Piccadilly circus. I took it as an omen that I needed to become a musician. The next night I dreamt of the actress Tuesday Weld

You can listen to a bunch of their great music on imeem: here

Download for free their latest album The End of the World on Six Degrees
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