Tom Waits

rasputina <3

Check out Skeleton Key.

I'm extra excited this year to attend the Edwardian Ball 2008 in San Francisco. The entire artists line-up is found here:

edwardianball.com/artists.html

Highlights in steampunk music are:

1) Unextraordinary Gentlemen

Victorian Synth-Punk since 1837 now finds itself in Edwardian Times with extraordinary results. From Los Angeles comes the Unextraordinary Gentlemen (UXG), created to explore their love for post-punk, synth-pop, industrial & experimental music combined with the literary genre of Victorian fantasy.

www.unextraordinarygentlemen.com

2) Rube Waddell

Rube Waddell is a San Francisco-based quartet performing their own breed of modern Americana music. They mix together cast-off parts, twisted scraps, and rusty hinges of Blues, Gospel, Country, American and Irish Folk, Punk,Rock, comic Vaudeville, German theater, Mexican Banda, Mid-Eastern and Asian ditties into a raw junkyard stew stirred by their varied array of traditional and homemade instruments. Reviewers have compared Rube Waddell at times to Captain Beefheart, the Fugs, Ween, Doo-Rag, Tom Waits, Jon Spencer and other lo-fi giants.

3) Eric McFadden & His Edwardian Orchestra

On a career that spans the better put of the last two decades, Eric McFadden has successfully navigated the ongoing clash between the sounds and voices inside his head to create a unique musical persona... (Aaron Kayce, Jam Base)

If I we're asked who's the artist of the year around there parts...I would have to say Eric McFadden. His sextet's shadowy carny-rock and gloomy americana, beautifully showcase's McFadden's flamenco fueled guitar work, husky baritone and gleefully twisted lyrics. (Sam Hurwitt, Pacific sun)

Since becoming George Clinton's guitar player, Eric McFadden has turned into one of San Francicso's phantom treasures, a rarely glimpsed dark angel... (Silke Tudor, San Francisco Weekly)

www.ericmcfadden.com

And last but never least...

4) Rosin Coven

Rosin Coven, your Edwardian Ball Hosts, dreamt up this spectacle long ago in a dust-covered martini bar in the middle of a bleak desert. They proudly continue the tradition of bringing a Gorey story to life each year in partnership with Vau de Vire Society. Eight musicians blend violin, two cellos, bass, guitar, harp, vibraphone, trombone, drums & lush vocal harmonies in a strangely beautiful mix of classical, jazz, chamber, tango, klezmer, sultry lounge, theatrical cabaret, and cinematic dreams.

www.rosincoven.com

The Vagabond Opera won't be there but surely everyone can't help but love an operatic duo backed up by accordion, cello, two saxophones, a stand-up bass, and drums with a hearty vaudeville and cabaret style, swollen with klezmer jazzy goodness!

www.vagabondopera.com/

__________

Amazing photos always shot by Nightshade and Pixie. See last year's event:

Nightshade:
theblight.net/gallery/edwardian/sat07/
theblight.net/gallery/edwardian/sun07/

Pixie:
www.pixievisionproductions.com/ga...l07

Ah, yes... If only all of my evenings on the town were as enchanting...
www.pixievisionproductions.com/ga...all

another one for me!

Leftfield (feat. Roots Manuva) Dusted

if nothing else, it makes a wicked video: www.youtube.com/watch

Check out Dr. Steel...


worlddominationtoys.com/drstee...er.html

There's this Muse song called Futurism. The rest of their stuff isn't steampunk, but the beginning of this song (and throughout) has a driving train sound/feel. This isn't the real video for the song. I don't think there is one. Someone put Final Fantasy footage to it. You can hear the song though.

www.youtube.com/watch

Alot of Queen strikes me as Steampunk-ish.

Like, all of Day at the Races....

Sas

This may just be how my brain works, but genre-wise I see
a) Old gramophone records, ragtime piano, the kind of music you'd hear with a sepia-tone silent movie
b) Psytrance, uptempo electronica in general, and the kind of music that makes you think "future", with lots of lasers and star-ships.
And then you blend the two together. The 1800s blasted off into space. Men with top hats and handlebar mustaches tying damsels in distress to launch-pads. Intelabeam remixed with Scott Joplin, for example.
But then, I was always into Jules Verne style steampunk with gleaming gears and mind boggling clockwork (as opposed to the more grungey ram-shackle cobbled-together aspects of the genre) :P

The Decemberists www.decemberists.com/

Honestly ... I can't believe I am the first to mention them on this thread !!

ive got to mention Sleepytime Gorilla Museum here. theyre from the bay area (although they do tour extensively, yay!), and theyre
kinda.... organic industrial. electric violin, heavy percussion an stuff that isnt drums (and stuff that is), home-made instruments, more standard instruments, songs about gardening... GO SEE THEM. they have albums too. buy them.

definatly the decemberists and rasputina but also depending on your idea of steampunk firewater

i have to weigh in with the totally awesome Boston band, Beat Circus. they've gone through a lot of stylistic transformation over the years, but where they are now i think could definitely be considered steampunk. www.beatcircus.net/

they have a brand new album coming out called Dreamland that is "an 160-page score for 12 musicians and contains macabre narratives loosely based on historical figures from the surreal, turn-of-the-century Coney Island theme park of the same name, which burned in a devastating fire in 1911."

it's very rich, dark and incredibly anachronistic stuff that is still very much rooted in modern music...which to me is a defining characteristic of steampunk music.

Boxcar Saints

www.boxcarsaints.com/

I really like:

Man Man:
profile.myspace.com/index.cfm

profile.myspace.com/index.cfm

The Peculiar Pretzelmen: profile.myspace.com/index.cfm

Both have more of a vaudevillian/burlesque type of sound (in my opinion) which I loooooove. I actually found out about The Peculiar Pretzelmen by seeing them in New Orleans and they were absolutely INCREDIBLE. It's usually hard to impress me but I was completely blown away!

Oh and there's also GoGol Bordello. To me most of these bands make me picture a victorian/edwardian English setting whereas GoGol makes me think of a mid-european gypsy like version! I'm totally in love with them:
profile.myspace.com/index.cfm

refining my original ideas: CONCERTINA!!! and harpsichord seem to be golden. also, vocal samples with the "olde time" radio sound to them... anyone else have noise, rather than band suggestions??? thanks ya'll!

Beirut.
While theramins are more associated with bad '50s sci-fi movies, I think think could add to a good steampunk ambiance - although I'm thinking more along the lines of background soundtracks for views of the Nautilus in "LoEG", or perhaps "Sky Captain. . ." (admittedly a bit late genre-wise) and music meant to evoke moods/images along those lines.

try Trousseaux for some fine english noise

BEATS ANTIQUE

www.myspace.com/beatsantique

Do not know if you would consider them “Steampunk” because they could fit in the circus/burlesque/belly dance areas also. They just put me in the right mood whenever I am looking to build something.

Youtube pointed me to Vernian Process, Life's Decay, and Triarii. Cool stuff.
Plus Vernian Process is local SFBay talent and has at least 300mb of free mp3s floating the web!

I think Firewater is steamy punk.

I would look up Guilded Age Records, which is a gathering of indie steampunkish artists: www.gildedagerecords.com/

Bands that I would recommend that haven't been mentioned are:
The Peryls
Ghostfire
The Hellblinki Sextet
Kamelot
The Scarring Party
Max Raabe (more 20s, but some steamy elements)
Deadly Nightshade Botanical Society
Bat for Lashes

i feel i have to give a shout out to my own band, Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band. you can check us out and decide for yourself.
you can see our videos and some pictures here www.ensmb.com/photos.html
we also did a post-apocalyptic steampunkish circus show last year called Mischief in the Machine, and Sepiachord.com did a review of it here, www.sepiachord.com/mischief.htm