White Magic | |
|---|---|
 Billotte in 2003 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Brooklyn |
| Genres | |
| Members | Mira Billotte |
White Magic is a psychedelic folk rock group formed in Brooklyn and led by singer/guitarist/pianist/composer Mira Billotte. [1] Billotte performs under this moniker both with accompaniment or solo, using a daf, shruti box, and singing a cappella. Invoking both traditional and experimental folk, White Magic's sound ranges from loud psychedelia to meditative trance.
White Magic's original lineup was formed in 2003, after Mira Billotte moved to New York City. Billotte composed the songs, sang and played guitar and piano. Miggy Littleton (Blood on the Wall, Ida) played drums, and Andy MacLeod played guitar. [2] Before White Magic, Billotte played drums, sang, and composed with her sister Christina Billotte (Autoclave, Slant 6, Casual Dots) in Quix*o*tic.
The subsequent lineup consisted of Billotte, "Sleepy" Doug Shaw (HighLife, Gang Gang Dance) on guitar, [3] Tim Koh (Ariel Pink) on bass, and alternating drummers Tim Dewitt (Gang Gang Dance, Dutch E. Germ), Jesse Lee (Gang Gang Dance), and Jim White (Dirty Three, Cat Power, Nina Nastasia). [4] Tim Barnes (Silver Jews), Samara Lubelski, and Shahzad Ismaily [5] have also played with White Magic for subsequent recordings and live shows.
White Magic joined the Drag City roster in 2003, and in 2004 releasedThrough The Sun Door EP to general critical praise. [6] They garnered attention when the song “Don't Need” appeared on the compilation The Golden Apples of the Sun (Bastet) curated by Devendra Banhart in 2004. Drag City released the band's debut full-length album Dat Rosa Mel Apibus (The Rose Gives The Bees Honey) -- a reference to the Rose Cross [7] [ circular reference ]—in 2006, [8] followed by 2007’s Dark Stars EP, with critical praise from Spin Magazine. [9]
White Magic recorded the song “Long Time Ago” with Hal Willner, Saturday Night Live's musical director, for the compilation Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys produced by Willner and conceived by Johnny Depp and Pirates of the Caribbean Director Gore Verbinski.
In 2007, Mira Billotte recorded Bob Dylan's "As I Went Out One Morning" on the soundtrack album for the Todd Haynes film I'm Not There on Columbia Records. In USA Today , Ken Barnes stated that: "... the soundtrack was a winner, featuring such gems as...Mira Billotte's As I Went Out One Morning and the first official release of Dylan's own, stunning version of the title track.” [10]
They also appeared on The Wire magazine's "Wire Tapper" compilation along with The Slits' “Earthbeat.” [11] White Magic was named a 'best new band' by The Village Voice in 2008. [12]
They toured extensively headlining in the U.S., UK and Europe, and opening for like-minded musicians including Animal Collective, [13] Sonic Youth, Joanna Newsom, [14] and Will Oldham. [2] White Magic performed at many music festivals, including five of the ATP (All Tomorrow’s Parties) festivals, each curated by artists, Sonic Youth, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Stephen Malkmus, Slint and Dirty Three. [15]
In 2012, White Magic performed at both the New Folk Festival at Zorthian Ranch [16] in Los Angeles, and at the Quiet Festival in Portland, Oregon. In 2013, Mira Billotte performed for the live score of Jem Cohen’s film, "We Have an Anchor", [17] singing her own compositions at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, along with members of Godspeed You Black Emperor, Guy Picciotto (Fugazi), and Jim White of Dirty Three. [18] This performance was repeated in March 2015 at both the Barbican Theater in London [19] and the Sonic Protest Festival in Paris.
In July, 2015, White Magic released “I'm Hiding My Nightingale” EP on Leaving Records. [20] Ariel Pink played guitar accompaniment for the title track, a cover of an early Can song . [21] Billboard Magazine reviewed the track favorably, saying ”White Magic is a lot of things -- dark, hopeful, mystical, yearning -- but it's never not lovely....” [22] Interview Magazine reviewed the track and its music video the month of its release. [23]
Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a Canadian post-rock band that originated in Montreal, Quebec in 1994. The group releases recordings through Constellation, an independent record label also located in Montreal.
Bratmobile is an American punk band from Olympia, Washington, formed in 1991. They are known for being one of the first-generation "riot grrrl" bands. The band was influenced by several eclectic musical styles, including elements of pop, surf, and garage rock.
Ladytron are an English-based electronic band formed in Liverpool in 1999. The group consists of Scottish lead singer Helen Marnie, Bulgarian-Israeli Mira Aroyo, and Englishman Daniel Hunt. Reuben Wu (synthesizers) was a member from 1999 until 2023. They have released seven studio albums: 604 (2001), Light & Magic (2002), Witching Hour (2005), Velocifero (2008), Gravity the Seducer (2011), Ladytron (2019) and Time's Arrow (2023). They also issued the live album Live at London Astoria 16.07.08 in 2009 and the compilation album Best of 00–10 in 2011. They have produced remixes for artists such as Dave Gahan, Erasure, Goldfrapp, Apoptygma Berzerk, Placebo, Blondie, Gang of Four, Christina Aguilera, Nine Inch Nails, Bloc Party, Kings of Convenience, Soulwax and Róisín Murphy.
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles is an American crossover thrash band that formed in Houston in 1982 and would later relocate to San Francisco. The band is currently composed of two of its founding members, lead vocalist Kurt Brecht and guitarist Spike Cassidy, as well as bassist Greg Orr and drummer Rob Rampy.
The Fiery Furnaces are an American indie rock band, formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, New York. The band's primary members are Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger. The siblings are originally from Oak Park, Illinois, a near-western suburb of Chicago. They are known for their ambitious, highly conceptual releases, which have frequently divided critical opinion.
Alasdair Roberts is a Scottish folk musician. He released a number of albums under the name Appendix Out and, following the 2001 album The Night Is Advancing, under his own name. Roberts is also known for his frequent collaborations with other musicians and writers, as well as for being a member of the folk supergroup The Furrow Collective.
David Pajo is an American musician. He has played a wide variety of music, loosely fitting into several other genres such as hardcore punk, math rock, post-rock, electronica, folk rock and indie pop. Though a multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his guitar work, most notably with Slint. He is currently a member of Gang of Four and musician at large.
Chantal Francesca Passamonte, known professionally as Mira Calix, was a South African-born, British-based audio and visual artist and musician signed to Warp Records.
"Sinner Man" or "Sinnerman" is an African American traditional spiritual song that has been recorded by a number of performers and has been incorporated in many other media and arts. The lyrics describe a sinner attempting to hide from divine justice on Judgment Day. It was recorded in the 1950s by Les Baxter, the Swan Silvertones, the Weavers and others, before Nina Simone recorded an extended version in 1965.
Chain is a 2004 docufiction film written and directed by Jem Cohen. It follows two young women from opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum. One is a Japanese professional who has been sent by her corporation to inspect theme parks in the United States. The other is a runaway who is squatting near a mall and works a series of dead-end jobs. The women never meet or communicate with each other, but by the end of the film, their viewpoints have become similar as their lives are both impacted by the homogenization of retail culture and infrastructure.
This is a list of recordings by Will Oldham.
Castanets was the musical project of Ray Raposa, who had been signed to Asthmatic Kitty Records from 2004 until his death in 2022. Castanets was influenced by country, folk, and experimental rock, and released seven albums, the latest being Decimation Blues in 2014. Additionally, songs by Castanets appear on a number of split 7-inch singles and EPs with other bands, including Shapes and Sizes and Dirty Projectors. While Raposa was the only constant member of the band, his records and live performances featured a rotating cast of musicians. A San Diego native, Raposa lived in Brooklyn and resided in Portland, Oregon.
Christina Billotte is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, known for her involvement in the punk music scene in Washington, D.C., as a performer and organizer. She is included in Venus Zine's list "The Greatest Female Guitarists of All Time".
Aoife O'Donovan is an American singer and Grammy award-winning songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer for the string band Crooked Still and she also co-founded the Grammy Award-winning female folk trio I'm with Her. She has released three critically acclaimed studio albums: Fossils (2013), In the Magic Hour (2016), and Age of Apathy, as well as multiple noteworthy live recordings and EPs, including Blue Light (2010), Peachstone (2012), Man in a Neon Coat: Live From Cambridge (2016), In the Magic Hour: Solo Sessions (2019), and Bull Frog's Croon (2020). She also spent a decade contributing to the radio variety shows Live from Here and A Prairie Home Companion. Her first professional engagement was singing lead for the folk group The Wayfaring Strangers.
Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002. The band is the project of singer-songwriter David Longstreth, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The band's current line-up consists of Longstreth, alongside Mike Daniel Johnson (drums), Maia Friedman, Felicia Douglass and Olga Bell.
The discography of Anberlin, an American alternative rock band, consists of eight studio albums, two extended plays, one compilation album and seven singles. Prior to the release of their fourth studio album, Anberlin had sold over 400,000 albums.
Quix*o*tic was a rock band active from 1997 to 2002 in the area of Washington, D.C., United States. They were known for their blend of R&B and doo wop with a Gothic outlook.
Kamasutra: Vollendung der Liebe is a 1969 film score by Innerspace Productions, an early name for the band Can. It was recorded as the soundtrack for the West German film of the same name and was released some 40 years later in 2009. The musical styles heard on the album demonstrate a temporary departure from the Krautrock sound the band was producing around that time, experimenting with styles such as South Asian music and blues rock, more in keeping with Indian setting of the film. Among their first recordings, this score, together with the band's previous soundtrack album Agilok & Blubbo, are seldom discussed by the band members. Neither have material on the band's 1970 compilation Soundtracks which consists of songs previously only heard on film soundtracks.
Joseph is an American folk band from Portland, Oregon made up of three sisters: Natalie Closner, and twins Allison Closner and Meegan Closner. Their first album, Native Dreamer Kin, was self-released in early 2014. Their second album I'm Alone, No You're Not was produced by Mike Mogis and was released on August 26, 2016, by ATO Records.
The Nightingale is a 2018 Australian historical psychological thriller film written and directed by Jennifer Kent. The film stars Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Baykali Ganambarr, Damon Herriman, Harry Greenwood, Ewen Leslie, Charlie Shotwell, Michael Sheasby, and Magnolia Maymuru. Set in 1825 in Van Diemen's Land, it follows a young Irish convict (Franciosi) seeking vengeance against members of the Colonial forces of Tasmania who gang raped her and killed both her husband and infant daughter. She is aided by an Aboriginal Tasmanian tracker (Ganambarr), who seeks vengeance for the British occupiers' Black War against his people.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
