Saints & Scoundrels

Beautifully atmospheric and sensually rich in aural colour! LA based Hecate's Angels have an arty, futuristic cabaret sound, based around the creative vision of musician Pietra Wexstun (responsible for vocals, keyboards, autoharp and dulcimer, with songwriting and production throughout) and augmented by instrumentation including wind, strings, guitar, and diverse percussion. You'll see strange mythic pictures in your mind, go back in time, speak in tongues and then wonder who slipped that great micky in your hi-ball glass. THE CHORD ----------- More from vocalist/composer Pietra Wexstun and her band of underground explorers. Trip on down the bayou or float along in space. The miracle and magic of music with no boundaries. Vintage synths and theremins combined with dulcimers and washboards. Decadent waltzes and heavenly hymns. Cuban cha-chas and bongo-driven jazz. Eerie echoes and hepcat cool rising to a flaming intensity. Howling horns, screaming saxes, pounding pianos Emotional,evocative. Hot/cold... light/dark..the marriage of heaven and hell...madly inspired ...divinely insane...someone stop me before I hurt myself! Ophelia meets Lady MacBeth at a cocktail party in space. SPACE-NIK MAGAZINE --------- 'It'll make ya sh**!' J. LEWIS as told to D. MARTIN --------- 'Saints and Scoundrels' follows their much acclaimed debut release, 'Hidden Persuader'. Pietra Wexstun: Vocals, Electric Piano, Echo Swish Organ, Mellotron, Juno 106 Bill Blatt: Bass, Background Vocals Larry McMurtrey: Pedal Steel Stan Ridgway: Guitar, Harmonica, Background Vocals Elmo Smith: Drums, Percussion Lazlo Vickers: Brass Rick King: Electric Guitar ---------- Named after Hecate (Heh-ca-tee), the Greek Goddess of sorcery and witchcraft, the band's sound is a kinky marriage of underworld ambience and song, a union which manages to surprise without ever resorting to shock for shock's sake. Lead Angel, Pietra Wexstun teases an astonishing array of sounds from her organ, autoharp, and theremin (that whooping, wailing instrument which leant an illicit drug buzz to Good Vibrations). AUSTRALIAN DIGITAL ---------- Pietra Wexstun is an electronic musician and singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She has fronted for the band Hecate's Angels since 1996, and has performed with her husband Stan Ridgway since 1986. She has contributed to all of Ridgway's solo and Drywall albums, performing backing vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, and theremin. She has also composed and performed music for several art exhibitions in Los Angeles, including Christi Ava's 'Nice Ladies in Cages', Barry Fahr's 'Visuadelia', and (with Ridgway), Mark Ryden's 'Blood, Miniature Paintings of Sorrow and Fear'. Her albums are 'Hidden Persuader', 'Saints and Scoundrels' and the new 'All That Glitters'. Q: Do you think of your lyrics as poetry? ?A: Parts of them. ?Q: Do you think it is important that songs rhyme and if so why? ?A: No, not necessarily, though mine tend to. Rhyming does make it easier for me to remember them (especially after having indulged in a bit of the grape or the grain), and rhyming can be fun. Bob Dylan once described it as a 'game' that gave him a 'mental thrill'. Also, I find that rhyming, chanting, and the reciting of senseless syllables help access the subconscious to make fresh, new associations in sound and meaning. That's why I love Captain Beefheart. ?Q: Do you think song lyrics must conform to recognised song structures such as clear rhyming schemes, choruses, refrains, h