Here’s my (mostly speculative) theory of how Prince Rama came into being:
- Two sisters (Taraka and Nimai Larson) escape under cover of night from a Hari Krishna clan and find sanctuary in the home of an aging new romantic.
- they both go to art school in Boston.
- they fall in love with glam rock after chancing upon a roommate’s extensive David Bowie collection.
- the universe provides the Taraka and Nimai with gifts of a drum kit and synthesiser.
- they teach themselves the rudiments of these instruments and begin copying tracks by Soft Cell, Siouxsie & The Banshees and Human League.
- they soon become frustrated that all the best music seems to be old and made by stuffy Brits.
- at a low point in their lives they briefly fall under the spell of Lady Gaga.
- they are saved by hippy chick dropout from a nearby commune who introduces them to the all American Freak scene peopled by the likes of Pocahaunted, Zola Jesus, and Peaking Lights.
- back in their bedroom and newly inspired, they produce a cacophonic stew where tone deaf singing and rudimentary drumming can be hidden under the mask of this being in tune with other DIY psychedelic -pop wannabees.
- they name their band after a Hindu deity (the original name was Prince Rama of Ayodhya),
- an impressionable friend of an impressionable friend gets drunk at a party and signs them to his label and they make a record which they describe as “mapping utopic space via the mandalic architecture of controversial visionary artist Paul Laffoley“.
- determined to make an impact in Europe their label pays their air fare to Italy where they appear at the Netmage Live International Festival in Bologna.
- the author of the Netmage programme listens to their music after over indulging in the excellent local red wine and describes it as embracing ” the celestial elegance of inspirational Krishna mantras, horror soundtracks, misshapen rap and Kate Bush on peyote, in an ecstatic roar of percussion, voice, bass and electronics”.
- the duo perform a show they call I want my life back before a bemused audience who can’t decide if they are so bad they’re good or if this a mass candid-camera type experiment as part of what the festival programme call “devastated post-television”.
Not all of this is true but enough of it is to be scary. The bottom line is that they look like sweet girls but the songs are tuneless cosmic kitsch and they can’t play or sing to save their lives.
Unbelievably, Animal Collective have signed the band to their Paw-Tracks label. Maybe I’m missing something but if Prince Rama are the future face of New Weird America, the genre is truly dead in the water.
Check out this video of them from a show in Brooklyn last year to get a flavour (warning it lasts 9 minutes 24 minutes – see how much you can stand)
Footnote 1 – As you will see in the video, there is a third member of Prince Rama (Michael Collins) but he wasn’t at Bologna. The rumour is that he has been arrested – for what, I don’t know.
Footnote 2 – Any fans of Prince Rama who read this and are affronted – please tell me what you think is great about the band.
I really would like to know.
Related article:
Summoning the Spiritual With Just Enough Cowbell (New York Times)
Just because you don’t get it doesn’t mean no one else does or can. Their music travels to many unexplored places. Don’t fear.
I have no fear Deets and I’m quite sure there are many who dig this band – my question remains ‘why do you (or anyone else) think they are great?’
Next time you write something like this please try to do a little bit more of research before shooting a handful of completely inaccurate information. After self-producing their European 2010 tour, and coming to Italy to play in Rimini and Forli, Prince Rama were invited by the directors of Netmage to perform the closing act of the festival. Their trip was payed by the festival’s organizers. If you knew a little bit more about the less mainstream music industry you would know quite well that unfortunately most small labels cannot afford to pay a tour to the artists they represent.
Even if they appeared in a duo – and your speculative remarks about the third member of the band are, once more, mere suppositions – their concert was very good. They were genuine, had an great awareness of how to involve the audience in their performance and how to manage the very large stage in a more intimate and private ambient. Their songs constitute a very genuine reference to contemporary psychedelia, and their rhythm, along with a very pure structure of melodies are quite unique.
In addition, their intertwining of visual and artistic elements with their music makes of them exactly the sort of thing that Netmage has always researched and showcased.
Thanks for the comment, ‘Anonymous’.
Most of my post was intended to be tongue-in-cheek rather than a series of well researched facts, this is why I introduced it as a ‘speculative’ theory – the irony was clearly lost on you.
If you care to read the other entries in this blog you would know that my interest in mainstream music industry is very minimal and the funding of their tour was not the main point of the piece.
I have no criticism of Netmage for putting on this band, my chief argument is that Prince Rama were, in my opinion, not very good and on this point we will have to agree to differ.
The rumour about the third member being arrested was taken from other blog posts and was not invented by me – if you know another reason why he was not there, I’d be interested to know what it was.