Shilpa Ray (born c. 1980) is an American singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, New York with a DIY punk experimental sound.[1] Her music has been compared to Blondie, The Cramps, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins[3] and her singing has been compared to the style of Patti Smith, Nick Cave,[4] and Ella Fitzgerald.[5] Ray is notable for combining an Indian harmonium with a "big-voiced blues-rock howler" vocal approach and has been known to sing in styles ranging from metal to the balladry of Leonard Cohen.[6] Rob Harvilla of the Village Voice once stated in 2006 that her vocal range could put the entire lineup of Ozzfest to shame.
Starting as a solo performer in 2003, Ray later put together the band Beat the Devil in 2005. After the dissolution of Beat the Devil, Ray formed another band, Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers, which Boston Globe critic Jonathan Perry described as the "best-named band" in a lineup of numerous indie bands in July 2010.[7]
As the principal songwriter and band leader, Ray described her role in her band as being similar to a "democracy under a dictatorship". In an interview, she commented about being a female artist: "I think Feminism in America went through a huge backlash during the W. Bush years. We are now going through a cool Renaissance. There are tons of amazing female musicians and artists on the scene with something to contribute and it's not cheesy, kitschy, or female centric. It's universal."[8]
The band toured extensively with Man Man and Acid Mothers Temple in 2011. They also performed at the SXSW festival that year in Austin, Texas and were invited to the Billboard event at the Buffalo Billiards venue. She offered advice to struggling artists: "The hardship of being an artist in this country is gender neutral. Own yourself, what you do, how you live and don't worry about the end results."[9]
She released Last Year's Savage (2015), Door Girl (2017), and Portrait Of A Lady (2022) with Northern Spy Records.
Career
Beat The Devil
Beat The Devil, 2006
Ray's first project under the moniker of Beat the Devil, combining punk rock music with Indian time signatures in a new format. Beat The Devil was released in the latter half of 2006. The group disbanded soon after releasing their first and only album.[10] Beat the Devil's cover of Suicide's song "Mr. Ray" was released as part of the Alan Vega 70th Birthday Limited Edition EP Series.
Her Happy Hookers
A Fish Hook An Open Eye 2009, Kepler Records
After dissolving Beat The Devil, Ray went solo with backing band members to form Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers.[11] Produced by Jay Braun and Shilpa Ray, A Fish Hook An Open Eye was released on July 6, 2009.
Her second release with Her Happy Hookers, and also the first release on Knitting Factory Records, this 7" limited pressing of 500 copies included a track from her second release on Knitting Factory Records, Venus Shaver.[12]
Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers put out their second full-length record, and first full length on KFR, on January 18, 2011. Teenage and Torture both refines and expands upon the arresting qualities of their first release. The result "isn't as thrown together as the first one", says Ray. "The first record was like a series of thoughts, this is one big thought. You'll slip into a different world when you hear this." Recorded with Black Dirt Studios’ Jason Meagher at Seizure's Palace in Gowanus, Brooklyn, the songs on this album are dark, sardonic looks inside Ray's own world and obsessions, augmented by the musical styling of her Happy Hookers – Nick Hundley on bass, Andrew Bailey on guitar and John Adamski on drums and percussion, and featuring Greg Lewis on organ, Jonathan Lam on pedal steel and Andrew Hoepfner on vocals and keys. The record in turn led to Shilpa supporting a number of Nick Cave tours in addition to an EP released on his label, Bad Seed Ltd.[13]
Shilpa Ray
It's All Self Fellatio, Shilpa Ray, 2013, Bad Seed LTD
Shilpa's first EP release on Northern Spy in 2015, Make Up, included two covers, "Make Up" written by Lou Reed, and Dinah Washington's "What A Diff'rence A Day Makes" with Shilpa Ray on keys and vocals, Jon Delorme on pedal steel, Alistair Paxton on bass, and Russ Lemkim on drums.[15]
Shilpa Ray currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.[20]
Reviews
Music critics from The New York Times have focused on Ray's lyrics and voice. Jon Pareles described Ray's act as combining punk rock band shtick with a touch of goth burlesque but with music which deals with the "contradictory pressures women face" such as being "cosmetically perfect but authentic".[3] Another Times critic, Ben Sisario, summed up Ray's act in four words: "that scream is primal!"[21] Critic Jacob Brown described Ray's voice as a "honey-toned wail" along the lines of Patti Smith merged with Nick Cave.[4]
Critics in The Guardian described the music as "grinding blues, sleazy jazz, and bracing rock with punk immediacy and pop appeal."[5] Shilpa Ray was "like a vulgar Ella Fitzgerald" singing songs with a "wall of distortion and thunderous, pounding rhythms."[5]
^ abcd"Happening Wednesday". Los Angeles Times. March 23, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2011. Blues-punk outfit Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers will open.
^ abM. Tye Comer (March 19, 2011). "Billboard's Friday SXSW Show Ruled By Indie Rock". Billboard.com. Retrieved May 19, 2011. SXSW 2011 hit ... But if you were a fan of indie rock, there was no better place to be than Billboard's sold-out event at Buffalo Billiards. ... bluesy New Jersey ensemble Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers ...
^ abJon Pareles (January 27, 2011). "Falling in Love, Longing and Leering". The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2011. ... There's a lot of shtick in Shilpa Ray's act, much of it borrowed from a couple of CBGB-era bands, Blondie and the Cramps. ...
^ abcdeJACOB BROWN (February 23, 2011). "Shilpa Ray – Good Time Girl". New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2011. ... Since escaping her conservative parents (her father banned Western music in their home) and moving to New York about nine years ago, she has hauled the unusual instrument to gigs to accompany her honey-toned wail of a voice. ...
^ abc"Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers at SXSW 2011". The Guardian. March 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2011. Shilpa Ray and her Happy Hookers play grinding blues, sleazy jazz, and bracing rock with punk immediacy and pop appeal. The result? Something like a vulgar Ella Fitzgerald, channeling Nick Cave and PJ Harvey, and singing her songs before a wall of distortion and thunderous, pounding rhythms. The band reads like a who's who of recent NYC rock luminaries including members of Creaky Boards, Soft Black, Kapow!, and cult rock producers The Negatones. Live shows are already a notorious commodity – and audiences have been screaming as loud as the band does.
^ abTom Lanham (May 11, 2011). "East meets west with harmonium-playing Shilpa Ray". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved May 19, 2011. ... in her New Jersey childhood, when — mistaken as Iraqi — she was regularly pelted with beer cans by white hooligans.
^Ben Sisario (March 19, 2009). "SXSW: More Four-Word Reviews". The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2011. Four-word reviews, Wednesday night. Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers: That scream is primal!
