Carol Lipnik And Spookarama

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Vocalist and Songwriter, Carol Lipnik, grew up in Coney Island in the midst of its long decline. Her earliest memories are of shyly pedaling a blue banana seat bicycle around the abandoned amusement park (especially off season) and staring up at the totem-like decaying rides. After studying fine arts at Pratt Institute and The Art Students League, Carol opted for the immediate emotional gratification of singing, and found that she had a natural knack for it, as well as a seemingly limitless 4 & 1/2 octave vocal range. She drew from her visual arts training to create a singular cinematic style rooted in Blues, Pre War Berlin Cabaret, Folk, etc, as filtered through her very own Carnival, and Psychedelic sensibilities. Carol and her band Spookarama (named for Coneys ramshackle spook house) are currently performing as a trio with Dred Scott on organ, accordion, piano and percussion (often simultaneously), and Jacob Lawson on electric violin and electronics. They have enjoyed a loyal and steadily growing following on the New York club scene.Keyboardist and composer/ Dred Scott hails from San Francisco where he steeped himself in Pacific Jazz and Rap. He currently resides in Park Slope and performs with Carol as well as the Richard Julian band and of course The Dred Scott Trio. www.Dredscott.comViolinist and Studio Wizard/ Producer Jacob Lawson grew up in the wilds of Wisconsin. After receiving classical training at Interlochen he moved to Nashville where he narrowly escaped a fate of becoming a permanent string fixture on the lucrative Nashville Christian Rock scene. After a freak accident with a blender and a cockroach Jacob reassessed his path in life and moved to New York City to pursue life as a musical artist. He currently lives in Binghampton, NY ****They are finishing a new recording.*******
Lucid Culture Concert Review: Carol Lipnik and Spookarama at the Delancey, NYC 4/2/09Yet another good reason why the weekly Small Beast Thursday shows at the Delancey are the musical event of the week... ...on the bill was Carol Lipnik, the extraordinary and unique noir chanteuse... Her voice awash in eerie reverb, Lipnik seemingly went into a trance, turning the loud, chatty crowd at the bar silent and riveted. Backed by just her longtime keyboardist Scott (who also leads a spectacularly good jazz trio), she delivered a mix of both darkly familiar and new material, by turns phantasmagorical, carnivalesque, gleefully macabre and irresistibly compelling. With her red hair swaying behind her and the hint of a devious grin, Lipnik does not exactly look the part of someone who delights in mining the darkness, but that’s her home turf. She started out low, ominous and strong, at the bottom of her range with Scott playing a hypnotic, minimalist melody on a little synth organ he’d brought along. On the Tom Waits-ish Freak House Blues, she lept several octaves, seemingly to the top of her formidable four-octave range in a split-second as Scott played macabre major-on-minor behind her. When she sang “Take my life, please, take my will” as The Last Dance with You rose to a crescendo, it was impossible to look away. A couple of times - particularly on the darkest song of the night, the brand-new, literally morbid Cuckoo Bird - the two bedeviled the audience by stopping cold, mid-phrase. They also took the Michael Hurley cult classic Werewolf (also covered brilliantly by Sarah Mucho) and redid it as a swinging singalong before closing with a hypnotic, soulful retelling of the Rumi poemLove Dogs. Not to overstate the issue, but this is typical of what happens on Thursday nights at the Delancey. Next week’s show features another chanteuse, Larkin Grimm, whom Wallfisch insists is the next great voice to come along. Come out and find out for yourself. Or miss it at your peril. http://lucidculture.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/concert-review- carol-lipnik-and-spookarama-at-the-delancey-nyc-4209/"Hungar y has declared Marta Sebestyen a national treasure; Brooklyn should affirm Carol Lipnik's brilliance in a similar capacity." - George Maida The Electric Croude WCVE-FM Richmond, VA"Possesing the vocal prowess of a sufi, the purity of a girl folksinger, the power of soul divas plus a plain love of popcraft... Carol Lipnik might be the best vocalist we have in New York (or anywhere)." -Richard Mortifoglio MUZE.com"Carol Lipnik’s Spookarama evokes a Coney Island of the ear, full of ghostly carnivalesque moments" - The New York Times"Carol Lipnik’s atmospheric, carnivalesque sound has won them a loyal following. If Coney Island had a cabaret scene, Lipnik would be its queen" - Time Out New York"Lipnik’s moody voice conveys the feeling of being stuck at midnight in the middle of the winter in Coney Island, the neighborhood of her youth." - John Donohue The New Yorker"a soundtrack to a lost soul’s lonely stroll down a seedy New Orleans street, there lulled into a derelict brothel by Lipnik’s eerie multi-octave wail and Spookarama’s brand of blues, mixing voodoo and psychedelic. The music steers for melancholy by way of the carnival-esque and the creepy - no surprise, since Lipnik grew up by the defunct funhouses and rickety rides of Coney Island." - The Village Voice"Carol Lipnik sounds like Diamanda Galas fronting The Doors" - Luna Cafe/ FuzzLogic.com