Indie Rock Hit Parade Live Session: Shilpa Ray

Shilpa Ray | Photo by Eric Schuman

Our latest Indie Rock Hit Parade session is with an old friend who continues to blow us away. Shilpa Ray has toured and performed with the likes of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Man Man, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Nicole Atkins, but it’s when she’s leading the pack that the claws come out. During a brief tour to test out new material, Shilpa and her band (bassist/guitarist Jon “Catfish” DeLorme, drummer Russ Lemkin and guitarist Alistair Paxton) came to our studio to commit these latest creations to tape.

Featuring a pair of songs that appear on her new album, Last Year’s Savage, Shilpa Ray’s IRHP session features all the hallmarks of her unmistakeable sound as well as a few new tricks. Ray’s trusty harmonium is front and center on “The Burning Bride,” joined by a floating pedal-steel guitar for the song’s back half. “Pop Song For Euthenasia” is a fierce, Lynchian subversion of a classic torch song that shows off Ray’s dynamic vocals. As an added bonus, the band gave us a rendition of the non-album track “Morning Terrors, Nights Of Dread;” a showstopping call-and-response song that goes from Spector-esque pop to bone-rattling noise in just over 4 minutes.

Last Year’s Savage will be out later this year on Northern Spy Records.

Download and stream the complete Shilpa Ray Indie Rock Hit Parade live session: