Rasputina

Kansas native Melora Creager is a woman lost in time. Even her New York City band's Web site seems confused, listing its origin as 1891 beside photos of the trio dressed like Victorian-era dominatrixes. Originally dubbed the Traveling Ladies' Cello Society and founded as a means for Creager to experiment with her beloved cello — she knows how to bow, after all (she backed up Nirvana on its last tour) — the experiment quickly mutated into what we all know, love and call Rasputina. After enough lineup changes to make Josh Homme's head spin, the trio seems to have settled into a permanent crew made up of Creager, Zo´ Keating (cello, looping queen) and Jonathon TeBeest (drums). Forever clad in period garb but never a costume band, Rasputina's dark, ethereal, gothic chamber pop transports audiences to some 1870s mirror universe where chick cellists are not just dead sexy but, well, cool. —