Monique Ortiz- vocals, fretless bass, baritone guitar, 2-string slide bass, organ.
Jerome Deupree- drums and percussion.
Jim Moran- guitars, piano.
Dana Colley- tenor and baritone saxes, melodica, bass clarinet (on record).
Russ Gershon- tenor and baritone saxes (live and on record).
Jonah Sacks- cello
Influences
Julian Cope, Roxy Music, Romeo Void, Wire, Nina Simone, Can, Crime & The City Solution, The Church, Janis Joplin, Tones On Tail, Hendrix, Doors, Lou Reed.
Sounds Like
Patti Smith meeting Nina SImone for drinks at a small club where Tom Waits is the bartender, Nick Cave is the doorman, and Bryan Ferry is crooning on the small stage.
....Bourbon Princess is a band of four exceptional musicians lead by vocalist/bassist/songwriter Monique Ortiz. Their rich, cinematic, and often darkly psychedelic sound is a combination of the late-seventies New Romantic and post-punk, with touches of early jazz and sixties rock.
Monique crafts the sophisticated sound from the warm, flexible tones of her contralto voice and the deep sonorities of her versatile fretless bass playing, with the help of her talented co-conspirators: original Morphine drummer Jerome Deupree, Either/Orchestra saxophonist/leader Russ Gershon and guitarist/pianist Jim Moran.
Bourbon Princess began as a bass and drums duo, but over the course of two albums, 2000's debut Stopline and 2003's Black Feather Wings, and hundreds of live performances, the group's line-up and adventurous sound textures have grown into one of the most distinctive styles in modern rock, drawing comparisons to such giants as Roxy Music, Patti Smith, The Doors, and Nina Simone, to name a few.
Dark of Days is a creative breakthrough for Bourbon Princess. "The album is more pop yet darker than anything we've done," says Monique. "That might seem contradictory, but I think we've pulled it off."
"It's the first body of songs I've written that are really influenced by the times," she continues. "The first two albums were about things that were going on in my immediate environment. This one is less self-absorbed. 'Dark of Days' is really about the political times we're all living through now.
Dark of Days is also the first full-length collaboration between Monique and Paul Q. Kolderie (producer/engineer for Radiohead, Hole, Morphine, and many others), who manned the console. "It was a great partnership," she says. "He could hear what we were trying to do with our sound and made it more expansive and clear. Since Paul is a bass player, too, it was easier for me to convey the sound I wanted to capture, which is very bass driven, without compromising the other instruments."
Although Bourbon Princess is based in Boston, Monique hails originally from the Pennsylvania of open farmlands and Amish horse-and-buggy traffic. She moved to Massachusetts seeking an environment more receptive to her creativity. Within months she was performing her songs in clubs and coffeehouses, at art school parties and poetry slams, accompanying herself on fretless bass. Audiences immediately responded to her dry wit and riveting presence.
Early on Monique began perfecting a percussive and sliding instrumental style flavored by Arabic grooves, the perfect support for her cinematic lyrics, which while at times unsettling, are always strangely beautiful and affecting.
Besides the two previous Bourbon Princess albums, Monique's songs have appeared on the Respond II compilation alongside tunes by Ani DiFranco, Aimee Mann and Dolly Parton, and on MTV's Real World. She has also been nominated for a prestigious Boston Music Award and in the Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll in the best female vocalist category in 2004 and 2005. Monique is currently working on her follow-up to Reclining Female, with drummer R.L. Hulsman, and bassist Steve Breman. She has a live EP due out November 08, with a full-length record coming next year.
MONIQUE ORTIZ & R.L. HULSMAN AT NEW ALLIANCE, SEPTEMBER 08. Directed by Ted Cartselos.
Siouxsie & the Banshees: Burn Up! Vermillion Lies: Long Red Hair Boris the Sprinkler: @n@rchy Bob @t the M@yo Clinic Jo Gabriel: Juno Violent Femmes: Lies Magnificent Seven: April Fools Bad Things: Death of the Inferno Golem:Czarda Legendary Pink Dots: Princess Coldheart Bourbon Princess: Dark of Days Ex Reverie: The Years Ilya E Monosov: Winter Lullaby Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys: Russians Oron Rigel Dommisse: Suicide Kiss (Because Dead) Lisps: Documents Tossers: No Fun Gothic Archies: Dreary, Dreary Nichols Family Gospel Hour: The Beginning Tragedy
Monique, Dana & Larry, AKACOD; Cogratulations on winning the WBCN Rock and Roll Rumble! You 3 are indeed some of the most talented musicians I have encounterd in my own personal long history in music.
I hope this brings opportunities to you that will allow you all to give up your day jobs.
Baby Gramps: Big Rock Candy Mountain Bill Frisell: Spanish Ladies Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys: March of the Toys Painted Saints: Oh Comely Stolen Sweets: Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea Iron & Wine: Promise What You Will Loudon Wainwright III: Turkish Revelry Doors: Wintertime Love Grey DeLisle: Bohemian Rhapsody Abandonded Toys: Within a Lilac Clutch Cowboy Junkies: Everybody Knows Juanita Family & Friends: Song of Mihitabel White Stripes: Prickly Thorn but Sweetly Worn CC Adcock: Kissin' Kouzans Bob Neuwirth: Haul on the Bowline Zoe Boekbinder: Don't Tell Me Bad Things: Ten in One/Lopsided Lullaby Bourbon Princess: Dark of Days Bryan Ferry: The Cruel Ship's Captain Sol Invictus: The Silver Swan Circus Contraption: July Like a Dog Teddy Thomas: Haul Away Joe Decemberists: Clementine David Thomas: Dan Dan Jane's Addiction: Of Course Amy Winehouse: Wake Up Alone Low: Belarus Bono: A Dying Sailor to His Ship Mates Th' Legendary Shack Shakers: No Such Thing
Voodoo Organist: 151 Proof Golden Robot Army: Drink Up, Sweetheart Scarlet Room: Welcome to the Musical Circus Bourbon Princess: Dark of Days Meisce: Sean Reilly Velvet Underground: Femme Fatale White Stripes: Prickly Thorn, but Sweetly Worn Midnight Serenaders: My Handyman Coctails: China Song Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: the False Husband Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys: The Negative Heart Society Siouxsie & the Banshees: Strange Fruit Ego Plum & the Ebola Music Orchestra: Sonitas Insolitus Enya: Evening Falls...
thank you for the add. i love your music!!!! i am a long time fan of Sandman and Co. i have a wonderful bootleg of the HYPNOSONICS from 92 maybe. russ gershon has been a favorite of mine from the minute i heard this show... i was curious if anyone has ever heard the song "mozambique"?? the only time i have heard it is from that show as well... anyhow, thank you!
Wow, Monique, I just watched the Waiting Noon Video and it's pretty darn cool. You look like Charlie Chaplin if Charlie Chaplin were a drop dead gorgeous woman. Cheers!
