Abney Park (band)

Abney Park

Abney Park is a band based in Seattle that mixes elements of industrial dance, and world music influences in their work. They have taken on Steampunk personas, and are said to be a band of sky pirates aboard the airship, Ophelia, but they constantly deny it. Their name comes from Abney Park Cemetery in London (UK).

Abney Park comes from an era that never was, but one that we wish had been. An era where airships waged war in the skies, and corsets and cummerbunds were proper adventuring attire. They’ve picked up their bad musical habits, scoundrelous musicians, and anachronistically hybridized instruments from dozens of locations and eras that they have visited in their travels and thrown them into one riotous dervish of a performance. Expect clockwork guitars, belly dancers, flintlock bassists, middleastern percussion, violent violin, and Tesla powered keyboards blazing in a post- apocalyptic, swashbuckling, Steampunk musical mayhem.

Band members

• Robert Brown - Vocals, Songs, Darbuka, Diatonic button accordion
• Finn Von Claret - vocals
• Kristina Erickson - keyboards, vocals
• Nathaniel Johnstone - Guitar, violin, mandolin
• Daniel C. - Bass, Guitar

From the left: Nathaniel Johnstone,Daniel C,Kristina Erickson

History

Abney Park was formed by Robert Brown in 1997. In 1998 they released their first full-length album Abney Park, and in 1999 they released Return to the Fire. Tracks from these two albums as well as a couple of new ones formed their third release, titled Cemetery Number 1. In the early years of Abney Park, the band featured a gothic musical and visual style.

In 2005, the band released Taxidermy, which is a collection of new versions of songs from past albums, three live tracks and two covers. In 2006 they released the album The Death of Tragedy. After this release, their line-up changed as well, with the departure of Traci Nemeth, Krysztof Nemeth and Robert Hazelton, replaced by Magdalene Veen, Jean-Paul Mayden and Nathaniel Johnstone. Shortly thereafter Jean-Paul departed the band to be replaced by Daniel C. As part of their transformation, Abney Park invented fictional identities of themselves, complete with a background story that describes the fictional history of the band as the crew of an airship named the HMS Ophelia. In the spring of 2008, Magdalene Veen left the band and has been replaced by Finn Von Claret. That year, they released Lost Horizons, their second steampunk-themed album.

Abney Park has performed at festivals like Dragon*Con, Saturnalia, Utah Dark Arts, Bats Day, Convergence, Ravenwood Festival, Masque and Veil, and the Bay Area Maker Faire, and is planning on performing at MetroCon this June. Their music has also been featured in many compilation CDs, including Cleopatra Records' The Unquiet Grave vol. III, Annihilation and Seduction , Eighteen, and in several movie soundtracks, including Insomnis Amour, Goth, and Lord of the Vampires.

Discography

Albums

• Abney Park (1998)
• Return to the Fire (1999)
• Cemetery Number 1 (2000)
• From Dreams Or Angels (2001)
• Twisted & Broken
• Taxidermy (2005)
• The Death of Tragedy (2005)
• Lost Horizons (2008)

External links

• Abney Park at AllMusic
• Abney Park Official Website
• Abney Park on www.Myspace.com
• Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1899

Accusations and rumor of Abney Parks poor disposition

Some whom have interacted with the Band claim that they are less prestigious and humble then some may say they are. There have been several reports of the band exhibiting generally rude or Haughty behavior towards their fans and or those with whom they come into contact with. It is said that they can been rather arrogant at times and such rumors do not bode well for their fan base.

Does/do anyone else think Abney Park are a bunch of douche bags?

I went to Metrocon this weekend and had a rather unpleasant time dealing with them. I volunteered to get my badge refunded and ended up helping out the metrocon guest staff....they seemed to be really rude and haunty. On saturday the staff was trying to get them food and the AB Member who wears a kilt(I don't know his name) basically chewed out one of metro's staff because they offered the band something to snack on while someone went and got them something better to eat. We got them some deli meat and bread so they could make sandwichs while we sent out for food, but they said "they are better then fucking ham and cheese".

These guys really disappointed me. they treated everyone like shit and I do believe they were the reason all of Saturdays events were late. They took forever setting up their equipment and nit picking over little things. To make a bad situation even worse, I even heard that they may have TRASHED their Hotel room.

Was anyone else treated like shit by these pricks?

Whether Such things are true or not is up for discussion, but such beliefs and opinions regarding Abney Park are no secret among those who follow their circuit.