From Sweet Soubrette's third album, Burning City (released Jan 21, 2014). 
Get it here: http://sweetsoubrette.bandcamp.com/album/burning-city

Sweet Soubrette's dark, edgy love songs feature the songwriting, vocals and ukulele of Ellia Bisker (recipient of four ASCAP Plus Awards for her songwriting), along with a talented backing band of bass, drums, piano, strings, and horns. Bisker honed her performance chops playing ukulele in the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, and the glittery eyelashes she wears onstage hint at her vaudevillean origins. Bisker’s songs explore troubled love and the mysteries of existence. She is also a regular participant in a literary songwriting series, the Bushwick Book Club, which has inspired a number of book-themed songs, including the title track of the band’s new album, Burning City (based on the novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut).

Their third full-length album, Burning City, shows off the band's lush, rich arrangements of strings, horns, bass, drums, piano, and harmonies. Recorded in Brooklyn at the legendary BC Studio, the album's ten tracks were inspired by source material as varied as troubled love, works of literature, extreme weather events, and the promise of new romance, and they range from dark to transcendent, playful to spellbinding. Burning City's strong songwriting and powerful execution make this album Sweet Soubrette's best work to date.

Charlatan

instrumental-only versions of all 10 tracks from Sweet Soubrette's album Burning City, released January 2014. 
Album tracks: http://sweetsoubrette.bandcamp.com/album/burning-city

Masters and publishing 100% owned by the artist.
Contact sweetsoubrette@gmail.com for licensing inquiries.

Charlatan INST

Inspired by the tragic life of genius inventor Nikola Tesla.
Support my music on Patreon for exclusive downloads and more: http://patreon.com/elliabisker

Lyrics:

It's a humiliation
When you've harnessed nature
The Hotel New Yorker
Is kind of a hell

You're old and defeated
A penniless wizard
Who's rescuing pigeons
To nurse them to health

But who's gonna save you
From yourself?

You boarded the steamship
With poems in your pocket
And bright calculations
For what it all means

You'd lost all your money
Your ticket your luggage
Your head full of visions
Of flying machines

But who's gonna save you
From your dreams?

Blind and faint-hearted
The doubting world
Afraid of the forces at work
Take to your bed
Tell them do not disturb
The currents surrounding the earth

It's so anticlimactic
If eight hundred patents
Can't give any comfort
Then what's it all for?

On the twenty-fifth floor
Of the Hotel New Yorker
The Do Not Disturb sign
Still hangs on the door

And who's gonna save you
Anymore?

So what is the lesson
That genius invention
Is no match for money
Or power or luck?

Can't lay it to rest
The ghost of poor Tesla's
The image that lingers
Where lightning has struck

And who's gonna save you?
Who's gonna save you?

Written & composed by Ellia Bisker (vocals & ukulele)

Bushwick Book Club

Who's Gonna Save You? (Tesla)

a brand new song, recorded at home. 
preview my new album here: 
http://sweetsoubrette.bandcamp.com/album/big-celebrity

flapping in the dark
on leather wings
if you listen closely
you can hear me sing

send my voice
where I cannot see
it echoes sends an image
bouncing back to me

my love is blind
tell me are you
one of my kind

strangest dreams
when I'm fast asleep
hanging upside down
from the ceiling

claws and fur 
needle teeth 
a little black umbrella
with a heart that beats

my love is blind
tell me are you
one of my kind

a drop of blood
you wouldn't miss
if you let me I'll give you
a little kiss

fish or fowl
bird or beast
just what kind of creature
is a thing like me

my love is blind
tell me are you
one of my kind

Bat Song

Sweet Soubrette's fourth album, BIG CELEBRITY, includes songs about: lost youth, the meaning of fame, bad communication, existential mysteries, our impending mortality, irrevocable decisions you may regret, the way we never seem to learn from our life experiences, the question of whether to have children, the colonization of Hawaii by the United States, and other lighthearted pop fare, served up in a lush bed of strings, horns, bass and drums, harmonies, and ukulele.

Big Celebrity

Wake Up When

in the dreamy little swindle where the strangler fig holds sway 
they made the queen a prisoner and they took her crown away 

oh oh, oh ah, Oahu 
oh oh oh, oh ah, Oahu 

she's locked inside her palace where she sits and sews all day 
in a skirt of downy feathers and a yellow colored lei 

now she plies her needle to embroider every bird 
on a quilt of silk and satin that will cover up the world 

you can gather up the idols you can put em in a fire 
you can burn em into cinders but the ancient gods don't die 

there will come a moment when a wave will wash away 
all the saints and all the strangers it might even be today 

when we meet we'll touch our noses and we'll breath each other in 
with the breezes full of flowers and the sunshine on our skin 

Sweet Soubrette's fourth album, BIG CELEBRITY, includes songs about: lost youth, the meaning of fame, bad communication, existential mysteries, our impending mortality, irrevocable decisions you may regret, the way we never seem to learn from our life experiences, the question of whether to have children, the colonization of Hawaii by the United States, and other lighthearted pop fare, served up in a lush bed of strings, horns, bass and drums, harmonies, and ukulele.

Oahu

Devil's Moon

Night Owls

The fourth album by Brooklyn's Sweet Soubrette offers cabaret-inspired indie rock with dark, lush arrangements of strings, horns, & ukulele, featuring original songs inspired by works of literature and the mysteries of existence. "Elegant existentialist chamber pop" - New York Music Daily

The album's title track, inspired by filmmaker John Waters' essay collection Crackpot, muses on our national obsession with fame, from beauty pageants to movie star scandals to television tragedies. Poet Bob Holman called the song “a keeper.”

Released November 22, 201

Ghost Ship

"Big Celebrity," remixed by Belgian electronic artist Psy'Aviah

original version: sweetsoubrette.bandcamp.com/track/big-celebrity-3

from Big Celebrity, released November 22, 2016
remixer: Yves Schelpe
remixing artist: Psy'Aviah
mixed & mastered by Mitia Wexler

Big Celebrity (Psy'Aviah remix)

"You develop these little codes with certain actors or actresses. For me, for example, 'more wind' means 'more mystery.'" 
–David Lynch

Red lips 
Green lawns 
And Bobby Vinton’s song 
See a lonely ear 
Lying in a field 
Paint a picture till you can believe it’s real 

But you need more wind 
More wind, more wind, more wind 
And you seek more wind 
More wind, more wind, more wind 

Better do your work 
That’s all you can control 
Gotta feed your family but don’t sell your soul 
You’re on the threshold 
As you wait for more 
Someday later you’ll be walking through that door 

But you need more wind 
More wind, more wind, more wind 
And you seek more wind 
More wind, more wind, more wind 

Don’t fight the darkness 
Build a red room of your own 
Learn how to unlock it 
The wind will tell you if you let it blow 

You don’t know the box 
And you don’t know the key 
But something is unfolding into mystery 
Like a rush of air 
Brushing against your skin 
Is it a secret message 
You can smell the jasmine 
In the storm that’s rising 
On the vast horizon 
There are forces wilder 
In the world inside you 

But you need more wind 
More wind, more wind, more wind 
And you seek more wind 
More wind, more wind, more wind 
And you need more wind 
More wind, more wind, more wind 
And you seek more wind 
More wind, more wind, more wind

credits:
Ellia Bisker: vocals, ukulele, piano, glockenspiel 
Mike Dobson: drums 
Charlie Nieland: bass 
Written & composed by Ellia Bisker 
Produced by Charlie Nieland & Ellia Bisker 
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Charlie Nieland at Charlie Nieland Productions (Brooklyn, NY) 
Drums recorded at Soundcat Studios (Brooklyn, NY) 
Graphic design by Josh Bisker

More Wind

Sweet Soubrette goes new wave disco-soul: Back to Black-era Amy Winehouse by way of Duran Duran.

"Edgy, honest and sultry...one of New York's most intriguing songwriting forces...rock star command and intelligently crafted music." -The Deli Magazine

Be My Man

Inspired by the NY Times coverage of the July 13, 2019 blackout in NYC, written in response to an assignment by Amanda Palmer.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/13/nyregion/nyc-power-outage.html
https://www.patreon.com/posts/sunday-contest-28370965

Lyrics:

The power that runs
Electronic machinery 
Lights up the stage 
Of the biggest arena
	
The fans in the Garden 
Will hold up their lighters 
When they see the magnified 
Face of their idol 

Emblazoned much larger than 
Life on the big TV screen 

When the power goes out 
On the West side of Broadway
In the blink of an eye
It’s a different century

Systems and signals are
Plunged into darkness  
The microphone’s dead and   
The speakers are useless

But one sound still lingers
the drummer continues to play

What’s left
After the lights go out
How do we live in the dark
By moving the air 
With our primitive bodies
Till we make a spark

The cast of the musical 
Waits on the street
With the people who’ve 
Purchased their tickets to see them

The theater is dark 
But outside it’s still early
As the sun goes down over 
The coast of New Jersey 

The voices of singers ring out 
In a chorus so sweet

What’s left
After the grid goes down
How do we live in the dark
By moving the air 
With our primitive bodies
Call it communion or call it our art 

The suits at Con Edison 
Wouldn’t believe
That the power they give’s
Not the kind that we need

There’s electrical current
In real human contact
We’re practically starving for
Something more intimate

After the lights go back on 
This will seem like a dream

What’s left
After the blackout
How do we live in the dark
By moving the air 
With our primitive bodies
Till we make a spark

What’s left
After the lights go out
After the lights go out
After the lights go out

Written/composed by Ellia Bisker

After The Lights Go Out

NEW ALBUM "BIG CELEBRITY" OUT NOW! http://sweetsoubrette.com/bigcelebrity

Brooklyn’s Sweet Soubrette is a ukulele-powered indie rock band with dark, poetic lyrics, songs that tell stories, and lush instrumentation. Sweet Soubrette’s edgy love songs explore troubled romance, works of literature, and the mysteries of existence, featuring the songwriting, vocals and ukulele of Ellia Bisker and a talented backing band, whose members include Heather Cole (violin), Lyndol Descant (keys/backing vox), Erin Rogers (sax/horn arrangements), Cecil Scheib (trombone), Bob Smith (bass), Darrell Smith (drums), and John Waters (trumpet). Past band members include Mike Dobson (drums) and Stacy Rock (keys/backing vox).

Bisker honed her performance chops playing ukulele in the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, and her onstage presence hints at her vaudevillean origins. The Deli Magazine calls Sweet Soubrette “One of New York’s most intriguing songwriting forces…rock star command and intelligently crafted music.” UK music blog From ‘DC to ZZ describes Sweet Soubrette as “the lovechild of Regina Spektor and Amanda Palmer.”

Sweet Soubrette's debut album, Siren Song, produced by Tim Cohan of indie pop band Tryst, was released in 2008 as a solo project on indie label MH Records, and received positive reviews and high rotation on national U.S. college radio. Time Out NY described it as "at once sweet and sassy, celebrating reckless behavior with a charmed wink." The Deli Magazine said it was "almost impossible to stop replaying in one’s head after hearing."

In 2011 Sweet Soubrette released a second album produced by Cohan, Days and Nights, which featured the addition of Bisker’s new backing band on bass, drums, and violin. The record’s dark pop sensibility earned comparisons to Amanda Palmer and Regina Spektor. The Philadelphia Inquirer called Days and Nights "dark vaudeville-pop…sensational" and Worcester Magazine described it as "indie rock meets cabaret."

In 2012 Sweet Soubrette began working with producer Don Godwin and released an EP, What’s My Desire, previewing two singles from the next full-length album: "What’s My Desire" and "Be My Man," with arrangements adding piano and a 3-piece horn section to the existing backing band. The title track earned extensive critical praise and was included on Wicked Local’s list of "22 Stellar Songs from 2012." The playful, inventive music videos created for both tracks have gotten thousands of views since their release.

Sweet Soubrette’s third full-length album, Burning City, released in 2014, delivered on the promise of the What’s My Desire EP, showing off the band’s rich arrangements of strings, horns, bass, drums, piano, and harmonies. Burning City’s strong songwriting and powerful execution marked a new high water mark for Sweet Soubrette, earning international critical praise and high rotation on college radio across the U.S.

Big Celebrity takes the band's lush arrangements and applies them to songs that reach a new level of sophistication and maturity, taking on life's existential mysteries: the price of fame, the decision of whether or not to have children, the relationship between distance and intimacy, the difficulty of learning from experience, and the sweetness of staying up late. Several songs were inspired by books and literary works by authors Sarah Vowell, Cheryl Strayed, Margaret Atwood, and filmmaker John Waters.

Sweet Soubrette

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