Erik Petersen - voice and a
whole circus of instruments, with...
Shawn St. Clair - bass,
bartending, hippie-slaying
Doc the Drummer - drums, Kung
Fu, whiskey
Denise Vertucci - voice, pugs,
the devil and the details
Franz Nicolay - accordion on
some songs
Peter Hess - clarinet and
shouting on some songs
Julian Buchanan - (New York's
alright if you like) saxophones
other contributors: Shantz,
Kevin James Holland, Drew Petersen, Jim Kydonious, and Scott
Sturgeon.
"Erik
Petersen, a/k/a MISCHIEF BREW, has the face of a sweet
teenage boy about to get into some serious trouble. His music
is a gypsy mix of folk, punk, and swing. The androgynous
characters in his foot-tapping tunes lament the current condition of
these United States and blaze alternative paths. And did I
mention he's also a cutie?"
- Village Voice, Best of NYC 2005
Issue
“Have a drink
with my new friend Erik.
Mr. Petersen and I have all of these pints to get through,
and there are only the two of us. My new friend’s got a head
full of some hella good stories. He’s got an attitude and,
even though I’ve never seen his bare arms, I can only picture them
inked up like a wedding reception guest book, only with daggers in
place of signatures.
When he pulls his guitar up onto his lap and plays “Roll Me
Through the Gates of Hell,” that’s when it gets special. You won’t want him going to
hell without you. He
makes it sound like the place where all the best fun is. He’s been there. The rest of us have just
heard about it, as in these five amazingly written songs. I say we check the place
out.”
-Punk Planet, review of "Bakenal"
EP
Once upon a time, an energetic punk kid from the
Philly area confined himself to a basement with an acoustic guitar,
a rickety drum kit, a mandolin, and a four-track to stir a bunch of
ideas together into a broth of songs. The resulting concoction was
“Mirth: or, Certain Verses Composed and Fitted to Tunes, for the
Delight and Recreation of All,” an eight-song demo cassette of
acoustic punk influenced by medieval danses and raucous Romany
dust-raising ditties. The tape had many styles of folk besides
traditional Americana: from the Klezmer-punk of “A Liquor Never
Brewed” to the medieval green-anarchist march of “One Stone Cast,”
the tape robbed from many cultural styles of folk music, and spiked
the brew with punk rock.
Mischief Brew is Erik Petersen, and vice versa. The “Mirth” demo was
only the beginning of a phenomenon, a folk-punk revival of sorts
that the U.K. has seen many times (from the Pogues to the Levellers
and onward...). Over the next few years, two proper releases would
emerge: “Bellingham & Philadelphia” (a split LP/CD of stripped
down political folk with Bellingham bard Robert Blake) and “Bakenal”
(a CDep, the soundtrack of “Django Reinhardt meets Shane MacGowan in
a dark alley…”). With these two releases in the arsenal, Mischief
Brew hit the road many times, playing punk houses and rowdy bars for
punks, hippies, folksters, locals, workers, ramblers, trainhoppers,
hitchhikers, and all of their parents.
Since then, the discography has expanded (see below). This is
music anyone that ever wanted to run away and join the circus. If it
all had to fit under one banner, it would read:
"Carnivalesque."
DISCOGRAPHY:
Releases:
"Smash the Windows" LP (GUNNER RECORDS, 2006 -
Germany). BUY
IT.
"Art of the Underground Single Series Year 1" 7" Box
Set. (ART OF THE UNDERGROUND, 2006). BUY
IT.
"Songs from Under the Sink" LP/CD (FISTOLO, 2006).
BUY
IT.
"Loved, But Unrespected" 7" (FISTOLO,
2006). BUY
IT.
"Smash the Windows" CD (FISTOLO, 2005) BUY IT.
"Two Boxcars" 7" (FISTOLO,
2005)
"Oh Sweet Misery" 7" single (ART OF THE UNDERGROUND,
2005) OUT OF PRINT.
"Bakenal" CDep (FISTOLO, 2003) OUT OF
PRINT.
"Bellingham & Philadelphia" CD/LP (ART OF THE
UNDERGROUND, 2003) BUY IT.
"Don't Spoil Yer Supper!" cassette (FISTOLO, 2003) OUT
OF PRINT.
"Live in Ray's Basement" cassette (SQUARE OF
OPPOSITION, 2002) re-issued!
"Live on WKDU" CD-r (FISTOLO, 2001) OUT OF
PRINT.
"Mirth" cassette demo (FISTOLO, 2000) OUT OF
PRINT.
Compilations:
"Where the Wild Things Rock" Philly Punk Comp. Song:
"Weapons"
"This is War!" - Comp. & Double Zine. Song:
"Liberty Unmasked" (radio performance)
"Artists Fight The System" - Pacifica Radio
Double Disc. Song: "Every Town Will Celebrate"
Art of the Underground Sampler CD. Song:
"Boycott Me!"
"Beyond the Ballot" CD. Song: "The Lowly
Carpenter" (radio performance)
"Up the Stairs and Through the Hall" - Sherman
Arts Comp. Song: "Departure Arrival"
Past and related
projects:
The
Orphans, Christopher
Neumann, Kettle
Rebellion
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