charmingdisaster

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Good news, we built a time machine

P.S. out now on Spotify, Bandcamp & all platforms: https://charmingdisaster.hearnow.com/

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BEHOLD, our new album is unleashed

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Interview with Charming Disaster about their new album The Double

Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris speak about narrative songwriting, occult aesthetics, and how their duo evolved into a conceptual archive Charming Disaster, the duo of Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris, formed in Brooklyn in 2012 and have since cultivated a body of work steeped in occult symbolism, murder balladry, and theatrical noir. Drawing equally from the American folk tradition and cabaret’s…

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From Charming Disaster's upcoming album THE DOUBLE comes "Trick of the Light," inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and a music video paying homage to horror film classics. Who is the vampire and who is the victim? Don't you worry your pretty head about it.

"Trick of the Light" just dropped as a single on all major platforms. Add it to your vampire playlists, share it with your friends, bite it on the neck.

video production credits: direction/art/edit: Zolomon Zelko cinematography: Max Losson camera dept: Isabella Nemcik special appearance: Finley Stein straitjacket provided by Magic Brian special thanks to Green-Wood Cemetery

music production credits: written and composed by Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris Ellia Bisker: vocals, ukulele, organ, piano, glockenspiel, percussion Jeff Morris: vocals, guitar, organ, piano, percussion Don Godwin: bass, drums Engineered and mixed by Don Godwin at Tonal Park (Takoma Park, MD) Mastered by Stefan Heger (Cologne, Germany)

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We just cracked open the LAST BOX of SPELLS + RITUALS records—only 24 copies remain of our first vinyl pressing (we made these in 2019, before we re-released our first two albums on vinyl).

In honor of this momentous occasion, each one of these records will be autographed, and if you like we’ll inscribe it to you or the person of your choosing (leave us a note in your order to let you know if/how you want yours personalized).

Get one while you still can: charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com/album/spells-rituals

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Oh hello, if you live in/near Brooklyn and enjoy our music and indie horror short films, good news!

Secrets of the Dead Sunday, Jan 19 at Sleepwalk 251 Bushwick Ave, E Williamsburg (steps from the Montrose L) 7pm live set by Charming Disaster 8pm film screaming, we mean screening

GET TICKETS

P.S. There MIGHT be a sneak preview viewing of an unreleased new music video, just saying

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“One of the most spellbinding acoustic goth-folk-cabaret duos ever to walk the earth” (!)

-Metal Shock Finland

MELANIE's CHARMING DISASTER Says 'Aloha' to Lucifer This Halloween

The late Melanie described “Aloha Lucifer” as “Such a happy song, because even the Devil probably needs to take a summer vacation.” Well yes. Especially with Halloween just around the corner. Sadly, Melanie did not live to record a full studio version of the song. But she did tape a great “live in the studio” version, and as the end of October draws closer and we find ourselves missing already…

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Describing Charming Disaster Songs Badly

- The theater kids’ alternative book report on Edgar Allan Poe

- we are far apart but I love you and we have a mental connection (in dreams)

- we are far apart but I love you and we have a mental connection (I’m going to kill you)

- we are far apart but I love you and we have a mental connection (astrophysics metaphor)

- groovy apocalypse beach party

- horny folk magic

- The theater kids’ alternative book report on Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

- rehab doctors hate them: this circus performer discovered one weird trick to kick a worrying number of addictive habits

- Who Wants To Learn About Fraudulent Medium Eusapia Palladino

- The theater kids’ alternative book report on the entire penny dreadful genre

- that one song everyone knows from Welcome to Night Vale

- OSHA: the origin story

-  literally just a list of poisonous plants

- what if your house is haunted AND you have carbon monoxide poisoning

- The theater kids’ alternative book report on Dracula

- horny knife-throwing

- One time Jeff Morris’ great aunt was a showgirl in the 1920s [Trumpet solo]

- horny murder

- what if we were James Bond-esque spies and we… No I shan’t say it

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Announcing the Kickstarter campaign for our next album, The Double, and the second edition of the Charming Disaster Oracle Deck! Pledge to support its creation, choose exciting rewards, and find out more here: https://charmingdisaster.com/kickstarter

The Double is a new collection of songs about myth, magic, and mortality, with songs about: Time travel! Alchemy! Magical rituals! Jailbreaks! Count Dracula! High seas adventure! The ominous wonders of the botanical world (and its inevitable takeover)! And more! It will be released on CD as well as a double vinyl album that also includes the first vinyl pressing of our singles collection Time Ghost. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL: We are also creating an updated edition of the sold-out Oracle Deck inspired by Charming Disaster’s music.

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"Our Lady of Radium, light up the dark~"

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Lyric credits to Charming Disaster

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OH HELLO, did you know we are about to be on tour? Sept 23 kicks off the first leg of our 2023 autumnal onslaught—find more info, ticket links, and even more dates over at charmingdisaster.com/shows or facebook.com/charmingdisaster.com/events

We can't wait to see you IN THE FLESH (or, if you are not in a corporeal form, we invite you to tune in to one of our upcoming livestreams)

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Charming Disaster - Paris Green

A song inspired by poisons, pigments, and painting. 

Paris Green was a crystalline form of arsenic invented in the 19th century, widely used in rural areas as an insecticide and rodenticide (and the cause of many deaths by poison during that period due to its easy accessibility). The chemical compound also produced a brilliant green color that was used as a pigment in fabric dyes, paints, and wallpapers (all, it turned out, highly toxic). Paris Green's name evokes another pigment color related to poison: Prussian Blue, a compound produced when iron salts are added to a tissue sample containing cyanide in post-mortem examinations—which is also used as a paint pigment. 

Recommending reading: 

Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy: a book of photographs and text fragments, largely newspaper clippings, that together create a chilling account of life in rural Wisconsin the late 19th century: murder, suicide, arson, violence, religious mania, darkness, obsession, contagion. https://bookshop.org/p/books/wisconsin-death-trip-michael-lesy/10756193?ean=9780826321930

The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum: the thrilling history of forensic medicine in Prohibition-era New York City. https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-poisoner-s-handbook-murder-and-the-birth-of-forensic-medicine-in-jazz-age-new-york-deborah-blum/16656190?ean=9780143118824

Bitten by Witch Fever: Wallpaper and Arsenic in the Victorian Home by Lucinda Hawksley: a catalog of arsenic-dyed textiles and wallpapers, with accompanying accounts of madness and toxicity. https://www.lucindahawksley.com/books/bitten-by-witch-fever/

More recommended reading: https://bookshop.org/shop/charmingdisaster

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Zine Update!

…Have You Heard of a Little Band Called… is currently up to date with image descriptions, a text only version, and links!

Read it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GxBWhvoM5xB6Yfj7sg4IspCdmQUT_gu4QtlMvxc_vmo/edit?usp=sharing :) The first issue is on Charming Disaster and Machinery of a Human Heart <3

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New release: “Disembodied Head” music video!

Our take on meditation, contemplation, and interior life: equal parts mindfulness practice and The Man With Two Brains, by way of Andy Warhol and The Electric Company.

This video was shot on 16mm film with a vintage Krasnagorsk-3 camera, directed and photographed by Iain Marks with art direction by Sam Wilson of Boxcutter Collective. Enjoy!