Carla Bozulich

All Music Guide:

From her early days in the post-punk group Neon Veins and the industrial outfit Ethyl Meatplow to her later work with the Geraldine Fibbers, Scarnella, and on her own, Carla Bozulich's eclectic music is united by an honesty and intensity that is often unflinching, and always compelling. The Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist was a fixture of the city's post-punk scene in the '80s, joining Neon Veins when she was just 15; after giving up drugs and alcohol in her early twenties, Bozulich co-founded the industrial dance trio Ethyl Meatplow. The group had a strong following around L.A. and released several singles and an album, 1993's Happy Days Sweetheart, before disbanding later that year.

After Ethyl Meatplow's breakup, Bozulich went in a very different direction, crafting mournful and eerie alt-country with the Geraldine Fibbers, who were named after Bozulich's imaginary childhood friend. 1995's Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home introduced the group's searing-yet-delicate attack, which was expanded and amplified with 1997's Butch, largely due to the addition of experimental guitarist Nels Cline as a new Fibber. Despite wide acclaim for Butch's searching, ambitious music, the album ended up being the Fibbers' final statement (Sympathy for the Record Industry's What Part of Get Thee Gone Don't You Understand?, which was also released in 1997, was a collection of demos and EP tracks). The band's label, Virgin, wanted a solo album from Bozulich instead of another Geraldine Fibbers release, and the group folded under the pressure. However, Bozulich and Cline's collaboration continued in the form of Scarnella, whose self-titled 1998 album of experimental, improvisation-heavy pieces was even more abstract and adventurous than Butch and led to Bozulich devoting more of her time to improvised music. She also delved into scoring, writing music for the 2002 film By Hook or by Crook and for a production of the play The Maids by Jean Genet.

In 2003 she released her first solo album, an experimental but spiritually faithful reinvention of Willie Nelson's classic Red Headed Stranger that featured Cline, as well as Devin Hoff, Carla Kihlstedt, Marka Hughes, Jenny Scheinman, and Nelson himself among her collaborators. The album won Bozulich virtually unanimous acclaim that spilled over to the following year's mini-album I'm Gonna Stop Killing, which expanded on Red Headed Stranger's approach with improvisations based on the album and covers of Neil Young and Marianne Faithfull songs. For 2006's Evangelista, Bozulich moved to Constellation and worked with many of that label's brightest lights, including members of A Silver Mt. Zion and Godspeed You Black Emperor!, as well as Cline and Shahzad Ismaily, a multi-instrumentalist who also performed and recorded with Bozulich's more straightforward rock band, the Night Porter.

Wikipedia:

Carla Bozulich is an American musician based in Los Angeles, known for her work as the lead singer, lyricist and founder of both The Geraldine Fibbers and Evangelista and as a founding member of Ethyl Meatplow. Her 2006 album, Evangelista, was released by Constellation Records, that label's first release by a non-Canadian artist. In 2007, she also named her ever-evolving touring group "Evangelista" eventually recruiting bassist Tara Barnes and keyboardist/sampler Dominic Cramp as permanent band members. However, the rest of the lineup of Evangelista as a recording, performing and touring band changes each time they play or record. In keeping with this change, the albums Hello, Voyager, Prince of Truth and In Animal Tongue were released under the band name Evangelista. Bozulich has also been involved in other projects, including collaborations with Francesco Guerri and Sarah Lipstate. In addition to singing and composing music, she is known to play guitar and work with samples and sound experimentation. She was born in New York City.

Musical career

Bozulich's recording career began in 1982 when, under the name Carla Noelle, she contributed to a recording by Gary Kail called "Zurich 1916", which would be released in 1984 as part of the album Creative Nihilism. She has since played with numerous bands including the Neon Veins, Invisible Chains, Ethyl Meatplow, the Geraldine Fibbers, Scarnella (a duo with Nels Cline, the name being an anagram of their combined first names), The Nels Cline Singers, Scott Amendola Band, The Book of Knots, the as-of-yet unrecorded band The Night Porter, as a solo artist, and as leader of the Evangelista project. Bozulich is the producer of the upcoming Evangelista album In Animal Tongue, which will be released on September 20, 2011.

Bozulich has also formed an improvisational project called Bloody Claws with Francesco Guerri, with whom she toured Europe in the spring and summer of 2009. She has also contributed to recordings by Mike Watt (most significantly as a vocalist on four tracks of his album Ball-Hog or Tugboat?), Hadda Brooks and Lydia Lunch. She has performed live with Watt, as well as with Thurston Moore, Christian Marclay, Okyyung Lee, Carla Kihlstedt, Wayne Kramer, Wilco, Agathe Max, Italian guitarist Simone Massaron (with whom she sings and provides lyrics on the 2008 album Dandelions on Fire) and many others. Members of Evangelista outside of the core trio of Bozulich, Barnes and Cramp have included Ches Smith, Shahzad Ismaily, Ava Mendoza, Jeremy Drake, Gambletron, Mirko Sabatini, Madigan Shive, Andrea Serrapiglio, Thierry Amar, Nadia and Jessica Moss, Becky Foon and Jessica Catron.

On August 16–17, 2009 she performed live with Marianne Faithfull and Marc Ribot in Düsseldorf as part of the 2009 Ruhrtriennale. Willie Nelson performed on her 2003 album The Red Headed Stranger, a song-by-song cover of his album of the same name.

Bozulich scored a 2001 production of Jean Genet's play The Maids, as well as the 2003 film By Hook or by Crook, directed by Harry Dodge and Silas Howard and produced by Steak House. The Geraldine Fibbers songs "Lilybelle" and "Seven or in 10," both cowritten by Bozulich, have been covered by Kiki and Herb.

Bozulich has been asked to perform as a solo artist at two All Tomorrows Parties festivals, and at two Bad Bonn Kilbi festivals. In 2005, she performed Brecht/Weill composition "The Ballad of the Lily of Hell" at the Meltdown Festival in London, curated by Patti Smith.

Eyes for Ears

Between 2000 and 2010, Bozulich created site-specific performance art pieces under the umbrella name Eyes for Ears. "Fake Party" (developed for Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound) took place at the Schindler House in August 2000; an event described by Bozulich as "new music dressed up like a party meets a social event disguised as art." During the piece, the audience was treated upon arrival as guests at a party at the Schindler House. Guests were pulled from the "party" into a private room, where they were serenaded by Bozulich lyp-synching to old pop songs, and eventually led into yet another party room. The intricate details of the event are described on Bozulich's website. A second piece, Performance for Fever Dreams, was performed at the Getty Museum of Art in February 2004. The third performance in the series was a "guerilla sing-along" featuring Bozulich and others at a train station waiting room in Glendale, California on Mother's Day 2005. Bozulich had recorded sounds at the train station for a previous project and decided to hold a free participatory musical event at the location.

The fourth Eyes for Ears performance was at the CalArts Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology (CEAIT) Festival at Los Angeles' REDCAT Theater on March 5, 2010. Titled Drowned To The Light, it featured Bozulich — along with David Rothbaum, Ezra Buchla and Danny Frankel — performing songs and improvised music before the projected films of Brooklyn musician and filmmaker Sarah Lipstate.

The fifth Eyes for Ears, entitled "Under the Skin" was performed on May 7, 2011 in Krems, Austria as part of Donaufestival. This was a multimedia installation incorporating the entire Minoritenkirche Knoster monastery and grounds. Bozulich also curated three nights of performances at the festival.

Other work

Bozulich has written articles, short fiction, poetry and criticism for Alternative Press, LA Weekly, Ecstatic Peace and Ben Is Dead. She has mentioned her desire to expand her short story "The Sparkely Jewel" into a full-length novel. Bozulich has also worked in the illustrative arts.