01	Ole Smoky						03:53
	02	Driving By Candelabrum						06:35
	03	Midnite Heck						05:13
	04	Bucket Of Blood						02:16
	05	Vampires						13:00
	06	Ska For Computers						03:26
	07	Mountains And Riverbeds						05:14
	08	Fearless Little Roy Chestnuts						02:23
	09	Scoobled						02:36
	10	Heebee Jeebee Song						06:17

Ted Casterline, Valerie Opielski, Glendon Jones, and Jay Horvath play:

Baldwin Grand Piano, Fender Bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, violin, 12-string guitar, hammered dulcimer, Balinese gongs, jews harp, cowbells, tamborines (tenor and alto), rivetshaker, uninformed vocals, sleigh bells, chimes, vibraslap, timbale, detuned bells, digital piano, perfectly shakable fruit, bongo drums, triangles

Biography

Krakatoa hatched in Philadelphia in 1997 and relocated to Brooklyn in early 2000. Val Opielski plays piano, bass or guitar, Glendon Jones plays violin or guitar, Ted Casterline plays bass or guitar and Ely Levin plays drums and percussion. Latley, Dave Brown plays violin and percussion, and Ben Freeman sometimes plays cello. Sarah Ferholt plays trumpet on the record.

Krakatoa has enjoyed playing with: Wayne Horvitz and Zony Mash, Elliot Sharp's Tectonics, Marc Ribot/Los Cubanos Postizos, and Chicago's Cheer Accident at venues like Tonic, the Knitting Factory and Philly's Astrocade. They provided the original live soundtrack for a giant shadow puppet play at Philadelphia's Institute for Contemporary Art. They played at the Highwire Gallery for Toshi Makihara's Improv Music Series. Krakatoa participated in the Black Sheer Puppet Festival in Pittsburgh, SOWEBO in Baltimore, and the WE Festival in Wilmington, NC. Their crowning achivement was a performance at the Alternativa Festival in Prague, where they joined some of the world's most innovative musicians in a triumphant celebration of global avant-garde music.

Source: Etherdrag Promo Biography


Krakatoa are a young quartet, originally from Philadelphia and now relocated to Brooklyn who blend precise musicality and compositional skill with charm, playfulness and humor; their music is the unlikely meeting place between art rock, baroque cartoon music, progressive rock and chamber punk. We Are The Rowboats is their 3rd release & their 1st on Cuneiform and we are happy to have them on board! The band uses vocals, guitars, violin, electric mandolin, keyboards, bass and drums. Guest musicians further enrich the quartet’s sound. Krakatoa utilizes rock and classical instrumentation to channel surf and subvert the musical landscape, borrowing from every imaginable musical genre. Their mixture of charming musicality and fearless humor is theirs alone.
"This band is madly eclectic, but it's to their credit they don’t overtly call attention to it….subtlety and sly humor are prized… While never coming across as derivative, Krakatoa seems to be going for balance between pre-1974 King Crimson, Millions Now Living Will Never Die-era Tortoise and the crazy-quilt jump-cutting of John Zorn’s Naked City with touches of the instrumental Hot Rats / Waka Jawaka side of Frank Zappa . Driving, distorted electric guitar lines give way to mournful violin passages, Fractured Fairy Tales daffiness segues into pensive watching-the-sunset yearning, Oliver Nelson and Elmer Bernstein TV/movie music evolves into surrealist tangos, Charles Ives rearranges the entire Booker T & the MG's canon-- all this and more goes on before your very ears and this crafty bunch make it all seem natural and affable. Good show!” -Mark Keresman, Waterfront Week, Brooklyn NY




Plan Ahead (1999)Plan Ahead (1999)
An amazing debut from the then Philly quartet, Plan Ahead is a intricate and punchy slice of instrumental chamber rock. A classical influence shines through in the chamber elements, being dominated by grand piano and violin, while at other times, jazzy drumming and a solid rock rhythm pervade. The dexterity with which the band interacts with each other is outstanding; writhing, twisting and turning with each complex turn of the score. The instrumentation stays fairly consistent throughout, with violin, piano, bass and drums leading the way with assorted percussion and occasional guitar. Through this consistency there is also a diverse array of styles showing through, from baroque to bluegrass, jazz to Joplin, prog to punky energy - sometimes all with in the span of seconds, as best exemplified by the roller coaster ride of "Midnite Heck".
At times, the energy reaches fusion like heights, but being closer related to Canterbury bands like National Health (think "Squarer for Maude"). Songs such as "Driving by Candlabrum" and "Ska for Computers" are brimming with scorching violin leads, bouncing bass and piano rhythms, and a whole lotta fun. The epic "Vampires" shifts through many different moods and styles, starting out with a heavy dissonant air, evolving into beautiful piano runs near the middle and ending through some repetitive and entrancing post-rock like riffs. A good number of pieces are based on these repetitive and building riffs, but along with the frequent changes and surprises, bring a dynamic and unpredictable air to the music. It's this unique feeling that makes this band so special. - Mike Prete [March 2002]