Shilpa Ray

Career Beat The Devil Beat The Devil, 2006 Ray's first project under the moniker of Beat the Devil, combining punk rock music with Indian time signatures in a new format. Beat The Devil was released in the latter half of 2006. The group disbanded soon after releasing their first and only album. Beat the Devil's cover of Suicide's song "Mr. Ray" was released as part of the Alan Vega 70th Birthday Limited Edition EP Series.

Her Happy Hookers A Fish Hook An Open Eye 2009, Kepler Records After dissolving Beat The Devil, Ray went solo with backing band members to form Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers. Produced by Jay Braun and Shilpa Ray, A Fish Hook An Open Eye was released on July 6, 2009. Venus Shaver/Natural Selection 7", 2010, Knitting Factory Records Her second release with Her Happy Hookers, and also the first release on Knitting Factory Records, this 7" limited pressing of 500 copies included a track from her second release on Knitting Factory Records, Venus Shaver. Teenage and Torture, 2011, Knitting Factory Records Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers put out their second full-length record, and first full length on KFR, on January 18, 2011. Teenage and Torture both refines and expands upon the arresting qualities of their first release. The result "isn't as thrown together as the first one", says Ray. "The first record was like a series of thoughts, this is one big thought. You'll slip into a different world when you hear this." Recorded with Black Dirt Studios’ Jason Meagher at Seizure's Palace in Gowanus, Brooklyn, the songs on this album are dark, sardonic looks inside Ray's own world and obsessions, augmented by the musical styling of her Happy Hookers – Nick Hundley on bass, Andrew Bailey on guitar and John Adamski on drums and percussion, and featuring Greg Lewis on organ, Jonathan Lam on pedal steel and Andrew Hoepfner on vocals and keys. The record in turn led to Shilpa supporting a number of Nick Cave tours in addition to an EP released on his label, Bad Seed Ltd.

Shilpa Ray It's All Self Fellatio, Shilpa Ray, 2013, Bad Seed LTD After disbanding Her Happy Hookers and touring Europe and North America with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman, in 2013 Shilpa Ray released her first EP on Cave's Bad Seed Ltd. label, It's All Self Fellatio. As well as performing with Cave, Ray's band performed with Sharon Van Etten, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Nicole Atkins. Make Up/What a Diffr'nce A Day Makes, 2015, Northern Spy Records Shilpa's first EP release on Northern Spy in 2015, Make Up, included two covers, "Make Up" written by Lou Reed, and Dinah Washington's "What A Diff'rence A Day Makes" with Shilpa Ray on keys and vocals, Jon Delorme on pedal steel, Alistair Paxton on bass, and Russ Lemkim on drums. Last Year's Savage, 2015, Northern Spy Records Ray's first full length on Northern Spy Records, Last Year's Savage was also her first full-length solo record as Shilpa Ray. As a youth, she claims she was mistaken for an Iraqi during the Persian Gulf War and was "pelted with beer cans" by racist hooligans at the age of 5. and learned to play the harmonium and piano beginning at age six. While a student at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, she became a stealth goth and listened to music by punk rock bands such as the Cramps, the Stooges, Joy Division, Bauhaus, and the Velvet Underground. In her twenties, she moved to New York City and worked as a solo artist, singing a cappella at first and later accompanying herself on the harmonium,

Personal life Shilpa Ray currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. She is of Bengali descent.

Reviews Music critics from The New York Times have focused on Ray's lyrics and voice. Jon Pareles described Ray's act as combining punk rock band shtick with a touch of goth burlesque but with music which deals with the "contradictory pressures women face" such as being "cosmetically perfect but authentic". Another Times critic, Ben Sisario, summed up Ray's act in four words: "that scream is primal!" Critic Jacob Brown described Ray's voice as a "honey-toned wail" along the lines of Patti Smith merged with Nick Cave.

Critics in The Guardian described the music as "grinding blues, sleazy jazz, and bracing rock with punk immediacy and pop appeal." Shilpa Ray was "like a vulgar Ella Fitzgerald" singing songs with a "wall of distortion and thunderous, pounding rhythms."

In other media

Television series Song Show title Episode title "Liquidation Sale" Being Human (US) "All Out of Blood"