Born under a barstool in Saskatoon and raised by a pack of wild koalas, Painless Parker plays a mixed bag of country laments, sea shanties, murder ballads and classic rockers, filtered through a grimy, whiskey-stained punk lens. Toe tapping, finger snapping and general getting down is highly encouraged during the show.

Here’s a clip from Painless Parker at Occupy Wall Street – as you can see, everyone is getting into the spirit and joining in the chorus, which is pretty much the norm for any Painless Parker Concert.

For more great music, you can browse his website.

Due to the terms of the contract by which he was granted superior talent and other-wordly popularity, Mr. Parker will be borrowed by the Goblin Market for a few hours over the course of the weekend.

PHILIPPA BALLANTINE: A corporate librarian for thirteen years, Phillipa has a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Library and Information Science. She is New Zealand’s first podcast novelist, and she has produced four podiobooks. Many of these have been short listed for the Parsec Awards, and she has won a Sir Julius Vogel award. She is also the author of Geist and Spectyr. While New Zealand calls, currently Philippa calls America home.

TEE MORRIS: While Tee Morris began his writing career with Dragon Moon Press’ 2002 historical epic fantasy, MOREVI: The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana, it is his podcast of that book and works like Podcasting for Dummies and All a Twitter where people know him best: one of the pioneers of Social Media. With Phoenix Rising, Tee returns to where he prefers to be: in his imagination. When he is not there, Tee lives in the Washington D.C. area with his five cats and one daughter, all of whom have him very well-trained.

Pip & Tee’s first steampunk novel together, PHOENIX RISING came out last May to great reviews. The second book in the series, THE JANUS AFFAIR is coming in June 2012!

Here’s a video of Pip & Tee together at NYCC 2011 – watch the video, and get excited for May!

Margaret Mae has been designing costumes and accessories since she could
first pick up a needle and blowtorch, and has been knitting and crocheting
original work for longer than a lady generally concedes in polite society.
You can catch her outlandish crafty pursuits through her
blog and on her Facebook and Ravelry accounts where she
has adopted the alliterative moniker “Crafting Crusader.”

She’s delighted to be presenting a workshop on the historical roots of yarn
craft, the popularity of knitting & crochet in the 1800s, and the
applications of needle crafts in Steampunk costuming.
And don’t forget to pack your hooks and needles along with your jetpack and
goggles, because she’ll be stitching along with yarn devotees and
introducing curious novices to the oh-so-addictive arts at this year’s
Steampunk World’s Fair.

Working in tandem with her sister, Stella has produced over 18 novels, several novellas, and a bevvy of short stories. Stella lives in New York City, and is also an award-winning author – so she knows a thing or two about literature. That’s why we’ve recruited her to create a series of highly unorthodox literary panels – in the spirit of our unconventional Steampunk Festival, we promise everything from thought-provoking intellectual discussion, cheeky but well-intentioned humor, at least one axing, and maybe a strategically-placed Viking moderator (if our resources will allow).

Yesterday, the general clouds of craziness that typically follows our staff and volunteers cleared for a few minutes, and something dawned on us – we’ve hinted at it, we’ve kind of announced it, but we’ve never officially announced it, in a big way, with posts and details and stuff – Voltaire returns for another sure-to-be-spectacular performance, AND he will also be hosting our VIP Absinthe tasting.

Voltaire is a master of musical satire – much like his namesake – and he’s made a career out of transforming gothy, gloomy topics into laugh-inducing ditties. (His irreverent sense of humor shines in tracks like “Death Death (Devil Devil Evil Evil Song)” or a CD titled “Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children”)

I remember my first time seeing Voltaire, at The Anachronism II – I can only describe it as storytime for people who wore above-average amounts of black eyeliner in high school and were OK laughing about it now. In any case, I listened to songs about Zombie Prostitutes and somehow felt warm and fuzzy inside – I finally understood why his concerts are always packed to capacity.

(Almost as epic as Voltaire’s concerts are Jeff’s introduction to Voltaire’s concerts. We keep meaning to record Jeff’s intro, but we always forget. Maybe this time someone will remember – will it be you?)

Jonah Knight is quick to point out that many Steampunk-identified bands have diverse styles. And if you’ve been following our updates lately, you can see we’ve added many fantastic performers with a unique sound all their own.

Jeff’s note:  Caran wrote most of this description, but I have to mention that I met Jonah at Philcon, and he was a really great guy to hang out with.  As someone who’s been an amateur singer-songwriter for (holy crud!) more than 20 years (I just realized when I started writing songs – I feel really old now!) – it was really fascinating for me to talk to a songwriter who’d become interested in Steampunk, and decided to explore it in an assortment of ideas and themes on his new album.  It’s one thing to have a big huge band behind you and sing about exploding airships – it’s quite another to be one person standing up and trying to sing stories of a past-future that never was.  It’s a really personal experience – and really enjoyable, too; if you’re at all interested in solid songwriting and excellent performance, this is a man to watch.

Caran says: If you’re looking for folksy, imaginative music – or perhaps as good, honest ghost story, we recommend Mr. Knight. His latest CD (“Age of Steam: Strange Machines“) features songs set between 1880 and 1920. As he explains, “[these songs] tell the story of an increasingly passionate inventor who, living in a world of ghosts and monsters, must rely on strange machines to live and to escape.”

He himself favors “haunted” subjects – ghosts and monsters, angels and demons, empty places and empty people. If you are looking for something other-worldly, insightful, and bittersweet, Jonah’s your guy!

(And speaking of bittersweet, have you checked out our absinthe tasting yet?  You really ought to.  Trust me.  Would a man who was trying to sell absinthe to you lie?)

When an unusual subculture actually has an underground favorite band, what do you say about those people?  When we invited these musico-maniacs to our first year’s event, did we have any idea that they’d start marching through the halls and parking lots, creating sweet sonics which swept pretty much every damn person out of chairs and away from tables and into a mad dancing frolic that stormed through two hotels and a parking lot before finally culminating in a mad jam with several of our other performers, right under the Radisson awning?  (And that the Radisson staff, being as awesome as they are, would come out and dance with us?)

By the seven-headed brass-articulated hydra head of the Great Colossus of Imaginary Nineteenth Century Greece, we are pleased as punch to (re)-announce that Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band will be joining us again – they have been featured at past SPWF events, as well as our second Anachronism at Webster Hall.

Formed from the most talented deadbeats and drifters that could be rounded up, this group of raucous and rambunctious musicians will honk, wail, blow, beat, bounce, scream and serenade their way into your hearts. Playing anything that won’t break from vigiourous use, their instrumentation is a unique blend of brass, winds, violin, accordion and an eclectic rhythm section.

Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band combines the rich musical history of the circus and the vagabond peoples of Europe with the raw energy of avant-garde jazz and the irreverence and fun of today’s Vaudeville for a sound that is somehow familiar yet like no other.

Emperor Norton’s is about as stationary as the reincarnated dancing Tesla-powered cyborg of Gene Kelly, and they always have the audience up and dancing. I highly recommend that you check out their music, transfer it onto your Victrola or steam-powered music contraption of choice, and keep it around for those moments your life needs small figurative explosions of musical awesome!

Rumour has it that they may be among those who take part in the Goblin Market & VIP Meet-And-Greet, but this is not yet totally confirmed…so do check back.

——-

Agnes Delaney
Victorian Fashion for Modern Times

Proud Sponsor for Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band

Gentleman, scholar, and author Jean-Christophe Valtat will be among our many honored and distinguished guests this year. Author of two novels, a collection of short stories, several radio-plays, and a movie – AND the recipient of many awards – he is also a professor of Comparative Literature at Universite Blaise Pascal in France.

His newest novel, Aurorarama, takes place in New Venice – a fictitious luxury city located in the frozen Northern seas. As spring arrives, the city is wracked by tension – suffragette demonstrations, drug round-ups by mysterious police thugs (known as “The Gentlemen of the Night”), and suspicious activity from the native Inuit groups come together to create a masterful mix of dark prose, humor, and suspense.

Jeff’s about halfway through Aurorarama now, and notes, “I think Americans will make the inevitable Jules Verne comparisons, and I wouldn’t disagree, but there’s a real dose of mystery in there that’s somewhere between Poe, Lovecraft, and John LeCarre”.  When asked if he could describe the book without resorting to comparisons between long-dead authors, Jeff pointed out that LeCarre is totally still alive.  When asked for further details, Jeff said, “Actually, as arctic novels go, this beats Verne’s ‘An Antarctic Mystery’ all toe heck, frankly.”  We then told Jeff to go to bed.

Valtat’s previous novel, 03, was noted as “One of the Best Books of 2010.” His short essay, “In Defense of Steampunk,” argues that the genres provides a unique lens to explore and contrast both historical and current social ills.

We believe Monsieur Valmat is, in fact, going to be coming to our absinthe tasting.  That’s right: drink absinthe with brilliant French novelists!  ’Cause that’s how we do things at The Steampunk World’s Fair.