''The Transit Rider'' is the fourth album by
Faun Fables and the theatrical production on which it was based.
Track listing
# "Birth" – 2:10
# "Transit Theme" – 4:46
# "The House Carpenter" – 5:05
# "In Speed" – 3:51
# "Taki Pejzaz" – 8:12
# "Roadkill" – 4:32
# "Earth's Kiss" – 5:05
# "Fire & Castration" – 4:51
# "The Questioning" – 2:01
# "I No Longer Wish To" – 1:13
# "The Corwith Brothers" – 3:18
# "Dream on a Train" – 6:51
# "I'd Like to Be" – 4:11
Background information
''The Transit Rider'' began as a theatrical production. The inspiration for the show was McCarthy's experiences on the
New York City Subway from when she relocated there in 1994.
[http://faunfables.net/discography.html] As a live performance, ''The Transit Rider'' premiered as a full-length theater show in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
in 2002. In April through June 2006, the four-member version of Faun Fables including
Jenya Chernoff
Yevgeniya Ivanovna Davidyuk ( rus, Евгения Ивановна Давидюк, born March 22, 1981), known professionally as , is a Russian voice actress, singer, and radio personality based in Japan.
Early life
Yevgeniya Davidyuk was born at ...
and
Matt Lebofsky toured North America. The tour culminated in a large-scale performance at th
Oakland Metro Opera Housein Oakland, California on May 26 and 27.
The stage was set to resemble a
light rail train, with a row of chairs along the upstage wall. Behind the actors portraying the riders, three large windows showed projected images which are the work of visual artis
Eric S. Koziel The first act began with the performers entering the stage as if entering a rail car. As each character reached his or her stop (announced with increasingly cryptic commentary by Frykdahl as The Train
Conductor) he or she moved to a microphone near the door of the train car, performed a song, and then exited the stage. Performers include
Sean LeeMick Runolfsson
and others.
Following this portion of the performance
Moe! Staiano
entered downstage and played an improvised piece on 78 RPM records
A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near ...
in which he developed rhythmic motifs while beating the 78's with mallets
A mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head. The term is descriptive of the overall size and propor ...
until they broke into pieces; as the pieces get smaller, the pitch rises, and Staiano used this as a motive to increase the tempo
In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...
and intensity until the fragments of the records flew off the stage under the power of his mallet-strokes.
Meanwhile, as McCarthy's interactions with the Train Conductor become more psychomimetic, Frykdahl enters in the guise of a travelling salesman, who offers McCarthy elixir
ELIXIR (the European life-sciences Infrastructure for biological Information) is an initiative that will allow life science laboratories across Europe to share and store their research data as part of an organised network. Its goal is to bring t ...
s or charms
Charm may refer to:
Social science
* Charisma, a person or thing's pronounced ability to attract others
* Superficial charm, flattery, telling people what they want to hear
Science and technology
* Charm quark, a type of elementary particle
* Ch ...
which offer protection from various things including fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products.
At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...
and castration
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharma ...
, foreshadowing a song from the second act. At the end of the trip, McCarthy was left alone on the rail car, with only the disembodied Train Conductor (Frykdahl), veiled in shadow and making cryptic announcements over the public address system. McCarthy attempts to comply to rigorous regulations as intoned by the Train Conductor, as she tries in vain to try to find an appropriate stop along the rail line to have a picnic. This concluded act one, which was followed by an intermission
An intermission, also known as an interval in British and Indian English, is a recess between parts of a performance or production, such as for a theatrical play, opera, concert, or film screening. It should not be confused with an entr'acte ( ...
.
The second act consisted of the four-member Faun Fables performing ''The Transit Rider'' song cycle in a faithful reproduction of the music as it appears on the Drag City CD.
Reviews
The Transit Rider, Live, Oberlin, OH 2006-05-01The Transit Rider, Live, Seattle, WA 2006-06-05
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Transit Rider, The
Faun Fables albums
2006 albums
Drag City (record label) albums
2002 musicals