Piñataland
Encyclopedia
Piñataland is a Brooklyn-based musical group created by David Wechsler and Doug Stone. Their songs are often about obscure historical events and people, including, among others:
Pinataland have often performed at historical sites such as the Old Stone House (Brooklyn), the Cobble Hill Tunnel
, and Green-Wood Cemetery
. They have also covered historical tunes, such as President John Quincy Adams
' campaign song
"Little Know Ye Who's Comin'".
- The pygmy Ota BengaOta BengaOta Benga was a Congolese Mbuti pygmy known for being featured in a controversial human zoo exhibit at New York City's Bronx Zoo in 1906. Benga came to the United States through the action of businessman and missionary Samuel Phillips Verner...
("Ota Benga's Name") - The painter John BanvardJohn BanvardJohn Banvard was a U.S. panorama and portrait painter known for his panoramic views of the Mississippi River Valley.John Banvard was born in New York and was educated in high school...
("The Ballad of John Banvard") - The daredevil Sam PatchSam PatchSam Patch , known as "The Yankee Leaper", became the first famous American daredevil after successfully jumping from a raised platform into the Niagara River near the base of Niagara Falls in 1829.-Biography:...
("The Fall of Sam Patch") - The elephant Topsy ("Coney Island Funeral")
- The spiritualist John Murray SpearJohn Murray SpearJohn Murray Spear was an American Spiritualist clergyman who is most notable for his attempts to construct an electrically powered Messiah which he referred to as the "New Motive Power".-Early life:...
("Dream of the New Mary") - The journalist William CobbettWilliam CobbettWilliam Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...
's efforts to rebury Thomas PaineThomas PaineThomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
("American Man") - Edward LeedskalninEdward LeedskalninEdward Leedskalnin was an eccentric Latvian emigrant to the United States and amateur sculptor who single-handedly built the monument known as Coral Castle in Florida...
's Coral CastleCoral CastleCoral Castle is a stone structure created by the Latvian American eccentric Edward Leedskalnin north of the city of Homestead, Florida in Miami-Dade County at the intersection of South Dixie Highway and West 157th Avenue. The structure comprises numerous megalithic stones , each weighing several...
("Latvian Bride") - The Inuit Minik WallaceMinik WallaceMinik Wallace was an Inuit brought as a child in 1897 from Greenland to New York with his father and others by the explorer Robert Peary. The six Inuit were studied by staff of the American Museum of Natural History, which had custody...
("If Ice Were Warm")
Pinataland have often performed at historical sites such as the Old Stone House (Brooklyn), the Cobble Hill Tunnel
Cobble Hill Tunnel
The Cobble Hill Tunnel of the Long Island Rail Road is an abandoned railroad tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue in downtown Brooklyn, New York City. When open, it ran for about between Columbia Street and Boerum Place...
, and Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Brooklyn, Kings County , New York. It was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior.-History:...
. They have also covered historical tunes, such as President John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...
' campaign song
Campaign song
Campaign songs are partisan ditties used in American political canvasses and more especially in presidential contests. The words were commonly set to established melodies like "Yankee Doodle," "Hail, Columbia," "Rosin the Bow," "Hail to the Chief" "John Brown's Body," "Dixie" and "O Tannenbaum" ;...
"Little Know Ye Who's Comin'".
Discography
- Piñataland - EP (1997)
- Songs from Konijn Kok - EP (1999)
- Songs for the Forgotten Future Volume 1 (2003)
- Songs for the Forgotten Future Volume 2 (2008)
- Hymns for the Dreadful Night (2011)
External links
- Pinataland on Allmusic []
- Pinataland on National Public Radio http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4286267
- Pinataland article in New York Observer http://www.observer.com/2002/youre-grand-old-rag?observer_most_read_tabs_tab=2
- Pinataland in Village Voice's Best of 2004 http://www.villagevoice.com/bestof/2004/award/best-dark-old-weird-history-orchestrette-492003/