Steam Powered Giraffe (SPG) is a musical project formed in San Diego in 2008 that is popular in the steampunk subculture.
Led by twins David Michael Bennett and Isabella "Bunny" Bennett, and long-time friend from college Bryan Barbarin, the act combines pantomime, sketches, pop culture references, improvised comedic dialogue, and original music of various genres.
Video Steam Powered Giraffe
Career
2008-2011: Formation and early career
The members of Steam Powered Giraffe met while taking Theatre Arts at Grossmont College. Afterwards, they became members of a local San Diego pantomime group called Troupe SD. Trained in pantomime by Seaport Village mime Jerry "Kazoo" Hager, and with collective backgrounds in clown, theater, music, and visual design, Jonathan Sprague, Erin Burke (a fellow pantomime artist) and the Bennett twins--Bunny and David--started street busking as quirky robotic characters (at the time known as Peoplebots) in January 2008 at Balboa Park, California. Due to personal reasons, Erin Burke left the group in 2011.
Since their conception, the band has performed at venues including the San Diego County Fair the San Diego Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, Legoland California, Ontario Mills, The Queen Bee's Art & Cultural Center, and at numerous science fiction, fantasy, and steampunk conventions.
In October 2009, the band released their first album, Album One. It contained the previously released single from May 2009 titled "On Top of the Universe", along with the hit "Brass Goggles" in 2009. In early 2011 the band released a single, "Honeybee", announcing that it would be on an upcoming second album, and in late 2011 the band announced the release of an interim "live" album entitled Live at the Globe of Yesterday's Tomorrow.
2012-2013: The 2¢ Show and MK III
Their second studio album, entitled The 2¢ Show, was released in May 2012. That year, they were voted Best Live Comedy act (and runner up for Best Family Entertainment act) on San Diego A-List.
Besides their musical endeavors, the band publishes a web comic and has produced a card game based on characters in their backstory. In April 2012 they released a DVD entitled, Steam Powered Giraffe: The DVD (and the Quest For the Eternal Harp of Golden Dreams).
On 24 September 2012, the band announced on their Tumblr page that Jon Sprague would no longer be a part of the group. On 1 October it was announced that Sam Luke, the drummer for the band at the time, would become the new robot in the band, "Hatchworth". On 2 November 2012, Hatchworth made his stage debut with SPG at Youmacon in Detroit, Michigan with interim drummer Mike Buxbaum (of A City Serene). Later, Matt Smith was named SPG's new drummer.
During this time, SPG also introduced the characters of the Walter Girls into their shows. The Girls started out by manning the band's merchandise tables at performances, but have started figuring in to the SPG stage show and back story. Described as "blue matter engineers", the porcelian-white skinned and blue-haired Walter Girls (now called Walter Workers) are essentially the robot's caretakers on stage.
In June 2013, SPG released a cover of Rihanna's "Diamonds", essentially a solo performance by the Spine. The accompanying video, released to YouTube, introduced a new character to the SPG canon, a robotic giraffe puppet named GG (voiced by Bunny Bennett). GG appeared again in July when the band released a comedic video, "Walter Robotics Rap", to YouTube.
On 9 August 2013, Steam Powered Giraffe announced the title to their third album, MK III, on the band's website and Tumblr page. The album was released on December 3. In September, the band released a cover of Icona Pop's "I Love It" on their YouTube channel.
2014-present: The Vice Quadrant and Quintessential
On March 18, 2014, it was announced that Michael Reed and Matt Smith would no longer be performing members of Steam Powered Giraffe. The Bennett twins stated that the reasons for their departure was to focus more on the theatrical elements of the act and to reduce the cost of touring.
Early in 2014, "Bunny" Bennett began to transition the character of Rabbit from male to female, coinciding with her own status as a transgender woman. She legally became Isabella Bennett on 22 January 2016.
More videos have followed in the meantime. In May 2014, they released their third cover, a mostly acoustic version of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". The video marked the first "official" appearance by the female Rabbit to the general public at large (although the band had played some dates prior and some photos and raw audience footage had been seen). The band then followed up with two new videos: "Fancy Shoes" in June and "I'll Rust With You" in July, with the latter featuring live footage recorded at Anime Midwest in Rosemont, Illinois.
In September 2014, Steam Powered Giraffe gave their first international performance, playing at the Grand Canadian Steampunk Exposition in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. They returned for the 2015 Exposition to do a collaboration show with Professor Elemental.
On September 1, 2015, SPG released The Vice Quadrant: A Space Opera, a 2-disc space opera concept album containing 28 tracks, although iTunes released it as two separate albums for download. The release followed a number of video releases to promote the work. This marked the band's first recorded work with Rabbit presenting as a woman, as well as the first full album recorded strictly as a trio. The album featured an appearance by Professor Elemental as well as vocals by Walter Worker Chelsea Penyak.
In December 2015, video game developer Image & Form released the game SteamWorld Heist for the Nintendo 3DS, and later released it in 2016 on other platforms. The game's soundtrack was composed and recorded by SPG, and they appear in-game.
On June 20, 2016, Steam Powered Giraffe announced on their website that their fifth studio album, Quintessential was available for pre-order. According to the article, a free downloadable digital copy of the twelve-track album would be included with the purchase of the CD.
On December 19, 2016, the band announced on Tumblr that Samuel Luke would be leaving the group so he could focus more on his independent work as an artist and musician, and that he would immediately be replaced by Bryan Barbarin and his character Zero. The next day, the Bennetts, Sam, and Bryan came together in David and Isabella's new podcast, The Bennettarium, to discuss the robot transition, among other things. Zero's first live show occurred on February 18th of 2017 at The California Center for the Arts in Escondido, California. It was confirmed on March 12, 2017, following her appearance on The Bennettarium, that Erin Burke's contributions to Album One would be restored. It was additionally confirmed on Isabella's Twitter account.
Maps Steam Powered Giraffe
Band members
- The Spine (David Michael Bennett) is a futuristic dieselpunk robot with a titanium alloy spinal column. His skin is smooth silver, and he wears a black fedora and a vest.
- - lead and backing vocals, guitars, bass, mandolin, keyboards (2008-present)
- Rabbit (Isabella "Bunny" Bennett) is a copper clockwork robot with a porcelain faceplate, often "malfunctioning" at shows and their panels. She wears a black dress with red and black tights. Her costume and hair change frequently.
- - lead and backing vocals, accordion, keytar, megaphone, kazookaphone, melodica, tambourine (2008-present)
- Zero (Bryan Barbarin) is a swing-styled robot with a gold and gray colored face. According to his lore, the robot was hastily put together from left-over scrap robot parts in 1896, but was forgotten deep in the Walter family's workshop until he was re-discovered in 1992. (2016-present)
- Session members
- Steve Negrete - audio engineering (2011-present)
- Chelsea and Camille Penyak - Walter Workers and onstage ballet accompaniment (2014-present)
Past members
- The Jon (Jonathan "Jon" Sprague) was a gold art deco robot and part of the original four members. He left the band in 2012 and currently works as an artist and photographer.
- - lead and backing vocals, guitar, mandolin, bass, drums (2008-2012)
- Upgrade (Erin Burke) was a silver and pink stylized robot and part of the original four members. She left the band in 2011 to pursue an acting career.
- - vocals, tambourine (2008-2011)
- Hatchworth (Sam Luke) was a copper art deco robot who was previously a drummer for the band, as a human, before replacing The Jon as a robot. He left the band in late 2016.
- - lead and backing vocals, bass, guitars (2012-2016; session drums, bass and backing vocals: 2010-2012)
- Former session members
- Michael Philip Reed, known as the "One Man Band" - guitar, banjo, synthesizer, ukulele, bass, piano, vocoder, drums, percussion, lead and backing vocals, recording engineer, recording producer (2008-2014)
- Matt Smith - drums, backing vocals (2012-2014)
- Brianna Clawson - Walter Worker (2012-2013)
- Paige Law - Walter Worker (2012-2014)
- Carolina Gumbayan - Walter Worker and occasional bassist (2013-2014)
Chronology
Source of article : Wikipedia
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