Ready? Aye, Ready!!!!

lumberjack adventures, hollerin brothers and musical magpies!

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You can download the DRO on BBC3 The Verb here, and subscribe to this great show! WOOP! http://bit.ly/VerbPodcasts

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How rough do you like your music? This is our kind of rough!

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Rough Music: Making of Teaser #2: In the build up to the premiere of Rough Music in Oxford on the 29th of March this series of teasers reveal behind-the-scenes glimpses into the production of our bespoke instruments.

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Thankfully The Cut Tour won't create quite as much waste as this! That is 5,905 tons of manure per day!

http://deadratorchestra.co.uk/

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Planning a tour that involves measurements in furlongs, and consideration of tides. That's just the way DRO roll! #DROTheCut The Cut Tour stats: - Total: 273 miles, 61⁄2 furlongs 183 locks.     27 moveable bridges;     11 small aqueducts or under bridges;     5 tunnels     2 major aqueducts     83 miles, 51⁄4 furlongs of broad canals;     2 miles, 6 furlongs of commercial waterways;     50 miles, 21⁄2 furlongs of small rivers;     132 miles, 1⁄4 furlongs of large rivers;     5 miles, 3⁄4 furlongs of tidal rivers;     135 broad locks; 47 large locks; 1 none lock.

http://deadratorchestra.co.uk/

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DRO will be premiering our collaboration with C Joynes in Ipswich on April 5th. This is 3 days short of the 11 anniversary of our first ever concert!

That's right!!! 11 years of ratting!!

Facebook event

http://deadratorchestra.co.uk/

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Had a great rehearsal with CJoynes for an upcoming project that you will all get to see very soon!

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Wisconsin Lumberjack Band, 1963.

These unusual musical instruments were handmade by Ray Calkins of Phillips, Wisconsin for the Wisconsin Lumberjack Band. The violin is constructed from a cigar box and the “Viking cello” includes a cigar box, a pitchfork, and a tree branch handle. The bass or “bangola” is made from a garbage can with a tree branch neck and a single nylon clothesline string. 

 In 1920, Otto and Ida Rindlisbacher of Rice Lake, Wisconsin began collecting the songs, stories, and instruments of the local lumberjacks and also started to make their own instruments and play the music themselves. In 1937, the Rindlisbachers were invited to perform at the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C. and recruited Ray Calkins, a third-generation lumberjack living in Phillips, Wisconsin, to join them as the “Wisconsin Lumberjack Band.” Soon after, Ray took over the group and began to create his own instruments, including the examples shown here.

via: Rusk County Historical Society by way of Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database

listen: Otto Rindlisbacher plays the lumberjack fiddle, Rice Lake, 1941. Wisconsin Folksong Collection 1937-1946, Mills Music Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Our kind of instruments!

http://deadratorchestra.co.uk/

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This Friday - DRO Play Folk of the Woods, West Norwood! Looking forward to a Ceilidh afterwards!

http://deadratorchestra.co.uk/

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Ok - so this is well in advance - but you know - you have to make preparations! Certain things only come once a year - birthdays, Easter, speaking to your parents.... but all of this is overshadowed by one annual event... The Goodiepal/Dead Rat Orchestra Christmas show at Colchester Arts Centre!!!

As an old mutebox poster once declared - "more festive than a gingerbread f'ing latte!"

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Dead Rat Dan is off on adventures!

Soon Dead Rat Dan ill be off on adventures to the middle east (Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt) to make some music and explore the possibilities of future collaborations for the Dead Rats in the region.

You can follow his work on his site - but more regularly on his blog.

http://danielmerrillblog.tumblr.com/

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November 2nd! Dead Rat Nathan gives a talk with Pigeon Pete at the amazing Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford (a truly Ratty place to experience this)!

Ready? aye! ready!

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Another one!!! Dead Rat Nathan is going to be playing at this lovely gig put on by the Dingus Khan boys, James Sarek and Antigen - oooh how loverly!

(Dead Rat Dan might make an appearance too in his last concert before leaving for the middle east for a couple of months)

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Dead Rat Robin is performing at this gig in Ipswich this Sunday - chance to see Robin's unique solo style! (he can dance like James Brown too).

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Dead Rat Orchestra - Rue the Day.

Check the woman behind the cushion; Alan Lomax got hit with woodchips too: (No More My Lord - Jimpson Wallace).

For the Fiery Flying Roule who first made me aware of Take this Hammer.

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