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:
The pygmy
Ota BengaOta Benga was a Congolese pygmy who was featured in a 1906 human zoo exhibit at New York City's Bronx Zoo. Benga came to the United States through the action of businessman and missionary Samuel Phillips Verner...
("Ota Benga's Name")
The painter
John 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 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 SpearSpiritualist clergyman John Murray Spear attempted to build a mechanical New Messiah in 1854 which ran on electricity. Many have referred to this device as "the God Machine".-Back story:...
("Dream of the New Mary")
The journalist
William 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 Paine was an author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Born in England, Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 in time to participate in the American Revolution...
("American Man")
Edward LeedskalninEdward Leedskalnin was an eccentric Latvian emigrant to the United States and amateur sculptor who, it is alleged, single-handedly built the monument known as Coral Castle in Florida...
's
Coral 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 U.S. 1 and Southwest 157th Ave...
("Latvian Bride")
The Inuit
Minik WallaceMinik Wallace was an Inuit who was brought to the United States of America from Greenland along with five other Inuit in 1897 by explorer Robert Peary.- Early years :...
("If Ice Were Warm")
Pinataland have often performed at historical sites such as the Old Stone House (Brooklyn), the
Cobble Hill TunnelThe 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. It is the oldest railway tunnel beneath a city street in North America.- History...
, and
Green-Wood CemeteryGreen-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Kings County, New York, now in Brooklyn. It was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior.-History:...
.
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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:
The pygmy
Ota BengaOta Benga was a Congolese pygmy who was featured in a 1906 human zoo exhibit at New York City's Bronx Zoo. Benga came to the United States through the action of businessman and missionary Samuel Phillips Verner...
("Ota Benga's Name")
The painter
John 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 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 SpearSpiritualist clergyman John Murray Spear attempted to build a mechanical New Messiah in 1854 which ran on electricity. Many have referred to this device as "the God Machine".-Back story:...
("Dream of the New Mary")
The journalist
William 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 Paine was an author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Born in England, Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 in time to participate in the American Revolution...
("American Man")
Edward LeedskalninEdward Leedskalnin was an eccentric Latvian emigrant to the United States and amateur sculptor who, it is alleged, single-handedly built the monument known as Coral Castle in Florida...
's
Coral 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 U.S. 1 and Southwest 157th Ave...
("Latvian Bride")
The Inuit
Minik WallaceMinik Wallace was an Inuit who was brought to the United States of America from Greenland along with five other Inuit in 1897 by explorer Robert Peary.- Early years :...
("If Ice Were Warm")
Pinataland have often performed at historical sites such as the Old Stone House (Brooklyn), the
Cobble Hill TunnelThe 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. It is the oldest railway tunnel beneath a city street in North America.- History...
, and
Green-Wood CemeteryGreen-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Kings County, New York, now in Brooklyn. 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 AdamsJohn Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States from March 4, 1825 to March 4, 1829. He was also an American diplomat and served in both the Senate and House of Representatives...
'
campaign songCampaign 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
- Songs from Konijn Kok - EP (1999)
- Songs for the Forgotten Future Volume 1 (2003)
- Songs for the Forgotten Future Volume 2 (2008)
External links