Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling [Band]

Photo by Kelly Davidson

If they weren’t so increasingly verbal and creating all sorts of tunes via an almost pathological amount of avenues….Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola could be mysterious.  But, alas, this match made in indie rock heaven  is absolutely everywhere.  They have no less than nine touring and/or working acts including Darling Pet Munkee with the amazing Axemunkee guitarist Catherine Capozzi, The Michael J. Epstein Library, Epstein’s crucial part in Shawn Fogel’s uke tribute to Neutral Milk Hotel conveniently titled, Neutral Uke Hotel, and Space Balloons. The latter apparently puts on an amazing birthday party for three-year olds.  But, you can not know this diversely talented and eccentric duo without knowing their pseudo gargantuan like act, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin.

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin is, for the lack of a yearning to use better words, and absolutely amazing group.  When they stormed my ear drums a couple of years ago with their brain splitting take on the already eerie enough Leonard Cohen cut, “First We Take Manhattan”, I was absolutely smitten.  So much so that by the their 2011 EP, Questions Are A Burden To Others, fell into my life, I most certainly could not image how I once had a fully functional adult life before a band decided they should create an outlandish musical reincarnation of the cult TV show, The Prisoner.  It didn’t seem like a life I wanted to go back to, and I am thankful I never will.

For those few souls out there who have yet to hear DNFMOMD and have your world completely rocked, you’re pretty lame, and redemption is necessary. For further description on your loss, I guess you can try to imagine what it would be like if Neko Case and Sufjan Stevens started a Black Sabbath cover band with their gears turning towards a mystical heaven, and maybe the tenacity and excited overtures of the likes of New York Dolls.  They have cultivated an amazing following of strangely fanatical listeners, and have scored some high honors across the media world including scoring the #6 spot on Time Magazine Online’s Top Ten Most Creative Videos list with their take for take remake and reconstitution of the opening scene from the cult TV show The Prisoner.  And then there is Cacciola’s nomination for the covenant Best Female Vocalist Award from The Boston Phoenix, winning big at SENE festival (also for “Arrival”), and without fear of any sort of fear of reprisal for self deprecation, they scored a spot on Crappy Indie Music The Blog’s Recession Proof Music List.

More recently, Michael and Sophia have embarked on yet another amazing adventure entitled Music Begins Where The World Leaves Off.  Jumping on the bandwagon of their own genius work covering Leonard Cohen, the duo has decided to make the essential to all music enthusiasts cover album.  They will be releasing monthly(ish) cover tracks throughout 2012.  Two tracks have already hit the interwebs, including Bruce Springsteen’s “Cover Me” and The Eurythmics’s classic anthem “Sweet Dreams”.

Photo by Kelly Davidson

With the direction these two are headed with their wonderful concept of petrified and tamed insanity, it is impossible to not feel continuous bursts of excitement.  Enough excitement to wet yourself in a white suit I would suppose.  Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin is most definitely an act you do not want to sleep on.  Or shall I say: forsake!  No I don’t think I will.  Or did I just do it?  No matter, this is amazing stuff, and the world needs to know the power of these amazing chaps with the audacity to be one of the foremost pioneering bands out their today.

Learn more about this amazing group at their Website.  And be sure to make your way over the The Boston Phoenix site to vote for Sophia Cacciola as Best Female Vocalist.  And keep yourself in tune with all of their other projects on Mike and Sophia’s own Blog.