Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling

Artist Information

Biography

DNFMOMD is a loud, arty, minimalist rock duo - proto-punk/new wave/no wave - songs are based on the '60s cult spy-fi TV series The Prisoner. Their music video for "Arrival" earned #6 on TIME's Creative Videos of 2011 Top Ten list & Sophia Cacciola earned Boston Phoenix's 2012 Best Female Vocalist.

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling draw on the minimalist approaches of classic spy television, known for its plodding cerebral traversals, rather than modern explosion-heavy fare to create the sonic landscapes for their stories. With attention to breaking away from conventions of popular modern rock music, the duo performs intentionally simplistic, minimalist songs with frequent repetition and significant open space, overlaying melodic garage rock onto an austere, post-industrial milieu. Some say the music recalls the sound of proto-punk/new wave/no wave bands and dark songwriters like Joy Division, Einsturzende Neubauten, The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Diamanda Galás, Nina Hagen, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, and Leonard Cohen.

The band name is derived from a particularly odd episode of the '60s spy TV show, The Prisoner; an episode named after the title song from the film High Noon. The song and film are about honor, moral obligation, fear, and death. The Prisoner is an allegorical science fiction show about breaking free from societal norms and maintaining individuality under the thumb of faceless hierarchy and big-brother style totalitarianism.

In June 2011 they released a music video for their song, "Episode 1: Arrival" which is a shot-for-shot remake of the opening sequence of The Prisoner. It can be seen at: http://youtu.be/GbUhmwSObto - it was honored by TIME Magazine as #6 on Top Ten Creative Videos for 2011.

Instrumentation

Sophia Cacciola - Vocals, Drums
Michael J. Epstein - Bass

Discography

The New Number 2 EP (2010)
Questions Are a Burden to Others EP (2011)

Official Website

http://www.donotforsake.com

Links

• Facebook
• Last.fm
• Twitter

Audio

• Episode 1 - Arrival
  Listen   Download
• Episode 4 - The Chimes of Big Ben
  Listen   Download
• Episode 12 - Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling
  Listen   Download

Lyrics

• Episode 12 - Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling
• Episode 4 - The Chimes of Big Ben

Video

DNFMOMD-Arrival-Final-20110418-web

Manhattan Complete NO CREDITS-Smaller

Photo Gallery

Press

• #6 on TIME Magazine Online list of Top Ten Creative Videos of 2011! [+ Show ]
  

  It's one thing to gather a few light sabers and make a Star Wars fan film. But this shot-for-shot re...It's one thing to gather a few light sabers and make a Star Wars fan film. But this shot-for-shot remake of the opening of the cult TV classic The Prisoner is something else entirely. Most impressive is the filmmakers' devotion to detail, like belaboring over the position of a pen on a desk or combing the east coast for just the right kind of beach. Boston based filmmaker Theodore Cormery says it took months just to track down one of the last of 42 remaining Caterham Seven sports cars in the world. And the sets, created with miniatures and CGI, are so accurate, the geekiest "Prisoner" fan can only take it all in with astonishment. The entire feat took two years to complete. As for budget, Cormery is evasive. "I won't get into exact numbers," he says. "I'll just say this: I've know independent features made for less than for these three minutes."
  

• Ruse music Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’s front may be a front [+ Show ]
  

  "...unveiled last month, Do Not Forsake’s inaugural EP, The New Number 2, offers clamorous, jangling..."...unveiled last month, Do Not Forsake’s inaugural EP, The New Number 2, offers clamorous, jangling, riffy weirdness topped by Cacciola’s husky sing-shouting. It makes a fine choice for anyone who wants to enjoy six noisy rock songs, or anyone who’s being chased by an ominous, ever-present nonentity.......[DNFMOMD] recorded a song for five of The Prisoner’s 17 episodes, intend to assign a track to each of the other 12, and haven’t decided what they’ll do when it’s time to write their 18th song. Not that it’ll matter — for all the pop-cultural allusions in the presentation, they could sing about watching water boil and they’d still stand out. Whereas other bands cram 20 friggin’ persons on stage at their shows, or rely on technology to fill out their sound, Cacciola and Epstein get a lot done with as few tools as possible"

• Happily, prisoners in their own world [+ Show ]
  

  “...The twosome’s musical attack — a fiercely churning alloy of voice, bass, and drums — is as spare...“...The twosome’s musical attack — a fiercely churning alloy of voice, bass, and drums — is as spare as the group’s name is unwieldy, and bears little resemblance to John Barry’s spy scores or kitschy themes that marked television adventure of that era. If there is an overtly retro element to the music, it lies in Cacciola’s and Epstein’s noisy nod back toward the post-punk ’80s underground or the confrontational cacophony emblematic of the so-called Riot Grrrl movement of the early 1990s….As a whole, the songs deal with troubled states of mind — fear, paranoia, claustrophobia — and the distinct feeling that, yes, they are out to get you.”

• DO NOT FORSAKE ME OH MY DARLING - RSL Blog [+ Show ]
  

  "The duo plod along - smoothly at first. But soon, as the music heads to midnight, Cacciola's sultry..."The duo plod along - smoothly at first. But soon, as the music heads to midnight, Cacciola's sultry voice changes takes a turn - and she howls from behind the drums. Epstein's guitar/bass rig is fully taxed - the sound is sometimes visceral and aggressive; there is no doubt, it is completely alive."

• DO NOT FORSAKE ME OH MY DARLING - Weekly Dig [+ Show ]
  

  "Boston's got indie bands and punk bands and synth bands and metal bands and rock bands and jazz ban..."Boston's got indie bands and punk bands and synth bands and metal bands and rock bands and jazz bands, but does it have ... spy bands? Well, it's got at least one: big noise duo Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling. The name is lifted from an episode of '60s spy-themed television series The Prisoner, and the themes, plots and developmental character choices of the show have been fleshed out in the songwriting of drummer and vocalist Sophia Cacciola. "When I saw The Prisoner for the first time, Patrick McGoohan's portrayal of Number Six jumped out at me as the man that I had been thinking and writing about," she says. "He's this really sarcastic, angry, moralistic, handsome man—and the show itself explores all of these great themes, like societal distrust of individuality, totalitarianism, what it means to escape and who is in charge of your fate."

Setlist

Basic Requirements

Calendar