How We Quit the Forest
How We Quit the Forest is the second studio album from Rasputina, released in 1998 by Columbia Records. After years of being out of print, it was re-released by frontwoman Melora Creager on her own label, Filthy Bonnet Recording co., on CD and, for the first time, vinyl in 2011. Former Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna produced the album and provided many of its sounds and samples. Promotion. The first track from the album, "The Olde Headboard", was released in 1998 as a promotional-only single prior to the release of the album . Manufactured in both CD and 12" vinyl editions, with a slight difference in track listings between them, the single contains a number of remixes of the song. Around this time, Sony Music Entertainment also produced a video for the song, directed by Lisa Rubisch. Conceptualized as "a haunting anxiety dream where our heroines must fulfill impossible tasks," in the video, Creager cries sitting among dozens of teacups and kisses a taxidermy goat, Julia Kent pins corsets to an infinite clothesline, and the band plays cello on a wooden stage in a forest near a German-fairy-tale-style cabin. A  limited promotional-only long box edition of the full album was also manufactured, prior to its wide release. This version contains a "story-book" with drawings and collage-style art put together by Creager. On October 15, 1998, the band appeared as the musical guest on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" to promote the album, performing the song "LeechWife". Critical reception. Tim Sheridan of "Allmusic" commented "This band deals in what can only be called chamber-goth: a grungey cello-driven rock that is perfect for those nights when you just want to feel creepy. While the sound is original  and sometimes very effective, the overwrought vocal vibrato gets tedious." Tom Lanham of Amazon.com commented "You can litmus-test yourself with the name alone. If you don't appreciate the stained-glass humor of a trio of corseted female cellists warping the moniker of the Mad Monk, chances are you're going to despise [...] one of the year's most curious releases. Get the gag? Good. You're in for one hell of a strange sonic trip... The disc is alternately jarring and gentle. Creager's subject matter gets downright sinister at times. Where else can you hear yarns concerning  the ancient medical practice of leech application?" Track listing. A bouns track, "The Olde Headboard (Weathered Mix)" was also included as an unlisted track on the 2011 CD reissue.