RACHEL TAYLOR BROWN RELEASES LATEST CD, “WORLD SO SWEET”, JULY 29TH AT MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS

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CD RELEASE SHOW: July 29th at Mississippi Studios

Read SP Clarke’s review of  “World so Sweeet”

July 29, 2011, Portland, Oregon’s own Rachel Taylor Brown will celebrate the release of her seventh studio album, World So Sweet.  Also on the bill are The Brothers Young, plus special guests.  Tickets are $10.00 in advance and $10.00 at the door.  Doors at 8:30pm, show at 9pm.

When asked to describe her music, Taylor Brown jokingly suggests, “Pith Rock; sharp ‘n’ pointy!  Or spongy and permeable!”  She starts to laugh. “Pith ‘n’ Vinegar Rock!  No, wait: there’s that horrible thing they do to frogs in a lab, that’s pithing.  Maybe Igneous Rock is better.”

Talk to those who know her music, though, and other descriptions come up. “Unsettling but addictive.” “Good stories.” “Unpredictable.” “Arresting.”  “Dark, funny, sweeping, panoramic, pretty, ugly, complex, moving.”  And, “You can dance to it.”

But to fully grasp and understand World So Sweet and Rachel Taylor Brown, you have only to listen to the record.

“I realized in retrospect how dark these songs may come off. I wish I could explain better how they make me feel hopeful,” explains Taylor Brown.  “I always feel better when dark things are out in the open instead of hidden away.  Looking at the scary stuff makes me more appreciative of the beauty in the world, makes me feel like my feet are on the ground.” She continues, “I think it helps that you can dance around to many of them. I can see someone getting down to one of these songs and never knowing what the hell I’m singing about.  I like that the songs can be enjoyed on that level–it makes me feel sneaky.  Lyrics are very important to me but I know a lot of people don’t listen to them, especially now.  It’s interesting to see who notices the words and who doesn’t.”

It’s that love of life, humor, curiosity, basic compassion, and a healthy dose of skepticism that fuels Taylor Brown. It’s heavily reflected in everything she does, including the thirteen tracks found on World So Sweet.

“I love the people I love, and the beautiful world,” she continues.  “I’m fortunate.  There was a time I didn’t want to be around.  Now that I do, it’s sweet, every day; even when it’s horrible.  There are birds.  The world is sweet, even though it’s awful.  That prayer I had to say when I was a kid: ‘Thank you for the world so sweet, thank you for the food we eat, thank you for the birds that sing, thank you, God, for everything.’  I’ve always loved that prayer, even though I don’t believe in the God part anymore.  I love anything that reflects even some little awareness that we’re living with a whole lot of other creatures and that we’re just one bit of the whole thing.”

Rachel Taylor Brown might best be described as a dubious but hopeful observer who watches the world and the people of the world destroy and create beauty daily, just one witness who can tell a story through song.

“These songs are about the usual mundane things that seem to preoccupy me; how great and how awful people are and how beautiful and ugly the world is,” she says.  “There’s huge scope in that.  I know I have a comfort level with some of the things I write about that others may not have, due in large part to my own history.  I’m not thinking of how it may hit anyone else when I’m writing.  I’m usually surprised when my husband or some other listener points out that it’s maybe hard to hear.  I really believe in letting a song be what it wants, though.  And I guess some (ok, a lot) of my songs want to be peppy tunes about the worst of human nature.  I have to say, though, I find that contradiction very satisfying.”

For all the hurt and pain in the world, like all of us Rachel Taylor Brown goes on.  Creating music that is equally pretty and haunting, sometimes simple but sometimes epic, the perfect strange cocktail of darkening doubt, lightening hope and “it’s got a good beat, you can dance to it.”  Music that’s meaningful but catchy, a paradox of everything the world has to offer.  With World So Sweet she brings to the surface good and evil, creating an album that is as rich as it is sparse, dense as it is airy.

Curious, I looked up “pithy.”  The thesaurus reads: “succinct, concise, compact, to the point, epigrammatic, crisp, significant, meaningful, expressive, telling.”  “Pith” means “essence, fundamentals, heart, substance, core, crux, gist, meat, kernel, marrow, weight, depth, force.”  “Pith Rock” is a weird and awkward moniker for her music, and maybe a little too close to “piss” said with a lisp.  But, you know it kind of fits.

MP3s:
“Taxidermy” — http://www.inmusicwetrust.com/pr/freemp3s/racheltaylorbrown_taxidermy.mp3
“How To Make A World Class Gymnast” — http://www.inmusicwetrust.com/pr/freemp3s/racheltaylorbrown_howtomake.mp3

JUDAS PRIEST

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The EPITAPH Tour
Featuring Black Label Society and Thin Lizzy
Tour Hits Seattle on Saturday, October 29th at the WaMu Theater
Tickets On Sale Friday, June 24th at 10am!

After storming the world for nearly 40 years and taking their very special brand of heavy metal to all four corners of the planet, JUDAS PRIEST – one of the most influential heavy metal bands of all time, have announced this will be their final world tour!

However, the mighty PRIEST will certainly be going out strong as they rock the planet starting in 2011 on the massive EPITAPH tour – hitting all the major cities throughout the world they will be playing the songs that helped make the name JUDAS PRIEST synonymous with heavy metal!

The tour will feature new guitarist Richie Faulkner. The 31 year old British guitar player has blended into the band perfectly, due to his amazing six-string talents. Richie joins Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill and Scott Travis in the line-up. Together, JUDAS PRIEST will hit the road for the EPITAPH Tour.

With all guns blazing and amps cranked to eleven, the band will be giving all their fans one last chance to witness the ultimate metal experience that is JUDAS PRIEST!

JUDAS PRIEST will be starting their North American tour on Wednesday, October 12th in San Antonio. A confirmed itinerary of performances for the first leg of tour can be found below.

October:

  • 12 – San Antonio, TX: AT&T Center
  • 14 – Corpus Christi, TX: Concrete Street Amphitheater
  • 15 – Houston, TX: The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
  • 16 – Dallas, TX: Allen Event Center
  • 18 – Tucson, AZ: Ava Amphitheater
  • 19 – San Diego, CA: Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre
  • 21 – Phoenix, AZ: AZ State Fair
  • 22 – San Bernardino, CA: San Manuel Amphitheater
  • 23 – Las Vegas, NV: Hard Rock
  • 25 – Los Angeles, CA: Gibson Amphitheatre
  • 26 – Oakland, CA: Oracle Arena
  • *29 – Seattle, WA: WaMu Theater
  • 30 – Vancouver, BC: Rogers Arena

November:

  • 1 – Edmonton, AB: Shaw Conference Center
  • 2 – Calgary, AB: Scotiabank Saddledome
  • 4 – Salt Lake City, UT: Maverik Center
  • 5 – Denver, CO: 1STBANK Center
  • 12 – Chicago, IL: The Venue at Horseshoe Casino
  • 13 – Detroit, MI: Joe Louis Arena
  • 18 – East Rutherford, NJ: Izod Center

*Tickets available at the Qwest Field Box Office,

Ticketmaster locations, charge by phone 800-745-3000, and Ticketmaster.com


 

Vocal Cord Surgery for Pink Martini’s China Forbes

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China Forbes has been forced to take an extended hiatus from her duties as Pink Martini vocalist. Suffering an injury to her vocal cords earlier this year, at first it was hoped that an extended respite might restore her to health. But it has since been determined that she will require throat surgery.

Forbes, 41, debuted as a singer with Pink Martini in 1995, when she was recruited by bandleader Thomas Lauderdale. The two of them met while attending Harvard University. It was there that they developed an idiosyncratic musical relationship. After graduation, they went their separate ways, with China developing her own craft as a folk/rock singer/songwriter. Subsequently, Lauderdale asked her to perform with Pink Martini on their first album Sympathique. The rest is local music history.

It is not Forbes’ first absence from the ensemble. She was out for six months in 2009 on maternity leave. But this instance is of greater concern for her future as a singer, in that her vocal cords are involved, and there is no chronology as to when a recovery might be expected, nor assurance that her voice will necessarily return to its former grandeur.

While China is out, Lucy Woodward will replace her for performances in the final week of June, and Storm Large will take over for July shows as well as for an upcoming European tour scheduled for this September. But, more importantly, we wish for China a speedy and complete recovery.