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[news!
A happy new year to you!
Ben and I are playing a kind of impromptu gig this Friday, Jan. 27 at the Press Club w/ the wonderful 3 Leg Torso--please see the gigs page for details.
I'm way past flabbergasted and honored to be included in the Loud Family/Game Theory legend Scott Miller's book, "Music: What Happened?" (p. 225! er, but the whole book's a delight. He picks 20 songs from each year, 1957-2010, counting down). 2nd edition just out and available now--just click on the title (above). You can read more about it (reviews, etc.) there, too! He's a terrific read: funny, succinct, thoughtful. I'm a-burst with pride! Nothing this great'll probably ever happen to me again. P.s...many thanks, Sue T!
OK--this is also great, and a complete surprise that likewise tickled me pink: Willamette Week included World So Sweet in the WW Best Albums of the Year. Put a little skip in my step, for certain. Thank you, MS & WW!
Also, one more big thanks due to WW and writer Robert Ham for featuring "City of Angels" as the
Willamette Week Cut of the Day in December. [note: I got the link wrong before but have corrected it so it should work now]
And thanks too to Heroes of Indie Music for including "Bethelehem, NY" in the interesting A Very 2011 Indie Christmas.
I've managed to get six albums up (including the unreleased, stripped-down Songs Without a Home and my holiday album, 7 Small Winter Songs) on Bandcamp. The World So Sweet link'll take you there. Also--some very nice press for World So Sweet on the Press page. My favorite quote so far: "...doesn’t follow the crowd and doesn’t care of the consequences. Unless the crowd is of the cat-loving, Buffy-watching hermit variety."]
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I've left Facebook. I'm not a person anymore. The "fan" page is still there and I will speak from the grave about gigs and bowel movements. Rescuing the linear mind so that I can be even more out of step with humanity. USA!
[Updated minty Report: It has now been over a month since I was Of The Body. My email box remains pathetically empty, devoid of life but for the attempts by my pitying sister to create virtual FB for me (she sends me links to videos and cat pictures). My posts from the grave continue apace (most involve cat pictures) and I enjoy the unwieldy unsanctioned FB contact (the only I can manage) with friends there. I think they're learning that the wait time for a response now averages 24 hours. Ah, patient friends! We'll see how long they'll be patient. This is a zippy, texterous world and we will not stand for waiting for anything!!! I tried to take this knowledge seriously but got distracted by the teevee and forgot about it in a couple seconds.
So: the most interesting thing to observe is how brain feels. It was for brain that I jumped FB ship, mid-enjoyment. I didn't like how brain was clearly getting really excellent at flitting around like the most annoying type of fly, skimming and retaining very tiny bits of information about a zillion mostly useless things. Really didn't like feeling like I was losing those hard won neural pathways for things like deep reading, concentrating, sitting still and absorbing instead of feeling the urge to click or jump or hop or leap or move on on on on on toward moremoremoremoremore! It was creeping me out.
Brain has noticeably calmed down. I still check e-mail too much (just disappointing, sniffle) but--despite missing interacting more regularly with certain people--I'm not really missing FB. And I did enjoy it, right up to the second I left. Something I never thought I'd hear myself say. Sheesh]
I don't know if this has anything to do with that, but since the new year I've written a new little album (will tell you more about it later: would like to keep it a secret for the moment. am excited about it, though--came outta nowhere) and a number of new songs. Still sifting through my backlog of songs and trying to figure out what to tackle next and exactly how to do it in a not insane and debilitating, impoverishing way. Jeff's helping me to get set up w/ protools (which I got from Tony Lash--couldn't ask for a better protoolian pedigree). This should help somewhat.
Getting out World So Sweet really knocked the snot out of me, I tell you the truth. It's so personally and fiscally exhausting to put out music nowadays. I think the cumulative effect of putting out 7 albums (8, counting Songs Without a Home)--DIY all the way--may be wearing on me. I feel tired. Also, fairly hopeless about the state of things for musicians like me. Many thanks to you who've so generously helped me along. xo
I'm starting the new year with a lot of curiosity, I guess. I feel kind of discombobulated and not certain about anything at all, which is a feeling I've had so many times in my life over its many years, I don't worry so much about it anymore. I'm no starry-eyed optimist but the great thing about knowing nothing is that delicious sense of mystery. Hopefully, life won't suck. Hopefully, it'll make us delighted and, ok: starry-eyed.
Much love,
Rachel
p.s....(ephemera)
I gave a couple Half Hours With the Lower Creatures outcasts (never before heard! zow!) to Kill Ugly Radio: "Frances Farming" and "Abide With Me" (both recorded w/ Jeff). Rich Lindsay is an insane man. Love that show.
There is this very great podcast out of Great Britain called Ola's Kool Kitchen on Radio23. And Cor! Blimey! I'm chuffed to say DJ Ola plays me! She's kind of wonderful.
An equally wonderful show, also on Radio23,is In Memory of John Peel hosted by Zaph Mann. Zaph's been kind enough to play my stuff a number of times and I adore him and his show.
Am soon shooting a video w/ the talented William Landers. I have no idea what I'm doing but I want it to involve dance, karate moves.
p.s...Someone sweet (zakk) made me a fan page on FB: the
"Rachel Taylor Brown Fan Page for Musical Enlightenment." Please believe me that i didn't call it that.
p.s...if you need anything and it's not here please just give me or Alex Steininger at inmusicwetrust.com a shout.
*THE 50 PIANOS PORTLANDERS WHO PLAY ON TRACK ONE OF "WORLD SO SWEET." THANK YOU!:
elizabeth bacon
jennie baker
bennett bailey
todd bayles
d. neil blake
karl blume
kristen buhler
renee favand-see
brian francis
christine frederica
jason fromme
david gilde
jen goss
elizabeth gross
wink gross
abigail grush
joe hanson
benjamin heim
jennifer gillet hooper
zachary hoyt
sonja hultsman
vaughn hultsman
pat janowski
todd jarnagin
john b. jones
shannon jones
mattie kaiser
ben kinkley
emily kinkley
aurora landers
william landers
ben landsverk
ron lee
gerald leroy
lion
john liles
ayal lutwak
leigh marble
becki marsh
stephanie meininger
erica melton
kim meyers
brighid nicholls
tammy paladeni
randall payton
allison picard
chris robley
tuesday rupp
corin see
colin shepard
lisa stringfield
jeff stuart saltzman
katie taylor
kelly thorsell
ian timmons
barry todd
meadow weatherbee
liz weber
contact rachel . skyhand website design, seattle
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