The Chasing The Moon episode I recorded in September at Hyde St. Studios is up, and I've gotta say, it looks beautiful. The guys did a great job, it looks like it should be on VH1 or something! There're a few new songs from the upcoming album and a goofy interview, which was fun! Here it is...

Summer has been very magical on the Steve Taylor front. 1st of all, I've been playing keyboards and guitorgan with Rogue Wave, a great group of guys with great songs for the last month or so. We did a benefit at The Independent and then got whisked away to LA to play a Jack Daniels party at The Roxy. Got picked up in a limovan and treated to the best hummus and fruit tray ever! Now that's what I call the rocknroll lifestyle! Up next is The Wanderlust Festival in Tahoe. Not only does it feature, Andrew Bird, Spoon, and Broken Social Scene; it's a full fledged yoga extravaganza, with celebrity yoga instructors et. all. I'm seriously beyond psyched!

Check this out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5qzafVHBJ8&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRSa59knMWw

This is from the September issue of West Coast Performer Magazine....


One look at the front cover of Steve Taylor's Has the Size of the Road Got the Better of You? can conjure images of colorfully dressed hippies tripping out to lush, pastoral sounds inspired by The Zombies and pre-disco Bee Gees records of the late 1960s. In fact, Taylor's music is decidedly more in line with the aesthetics of '70s pop and soul.

Without a hint of irony in his sweet falsetto vocal delivery, the album was obviously a labor of love, with a list of engineers longer than its tracklist. It's a finely executed exercise in sonic nostalgia that only falters in the first two songs: "Reality" lopes along without a clearly arranged chorus, giving the impression that it's either unfinished or just too repetitive to warrant repeated listens. "Felicity" goes a little overboard with its synth string bed and an awkward opening line ("Felicity, why must you treat me with duplicity?") coming off just short of early Hall & Oates blue-eyed soul.

"Nothing Left," however, gets the soul vibe right – the organ in the song is mixed just high enough so as not to overpower the proceedings, and it plays like a lost classic waiting to be discovered.

"Mystery" goes the Nick Drake route. Its hushed vocals and gentle finger-picked guitar set the tone for a sorrowful, lonely lyric with a touch of hope and a tinge of Mellotron for a prog-like effect. There's no faulting the just-distorted-enough-to-remain-sweet guitar solo that concludes the puzzlingly titled "Aquafish," or the slow-building prog-ish title track, with its layers of acoustic guitars, volume pedal-sweetened electric guitars, vintage electric piano and synths. Perhaps the most impressive part of this album is that Taylor played most of the instruments himself, receiving help from others on only two songs. (Self-released)

www.stevetaylormusic.com

-Michael Fortes

I'm part of a great show coming up Sunday August 10th at Cafe DuNord with Dominique Leone and The Botticellis, both creative and innovative artists who have brilliant new records in the can. In fact this show is the 12" vinyl release for both of them! Please come out early to see the return of my band, with Paul Bertolino of Persephone's Bees on drums, Matt Cunitz, the session keyboardist of Brightblack Morning Light, and Marty Fowler, the young bass phenom fresh out of high school! We go on at 9 o'clock and will be featuring material from the new album "Has The Size of The Road Got The Better of You?" as well as well as some old favorites and at least one new track!
Cheers, Steve