Maria Taylor (Azure Ray, Bright Eyes) speaks to PopMatters about her new solo record, Overlook , and why going home to the South can be good for the creative soul. Maria Taylor has been at this game a while. She formed her first band, Little Red Rocket, when she was 15 years old. Since then, she's performed in Azure Ray and Now It's Overhead, collaborated with Bright Eyes, Moby, Crooked Fingers, and more, and released five solo records under her own name. In other words, Taylor knows what she's doing. Nevertheless, even with 20 years of recording behind [...]

With Christmas out of the way, and the year almost over, it's time I finally get around to compiling my Top 20 albums of the year of 2011 (in fact, there are 21 entries). Each album is represented on the mix with a song, and each entry has a link to the artist's homepage or other outlet where the album can be ordered from. Because this list is intended not only to show off my impeccable taste, but also to showcase artists, all data files in the mix have been downscaled to 128kbps. This is not really a chart, but [...]
In Maria Taylor's latest music video for "Matador," the singer/songwriter takes a very direct look at herself with no real story line. Instead, we're in a scene of a large group of musicians and friends all playing with Taylor around a bonfire. As the song climaxes, so does the party, and soon everyone is singing, [...]
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet. Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Books on Tape : free and legal Demos album [mp3] search for more Books on Tape posts at Largehearted Boy Cary Brothers : free and legal NoiseTrade Sampler [...]

In August, Maria Taylor released her fourth solo disc, Overlook . This new disc is rawer, both in sound and emotion, than Taylor's work with Azure Ray and Now It's Overhead. The music on Taylor's latest disc is a compelling assortment of songs that range from wispy dream-pop to Michelle Shocked-style ragtime Americana to alt-country/folk to pulsing, jagged, alt-rock. Taylor just released the first video from her new disc, which is for the song "Matador" (below). Following this is a bootleg video of "Matador" performed live at The Grog Shop in Cleveland, OH on 11/12/11. [...]
Maria Taylor's new video for "Matador" features a bunch of friends sitting around a campfire, just chilling and relaxing at first, before breaking into some sort of full on tribal dance. The most interesting thing to me is how someone apparently 3 or 4 months pregnant could show it so little. MP3 // MATADOR

In August, Maria Taylor released her fourth solo disc, Overlook . This new disc is rawer, both in sound and emotion, than Taylor's work with Azure Ray and Now It's Overhead, and Taylor produced this disc herself after coming off a year-long writing dry spell. The music on Taylor's latest disc is a compelling assortment of songs that range from wispy dream-pop to Michelle Shocked-style ragtime Americana to alt-country/folk to pulsing, jagged, alt-rock. Note: Ignore the YouTube song title - this is a live performance of "Happenstance" Maria [...]
If you're looking for something to do on Sunday night, might I suggest heading over to The Drake, where Maria Taylor , one half of Azure Ray , will be performing in support of her recent solo album Overlook ( review ). Check out the track "Matador":

Maria Taylor Alabama native & once upon a time Los Angeles resident Maria Taylor was back in support of her latest release, Overlook, which came out on Omaha based label Saddle Creek earlier this year. Touring with her is Dead Fingers, a duo composed of Kate Taylor & Taylor Hollingsworth, & another Saddle Creek duo, Big Harp. Stefanie Drootin of Big Harp recently founded Omaha Girls Rock, a music/performance camp of sorts, which you can read more about here: www.omahagirlsrock.com. Dead Fingers' debut album will be out early next year & Big Harp's debut, White Hat, [...]
Overlook is the fourth solo album from Azure Ray 's Maria Taylor . Checking in at only 9-tracks, it's a short but sweet effort this time around. Many of the songs, such as "Masterplan" or ""Like It Does", can be described as typically indie pop rock. "This Could Take a Lifetime" comes perilously close to being a cheesy indie love song. Strewn among them though, are a number of stronger entries. "Matador" has an extremely catchy, if short, guitar riff backed by a basic but effective percussion. [...]

Although Maria Taylor had been busy touring as one-half of duo Azure Ray last year in support of their album "Drawing Down the Moon" (after a six-year hiatus), the singer-songwriter happily went head first into writing a new solo record after suffering from writer's block the entire year before. The self-produced "Overlook" rejuvenates the grace her warm vocals have always been able to guarantee, but as Taylor pieced a collection of songs about growing older, her songwriting also relayed a new maturity. The search to find clarity within issues of becoming more of an adult everyday [...]

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Real Estate at Bowery Ballroom (07/15/09) Photo : Tim Griffin ( more ) Oct 6 Thu Andrew Watt and The Dirty Touch, Workout Mercury Lounge New York , NY 08:45 PM [...]

Frank Yang I've been mentally composing my writeup for Richard Thompson's visit to Toronto last week, as I do, and went digging through my archives for past pieces on the artist to perhaps link to as relevant, also standard procedure, which brought this piece I wrote back in 2005 . And it's helpful, as it actually covers a lot of the preface that I was preparing, but also mortifying as I didn't realize that I'd already written - sometimes verbatim - what I was planning to write with regards to my personal history with [...]
Blue October– Any Man In America (RED) Quando o Blue October anunciou que lançaria um novo disco, em 2009, e que ele seria um pouco diferente dos já produzidos até então, houve um certo temor. A fórmula até aí havia dado certo. Justin Furstenfeld , o vocalista e principal compositor, atormentado pela bipolaridade, estava bem e Approching Normal , um álbum "feliz", saiu. Dois anos depois e novos problemas, dessa vez familiares – um divórcio no currículo, trazem Justin a escrever novamente de seus medos e temores. E os texanos do [...]

It's been nearly two months since I did one of these. I've been treated to a ton of good stuff since then, and I thought it time to throw a quick mix of what I've been spinning heavily lately. Earlier this month I went on a 2000 mile roadtrip with my wife to celebrate our one year anniversary, so I had plenty of time to delve into some new stuff and old favorites alike. Hopefully you guys dig it! 01 // Right Away, Great Captain! - Blame 02 // M83 [...]
![[Album Review/Listen] Maria Taylor – Overlook](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3653830_lg.jpg)
Tweet "Matador" is the lead single of Maria Taylor's newest solo effort, "Overlook." I'll cut straight to the point: it's the only song on the album really worth listening to. Taylor, who's known for being a part of Azure Ray and sometimes collaborating with Bright Eyes , has put out a wealth of quality work, but none of that shows up here save that one song. "Matador's" interesting layers of instruments - from a striking electric guitar to marimba - and [...]
To celebrate today's crop of releases, here are new mp3s from A Lull, Kyle Andrews, Case Studies, Kris Delmhorst, Gold Leaves, Her Space Holiday, Hercules And Love Affair, Keith Top Of The Pops, Mister Heavenly, the Parson Red Heads, the Piney Gir Country Road Show, Maria Taylor, Wagons, the War On Drugs, the Weather Station [...]

I'm still trying to fully digest Maria Taylors most experimental record to date. It's a bit of a departure from the folk acoustics that have dominated the majority of her catalogue but you can form your own opinion now as AP.net is hosting a full album stream today before the record drops tomorrow. STREAM // OVERLOOK
Maria Taylor: [ This Could Take A Lifetime ]