SXSW Picks 2 Click 2007
What's a nice Midwestern gal like Sara Beck doing with an alias like "Pink Nasty"?
By Melanie Haupt, Fri., March 2, 2007
Pink Nasty
As far as being taken seriously in the notoriously testosterone-glutted club we call the music biz, Sara Beck (aka Pink Nasty) occupies a strange limbo, caught between her own independence and the powerful mentorship of more established men.
Take, for example, her relationship with indie icon Will "Bonnie Prince Billy" Oldham. What started out as a mutual admiration society between Oldham and Beck's brother Ted (aka Black Nasty) turned into opportunity for the 24-year-old local singer-songwriter.
"My brother sent him [a cover] that I did," explains Beck. "Will really liked it and asked me to go on tour with him and asked my brother to open."
That tour landed Pink and Black in Austin a little more than two years ago.
"We both fell in love with the place, and we both knew that we wanted to do music together," she enthuses, "so we had to be in the same place, and we thought this would be the perfect spot."
Thus, sister and brother transplanted themselves from Kansas and Los Angeles, respectively, and began making inroads in the Austin music scene. For Pink, this resulted in last year's self-released Mold the Gold (see Texas Platters, November 3, 2006), possessed of a delightful Nineties ethos where her debut, 2004's Mule School, leaned more toward alt.country. Each new work is subject to Black the Elder's scrutiny.
"The stuff I'm working on now is kind of different – not as much about boys," she blushes. "My brother said, 'Don't write any more about guys. It's boring. Try to write something more fun.'"
More fun, according to the Nasty rubric, are songs about "flaccid ponies" and murder, the latter inspired by a co-worker's commentary on how one could store a corpse in the trunks of cut-down redwood trees in California. It was MC brother Beck who gave her a "female" version of his stage name and input in her art.
"He's a really good lyricist," she says. "If I write something, he'll look over it and help me change it or go with it. Not every song, though. There are definitely songs that I've done by myself that aren't totally cheesy."
Take, for instance, the chilling "BTK Blues" from Mold. The emptiness and restlessness of her lyrics suddenly gives way to a Greek chorus of male voices (including Oldham's), interjected with the admonition, "It's dark now; you should head home," evoking the booming voice of patriarchy that echoes through many a girl's life. Which is why to get signed at SXSW would be "cool" for our heroine.
"I think that would be neat, to have distribution and have a place for my records for people to get, versus just the Internet and the record stores I've contacted. I would like to have a label. It would make it a lot easier.
"I really just want to be independent and be able to tour more and support myself doing this."
And maybe make her own voice the loudest in the chorus of her own songs.
SXSW showcase: Saturday, March 17, 8pm @ Elysium
