Happy Happy News!

Hey everyone, sorry I've been quiet for awhile.  It's been a busy couple of months.  I come with big news, however.  In, oh, 20 days or so (August 13), we will be celebrating the release of my very first EP, Happy Happy.  Why is it called Happy Happy?  It's named after this amazing piece of art I saw while visiting my friend in Los Angeles about a year ago.  I loved it so much, I made it the cover, see?

What you're looking at, basically, is a whole lot of 99 cent store junk that Choi Jeong-Hwa, a Korean artist, bought and strung up on wire hanging from a tent structure outside LACMA.  My friend and I were walking by and she said "Rachel.  We need to play THERE."  So we ran around for a few minutes playing in the 99 cent store playground that is Happy Happy.  We took photos, generally had a good time.  But as the months went by, the piece really stayed with me.  You can look at it from a bunch of different angles, but at the heart of this piece, it's a bunch of stuff from the 99 cent store.  It is this gorgeous plastic fun playground, and in your kitchen it could've been useful, but it doesn't have a whole lot of longevity.  Being such low quality, it won't last forever, and eventually winds up in a landfill polluting and leeching chemicals into our planet.  So it got me thinking about what "happy" really is.  This EP explores the concept of fleeting joy versus lasting happiness. There are a lot of things that are going to seem like they’re the right path when you’re taking them because they make you happy right then and there, but you’re going to have to go back to reality sooner or later.  I wrote to Jeong-Hwa and he graciously allowed me to use my photos of his gorgeous, thought-provoking art for my cover.

Here's the deal for purchasing, because a whole lot of you have asked how to pick up a copy.  I will have physical CDs and download cards (neat little cards with a link where you can download the music) available through me directly, obviously, but for those who are not local, you can get physical copies through CDBaby.com (link forthcoming) and digital downloads through iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, and CDBaby. 

And finally, the biggest news of all.  I'm having a CD release party on August 13th at the Bellefonte Cafe.  It's fitting that I should have the party there, as that's where everything started.  I'll be joined by The Awesome Band for an acoustic set of all the songs on the EP, as well as some additional originals and covers.  It's going to be pretty great, if I do say so myself, and I hope you can make it.

I promise you'll be hearing more from me in the coming weeks.  Thanks for coming on this ride, guys.