She's not in Kansas anymore, but Pink Nasty's suburban Midwestern upbringing has indelibly stamped her work as a songwriter. With crystalline pop textures, her new self-titled album evokes a suburban summertime when sensations of emptiness and yearning develop their own kind of sensuality. Surely it's universal, those elegiac weeks when nothing is happening, time stands still, standing in parking lots and coupling up with damaged and obviously temporary lovers?

Pink Nasty's bluntly vulnerable songs perfectly depict those times, the palpable sensation that everything is static and the future is uncertain with a dangerous sense of humor. Her singing voice is angelic, owing much more to jazz than anyone on the singer/songwriter circuit or the indie rock world, both of which Pink Nasty gracefully straddles; this phrasing emphasizes the graceful melodies. The frank lyrics provide sharp contrast to the beautiful production; each frames the other in a perfect balance.

Look for Pink Nasty to hit stores on Thursday, September 30th, with a record release party in Austin and tour in the works; details will be announced shortly.

Pink Nasty is Sara Beck, a young woman enjoying a seemingly ordinary life in Austin, Texas that features cats and clerical work, but that's just one side of the coin. Pink Nasty lives in a bipolar musical world, in which she crafts perfect pop songs, writing and producing with her brother, the uber-profane rapper Black Nasty. Symbiotic in nature, the two live together and collaborate on every aspect of their musical endeavors. When Black Nasty's Aids Can't Stop Me (an album so scatological as to put 2 Live Crew to shame) came out, he earned a fan in Bonnie Prince Billy, who took them on tour and eventually sang on Pink Nasty's critically acclaimed album Mold The Gold (which received enthusiastic coverage from influential blogs like Pitchfork, NPR, Aquarium Drunkard and others). Pink produced Aids Can't Stop Me and played all of the instruments as well as pitching in on the obscene rhyme slinging. Not exactly what her professors at Berklee School of Music had in mind. Black Nasty produced Pink Nasty and designed the distinctive package.

Influential touchstones for Pink Nasty are bands like Pavement, the Strokes and Weezer; she is just as interested in the construction of a great pop album as a stand-alone statement as she is in the writing of a great song. "It seems like everyone is throwing everything but the kitchen sink into their records now, I wanted to make a straight-ahead, clean, supertight album with a shiny, emerald-like feel," explained Beck.