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Hometown: Portland, OR
Label: Severe Recordings
Management: Carlos Severe Marcelin
Website: www.severeenterprises.com
Sounds Like: Laura Anderson, Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin Official
Genre: Rock
“Sally Tomato. Is she the product of Artificial Intelligence? Is she a figment of some deranged scientist’s libidinously twisted mentation? Is she the 21st century uberfrau? Is she all of the above?” SP Clarke
Sally Tomato watches from the background as her instrumentalists Carlos Severe Marcelin and Eric Flint take you on a sonic journey through our solar system on their latest CD, "Planets". Her band is known for their lengthy and thematic works and this is no exception.
Sally is normally the lead singer of her eponymous band and prior to "Planets" was best known as the star of “Toy Room,” the international award winning rock opera film and multimedia theatrical presentation. A journey through Sally Tomato’s life, “Toy Room” reminds us of the innocence of our own inner child. Dramatic, haunting, ethereal, and playful, “Toy Room” shows us Sally Tomato and more. Much more.
Two acoustic EPs "One Night" (2011) and the intimate “Soup” (2001) feature Sally’s trademark approach to story-telling on a batch of acoustic numbers. The comical “Concentration” was the 2004 follow up to Soup which solidified her presence in the NW regional music scene and features the cult classic “The Original Barbie”.
The musical travelmentary series "Tomato Travels" includes 5 film shorts. The latest, "Saints and Sinners" (2012) looks at New Orleans Six Years after Katrina. "DarkCavesLightHouses" (2011) explores Oregons caves and, you guessed it, lighthouses. "My Dirty Left Foot" (2009), follows Sally through the UK as they win awards for "Toy Room" at two film festivals. “explOregon” (2008) takes a hard look at covered bridges, ghost towns and pixie sticks. The first episode in the series, “UFO Am I” (2007) follows Sally, Carlos and their dog Bartok as they ventures to Area 51 and beyond in search of The Truth.
Sally Tomato occurs above an ever changing and rich musical backdrop created by backing instrumentalists Carlos Severe Marcelin on guitar and miscellaneous things and Eric Flint on drums. The band utilizes textured guitars, sequencing, loops, various electronic gadgets, and a huge drum kit to make it all happen, adding richness and depth to Sally's wild fluctuations between smoky chanteuse and childlike recitations. When she teams up with her volunteer run performance art group, the results are consistently and uniquely entertaining.
A pioneer and ruthlessly original group of musicians, Sally Tomato continue to create a diverse, thought provoking and entertaining catalog of sights and sounds.
“Even though we are born the same, over time we are not. We are cut and scarred and made into human art.” Sally Tomato
“...this is diverse progressive rock that’s quite effective.”
G. W. Hill - Music Street Journal
“I have a new one for you: Sally Tomato's Pidgin! Yes, it's an interesting name and the music is wonderful. Working with a number of key support players the group is basically a trio consisting of Sally Tomato, Eric Flint and Carlos Severe Marcelin. Entitled simply Planets, this is a fascinating CD”
Jerry Lucky - JerryLucky.com
“[Carlos] is consistently diverse and ineluctably imaginative in embroidering each of the twenty tracks with a distinctive design, while maintaining a cohesive conceptual aggregate. Not easily done.”
SP Clarke - Buko.net
“In spite of its weighty subject matter, [Planets] does not come across like some overblown prog-metal epic, but rather bright and clear moments of pop music, focusing more on melody than heaviness or musical virtuosity... its carefully composed and tastefully executed themes make it worthy of exploration by fans of the more dreamier and pop-oriented side of classic progressive rock.”
Pat Albertson - Aural Innovations
“Few writers of any art ever dare to look so deeply into themselves and thrive enough to emerge as spiritually evolved as the character Sally seems to have done... Toy Room, in the expanded form of a musical is something rarely seen and even more rarely attempted.”
RadioMike - Radio Casbah
“Toy Room: this avant garde stage show from the offbeat artist Sally Tomato presents a four-act, self-reflexive look at Tomato's colorful life, making fervent use of an ensemble of performers and various set pieces.”
staff - msn
“When performance artist, singer and Oregon native Sally Tomato collaborated with songwriter-guitarist Carlos Severe Marcelin to make an album about an imaginary world that was a respite from Sally's troubled childhood and adult life, the songs begged for a theatrical treatment.”
staff - OregonLive
“Arguably one of the most pleasing indie releases in recent years, Sally Tomato’s Toy Room is an ambitious and diverse experiment.”
Ben McVicker - The Daily Vault
“Toy Room is Sally Tomato’s expressive reflection on her personal life experiences and choices presented as a bold and creative rock opera. The emotion, honesty, and humor of Toy Room is fresh, engaging, accessible to all, yet psychodynamically complex.”
Dr. David Conant Norville - Blog Entry
““Toy Room,” is named for the place where the young Tomato would find peace as the last of six children.
The music is the work of guitarist Carlos Severe Marcelin, but the stories are pure Tomato: her difficult childhood, an abusive husband, a period of dangerous debauchery.”
Eric Bartels - Portland Tribune
