Gnarls Barkley hits groove at festival; Dylan puts on an anticlimactic finish
Monday, August 11, 2008
By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The most thrilling moments of the day came from Gnarls Barkley, making its Pittsburgh debut. The team of Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo, fronting a band that could have backed James Brown at the Apollo, offered a mix of old school soul and chaotic rock ‘n’ roll on songs such as “Run (I’m a Disaster),” “Just a Thought” and a cover of Violent Femmes’ “Gone Daddy Gone.”
Brooklyn’s We Are Scientists and Oxford Collapse sound an ocean apart
AUGUST 7, 2008
BY CHRIS PARKER
“We Are Scientists sometimes seem peculiarly geared to the Isle, as if McDonald’s started offering shepherd’s pie and plenty of pissing English rain. Meanwhile, its counterparts Oxford Collapse hark back to indie music B.C. (before Cobain), with big wavering walls of distortion and a chunky pulse that recalls the days of Pixies, Dinosaur Jr. and Archers of Loaf.”
“Ambient punk” band Deerhunter plays Garfield Artworks
AUGUST 7, 2008
BY MARGARET WELSH
“…the band’s next record, Microcastle, has a lot in common with doo-wop and the Everly Brothers but ‘through this kind of schizophrenic lens,’ Cox recently told Pitchfork. ‘I’m really interested in girl groups, Phil Spector and stuff like that, and I feel like all we owe anybody is to explore what we’re into.’ “
Indie darlings Tapes ‘N Tapes perform at Club Café with Br’er Fox
AUGUST 7, 2008
BY MIKE SHANLEY
“…the band went into the studio with Dave Fridmann, who has recorded Sleater-Kinney and the Flaming Lips. His production gives Walk It Off a big sound that often sounds overdriven and ready to test the limits of the speakers; it straddles a lo-fi distinction while keeping everything in high relief.”
Tilly and the Wall makes a natural transition
By Regis Behe
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 31, 2008
A fourth grade class posted a homemade video to the song “Beat Control” on YouTube, and the band recently recorded the ABC song for a forthcoming show on “Sesame Street.”
“When we were asked to do that, it was one of our biggest accomplishments,” Pressnall says.
I only post this because I just realized who is opening for !!! (chkchkchk) at the Rex Theatre–Italian Ice. Hell, I wanted to see !!! pretty badly in the first place, but little did I know that local Pittsburgh “awesome”, Paul Quattrone, (better known for his Modey Lemon activities) had toured with them as a fill-in drummer earlier this year and will be taking up the position again for the July 22nd date. I got to see the dude in action last night at the Modey Lemon show in Lawrence, so I will have some stuff on that next week (safe to say it was awe-inspiring). For more info on how Paul keeps himself busy, check out Manny’s in-depth CP article:
Local drummer Paul Quattrone joins Brooklyn dance-rockers !!!
I don’t have any Italian Ice audio files, but I did get to see them play last fall, and it’s a pretty crazy show. Here’s some Midnite Snake (watch out) in the meantime:
Take the Poll
NPR has put up a diverse poll on their website which ends at midnight, July 6th. Go vote for your top five albums of the year. Here’s what I voted for:
- The Dodos
- Santogold
- MGMT
- Hot Chip
- DevotchKa
Elephant Shell was a good album too, but in the end Oracular Spectacular was longer and possessed a more varied sound.
For those of you not in Pittsburgh, American Eagle has announced a sweepstakes where five winners receive free tickets, airfare, a 3-night hotel stay, and an opportunity to get backstage and meet some of the bands. Click on the image for more details:
The contest ends July 7th so that leaves you eleven days to enter. This isn’t too bad of a deal, I wouldn’t mind getting a bunch of free CD’s if I was one of the 25 runner ups.
listen to the referential derivative of the aural equation:
The Walkmen – They’re Winning
The Magic Magicians – Bored Ticket Taker
I was watching coverage of this on BBC, unfortunately I couldn’t find the original televised report but here’s a good link:
Glastonbury Opens Festival Gates
Via BBC: out of a poll they did from people arriving, they deduced that most festival-goers are not here to see Jay-Z. Via me: LOL JIGGA MAN R U PATIENT
“My experience tells me that concerts can be life changing. That is how I approached putting this lineup together. The thrill of seeing Bob Dylan next to The Raconteurs next to Spoon next to The Roots is reason for us all to celebrate. Music is still the most inspiring creative force that I know of and this seemed like a prime opportunity to let it shine. Add to this the fact of a generously low ticket price and that it all takes place in the streets of Pittsburgh and we have the most rocking block party of the summer.”
-Anthony Kiedis from Red Hot Chili Peppers
I heard about this a month ago, but have stalled a bit to put it up because it’s hard to get excited about something you can’t attend. However, with a student ticket price of $25.00 for two days of music, what student could possibly say no? Other folks can buy a ticket for $49.50 to enjoy the following headlining acts:
BOB DYLAN
SPOON
THE RACONTEURS
GNARLS BARKLEY
THE BLACK KEYS
THE ROOTS
as well as Black Mountain, The Duke Spirit, NASA, and Tiny Masters of Today
the following college acts will also be playing:
- Bears (Kent State University)
- Magic Bullets (College of San Mateo)
- Elizabethan Report (Brigham Young University)
- The Steps (University of Texas)
- The Company Kang (Whitman College)
- The Depreciation Guild (New York University)
- The Royal Bangs (University of Tennessee)
- The Delicious (Indiana University)
- The Black Fortys (University of Southern Illinois)
- The Gospel Gossip (Carleton College)
- Math the Band (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth)
- Flying Machines (The New School)
- Nothing Unexpected (Robert Morris University)
- The French Horn Rebellion (Northwestern University)
- My Dear Disco (University of Michigan)
If you’re in Pittsburgh, be sure to add this to your calendar as I imagine it’s going to be a lot of fun for real cheap. Now it’s time for:
SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES FROM SPOON
:
Change My Life [from the Loveways EP]
Anything You Want [from Girls Can Tell]
Something to Look Forward to [from Kill the Moonlight]
Rhthm & Soul [from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga]
Filed under: aaron jentzen, concert reviews, interviews, news links, pittsburgh
- Basia Bulat and Devotchka concert review – some thoughts on the recent show at Diesel. Don’t really agree with the Denver comment, but check it out.
- Blurb in the Post Gazette about Olympus Mons – saw them play at Gooski’s with Suburban Sect a while back and they were pretty sweet. CD release show TOMORROW.
- An old preview about British Sea Power – did anyone go to this show? It was last week and I’ve liked The Rosebuds ever since Chris Cain mentioned them in this great interview on Faceculture.nl. The last minute is gold.
- Aaron Jentzen talks to the Takeover UK about their new EP on Rykodisc – I know you guys like them as they are probably the most searched local band hit for gigawave. Here’s an ending quote from the drummer:
“It’s basically just a lot of hustling, man, just getting out of Pittsburgh,” says Sickels. “You’ve just got to get out, or you’re never going to get anywhere.” Snyder quaffs his beer and offers a little barstool philosophy: “You basically have to shrug off every single responsibility that normality would give you.”
Sad but true. Unless you play hockey, do research for CMU, or curate. I can’t really think of any other career-catapulting opportunities here. ALSO, afternoon beer? Really?
Urban Outfitters is hosting Nylon’s summer music tour, which will be hitting Kansas City on May 13th. Unfortunately I will just be leaving Pittsburgh at that time for St. Catharine’s with my parents to visit family, but KC people should definitely check that out. Here are the bands that are playing:
- She Wants Revenge
- The Virgins
listen: Love is Colder (from the Anything EP)
- Be Your Own Pet
- Switches
listen: Every Second Counts
listen: Love is Colder (from the Anything EP)
listen: Every Second Counts
and the whole tour dates are as follow:
May 8, 2008 Anaheim, CA
May 9, 2008 Las Vegas, NV
May 10, 2008 San Diego, CA
May 12, 2008 Denver, CO
May 13, 2008 Kansas City, MO
May 16, 2008 Dallas, TX
May 17, 2008 Houston, TX
May 18, 2008 New Orleans, LA
May 20, 2008 St. Petersburg, FL
May 21, 2008 Ft Lauderdale, FL
May 22, 2008 Lake Buena Vista, FL
May 23, 2008 Atlanta, GA
May 24, 2008 Asheville, NC
May 25, 2008 Myrtle Beach, SC
May 27, 2008 Baltimore, MD
May 28, 2008 New York, NY
May 30, 2008 Washington DC
May 31, 2008 Philadelphia, PA
June 1, 2008 Boston, MA
June 2, 2008 Montreal, QUE
June 4, 2008 Toronto, ON
June 5, 2008 Detroit, MI
June 6, 2008 Cleveland, OH
June 7, 2008 Columbus, OH
June 8, 2008 Cincinnati, OH (?)
June 9, 2008 Cincinnati, OH
June 10, 2008 Indianapolis, IN
June 11, 2008 St. Louis, MO
June 12, 2008 Chicago, IL
June 13, 2008 Milwaukee, WI
June 14, 2008 Minneapolis, MN
June 17, 2008 Vancouver, BC
June 18, 2008 Seattle, WA
June 19, 2008 Portland, OR
June 20, 2008 San Francisco, CA
June 21, 2008 Los Angeles, CA
Filed under: bands, events, interviews, miscellaneous, news links, pittsburgh
So Many Dynamos Coming to Pittsburgh
Yes it is true! SMD are planning to play a date in the burgh. From their myspace bulletin:
In the almost-as-near future, we’re about to do another tour. Here are the dates so far. As you see, there are lots of TBA’s so feel free to message us about it, we’re still in the booking stages and could use assistance if you feel like you can help.
04/30 – Pittsburgh, PA @ TBA (details will be announced soon)
download:
So Many Dynamos – In Every Direction
So Many Dynamos – Progress
Triggers Interviewed for Post Gazette Article
Triggers explode with power-pop debut
Thursday, March 27, 2008
By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“At first we kind of didn’t take things too seriously,” says singer-guitarist Adam Rousseau. “We had all sort of gotten out of ‘bad relationships,’ so to speak, with our previous bands and I, at least, was really just thinking of Triggers as something to do just for fun. I mean, I thought we played well and had some decent tunes, but it wasn’t until we played our first show and got such a positive reaction from the audience and our friends that I thought, ‘We might be on to something here.’ “
read the rest of the article here
New Book of Photography on Pittsburgh
Local photographer Mark Bolster has recently published a book filled with elegant and poignant photos of places in and around Pittsburgh. The book is available in digital format online, or physical format from bookstores, or you can buy it directly from the artist himself. For more information, click on the image of the cover in order to view samples from the book:
New Records for the Radio Station
Seeing as I missed Mixel Pixel two nights in a row, I decided to hit them up for a 12 inch of “Coming Up X’s” last night; the song is one of my favorites off their 2006 album Music for Plants. Very exciting. Rob Corradetti, who does the art for the band, was also nice enough to slip in the 7 inch of “Kind of Girl.” Definitely am going to spin those next time I am at the station, maybe even make some mp3 files to share. Mixel Pixel = quite an affable band.
A great article about Akron/Family written by Manny:
Akron/Family to open the Warhol’s astral portals
BY MANNY THEINER
…Love Is Simple is anything but purely simple. From the glistening xylophones and Boredoms-like tribal percussion of “Lake Song/New Ceremonial Music for Moms” to the prog-meets-free-jazz vibe of “I’ve Got Some Friends,” it’s more likely to give children of the ’60s an intense acid flashback than to serve as the Muzak for a shopping spree at Whole Foods.
read the rest here.
