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Gobble Manor is Joh-doh's house in East Liberty and I guess it is Glowworms HQ.  It is a cool location with a really rustic feel despite being in the heart of the city.  The whole house is well worn with a strange feel to the air.  There was a show there on January 12th 2013.



Satyr/Elfheim was first; this was the first show that I played this year.  I didn't bring an amp and used one that was owned by the guitarist from the touring band, Ex-Breathers.  It sounded good, but not perfect.  I played some spooky, wavy, metallic waves, like a church bell in a horror movie about vampires or cults, and then played the first S/E song, "Giants of Earth", which I also played on the radio back on December 21st.  I'd like to maybe play more songs live, and I have also intended to play this one especially.  I think my set went well, but it should have been louder.  Joh-doh seemed to like the riff from the song.


 Ex Breathers, from Tallahassee, Florida, played second; they were really fucking loud.  Think of a cool Dischord band like Rites of Spring, Fugazi, or Nation of Ulysses and that's basically what they sounded like, with maybe some of the chaos of the Minutemen.  Lots of energy super speeding around with what seemed like weird time signatures (I don't understand time signatures so whatever if I'm wrong).


Third and last was Glowworms with a new drummer who is not as hard-hitting as Marlon Battad.  I definitely feel like the drumming is now lacking in Glowworms, but it seems like their new drummer is more technical and consistent which could be interesting once they do some more shows with him.  Anyway Glowworms is like post-punk/goth/alternative/punk/metal or something; they totally rule.  All of their songs are very dramatic and apocalyptic like a totally unsimilar Neil Young.

 Gobble Manor is pretty seriously rad, even if the show was pretty small.  I'm hoping there will be more shows there soon.  Check out some sounds from this show here, and buy some Ex-Breathing gear or something too.
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On January 11th 2013 there was a huge show at Howlers where three local bands played and some weird stuff happened.  It always seems that these "all locals" shows are the biggest which is kind of weird, but I guess Pittsburgh is really as clique-y as everyone thinks it is.  Regardless, I like these kinds of shows too, usually because of the large mix of people that normally wouldn't all be together at the same time.  That one element puts these shows over the top of what they might normally be.  Anyway here's my review:



The Lampshades played first, starting soon after I came in.  They sounded, like always, like a mix between a few different alternative bands.  A good description might be to say that they are like a poppier (but still heavy, maybe heavier?) Nirvana with Pavement's vocalist.  I thought that tonight their guitarist wasn't loud enough or maybe the bass was too loud.  It was awesome anyway still.


The Lopez was second.  They played some of their two-person electro-noise-punk.  This set seemed longer than usual, and  I never noticed how much Steph sounds like Kim Gordon until this show.  The Lopez was possibly a little too sloppy or maybe there wasn't enough space in the music, but they are pretty cool.

 
Secret Tombs finished the night off; it was strange.  During their set a weird guy got on the stage, took off his shirt, and started making weird poses pretending to be in a band.  Josh Rievel handed him weird objects which he didn't seem to care about.  Nothing could make this guy budge; it was sort of like a sit-in, but what was the protest about?  Eventually a kind of tough guy came up and tried to get the big man down off the stage, but it took a long time.  There wasn't any confrontation, the big guy eventually got really disappointed and grabbed all of his gear, put his clothes back on, and then left.  After that even Secret Tombs had change their set because the owner of Howlers told them that they couldn't play covers; Howlers has got in trouble for that in the past.  Secret Tombs, even with all of the chaos around them, ended up playing a killer set.  I didn't know how good they were; this was only my second (sort of third) time to ever see them.  They have a cool punk sound that incorporates elements of rock 'n' roll and blues, kind of like the Dead Boys or Rocket from the Tombs.  Killer stuff!

Since this show ruled let's have some more shows where a few different groups of people are collaborating soon.  I feel like Roup House used to be like this which was probably why it was so cool.  Anyway, come out to see bands that aren't just yr friends or something dudesmen.
Here are some sounds from the show.
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One of the first shows of 2013, sort of booked by me though mostly by Craig Freeman, featured the awesome Rochester band Velvet Elvis.  It seems appropriate to start the first Skull Valley review for 2013 here, even though it is not actually the first post, due to all of the other semi-firsts associated with it.

First up was my band Red Ginger.  This was the first show for R Magnelli/Brad Kline duo, and it wasn't so great.  Originally we were going to feature two other guys playing synths with us, but they seemed to slip out at the first sign (or sine) of trouble.  Apparently there was no mixer, but I'm not so sure of that.  I set up on the floor expecting the synth guys to take up a lot of space due to the Shop's small stage, but Brad couldn't really hear me and it was difficult for me to hear him.  His drums were also significantly quieter than my new set-up featuring the Peavy Bandit plugged into an external Fender 4x12.  We ended up sounding very textural and chaotic, which was partially my intention, but everything started to make more sense by the end.  Next time we'll hopefully have some songs instead of just improvising.  The placement of amps is also an important lesson for me to learn (I am working on it).

 
Another first for tonight was Lost Realms, Craig Freeman's band, who played their first show after a year's worth of practice time and shifting bass players.  It really showed; they were fucking killer.  After bringing out oriental rugs to place their pedals on, Lost Realms took off from the fuzz-scorched Earth into the emptiness of space.  They had a classic sound, super heavy, with raspy/Ozzy-ish vocals.  Things were a little too compressed and controlled for me, but whatever.  I don't know what the songs were about, but apparently they usually involve outer space (think Black Sabbath's "Into the Void").  There could have been more variation in their sounds, and Craig sounded a little nervous in between the songs, but it was only their first show and it was honestly awesome.


Velvet Elvis played third.  They sound like a modern Love-era The Cult, but apparently I don't know enough about sludge.  Velvet Elvis sounds much better live than on their new record In Deep Time; there are soaring highs and despair in the whole thing.  Their vocalist is amazing!  She has all of the cool poses that you would ever want and sounds like Grace Slick.  It is a lot like listening to "Cortez the Killer" for a whole half hour.  Buy their new album here; there are only a few left.  I don't know what I think of the cover; I'm not fond of appropriating Native American imagery, but it seems like it has some amount of weight to it, and the fact that everything is covered in white seems to actually be in support of the same ideas that I am for.  Anyway the music on it is killer.


Carousel came up last; they seemed to be more confident than when I had last seen them.  The frontman had lots of funny banter for everybody, and their songs were really tight.  Carousel has a very classic hard rock sound, Ozzy Osbourne and KISS, with a prominent Pittsburgh influence, though I feel like the latter fact may be somewhat exaggerated for comedic effect.  They were the fastest band here with significant muscle and control, and also, for real, check out that Gibson Explorer!  The vocals combined with the intertwining guitars give most of the songs a dramatic effect.  Seriously these guys fucking rule and you can get their new record at Mind Cure, Soundcat, and some other places.

This night was awesome and very musical, very rocking.  I'd like to go to more shows like this, but I don't think there are a lot of these kinds of things happening very often.  Anyway, again, please check out some of Velvet Elvis' merch and music here and here are some sounds from the show.
 
-Signing off for now

  Hey folks, we aren't dead actually, I think.  Starting today Skull Valley will attempt to have updates every time we attend a show.  I'd like to try to stay in the present though I'd like to review the short list of events that were attended by us in January and February first.  All unreviewed shows and stuff from 2012 is gonna take the backseat for a while, but I will get to it in posts that will be tagged with the phrase "Time Machine".  So stick around, we're not gonna quit just yet.

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I am playing these shows that are coming up:
  Full Moon's Beat is a new album I've recorded featuring lots of glitchy synth pieces along with my droning guitar.  It will be available at all of the shows above.



  Curse is a duo composed of Jane Vincent and Logan Terkelsen.  They are on tour for their new self-titled album and recently attempted to play at Caliente in Pittsburgh, but ultimately didn't.  After listening to the album, I'm disappointed with the results of that show; it would have been really great to see them play live.  Most, if not all, of the instrumentation seems to be keyboards and live drums with Jane Vincent's powerful vocals over top.  The songs are atmospheric and dark with apocalyptic drama and occasional dance parts.  It is noisy, but not without melodies and hooks.
  Many of the songs reference Peter Pan and others deal with growing up but still staying youthful.  Time and the juxtaposition between one point in time and another are the other big themes: the aforementioned themes of childhood vs. adulthood is related and other songs deal with the cyclic nature of time (seasons, tides) and that, though you have to live through the difficult times, you shouldn't despair because the good times will return.  "Let's make the most of what we have".  The song "Untitled" is a spooky atmospheric piece with no vocals.  The last song, "Light Drinker", asks how much of reality is in our head and how much is concrete.  How powerful is imagination?  "Is there a dog that dreams in green?  Is the thought of a unicorn a real thought?"
  Curse receives a rating of Good.



  The band Stella has asked me to review their album Vapid Rubs for the upcoming Pittsburgh show.  They are a very noisy post-hardcore band similar to The Nation of Ulysses or Pittsburgh's own Relationships.  Vapid Rubs is a short EP, a little over eight minutes, and all of the tracks are full-on heavy, loud, rock 'n' roll heart attacks.  I don't understand a lot of the lyrics that bands like these produce.  There are very few rhymes, odd meters, and strange metaphors that deal with personal problems that I don't know anything about.  "Omega" is sort of like about a modern Romulus and Remus and involves a building being destroyed.  "Fast Guy" uses video games as a metaphor for not dealing with society and not moving up to harder problems.  "Let’s just place some landmines here yeah/And some hedgehogs because/I want you to be a lifetime playerKeep the yellow ring on".   "The Man with the Chainsaw Leg" is a strange song; it is presented sort of like a play, but just seems like a weird joke.  I like the strange imagery and "who-the-fuck-cares" vibe I get from it, but I also feel like it is kind of just a cliche.
  Musically the album is pretty cool.  Each song features a few different parts; it is stupid but complex which is cool.  The vocalist screams a lot and sounds like he is gonna erupt; he sounds sort of like Ian Svenonius of The Nation of Ulysses.  Everything is really lo-fi across the board, but there is a lot of energy.  The cover has a weird ASCII tank on it with a white background.  It should be fun to see this band live.  I'm excited to play with them.
  Vapid Rubs receives a rating of Good.

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The Weird Paul Rock Band Variety show was pretty awesome in May (it's pretty bad that I'm writing about this in October, but oh well).  This was the second one I had ever been to and was probably double the fun of the first.


I missed some stuff at the beginning, but the first thing I saw was the first and only performance by the band Splashy, featuring Racheal and Brian from Skinless Boneless and Sasha from Actorcop.  It was pretty cool.  They played two songs, "Splashy One" and "Splashy Two" which both had a sort of prog-rock feel, but didn't have incredible lengths or eighteen different parts.


Next Greg Cislon played in yet another band with Jordan Weeks along with another guy I didn't know named Jim Steiner.  This band sounded pretty cool: kind of 90's alt-rock-ish/Elvis Costello with simple instrumentation played in an interesting manner.  They played a song for a TV series they wrote or something, but I'm not sure if that is real or not.  All of Greg's songs seemed like they dealt with personal relationships.


Ruthie and Gladis told us about their crazy adventures involving noise bands and tupperware.  Ruthie also gave details about her recent dates involving a guy that seems to be a Twilight-esque vampire.  Ruthie was played by Scott Fry and Gladis was Zo Weslowski of course.  It was really funny.


Finally the Weird Paul Rock Band played some really killer stuff.  They played really fast and hard with lots of punk covers like "Sonic Reducer", "Beat on the Brat", and "Mongoloid".  Sasha and Jerry both helped sing at during songs that they requested and everybody looked like they had a great time there.
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I had no idea who Russian Tsarlag was before attending this show and I had never been to Romeo House before.  I thought I knew where it was, but ended up getting lost and having to ask some guys with a truck full of liquid nitrogen where to go.  I finally got there, but had missed Super Mohawk, a combination of Last Supper (Michael Sibenac) and John Kasunic from Pay the Rent, both of whom were supposed to play separately.


Trogpite started playing soon after I got there.  He seemed very at home in the darkened living room and sang into a microphone housed in a stick and, as always, looked really cool.  Lots of sounds: the chanting of satanic cults, endlessly broken synthesizer loops, cool computer sounds, buzzings of a fly, squeaks from broken doors, watery voices, etc.  Trogpite had some killer backing tracks at this and added his standard moans over top, sometimes echoing into near feedback.  It was awesome.


Jeff Zagers played afterwards, music that sounded like it could come from St. Basil's Cathedral.  He started off with a spooky Trogpite groove, but added metallic synth sounds on top.  His voice was like a controlled krautrock singer's.  There were horns and very gothic songs and more krautrock.  Most of his stuff had a classical European music flavor with hints of middle eastern drones at the sides.  At the end he played a very Kraftwerk-sounding song followed by a doo wop cover(?).  Jeff Zagers keeps it together even when being all over the place.


When Russian Tsarlag was about to play I felt very ill at ease.  It seemed as if anything could and would happen.  We started off watching trailers of horror movies and then the TV changed to present a monologue about Russian Tsarlag presented by himself.  He entered the room in high heels, covered in what appeared to be melted plastic, and wearing a plastic bag for a helmet.  After doing a seemingly choreographed performance with golf clubs to spooky music that started off very dark, but transformed into an Ariel Pink-type of pop song with radio static in the background, Russian Tsarlag removed his "helmet" and spoke.  "You may wanna come in here, have a seat, get comfortable, uh, there's no need to be afraid.  As daunting as things my look this is actually a very flaccid performance you're about to see."  I was still not relieved, but whatever; he must have had a kind of ESP.


The mysterious visitor then told us of how he would present the Americana of Pittsburgh to us for his set and played another demented pop song, "Plastic Shock", a darker song with semi-buried vocals.  He played a frightening a capella version of "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson with some sort of octave effect and reverb afterward, sounding like a space alien.  Then we watched more TV, perhaps the method that he had studied our culture from his flying saucer (he claims to be from Florida, but who knows).  It wasn't real TV of course, but a tape to which Russian Tsarlag provided humorous comedy.  Bill Stevens, a friend of his with a face like a smashed, flesh-colored, deer skull, appeared and had a weird conversation with him.  The final song of Russian Tsarlag's set was another dark-pop masterpiece, "Down That Road".  Afterwards Russian Tsarlag disappeared into the night and flew away on the wings of a silent craft.

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