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I really love Vivian Girls.  The combination of Ramones punk, 60s girl groups, and shoegazer music in a lo-fi setting is near perfect.  When I heard that La Sera, a band featuring Vivian Girls member "Kickball" Katy Goodman as the frontman, was coming to Pittsburgh, I knew I had to be there to see it.


First up was Alexei's New Band, featuring Alexei Plotnicov, who I had recognized from the yearly PPP Halloween Comp and who was also apparently a member of the Karl Hendricks Trio at some point.  His performance was really funny with lots of big body motions and exaggerated expressions, but you could tell that he and his bandmates put blood and soul into their music.  The New Band sounded like weirder versions of Graham Parker and the Rumour or Neil Young with discordant/melodic guitar solos; the big overblown resembled the Dictators in the same "ridiculous but endearing" way.  The New Band also had elements of progressive rock, 70's ballads, and jazz, especially when Alexei switched from guitar to piano.  With weird songs about cats and crossing guards it was a fun time.
André Costello and the Cool Minors are a really killer band built on the songwriting strength of singer/guitariist André Costello.  Shoegazer/country Neil Young is how I would describe them, but for the most part they have a pretty classic sound.  André and his band seem to stick to strong, slow pop melodies with occasional outbursts into Evol-era Sonic Youth noise.  I really like their approach and the way that they make these classic sounding songs unique by subtle means.  It's no wonder that André has an actual record deal with an album on Wild Kindness Records.

La Sera played a great set to a huge crowd at the end of the night; you could tell that they were really into it which is always cool.  Katy Goodman swirled around hypnotically and even went and danced among the crowd.  They played a lot of the songs from their second album, Sees the Light,, songs of lost/unrequited love.  With a slower and more melodic, but also more psychedelic sound, than Vivian Girls, these types of songs sound great especially with Goodman's soft, echoing vocals.  The guitar work was excellent with lots of reverb and cool solos, the guitarist on the left even used an Echoplex!  Katy Goodman liked my Vivian Girls shirt, but she seemed very focused on La Sera when I asked her about that band.  That makes a lot of sense because La Sera is really great.  Hopefully they will come back soon(you can get stuff herewhile you wait)!


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Manny advertised this show that happened on May 16th as featuring "a large-scale (10+ people) political emo-punk brass band".  It was an awesome show and I saw Greg McKillop again who had played here with Valerie Kuehne back in March.  My friend Charlie Cairone also played his first show in a while with his band Firth of Lorn so everything was like a big reunion.

 
The Homeless Gospel Choir was first.  I had seen him before at Roup in August during Quiet Sound Night VI; he played mostly the same songs as before in the same kind of way.  The Homeless Gospel Choir's songs are like folk punk or whatever.  I feel like that genre seems ridiculous and sometimes people just seem to use that term to be edgy, but he takes a sort of Jesus is cool, mainstream Christianity is bad kind of approach which I really like.  His new album Luxury Problems had come out before this show and he had it for sale.  The new songs sounded great.


Anna Vogelzang played second.  She used to live in Pittsburgh apparently, but I'm not sure where she lives now (apparently she is also moving back here soon).  She and her upright bass player played lovey, indie stuff that sounded good; usually I don't like this stuff.  There were lots of love songs and some audience accompaniment to her sort of country/Celtic vocals.  Again it was actually really cool, but I'm not sure if it's the kind of thing I want to see all the time.


Firth of Lorn is a band that a high school friend of mine has had for a while.  It is more or less a solo project that sometimes includes other members.  Firth of Lorn sounds like math rock/metal/grunge (maybe like Tool?); they really need a bass player.  Their setlist had included covers so they ended up playing songs that they weren't at all prepared to play; there are over all a lot of kinks to work I think.  It was a good try and they have a good sound, but need better equipment at least.  I'd like to seem them again and see how they improve.


Speaker for the Dead, Greg McKillop's huge folk band, played last.  They stood among the crowd, shifted positions often, and stood on chairs; it made for a fun and energetic set.  There were acoustic guitars, trumpets, an accordion (or something like that), and maybe some other instruments, but nothing was electric.  The band members are gathered from all over and change frequently.  Greg is the leader and sort of directs them which is really cool; everything is loose and semi-improvised.  I really like their song about Worcester, MA.  Their set was the perfect length and a really good way to end the show.  They'll problem come back some time soon and you should probably go, but in the meantime you can listen to their set here.
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On May 14th 2012 I booked a show.  This was not actually the first one I have booked, but it was more significant in that it involved touring bands contacting me to play here in Pittsburgh.  Douglas Lucas had emailed me all the way from Louisville, Kentucky about doing a cool drone show that seemed to keep getting bigger and bigger as more people ended up getting on it.


First was Poor Kitty, Seth and Lucy from Roup House, doing awesome spoken word/ambient noise soundscapes.  Lucy's vocals seemed like a "best of" of all of the previous performances that I had released on the self-titled Poor Kitty CD mixed into a new narrative, which was cool, and the set was really good.  Things started off very slow and dry, like a bored beat writer next to a big empty highway.  Things started to build up until everything exploded with crashing boxes and tools being run across sheets of rippling metal.  There was a dramatic pause and everything slowed down before fading away into the dirt-choked, rust-covered distance.


Michael Sibenac from Half-Nelson and Last Supper (which I erroneously labeled him as) played tapes and other found sounds second.  Lots of audio hiss amidst roaring tape growls and spooky echoing things hitting together.  Later everything turned into long synth sounds that droned forever while sounds swirled in the distance.  We traveled back into the ghost machine plant and then that was it.  A lot like Cotton Museum + Cut Hands and killer stuff as always.


Douglas Lucas performed third as Mu.  The black-haired Thurston Moore look-alike started with long synth notes building into a furious loop of spacey, ghost sounds from beyond.  There were lots of soaring high notes as invisible people chanted and feedback escalated as he took a drumstick to his guitar, using it to bend the strings upward forcefully.  The air was filled withthe sounds of things crashing together (books, walls, floors, beds, planes, washing machines, whatever) as his guitar generated an endless assortment of feedback and spring effects.  Mu is awesome stuff.


Ashochious looked like a the Louisville edition of White Reeves (left is Micah, right is Ryan).  They played the slow-lurching 4AM sounds of old machines and Halloween screams as ancient acetates violins created a low dance to the macabre.  Violins changed to backwards speech and watery tape sounds and then we entered a blast furnace/foundry.  The work became busier and busier until fading out into breathing in the darkness.

Manson Girls broke there contact microphone and maybe something else, but played a killer set anyway.  Kyle's heavy military drum beat was unresponsive and repetitious as Gena created distorted feedback and white noise.  They created some slow lurching songs for a while before speeding up to an end that extended into another variation.  It was so good, maybe better than at the Experimental Variety Show at Belvedere's the past year.

I played last with the still relatively new (and much harder to control) Synsonics guitar with weird built in speaker.  My was set was loud, but hard to hear for me; I ended up trying to play something else, but the volume dropped so I just turned it back up and tried to be as loud as possible.  Tons of sludged up distorted sounds with piercing swerving feedback blaring over the top.  Lots of started and stopping towards the end before I tried to play real notes, but than quit again.  I took out my earplugs because I couldn't hear myself and regretted it later.

It was fun booking a show and I've done it pretty frequently afterwards.  This was really good over all, every band was great.  Manson Girls and I also were both invited to play the Louisville Experimental Festival in June, though we couldn't get there on time, but I am hoping to play with Mu or Ashochious again.

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On May 3rd Forget the Times was scheduled to play at the Shop with Triangle & Rhino, Relationships, and Skinless Boneless.  The two people in charge were busy or couldn't get keys or something however, and the show was moved to Roup House despite it being a weeknight.


First up was Relationships who played an exceptionally good set, sounding a lot harder and cool than ever previously.  Their slower song with the lyrics "I'm not yr friend, and I never wanted to be" is maybe their best and it ruled here.  Early on they played really fast and tough with lots of noise and kept it up later to some extent, tough they did get "twinkly" or whatever.  The vocals were cool throughout, rough and not completely nailed to the melody.  Relationships was really good and standing like inches away from them due to the cramped quarters of the Roup basement made it even better.


Triangle & Rhino played second.  Jake Lexso had hurt his hand falling from a ladder when roofing and couldn't play guitar though, so this was a set of synths and drums only and the only set like this that they would ever play live.  Despite the lack of guitar the stuff they played sounded a lot like their normal set only slower and all electronics.  The vocals were muffled and Jake sounded like a psychopath singing through a ballgag.  The sound was maybe too compressed or something, but it was pretty great.


When Triangle & Rhino was finishing up a guy from Forget the Times was at the door.  The cops had come and asked us to shut down the show due to noise complaints; it was a weeknight.  Unfortunately the other two bands, Forget the Times and Skinless Boneless never got to play.  It made sense for Skinless Boneless, who always seem to get shut down by authority figures, but Forget the Times was on tour and I never got to see them.  Hopefully they'll come back and maybe not play the Shop.

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Art All Night is a yearly art show in Pittsburgh that anyone can submit art to; this year it was featured in a warehouse under the 40th street bridge in Lawrenceville.  I submitted a video, a music video for my song "The Elfin Mountains" from Home Life, Steph Neary and Andy Scott painted in a live painting feature, Ivory Weeds played music, and roupers Seth, Autumn, and Brian had some visual art displayed.  Here are some pictures (all artwork is copyright the original artists):


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On April 27th there was a big party at Roup for Ryan Emmett who was leaving Pittsburgh in a couple of days.  Some bands played and there was supposed to be dancing; it was also the one year anniversary of Wild Raft Records, the CD-R label of amazing a cappella artist and rouper Brian DiSanto.


Brian DiSanto had a cool cake for the anniversary; I am not sure who made it, but it had layers of cake interspersed with layers of icing and donuts.  Regardless, he ended up eating it during his especially raucous set in the Roup basement in front of a group of somewhat unprepared onlookers.  Other people ate some cake, but most of those that it was offered to turned it away, afraid to catch some sort of viral Roup disease that causes insanity.  Brian played mostly his fastest, hardest songs and moshed around.  My recorder got knocked over and a glass broke and everything got wet, but it was really cool.


When we emerged back into the sunlight of the upper floors we were greeted by masks matching our hero's face.  Everyone put one on and suddenly there were 200 times the standard amount of Ryan Emmetts.  Ryan himself was surprised to see so many doppelgangers.

©Pam Hanlin 2012



I played a set in the basement next after some DJing by Darrell.  It was the first set with my new Synsonics guitar.  It was really cool, but not loud enough, also the setup took twice as long as the actual set.  I used my weird guitar to generate feedback by playing a certain note that can sustain forever.  A contact microphone was also used to do similar things that were less musical.  No-wave solos and sludge riffs followed enshrouded in chorus and echoes.


Next, in the foyer, Seth did a drawing lecture about what he learned about hip hop and Latino music while working at the Exchange in Market Square.  Apparently modern rappers love spooky beats, while the Latino music tends to be happier and usually about the sun.  Presumably this was a metaphor to indicate that he was pleased at switching jobs from a CD store to a restaurant (I think it is Peruvian?) but who knows.  The power kept going out while he talked about Tha Carter IV and arm tattoos and boat shoes and low wages; crazy stuff.


Fogged Out started to play towards the end of Seth's lecture.  He was really good, but I didn't stick around for the whole thing.  Lo-fi pop/noise/rap stuff full of melancholia and baritone vocals with an 80's kind of tone/vibe; sometimes it is even like Trogpite a little bit.  I like his more poppy stuff the most, though I don't know the names of the songs.  The cover(I don't know the original artist or even the song title) is especially good.

That was it for this party.  There was a lot of dance/techno/industrial stuff played in between acts and afterwards, but I didn't really listen to it too much.  Ryan left soon afterwards for Colorado to explore the untamed wilderness or something.  He's coming back soon.
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The band Not the Wind Not the Flag was supposed to play this show, but they had played the previous day with Chris Corsano, Antithesis, and myself.  I was not sure what was going on with this show on April 20th, but it ended up happening and being pretty cool with a lot of weird jokes.  Nobody was there.


I went first, being the only local act on the bill.  I wanted to play my new Synsonics guitar with an internal speaker, but ended up using the standard Cruise Made for VMI.  My set started with feedback and big riffs and was sort of like the set I did at Roup for the Harsh Noise Fest.  Ultimately it changed though, getting really loud like a pillar of air over a pit with a huge buzzsaw.  At the end I used my Stylophone, played some stuff backwards, and then made lots of noise


Bererberg, the seemingly unpronounceable to every except me, was second.  They were really cool and played free jazz stuff that was usually loud and noisy, but could get quiet and even more grating.  The members of this band sort of look like the members of Wolf Eyes and they were all really skilled.  Sometimes they veered into almost noise rock type stuff or like one of the SYR records.  Great stuff!


Third was Slow-Tongued Beauty who was possibly really drunk, but still played a killer set.  He used turntables to produce slow sounds that matched his name.  Things started out like music you might have heard in the early 1900's, but became church-like and then very still and bleak.  His set was pretty quiet the whole way through and it ruled.


 
Last up was David Sutton from New Jersey.  He runs a cool label called Highland Park Gem and Crystal Society and all of his albums seem to have the word "new" in the title.  Sutton started out like Slow-Tongued Beauty, but with distant voices echoing in the back of his audio landscape, but his set quickly became much more dissonant and chaotic.  The strings of a sinking orchestra were stretched to their limit as the whine of the engine erupted in fracturing explosions.  At times there seemed to be sound effects from nature amid the constant orchestra; the whole thing reminded me a lot of Merzbow's Batztoutai with Material Gadgets.

This show was tons of fun.  I wish more people had been there to see it,but it may have been fun because nobody was there.  Hopefully these guys come back soon.

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