News/posts

If one thing is complete about this scattered 'archive' of Pittsburgh indie music posters, it's the ones from shows I booked myself at the Stevenson Theater in Shadyside/East Liberty.  Doug Mosurak and I booked a bunch of things together during our brief partnership of 1999 and because we made the posters ourselves, I had a lot left over so I'm pretty sure they are...

This is the one that blew it wide open for me.

Maybe I've said that before.  I went to this show the summer between 11th and 12th grade, excited to see Butterglory.  My friend Amy had dubbed me Are You Building a Temple in Heaven? and it's twee-ish indierock harmonies rocked my world.  Karl Hendricks Trio were about all I knew of "local music" at the...

This show actually took place in Baltimore. Dan, who I was living with at the time, was a big Six Finger Satellite fan and also loved Moss Icon, who I was just getting into.  He found out somehow (as I don't think the Internet was involved) that Tonie Joy's new band The Convocation Of were playing, so we drove down to it.

I remember the Ottobar being a fairly cool place and that...

The first real Land show with me in it.  I guess we were insisting on a lowercase L then, and the full stop/period at the end.  EAR was a mess of circuit-bent speak and spells; Sonic Boom dug our messy set and wrote down his address for us to send him stuff, but I couldn't read his writing.  He smelled like a walking pot plant.  Land was a trio that night, or maybe a...

The first pasta night was a hit; it was the first (or second?) show for the Saint Syndicate, a short-lived Pittsburgh band that was heavy on the organ, and boasted a strong influence of mod 60's pop.  They were fronted by an artist who later moved to NYC and was tragically murdered, and I don't think the few recordings they made ever surfaced.  A friend from high school was...

I started going to see independent/"underground" music at a very early age - I somehow convinced my parents to drive me to CMU in 1993 to see a couple of shows; even though i had to leave before the final acts, I'm pretty sure I saw Guided by Voices on the Vampire on Titus tour, though I don't remember anything of it.

Most of my high school years I dreamed of being able to...

It's astounding how many of these posters are from 1999 - I don't know how I managed to work and study at the same time. I think this one was the pinnacle of my concert-organising work in Pittsburgh, and I'm amazed that it was 1999, as I swore this happened in 2000.  Despite all of the indie rock and post-hardcore shows I was organising, I was playing minimalist/experimental...

I actually thought I would have more flyers from other promoters here, when digging through these piles of 13-year old US letter-sized sheets.  Most of them are shows that I organised myself, or with Dan or Doug, which makes sense cause I would have Xeroxed these myself and had some left over.

Pasta Nights!  This was an idea Ailecia and I had to organise at REA Coffeehouse, which is...

This has the distinction of being the first show I ever organised, though to be completely honest my flatmate at the time, Dan, actually organised and executed this.  But we were setting up the show 'together' - I think I worked the door - and it showed me how easy it actually is to make things happen.  I felt like things had changed after this; for the next 2 years I was...

I seem to have saved a large concentration of posters from 1997 and 1999 especially right after I started University which was September '97.  I think at the time I was affixing these to the wall of my bedroom to make a tapestry of musical memories.

Run On played at CMU in the spring of '97, I think around May.  I remember this being one of the best bands I had ever seen -...

I don't know why I'm gravitating so much towards the CMU-based posters (or why I have so many of them), but certainly the CMU shows were something special and central to my young music-devouring appetite.  'Tainted Candy' was slightly overhyped amongst my friends - a festival on Halloween to be held in the studio union gymnasium, this was a can't-miss event on my...

Some experiences really stay with you.  This show happened almost fifteen years ago but I remember a lot about it; it's got a pretty high place in the "formative shows" list for me.  This was officially the local record release party for the Storm and Stress album on Touch and Go.  i never heard Storm & Stress before - I just knew they were the new band by one...

Another Connan Room show, this time featuring my then-local-faves The 1985 at the peak of their powers, Harriet the Spy (who are still remembered fondly by fans of that particular time and place), and Melt-Banana, whose performance I actually missed in 1996 at a show that has a very seminal place in my adolescence.  A Minor Forest headlined; at the time, I had their CD Flemish...

This was a show that I set up, which I apparently titled in a series called 'The New Breed'.  I think I grabbed that from an Impulse records compilation LP I found (a pretty good one with Archie Shepp and Grachan Moncur III on it), attempting to brand shows i promoted.  It's funny cause in Pittsburgh in the late 90s, no one did that, whereas my experiences in Europe are...

This was a night to remember, forever.  A year and a half after I saw Neutral Milk Hotel play the Beehive, they came back to Pittsburgh, only this time they were my favourite band.  Ever.  I mean, they aren't my favourite band ever now, but I think it's safe to say that my passion for this music at this time was greater than I've ever felt about a recording artist -...