A brief word on The Hills season premiere

I'm in your corner, Kristen.

We're still here.

But, then, so are the other blogs, and they're doing a better job of blogging lately. So I hand it to them, and I hand you over to them this week. (Although I do want to mention that the 28 North track posted at Burgh Sounds is pretty sweet indeed.)

speed of the pittsburgh sound
The Ceiling Stares and the Spirit of Analog
"The Ceiling Stares, Pittsburgh’s newest underground rock heroes, embrace the lo-fi movement in the correct manner."

Pittsburgh Music Report
David Bazan - House Show - Pittsburgh - 5/29/10
"David Bazan (Pedro the Lion fame) will be performing a house show in Pittsburgh on 5/29."

Burgh Sounds
28 North bleed rock and hope to bleed more
“The band 28 North is so close to huge breakout success, that listening to their new self-tiled record brings — along with the pleasure of hearing a dozen tracks of kinetic rock and roll — a touch of frustration as well."

Old Mon Music
Jammin' From Carnegie to Colorado
"Vince Herman grew up in Carnegie, the youngest of seven children in a music loving family."

The Watson Twins @ and on YEP Monday

I was lucky enough to follow up Sunday night's Wilco show with Monday's midday in-studio concert by the Watson Twins. The Louisville-rooted, LA-based duo was due to play YEP before their February show but Snowmaggedon hindered their plans. Yesterday they graciously stopped through on their way home to LA, having concluded their recent tour at the Mountain Stage in WV last night.

Chandra and Leigh (Watson) brought a wirey-haired keyboardist (Kip?) and filled the studio with their beautiful harmonies, light acoustic guitar and axillary percussion. Between thoughtful anecdotes and recording stories their set list was:

1. Tell Me Why 2. Calling Out 3. Devil in You 4. Southern Manners

All four songs were well-performed, but "Southern Manners" (the title track to their 2006 debut album) was downright stirring. Honestly, I didn't know their catalog outside of 2006's Jenny Lewis collaboration "Rabbit Fur Coat." Big mistake on my part. These ladies are supremely talented.

A captivating and symbiotic presence, they have been harmonizing since they were 8-years-old. In fact, they are so in-synch that their mother's (pre-ultrasound) obstetrician couldn't discern two separate heartbeats until less than two months before their birth. As Leigh said yesterday, "Our dad is 6'8" so our parents thought we were just a really big baby."

They wear their lo-fi-ness as a badge of pride; typically opting for 8 or 16 track analog. Surprisingly, they write their music separately. On March's recent release "Talking to You, Talking to Me," they each wrote 6 of the 12 tracks, taking their inspiration from time holed up in their producer's remote cabin in the high-Sierra Mountains. This time around, the song's author took lead vocals then together, they recorded duet harmonies for backing vocals.

Hot off of today's studio set I'm excited to delve into their albums and will be looking forward to their return to the 'Burgh, which Chandra thinks will be late-Summer or early-Fall.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, click here for a free MP3 of "U N Me" off of their new album.

Another Wilco Review!?

Well, not really - Roberto and JR nailed down the details pretty well and I'm not typically one for remembering that "that one note on that one song..." But holy crappamolie that was a killer concert - so here are my quick hits:

1) Glenn Kotche is a heckofa drummer. My two blogging chronies are axe-men so their Nels Cline fawning isn't surprising, or unmerited. But as a drummer with lofted seats, my aerial view afforded me perfect fixation on Glenn's movements for the first third of the show. Those interested can check out his Wilco kit here. His movement between such a tightly wound mess of equipment is at once deftly economical and perfectly spot-on.
1b) Note to our Aussie readers: Nels and Glenn will be playing an "improv jazz" duet at the Melbourne Jazz Fest on May 7. Those of you down-under should not miss it and let us know if you go, JR is thinking about making the trip.

2) I haven't been to a show with so much pre-concert, expectant energy in a while. You really got the sense you were a part of something special amidst a who's who of Pittsburgh music lovers. The grandeur of the venue certainly played a part in the excitement - a tremendous hall save for the 80 or so obstructed view seats that Roberto mentioned and the thick, stinky air.

3) I didn't care much for the acoustic set. It was a nice way to break up a marathon show, but as such it felt like more of a sideshow than an exposition. I am, however, always a fan of kitschy floorlamps for creating acoustic set intimacy. Nice fringed lampshades, fellas.

4) Damn that's a small stage! I first noticed how small it was back when Feist and her band were crowded in there last year. But with Wilco's packed laboratory of amplification and instrumentation, Nels' spastic movements were held in check. Whether or not the stage benefits the performance, it's always refreshing to see big bands who play big stages in big venues reign it in a little.

5) The PG made a big deal about Wilco joining a "supposed 2:45 minute club" - typically Springsteen, Phish, Dead territory. An interview I read quoted Tweedy saying that the goal of this tour is to "leave (the fans) wanting less" and play as long as they're allowed. By any account, I'm sure no one left feeling like they didn't get their money's worth.

I certainly couldn't have asked for more and will be eagerly anticipating my next "Evening (into early morning) with Wilco".

Another Wilco Review

Apologies to non-Wilco fans for today's barrage. Anyway...

For some perspective on where I'm coming from, this was my 7th (maybe 8th?) time seeing these guys. The latest album and A.M. are my least favorite Wilco records. I would say I was pretty diehard for a good while between Summerteeth and Sky Blue Sky. And I'm still still a big fan.

As concerts go, this one was great. As Wilco concerts go, it was slightly above average. My #1 Wilco show would have been at Massey Hall in Toronto. Part of it was the setting, part of it was the setlist, and part of it was certainly seeing Nels Cline live for the first time. Jimmy's review below rings true with me. Cline's energy, musical proficiency, and bizarrely captivating body movements add so much to Wilco's live presence that he can really save a show, as I think he did at the Palumbo the last time they came though town. So imagine my disappointment when I found my seat last night and couldn't even see him at stage-right without standing and leaning way forward. (For those, like me, who may have thought there is not a bad seat in Carnegie Music Hall: there are about 40 of them, actually, in the back corners of the second balcony). I thought I would just suck it up and sink into the music.

My seat assignment surely took a bit away from my enjoyment of the first set. But, even accounting for that, I felt like the band took a little while to warm up. "Shot in the Arm" was where I really started feeling things, and I think by "California Stars" they were in full swing. When "Impossible Germany" rolled around and those sweet-ass guitar lines began to weave themselves together, it was time to move. Luckily, there were a surprising number of empty seats in the first balcony, and the staff didn’t seem to care at all when we snagged some prime seats not too far off-center.

I would have expected the acoustic set to be a highlight. As "Poor Places" built into an awesome symphony of noise, some roadies carried out a smaller drum kit, some keyboards and a selection of acoustic guitars. The noise subsided and the band assumed their new positions on the stage within the stage. "Spiders" was an interesting choice for the first song of this set. Probably a better idea in theory than in practice, unfortunately. While I don’t fault them for trying to switch things up on what usually turns into an epic electronic jam, it left me wanting more. Luckily they followed with a highlight of the show for me, "More Like the Moon." A very mellow, very underrated Wilco tune in my opinion. This was the first time I'd heard it live, and it did not disappoint. The rest of the acoustic set was fine, but nothing game-changing. It was definitely a nice touch and a cool opportunity to see Wilco tone things down a bit, but I was glad when, during "Airline to Heaven," the roadies began to break down the acoustic stage.

The third set just killed. "Via Chicago" was on par with the best versions I've heard, and from "Jesus" through "Monday" the whole band was on fire. One thing I always appreciate about Wilco is their ability to blend the old and new songs into a set and make them all fit harmoniously. I thought this was really on display in the third set, especially with a great "Candyfloss" in the middle. I can’t say I've ever found myself pulling Summerteeth out just to hear that tune, but it was right on time last night. And I love that it led into "Hate it Here" and "Walken," both of which completely rocked, and both of which were standouts of the night for me.

Overall, I wouldn't rank this as one of the best Wilco shows I've seen, although certainly better than the 2007 Palumbo show. Maybe somewhere in the middle for me. That said, it's Wilco. This is hands-down one of the best live bands playing today, and I have yet to walk out of a show disappointed.

An Evening With Wilco - A Rookie's Review

So as it happens, most of the SITKOT crew made it to the Wilco show last night at Carnegie Music Hall, and what a show it was. I must confess that although I have listened to Wilco for years - I started getting into them when Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released - this was the first time that I've seen them perform live. I can honestly say that it was one of the best shows that I've ever seen. Because my other SITKOT comrades are going to be better with the details, having been to a show or seven, I'm going to keep my review brief and just give a few highlights.

1) Nels Cline - Guitar God. Yes, I just did. Perhaps I am biased because I am still fresh off the show last night, but I never expected Nels Cline to have some of the most insane chops that I've ever witnessed. On many of the songs from Wilco (The Album) and Sky Blue Sky he absolutely shredded the guitar, but in an always appropriate, never cheesy way. Even on the more country-tinged songs, his country soloing stayed within the genre and was smokin'. Unbelievable.

2) The Length of the Set - It was also amazing how long the set ran. I had heard that Wilco puts on some long shows, but this was incredible. Three plus hours of solid music. Their albums can't do their live show justice. During the show, I couldn't help but think that Wilco is like a modern day version of the band Television. Great soloing with purpose and catchy riffs flourishing throughout almost every single song. My highlights were "A Shot in the Arm", "Walken" (which was not even one of my favorites on Sky Blue Sky), "Impossible Germany", "Company in My Back" and "Theologians". In particular, the soloing by Nels in "A Shot in the Arm" was nothing short of magnificent.

Overall, the best show of the year so far and one that will be hard to top by any other band coming to the 'Burgh. When I think about the expansiveness of Wilco's catalogue and the fluidity of their performance last night, I can safely say that they are one of the great bands still creating relevant music that should have generational staying power.

Ok - two small gripes about the venue. First, anyone who has been to a performance at Carnegie Music Hall knows that it tends to get stuffy, and that is usually during a 1.5 hour show. When we were approaching hour three I felt like I was standing in a pressure cooker. I was thinking to myself, "Thank God this is a Wilco show and not a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert because more than one person might have passed out from the stench." And I'm not talking about the song "That Smell".

Second, I was sitting on the first level and the doors leading into the atrium were open during the acoustic set and there were people talking very loudly, to the point where Jeff Tweedy even commented that he could hear the talking and that he was dedicating the next song to the working people in the audience who paid $50 to see a Wilco performance and not talk in the lobby - or something like that. I know that it was hot and stuffy, but jeez, show a little more respect for a world-class band closing out their tour in our fine city.

Setlist: Wilco at Carnegie Music Hall - April 11, 2010

As they've been doing during this "An Evening With Wilco" series of shows (the last of which was last night's), Wilco played sort of three sets in one set. No breaks except for a very brief one before the encore. I think they played from roughly 8:10 to 11:10. 37 songs in three hours. Not bad.

Three of us from the blog were there, so a review or recap may follow, depending on motivational levels.

Mostly Electric:
Wilco (the Song)
Bull Black Nova
You are My Face
I am Trying to Break Your Heart
One Wing
Shot in the Arm
On and On
Company in My Back
Deeper Down
Handshake Drugs
California Stars
Impossible Germany
I’ll Fight
Poor Places (feedback into stage change)

Mostly Acoustic:
Spiders
More Like the Moon
Someday Some Morning Sometime
Not for the Season
When You Wake Up Feeling Old
Don’t Forget the Flowers
War on War
Passenger Side
Airline to Heaven (during stage change)

Mostly Electric:
Via Chicago
Box Full of Letters
You Never Know
Jesus, Etc.
Theologians
Heavy Metal Drummer
Candyfloss
Hate it Here
Walken
I’m the Man Who Loves You
Monday
Thank You Friends

Encore:
Casino Queen
Outtasite (Outta Mind)

The Wolf Is Loose

The first time I heard of Mastodon I was sitting in my apartment in Salt Lake City, Utah on a ratty pull out couch I had bought at a goodwill store for $10 reading Life Sucks Die magazine. A metal-head all my life, I was, at that moment, coming to grips with the fact that Reinventing the Steel was probably going to be Pantera’s last album. To fill the void, I had slowly started to wade into underground hip hop- Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein is a timeless classic of that era btdubbs. I began to wonder whether my metal days were winding down (these were life’s big questions to me at that point).

LSD typically reviewed hip hop acts but occasionally tossed in some random fare. I remember the author writing about how “chuffed” he was by the Viking-like ferocity of Mastodon’s Lifesblood EP. A glimmer of hope stirred in my iron-maiden mind. My interest piqued, I ran around the corner and ordered the EP from a local record shop. I was hooked from first listen.

The opening track of Lifesblood, Shadows that Move, opens with a sample from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest- one of my favorite movies and one of my favorite lines in that movie. Patient Harding starts ranting: I'm not just talking about my wife, I'm talking about my LIFE, I can't seem to get that through to you. I'm not just talking about one person, I'm talking about everybody. I'm talking about form. I'm talking about content. I'm talking about interrelationships. I'm talking about God, the devil, Hell, Heaven. Do you understand... FINALLY? And then right at FINALLY Mastodon hits you with this mountain of sound like a whirling dervish all fists and elbows. A chill ran up my spine- I knew right then that my metal days were far from over. I must have listened to Lifesblood twenty times that first day. It was raw and angry yet purposeful; this was a cerebral band. The problem with a lot of metal acts, whatever the genre, is that their aggression is unfocused. This leads to a smattering of great riffs and vocals but with an ultimately empty feel. No one could ever accuse Mastodon of being devoid of feel.

After an anxious wait I was blown away by Mastodon’s full-length follow-up album- Remission. In fact I have a t-shirt from the Remission tour with an exploding pink horse on it that remains my single favorite article of clothing despite all the shit I get when I wear it. Though Remission is considered by most to be Mastodon’s only non-concept album it is nonetheless a work of art. The further cohesion of the band can clearly be heard in Remission’s transformed sound. Lost was some of the primal grit of Lifesblood. But this was more than made up for by the increased clarity of the album. More importantly is the focus that Mastodon placed on wistful guitar solos- the end of Ol’e Nessie being a prime example. It is this wistful and melancholic thread, woven throughout Mastodon’s albums that has hooked me as a fan for life.

Over time, Mastodon’s jams have morphed from downcast to something reminiscent of what I think deep space travel would feel like. In fact, when asked about how Mastodon’s most recent album, Crack the Skye came about bassist Troy Sanders said “we kinda strapped on our aeroshells and departed from Earth for a while, and then captained to the ethereal element of the universe and kind of slept on the roof of the world for a while to get a perspective on this record.” Admittedly that line gives me a tinge of lame chills for its new agey/pseudo-philosophicalness BUT the music saves the day. Crack the Skye is fraught with guitar-laden departures that can only be described as extra-terrestrial.

I could go on ad nauseam about Mastodon’s subsequent epics Leviathan, Blood Mountain and Crack the Skye (and hope to do so in a future post) but this particular diatribe is starting to feel tome-like. Real quick though, these three albums began Mastodon’s elemental ‘concept album’ phase. Leviathan, the water album, is based on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, with song titles like “I am Ahab,” “Seabeast,” (I defy you to keep from nodding your head to this) and “Iron Tusk.” Blood Mountain, representing the Earth element, is about a man searching for the crystal skull in order to place it on top of Blood Mountain so that his reptilian brain can be removed allowing him to achieve the next step in human evolution. And finally, if you thought it couldn’t get any more bizarre, there is Mastodon’s most recent album Crack the Skye. In a review on Pitchfork.com Tom Breihan declared that with CTS, Mastodon’s concepts are officially “out of control.” Breihan best summarized the album plot as “a record about a kid who experiments with astral travel and then goes through a wormhole and meets Rasputin and Rasputin enters his body to escape assassination, or something.” Yeah.

The bottom line is that Mastodon IS COMING TO TOWN! They will be playing the Palace Theatre in Greensburg on April 26, 2010 with Baroness (another amazing group from Georgia), Between the Buried and Me and Valient Thorr. Don’t Sleep on this Giant of a show.

Concert Review: Girls and Dum Dum Girls at Mr. Small's

JR: The show was decent. First, Dum Dum Girls: their set was tight from start to finish. They opened with their cover of The Rolling Stones' "Play With Fire", which they do very well. The closer was "Jail La La", as I would have expected given that is their first single off the new album. Musically speaking, the songs are mostly three-chord mashers with some bells and whistles thrown in for good measure, but vocally, I thought they were pretty awesome. The lead singer has a great voice and the harmonies worked very well, in my opinion.

Roberto: Definitely. I hadn’t been impressed with what I’d heard of Dum Dum Girls before the show, but they were very good live. The vocals in particular were really tight and sounded great, reminiscent of some early-70s gospel-rock harmonies. They have like no stage presence, but I didn't find myself thinking, "These chics have, like, no stage presence." In fact, it didn't detract from the music at all in my opinion. It actually worked with their aesthetic. Really enjoyable opener.

JR: The lead signer was also wearing some pretty awesome tights.

Roberto: Sweet tights FTW.

Girls started off great. I can't remember what they opened the set with for the life of me, but I do remember thinking it was a great starter. For the better part of the set the sound was excellent and the song selection was great. I think "Laura" was the third or fourth song in, and that seemed to be the big crowd-pleaser of the night. Not a lot of stage presence with these guys either, but that didn't seem to to hold them back. They're not the kind of band you would ever describe as a great live band, though generally the songs equaled the album versions when played live.

JR: Amazingly, the mix was quite good for most of the night, especially during the Dum Dum Girls' set. You could actually make out the vocals most of the time - not like the Deerhunter/No Age/ Dan Deacon show that we attended last summer at Mr. Small's, which was a sound engineering nightmare. As for Girls, I agree the first two-thirds of the set was great. Until around “Hellhole Ratrace”

Roberto: That really was where the show went wrong. First off, I thought it was a horrendous rendition. The drumming wasn't off beat; just off. It was almost as if the drummer had some Phil Collins pumping into a personal set of headphones right on rhythm. I found it distracting. I also thought some guitar change-ups in the song didn't work. I'm all for reinventing your own tunes, but this particular version didn't wow.

JR: I actually thought "Hellhole Ratrace" started off great, but then it turned into a wall of distortion, which would have been fine had it lasted 30 seconds - it probably lasted about a solid three minutes.

Roberto: Yeah, the feedback. Girls is not Sonic Youth, and the lesson should be learned early by any indie band that noise for the sake of noise will fail almost every time. When they finally let the feedback lead into "Morning Light" I was ready to let it slide and rock out a bit. But it didn’t let up, and there was just no control of the distortion. Some high frequency drone persisted that had a solid third of the crowd cringing and/or plugging their ears. Some were eyeballing the soundboard; I blame this one squarely on the band.

JR: That is where any other band probably would have called it a night and closed it out with the big grandiose distorted finish. But no. Then they played one more song and did a three song encore that was poor.

Roberto: True, I might have let the noise thing slide if they'd closed the set on that loud note. I can appreciate a climax. But the last song of the main set was totally forgettable (literally, as it turns out). The encore was respectable in length but pretty weak otherwise.

JR: They didn't save any of the their best tracks for the encore, so it was very anticlimactic. They also lost whatever magic they had with the sound board, because the encore sounded horrible from an acoustics perspective. And throughout the encore the drummer especially seemed like he was playing with a different band -- it just wasn't working, period.

Roberto: My favorite Girls tune actually popped up in the encore: "Lauren Marie." Unfortunately it was totally lackluster and the vocals were really drowned out. "Big Bad Mean Motherf*cker" was only slightly better. All in all, I left a bit disappointed, which is too bad because it really was a good show for the most part.

JR: I would give the show as a whole a 6 out of 10, and that figure is aided significantly by the Dum Dum Girls' performance, which was very good. Ultimately, no one really wants a 6. Your friends probably won't make fun of you for being with a 6, but you will never be totally satisfied, always wondering if things could have been better. That's how I felt about this show. It was good enough not to be embarrassing, but the lows outweighed the highs, and I left feeling a bit underwhelmed.

Roberto: Agree, the lows just outweighed the highs in the end. I’m on board with that 6 out of 10. Or, 35 out of 57 varieties on the SITKOT scale.

SITKOT appreciates jazz this month

We don't spotlight enough jazz here on the site, but April is a tough month to ignore on that front. For starters, it's evidently National Jazz Appreciation Month. Not sure what that means exactly, except that there is a hell of a lot of good jazz in town over the next few weeks.

The Mellon jazz series has a lot going on all spring, the full schedule for which is here. Most, but not quite all, are at the Cabaret or the Backstage Bar, both over in the Theatre District, both very nice places for a concert if you haven't been there. A few shows I want to call out: Paquito D'Rivera's Funk Tango Quintet at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild; Sean Jones & Dwayne Dolphin at the Cabaret; and Pittsburgh Native Jeff Tain Watts also at the Cabaret.

Another worth mentioning, with whom I actually wasn't familiar until this week, is Ahmad Jamal. He's being billed as the "headliner" of the month, so there must be something to that, yes? He'll be at the Byham on the 9th. Check him out below.

Before any of that, however, George Winston passes tomorrow night through that old library on the hill over in Munhall. Though probably best known for his soothing soft jazz melodies, there's more to his catalog. Not your standard jazzman, Winston was somewhat discovered by experimental folk guitarist John Fahey, and his music still carries that folk origin while blending in sounds of rock, blues and R&B.

Ahmad Jamal - "Arabesque"