Morgan Erina and Guy Russo comprise Broken Fences, a duo from Pittsburgh that perform sparse, melodic, acoustic folk. They were nice enough to have me over at Treelady to shoot them playing and rehearsing as they prep their debut release this June 1st at Club Cafe. In anticipation, they have been uploading videos in a series they call ‘Broken Apt.’ which you can view here. From what I have heard this album should be beautiful…

I haven’t been producing any band portraits for awhile now. With the upcoming concert with The Belle Brigade making their Pittsburgh debut, I got the itch. Whether it’s a one off or not has yet to be seen. I will say I am extremely psyched to finally see the band play live! Seriously crossing my fingers that ‘Shirt‘ will be on the setlist…

Image courtesy Facebook Last year I went ‘ga-ga’ over the ultimately final release from the Australian band, The Middle East. Since disbanding, the various members are slowly reemerging with other projects and in an ongoing attempt to bring these endeavors to you, I am beginning today with the sole female of collective, Bree Tranter. She put out a single entitled ‘Winter’ late last year and just this month dropped the video for it. If you like your folk delicate and spare as I do, you will be down for Bree’s music. She was nice enough to take a few minutes to participate in this edition of First/Last…

As I previously mentioned, I really had too much fun at this show. The venue is a screen printing studio that I will hopefully be taking classes at soon. The ‘artsy-farsty’ crowd was mingling upstairs while the -rock-n-rollers’ were enjoying the music downstairs. Best of both artistic worlds. Hopefully there will be more cool gigs there soon. As for the band, they are back being a smoking quintet with the addition of Matt on keys and guitar and if you don’t believe the hype, you haven’t heard the awesome break in ‘Only Thing’, have you…

The band’s album release gig was officially announced today but last week the band played TEN shows in five days. I was able to catch the last two, this one being the penultimate show of the ‘tour’. They sounded unsurprisingly tight and I was fortunate enough to snag an early copy of the excellent new disc. Thanks Megan!…

Another fun Josh solo set. I had a blast at this gig. Hanging with friends, sluggin’ beers and listening to awesome music. Can’t think of a better time…

This was my fifth ‘Souper Bowl‘. The venue change from the now closed Eastside Borders had the crowd spilling out into the stacks. Free music before the big game is always a good time. Check out more photos here…

Setlist from my favorite show and album of 2006.…

In 2010, my favorite album was an EP from the lo-fi folk band Dark Dark Dark that really rocked my world hard. One of the highlights from the release was actually a cover tune called ‘Wild Goose Chase‘ from a kindred spirit in everything spare, Elephant Micah. Elephant Micah is a rotating band of musicians from Indiana headed up by songwriter Joseph O’Connell. They have a new limited edition vinyl album called Louder Than Thou out that has been in heavy rotation in my house recently. Some fantastic stuff. Joe was cool enough to participate in this edition of First/Last…

I love these two. They are like a indie folk Burns and Allen. Scott’s jokes are SO damned corny you just gotta laugh…

This was going to be one hell of an epic night of concerts shoots. I had six bands lined up at three different venues and all that ever came out of the entire evening was a couple of shots of Mitten soundchecking. Details are too sad (or lame) to convey here. If you ever see me out and have a burning desire to know what went down introduce yourself and ask. Until then, here’s my man Brendan’s account of what went down at the T-Bird…

If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don’t, why the hell not?) you might remember my encounter with Ms. Lee. She was hanging by the merch table before opening for G. Love when I went up and introduced myself. Inadvertently calling her ‘dude’ (I seriously thought she was a teenage boy), we shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. Turns out she comments from the stage that her guitar player is really sick from a nasty bug that she herself was still getting over and she just found out she had pink eye! I spend the rest of the night worrying if that little itch in my eye will get worse. Needless to say she wasn’t 100% that night…

When meeting one of your absolute teenage musical idols and you are only permitted to have ONE item for him to sign, what’s a fanboy to choose? I decide on my favorite Pink Floyd picture of the rare 5 piece version of the band. Love it!…

David: Neil Young-‘Crazy Horse’ and Burt Bacharach-‘Reach Out’ (These weregifts to my brother for Christmas)…

Last night I had the pleasure to hang with Scott and Dani as they rehearsed for their very first shows as a band. Tonight they play in Scott’s hometown of Morgantown, and tomorrow they make their Pittsburgh debut at Brillobox with favs of mine and labelmates Donora. If you are in either area, these shows are not to be missed. I got a small taste of what to expect and what struck me was the honest and almost brutal lyrics that reflect their unique, and thankfully for us, resolved relationship which brings them together to make music. I can’t wait for the full set!…

Sometimes I feel musically uneducated it’s not funny. I literally did not know the difference between JJ Grey and G. Love as was proven when both bands played Smalls and I didn’t know who I was there for. Shooting for WYEP affords me to get introduced to so much music but I could not believe this show was sold out. People were loving these guys and for good reason, they were really fun. too bad I wasn’t all boozed up and heading to another show, I actually might have boogied down a bit. More photos here.…

Ms. Edwards will always hold a special spot on this here blog. Her last album was my favorite of the year back in 2008. She also holds the distinction of being the very first (and second) live review when I started this thing nearly four years ago. Of course I was going to hit her show when she eventually swung through town again promoting her latest release. Thing is, she was good but could never reach the high mark from the last album. Still I am glad I went for sure. It’s been a long time I was on the Southside after 10 p.m. and I have to tell you it’s gross. Here’s another review (with an incredible photo, I might add). More photos here. Opener Hannah Georgas, who also sang back up in Kathleen’s band, was the long lost twin of Pittsburgh very own Brooke Annibale, even down to the way she held her guitar. Freaky…

This was my very first photo pass. I never had to push my way to the front row again…