I recently featured The High Llamas as my pick for April Artist of the Month a few weeks back. The band’s music was new to my ears but digging a little deeper, I discovered that founding member Sean O’Hagan has been involved with several bands such as Microdisney, Super Furry Animals, and Stereolab in some way or another. He also has the…

Timothy Showalter is Strand of Oaks. His minimalist tunes were actually very well received by the near sold out crowd. Not to take away from his music, which was quite good, I have to believe that his engaging demeanor throughout the set also had something to do with the audiences rapt attention. Turns out the guy was just as nice off stage…

I really do honestly believe I am the luckiest music fan in Pittsburgh. I get to do what I love in taking photos and I get exposed to an incredible amount of amazing music while doing it. I had never even heard of Mogwai before and was flabbergasted at the number of people who obviously had. Smalls was silly packed and it was even kind of tricky getting out of the PIT…

I feel like I am at the Warhol so much, I should be getting my mail there! The concert line-up has been really sweet this year and it’s certainly not over yet. ..

My man Chet and his band have just announced their CD Release show for Friday, June 24th at the Brillobox. Mark your calendars now. Can’t wait that long? They are the Lava Lounge tonight at 10 p.m. Listen to the YEP set here. More photos here…

Wasn’t able to hit the show proper, so this set was the next best thing. As was mentioned by Brian, Sam is a really sweet guy. Listen to the set here. More photos here…

Of the dozens of bands I have seen at the Warhol theater, I cannot think of a more suitable group to play that room (selling out two shows no less). The band’s ‘chill’ vibe is perfect for the “respectful, stay in your seat and pay attention to the music” audiences that usually attend. Imagine seeing them play Gooski’s? Ha!…

Presented by Calliope, what amazed me is that Patty is celebrating her 25th year as a performer. I hadn’t realized she had been around that long. Along with opener Merrie Armstrong, the crowd ate up her solid acoustic folk…

The much heralded releases this past month were from Foo Fighters and Paul Simon. That’s cool, they probably deserve all the hoopla. My list is for artists who might not get a #1 Chart Topper or a NBC Nightly News segment and you may or may not be familiar with. This space is for you to seek this music out. You will be so happy you did!

The High Llamas have been making music since the early ’90’s. They have sort of a cult following in that I have never even heard of them and they have several releases. Not that I am THE music aficionado but I was talking to a buddy last night and I mentioned them and he said, “Oh yeah,…

There was a short time right after high school where I lived by the motto, “The only good music is psychedelic music“. I kid you not. I was totally enamored with early Floyd, the Haight-Ashbury scene and any sound with a hint of acid-rock. In the quarter century since that time I have naturally changed my appreciation a tad but this style of music will always be a part of me in some way or another. I can honestly say that I still enjoy listening to ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ once in awhile…

Shooting the show for WYEP, I really don’t know anything about these guys other than the huge hit they had back in 1991. I did see them play before at Starlake when touring with Rusted Root. The Root were opening for the band on the tour but closed the night I saw them…hometown heroes gone big and all. More photos…

I am an unabashed, unapologetic Marah fan boy. They remind of the little neglected step child who never gets a break. The outsider looking in. When this show was announced I was wondering what …

This is a band that you either really love or really hate. Strike that, I don’t hate them, it’s just that I have tried several times to get into them and they always leave me a tad lukewarm. I am not trying to slag them, it’s just that you can’t like every band in the indie rock world, can you?…

The Sorry Kisses are a duo hailing from England. They were recently featured here as my Artist of the Month for March. Why them, you ask? Because they write and perform catchy pop tunes that deserved to be listened to. You can do so here. Sam and Hayley were nice enough to take the time to participate in this edition of First/Last Friday…

GNS have been laying low of late. Except for a fantastic set last summer, it’s been a year and change since we’ve heard a peep from them. There is good reason for the silence, they are hard at work on their upcoming album and I was lucky enough to be able to get …

As a genre, I am not the biggest fan of electronica. I’m not one to put on ‘house music’ to get a party started. That being said, I was actually enjoying this set set…

I was amazed at the amount of people at this show. This isn’t a household name band but apparently they have a lot of fans around here. The usual three song limit was fuzzy in that I didn’t know when one song ended and the other started. No complaints as they sounded real good…

For all intents and purposes, I can confidently say that Wiz Khalifa just killed it at Coachella. Watching the live youtube live stream is nothing like being there but the feeling I got was what a perfect choice to start …

Ag Ag Lady is local DIY musician Jules Levine. The self described “performance artist designed to showcase experimental electronic dance rock pop dub chiptune autotune bright noize too many toys” has just released his third album this month under the awesome moniker…