“The Awful Waffles are a four-piece pop rock outfit that has been playing locally since late 2010. They have created meaningful, funny, and nerdy songs full of pop culture references. Their songs are fueled by maple syrup, feminism, wizards, and Star Wars. Our influences include X, Bratmobile, Pat Benatar, Prince, Van Halen, and Wanda Jackson. Mary Beth sings and plays bass, Jon wails on guitar, Michael bangs the drums, and Meredith is our newest member on keys, We released our first album “Eats Breakfast Everyday” on June 9, 2012 and are currently composing for our EP, tentatively titled “Breakfast for Dinner.” Our album can be listened to or purchased on BandCamp.”

You can check out the Pittsburgh band on Facebook, MySpace, BandCamp, Twitter and ReverbNation. My thanks to Mary Beth (Vocals/Bass), Jon Malenock (Guitar), Meredith Nicol (Keys) and Michael Rung (Drums) for taking the time to participate in this edition of First/Last.

• The first album you ever bought?
• Mary Beth: A cassette tape of The Monkees’ “Greatest Hits”. My parents bought that for me when I was very young because I loved the show.
• Jon Malenock: The Forrest Gump Soundtrack.
• Meredith Nicol: “Best of Beethoven”.
• Michael Rung: Metallica’s “Black Album”.
• Your last album bought?
• Mary Beth: A friend gave me “Reject All American” by Bikini Kill. It was the only one I didn’t have of theirs, so now my collection is complete.
• Jon: The Killers, “Sam’s Town”.
• Meredith: Blur, “Modern Life is Rubbish”.
• Michael: Pendulum’s “Hold Your Colour” and Angels & Airwaves’ “I-Empire”.
• Favorite album of all time?
• Mary Beth: I will never tire of Patti Smith’s “Horses”.
• Jon: Prince, “Controversy” (really, really tough choice).
• Meredith: Kraftwerk, “Computer World”, R.E.M., “Automatic for the People”, The Velvet Underground, “The Velvet Underground & Nico” (narrowing it down to 3 was hard).
• Michael: Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning”.
• Least favorite/most disappointing album?
• Mary Beth: ——.
• Jon: “St. Anger”.
• Meredith: Interpol, “Antics”.
• Michael: Fenix TX’s self-titled.
• First concert attended?
• Mary Beth: I attended many local shows in high school, but my first arena concert was Green Day in 2005. I took my best friend.
• Jon: Travis Tritt.
• Meredith: “Weird Al” Yankovic.
• Michael: Green Day opened by The Living End.
• Last concert?
• Mary Beth: The Who, Quadrophenia.
• Jon: Paul McCartney.
• Meredith: Weird Paul.
• Michael: The Warped Tour, headlined by Bad Religion.
• Favorite concert ever?
• Mary Beth: X at the Rex in 2008 with The Detroit Cobras. I would love to see them again!
• Jon: The Electric Six @ Mr. Smalls.
• Meredith: Not sure…been to so many good ones!
• Michael: Metallica or the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
• Least favorite concert?
• Mary Beth: ——.
• Jon: MCR (Ex-Girlfriend dragged me there…MISERY).
• Meredith: Christian teen convention/concert I got talked into going to in high school.
• Michael: —.
• Favorite thoughts, experiences about Pittsburgh?
• Mary Beth: I love being involved with the local music scene here! I have made very great and talented friends who also play in bands here.
• Jon: Sneaking into the Allegheny Cemetery at 2 a.m. with my girlfriend.
• Meredith: I moved to Pittsburgh for school and liked it enough to stay!
• Michael: The food. If you look hard enough, you can find some really great and authentic ethnic cuisine. Not to mention, only in Pittsburgh can you get a burger topped with fries and coleslaw.
• Thanks, guys. Looking forward to the new EP. There’s always room enough in this world for more ‘nerd-rock’.