“If there’s any takeaway from the slow, brutal decline of big business record labels and the rise of contemporary music’s internet-centric hype machine, it’s the fact that the lines between the underground and the mainstream are now extremely blurred. “Mainstream.” “Sell-out.” “The Man.” These once demonizing labels are becoming increasingly irrelevant. As a result, many popular “indie” artists are now regularly courted for licensing  opportunities and sponsorship deals by some of the world’s most recognized brands. Other big name companies, like Scion and Mountain Dew, are taking this a step further, establishing record labels that boast healthy rosters of hungry, up and coming artists while providing them with more financial support and infrastructure than a standard boutique indie label in addition to complete creative control over their work.” Hive Five: Great Songs Sponsored by Huge Corporations

“Rapper Action Bronson and producer Party Supplies’ latest joint mixtape Blue Chips dropped this past week and was accompanied by a piece of cover art that pays homage to the 1994 Nick Nolte-Shaquille O’Neil-Penny Hardaway film of the same name. The cover features an animated image of producer Party Supplies, decked out in a basketball uniform and resembling a young John Stockton, dunking an MPC machine on a non-existent hoop, while an animated, shirtless, and bearded Action Bronson is captured mid-scream in the background.

The mixtape track list features songs that are, for all intents and purposes, unrelated to Blue Chips the film, and according to almost any rubric of design, the concept behind this cover is patently ridiculous. In fact, even the people who watched and actually liked a film where Nick Nolte chews on scenery doing a mediocre Bob Knight impression for 108 minutes can probably admit this is a insane image to slap on the face rap project in 2012. But, in the pantheon of hip-hop mixtape cover art; Blue Chips could be considered a model of subtlety.” Hive Five: Reviewing Ridiculous Mixtape Covers – MTV Hive.

“Over the past decade, Andrew Bird has remained one of music’s most unique voices; combining densely composed baroque pop with the soaring melodies of indie rock grandeur. Bird’s best work is marked by hyper-literate lyricism and beautifully intricate, rubbery compositions that showcase his classically trained background as well as his prolific talents in both the violin and guitar. For his twelfth album Break It Yourself (out March 6th on Mom + Pop), Bird decided to loosen the reins and record the album with his backing band almost entirely live to tape at his personal studio (located in an old barn on the banks of the Mississippi River in Western Illinois).” - Andrew Bird on His Barn-Recorded New Album, Break it Yourself – Paper Magazine

“If there’s one MC to pluck from the phalanx of talent present in hip-hop’s current D.I.Y. renaissance (sustained by the likes  of Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Tyler the Creator and Danny  Brown, among many others) and anoint crown prince of rap’s new  world order, it’s that self-proclaimed “pretty motherfucker” named  A$AP Rocky. Since last July, the 23-year-old Harlem native’s meteoric  rise from Internet obscurity to hip-hop royalty has been well documented, and frankly, Rocky doesn’t plan to shirk the spotlight.” – Rocky Rising – Paper Magazine.

“Since 1989, Oakland-based Slumberland Records has cornered the market on hazy fuzz-pop. In the past decade alone, the label has released albums from the likes of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Weekend and the Crystal Stilts. Now, Slumberland is putting out full-lengths featuring three of indie rock’s most talented female musicians. Get to know them below.” - The Ladies of Slumberland Records

I think my favorite part about living in Pittsburgh and keeping up with the music scene here is making annual year end lists of my favorite local music (if you’re curious, here are my 2009 and 2010 lists). I used to take the Steel City’s music scene for granted (especially during college) and assumed every other moderately sized metropolitan area in the region had a similar, or possibly larger, independent music community. But, after three years of really listening to (and subsequently analyzing) tons of music that was in some way, shape, or form born and bred in Pittsburgh, I’m pretty damn confident our music scene can stack up with any other city’s in America.

Just from looking at and listening to the music featured on the list below, it’s evident there is no singular Pittsburgh “sound.” Whether its the indie rock being played at the Brillobox and Mr. Small’s, the underground punk of The Shop, 222 Ormsby, and Mr. Roboto, the shredding metal at the 31st Street Pub and the Smiling Moose, the hip-hop of the Shadow Lounge and Z Lounge, or the electronic music mecca of the VIA Festival, I think we can all agree Pittsburgh’s music scene is currently flourishing. With that in mind, The Top Steel City Tracks of 2011 is my attempt to capture all the disparate sounds of Pittsburgh into one, condensed, twenty song list, with no ranking hierarchy or further explanation.

Also, if you think I missed something (and I most certainly did) please feel free to blow up the comment section with links to music, upcoming shows, or videos. Check the list after the jump.

1,2,3 – “Work”

The 58′s – “Outta My Mind”

B-Free Da Misfit – “Kewn”

Big Hurry – “Gets Me Low”

Big Snow Big Thaw – “Brackish Water”

Boaz – “Do It For Ya”

Boca Chica – “Afternoon Tea”

The Cynics – “I Need More”

Dazzletine – “Skin Period”

Donora – “Boom Boom”

Ennui – “Coconino”

Good Sport – “Pushover”

Legs Like Tree Trunks – “Pushover”

Mac Miller – “Donald Trump”

Majeure – “Solar Flare”

New Shouts – “Hung On You”

Shade – “Waves”

Sistered – “God Save the Child Brides”

White Wives – “Spinning Wheels”

Wise Blood – “Nosferatu”

This past fall, 22-year-old Bristol native and UK dubstep alchemist Joker found himself traveling through most of Europe, the United States, Japan and Australia. For a guy who got his start at 16 owning the dance floors of post-industrial Britain and watched what was essentially a fervently regional musical genre become internationally recognized and culturally pervasive over the past four years (check the orgasmic, distorted breakdown in Britney Spears’ “Hold It Against Me” for dubstep’s current reach), a world tour can be as perplexing as it is fascinating.

“Touring is really amazing sometimes and really head scratchng other times,” says Joker. “Depending where I am, I can play somewhere and be really hyped up and can’t wait to get home to make new music… and then I can be somewhere and they really just don’t understand me. I get lost.”

Known as the “king of bass music,” Joker is currently readying his long-germinating debut album The Vision for an early November release. The LP is bristling with potential to become a major keystone in dubstep and grime’s ongoing relationship with the pop charts, moving further away from his stridently under-ground 2007 breakthrough, the KapsizeEP, which “feels like 10,000 years ago,” according to Joker.

By combining heady, jarring solo compositions — “Tron” and “My Trance Girl” — with slickly constructed, but substantive R&B and hip-hop collaborations — “The Vision (Let Me Breathe”) featuring Jessie Ware and “Slaughterhouse” featuring Silas – The Vision is basically a master class for producers looking to effectively harness the elusive power of dubstep’s intricate break beats and blown-out bass lines.

“I’m always working on some futuristic, next level, space goonage, sexy ghetto music,” explains Joker, “The Vision is just me evolving into something new… and I’m still evolving.”

Joker’s Wild – Paper Magazine – 11/15/11

Koshute, the fiery singer, songwriter and leader of the larger-than-life local rock outfit Dazzletine, is talking his way through his band’s sonic ambitions at a local bar unusually crowded on a Wednesday night. When it comes to ’70s glam rock, the 23-year-old Mount Lebanon native can’t help but use wild hand gestures, waving his fingers above the empty beer bottles spread across the table like detonated land mines.

“There’s something there when you listen to T. Rex’s ‘The Slider’ or you see [footage of] Queen, or [footage of] Gary Glitter,” he goes on. “They’re there to make a spectacle of things. It’s done in a way that’s supposed to be fun, and everyone is invited.”

For Koshute and Dazzletine, that idea of spectacle is an obvious starting point for digesting the debut EP Heart, Mind, Bodies, a seven-track piece of incendiary glam-rock glory released this fall. Dazzletine spun out of Koshute’s vibrant solo work to become a project much bigger, louder and substantial than he initially imagined. A seven-year Pittsburgh scene veteran, Koshute has been playing in different projects around the city since his early high school days. He put together, released and toured behind two solo albums: the dynamic prog-folk of The Meager and the Mighty, in 2007, and the searing Kiss Line, in 2009.

Both albums were marked by the immediacy of Koshute’s intricate, caterwauling guitar work; larger-than-life, Robert Plant-style vocals; flashes of conceptual grandeur; and professional polish. When Koshute wrote and recorded music, it always managed to sound like anything but a bedroom rock project. He began working on a follow-up to Kiss Line in early 2010 with the help of good friend, bassist and de facto music engineer Darren Diederich. Then, Koshute slowly recognized his desire to move back toward a full-band unit, something he hadn’t done since high school.

“I realized where I was going artistically, the ideas I had, and where I was personally that I no longer wanted that solo-artist thing linked to my personal life and my name,” says Koshute. “I needed to not only have a band, like a gang behind me, but also I needed to have a mask.”

The recording process for what would become Dazzletine’s debut release took place in Diederich’s room over the course of the next year. It steadily evolved into a massive experiment for the two friends as they attempted to establish a new sound — big enough to be suitable for a live, full-band spectacle, but also significantly removed from Koshute’s solo work.

After scrapping what was the equivalent of an album’s worth of material, they came up with the glittering, stomping glam-rock gem “Skin Period.” It ended up providing the blueprint for how the new project should sound, and became the closing track and lead single for the Heart, Mind, Bodies EP.

“After ‘Skin Period,’ our strategy was set; we had the map for the album,” Diederich says. “It’s got these fiery guitar solos, this marching-band sound, multiple over-tracked drums … when we got that sound right [on subsequent songs], we called it ‘dialing in the army.’”

“We knew ‘Skin Period’ would be that spearhead single for the album,” says Koshute. “Darren and I wanted to make a record that sounded like Los Angeles, that sounded like a million bucks, and then we could say, ‘Oh yeah, we did this ourselves in Darren’s bedroom.”

The tracks that followed and ended up on the final product managed to crank up Koshute’s penchant for epic songwriting, guitar pyrotechnics and vocal heroics to unprecedented levels. The one-two punch of “Plumage” and “Thus My Panther” play like early Slade singles on steroids. The anthemic (and percussion-less) “Holy Mothers” piles layers of syrupy guitars on top of Koshute as he howls in the track’s climactic finish: “What’s the word for punishment / in your tongue / Say it for me loud and clear / because it sounds / so heavenly.”

These are songs poised to easily translate into the monstrous live show that Koshute has always envisioned for his music, but they play just as loud coming through a pair of cheap headphones or speakers.

“[We want a sound] that has this intensity, bombast on the brink of terror,” Koshute says with his eyes wide, moving his right hand slowly upward at a 45-degree angle. “Jubilation on the verge of fear … we wanted to do that ourselves. I wanted to outdo myself in every way possible on this record.”

With the release of Heart, Mind, Bodies, Dazzletine makes no qualms about courting coveted boutique indie labels like True Panther Sounds and Underwater Peoples, as well as the major labels (what Koshute called “the top echelon”), for the group’s planned debut full-length. To fulfill Dazzletine’s complete vision, the band needs to move out of the bedroom.

“We squeezed every last drop of sound out of our current recording set-up,” admits Koshute. “To do what we want for the next album, we need to be backed by a label.”

Dan Koshute Creates Glam Rock Band Dazzletine – PGH City Paper – 11-9-11