Rock ‘n’ roll problems, for most of the world, aren’t real problems. The Hold Steady knows this fact intimately, but doesn’t seem to care. The Brooklyn-by-way-of-Minneapolis group believes in a world where Paul Westerberg and Bruce Springsteen are saints, redemption is found at the bottom of a bottle, and miracles happen nightly on bar stages across America.

With its upcoming release Heaven Is Whenever (out May 4), the band’s lineup has changed — mustachioed keyboardist Franz Nicolay left the group last January — but not its philosophy. The album’s lead single “Hurricane J” has all the trademarks of the Steady’s boozy, Midwestern romanticism: charging guitars, anthemic choruses and lead singer Craig Finn’s street-prophet poetics.

If anything, the group seems a bit more self-aware about its status as “America’s Greatest Bar Band,” a label that has followed The Hold Steady around for years. On the song “Rock Problems,” from Heaven Is Whenever, Finn howls, “She said, ‘I just can’t sympathize / with your rock ‘n’ roll problems.’” The band is seemingly coming to grips with a world that doesn’t seem to be on the same page as its rock-as-religion gospel.

But when the group rolls into Diesel on April 14 for its fourth show in Pittsburgh in four years, the outside world won’t really matter. Just listen to the last words of “Rock Problems” — Finn makes it perfectly clear where The Hold Steady stands on the subject. “This is just what we wanted,” he yells, “this is just what we wanted.”

The Hold Steady brings rock ‘n’ roll problems to Diesel – PGH City Paper 4/8/10  

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are six years from their last release and about 14 years removed from the eye of the storm they created. After the group’s initial three record output in the early 90′s that focused on fusing noise rock, hip-hop drum patterns and delta blues together by any means necessary ending with 1994′s Orange, the boys had varying results sprawling in every goddamn direction. Regardless, their live shows were legendary. Each set came down like a ton of bricks on fire, showering crowds with heaving masses of seething New York City rage and white hot blues swagger. And no one really attempted to challenge The JSBX’s persona as new age, hardcore bluesmen;  the group predated the short lived garage rock revival of  The White Stripes, Mooney Suzuki and The Hives (among others) by a good five years.

Until 1996, however, the pieces had yet to come together in the studio sessions to recreate the incendiary nature of the JSBX’s best performances. But with Now I Got Worry, The Blues Explosion finally coalesced their influences into a sweaty, volatile stick of dynamite, injecting the recklessness of their infamous live act into the raw production techniques that pumped up tracks like “Skunk,” “Wail,” and “Fuck Shit Up” with red levels of hairy distortion. The album is a shotgun blast of the Stooges proto-punk, Muddy Waters slide guitar and rockabilly’s cruising road-ready weirdness, easily sounding as fresh as it did 14 years ago. Tracks after the jump.

Shout Factory! has just released Now I Got Worry (along with seminal live LP Controversial Negro) as an expanded reissue, complete with 12 b-sides and unreleased tracks as well as four radio spots.  For JBSX super fans,  this volume is a must have, documenting almost the entire studio session that brought Now I Got Worry to fruition.  Coupled with the group’s reunion tour, which makes a stop at Diesel later tonight, The Blues Explosion is back on the radar, ready to recapture some of that raw, unmitigated insanity that established them as iconoclasts of independent, American rock way back in the 20th century.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Skunk

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Love All of Me

Remember that time when you heard about that awesome show, but only after the fact, and then you got that weird feeling in your stomach, like when you went too high on the playground swings? Plan Your Week Accordingly is a new feature of Speed of the Pittsburgh Sound which aims to help you never ever have that feeling again (at least about shows). We highlight the “must-sees” from our perspective, give you the date and the locale, and leave the rest to your impeccable/implacable discretion. Shows and tracks after the jump.

For the Week of July 12 – 18

Tuesday, July 13
- Kurt Vile and Real Estate @ Garfield Artworks
Kurt Vile – Hunchback

Thursday, July 15
- Jon Spencer Blues Explosion @ Diesel
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Orange

- Clem Snide and The Heligoats @ Club Cafe
Clem Snide – The Meat Of Life

Sunday, July 18
- Old 97′s @ Mr. Smalls
Old 97′s – Jagged

I watched St. Vincent, other wise known as the saintly Annie Clark, slink up onto Diesel’s stage this past Sunday night in a dress that would be suited for a goth Jan Jetson.  She weaved her way through the maze of guitars, microphones, her 7 or so pedals, a key board, a flute, a clairnet and a violin.

It’s easy to forget when you listen to 2009′s Actor or 2007′s Marry Me how each song, even the ballads, have countless moving parts. Watching Clark negotiate this overflowing stage, I suddenly felt as if this was the physical manifestation her little musical dream world, a place she fits into like a perfectly crafted diamond cog.

Petite, angelically light skinned with jet black curls and blood red lips, Clark  also makes it abundantly clear in the closing moments of “The Strangers,” which opened the set, that she is a guitar goddess.

Balancing an off-kilter virtuosity with an insatiable appetite for feedback, Clark devoured abyss black distortion every chance she could get. But even amidst the most hectic breakdowns, she would allow the storm to evaporate.  Clark revels in the abrupt transitions, licking her lips with a knowing smirk and awkward giggle, only to hum a gorgeously banal harmony in the guitar frenzy’s aftermath.

She spun through all the highlights of Actor with razor precision:  “Actor Out of Work” sounded even more confrontational live,  “Marrow’s”  chorus vibrated with a chunky bravado, and “Black Rainbow” reached it’s climax like melodramatic score of a silent movie, just like it was supposed to.  Marry Me’s “Jesus Saves, I Spend” made an appearance early in the set, as did a solo rendtion of “Paris is Burning” that was made even more devestating with Clark’s solitude on stage.

One cover (if you can call it that) also made its way into the set: an alternate version of Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day.” Clark described her take on Ice Cube’s classic as “a condensed version, aged about 30 years and sung by a morbidly depressed woman.” (note: the song was actually “These Days” by Jackson Browne, Clark simply said it reminded her of Ice Cube’s track)

The cherry on top of the sundae, or the lit fuse on top of the bomb, was the apocalyptic, searing, extremely anticipated extended version of “Your Lips  Are Red” in the encore.  The four minute, distortion drenched coda had more than its share of Zeppelin-like grandeur, even prompting Clark to kneel down over her pedals, pump and smack her guitar causing endless ripples of static and basically revel in the maximum control of her 40 foot swell of electricity.

Frankly, that’s how everything in life should end.

St. Vincent – Your Lips Are Red

For the first time since like June of 2009, the updated concert calendar through April is available for your viewing pleasure.  I also made a point to include Morgantown fixture 123 Pleasant Street as a concert venue worth your attention, considering they get just as many national tours, Pittsburgh acts and home grown bands from West Virgnia (Librarians, anyone?) playing their stage as any other venue in the steel city.

Regardless, in my opinion there are a few highlights: Surfer Blood, The Heligoats, Real Estate, The Smith Westerns, Girls, The Dum Dum Girls, Baroness, and last but not least The Hold Steady. But, I have to say, St. Vincent coming to town in a little over a week is making me giddy.

St. Vincent (a.k.a. Annie Clark) skipped over the burgh in the spring of 2009, touring in support of her near perfect sophomore LP Actor.  This time around, Joker Productions snagged the Brooklyn songstress along with Swedish, bluesy/freak folkers Wildbirds and Peacedrums for what surely is the most anticipated show of the next month at Diesel on February 21st.  Expect a show review to follow, in the meantime enjoy St. Vincent’s “Actor Out of Work” and “Save me From What I Want” and Wildbirds and Peacedrum’s “Doubt/Hope.” Tracks after the jump.

St. Vincent – Actor Out Of Work

St. Vincent – Save Me From What I Want

Wildbirds and Peacedrums – Doubt/Hope

The man known as Diplo (a.k.a. Thomas Welsey Pentz, Philadelphia-based DJ, producer, and songwriter) put on a master class of mashup beat making for a city spoiled with talented, upstart laptop artists (Girl Talk and Discuss among others).  He casually manipulated a thunderously vibrant sonic narrative for a motley crew of sweat drenched indie kids, frat boy gawkers, greased up clubbers, and rap video cliches that, by the end of the night, were throwing up their “hand” guns in complete unison for the violent, felony laden chorus of this distinguished DJ’s most famous opus, M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes.”

2-parts ass shaking, hedonistic excess, 1-part jazz infused improvisation, Diplo’s mix was characterized by a series of build ups and cathartic release, occasionally slowing the party down long enough to showcase one spectacular, sparse synth sample at a time.  By breaking down the components of his mixing wizardry, Diplo challenged his audience to witness the evolution of a fully realized composition from the very first point of its genesis.

While some could call this the indulgent act of a jaded DJ, I found it fascinating to connect the  electrical dots flying out of the monitors.  Diplo, with his oft-repeated “Pittsburgh, COME ON”‘s, was personally showing the crowd what it means to be one of the word’s most intensely cerebral and eclectic DJ’s.  He coolly spotlighted   his choice, taste-making samples, the unforgiving mutilation of classic rock songs (Smells Like Teen Spirit and Thunderstruck to name a few), and a couple complete overhauls of artists he had more than a hand in scuplting (Santogold and M.I.A.), all of this while looking back to us with a small  smirk of clever recognition.

As scholarly as that all just sounded, the show was also an unmitigated shit storm of strobe lights, blow up dolls, and Maker’s Mark, concluding with my realization that by the end of the night, DJ Nugget and Laser Crunk (two of the shows opening acts)  were throwing down right in front of me, spastically dancing right along with the rest of us.  Diplo didn’t step on to the stage until well after midnight, and walked off somewhere around 2:15 AM, resulting in quite a Thursday night for the lot of us. After the set ended, I seriously wondered if  Diesel can ever possess that much cred again.

M.I.A. – Sunshowers (Diplo Mix)

The Black Lips – Veni Vidi Veci (Diplo Mix)