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”

Much to my own surprise, being that it was only the second time I had ever visited My Old Kentucky Blog, Donora has just premiered their video for “I Think I Like You,” which is their second, along with “Shout,” off their self titled debut from December last year. What transpires is nothing less than a virtuoso hoola hooping experience by a young lady named Laura Bergstein shot in one continuous take.  The visuals suit the unmitigated innocence of the track perfectly, as the radioactively green hoola hoop produces a stark contrast to the dilapidated ice cream stand in the background (start speculating on your own allegorical implications here).  Quite a pleasant surprise to help me get back into the swing of writing, which I hope to do more this week with my completed summer concert round up.  In the mean time, bask in the heart-melting sweetness of arguably Donora’s prettiest track.

So in the battle for the night of July 31 st  between Opus One Productions (Girl Talk Concert) and Joker Productions (Neko Case concert) it seems as if the final tactical maneuver on behalf of Opus One has rendered the Neko Case show (in my opinion anyway) obsolete.

Opus One (most likely at the behest of Mr. Greg Gillis) has proceeded to gather arguably the greatest collection of Pittsburgh-based talent on one bill in years.  In addition to the illustrious Girl Talk, the lineup will include Wiz Khalifa, Don Caballero, Donora, Grand Buffet, The Modey Lemon, and Centipede Eest peforming together at the Ampitheater at Station Square on July 31st at 6:00 pm.

The combination of The Modey Lemon, Grand Buffet and Don Caballero alone, who are all Pittsburgh legends respectively but played very few local shows as of late, has me frothing at the mouth.  And of course, anyone who has ever attended a Girl Talk concert knows what that means.  Mr. Gillis’ victory lap last fall at Gravity Nightclub was one for the ages, complete with a New Year’s-like blanket of  black and gold balloons, a large projection screen shooting up an elaborate collage of Pittsburgh sports iconography, and more high school kids than anyone could have possibly imagined.

Girl Talk was the first Pittsburgh-based artist I decided to write about.  When Night Ripper hit my iPod in the fall of 2006, which was passed onto me by a friend of mine  at Princeton’s WPRB, I did a number of things.  First, I frantically shoved the record in front of every member of my college soccer team, five of whom I lived with, desperately explaining how this guy, Greg Gillis, came from Pittsburgh and was the DJ equivalent of Batman (at the time of the record’s release Gillis was working at a still unnamed Pittsburgh- based chemical engineering company, repeatedly escaping the white collar grind to play riotous weekend gigs across the northeast, all while his co-workers were none the wiser).

Second, I came to the obvious conclusion that Night Ripper must become a pregame, house party, and late night dance session staple, simply because the album possessed an unparalleled ability to pitch the most disparate group of people into a dancing fervor.  Most importantly, I realized that Greg Gillis’ taste for popular music was unrivaled by any DJ working today.  Yes, while his technical prowess is impressive, (I read somwhere he crafted his albums, most averaging 200+ samples, using only a wave editor and a calculator) his keen ear for brilliant mash up combinations has taken a genre previously maligned as a mere novelty to an entirely different, challenging level.  A simple list of his most famous combinations will cement this fact: The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” -  Ying Yang Twins’ “The Whisper Song,”  The Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin” – UGK ‘s “International Player’s Anthem,” Metallica’s “One” – Lil Mama’s “Lip Gloss,” and last but not least, Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” – Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.”

With such a strong line up of groups leading to the explosion of pure, unmitigated fun that is a Girl Talk  live show, I am convinced this will easily become the party of the summer.

Girl Talk – Play Your Part pt. 1

The one thing that pisses me off about this video is that initially, the dude who comes back to find his room ransacked into an impromptu dream concert with the most fantastic indie pop band in Pittsburgh seems slightly perturbed.  Granted the guy’s mood appears to me for only a split second, before he starts bopping along maniacally, seizure style, crashing into the band’s “stage” and ruining everything.  But maybe that’s how it would actually happen: Donora would relocate several times across the house to find the perfect nook to rock out, before taking it to the suburban streets with a horde of indie kids in tow (sigh).  Donora’s got a show coming up on the 11th at the Hard Rock Cafe, so I figured the world should get a look at this video which compliments the group’s sound with crystal clear synergy.  They aren’t the  darlings of Pittsburgh’s music scene for nothing.

So I’m a month and a half removed from Donora’s coming out party in front of a healthy crowd on Carson st. at the Rex Theater on January 19th, 2008. Along side Bre’er Fox and Meeting of Important People, Donora closed the set by cruising through the bulk of their self titled debut. The album cover to said debut can only be described as precious: a golden framed diorama of a South Park-treated three piece, sans musicians, clearly declaring one thing from the image association alone, Donora is probably the tightest indie pop group in Pittsburgh.

Their album release party in December came as a no frills affair. They seemed happy to play a bigger stage than accustomed, but came off a little wide eyed. Luckily, the bouncy bass licks Jake Churton was laying down and Ms. Casey Hanner’s gorgeous siren easily filled all the corners of the hall, cozying up to even the most distant hipster, posted up on the back bar, quietly spilling beer on his $40 cotton American Apparel t-shirt. Tight, however, is the operative word, as every song leaves little room for air or complacency, each brimming with a compositional velocity that would have all those Arts and Crafts cats bouncing their heads in unison.

The record’s production by brother Jake Hanner and father, and country musician, Dave Hanner comes off clean with just the slightest tints of echo even in concert. The urgent album opener “Shout” begins the show and all of the sudden everything is rushing along at speeds that are quick but absorbing, until the shattering chorus lets Ms. Hanner stretch out for a few bars in between the frantic cymbals, bass hits, and guitar slams.

The band was anxious to make an impression and it did, leaving a crowd dizzy with pop, creating a positive energy that was palpable; people might as well have been hugging each other in appreciation as they fell out into the crisp, Pittsburgh December.

The second show in as many months was the same only different. It was late January and I was squeezing my way to the second floor of the Brillobox in Lawrenceville, after the show sold out quicker than could possibly imagine. I made my way to the bar, ordered three PBR drafts for some friends, and looked out over the packed house. The scrupulously hip chandelier in the room hung in paltry comparison to the heads below; all frothing at the mouth to hear yet another dose of pop so pure it should be illegal. I don’t want to say Donora can’t handle a bigger venue like The Rex, but the Brillobox fit like a glove, allowing Churton’s bass to shake the floor and Ms. Hanners voice to ricochet off the empty halls of the new children’s hospital down the street. They cut their chops at this epicenter of hip and you could feel it. Half the crowd knew the band the other half knew their songs verbatim, allowing that warm fuzzy feeling to rise up again making the event feel like a Rock Show, capital R, capital S.

This comfort level was ruefully apparent in two areas: Ms. Hanner playfully whispering to the crowd in the chorus of “Shh” like she was prepping you for a kiss on a swingset, and her frantic shouting of the gun shots in the chorus of M.I.A.’s mega smash “Paper Planes,” talk about an absolute choice cover pick that nearly brought the house down. You can no longer ignore Pittsburgh’s upstart music scene now, with music this good being played on practically a weekly basis by bands across Pittsburgh with Donora leading the charge, it’s an exciting time. Pittsburgh is a town that worships unpretentiousness, and the City’s version of indie rock starts with Donora: tight, bouncy, dense, beautiful and genuine. Again, what more could you ask for?

Donora – Shout

Donora – Shh