My Morning Jacket fulfill your prom night evil urges at Station Square this Friday

Plan Your Week Accordingly: August 23 to August 29

Thursday August 26
Larkin Grimm @ Garfield Artworks
Larkin Grimm – Ride That Cyclone

Friday August 27
These United States @ Schenley Plaza
These United States – The Great Rivers

My Morning Jacket @ Amphitheater at Station Square
My Morning Jacket – Mahgeeta

Erie, PA songwriter Roger Harvey, a.k.a. Dandelion Snow, has done enough travelling around the country to know what road music sounds like. Extended stays in Pittsburgh, Portland and New York City  have had this man literally criss crossing the nation for the past few years, and his latest release, June’s The Grand Scheme of Things, plays up the rootless troubadour persona something fierce. The title track is lavishly draped in magic hour sunlight,  dripping with world weary bits of wisdom tinged with the romantic yearnings for another place and time.  Luckily,  Mr. Harvey takes a pause from his road warrior ways to make a stop at Garfield Artworks this Friday, August 7th.

Dandelion Snow – The Grand Scheme of Things

Built to Spill

For the Week of July 26 through August 1st:

Wednesday July 28
Legowelt @ Brillobox (sponsored by Garfield Artworks)

Friday July 30
Bear Cub, Chad Stipes Stereo & Triggers @ Brillobox
The Triggers – Ready Or Not

Kaiser Cartel @ Schenley Plaza
Kaiser Cartel – Ready To Go

Sunday August 1
Built to Spill @ Mr. Small’s
Built to Spill – Goin’ Against Your Mind

Yo La Tengo @ Hartwood Acres
Yo La Tengo – Beanbag Chair

For the Week of July 19 – 25:

Tuesday, July 20
- The Flaming Lips & Fang Island @ The Amphitheater at Station Square

Flaming Lips – Worm Mountain

Fang Island – Daisy

Wednesday, July 21
- Rogue Wave @ Andy Warhol Museum

Rogue Wave – Solitary Gun

Thursday, July 22
- Hammer No More The Fingers @ Garfield Artworks

Hammer No More the Fingers – Nobody Knows

Friday, July 23
- Lightning Bolt @ Belvedere’s (sponsored by Garfield Artworks)

Lightning Bolt – Colossus

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

Philadelphia synth-darkwave artistes Cold Cave come to Garfield Artworks on February 22 along with Hair Police and Lookbook.  I have two tickets to give away for the show, so the first two lucky souls to email me (bowmanpatrick@ymail.com) with “cold cave tickets” in the subject header get the prizes.

Love Comes Close, the group’s Jan 2010 release, is a dead ringer to soundtrack any one of Bret Easton Ellis’ diatribes on the vapidness of 80′s American opulence, more than ready to fill the fictional corridors of some austere modernist penthouse with razor sharp synth lines, emotionless calculating vocals and enough palpable menace to imply a murder plot. All that blackness is set against genuine moments of gleaming electronic pop, defrosting your heart just enough before the darkness returns. Tracks after the jump.

Love Comes Close may imply the dehumanizing results of modernity from a mixture of influences that  seem dated, but the whole packed feels fresh and revitalized.  Even with lead singer Wes Eisold emulating the late Ian Curtis on the majority of his performances, most evident on album’s title cut, the emotionally naked ennui feels genuine (“Love comes close, but chooses to spare me”). “Life Magazine” is a triumphant piece of IDM, with Caralee McElroy’s vocals (formerly of Xiu Xiu) duplicating as she continues through her verse, giving the feel of radio waves shooting into the cosmos.

All the spacey detachment doesn’t mean Love Comes Close is an album void of substance.In reality, Cold Cave are incredibly self-aware of their favorite themes (damaged emotions, nightmarish sound scapes, vacant decadence) and have their inherent aesthetic nailed.  Let them take you to another place far away from the dead, snowy winter of Pittsburgh in February, if only for a couple hours.

Rest of tour:

2/12 — Calendonia Lounge — Athens, GA
2/13 — Studio B — Greensboro, NC
2/16 — Wasted Space — Las Vegas, NV
2/18 — Echoplex — Los Angeles, CA
2/20 — Haverford College — Haverford, PA
2/21 — Mohawk Place — Buffalo, NY
2/22 — Garfield Artworks — Pittsburgh, PA
2/23 — Grog Shop — Cleveland, OH
2/24 — Crofoot Ballroom — Pontiac, MI
2/25 — Empty Bottle — Chicago, IL
2/26 — Project Lodge — Madison, WI
2/27 — Canopy Club/Club Void — Urbana, IL
2/28 — Al’s Bar — Lexington, KY

Cold Cave – Life Magazine

With a birthday on February 13th, Pittsburgh’s live-in rock god Dan Koshute plans to have a concert bash at Garfield Artworks this Saturday opening for Destry along with Mean Creek and Joy Toujours & The Toys Du Jours. Even with the snowpocalypse in full swing, I really hope the city gets its shit together by the weekend.  I, for one, have never seen him live or really written about his music besides a very small piece up in the Steel City’s Top 20 Tracks of 2009.  So in other words, I hope I can make the show.  In the meantime here’s what I think about Dan Koshute:

In the age of glo-fi, shitgaze and whatever other buzz labels the indie blogosphere has thrown upon lo-fi’s stripped down musical aesthetic, coming across an artist who is determined to exhibit master craft musicianship with pristine recording techniques can be some what arresting. That is to say Pittsburgh’s own Dan Koshute doesn’t polish or produce his music within an inch of its humanity, rather his vocals and guitars are deliberately locked into an intense matrix of space and composition, rarely betraying the seams of their formation. I like to think that is one of the main appeals of rock music in general and Koshute seems to do it naturally: making the meticulous appear effortless.   

Koshute’s first solo release Kiss Line is fast and freewheeling, switching between high-octane rockers with his backing trio and folkier solo tracks, marrying his love of 90′s alternative rock with a Robert Plant-sized voice. “Cygnet” is one of the more epic acoustic tracks, propelled by the spiraling guitar line and warm violins as Koshute wordlessly howls in between verses, gorgeously recalling The Bends-era Radiohead.

“Double Dip” and “Kiss Line” form an intense couplet, two breathless firecrackers that act as anchors for Kissline’s first and second halves. In these two tracks especially, Koshute’s bombastic voice can change from melodic croon to red blooded roar on a dime, fearlessly tearing through layers of virtuoso guitar work. “Paris Exhibition” is a road ready folk romp that provides a clear picture of Koshute’s natural talent and song writing abilities. Unrelenting acoustics highlight Koshute’s voice that isn’t performing the vocal gymnastics of Kiss Line‘s more raucous cuts.  With the smaller range and razor sharp mix emerges subtle detail, illustrating a dynamic voice that is just as impressive on a more intimate scale.

Basically, this all points to the fact that Koshute is one of the singular musical talents in Pittsburgh right now and with one stellar LP under his belt so far, I want to assume he has another gear. Yes, Kiss Line is full of anthems, big and small, but I think I’m anxious for an opus, something of scale and size, something Koshute has to be thinking about.  Can this Hart Crane obsessed “Magna Persona” handle such a task?

I don’t doubt him for a minute.

Dan Koshute – Paris Exhibition

Dan Koshute – Kiss Line

When I think of Delaware, I think of a beautifully manicured college campus in the northeast somewhere, complete with ivy-coated brick buildings, pretentious coffee shops and an easy going, all be it progressive, student population.  For all I know, the entire state is like a sprawling, commonwealth version of Williams.

A ridiculous day dream I know, but the endearing charm of The First State’s own Spinto Band, who come to Garfield Artworks this Saturday along with Generationals and Pepi Ginsberg, has me recalling the most romantic days of my undergraduate experience. With Their latest release Slim and Slender, a four song EP out this past October, the Spintos continue their staggeringly consistent streak of three flexible indie pop releases over the past three years.  On Slim and Slender, the group practically radiates the amber aura of a magic hour bon fire with three kegs to kick.

Jackhammer stumbles through the door like a nubile young co-ed looking to hand a freshly sharpened bouquet of no.2 pencils over to his first crush of the semester. “Something says she wants you,” lead singer Nick Krill insists as the sunny, but frayed, guitars splash down, “she hangs on every word.”  The track is nostalgic but up beat, pulling on those ripe heartstrings that some how avoided callousing over years of disappointment.

And that’s where the charm of the Spinto Band lies : reminding us that once upon a time we were all dumb, unseasoned romantic messes, excitedly searching for the next great saga of our life.  Even Keep Them Alive, a song which I think is about masterminding the perfect murder like one masterminds a game of hide and seek, skips and slaps like the most playful version of ourselves we forget we possess.

Even if you aren’t quite ready for that level of self examination, the music is damn fun and catchy as well. If you do happen to make your way up to Garfield Saturday night, try not to get caught up in memory of broken trysts from semesters past.

The Spinto Band – Jackhammer

The Spinto Band – Keep Them Alive

You can tell singer/song writer Luke Temple likes to keep things enigmatic, between his current moniker, Here We Go Magic, his bare-bones MySpace page, and this shimmering, abstract video for “Tunnelvision” off his latest album, I feel fairly confident in asserting this guy plays it close to the chest.  According to YouTube, this video was shot with a super 8 camera, nails and paint with no post production on the outskirts of some god-forsaken lake in the Catskills.  The song it self is a fragile piece of  folk  as ancient as the mountains, tumbling along with pounding drums and background chantings that sound like a group of people in the woods speaking in tongues.  The only lyrics I can pick out is the well pronounced and syncopated “anything–is–poss–ible,” making me, for the first time in a while,actually feel optimistic about whatever (how’s THAT for optimism).  Lucky for Pittsburgh (which I can tell needs a huge pick me up before the cluster fuck that is St. Patrick’s Day), Temple brought a backing band to tour under the name Here We Go Magic and will be playing the Garfield Artworks with Callers on March 9th at 8:00.