(TV) scenes-pittsburgh division

["sam matthews" <fangsdaddy@hotmail.com>]

like maurice said, our scene has little sub genres that don't seem to 
interact that much. for awhile the healthy-ist portions were the "rickety" 
bands
http://www.rickety.org/
but their thursday showcase at the 31st pub has been discontinued. also, i 
was enjoying attending the experimental/avant/noise gigs as the scene energy 
reminded me of the punk/indie scene in the late 70's/early 80's.

in the over 20 years i've played in bands in pittsburgh,  our biggest 
problem has been venues. over the last couple of years we've lost two 400 
seat venues & our classic "punk" club (the infamous electric banana). and 
while manny theiner's current performance space, the millvale industrial 
theatre, is where a lot of out of town bands & noisemakers play, there's a 
whole bunch of locals who won't work for him. the rockers can play at the 
31st pub, a really great musician friendly venue, but i suspect the pub may 
be having problems as the new sign out front reads "exotic dancers 4-8pm, 
rock & roll at night." (but i intend to see the dictators there, friday nite 
either way.)

it seems like here there is a whole selection of bands who look at playing 
music as a career choice vs. an artistic decision. the various  "battle of 
the bands" gigs don't help. & radio is less that friendly to the artistic 
sort. the only way for most locals to get any airplay is from WRCT (cmu) & 
WPTS (pitt). & our public station WYEP still has yet to figure out the role 
and usage of the electric guitar. local press (w/the very notable exception 
of ed masley of the pittsburgh post-gazette) is slightly helpful at best to 
those who are acting upon their artistic urges.

sam
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