Re: (TV) scenes-pittsburgh division

[Ken Thompsen <joseph-k@swbell.net>]

on 7/17/01 10:11 AM, sam matthews at fangsdaddy@hotmail.com wrote:

> 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

Hey, thanks for the info. Pittsburgh, of all places, is one I've never had a
clear picture of. I guess Pennsylvania as a whole for that matter. Texas is
huge, but narrow minded -- hicks, urban hicks, and outsiders (who are
disappearing unfortunately). I've always known that Penn is fragmented in
many ways and I guess it goes for the music too. It seems pretty clear that
most of our towns suffer some kind of artistic suppression (more or less)
and I'm not feeling so bad anymore. 

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