Tags: Pittsburgh , Tree of Life synagogue , Indian Community Center , Tree of Life , River City Brass Band , Ashkay Hari , Krisnha Sharma , Image
Tags: Elton John , Rocketman , PPG Paints , PPG Paints Arena , Live Nation , Live Nation Pgh , Pittsburgh , Farewell Yellow Brick Road , Image
There’s one quote that sums up Justin Timberlake’s performance: “Every girl in here is going crazy, and all the guys are standing still.” My boyfriend leaned over to tell me this as we watched Timberlake serenade the crowd and effortlessly move his body in time with the music last night at PPG Paints Arena.
And he was right. Justin Timberlake is for the ladies. Upon entering the arena, it was astonishing how many women filled the seats. Baby boomers, millennials, it didn't matter the age, JT’s appeal transcends generations.
Tags: Justin Timberlake , Man of the Woods , PPG Paints Arena , Image
Honesty isn’t something Taylor Goldsmith, lead singer and songwriter of the Southern California band, Dawes, takes lightly.
Two days before kicking off the North American An Evening With Dawes: Passwords Tour, Goldsmith set aside 15 minutes to discuss the upcoming tour and Dawes’ latest album, Passwords. While talking to Goldsmith, I was stuck with how raw his responses where. He oozed honestly through the phone and didn’t fall into the trap many artists tend to when interviewed, which is filling your ears with PR jargon. I left our conversation feeling like I got an intimate peek into the mind of Taylor Goldsmith.
The same can be said for Dawes’ sixth album, Passwords. This album is the first Dawes recorded purely for themselves, without critics and fans in mind.
Tags: Pittsburgh Concerts , Dawes , Stage AE , Passwords Tour , Taylor Goldsmith , Image
Tags: Laurel Hill State Park , Laurel Hill Bluegrass Festival , Bluegrass Festival , Allegheny Grifters , Colebrook Road , Jakob's Ferry Stragglers , Pittsburgh , Somerset , Pennsylvania , Image
To some musicians, this might seem like a daunting concept.
But Merritt is the same songwriter who created 69 Love Songs, the Magnetic Fields’ opus that approached the idea of amour from that many angles, lyrically and musically, from ukulele-driven folkiness to synth-pop to experimental sound. Released on Merge Records in 1999, the album is considered a high watermark for indie rock and established Merritt as a skilled composer with an unmatched lyrical wit and sense of melody.
Speaking from his New York home in his dry, understated manner, Merritt explains his approach to the five-record/five-CD 50 Song Memoir.
Tags: Magnetic Fields , Stephin Merritt , Robert Hurwitz , Nonesuch Records , FFW>> , Image
Jenny Lewis has a wicked sense of humor and a gift for crafting brilliant songs.
Since her early days with Rilo Kiley to her current thriving solo career, Lewis continues to make art that's entrancing but still accessible. Her 2014 record, The Voyager, was a spectacular alt-country release with smart lyrics and captivating melodies. CP caught up with Lewis as she prepared for a tour in the midst of mixing her forthcoming, still unnamed record.
Tags: Jenny Lewis , The Voyager , rainbow marijuana leaf suit , Jonathan Rice , FFW>> , Image
Tags: cinco de mayo , cinco de derby , latin music , latino , latina , hispanic , south america , spain , spanish , espanol , music , musica , CP Extra , Image
Tags: Pittsburgh Music Ecosystem Project Town Hall Meeting , Abby Goldstein , Kelly-Strayhorn Theater , WYEP , Emily Plazek , FFW>> , Image
When City Paper recently called Eve Alpert, she was pulled over on the side of the road to talk on the phone “without being a distracted driver!” The guitarist and vocalist of pysch-pop band Palm was en route to vacuum the van before their latest tour.
In the following forty minutes, we chatted about Palm's latest record Rock Island, making pop music that's also weird and writing music patiently and slowly.
Rock Island, the latest Palm record, came out Feb. 9. How does it feel to finally have that body of work out in the open?
It feels longer, maybe because the stream came out a week ago. This is the most excited we’ve been about a release and about the music and recording that we’ve ever been. I’m really happy and very happy with the music.
This is the first time we felt very confident about all the songs we wrote, and we’ve really focused on making a cohesive, unified record. With all our previous releases, they were just the songs we had at the time, so making the songs feel cohesive and whole was always an afterthought, but this time it was an intentional act from the first song we wrote. It was also the first time we’ve had a lot of time to record.
Tags: Palm , pop , Philadelphia , Club Cafe , psych-rock , psych , Eve Alpert , FFW>> , Image