MP3 Monday:
This week’s MP3 Monday comes from longstanding rockabilly outfit the Legendary Hucklebucks. “Don’t Feed the Rats” comes from the band’s new record, Hillbilly Death-Wrock Volume One, which they’ll release May 2 at the 31st Street Pub, in the Strip District. Take a listen below. Sorry, this download has expired.
A conversation with Jon Spencer of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
The title of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s latest offering, Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance Party 2015, is a little lengthy. That’s because it attempts to sum up a sound with a lot of components. In a way, it speaks to the band’s whole career. The Blues Explosion have always lugged the history of…
Omni William Penn Hotel will no longer regularly feature Joe Negri; Local jazz fans really pissed
Joe Negri’s last regular show at the Omni is Fri., April 24.
Collect all four #CPMusicIssue covers for a chance to win a CP Concert Prize Pack
Collect all four #CPMusicIssue covers and you might win a CP Concert Prize Pack!
Concert announcements: Die Antwoord, Taake, Smashing Pumpkins, more
It’s TUESDAY which, as we all know, means CONCERT ANNOUNCEMENTS! So without further adieu…. On June 16, Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall hosts “The Smashing Pumpkins In Plainsong — An Acoustic-Electro Evening.” That’s right: Billy Corgan and friends will be playing an acoustic-ish set of stuff from the Pumpkins catalogue, plus Zwan songs and solo…
New Attractions at Pittsburgh Three Rivers Arts Festival
June 5-14 event includes “Unseen/Unheard” theme, expanded public-art offerings
MP3 Monday: Chip DiMonick
This week’s MP3 Monday comes to you from local hard rockers Chip DiMonick. “You Ain’t Punk” is a defiant number off the band’s heavy, in-your-face fifth album, Uncaged, which it released earlier this month. Take a listen below, and check out our review of Uncaged.
Artist group Dadpranks explores mall culture in Sensory3
Project inhabited Century III for the weekend
Pittsburgh City Council candidate Kaplan holds official campaign launch
Pittsburgh City Council District 5 candidate Kimberly Kaplan talked politics over pizza at her official campaign launch this past weekend.
Lynn Cullen Live 4/20/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Lynn calls it quits on 4802. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Pittsburgh’s p4 Summit Touts Sustainability, Leaves Issues Unexplored
The kickoff of the big p4 Pittsburgh summit got a lot of mileage out of this familiar Einstein quote: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them.”
Trailers for Sale or Rent: Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2; Monkey Kingdom; Child 44
These films were not screened for critics locally, so we took a look at the trailers.
District 9 City Council candidate Judith Ginyard stands out at forum
At a candidate forum for the District 9 City Council election, candidate Judith Ginyard stood out for words and actions.
Steel City Slam-Off Tonight at Union Project
Top-ranked slam poets in town compete tonight to represent Pittsburgh at the National Poetry Slam.
Lynn Cullen Live 4/17/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Lynn discusses ‘The King & I’, scary robots and the TV news industry. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Highmark Stadium to host Steve Miller Band, others
The Pittsburgh Riverhounds home will open the pitch to its first concert this summer. The inaugural concert at the soccer stadium will be Steve Miller Band June 14, with opener Don Felder of the Eagles. Tickets for the show range from $65 for general admission to $135 for VIP tickets and will be on sale…
CP Weekend Podcast – April 17 – 19, 2015
[audio-1] This week: Break your heart over Othello, laugh with Mark Maron and live La Vie en Rose with Dreadnought Wines.
Lynn Cullen Live 4/16/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. HBO documentary, “Going Clear” on Scientology is a must see. 60 postman lands lawn chair on DC law. Gravity Payments CEO takes 90% pay cut in order to be able to pay each of his employees 70,000. $15.00 an hour minimum wage. Audio Only Archive…
Sawasdee Thai Kitchen
Sawasdee Thai Kitchen 112 Abbeyville Road Upper St. Clair Hours: Mon.-Thu. 3-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun. noon-9 p.m. Prices: Appetizers $3-8; entrees $10-17 Liquor: BYOB In happy contrast to a decade ago, Thai restaurants now abound in the Pittsburgh dining universe. They range from tiny take-out storefronts to swankier establishments built on the…
Lotus’ Luke Miller, a.k.a. Luke The Knife, announced as surprise Pittsburgh Earth Day DJ
Earth Day Pop-up Dance Party with Luke The Knife 4:22 p.m. Wed., April 2 Schenley Plaza 4100 Forbes Ave. Oakland Free pittsburgh earthday.org For the past several weeks, organizers of Pittsburgh Earth Day have been teasing on social media that a surprise DJ would be spinning at a pop-up dance party in Oakland’s Schenley Plaza…
Brewing partnerships highlight Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week
Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week is — gasp — not a week. Running April 17-26, it is actually 10 days devoted to learning about, celebrating and (mainly) drinking craft beer. And of the 300 or so events scheduled for this year’s PCBW, there’s one that’s got everyone buzzing: the debut of the collaboration beers. “We have…
Meeting of Important People expands its catalog with a new single
MEETING OF IMPORTANT PEOPLE with VAN ALLEN BELT, MORGAN ERINA 7:30 p.m. Sat., April 18 The Andy Warhol Museum 117 Sandusky St. North Side $10 412-237-8300 or www.warhol.org Meeting of Important People has been at it for a while, becoming a household name in Pittsburgh and the surrounding region. The group has consistently released solid…
Local artisanal ice-cream maker Millie’s Homemade ponders the challenges in expanding
When Chad Townsend assumed the top spot at Garfield’s Salt of the Earth, he thought he might finally be running his dream restaurant. But it never quite felt like his, and he left just a few months after becoming its executive chef. Soon, he and his wife, Lauren, started Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream, named for…
Critics’ Picks, April 16 – 22
[ROCK] + FRI., APRIL 17 Tonight, The Shop hosts a bonkers, experimental bill: noise rockers Linear Downfall headline a disparate collection of bands. The Nashville quartet plans to release its new album, Sufferland, later this month with an accompanying film that the band funded on Indiegogo. Hitting some of the same adventurous beats as Linear…
In miniature, larger-than-life-sized and in between, three artists impress at the Society for Contemporary Craft
BRIDGE 13: KEITH LO BUE, ELISABETH HIGGINS O’CONNOR, JASON WALKER continues thorugh Aug. 22 Society for Contemporary Craft 2100 Smallman St. Strip District 412-261-7003 or contemporary craft.org In Bridge 13, the Society for Contemporary Craft presents works by three different artists — Keith Lo Bue, Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor and Jason Walker — not in a…
New Releases
Concealed Blade Demo 2015 [Braddock Hit Factory] concealedblade.bandcamp.com At the nine-second mark of this demo, there is a sick dive-bomb that, my first time through, had me instantly intrigued. Eight minutes, seven songs, a million guitar squeals and a few gang vocals later, I was totally hooked. Made up of people who have been kicking…
Sweden’s Pontus Lidberg Dance makes its Pittsburgh debut
PONTUS LIDBERG DANCE 8 p.m. Sat., April 18 Byham Theater 101 Sixth St. Downtown $19-55 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org In its Pittsburgh debut, Sweden’s Pontus Lidberg Dance will perform two works by dancer/choreographer Pontus Lidberg that have recently been revamped. Opening the April 18 Pittsburgh Dance Council program will be “Written on Water,” created in 2014…
Pennsylvania may be turning to online gambling to generate new revenue, but is it a smart bet?
With the state facing a multi-billion-dollar deficit and a proposed tax increase in Gov. Tom Wolf’s first budget, Pennsylvania Rep. John Payne says he doesn’t want to miss any opportunity to infuse dollars into the state’s coffers. That’s why in February, Payne, a seven-term Republican legislator from Hershey who serves as the chairman of the…
Quantum Theatre’s All the Names
ALL THE NAMES continues through May 2 The Original Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny Allegheny Square East North Side $18-49 412-362-1713 or quantum theatre.com All the Names is an adaptation of the eponymous José Saramago novel. The 1997 book won the Portuguese author the Nobel Prize for literature, and Quantum Theatre honors the late, revered storyteller…
Garfield tattoo shop goes online to pay for costly renovations
Video by Ashley Murray Sitting amidst a mix of small businesses and construction projects on Penn Avenue in Garfield, Artisan Tattoo studio stands out because of a banner on its facade. “Keep Artisan Alive,” the sign reads. Jason and Meliora Angst bought the building in 2012 and have been working to rehab it ever since.…
Three Sisters at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama
THREE SISTERS continues April 21-25 Philip Chosky Theater CMU campus Oakland $28.75 412-268-2407 drama.cmu.edu Because I’ve left such a long paper trail on the subject, there’s no point in trying to deny it — Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters is my least favorite play ever written. It concerns the eponymous troika of dames who, at the…
Activist entertains and informs with ‘Communitopia’ environmental-outreach program
FutureFest 2015 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat., April 25. 1 Schenley Drive, Oakland. Complete schedule at Future FestPgh.com To many people, “environmentalist” and “environmentalism” are unfriendly terms. They conjure images of people lecturing you about melting ice caps, and summon feelings of guilt and a sense of hopelessness. The trouble, says Joylette Portlock, lies largely with…
A new adaptation of Strindberg’s The Dance of Death; new productions of Othello and Streetcar Named Desire
When a key work by a major playwright hasn’t been staged here for 20 years or more, there’s a reason. With August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death, Andrew Paul says it’s largely because most translations and stagings mistook this 1900 dark comedy about a brutal marriage for a straight drama. Strindberg’s grim Swedish humor is…
Savage Love
I consider myself a straight guy — but for the last four years, I’ve been having an affair with “Connie,” a trans girl I met online. It was just casual at first, but over time we developed a deeper personal relationship but kept it hidden. At some point, I figured out she was in love…
Best known for his podcast, Marc Maron brings his standup to town
MARC MARON’s MARONATION TOUR 8 p.m. Fri., April 17 Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall 510 E. 10th Ave. Munhall $25-35 library musichall.com Occasionally, a story about standup comedian Marc Maron bubbles up in the mainstream press. Each time, the writer is forced to do something he must know in his heart to be antithetical to…
Short List: April 15 – 21
FREE — Wed., April 22 — Festival It’s easy enough to overstate how “green” Pittsburgh is: Our air and rivers are still pretty dirty, after all; our suburbs still sprawl and our traffic still jams. Nevertheless, the region is paying more attention to things like energy conservation and renewables. Pittsburgh Earth Day, billed as the…
JFilm
The 22nd annual JFilm, formerly known as the Pittsburgh Jewish-Israeli Film Festival, opens its 11-day run on Thu., April 16. The festival offers 20 recent films from Israel and around the world representing Jewish experiences from the comic to the dramatic, as presented through narrative features and documentaries. Films screen at the following venues: Manor,…
Metalhead
Make no mistake: Metal music matters in Ragnar Bragason’s drama, but at its heart, Metalhead is a surprisingly affecting film about grief and faith. Set in rural Iceland in the 1980s, the film opens with tragedy, when 12-year-old Hera witnesses her older brother killed in a tractor accident. A few years later, adult Hera (Thora…
The Longest Ride
Today: Can a sweet sorority girl (Britt Robertson) find true love with a bull-rider (Scott Eastwood) fighting back from a head injury? Or what about the 1940s, where there’s an Austrian Jewish refugee (Oona Chaplin) who wants lots of kids and a war hero (Jack Huston) with a … uh … significant injury? How could…
Salad Days: The DC Punk Revolution
Scott Crawford’s documentary recounts the formation, influence and (as always) splintering of the Washington, D.C., punk scene in the 1980s. Among the significant topics: the “birth” of straight-edge and, later, emo-core; the DIY aesthetic that spurred the creation of off-beat venues, zines and even a well-regarded record label (Dischord); and assorted scene tensions (sexism, violence,…
Spring
The aimless young American who goes to Europe and discovers love, the meaning of life or a fresh start (or all three) is a longtime popular trope in both dramas and romances. But rarely in metaphysical horror works — until now. In Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s genre hybrid, Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) travels to…
True Story
Truth can be stranger than fiction, but beyond that accepted assertion, the distinctions between fact and fiction can be slippery. Rupert Goold’s drama is adapted from Michael Finkel’s eponymous account of his bizarre encounter with various truths. In 2001, Finkel (portrayed by Jonah Hill) was fired from his writing job at The New York Times,…
Stuff We Like
Outdoor Chess Tables. Shake winter’s dust off your brain at one of several tables around town. Bring your own chessmen, or checkers pieces. This table’s in Friendship. The Goldfinch. Donna Tartt’s 2013 Pulitzer-winning novel follows a teenager who becomes a quasi-accidental art thief after his mother is killed in a terrorist attack at the Metropolitan…
The Mountain Goats’ Jon Wurster talks about Beat The Champ, the Best Show, and the moments he’ll remember on his deathbed
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS with IDES OF GEMINI 8 p.m. Thu., April 23 Mr. Small’s Theatre 400 Lincoln Ave. Millvale 412-821-4447 or mrsmalls.com Jon Wurster is an exceptionally busy guy. He’s the drummer for the Mountain Goats, Superchunk and for Bob Mould’s band. He’s played with Katy Perry on at least one occasion. He’s also something…
Artisan Tattoo on Penn Ave nearing crowdfunding deadline – CP TV
Video by Ashley Murray
Lynn Cullen Live 4/15/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Clinton doesn’t need the bells and whistles for run announcement. U.S. army’s reaction to Ebola didn’t serve communities. The defense budget, why the way it is and where it’s going. Population decline. The fate of liberal arts edu. Women in broadcasting. Audio Only Archive Listen…
