First off, what’s the plan after the Post-Gazette layoff – I’m sorry to see that happen.
The new ownership said they’d keep going with the strengths of the paper and I guess they felt I wasn’t one of them. I had a nice, long career here – it was longer than I expected. I’m just concerned about the younger people there – their need to figure out what’s next. I think many will probably have to relocate.
It leaves a big gap in the city’s music coverage for sure…
I didn’t have the sponsorships for the music section that the other sections had – I didn’t have LiveNation sponsoring my section – which is probably a good thing now!
But, in my hour of desperation and despair, I was approached by the one and only Manny Theiner. He said, “Merv, let’s start a Super-blog.” We enlisted jazz writer extraordinaire Mike Shanley, making it three writers from the heyday of the alt weeklies.
We call it Sonic Pit (on Substack) and the plan is to generate the best music coverage in Pittsburgh— because the scene deserves it. So I’m excited to launch this new project!
What have been the big changes in the local music scene over years you’ve notices?
It used to be that I could call Rich Engler when DiCesare-Engler Productions managed the local music scene and get great quotes – he’d give me great stuff. Now there are no local promoters – I think I got one good, usable quote from LiveNation over my career.
There’s not much change in terms of the number of clubs – when one goes out of business another one opens. There is a new big LiveNation club opening up in Pittsburgh soon – the Wylie. That should be incredible – it has a flexible layout so it can seat 4,000 or 1,000. That should make the local music scene even better.
Were the clubs different than they are now?
We had three great clubs back in the day – Graffiti, The Electric Banana and The Decade. They were amazing venues. I remember walking into The Decade and trying to get to the back room and there was a dude in the way – it was Steven Tyler. I just thought “Holy shit!” Aerosmith was playing the next day in Pittsburgh. He got on stage that night and played with a Boston band called The Neighborhood.
The venues then had so much heart and grit. You knew you could go to any place and see something you liked – six or seven nights a week. That doesn’t exist as much now.
Graffiti -you’d see Dave Mason or Dave Bromby one night, then Sonic Youth or Social Distortion the next evening. Then some group from Africa the next day. It didn’t matter who was there, you knew it was going to be something cool.
Now they are more showcase venues. Mr. Smalls is awesome, but it’s not a scene like those places. In the 1980s four local bands had major record labels. That’s when The Clarks and Rusted Root played – I saw them both when they first played at Graffiti. The rock challenge was an important part of that time – Bill Deasy’s band Shilo won one of those. Bill was always playing there at the front stage bit seemed.
Then the scene moved to Nick’s Fat City – The Clarks, Brownie Mary played there and some alt-rock bands too like the Buzz Poets.
Seems like Pittsburgh has had an oddly diverse music scene – is that true and how reflective of the city is it?
You compare it to Nashville – Nashville has two types of music scenes based in country music. Pittsburgh has a little bit of everything. Norm Nardini, the Silencers, Iron City House Rockers….they were all struggling bands that I thought would really take off but didn’t really go anywhere outside of the city. Then Christina Aguilera came out of nowhere – who expected that? Then Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa became the two most successful artists ever to come out of Pittsburgh and with hip-hop. Like, what? You had to go back to the doo-wop era to find that kind of local success. Live hip-hop wasn’t even big in Pittsburgh – the Shadow Lounge was the biggest venue for that. But they had a great studio that worked with both of them and they were crazy talented. It was just a fluke that you had two great talents like that coming out of the same high school.
There’s also a great, unsung metal scene in Pittsburgh. The Millvale Music Festival has all types of music – jam bands, jazz… Gene the Werewolf is a kick-ass hard-rock band like AC/DC. One of the best Celtic-punk rock bands in the country is the Bastard Bearded Irishmen – second probably only to the Dropkick Murphys.
Are there other bands that you feel never got the notoriety they deserved?
One of the best garage bands I ever heard was The Cynics – an incredible band and they had amazing records. They were incredible live. Common Heart – they are a soul R&B band and are great. But that’s a crowded field and there’s not much room for many top bands there. Clinton Clegg is so talented – his voice is so raw and gritty and soulful. And their guitarist Mike Minds will knock your socks off.
Anti-Flag is probably the second best political rock band ever after Rage Against the Machine too.
Are there bands that we should be remembering or that surprised you?
String Machine – I thought they’d be the next big thing but they kind of faded away. They were in the Arcade Fire mold. ATS – they were like a cow-punk band with crazy jazz tangents. They could go in any direction – they were very experimental. They were amazing but it is hard to market a band like that.
Car Sickness – they were the first punk band I saw in Pittsburgh – they were before the Psychedelic Furs but the sound was similar. But they were also into that noise rock – very prog – like a noisy Grateful Dead. They could clear a room though depending on what they played – people were just not used to it.
What makes the Pittsburgh music scene different from others, do you think?
The thread across it all I think is that it’s not like Hollywood Boulevard, where everyone is in it to get band deals. In Pittsburgh they just want to play music. They don’t care about making three-minute songs for the radio. They aren’t career musicians which makes it harder to get deals. Most have day jobs – Joe Grucshecki was a teacher during the day…Billy Price had a day job too.
What do you think of the general direction of music today?
People are writing and coming out of their bedrooms now with music- I think that’s the biggest change in music today. You see some that started that way now playing in arenas. So I think we’ll see that happen in Pittsburgh – some kid right now in Upper St. Clair is in their bedroom right now writing and maybe becomes the next big artist. That’s more the career path now.
How does that impact the industry?
I did an interview with Bob Mould and we talked about this. Now you have artists in their bedrooms making music. That becomes more introspective – that’s what pop is now. People in their rooms writing about their personal feelings. Bob talked about how in bands, it’s three or four people together. It’s more communal and externally focused as a result. It’s less of a personal reaction. I think that’s how music has really changed. People are way more into their own feelings now.
Even the way we listen to music – with our ear buds in, listening on our own. The way we take in music is more introspective too. Back in the day we’d buy an album and listen to it with our friends and read the liner notes together. We knew the band members’ names. Now I’m not sure most people can name the band members. So it’s the way we listen to it too,