Alex Sheppard is restless if nothing else. He’s a Pittsburg native who’s been writing and recording music for more than a decade, though he’s only in his 20s. Continue reading Music Review: Pageant Boys @ TJ Leland’s 4/9/16

Back in January, I wrote that emo is “not a style being played a great deal in Pittsburg in 2016.” Continue reading Music Review: Of Course Not @ TJ Leland’s 3/26/16

The appeal of ska music is pretty direct: it bundles the boisterous energy of punk with pop’s melodic sensibility, and then throws in horns. Lots and lots of horns. Continue reading Music Review: Zero 2 Panic @ TJ Leland’s 2/13/16

Coffeehouse concerts can give off an “open mic night” vibe–i.e., informal and amateurish, the sort of thing musicians and listeners try to avoid. Continue reading Music Review: The Vogts Sisters @ Root 2/12/16

Park Avenue Uprising, a Pittsburg performance collective, do a lot of things, as they displayed when they took the stage at TJ Leland’s on Saturday night. Continue reading Music Review: Park Avenue Uprising @ TJ Leland’s 2/6/16

Saturday was LunarHeadz’s first show of 2016. We’ll get to them in a minute, but first let’s talk about Trauma Parlor, who opened the show, and who I’ve written about previously. In that review, I discussed their versatility and ability to coherently blend different musical styles, which were again on display. Trauma Parlor is about 4 shows and a 4-song garage-recorded EP into their career, but … Continue reading Music Review: Trauma Parlor, LunarHeadz @ TJ Leland’s 1/23/16

The allure of folk music is its ability to tell stories. And probably the near-mythic sound of the human voice over acoustic guitar. So it’s no surprise that more than 40 people packed themselves into Rob Poole and Carol Puckett’s living room Sunday night to hear Nashville singer-songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan play the first of this year’s Olive Street House Concerts. Tasjan, like the many heroes … Continue reading Music Review: Aaron Lee Tasjan @ Olive Street House Concerts 1/17/16