News/posts
Atom and His Package alternate poster
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/23/icon/main_1999-atompackage2.jpg)
A lot of these Stevenson Theater posters have more than one version, sometimes with different information, suggesting we jumped the gun a bit on making them. I have no idea why we put black militants on this one; I think Doug made these as they are too well-done to be my own work.
I also financed the 53rd State CD which came out this night; not sure why it says the "real" CD...
Atom and His Package, 53rd State, Control Group, El Camino Club
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/22/icon/main_1999-atomandpackage.jpg)
If one thing is complete about this scattered 'archive' of Pittsburgh indie music posters, it's the ones from shows I booked myself at the Stevenson Theater in Shadyside/East Liberty. Doug Mosurak and I booked a bunch of things together during our brief partnership of 1999 and because we made the posters ourselves, I had a lot left over so I'm pretty sure they are...
Butterglory, Neutral Milk Hotel, Karl Hendricks Trio
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/21/icon/main_1996-butterglory.jpg)
This is the one that blew it wide open for me.
Maybe I've said that before. I went to this show the summer between 11th and 12th grade, excited to see Butterglory. My friend Amy had dubbed me Are You Building a Temple in Heaven? and it's twee-ish indierock harmonies rocked my world. Karl Hendricks Trio were about all I knew of "local music" at the...
Experimental Audio Research, Bobby Conn, the Johnsons, Land.
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/19/icon/main_1998-ear.jpg)
The first real Land show with me in it. I guess we were insisting on a lowercase L then, and the full stop/period at the end. EAR was a mess of circuit-bent speak and spells; Sonic Boom dug our messy set and wrote down his address for us to send him stuff, but I couldn't read his writing. He smelled like a walking pot plant. Land was a trio that night, or maybe a...
Pasta night 1: The Saint Syndicate, 53rd State
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/18/icon/main_1999-pasta1.jpg)
The first pasta night was a hit; it was the first (or second?) show for the Saint Syndicate, a short-lived Pittsburgh band that was heavy on the organ, and boasted a strong influence of mod 60's pop. They were fronted by an artist who later moved to NYC and was tragically murdered, and I don't think the few recordings they made ever surfaced. A friend from high school was...
Melt-Banana, Monorchid, Shale, Arab on Radar, the 1985
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/17/icon/main_1996-melt_banana.jpg)
I started going to see independent/"underground" music at a very early age - I somehow convinced my parents to drive me to CMU in 1993 to see a couple of shows; even though i had to leave before the final acts, I'm pretty sure I saw Guided by Voices on the Vampire on Titus tour, though I don't remember anything of it.
Most of my high school years I dreamed of being able to...
No Neck Blues Band, Meisha, Land
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/16/icon/main_1999-nnck.jpg)
It's astounding how many of these posters are from 1999 - I don't know how I managed to work and study at the same time. I think this one was the pinnacle of my concert-organising work in Pittsburgh, and I'm amazed that it was 1999, as I swore this happened in 2000. Despite all of the indie rock and post-hardcore shows I was organising, I was playing minimalist/experimental...
Pasta nights of 1999
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/15/icon/main_1999-pasta-all.jpg)
I actually thought I would have more flyers from other promoters here, when digging through these piles of 13-year old US letter-sized sheets. Most of them are shows that I organised myself, or with Dan or Doug, which makes sense cause I would have Xeroxed these myself and had some left over.
Pasta Nights! This was an idea Ailecia and I had to organise at REA Coffeehouse, which is...
The Better Automatic, Faraquat, Shale
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/14/icon/main_1998-better_automatic.jpg)
This has the distinction of being the first show I ever organised, though to be completely honest my flatmate at the time, Dan, actually organised and executed this. But we were setting up the show 'together' - I think I worked the door - and it showed me how easy it actually is to make things happen. I felt like things had changed after this; for the next 2 years I was...
Run On, Five Ball, The Low Numbers
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/13/icon/main_1997-run_on-beehive.jpg)
I seem to have saved a large concentration of posters from 1997 and 1999 especially right after I started University which was September '97. I think at the time I was affixing these to the wall of my bedroom to make a tapestry of musical memories.
Run On played at CMU in the spring of '97, I think around May. I remember this being one of the best bands I had ever seen -...
Tainted Candy, Halloween 1997
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/12/icon/main_1997-tainted_candy.jpg)
I don't know why I'm gravitating so much towards the CMU-based posters (or why I have so many of them), but certainly the CMU shows were something special and central to my young music-devouring appetite. 'Tainted Candy' was slightly overhyped amongst my friends - a festival on Halloween to be held in the studio union gymnasium, this was a can't-miss event on my...
Storm & Stress, Meisha, Shale
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/11/icon/main_1997-storm_and_stress.jpg)
Some experiences really stay with you. This show happened almost fifteen years ago but I remember a lot about it; it's got a pretty high place in the "formative shows" list for me. This was officially the local record release party for the Storm and Stress album on Touch and Go. i never heard Storm & Stress before - I just knew they were the new band by one...
A Minor Forest, Melt-Banana, Harriet the Spy, The 1985
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/10/icon/main_1998-a_minor_forest.jpg)
Another Connan Room show, this time featuring my then-local-faves The 1985 at the peak of their powers, Harriet the Spy (who are still remembered fondly by fans of that particular time and place), and Melt-Banana, whose performance I actually missed in 1996 at a show that has a very seminal place in my adolescence. A Minor Forest headlined; at the time, I had their CD Flemish...
Ian Nagoski, Meisha, Plea Circuits, Neptune
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/9/icon/main_2001-nagoski-meisha.jpg)
This was a show that I set up, which I apparently titled in a series called 'The New Breed'. I think I grabbed that from an Impulse records compilation LP I found (a pretty good one with Archie Shepp and Grachan Moncur III on it), attempting to brand shows i promoted. It's funny cause in Pittsburgh in the late 90s, no one did that, whereas my experiences in Europe are...
Superchunk, Neutral Milk Hotel
![](https://icewhistle-content.s3.wasabisys.com/production/crumble_files/8/icon/main_1998-superchunk-nmh.jpg)
This was a night to remember, forever. A year and a half after I saw Neutral Milk Hotel play the Beehive, they came back to Pittsburgh, only this time they were my favourite band. Ever. I mean, they aren't my favourite band ever now, but I think it's safe to say that my passion for this music at this time was greater than I've ever felt about a recording artist -...