Oh No, It’s Spring (or, Welcome to My Quarter Life Crisis)

***WARNING: THIS POST IS FUELED BY EARLY MORNING CAFFEINE.***

Okay, so this situation is not solely limited to my 25th year, but that magic number seems to have made it a little bit worse.

Spring is upon us my friends, and with spring comes my insatiable urge to travel (and listen to ska), or simply to get the fuck out of Pittsburgh. I mean, I like Pittsburgh, I really do, but sometimes you just need a change of scenery. Also, it’s not helping that all of my friends are moving to Key West and I looooooove Key West.

I love booze, sunsets, and chickens. I just wish it wasn’t so stinking hot and/or didn’t have such giant bugs. I also wish that I could live there without a job, because that would be sweet. I don’t want to go outside in the daytime, dammit. I think I would melt…Wicked Witch style. What’s funny about this is the one thing I’m not worried about: hurricanes. Really. I am all about the hurricane party. Hell, we tried to have a hurricane party in Pittsburgh when Ivan came through. The first floor started to flood, so we went to the second floor, drank beer, and watched Finding Nemo. Really, not that worried. Key West is prepared for this kinda shit.

Wow, okay, so this is going to be the most random blog post, but I love the guy who works at the Cool Beans in my building. I seriously walked in there, told him that I didn’t know what I wanted, but that I wanted it to be “hot, sweet, and far too caffeinated…and big. Really, really big”. I am halfway through this concoction and I feel like I’m going to explode. GOOD MORNING!!!



Okay, so back to this spring/quarter life crisis thing. See, I grew up in a town where people never leave. It’s kind of ridiculous. Also, there’s this whole job thing. What is it about 25? Why do you all of a sudden feel like you need to know what you’re doing with your life RIGHT NOW? My job right now is pretty sweet, but it’s really not what I envision doing with my life. Also, I work for a giant boys club. Now, it’s not that I am saddened about my lack of man-junk, it’s just that I know that there is no room for growth here. It’s one of those things…what the hell’s that AA saying? Something about changing the things that you can and accepting the things you cannot? This is a “cannot” and I’m okay with that. I am super awesome at being an office wench, though. And what city ever doesn’t have offices? Any kind of offices really. I’ll make your coffee and order your supplies and generally make your office kick ass. That’s what I do.

Even when my computer dies, as it did on Friday, I will do everything in my power to make it better. I spent two days trying to get my information from my old hard drive to no avail. It was incredibly frustrating and currently I’m using a computer that I’m pretty sure was built in 1986. Know how many USB ports there are on this bad boy? Two. That’s right, two. I had to unplug my keyboard to upload the meager amount of music that I had on my MP3 player. I just went from around 40GB of music to…4GB. FOUR! Thank god it was all of my “essential albums”, so I have a good mix of great songs. Still, I kind of want to dropkick a baby.

Well anyway, to try to sate this crazy desire for something different, I’ve pierced my septum, cut off all of my hair, and gotten glasses. WHAT ELSE CAN I DOOOOO!?

What to do, what to do.
Holy shit, coffee.

Thank god for credit cards because I have a feeling I’m going to be purchasing last minute tickets to Key West. At least for a few days.




AAAAAAAAAAND: Just finished my giant cup of overly caffeinated goodness. My head might explode.

Boycott Ticketmaster!

So it’s been quite a while since I’ve actually purchased concert tickets…or tickets to anything for that matter, online. I always just got them at the door. What the fuck did I miss!? When we went to see Mike Doughty last Thursday, I went to the Ticketmaster website to see how much they were. Only $16! How affordable! Especially for a concert that I want to see so badly! Wrong. Oh so very, very wrong. $9 of charges per ticket. That’s more than half the fucking ticket price!
This is beyond ridiculous. Thankfully, I’ve found some other resources for concert tickets in the Pittsburgh area:


Dave’s Music Mine
Mr. Small’s Funhouse
Club Cafe
Garfield Artworks
The Rex
31st St. Pub
…and possibly more, those are just the one’s currently listed on their website.

The Exchange
Has tickets to most of the venues listed above, plus possibly more.

The Benedum
I know you =can buy tickets directly through their box office, as I did when we saw Tori Amos last year. I think you can do this with Heinz Hall as well.

The shame of it is, it’s not Ticketmaster’s fault that they’re a monopoly…it’s the fault of the venues and their exclusive contracts. Ticketmaster also gets no part of ticket sales, so here come the charges!

Service Charge – For the general service they provide.
Building Facility Charge – Determined by the venue, still raked in by Ticketmaster.
Processing Charge – ‘Cause we all know how expensive it is to send an email.
Shipping/E-Ticket/Will Call – Just because they can!

Often these fees are 30% to even 50% of the actual ticket price. What the fuck, Ticketmaster? And they get away with this by giving away million dollar sign-on bonuses to large venues. And it’s not even just music! Ticketmaster is the primary ticket seller for TWENTY SEVEN of thirty NHL teams and TWENTY EIGHT of thirty NBA teams. At least the MLB has gone with competitor, Tickets.com. From now on, I’m going to try my best to not support this monopoly any longer, or their subsidiaries:

Ticketmaster Ventures, Inc.
Ticketmaster Corp.
TMC Realty Holdings, Inc.
Ticketmaster Publications, Inc.
Ticketmaster Travel Corp.
TM/Video International, Inc.
Ticketmaster Advertising, Inc.
TMC Consultants, Inc.
Ticketmaster Tell Ltd.
Ticketmaster-Direct, Inc.
Cinema Acquisition Corp.
Ticketmaster Cinema Group, Ltd.
TM Movie Tix Holdings, Inc.
TM Marketing, Inc.
Ticketmaster Merchandising Corp.
Ticketmaster-Golf, Inc.
MFG Management Corp.
TM Flowers
TM National Flora LLC.
Instead, I’ll be going with the competitors:
LM Loyalty Management
Neighborhood Box Office
NEXT Ticketing
Prologue Systems
Tickets.com, Inc.

Further steps can also be taken. Urge your favorite artists/sports teams to not use Ticketmaster, along with your local venues. The less people who use them, the less power they’ll have to overcharge the masses.
In addition to monopolizing the ticket market and charging these ridiculous fees, Ticketmaster also has no regard for customer privacy. Directly from their website:

“By completing this registration form you indicate that you consent to Ticketmaster sharing your email address and other information with those who provide the event, and that you consent to those who provide the event using your information to contact you by email or other means to send you marketing or other messages or using or disclosing your information in other ways. By completing this registration form, you also indicate that you consent to Ticketmaster contacting you by email or other means to send you marketing or other messages and using and disclosing the information you submit, as described in the Ticketmaster Privacy.”

Why do we let them get away with shit like this!? Fuck Ticketmaster. I’m going with Tickets.com!

Mike Doughty – Live at Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA – 10/8/09

I DID get to see Mike Doughty on Thursday and as always, it was a spectacularly fabulous show. This was my first time attending a question jar show and I’ll tell you what, Mike Doughty is one funny man.

And I don’t know what it is…whether it’s just Pittsburgh that makes him tell people to “shove it up their cunts” or if this is just a favorite phrase of Doughty’s, but it makes me laugh every time.

At this show, they also did a live recording that was available afterwards, it’s super fun! At the beginning of the first video, you get to hear the answer to one of our (read: Adam’s) questions, which was, “Why is well liquor always Banker’s Club? Who are these bankers and why do they drink such shitty liquor?” This was probably one of my favorite answers…here, watch!



Sorry for the poor quality BTW…

And…Mike Doughty has never fucked a Republican. Who knew?



“Tremendous Brunettes” I love how when he says that he will never perform naked you can hear me say an audible, “Damn…” haha. A girl can wish, I suppose.



Aaaaand…”Ossining”.



It was a really fantastic show, in case you couldn’t tell. He even played two Soul Coughing tracks! “Circles” and “True Dreams of Wichita”. My goddamn batteries died in the middle of it, of course, so that video’s not included. He did play a few songs from each solo album, including “Real Love” which I thought was badass. And man, I’ll tell you what…Andrew Howard “Scrap” Livingston is a goddamn animal on the cello. Absolutely phenomenal.

Club Cafe was a super sweet venue for this show, as well. I mean, it’s very dark and small, but it’s incredibly intimate and the sound was amazing. It was a huge change from Mr. Small’s Funhouse, where I’ve seen him twice before. No, I didn’t get to hear “King of Carrot Flowers”, but this was still an amazing fucking show. If you ever get a chance to see this man live, plugged or acoustic, you will not be disappointed. Make sure to check out his new album, Sad Man Happy Man, out now!

Signal to the Ocean Estate – Tunes for the Bird of Chittenden

Pittsburgh locals, Signal to the Ocean Estate, have released their debut album, Tunes for the Bird of Chittenden. I am shocked at how good this album is. Really. I don’t know why I’m so shocked that it’s good, Pittsburgh has a really awesome local music scene.
Perhaps, it’s just been too many years since I’ve been directly in it. Years and years ago, if you needed to find me, you would look at the nearest all ages local show. What the hell else is there to do when you’re under 21 and in the suburbs?

I am ashamed! Ashamed I tell you! Why did I not know about all these awesome bands currently rocking out in Pittsburgh, including Signal to the Ocean Estate?! I seriously got this album yesterday afternoon and have not stopped listening to it since. It has this indie/experimental yet familiar vibe to it. As per the band’s Myspace, their influences include Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists, Radiohead, The Beatles, Cake, Nine Inch Nails, and a ton of other seemingly unrelated people. That’s what makes Signal so great. Not a single song on this album sounds the same.

Also, I can’t believe the rich sound that they have on this album for technically being a three piece. (And for those of you who know me, you know my penchant for three pieces!) Like the track, “Tribute to the Capital”, a politically driven doo-wop revival. By the end, it’s just a cacophony of friends and family and sounds like a silly good time to me. If you don’t find yourself at least smiling to this song, you don’t have a pulse. This is my favorite album on this song because they just sound like they’re having so much fun making it, and isn’t that supposed to be what it’s all about? I’ll admit it, I danced to this song in my kitchen last night while doing dishes…what?

Other super awesome tracks on this album include, “Ghost Town”, an obvious hit with a parasite of a chorus. Once it’s in your brain, you’re fucked. I love the vocals on this one as well. They kind of remind me of Brand New, in the Your Favorite Weapon days (the best ones!). Also, check out the video for this one at the bottom of the page. Fucking rad, right? Incredibly well made and creepily awesome.

“In Heaven” has a sultry Nick Cave/early Marilyn Manson quality to it. The only qualms I have about this album, and I’m not sure if it’s the singer or the productions, is the low volume of the vocals. These guys can sing and they should do it loud and proud, dammit. But maybe that’s just me.

And then…there’s “Hope”. What is that? Is that a fucking ukulele I hear? I fucking love ukuleles! (Don’t worry, this isn’t the only song with it, either). Also, some sweet female backing vocals. I’m game.
“The Ocean” was definitely not one of my favorite tracks when I first heard this album, but it’s quickly growing on me. You can see the Radiohead influence in this song. It’s like when you’re tripping…this is what colors sound like. Kind of like all of Ruby Vroom from Soul Coughing.

The album ends with “Wings”, a spectacular male/female duet, hauntingly sweet. Another thing about the album is how well it’s assembled. I don’t think there’s any better way for the tracks to be positioned on this album. It has a swell and ebb better than I’ve heard in a long time. From people who are signed with big record deals.

All in all, these guys are really fucking awesome. It’s great to see such talent pumping out of Pittsburgh (again). Definitely check them out! They have a show coming up at The Brillobox tomorrow night with The Slant and The Central Plains. Support the Pittsburgh local music scene! A!

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Mike Budai

Mike Budai is an amazing artist and Pittsburgh native, to boot. I can't even tell you the first time that I heard of him or saw his artwork, I think it might have been on the cover of the Pittsburgh City Paper...maybe for the Arts Festival? Either way, that Arts Festival was the first time I got to purchase a little piece of Mike Budai goodness, which was this shirt.

 I absolutely love this shirt. It was already sooooo soft when I bought it and it's only gotten better. I remember seeing it in the booth at the Arts Festival and jumping up and down like a little kid, screaming at my husband to stop so I could buy this, haha. Oh, good times. From what I remember, it was really reasonably priced, too. It's held up pretty well as far as the printing goes. The only thing is that I now have a few small holes in the front from opening beer bottles with it. Oops, sorry, Mike.


My third encounter with Budai's work was the PAPA tournament held in Carnegie. Seriously, this guy does shirts for pinball, how can you not love him!? I actually had no idea that he was doing the shirts for this until I went to buy one. Mine is not this one, however, the one that I got is a dark brown with two hamster-like creatures on the back playing with a pinball. It's adorable.

Then, last but not least, I found him on Myspace. Hooray. So now, I can keep up with all of the awesomeness that is Mike Budai. The pic on the left is the current background on my work desktop, it makes me happy.

Seriously, check this guy out and support your local art scene, Pittsburgh-ers!!!

Mike Budai's Myspace

Erin McKeown - Live in Pittsburgh

There is nothing better than live music. It's as simple as that. I had my first live encounter with Erin McKeown at the Thunderbird Cafe in Lawrenceville, PA on March 20, 2009...the first day of spring, appropriately. She played solo, dressed all in white, and exuded more emotion and charisma than you think would be possible coming from someone so small! Don't let that small stature fool you, this girl's got some stage presence.

She came out on stage and went directly into "Aspera", the first track off of We Will Become Like Birds. Who needs to waste any time, huh? The hook off of this song is based on ad astera per aspera, a Latin phrase for "to the stars through difficulties".

She only played two songs, ""Rhode Island Is Famous For You" and "Coucou", from her newest album, Sing You Sinners. She did, however, play quite a few songs from her album, Lafeyette, due out this fall. It's refreshing to see an artist excited for a new album. Usually they'll play one or two new songs to give you a taste, then get back to all the songs that you know and love. Erin McKeown doesn't give a shit about you. She's gonna get up there and play what she wants to play! (And we love her for it!)

She did bust out a few of the classics for long-time fans, though, including, "Cosmopolitans", "Cinematic", "The Little Cowboy", "Blackbirds", and "La Petit Mort".

What's awesome is that she rocked them all, old and new. She did the usual band/audience banter and told a few tales of her adventures in Pittsburgh. This is usually where I get disinterested and go smoke, but McKeown can definitely engage an audience. She told stories of heartache and love and laughter and family. A particular favorite of mine was a story she told regarding an interview earlier that day on WYEP, she's doing the normal Q&A deal when she's asked, "Will you ever do a holiday album?" Her simple answer: "No". She'd rather do a Labor Day album, or Memorial Day. It'll be "about picnics".

And this another good reason why I love Erin McKeown. She's so down to Earth. Hell, she's her own merch girl! She's the epitome of the "if it's gonna get done right, better do it myself" mentality. And seriously, I want an Erin McKeown album about picnics.

The only thing that got me down about this show was the venue. The Thunderbird, well, it kinda sucks. The service was great, staff was friendly, but it's incredibly small and awkwardly laid out. Thankfully, the owners must know this because there were flat screens in every room.

We did get to meet her after the show and she's just so incredibly sweet, and so short, haha. I am a merch whore, so I bought two CDs and a t-shirt. All in all it was like $40? Not too bad for all that.

I would definitely go see her again. I'd like to maybe see her with a band, since I've now seen her solo, but I can vouch that her solo act is stellar. If you haven't heard of this woman, check her out! Check her out, now!!!

Erin McKeown's Website