Pittsburgh local music spotlight: Benefits

Mike Palm
Monday, June 23, 2025 8:05 a.m. | Monday, June 23, 2025 8:05 a.m.

Benefits

Pittsburgh’s Benefits

Benefits

Pittsburgh’s Benefits released their latest album, “Burnout,” on June 3.

Benefits’ first full-length album, “Burnout,” presents the songs in the order they were written, based on events ripped from the headlines from 2020-23.

“The words and imagery in these songs really are faithfully harvested from the events that were happening and reported in the news over those years,” said Bill Bernstein (keys/vocals). “I guess we are just a lot more verbose than Billy Joel, so we needed a full album to do it.”

Recorded and mixed at Studio Avery, the album was made over the course of several years.

“The writing of the songs, as I remember it, came pretty quickly, but historically our band has always used a mix of studios and self-recording in the past,” said Joe Serkoch (guitar/vocals). “We made the decision that we wanted to produce and engineer this record entirely on our own and wanted to take the time to learn the correct technical process and do it right. That was the long part. But it was totally worth it. We’ll produce our own records from here on out now, except when it comes to mastering, which always ends up in the hands of the talented Garrett Haines at Treelady Studios.”

The album isn’t digital only, thanks to a pressing from Hellbender Vinyl.

“There have been more odd, unusual, exciting, surreal moments than I can count,” said Mike Baltzer (vocals/synth/guitar). “But when Joe showed up at my house with a couple boxes full of our freshly pressed records, it was like we were Girl Scouts who now needed to talk our friends and family into buying cookies that could not be eaten and that would off-gas in their rec rooms.”

Benefits released its “Go Big” EP as the coronavirus lockdowns took hold, and about two months in, Serkoch wrote the guitar and drum parts for “How I Am Doing Now.” He sent the files to Baltzer, who quickly wrote the lyrics.

“By early 2020, I was in full-blown autistic burnout, so when lockdown happened, despite the apocalyptic nature of the event, it was actually a relief to not have to leave my house anymore. I stopped making or even listening to music for several months, and became much more interested in recording the sounds in my immediate environment, such as my dying dishwasher (RIP),” Baltzer said. “Joe sent me a track he had been working on, and I started recording layer-upon-layer of my voice, and eventually sent a couple dozen stems back to Joe to add to his mix. We released a ‘single’ version at the end of 2020. Later, when we were working on the album proper using different software and equipment, I had to build a whole new version based on Joe’s original tracks, then we started to add all the other humans on top, eventually removing the placeholder tracks. So what you hear on the album is actually a cover of a cover of the single. The lyrics are just exactly what I was thinking at the time, please refer to the extensive footnotes for more details.”

“This song became much more about the vocals than almost anything our band had done in the past,” Bernstein said. “More refrains or sort-of chanting that emphasize a key lyric and create an atmosphere. I think we were all pleasantly puzzled and psyched about the result for our sound.”

The band filled in TribLive on what else we should know about Benefits:

Band: Benefits

Band members: Mike Baltzer (voice/synth/guitar); Bill Bernstein (keys/voice); Dave Brockschmidt (drums); Chelsey Engel (voice); Jeff Pokrajac (bass); Joe Serkoch (guitar/voice); Matt Aelmore (trumpet)

Founding story: Baltzer: The short version? Joe and I played together in a couple bands in the early 2000s. Bill and Jeff and I were in a band for the first half of the 2010s; when Bill moved out of town in 2015, Joe joined up to round things out. We changed names in 2016. Bill returned to town and the rehearsal space in 2017. Dave assumed the drum throne in 2018. Chelsey was roped into singing on the album in 2021 and has been a good sport about doing shows since then. Matt isn’t formally in the band, but he has generously provided trumpet and constructive criticism.

Origin of band’s name: Baltzer: Previous iterations of this band played lots of benefit shows for assorted good causes. When we needed a new moniker in early 2016, I questioned the nature of those events. My line of thinking was “Who really benefits?” This was shortened to the present name.

For fans of: Talking Heads; Sparks; Devo; Annie Lennox; Oingo Boingo; Frank Zappa; Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.; Jay Thurber Show

Influences: Public Enemy, Cocteau Twins and Steely Dan

Releases: “Introduction to Digital Recording” EP, 2019; “Go Big” EP, 2020; “Burnout” full album, June 3, 2025

Next shows: Benefits is booking shows for the fall, with one in the works on the North Side that hasn’t been announced yet.

How to find them: Benefits can be found on their Bandcamp page.

Three other Pittsburgh area bands to check out: Baltzer: The Stars of Disaster, Dumplings, The Harry Von Zells; Serkoch: Weird Paul. The Gothees. Black Moth Super Rainbow/Tobacco

Favorite pizza shop: Serkoch: Badamo’s on the North Side; Baltzer: Spak Bros in Garfield; Bernstein: Efes Pizza in Aspinwall (large pesto veggie pizza for pick-up, please)

Mike Palm is a TribLive digital producer who also writes music reviews and features. A Westmoreland County native, he joined the Trib in 2001, where he spent years on the sports copy desk, including serving as night sports editor. He has been with the multimedia staff since 2013. He can be reached at mpalm@triblive.com.

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