Mike Palm stories, Page 7
Pittsburgh local music spotlight: forty winksVideo
Pittsburgh noise rock band forty winks has only been around since 2024, but they’ve already made waves with their debut EP. The EP — “Love Is a Dog From Hell” — earned a review via noted music site pitchfork.com. “It was really exciting to make,” guitarist Connor McGee said. The...
Jerry Cantrell blends Alice in Chains past, solo present in Pittsburgh concertVideo
Jerry Cantrell offered a minor apology while toasting the crowd after Saturday night’s show at the Roxian Theatre in McKees Rocks. “We know it wasn’t perfect, but that’s (expletive) rock ‘n’ roll,” Cantrell said, while raising a non-alcoholic beer bottle. The flaws, if you want to call them that, were...
Q&A: Kiss the Tiger singer Meghan Kreidler on ‘Infinite Love’ and moreVideo
When Meghan Kreidler and Michael Anderson started Kiss the Tiger almost a decade ago, she wasn’t taking it too seriously. “It was just like, let’s see how this goes,” said Kreidler, the band’s singer. Now 10 years later, the Minneapolis rock group is trying to make a go of it...
Q&A: Molly Tuttle on moving beyond bluegrass, cold starts and her new eraVideo
When Molly Tuttle finishes “Everything Burns” — the song she’s been using to open her current The Highway Knows tour — she knows she can breathe. “It’s honestly terrifying for me because it starts with this fast guitar riff, which is the hardest guitar part I play on the new...
Q&A: PUP guitarist Steve Sladkowski on new album, Pittsburgh plans and moreVideo
PUP guitarist Steve Sladkowski already knows what he’s doing on the band’s off day before their show next week in Pittsburgh, and he won’t have far to go. The Canadian punk rock band will play Stage AE on Sept. 8, and Sladkowski planned to walk a few blocks down to...
Pittsburgh local music spotlight: Mike Urick and the ModelairesVideo
Mike Urick feels like is he is carrying on the legacy of his grandfather, Mike Cilli, with his band, Mike Urick and the Modelaires. “He was a great musician and an amazing person,” Urick said. “We were really close when I was young and I grew up listening to his...
Top September concerts in Pittsburgh: Hardy, Twenty One Pilots, Marilyn Manson
One of the nation’s top pop-punk festivals returns to the Pittsburgh region, as do a hard-rocking country star and alt pop rockers. Here’s a look at the top shows coming to the area in September: Top concerts Sept. 5: Hardy, Koe Wetzel, Stephen Wilson Jr., Sikarus at the Pavilion at...
Q&A: Guitarist Daniel Donato says Pittsburgh feels like home for his Cosmic Country soundVideo
To celebrate the release of his new album last Friday, Daniel Donato played three Nashville shows in one day — with a solo pop-up at a record store, his band’s headlining show at Ryman Auditorium and a late-night covers set at a honky-tonk around the corner. “Three is the cosmic...
Indie pop rocker Sombr’s rise highlighted by Pittsburgh venue changesVideo
Indie pop rocker Sombr should be feeling pretty happy right about now. The 20-year-old, whose real name is Shane Boose, released his debut album, “I Barely Know Her,” on Friday, and his concerts keep getting bigger. Sombr’s Late Nights & Young Romance tour will hit Pittsburgh on Oct. 5 —...
Pittsburgh’s Punchline returns with new album, old friends and Four Chord festival appearanceVideo
Punchline singer/guitarist Steve Soboslai believes the Pittsburgh-based band is in a very good place right now. In the past few years, they put together a podcast series providing an exhaustive look at the pop-punk band’s history, marked the 20th anniversary of their “Action” album with a huge hometown show and...
Rapper Playboi Carti bringing Antagonist tour to PittsburghVideo
Rapper Playboi Carti is bringing his Antagonist tour to Pittsburgh later this fall. Carti, whose “Music” album hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts earlier this year, will headline PPG Paints Arena on Nov. 1. He’ll be joined on the tour by his Opium labelmates Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, Homixide...
Jerry Cantrell talks new solo album, Pittsburgh memories, not messing up the Ozzy Osbourne showVideo
Guitarist Jerry Cantrell may be heavily associated with the Seattle music scene from his work with the seminal grunge band Alice in Chains. But Cantrell, now 59, spent around a year in the Pittsburgh region — Finleyville in Washington County, to be precise — while in eighth grade during the...
Pittsburgh local music spotlight: Essential MachineVideo
The indie rock trio Essential Machine is more than a band — it’s a family, comprised of a husband (RJ), wife (Karen) and their son (Robert). “The benefits are that when we go on tour, we don’t have to leave behind our families. We are lucky that we all get...
Sister Hazel guitarist Drew Copeland on Pittsburgh-born song, the band’s longevity and moreVideo
Sister Hazel rhythm guitarist Drew Copeland can easily recall what he ate — if not the restaurant’s name — the day he wrote “Roll On Bye” with singer Ken Block more than a decade ago. “I was just telling a story this past weekend. We had the Hazelnut Hang in...
Linkin Park enters new era with singer Emily Armstrong on From Zero tour stop in PittsburghVideo
If “the hardest part of ending is starting again” — a line from Linkin Park’s 2010 song “Waiting for the End” — then their most difficult moments may be in the past. The potential ending of the band came with the death of lead singer Chester Bennington by suicide in...
Ukrainian folk group Kommuna Lux brings music, humanitarian mission to PittsburghVideo
With their country under attack by Russia, the musicians in Ukrainian folk band Kommuna Lux have a two-fold mission. First, they put on shows blending Balkan swing with klezmer music and traditional Ukrainian folk to help preserve the music and culture of their homeland. And second, those shows help raise...
Pittsburgh musician Bill Toms on writing a more personal album, playing a new venueVideo
Guitarist Bill Toms has played at dozens of venues throughout the Pittsburgh region over his almost 40 years as a professional musician. But on Saturday, he’ll add a new one to the list with a show at Crafthouse in Whitehall. Bill Toms & Hard Rain will headline a show which...
Vinny Palese finds his footing as a folk drifter amid Pittsburgh’s music scene
Singer-songwriter Vinny Palese considers himself a drifter in the Pittsburgh music scene. “Just blow in, cause a scene and then get out,” he said. His debut album, “Doesn’t Play Well With Others,” dropped in May after several EPs and singles over the past few years. ”It has a very at-home...
Asleep At The Wheel’s Ray Benson still celebrating Texas swing after 55 yearsVideo
It’s been a while since Asleep At The Wheel played in the Pittsburgh region, but guitarist/singer Ray Benson is quite familiar with the area. The Texas swing band originally started in Paw Paw, West Virginia, back in 1970 before migrating to Texas a few years later. Over the years, Benson...
Pittsburgh local music spotlight: Ashes Awaken
Ashes Awaken may be the new studio project of Michael Stover, owner of Pittsburgh-based MTS Management Group, but the first single “A Better Way” has existed for a while. “The original version was written when I was about 20 years old, so it’s been around for many years. It was...
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts deliver classic hits in Pittsburgh show; Winger features Pittsburgh native on guitarVideo
Joan Jett must have felt right at home Friday night on the Iron City Stage. The newish concert venue, nestled between the Allegheny River and Pittsburgh Brewing Co.’s Creighton facility, with railroad tracks running behind that, apparently sparked some childhood memories for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. “I...
Pittsburgh’s André Costello drops new album, set to mark milestone event at Mr. Smalls’ SanctuaryVideo
Pittsburgh musician André Costello can pinpoint the weekend six years ago when he first started working on his new album, “Rocky Mountain Low” — because it coincides with a new addition to his family. “The weekend that I went to Youngstown to record this the first time, my wife on...
Code Orange’s Reba Meyers on going solo with ‘Clouded World EP,’ tour: ‘It’s very rewarding’Video
In some ways, Code Orange guitarist/vocalist Reba Meyers admits that her first solo tour is a bit premature. “I was just like, I have to do this, I don’t know why. I thought about it for two seconds,” she said. “Sometimes I think, oh, maybe I should have waited, but...
Styx’s Lawrence Gowan on upholding band’s legacy while moving forward with new musicVideo
Plenty of classic rock bands seem content to rest on their laurels, coasting by on past hits and rarely, if ever, releasing new music. That doesn’t appear to be the case for Styx. The classic rockers — known for 1970s hits like “Lady,” “Come Sail Away” and, of course, “Renegade”...
Pittsburgh local music spotlight: Josie SalVideo
Young country singer Josie Sal calls her appearance singing with Jelly Roll two years ago at the Pavilion at Star Lake a “crazy story.” “I brought a sign that said ‘Since Lainey (Wilson) is in Alabama can I sing SAVE ME with you?’ Next thing I know security brought me...
