Welcome to the firecrackers-strapped-to-your-Rust-Belt column ”Welcome To Pittsburgh,” as today we find ourselves entranced by stars yet lamenting another fine night of noise at the Polish Hill dive bar/cheap beer…
Justin Vellucci
143 Articles
Justin Vellucci is a former staffer at Punk Planet and Delusions of Adequacy. His music writing has appeared in national magazines like American Songwriter and PopMatters, alt-weeklies such as Brooklyn Rail, Pittsburgh CityPaper, and San Diego CityBeat, blogs Swordfish and Linoleum, and the Gannett publication Jetty. He lives in Pittsburgh.
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Justin Vellucci
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Kurt Cobain’s first solo record — recently released 21 years after his 1994 suicide and paired with a suspect ”documentary” film project of revisionist mythmaking and iconography — is a…
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Justin Vellucci
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Inconsistencies, dagnammit! I want to really, really like, to love, to adore The Turbosonics‘ new CD, Tres Gatos Suave, a meaty slab of surf from one of Pittsburgh’s mightiest purveyors of the form. But,…
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Justin Vellucci
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You’ve got to hand it to Canadien Carey Mercer, the principal performer-songwriter behind the baroque pop outfit Frog Eyes, whose Pickpocket’s Locket LP is licking ears these days around these parts:…
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Justin Vellucci
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Dear Reader: Staff writer Justin Vellucci promised us a review of Oblique Quartet’s debut record, Tlaloc Beat, in his words, ”by the end of May, drop-dead latest.” As I am…
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Justin Vellucci
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Welcome to, Welcome to, Welcome to Welcome To Pittsburgh. Long time, no see. My fault, really. Computer died, brain is fried, et cetera, et cetera. No time for small talk,…
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Justin Vellucci
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Stephen Ulrich and his jazz/rock noir band Big Lazy will take up residency at the renowned Brooklyn joint Barbes starting in a couple short days and there seems like no…
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Justin Vellucci
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It takes a great record to remind me how awkward it can be — yes yes, like dancing to architecture — to write about really good instrumental rock music. For the moment, the…
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Justin Vellucci
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Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology turned 100 a few days ago, and Merge Records marked the occasion by re-releasing the oft-overlooked indie-folk gem it inspired, Richard Buckner’s majestic homage,…
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Justin Vellucci
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Is it smoky in here or is it just me? [Rubs tears from bloodshot-red eyes; guy next to me passes out from lack of oxygen.] No, it’s definitely goddamn smoky…
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Justin Vellucci
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Two Cincinnati bands prove The Afghan Whigs and The National are not maybe where this Ohio/Kentucky border city’s recent musical footnote ends in a quirky new split seven-inch out now…
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Justin Vellucci
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Jim O’Rourke can resemble a complicated musical chameleon. Since the late 80s, he has blended a patchwork career in the avant-garde with explorations into cinema, post-, folk- and alt-rock, and…
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Justin Vellucci
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This record begins with the uncontrolled wailing of guitar feedback and squalor, later joined by the gasps of a dying piano. And that’s a good place to start. Because, then,…
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Justin Vellucci
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There is a whisper, a scattering of whispers, a whole orchestrated evening of whispers — a subdued kind of wonder and majesty to it all. But even though only her…
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Justin Vellucci
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Faith No More, after an 18-year recorded absence, is back today with a new CD, Sol Invictus, and the band sounds as finely tuned and ferocious as ever, even if…
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Justin Vellucci
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Want a quick hit summary on an interesting record? Zu’s Cortar Todo, out now on Mr. Mike Patton’s Ipecac Records, is a mind-bending mÁ©lange of metal, grindcore, math-rock and no-wave….
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Justin Vellucci
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For the latest chapter in the ongoing saga that is la telanovela Calexico — Edge of the Sun, out now on Anti- Records — let us begin at the finale and…
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Justin Vellucci
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Welcome to Popdose‘s latest installment of Welcome to Pittsburgh, part of your balanced, nutritious breakfast. It seems spring has sprung, though it snowed here on Earth Day — Mother Nature keeping…
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Justin Vellucci
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Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress, the latest Constellation offering from Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the second full-length since its much anticipated 2010 reformation, hits all the right notes and…
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Justin Vellucci
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Yes, the rumors are true, Mr. and Ms. Column Follower. Local Pittsburgh indie-rock superheroes The Gotobeds have signed to Sub Pop Records. Everyone’s people have dotted the dotted line and…
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Justin Vellucci
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Now, that is what the fuck I’m talking about. From the first grungy, then vaguely pixelated, guitar chords of album-opener ”Trembling Hands,” Arizona, the second record proper by loop-rock ”band”…
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Justin Vellucci
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In this fine, first edition of Welcome To Pittsburgh, a new, somewhat-irregular Popdose column dictating the independent musical pulse of the Rust Belt’s cultural capital, we find ourselves saddled with…
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Justin Vellucci
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This is the story of a man and the guitar that took hold of him. The man styles himself Sir Richard Bishop, a Phoenix-bred guitar master known best for his…
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Justin Vellucci
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The third single from Bonnie ”Prince” Billy’s Singer’s Grave A Sea of Tongues, out on Drag City and available on iTunes this week, is a deceptive study in mirrors and…
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Justin Vellucci
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It’s hard to believe We Only Said operates nearly 4,100 miles outside Louisville, once- and always-home of post-rock icons Slint and Rodan. They just sound so downright Louisvillian. But so…
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Justin Vellucci
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Listening to PAK, composer Ron Anderson’s vehicle driving through ears a frenetic pastiche of jazz, funk and math-rock, can be transcendent. Writing about them, though, is a whole other matter….
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Justin Vellucci
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Rachel Grimes knew how to play the piano before she learned to walk. ”My dad and grandmother played, so I was always sitting beside them following along, watching and listening…
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Justin Vellucci
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Sabina Maselli’s spirited avant-film experimentation is the perfect introduction to TÄ“tÄ“ma, the Anthony Pateras/Mike Patton duo debuting tomorrow on Ipecac. Both, it should be noted, are mind-blowing. Filmed in digital,…