The Dig comes to Pittsburgh

The Dig comes to Pittsburgh

http://www.pittnews.com/article/2010/03/18/dig-comes-pittsburgh

The Dig

Mr. Small’s

March 20

8 p.m.

$12

(412) 821-4447

Rock ’n’ roll isn’t all parties, girls and booze. In fact, sometimes it’s Ramen noodle dinners and part-time jobs. New York rock band The Dig can tell you that.

To stay afloat and keep making music, the band resorted to having yard sales, teaching music lessons and pedaling merchandise to get the money to record its album.

But despite financial obstacles, The Dig put out its album and made it on tour, during which it will stop in Pittsburgh tomorrow night, opening for Portugal. The Man at Mr. Small’s Funhouse.

For The Dig, opening for the popular alternative band is a great opportunity to get its name out there.

“It’s a big challenge,” guitarist Emile Mosseri said. “We were playing in New York for years, and we’re still always working to build our fan base up. There’s so many bands out there. It’s a big challenge. We’re starting to branch out more and play all over the country. You tour with great bands who attract people. We have to pick people up one at a time, but every time you play, you get your name out there. We’re just starting to be part of these tours and great shows.”

New York’s music scene and the band members’ growing up listening to Nirvana, Talking Heads and Dave Matthews made a notable influence on The Dig’s music. The band’s new album, Electric Toys, puts a contemporary spin on its influence from its early ’90s predecessors.

The Dig is made of band members David Baldwin (guitars and vocals), Mosseri (bass and vocals), Erick Eiser (keyboards and guitar) and Jamie Alegre (drums).

Mosseri said he loves the upcoming record, on which half of the recorded songs are stories that “are not autobiographical, but experiences and some imagination” combined.

Touring and playing in a new place every night has become Mosseri’s favorite part of band life. Being on tour also allows greater support for The Dig overall.

“The more we play, the more we have a chance to sell a CD and T-shirts,” Mosseri said. “We’ve been able to keep our head above the water by selling merchandise. People and fans support us.”

But whether its pedaling tunes, merchandise or old lamps to make ends meet, The Dig isn’t in the music business to make a fortune.

“You try to make as much an impact as you can to have money for gas and BLTs,” Mosseri said.

Even if money is tight for The Dig, music is in the members’ blood.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s ever an option for anything else,” Mosseri said. “We’ve always been playing, so I don’t think anyone has any other plan or knows anything else.”

While on tour, The Dig is recording an EP for future release, using works the band composed on the road.

“We’re recording in motels,” Mosseri said. “Any city we’re in [for] two nights, we get some equipment to record in the rooms. Hopefully by the end of the tour, we’ve have six or eight EPs of songs we’ve been writing.”

AM Taxi's latest doesn't stand a 'Chance'

AM Taxi's latest doesn't stand a 'Chance'

http://www.pittnews.com/article/2010/03/16/am-taxis-latest-doesnt-stand-chance

AM Taxi
We Don’t Stand A Chance
Virgin Records
Sounds Like: Ballyhoo!
Grade: C

AM Taxi does not stand out from the crowd, and the album title We Don’t Stand A Chance might be more foreboding than it intended.

The lead singer has an average voice, with vocals that aren’t outstanding — but not quite awful, either.

The band’s sound is eclectic, playing smoothly one minute and “rocking” with a rough-and-tough beat the next. Yet even this isn’t done well enough to earn an above-average approval.

AM Taxi tries to alter pitch and tone with what one has to assume is an attempt at changing emotion within the song. This only manages to sound repetitive in chord choice, essentially creating an album of the same song repeating over ... and over ... and over.

Once in a while there are a few bars moved about in an attempt to create a new tune, but it’s not enough change to make that same old song into a brand new song.

Worst of all are the mediocre lyrics. AM Taxi hardly lives up to its rock genre with songs like “Mistake” lamenting, “I will be the razor, baby/I will be the pill/I am the ambulance that never comes/The antidote you spill.” Really? That’s all you could come up with?

It’s time to dub this band AM “Average Music” Taxi. They have not created anything awe-inspiring or moving — at, least not this time around.

Ladies cherish their Irish heritage

Ladies cherish their Irish heritage

http://www.pittnews.com/article/2010/03/01/ladies-cherish-their-irish-heritage

photo credit: Courtesy Larry Shirkey

Cherish the Ladies puts a feminine spin on traditional Irish music.

Cherish the Ladies

Byham Theater

March 5, 8 p.m.

$20.50-$32.50 — available through Pitt Arts for $10.50 or $27.50

(412) 456-1350

After performing for 25 years, it’s safe to say Cherish the Ladies has more than the luck of the Irish on its side.

Cherish the Ladies is an Irish-American group of female musicians and performers that retell and create folk-style Celtic music.

“The music can be so achingly gorgeous and sad, and then happy as it can be one minute later,” Joanie Madden, the Cherish the Ladies’ flute and tin whistle player, said. “I don’t know what it is, but it never ceases to amaze us when the audience is not all Irish people, but an all spectrum of ethnicities.”

Madden said she’s excited to return to Pittsburgh after a five-year hiatus.

Cherish the Ladies will bring four dancers and an 11-piece band and feature Pittsburgh dancers from the Burke-Conroy School of Irish Dance in its performance.

Madden said she is amazed that Cherish the Ladies has lasted for 25 years. Its creation followed a suggestion from traditional Irish musician and scholar Mick Moloney.

“I never thought it would make it two and a half weeks, let alone 25 years,” Madden said. “Our success is that we combine music, singing and dancing and that we have a ball on stage. I’ve always surrounded myself with first-class musicians, singers and dancers. I guess that people come out, enjoy themselves and come back and bring a friend.”

Cherish the Ladies takes its name from an Irish jig that all of the group’s original members learned as young women.

The group never set out to create a performance act and only thought of truly forming Cherish the Ladies after Moloney suggested the members showcase their musical abilities.

“For hundreds of years, Irish music was passed man to son, and now it was fathers to daughters,” Madden said. “We never started out to have a girl band. In the early days when we started, people said it was a marketing ploy [and that we were] some type of Celtic Spice Girls. Then they realized we could play.”

Madden said she surrounded herself with talented people who she only sees as musicians, no strings attached.

“Everyone can stand up in [his or her] own shoes,” she said. “I’m proud of who I have on stage with me. Everyone is a champion in what they do.”

In addition to being talented, everyone has a shared Irish heritage.

“I grew up in an immigrant household,” Madden said. “All of us in the band come from homes where our dads played music. This music was passed down to us by our fathers, lovingly so.”

The Irish folktale music is “a great sense of a community” for Madden.

“I fell in love with it early on, and my father was thrilled to have a daughter carrying the music on,” Madden said.

On stage, Cherish the Ladies demonstrates its talent by bringing old-style songs to the stage while composing new songs that only sound old.

“We compose our tunes, but we always try to make sure they sound like they’ve been around for 200 years,” Madden said. “But we also play some traditional songs. We always try to make it fit and make it sound old. That’s the testament of the tune.”

But while the group performs olden style music, the reality of the present stays strong. Madden described Cherish the Ladies as straight-up lucky.

“Anyone will tell you music business is not an easy business,” Madden said. “While you still do a craft you love, you need to become a business person. We’ve had to overcome stigmatism of just being a girl band.”

Madden said she is “humbled by people enjoying us so much” and aims to continue to play and enjoy herself until Cherish the Ladies loses support.

Only one thing can make a night even more enjoyable than the chance to perform, Madden said.

“We’re working towards a standing ovation,” she said. “We got one every night so far.”