Writing about music in lieu of human interaction
Pittsburgh Out for Duckets Entertainment has a knack for summer romance tunes, with singer/rapper Lucid Vizions's "Notice Me" representing another breezy entry in the label's catalogue. Anyone who's ever had a crush on another person will feel this song, because it pines harder than a Christmas tree farm (terrible pun, I know). An understated instrumental … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Lucid Vizions – Notice Me (ft. Moo Wupp)
Pittsburgh artist Tim Vitullo responded to a protracted, expensive period of studio doldrums by stripping down and freeing up his sound, resulting in an album called Running out of Time. At heart, Running out of Time is a road record. Over the course of its runtime, Vitullo repeatedly finds himself in the car, his radio … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Tim Vitullo – Monongahela Valley
Pittsburgh rapper Pet Zebra teamed up with producer Hungerforcebeats for his June mixtape, Still Here. Already a master of banter-heavy hedonism, Zebra takes a wearier, more reflective route on the project's title track. Backed by a languid instrumental pulled straight from a smoke-filled daydream, the rapper surveys the past decade in his mental rearview, proudly … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Pet Zebra – Still Here
Katie Dee and her gothic Americana outfit, the Quaking Aspens, release quirky, homespun murder ballads, the latest collection of which, From the Sea, features watery graves and aquatic creatures. After I saw Robert Eggers's depraved black & white psych-horror film The Lighthouse (starring Edward Cullen and the Green Goblin) in December, I went to a … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Katie Dee & the Quaking Aspens – Lunatic Lighthouse
Samurai Velvet are a Pittsburgh duo, comprising singer Saige Smith and producer Joe Chilcott, whose debut single, "Siren," dropped last week. The slinky track slowly unfurls itself from murky, bass-filled depths (much like the sirens of Homeric mythology rose, tantalizing, from the sea), gradually adding layers of austere percussion as it builds to its hook, … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Samurai Velvet – Siren
King Catfish are a Pittsburgh rock trio whose Americancer album dropped on July 3rd. The jittery "Neptune Street" is chock full of nervous, check-over-your-shoulder guitar riffs that close in like the walls of a paranoid fever dream. Frontman Jordan Barone, in full cold-sweat mode, frantically yelps, "Lately/I've seen/Some strange things/Some strange me's," like he's been … Continue reading Daily Yinz – King Catfish – Neptune Street
Chicago avant-garde flautist and composer Nicole Mitchell, who joined the University of Pittsburgh last year as Director of Jazz Studies, unites with Houston composer and multi-instrumentalist Lisa E. Harris for the album EarthSeed, inspired by the works of science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler. EarthSeed's music is a lively, freeform sprawl of jazz, chamber music, … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Nicole Mitchell and Lisa E. Harris – Ownness
Pittsburgh dream-pop duo Drauve returns with the rippling slow dance lament "LMK." The shimmering, kaleidoscopic textures that characterized Drauve's 2019 output are still there, but those crystalline guitars and ambling, late-summer-stroll-around-the-neighborhood drums have been mostly replaced by warm synth programming pulled straight from Napoleon Dynamite's prom playlist. A four-on-the-floor beat, coated in pastel-colored, fog machine … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Drauve – LMK
The Hazel Effect is a Pittsburgh-based solo project that blends trap's rattling low end with pop-punk's scorched-earth angst. "White Gold Trim," a single that The Hazel Effect dropped a few weeks back, is a worthy entry in a doleful cannon known for zonked-out, digitized melodrama expressed by various dudes named Lil (Peep, Uzi Vert, Lotus), … Continue reading Daily Yinz – The Hazel Effect – White Gold Trim
Pittsburgh rapper Livefromthecity dedicated his latest release, a three-song project called Party Favors, to the life of Breonna Taylor. Opener "Back to Church," a bracing gut check of a track that rides atop a windswept, Spaghetti Western instrumental, decries the destruction wrought by the hydra-headed menace of gun violence ("Man down on Sherman/Man down on … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Livefromthecity – Back to Church
