This being post number one, I’d like to explain the purpose of my writings. Basically, these are just postings of what I’m interested in and what I’m playing on the radio on Saturday nights. If you don’t know, it’s a heavy metal show on WRCT 88.3 FM Saturdays from 9pm to 12am called “Too Evil to Have a Human Name.” I get questions frequently about the music I’m playing, so I’d like to use this space to talk more about it and make recommendations about records and shows in town. Probably more importantly, I’d like to bring attention to the local scene and some of the great bands around the Pittsburgh area.

First up, if you’ve listened to the show you probably have heard me mention a recent compilation of local bands put out by the local label Innervenus. It’s called Iron Atrocity Vol. 1 and you can find a free download at http://www.innervenus.org/iron-atrocity/. It’s a lot of great bands representing many different styles of metal. What’s amazing is the fact that there are many more bands not on that compilation, and Vol. 2 is currently in the works.

Currently I’m enthralled with a lot so called “old school death metal.” While some of it is completely ripping off old Entombed, there are some slightly original records being put out. The band Vallenfyre from the UK is made up of members of Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Doom. The record is called A Fragile King on Century Media and the sound is definitely older style death metal but there’s enough of that British doom/death sound along with some interesting song writing and riffs to keep me listening over and over. One of my favorite records of all time is Incantation’s Onward to Golgotha and that sound seems to be making a comeback. Bands like Necros Christos from Germany with Doom of the Occult (Sepulchral Voice Records), Father Befouled (US/Relapse) with Morbid Destitution of Covenant, and Mitochondrion (Canada/Profound Lore) with Parasignosis.

My biggest disappointment recently was attending the Opeth concert a couple of months ago. While I understand the new album’s ’70s prog rock direction and actually enjoy it, the set list of the concert contained nothing heavier than that sound. No classic Opeth progressive death metal. Hopefully, they will tour again with different set list. I will definitely check it online before buying a ticket.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to call into my show Saturday night.

Bill

1. The Black Keys: El Camino
2. Ilhan Ersahin’s Istanbul Sessions: Night Rider
3. Frank Sinatra: The Best of The Best
4. Tycho: Dive
5. Tito Carillo: Opening Statement
6. Sealions: Everything You Wanted to Know About Sealions But Were Afraid To Ask
7. 11 Acorn Lane: Swing Thing
8. Cloud Control: Bliss Release
9. Boris: New Album
10. Atlas Sound: Parallax

Last Saturday, a funk trio played in Pittsburgh.

For some reason, in the late ’80s, we cast off the funky sounds that the synthesizers of the era were beckoning to produce. Much like a lost balloon, it seems that the funk never left Earth’s orbit, but has instead been hanging out beyond the exosphere, drenching itself in alpha rays. Repeated exposure to these rays has resulted in the funk spiraling downward into the troposphere and, as a result, we’ve recently been hearing the heaviest of futuristic funks radiating from cities like Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.

Last night, members of WRCT’s experimental physics department made an excursion to lower Lawrenceville, where there seemed to be a radioactive disturbance. As they approached the Thunderbird Cafe, the readings on their Geiger counter were off the charts. It turns out the spikes in radioactivity were the result of an ELQ performance.

ELQ, formally known as East Liberty Quarters, a local future-funk group, has been creating quite a stir with its performances in Pittsburgh. The group has been revealing an intricate synthesizer-based funk that it has been composing in the studio, and it is impressing a good number of well-to-do Pittsburghers. The trio is comprised of Grand Ear, Nice Rec, and Buscrates 16 Bit Ensemble. On Friday, during their performance at the Thunderbird Cafe, they were accompanied on guitar by Zachary Curl of the Smooth Tutors.

The show was a blast. The funk radiated in a fashion kindred to that of Dâm-Funk, the self-proclaimed Los Angeles-based “Ambassador of Boogie Funk.” ELQ played a hypnotic array of songs that got a packed two-and-a-half-story bar grooving. Given last night’s performance, one can only expect that the power and exploration in their repertoire will be growing.