“Hear Your Heart” appears on William Fitzsimmons’s new album titled Charleroi – Pittsburgh Volume 2, out in North America, Europe & UK on April 1st, which explores the loss of the grandmother he never knew, following his 2015 EP Pittsburghabout the one he did.Brought up on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, William Fitzsimmons has been creating records of an almost-uncomfortable intimacy for the past 11 years.
Fitzsimmons says of the song: “It is simply meant to address the question: ‘How long does the echo of those we have lost last?’
“I remember being very affected the first time I read Poe’s ‘Tell Tale Heart’. Instead of being mortified by it, the idea that the dead can communicate with us from beyond the grave was somehow comforting. While Poe’s intent was meant to be one of warning, I wanted to apply the idea to a feeling of hope. A wish that perhaps regretted words spoken could be undone, or unsaid words could eventually be said.
“As we are drawn back into the memories of our dearly departed, in words and images, we imagine that perhaps there is a chance the lines of communication are not totally lost and may someday be reopened.”
You know we’re huge fans of William Fitzsimmons and this is another amazing song
On the opening night of The River Tour 2016. Bruce performs “Rebel Rebel” as a tribute to David Bowie.
Bruce Springsteen opened his “The River 2016” tour at Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center on Saturday. After playing 1980’s The River in full, Springsteen launched into an array of favorites, including “Badlands” and “Thunder Road.”
At one point, he stepped up to the mic and took some time for David Bowie, the rock legend who passed away on Monday, January 8th 2016.
“Not very many people know this but he supported our music way, way in the very, very beginning. 1973. He rang me up and I visited him in Philly while he was making the Young Americans record*. He covered my music, ‘Hard to be a Saint in the City’ … I took the Greyhound bus to Philadelphia, that’s how early it was,” Springsteen said.
He then launched into “Rebel Rebel” from Bowie’s 1974’s Diamond Dogs album.
In addition to “Hard to be a Saint in the City,” Bowie also recorded “Growing Up,” which was released on a 1990 re-release of Pin Ups.
Then WMMR DJ Ed Sciaky, an early Springsteen supporter, made the meeting between the two happen. Springsteen didn’t have a place to stay so he slept on Sciaky’s couch. During the time Bowie was recording Young Americans (late ’74, early ’75), Springsteen was just coming off the one-two punch of Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ and The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle. Born to Run, Springsteen’s break out, was released in August of 1975.
Bowie wrote, “Springsteen came down to hear what we were doing with his stuff. He was very shy. I remember sitting in the corridor with him, talking about his lifestyle, which was a very Dylanesque – you know, moving from town to town with a guitar on his back, all that kind of thing. Anyway, he didn’t like what we were doing, I remember that. At least, he didn’t express much enthusiasm. I guess he must have thought it was all kind of odd. I was in another universe at the time. I’ve got this extraordinarily strange photograph of us all – I look like I’m made out of wax.”
Director Cameron Crowereminisced about a similar time period while speaking about Bowie at the Television Critics Association. “He was always obsessed with music and art and never the business. It was always a young artist had moved him. He would reach out to that artist. Bruce Springsteen was somebody that caught his attention on the first album. He was talking about Bruce Springsteen in … early stages of Bruce Springsteen’s career.”
Bruce Springsteen’s 1980 opus “The River” has some of his most beloved songs — the title track, the pop hit “Hungry Heart,” the gorgeous “Drive All Night” — and others that the Boss himself had all but discarded.
As a fan tweeted this week, “It’s pretty nuts that Springsteen launches a tour ,where he’s guaranteed to play ‘The Price You Pay’ and ‘Crush On You’ 24 times.”
That will be almost as many times as he’s trotted them in the last 35 years, but when you embark on a full-album tour, as the mighty E Street Band did Saturday night at the sold-out Consol Energy Center, there are no shortcuts. What we got was a living, breathing classic with songs rarely played, especially here in this “Darkness on the Edge of Town” kind of town.
After camping out for several days of rehearsal at Consol, they hit the stage at the stroke of 8pm with a rocker he was crazy to cast aside, The rousing “River” outtake “Meet Me in the City.”
“We’re gonna take you to ‘The River’!” he said, interrupting the song. “I wanna know: Are you ready to be transformed?!”…..You know the answer.
“This was the record where I was trying to find out where I fit in…,” he said of the album, which has only been performed once live (2009, Madison Square Garden). “I wanted to make a record that was big enough that it felt like LIFE, or like an E Street Band show.”
They dropped the needle with the jubilant opener “The Ties That Bind,” a tone-setter for the album’s theme of finding what’s real and planting down roots. From there, “The River” ebbed and flowed from wild rollicking, ’60s-style frat rock to minor key ballads, reflecting the joys and struggles we all go through.
We can at least hope that everyone, at some point in their lives, has as much fun as the rowdies in “Sherry Darling” (the Boss dancing with his wife Patti Scialfa in that one), feels the passion of “Two Hearts,” carries the swagger of the guy in “Out in the Street” or has the kind of meaningful family interaction described in “Independence Day.”
The late-night conversation between father and son, sung on the darkened stage, was a beauty, that quickly gave way to the crowd belting out the opening of “Hungry Heart” and Bruce walking right into the heart of it. He got back to the stage by breaking the long distance crowd-surfing record for a 66-year-old.
“Crush on You,” which he has admitted might have been a better outtake, was still a loud, unruly blast, complete with a pretty funny dance. “I Wanna Marry You,” introduced as a song that’s “not about the real thing,” had an extended boardwalk doo-wop intro with guitarist and best man Steve Van Zandt. The title track, with the haunting harmonica cry, followed as the somber dose of reality, punctuated with a sad falsetto wail.
He took us down even lower into the abyss with “Point Blank,” before flipping the mood again with the rowdy middle of side three, “Cadillac Ranch,” with Soozie Tyrell fiddle solo, and “I’m a Rocker.”
The final run put the Boss at the wheel for the lonely and desperate “Stolen Car” (foreshadowing “Nebraska”) and the reckless “Ramrod,” building to an epic 10-minute “Drive All Night” that was indeed all heart and soul, with two great Jake Clemons sax solos. The end of the road was “Wreck on the Highway” and its sobering tale of tragedy and clarity.
“Thanks a lot. That’s ‘The River,'” he said. For most bands, two hours is a full night, but for the E Street Band, even with his voice getting weathered, the show must go on, and on, and it did with a roof-raising “Badlands.” When the crowd booed the Giants in “Wrecking Ball,” he laughed and said “Steelers?!”
From the Boss’ greatest masterpiece we got “Backstreets“ and “Thunder Road.” They raged through another great outtake, “Because the Night” (Nils Lofgren spinning on the screaming solo), “The Rising” and more.
He could not let the night pass without a tribute to a fallen rock god. Although they traveled different universes, Springsteen and the David Bowie had longtime connections. “He supported our music way back in the beginning, 1973,” he said, leading the band into first encore “Rebel Rebel.”
Opening night of The River Tour 2016. Bruce performs Rebel Rebel as a tribute to David Bowie.
At the three-hour mark, his voice fading but his energy still strong, he kept the engine going into “Bobby Jean,”“Dancing in the Dark” and a lights-up “Born to Run.” “Have you got anything left?” He hollered. “Do you have to get up for church tomorrow?” And with that, he rolled into the wild, celebratory finish of “Rosalita (Come OutTonight)” and ”Shout.“
Getting back to his original question: Were we transformed?…………Are we ever not?
This was even sweeter, because we witnessed a master doing one of his best albums, and one of the finest of all time, with the same conviction he had when he first created it. How could that not be transformative?
Same again for Pittsburgh synth, bass and drums horror-blizcore duo Steve Moore and Anthony Paterra and quite frankly we can’t get enough of it. Compulsive, thrilling and despite it’s barbarity it’s an infectious listen.
After the lengthy break that followed the band’s beloved last album ‘Escape Velocity’, 2015 sees Zombi ready to reclaim their rightful role as space-rock overlords with their sixth full-length ‘Shape Shift’. The album was self-produced by the band and recorded at Machine Age Studios in Pittsburgh, PA and Steve Moore’s private studio in central New York. Darker, heavier and more dynamic than their more recent works, Shape Shift sees the duo in “live band” mode, a fitting return to their roots after their successful North American tour with the legendary Goblin in 2013 and a triumphant headlining appearance at the prestigious Roadburn Festival in April, 2015. Whether you’re an adventurous listener or die-hard fan, delving into the latest chapter of Zombi’s expansive and ever-progressive oeuvre will never disappoint.
On 2nd October, singer/songwriter Brooke Annibale will release her fourth full-length studio album The Simple Fear. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Brooke’s maternal grandfather opened a music retail and live-sound business in the 1960’s, that is still family-run today. Also an accomplished player, he encouraged Annibale to take an interest in the guitar. Music was ever-present in her life because of the store, where she started taking lessons at age 14. “I felt a natural inclination to play guitar because it was always in my family,”
The record’s appeal lays in Annibale’s subtle groove and alluring style encased in layers of beautiful strings, guitar, piano, and percussion. However, it’s her magnetic voice and her wonderful smouldering delivery, that really draws you in, it gives her music an evocative, poignant feel that is all too rare in today’s crowded music scenes.
As a guitar player, Annibale stands out with her deep groove and interesting stylistic choices reminiscent of an early Josh Rouse and inspiration by John Mayer. Guitar aside, it’s her magnetic voice, that smoldering and irresistible delivery, that draws you in, making you think of names like Lisa Hannigan, Norah Jones and Sarah McLachlan.
Brooke spent about six years living and making music in Nashville, in the winter of 2014, she officially moved back to Pittsburgh. Both cities had a lot to offer and have equally inspired Annibale’s music. Nashville’s musical amenities are incomparable to most cities, but Pittsburgh provides a sort of life balance that Music City could not.
A band originating from the scene in Pittsburgh, Murder For Girls debut EP, are a new four piece playing Lo-Fi guitars are fuzzy and distorted levels are muddy and low, drums are tinny and awash with crashing cymbals, hopefully they will heading to these shores very soon.
The Fat Angel Sings 