I hate Pittsburgh. Never am going back there. I was only there for about 3 hours. And only at the airport. But the trauma from being on a Jet Blue flight en route to Chicago from New York City that had to emergency land (with the whole fire trucks on the jetway) with grown men crying and babies screaming is enough of a bad experience with Pittsburgh to never want to go back....but you should go there, especially for the inaugural New American Music Union festival.
The tow day festival will be held August 8th-9th at SouthSide Works and is a mash-up of fresh college talent and huge mainstream acts. Best part about it is the ticket prices: $25 for students, $49.50 for general admission. The second best part about the festival is that none other than Anthony Kiedis will be curating it. Kiedis has lined-up 15 college bands from around the USA, who will then play next to headliners like Bob Dylan, the Raconteurs, Gnarls Barkley, the Roots, Spoon, Black Keys, Black Mountain, the Duke Spirit, NASA and Tiny Masters of Today and more. The young guns will get to see what its like to play with the big boys.
Third best part of the festival is that you get a free shirt when you buy a ticket cause the whole sha-bang is being sponsored by prep station American Eagle outfitters.
"Music is still the most inspiring creative force that I know of," Kiedis said in a statement, "and this seemed like a prime opportunity to let it shine."
Here is a list of all the college acts and their retrospective college scenes, courtesy of Billboard.com. Anyone heard of any of them?
Bears (Kent State University) Flying Machines (The New School) Gospel Gossip (Carleton College) Magic Bullets (College of San Mateo), Math the Band (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) My Dear Disco (University of Michigan), Nothing Unexpected (Robert Morris University) the Black Fortys (University of Southern Illinois) the Company Kang (Whitman College) the Delicious (Indiana University) the Depreciation Guild (New York University) the Elizabethan Report (Brigham Young University) the French Horn Rebellion (Northwestern University) the Royal Bangs (University of Tennessee) the Steps (University of Texas Austin).
My Trusted MOGs
$25 for students, $49.50 for general admission. Thats dirt cheap these days. I watching, "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" the other day. The ticket scalper in the movie was charging 20$ for regular seating and 25$ for the first five rows. I remember back in the 80's first five rows ranged from 100-300$ a seat.
My Trusted MOGs
That's a really cool idea. I'm sure those smaller bands will be the ones inspired the most. Imagine being a college band and being able to meet and maybe play with Jack White??
They should put a bunch of jam rooms backstage.
Hell, MOG should sponsor them and set them up with instruments and record the music. that would be great.
My Trusted MOGs
I've actually heard of Math The Band lol....local paper did an article on "Math Rock" and they were featured. Not my type of stuff, but they're actually pretty good. Click if you wanna hear..
My Trusted MOGs
talk about judging a book by its cover. you should def give PGH another chance, but this time explore the city instead of the airport. i often talk shit about it too, but it actually has some amazing music venues and parks and all that.
My Trusted MOGs
have you ever been aboard a commercial plane 35,000 feet in the air when a pilot comes over the speaker and tells the plane we have 7 minutes to crash land the plane? have you ever been holding your cell phone in your sweaty palms while people are barfing in bags next to you from nerves on a plane that you think is going to crash and thinking what the last words you are ever going to say to your mother will be? sorry if the trauma of such an experience makes me never ever want to go back to where i crash landed. i will gladly judge a book by its cover under these circumstances any day.