Cloaca Melodia

Schenley Plaza, Pittsburgh, PA.... It was the 15th annual WYEP Summer Music Festival.    Dr. Dog onstage  Dr. Dog had released their seventh album, Be the Void , a few months earlier, their fourth consecutive release to make the Billboard album chart. They frequently play in Pittsburgh, so it was great to be able to host them for the WYEP Summer Music Festival. (They had visited WYEP for a Live & Direct Session on 3/1/2012, so it was good to welcome them back.)  Great Lake Swimmers had done a Final Fridays show at Schenley Plaza in 2009, so they were returning to trodden ground after the release of their fifth album New Wild Everywhere .  And Sharon Van Etten had also just released her latest album  Tramp  (coincidentally, on the same day as Dr. Dog's latest), which was the first of three straight album's she would get onto the Billboard album chart. See her SMF setlist below. Pittsburgh's own Donora took the opening slot, as the band had ch...

Bedford Square, Pittsburgh, PA...... Cracker agreed to headline WYEP's 3rd annual "Rock the Block" event, where we block off the street in front of the radio station and have a concert and general party. After I gave the introduction for the band, David Lowery stepped up and say, "Good evening, we're Cracker. We're from Cleveland." Obviously, he was very aware of the football-inspired long-standing rivalry between the two cities. And then he quickly added, "Just kidding!" Following "The Riverside," David mentioned that that song and "Gimme One More Chance" were from their latest album Greenland . He told the audience, "I know we're supposed to get mellower and more public radio-y as we get older, but we did not get the memo." Then later (following "Mr. Wrong"), David introduced Johnny Hickman saying, "We should let Johnny talk. One of the reasons they don't let me talk is that I do things lik...