Hello everyone and welcome.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for watching and thanks to our live studio audienc for being here with us tonight.

We have a really good show coming up.

We do.

But first I'm Valerie, that's David, and this is our Gen X Pittsburgh podcast.

Tonight's guest is Scott Mervis, longtime music criti for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

What a time.

I know what a time to be booking Scott as the guest.

I know you would think that I was prescient or something.

Yeah but what about that word, Wow.

What's happenin here?

Cant tell I'm a writer.

But, I mean, so for those who don't know, everybody knows, right?

It's all over social media.

It's everywhere.

Right?

Scott is one of the reporters who unfortunately lost their job when new owner have bought the PG and they cut, I think, 80 different writers from writers, editors, I shouldn't just say writers, but made some really deep cuts into the PG.

Yeah, I know he was there for, what, 41 years?

41 years.

Thats longer than I've been alive.

You know, the the the cuts have for me have been surprising because, you know, they got rid of the entire editorial department.

They got rid of Scott who was the only music writer, I think, plus the or the weekend editor.

Yeah.

I mean, you have to do what you have to do, right?

The paper wasn't surviving, but it's going to be a different paper.

Yeah.

So it'll be interesting to tal about days of yore with Scott.

Right.

And what, what it was like back then and and some of his favorite shows, some of his favorite stories and and just hear what, what, what if anything he's planned in over the last 36 hours.

Right.

He's found out this is happening.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Thanks, everyone.

Here we are, Gen X Pittsburgh with Scott Mervis.

Not quite Gen X, but you've covered a lot of things in Gen X, I have.

I have done that.

You know, I was havin a conversation the other night.

Manny Finer, the great.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Pittsburgh legend.

And I was like I'm going on this Gen X podcast.

He's like, you're like, Scott, you're a boomer.

And I was like, look, Manny, I've told this thing before.

My sister is a boomer, okay?

My sister graduated from Peabody High School in 1969.

Okay.

Her friends were getting drafted in Vietnam.

She was like Woodstock, although she didnt go to Woodstock.

But she was Woodstock.

Hendrix.

Airplane.

And then I came along and I was KISS, right?

You know, like I was going to see KISS.

Now, there was nothing comparable to what her life and me going to, you know, going to see these bands like that.

It was a completely different experience.

But we're 11 years apart.

But I've always kind of rejected the Boomer versus Gen-X like because of that.

Well, I think that when for people like Manny, I've had this argument with Manny, right, about what we're doing here.

But when people make that argument, they tend to forget that.

I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

Right.

And you take a ban like Tool or Soundgarden, right?

They are descendants of King Crimson and, you know, Black Sabbath and the whole doom metal scene and progressive rock.

And so it's impossible t divorce the two continuous line.

Yeah.

I mean, even a band like Depeche Mode, right, like Depeche Mode, a completely electronic band, but really without what, you know, ELP was doing or something.

You don't get there, right?

So it's been listening to so much New Wave lately that's been like the soundtrac for my departure from the Post Gazette I'm leaning back on, like old New Wave.

I have a playlist with like the Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Talk Talk, which is kind of an overlooked band that I've gone back to, and they sound even better now to me than they sounded then.

He's a great singer, you know?

So.

So you grew up in the city?

I grew up in Stanton Heights.

Wow.

Okay.

I went to Peabody High School and my music, my music start if you want to get back to where it all came from.

Like I used to sit i my sister's bedroom and, like, flip through all these records, like the, like, I would pull The Doors out, Strange Days.

Oh, yeah.

And it would scare me.

And then she had, like, Frank Zappa, Hot Rats.

Right?

And I'd be like, what is going on?

Right.

What is happening here?

You know, because I was like listening to the Jackson Five.

Yeah.

That at that age and everything, I was listening to stuff like that.

I was like you know, under ten years old.

But what what really kind of changed me one day and I listened to like DVE and stuff like that once I got into being like in early or early teen years DVE, YDD, I loved YDD, you know what I mean?

But I was friends with this this girl named Amy Wagner.

Okay.

And she lived in Stanton Heights on Stanton Avenue.

We had a whole group of friends.

Her older brother was Harry Wagner, aka Harry the Wire.

Now, Harry the Wire i an unsung legend in Pittsburgh.

Okay, okay.

He was one of the original.

YEP, OG deejays playing new wave.

He was the new wav DJ at the Sanctuary in Oakland.

Yeah.

Harry Wire was a legend, so I would go over there, and then Harry knew I was in the music, and Harry didn't have friends because Harry was weird.

He had health problems and maybe a little bit like spectrumish or whatever, right?

But he had a basement full of records, and he would try to get me down there.

And Amy was like Scott, don't hangout with Harry.

Like.

And I'm like, Amy, I got to hear these, right?

So he takes me down there and I'm, its, 1976 and he plays me KISS Alive!

Sure.

Okay.

Now I had never, I didn't, like KISS wasn't mainstream and KISS Alive like they weren't playing Rock and Roll All Night yet on the radio because it was just like happening.

Yeah.

And he played me early.

Blue Oyster Cult oh, like Secret Treaties, which right now is one I consider it one of the greatest rock albums ever made.

Mott the Hoople.

Sure.

Early like Bowie stuff that I wasn't hearing.

So he, like, turned me o to this, like incredible music that just, like changed everything for me.

Yeah.

And I, you know.

And then he got into a new wave around the time I was getting into New Wave, too.

And so, you know, he was a huge, like a huge influence.

Yeah.

And so did you go to school for writing or.

That's that's a funny question.

I didn't go to school for journalism or for music and I don't really know muc about either.

Oh that's great.

Yeah, I don't really I think that's fabulous.

Yeah.

But somehow I combine the two things and like maybe something there worked.

Yeah.

That was back in the day when you could do that.

Yeah.

Yeah I do it now.

Yeah, yeah.

Probably not.

No I you know I never had like a credential card.

Yeah.

Let me let me tell you what happened.

So I get to Pitt.

Yeah okay.

It is September 1979.

First week of September.

Okay.

We just we just finished classes for, for like, the week, and it's Friday night and there's a band at the student union.

Okay.

Playing outside, there was a porch.

You know that porch along?

Yep.

They were on the porch.

It was the Iron City Houserockers.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

I had I don't think I'd ever seen a local band.

I was 18 years old.

I couldn't go into bars or whatever.

There weren't.

There weren't things like bands playing everywhere around the city.

Like there are now.

Right.

And this band comes out and it's like, oh my God.

I mean, this is like E Street Band.

This is like the J. Giles band.

This is like, you know, they're right in there with them in terms of like how good this band is.

You know, Mark Reisman blowing on the harmonica.

It was just like it.

I mean, it blew me away completely.

And then a couple weeks later, there was a concert at Flagstaf Hill before one of the movies.

And it was a it was like it was a really cold day.

Maybe it was in October.

It was about 30 degrees this evening.

And the band that was playing was Car Sickness.

Oh my God, oh my.

So I watched Car Sickness and I had never seen anything like this before.

And my friends were with me.

We were all into like Dyla and the band and we were like, the Grateful Dead.

That's kind of stuf that we were like, really into.

So I watched Car Sickness and, you know, it's like this punk was like noise or like jazz.

It was.

It's like, I can't compare them really to anybody, you know?

They were just like their own thing because some of the guys were punk.

Yeah, some of the guys were prog, you know, like Steve Sciulli was prog.

Yeah.

Karl Mullen was punk right?

And Irish and.

Right.

And so I watched as my friend were like kind of drifting off.

And I thought, this is the worst thing I've ever seen.

You know, I've never seen anything this bad.

And then a couple days go by, you know, and I'm looking bac at this thing and I'm thinking, I kind of like it.

I kind of get it.

Yeah, yeah.

You know what I mean?

It was it hit me slowl over like a week or something.

It was like I got I think I have to see that again.

Yeah.

You know, and so this combination of the Iron City Houserockers and Carsickness and they were polar, they were kind of polar opposites.

They were literally at war with each other in some ways.

Right.

And this was like these two sides.

But back then, like I didn't have to pick one side and stay with it like some people did, but I refused to do that.

Some people were like, you know, f the house rockers or like f car sickness and f that whole scene over there, you know, Electric Banana.

Yeah.

But I was like, you know what?

I dig both of these.

Yeah.

And so I would go to the, you know I would sneak into the Decade.

I had a fake I to get into the Electric Banana.

I would sneak in through the Decade roof.

Yeah.

Down through the kitchen.

Yeah, through the apartment building.

Because we knew somebody in the apartment building.

So I was into both things.

And and I really think that that's wh I've been able to do this job.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Because I had, I had I knew a lot of people in the scene that were just they wrote off that whole decade.

They wrote off The Silencers.

It was too mainstream.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

And they would have been lousy Post-Gazette music critics.

Yeah, right.

That's what I mean.

That's right.

They wouldnt have been open to both of these things.

That's right.

I may not have been, like the best person, best writer, best person, but, like, I think I had, like, an open mindedness for.

Yeah.

You respected the musician.

Did you start at the PG?

I mean, was that your first gigs or did you ever?

No, no.

Like, what happened was I was like really into like, the another show that changed my life when I was in college was like seeing Gang of Four.

Yeah, at CMU Skibo Ballroom.

And I had never been I had never experienced a punk show where, like, people were just slamming into each other and the band was just, like, so freaking intense.

So I saw this show at Skibo Gang of Four, became one of my favorite bands, and I was like, I got I got to start writing about music because I read I think it was the David Fricke story about them in Rolling Stone, and I was like, man, you can you can write about.

I was in I was I had a dual major of like, English writing and business.

Okay.

It was like fiction writing.

Yeah.

And it was like, you know, one day I would have, like, a computer, you know, those cards?

Oh, yeah.

For whatever it was called, cobalt.

They were like I would have to do that.

Right?

And then, like, the next day, I would have to turn in a short story, right?

And I was like, yeah, man.

My brain is like, it's no working with these two things.

Like I can't do both of these things, one creative and one like computer.

And so I went to Pitt News I walked, I walked in the door on the fourth floor of the student union.

And I was just I was determined to write about music.

And there was the woman sitting there was this.

She was goth.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

And this was like, before goth.

Yeah.

Like she was original goth Right.

Okay.

And then she had this, this other guy with him, and anyway, she totally intimidated me and scared me.

And she was like, she looked at me like you want to write about music?

And Im like, yeah.

And she's like, all right, well, like, just, you know, give me a record review or something.

Anyway, long story short, not long after that I was backstage with Game of Four at the Syrian Mosque, interviewing Gang of Four for the Pitt News.

It was one of my first big stories, and it was just like this rule of a lifetim to be there with Gang of Four.

And then in 1983 I had just graduated from Pitt.

I had no idea what I was going to do, and The Houserockers playe their last show at the decade, so I went and covered that for the Pitt News.

Even though I had already graduated.

I was lingering a little bit.

Sure.

I'm pretty sure that that was the timing on that.

And it was it was the experience of The Houserockers in the decade playing their last show was also one of the most intense experiences I ever had.

I mean, there was broken glass and beer bottles all over the floor.

It was people on tables, like, just insane.

And so I just wrote this thing and then I submitted it to I was I got a jo working as a messenger downtown for a law firm.

So I was walking, you know, legal things around.

And then one day there wa this thing called In Pittsburgh, Newsweek, right?

Yeah.

Right.

And it was like the first issue.

And I picked it up.

I'm like, well, what's this?

This looks like something, you know what I mean?

And so I, I, I called him up and there was a guy there named Abby Mendelsohn.

I know Abby well.

Who was another Pittsburgh legend.

So well.

And I, I turned in this stor that I had written for the news about the Iron City Houserockers and I got a call back from him and he said, so I just read your read your stuff, and I said, okay.

He said this story abou The Houserockers, and he said, you wrote this.

I'm like, yeah, I did.

He said, seriously?

I was like, yeah, I wrote that.

He's like you were just like in college.

I was like, yeah.

He said, all right, you're hired.

Like, wow, that's really cool.

So yeah.

I literally just got a copy, yesterday, Abb gave me a copy of his new book.

I see Abby every week.

I have to connect with him.

I, I yeah, I definitely have to connect with him.

He taught me so much.

He taught me journalism.

I sat in the office I never took journalism classes.

Abby taught me journalism.

I didn't know it.

But just sitting there with Abby, like, every day.

That's how I learned, right?

If I learned right I think I absorbed some of it.

Yeah, I think you did You were around 41 years, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So I, I became in time, I became a senior editor of in Pittsburg along with writing music there.

And I was working with Charlie Humphrey.

Yep.

Another great Pittsburgh.

Yep, yep.

Legend Charlie Humphrey, Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

He's he's still a friend of mine.

And I heard that the Post-Gazette was looking for freelance music critics.

So I applied for the Post-Gazette fight.

Wow.

And and Charlie was like, I asked for permission.

He said, you know, I think I think maybe like, if you did reviews for the Post-Gazette and you were here, like, maybe that would bring like a little like that would add prestige to like In Pittsburgh.

And so for some reason I was allowed to do both.

Yeah.

And so my first, my first show for the Post Gazette was the Ramones.

Wow.

That's cool.

At the Syrian Mosque.

It was like a try out.

I see the Ramones shirt.

It was a try out for the Post-Gazette.

And I hope I'm not long winded.

No, this is fabulous, right.

Yeah.

Okay.

So so I go, here's another Pittsburgh legend, George Anderson.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Longtime editor and film critic for the Post-Gazette.

Just classic old school journalist like you would see in a movie.

Yeah.

You know, so he reads the Ramones.

He said, all right.

He said, we're goin to bring you on as a freelancer along with another guy, Jeff Seawall.

And we're going to split, split the beat.

And so I said, so, so how does this work with reviewing shows for the Post-Gazette?

You know, like, how does it work?

He said, well, and while I'm sitting there, he's typing one of his movie reviews.

Oh, geez, you never had his full attention.

He's either typing his column and he'll look over to you every now and then and kind of listen to you.

But then, you know.

Right.

So he he goes, so you go to the concert and then the deadline will be about 11:30.

Quick, quick, quick, quick.

Because it's the morning paper and then The Press is going to come out later in the day.

And you need to beat the Pittsburgh Press.

Right.

And they're going to have their review which is due in the morning.

Right.

You know what I mean, it was du in the morning for the afternoon paper.

Right.

So I said, yeah, you're kidding me right.

And he's typing, you know, his thing.

And I said, I don't know if I don't know how, I don't know how I'm going to do it.

Like the concerts over at 11:00, how I had to go downtown, right.

Park at the Post-Gazette, go up, type the whole thing on the A text system.

Oh my God.

And I said, I don't know how I'm going to do this.

And he goes, he looks over to me.

He goes, just do it.

Yeah.

Wow.

And I like a chill went through.

And you know what?

It just happened to me again.

Like a chill went through me when I said, right.

Because he he had this glar at me and he's like, just do it, you know what I mean?

And that was his, his, yo know, that was how what he did.

That's what journalists did, right?

And I think ever sinc then that's that's been my like my motto was just like, just do it like anything that is difficult or but what would happen was like the craziest thing, like, you know, for instance, I went on, I went to see, I was reviewing BB King one time He was at the, the, the Stanley, I'm pretty sure.

Okay.

And they had an opening act, and then Bobby Bland came out and then BB King came out I remember this, it was 10:35.

Yeah.

10:35 I had to be back at the Post-Gazette by about 11:10.

Right.

Okay.

Yeah.

And so I saw BB King for ten minutes.

Yeah.

Okay.

Which was kind of like the opening scene.

Like the overture.

Yeah.

That the band would do.

Because the band came out.

Yeah.

And they did like seven minutes.

Right.

And then BB King came out.

He was out ther for like three minutes.

Right?

So I'm like B.B.

King, you know, I have to write like Bobby Bland.

And BB King came out and and, you know it was just legend from there.

Like, whatever I had to say to pretend like I saw BB King.

I've done this story by the way.

And, like, I left every concert.

Yeah.

Early.

I mean, generally we would have to leave a half hour before the concert ended.

And so it was like this incomplete review, and you just, like, had the hope that, like, right.

God knows what didn't happen at the concert.

Well, luckily with BB King, I mean, you know he only played like 25 minutes and half of it was a band vamping, right?

He did the same for five songs in every city he went to.

And that was sort of.

Yeah, this is like 1987.

So this was like young BB King.

I know.

He was like still pretty young BB King.

Hes not that old yet.

Yeah, right.

At what, at what point did you realize that this wasn't just a job, but this was like your life.?

Like this was your lane, and this was like.

I haven't realized that yet.

Really?

Yeah.

Really?

No.

I don't know.

I mean, I've always had, like, a little bit of, like, imposter syndrome about it.

Yeah, I like like I said, like there's so many people who know.

So, like, we were just talking about Manny.

Yeah, right.

Manny knows so much more about music than I do.

Well he knows about like obscure bands from Japan, right?

But, I mean, if you sent Manny to see Journey, right?

God knows what would happen.

That's exactly right.

Like, the world might end.

That's like I don't know what would happen, but PG readers would not be happy.

That's right.

You of that.

That's right.

And they weren't happy with me that early on either, because I was coming from a pun aesthetic, but not that extreme of one.

Like I was able to see l I was into Boston.

Right?

I loved Boston.

Yeah, I loved Kansas.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know if Manny ever went through like, Boston, Kansas, right?

Neil Young.

Right.

That phase, you know what I mean?

So I had like that.

It's a different job, though.

I mean, when you're a critic, you're trying to get to the masses, right?

An idea of what happened and give them a little bit of an inkling so that maybe they're going to go and pick up the album or, you know, go to se the next show or something else.

Your job isn't to highlight the most obscure band.

It's, you know, playing, driving across the States in, in a van.

I will tell you something, though, that I di that was incredibly obnoxious, like in my early days, at the Post Gazette, I went to see it was Loverboy right?

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

And I, to this day, do not like Loverboy.

Yeah.

There's nothing about Loverboy that I really like.

I'm sorry to say.

Like, then like I do not love it.

No, I was not into them whatsoever.

So this isn't a this is on when I started freelancing for the post.

And this is in the 80s.

Okay, so I wrote somethin about Loverboy, and at the end I just listed all the bands you should listen to instead of Loverboy.

That's that's coming.

Yeah, it was paragraphs of just listings.

Like bands like The Replacements Yeah.

And the Meat Puppets, and Hüsker Dü.

Yeah, yeah.

And all these bands.

It was just a list.

Yeah.

And.

And so there was a gentleman who worked as one of the managers at the Civic Arena.

Yeah.

And he, to this day, as a friend of mine now, and I am actually going to be like meeting with him next week.

Okay.

So anyway, he wrote a letter to George Anderson.

He's like, you got to get rid of this.

Yeah, yeah.

Like this isn't gonna work.

Right, right, right.

And this and this was.

But George, like, hung with me, and I didn't do any more lists of bands that you should listen to instead of this.

Yeah but I should find that review.

Yeah.

That's how many band I actually listed listed.

Right?

It was.

I was just venting.

Right.

You know, I was like, so triggered.

Yeah.

That wasn't a word back then by how much I didn't like Loverboy.

And that happens to me sometimes.

Like, I'm usually pretty easy going, like, I'm not a tough critic, right?

But sometimes a band will just like a performance will just, like, piss me off.

Well I just rage like Jackson Browne.

Yeah, yeah, like one of the one of the craziest lines I ever wrote, I think.

Was a review of a Jackson Browne concert for I demanded that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame come take his his induction away based on that performance.

I think that's I'm pretty sure it went into print like that.

I'd have to look that one up.

But it was like, you cannot let this guy i the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after this performance.

That's funny.

You know, the funniest review I ever read was Asia came out with the greatest hits album and it was called Then and Now, and this was in Guitar Magazin and this was the entire review Asia.

Bad then, worse now.

Now that was it.

I thought, that's the best review.

I'll give you one, I'll give you one.

I think that might compete with that.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's a classic musician magazine review.

And it was of the band GTR.

Oh yeah.

Okay.

Do you remember them?

I forget who GTR was now, bu it just said the review was like the name was GTR.

And then the review was just SHT.

That was it was three letters.

That's pretty good.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So it's interesting.

Did you like to review live shows or record, CDs more?

Which one did you have a more affinity for?

Definitely the live for me, because the adrenaline of the moment like would help, would help with the writing.

I mean, I would, I would have like a adrenaline rush from, from the show.

I also like I really like to I think I'm more really like in the vei of a storyteller than a critic.

Like, I don't think I'm that opinionated.

As a critic.

I like to sort of try to capture.

Yeah, describe, you know what I mean.

Like sort of tell a story.

I think you're absolutely right.

I've read a lot of your writing, and I think you're right.

Yeah.

And now at my age, I love telling these classic stories of, like, yo know, like just just in recent, recent PG, I did a piece on the Ramones 50th anniversary, and when the Ramones first came to town and played in Antonino's Pizzeria on Craig Street.

Which I wasn't there.

Right.

It was.

It was 1977.

I was doing my homework.

I was 15.

Right.

Yeah.

I hadnt met Harry yet.

Yeah, yeah, I knew Harry, but he hadn't played me KISS yet, so.

Well.

So what about the local?

Because Pittsburgh, I mean, you've touched on a little bit, but Pittsburgh really has a strong music scene and it has over the years.

Right.

Like you were talking about the Iron City Rockers, but through, you know, the Gathering Field and the, you know, The Clarks.

So obviously everybody knows about the Clarks and Rusted Root, but it really has an underground scene.

It has sort of a pop scene.

It has in later years, a rap scene.

So did you like to write about local music or the these bigger acts that were coming through more?

Both.

Yeah.

And I would definitely I would definitely like our, our music scene here.

We didn't have a record industry in Pittsburgh.

Right.

So if you wanted, if you wanted to make it as a rock band, you really could not do it here.

You had to leave.

Yeah, sure.

You know, some people, some people left, like Bret Michaels left.

Yeah.

He he went to Harrisburg, Mechanicsburgh.

Right.

And then I gues he probably ended up in, in LA.

That's right.

Right.

Yeah.

And then there were some other people like Reb Beach they left and stuff like that.

Now the people who stayed, they did music because they weren't trying to be successful.

They weren't trying to get rich.

Yeah, right.

So for them, it was about the music.

So I will take a band like what I, I haven't mentioned them yet, but I consider the one of the best Pittsburgh bands ever, and I will put them up with any band.

The Cynics.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Cynics are, to me, one of the best garage roc bands of all time.

Right.

Okay.

And if people knew them, lik if they had gotten the airplay.

Yeah.

The local they got no right airplay here.

They got no love.

The Clarks, God bless them.

They'r they're a very good band.

Yeah.

Okay.

The they got a lot of the attention.

Right.

You didn't hear The Cynics.

I'll give you another favorite band of mine.

It's in my my Mount Rushmore is ATS.

Oh, sure, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Just they came out as kind of like they were sort of in this cow punk era, but like, one of the guys was cow punk.

They were all different and what they were into.

So it was this crazy mixture of like cow punk, noise, avant garde jazz, a little bit of prog here, and there just like thi indescribable band that I don't, I don't think there's anything really comparable to ATS, and I would just go to like every ATS show.

I was just like a fanboy of that band.

So, you know, between like The House Rockers, The Cynics, ATS, The Little Wretches were great.

Yeah.

Robert Wagner, I'm sort of forgetting names, but then so I'm talking here about the, the era of like we're talking Electric Banana, right.

We're talking about Decade where you had, you know, at the, at the Decade, at one point you had four major label bands playing every weekend.

Yeah.

You know, you had The Hous Rockers, Billy Price, Silencers, Norm Nardini, 1979, 1980.

You had four major label acts that didn't didn't do well nationally necessarily.

The Silencers were on the first day at MTV.

Yeah, yeah.

Which was really cool.

So that was the that was that era of the of like 70s, early 80s.

Now Graffiti comes along.

Right.

Okay.

In about 84, 85 I'm forgetting what they come along with this rock challenge.

Right.

Yep.

So now you have The Clarks coming out of Indiana University, right?

In inspired by like, bands like REM guitar, The Return of Guitar music.

And we have this explosion of bands like it's it's literall if you build it, they will come.

Right, right.

Graffiti.

Yeah.

You know what I mean.

So you have like and you would, you would call them the Banana bands.

Yeah.

Decade bands.

Graffiti bands.

Right.

And so the Graffiti bands were The Clarks.

Yeah.

11th hour.

Yeah.

I saw the first Rusted Root show at at Graffiti, which was the Graffiti Rock Challenge.

There were just four of them and they weren't good.

Yeah.

But you could tell that there was something between Michael and Liz, like there was some magic happening here.

And the vocals, they didn't have all the percussion going yet.

There was a great.

And then you had, like.

It seemed like every time I would walk into Graffiti, they had this front room.

Yeah.

With a bar.

Yeah.

And and like Bill Deasy was always there.

Yeah.

On the stage.

Right.

Yeah.

Like you would see Bill Deasy outside and then like who knows whatever it was inside like Nirvana or something and was playing in the bar.

And then his band, which was Shiloh, they won maybe the second Graffiti Rock Challenge.

So we had all these bands, like there would be like 16 bands I think would would start the Graffiti would start in the first roun of the Graffiti Rock challenge.

Right.

And they just so many bands became popular.

Brownie Mary.

I mean, I think ye I think it's interesting and maybe I see it because I probably wasn' as a meshed in it as you were.

Right.

But a lot of those band started out as Graffiti bands, but then slowly sort of morphed into Nicks Fat City.

Graffiti closed.

Yeah.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, yeah.

Also, so you had The Clarks and Brownie Mary, Gathering Field, Nixon Clocks right?

Like all of these bands.

Sort of, do you remember Blue Dot Records?

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

The Buzz Poets.

Yeah.

That was like that.

That became the Nicks scene of the what was it, the early zeros.

Yeah probably 90s early zeros.

But part of that was because the thing about Graffiti, it was a showcase room.

Right.

So it was it was not a dedicated club to a certain sound.

Right.

Like the Decade, the beauty of the Decade is, if it was a Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, you could just walk in there.

You didn't need to know who was there.

It was going to be something.

You knew what it was going to be, right?

Bluesy, R&B, gritty, you know, Billy Price, House Rockers Silencers, Red Hot and Blue, Baton Roulette, Warren King, you know, all this stuff.

It had a sound earlier in the week.

They would have, like The Cynics and Trash Vegas and like some of the sort of like the the newer punk bands and garage bands and stuff like that.

And then The Banana obviously was doing like punk and they was starting in getting into hardcore, right, and metal, and I was like, I wasn't quite getting like the hardcore of that era.

Like, you know, I was, you know, sort of but Graffiti would host those bands that we talked about.

But you might go one night and it's like Dave Mason playing acoustic or David Bromberg.

So you couldn't just say, I' going to go to Graffiti to see whats going on.

You are correct.

But you also had would have to pay like maybe like a $15 ticket for something, right?

You know, rather tha like the $3 cover at The Banana or the five like five bucks to get into The Decade?

Yeah.

So all those bands needed like, places that they could play regularly, like every week.

So that's where Nick's, like, really came in.

Yeah.

No, you're right about Graffiti.

I can I've seen a lot of bands of Graffiti and I'm talking about major label ones.

Right.

Who were just starting to bubble ove and you would have to pay you.

You wouldn't just show up like you would with.

For me, it was Banana, right?

Like you would show up at the Banana.

You would show up at some of these other places, even Nicks Fat City, which was a more expensive cover.

You would still just show up because you kind of knew the kind of bands were going to play there.

Yeah, but I mean, oh, no, go ahead.

I mean, the bands I saw at Graffiti like The Replacements, Sonic Youth, like Social Distortion, Red Hot Chili Peppers, it was it was just unbelievable.

How how compare the scenes from when you started t most recently, how did the whole you going to concerts how did that whole thing change?

Because I'm sure it's changed over 41 years.

How did that.

How did that compare?

You mean to what the club scene now?

Yeah, just like when you like, you're taking in.

You have like 20 minutes to write a story.

How did that change as your career got bigger and bigger?

The bigger artists, bigger shows bigger stages?

Yeah.

I'm trying to think of the whole deadline thing.

And not just deadlines but just like, you know, like, you know, how did it go from like, Taylor Swift to, you know, like, you know, Brownie Mary or the Affordable Floors or somebody so, tell me how.

I'm going to I'll leave off something off of what you're talking about.

Okay.

Okay.

So in terms of like, first of all, in terms of the scene, like I am in my 60s, right?

So I'm, I'm really not going out to like Roboto Project.

And these young people, probably they know much more than I do but obviously I'm writing about mainstream music at the Post Gazette, Im writing about the, my readers at the Post Gazette they want the freaking Eagles, right?

You know what I mean?

Like, I can, I ca I can write a piece on a band, you know, like a young, adventurous band coming to one of the smaller places.

And they're not reading it.

Right?

Yeah, yeah.

You know.

Right.

Yeah But if I, if I do.

Bruce.

Yes.

Anything about Bruce like it's clicks.

Yeah.

And that's what I needed.

Obviously I wasn't getting enough of them.

But so in terms of how my, how right like writing changed for me.

So in 2010, Paul McCartney was playing the first show at Consol Energy Center.

Yeah, okay.

And I was going to cover the opening of this place with Paul McCartney.

So I had a BlackBerry.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I said to my editor, I said, what if I, what if I sent you just like three graphs about what what was going?

Then you could get something.

Yeah.

You know, I think this is like on the web.

Yeah.

Quickly.

You know, so instead of writing the three graphs on the BlackBerry where you can only see like a line at times, I think I wrote like a whole review.

Yeah.

Okay.

So what I began to do and what I did up until March 1st when I, no, Nelly was my I think Nelly was my last review journey before that is, I would I would write the entire review on my phone in real time, and then I would file it on the last song, right with the thought that people can walk to their cars and they can get in their cars, right?

Not read it while they're driving, but maybe their husband or wife or their friend or whatever.

The review would be there.

You could read it on the way home, right?

Incredibly different than it was.

I mean, everything changed, right?

The way you could write the story, the way the media was delivered, everything about it, and also the expectation.

Right.

If the expectation was, I' going to wake up in the morning and see the paper, now it's I want to know what everyone else thought right now.

The show I just saw.

Yeah.

Now I don't know.

I don't know how many people were reading it.

Like at 11:30 or midnight, I would see that.

I would see that it was starting to get clicks, and sometime I would wake up in the morning and there would be a whole bunch of them there.

But, you know, I just also also I had a I had another, more personal reason for doing it, which was like if I go to a concert and then I go home and then I go to bed, I can't I'm going to wake up at 3:00 in the morning and I'm going to go, okay, there's my there's my lead.

Right?

Yeah.

And I'm going to wake up another hour later and it's like, okay I got the nut graph now, right?

And I'm going to have the worst night of sleep and I'm going to be miserable.

So it was like, I'm just going to get this done right.

And then I'm going to go ahead and then I'm going to get a nights sleep.

Well, I think people don't realize and maybe I'll say this and then we'll go to a break real quick.

But I doing this as well, I think people don't realize that you go in with one idea.

Right.

Like, I mean, a band starts or whatever event you're covering, right?

And you start to write the story in your head.

You're constantly thinking and revising and writing.

And then so by the time whatever event you're covering is over you've got a story in your head.

But if you go home and you know, you got cut off in traffic or whatever else, right?

And then you get home and you make a cup of coffe and you turn on the television and all of a sudden, that story that you had in your head that was laid out is all of a sudden different.

Right?

And so, yeah, for shows, I think it's more pertinent to write it immediately.

Yeah, I think that I think it's going to be a more thoughtful review if it's written the next day.

Yeah, sure.

I also like the urgency of like in the moment.

And also it can really sort of change a lot in the moment.

Yeah Which and I going to give you.

I'm going to come back to McCartney.

Is this the second or third time I've come back to McCartney.

This is this only second.

Right.

So his recent show here, to me did not begin well.

Yeah.

Okay.

So now I'm, I'm in the midst of like a kind of a negative Paul McCartney review.

Like, it's not sounding that great.

And then the show is getting going along and he's getting stronger.

Like we're getting into like the second hour.

Yeah.

Second.

You know, and he's getting stronger and stronger every song to where the last hour.

And I was with my son.

Yeah.

The last hour I was absolutely in freaking heaven.

Like it was one of the best hours of music I ever heard.

He was ramming through these classics and he was building energy, and the show was just like, exploding.

So the review was like, you know, it's changing.

I'm taking out some o the earlier things about like, you know, his voice is s to like, he's getting stronger.

Yeah.

You know, I don't know how I, I will not go back and rea the review I freaking hate it.

Did your son like the show?

Well, it was like slow.

Yeah, for a while.

But then we got into that last hour and we were like, this is like a this is a cosmic experience.

We are seeing like something amazing here.

Yeah.

I was like, right.

I'm like moved by it.

Like like just thinking about it.

Wow.

Awesome.

We'll take a break.

I think we should take a break, and then we'll come back and keep talking music.

What is the Gen X Pittsburgh podcast?

Let me take you back.

Remember when coffee was king and pizza bagels ruled on the corner of 14th and Carson at The Beehive?

Or how about that tim you stumbled upon Art all night?

How cool was that?

Or when your evening started instead of any at 10 p.m.?

Yeah, we miss those days too.

So we're bringing them back.

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Join David Real and I, Valerie Christofel, as we sit down with the movers and shakers, the artist and the voices who helped shape Pittsburgh back in the early 90s.

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Welcome back to Gen-X Pittsburgh.

I have some questions for you.

Youve interviewed legends to bands that have just started out.

What Who has surprised you the most?

Either good or bad.

All right, I'm going to go to Stevie Nicks.

Oh, okay.

So I had I had.

I love Stevie Nicks.

Fleetwood Mac was going on tour.

They were going to come to Pittsburgh.

I got a call from the publicist.

Can you talk to Stevie and Lindsey?

Okay You're going to talk to Lindsey.

And then 20 minutes later you're going to talk to Stevie.

Okay.

So I'm like, okay, cool.

So I'm thinking, Stevie Nicks, this is going to be really scary.

Yeah.

Like I'm scared.

Okay.

She was maybe the nicest person I have ever interviewed.

I love to hear that.

Really?

She kept asking me questions about me.

Like she was interested, like in my life.

And I'm like, Stevie, we're doing this.

I'm interviewing you.

You realize you realize that.

But she was just like.

And that's very rare that that artists will ask you questions about your life.

I love that.

You know, another one who did that was Art from Everclear.

Art Alexakis.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

A lot of people don't think he's a good guy.

I hit it off with him really well.

I will give you another sort of crazy example.

Was talking to Ozzie.

Oh my God.

And that was just kind of like a total manic fest where he's talking and I'm thinking, I can't print any of this, right?

Right.

I mean, and because every other wor is like f word and we can't even be like f hyphen because it would have to b expletive expletive expletive.

And so he was calling, he was coming to Ozzfest.

But the amazing thing about Ozzie is that just how nice he was.

Yeah.

And then at the end of the interview, he said something that nobody else had ever said.

And he said I'm not going to do his accent.

I don't I don't do accents.

He said, if you need anything else, call me back.

Wow.

Yeah.

And I'm like, Ozzy Osbourne just said, if I had any more questions to call him back.

Because usually these artists are like, boom, boom, boom, you know, assembly line interview.

You got 15 minutes, right?

He's like, I could really call him back.

Wow.

Did you?

Of course not.

Now, the other thing.

I've spoken to Johnny Rotten twice.

Oh my God.

And I had some I had some really interesting interviews with.

Yeah, I bet you did.

And we hit it off really well.

Yeah.

And then I started asking him about, like, you know, new music he would come out with, and he started complaining about like, not having a label deal.

Yeah.

You know, this is.

And so I said, well, you know we're in this era where people are just like putting, recording and putting stuff out.

Yeah.

I mean, and he was like, you don't know a thing.

Do you?

And he hung up on me.

That's great.

That's.

You know, I saw PIL.

The last time they were here and we were standing by the bus and he got off and there were all these little kids, I don't know, I mean, 12, you know, and but one of the most holding a Sex Pistols album.

And you could tell the Johnny Rotten he gets off and he's Johnny Leydon, you know, he's he's the guy Johnny personal Johnny and he's walking through and he sees the album and the kids calling out and and you could see the demeanor shift and he's like, all right, now I have to play Johnny Rotten, you know?

And he comes over the kid and he's like, I bet you want me to sig your album for you, don't you?

And he like, tosses it.

He doesn't toss it far so he can go.

But you know, he does a whole Johnny Rotten thing.

So I think that story is great.

Yeah, I'll tell you.

I'll tell you an embarrassing interview moment.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

I was on a conference call with Taylor Swift.

Okay.

Okay.

And this was like, right soon after the whole thing happened with Kanye and Beyoncé and everything like that.

And so we were told going into the interview by the publicist, we are not to bring up, Kanye West.

Oh no.

Okay, so it gets to me and, you know, you have to push button like star, whatever.

It's like, okay, we have Scott Mervis from the Post Gazette.

And I'm like, yeah.

Hi, Taylor.

I'm just wondering how you felt about when President Obama sort of came to your defense after this thing happened.

And I didn't say.

Kanye West.

Right.

You know, I didn't.

And the publicist comes in and said, I'm sorry.

We have to move on.

Yeah.

She was not going to answer that.

Oh, yeah.

No, I've done that.

I thought I could get around.

I thought it was good end around.

Like she could say.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh.

You know.

Yeah.

It was like really cool.

Like the president.

And she didn't have to go into all the dirt about it.

You know what I mean?

Just give me, like, a line.

Didn't work.

No.

The publicist.

Yeah.

That was my one.

My question.

I had talked to her previously.

Yeah.

You know, the one on one interview.

But this was in a conference call with all these other journalists, and I was like that I knew and that I knew something I didn't, but it was.

It was I was real embarrassed.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When that happened.

Yeah.

But I want to say another nice thing about.

Yes.

Yes.

So I met her before the Reputation tour show backstage at the stadium.

Yeah.

And I was sort of in a thing where, like, two people could come in and, like, you could talk to Taylor, and I was with my daughter came with me to that.

Like, I brought my daughter that.

And we went in and talked to Taylor, and she was super nice and like she was like, seven foot tall.

You know.

And my daughter and I, were pretty small.

And so somebody says, hey, let's get a picture.

Let's figure out how great like, this is gonna be.

Great.

She's wearing, like, you know, spiky.

She's already, like, six tall, right?

She's wearing four inch heels.

And she.

She's like, six foot four.

Okay.

Yep.

And so it's picture time.

And here's what Taylor does.

She bends down like this.

Yeah.

Like that.

And so there's a picture of me and Taylor, and and she's kind of leaning over and it looks like we're the same size.

And I thought, like, what a sweet thing that was for her to do like.

I kind of like, she could have been like, you know, she could have stood there, like, just towering over us, like, you know, but she chose not to do that.

I've had that experience.

We wouldn't have even been in the frame together.

Yeah.

No, I don't know.

Like, I don't even thin the picture was possible.

Right.

Nobody ever bent over for me, Scott.

So I think, trust me.

So before we sat down tonight, you mentioned that you are writing a book.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Well, yes, I am hoping to.

Well, I've started it.

Okay.

I have a good portion of it done.

But.

But what I want to do first is an anthology of my best Post-Gazette stories about Pittsburgh musician.

That's awesome.

Yes.

So I'm talking, like we said, like, talked about House Rockers, Carsickness and Diamond Rio.

These are kind of like long form stories, right?

I have, like, you know everything from the Skyliners.

Yeah.

To, you know, Wiz Khalifa.

Mac Miller.

Wow.

All these.

Yeah.

So I, I'm basically laying it out myself, and I'm writing intros each story just like a couple graphs.

Wow.

What I need is the Post-Gazette blessing, right to do this?

I need their permission to do it right.

And so I'm just hoping, by the grace of the PG.

Yeah, that they will let me do it, I don't think I don't think it's going to make a lot of money.

I don't think it's going to be a big, big seller, a big hit.

I have, I have, you know, it's not going to be on the New York Times bestseller.

I don't plan to make anything off it.

I just want to have it out there as part like legacy, part like documenting Pittsburgh music.

I love that so much.

Well, so I'm curious.

You know, I don't know if most people realize just how deep the Pittsburgh music scene is, right?

From doo-wop to hard bop to experimental electronic.

Right.

Like you didn't.

I mean, you know, we have names like Art Blakey, Stanley Turrentine, Black Moth Super Rainbow.

Right?

So, Yeah.

What of those bands like, what's your favorite Pittsburgh bands when you're thinking about this stuff?

What are your favorite bands?

Oh, man you had to ask me that like so.

Or your most memorable maybe.

Yeah, well, that's tough, but I would go with I think I would have to go with four and that would be the Iron City House Rockers, Carsickness, ATS and The Cynics.

Wow.

That would be.

And I'm glad you're not making me rank them.

Yeah.

No, no.

Because yeah I couldn't.

Where's your favorite?

What's your favorite club to see a show now or then?

I think of all time.

All time.

It would have to be The Decade because The Decade had something going on there that was, like, unlike anything else in Pittsburgh music.

And I think a big part of it was it was this combination of college kids, okay, bratty college kids like us and these blue collar Oakland locals these people that grew up there and we were invading their their turf.

Oh, yeah.

And the two didn't necessaril like each other all that much.

Right.

You know it wasn't always like a happy, like union at The Decade.

There was a fight every night, right?

Yeah.

Like every night there was a fight.

Right.

They had bouncers, many bouncers, big bouncers.

And so when you walked into The Decade, you didn't know what was going to happen.

You might get into a fight.

You might hav the greatest night of your life.

You might get thrown out.

I walked in there one night.

It was January 1991, and I was trying to get into that back room to see m friend's band, Ed Masley's band.

Oh, yeah.

The Frampton Brothers.

And, like, there's a dude in my way, and I'm, like, trying to get around him and like, I'm like, tap him on the back and he's a biker jacket on, and I'm like, excuse me?

He turns around and Steven Tyler.

Oh, wow.

No way.

Yeah.

Way.

Steven Tyler.

He's like, standing right i front of me at The Decade.

Wow.

And that night was one of the best club nights I ever saw, because Aerosmith got on the stage at The Decade and played with the Boston band, The Neighborhoods, The Neighborhoods.

And so, you know, there there's obviously the stor of Springsteen going in there.

I was there that night, although I did not.

I was there earlier and I left because it was like, it looks like he's not coming in.

Yeah.

There was a night that Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito went in there to see Billy Price.

I think it was like you went into The Decade and you didn't know it was.

I had a girlfriend.

At the time who became my wife, and, you know, she had this attractive, curly, long blond hair and she would get hit on every time, every time I went in The Decade, like it was, there was danger there.

Yeah.

And then we would we would always get into some kind of figh about something like The Decade just had so much like tension, but like in a bad way.

In a good way at the same time.

And I can't think of an other place that was like that.

Right.

Right.

Oh, the good ol days.

I think you were expecting a short answer to that.

It's okay, it's okay.

We are going to move on to our rapid fire rewind.

We're just going to.

Ill stay rapid fire.

Yeah.

These are simple.

We're going to ask you ten questions.

Cool.

Maybe more.

You may just roll off an answer.

Okay.

Okay.

Iron City or Rolling Rock?

Iron City.

I hate Rolling Rock.

Okay.

Favorite alternative band?

Favorite alternative band?

I'll go Replacements.

Three Rivers or Heinz Field?

Three Rivers for sure.

Let's take you outside of music a little bit.

What's your favorite Gen X movie?

The Sure Thing.

Oh, wow.

That's so different than everyone elses answer.

You didnt say The Breakfast Clu Literally.

Literally one o my favorite movies of all time.

Okay, Turners.

I know that's pretty lowbrow.

Turner's or Schneider's?

Definitely neither.

Yeah.

Me too.

Me too.

How about your favorite Saturday morning cartoon?

From back in the day?

Back in the day.

Land of the Lost.

All right.

Yeah.

Donzis and Chaunceys or Metropol and Rosebud?

Oh, Metropol and Rosebud.

Yeah.

Completely.

This is going to be a good one for you.

First concert I'm going to give you two, okay?

Because my mom took me to see the Jackson 5 in 1972.

Wow.

I don't count that.

Sure, because that was my mom taking me to a concert, so it was definitely KISS in 77 on the Destroyer tour.

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Yeah, yeah.

Southside Beehive or Oakland Beehive?

Well, that's really interesting because I worked at In Pittsburgh and we were on the Southside and we would go to The Beehive, but I saw Guided by Voices at the Oakland Beehive.

And it was incredible.

So I'm going to go with that.

Okay.

And how about Atari or Nintendo?

Not my generation, I don't think.

But I'm going to go I was it was Nintendo with my kids.

Yeah for sure.

And it was Gretzky.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah 80.

Whatever.

90 something with the three against three.

Yeah.

Favorite cereal?

As a kid growing up.

Favorite cereal as a kid growing up?

Life, I would say Life.

Life?

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

That's it.

No more questions?

No.

Okay.

Right.

I was waiting for one more.

No.

I was like, yeah.

All right, Scott, thank you so much.

This has been so much fun.

We really appreciate you guys.

It was great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the best luck to you.

Thank you.

We love Scott Mervis.

The Gen X Pittsburgh Podcast hosts are David Rulo and Valerie Christofel.

Executive producer, David Rullo Producer and graphic designer, Kim Rullo.

Producer Valerie Christofel.

Video production and editor, Brent Isaac.

Music by NeoStem.