Labrise breezin’
On the 10th album in his discography, Paul Labrise puts words aside for an instrumental collection — “Day Moon.”
The guitarist/keyboardist has a long track record in Pittsburgh that goes back to 1994 when he played in power-pop band Bitter Delores, before forming The Haw Flakes, playing in the national touring band Boxstep and leading his own Paul Labrise and the Trees.
This time he recorded live with producers Eric Graf (ex-Boxstep) and Aaron Sheedy at Blackberry Studios in Lawrenceville in a trio format with bassist Ray Vasko (former Frampton Brothers) and drummer Troy Cramer (former Ritual Space Travel Agency) on eight hypnotic instrumental tracks designed to let the “imagination provide light and color.”
They will play a release show at 10 tonight at Howler’s in Bloomfield with Greg Hoy and the Enablers and Olympic Village.
Dead music for a CAUSE
Pittsburgh band theCAUSE will headline the Broken Chains Benefit, a concert supporting The Project To End Human Trafficking at the Rex Theater on Friday night with special guest Randall Baumann.
The Project to End Human Trafficking is a grassroots, volunteer nonprofit founded in 2004 that has assisted more than 300 victims locally through education, consultation and direct intervention.
Billed as A Night of Primal Dead, it will focus on Grateful Dead material from 1968 to 1970. It begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 at ticketfly.com.
Donations can be made at www.generosity.com/fundraising/broken-chains-benefit.
The latest release from Pittsburgh rapper Eddie Barnz, who appeared in the freshman issue of XXL magazine in 2013, is not a single but a book.
“Dollar & A Dream” is a compelling 300page account of his life so far, offering a cinematic glimpse into the frustrations and small victories that come with trying to break out of the hood as a rapper in Pittsburgh.
There’s lots of sex, lots of violence in how he details a gangsta life that began at 18 in the Hill District, and how he broke away from it.
The juiciest part addresses his beef with Wiz Khalifa (identified here as Lil Tazz) over the name of the single “Welcome to Pistolvania,” which played out on WAMOFM and at a tense 2008 Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Awards.
He also relays the story of being assaulted while performing at a gig at the Strip District nightclub Deja Vu and illustrates what went wrong with his label of rap artists Hood Democrat.
“Throughout my life, I had many people try to hold me back from being great,” he writes. “It was the story of my life, either someone was trying to hold me back or turned on me.”
By the end, Barnz finds some redemption, writing, “I guess God had a plan for me all along.”