PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Pittsburgh punks do it themselves
by Emma Rehm Sunday, Sep. 01, 2002 at 1:08 PM

Pittsburgh, however else it may be lacking, has a solid DIY scene, based at the Mr. Roboto Project, on Wood Street in Wilkinsburg. A product of this scene is a compilation cd entitled Go Down Fighting, Come Up Smiling.

The History
Do it yourself. This is not said in a six-year-old's bratty whine, but in the very sincere voice of a 20-something punk or hardcore kid telling it like it is.

The DIY scene is, in part, a reaction to the glossy, expensive, overproduced, and formulaic nature of pop culture. Books, magazines, venues, bands, songs � they're all available for a certain predetermined amount of money, from a large corporation via the Internet. One response to this corporate whore-dom is based on the idea that if you want something to be done well, you've got to do it yourself.

And Pittsburgh, however else it may be lacking, has a solid DIY scene, based at the Mr. Roboto Project, on Wood Street in Wilkinsburg. A product of this scene is a compilation cd entitled Go Down Fighting, Come Up Smiling. The disc is accompanied by a nice, fat, xeroxed book, and together, the comp and book are very energetic and personal. There's something really satisfying about having something that was made by people instead of computers.

Which is not, of course, to discount the role of computers; the bands submitted recordings of their chosen songs on CD-R. The 29 tracks were chosen by the bands themselves, and collected by Mike Q. Roth, better known simply as Q, and Justin Cummings. The CD-Rs were sent to Plus/Minus Studios, in downtown Pittsburgh, where the tracks were mastered and put on one disc. After that, it was shipped out to be pressed, which takes a few weeks. The longest part of the process, though, was collecting the tracks from all 27 bands -- "an excruciatingly difficult process," says Q.

Once the CD was shipped out to be pressed, the process was mostly out of the hands of the Roboto folk -- to a point. They ran into a bit of trouble with one track, which was a cover of an AD/DC song. A bit of advice from Q: "If you're doing a comp, don't put copyrighted tracks on it." The press discovered that no copyright permission had been obtained, and the band had to send in another song. Not a big deal, but another brief setback in a process that actually took quite a bit longer than anticipated. The idea to make a comp CD was initially kicked around last summer, and intended to be a sort of celebration of the Roboto Project's one year anniversary. (Roboto is a young institution, just two years old, this past November.)

Instead, the comp has just come out now, a masterpiece of 29 tracks by 27 bands, a book with one page for each band (and, again, made by the bands themselves), layed out and put together by Q. Instead of an anniversary celebration, Go Down Fighting, Come Up Smiling proceeds will benefit The Big Idea, a collectively-run radical bookstore that is currently homeless. The zine and book collection almost had a home last summer, but a South Oakland location fell through, so The Big Idea is currently operating out of the Roboto Project, although they are distinct entities.

Go Down Fighting is back from the press, the books are copied, and it was officially released on November 16. It's available for five bucks at The Mr. Roboto Project, at Paul's CDs, and at Brave New World on Craig Street.
The new CD
The first track, "Light it Up" by Behind Enemy Lines starts off the 76-minute album with a burst of hardcore goodness, followed quickly by several more hard and fast songs by Choke City and Last Day on the Force. After a brief concern that maybe the Pittsburgh scene is only hardcore, it becomes clear that it's actually just a good order for the songs and bands -- the transitions and contrasts from song to song and genre to genre are obviously very carefully thought out. "Light it Up" was written in the studio, about Roboto, while Behind Enemy Lines was recording their album.

Whatever it Takes' "Fistful of Revolution" is more punk, kind of an old Jimmy Eat World sound, before they stopped singing about anything but mush.

"I hate to be right all the time, but you're always wrong. It really bothers me; I have a lot to live up to," sing the Blissful Idiots, in what could easily be the soundtrack of a generation. The poppy, light-hearted sound misleads a casual listener to assume the lyrics are equally light-hearted.

The Control Group brings in a more intense sound -- heavy, and bearing a message of rejection of formula, of routine. "There's one thing they can't stop, and this I know: So let it snow."

"When All Else Fails" by the McCarthy Commission comes like a surprise. Screams of "this is our last resort" seem like a somewhat hopeless message on an album full of rebellion and unity.

Following the almost indecipherable (but ever-exciting) screams from Gunspiking, Creta Bourzia's thrilling guitar on "Knuckles and Creases" makes it hard to sit still. As the album continues, it becomes clear that it is not a disc to do homework to. It is a disc to get riled up by, one to listen to when it seems like no one is cooperating and no one is willing to help fix the problems so evident in society.

And then there's Grand Buffet. The "Candybars" remix is initially the most annoying song in the history of songs. But after that stage, the song borders on hilarity. It's hard to listen to without cracking up completely. It breaks the intensity built up from the last few songs, which is then cranked up again by the over-the-top rock of Tabula Rasa. Their "Cast Iron Image" rocks hard and harder, really sing-along-able, but not in the traditional, silly way -- just enough to be glad that the lyrics are in the companion book.

Fortiori cranks up the hardcore vigor again, followed by Crucial Unit yelling one of the best songs on the disc: "P.D.A! P.D.A! We don't need your P.D.A! Holding hands is not that bad; leave the rest for alone in bed!" A model to follow? Indeed.

Intro to Pterodactyl's experimental and slightly strange sound lowers the hardcore energy with "Don't Go in the Water," which is converted into the gloriously crusty old-school sound of Caustic Christ.

"Horsepower" by the Modey Lemon keeps up that energy, which is raised even higher by Jumbo's "Back to the Feed Farm."

Pikadori and Io -- both bands that are phenomenal live -- each present one intense, intellectual song to ask for a closer listen.

"Generic acapella hip hop with shoddy recording equipment" from the Hip Criticals attacks the current political system: "There's only one party in this two-party system, and that party ain't at my house."

And then it gets more local than before! "Knives," by Teddy Duchamp's Army, was recorded in March of this year at WRCT.

Energy rises with the slightly electronic sounds of (appropriately) the Microwaves, and then the entertainment value gets better and better with TBA: self-proclaimed "Western PA jug-core at its finest."

The indecipherable lyrics issue arises again with Free Barabbas's down-with-hypocrites, up-with-real-rebellion anthem. Then the grrlpunk sounds of World B cause involuntary jumping up and down and yelling along -- "Construction Parasite" is one of the best songs on the entire disc.

Silver Tongued Devil's classic rock sounds ("sonic punk") bring the album to a rowdy near-end, which is completed by the Arco Flute Foundation in a bizarre sound experiment.

Go Down Fighting, Come Up Smiling does what it is supposed to do, and does it very well. The local bands (95 percent of which are "Roboto regulars," according to Q) are well represented, and the variety of genres and sounds on the disc make it what this compilation should be: a comprehensive collection of really good local music.

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