Wouldn't It Be Lovely?
Local band Shade steps into the light as a new record label emerges

BY CINDY YOGMAS

Near midnight on the warmest Friday Pittsburgh has seen in months, while most 20-somethings are out gallivanting and getting started on their weekends, the Shade guys are passing around Pabst Blue Ribbons in their Downtown rehearsal space, waiting for the arrival of the final two members, Matt and Craig Stuart, to begin practice. Outside the windows, the jail looms ominously, but inside, Oriental rugs cover the floor, a giant art poster is draped across the ceiling, Christmas lights are strewn along the walls and a plant or two here and there give the space -- which they share with Life in Bed and Moksha Musolino -- an inviting and comfortable feel, making it the type of environment where creativity can thrive.

Though the building, an old, converted warehouse, accommodates many art studios, studio apartments, political headquarters and practice spaces, the only sign of life tonight is in this room, where the guys are sitting around a small tape recorder playing hip-hop and Bob Dylan and hanging out just as they would normally, even if they hadn't called a practice.

Once the brothers Stuart arrive from the Von Bondies show at Club Laga, everyone takes their places. Drummer Dave Halloran immediately starts the beat and Craig Stuart chimes in with a resonant chord on his keyboard. Bassist Brad Kiefer plays a few pulsating notes, Matt Stuart and David Woods chime in on their guitars and the mood is set. The whole room swells with a steadily building wash of sound, loud but at the same time melodic and lulling. The song develops for more than a minute before Matt sings a line. Not far from a sigh, his voice blends perfectly into the cascading sound.

If that description sounds akin to two musical movements of the early 1990s, shoegaze and Brit-pop, it should. Shade's music is ambient and lush in the same ways as that of the bands that shaped and defined those styles -- like My Bloody Valentine, Ride and the Verve -- and though they're used to being tagged as either one or the other, they would rather avoid any sort of umbrella association.

"My opinion?" says Matt Stuart. "We're noise pop."

"I always say dreamy pop," says Kiefer.

"I say psychedelic noise rock," says Halloran.

"Sometimes I just say [it's] atmospheric kind of music," says Woods.

That's not to say that they deny such comparisons; they credit the bands associated with those movements as major influences. The Jesus & Mary Chain, the Smiths, the Cure and Suede were all major inspirations; It's the kind of stuff they listened to growing up, before any had ever touched an instrument.

The Stuart brothers grew up in Penn Hills along with Kiefer and Woods. Friends since grade school, Matt, Kiefer and Woods played soccer together, but they were also growing more and more enamored with the music of the time. They made music videos of themselves singing along to the radio, strumming tennis racquets. But going to see shows for local bands like Low Sunday Ghost Machine and Suburban Sect was what really did it.

"In a sense, going to Suburban Sect shows really sparked our interest in playing," says Kiefer.

"I think we all hung out because we all liked to listen to music and so at one point in time, we were like, 'Let's play music,' and so we started learning it together," says Woods. "That's just another thing we did together. We got sick of going to movies and stuff like that, so we started playing music."

Once semi-comfortable with their chosen instruments, they soon hooked up with Halloran through Woods, and the initial lineup was set. Craig, who is two years younger than the rest, wasn't old enough to participate at the time, but he was the band's biggest fan and follower. He officially joined three years later, in 1997.

Their first song, "Precipitation," was written in Matt's bedroom at his parents' house six years ago. Just mentioning it makes them smirk, but while reminiscing, Matt gets a wistful itch. It's been two years since they played it, but tonight he feels particularly nostalgic. They get back into position, fumble through the first few seconds, but after shooting some knowing glances back and forth, they nail it, and it's just as sweeping and impassioned as any of their later material.

"Take it back to where it all began," he sings.

Knowing and being able to play off of each other's impulses grows out of their long relationship, first as friends, then as bandmates and finally to something more like brothers. Though Matt and Craig are the only blood relations of the group, the rest are just as close. The Stuarts live together, as do Kiefer and Woods. They call each other numerous times a day. They hang out together nearly nightly -- if you see one, there's at least one more at the bar buying the rest beers. In the past, their bond has been perceived as insular and cliquish, but they insist that that's a misconception, and that they're some of the friendliest guys around once you know them.

"I think it's because we're all so close and we all have so much fun together, when we don't go out of our way to make friends, it comes across as being kind of heady," says Woods. "We're also sort of shy people, especially when we're playing music. I think you're vulnerable when you play music and you just put your heart on the line, and that might not be the time when I'm the most talkative."

Their close-knit relationship extends beyond the band to include others who have supported and inspired them along the way, musically and personally. Brad "Flash" Hlavach plays no instruments but is a de facto member of Shade. Since he met them about three years ago, he has rarely missed a show, often drives the group to and from their out-of-town gigs, and lives in a Shadyside apartment with the Stuarts. Grec Pokorski, long a local music fixture, helps them out with recording and photography and is sitting in on tonight's practice. Tim Thomas, formerly of Shade's local idols, Suburban Sect, recorded and produced their debut album. All the loyalty they'd shown to bands over the years has been returned in full.

"We've kind of always had guys around in the music scene helping us out," says Woods.

Throughout their duration, Shade has had a lot of opportunities come their way. They've been approached by labels and producers but are wary of working with most of them. Mostly they just want to stay in Pittsburgh and do things themselves.

"As far as [being] a touring band, Pittsburgh is within six major cities and it's cheap to live here. If you base yourself here and work out of this area, you can't beat it," says Kiefer, who then names Cleveland, Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington, D.C. and Boston -- all of which are within reasonable driving distance. They have no intentions of moving headquarters, nor would they if an opportunity arose. With Kiefer's new record label, Lovely Recordings, at the helm and with Pokorski in the process of recording their new material, they have all the resources they need right here.

Last October, Shade was invited by an artist development company to shoot a live performance in an L.A.-based sound studio for a DVD. The idea was to showcase the band for big-name producers by sending the DVD out across the country -- a sort of simulated concert -- so no one would have to travel to scout them. Some of the band members talk about it more positively than others, but they all agree that it was a valuable learning experience. This Saturday, Shade will release Shade Live, a DVD of performances recorded over the past six years. As a document of their live sound, it places them within their natural context and captures their innate charisma, something that must be seen to be fully relished.

The case of beer has long been empty, and it's nearing two a.m., but everyone is still chattering away. Members of the Olympus Mons, another local group that's part of the extended family and who are one of the four bands currently on Kiefer's label, show up. At 19, they're all several years younger than the rest, but they come from the same suburban scene and their musical inclinations are similar. In their hands they hold up the tape they'd been listening to on the way over -- Shade's original demo, with "Precipitation" as the first track. The scene bears parallels to the stories of the Shade guys going to shows early on, where they gained friends and a growing passion for music. Eventually the night melts into a series of jams and collaborations between both bands and friends -- the way music is made.

LOVELY RECORDINGS

Two years ago, Brad Kiefer was considering leaving town. Personal reasons had him contemplating larger cities like New York, but he was still very dedicated to Shade, and his family still lived here, so conflicting feelings stalled him. But one show in particular squelched his wanderlust. An out-of-town gig with the local guitar-driven indie band the Wynkataug Monks went so well that the two bands developed an instant kinship and started hanging out and playing shows together regularly. Kiefer was encouraged by the support and solidarity. "Meeting people you really enjoy furthers you not only as a person but as an artist," he says. It made him more aware of the merits of Pittsburgh and of the genuine potential of the local music scene.

"I felt this movement happening," says Kiefer. "And if you look around now, in the last two years, there's too many bands to mention that are good -- at least 15 from this city all doing different things now. For me, personally, I didn't feel that two years ago."

From being so closely involved with the band, Brad "Flash" Hlavach developed an interest in the business aspects of music, so he, Kiefer and John Dziuban of the Wynkataug Monks started thinking about how they could support and promote the bands with whom they shared a similar amity, and what that could do to benefit the city's musical community as a whole. Since the three spent so much time together anyway, casual ideas sprang up sporadically about creating a record label that would incorporate bands and artists who would work together as a devoted family.

"If Pittsburgh could get their stuff together, like all the bands working together and helping each other out, we're on the brink of something big," says Hlavach.

"You've seen [labels like] Arena Rock and Saddle Creek," says Kiefer, referring to independent record labels that started out small and gained national success. "I'm sure it all started the same exact way. People had a vision. There was great music going on in the area. I'm sure all those guys are friends. You look at the compilations that come out -- they're all in each other's bands. They're all friends and this is what they're all good at doing. It's not just the music -- there's just this camaraderie."

Camaraderie. The "c" word. Talk with Kiefer for any length of time and it will keep popping up. But that's the nucleus behind the operation that Kiefer, Dziuban and Hlavach dubbed Lovely Recordings, a new label that they hope will eventually grow into a collective of similar-minded musicians, artists and performers devoted to helping each other.

Besides Shade and the Wynkataug Monks, they incorporated local atmospheric rock group the Olympus Mons, and Chrome Yellow Co., a Brit-poppish band from Hamilton, Ontario, with whom they've shared numerous bills and who had become part of the extended family.

"We all hang out daily. We go to every one of their shows and vice versa. We all do cross-promotions for each other. We don't hide anything from each other," says Kiefer.

The idea behind the business is based mainly on network support. If one band needs gas money to get to a gig, another will cover it. If one band gets asked to play a big show that's going to draw a big crowd, they'll promote the other bands too. Because they all play together so frequently, they hope that if one band gets a certain amount of attention, the rest will too by association.

"I hate the question, 'Why do you guys always play together? Why won't you let anyone else in?,'" says Kiefer. "We do really well together and we love to play with each other. There's a good chemistry and though we're doing things differently musically, it just works. So why stop something that works?"

Eventually, they will let others in. Though the label currently consists of just those four bands, they want to include others, both locally and nationally. The strong, pre-existing relationship between the four may seem intimidating to other groups, but Kiefer, Hlavach and Dziuban insist that they will consider all who apply, as long as they are interested in joining for the right reasons. Bands that are interested in being a part of Lovely should be willing to reciprocate whatever support they receive.

"There's no criteria other than the fact that if you're just doing it to be a part of some scene, you're in the wrong boat," says Kiefer. "It's not some scene, it's not some clique. You have to be totally into it and totally into helping each other out and not just to help yourself out. We're not interested in that."

Kiefer, Dziuban and Hlavach share equal responsibilities in the business, which took root last fall with the agreement on a name and the opening of a bank account. The official launch party, at the 31st Street Pub on Saturday, March 20, features all four bands and marks the releases of a compilation of tracks from all four bands on the label, Shade's live DVD and the American release of Chrome Yellow Co.'s latest album.

The event will exhibit the first stages of the company, which they hope to eventually expand beyond music and into other areas of performance, photography, filmmaking, visual art and anything creative coming from their cooperative community. Kiefer plans to hold a series of events such as this showcasing a Lovely band along with a movie, or installation art or even a live comedy act -- "A Lovely Evening," he calls them.

"This is just the group of people who've hung out day in and day out for the past two years and helped each other," he says. "And that's why Lovely became what it is. Because we love each other."

That's camaraderie.