Jentzen - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I'm the music editor for the Pittsburgh City Paper , which means I go to lots of shows, listen to lots of CDs, and write about 'em; lately, I've also been turning up in Flagpole, the Dallas Observer, Nashville Scene, and other fine publications.
I used to have a band called Chalk Outline Party; I'm about to hit the studio for a new record, with a little help from my friends, in addition to some other music projects.
Have lived in Michigan, Ohio, California, Pennsylvania, some traveling overseas. Try to avoid leaving a trail of disaster if possible, but the road to hell is paved with ...

My Interests

Playing music, writing, staying up all night recording songs with it blasting in my headphones ... and completely silent in the room, reinvention, self-invention, polite fictions, losing it all, getting it all

I'd like to meet:

Those who don't take being "human" too far. It's not often something to brag about. People who don't tread water or are "just coasting" (life is TOO SHORT as it is). That said, visionaries, good people, adventurers....

Music:

95% of music sucks, so statistically speaking, I loathe music. But that 5% is IT.

Movies:

The Proposition, Primer, Scanner Darkly, Bladerunner, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Crash, City of the Lost Children, Delicatessen, Wonder Boys, Marx Brothers films, Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, China Town, Bonnie and Clyde, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Altered States, Easy Rider

Television:

Try to avoid this.

Books:

3 or 4 at once, preferably -- books, I mean.

Heroes:

Brian Sproul ... guitar heroes, right?

My Blog

My adventures at SXSW -- feature story in City Paper

SXSW in Austin was a blast. Major thanks to Amy and Brett Staggs, who showed me the ropes and partied like rockstars all week, and to the bands who put up with my inane jabber. Here's what I came...
Posted by Jentzen on Thu, 05 Apr 2007 08:42:00 PST

Prog rock feature story in City Paper

Well, it happened, what can I say -- I wrote a feature story on prog rock in Pittsburgh. More specifically, about the InsideOut label and the band Mandrake Project. Enjoy, lemme know what you think. I...
Posted by Jentzen on Sat, 13 Jan 2007 09:36:00 PST

WYEP Local Music Year in Review program

So a little while back I went over to WYEP to record some commentary bits for the Local Music Year in Review program, which will be on-air soon. It was fun to be involved, but weird standing in an emp...
Posted by Jentzen on Mon, 11 Dec 2006 03:24:00 PST

Glad somebody's catching on

So, I found this somewhat interesting. The latest Rolling Stone showed up in my mailbox, and included a profile on Pittsburgh-based rapper Wiz Khalifa. My story on Wiz Khalifa from October is here, i...
Posted by Jentzen on Mon, 11 Dec 2006 05:54:00 PST

Not into fortune-telling and witchery...and yet...

Ok, so let me preface this by saying, I put absolutely no stock in this sort of crap. However, for your consideration... My horoscope for this week: "Did you ever get one of those spam e-mails informi...
Posted by Jentzen on Tue, 11 Apr 2006 11:45:00 PST

Signal to Noise No.7

3/9/2006Signal Writer: AARON JENTZEN Feeling nicely surrounded by people you know is a perk of Pittsburgh living, but it's always great to stumble into a totally different pocket of people doing their...
Posted by Jentzen on Mon, 27 Mar 2006 07:20:00 PST

Signal to Noise No.6

3/2/2006Signal Writer: AARON JENTZEN Just in time for tax-prep season, "I.R.S." and two other songs possibly from G 'n' R's long-awaited Chinese Democracy were leaked to radio and the Internet. Mets c...
Posted by Jentzen on Mon, 27 Mar 2006 07:19:00 PST

Signal to Noise .5

2/23/2006Signal Writer: AARON JENTZEN I'm taking odds that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's recent show at Mr. Small's proves one of the best local concerts of the year -- or at least the year's longest ...
Posted by Jentzen on Mon, 27 Mar 2006 07:17:00 PST

Signal to Noise .4

My column in the Pittsburgh City Paper: 2/16/2006Writer: AARON JENTZENThis week's notes all beg the question: What makes a good local act vs. a potential national act? Are the party-hearty bands packi...
Posted by Jentzen on Mon, 27 Mar 2006 07:15:00 PST

Signal to Noise .3

My column in the Pittsburgh City Paper: 2/9/2006Writer: AARON JENTZEN What, no media outrage over the quadruple wardrobe failure during The Stones' half-time show? I'm sure my inner child wasn't the o...
Posted by Jentzen on Mon, 27 Mar 2006 07:12:00 PST