A capsule look at Pittsburgh bands making news.

	Adam MacGregor and Jeff Gretz combine guitar, drums and dark humor in Conelrad. Click photo for larger image.

CONELRAD

Band: Adam MacGregor (guitar, vocals); Jeff Gretz (drums, vocals).

Background: MacGregor, also of the Microwaves and Brown Angel, previously toiled in Creation Is Crucifixion and Fate of Icarus. Gretz is the drummer of internationally known metalcore band Zao. They've been playing together in various projects since the early '90s, most recently in Crank Radio.

Sonic result: Quick outbursts of post-hardcore with grinding, scraping guitar, machine-gun drums and vocals that sound like they're very mad.

Inspirations: The Jesus Lizard, Flying Luttenbachers, Dillinger Escape Plan, Watershed 5tet, the Grateful Dead (their first project was almost a Dead cover band).

Club of two: Why guitar and drums? Why no bass, keyboard, strings, banjo? "Jeff and I, we have this mentality where it's kind of a club that no one is allowed in but us," MacGregor says. "Bass players have gotten frustrated or drifted away. It gets weirder and weirder musically."

Flight plan: "We like to keep it fast and crazy, with a lot of parts," says MacGregor. "At the same time, we like to put a human touch in it -- the despairingly frustrated lyrical content. We have a long tradition of dark humor."

It's OK if you don't like it: MacGregor fully understands that this music is not for everyone ... or maybe anyone. "We try to make it something that will challenge us and challenge the listener, too. The net result of that," he says, laughing, "is music that really nobody enjoys, except for us."

Latest salvo: "Sluts and Slobs," a 7-inch that follows two years after full-length "A Final Dissolution." They call this their "relationship record," but warn "This isn't your boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, don't-forget-to-tape-'The-O.C.'-for-me healthy emotional buoyancy fare." No argument here.

Release show: Saturday at 8 p.m. at Modern Formations, Garfield, with Baby Bird, Ben Opie, Lean Seasoned Beef.

What if a nice U2 fan reads this and wanders in: "Um," says MacGregor, "cardiac arrest, aneurysm?"

-- Scott Mervis, Post-Gazette pop music critic