Salena Catalina

With The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up and Kepler

The Quiet Storm…

Salena Catalina

With The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up and Kepler

The Quiet Storm Coffeehouse

5430 Penn Ave.

Tonight

$5

All ages

(412) 661-9355

Head north to the Quiet Storm tonight if you’re not in the mood to be challenged or jarred up from your table with any of that rock star business. This Friday’s lineup at the Friendship coffeehouse, with its low-down melodies and gentle rhythms, will help you unwind after the trauma of midterms.

Salena Catalina is a four-piece jazz-pop band with a do-it-yourself ethic from Pittsburgh. They use only keyboards, stand-up bass, drums and the crooning of Salena and Ms. Catalina to create a sweet sound, which has become very fitting to the coffeehouse atmosphere. The two female voices bear a striking resemblance to that of Ani DiFranco, but meld together even more smoothly. This band’s volume rises and falls, bathing the listener in smooth, occasionally wailing, harmonization, along with hybrid grooves.

Absolutely Kosher Records artists The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up will meet the evening’s emo quota with tunes and tales from West Coast suburbia. This five-piece isn’t as weepy, overbearing and nasal as bands such as Dashboard Confessional, but they definitely have some whining and reckoning to do. They employ guitars, bass and drums, and also rely heavily on piano to back their restrained, half-spoken lyrics. There are a few occasional bursts of energy as they build up to driving guitars and cymbal crashing.

Kepler, based in Ottawa, will keep with the slow rock theme minus the piano ballads. Their guitars/bass/drums combination is more minimal and varied in texture, making use of brushed drumming. Kepler promises to have a more intense, lower-fidelity sound than the squeaky-clean ballads of The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up.