Friday, December 19, 2003

By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When quirky songwriter Jill Sobule steps onto the small stage at Club Cafe for two sold-out performances this weekend, it will be more than just another concert series.

	JILL SOBULE WHERE: Club Cafe, South Side. WHEN: 7:30 tonight and tomorrow. TICKETS: $14 advance, $16 at the door, 412-323-1919.

For WYEP (91.3 FM), tonight's show will be another live simulcast and artist interview from the intimate South Side music showcase.

Sobule and her fans are looking forward to a two-night release party for her new DVD, a session she recorded live last year at Club Cafe.

But for the people who keep Club Cafe running, the release of their first digital video disc on the new Live at Club Cafe imprint will be the culmination of four years of hard work and financial investment. In many ways, the concerts will mark the end of the beginning of a new business that co-owner Marco Cardamone believes could put Club Cafe on the music industry map.

Embedded in the ceiling, walls and upstairs control room at the upscale, 110-seat showcase are nearly $1 million in robotic remote-controlled TV cameras, recording decks, audio boards and digital mastering technology. After cashing in on an Internet startup business in the 1990s, Cardamone co-founded the digital media services company Merging Media, which produces nationally aired TV spots and corporate DVDs from its South Side offices. Club Cafe was purchased in 1999 and retrofitted to function as a club-sized recording facility for making top-end music DVDs.

House video producer Clay Kiskers and audio producer Barney Lee have recorded 160 performances at Club Cafe by artists as diverse as John Mayer, Norah Jones, Janis Ian, Angie Aparo and Maria Muldaur. The recordings have been used by artists and the venue for promotional purposes, but Sobule is the first to contract to release an enhanced DVD on the fledgling label. Adrian Belew & the Bears plan to release another Club Cafe DVD project in January.

"These DVDs are more than just concert videos," says Cardamone. "DVD can do 360-degree sound, not just stereo. They have interactive menu designs for navigating content. You don't necessarily just put it in and play it, you can jump to a favorite song or get the back story of an artist and other bonus information."

Cardamone sees the close quarters at Club Cafe, where performers are an arm's reach from fans, as a comfortable and technically stocked place for emerging talent, heritage artists and performers of intimate material to create world-class DVDs.

"With our first releases we're going grass roots," says Cardamone. "Jill Sobule and Adrian Belew have very active niche audiences and strong mailing lists. We're taking the direct-to-consumer approach."

The DVDs will be available through the artists' Web sites and at clubcafelive.com, and will retail for about $20.

Rounder Records, one of the largest indies in the United States with distribution though major label Universal, confirms that it's in negotiation with Club Cafe to distribute its DVDs. With some 50 million DVD players in American living rooms since the medium's debut in 1997, it's the fastest-growing consumer electronics technology in retail history. And with the recording industry struggling to find a 21st century profit model, Cardamone believes that Club Cafe is poised at the brink of the next big thing.

"DVD is a sonically superior product with properties that allow you to get to know the artist in a way that audio recordings can't," he says. "We see a great opportunity here to get Club Cafe into people's living rooms."

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