All in all, there was nothing earthshaking.

2005 came, 2005 went (in nine days, at least), and when you tally it up, the Pittsburgh music scene didn't hit any staggering highs or dismal lows. Rather, it was a pleasant time spent in between.

	Lake Fong, Post-Gazette The Povertyneck Hillbillies perform at Mellon Arena on Sept. 23 in a benefit for the American Red Cross and its Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Click photo for larger image.

There were no chart-surging breakout acts, like there might be next year, and no catastrophic losses of bands or venues. We tread that middle ground, with lots of good records, lots of good shows and the occasional warm, fuzzy feeling about where we live.

Before we say goodbye to 2005, let's look back at what happened around here.

ANTI-FLAG SOLD OUT

Just kidding, boys. After all, The Clash was on a major label. Now, Pittsburgh's political punkers are, too, having signed to RCA. "For Blood and Empire," recorded in Glenwood, Calif., is due out March 21. Explaining the jump to the major, guitarist #2 noted, "If you look at the last election result, I'm sure you've seen that map with the coasts being blue and the middle being red? Our records aren't in the middle, and we would like them to get to the middle." Look out, Utah.

WHEN HILLBILLIES ATTACK

The unsigned wonders from Fayette County continued their slow, steady, inevitable march to membership in the Grand Ole Opry with a new CD, "Don't Look Back," that squeaked onto the country charts, sold out shows at the Chevrolet Amphitheatre and Pepsi Roadhouse, a concert DVD and a live special on WQED. Nashville, are you listening?

MODEY LEMON BLEND

The Modeys continued their sonic garage assault with "The Curious City," their first disc as a three-piece. Indie-rock tastemakers Pitchfork praised it for offering "more melody, more ambitious structures, more psychedelic detours and more surprises." One of those was the 16-minute closer "Trapped Rabbits," which the PG's Ed Masley said "could pass for the Stooges recording the soundtrack to an acid-trip-gone-bad scene in some great lost hippie exploitation classic from the '60s." The Modeys' year also included European dates with the Secret Machines and domestic ones with Dinosaur Jr.

IN YOUR FACES

Punk band The Dirty Faces was another indie success story, debuting on Brah!, Oneida's new imprint, with "Super-American," a record with a political punch. This one, though, was dedicated to the troops. "I felt like so much of what exists in the punk rock universe is so detached from the quote-unquote real world," T. Glitter told the PG. "And a lot of the knee-jerk leftism was becoming really frustrating, although obviously, I'm not a right-winger either." "Super-American" was included in Chuck Eddy's picks in the Village Voice and was reviewed in The Wire.

IN CLUB LAND

One nice thing about so many of the big rock clubs closing over the past few years is that there weren't that many left to close in 2005. Nick's Fat City finally died, making the neighborhood that much safer for the eccentrics.

The burgeoning indie scene along Penn Avenue that includes the Quiet Storm, Modern Formations and Garfield Artworks added the Brillobox. Paint & Body, an art/music venue, joined the Roboto Project in Wilkinsburg.

Black Tie Revue christened the plush CLO Cabaret at Theater Square for rock bands during a Friday night Gallery Crawl and opened the doors for Son Volt, Steve Forbert and (we hope) more to come. Also in the Cultural District, Dowe's welcomed the CD Live series with acts like Richard Thompson, Kathleen Edwards and Michael Penn.

The blues crowd got Cefalo's in Carnegie and the Thunderbird Cafe in Lawrenceville.

The lack of a 1,000-capacity club in the city banished punk bands like the Dropkick Murphys and Bad Religion to the Ice Garden in Rostraver.

HURRICANE CLUB

In the wake of Katrina, Pittsburgh musicians stepped up with a whole slew of benefit shows, the biggest of which was a Red Cross fund-raiser at Mellon Arena with an all-star lineup that included The Clarks, Rusted Root, Joe Grushecky, Donnie Iris, Povertyneck Hillbillies, Crave and, one of the show organizers, Margot B. Grushecky also created a song and video, "Lake Pontchartrain," that you can see on his Web site.

B GETS AN A

Speaking of Margot B, she topped the list of Young People to Watch with "Unframed," a debut record of original pop-R&B songs that showed a maturity beyond her years. When it was released back in April, she was still a junior at CAPA High School. Producer Rick Witkowski helped flesh out her songs and polish the record. Now, young Margot is out in the clubs, and she recently opened for Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

GOOD 'N' EVIL

Adam Evil & the Outside Royalty broke out with one of the best and most ambitious local records of the year, a self-titled debut that would have had Ziggy Stardust smiling. Helping to blend all those textures was Rick Nelson of the Polyphonic Spree.

THE X ... XP

In the nostalgia event of the year, Deb Brady, DJ Bird and the rest of the WXXP gang flew in for two nights of alternative '80s hits at the Rex. Former 11th Hour bassist Rod Schwartz and a cast of thousands played about a thousand songs from the station's New Wave heyday, including Bird doing Bono.

BON JOVI-AL

Kairos, a Pittsburgh band with Penn State Altoona roots, got the gig of its life, opening for Bon Jovi at the Arena after winning an XM Satellite Radio contest. The heavy rock band filled the half-hour doing four arty tunes with lots of loud/soft dynamics.

CHERRY FIZZ

Glam-pop, anyone? Going once ... Cherry Monroe, fronted by Youngstown native Matt Toka and featuring four Pittsburghers, issued its Universal Records debut, "The Good the Bad and the Beautiful," in September. So far, it hasn't charted yet or received much in the way of national press. But these things go slow sometimes. In the meantime, the band has been touring high schools doing programs on suicide prevention.

CRAVE-ING ATTENTION

It's been a while since Pittsburgh produced an R&B boy band (The Marcels? The Del Vikings?), so it was a surprise to see CRAVE break out with a Mean Street debut called "Demboyz." The boyz topped the charts at WAMO's 4 Play @ 4 with "7 & UP," an ode to girls who rate between a 7 and a 10.

RADIO DAZE

Classic rock fans were thrown for a loop when WRRK gave way to BOB-FM, a schizo format where you might hear CCR one minute and Pink the next.

WYEP flexed its muscle by breaking ground on a new $3.4 million Community Broadcast Center on the South Side. It will include an 85-seat performance studio.

LEAVING HOME

Longtime local fave Boxstep played its final show as one of Pittsburgh's own in June. Frontman Eric Graf moved off to Chicago, citing as reasons more musicians, more places to play, connections and a Chicago Reader critic naming Boxstep's latest to her Best of 2004. Meanwhile, Boxstep spinoff Vale & Year had a busy '05, releasing three new records and signing to Fat Possum.

SodaJerk, Pittsburgh's whiskey-drenched alt-country band, split for the land of Vick after a four-year run in Pittsburgh. Poppa John Tucker sent out a goodbye e-mail saying, "Bucky and I thought long and hard about it and decided it was time to really get into the game." They've been gigging in Atlanta as the pared down Son of the Jerk but will play its first full SodaJerk band show next month.

SHORT TAKES

The year started with Alternative Press putting three Pittsburgh groups in its "100 Bands You Need to Know": Voices in the Wire, Punchline and The Breakup Society.

Pittsburgh sent an eclectic quartet to the 19th annual South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, with The Modey Lemon, hip-hoppers Grand Buffet, metal band Zao and the experimental Zombi.

Instrumental powerhouse Don Caballero reunited, with a new member, and signed to Relapse Records for a release next year.

The Juliana Theory parted with Epic, but that didn't slow them down. The Latrobe band released "Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat" on its own and spent much of the summer and fall on tour.

After 15 years of drunken punk debauchery, Submachine called it quits on the last weekend of October with back-to-back shows at the 31st Street Pub and Smiling Moose.

Other breakups: The Johnsons Big Band, Berlin Project and the Mofones.

The Cynics took their place among siblings like the Lyres, Fleshtones and Chesterfield Kings on Rhino's "Children of Nuggets" boxed set.

Rusted Root lost another piece of its vaunted rhythm section with the departure of drummer and family guy Jim Donovan.

Clarks frontman Scott Blasey became a dad and settled in Dallas with his new family, but he plays on.

Black Tie Revue's punchy "Code Fun" was played on the season premiere of MTV's "Pimp My Ride."

Notable debuts: Aydin, Black Crash, Black Tie Revue, Centipede E'est, Comrad, The Defenestrators, Legendary Hucklebucks, Margot B, Emily Rodgers, We're Wolves.

The Motorpsychos advanced to the finals of the national Zippo Hot Tour.

The Graffiti Rock Challenge at Mr. Small's went to Idiosympathy, formerly known as The Quick.

Finally, Wexford's own Christina Aguilera joined Britney Spears in matrimony. Wait, no, she didn't marry Britney Spears, but think of the possibilities. Her genie was music exec Jordan Bratman.