Jay Reatard started banging out punk rock songs in his bedroom when he was 15, and 14 years later, his mode of operation hasn't changed.

The difference is, now he graces the occasional Top 10 list, he records for one of the prestigious indie-rock labels, Matador, and his music has, well, grown up a bit.

Reatard, just back from a European tour and about to tour with the Pixies, will play Pittsburgh for the first time Monday at the Brillobox, touring on his second and slicker Matador record "Watch Me Fall."

It's been a rocky fall for Reatard, whose rhythm section bailed on him in October, spawning his now-famous Twitter, "Band quit! [Expletive] them. They are boring rich kids who can't play for [expletive] anyways ... "

Reatard had a pair of Danish punks ready to go lickety-split, but it's not like they have to learn the King Crimson catalog. Reatard specializes in what he calls simply "noisy pop" and if it's a little sloppy that's fine, as long as the energy is fierce.

"You know, bands are bands," he says. "I've been in a lot. I've played with hundreds of musicians and the last band I played with was great, they were fun, but it became not fun and not so great. Things change, people change. We played probably 500 shows together over three years and it just kind of ran its course. My songs were evolving to a place where they honestly couldn't perform them the way I needed them to be performed. I'm a solo artist and I don't want to be defined by my band. The new guys are great. We're going to play 20-some shows together and I don't know if we'll ever play with each other again."

Reatard, a Memphis native born Jimmy Lee Lindsey, started this journey back in 1985 and formed the Reatards a few years later for the thrashy lo-fi punk debut "Teenage Hate," topped by his raw, howling vocals. Reatard was so adept at bashing out his two-minute sonic rants that one band wasn't enough, so within a few years he was fueling not only the Reatards but The Lost Sounds, The Bad Times, The Final Solutions and The Angry Angles.

In 2005, he went solo with "Blood Visions," 15 punchy new-wave/power-pop songs packaged in one of the bloodiest covers Walmart would ever choose not to carry. Last year, he issued "Matador Singles '08," a collection that put him in touch with his inner Ramone.

"Watch Me Fall" is another step toward more textured pop with a variety of styles from Buzzocks punk to DEVO-powered rave-ups to more offbeat goof-rock a la Robyn Hitchcock.

"It's more dynamic, more pop-based," he says. "I wanted to rethink everything. I went from this bombarding, loud wall of sound to where we bring it up and down now a little more, and that's what I wanted to do for a while but it just wasn't working. It's a reflection of whatever I'm listening to at the time. I started out listening to really primitive garage and hardcore and really gnarly punk rock and I've evolved to where, uh, what I listened to last night. I think I listened to A.C. Newman and the Chills. I definitely listen to things that are more melodic now. I'm more impressed by people who fit things together in unusual ways than people who bash you in the head."

How will the Reatard faithful, who enjoy being bashed over the head, feel about that shift?

"It's hard to gauge fans and who they are," he says. "I think some people have jumped off the train, some people have gotten on. It's the balance of life."

Just before hitting Pittsburgh, Reatard will play his first show Saturday with the legendary Pixies, who are on the "Doolittle" tour, and it will certainly expose him to a new audience.

"Their audience is probably older -- and younger. One could say The Doors audience is 60 years old but there are still 15-year-olds buying Doors records. I figure the Pixies are probably our modern version of that kind of thing. A rite of passage. You start college and you buy a Pixies record, and I'm honored to open for them."

Reatard and Kim Phuc play the Brillobox in Bloomfield at 9 p.m. Monday. Tickets are $12. Call 412-621-4900.

Fans of atmospheric Seattle indie-rock band Minus the Bear have been eagerly awaiting the follow-up to 2007's "Planet of Ice." The good news is that it's done and will be out early next year, with the single "Into the Mirror" already available as a digital download.

The band, a sonic cousin to Death Cab for Cutie with clear prog-rock influences, worked this time with producer Joe Chicarelli (White Stripes, Shins, My Morning Jacket) on expanding its sound even further.

"This record we did large groups of jamming where we would go into the rehearsal space and play a bunch of stuff and basically never finish anything," drummer Erin Tate told the Sacramento Press. "And the next day we would go back and work on something completely new."

As a lead-up to the release, Minus the Bear is on a tour that stops at the sold-out Mr. Small's Friday at 8 p.m. with As Tall As Lions and Twin Tigers. That's lions, tigers and bears.

Judging from interviews, the members of Blind Pilot would love to be touring by bike, but Pittsburgh is a little far from Portland, so a van will have to do for their trip to Club Cafe Saturday night.

Certainly, the music is pretty portable, sounding like a stripped-down indie-folk version of the Shins with high sweet harmonies courtesy of singer Israel Nebeker, drummer Ryan Dobrowski and their recently fleshed-out unit.

Blind Pilot's debut, "3 Rounds and a Sound," has been a small sensation on the digital albums chart, thanks in part to a Single of the Week plug from iTunes in the summer of '08. Dobrowski recently told CNN that simplicity is a key to the sound: "It's easy to put too much into a song. ... If it's not a very good song and you add a bunch of cool effects -- it might sound cool or sonically interesting at first, but it will only be interesting for a couple of weeks."

The show is with Laura Veirs & the Hall of Flames at 9 p.m. $12; 1-866-468-3401.

Critics Andrew Druckenbrod and Scott Mervis talk about music on "The Beat," available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.