Culture

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[SPRINGTIME JAMS]

For the Smiles

Meet the Electric Toothbrush Sisters, St. Louis’ favorite new father-daughter band

Written by JENN DEROSE

The Electric Toothbrush Sisters are everywhere.

In the last twelve months, the local father-daughter duo played Stay At Home Fest, St. Louis Public Radio’s House Show, an I Watched Music On the Internet set and an Anti-Fascist Concert Series put on by Patrick Haggerdy, of Lavender Country fame. They’ve released a full-length and a self-titled tape and recently dropped the track “Ring-a-DingDing (Spring Song),” which this author feels is the best song ever written about springtime.

Partway through a practice session (the pair were rehearsing a rousing rendition of the Ramones’ “Beat on the Brat”), front-person and eight-year-old child Nina Von Trone Zengerling joined her dad and bandmate, Nick Zengerling (of Bug Chaser, Catholic Guilt and Maximum Effort, to name a few of his dozen-plus projects), and her mother, Sarah Trone, for an interview in their front yard.

Electric Toothbrush Sisters started because of the pandemic. As Nick explains, “Kids had to stay home, so we started doing a daily music hour as part of our day. Math, science, reading, music and poetry. Nina started reading poetry and practicing writing.”

“And onomatopoeias were one of my poetry assignments,” Nina chimes in. “It was pretty hard.” Onomatopoeias, she explains, are words that sound like what things do: “Birds chirp, chickens bawk.” (It’s worth noting that Nina’s own chicken and close friend Bianca is strutting around their yard for the duration of this interview.) Nick set about putting Nina’s poem to music, and with that, the Electric Toothbrush isters’ first official song — the aptly named “Onomatopoeia Song” — was born.

On the mechanics of songwriting, Nina explains that it’s mostly “rhyming things with other things. Like, in the spring song [“Ring-a-Ding-Ding”] — the grass is green, owers are blooming, and you can go outside and take nice walks. o you ust find stuff to rhyme with that!”

Other Electric Toothbrush Sisters lyrics are formed from Nina’s life experiences. The song “Dumpster Fire,” for example, came out of a traumatic event many St. Louisans can relate to. “Nina was haunted by this dumpster fire she saw in her friend’s alley,” Nick says.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Nina interjects. “All I saw when I closed my eyes was fire.”

“So I said that writing a song about her fear might help her get over it,” Nick says. “So she rode her bike in little circles in an empty parking lot, telling me all the things that she remembered from seeing the dumpster fire.” The songwriting tactic worked, and Nina overcame her fear.

“Sad Parks” also came from Nina’s life, when parks and playgrounds suddenly became off-limits to children everywhere. “I was in the car and saw a playground [wrapped in caution tape] and said, ‘This park looks like it’s so sad!’” she explains.

“Do you know what you did there?” Nina’s mom, Sarah, asks. “ ersonification ” arah ticks off the other types of figurative language with all the authority of a parent who has guided her child through at-home learning over the last year — “personification, similes, metaphors, idioms and hyperbole.” Nina shrugs.

Of course, as any musician writing from experience can tell you, the practice can be tricky when it comes to personal relationships. When asked if Nick was really a “Mean Mean Poppa,” as one December track would imply, Nina laughs, “No!”

“Oh, [Nick] is a real enforcer, he really lays down the law around here,” Sarah jokes.

“Actually,” Nina giggles, “you’re both bad guys. I’m the good guy.”

It’s natural that being in a family band would come with arguments, and even disagreements about who the bad guys are, but in this case, the pair are remarkably good at compromise, and use creative differences to make songs better. “We tell each other what should be different, then we agree about what would make it better,” Nina says.

“Really, [Nick] is teaching Nina to be disciplined and to work for the things she cares about. They practice and practice,” Sarah says.

“Sometimes practice is hard,” Nick says.

“Nina likes to move,” Sarah says, explaining that sitting still can be tough for her daughter sometimes.

Indeed, Nina loves to dance. Her favorite dance music includes songs by Taylor Swift, ABBA, Katy Perry and Jojo Siwa. Her personal style matches the polished, candy-coated music she prefers — at our interview, she sports a side ponytail in a babyblue scrunchie and a eece pullover with a sparkly, rainbow-colored unicorn on the chest, worn over red plaid leggings.

When asked about her fashion choices, she replies, “Mom helps me, but I usually help myself. I like my clothes to pop! Pop means color. I don’t like not-color. Black

Nick Zengerling and his daughter, Nina Von Trone Zengerling, joined by her good friend Bianca the chicken. | JENN DEROSE

Weird, Wild and WellDeserving

St. Louis’ City Museum lands on multiple USA Today top ten lists

Written by DANIEL HILL

Here in St. Louis, we already know that City Museum (750 North Sixteenth Street, 314-231-2489) is one of the best places on the planet. A dizzyingly ambitious tribute to the fine arts of surrealist sculpture and hitting your head on things, the former shoe factory is a beloved playground for metroarea adults and children alike.

And word is getting out. So much so, in fact, that USA Today has placed the whimsical wonderland in not one but two categories of its “10Best” reader’s choice poll this year.

City Museum is in the running for both Best Children’s Museum and Best Immersive Art Experience — at present it is at No. 10 in the former category and No. 3 in the latter. It’s not the first time the storied space has been recognized by USA Today — in 2020, City Museum landed at No. 2 on a list of the best children’s museums — but it is the first time it’s been honored in more than one category.

According to a press release, staff and crew were ecstatic to learn they’d been honored by the national publication.

“We’re thrilled to be in the running for two different categories. It was a surprise,” General Manager Rick Erwin says. “Between this and the increase in attendance we’ve seen over spring break, things almost feel normal.” That increased attendance, especially, is welcome news. City Museum had a particularly rough 2020, with COVID-19 safety precautions forcing the institution to dramatically change its operations. Shutdowns kept the doors closed for months at the beginning of the pandemic, and even when it was able to reopen it had to do so with a reduced capacity — and reduced revenue.

Additionally, the lack of travel as a result of the virus kept tourists from stopping in. At one point last year, a message on City Museum’s website noted that in normal times more than 70 percent of the business’ income comes from tourism to the city of St. Louis — but since tourism was down dramatically due to the pandemic, management had to drastically cut hours of operation in order to save money, opening for a while only on the weekends.

But between the decreasing case numbers, increasing revenue and, now, national attention, it would seem the beloved local institution is finally turning a corner.

“We wouldn’t have survived the pandemic if it weren’t for locals coming back out to support us,” Erwin says. “People who hadn’t visited in years were buying memberships just to help us keep the doors open. Now we see folks asking their friends to vote for us, unprovoked. We notice. It means a lot.”

USA Today readers are encouraged to vote for their favorites in each category up to once per day. The Best Children’s Museum winner will be announced on May 7, and the Best Immersive Art Experience winner will be announced on May 21.

For once, we’re not looking at a “lesser of two evils” voting situation — there are few institutions in the world so deserving of such high praise. Now get on over to 10best.com/awards/travel and make sure City Museum gets the accolades it so rightly deserves. n

St. Louis’ favorite art-installation-turned-surrealist-jungle-gym is rightly getting national recognition. | VIA FLICKR/PAUL SABLEMAN

ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSH

Continued from pg 29

clothes: bleaugh!” She makes a sour face.

While nearly all of Nina’s performances have been livestreamed from her family’s sitting room, she felt plenty comfortable performing on a professional soundstage for Electric Toothbrush Sisters’ bonkers set during the Sinkhole-sponsored I Saw Music On the Internet series. “It’s kinda scary going to a different place,” she explains. “It feels weird to play songs in front of strangers, but I’m fine with it.”

“We had to wear ear monitors, and there were so many cameras!” Nick says. “I was more nervous than she was.”

“Yeah, Dad doesn’t really know how to play keyboard, so he kinda messed up and kinda forgot a solo,” Nina says, grinning.

“I absentmindedly cut it off,” Nick laughs. “And then she looked at me and goes, ‘That’s ten bucks off your pay!’”

“That show was like being inside a disco ball,” Sarah says. “It’s like a secret world inside a nondescript warehouse.”

“I wish I could live there!” Nina exclaims. Being that she’s aesthetically drawn to glitter, sparkly rocks and other bright things, it’s no surprise that the light display was the main reason Nina agreed to play the show.

“We only play things if Nina says yes,” Nick says. “With school in session, it’s a lot. It’s hard. It’s really up to her. I ask her and she decides what shows we play.”

“I hope we don’t go on tour,” Nina says. “Well, unless we have a jacuzzi in the back of the truck.”

“What about a bounce house?” Nick asks.

“OK, a bounce house with a jacuzzi!” Nina replies.

On raising musically minded children, Nick offers some advice for other parents: “If your kids seem to like music, find out how you can support that. Listen to tons of music — we listen to so much music in our house. And go buy a cheap keyboard. There are so many cheap or free instruments all over, if you look.”

“Or if you can’t afford an instrument, you can make one with your mouth or with your body,” Nina adds. “You could clap or snap.”

“Or you can whistle!” Nick says. “How’s your whistling coming along?” Nina replies with a determined but unsuccessful airy attempt. “So not too well, huh,” he laughs. “Well, you can turn anything into a drum. The whole world is a drum!”

Nina demonstrates by banging on a few pots on their front porch.

“She just happens to live in a house with a ton of music and instruments,” Nick says. “But it’s nothing you want to force on a child, like making your kid take piano lessons.”

When asked if she wants readers to know anything we haven’t already discussed, Nina offers some wisdom: “Save the bees! row owers, walk instead of driving and eat organic food! Bees help make most of our food — they help the world have color! We would die without them and the world would look like lava!”

“Maybe we should write a doomsday song,” Nick muses. ou can find the lectric Toothbrush Sisters’ music on Bandcamp at theelectrictoothbrushsisters. bandcamp.com. n

Le Bank Books owners Jarek Steele and Kris Kleindienst. | THEO WELLING

[BOOKWORMS]

Left Bank Books Reopens to the Public

Written by JAIME LEES

St. Louis readers who also love the warm cocoon of a bookstore will be thrilled to find out that Left Bank Books (399 North Euclid Avenue, 314367-6731) is reopening its shop to the public.

After closing its doors and moving business to online and curbside at the start of the pandemic, Left Bank Books is now back to serving customers inside its location in the Central West End.

With an announcement made on Facebook, the favorite local shop let customers know that the doors are now open, but that it should be considered a soft opening until the grand reopening this Saturday, April 24, which is Independent Bookstore Day.

And though the store is open for browsing again, local customers may still use the curbside service, and far-flung fans may still order online and have their books shipped to them.

It is at least partially through the support of longtime customers and fans of independent bookshops that Left Bank managed to stay open during the pandemic, and there’s no reason for that support to end now.

Shopping local saves local businesses and helps our city keep its history and character. Keep it up, St. Louis. n

[FESTIVALS]

Tower Grove Pride Pushed to September

Written by JAIME LEES

The Tower Grove Pride festival has always been among the best local celebrations of the St. Louis LGBTQ community.

Once each year, Tower Grove Park (4257 Northeast Drive) turns into one big party for Tower Grove Pride, with a mix of food, games, activities, activism and entertainment all part of the experience.

Usually held during Pride month in June, the event last year was postponed until August and then canceled entirely due to COVID-19. This year, the organizers are skipping June altogether and are planning to hold the event this fall in the hope that the pandemic will be under control by that time.

Now scheduled for September 25, Tower Grove Pride 2021 will have all of the same things attendees love about the festival, but with quite a bit less heat and sweating. (Pause for an “amen” for the performers and drag queens who endured the makeup-melting heat of previous Pride festivals.)

For more information about the Tower Grove Pride festival as it becomes available, keep an eye on towergrovepride.com or visit the Facebook page of the festival at facebook.com/towergrovepride. n

September sounds pretty good for a Pride celebration in the park. | KATIE COUNTS

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