Eleven December 2014

No. 11-DEC . ’14-JAN ’15

THE LINER NOTES OF ST. LOUIS

2014 WRAP UP Sizing Up The Year That Was

MOODY FUTURE INSIDE: THE FEED

•

TV ON THE RADIO • THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS

Tuning Into DEMONLOVER’s Great Cosmic Radio

DECONSTRUCTIVISIONS K.E. Luther Explores The Pros of CON chin chin

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ELEVEN MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 11

COMPLIMENTARY

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 1

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DEPT. OF

PERIODICAL LITERATURE ST. LOUIS, MO

Volume 10, Issue No. 11

FRONT OF THE BOOK 5 Editor’s Note 6 Where Is My Mind?

December 2014 - January 2015

ELEVEN’S MUSICALENDAR Recommended Shows 24 Centro-Matic’s Final Tour

BRING ON THE NIGHT Show Previews and Reviews226

COLUMNS 8 Introducing

by SAM CLAPP Little Richard Brothers Band

9 Watcherr

by CURTIS TINSLEY 2015 Prophecy

10 Behind The Scene

by JARRED GESTREICH Ian Fisher And The Present

FEATURES 12 Con Game: The Music of Malcolm Chandler

by K.E. LUTHER 14 T hings Need to Happen and Then Never Happen Again”: Andy Lashier of Demonlover

by K.E. LUTHER 16 Now, Again: 2014 in the Rear View, 2015 in the Wind Shield

by ELEVEN CONTRIBUTORS .

Rough Shop, Dax Riggs, Alarm Will Sound, The Dam Dams, Patterson Hood, Teddy Bear: A Tribute to the Music of the Truck Driver

Blue Beat228

by JEREMY SEGEL-MOSS .

Oliver Sain’s Archway Studio

.

HOT ROCKS Album Reviews2 30 TV On The Radio, Parkay Quarts, Schwervon!, Diarrhea Planet, ThorHammer, Cara Louise Band, The Shivas, Filmstrip, King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard, Museum of Love, Ty Segall, Bedhead

Single File

by IRA GAMERMAN

.

The Rebellious Jukebox 31

by MATT HARNISH .

The Breaks, Life Like

THE WAY BACK PAGE This Year’s Model 34

by JULIET CHARLES .

by Paige Brubeck.

ON THE COVER, FROM TOP: Brainstems at the Firebird on January 29. Photo by Bryan Sutter, cover design

.

12/6 Mountain Sprout with ARR! 12/11 Powder River 12/12 The Bon Bons B urlesque Revue presents: Winter Blues 12/13 Mass Appeal Wu Tang Tribute 12/18 Banditos 12/19 A Very Rocky Knuckles Christmas Show 12/23 Daniel Patrick Fulton with Michael and Abby 12/24 The Trip Daddies 12/27 The Jeremiah Johnson Band with Big Chief Dec 31

Free New Years Eve Show with

Hazard to ya Booty Every Monday

Open Mic 7:30pm Free 18+ (unless with legal guardian) 4 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

WAYNE COYNE AND THE FLAMING LIPS AT THE PAGEANT TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2014

Featured Concerts

PHOTO BY JON GITCHOFF

Eleven Magazine Volume 10 | Issue 11 | Dec ’14 - Jan ’15 PUBLISHER Hugh Scott EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Evan Sult SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR Paige Brubeck WEB EDITOR Hugh Scott PHOTO EDITOR Angela Vincent ART DIRECTOR Evan Sult CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Grant Barnum, Caitlin Bladt, Curt Brewer, Paige Brubeck, Ryan Boyle, Sam Clapp, Raymond Code, Melinda Cooper, Jenn DeRose, Ira Gamerman, Suzie Gilb, Matt Harnish, Jordan Heimburger, Jake Jones, James Kane, Gabe Karabell, Sean Kelly, Nelda Kerr, Chris Keith, Cassie Kohler, Kevin Korinek, Josh Levi, Rob Levy, K.E. Luther, Bob McMahon, Geoff Naunheim, Jack Probst, Jason Robinson, Jeremy Segel-Moss, Robert Severson, Michele Ulsohn, Chris Ward, Robin Wheeler, Rev. Daniel W. Wright PHOTOGRAPHERS Nate Burrell, Duane Clawson, Jarred Gastreich, Abby Gillardi, Jon Gitchoff, Kelly Glueck, Adam Robinson, Adam Schicker, Bill Streeter, Bryan Sutter, Ismael Valenzuela, Angela Vincent, Theo Welling, Carrie Zukoski

ILLUSTRATORS Paige Brubeck, Sean Dove, Tyler Gross, Lyndsey Lesh, Curtis Tinsley PROOFREADER Tracy Brubeck PROMOTIONS & DISTRIBUTION Suzie Gilb Ann Scott CONSULTATION Clifford Holekamp Derek Filcoff Cady Seabaugh Hugh Scott III FOUNDED in 2006 by a group including Jonathan Fritz, Josh Petersel and Matthew Ström ELEVEN MAGAZINE 3407 S. Jefferson St. Louis, MO 63118 FOR ADVERTISING INQUIRIES Hugh Scott advertising@elevenmusicmag.com CALENDAR LISTINGS listings@elevenmusicmag.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR deareleven@elevenmusicmag.com We welcome your comments. Please let us know if you do not want your letter published.

HAVE A QUESTION FOR US? info@elevenmusicmag.com ONLINE elevenmusicmag.com twitter.com/elevenmag facebook.com/ElevenMagazine COPYRIGHT 2014 SCOTTY SCOTT MEDIA, LLC

Editor’s Note by Evan Sult 2014 WILL UNDOUBTEDLY be remembered as the year Ferguson became shorthand for racial tensions boiling over in the St. Louis region and all over the country. However you might have felt about the particulars of the encounter between Mike Brown and officer Darren Wilson, it is clear that something larger was in question: the relationship between black and white citizens, and how that power dynamic plays out in public.

What I have found ironic in all this is that my own experience of St. Louis is that it is far more racially integrated on a day-to-day level than any other city I’ve lived in. In South City, in the Loop, in the Central West End, downtown, on public transportation, at concert halls, in fancy restaurants and late-night diners, in shops and grocery stores, this is a city in which I see black people and white people (and Hispanics, though not a lot of Asians compared to my time in Seattle) in casual conversation with each other. There is more daily contact between the races in South City than there is in either the north or south side of Chicago — Chicago is far more rigidly segregated.

I don’t know why that is, but I do know that it’s valuable. Obviously, our problems exist, and much more change is needed. But unlike so many other cities around the country, we actually have a way forward. We’re already talking, a lot of us. You can see it in the music scene too, in the unusually cross-pollinated music of iLLPHONICS, Franco/Hill, FarFetched Collective; in Bump & Hustle, and Blank Space’s active outreach to many different scenes; in the Texas Project, C.A.M.P., and at MoKaBes — and even at the Ferguson-related protests, where music has been a tool for relating to each other.

The year will probably be remembered as a time of strife — but what I have seen in the real world, in the community, and among the musicians and people I know, is a strengthening connection. For that I am thankful. Here’s to a peaceful and productive 2015.

Unconventional workspace for the unconventionally employed

nebulastl.com

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 5

WHERE IS MY MIND? BLANK STARES BE OF GOOD CHEER

If a UFO suddenly landed on Earth, who would you send to meet them? I suppose some people might say the Army, or President Obama... but I would probably put the call out for CELIA. St. Louis’s ambassador of good cheer and good music, she’d probably be leading the aliens in an intergalactic singalong before anything had a chance to go wrong. Celia’s Yuletide Express is her nonsecular holiday shindig, and it’s a rosycheeked delight every year. Jinglebells abound, and the colder the night outside, the warmer the feelings are inside. Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship and The Vanilla Beans add to this year’s fun and games at Schlafly Tap Room on Friday, December 19.

RICHARD HELL IS perhaps the most underappreciated godfather of punk music, a trailblazer who helped form Television and The Heartbreakers, influenced The Sex Pistols, and was the standard bearer for a generation of kids on The Bowery and around CBGBs in Manhattan in the 1970s. He has been an integral part of the Lower East Side’s identity, and in fact still lives there today, revered by everyone left in the neighborhood who hasn’t been pushed out by the trendy restaurants and vodka bars.

That’s why it was especially satisfying to discover that one of St. Louis’ most intriguing new groups. BLANK GENERATION, were inspired by Hell and his life to name the band after his most iconic song. The music is not exactly what you would call a replica of Hell, though. It’s Richard Hell’s attitude for the modern urban landscape they’re going for instead: part rebellious punk, part Outkast-style hip hop, part rock, part dance music. Led by St. Louis MC HearsKra-z and

APPORTUNITY KNOCKS

producer Loose Screwz, the birth of the band and the production of its first eponymous album comes at the right time. With rebellion in mind, it carries a particularly apt sentiment for the region right now.

The band, rounded out by Andrew Gibson on drums, Charlie Cerpa on saxophone, Matt Lyons on guitar, and Nate Gilberg on bass, is the latest effort from the FarFetched collective, which has consistently created some of the most interesting music in the Gateway City over the last few years. Blank Generation has only played a handful of shows thus far, including a fiery set as part of the St. Louis World’s Fare battle of the bands (judged by this author), but the band is tight and knows how to get their message across and get the crowd moving, bringing serious heat to the concert stage in more than one way. Though they’re just getting started, their next show is an album release party on New Years Eve at Empire Hall (3407 California at Cherokee) with Scrubs and Mathias & The Pirates, and it promises to be one of the best parties in town. HS

IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN the app that the Regional Arts Commission released earlier this year, called STL ARTS, it’s pretty darn slick. It’s everything that a good app should be: clean, simple, easy on the eyes, free — and most importantly, it’s useful! STL Arts is the most comprehensive list of fine arts-related events in the region. It touches on everything from visual arts to theater to comedy and film and more. While it’s not going to give you an exhaustive lists of concerts at every club or showtimes at the cinemaplex, it will inform you of the interesting cultural events at venues all over town, in all the museums, libraries, theaters and other centers of fine art. You can filter the listings by day and even if the events are free or paid. So when cabin fever strikes on a Saturday afternoon this winter, remember, there is most likely a free event or show worth bundling up for and taking on the polar vortex. HS

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PHOTO BY CHAD ELKINS

This Month in the History of Now

Chris & Jake’s WAILIN! Profiles in gearage EDDIE VAN HALEN REPLICA Serial #: None Build by: Jake Jones, Chris Keith For a while we’ve wanted to build a guitar, and for our first one decided on the iconic Eddie Van Halen racing stripe. We didn’t want to spend a bunch of money so we scavenged and scraped up 90% of the materials.

The body was a Mexican Fender strat body rescued from the Folsom House exodus; the hardware is Gotoh style parts; the pickup is an EVH Humbucker. The pickguard was hand cut

by Jonathan Shalinsky at our work, GoMusicSTL.

Working from detailed photos of the original, we made the stripes with three different widths of tape, and studied the original nicks, burns and other marks to relic the guitar and give the appearance of age, and a worn-in look. We used a flathead screwdriver, a large washer and a knife; for the neck, we used graphite powder and and cigerettes. A yellowing resin was also used for aging.

Making a guitar like this was easier than we thought, but still a challenge. It’s hopefully the first of many to come. This build cost under $350 to make, and it plays and sounds great!.

XMAS COMES BUT ONCE EVERY NINE YEARS

BY NOW, YOU’VE probably already heard enough songs about Rudolph’s lousy peer group and Grandma’s gruesome end to last you the rest of the 21st century. It’s a Christmas malady: everywhere you go, the same ten songs are playing, until you even wanna tell John Lennon to stuff a stocking in it already.

There is, thank Frosty, a solution, and it’s a local one with a funny name: A VERY BERT DAX CHRISTMAS. Started over a decade ago, this nine volume collection is “still the greatest annual Saint-Louis-only Christmas Compilation series ever to exist,” according to Pancake Master Robert Severson, whose Pancake Productions label will be digitally re-releasing the entire thing over the course of December.

The first volume is already available at berttdax.bandcamp.com, and it’s a surprisingly exciting time capsule of STL music history, including original songs by The Fantasy Four, The Phonocaptors, Julia Sets, The Gentleman Callers, and more. Each volume is available for a measly $5, which means that in a month’s time you could have over a hundred unique Christmas songs available for your personal holiday mixtape pleasure. Stick that in yer corncob pipe and smoke it! ES

• MUSIC, COMEDY, CULTURE •

BEEN HERE LATELY?

IT’S A WHOLE NEW PLACE. NEW DRINK MENU, NEW DRINK SPECIALS, NEW COFFEE SPECIALS, NEW HOURS. (SAME COOL STUFF ON THE WALLS.)

Køsmønaut White Russian with 2 espresso shots

An all-ages music venue with a full bar and impressive late night coffee options, Foam is an intimate space to catch amazing bands and comedians before they’re too big to see in a small room. With free Wi-Fi and great vibe, it’s a community hub for Cherokee Street’s diverse crowd.

SOME BANDS WHO’LL BE PLAYING HERE THIS MONTH:

WHITE MYSTERY, BRUISER QUEEN, CAVEOFSWORDS, MR. MA’AM, WHOA THUNDER, MIKE ADAMS AT HIS HONEST WEIGHT, ANIMAL CHILDREN, AND A WHOLE LOT MORE SPECIALTY COCKTAIL:

KØSMØNAUT (a White Russian with 2 shots of espresso) • WE’VE GOT A LOT GOING ON •

CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS: FOAMVENUE.COM 3359 S. JEFFERSON • CHEROKEE STREET, USA

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 7

INTRODUCING

New bands in their early days by Sam Clapp

THE LITTLE RICHARD BROTHERS BAND IF FALLING TO EARTH in the belly of a crashing airplane is the red rubber stamp of rock ‘n’ roll greatness (look no further than the storied demises of The Big Bopper, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Otis Redding for proof), The Little Richard Brothers Band is guaranteed to at least have engine trouble on the runway. Bo and Mort Richard — no relation — made their debut on this summer’s Meat Bundle compilation with a set of three obscenely catchy songs about heartbreak, lust, and the desire to be degraded. Then they released their sophomore effort, Hard Lovin’ Losers, which contains exactly the same songs. Despite the Richards’ lack of initiative, the duo is adorably raw and poised to become one of the most adequate rock acts this side of the Ozarks.

The boys are new in town and slow to furnish their curricula vitae, so nobody seems to know who they are or where they came from. The Richards themselves hardly seem sure. This much is clear: 25-year-old Mort came west from Ohio, fleeing his former life as black sheep of the Richards Aluminum dynasty. Bo Richads, 37 years old, came north from his hometown of Transylvania, Louisiana, though his route to the Gateway City was by no means straightforward. He had a brush or two with the law and one infamous brush (or more) with a pig, and there are certain states he’s not permitted to enter.

These are the bluesman of our day, and they were kind enough to meet up one icy Sunday to shoot the breeze.

How did you guys get together?

Mort: Well, we met in kind of a funny way, actually, in a record store. We were both there reaching for the same copy of the Smothers Brothers. And we touched hands and it was like, what are you doin’ here?

PHOTO BY ANDREW WARSHAUER

Bo: I had a knife in my back pocket.

Mort: But yeah, then we got to talking, ’cause not that many people are into that kind of stuff. Turns out we had the same last name.

Bo: That’s what really started this band.

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Mort: It was the last name.

Bo: Yeah, the last name.

Do you feel like you have any special sort of emotional connection?

Bo: I feel like we understand each other better than other people understand us.

Mort: That’s definitely true. People, for whatever reason, just don’t seem to get what we have to say.

Bo: Yeah, we always get these funny looks.

It’s nice to have somebody who doesn’t give you weird looks when you talk about your... [very long pause] ...whatever.

Mort: You know, rollin’ into different towns, it takes people a while to get used to us before they kick us out. St. Louis is a nice place to be ’cause it hasn’t happened yet.

Where do you guys practice?

Mort: We hook up power behind a donut shop and— Bo: They don’t really know.

Mort: —we just sit there for about thirty minutes.

Bo: One of the kids figured it out but we just gave him a bunch of cigarettes. You ever have any problems with the kids, just give

‘em cigarettes and they’ll shut up.

So, what’s your songwriting process like?

Mort: Usually we’re just shooting the shit, maybe Bo’s telling me about this heartbreak he’s got, and I say “Bo, that’s a song!” and we try to remember what we just said.

Bo: That’s usually the next two to three days of writing a song is trying to remember what we were saying.

Mort: We don’t work fast.

Bo: We just listen to music that we like and we rip it off.

So, what moves you about playing rock ‘n’ roll?

Bo: There was this one time, whenever I was driving my truck—I forget what interstate it was—and I was rocking out to some music and I ended up hitting my head on the steering wheel. I blacked out for a minute and went off the side of the road, and I ended up seeing the white light and everything. And then all the sudden I hear coming into my head this sound: “Dun dun dundundundun dun dur now dur ne-ow!” And then “Susie Q” started playing and my whole world opened up. At this point I was only listening to Nickelback and Creed, and it’s like, “Oh, this is what heaven’s like!” But it was actually hell. I was supposed to go to hell. And ever since then I realized the true power of Satan is rock ‘n’ roll.

Does Satan ever say things to you?

Bo: No. He’s kind of a quiet dude. He’s kind of a nerd, actually. He’s really prissy about everything. He’s one of those people you’d call a Rulebook Ricky.

Check them out for yourself: eattapes.bandcamp.com/album/ meat-bundle-1-2 littlerichardbrothersband.bandcamp.com/ releases

Futurism

WATCHERR

by Curtis Tinsley

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BEHIND THE SCENE Bands in Their Native Environment

Photographs and interview by Jarred Gastreich

IAN FISHER & THE PRESENT Ian Fisher left his home in Ste. Genevieve, MO, for an itinerant musician’s life in Europe half a decade ago. He is a singer/songwriter in the traditional sense: his songs and his acoustic guitar are about all he takes with him when he tours solo, which he does often, or with his band Ian Fisher & The Present, which includes St. Louisan Ryan Carpenter, one of the pianists for the Muny. Ian Fisher & The Present played in Missouri this summer, before returning to Europe for (inevitably) more relentless touring.

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A pub conversation about love or politics?

It depends on how much I drink, but it usually starts with love, turns to politics, and then goes back to love.

How do you balance the inspiration from your hometown of Ste. Genevieve, MO, with your new home in Berlin? How can we hear the two places in your music?

I ran away from Missouri and America in general when I was younger. I spent my teenage years and the first year or two of my twenties trying to distance myself from where I was from. Then something funny happened. After being an emigrant for a year or two, I started piecing parts of my past and the culture that I came from together to form my own patchwork identity. I started to realized that just because I didn’t agree with the American government or the socioeconomic structure of America didn’t mean that I also had to dislike some of the beautiful things about where I was from (i.e. the music). So I turned more to American country music as a bit of a security blanket and to remind me of my past and be proud of it. Berlin, and Europe in general, has given me the opportunity to live as a musician, but it has also affected the way I make music. Though I’ve been able to play with dozens of classically trained musicians

here and learn a lot from them, I think the most apparent effect it has had on me has been on my lyrics. Central Europeans, especially Germans, have a tendency of being extremely honest and direct. This rubbed off on me both personally and artistically.

The lyrics that I write now are underlined by the type of brutal honesty and self-evaluation that I find to be prevalent on the streets and in the art of central Europe.

What were your reactions to St. Louis when you returned recently?

I was really impressed by St. Louis last time I was there. When I left in 2008 there was less than a handful of cafes and bars in the Grove and on Cherokee Street. Now there are dozens and dozens of places. I was on Cherokee on a random Thursday night and there were people on the sidewalks! I mean, I’ve seen people on the sidewalks in St. Louis before, but they were suburbanites coming into town for festivals or Cardinals games.

The people that I saw that night actually lived in the city. Young people are actually living in St. Louis and doing creative things!

It really makes me happy to see that! I still don’t really feel safe on the streets of St. Louis and the infrastructure of the city has a lot of room for improvement, but I think that St. Louis is moving in the right

direction.

Give me a percentage of the year that you spend touring. Any tips on staying organized when touring?

I don’t really feel like I have a home. I haven’t for the last few years. In 2011, 2012, and 2013 I played around 120 concerts each year. This year I think I’m only going to perform about 70 or 80 times and most of those performances have been at a theater in Munich, so I’ve just spent most of my time on the train between Berlin and there and not too much of my time “on tour,” though I started responding to this message in a tour bus on a rainy highway somewhere outside of Florence, Italy, coming from a recording session in Rome on my way to play a concert in Padua and am finishing it on a train from Verona going over the snowy Alps. All that being said, if Berlin is my home base, then I’ve probably been there for an accumulative five or six weeks this year. Tips for staying organized on tour: pack light, sleep when you can, and write everything down.

Let’s assume you never picked up a guitar and you stuck around Ste. Genevieve. What would you be doing today?

It’s impossible to say, but I guess I’d be working at my parent’s winery on our farm.

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As STL works out its crafts some o

by K.E. Luther IT’S AMAZING HOW MUCH the world can change in a year. Over the course of a few months, children become adults. Communities split apart, exposing the fault lines of history. And nations learn humility, as war and disease spread across the globe. No one captures this reality better than Malcolm Chandler, better known as Con.

Earlier this year, Chandler released his first solo album, Solstice Part One (Advice from a Fortune Cookie), as an experiment in finding his own voice. In September, he dropped Solstice Part Two (Dreams from a Snow Globe) and established himself as one of the best rappers in the city, if not the country.

While the first album was a portrait of youth — teenagers smoking weed and chasing love across the ruins of contemporary America — the latest release is a finely drawn study in adulthood. On the opening track, “what to say to a GOD,” Chandler attacks the violence in Ferguson by exposing the roots of the conflict. Over a beat worthy of Questlove, he raps, “Forty-five employees were fired from Jennings / in 2011 and this nigga still ain’t in prison…we in 2014 / what did I miss / some jobs you can get away with murder and some benefits.”

The rest of the album deals with the heaviest themes in art: mortality and the passage of time, destiny and free will, power and corruption, and the meaning of life. The production, courtesy of Mvstermind and Michael Franco, gives the lyrical content an even deeper resonance. By pairing West Coast beats with classic soul samples, the music flattens the distance between the past and present, bringing at least two generations of struggle into the same space.

In a final stroke of genius, the album folds back in on itself, the last track finishing the ideas of the first. Then the record fades into an unexpected coda, the first glimpse of a new year in the making.

This month, I sat down with Chandler in Hazelwood, where he currently lives, to discuss his work and the events of the past six months.

You released your first solo album, Solstice Part One (Advice from a Fortune

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Con Game

s racial tensions in the public eye, MALCOLM CHANDLER of the city’s baddest — and most relevant — tracks Cookie), earlier this year. Solstice Part Two (Dreams from a Snow Globe) feels noticeably darker. Why the change?

Everything I write isn’t always my perception. Sometimes I’m writing from the perceptions that other people have. And I may think that it’s an interesting way to view a situation. So I may write a verse according to that. Because I’m happy with seeing something else, another view, maybe a more beautiful view. And that happens a lot with music. Sometimes I hear a better perspective than my own.

As a performer, is that like taking on a character?

It’s pretty much like taking on a character.

But it’s a little bit for me too, though. I’m learning too.

The thing with Con, it’s not to focus on the bad. It’s pretty much to acknowledge things that exist in this life. And I might not see them all. So then I will maybe capture them from someone else. And so it is me just playing a character. I am speaking for me and for other people.

You reference the shooting of Michael Brown on tracks like “what to say to a GOD” and “#OPFerguson.” Did the recent violence in St. Louis contribute to the darker tone of the record?

I mention the Darren Wilson thing maybe on three different tracks. Because it’s real.

That’s happening.

Maybe that’s why the album feels a little bit darker. It looks light, you know, like everything looks good. But everybody is just not with each other. They’re with their own opinion. Protestors were out there, peaceful.

Then there’s one dude who wants to throw a Molotov cocktail. Like they’re on the same side, but they’re not. Cause he could have threw that and got some people shot.

And that’s my thing. That’s where the less hope comes in. Because everybody’s just behind it but they’re not really behind it. I’m just taking everything for what it is. And if it sounds dark, I guess that’s what I see happening in life. I don’t know.

Your first two solo records share a title. Do they explore similar themes and narratives? Or are they separate projects?

They’re both just a bunch of pieces. They’re

just a compilation of songs that I did over time because I felt a certain way. So I was kind of in one mindstate for the first part.

Some of the songs were just songs that I put on there from previous times. But most of the tracks were beats that I just got. And I felt like I had to write to them. So I had the same mindstate for those seven, eight, nine songs.

And it was the same way for this one. I didn’t really start on Solstice Part Two until the beginning of September. I got the beats and I just kept writing. And that’s probably the only connection. It’s almost like it’s one big story. But the fact is, I picked a certain order for the songs that might not be the order that I wrote them in.

Right. You stated in a previous interview that you used the same “deconstructed” technique on Solstice Part One. I scramble up the lyrics because of how the music sounds. Technically, all of it is almost one big story. I just don’t know how to put it back in order, to be honest. Because sometimes I would write this verse for this song. But it doesn’t fit. So maybe I put it on another track. So it’s crazy. Because one verse from one song, the other half of it might be on the ninth track. Which is weird.

But that’s how my brain works. That’s how everything works with me. It’s just so scattered. But it’s all there.

On tracks like “21+,” you open up about your childhood and your family in an unexpectedly personal way. What made you decide to dig deeper on this album?

I don’t know if that was fully my intent.

It might have just been there. Maybe it just came with me growing, being able to express things in newer ways. Maybe I just didn’t know how to fully express it on the first record. And then with this one, I grew from writing it. So it got you deeper into the lyrics, pretty much.

But I wouldn’t say that I dug deeper. I feel like the stuff on the first one and the second one, they all came from the same place: from my life. So I don’t think I put more out there. If I did, maybe I was just able to express it better. I think that’s what it is.

But for some artists, taking on a character or writing from a different perspective

allows them to go deeper into their own story.

It does though. It does though. Because seeing somebody else’s perspective opens up something you may have not seen. So yeah, it does get you closer to you.

In an earlier conversation, you mentioned that one of your favorite tracks on Solstice Part Two is “Boy Wonder.” Why choose that song?

Well, on “Boy Wonder” I like the way that [fellow MME rapper] Ciej did the hook. We had a “to do” list of songs in Mvstermind’s room. We had a dry erase board or whatever with the markers. And before I left one day, I did all my recording, like my vocals. I thought about Ciej for that song, and I put his name next to it to help with the hook. Reason being because I’m always around Ciej.

He can always say some shit that I’m thinking. And he did it, you know. Just the whole way he did it was so nonchalant, but so passionate at the same time. It was like my thoughts. That’s why I like that song.

Finally, a lot of St. Louis musicians use unexpected grammar or symbols in the titles of their songs. Why are the artists in this city so interested in how words look on the page?

It just comes with being an artist. For us, it kind of started with Mvstermind. He kind of started in, and it just like tainted everybody else. So it’s like, “Okay. What am I gonna make this song?” I made the zero in “$0Fall” but I’m going to use that as an example.

Say for instance I said, “Freefall.” When he hears it, he’s just going to type it with a zero.

That’s just what he does. To the point where we just try to go back and forth with each other. Like I made this and it’s cooler than yours.

And it gets people clicking on it too. It’s not that nobody can’t think of this stuff. It’s just like, I know when people see it, it shows them that you’re doing more. You’re being creative, everything is on purpose. “#OPFerguson” has a hashtag for a reason. Because it’s an actual hashtag. Because it’s current.

Everything has to link to something. I want to write every title for every song as interesting as I can. And that’s just how it is.

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“Things need to happen again” Demonlover’s ANDY LASHIE

by K.E. Luther IN LATE OCTOBER, ST. LOUIS experimental pop band Demonlover released their second full-length album, a mystical, quasi-narrative epic entitled Moody Future. On record, the songs veer from Danny Elfman arrangements to Brill Building love stories, passing through early hip hop, French yé-yé, Jamaican dub, punk rock and electronic noise along the way. The effect is akin to discovering a great cosmic radio and scanning the dials, encountering one brilliant fragment of musical history after another.

PHOTO BY K.E. LUTHER

A few days after the album dropped, I met Andy Lashier — who, along with drummer Sam Meyer and multi-instrumentalist J.J. Hamon, makes up one third of Demonlover — at his new digs near Cherokee Street. The house, a former music venue with a full-service bar in the living room, needed a number of repairs, and when I arrived, Lashier was putting a fresh coat of paint on the kitchen walls.

Always a gracious host, he stopped his work long enough to make a pan of heartshaped brownies for lunch. While he sifted through the Betty Crocker mix, removing a packet of caramel filling deemed too toxic for consumption, he outlined the stories behind six of the strongest tracks on the album. In the process, Lashier revealed a mind full of productive anxieties, paranoid flashes, absurdist jokes and loving obsessions — the elements that created Moody Future and its wholly unique vision of popular music.

Like Naked Lunch or Twin Peaks, Demonlover’s new album could transform the way that Americans think about commercial art. Or it could serve as the template for a stranger, more esoteric

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form of music. It all depends on chance. As Lashier noted, “Sometimes you get bullets; sometimes you get brownies.”

Track 1, “Moody Future” Starting Demonlover, I just wanted to do whatever, whenever I felt like doing it. And for awhile, I was obsessed with not singing at all. A lot of these songs have the vocals completely taken away from them.

But I started thinking about “moody

future” all the time. Just those words.

I wanted to create a song like sparks, where it’s all over the place — a melody that’s not structured. But then over time, it deviated from that completely. And I just wanted a crazy theme, a cartoonish, Danny Elfman kind of theme.

And it more or less became that. I’m very tired of bands where everybody’s playing.

There’s a song and everybody plays. Arrangements are important. Things need to happen and then never happen again. (He hums a

and then never happen

ER on their brainbending Moody Future melody). Then that instrument is gone. It’s just there for a minute.

That’s way more interesting. That’s more or less “Moody Future.”

Track 5, “Photon” There’s a couple of mornings where I’ve walked over to see J.J. like, “We’ve got to work on this song.” And we’ll drop everything to record. So one day, I walked over to J.J.’s and this house was on fire. There was a lady in the house and there were dogs running around. And I say, “Lady. Your house is on fire.” (Laughing). And she’s like, “Oh. Thanks.”

And that was it.

Then I heard the fire trucks pull up. I was ready to do the Pee Wee Herman thing and save everyone.

But instead I just kept walking. It seemed like the fire department didn’t really need me there. So I had all these words in my head from walking around and I was like, “I’ve got to do this before I forget.” My friend had this beat ready to go. So

I just recorded the song and left.

Then there was a dog

tied up outside of J.J.’s house in the laundromat parking lot. It was tied up in this inhumane way. And all of a sudden, I have to take this dog. After that, I’m completely nuts from the fire, the dog. So I felt like I had to go back and re-do everything. But I had to get back to life. I had to let it go.

The Hobosexuals, The Carondelettes, Demonlover Saturday, December 13 OFF BROADWAY

Track 6, “Dream Date” I’m open to the entire breadth of musical history. Even if it’s a genre I don’t particularly care for — like soft rock. Pop music is way more inventive and way more deviant than a million hardcore bands could ever be. So right now, I’m all about trying to play around with Lana Del Rey and Electric Light Orchestra, using those pop songs as influences to say something strange.

But it’s always about sex really. I like songs that sound kind of happy but there’s this dark content. Like ’50s songs where they’re about something completely awful.

So I’d sing this song about a “dream date.” The structure is pretty standard: verse, verse,

bridge, verse. But it’s like, “I’m looking for a dream date / someone that I can hide away / in the closet not breathing for three days / three

ways,” just a little bit of sexual deviance.

J.J. tells me that a lot of my stuff reminds him of Twin Peaks. Which I haven’t really watched. He keeps telling me that I need to watch the whole thing, but it sounds like I already did. I kind of live that shit.

Track 9, “Annie Got Mad”

One time, I used Anne Tkach’s bass and (Continued on page 29)

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Now, A 2014 in the Rear View,

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Again 2015 in the Windshield THIS YEAR WAS SOMETHING of a changing of the guard in the St. Louis music world. Mainstays like The Blind Eyes and Kentucky Knife Fight hung up their spurs and South City team captain Jason Hutto decamped for Houston, while new bands like Con Trails, Hell Night, and Tiger Rider got revved up, and pop mastermind Brian McClelland’s Whoa Thunder finally evolved from recording project to stage spectacle. Pokey LaFarge’s Central Time Tour continued to woo the country with tales of our city’s pleasures and STL bands like Foxing, The Feed and Bruiser Queen also headed out for tour — in fact, Foxing’s beginning to rival Pokey for number of days out on the road. And that’s just what’s going on with bands in town!

Herewith: a selection of Eleven contributors’ notes on 2014, as well as some thoughts on the coming year. It was a hell of a year — here’s to the year on the way!

Evan Sult, editor-in-chief As ’14 Becomes ’15

by Ira Gamerman 1. Favorite 2014 Live Show: The Knife at Terminal Five in Manhattan. The Knife made better use of a Greek Chorus than any theater production I’ve seen anywhere this year (and trust me, I’m a playwright, I know these things).

2. Impending 2015 Musical Trends I Really Hope I’m Wrong About: My tertiary visit to this year’s CMJ seems to indicate that the music of 2015 will either involve (A) People staring intently at their laptops during performances, or (B) Bands with an overly pronounced Mumford and Sons influence.

For all of our sakes, I hope my prediction is wrong and that I could un-see the pedantically uninteresting (yet moderately

hummable and/or danceable) things I have witnessed. BRACE YOURSELVES FOR IMPACT PEOPLE! WE ARE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS! 3. 2014 Musical Marketing Trend That I Hope Never Happens Again: Free U2 albums whether you want ‘em or not. And The Edge had the audacity to smack-talk Neutral Milk Hotel afterwards! CAN SOMEBODY GET THIS ALBUM OFF MY HARD DRIVE ALREADY? 4. Most Underrated Hip-Hop Album of 2014: Shabazz Palaces, Lese Majesty 5. Most Underrated Indie Rock Album of 2014: Broncho, Too Much Hip to Be Woman 6. Most 2015 Songwriter: Joel Michael Howard already dropped two excellent singles in

2014, and he’s got an album on the way full of love songs that Tom Petty fans and Dan Bejar fans could both equally enjoy.

7. Artist Who Already Assuredly Has Spring 2015 Poppin’: Drizzy Drake, who still managed to be on nearly every hot hip-hop song in 2014 without actually releasing an album.

8. Favorite Guest Feature Verse 2014: Gangsta Boo on “Love Again (Akinyele Back)” from Run The Jewels 2. She’s got this fool in love again.

9. Favorite EP 2014: Royksopp & Robyn, Do It Again 10. Favorite Rock Documentary Trend 2014: Nerdy younger brothers making meta-tour documentaries about their famous older brothers’ awesome band a lá The National’s Mistaken for Strangers.

11. New Electronic Act I’m Psyched For in 2015: Pure Physicality self-released a killer EP accompanied by the trippiest music video of the year. Epic synths forever!

12. Best Break Up Album 2014: Angel Olsen, Burn Your Fire for No Witness 13. Best Comeback Album 2014: Aphex Twin, Syro 14. Best Comeback Album (That I Really Hope Finally Comes Out in) 2015: The Wrens’ follow up to 2003’s The Meadowlands 15. Best Thing That Happened to Me in 2014: Inheriting my grandad’s electric mandolin from my estranged grandmother.

TOP: Ex Hex (pictured) and Priests brought the cream of DC’s scene to the Firebird on March 17. Astronautalis got down with the crowd at the Duck Room September 26. Of Montreal celebrated the opening night of The Ready Room with Middle Class Fashion and Ortolan on April 2. LEFT: St. Louis export Angel Olsen had a huge 2014 with the release of her album Burn Your Fire for No Witness on Jagjaguwar. She played a sold-out crowd at Off Broadway on April 27, and spent the year mostly on tour, bewitching audiences all over the Western Hemisphere. PHOTOS BY BRYAN SUTTER

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2014 Cake Both Had & Eaten

Top Ten Albums of 2014

by Sean Kelly ONE OF MY FAVORITE songs by Cake is the bizarre track “Commissioning a Symphony in C,” a baroque little ditty that puts you in the mindset of, not the creative genius bringing art and life into the world, but instead the wealthy patron who finances such works.

In 2001, Cake could only conceive of fabulously-gilded noblemen fronting the cash for such endeavors — but thirteen years later, 2014 has resurrected the Austrian nobleman of old and replaced him with crowdfunding. Individually, we may be a bunch of broke-assed nobodies, but with our powers combined we can act like one of the Medicis.

For the most part we’re still seeing this tool used for niche projects, but my favorite example from 2014 is a bit bigger: Peter Mulvey’s Silver Ladder, a Chuck Prophetproduced folk coup that adds great touches, like Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins helping out on vocals. Tracks like “If You Shoot at a King You Must Kill Him,” with the evocative language of both fantasy fiction and revolutionary rhetoric, show exactly why crowdfunding is swelling so aggressively.

This is how you get music that reaches beyond the boy-meets-girl premise and makes you think and feel things from other parts of the emotional spectrum.

One thing that Cake definitely had right in “Commissioning a Symphony in C” was the sense of ownership the nobleman has over the artist’s work: even though he did nothing to craft it, the song is still his, as he was responsible for getting it into the world.

Anyone who has ever donated to a Kickstarter or funded an artist’s Patreon knows that feeling of pride all too well.

according to Rob Levy

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1. Allo Darlin, We Come from the Same Place (Slumberland)

2. Alvvays, Alvvvays

(Polyvinyl)

3. Beck, Morning Phase

(Capitol)

4, Caribou, Our Love

(Merge)

5. Real Estate, Atlas

(Domino)

6. September Girls, Cursing the Sea (Fortuna Pop) 7. Temples, Sun Structures

(Heavenly)

8. Sharon Van Etten, Are We There

(Secretly

Canadian)

9. The War On Drugs, Lost in the Dream (Secretly Canadian)

10. Warpaint, Warpaint

(Rough Trade)

Farewell to the Easy Life

by Jack Probst 2014 WAS A YEAR of change and new opportunities. I got married to my best friend, we bought a house and adopted two goofy puppies.

It is also the year that shook up my involvement in an essential part of the local music scene: I left my job at Euclid Records.

St. Louis is blessed with great brick and mortar record shops, and I feel fortunate to have been involved in an institution that I’ve always been passionate about. I chased my High Fidelity dreams, following in the footsteps of my uncle who worked at the old Webster Streetside when I was a kid. I started at Euclid straight out of high school, and worked my way up from the bottom to become a manager. I’ve spent many hours bringing in the coolest titles for your browsing, some great bands to play in the

store, and made some of the best friends I’ll ever have: customers and fellow employees alike. (Plus, I got to meet John Waters, Robert Pollard, Mike Doughty and The Long Winters’ John Roderick.) I’ve seen the resurgence of vinyl and the fall of CDs. I’ve seen the creation of Record Store Day and LouFest, watched them grow. I’ve seen hundreds of shows and heard thousands of records... It’s been a great run.

It’s also been a great year for live music, though I didn’t get out as much as I would have liked. I did get to spend my Record Store Day with The Minus 5; be amazed by Beck’s set at The Pageant after having not been to St. Louis in 14 years; watch the legendary Bob Mould crush the Old Rock House after not coming around since Body of Song’s release back in 2005; and finally got to cross YACHT off my “must see” list.

2015 is looking like it will shape up to be pretty special. I’m already anticipating Sylvan Esso at The Ready Room, and it will be fun to get back to having to dig to find new great bands to listen to. Euclid provided me with a lot of stuff I wouldn’t have heard otherwise, but I’m already feeling my passion for the search and discovery of new music growing every day since I left. I’ve spent every year since I started Euclid in 2004 making an end of the year Best Of list.

I spend the whole year keeping track of what I liked, then whittle it down to my favorite eleven. This year marks a decade’s worth of amazing records in the notebook where I record my very favorites (2005 is still one my favorite years in music to date), and now I share this with you, the last list compiled during my record store years: 1. Sylvan Esso, Sylvan Esso 2. SOHN, Tremors

4 AD

Partisan

3. De Lux, Voyage 4. Trust, Joyland

Innovative Leisure

Arts & Crafts

5. Thumpers, Galore

Sub Pop

6. Got A Girl, I Love You But I Must Drive Off This Cliff Now Bulk Recordings 7. Kishi Bashi, Lighght 8. The Casket Girls, True Love Kills the Fairy Tale 9. The Juan MacLean, In a Dream

DFA

10. Mike Doughty, Stellar Motel Mega Force/Snack Bar 11. Lowell, We Loved Her Dearly

by Jason Robinson

of the squeaky clean C3-approved artists and an in-your-face marketing effort aping LouFest’s own designs.

11. The Gramophone Turns Into a Restaurant I guess it had to happen sometime, but the ample stage and killer room that was The Gramophone is no longer going to be booking shows. Sad days for those of us who got to see Diarrhea Planet stuff the stage with six guitars and blow the roof off.

7. The Closing of APOP: Travelling along that weird path where noise, punk, avant garde and other genres go was our dear departed APOP records. You could always count on an eclectic mix of formats — CD, tape and vinyl — alongside books, videos (some on VHS even) and DVDs. A real gem, and a real loss.

10. Kentucky Knife Fight Calls It Quits: One of the bands I always thought would be bulletproof proved to us that all good things must end and why not end it on a helluva high note? It still seemed sudden and strange, but Nate Jones’ solo project (as yet unnamed) and Curt Brewer’s killer Yankee Racers are reasons to look to the future.

6. Tape Series UNDERCURRENT Brings the Noise: Brainchild of Joe Hess and Mabel Suen, known to most as either the hosts of noise/ avant garde show Wrong Division on 88.1 KDHX FM or as members of noise-punk band Spelling Bee, also curated a 12-tape series of live performance tapes this year in collaboration with the cassette-only Eat Tapes record label. Each tape is a genrebending collection of the best of the STL underground and as a series UNDERCURRENT is a great document of an expansive and eclectic scene.

2014’s Best and Worst: A Personal Journey

Arts & Crafts

9. Black Fast Signed to eONE: Metal is on the rise (again) in STL, so it’s awesome that local prog/thrash tunesmiths are on the same label as their forefathers OVERKILL. 8. The Premiere of Pu Fest: There has been a lot of snark about LouFest not being representative of the weird and wonderful side of the STL music scene, so we went out and made our own. A glorious rejection

5. Bunnygrunt Gets Covered: Rob “Pancake Master” Severenson (aka one-man-band Googolplexia) has really outdone himself by putting together this 20+ track tower of tribute to STL’s longest-running band.

So many great talents performing so many great songs on one disk is a pretty staggering achievement.

4. Bands Get Their Shit Stolen: The single worst music-related news story was the rash of high-profile, high-value thefts from local and touring musicians. (Even the nowdefunct STL band Kentucky Knife Fight was

TOP: Astral Place burned bright as the city’s best young band, briefly captivating audiences around town before guitarist Becca Moore left STL for Nashville. PHOTO: JASON STOFF. Apop Records announced, after a decade as world freak-creep headquarters, that their Cherokee Street storefront would close in October. PHOTO: JARRED GASTREICH. The Hold Steady rocked faces at Off Broadway on January 30. PHOTO: JON GITCHOFF. ABOVE: The Feed’s Outsider picked up plenty of national attention this year.

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not immune.) Rapper Spose wrote us off for good, several bands in the metal genre have been warning others not to tour here and it’s a huge black eye on our city. Thankfully, venue owners are stepping up their game.

3. Weezer Destroys Plush When I saw the listing I was pretty sure it was a typo, but no, stadium-filling rock band Weezer was cramming into the 700 seat venue Plush for a benefit show. Probably the biggest show there since Guided By Voices in 2012.

2. Jason Hutto Says Goodbye We talked about it in the October issue of Eleven, but it still feels like a huge blow to lose not only a fearless rock star, but a scene mentor and collaborator of the highest quality.

1. Tef Poe Unleashes His “War Cry” I grew up in Ferguson, I know the streets where protesters have been walking for the past three months. At the same time, no amount of my own angst can be matched

by Tef Poe’s. He takes aim at leadership and local politicians and truly drops the fury on this urgent, vital track that’s more Public Enemy than anything PE has released in years. This right here is one of the many reasons Run The Jewels picked him up for the Midwest leg of their tour.

12 We Lost in ‘14

by Hugh Scott Casey Kasem (1932-2014): The voice of more than one generation. Millions of kids grew up listening to Kasem as the voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo, sure, but he will be forever best known for his American Top 40 radio show in the ’70s and ’80s. Syndicated across the country and on a number of St. Louis stations over the years, including

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KHTR, Z107.7, and KLOU. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!

Jack Bruce (1943-2014) Bass player and lead singer for Cream, the first supergroup, Bruce was a monster on the bass guitar, influencing millions. While he is best known for those pounding hard rock basslines in Cream, he was an incredibly versatile player and played jazz for most of his post-Cream career, most recently playing in a new supergroup called Spectrum Road with John Medeski, Vernon Reid and Cindy Blackman.

Tommy Ramone (1949-2014): Born Thomas Erdelyi in Buapest, Hungary, Ramone was the original drummer in The Ramones and their in-band producer. He was the band’s secret weapon, co-producing and writing a number of the early hits, including their biggest, “Blitzkrieg Bop.” After Marky Ramone replaced him in 1978, he stayed behind the scenes with the band, continuing to write and produce with the band. It’s hard to believe that all four of the original Ramones are now gone.

Pete Seeger (1919-2014): There may be no more important figure in folk music, save Woody Guthrie, than Pete

Seeger. First emerging on the scene in the 1940s, Seeger’s career spanned an incredible eight decades and produced some of the most iconic songs in American history, like “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.”

Bob Casale (1952-2014): Like Tommy Ramone, Casale was Devo’s secret weapon. Although overshadowed by his brother Gerald and Mark Mothersbaugh, Bob Casale was the sound engineer for all of the band’s later albums, played guitar and keys in concert, and had a big influence on the bands unique sound.

Lou Whitney (1942-2014): A truly iconic figure in Springfield, MO, Whitney owned and operated The Studio for more than 20 years. In that time he recorded, mixed or produced some of the biggest names in music, especially Midwest musicians, including Wilco, The Bottle Rockets, Jay Farrar, Jonathan Richman and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, among many, many more.

Richard Hayman (1920-2014): From 1972 until 2001, Hayman was the principle conductor for the St. Louis Symphony Pops, conducting the legendary summertime performances at Queeny Park in his iconic bowties and sequin jackets. He was also a first-rate harmonica player, a skill that accompanied his corny jokes that the kids at those performances loved.

Over his long career, he was also an arranger for the Boston Pops for many years, and before that he arranged music at MGM Studios. He may not have become a household name, but he has definitely had a lasting effect on a generation of St. Louisans who got a first taste of classical music while he conducted.

Mikey Teesdale (1984-2014): The incredibly popular and loved sound engineer at Plush, Mikey left us way too soon. Born in Tucson, he truly found a home at Plush and in St. Louis. He was the kind of man who never met a stranger; from the staff at Plush to the local and national musicians he worked with on their stage, Mikey was a friend.

Oderus Urungus (1963-2014): Born Dave

Brockie, he was the lead singer and last remaining founding member of cult heroes Gwar. Brockie was responsible for much of what made the band most famous: the insane, profane, gooey, crowd-splattering live shows. Known for always performing in character and costume with his, er, cuttlefish on display, Brockie and Gwar grew a legion of fans through constant touring over the last 30 years. Like a true metal warrior, his body was set ablaze on a lake in a Viking funeral pyre as his friends got drunk and cheered him from the shore.

Big Bank Hank (1956-2014): As a founding member of The Sugar Hill Gang, Hank was six foot one and tons of fun, and one of the most iconic rappers at the birth of the genre in The Bronx in the 1970s and ’80s. It’s impossible to understate the importance of “Rapper’s Delight” and Hank, who took the second verse, was one of the first rappers anyone heard, anywhere.

Phil Everly (1939-2014): Along with his brother Don, Phil Everly had a tremendous impact on early rock n’ roll. In the 1950s, they toured with Buddy Holly; in the ’60s, they had a string of hits like “Cathy’s Clown” and “Walk Right Back,” and they were still at it well into the 21st century. With 26 Top 40 hits and the admiration of some of the greatest of all time, like Keith Richards and Paul McCartney, the Everly Brothers are members of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Marty Thau (1938-2014): A true rock n roll entrepreneur, Thau was an executive at

Inherit Productions, responsible for some of Van Morrison’s best work, Later he founded Red Star Records, and notably signed Suicide. Oh – and he managed the New York Dolls during their rise to fame and worked with all of the ’70s CBGBs bands, including The Ramones, Blondie and Richard Hell & The Voidoids.

8 Promising Developments

by Evan Sult 1. David Beeman’s Native Sound Recording is settled in and steadily kicking ass. It’s a surprisingly beautiful studio on the corner of Cherokee and Ohio, with a great big drum room, a comfortable and well-monitored control room, and a whole lot of capabilities both analog and digital. Especially as a drum room, Native Sound shines as a place to track and mix. Through his connections with musicians around the country, Beeman has been bringing interesting players like Tristen and David Vandervelde to St. Louis, and tempting them with the treats of Cherokee Street. This is one place that has the potential to raise St. Louis’ indie-rock music profile.

2. Mound Sound Studio: Troubadour Dali mastermind Ben Hinn had an interesting 2014: after offering touring psych band Golden Animals a place to crash when they stopped in town with Roky Erikson and Black Angels, they eventually asked him to run sound on an extensive European tour.

This just as he was helping put together a studio in the basement of GoMusicSTL in conjunction with Mounds Music. Now he’s home, charged up, and rocking a sweet MCI

TOP: Tef Poe, here celebrating the release of Cheer for the Villain in May, became an integral part of the international coverage of Ferguson, referenced in dozens of print articles and TV broadcasts. PHOTO: PETER LACY. Foxing rereleased their debut album The Albatross on new label Triple Crown, and spent most of the year touring the country. PHOTO: BRYAN SUTTER. On March 16 at Off Broadway, The Blind Eyes concluded their run as one of STL’s best pop factories with a little help from their friends Jenn Malzone and Brian McClelland. PHOTO: BRYAN SUTTER. LEFT: Ryan Lindsey of Broncho, whose album Too Much Hip to Be Woman is bound to be remembered as a highlight of 2014. When they blow up, remember: you heard it here first. PHOTO: ISMAEL VALENZUELA

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 21

mixing board burrowed in the basement of the old Red Sea. One of Hin’s strengths in Troubadour has always been his killer psych guitar tones and respect for vintage gear (like Native Sound, he’s got full tape capacities), so Mound Sound could easily become a magnet for spacey, droney music from around the city — or the country.

3. Mound Sound is located directly beneath GoMusicStL, an instrument shop on the Loop that was long relevant only to parents of band kids, and now is being stocked and run

by Chris Keith and Jake Jones. Jones is one of the city’s weirdest, and therefore most interesting guitarists — see Bug Chaser for proof — and Keith is a salesman who could sell babies to a maternity ward. They’re stocking the store with great gear — all the amps, guitars, and pedals on offer (like Death By Audio gear!) are now exponentially more intriguing and useful than they used to be. GoMusicStL is now definitely a place to get your guitar on.

4. Also now operating from the same address, if you can believe it, is Mounds Music, a new cassette label run by Bug Chaser’s Pat Grosch and kicked into gear by a grant from the Regional Arts Commission.

They’ve already gotten busy with releases from Kisser and Bug Chaser, with plenty more noisy, face-melty, on the way in 2015.

5. After a few itinerant years, Tritone Guitars now has a physical location. Tritone’s Dave Anderson is the city’s acknowledged master of guitar technology past and present, and his skills with a guitar are legendary. (He also wrote the Load In column for Eleven for a good while.) It’s exciting to have such a rare resource open for business in St. Louis, and Anderson is an old-school guitar

ace who knows how to talk shop with the gearheads but also be fully relatable to beginners and anyone else bringing in an instrument for a setup.

6. There is a growing call for a Metro stop at Cherokee and Jefferson. That would be a game changer for South City, and for that matter bring the whole city closer to each other.

The south side is painfully underserved by STL’s skeletal public transportation, and it’s hard to recommend the city to outsiders until we can promise people they can get at least potentially get around without a car.

7. There’s also a growing movement for legalizing, or decriminalizing, marijuana in Missouri.

It’s a long shot, but I’ll take it. I’m really not a big enthusiast of full legalization, which has turned Denver into something of a skunky bummer. But there’s no rationale and no advantage to incarcerating people who use or provide marijuana, so at least we can undo that huge damage to our city — especially in the poorer parts of the city.

8. I can’t stop listening to The Feed’s Outsider!

Released this July, the album is a killer combination of piano-charged pop, Spoon-ish smolder, smart Zep riffs and a playful abundance of music-school technique balanced against full-tilt rockin’ joy. Someone pick these guys up and put them out on a national scale already!

Looking Forward to 2015

by Rev. Daniel W. Wright The year 2014 was such a watershed year for the St. Louis music scene. Too many great locals releases came out. Too many great shows happened. So looking ahead to 2015 it seems filled with infinite possibili-

ties. From just talking to friends at bars around the city, be it The Livery, Heavy Anchor, Art Bar, Whiskey Ring or anywhere else, I hear so many plans in motion for so many of this town’s creative community that I can’t hide my excitement for the anticipation of things to come. It’s only a matter of time before everybody else finds out about the great scene here, even amongst the tragedies that have befallen this city in the past year.

I’ve lately found myself talking to various musicians, painters, writers, etc around town and the general consensus is that what makes this scene great is that we’re all encouraging each other along and putting out work that encourages our peers to up their game just a little more.

With a line-up we can boast about like Pokey LaFarge, Sleepy Kitty, Old Souls Revival, Fred Friction, Rum Drum Ramblers, The Vanilla Beans, DinoFight!, Ellen The Felon, Irene Allen, Carriage House, Pat Sajak Asassins, Middle Class Fashion, Bruiser Queen, Beth Bombara, Old Capital Square Dance Club, Traveling Sound Machine, Cara Louise Band, Crazy XXX Girlfriend, Tiger Rider, Tok, Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship, Bible Belt Sinners, The Defeated County, Bo And The Locomotive, Pretty Little Empire and so many more that I’m kicking myself for not being able to mention for the sake of space, it’s enough to make someone feel cocky living in this city.

It’s impossible to say what’s going to happen in 2015, because life seems to have a funny habit of messing with even the bestlaid plans once they’re set. But whatever comes around, we’re definitely all buckled in and waiting for things to start. We’ve bought the ticket and we’re more than ready to take the ride! Preferably by hoverboard.

TOP: Macy Gray lit up the stage at the Lumiere on May 6. PHOTO: CARRIE ZUKOSKI. Scarlet Tanager released their album, Let’s Love, June 20 at Off Broadway, with a giant crowd both onstage and in the audience. PHOTO: JASON STOFF.

22 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

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located on Cherokee Street in STL 815-535-7908 elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 23 June Carter and Johnny Cash

Now this is the way to signal the all-new Foam! Chicago’s White Mystery is a highoctane, globe-trotting garage rock bro-sis duo who rock faces every show, and Shitstorm is STL’s fitting response, all crunchy power chords and bratty hooks. Together they should help make Foam the new go-to for rockers looking to pack out a small

WHITE MYSTERY, Animal Teeth, Dad Jr., Shitstorm, Jock Strap at Foam

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2

DAX RIGGS at Firebird

PIPPIN at the Peabody

BITCHIN BAJAS, Circuit Des Yeux at Plush

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10

you’ve been wanting to write about your girlfriend’s eyes, your favorite pet, the beauty of baked beans, or whatever else your ears desire... ECS

RECOMMENDED SHOWS

MODERNADADA feat. Siren, Maxi Glamour, Blyre Cpanx, Pinko, Allura Fete, Black James, Monsieur Gaston at Crack Fox Only one thing could make Black James’ music even better: a crowd of talented burlesque and drag performers on the

SUPERFUN YEAH YEAH ROCKETSHIP, CELIA’S YULETIDE EXPRESS, The Vanilla Beans at Schlafly Tap Room

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20 PATTERSON HOOD, Justin Kinkel-Schuster

SATURDAY, JANUARY 3 EL MONSTERO at the Pageant

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16 AT OFF BROADWAY WITH TELEGRAPH CANYON When Will Johnson put together Centro-Matic in 1997 to record a batch of songs at Jay Farrar’s studio in Millstadt, IL, he wasn’t necessarily planning on a permanent lineup, or even a permanent band. But somehow the four guys — Johnson, Matt Pence, Scott Danbom, and Mark Hedman — just kept forgetting to stop playing together. Johnson’s lyrics flow as freely and as copiously as Bob Pollard’s, and the comparisons with Guided By Voices don’t end there: though Centro-Matic’s impulses are more American than GBV’s Anglophilia, both singers have a knack for brain-creasing melodies, and both bands work instinctively toward the most satisfying arrangements. In Hedman, Johnson has his most potent foil, a gorgeous but unobtrusive harmony voice that closes the circuit between Uncle Tupelo’s countryisms and Superchunk’s indie anthems. At last, in 2014, they are nearing the end of the road. Happily, they have plenty to show for it: they’ve stacked up 11 albums, seven EPs, four 7”s, and a couple of cassettes. Now is your last chance to either lay a wreath at the altar of a great American songwriting team or find out what you’ve been missing all these years. ECS

CENTRO-MATIC FINAL TOUR

MUSICALENDAR DEC ’14 / JAN ’15

PHOTO COURTESY WARNERBLASTER

JAVIER MENDOZA CHRISTMAS CONCERT at the Kranzberg

ROUGH SHOP ALBUM RELEASE AND HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA with Danielle Aslanian, Steve Carosello, Chris Grabau, John Horton, Michael Ludwig, Steve Scariano, Merv Schrock, Toby Weiss at Off Broadway

JUKEBOX THE GHOST, Twin Forks, Secret Someones at Ready Room

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18

THIS CITY OF TAKERS (CD release), Loses The Mighty, Recovery, Shut In at The Demo

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7

A VERY DOWNWRITE DECEMBER feat.

Bob Nanna, Jon Walker, Mark Rose, Warren Franklin at The Demo

6TH ANNUAL FUNKY BUTT BRASS BAND HOLIDAY BRASSTRAVAGANZA at Off Broadway

JAVIER MENDOZA CHRISTMAS CONCERT at the Kranzberg

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19

THE DAM DAMS, Optimus Rex, Recovery, Millstadt Justice at Crack Fox

TILTS, Traindodge, Bug Chaser at Firebird

CENTRO-MATIC, Telegraph Canyon at Off Broadway

CRACKER at the Duck Room

Downwrite is a pretty damn interesting (and very modern) idea: it’s a site where you can commission a song from a menu of songwriters, many of whom are well known and established in their genres. For instance: Bob Nanna is from Braid and Hey Mercedes, Jon Walker played bass in Panic At The Disco, and Mark Rose is in Spitalfield.

Downwrite now boasts more than 70 musicians in their stable; this is your chance to see what they could do with that song

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16

PIPPIN at the Peabody

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14

LEMURIA, Prince at The Demo

THE HOBOSEXUALS (record release), The Carondelettes, Demonlover at Off Broadway

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13

SCARLET TANAGER AND FRIENDS, The Defeated County, Brother Lee & The Leather Jackals at Off Broadway

JAVIER MENDOZA CHRISTMAS CONCERT at the Kranzberg

LETTER TO MEMPHIS, Prairie Rehab, Colonel Ford at Schlafly Tap Room

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12

ALARM WILL SOUND with Dawn Upshaw and Iarla Ó Lionáird performing The Hunger at The Sheldon

BUNNYGRUNT, Googolplexia, Trauma Harness at Schlafly Tap Room

CHRIS ISAAK at the Pageant

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6

BAGHEERA, Bear Cub, 3 Of 5 at Heavy Anchor

BIBLE BELT SINNERS, Brother Lee & The Jackals at The Gramophone

THE NOISE FM, The Mhurs, The Potomac Accord, The Adoring Heirs at The Demo

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5

Rednecks of Saint Louis, get ready to celebrate Christmas early, ‘cause Yelawolf is coming to town. The Alabama-based rapper is currently signed to Eminem’s Shady Records, but he owes a greater debt to another Detroit legend: Kid Rock. So get in your Chevy Box V and kick off your holidays with a blast of white trash love. KEL

YELAWOLF, Rittz, Big Henry, DJ Klever at the Pageant

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4

room and get crazy. ECS

HAZARD TO YA BOOTY at Gramophone

MATHIAS & THE PIRATES, Blank Generation, Scrub at Empire Hall

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31

THE DOCK ELLIS BAND AND THE DIRTY 30S 10TH ANNIVERSARY at Off Broadway

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30

EL MONSTERO at the Pageant

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28

JEREMY ESSIG & FRIENDS CHRISTMAS BAZAAR at Foam

EL MONSTERO at the Pageant

BIG MUDDY HOLIDAY HULLABALOO with Bob Reuter’s Alley Ghost, The Loot Rock Gang, Jack Grelle, The Hobosexuals at Off Broadway

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27

JEREMY ESSIG & FRIENDS CHRISTMAS BAZAAR at Foam

EL MONSTERO at the Pageant

A CHRISTMAS HANGOVER: A FUNDRAISER FOR ST. LOUIS HERE & NOW PROJECT with Old Capital Square Dance Club, Cara Louise Band, Cree Rider Family Band, Bottoms Up Blues Gang, Old Souls Revival at Off Broadway

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26

RED LETTER DAY (EP release), Tidal Volume, Static Life, Guava at Ready Room

MONDAY, DECEMBER 22

6TH ANNUAL FUNKY BUTT BRASS BAND HOLIDAY BRASSTRAVAGANZA at Off Broadway

CAGE THE ELEPHANT, Cold War Kids at Pop’s

JAVIER MENDOZA CHRISTMAS CONCERT at the Kranzberg

EL MONSTERO at the Pageant

at the Sheldon

Scan this QR Code, or go to ElevenMusicMag.com for a listing of club addresses. Check out our expanded calendar of events at calendar.elevenmusicmag.com, powered by

Mentioned this issue Comedy show

LEGEND

MUSICALENDAR

THE MUNY KIDS: “BROADWAY HERE I COME” at the Sheldon

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31

TEDDY BEAR: A TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF THE TRUCK DRIVER at Off Broadway

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30

BAILIFF at Off Broadway

THURSDAY, JANUARY 22

MIKE ADAMS AT HIS HONEST WEIGHT at Foam

SUNDAY, JANUARY 18

ZOLA JESUS at Ready Room

SATURDAY, JANUARY 17

CAVEOFSWORDS, The Vanilla Beans, Whoa Thunder at Foam

SATURDAY, JANUARY 10

BRUISER QUEEN tour kick-off at Foam

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8

dancefloor. Modernadada is presented by Qu’art as “an interactive art show,” which I take to mean the shaking of all kinds of asses in a room full of art and artists.

Siren and Pinko bring the drag (bearded, in Pinko’s case), Blyre Cpanx and Allura Fette bring the burlesque, and Maxi Glamour brings all the above, plus a showing of an “avant garde photography and makeup series...featuring St. Louis performers as models.” If that’s not what a Friday night in January is for, I don’t know what is. ECS

Live Music

BRING ON THE NIGHT = STL band (current and/or honorary)

>>PREVIEW

Rough Shop

Thursday, December 6 OFF BROADWAY For eleven years now, Rough Shop has held holiday court at Off Broadway for their annual holiday show. This year they arrive with a sackful of gifts, even: their new holiday album, Lit Up Like a Christmas Tree.

One of the album’s many virtues is its non-ironic but also non-cloying respect for the spirit of the holiday. One crucial piece of holiday cheer is the presence of friends and family, so of course Lit Up Like a Christmas Tree was recorded with a number of guests.

All of those guests have signed on for the live rendition, including Danielle Aslanian, Steve Carosello, Chris Grabau, John Horton, Michael Ludwig, Steve Scariano, Merv Schrock and Toby Weiss. With so much talent aboard, the band promises plenty of holiday classics and obscurities alongside the new songs.

The album itself has a lush alt-country feel that touches on all the emotions of the holidays, from the celebratory to the melancholy, with pauses for the accompanying feelings of both deep frustration and deep love. It’s that increasingly rare artifact: the album you can put on Christmas morning for the whole family to enjoy; there is not a bad song in the bunch. There is a refreshing lack of Christmas cliché here, but that doesn’t mean it lacks for traditional holiday themes and emotions; Rough Shop manages to actually take the holidays seriously, without getting sappy, cheesy or boring.

Note: seeing as this is an all-ages affair (on both sides of the spectrum), the show is seated and gets going right at 8, so it should actually be perfect for the whole musiclovin’ family. I think it’s safe to say you’ll be welcome to sing along. HUGH SCOTT >>PREVIEW

Dax Riggs

Wednesday, December 10 FIREBIRD One good thing about music: sludgy, trippy psychedelic rock n roll will never die. Jack Bruce may be playing with that supergroup in the sky now, but Cream’s legacy lives on in the likes of Tame Impala, Pond and Dax Riggs. While he started with a more heavy metal sound, Riggs has evolved a more stoner-rock sound of late, with a bluesy growl and droning guitars. His voice is as versatile as anyone playing today, sometimes growling like a Mississippi bluesman, sometimes screaming like a leather-clad metal hero, sometimes crooning peacefully like a beatnik folk singer. But most of it still arrives in spooky and mysterious tones, the legacy of thinking man’s metal like the Eagles Of Death Metal.

Riggs seems at home in a barren desert,

26 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

or the dank swamps of Louisiana from which he hails. Or, come to think of it, a crowded sweaty club with a low ceiling, just like the Firebird. It’s been a while since Riggs released a new album — Say Goodnight to the World in 2010, to be exact — so there’s been plenty of time to be building up new material and some new tones. His recent frame of mind has grown to include non-Western reflections of Western styles, like Turkish and North African psychinfluenced music, and this tour seems like the ideal time to show off what he’s been learning. HUGH SCOTT >>PREVIEW

Alarm Will Sound with Dawn Upshaw and Iarla Ó Lionáird Thursday, December 11

SHELDON CONCERT HALL Residing somewhere in the space between contemporary classical, experimental symphonic and radically post-rock art music, there is really nothing like the 20-person ensemble Alarm Will Sound.

The Rochester, NY group has worked with such diverse artists as minimalist composer Aphex Twin, Jonny Greenwood and The Dirty Projectors on various recent projects, including Steve Reich’s fascinating Radio Rewrites, which was his meditation on Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place” and “Jigsaw Falls into Place,” and specifically intended to be performed by Alarm Will Sound.

Live, the group spreads its sound wide and far, from Berlin to Moscow to Carnegie Hall, and we are fortunate that St. Louis has been an important city for them, as they’ve performed all over the city in venues like The Pageant, The Sheldon and The Touhill at UMSL. There may be no better venue in St. Louis than the Sheldon Concert Hall to experience the full effect of the music, where the silence is just as important as the crescendo.

This particular performance will be the world premiere of The Hunger. an opera by Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy. As with most of their work, however, this opera’s staging is entirely unlike the traditional arrangement. For starters, the musicians won’t be in the orchestra pit, but will appear on the stage and even occasionally take part in the action. As with other performances, this will be a multi-media presentation; in this case, field recordings of traditional Irish folk singers and video from progressive thinkers like Paul Krugman and Noam Chomsky will be included in the piece. Dawn Upshaw, the soprano at the center of the piece, was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, and Iarla Ó Lionáird specializes in the historical music of Ireland, so the pedigree of this piece couldn’t be higher.

The Hunger should be especially relevant to St. Louis in this moment, as the work

Live Music

The sold-out crowd didn’t want to let them go, and it was easy to see why. Kentucky Knife Fight’s farewell show at Off Broadway on Friday, November 22 was filled with a fierce joy both onstage and off. Opener Christian Lee Hutson has long been championed by KKF’s Curt Brewer, and it was easy to see why: he looked like a ‘40s cowboy pinup and played like a heart breaking in public. Knife Fight went out at the top of their game, giving every song in their long set its due, flashing smiles and pronouncing the occasional fond onstage appreciation.

They retired the band with a dignity that didn’t get in the way of the fun: the last encore ended with singer Jason Holler smashing his amp while the strobes flashed and the crowd went PHOTO BY JESS LUTHER bananas. Kentucky Knife Fight L-R: Curt Brewer, Jason Holler, Mr. Cool, Nate Jones, and James Baker (to the right, out of frame, is keyboardist Nathan Jatcko).

focuses on the origins of inequality through the lessons learned from the Irish Famine.

The material promises to be dark, intense and thought provoking, and hopefully, introspective. It’s a powerful subject, and in the hands of some of contemporary music’s most daring practitioners, is something that everyone in St. Louis needs this holiday season, as we pick up the pieces for the last few months and start to formulate how we can make this city a better place to live for everyone. HUGH SCOTT >>PREVIEW

The Dam Dams, Optimus Rex, Recovery, Millstadt Justice Thursday, December 18

CRACK FOX I hadn’t been in town long when I first encountered Troubadour Dali in one of its many incarnations, playing a set at the Halo Bar. I was immediately entranced by their stylish, hashed-out psych drone. It wasn’t just the distortion tones and wide-open arrangements that did it, though: a whole lot of the spell was

cast by the gal on keys with the pitch perfect voice and stone cold harmonies.

That was my introduction to the seductions of Casey Bazzell. But she proved a slippery character to keep track of. She disappeared from Troubadour, but resurfaced with a flashy short bleach blond cut fronting a band called Grace Sophia that seemed poised to capitalize on her amazing voice. Their name popped up on bills around town, including a sweet set opening for Tilly And The Wall, but that project slipped out of view before ever really coming into focus.

I was a fan of a band that didn’t exist: the Casey Bazzell project of my imagination, even without a recent sighting to support it.

Last month I went to see New York rockers What Moon Things at Firebird (they slayed), and wouldn’t you know it: there was Bazzell, almost unrecognizable, fronting openers The Dam Dams. The songs sounded new and maybe still getting worked out, but the voice, and the darkness inside the voice, came straight across, part Cat Power smolder and part PJ Harvey burn.

Apparently, they were working as a

cover band until the day the main singer didn’t show up, at which point Bazzell produced a couple of her own songs and they immediately got to work on ‘em. It’s a great story — Bazzell as St. Louis’ own Eddie & The Cruisers — and if you can sometimes hear the telltale tones of their cover-band roots, you can also hear the clear potential in her voice. Even hiding out in the suburbs playing covers, Bazzell’s capacities as a serious talent can’t stay unlit forever.

But: it’s also possible she could disappear into the woodwork again. Which means it’s on you to catch The Dam Dams while you can.

I wouldn’t wait on it if I were you. EVAN SULT >>PREVIEW

Patterson Hood,

Justin Kinkel-Schuster Saturday, December 20 SHELDON CONCERT HALL At a certain point you almost have to feel pity for the true singer songwriter. Yes: that road leads — possibly, possibly — to financial success and personal renown. But done

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 27

Live Music right, that roads only ever leads away from home, from family, from all of the things we want to escape when we’re young but we’re built as humans to need as we grow older.

But by the time that poor musician figures out what s/he’s done, it’s too late: all s/he can do is leave, again and again, knowing too late and too well what it costs back home.

At least, that’s the world according to Patterson Hood, a lifer musician if ever there was one. Born to a Muscle Shoals studio bassist (the livable option for the musician who doesn’t necessarily write the songs), he got started writing songs early, but he was 32 by the time one of those bands, Drive-By Truckers, got together and started really turning heads. They hit the road hard and became one of the country’s premiere outfits chronicling American depression and disappointment.

Hood’s solo work is a lot like his songs with the Truckers — but minus the band’s solidarity, the solitude of the writer stands in a lot sharper relief. His new album, Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance, is a painfully beautiful meditation on the costs of absence. It’s also a chance to dispense with the rock aggrandizement of sorrow and get a good hard look at the pure songcraft that goes into making a living this way.

One guy who should definitely be taking notes is STL ex-pat Justin Kinkel-Schuster.

He’s theoretically young enough to turn away from the road and go straight... but you just know he won’t. After his STL band Theodore shut down, Kinkel-Schuster moved to Mississippi and started Water Liars with Andrew Bryant, and they’ve been touring aggressively ever since. They’re the real deal, less Americana than the Truckers

but just as blasted with the bleak pleasures of the drugstore parking lot. Maybe Kinkel-Schuster can avoid repeating Hood’s mistakes — but I doubt it. Songwriters like them can only teach, never learn. Which is what got them there in the first place, poor bastards. EVAN SULT >>PREVIEW

Teddy Bear: A Tribute to the Music of the Truck Driver Friday, January 30

OFF BROADWAY “I was on the outskirts of a little southern town / trying to reach my destination before the sun went down / the old CB was blarin’ away on Channel 1-9 / when there came a little boy’s voice on the radio line.” Thus begins Red Sovine’s “Teddy Bear,” one of the greatest songs in a genre you might not even know existed: the truck driving song.

The truck driver is the ultimate American blue-collar worker, cursed to leave home for long, tedious stretches to earn a living for the family he hardly ever gets to see. Or: blessed with the freedom to live as he pleases, dodging the law and seeing the country without anything to tie him down. Either way, he speaks in heavy CB jargon about chickens and hot loads and bears, driving endlessly through the night and heavy with longing to finally reach his destination. The songs aren’t all country — Deep Purple and Tom Waits have both contributed to the field — but they share classic country’s affinity for telling a tight little story in three acts and a chorus.

South City reprobate Johnny Vegas has long had a dream: a truck drivin’ musical.

Specifically, a Prairie Home Companion-

BLUE BEAT

BY JEREMY SEGEL-MOSS

Oliver Sain’s Archway Studio 2014 WAS ONE HELL of a year in St. Louis, beginning with musicians standing together and raising their voices against huge corporate festivals in the heart of the city, to the excitement for the “upswing” in St. Louis music and art, to the current conversation of the thefts. We’ve all heard recently about the more than a dozen touring bands whose vans have been broken into while performing in St. Louis, as well as the venues like Venice Café and Off Broadway that were broken into. Most recently, Oliver Sain’s Archway Recording Studio at 4521 Natural Bridge was broken into and stripped of its copper and wiring.

Archway Studio is not just any studio, and Sain was not just any musician. Sain performed with Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy II and Elmore James, but is known as the heart of the soul music that partially defined St. Louis to the outside world for many years.

During the 1970s and ’80s Archway Studio recorded such artists as David Dee, Larry Davis, Johnnie Johnson, Fontella Bass, Ike & Tina Turner, and Mama’s Pride, as well as most of Sain’s own recordings.

28 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

style live event that weaves a collection of truck drivin’ songs both classic (“I’ve Been Everywhere,” “On the Road Again”) and specialized (“Giddy Up Go,” “Truck Got Stuck”) into a single grand narrative.

Well, it’s finally going to come to pass in early 2015, and he’s billing it as “an offBroadway musical at Off Broadway.” The story centers on Teddy Bear, the sad little boy on the end of the Red Sovine’s CB line, who sits at home alone while his mom works at the diner, talking to truckers and reliving the glory days of his father, a trucker who wrecked “trying to get home in a blinding snow.” Over the course of the night, though, a whole lot of smokeys will chase a whole lot of bandits, and anything could happen before Teddy Bear’s last ride.

Helping Johnny achieve his dream are some of the city’s best appreciators of the form, including The Redheaded Strangers, Racket Box, Lonesome Cowboy Ryan, Old Capital Square Dance Club, and The Dock Ellis Band, who have written a truck-drivin’ song or two themselves. Johnny’s also going to reach out to some of his actual-factual truckdriving friends, so the street outside the club may be full of big rigs’ thrumming gennies as you pull up. It should be a night of great songs and rowdy country culture that would make poor Teddy Bear’s daddy proud.

EVAN SULT

Since Sain’s death in 2003, Archway has fallen into disrepair. Structural problems with the building have proliferated; there is no electric or water service, nor proper storage of the unreleased (and uncatalogued!) two-inch tapes full of St. Louis’ musical history. And now, with a break-in and stripping of the building, we are in the process of losing one of the most important musical places in St. Louis history.

So often we are looking forward: who is the new band, where is the new venue? It’s all too easy to forget that every musician stands on the shoulders of every musicians who came before.

Other cities, like New Orleans, Memphis, and Chicago, have already figured this out. When you celebrate, support and save the history of a city, the future is paved as well, for a musical industry that provides jobs and pride for the city and its residents.

New Years is a time for resolutions and hopes for a better year.

My hope is that while we are celebrating the newfound energy of the music scene, we also take the time and do the work to find out why St. Louis is such a great music community. In 2015, let us all celebrate musicians like Oliver Sain who embody what it means to be a St. Louis musician in the historical context of our own city, and take that forward to make a better city for all of us.

DEMONLOVER Cont’d from page 17 she just got so mad at me. I’m irresponsible and I left it out. I never have gear. It’s always in disrepair. And I’ve used her bass a million times. But on that particular occasion, I shouldn’t have. So she got really mad at me and we worked it out. That’s it really.

But after I got off chemo, we went on tour with Magic City and I had these very strange feelings of paranoia. That somebody was trying to tell me something. Me and [Magic City’s] Larry Bulawsky, we were at a gas station and this lady said some weird, cryptic shit to him. The cashier was like, “I’m forced to forgive you.” So he says, “For what?” And she’s like, “For the crash.” Then we got in the van and drove away. And the whole time, I’m thinking, “Okay. That’s another thing I have to worry about.”

So that’s in the song. And me apologizing to Annie in this really absurd way. And it’s kind of this King Tubby rip off that I had to do. Because I knew that most of my friends would say, “That’s a terrible idea.” (Laughing) Track 14, “Radioactive Brian Wilson” I don’t know.

I just wanted to make a song where Brian Wilson was a hero in a dystopian future.

Because he somehow became radioactive. I don’t know how he became radioactive. But who cares? It’s like, “Help us, Brian Wilson.”

It felt like a fun thing to play around

The cashier was like, “I’m forced to forgive you.”

So Larry says, “For what?” And she’s like, “For the crash.” Then we got in the van and drove away. with an uncertain future. He’s saving us from the classic sci-fi things. Ourselves, cyborgs. I’m not sure if you can understand the words with the Vocoder and everything, but he ends up saving the day.

The way I write lyrics, a lot of times it will be something that I need to talk about.

But sometimes, I just take lyrics from other artists. I think I heard a Harry Nilsson song where he tried to do a Beatles thing. Like it was all Beatles lyrics. He just rearranged them and mashed them up. So “Radioactive Brian Wilson” has a ton of Brian Wilson lyrics: “This is what’s happening in the future. Save us, Brian Wilson. Hold on to your ego. I know there’s a reason. I love you most of all. Sometimes I feel very sad.” That kind of stuff. That’s interesting to me. I like to do that. I would like to do it more.

Track 15, “Ate a Cicada” Well, I did eat a cicada. I ate a cicada. I think not so much about the words but about the way they sound, syllabically. Like Dr. Seuss.

So, “I ate a cicada” was a great jumping off

point for that. I would still like to flesh it out as a whole song—about how I ate a cicada that gave me powers. But we just messed around with it forever.

When I recorded it with J.J., I just kept singing that phrase over and over: “I ate a cicada / And I grew wings / And do things that I couldn’t before.” I wanted it to be a crafted song. But it was just more interesting with the sounds that J.J. added to it. He pretty much has free rein with adding stuff.

The manhours that he put into this tape—I have no idea. Sometimes I bitch about him but he’s invaluable. And he knows it (laughing).

J.J. and I tried to do a Yoko Ono cover once, one where she’s singing a Buddhist chant. And it was just okay. But I think that was kind of in my head. Just repeating words.

It was just kind of weird and good enough. I don’t know if I have that much more to say about it. I did eat a cicada. It sounded good.

And I’m never going to do it again. If a song is rich and varied and you can move to it, that’s what it’s all about for me.

3359 S. JEFFERSON • CHEROKEE ST, USA

• MUSIC, COMEDY, CULTURE •

A FEW OF OUR UPCOMING EVENTS: DECEMBER 26 & 27

.com

The Jeremy Essig & Friends Christmas Bizarre (Comedy)

mobile • web • branding

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8

Bruiser Queen Tour Kick Off! SATURDAY, JANUARY 10

CaveofswordS | Vanilla Beans | Whoa Thunder SUNDAY, JANUARY 18

Mike Adams At His Honest Weight (Joyful Noise) ONGOING: 2ND & 4TH MONDAYS:

Animal Children host an Open Jazz Jam located on Cherokee Street in STL 815-535-7908

• WE’VE GOT A LOT GOING ON •

FOR COMPLETE LISTINGS: FOAMVENUE.COM

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 29

Album Reviews

HOT ROCKS = STL band (current and/or honorary)

SINGLE FILE by Ira Gamerman

TV On The Radio Seeds

Harvest Records

BELLE & SEBASTIAN “THE PARTY LINE” Look, I know you’ve been out of the dating game for a while, but here’s your chance to reinvent yourself and get back out there. I mean, look at Belle & Sebastian! They’re not sitting around writing sad acoustic songs like it’s 1995. They’re plugging in synths, pumping the bass, and jumping to the beat of the party line!

Stuart Murdoch’s not concerned about his sad bastard past, so why should you be? So put the book back on the shelf, pull out your tightest pair of jeans, get to the nearest disco, and show those young singles-going-steady, you still know how to get down because GIRLS IN PEACETIME WANT TO DANCE! AZEALIA BANKS “NUDE BEACH A GO-GO” Listen: when Azealia invites you to a party at a nude beach, you forget your pale complexion, doff your swim trunks, and dive in! Sure it sounds CRAZY, but who else is batshit enough to shove an Ariel Pink-penned psychedelic surf-rock jam into the middle of a forward-as-fuck hip-hop album? This is gonna be the most Ram-a-lama-ding-dong-surfer-billybing-bong night of your life!

JOEL MICHAEL HOWARD “PETE & MARY” Joel Michael Howard is the guy for you.

He’s got a breathy, cooing falsetto and a passionate yearning to get out of this city and take you some place where you can LOVE! ALL! NIGHT! Can you show him that place? I think you can! Let his delicately plucked chorus-drenched guitars whisk you off to a beautiful hideaway, a place where the organs sound warm and the orchestras are swelling. Some folks have hard hearts, but Joel’s lookin’ for the real thing. So can you show him or not? Baby, you’d better let him know. Or baby, you’d better let him go.

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Veterans of the New York indie scene from the early ’00s, experimental rockers TV On The Radio have evolved from their innovative minimal electro sound into something that’s fully formed. Here’s an experimental band that’s now experimenting with pop music. Gone are the art rock days, but they’ve been slowly fizzling out for a while now. Seeds presents TV On The Radio creating a sound that’s more... “matured” isn’t quite the right word. They’re carrying a lot of the same fundamentals they started with, but they’re also changing into a new kind of band as they spread their wings to reach new levels of fame.

Seeds is their first since the tragic

Parkay Quarts Content Nausea

Rough Trade / What’s Your Rupture?

A twitchy, paranoid collection of dissatisfactions, Content Nausea is the fourth release by Brooklyn’s hottest rock exports, Parquet Courts (or Parkay Quarts, as they’re calling themselves for the moment).

“Every Day It Starts” opens the album on a willfully awkward note, and it’s a litle like listening in to the class nerd’s internal monologue on his walk to school for the first humiliation of the new year, while the guitar searches frantically for an escape route. The title track is also pretty much the thesis of the album, blasting in with full paragraphs of image-heavy lyrics over a tense rhythm guitar. “And do my thoughts belong to me?” asks singer Andrew Young, “or just some slogan I ingested to save time?”

It’s a prolonged shout against life circa now, dissonant and desperate.

At first Content Nausea sounds a little undigested, like they rushed some new product out for an end-of-year deadline — the karaoke version of “These Boots Were Made for Walking” doesn’t help — but upon

passing of bassist Gerard Smith, who left this mortal coil a few weeks after the release of Nine Types of Light in 2011. TV On The Radio is less in your face than they were eight years ago on the now classic Return to Cookie Mountain, and Nine Types of Light was a pleasant record that was far too easy to forget. The political outcries have been exchanged for more general subjects on this latest collection — instead, they hew closer to traditional themes like love and passion (“Careful You,” “Love Stained”), and sadness and longing (“Test Pilot,” “Trouble”). There are a number of songs you could put on a mixtape for the one you’re crushing on or the one who’s crushing your heart. Dave Sitek’s production still makes up the core of every track, with the duo vocals of Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone fitting together as perfectly as they ever have. “Winter,” and the Beatles-y guitar of “Could You,” prove they still know how to rock, though one of the catchiest tracks on the entire album, “Ride,” has lyrics that feel so standard you can practically pick out the font in their dog-eared rhyming dictionary.

But ultimately, none of this seems to matter; “Ride” is poised to be a standout single, and each song displays the musical relationship of a group of guys still clicking through years of cameraderie. For all of their previous accomplishments and innovations, TV On The Radio hasn’t ever shone quite as positive and upright as they do on Seeds, and it’s good to hear. JACK PROBST repeated listens, the lyrics stack up powerfully. By “Slide Machine” they’re sounding less anxious and more like tattooed grad students in love with weird America, and once “Pretty Machines” hits, the band that caught your ear with “Stoned and Starving” has shaken off their bummer trip and gone back to writing hooks you ‘ll recognize years from now.

The ‘90s glory days of Matador and Merge and Sub Pop have always been so thoroughly woven into this band’s DNA that it makes for a rousing game of Spot The Influence. Content Nausea is just as full of those moments — “The Map” sounds uncannily like Silver Jews’ “The Country Diary of a Subway Conductor” remixed by Six Finger Satellite — but really, if you’re music nerd enough to catch a Starlite Walker reference, you should probably just accept the fact that these guys love the same records you do, and let Parquet Courts keep working the seam of an undertapped ore.

“Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myth” continues their pattern of placing a meditative, Dylanesque finale on a wildly divergent album. It gives the album a chance to coalesce around a final thought, almost like a prayer to conclude the service. And when they kick into the slanted, enchanted outro, it sure feels like an amen. Amen. EVAN SULT

Album Reviews

Schwervon!

Broken Teeth Haymaker Records

NINETIES GARAGEROCK IS alive and well, friends. There are many recent albums you can look to for proof, but I offer Kansas City-based duo Schwervon!’s newest release Broken Teeth as a particularly vibrant example: opening track “Flaming Dragonfly,” a toetapping indie-pop number, includes the line, “I’m not the kind of guy / to fuck and run,” responding to the legendary Liz Phair song as if no time had passed since Exile in Guyville was released in 1993.

Though their first for Haymaker Records, guitarist/singer Matt Roth and drummer/singer Nan Turner have been plenty prolific, releasing five previous albums and three 7” records. This sixth CD is actually a re-visit of their sophomore album, 2006’s I Dream of Teeth, which they say on their website “always felt like a middle child. It was an ambitious album for us…

The lo-fi pop honeymoon was over. We were figuring out where to go from there. If you listen closely you can hear us searching and growing with each passing minute. What we would come to discover years later is that there were some good songs in there as well.”

Good songs, indeed! I’ll be honest: I’ve listened to a lot of Schwervon!, but I Dream of Teeth was one I hadn’t yet been aware of. So I encountered Broken Teeth sort of backwards, falling hard for Broken Teeth’s reimagined versions before I ever heard the originals. But then, that’s probably how most people will encounter this excellent collection of songs, so perhaps it all works out in the end. The six re-purposed tunes maintain their structural and melodic integrity, but you can feel in the new versions a maturity, confidence and realism that comes with the progression of being in the same band for years.

Interestingly, and almost counterintuitively, the iterations on the new record are actually pared down and more minimal: the prominent glockenspiel line from the original “Flaming Dragonfly” is conspicuously absent on the new version, as is the rockin’ piano part on “Fuzzy Math.” It shows a strong resolve to adhere to the “less is more” garage-rock mantra. And that insight has actually freed up Roth and Turner to open up their live show for some true innovations, like pausing the charming indie-rock songs for Roth to perform a fresh spokenword piece while Turner does a tapdance-style interpretation of his words. Though that may sound pretentious in print, in

real life the couple is so charismatic, and the poems both funny and well-crafted, that these moments in their set become unique, irreplaceable live experiences.

It’s appropriate that the six originals — essentially Schwervon! covering their own early material — is rounded out by a pair of covers of songs by their friends. “Muscle of Your Heart” is a sweet introduction to the music of NYC friends The Purple Organ, and their take on The Vaselines’ “The Devil Inside Me” recasts the original’s heat as an almost whispered slow burner. Schwervon! first toured Europe with The Vaselines — whose music you probably know thanks to Nirvana’s covers of their “Son of a Gun,” “Molly’s Lips,” and “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam” — first in 2011, and then just last month with a run of shows together in France and Germany just last month.

Schwervon’s take on The Vaselines’ 2011 single distills the song into a slow burner, with Roth’s voice almost whispered under Turner’s sweet refrain. They recast the devil in less malign and more urgently wishful colors, to great effect. It’s also almost guaranteed to lodge itself in your brain after even a single listen.

In conjunction with I Dream of Teeth, Broken Teeth becomes almost a director’s commentary on this way underappreciated band’s powers as both musicians and songwriters. Their music succeeds with or without the literal bells and whistles.

Broken Teeth is an alluring and deeply pleasurable album whether or not you ever hear their first go at the songs. They’ve boiled these six mostly forgotten songs down to

The Rebellious Jukebox

their essence, and it was a bold move wellplayed. SUZIE GILB

Diarrhea Planet Aliens in the Outfield Infinity Cat

What’s this? Nashville’s own six-guitar ruckus on wheels with a gross-out name aren’t satisfied with having one of the best rock records of 2013, and have decided to squeak one in under the wire for 2014? I can accept that challenge. While it might not crack the top 10 lists of most major magazines, Diarrhea Planet’s newest EP is a big old blast of vintage “alternative” music. “Heat Wave” could be a long-lost ’90s radio staple, complete with chiming quiet section and blistering distortion. “Spooners” originally appeared on a compilation called Adult Swim Singles, but this version was “reworked,” according to liner notes, and this version is a touch heavier, with more parts and more overdubs, which actually works against the quiet-loud-LOUDER punk assault of the earlier version. But the rest of the tunes are all brand new, including “Platinum Girls,” which mines the hidden spaces between Jonathan Richman-style love songs and Fountains Of Wayne-style fuzzed-out literate rock. It’s a lot of rock in a small package, a mere appetizer for 2015’s as-yetuntitled record, and a small clutch of tunes showing awesome growth potential for this up-and-coming band. JASON ROBINSON

Life at 45 RPM by Matt Harnish

I REALIZE THAT I WRITE about a lot of punk rock records here in/on the Rebellious Jukebox, but here in St Louis, the punk rockers put out lots of punk rock records. As long as they keep being good, I’m gonna keep writing about them.

In the mid ’00s, the St Louis punk scene was going through another of its occasional bursts of creative explosion (there’s one going on now, too, by the way; get into it!). Bands were forming & re-forming & playing packed shows in cool D.I.Y. spots all over the city. Some of them even stayed together long enough to put out records!

THE BREAKS put out a swell 45 in 2005, & it features six stop-on-a-dime jolts of pure energy. The lyrics, barked out with bulldog rage by Joe Sulier, rail against all of the usual targets like organized religion, jerks in the “scene,” um, society. It’s all delivered with passion & precision, & it still sounds fresh today, the soundtrack to circle-pitting, dog-piling, skateboarding, & other punk rock type stuff.

If you tried skateboarding to LIFE LIKE, (one of) Sulier’s current band(s), however, you’d probably lose a wheel & fall into a drainage ditch. Theirs is a stumbling, lurching take on angry punk rock, & their new Savages six song EP is really ugly & really good.

Channeling Damaged-era Rollins, especially on the title track, Sulier snarls more than barks, & the lyrics are less “us against them” & more “we’re all in this together & we’re all fucked.” Enjoy!

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Album Reviews

ThorHammer Indomitable Self release

I seem to have become the de-facto “metal guy” for this publication, and that’s endlessly amusing to me because metal is only a small fraction of the music spectrum, and within metal itself are splintered subgenres so small you might step on one by accident.

My new favorite of these is thrash, a genre defined by its loose association with hardcore punk via speed, aggression and technical precision. My allegiance to this subgenre is likely due to STL bands like Tropical Storm!, Cross Examination, and ThorHammer. ThorHammer’s newest album is their first full-length, and a brutal showcase of why Kill ‘Em All-era thrash was so popular, inspiring hair-whipping headbanging in all but the most dour of souls. Lead by gutterthroated, fleet-fingered singer/guitarist Kyle “Thrashmaster McNastybones” McNeil, ThorHammer is firmly entrenched in the genre’s trappings without a shred of partydude irony or winking “isn’t metal funny” jokery. Which is best exemplified in albumcloser “Diseases of Thought,” a classic thrasher imbued with some dead impressive stop-start prog moments. JASON ROBINSON

Cara Louise Band

To Be Dead Is to Be Known Self Release

With a warm sound reminiscent of the golden years of the Grand Ole Opry, as seen best on tracks like “Here We Go,” “Cellar Door,” and “Why Don’t You Just Stay,” Cara Louise Band debuts with a solid EP that almost seems too good to be true. Recorded in just a period of two days, “To Be Dead Is to Be Known” is that rare record in which a hasty recording schedule yields the best possible results. The first thought that runs through my mind after multiple listens is that they should’ve considered including a filler song or two to showcase how great these six songs are.

The EP starts with “Evening News,” a wry commentary that frontwoman Cara Wegener delivers with perfect timing.

Album high point “Give Me a Sign” is propelled by a pleasing 1950s shuffle, but it’s the wonderful mandolin and saxophone details that make the song stand out.

It’s clear upon first listen that Wegener knows how to use her songwriting skills, be it projecting outward or inward. Along with the lead and steel guitar work of Adam Donald, Kellen Meyer’s upright bass and mandolin work by Nick Adamson, Cara

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Louise Band has created an album that is somehow both wholly familiar and unique to itself. In six tracks they range from uptempo songs that make you lose track of time, to ballads like the title track, with lyrics that are too smartly crafted to fully appreciate in just one listen.

Shading between alternative country and classic folk, Cara Louise Band adds solid heft to the reputation St. Louis is (re)gaining as a great music city. In the most enduring genre songs, when the songwriting is at its strongest it almost disappears behind the mirrored walls of its own solid craftsmanship — and such is the case here, where the band’s confident writing and delivery comes across as so effortless that it would be easy to take it for granted. But don’t be lulled by their skills: it’s that same down-to-earth Midwest attention to the details of the work that creates great art such as this. REV. DANIEL W. WRIGHT

The Shivas

You Know What to Do K / Burger Records

The attraction of folk music — the category, not the genre — comes from its familiarity and inclusivity. When you listen, you listen not as the child who is excited by each and every corner of the song, but with the blanket of understanding that has snowballed your whole life into an intimate relationship with the music. In this vein, The Shivas mined their latest slab, You Know What to Do, from the ores of nuggets and pebbles and gravel buried deep in the underground of rock and roll.

The group makes no bones about this effort. The first forty seconds of the album more than echo Link Wray’s “Rumble” before pounding away at a West Coast stomp that’d fit in right at home on Pebbles Volume Four.

But whereas many marauders of the style (Thee Oh Sees, White Fence, The Growlers, etc.) expand on and experiment with its qualities, The Shivas are content with traditional arrangements and approaches. This strategy, while often a detractor, is salvaged by their diverse consumption of rock’n’roll’s golden age. From the Elevators-esque “Do the Crocodile” to the Chicago Blues of “Ride On” and even doo-wop inspired vocals of “Used to Being Cool,” the suspense of You Know What to Do comes from not knowing which microgenre they’re going to handle next.

You Know What to Do’s infatuation with this ‘60s-inflected sound leads to little more than a flattering, yet enjoyable, imitation of music produced so long ago that its charm exists almost as a self-fulfilling nostalgia reminiscent of a time almost entirely unexperienced by the present day audience. In

fact, more time has passed since 1969 than from the date of the first blues recordings

by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1926 to the end of the ‘60s. Is this the folk music of today?

The Shivas seem to think so. SEAN COTTON

They Might Be Giants

First Album Live Label?

They Might Be Giants has been around for 22 years, and in that time has produced some truly amazing records.

Albums like John Henry and Flood are as close to masterpieces as their contemporaries like Automatic for the People and Ten. But their first, accordion-laden record was not near those others’ commercial or critical success, even though die-hard fans might disagree. So it felt weird to have them tour, perform and record live shows of a record that has all of two “hits” on it.

But it makes sense when you hear this recreation, lovingly crafted for the stage.

Given 22 years of distance, you can still hear the anarchic brilliance in every silly joke throw-away song (“Boat for a Car” “Toddler Highway”), every must-have (“Don’t Let’s Start” “(She’s a) Hotel Detective” “She’s an Angel”) and every forgotten “filler” (“Absolutely Bill’s Mood”).

The album hasn’t aged particularly well, considering TMBG’s output in the subsequent decades has included almost no bad songs, but you can still hear the fresh-faced experimental pop bubbling beneath the surface and the bright-eyed enthusiasm of writing such fun, silly, heartfelt tunes. As a live album, you might be better off with their (mostly) superior live album Severe Tire Damage. As a document of a band aging gracefully, but never letting go of the ideas that drove them to where they are, First Album Live! is a winner. JASON ROBINSON

Filmstrip

Moments of Matter Exit Stencil Recordings

I’ve heard this band likened to The Men and even Meat Puppets, and those comparisons are apt, mostly due to their country-tinged garage punk and DIY-TilYou-Die self-booked tours. But what really impresses about this disc of instant shouldbe classics is that it sounds like a record that has always existed, but has only recently been unearthed, a sort of time capsule containing seemingly disparate sounds from alternative rock, indie from the 2000s, and alt-country topped with a pinch of modern psych-rock.

Album Reviews

Moments of Matter is stacked with lovely vocal harmonies, jangly buzzy guitars, propulsive rhythms and a well-worn sentimentality that elevates the songs above mere rehashes of old themes. It also helps that singer Dave Taha sounds like he’s been at this forever and could tell you a million stories of rock n roll excess. Like their labelmates Herzog, Filmstrip mine the best of their favorite bands for a brawny, catchy mix of genres and sounds with a brisk confidence that alternative bands in the ’90s used to throw out with increasing frequency. JASON ROBINSON

King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard I’m in Your Mind Fuzz Castle Face

A twelve-and-a-half minute tetraptych to open the album, two seven-plus-minute songs outside of that, much gratuitous flute, heavy psychedelic influences, thirty seconds of the Egyptian scale, obtuse lyrics, and a strong emphasis on long rhythmic sections. Is this a long-lost prog album? Well, the album art doesn’t help, but no. I’m in Your Mind Fuzz is the latest release from Aussie psych rock collective King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard.

Their fourth LP since 2012, the septet seems to fall further and further down a rabbit hole occupied by themselves alone, but you won’t see me complaining.

I’m in Your Mind Fuzz is the first release for the band on Castle Face Records (belonging to Thee Oh Sees’ John Dwyer) and has no trouble fitting in with their labelmates.

While the objective details of the album are no surprise to fans of the Giz and the Wiz, the quality that separates this release from Oddments and Float Along - Fill Your Lungs is the propulsive force that churns the album over and over again in your head.

Whereas the temperament of the group had bobbed along, lackadaisical and whimsical, I’m in Your Mind Fuzz makes you want to barrel down the highway blasting “Cellophane” at max volume.

Still, their roots are not forgotten.

Songs like “Empty” and “Her & I (Slow Jam II)” are a return to the sounds we’ve come to expect from the group. And yet, even these songs feel like a step forward. The songs are smarter, sharper, and in higher fidelity. Indeed, the whole album feels like a reinvention for a band that had already been pushing and experimenting with their sound. The worst part of I’m In Your Mind Fuzz is trying to explain to your friends why it’s so awesome without making it sound like a jam band. Fortunately, one listen clarifies all. SEAN COTTON

Museum Of Love Museum of Love DFA

Part of the appeal of record collecting isn’t just the pleasure of holding something physical in your hands, but also being able to see the artwork in a larger than life fashion.

Flipping through your record collection you might find yourself associating the music of certain albums with certain covers.

Museum Of Love’s self-titled debut is much like its cover: grey and gloomy, with an air of mystery. The project comes from LCD Soundsystem alum and former Les Savy Fav drummer Pat Mahoney, and Dennis McNany from The Juan MacLean.

The DFA roster all spawns from LCD, and they’ve managed to cultivate a specific niche of indie dance rock. While it’s no surprise Museum Of Love know how to groove, they’re a welcome cure for the haze of smoke out on the dark dance floor that is winter depression.

They’re not musically as upbeat as their brothers and sisters, but Museum Of Love still succeed at generating some extremely danceable songs. Mahoney trills like David Byrne circa now on “Down South,” a zoned out journey of longing. Then on “In Infancy,” a twinkling disco lullaby with a fuzzed out bass line, layered la’s and ooh’s echo around his voice to form a chorus of resonance. The funk picks up on “The Who’s Who of Who Cares,” and they blow up on one gigantic rock explosion on “The Large Glass.” They won’t end up leaving the impact of LCD, but they will make you feel at home with the same aesthetic they’re rooted in. Let the warmth and crackle of Museum Of Love be enough to melt the ice around your heart this winter. JACK PROBST

Ty Segall $ingle$ 2 Label?

The presence of dollar signs, to paraphrase a friend, might confuse potential listeners who are looking for rapper Ty Dolla $ign, but once the first track, live staple and speaker stress-test “Spiders” hits, there will be no doubt left. $ingle$ 2 is a compilation of tracks that didn’t make the cut for Segall’s past three records, which is not to say they’re bad. Actually, the collection works well on its own, despite sounding so varied in styles, fidelity and subject matter. From the aforementioned “Spiders” to the br00tal burned-out punk riffs of closer “Pettin’ the Dog,” it’s a nice trip through the many faces of Ty, with stops at ’60s psych (“Cherry Red”),

languid Beatles-esque pop (“Falling Hair”) and even a little Incredible String Band (“For Those Who Weep”). Segall has already released a killer album this year, and this compilation can’t really hold a candle to that, but it’s more output from a truly gifted artist at the top of his game, so you really can’t complain. JASON ROBINSON

Bedhead

Bedhead 1992-1998 The Numero Group

In the days before Google, not only was finding music you loved an actual exploration — you had to physically find the music, then get it safely back to your stereo — but even once you had the album in hand, you didn’t necessarily know a damn thing about the band.

Bedhead was a perfect example. A friend tipped me off to their stately, whispery 1994 album WhatFunLifeWas, and I was entranced by how the music could be so quiet and so urgent at the same time. They broke the familiar loud-quiet-loud formula apart, spending whole songs in quiet contemplation, or just as likely building from a single bass phrase through a lyrically harrowing narrative — “The bed at night is a liferaft / in the ocean of the night / I hang my hands over the side / prey to God knows what” — and eventually, exquisitely, up and up into a squalling, roaring wall of sound.

Transaction de Novo was, if anything, even better, and I still consider the uncharacteristically rocking, odd-timed “Psychosomatica” one of the decade’s secret treasures.

But: who were these guys? All I knew was that some brothers, the Kadanes, were involved. I even saw what turned out to be their farewell tour in ’98, and they were incredible onstage but barely there otherwise. Then they broke up, the decade turned over, and they slipped away just before there was really an Internet to catch them.

So it was a great surprise and pleasure to learn that the folks at The Numero Group apparently felt the same way. The resulting box set, Bedhead 1992-1998 pulls a neat trick, feeding music and information about the band without really dissipating the mystery about them. The set includes all three of their albums, a disc collecting EPs and B-sides, and a lush 80-page booklet written by Matthew Gallaway. The whole package serves equally well as celebration of a bygone band or introduction to a band you’ve probably never heard and might never otherwise have gotten the chance to. Gallaway’s book is a real treat, and he carefully covers every recording session and tour but leaves room for the imagination and discovery of listening. EVAN SULT

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Cover Story

THE WAY BACK PAGE This Year’s Model Curated by Juliet Charles EVERY GREAT ALBUM deserves a great cover, and every cover tells you something about the music found inside. St. Louisbased musicians released well over a hundred full-length albums this year. Here’s a small sampling of the covers to be found in our record collections: Traveling Sound Machine, s/t Hurt Feelings, s/t Lizzie Weber, s/t Loot Rock Gang, That’s Why I’ve Got to Sing Bug Chaser, Sexual Forecast Matt Harnish’s Pink Guitar, Mostly Sparks and a Few Trucker Songs The Feed, Outsider Yankee Racers, American Music Con Trails, Humid Head Rough Shop, Lit Up Like a Christmas Tree Sleepy Kitty, Projection Room Jon Hardy and the Public, Restless City Tilts, Cuatro Hombres Town Cars, Hearts and Stars Black James, Mountain Boy Volcanoes, Future Sorority Girls of America Scarlet Tanager, Let’s Love Demonlover, Moody Future The Reverbs, Looking for an Echo Bruiser Queen, Sweet Static Syna So Pro, Loop Talk Vol. 1: The Power of One; The Power of You

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NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH FLOWERS TO THE PEOPLE

STRANDS

Full-service floral & gift boutique, specializing in locally & sustainably grown flowers.

All retail gifts made by local STL artists. Delivery available in the metro area.

A relaxing boutique salon in the historic DeMun area, Strands draws inspiration from the world of fashion and art to stay on top of current trends.

They create designs to showcase your individual beauty!

Cherokee Street 2317 Cherokee St (63118) 762-0422 | flowerstothepeople.biz

Demun 730 Demun Ave (63105) 725-1717 | strands-HAIR.COM

SASHA’S ON SHAW

MELT

Great wines, the best cheeses, always served late! The Shaw Neighborhood’s best bar in the shadow of the garden.

Melt is a funky & eclectic waffle bar offering waffles, cocktails, beer & coffee.

Patrons can enjoy live music, pinball, skeeball & more.

Gluten free, vegan & vegetarian options available

Shaw 4069 Shaw Blvd 771-7274 | sashaswinebar.com

Cherokee 2712 Cherokee St (63118) 771-6358

CITY DINER AT THE FOX LATE NIGHT CLUB

THE MUD HOUSE

Complete with food and drink, the Club hosts a variety of unique DJs spinning reggae, ska, soul, ’60s garage, surf and rockabilly every Saturday night from 10:30pm until 3am!

Midtown 541 North Grand Blvd (63103) 533-7500

There is not a better patio in St. Louis to enjoy our tasty sandwiches and salads or a better place to get out and work outside of the office.

Cherokee Street 2101 Cherokee St (63118) 776-6599 | themudhousestl.com

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An all-ages music venue with full bar, impressive coffee options, free Wi-Fi, & a great vibe. Catch amazing bands before they’re too big to see in a small room. New hours! M-F 5pm-12am, Sat 9am-12am

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Cherokee Street 3359 S. Jefferson Ave (63118) 772-2100 | foamvenue.com

Cherokee Street 3159 Cherokee St (63118) 494-7763 | stl-style.com

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