Issue No. 1-Feb ’14
the liner notes of st. louis
Magnolia Summer The Past, Present & Future of One of STL’s Flagship Bands
Lizzie Weber INSIDE: Angel Olsen • Brothers Lazaroff • San Fermin • Aquitaine
Meet Your New Favorite Artist of 2014
Inside Llewyn Davis Joe Andert Climbs Into The Coen Brothers’ New Puzzler g-g-git on up
>>
Eleven Magazine Volume 10, issue 1
complimentary
elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 1
DEPT. OF
PERIODICAL LITERATURE ST. LOUIS, MO
volume 10, issue no. 1
front of the booK 5 Editor’s Note 6 Where Is My Mind? ColuMnS 8 Essentials by Suzie gilb Nook of Revelations by thoMaS Crone
february 2014
eleven’S MuSiCalendar Recommended Shows 18 Diarrhea Planet
bring on the night Show Previews and Reviews220 sigur ros, Talib Kweli, Ellen The Felon & Mattronome, olivia Block, sandra gibson, louis recoder, Turquoise Jeep records
9 Watcherr by CurtiS tinSley 10 Radius by SaM ClaPP Bloomington, in
11 Load In David Beeman of native sound by dave anderSon
featureS 12 They Came from the Future: Is bug chaser ‘13 the ‘86 Flaming Lips? by evan Sult 15 Pianos For People by hugh SCott & evan Sult 16 Thelonius monk: A Nerd Moment by Jordan heiMburger
hot roCKS Guest List 23
by Paige brubeCK
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Album Reviews 24 union Tree review, The Blow, nadine shah, Elsinore, Mike Doughty, Baths, Big Black Delta
The Rebellious Jukebox 25 by Matt harniSh . Jack Buck and Pound of Flesh encased in lucite
the Way baCK Page Paper Time Machine 26 by Paige brubeCK . Bug Chaser’s Pat grosch
cover iMage design by sleePy kitty. Photos by Jarred gastreich. above: Matty coonfield, Pat grosch, Zeng, and kevin insinna of bug chaser, Photos by Jarred gastreich
at
Over 1000 Square Feet Neve VR 36 Recording Console • Flying Fader Automation • Musgrave Modifications • Custom Augsberger Speaker System • Generous Amount of Outboard Gear • State of the Art Isolation Booth • Shigeru Kawai 7 ft Grand Piano • •
To learn more, visit our website at www.eibynelly.com or call 888-841-3602 and book the studio today! Vatterott ex’treme Institute by Nelly - St Louis 800 N 3rd Street l St. Louis, MO 63102
Photo of cage the elephant at pop’s by Bryan Sutter
Do You Know About:
Eleven Magazine Volume 10 | Issue 1 | February 2014 Publisher Hugh Scott
proofreader Tracy Brubeck
Editor-In-Chief Evan Sult
Promotions & Distribution Suzie Gilb Ann Scott
Special assignments editor Paige Brubeck WeB Editor Hugh Scott photo editor Jason Stoff Art Director Evan Sult CONTRIBUTING Writers Dave Anderson, Curt Brewer, Paige Brubeck, Ryan Boyle, Juliet Charles, Sam Clapp, Raymond Code, Thomas Crone, Jenn DeRose, Suzie Gilb, Matt Harnish, Jordan Heimburger, Kyle Kapper, Nelda Kerr, John Krane, Josh Levi, Rob Levy, Jack Probst, Jason Robinson, Jeremy Segel-Moss, Robert Severson, Bill Streeter, Michele Ulsohn, Chris Ward, Robin Wheeler PHOTOGRAPHERS Nate Burrell, Jarred Gastreich, Abby Gillardi, Patrice Jackson, Lee Klawans, Louis Kwok, Adam Robinson, Jason Stoff, Bill Streeter, Bryan Sutter, Ismael Valenzuela, Angela Vincent, Corey Woodruff
Consultation Clifford Holekamp Derek Filcoff Cady Seabaugh Hugh Scott III Founded in 2006 by a group including Jonathan Fritz, Josh Petersel and Mathew 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.
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Illustrators Paige Brubeck, Sean Dove, Tyler Gross, Lyndsey Lesh, Curtis Tinsley, Sam Washurn Copyright 2013 Scotty Scott Media, LLC
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Editor’s Note by Evan Sult
Lost in the Reeds
There have been dozens of Lou Reeds over the decades, from the hyped-up dancer of debut songwriting credit “The Ostrich” to the immortal black-draped Velvet Underground persona to the pop maestro of Loaded to the alien skull-eyes of Transformer to the speedy, lie-faced inventor of Metal Machine Music to the poet of The Raven to the conversational quintessential New Yorker of Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee & Cigarettes to the final baffling collaborator with Metallica on Lulu. But my personal favorite will always be Lester Bangs’ Lou Reed, as encountered in Bangs’ collected essays, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung. Bangs was as lunatic as Lou Reed back in the day, but where Reed was the unflappable alien, Bangs was a desperate sycophant burning up with his own explosive response to the music of the Velvet Underground. In a series of essays, including the priceless “Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves, Or How I Slugged It Out with Lou Reed and Stayed Awake” he and Lou snap and snarl at each other, and Bangs inevitably goes down in flames. As portrayed by Bangs, their exchanges are among the finest written moments in the history of rock and roll. It’s hilarious and creepy and human and even honest, despite both their best efforts. And later, when Bangs encounters the infinite lead wall that is Metal Machine Music, he first sneers at it, then fumes at it, then battles with it, and finally surrenders to it—changing his entire conception of how music works, what is valuable in music, and what the role of a listener is. Lou’s young voice is the finest, ugliest, most transcendent voice ever made, the first voice that united the beauty of classic pop architecture with the gnarliest extremes of noisy chaos and made them two sides of the same urge. It’s good that he outlived the many choices that should have killed him; even in dying, essentially, of old age, he found one more way to juke the universe.
Thursday February 6th
The VCR's Friday February 7th
The Ragbirds Honky Suckle / Paul B urch & WPA Ballclub Saturday February 8th
B ully Boreal Hills Thursday February 13th
Charlie Parr Chicago Farmer Saturday February 15th
the Dusty 45's The Bible Belt Sinners / Runaway Barge Wednesday February 19th
Jakes Leg Monthly Acoustic Residencey Thursday February 20th
Dawn Landes WHSKY GNGR Friday February 21th
3rd Annual J D illa Tribute w DJ Needles / Downstereo / and much more Saturday February 22th Schlafly Welcomes
Funky B utt Brass Band Hazard to Ya Booty / DJ Hal Greens Friday February 28th
Mass Appeal - Dre Day Every Monday
Open Mic Every Tuesday in February
#TuesdayNightHouseParty with Al Holiday & The Eastside Rhythm Band
Now Serving
Oven Baked Sandwiches Dogtown Pizza Available Every Show Open-Close
elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 5
WHERE IS MY MIND? This Month in the History of Now
REST IN PIECES
THIS AMERICAN FASHION
On January 17, totally awesome NPR show thiS aMeriCan life broadcast episode 516, “Stuck in the Middle.” It’s a typically enjoyable hour of intelligent, insightful storytelling... until the final credits, when what should roar to life but the brainworm piano-pop charmer “Stuck” by STL’s own Middle ClaSS faShion! The show uses a pretty good chunk of the song, and it even segues into the PRI (“Public Radio International”) sonic tag. For NPR geeks, there’s pretty much nothing cooler. Congrats to the band—and you can check it out yourself at thisamericanlife.org’s radio archives. Enjoy!
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If you know the band KentuCKy Knife fight, you know they’re legitimate road dogs, touring throughout the year in their giant, stinky, beloved van known as “the rage Cage.” So it was a particularly cruel blow to the band last month—January 15, to be exact—when their van was stolen just a few days before tour. They put out an APB and scoured the city and surrounding counties. A few days later word came from the St. Louis PD that the van had been found—torn to pieces in a North St. Louis scrap yard. Ouch. We here at Eleven would like to extend our bumitude to the band, and we hope that either the scrapper gets busted and/or the recent, incredibly stupid house bill 1150, which allows cars 10 years or older to be junked without a title, gets dumped. Adios, Rage Cage: you rolled with the best.
liT FiT Boy About Town by tony fletcher Told WiTh vivid clarity and an ease of style, Boy About Town is a humorous and honest memoir filled with the recollections of tony fletCher, a music fan who capitalized at being in the right place at the right time—the amazingly strange musical mélange of the 1970s, the jarring the rise of punk, and the subsequent fertile years of post-punk. Growing up in a broken Yorkshire home was not easy, especially when compounded with the usual melodrama of teenage angst, melancholy, indifference and recklessness. Fletcher’s obsession with pop music begins at a young age, when he unwittingly develops a fondness for the sugar pop of david Cassidy before moving into the dark world of alice Cooper, the aural space oddities of david bowie, and the glam territory of Slade. Turned on by the music, Fletcher begins to play in bands. Hungry for more, he creates his own fanzine, Jamming, in 1977, which allows him to aggressively seek out interviews with some of the biggest stars of that time, adam ant and Paul Weller. Embold-
ened, he keeps going, and we watch our protagonist, tape recorder at the ready, as he quickly develops a network of rock stars and influential friends. With his unique ear for great records, Fletcher’s zine develops into a full-on magazine, and he is thrust into the enviable role of musical s vengali, scoring big interviews with artists like billy bragg, lloyd Cole, and the Jam. Eventually, his connections and interests lead him to begin operating as a record producer and promoter as well, helping to create the music he had previously only chronicled. The writing never slows, though, and Fletcher moves from magazines to books, publishing authoritative texts on echo and the bunnymen, Keith Moon, r.e.M., and the Smiths. Boy About Town also serves as a guide for understanding what it meant to live in Thatcher’s Britain. As the narrative proceeds, we are treated to a tome that is part reflection and part history lesson. Fletcher’s stories of meeting pop stars interweave perfectly with tales of growing up, forging a career and meeting girls. From a young lad who struggles to feel in place to becoming a full-time writer and sometime record producer, Tony Fletcher is a man who uses music as not just adolescent escapism but as the very blood that flowed through his veins, shaping him into the music writer he is today. rob leVy
STAY WARM, WATCH MOVIES if you’ve been avoiding the outdoors during Polar Vortex: The Sequel, there’s no better time than the present to catch up on some excellent music movies.
Broadway Idiot
(2013) Whether you love or hate this band, no one can say they saw a Broadway musical coming from Green Day. This film documents the unexpected collaboration of stage director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening) and alt-punk trio Green Day from Mayer’s enthusiastic (and suspenseful) pitch to the band—using a gorgeous a cappella arrangement of “Last Night on Earth”—to Billie Joe Armstrong making his surprise Broadway debut. While I was a huge fan of Dookie, I’d stopped paying attention to Green Day by the time American Idiot was released. That said, it’s remarkable how many songs I recognized—and knew lyrics of—just from being alive in the United States. The best part is, the songs almost make more sense in this context. It feels like Green Day had these characters in mind to make some of the broad lyrics seem specific, yet still relatable on a large scale. It’s a thoughtful document of the amazing amount of work that goes into a Broadway production, and also an album.
Some Kind of Monster
(2004) Before there was the 2014 Grammys, there was this masterpiece. The title sums it up. How release forms were signed and this movie was made we’ll never know, but as long as it’s out—before Metallica realizes what’s happened and it’s pulled from the shelves and queues—see this movie. Some Kind of Monster documents Metallica in one of their darkest, most awkward periods. It’s an absurd portrait of mega-wealthy metal heads, a cautionary tale for any band, and a comical farce of a band mid-disaster, complete with an epic bass player search, an obnoxious drummer, a lead singer with an unreasonable practice schedule, and a poor guy who just wants to shred. That guy also has a throne of bones. Just sayin’.
In a World... (2013) If you missed this while it was at the Tivoli, it’s definitely one to see. While it’s not about music exactly, it is about the voiceover and sound industry. It’s hard to tell what is
based on fact and what is huge exaggeration in this strange, sometimes surreal comedy about a young voice actor (played by the film’s writer and director lake bell) competing with her father and other voice-industry big shots for a gig doing the trailer for a huge summer blockbuster action flick. Major Hollywood movie trailers are notorious for being biased towards male voices. In A World... explores the process of breaking into a highly gendered industry, and does it in a realistic way. In A World... isn’t trying to be a “feminist” movie—it just is one. There’s nothing preachy about this movie and how it deals with gender, and that’s what’s refreshing about it. Bell’s character has a ton of talent and skill, and a ton of clunky flaws that make her all the more interesting and believable. Watching this film, I realized how rare it is to see some of the character traits and plot arcs applied to a female protagonist. The simple details in this film make it unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and hopefully we’ll see more films that look like this in the coming years. paige brubeCK
Unconventional workspace for the unconventionally employed
nebulastl.com
elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 7
BEHIND THE SCENE
Bands in their natural environments by Jarred Gastreich
Brothers Lazaroff
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BEHIND THE SCENE
David Lazaroff fills us in on Laz Bros HQ: How long have you been a band? Jeff and I have been playing together and writing since high school, we’ve been playing shows as Brothers Lazaroff since 2004 and the current line up of Grover Stewart, Teddy Brookins and Mo Egeston has been together for just over six years. How long have you been practicing in this space? Ever since I moved back to St. Louis in August of 2009. What is the best feature about your space?
Photos by Jarred Gastreich
It’s in the basement. After living in Austin, TX for 13 years where there are no basements, you really appreciate how everyone from the Midwest grew up and started playing music in basements. There is something magical about going downstairs into the music world. The brick, stone and concrete make for excellent sound insulation for the neighbors. It is also a walk-out basement for easy load in/out. What’s the worst feature about your space? The ceilings are sooooo low! What’s your favorite part/detail about your practice space? We’ve recently rehabbed the space—first
Bands in their natural environments by Jarred Gastreich
BROTHERS LAZAROFF IS: Jeff Lazaroff, guitar and vocals David Lazaroff, guitar and vocals Grover Stewart, drums Teddy Brookins, bass Maurice Egeston, Rhodes Additional friends this particular evening: Shlomo Ovadya, doumbek (above center) Rabbi James Stone Goodman, oud (above bottom) Adam Hucke, trumpet (left, on couch) soundproofing the basement so my wife doesn’t have to wear noise reduction headphones to be in the house on band practice night. We also ran conduit so we could run headphone distribution boxes and other cabling—essentially allowing us to start recording, as well as having headphone practices—which is really nice on the ears. We ran the conduit to different parts of the house so we can use different rooms in the basement as isolation booths for singing, amps, and acoustics—we even sent some upstairs to the living room where there is an upright piano—so now that is in play for recording. As far as art, we have pieces of our close friend and favorite artist Paco Proano’s source material from our different album’s artwork. We also have a handwritten photo copy of a letter from legendary dub-reggae producer Lee “Scratch” Perry that we’ve
mounted on foam board near the mixing board. It’s something we got at a screening of a documentary on his life a few years back at SXSW that we covet. Do you have any wish-list improvements you’d like to make? The wish list is a rabbit hole. We are building some sound panels to deaden and treat the room this month. We’d love to build a “little room” around the drums for further isolation and some shelves around the keyboard rig for miscellaneous toy keyboards and electronics we’ve amassed: Casios, Omnichord, etc. It’s fun to have that stuff laying around and available to grab for maximum spontaneity. Anything else to know about your space? We’ve practiced most Tuesday nights since I’ve moved back here four and a half years ago. We eat dinner at 6pm and jam at 7pm it’s the weekly spiritual gathering time for us as a band - it defines us. No matter what is going on in everyone’s life, we try and make the space a place to come and just be musical for a couple hours each week. While we work hard down there, we leave time to experiment and stretch out. We also love having guests over - having a “plug and play” rehearsal space makes collaborating with other artists really fun and easy. Interview questions by Paige Brubeck
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THE RADIUS Each month The Radius features a city within a day’s drive of St. Louis. Whether you’re in a touring band or just want to roadtrip to meet some of our neighbors on the map, use this section to get a head start.
Des Moines, Ia by Anna Gebhardt (of awesome Des Moines-based band Annalibera)
350 Miles from ST. Louis, or about 6 hours by car After headlining last year at 80/35, Des Moines’ annual indie music festival, David Byrne wrote a glowing blog entry about the city, saying, “Des Moines may not be cool, but it might be beyond cool. Here among the winding creeks and fields of corn they may have arrived at some kind of secret satisfaction.” if you know where to look, there are tiny universes of underground art and music bursting from the sprawl. The hip spots are mostly located in and around downtown, where on a good night, you can feel the energy of a burgeoning scene, from Des Moines’ own East Village to the Ingersoll area.
The sounds of Des moines
Gloom Balloon
GLOOM BALLOON Weird-in-the-best-way pop project of Patrick Tape Fleming, former leader of the great IA rock band Poison Control Center TIRES Driving but groovy instrumental electronic rock band, one of many projects of Phil Young, co-owner of local recording studio Wabi Sound The River MONKS Folk pop songs beautifully arranged with four-part harmonies and interesting instrumentation—a sonic incarnation of Iowa itself Also check out Ramona and the Swimsuits • Dustin Smith & the Sunday Silos • The Wheelers • Maids
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VENUES
The Vaudeville Mews (212 4th St) has been a great room for local bands of all types for over a decade now, hosting everything— shoegaze, electronic, rock, punk, hardcore, hip-hop, folk and more—most days of the year, often offering both an afternoon and late night show. Play a weekend late show, get good locals to join the bill and you’ll see why Fourth Street is a legendary part of the music scene. See a show at the Mews, share a martini at the Lift (222 4th St), and eat a slice of pizza at Fong’s (223 4th St) any time after 11pm and you’re part of it. Right between downtown and the Ingersoll area, the Gaslamp (1501 Grand Ave) is a great place to hang or play a show. They rock a vintage vibe and book an eclectic range of bands, with an emphasis on punk and rockabilly shows. Between bands, take a stroll in the sculpture garden across the street.
VENUES
Zzz (2200 Ingersoll Ave ) is located in a great area, Ingersoll Avenue, so there’s always someone there who’s connected to the local art scene, either behind the counter or browsing the new arrivals. The staff is super friendly and they have all the best local music on hand, as well as older classics and a great selection of hot new vinyl. You can also find great tapes for cheap if you have time to look through all of them! Red Rooster (509 Euclid Ave) might seem out of the way, but it’s worth the adventure. They have a huge selection, and don’t be afraid to ask Matt, the owner, what amazing record he’s currently spinning. Oh, and definitely stop for a papusa at El Salvador Del Mundo (2901 6th Ave) on your way back.
East Village
Just across the river from downtown is the trendy East Village district. Once rundown due to flooding, the area now brims with great bars, restaurants, galleries and boutiques. During the day, it’s fun to walk around here. If you like vintage clothing, be sure to stop in at Hill Vintage and Knits (432 E Locust); if you’re into history or need a photo op, climb the capitol steps to where the gold dome looms, turn around and take in the view. Pop down to 8/7 Central (424 E Locust), the design and screenprinting studio which makes many
of Des Moines’ best show posters and band t-shirts. New World Cafe (223 E Walnut) offers the best all-vegan menu, and it’s a busy haunt for artist types and DIY culture. At night try retro arcade bar Up-Down (500 E Locust), or Wooly’s (504 E Locust), a spacious room that holds mid-size mainstream shows and bigger local shows. Also check out House of Bricks (525 E Grand Ave), which has historically been a mainstay venue for the scene and continues to host music most nights of the week. If the sound is bad, the rooftop bar is always great.
BIKE
If weather allows and you have the time, try to enjoy Des Moines on a bike. The huge highways are deceiving. You can rent a bike from one of the stations downtown and leisurely pedal a short distance to Grey’s Lake and Waterworks Park, both green, public spaces worth visiting on a nice day. If you’re up for longer treks, you can move around the entire metropolis using a fine network of wooded paths and bike lanes.
ART
Also easy to reach by trail is the Des Moines Art Center, nestled among huge houses and wooded hills. The building itself is a bizarre architectural mashup which houses the fantastic permanent collection of works by the likes of Andy Warhol, Hans Arp, and Edward Hopper, just to name a few. Unless you hate art, visit the Des Moines Art Center. It’s free and the exhibitions are always an inspiring combination of sophistication and accessibility.
other cool stuff
The Des Moines Social Club (400 Walnut just renovated the old firehouse in the warehouse district in south downtown. They’ve been active for the last five years and this new center could be a promising new addition to the Des Moines scene. For great coffee, check out Mars Cafe (2318 University Ave). Also a great place to use the wireless and meet scenesters, as many of the baristas are musicians. Just north of downtown is the historic Sherman Hill neighborhood, a lovely area to explore on foot. A great reason to go is A Dong (1511 High St) , a Vietnamese restaurant with great vegetarian options. St)
Tight Pants Syndrome. They’re all musical multi-taskers but Brian McClelland, right, just took it over the edge.
Futurism
WATCHERR
by Curtis Tinsley
elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 11
INTRODUCING
New bands in their early days by Sam Clapp
Wild Hex
Wild Hex was only born a few months ago, but the band came into the world with a mandate to shred. The South City trio—Geoff Naunheim and Gabe Karabell on guitar, and Tom Nolan on drums—has been playing a show most every week, honing a trebly onslaught that calls to mind the best of heavy 1900s rock. The band has a bit of a head start—Karabell and Naunheim also play together in the glam outfit Bad Dates—but in any case, Wild Hex is ripping through the new-band checklist. In a few scant months, they’ve released a demo cassette, played most of the venues in town, and planned a weekend tour. How did all this happen? I invited them into my basement to get to the bottom of it. Eleven: So, how did you guys get together?
I’ve played with, ever.
Gabe: Well, Tommy went to a show, and we ran into each other. We grew up together, and Tom was like, “I want to play drums, let’s rock and roll,” so we got together in the basement and played for a little while. That was around when Geoff and I were writing songs together, so it all came together because of that. Set the two of them up, and now they’re friends for life.
11: I noticed you guys do a lot of guitar riff, guitar solo stuff.
11: So, you started as two bands, and then become one band? Gabe: It wasn’t really anything. It turned from two groups of two friends hanging out into one group of three friends hanging out. A threesome. Geoff: And then we rerecorded all the work we had done over the summer, working on the tape because we were like, “This is way better now, with a real drummer.”
Photos by Jason Stoff
11: Tom, had you played drums recently? Tom: Well, I’d played drums for like eight years, growing up, then in high school I gave it up. I knew [Gabe] had a drum set sitting in his basement, so that’s why we hooked up. I was just getting my chops back and it worked out with Geoff. This is the first band
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Gabe: Yeah, we try to. Since it’s just two guitars and no bass, we try to use that to the fullest. Some people call it “hot leads.” Some people call it “wanking.” It’s definitely a guitar-oriented band, though. Geoff: There’s a lot of guitar masturbation that goes on. But not too much. I hope. Maybe there is. 11: I think at least around here, most people have some patience for guitar masturbation. Gabe: Well, and the songs are a minute and a half long. Geoff: It’s hard to go on too much of a guitar solo tangent when your song’s only a minute and a half long. 11: Also, if it’s done in the spirit of fun, you can do whatever you want, basically. Gabe: Right. We’re not taking this too seriously. Most of the bands we’re in seem like a lot more work than this one, like tracking people down to practice and getting together to play. We’re basically just hanging out and being idiots with this band,
and then somehow we write songs. 11: This is kind of a vague question, but do you see what you’re doing as filling a void in the St. Louis scene, or doing something that no one else has done? Geoff: The only real intention I had going in was to not be concerned about genre as much and have a band where, if you have a song that references a lot of heavy metal, it could fit in with something that was more like classic rock. I think that a lot of times bands are really concerned with like, “we’re a hardcore band,” or “we’re a doom metal band.” I know I was really trying to steer clear of that, to try not to get pigeonholed. I think that’s something that happens a lot here. Take the show last night, for instance. Gabe: Yeah! Geoff: The quote from the guy who booked it was, “This show is too metal for the punk kids and too punk for the metal kids.” And that’s probably true, but what a stupid thing to have happen in a scene. Gabe: And St. Louis is a lot better than a lot of places, where if everyone’s not wearing biker jackets and black denim, then they’re not gonna go out to see that band. We’re lucky to have a really diverse scene here. Everybody seems to play really heavy, and they’re very good musicians, and still very creative. So there’s a lot of talent that creates a genre for St. Louis that I think bleeds through to what we do. Check ‘em out yourself: facebook.com/wildhexstl wildhex.bandcamp.com
LOAD IN
Expert gear testimony by Dave Anderson
The Art and Science of Punk Physics
Photo by Nate Burrell
Local musician Gerald good switches from building for Boeing to building some of the best effects pedals in town It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to build a guitar effects pedal, but Gerald Good is here to show us that it certainly doesn’t hurt. Good holds a PhD in physics from Washington University, and spent over a decade working at Boeing as an engineer. After being disgruntled with the moral aspect of building weapons of mass destruction, Good recently left Boeing to start his instrument effects company, Physics Punk Pedals. Good started out like many effects gurus by building clones from kits to get acclimated, and was quickly moved by the soldering gods to try his hand at customizing and creating his own circuits. As a player on the St. Louis music scene with such bands as Midtown Thieves, Brain Regiment, and Aquitaine, Good has the ears and experience to hone in on what players want in an effects pedal. Physics Punk Pedals officially started up in November of 2013, and has been offering his own take on classic designs as well as creating custom pedals for local musicians. In a sea of guitar effects builders big and small, Good has carved a niche in the industry by being willing to listen carefully to musicians so he can transmute their ideas into actual stomp boxes that’ll make the sounds we’re hearing in our heads. On the overdrive and distortion side, Good offers the Fuzz Cat and Fuzz Rex, his take on the vintage Fuzz Face of the ‘60s. One of the keys to making a good fuzz, especially one based on a design from decades ago, is consistency of components. The problem with vintage effects has always been the fact that they don’t sound the same from unit to unit. Take it from me: there’s nothing worse than plugging into a vintage Fuzz Face and playing my favorite Hendrix riff only to find that the sound coming out of the amp isn’t even close to hitting the mark. Of course, some of that is the fact that I am not, nor never will be Hendrix, but tonally the pedal isn’t hitting the mark due to deviance in components. Good takes the time to sort out the best possible parts and circuit design, finding his way by both research and the trial-and-error technique that will
Gerald Good, Punk Physics Pedals, St. Louis eventually lead to getting the right tone, every time, out of his boxes. For a pretty new outfit, Good has quite a few pedals to choose from. The Angry Alpaca is his fuzz/distortion box that pays homage to the Dunlop Way Huge Red Llama circuit ( a new favorite of mine!), and the Synchrotron is Good’s take on the vintage Dallas Rangemaster, ideal for single coil players wanting to melt faces in the front row with a nice, thick, low-end distortion. He also offers The Scream, Good’s own version of the vintage Tube Screamer. The Linac Boost is a great EP style boost that goes from 0-100 with the twist of a knob— perfect for boosting volume and adding some warm fullness without compromising tone (and a permanent fixture on my own board!). Good also dabbles in modulation and weird, noise-based effects. His Wave Rider tremolo is based on the vintage “EA” tremolo circuit, giving the player everything from a nice shimmer to a full-out repeating sonic
karate chop. I personally find the volume control on the Wave Rider to be what sets it apart from other trems, enabling it to go from vintage amp mode to full-on crazy effect (Peter Buck fans take note!). But perhaps the coolest effect in his collection is the Bit Crusher, a lo-fi synth-like effect that turns your guitar tone into an 8 bit, Atari ray gun! As with many handmade effects companies, the aesthetic appointments of each effect (the exception being the Linac Boost) are unique and hand painted by Good himself. And the prices of these effects are affordable! There’s no need to trade your guitar for a boutique box—these pedals stay in the $100 to $150 range (for now, anyway). Plus, Good is a motivated craftsman with an open mind. I myself pitched the idea for a limited-edition Tritone Overdrive that is a sonic mix of some of my personal favorite overdrives in my collection. Good didn’t hesitate to take on the challenge! Physics Punk Pedals is based in South City, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Cherokee District. Local players like Brandon Lee of This City of Takers, Brian McClelland of Middle Class Fashion, and Via Dove’s Mike Tomko are current proud users of Good’s creations. Now is the time to get the sounds of South City on your own board!
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The Passing D Since long before their newest heavyhitter, The Hill or the Climb, the members of Magnolia Summer have been busy crafting the signature sounds of St. Louis. Robin Wheeler gets the back story. As Grace Basement finished their opening set for Magnolia Summer’s album release show on January 18, a group of old friends huddled around Off Broadway’s firepit despite the gusts from the latest cold front. The friends shared photos of their children between bits of gossip about absentees. “I haven’t seen him since 2000,” a fortysomething man said over the frigid wind. “We should have played out more. We were tight.” Far be it for a weather extreme to keep St. Louisans away. Magnolia Summer singer-songwriter Chris Grabau lists storm fronts as an influence on the band’s fourth album, The Hill or the Climb, along with Albert Camus, Vinko Bogataj, 10cc, James Honeyman Scott, Marty WilsonPiper, late ‘70s-early ‘80s alternative rock, and the Earth Drive pedal. The album is itself like a weather system. Starting with the quiet calm of the albumopening title track, Grabau, guitarist John Horton, bassist Greg Lamb and drummer Danny Kathriner move into electric rock. Horton is allowed to howl while Kathriner thunders through Grabau’s complex and layered compositions. They culminate in “Undistinguished Days” with trembling, pedal-fuzzed, slow-to-frenzied guitar. It sounds like straight line winds whipping out of heavy St. Louis July air, tearing sheets of metal towards a violent sky. Two weeks before the album’s release, Grabau and Horton discussed the process of making the tight and purposeful new album,
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recorded in two three-day session. Though the band’s lineup has been fluid since its inception, and has included many of the scene’s longest and strongest vets, these two are the band’s core, and their musical interplay is central to the sound of the band. The Hill or the Climb is Magnolia Summer’s fourth LP, and their first album together since a pair of digital EPs in 2010. “I think that nowadays you can make a record so easily that you’re victim to choice,” said Grabau. “You fall prey to that kind of choice fatigue. So we intentionally set design constraints. There was limited instrumentation. We knew the songs. We weren’t exploring songs. We went one by one by one by one.” “Most of the stuff that I played was a result of us being there, in the moment,” Horton said. “You want to create something that’s not too affected. You want it to be something that’s authentic to what you’re trying to create,” explained Grabau. That authenticity comes from working
in St. Louis for so many years in the country and punk vein first mined by Uncle Tupelo. It runs through generations of intelligent and neurotic kids from the rural Midwest who grew up in the 1980s with arena rock on FM radio, country music from their parents, college rock on MTV, and the specter of evil lurking behind it all. “The fear of burning in hell for all eternity certainly affected my decisionmaking growing up,” said Kathriner of his Baptist upbringing in House Springs, MO, thirty miles southwest of St. Louis. “Just hearing the sermons fed my love for music, though. My mom was the loudest singer in the church and I was always very proud of her for being the loudest. The band would always playing gospel songs, so gospel music had a big impact on me. Songs like ‘Just as I Am.’ These songs are just beautiful despite their message and how I interpreted that as a child.” Kathriner learned to play guitar when he was eight from a guitarist at his 30-member congregation, who pushed him to sing the likes of “Sunshine on My Shoulders” while he played. But singing made Kathriner so self-conscious he quit music entirely—until he turned twelve and discovered the drums and KISS. “It’s funny, because I had this evangelical science teacher, of all things. He’d pray in class and he’d talk about KISS and all
Days
Photos by Nate Burrell, except John Horton by Annie Zaleski
Magnolia Summer 2014, from left: Chris Grabau on guitar and vocals; John Horton on guitar; Todd Schnitzer on bass; and Danny Kathriner on drums.
the demonic things about KISS,” he said. “Although I believed him, I still loved them. They were so cool. In the end it was the glam that I loved. But it was right there at the same time,” said Kathriner. “My mom and dad were open to it. They took the whole family to see KISS in 1977 at the Checkerdome. It was like the circus.” On the other side of the state in Joplin, MO, Grabau grew up in a similar environment, haunted by a 1988 satanic ritual murder ten miles down the road in Carl Junction, MO, that brought national news crews to the quiet Ozark town. “The thing that resonates with me, growing up down there, there were the people whose world view was that Satan is real, and was around all the time,” Grabau said. “There were definitely spirits. It was a very thick underlying current that presented itself.” Fear didn’t stop him from going on long solo explorations through the countryside. “I was driving on one of my drive-abouts, and you know those Sears lawnmower sheds?” he said. “I looked over and there was a sign that said ‘Ray’s Instruments’ on one of those lawnmower sheds. I bought my mandolin from the guy who was selling out of the shed. He was in a band in the ‘30s and ‘40s that would do regional tours of radio stations, playing live, and he was in a bluegrass band and his wife played stand-up bass, so part of the deal with me buying my mandolin from him was
him saying, ‘Would you like to come over and learn, and play bluegrass?’ It just seemed like that’s what it was. It’s extending the thing. He was a cool guy.” What else was there to do in a small rural town? “You either played football, or you hung out with your friends and learned instruments,” said Grabau. Music “wasn’t anything that felt too terribly unique. It’s just what you did, and you knew a lot of people played. There were guys who played punk, guys who played rock, guys who played country. You knew the guys down the street who played bluegrass.” Mandolin and guitar led to songwriting. “I thought that when you bought a guitar, you wrote songs,” he said. “The natural evolution of that was: you play those songs for people, you form a band, and you go from there. I didn’t really think of it as some huge grand scheme. I wanted to learn to play guitar and write songs. It might have had to do with girls. It might have had to do with being a little bit of an introvert, or a little bit of an internal neurotic thinker.” “Yeah, there’s a lot of that,” said Horton. On stage, Horton projects that introversion as guitarist for both Magnolia Summer and The Bottle Rockets. He hangs back onstage, unassuming behind his Rickenbacker-playing frontmen, the technically sharp workhorse of both bands. Despite his subdued stage presence, performing came
to him in a sudden manner. “I remember the thunderbolt,” he said. “It was eighth grade, at some talent show. This kid played ‘Freeze Frame’ by the J. Geils Band. It dawned on me that you could play the music that you listened to. There was a connection made.” Even though Grabau grew up listening to his dad’s Bob Dylan records and the collegerock albums that a DJ uncle brought to him, he skipped the cover band phase and went straight to performing. “That’s where I drew heavily on the influence of punk bands, and from The Clash and R.E.M: there’s all kinds of people doing this, and that’s okay,” said Grabau. “In country music in the early days that’s what it was about. They were a bunch of guys who weren’t that far removed from us, and you actually could believe that they came from some remote place like Athens. Later, learning that Michael Stipe came from Collinsville [IL], that makes me feel even better about it.” Horton’s teen years in Washington, MO, weren’t much different—playing music because there was nothing else to do. Although his influences were different, the more broad definition of rock music that has since vanished worked in his favor. “For me, that moment was seeing U2. That was my ‘what the fuck’ moment. Specifically, it was that ensemble rock playing they were doing. That sounds awesome. And The Edge blew me away. It sounded like rock music.”
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Photo by Corey Weaver
The Passing Days - The Story of Magnolia Summer Ghost, Stillwater, Free Dirt and Nadine. with a lot of people across the country. Two Grabau added, “If you remember on Like so many of the bands at that writers in Seattle, Grant Alden and Peter MTV, they would show that, and then they time, the members of Magnolia Summer Blackstock, even established a bimonthly would show Iron Maiden. It was a very assembled gradually, gathering experience magazine to document and explore the new visible split.” in other bands. “My first band, Stillwater, sound. They called it No Depression, a name “I love Iron Maiden!,” Horton laughed. played at Cicero’s, and that was the first inspired in part by the 1990 Uncle Tupelo “Right before I discovered U2, it didn’t last time I met Danny Kathriner,” said Grabau, album of the same name. very long but I was in this metal phase—the and turned to John Horton. “Then I met you Now based in Washington, DC, Richard first Metallica record, Iron Maiden, The around that same time.” Byrne has written extensively about the Scorpions.” “Here’s the connection,” said Horton. Midwest’s role in the late 20th century’s They chuckled over the irony of hearing “My cousin Jason used to live in a house with Americana emergence. In the last year, he’s U2’s “Gloria” recently on classic rock station John O’Brien [of Stillwater]. I saw Stillwawritten liners notes for reissues of early KSHE. “They never would have played that ter’s first gig. I was there with Jason.” albums by both Uncle Tupelo and The Bottle song when it was new,” said Horton. “When “Yeah, you saw my first show,” said Grabau. Rockets. Reached by email, he offered that was out, you could risk getting beat up “That’s right. Let’s leave it at that. I spent some some clarifying details about those crucial for liking that stuff.” time thinking about what a musical family bands and scenes that begat the current At this time, Kathriner went to work tree might look like in this area. It closer to St. Louis in high school would be a big trunk. Everything’s with Midnight Ramblers, a interconnected. We’ve known each Rolling Stones cover band that other for so long.” played in hotel lounges. But like From there, Grabau and Horton Grabau, he soon fell for R.E.M. tumble into the rabbit hole of “Big life-changer for me as far band names and musician names as discovering the approach and who played with whom in to music,” he said of the band. the 1990s. While Uncle Tupelo “Looking back, they were somewas disintegrating in 1993, their what pretentious, but at the time musical style kept going in the they seemed very unpretentious fertile ground of Washington and I liked that. I liked the lo-fi University, where Kathriner joined sound they had, and the attitude Wagon at the request of fiddle about music and rock and roll.” player Chris Peterson. “At the time All three musicians were in there was this little shed off of Big St. Louis by the late ‘80s and early Bend and Forest Park Parkway, the ‘90s as a new scene emerged. “In music shed. We shared the space the late ‘80s, playing at Cicero’s, with Sourpatch, which was prethis sound came out,” said KathriNadine,” said Grabau. “The Wagon ner. “It wasn’t just Uncle Tupelo. guys and myself hit it off and There were other bands that had decided to pursue it more seriously, that same country flavor to it. so we did.” There was Chicken Truck [with Wagon recorded No Kinder future Bottle Rockets founder Room for High Tone Records Brian Henneman], Electric Sheep, with Texas pedal steel legend the Treeweasels—I was in that Lloyd Maines producing. “It didn’t band. I think there was maybe a take off,” said Grabau. “You hear collective unconscious.” the same old story: you didn’t The bands started to pick get support from the record up steam and gather attention. company. And it’s true. They were “Uncle Tupelo was certainly a very low budget, operated by two favorite at Cicero’s and with guys who didn’t have the money writers like Richard Byrne,” said to give us substantial booking Kathriner. Byrne was a music agents. It just kind of fizzled out. writer for the Riverfront Times, Magnolia Summer in 2003. From left: Aaron Zaveski, Chris Grabau, Jeremy Brown, By the time we were ready to who wrote some of the first Greg Lamb, and John Horton. record our second record, they pieces on the emerging scene’s weren’t interested.” Americana genre. “The Chicago version, bands. “Something about what [Uncle Glitterhouse Records in Germany was which [former Mekons drummer Jon] Tupelo] did and their approach as a threeinterested, though, and released two more Langford helped spearhead, was much more piece—very stripped down, almost punkish. Wagon albums. The band lived in, and consciously country mixed very specifically There was a lot of punk attitude that went worked from, a low-rent mansion on Utah into the country music. So a lot of people our with punk,” he said. “What [Uncle Tupelo] did, and where Brian [Henneman] eventually off South Grand. More musicians moved age who were coming from that same punk in, including Adam Reichmann, who was in developed, was a far more organic hybrid background, a little rebellious, I think the Sourpatch with Todd Schnitzer. Reichmann that drew as heavily on folk and KSHE rock mix of country and punk really resonated started writing songs with Wagon’s Steve and hardcore as it did on country music.” with us. Maybe it’s not so much something Rauner. Byrne included a list of other St. Louis that was happening specifically confined to Kathriner said, “The thing is with Wagon favorites who made great music but didn’t St. Louis. Maybe it was more of a Midwestand Steve, it’s unfortunate that Wagon gave get the same attention at Uncle Tupelo, ern thing.” him so many parameters. He was stuck with including Enormous Richard, Grandpa’s Actually, Uncle Tupelo was catching on
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The Passing Days - The Story of Magnolia Summer accordion, Hammond B-3, and mandola. We didn’t utilize his talents on guitar. He’s a phenomenal guitar player. What he found with Adam was that he could play guitar.” As Wagon released its second album, Reichmann, Schnitzer and Rauner released their first album as Nadine. The tree barely forked as the community of musicians grew tighter in the late ‘90s. “Around that time the music scene changed. I think it became less insular,” said Horton, who spent that time in New Patrons Of Husbandry, The Rockhouse Ramblers, and Kamikaze Cowboy. “I think very early on it felt like, starting out, you had to get your foot in the door,” said Grabau. “Then, around ’99 or ’98, everyone was familiar with one another and it wasn’t that big of a deal. I think of the Way Out Club being one of those places you could go and your friends were at the bar, watching the band play. Cicero’s was kind of like that, too. It was always kind of happening, but it seemed to reach a peak around that time.” In those years Grabau played with Cheyenne Social Club, Waterloo, and Kamikaze Cowboy. He formed Magnolia Summer,
Cave States is a collaborative writing project between Grabau and Kathriner, rooted in acoustic ethos. Magnolia Summer is Grabau’s rock compositions. The players are the same, but the game’s different, one that’s wellsuited for St. Louis. “St. Louis is a big enough town to pull a number of resources that are greater than a small town, but small enough to have some agility,” said –Chris Grabau Grabau. “I think that’s been the difference. What’s true with the locavore [food] movement is the same thing with music. It’s never been keep the band going. In 2001, with members too big of a town to just call somebody up. traveling between St. Louis, California and We’ve all made a lifestyle choice. It’s about Brooklyn to record, they decided to end it. making bands and helping people make With only half of the group’s members in bands. Somehow that makes life a little more St. Louis, Wagon morphed into Half Knots. bearable and it pushes us. Even if it’s just a Half Knots is still active, and released personal body of work, it’s still something their fourth album, Proof, last year. Horton more than being sedentary and a consumer. contributed to the album, and Grabau joined That’s one of our core foundations as people. them on vocals for the 2013 Twangfest set. We’re supposed to create. We’re supposed to Kathriner and Grabau bonded musically do something. It doesn’t matter the medium. It during a KDHX tribute to R.E.M. in 2012, and boils down to: Make a decision. I feel like the soon began work on their first album as Cave people in the music community who I really States, which was released in late 2013. love made that decision a long time ago. I don’t Despite Cave States’ lineup including even know if it was conscious because it’s so most of the musicians who play as Magnolia ingrained that it’s not a decision anymore.” Summer, the bands are distinctly different. releasing their debut album, Levers and Pulleys, in 2003. By this time Wagon’s members were scattered around the country. Schnitzer and Kathriner remained in St. Louis, trying to
“St. Louis has never been too big a town to just call somebody up. We’ve all made a lifestyle choice. It’s about making bands and helping people make bands.”
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this time around We’re falling like fools for Stl’s own by Kyle Kapper MAKING HER WAY TO the back table of a narrow, deserted wine bar, Lizzie Weber began sharing her remarkable story before her coat and scarf were even off. Warming her hands around a steaming cup of tea, she recalled how her passions for writing, acting, and performing were all born at Once in the Chicago Theatre. Five years later, still clearly affected, she conjured memories of that staged adaptation of the Swell Season opus: “Over a thousand people sitting quietly in their seats,” she said, “watching these two artists, completely entra nced by their passion.” That auspicious night changed the St. Louis native’s life. It opened Ms. Weber’s eyes to the possibilities of the stage. Yet blocking her ambitions was a harsh industry that threatened to blot out her personality and send her dreams up in smoke. Instead of wilting in the heat, though, she blazed herself a new path, re-sculpting her molten ambition in new ways, into music. I didn’t know any of this when I discovered Lizzie Weber, her debut album released in January, so I was floored hearing its hard-earned wisdom offered boldly through breathtaking vocals. The record rises and falls through vibrant landscapes: lushly orchestral here, acoustically raw there. It’s like listening to Idina Menzel in Laurel Canyon–or, less whimsically, like sitting quietly in a plush red seat, completely entranced by an artist’s passion. With an inviting energy just shy of being eager, Ms. Weber revealed the roots of her strikingly graceful debut, from its commandingly poignant voice to its magical, sweeping arrangements. Stirring tea and memories, she began wistfully, reminiscing on how she had followed her heart, quit college, and, at the age of twenty, moved to LA to be an actress. lizzie Weber: I was told that I wasn’t uniquelooking enough. I was told to dye my hair,
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to cut it, to lose weight. I was told to change everything about myself under the sun. After a while, it left me feeling just empty. That was when I really started writing intensely. I started listening to a ton of Joni Mitchell. I remember listening to “Cactus Tree” like a hundred times over, trying to figure out how she started fingerpicking. I didn’t take any lessons. That’s how I learned. You can probably hear some of those influences, especially in my piano pieces, even in my guitar[‘s] open tuning. I had friends who were musicians who kept encouraging me and said, “You have a knack for this. Maybe you should record some of these tracks.” I continued to scoff at that. What I was writing was so bare and emotional. I was so afraid of sharing that. eleven: So your music is autobiographical? lW: Yes. Yes. I found myself constantly writing about human connection. Relationships, not necessarily romantic ones, but familial [ones], friendships, and your relationship with yourself. I think that’s the most intense connection there is, what we have with people. 11: How did you come to be such an empathetic person? lW: My parents. My mother in particular is probably the most empathetic woman. [She’s] affectionate, very sensitive, and very intuitive with her own emotions. I always felt slightly ashamed that I was such an emotional girl, so open with what I was thinking and feeling. Too forward. One thing I’ve learned from peers [is] we don’t necessarily realize that there’s so much shame involved with expressing pain. Writing helps me confront that. Listening to Joni so much, and Joan Baez, Mazzy Star, those types of artists, I was so heavily influenced and inspired to be okay with being honest and not worrying about whether or not somebody is going to listen to one of my songs and say, “Where’s the chorus? Where’s the commercial, radio-
friendly track?” That was why I wanted to record without the influence of a label or somebody telling me how to arrange the accompaniment. 11: Speaking of which, your arrangements are gorgeously intricate and so unique from one another. How does one’s debut record come to include styles ranging from piano balladry to Beirut-sounding strings? lW: I initially went in [to Sherpa Studios] to record a few demo tracks, just raw and live. Brian Ryback is the owner of Sherpa, and after a few months of working with him, he said, “Let’s experiment with adding more instrumentation. Why don’t you release a full-length album and I’ll co-produce it?” And I was like, “Hell yes, let’s do it.” So we got a cellist, a violinist, and a percussionist, and Brian himself plays sax, bass, organ, [and] mandolin. He was instrumental, and he’s musically trained. He went to Berklee. I’ll usually compose the lyrics and music simultaneously. I think that’s why the connection between the music and the lyrics sounds so deliberate. This word corresponds with that note. Or maybe this note should be sharp or flat. That’s what’s impulsively going on in my mind, and sometimes those impulsive pieces turn out okay and sometimes they don’t. There was a lot of improvisation. For a long time, we didn’t have
lizzie Weber anything actually written out, which was maybe not the smartest but certainly leaves the most room for experimentation. What you’re hearing, what ended up feeling improvised, was actually very deliberate. Every inflection that makes your ears perk up was intentional. Like in the beginning of “Lighthouse,” I wanted the slow, staccato string part to be like the waves in the ocean, to put people in that place. Listening to all ten tracks, [the album] turned out dynamic, which was unexpected. “California” is more folk-pop. “Catastrophe” is folkjazz. “Sorry Days” has this Mediterranean Americana feel to it. Not much of that was pre-planned. Being completely open and everybody getting their input was what made it so special. Those musicians were so important. 11: Did you sense your theatre background coming out when you were constructing the songs? lW: You paint a picture for an audience onstage with your movement and your words and your facial expression. It’s a very intimate experience. I wanted that same thing on this album. I wanted the listener to feel connected to the music regardless of whether the story was their own. For example, “California” is a song for those idealists in the world. Originally, the lyrics were much more melodramatic. After record-
ing the vocals for the first verse, I realized I wanted it to be more hopeful. 11: Why? lW: I wrote those lyrics when I was still in California. After leaving, I realized how I wouldn’t be what I am today without that experience, without all of that rejection. California is sort of that land of opportunity. The grass is always greener. We left the studio after that first verse. We went down to Panera to grab some food with the notepad, and then, in thirty minutes, we wrote new lyrics. It was so impulsive, and that was it. We went right back up to the studio and recorded the song. 11: But many of your songs let the darkness in, especially “A Broken Bond” and “This Time Around.” lW: It’s amazing how often all of us, at least at one point in our lives, think, “If I had done one thing different in that one moment, would my entire life be different? Would that person’s entire life be different? If I had done more to try and control our fates, where would I be now? Where would they be now?” [“This Time Around”] is sort of a reflection of that. And “A Broken Bond” is probably…some people have listened to that song and said it reminds them of Donnie Darko’s “Mad World,” which I would say is much darker. It’s about one person reaching out and the other person rejecting that attempt. How heartbreaking that can feel. Those two songs in particular I’d say are definitely the most exposed; or at least completely raw, truthful, no hiding; not too much lyrical ambiguity or metaphorical language; just, “This is what’s happening right now.” 11: Do they make the stage show? lW: Yes, occasionally. It’s interesting. There’s still that big challenge of fearing whether an audience will think it’s too dark. Whether they will shut off or tune you out if you start to go to a place that’s uncomfortable.
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you paint a picture for an audience onstage with movement and words and facial expression. it’s a very intimate experience. i wanted that same thing on this album.
People don’t always want to hear that. They don’t want to hear what makes them uncomfortable. They want to get up and dance. They want to shake their shoulders. They want to get in the groove. Depending on the genre of music, you know what you’re going into when you’re going out to see an artist perform. But even then, it’s still this underlying fear I have when I play a song of mine that will maybe touch too tender a nerve in somebody. When maybe my attitude should be [that] maybe somebody will find great comfort in this or very strongly relate to this. Sometimes it’s hard to get the guts to share those nitty-gritty pieces that push the boundary of everybody’s comfort zone. I think that that’s one of the beauties of recording an album. You record it, and you put your heart into it, and you make it as good as you can, or as true to yourself as you can as the artist that you are, and then you just hope. If even one person connects to it, you’ve succeeded. I don’t give a shit about money or fame. I don’t make music with the hope of ever being on Top 40. That’s never really been my goal. My goal as far as my career goes
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is just to be able to keep making music, in whatever capacity that may be. Obviously, it’s a nice feeling when you sell a record, when somebody wants to purchase your music. It’s something you’ve created and put your heart and soul into, but it’s not at the forefront of my mind. I would be content playing in venues that are small enough that I can look into the face of every audience member. (laughs) Obviously, the Chicago Theatre would be cool, too. 11: Were you seeking fame when you went to LA? lW: That’s a good question. My answer is no. I was so driven by the love of performing. My motivation for going to LA wasn’t necessarily to make it as an actress in those big blockbuster films. It was to hopefully be a part of those incredible independent films like Winter’s Bone or Little Miss Sunshine, the films that again deal with human connection or loss and love and hope. That’s such a large part of what I love
about performing, those elements. Of course, you want to be able to make a living doing what you’re doing, but I don’t think I ever really had stars in my eyes. I think that if I had, I probably would have lost a little bit of myself out there. Luckily, I don’t think I did.
11: Do you hold a grudge against those who objectified you in LA? lW: There was a time… I was in LA between the ages of twenty and twenty-two, which is still so young. I’m twenty-four now, and I look back at the time, and I think about how hard it was for me to continually hear that something about my exterior wasn’t enough. I think had I not had this musical outlet, I would have a very big chip on my shoulder. It just made me realize that I would rather do something that I had more control over. I could control when I wanted to be creative. I could control when I wanted to perform out, play a show. I didn’t have to wait for somebody to tell me when I could or couldn’t perform, and that was what was so appealing. And maybe I’ll act again if the opportunity presents itself. I certainly love it just as much. It’s still a very big passion of mine. But for now, what I feel is right for me is following this path with my music.
Inside Inside Llewyn Davis
The Coen brothers’ crafty salute to tradition by Joe Andert [Ed note: SPOILER ALERT. I mean, this article doesn’t give everything away, but I personally suggest you wait to read this until you’ve seen the film. So: go see the film!] A lot has been said about the Coen brothers’ newest film, Inside Llewyn Davis. It is, sincerely, a brilliant film that is just begging to be analyzed and pored over. However, after a second viewing, I don’t find myself stuck on the nuances of the film, or the metaphorical implications of one seriously fascinating cat, but rather on the film’s core: the tradition of American folk music. Inside Llewyn Davis follows a down-andout folk singer in the early 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene, mere days before Bob Dylan’s game-changing arrival, through what can only be described as a musician’s worst nightmare. Davis, played pitch-perfectly by the golden-voiced Oscar Isaac (Agora, Drive), has fallen on some seriously hard times. Still wounded by the suicide of his best friend and musical partner, Mike, Davis serves out his essentially homeless existence hopping from couch to couch, floor to floor, while playing for lukewarm crowds and passing the basket for loose change at the infamous Gaslight folk club. His situation wouldn’t be so hard to witness if it weren’t for the fact that Davis is a truly brilliant folk musician. He’s so good that you’ll root for him through the next 105 minutes of the film even though he is, quite frankly, a bit of a bastard. Hoping for his big break, he hitchhikes to Chicago in search of legendary club The Gate of Horn. Unfortunately, like so many of the Coen Brothers’ characters, Davis’s life is largely lived at the mercy of others, and those others aren’t too kind. He’s that kind of guy. Things really start to get interesting when we first hear the folk staple “Fare Thee Well (Dink’s Song)”. Upon waking at a friend’s house after being beaten up in an alley outside of the Gaslight, Davis places his and Mike’s duo record, If I Had Wings, onto the turntable. This harmony-laden gem of a tune follows:
I had a man, who was long and tall He moved his body like a cannon ball Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well I remember one evening in the pouring rain And in my heart there was an aching pain Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well Muddy river runs muddy and wild You can’t give a bloody for my unborn child Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well The song takes on a particularly melancholy cast when one considers that the beautiful harmony attached to Davis’s
stance, to schedule and pay for her to receive an abortion. It becomes clear that this isn’t Davis’s first time around this particular merry-go-round, and later he discovers he has a two-year-old child living in Akron, OH. When Llewyn finally reaches Chicago, he performs “The Death of Queen Jane,” a ballad originally catalogued by Francis James Child, for an important club owner and manager. The song, a retelling of Queen Jane’s self-sacrificial Caesarian and subsequent death, takes on a whole new meaning when Davis’s own paternal circumstances are considered. Unfortunately for Davis, the club owner doesn’t “see much money” in his music. At the risk of spoiling major plot events, I do believe it’s safe to say that Davis undergoes a metamorphosis throughout the film. His travels change him. By the film’s end, he seems to have made some kind of peace with his partner’s death, and the film ends with another version of “Fare Thee Well.” But in this final version of the song, we can hear Davis’s transformation in a way that no other film would allow. In comparing the versions of “Fare Thee Well” from the beginning and end of the film, Davis’s change is manifested ingeniously in the latter version’s more upbeat strumming pattern and slightly altered lyrics. The line “pouring rain” becomes “drizzling rain.” The “can’t give a bloody for my unborn child”
In the final version of “Fare Thee Well,” we can hear the transformation of the artist in a way that no other film would allow.
If I had wings like Noah’s dove I’d fly the river to the one I love Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well
voice (sung by real-life folk musician Marcus Mumford) belongs to his deceased best friend. His partner’s spirit seems to be tethered to Davis at all times, and Davis’s loss begins to weigh even heavier when the final verse hits and the duo sings: So show us a bird flying high above Life ain’t worth living without the one you love Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well. Soon, we learn that Llewyn has accidentally impregnated his friend’s girlfriend and fellow folk singer, Jean (Carey Mulligan). She asks him, rather unpolitely given the circum-
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elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 21
Beating the Retreat Richard Thompson in the Prime of Life: An Appreciation Richard Thompson
with Teddy Thompson Wednesday, February 19
Illustration by Tyler Gross
The pageant
by Josh Siegel I recall watching Bob Dylan talk about different types of fame: there’s the guy famous in his own neighborhood, like the charming small town mechanic; there are people famous within their field of work, like the brilliant doctor famed among hospitals; and there is the kind of fame where people know who you are whether they want to or not, like Dylan himself. Although Richard Thompson is often described as “England’s Bob Dylan,” I find that Thompson has always kind of existed within that “brilliant doctor” level of fame. But like all cult followings, once you’re in the know, you’re baffled as to how everyone hasn’t gotten it yet, while part of you secretly relishes that you’re one of the few on the inside. Richard Thompson’s long career started early: his first band, Emil And The Detectives, was formed in his midteens and also included Hugh Cornwell, who would go on to form The Stranglers. Straight out of school in ‘67 he joined Fairport Convention, which gave Thompson his first glimpse of fame, and praise for his guitar playing. In ‘71 he set off on his own… but his solo release, Henry the Human Fly, got slammed, and he retreated a bit. He returned in ‘74 with his new wife as Richard and Linda Thompson, and they released six albums in their eight years together, gaining increasing critical respect but not much in the way of popular awareness. In ‘82 the Thompsons separated personally and professionally, and soon after Richard Thompson released Hand of Josh Siegel plays guitar and sings in the band Bailiff. Their second album, Remise, is due out later this spring.
22 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com
Kindness, his second album under his own name, and toured extensively to support it with a two-sax, “big band” ensemble, before signing up with PolyGram in 1985. From there he bounced to Capitol, which released Rumor and Sigh in 1991, and it seemed like Thompson might be catching on with the wider public. But there was a lot going on in the music world in the ‘90s, and his quietly revolutionary character sketches and virtuosity weren’t necessarily prized at the moment. He kept making records on Capitol until 2001, when he decided (well ahead of the pack of Radioheads and Reznors) to leave the major-label system behind to self-release and self-support his albums. Since then he has been writing and touring and experimenting with a variety of styles and different top-notch collaborators. His most recent release, 2013’s Electric, is Thompson in a whole new mode, touring in a three-piece power trio that foregrounds both his songwriting and the particular character of his electric guitar playing. Thompson’s arsenal of talent is massive, and includes his songwriting, his guitar playing, and his voice. As a guitarist myself, I was first drawn to his playing, so I’ll start there—and warn you that I’m headed straight into guitar nerd territory. First: It’s necessary to separate Thompson’s acoustic and electric guitar playing, because his two styles are so different. Inventing just one of his styles would’ve been enough to distinguish himself from the pack of famous guitarists, but Thompson has been a true innovator on both instruments. I’ve seen Richard Thompson perform in a variety of settings with a variety of bands; the set at the Pageant will be a solo acoustic show. His solo acoustic guitar approach uses aspects of what one might normally see from a classical guitarist or 1950s country guitar instrumentalist. One half of each hand keeps the rhythm and root notes moving, while the other half of each hand embellishes and solos on top of it. Having tried this style out, it’s alarming how clever Thompson has to be to include those bass notes in every move up the neck. For you guitarists: picture playing a bar chord and only using those three remaining fingers to play a solo. It’s tedious, but creates such a full sound. Richard Thompson’s style reminds me of the creativity and problem solving that first inspired Chuck Berry to emulate piano phrases by always playing two notes at a time, in an effort to keep the guitar thick and driving. I used to feel guilty about gravitating towards drop tunings, like those extra low notes were cheating or something. Studying Thompson’s style has made me
realize that when you’re accompanying yourself on acoustic guitar, your mission is to get as much sound out of the thing as possible. Do whatever it takes. Then there’s Thompson’s electric guitar playing. In a full-band setting, the bass and rhythm guitar have the chord progression covered, so Thompson is able to push his lead guitar further off the grid—and man, he gets out there. “Shoot Out the Lights,” off the 1982 album of the same name, is a great example (though I’m partial to the version he included on his 2003 More Guitar live album). Because he’s got access to this whole other Scottish and Irish guitar vocabulary, Thompson is able to—dare I say—shred, without falling into any blues rock clichés or hair-metal noodling. Far from it. Many of his electric solos are reminiscent of John Coltrane, in that it will go places that get straight-up bizarre and uncomfortable, grinding even, and then right as it verges on pure nonsense, the phrase shockingly resolves. Suddenly it’s clear that he knew what he was doing all along. It’s like choreographing a fight scene: right when it looks like our hero is going to fall off the cliff, it’s all just a setup to make the last-second comeback that much more thrilling. In the midst of virtuosity, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture: the lyrics, the stories, the melodies, the tune. This is where many guitar virtuosos unwittingly cut corners.
settling down And they say her flower’s faded now, hard weather and hard booze But maybe that’s just the price you pay for the chains that you refuse Thompson often manages to sum up a vast and vague melancholy while weaving his language in a classical mode that you just don’t hear these days. Sometimes I picture him at his desk, writing his lyrics with a feather quill pen. Possibly his most renowned song is “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” in which every line draws us further into a doomed romance. It opens mid-scene: Said Red Molly to James, that’s a fine motorbike A girl could feel special on any such like Said James to Red Molly, my hat’s off to you It’s a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952 Now I’ve seen you on the corners and the cafe it seems Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme Then he pulled her on behind and down to Boxhill they did ride Like a lot of Thompson’s originals, the first time I heard the chords and melody of “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” I thought, “Wait, is this some old folk standard?” But no, Thompson sat himself down in 1991 and wrote a death ballad that will live on in the folk library somewhere between “Danny Boy” and “Long Black Veil.” Thompson sings in a proud Englishman’s voice. The drive behind his voice seems to be to sing in a way that would earn him the approval of the forefathers of British, Scottish and Celtic music. It’s to those guys that he’s projecting (the word “heritage” comes to mind). It can take a minute for this kind of voice to settle into American ears; most of us are so used to R&B-influenced vocals that it can feel like trading in your pants and wearing a kilt for the day. But Thompson’s voice has always resonated with me. It’s rich, honest, and very direct. I suppose this is where there might be another Dylan parallel—both are great songwriters with singing voices of a unique timbre, whose defining characteristic is conviction. Nothing sounds better than someone vocalizing something s/he simply knows must be heard. As a working musician who has felt that impatient inner voice asking, “When am I gonna break through to the big time?,” I’m also inspired by Thompson’s career path.
Inventing just one style would’ve been enough to distinguish himself from the pack of famous guitarists, but Thompson has been a true innovator on both acoustic and electric. But Richard Thompson isn’t just a strong guitarist who writes music to solo over: he is a clear-eyed, elegant lyricist and composer who is also able to inject his songs with guitar wizardry if, and only if, the tune calls for it. Some of Thompson’s most potent live moments come during the seemingly simple three-chord songs that showcase his poetic, aching lyrics. Many of his strongest lyrics are delivered in the lilt of the Old English folk ballads he grew up on. From “Beeswing,” on his ‘94 album Mirror Blue: Last I heard, she’s sleeping rough Back on the Derby Beat With White Horse in her hip pocket And a wolfhound at her feet They say she even married once, to a man named Romany Brown But even a gypsy caravan was too much
(Continued on page 31)
elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 23
mewiThouTyou, Bald Eagle Mountain, Search Parties at off Broadway
MONdAy, FEBruAry 3
TeF Poe at gramophone
ruBedo at heavy anchor
Trey anasTasio Band at the Pageant
The Black angels, Roky Erickson at Firebird
SATurdAy, FEBruAry 1
BoB schneider, Jimmy Griffin at off
Jeremiah Johnson, Aaron Griffin, Matt Lesch at the duck room
SATurdAy, FEBruAry 8
new PoliTics, Magic Man, Sleeper Agent at Firebird
FrIdAy, FEBruAry 7
The Vcrs at the gramophone
reCOMMenDeD ShOWS
The dusTy 45s, The Bible Belt Sinners,
PeT sounds: a nighT For sTray rescue with Bluefish, Search Parties, Kelsey McClure, Jon Venegoni, Kenny Kinds, Via Dove at off Broadway
arcTic monkeys at the Pageant
SATurdAy, FEBruAry 15
Those darlins, Diarrhea Planet at
Joshua aBrams & naTural inFormaTion socieTy at Joe’s cafe
SATurdAy, FEBruAry 22
Legend Camp, Loren D, Mathias, Jia Davis, Thelonius Kryptonite, 18andCounting
SaturDay, February 15 at OlD rOCk hOuSe With tyvek Stephen Malkmus has mellowed? Is that right? Has living in Portland for more than a decade now turned him into a hippie? It might have—he’s been talking about the Grateful Dead a lot lately, it seems. But don’t fear, he hasn’t lost his quirkiness and his has certainly not lost his ability to write catchy tune that will stay stuck in your head for days. When the hipster anti-icon hits the Old Rock House this month with his band, The Jicks, you can bet the set will be filled with fresh news from their brand new release, Wig Out at Jagbag’s, plus a jumble of sweetheart numbers from 2011’s excellent Mirror Traffic and the rest of their six fulllengths—and hopefully even a Pavement song or two, just for good measure. HugH Scott
StePhen MalkMuS & the JiCkS
MuSiCalenDar February 2014
PhoTo By leah nash
The Pixies at Peabody opera house
Okay, this show is both comedy and music— Leslie and the Ly’s has a kind of built-in funny that makes any song comedic, while also creating weirdly compelling music. This show looks to be a strange and rewarding experience for all who dare.
leslie and The ly’s, Dean and the Delilahs, Boone County Comedy Troupe at Plush
slam sTudio music showcase w/ Soma Jet Set, Dear Genre, Without Hazard at heavy anchor
THurSdAy, FEBruAry 6
denT may, Jack Name, Jimmy Whispers at The Billiken club
elway, Direct Hit!, The Haddonfields, Model Citizen, The Cuban Missiles at the demo
russian circles, Kenmode, Inter Arma at Firebird
100Th BirThday celeBraTion oF william s. Burroughs: Readings, Film, and Music at heavy anchor
caroline smiTh, The Right Now at off Broadway
The Please, Please me, Humdrum, Joeboy & Djibouti, Tim Rakel at Plush
The whisTle Pigs, The Hooten Hallers at off Broadway
heaTsick, Raglani, Black James at william a. kerr Foundation (21 O’Fallon St)
THurSdAy, FEBruAry 13
Fumer, Heavy Glow, Ocean Rivals, The Many Colored Death at Plush
The airBorne Toxic eVenT, Kongos at the Pageant
WEdNESdAy, FEBruAry 12
3rd annual J dilla TriBuTe w/ DJ Needles, Soulman Snipes, A Bareknuckle Music Beat Battle, DOWNSTEREO feat. Tef Poe, Nato Caliph, Family Affair,
TrisTen, Brave Baby, Optimus Rex, Black Bears at Firebird
garage FesT day 2 with Strangefellas, Playing Possum, Holy Doldrums, Brother Lee & The Leather Jackals at heavy anchor
cassino, Carter Hulsey, Blackwater 64, Old Souls Revival at the demo
aVeTT BroThers at Peabody opera house
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
daVe hagerTy communiTy garden Fundraiser at heavy anchor
FrIdAy, FEBruAry 28
PicTure day at heavy anchor
THurSdAy, FEBruAry 27
celeBraTion day: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin at the Pageant
The reViValisTs, Pernikoff Brothers at old rock house
TurnPike TrouBadours, American Aquarium at off Broadway
FrIdAy, FEBruAry 21
eleni mandell, Vikesh Kapoor at Firebird
BeTh BomBara, Samantha Harlow, Jenny & the Late Nite at off Broadway
WEdNESdAy, FEBruAry 26
shoVels and roPe, Hurray For The Riff Raff at off Broadway
TuESdAy, FEBruAry 25
droPkick murPhys, Lucero, Skinny Lister at the Pageant
MONdAy, FEBruAry 24
ellis Paul at off Broadway
SuNdAy, FEBruAry 23
garage FesT day 3 with The Wheelers, Bruiser Queen, Tiger Rider at heavy anchor
Funky BuTT Brass Band, Hazard To Ya Booty at gramophone
If there is anything you love about rock n roll, you will find it in joyful abundance at a Diarrhea Planet show. One of the best bands playing under one of the worst names ever, just trust us and get your ass to the show before it sells out. If the name still bugs you, don’t buy the shirt.
off Broadway
san Fermin, Son Lux at off Broadway
garage FesT day 1 with Army Of Infants, Boreal Hills, Shitstorm, Chuck Falcon at heavy anchor
TuESdAy, FEBruAry 11
THurSdAy, FEBruAry 20
FiTz and The TanTrums, The Unlikely Candidates at the Pageant
PassaFire, Ballyhoo!, Tasi at Firebird
Foghorn sTringBand, The Southwest Watson Sweethearts, Kevin Buckley at off Broadway
chuck Berry at the duck room
richard ThomPson at the Pageant
WEdNESdAy, FEBruAry 19
com Truise, Phantoms at Firebird
sTar & micey, Carolina Story, Yankee Rain at the demo
TuESdAy, FEBruAry 18
dale earnhardT Jr. Jr., Chad Valley at old rock house
SuNdAy, FEBruAry 16
sTePhen malkmus & The Jicks, Tyvek at old rock house
Runaway Barge at gramophone
Jason isBell, Robert Ellis at off Broadway
MONdAy, FEBruAry 10
reggie & The Full eFFecT, Dads, Pentimento at Fubar
griFFin house at the duck room
neuTral milk hoTel, Elf Power at the Pageant
SuNdAy, FEBruAry 9
WEdNESdAy, FEBruAry 5
Jason isBell, Robert Ellis at Plush
Faces like FlinT, Wildeyed, Crowns, Ikaika at Plush
Von sTranTz, Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo, My Molly at Plush
The co., Soma at the demo
al holliday & The easT side rhyThm Band at gramophone
Were you there when Diarrhea Planet tore the roof off the Gramophone last November? If you were, you saw a fuggin’ GREAT show that included both Bully and Boreal Hills opening with equal parts smarts and muscle. Either way, make sure you’re at this show—both bands are must sees. And bring your rockin’ shoes!
Bully, Boreal Hills at gramophone
Bam!, The Hatrick, Acoustics Anonymous at old rock house
Broadway
TuESdAy, FEBruAry 4
Crooks On Tape is the project of John Schmersal and Rick Lee. Schmersal was in Brainiac, one of the great blasting electrorock bands from the ‘90s that would’ve completely taken over the music world if their singer Tim Tyler hadn’t died at the cusp of major-label exposure. Schmersal and Lee went on to form Enon, super great in their own right, and now Crooks On Tape, which brings the hooks without dulling their points.
crooks on TaPe, Grand House at Firebird
Live Music
BRING ON THE NIGHT = STL musician
Ume’s Lauren Larsen onstage at Pop’s, where they opened for Cage The Elephant and Foals December 16.
>>preview
Dent May, Jack Name,
Jimmy Whispers Wednesday, February 5
Blue BEAT-RECOMMENDED BluES JAMS
Billiken Club An old Victorian house in the historical tropics of St. Augustine was the muse for Dent May’s newest album, Warm Blanket. Full of breezy songs that range from soft electro-thump to ecstatic acoustic lullaby, Warm Blanket drops four-minute pop gems into a very exotic songwriting space. Dent’s vocals catch portamento waves that glide up and down—more early Pink Floyd than Beach Boys—while echoes of ‘60s chamber pop, psychedelic folk anthems, and
Photo: Bryan Sutter
the seemingly forgotten FM-radio electrodance stored away somewhere in your preteen subconscious all gently work their way into his songcraft. But the physical sound of Dent May’s music remains much more sonically clear and communicable than the effect-overload of many of his peers. Though he builds in subtle synth lines, electronic bleeps, and other magical sounds, the songs mostly hone in on the interplay between crisp acoustic guitar, minor piano chords, and doubled vocals; grounded by pulsating bass drum thumps. The resulting is very graspable, danceable tunes that you can sing along to if you’re so inclined—though, yes, you should also probably be dancing.
Mondays The Beale On Broadway Hosted by The Hardtale Blues Band 701 S Broadway
Broadway Oyster Bar Hosted by The Soulard Blues Band 736 S Broadway
TUESdays Highway 61 Roadhouse Hosted by Matt Davis & Darrow Washington 34 S. Old Orchard Ave
WEDNESdays 1860’s Saloon Hosted by Jimmy Lee Kennett 1860 S. 9th St.
SUNdays Hammerstone’s Hosted by The Voodoo Blues Band (afternoon show 4-8pm) 2028 S. 9th Street
26 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com
BLUE BEAT by Jeremy Segel-Moss
Blues Jams St. Louis is an open mic kinda town. There’s an open mic every night of the week, sometimes several, for pretty much any kind of musical taste. For blues, an open mic tends to be an open jam. Jams are unique in that they offer a place for young musicians to cut their teeth, more seasoned musicians to come mix and match with other seasoned musicians, and touring acts to stop by and play with the locals. Moreover, blues jams tend to be (dare I say) fun! On a musician’s level, jams are a wonderful way to learn from some of St. Louis’ best talent. All of the musicians who host the jams listed to the left are teachers in their own way. It’s not just older musicians teaching younger musicians, but every musician learning from every musician. Blues is an
art form passed from person to person, which makes jams even more important for those who want to pick up on the tradition. Jams aren’t just for the musicians. A rule of thumb at blues jams is that anything can happen, and it usually does. There is the inherent danger at any open jam that a disrespectful musician could show up and damage the vibe, but more often than not the music tends to be really, really good. The long-running jams, like the Broadway Oyster Bar Mondays (said to be the longest running blues jam in the country), tend to attract local and national musicians over time. You never know whether there’ll be a few local guitar players sitting in, or a ten-piece brass band from Branson showing up. Jams can offer the magic of spontaneity that all music lovers search to find. There are more blues jams than we can list here, but here are five worth checking out.
Live Music It may not hurt to mention Dent May finds quite excellent company with Animal Collective, who have been releasing music on their own Paw Tracks imprint since 2009. Sharing similar melodic sensibilities and investigations into ecstatic pop, Dent will be welcomed by fans of the label’s diverse roster. Speaking of a diverse roster: this concert also fits in quite nicely into the Billiken Club’s excellent 2013/14 concert programming, which has thus far produced shows by No Age, Lapalux, and Ex-Cult, while promising plenty more to look forward to (Jandek anyone?!). Raymond Code >>PREVIEW
Heatsick, Raglani, Black James Thursday, February 13
William A Kerr Foundation (21 O’Fallon St) A grievance often leveled at contemporary electronic musicians is that they have it too easy these days, with a world of sounds always in easy reach. Yet the truth is, it’s still encouraging to come across someone with a musical voice that is so unmistakably their own. In the case of Berlin-based Heatsick, and STL’s own Black James and Raglani, we have key examples of musicians who have all found, through quite different approaches, their voices through specific entry points into their electronic sound. Berlin-based Heatsick (aka Steven Warwick) maximizes quite minimal gear— often just a Casio, a few pedals, and vocals— to produce experimental dance music that is equal parts raw, streamlined, and super catchy. Mixing deep house music chords, jagged bongo rhythms, and dry-delivered vocals, Warwick’s sound brings to mind the dance/song intersections of Arthur Russell. Automation and sensuality become blurred, and a deliberate headspace is maintained for deeper ideas to seep in, including concepts of sexual fluidity, as on 2011’s Intersex, or the working mechanisms of poetry integrated into cut-up spoken texts on his newest release, 2013’s Clear Channel. Always with a trick up her sleeve, Black James (aka Jennifer McDaniel) remains one of St. Louis’ most restless musical wildcards. Switching between banjos and samplers, and keeping a keen eye open for collaborations with remixers or backing dancers, Black James produces fantasy dance tracks filigreed with her ethereal vocals. All venues are fair game—Black James has performed in clubs, art spaces, street parties, basements and house shows—making her a must-see of St. Louis music. Raglani digs deep into the possibilities of modular synthesis, fusing esoteric electronic knowledge into a music that expands wildly in real time through complex patterns yet remains rooted in melody. Filter sweeps and pulsing oscillations build
momentum, take flight, and are magnetically pulled back to a melodic sequence of chords. Tours with Keith Fullerton Whitman and Emeralds alumni, as well as releases for labels such as Kranky and Editions Mego, all serve testament to Raglani’s musical vision. This is an ideal lineup for the launch of Mild Power, a new organization intent on activating sound and space, and the Heatsick show is the first in what will be a series of concerts and happenings. The William A Kerr Foundation building, a turn-of-the-century bathhouse converted into a green and LEED certified community space, is also perfectly apropos. To add even a little more spice to this “space activation,” live feeds of each musician will be processed into analog video circuitry, and these solarized images will be multiplied on three projection screens in the performance space. Undoubtedly this evening will give you much to listen to, look at, and think about. Raymond Code >>PREVIEW
San Fermin, Son Lux Friday, February 21 Off Broadway When the needle hits and the gates open, the bullish spirit of The National charges first, Brooklyn-based baritone and all. When the pursuit turns a sharp corner, Lucius catches you between their horns, pinning you against the wall. The crowd cheers for cruelty, but an unseen maestro intervenes, halting the encierro as a distant trumpet announces the matador. Welcome to San Fermin. This Baroque brainchild of indie-chamber-pop mastermind (but non-frontman) Ellis Ludwig-Leone is a trove of exhilarating mystery breathed to life by Lambchop/ Berninger lovechild Allen Tate and the white-hot lungs of Lucius’ Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig. The band gets its name from the Spanish festival best known for the running of the bulls, and, between avantgarde interludes which spotlight LudwigLeone’s creative composing ear, the album asks how the world might look to a bull wearing rose-colored glasses. The answer: everything goes red. Punch-in-the-face vocals and brasspowered arrangements fuel San Fermin with a fortitude that belies the subtly twisted lyrics. “Try to recall the girls when I was seventeen / And dream,” says “Daedalus (What We Have),” with a warped nostalgia sprinkled throughout the record. Ernest Hemingway, who made the Fiesta de San Fermín famous, once said, “All things truly wicked start from innocence.” Perhaps it is for that purpose that “Bar” opens like a charming Christmas carol before its exquisitely nuanced percussion underscores tigers hunting in the dead of night. And then there’s “Casanova:” “Tell me a story, and I’ll put myself to sleep.”
Goodnight? With recent visits to the World Café and Tiny Desk, San Fermin has indeed broken through the gates. Meet you at the ring? As you may have heard, Lucius is a bit busy these days (see Hot Rocks for more). Rae Cassidy will take their place on this tour. Kyle Kapper
>>PREVIEW
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Chad Valley
Sunday, February 16
Old Rock House Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. the band shares very little in common with their namesake. For one, Jr. is a famous NASCAR driver, while Jr. Jr. is two guys from Detroit who play a rainbow of colorful indie pop tunes with harmonies inspired by the Beach Boys but played through a filter of The Apples in Stereo. Whichever sounds more interesting to you probably says a lot about you. The band first won notice with critics and the blog scene back in 2010, and 2011 brought the release of their first album, It’s a Corporate World, featuring much-buzzed-about songs like “Nothing But Our Love” and “Vocal Chords.” Late last year saw the release of The Speed of Things, a collection of even more happy-go-lucky, danceable love songs and slow but sweet twinklings of sadness. These are feelings you’re unlikely to experience trackside. Jack Probst >>PREview
Xiu Xiu, Tearist, Farewell Monday, March 3 The Firebird The last time I tried to see Xiu Xiu was three years ago at the Lemp Arts Center. I dragged my feet and decided to just wait to buy a ticket at the door, and of course when I got there the owner was shooing people away from the sold-out show. Heartbroken, I wandered around in my car listening to “Boy Soprano” on repeat, promising myself this would never happen again. It was worse the next day, when I heard how strange and wonderful a show it was. This year’s tour is supporting the release of Xiu Xiu’s ninth and latest album, Angel Guts: Red Classroom. Though they just recently released Nina, a haunting album of Nina Simone covers, Angel Guts is intended as a successor to 2012’s sinister Always, and is, if anything, even darker and more grotesque. Singer/songwriter Jamie Stewart’s quivering voice sputters in and out of speakers like a slowly growing fire, so the afterimages of sex, abuse and suicide burn even when the record ends. A truly emotional roller coaster of a band, Xiu Xiu descends upon the Firebird with the witchy LA-based band Tearist, and will open the night with a solo set by Stewart under the fitting moniker Farewell. Jack Probst
elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 27
Album Reviews
HOT ROCKS STL release =
Angel Olsen
Burn Your Fire for No Witness Jagjaguwar
I first discovered Angel Olsen here in the pages of Eleven magazine, nearly a year ago exactly, in a letter to the editor. The author of that letter held Olsen up as the shining example of a musician whom he felt had been failed by the St. Louis scene—a native talent this city somehow couldn’t successfully foster and support, who would be forced to find success elsewhere. And while I’ve forgotten about the silliness of the argument that followed, I’ve never forgotten about Angel Olsen. That letter led me to pick up her 2012 album, Half Way Home, and it has rarely left my playlists or turntable since. It fills me with dark wonder. I’ve emphatically thrust it upon friends and new flames, consoled myself with it during break-ups … hell, it even soundtracks my housecleaning. It’s that voice. God knows, it’s that voice. Like Judy Garland, or Cindy Walker, through a David Lynch filter. Dipping up
Cate Le Bon Mug Musuem Turnstile
Cate Le Bon’s new album, Mug Museum, is a surprisingly tantalizing record and the first of two releases at the tail end of 2013 which seem determined to bring back the golden era of female-fronted experimental rock. A Welsh-born singer-songwriter, Le Bon begins Mug Museum in the ironically upbeat “I Can’t Help You,” shrouding bright melodies with deep sardonicism. Her c’est la vie brashness later vanishes into tender, theatrical sweetness in “I Think I Knew,” one of the best and most unique duets of 2013— seriously, you need to hear this song—in which Le Bon pairs up beautifully with Mike Hadreas (aka Perfume Genius). Le Bon is perhaps at her most striking, however, when she dwells in that most essential of rock n
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and down; arching lower and then reaching new heights. All vulnerable and quivering and powerful at the same time. Olsen brings this same aching intensity and talent to Burn Your Fire for No Witness, her newest on Jagjaguwar Records. By turns wounded, defiant, and cautiously hopeful, this one plays like the spiritual successor to Jessica Lea Mayfield’s terrific Tell Me (and hey: go pick up that album, too). As with Olsen’s last effort, I haven’t stopped listening to this album, and likely won’t anytime soon. As an opener, “Unfucktheworld” is the perfect bridge between the airy sparseness of Olsen’s last album and a new approach exemplified by the album’s surprising, fuzzed-out rocker “Forgiven/ Forgotten.” And while the one-two punch of this track and “Hi-Five” will become college radio favorites, it’s Olsen’s heartbreaking and stormy slow-burners that, for me, provide the real weight and replay value. The production may be a bit bigger this time around, but this decision serves Olsen’s aesthetic rather than distracting from it. And, most importantly, it doesn’t overshadow Olsen’s pen-poised lyrics or raw emotion. “Won’t you open a window sometime?” she coos lowly on the soaring closer, her voice breathlessly cracking and pleading. “What’s so wrong with the light?” And, with that, she disappears. I’m hoping Angel Olsen will return to St. Louis soon in support of this release. The last time Olsen breezed through town, time stopped for me. She mesmerized and silenced an entire room with a voice, a guitar, and a penetrating gaze. You could hear a PBR pull-tab drop. It was an unforgettable concert. I can’t even imagine what the next show, or her future, will bring. chris ward
roll moods: cool aloofness. The songs on Mug Museum change direction and mood without warning, and Le Bon changes right along with them. From the album’s opening guitar riff syncopations, which are quickly overlaid with late’60s vocal harmony, Mug Museum remains unpredictable throughout. Bangled and fuzzed guitars jump over fluted flourishes and climbing clarinets. Hippie melodies trip from far out to Far East. Organs wave like whirling Doors-ishes from the trapeze overhead. And then there is Le Bon, standing in the center ring, evoking in voice and attitude Jim Morrison’s self-professed soul sister, Nico, and channeling Björk and Joanna Newsom, whose producer Noah Georgeson indeed helmed Mug Museum. Le Bon’s lyrics are just as crafty as her style, too, for example in the sly “Duke”: “The weather licked your face dry...We landscaped our legacies and fought about wars.” Later lines
Album Reviews reveal both Le Bon’s obsession with death (bad luck with pets) as well as her ability to canvas more diverse themes. All in all, the range of Mug Museum is refreshing and mesmerizing. Its experimentation fosters an off-kilter hypnosis, until even the album’s resolutions into forthright rock seem gratifyingly eccentric. Kyle Kapper
Lucius
Wildewoman Mom + Pop Music
On their first LP record, Wildewoman, Lucius peers through the same retro-’60s kaleidoscope as Cate Le Bon (see above), but whereas Le Bon reflects the colors of the tube back from all angles, Lucius pumps on it gaily with pop, glam, and soul until the album spills out in bursts of Technicolor glory. Wildewoman is easily the most infectious and re-listenable album of 2013. It is big pop at its best, and achieves what any big pop record must accomplish: it takes guilty-pleasure-catchy music and makes it into something new for the latest swath of hipsters. Beautiful and Brooklyn-based Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe are perfect in making mod modern, bringing girl power back en vogue with pipes worthy of the Shangri-Las and a stark fashion sense which blends Bowie and Wintour. Lucius’ music is just as visually rich as their wardrobe, although Wildewoman forgoes the madcap spectacle of the group’s live performance, instead swelling and ebbing with a precision that makes every pop niche of the past fifty years cool again. “Hey, Doreen,” the catchiest tune on the record, blows the top off and sounds a lot like Sleepy Kitty climbing the Wall of Sound, while the album’s title track combines the disparate stylings of Jenny Lewis and She & Him. And Bon Iver should be flattered by “Two of Us on the Run,” a tune which could easily have been written by Mr. Vernon. By the time Wildewoman’s closing opus, “How Loud Your Heart Gets,” has built to its formidable crescendo, Laessig and Wolfe have evoked everyone from Stevie Nicks to The Civil Wars, but make no mistake: Lucius refashions style as their own, ultimately crafting the most irresistible pop record of 2013. Kyle Kapper
Hazard To Ya Booty
The Precipice Low Tone Records
Hazard To Ya Booty is St. Louis’ best party band. Even the most cynical among us can’t help but shake the body part they
warn you about in the band’s name. On their latest release, The Precipice, there are no surprises—this is exactly what you expect, and want, from the band that rocks the party. From the funky, slapped bass notes of the title track ’til the last call to enjoy the simple things in life, The Precipice is a how-to guide on getting the most dancing into your life. Hazard has always been steeped in that river funk, the New Orleans sound that so often drifts upriver to St. Louis. You can smell the crawfish on this album and taste the Blackened Voodoo. The big problem that Hazard has always faced is the one that dogs all bands of their ilk: how do you recreate the hard-hitting, sweaty, booty-shaking, beer-soaked live shows in the studio? The Precipice can’t supply the stale beer, body heat, and rubbin up, but it does provide the soundtrack so you can get it on in a time and place of your own choosing. The groove they provide is hard and it doesn’t stop—now, getting it dirty, getting it real funky, is up to you and your crew. Hugh Scott
Aquitaine
American Pulverizer Pt. 2 self release
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that sequels are, with few exceptions, bad ideas. This is not the case for STL’s own Aquitaine (formerly Supermoon) and their follow-up EP to 2012’s American Pulverizer. There’s a lot that will be familiar to fans of the first, including sharp guitars seemingly pulled directly from the hands of The Jam’s Paul Weller, and vocals out of Peter Murphy’s back catalog driven to post-punk speed. Fans of classic British mod/new wave will have plenty to enjoy here, not the least of which is the guitar riff for leadoff track “Robotson,” the closest you’ll get to those quintessential sounds without actually riding a time machine back to 1977. But the Brit-leaning stuff isn’t all there is to enjoy; drummer Chris Luckett bashes and crashes without losing momentum, finding weird little pockets of interesting stuff; bassist and band leader Dave Collett brings the heat to the low end; and former guitarist Gerald Good (now replaced onstage but not on this record by Graham Day) shines as both riff writer and singer on the unexpectedly sentimental “Meteor Showers. “ A smattering of familiar sounds cue more of the group’s influences—The Kinks, Pulp, Johnny Marr, The Who—but the resulting mixture is purely theirs. The only real problem with this fine disc of rockers is that it’s too short. Take that as a compliment. Jason Robinson
Tonya Gilmore Phantoms Fill the Sky
Ravens Flight Records
Oregon-based singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonya Gilmore may just be this century’s premier murder balladeer. Several of the 14 songs on Phantoms Fill the Sky have appeared in other forms on Gilmore’s previous releases, but all of them have been thoughtfully revisited and re-polished for the new album. And while she does capably play the bulk of the album’s rhythms and melodies—on vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, and hand percussion—a pirate’s crew of about eight other multi-instrumentalists really brings Gilmore’s tunes to a whole new level. The whole album feels meatier as a result—oh, and did I mention there’s a guy, Mark Powers, who is credited with playing the goat toenails, along with drums and percussion? This is not an album for the lighthearted. The closest Gilmore comes to being even remotely upbeat is on a couple of new songs, namely “Brittle Bones” and the downtempo, piano-driven waltz “Casino Night,” in which Gilmore calmly proclaims her certainty that “I’ve no god above to call it sin / or to do me in.” Where Gilmore truly shines is in her lyric writing and her vocal delivery. With a frequent and at times frantic vibrato, she exudes power while slipping effortlessly between vocal registers. She has an innate ability to capture the dynamics of the lyrics within her delivery, so that she embodies the loss, death, ghosts and betrayals of which she sings. It’s definitely dramatic material, and she works it like Edgar Allan Poe writing for musical theater. The songs are often layered with metaphor and thick with images, like short stories you have to read in their entirety to understand what’s really going on—though she can be unsettlingly specific too, as with “Pitchfork and a Torch,” wherein the narrator croons darkly to her lover, “I know the vein in your neck better than the rest of your head.” Suzie Gilb
Ellen The Felon And The Mattronome Bang Bang Bang Self Release
Ellen Cook, quite simply, is a woman born during the wrong time: Bang Bang Bang should have been the punk album of the Big Band era. Ellen The Felon And The Mattronome’s debut album defies any specific genre in the best way possible. Starting strong with
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Album Reviews “Crazy Psycho” and “Where the Heart Is,” the album really hits its stride by third track “Chaos,” where the band sounds like they could’ve backed Miles Davis during the Birth of the Cool sessions. Drummer Matthew Reyland and saxophonist Dave Farver are on fire, Cook’s lyrics flow like Beat poetry, and the music evokes images of Gaslight Square in the ‘60s on a long-gone Friday night. Songs like “Cross Marketing” and “Party Girl” showcase Cook’s masterful arrangements. From the start, “Cross Marketing” feels like the love child of Frank Zappa and Amanda Palmer, and “Party Girl”’s tender shuffling introduction gives way to a delicious melody that sets up a chorus part riot grrrl and part cabaret. Bang Bang Bang sounds fresh and exciting, like a band giving everything it has while having the most fun possible. From the poppiness of “Crazy Psycho” to the cha-cha melody of “Oh Timothy” or the weirdness of closing track “Temple,” glimpses of the band’s source material flash by. Cook’s voice is in top form from start to finish, Reyland and violinist Abbie Steiling are the perfect complement to Cook’s piano, and this might just be the classiest, campiest and most vulgar album of 2013. reV. daniel w. wright
Superchunk Indoor Living (reissue) Merge Records
For those of us who were around but not actually listening to Merge records in the ‘90s, Superchunk existed as kind of an urban legend. You might see the bespectacled David Cross on Mr. Show with Bob and David wearing a Superchunk shirt but, this being life before the internet, you’d have no clue what it meant. I’ll admit that was my experience with the band until 2011’s Majesty Shredding—their ninth—made me track down their back catalog. The new reissue version of 1997’s Indoor Living is manna from the musical heavens. Contrasted with The Laughter Guns, an EP released in 1996, this version of ‘Chunk is far less punk-driven and more expansive. There are also elements that weren’t there on older Superchunk albums, like the piano that shows up on the excellent yet somber “Under Our Feet.” But what’s more apparent now is the existential angst of the lyrics, dealing with love lost and hearts destroyed. On “Unbelievable Things,” lead character Mac McCaughan bitterly describes a relationship between “a queen with several kings
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/ and I, a bird without wings,” and deep cut “Every Single Instinct” burns with resentment. On the technical side, yes, much of Superchunk’s signature, ear-bleeding guitar work remains, on tracks like “Burn Last Sunday,” where a jangly riff builds inexorably to a mountain of noise—but you can also more clearly hear the low end, as John Wurster wrestles a coherent drum phrase out of thin air on “Nu Bruises,” and Laura Ballance provides “The Popular Music” with graceful bass. Especially entertaining in the reissued edition of Indoor Living is the appended live disc, Clambakes Vol 8: We’d Like to Thank the Homecoming Committee – Live at Duke 1997. It’s a great encapsulation of the band’s live show at the time, which was nearly as cuttingly funny as the band was tight. JaSon robinSon
lambchop Nixon
(reissue)
Merge Records
This year, Merge Records is celebrating their 25th anniversary with a 45 subscription series, a 25k race, and a reissue of a classic Merge album every month. Considering Merge’s back catalog, that’s a pretty fantastic way to get acquainted, or reacquainted, with some of the best music of the last 20 years. Kicking off the reissue series is Lambchop’s Nixon, originally released in 2000 and a diamond in the rough that has never been pressed to wax. It’s not the most obvious choice; Lambchop has
The Rebellious Jukebox
never been one of the label’s more popular bands. They have a solid fan base overseas, and are highly lauded, legendary even, at indie record stores in their Nashville hometown and around the country. But Merge’s method has always been to release great records, whether they sell millions or hundreds, and they’ve stood by the perpetually underrated Lambchop since the beginning. Nixon is the band’s fifth album, and a great entry point into the band’s catalog. Never a band with strict membership policies, by this point in their career Lambchop was rolling 14 members deep, filling in songs with lush strings, horns, slide guitar, banjo, and whatever else they could catch hold of. As the band kept ballooning, the original alt-country sound they started from began to absorb whole new genres and influences. It could have been a mess, but it’s not: Nixon’s arrangement feels classic and complete, while still being all over the place. Lead singer/guitarist Kurt Wagner’s voice is generally low and calm, like he’s sitting next to you singing a lullaby, complementing the mellow arrangements on tracks like opener “The Old Gold Shoe” and “Nashville Parent.” Verse after verse of smart lyrics give a little wink and smile with their cleverness. Echoes of funk and soul, as well as Wagner’s rarely used, strange falsetto, pop up on “Grumpus” and “What Else Could It Be,” while a gospel choir help make “Up with People” a grand spectacle, and the pinnacle song of the band’s long career. Over the course of the record, things
Life at 45 RPM by Matt Harnish
noThinG sums uP the greatness & coolness & fun of the 45 better than the split. “You like records?” the split says, “These guys like records, too, & they’re friends, & they put out a record together! How cool is that?” Fun! Big Muddy Records’ first vinyl release, & the last release they put out for a while, if memory serves, was the 2006 split between St Louis’ vultureS & Columbia MO’s Johnny o & the JerKS. The sometimes charmingly chaotic & sometimes, well, just sloppy Vultures turned in probably their best song & recording with the garage shouter “Obselete,” while Johnny O pointed towards his future Hooten Hollerin’ (see the review of their latest 45 back in whatever issue of this thing that was in) with “Animal.” Both bands cover a song by the other band, too. A really great 45 all around. Fun! Up now in the now times, all the former Vultures are touring the world, Ryan Koenig & Joey Glynn as part of Pokey Lafarge’s band, & Ashley Hohmann with dooM toWn, who dropped a split in late 2013 with their Hamburg, Germany-based tour-mates no More art. Doom Town’s side is all angst & gloom & dark post-punk cool, with the frantic claustrophobia that their best songs convey. No More Art lets a little more light in, but still keeps the mood close to panic on their side, as well. Fun!
Album Reviews start off sedately enough, and the narrative threads wind toward a happy peak. But that’s just the middle of the album—a point made more apparent in the vinyl’s two-sided incarnation than on the original CD—and the album slides southward from there, eventually ending in the darkest of places. It’s laid out perfectly that way, with ups and downs feeling like you’re floating in a sea where things are starting to get worse. Jack Probst
RICHARD THOMPSON Cont’d from page 23 At 64 years old, the guy is in his prime. It’s easy for me to look at a musician like that and think, “Well, of course he’s up onstage, he’s too good to think of doing anything else.” But the truth is, he must have faced many crossroads in his life and career where he asked himself, “How much longer should I have a go at this?” Thompson’s career path was never clear, and he had to fight for every ounce of fame and every record contract he could get in the notorious music industries of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. He’s had bandmates pass away. He lost his wife and singing partner in divorce. But he kept going, and kept writing. And now, more than four decades after he started, when he steps on stage he is surefooted—and he’s got one hell of a bag of songs to choose from.
To hang in there all those decades as a legitimate craftsman within an industry filled with trend followers and show ponies, he’d have to have a sense of humor. Thompson’s humor tends toward the scholarly—I can’t help but think of him as a sort of Henry Jones, Indiana Jones’ tweedy medieval literature professor father. In 1999, Playboy magazine sent out a request to a handful of acclaimed musicians asking them to submit what they considered to be “The 10 Greatest Songs of the Millennium”—you remember, one of those gimmicks that were all the rage right before we hit year 2000. Thompson took the task to heart, and kicked his list off with a tune written in 1068 by St. Godric, followed by 1260’s “Sumer Is Icumen In.” You remember that banger, right? It’s everyone’s favorite Medieval English rota from the 13th century! Chances are, Thompson didn’t even have to squint through his record collection to think up the list; he probably already had at least a few favorite songs from the 1200s floating around his head. Unsurprisingly, Thompson has joked, Playboy seemed to have lost his list when it came time to print. The best part of Thompson’s hardwired, encyclopedic list of ancient influences, though, is that when he tosses a cover like The Who’s “Substitute” or “Kiss” by Prince into his live set, I find myself thinking, “Where in the world did he hear that song?”
LLEWYN DAVIS Cont’d from page 21 verse is nowhere to be found, and “the man I love” becomes “the woman I love.” Through these two different performances of a single folk traditional, Davis’s character arc is completed. He has, to some extent, come to terms with the newfound existence of his child, and more specifically, to his partner’s death. In this version of “Fare Thee Well,” Davis is saying goodbye to Mike for the last time. It is breathtaking. It is in this manner that Inside Llewyn Davis perfectly demonstrates the beauty of traditional folk music. A folk artist takes a song that has already been cemented in time and in performing it, attaches unique hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, to a new, and hopefully highly personal, version. The folk artist bleeds into the song in such a way that s/he can’t help but manifest personal struggles in verse and vibrato. Somehow, the folk song can reveal so much more about the person singing it than any other genre of music can manage, even though the songs remain, to an extent, unchanged in content from version to version. It is in those nuances that we see what is most important to the artists—what drives them, and what they are at their core. This is why Inside Llewyn Dav is is both a masterpiece of cinema and of folk music. ...Well, that and the damned cat.
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PAPER TIME MACHINE Curated by Paige Brubeck
One Colors I don’t know any poster maker that didn’t start out by designing on a photocopier, or hasn’t done a one color or photocopied design at some time. There’s something so efficient and honest about a great one color design—no unnecessary frills (or unnecessary silkscreen pulls), just all the crucial information and as much attitude and ambience as you can fit in one screen to entice the passersby and get them to the show. 1. Designer: Jason Potter Bands: Japandroids, Swearin’ Venue: Firebird Location: St. Louis, MO November 20, 2012 2. Designer: The Comet Substance Tour poster for White Fence
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3. Designer: The Comet Substance Band: White Fence Venue: Bombay Bar Location: Zurich, Switzerland December 6, 2012 4. Designer: Furturtle Printworks Bands: Ghostland Observatory, Phantogram Venue: Pioneer Park Location: Salt Lake City, UT August 18, 2011 5. Designer: The Comet Substance Band: Japandroids Venue: Treibhaus Location: Luzerne, Switzerland September 12, 2012 6. Designer: Jerome Gaynor Bands: The Flip Offs, The Spastics, The Lucille Balls, The Lemon Grove Kids Venue: 4126 Arsenal, St. Louis, MO August 31, 1996 7. Designer: Jerome Gaynor Bands: Cake Walk, The Spaztics, The Lucille Balls, The Paxadils Venue: 4126 Arsenal, St. Louis, MO November 1, 1996 8. Designer: The Comet Substance Band: Girls Names Venue: Elmo Delmo Location: Zurich, Switzerland June 27, 2013 9. Designer: The Comet Substance Band: Warm Soda Venue: Elmo Delmo Location: Zurich, Switzerland July 28, 2013
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Adornment
THE WAY BACK PAGE
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s the worth of an image permanently drawn on your body with needles? Worth a story at least. Sometimes the stories are funny, sometimes sad or even embarrassing—there are some tattoos worth elaborating on around STL’s music community, and we’re looking out for ’em.
Skin&Ink Curated by Suzie Gilb Photos by Theo Welling Our first guest is Cherokee Street’s own Rose Bland, a visual artist who has seemingly worked at every bar and knows damn near everyone in the south St. Louis music scene. She’s got a serious collection of tattoos on her, but the ones we’re focusing on this month are clustered on her leg, which she tattooed herself at her own home. Now that is a dedication to an art form, friends. “The tattoos on my leg are particularly important because they represent different times in my life,” she explains. “I can’t remember everything, so I get a tattoo to remember. [The film] Memento—just sayin’.” A brief description of some highlights: “The weed leaf/63118 started everything on this leg. My boyfriend, myself, and a friend all did the same tattoo at the same time— buddy tattoos. The banana is also a ‘buddy tat’ that I got with my friend Beth.” Some of the other tattoos in that area of Rose’s leg represent different holidays—the TNT is from the 4th of July one year, and the pie is from Thanksgiving. “The pizza is because I love pizza. Several [yin yang, alien, peace sign] are because I just love all things ‘90s— the music, culture, fashion.” As random as these sound, there’s one that takes the randomness cake: “I asked Facebook what I should tattoo on myself, and well, here it is: a steaming pile of poo with the word ‘SPAZ’ on top.”
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NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH THE MUD HOUSE
STL STYLEHOUSE
When you just have to get out of the office and away from the grind, but the work is just not finished. Mud House relaxes you and clears your mind to get the real work done!
St. Louis-inspired wearables, custom screen printing and graphic design. You can’t spell STYLE without STL!
Cherokee Street 2101 Cherokee St (63118) 776-6599 | themudhousestl.com
Cherokee Street 3159 Cherokke St (63118) 494-7763 | stl-style.com
ST. LOUIS CURIO SHOPPE
FLOWERS TO THE PEOPLE
Everything is 100% St. Louis! We offer goods from local entrepreneurs, authors, musicians, & artists within a 50-mile radius. Shop for locally made books, music, films, fine art, jewelry, and curiosities.
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.
Cherokee Street 2301 Cherokee St (63118) 771-6353 | stlcurioshoppe.com
Cherokee Street 2317 Cherokee St. (63118) 762-0422 | flowerstothepeople.biz
FOAM COFFEE & BEER
STRANDS
Offbeat decor, snack plates, free WiFi and weekly events and live shows. The definitive place to work by day or hang out by night.
A relaxing boutique salon, 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! Online booking now available.
Cherokee Street 3359 S. Jefferson (63118) 772-2100 | foamstl.com
Demun 730 Demun Ave. (63105) 725-1717 | strands-hair.com
NEBULA COWORKING
CITY DINER AT THE FOX LATE NIGHT CLUB
A collaborative workspace for innovative businesses and creative professionals located on Cherokee. Shared resources, community, and positive experiences: more than just a workplace. Cherokee Street 3407 S. Jefferson (63118) 632-6488 | nebulastl.com
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
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