March 2013

Issue No. 2-Mar ’13

the liner notes of st. louis

Gold in Them Hills We’re Callin’ It! Boreal Hills, STL’s Newest Band, Is a Must Hear

What the Huck?

INSIDE: SXSCITY • On an On • Miss Molly Simms • my bloody valentine

Tom Huck Insults Bob Reuter, Gets Away With It

A look inside the hive brain Eleven Magazine Volume 9, issue 2

complimentary

PLUS: The ecstatic agony of Open Mics, and Chicago’s la Kaza plays our very first WHERE IS MY MIND TONIGHT? party! elevenmusicmag.comit|’sELEVEN |1 all inside

Dance, Photoshop, Web Design, Songwriting, and DJ Classes

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DEPT. OF

PERIODICAL LITERATURE ST. LOUIS, MO

Volume 9, Issue No. 2

March 2013

Front of the book 5 Editor’s Note 6 Letters 8 Where Is My Mind

This month in music The new Musicalendar 18 SXSCity at Off Broadway

Bring On the Night Show Previews220

Columns

White Mystery, Tegan and Sara, Lee Fields & the Expressions

10 Essentials, Nook of Revelations 11 Rockin Our Lives Away

by Bob Reuter

More Hot Schtuff

.

Show Review 21

12 The Radius

Samantha Crain

Memphis, Tennessee

12 Load In

by Dave Anderson

Hot Rocks Guest List 22

by Rob Levy .

features

New Album Reviews 24

14 A nimal Instincts: an interview with Animal Collective’s Geologist by nelda Kerr

Boreal Hills, Yo La Tengo, Miss Molly Simms, My Bloody Valentine, On An On, Cloud Cult

17 T he Risk and the Rewards: Open Mic Nights in St. Louis

by John Krane

The Rebellious Jukebox 23

by Matt Harnish .

The Way Back Page Paper Time Machine 26 by paige Brubeck .

Tour Posters

Cover Illustration by Curtis Tinsley.

Photo of Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan: Micah Mickles

Eleven Magazine Volume 9 | Issue 2 | March 2013 Publisher Hugh Scott

proofreader Tracy Brubeck

Editor-In-Chief Evan Sult

INTERN Amanda Evers

Special assignments editor Paige Brubeck

Promotions & Distribution Suzie Gilb Ann Scott

Art DirectION Evan Sult CONTRIBUTING Writers Dave Anderson, Paige Brubeck, Ryan Boyle, Juliet Charles, Thomas Crone, Jenn DeRose, Suzie Gilb, Matt Harnish, Kyle Kapper, Nelda Kerr, John Krane, Josh Levi, Rob Levy, Ryan McNeely, Sean Nelson, Zev Powell, Jack Probst, Bob Reuter, Jason Robinson, Robert Severson, Blair Stiles, Bill Streeter, Michele Ulsohn, Chris Ward, Robin Wheeler PHOTOGRAPHERS Nate Burrell Jarred Gastreich Patrice Jackson Lee Klawans Micah Mickles Bob Reuter Jason Stoff Bill Streeter Bryan Sutter Illustrations Sean Dove Tyler Gross Curtis Tinsley

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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.

HAVE A QUESTION FOR US? info@elevenmusicmag.com ONLINE elevenmusicmag.com twitter.com/elevenmag facebook.com/ElevenMagazine Copyright 2013 Scotty Scott Media, LLC

Editor’s Note

by Evan Sult

Where Is Your Mind Tonight?!

Hey, check it out: we’re throwing our first Eleven event since I came on as editor. It’s called Where Is My Mind Tonight?, and it’s going down March 1 at Mushmaus. We’re bringing in a new St. Louis band and two bands from Chicago, as well as having a poster show, and a table with a bunch of photos by Bob Reuter, who does our Rockin Our Lives Away column (as well as a band, a radio show, and so on). His photos are, I must say, way more amazing in real life than reproduced in print, so you

should definitely check them out.

You can read about it more in (where else?) Where Is My Mind?, pages 8-9. It’s going to be a great party to kick off an action-packed month, and I look forward to seeing you there.

That just kicks the month off, too! There are record releases by Mikey Wehling & The Reverbs as well as Kentucky Knife Fight; Bunnygrunt is having a birthday party; zines are being released. It seems like everyone’s got a reason to celebrate. And why the hell not? Here comes spring!

Evan Sult, editor-in-chief

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 5

LETTERS Our story so far: A couple of issues ago we published a letter by St. Louis ex-pat, current Olympia, WA resident Eric Williger (“Caught up in the hipster fads of yesteryear,” Dec ‘12/Jan ‘13), In the letter, Williger was critical of both the St. Louis music scene and Eleven magazine. We invited him to write for the magazine, and in last month’s issue ran a piece by him (“What’s Gone Wrong with the St. Louis Music Culture,” Feb ‘13) discussing the musician Angel Olsen as well as various perceived failings in STL’s music community. Response was immediate online, in person, and to our inbox. You can read Williger’s previous writing on our website, elevenmusicmag.com, and we have posted a further “clarification” on our Facebook page as well. We also received several letters from readers responding to Williger’s comments.

Dear Eleven: [Re: “What’s Gone Wrong with the St. Louis Music Culture,” Feb ‘13] “The only venue in town that serves as a safe space for people experimenting with their creativity to play shows is the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.”

Man, this guy could not be more wrong. I’ve been doing somewhat bizarre shit for a year now at mainstream-ish venues like Foam, El Leñador, Plush, Off Broadway, the Gramophone, the Tin Can (RIP) and I’m sure I’m forgetting some. And I’ve discovered, more than any city I’ve been in, people here want to see something different. Music fans here are not afraid of something strange.

“The women that get attention in St. Louis are almost always wielding their acoustic guitars and being quiet.”

Tell that to Paige Brubeck, Kristin Dennis, Jenn Malzone, Ellen the Felon, Molly Simms, Mabel Suen and my own bandmate Kate Peterson (accordion, theremin, opera, toy piano, synth, Rats and People extraordinaire). That’s only the women I can think of.

I have been more inspired by these artists in my short time here than any men I’ve met, with the exception of David Arthur (Simply Esoteric) who moved to Austin.

I thought this guy made some good points the first time around, and he’s

Eleven welcomes letters from readers. Please direct letters to deareleven@elevenmusicmag.com, or mail to 3407 S. Jefferson St, St. Louis MO, 63118.

Some writing has been condensed and edited for space or clarity.

certainly a great writer, but much of this article was a little off base to me.

Angel Olsen is pretty damn good though.

Chris Ward

oh, I don’t know, possibly push the city a little closer to the positive things you envision. If you were here.

Ted Moniak

Dear Eleven, Thank you for publishing my letter (Feb. ‘13; what a nice surprise!) in which I responded to Eric Williger’s “Hipster Fads” letter.

However, now that I have read his statement/artifact in the current issue, I gotta say: I owe Eric an apology. I’m sorry Eric; I didn’t realize that you are an amateur musician and that you live in a Cloud Cuckoo Land of your own imaginings. And I don’t mean Olympia, Washington. Seriously, Eric?

Wilco, Pavement, and The National should be “long dead” as influences? Why, Eric?

‘Cause you don’t like them? Because they were able against all odds to have some media exposure and possibly, actually make some money by playing original music?!

Because you think artistic legitimacy ends when public acceptance begins... don’t you?

Funk, soul, blues, ska, reggae, jazz are “dead

Dear Eleven, Eric Williger’s whining lament can be boiled down to this: in order for local musicians to be sufficiently recognized they need to leave St. Louis.

To which I say, ‘twas ever thus.

The reality is unless you are a musician working in the main media megalopolises and whatever the hipster city du jour is (currently Portland, OR; in the ‘90s it was Seattle), you have less chance of gaining a national audience and all the fame and fortune you dream of.

Eric sure likes Angel Olsen’s music. He does not understand that there may be those who do not. She may be the greatest undiscovered talent in the land, or she may remain a niche artist who never finds a national audience no matter where she resides. Eric also fails to grasp that there are other artists from St. Louis and elsewhere that are just as unique and original who often don’t make it. And Eric fails to fully acknowledge how truly difficult it is to make it in the music biz. But it’s still the maxim that you have to leave here to make it, wherever here is and whatever making it means to you.

Let me give you multiple real-world examples. There is a homegrown St. Louis artist who is every bit as unique and original as anyone out there: Kristeen Young. For years Kristeen knocked around the Mound City, but knew she had to leave to gain wider recognition. She eventually made it to New York as she had planned.

There she worked under the aegis of powerhouse producer Tony Visconti, did national and international tours as an opening act for Morrissey and seemed to be making some headway in realizing her dreams. But national recognition has proven elusive and she’s never really broken through. Leaving doesn’t guarantee success.

A few years ago, after several visits I became enamored of the Land of Enchantment, New Mexico, and considered moving to Santa Fe. For a while I followed the local music scene fairly closely. The big break-

I’ve discovered, more than any city I’ve been in, people here want to see something different. Music fans here are not afraid of something strange.

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genres”? OMG! What an idiotic and indefensible argument. You don’t count for-profit venues as being inside the arena of possible “good venues”? Not enough for the likes of you that musicians starve; no, venue owners must also go hungry!

Jeezus! You deserve Olympia.

Critics are bad enough. Critics like Eric who are ignorant of music history, especially the history of music in their own country—I presume you weren’t born in Cloud Cuckoo Land, Eric—are flat out intolerable! Eric: go to the library. Start with Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life, and work backwards to Louis Armstrong’s autobiography. Learn something. The final irony of all this is that if you still lived here we could publicly debate these issues, maybe whip up a firestorm of public interest and,

Correspondence out act from Albuquerque was, of course, The Shins. But they didn’t really hit it big till they moved to Portland, where James Mercer jettisoned his Burqueños bandmates and hired a new group of backing musicians.

Doesn’t matter where you’re from, you have to leave there to make it.

For over a dozen years I lived in the Washington DC area. Even though its metropolitan area is twice the size of St. Louis’, I never found DC to have as lively a local music scene as here or in nearby Baltimore. They seem mired in nostalgia for the glory days of Fugazi and the Go-Go music of Chuck Brown. Another factor is that almost every prominent national tour stops in DC. It’s hard to compete for the punters’ attention when you have a great selection of known acts to choose from any given week. Of course, this was the best thing about living there. I got to see artists such as Bryan Ferry, David Sylvian, Peter Murphy, Gary Numan and Kraftwerk that would never play St. Louis.

Local acts trying to make it in DC also had to leave. One example is Thao Nguyen from Thao and the Get Down Stay Down.

She currently resides in Portland. Another DC-area artist who I thought was superb was Carol Bui (also of Vietnamese descent as it happens). She too relocated to Seattle.

Couldn’t make it in a metro area as large as DC’s either.

But you don’t need to live in New York or LA to make it, you say. There are great music towns in other parts of the country.

Yes, there are. One place I love is Austin, live music capital of the world and all that. Tons of bands there. Name a top-tier national band from Austin. Stevie Ray Vaughan died years ago. Okkervil River has never broken through. Any others you can name that top the charts? Despite SXSW, ACL and all the national attention, Austin bands also have to leave to make it.

Then there’s the view that location doesn’t matter. The Internet is the great equalizer. All you need is a Facebook page and load some tunes onto SoundCloud and you’re on equal footing with Radiohead.

There are hundreds of guys making music in their bedrooms who have this same dream.

And it is a dream, as in pipe. It all depends on what you consider success. Personally,

if I were a musician, I would be content if I could make a living from playing my music, wherever it was I lived.

Eric just lacks perspective. If Eric’s favorite artist can’t make it living in St. Louis, he can’t rationally blame it on St. Louis “culture,” whatever that is. It’s no different than the music climate anywhere else. Other cities are neither more nor less accepting of local artists and their music venues are no better or worse than ours.

The problems facing local musicians are not unique to St. Louis. It’s a tough, unforgiving world out there for any musician and you may have to go elsewhere to achieve your dreams.

And finally, as to his his cryptic comment about misogyny, Eric’s dreaming if he thinks it is not prevalent everywhere, even in hipster enclaves in the Pacific Northwest.

Gerry Kreienkamp Eleven magazine welcomes your letters and comments. Please direct communication to: deareleven@gmail.com or to Eleven Magazine, 3407 S. Jefferson, STL MO, 63118., and include your name and contact info.

And from deep in the Eleven e-mailbag: Subject: Important Notice - ROCK ----------------------------------------Important Hello dear friend / enemy, or what have you now .. Here you information about ...

The Beatles were and are now, but this is new information and different band ...

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(No, we don’t understand either. But we do highly recommend going to The Russia’s Neighbors’ website and trying to puzzle it out yourself. —Ed)

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 7

WHERE IS MY MIND? This Month in the History of Now

Six years ago this week was the first time I’d heard of Oskar Fischinger, while taking a film animation history class at School of the Art Institute. Today, video is ubiquitous when experiencing music, but Fischinger’s animations (most notably in the 1930s) have a radical, very different approach than current music video forms.

On April 5 the Webster Film Series and New Music Circle present Seeing Sound: Visual Music Films, including classics

by Fischinger, Norman McLaren, Mary Ellen Bute, Len Lye and more. While pixelated images of these groundbreaking films can be tracked down online, the best way to see them is in their true film state, and in the theater. They’re a fascinating lens through which to examine music, and have unexpected overlap with some of the visual musicians and artists of today like Animal Collective (whose videos and “visual album,” ODDSAC, does seem like a modern heir to this work), The Books, and Jeremy Blake.

Abstract images, vibrating in blues and oranges, flicker and fill up the screen to the sound of Bach and Liszt. Fischinger and his contemporaries broke new ground by attempting to visually represent music, and

Hot Single

Hutch Harris barks “I was born to kill / I was made to slay” in the first few seconds of The Thermals’ new single, “Born to Kill,” and the band bangs on with off-kilter bluster. His pinched-voice poetry over crunching ‘90s guitar is the explosive mixture that makes their newly minted Saddle Creek record, Desperate Grounds, one to watch for. Jason Robinson

8 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

their abstractions work surprisingly well.

While the most famous version of animated music is probably Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia (Fischinger was originally on this project but left midway after repeatedly butting heads with Walt Disney—the guy), there’s a strange way that the geometrical shapes in Fischinger’s Allegretto (1936) seem to become characters. They’re hypnotic and even humorous. I didn’t know that a flat series of circles could be romantic, but somehow, in Fischinger’s geometric ice capades, it is!

A different direction but no less impressive is Norman McLaren’s award-winning 1968 film Pas de Deux. In this 13-minute piece, the suspense and intensity of the United Folk Orchestra of Romania’s performance is matched by a set design focusing on a ballerina dancing with herself through multiple exposures in a vast black space.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about these films, though, is that they’re from a world long before After Effects, where every frame was created by hand.

The splendor starts at 7:30pm at the Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood)—don’t be late!

Paige Brubeck Photo: Alicia J. Rose

eleven in the news Tony Cava thought he’d come up with a pretty awesome, Spinal Tap-inspired license plate: GOES211. But one driver objected and filed a complaint. “I find it in poor taste that the great state of Washington would issue a plate that allows a driver to insinuate in public that his penis grows to 11 inches in length,” read the statement. Cava was not fined, and Nigel Tufnel could not be reached for comment.

A still from Oskar Fischinger’s Allegretto.

There is no need to fight for the right to party

Every month, in this very Where Is My Mind? section, we curate a selection of the cool and weird stuff we encounter all the time in St. Louis and our travels around the world, real and virtual. This month we’re celebrating some of our favorite things with a party, which we’re calling Where Is My Mind Tonight?. It goes down Friday, March 1, at Mushmaus, corner of Cherokee & Ohio.

As in the magazine, the party will be packed with cool stuff. There’ll be three excellent bands, a poster exhibition curated

by Paper Time Machine’s Paige Brubeck, photos for sale and perusal by Bob Reuter,

Lit Fit Low

by Hugo Wilcken The 33 1/3 series of books has been around for a few years, each one a short but detailed meditation on a single album, something you can read in a day or two. Much like their source albums, some of these books are great, some tedious, but one of the absolute best is Hugo Wilcken’s deeply revealing look at 1977’s Low, David Bowie’s most forward-looking and beautiful album.

The book starts with Bowie creatively blocked and sustained on a diet of milk and white powder, so deep into cocaine psychosis that he begins to see demons outside his windows. In an effort to get clean, he takes off to West Berlin with Iggy Pop, inspired by Kraftwerk and Neu! to work on new music through withdrawal, the Berlin Wall visible from the studio’s control room windows.

It’s hard to remember what Berlin was like during the Cold War, but Wilcken paints the mood: restricted zones, military checkpoints, watchtowers, tanks in the streets, gray desolation, despair. Bowie’s drug haze paranoia was now made real; meanwhile, Iggy’s The Idiot was becoming a testing ground for new ideas refined on Low.

a table to sign up for your very own Tower Groove Records Singles Club subscription, and a poster to commemorate the event designed and printed by Sleepy Kitty Arts.

We’re bringing to town two Chicago bands you should definitely hear—and clink drinks with: La Kaza and Divino Niño. La Kaza’s Jason Ewers formerly fronted Ornery Little Darlings, and if you were lucky enough to catch them at El Leñador, you know you’ll want to watch him get cold-blooded on the Rhodes in this new project. Shawn Rosenblatt of Netherfriends calls Divino Niño “my favorite Chicago band,” a crew of suave Columbians who play songs of wicked temptation and exquisite pleasures.

From St. Louis comes a big surprise. You can skip ahead to page 22 to read about STL Unfortunately, after the big suites of Station to Station, Bowie found himself unable to finish songs beyond short fragments. In steps, Brian Eno—not yet a guru but already a burgeoning genius—played keyboards and acted as a kind of spirit animal for Bowie. Yet Wilcken’s most surprising revelations are that the more Eno-like ideas— specific synth sounds, a second side of ambient tracks—didn’t originate with Eno himself.

His role, though, was even more pervasive, encouraging Bowie to embrace the accidental, to leave the little pieces as fragments. This decision resulted in some of Bowie’s shortest but best songs: strange and sad, a bit lost but pleased with puzzlement, utterly futuristic even 36 years later.

The robots in the factory having a big funky party, while the ambient side takes a guided tour of the wasteland outside.

Wilcken, in fairly clean prose, manages to deconstruct each song, detailing the equipment, the techniques, the subtle electronic sound effects and hidden keyboard lines almost buried in the mix. As a listener, its like hearing the album anew, understanding its creation doesn’t demystify it so much as reveal it anew in only 136 short pages. Ryan Boyle

Why don’t we d-d-do it in the Gallery?

A special new record store recently opened in New York—however, the selection is limited. In Recess, an art gallery in SoHo, artist Rutherford Chang has created a record store that only carries The Beatles’ White Album. While he already has 650 copies in stock, he’s trying to collect as many first pressings (an edition of at least 3 million) as possible. Over the course of the show, which opened in January, gallery visitors can browse the stacks and listen to

Divino Niño

newcomers Boreal Hills, but suffice it to say you need to hear em now. Singer Karl Frank just showed up from Columbia MO in September, so I’m super psyched to have them do their thing at our show. Their new EP, Dope Hugz, is the rock jam to beat, and they’ll have some available Friday night. Get thee to Mushmaus! evan Sult

The

Oh Hell Yes List

•T he Demo’s arrival as a new kick-ass, 200-capacity, black brick club in STL, and •V intage Trouble’s killer set there on opening night • Ange

l Olsen winning hearts and ears at Off Broadway Feb 7—you never heard such praise!

•N BC releasing the soundtrack to Bombshell, the musical within the musical on Smash • Kim Massie holding court Thursday nights at Beale on Broadway •P ork magazine mysteriously showing up all over South City •B roncho’s “Try Me Out Sometime” playing as the credits roll at the end of the year’s worst picture (spoiler alert!), Movie 43 •m acarons from Whisk Bakeshop on Cherokee Megan Hilty of Smash

the records in the store. While the records play, they will be recorded for a composite recording of all the albums, to be pressed as a double LP complete with a composite of all the covers. Each skip, scratch and stain on the vinyl and covers will be documented in this ultra version of the seminal album. One can only guess it will end up being a strange listening experience. We Buy White Albums runs through March 9 at Recess (41 Grand Street, New York). In the meantime: if you have a copy you’re trying to get rid of yourself, Chang will buy original pressings in any condition. Paige Brubeck

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 9

ESSENTIALS

3

2

1

These essentials are still in the potential stage, but they’re so cool, you might just want to help make them happen! 1 the nutter might be heaven-sent for bikers: it’s all of the tools you need for a ride, in one 3 1/2 oz stainless steel instrument. It packs in a leather/ recycled tire pouch, and includes tire lever, spoke key, spanner, even a bottle opener, and more. kickstarter.com 2 OK, this one is crazy: you’re at a bar, your phone is low on power. You pull out the onE Puck,

NOOK OF REVELATIONS

plug your phone into it, set your cold beer on it—and the Puck charges your phone! Same with coffee in the morning, using the flip side. It’s completely green technology, using something you probably already have at hand. And it’s such a great idea. kickstarter.com 3 There may be a way to quit losing all that stuff you love—and need. Bungee is a system that links your keys, iPod, phone, and loose stuff to your phone/email so it can find its way home to you. indiegogo.com

A chronicle of musical encounters by Thomas Crone

Testing My Resolve You’ll forgive the moment of public confession, I hope. But every year, on the very day the calendar comes off the wall, I give up something that’s become an issue, an annoyance, even, dare I say, an addiction.

Two years ago, it was pop and energy drinks.

A year back, MMA. (No lie, I’d fallen deeply down the rabbit hole of mixed martial arts fandom.) As an extension of that one, my sports intake took another hit this year, with a near-complete cutdown on sports media: now, there’s no sports talk radio, no reading of the sports page, only casual viewing of games and, then, only if they’re on a TV in my direct view.

My interest in sports was somewhat professional, or so I told myself. The connection? I’d been turned down for jobs at basically every sports station in town, of which there are several. So that rationale turned out a bit comical, in retrospect. Beyond that, though, I’d simply become used to the daily hum of the radio stations, with my locking into the overarching storylines that really do serve as a stereotypical male soap opera.

Ultimately, though, it’s the minutiae that starts to stick, then starts to clog your head.

When you get to the point that you can name every member of the Rams’ secondary, including the non-gameday practice squad players, you’ve crossed the boundary

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into having a full-blown problem.

The radio was my enemy. Now, it’s more of a friend.

With my vintage ride dating back to the Year 2000, I’m still armed with a tape player for over-the-road listening. And I do love my time with cassettes, especially during the cooler, non-tape-melting months. But since January 1, my radio intake, in the car and

The radio was my enemy.

Now, it’s more of a friend. at home, has risen exponentially. With it, there’s been a definite uptick in NPR listening; that is, until the quiz shows or “Car Talk” come on. Music listening’s been the bigger winner, with a steady dose of KHDX and WSIE entering (and enriching) my life.

Having been a KDHX jock on-and-off since 1999, the station’s appeals aren’t new to me, though the music often is: there’s always an “aha!” that comes with hearing bands you sorta know, but haven’t truly invested in, like a Dengue Fever, a Chuck Prophet, a Gliss. While not every show’s going to really resonate for every listener, the station’s the ultimate local college for

music knowledge, even on the weekday afternoons when my dial tends to stray.

During those times, my tuner slips up the dial, ever so slightly, to 88.7 WSIE, the student-run voice of SIU-Edwardsville.

There, jazz is the coin of the realm, and it’s often the perfect accompaniment to the day.

Not being a true student of the genre, jazz floats through my attention span in the best possible way; not knowing the artists, instead of annoying me (as it would when listening to rock radio) is no impediment to the enjoyment and the appreciation of the form.

To say that WSIE “floats” through my brain, though, might suggest that it’s the equivalent of musical cotton candy, that I’m a disengaged listener, even one who’s disinclined to learn. I’d argue, though, that the music’s providing me what I long for when, say, driving: a sonic accompaniment, one with relatively few new interruptions or station breaks and, with that, the cessation of the chattering voices that had filled my vehicle (and brain) for too many months and years.

When the station switches to SIU-E Cougar sports, I switch, too. But I’ll be back soon enough, my dial in motion from 88.190.7 FM, with fewer forays beyond. It’s been a good move to date.

Thanks, New Year’s Day. I kinda needed that.

ROCKIN OUR LIVES AWAY

A photo and its story by Bob Reuter

Photo: bob reuter

Tom Huck: How I Met the Son of a Bitch

First time I ever heard of Tom Huck, I was talking to his wife’s high school photo class. Anne was an old friend of mine I hadn’t seen in a while. At the end of the class, when all the kids were leaving, she pulled out a newspaper article about him which painted him kinda like the second coming of Jesus. I wondered how an ugly cat like that could get a gal like Anne. She said she was sure we’d love each other. I thought to myself, “I doubt it.”

I’m not real clear on what happened after that, but it seems like she kept telling him the same thing, cause every once in a while he and I would drop each other a line saying something like, “Yeah, we should probably get together sometime blah blah blah...” I’d heard he’d be at the Motorhead concert, so I kept an eye out for a shaveheaded tattoo-covered hipster with glasses, but the place was rife with ‘em. Couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting one of ‘em, so rather than go through asking ‘em all, I let it go.

So then a couple weeks later I was walking down Delmar in the Loop. I’d heard that was his stomping grounds—he drank at Blueberry Hill and taught at Wash U. So I’m about to pass the Bread Company and I see this gruff-looking guy about to sit down at a patio table with a group of straightlooking academic types. He’s covered with tattoos. He was right by the railing between the patio and sidewalk, so I go over and

say, “Excuse me. Are you Tom Huck?”

He turns to me like a guy with about a million things on his mind and goes, “Hey look, I got no time for this.”

I was stunned. I’m like, “OK,” and I head on down the street.

I head into Vintage Vinyl and stop one of my pals who works there and I go, “You know a guy by the name of Tom Huck?” He says he does, the guy comes in all the time. and I’m like, “Listen to this shit...”

He cracks up. I head home, just steaming the whole way.

I get home and send him an e-mail: “You’re going to have to forgive me but I had no idea you were that busy and important.

I’ll never bother you again.”

Within a few minutes i get an e-mail back that says, “That was you?? Oh God—No no no no no! Send me your number and let me call you.”

So he calls me and explains that at the moment I approached, he was about to sit down for a faculty meeting, a particularly serious one. Seems Wash U was on the verge of pushing him out. He didn’t fit their profile. Everything he did they saw as wrong, and to make matters worse, they were very uncomfortable with the fact that he was the only faculty member showing work at major museums and galleries. He had neither the appearance nor temperament of an academic. Ha! Well no shit!

Anyway, he apologized profusely and we

arranged a get together later that week. We went to Mangia on South Grand and talked for three hours. We talked mainly about music—raw, simple, hard, goofy, we talked about whether or not he wanted to be a “professor”—we basically explained ourselves to each other and agreed we needed to do this more often. I couldn’t believe that this was the guy Anne had showed me the article about. I had already made up my mind about the guy based on the newspaper photo but Christ! This actual Huck was way out beyond that cat!

About a month later I lost the place where I was staying, which meant I was also losing the dark room I had set up in the basement. I was feeling pretty lost, period.

Huck and Anne showed up at a gig I was playing and I began venting. By the end of the night Huck asked me if I’d be interested in becoming part of his studio, Evil Prints.

Said I could set up my dark room there. Said he wanted me to be part of EP. I was mindblown and a little unsure, but I had nothing to lose. That was like four years ago now, and I’ve been there ever since.

To know Tom Huck is to know a madman. You can never be quite sure what he’s gonna do next. He makes pronouncements and then turns them around.

He’s simultaneously the most generous and selfish person I know. His knowledge of music and art is unrivaled. He will scream at you one moment and be King Solomon the next. He’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma laying under a pile of old girly magazines— he’s a maniacally driven artist and one of the best teachers of art I’ve ever known. The cat’s got the fire—he holed up in his parents’ basement after graduation, listening to Iron Maiden and Rose Tattoo. He formed his business plan based on that of the band Kiss and then cold-called some of the biggest art institutions in this country and sold them his work. You can attack the content of his artwork, but don’t you even try to question the impossibly high level of his craftsmanship. He’s infuriating and awe inspiring... and the son of a bitch is one of my best pals.

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 11

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 meet some of our neighbors on the map, use this section to get a head start.

Memphis, TN

by Robin Wheeler

280 from ST. Louis, or less than 5 hours by car Just take in everything on the way down Highway 61. The fabled highway connects St. Louis to Memphis, and musically linked the cities before I-55 bypassed the small towns of the Bootheel and Arkansas.

Like St. Louis, the musical history of Memphis is as rich as Mississippi mud— and they’ve kept the racket going right on into the modern era.

memphis Music now

Not Beale Street

Avoid the tourists and head midtown to the Cooper-Young neighborhood. Almost 40 years after a massive urban revitalization effort, Cooper-Young thrives with some of Memphis’ most unique businesses. Buy books for cheap at Burke’s (936 S. Cooper), rummage for vintage goods at the pristine Flashback (2304 Central Ave), shop for skins at Memphis Drum Shop (878 S. Cooper St.), get your coffee and Elvis fix at Java Cabana (2170 Young Ave.), cut some tracks at Archer Records (1902 Nelson Ave.) and pet the kitties at House of Mews (933 S. Cooper St.), a storefront cat shelter.

History Lessons

Music history’s at every corner in Memphis. Despite the buses of tour groups, Sun Studio (706 Union Ave) retains its integrity as the birthplace of rock and roll and is worth a visit.

This year the Stax Museum (926 E. McLemore Ave.) marks ten years of honoring the legacy of Memphis soul with top-notch exhibits featuring lots of rare live footage of their artists. While in the neighborhood, stop by the Four-Way Grill (998 Mississippi Blvd) for a taste of Memphis soul food in the diner where Martin Luther King, Jr. dined when he was in town.

Stax of Wax

Star & Micey It’s easy to get stuck in Memphis’ amazing music past, but cool things are happening in the present: Star & Micey: smart and catchy folk-pop The Barbaras: Jay Reatard’s spirit lives with his bandmates’ new venture.

Josh Threlkeld: the new junction of acoustic soul, country, and rock.

Toxie: three-piece buzzbombers with foxy speaksung vocals, includes Madison Farmer from Chain & The Gang.

12 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

out of Ardent Studios, is a label in its own right, legendary for releasing Memphis’ own Big Star albums back when. Now it’s pretty much a Christian label.

Meanwhile, Doug Easley has been quietly contributing some of underground music’s greatest recordings via Easley McCain Recording (secret location), including records by Memphis’ own The Grifters, as well as Pavement, The White Stripes, Guided By Voices, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion!, and Schwervon!.

Sun Studio and the Stax Museum both feature extensive new record selections in their museum shops, but there’s no lack of used stores for vinyl-digging. Housed in a bungalow, Shangri-La Records (1916 Madison Ave) is the go-to for rarities. Goner Records (2152 Young Ave) focuses on garagecentric acts, but they carry an extensive selection of used vinyl with an R&B selection that beats the Stax Museum in variety and price. Goner Records is a seriously rad label too, releasing albums by Ty Segall, Ex-Cult, The Carbonas, and plenty more crucial bands. They host Gonerfest every September, which gets reliably insane.

Making a record? Ardent Studios (2000 Madison Ave) has been a legendary studio for over 45 years—if you dig Bob Dylan, White Stripes, REM, and Led Zeppelin, that is—plus Ardent Records, operating

Poster by Alex Warble

THE RADIUS

Saturday Night

A bar in Memphis without a band is unthinkable. Some are straight-up venues that feature touring bands, like Minglewood Hall (1555 Madison Ave) and the New Daisy Theatre (3330 Beale St). Newby’s (539 S. Highland St) prides itself on its extensive menu and two rooms of live music. The Buccaneer Lounge (1368 Monroe) was pirate before pirates were worn-out hip fodder. It’s a den of history and cheap shows that traverse the genre sea. The beer geek crowd can catch shows at Young Avenue Deli (2119 Young Ave) which has 36 taps and a well-traveled stage. For a bit of history, hit Earnestine & Hazel’s (531 S. Main St), located below a former brothel. Come in after midnight for a soul burger, some ghost hunting, and local tall tales.

Sunday Morning

Redeem yourself at the Full Gospel Tabernacle (787 Hale Rd.), where the Rev. Al Green takes to the pulpit to save your lost soul.

LOAD IN

Expert gear testimony by Dave Anderson

Photo courtesy Bill Landry

The Endless Quest for Tone We guitar players are the worst type of musician. To say we can’t be pleased is an understatement. It’s really pretty silly considering that when we finally hit that first chord at the show, having painstakingly formulated our ultimate rig for the gig, most people listening in the crowd don’t even play guitar and surely don’t care about out latest drive pedal, or what power tubes our amp uses. And yet: something continually chips away at us from the inside, fueling us to fulfill our quest for tone.

For Bill Landry’s tone quest, he didn’t just go on the hunt to find the perfect guitar amp: he decided to build one from the ground up.

With no prior knowledge of amp design, Landry started in 2002, by taking a basic electronics and assembly class at a local community college. He knew the basic template of what his ultimate amp would be...a 100 watt, EL34, two-channel amp that had a great clean channel, reminiscent of the ‘60s black-face Fender amps of the past, and a killer overdrive channel with plenty of gain, voiced in the style of a JCM 800 Marshall.

With a bit of classroom knowledge under his belt, and a copy of Dan Torres’s book Inside Tube Amps, Landry set out to design his ultimate amp. Soon after, he ran into a neighborhood audiophile, who worked at Boeing by day and tinkered with high-end tube audio amps at night. They quickly became friends, and Landry began to buy up old tube and audio equipment off of Craigslist to reverse engineer. Audiophiles are always trying to reduce distortion and create a truly hi fidelity signal in order to listen to music, whereas amp designers are trying to create the ultimate output distortion for a truly superior overdriven guitar tone. This juxtaposition of the two friends was exactly what Landry needed to give him the tools to build his first amp design...the LS100.

The LS100 is precisely what Landry set out to create: a 100 watt, EL34, two channel amp head with a vintage Fender-esque clean channel and a JCM 800 voiced dirty channel, independent EQ for each channel, and an effects loop that straddles the needs of both pedal and rack users. The Landry LS100 was introduced in 2008 and today there are two newly designed models that are the result of continued listening and redesigning of the original version.

The LS100G3 is available in 100 or 50 watt versions. The Landry Amps website describes the tone of the G3 as “meaty, woody, punchy mids with plenty of compression.” The clean channel has plenty of head room and refuses to break up. The dirty has

Bill Landry: Landry Amps, St. Louis drive and more drive with a fourth, switchable gain stage. The buffered, series effects loop is truly reactive with the independent channels and master volume.

The LS100M was originally designed for 6L6 players, but is available as an EL34 amp and comes in 50 and 100 watt versions as well. The M is voiced a bit more linearly, with less emphasis on the midrange. The control layout is the same as the G3 and

the voicing difference is subtle...think Eric Johnson’s “singing” lead tone.

Landry is a one-man shop here in the St. Louis area, and offers speaker cabinets as well as guitar amplifiers. All amps are built to order, with a wait time of three to six weeks and a host of custom options.

Unfortunately, Landry currently doesn’t have a local dealer, but there are Youtube clips on his website, landryamps.com, and his personal LS100 is available for inquiring players to try out. Landry is a player first ( and a damn good one!), so he and potential buyers can really communicate tone as well as how to achieve the players needs with a Landry amp.

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 13

Animal Collective’s Geologist talks about the teamwork that took them from high school art project to worldwide headliners

14 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

by Nelda Kerr

Photo: Atiba Photo.

Lettering: Paige Brubeck

altimore, MD has had its share of setbacks as a city, but after 2012 its citizens can be rightly proud of a couple of homegrown champions: Superbowl victors the Baltimore Ravens, and style-crashing psychonauts Animal Collective, whose most recent album, Centipede Hz, reinforces their position at the top of the indie-rock pyramid.

Since the crowning glory that was 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, the members of Animal Collective—David Portner, Noah Lennox, Josh Dibb and Brian Weitz—have been wanting for nothing, which means they are free to play for the love of the game. And their game is the creation of a very particular psychedelic domain of sounds and visuals. ODDSAC, their 2010 “visual album” created with director Danny Perez, served as a pansensual broadcast of the inner world they’ve been mapping together ever since they started working together more than a decade ago. With last year’s Centipede Hz, Animal Collective takes us on an expanded guided tour of that world, one that contains oceans, alien civilizations, endless flowers, and, of course, plenty of girls.

The four musicians met and started working together very early on—Lennox and Dibb went to grade school together in Baltimore County, and Dibb met Portner and Weitz when they were students at the progressive, art-friendly Park School of Baltimore high school. Free to explore creative interests at a young age, they made music in a variety of arrangements together, recording as they learned. They each went off to different East Coast colleges, making music separately but regrouping at every possible chance. Finally, in the summer of 2000, their musical obsessions and personae all collided in a New York apartment. The result was Animal Collective, a kind of confederacy uniting their various efforts.

NOT FOR THE FAINT OF ART The members of Animal Collective, clockwise from upper left: Avey Tare/Dave Portner, Panda Bear/Noah Lennox, Deakin/Josh Dibb, Geologist/Brian Weitz.

Animal Collective, Dan Deacon

Wednesday, March 20 The pageant

Meanwhile, they’d each gained new names: Dave Portner as Avey Tare, Noah Lennox as Panda Bear, Josh Dibb as Deakin, and Brian Weitz as Geologist.

In a recent phone interview with Geologist, I asked him how he felt those learning environments fostered their ambitious artistic drives.

“It was amazing to go to a high school that had tons of music classes,” he says. “I mean, there was a course on MIDI music that you could take, and there was an hour of free time every day, and so many arts electives. It became a place where you learn how to play.”

The opportunity was fully seized. “Our senior year they give you six weeks off to go and do an internship somewhere,” he says.

“And a lot of people get jobs or whatever.

And Josh did this too but, you know, he was older than us. When Josh did it he worked at a recording studio; and then when it was Dave’s and my turn, we asked if we could kinda make our own recording studio in our basement and write a record—and we did it!

We wrote a record that was an hour long and learned how to record it ourselves.”

That record remains unnamed on a single cassette tape labeled “Brian and Dave’s senior project,” which belongs to his wife and might be the single most valuable artifact of Animal Collective memorabilia.

And though their limited-edition and out-of-print LPs sell for top dollar, when

I ask if Weitz planned to eventually send his two-year-old son to a similarly creative school, he sighs. “I mean, I don’t think I could afford it,“ he admits frankly.

When Animal Collective arrives at the Pageant on Wednesday, March 20, they’ll be doing something new for them: in contrast to their previous performances, they’ll be playing their first (almost) unimprovised show. Their set list is firm, thus far they haven’t been playing “My Girls,” the breakout lead single from Merriweather Post Pavilion. Instead, they’re playing the new record, complete with visuals inspired by the large mouth on the album cover, among many, many other things.

To write Centipede Hz, the boys went back to Baltimore for three months to play in Deakin’s mother’s barn. I ask Geologist about their private musical environment.

“We’re still pretty guarded,” he says.

“We don’t want to lose the fact that Animal Collective is the four of us or some combination of the four of us, and it’s really just about our friendship and what happens when we’re by ourselves and have that sort of hive mentality. We don’t like a lot of people observing or being part of the creative process that aren’t part of the band.

We like to keep the rest of the production away until we’re actually playing shows, you know. And at that point the four of us have found something that we’re locked into.”

The world they create in that interior space is then shared worldwide. A kaleidoscope for the ears, Centipede Hz sounds like they returned to their hometown playground to jump around and bang on every well-remembered surface more fervently than ever.

The album has a childlike spirit, but the music’s technical aspects are anything but juvenile. With Panda Bear raging behind a drum kit, the return of Deakin’s live guitar, and Avey Tare focusing more on keys than in the past, the arrangements are more organic and interactive because they are less sample-based. The density and amount of primal screaming harkens back to 2005’s Feels, or 2007’s Strawberry Jam, their first on Domino Records. On Centipede Hz, the relentless optimism of Merriweather Post Pavilion and the Fall Be Kind EP darkens into twilit themes of self-doubt, in the song “Wide Eyed,” and anti-utopian misgivings in “Monkey Riches.”

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 15

Animal Collective

When asked about the development of Animal Collective’s sound on this new record, Geologist is adamant that they “don’t see it as a linear evolution beyond where Merriweather was. To me, this one sounds more like something that could’ve come closer to Feels or Strawberry Jam.” Still, he says of the Centipede Hz, “it has more polyrhythms, and the parts everyone is playing are a bit more complex or a bit harder than things on past Animal Collective records.

“Dave and I know piano, so we can talk sometimes about, like, ‘Yeah, that bass note there should be an E,’ or whatever,” he says.

“And Josh had a strip of tape on the back of the guitar neck that actually showed him what all the notes were, so you could ask him, ‘What are you playing there?,’ and he’d

she’ll build it out of wood,” says Geologist.

“But we’re just not set carpenters, so we don’t do it ourselves anymore, because stuff would just break after five shows. So now we’ll take it to a design firm and show them a photo and say, ‘Can you build this for us?’”

Though they travel more comfortably now, when the band first started touring in the early ’00s, Weitz says they threw themselves “to the wolves.”

“To book our first tours we had to go ask other bands: ‘Hey, we want a show in St. Louis. Who should we call?’” he recalls. “And they would just, like, write down a phone number of a record store or something, or a place that they had played. And you’d just call someone up. Or you could send them an e-mail I guess. You know, ‘If you have

let you play 15 minutes.’ That’s how those early tours were. They can drive you insane because you’re losing money left and right.

You know, your van breaks down, and you have to call your parents and beg them to send you like $200 so you can get the fuel injection system fixed. It can be demoralizing. Your back hurts cuz you’re always sleeping on floors.”

Even when the real world was hard on the spine and bad for the posture, from the beginning, Animal Collective’s live shows always sought to grant the band and the audience passage into a self-made world, full of giant flora and intelligent fauna, mysterical sounds and alien lights. The Pageant show will be a much bigger production than

look at the back of his guitar and be like, ‘It’s a B.’ That was never how Animal Collective worked before, but for this record, because everyone was doing more traditional musicianship- y kind of things, it sort of pushed it that way. I don’t know if it sounds like that on the record, because the record ended up, as always when the four of us get together, just a noisy, chaotic, full on, dense collage of sound, but it is the most technically challenging of all the music we’ve ever done.”

The visual component of the live show also continues to get more technical.

Though they employ a large crew on tour these days, the ideas still start with the band members and their go-to visual artist: Avey Tare’s sister, Abby Portner. “On previous tours we’ve built the stuff ourselves or

space on the bill…’ Like our first few tours when we came through St. Louis, we played in the Lemp Arts Center. Someone told me the other day it was still around. There was a guy named Chris Smentkowski [of Brain Transplant]. He was a noise musician in the late ‘90s early 2000s. We met them through the guys in Wolf Eyes who lived in Ann Arbor. More like a word of mouth, like, ‘Hey, I know this guy, here, give him a call, they got four bands lined up tonight but they’ll

the colorful pillars of light they used when they last played St. Louis, at the Gargoyle in 2007, but the dream is much the same.

“I’ve seen sort of mind-bending shows, and you do feel altered in some way,” Geologist says. “And they just make me feel alive.

We definitely want people to have a sort of simulated psychedelic experience when they come to our shows—or we hope that they do. We hope that they feel ecstasy and emotion when they come. “

list Compiled by evan sult

ANIMAL COLLECTION

Feels (2005)

A relatively tranquil portal to their more brain-rattling work.

Check out “Grass,” “Flesh Canoe,” “Banshee Beat.”

Where to get started getting your mind blown

Strawberry Jam (2007) Recognizable song structures emerge from the chattering fields in “Peacebone, “Fireworks,” “For Reverend Green,” “Cuckoo Cuckoo.”

16 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)

Deakin is absent, but MPP still sounds like pure synthesis on “My Girls,” “Summertime Clothes,” “Brother Sport.”

Centipede Hz

(2012) Cosmic humor filtered through ODDSAC (2010) faulty human radios. “Wide AC is as much a graphic as Eyed,” “Applesauce,” “Today’s Supernatural,” “Monkey Riches” musical aesthetic. This DVD is required viewing for AC fans. all taste like alien honey.

Illustration: Tyler Gross

The Risk and the Rewards

The Good, the Bad, and the Incomprehensibly Bizarre Make Their Case at an Open Mic Near You

by John Krane Walk into Foam on Jefferson on a Wednesday night, the Heavy Anchor on a Tuesday, or the Livery Company on every second and fourth Saturday of the month, and you might decide to walk right back outside for a cigarette, even if you don’t smoke. On the other hand, you might get the best show of your life. You won’t pay a cent either way.

This is the St. Louis open mic, and for better and worse, it’s different here than anywhere else in the United States. St. Louis’s various musician scenes use open mics in South City as a chance to try out new material, network, and get a few pats on the back for their musicianship.

“Open mics in STL are great social equalizers,” says Tommy Halloran, who regularly hosts open mics at The Heavy Anchor, Atomic Cowboy and other South City establishments. “You will hear the best and the worst sharing the stage—or lack of stage— just for the opportunity to do what they love.”

There are dozens of brilliant musicians and hundreds of terrible ones. You never hear open criticism at an open mic night, but there’s a noticeable difference between the practiced performers and the firsttimers. That’s okay, though: open mic nights are a place to suck comfortably. They’re a

volatile mix of the good, the bad and the schizophrenic.

This is especially apparent at purposefully dirty, no-holds-barred open mic nights like the Chippewa Chapel, a traveling open mic hosted by Fred Friction, Tommy Halloran and a few other South City saints, currently at the Heavy Anchor on Tuesday nights at 10pm.

The attendance has dwindled here from its glory days at Off Broadway, but the late start time attracts some prominent regulars and up-and-comers like Drew Sheafor, along with, say, a bizarre bluesman playing a single chord on the house guitar while randomly shouting expletives (I didn’t happen to get that guy’s name, but I think it started with “Motherfuckin’”). It’s hard to say whether the attendance will eventually shake out, but whatever the Chippewa Chapel is, it’s never boring as long as the line of performers keeps moving on.

On Jefferson, Foam’s open mic night has been going through its own changes.

For the last couple of years it’s been hosted primarily by Ellen Cook (aka Ellen the Felon), and features a relatively clean but decidedly eclectic cast of performers. The list is notably tighter and performers only get three songs to make an impact—as a result, the evenings have been a goodnatured circus of stand-up comics, blues

soloists, excellent songwriting performers like Tim Gebauer, and the occasional magician.

In February, Foam announced that the open mic night was ending with the departure of Ellen Cook, but recently reversed course (“back by popular demand,” they said, and the demand was indeed audible) and is planning to continue the Wednesday night events with a rotating host.

Suzie Cue’s relatively new open mic at the Livery Company, every second and fourth Saturday, is attracting a lot of attention, and a designation from the RFT as the best local open mic night. There are also mainstays like the Monday open mic at the Venice Cafe and Tuesdays at the Shanti in Soulard. Wherever you are in St. Louis, there’s probably an open mic going on down the street. That’s probably what the yowling cats and gunshots are all about.

The crowds come and go with the seasons, but the regulars keep showing up. Even the big-timers who’ve moved on to bigger and better things occasionally find themselves on an open mic stage. Jesse Irwin, known for his work with the Doc Ellis Band, occasionally graces a stage to play foul-mouthed parodies of Kenny Rogers and Otis Redding tunes (look up Irwin’s version of “The Gambler” on YouTube), and I’ve seen members of Pokey LaFarge’s South City Three stop in to play tunes in front of four or five very, very drunk people. They don’t seem to care about the limited, inebriated audience.

Why trek out on a weekday night for such a small reward?

“It is my firm belief that ‘open-mic’ events help to nurture community, giving the opportunity for participants, young and old, to sharpen interpersonal communication skills, increase self-confidence, and build strong bones and teeth,” says Fred Friction solemnly. (Note to self: never tell Fred you’re using his quote in an article.)

The magic is that there’s something familiar in the randomness of an open mic.

It’s not for the weak of stomach, but there are these little moments of community, even if they’re lampshade-on-the-head moments of drunken cataclysm. People get along with each other, and there’s something enchanting about seeing experienced performers like Tommy Halloran playing with people who can’t put two chords together. It’s that old truism about “music as communication” put into practice.

It may be the high before the inevitable hangover, but St. Louis’s open mics have a camaraderie and earnestness that you don’t find in a lot of places.

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 17

Book of MorMon at The Fabulous Fox

Jason d. WIllIaMs, Dale Watson, and Sleepy LaBeef at off Broadway

La Kaza singer Jason Ewers generates enough heat with his lyrics to run the power grid. This is an Eleven party, so come out and say hello to the team!

Where Is My MInd TonIghT? with Boreal Hills, La Kaza, Divino Niño at Mushmaus

Friday, March 1

scarleT Tanager, Coed Pageant, Northern Faces, and Fight for Midnight at heavy anchor

The graMoPhone’s 5 year annIversary w/ Earphunk, Funky Butt Brass Band at The grg amophone

geMInI cluB, State and Madison, and Ashland at Firebird

Junebug, Beth Bombara, Royal Smokestacks at off Broadway

reCoMMeNDeD SHowS

A Chorus Line at Peabody opera house

March 22

A Chorus Line at Peabody opera house Behold...The arcToPus, Yowie, Sine Nomine at Blank space They MIghT Be gIanTs, Moon Hooch at The Pageant

Brandon Scherffius at Broadway oyster Bar

March 15

friDAy, MArCH 8 - SuNDAy, MArCH 10 Off Broadway owner Steve Pohlman has a few simple goals for SXSCity: showcase local music and beer, pay bands well, keep it cheap. “The idea is that we all work together and make this mutually beneficial for everyone,” he says. “And all the ticket money goes straight to the bands.” It’s most definitely a family affair, drawing on bands from the Tower Groove Records collective (rANSoM NoTe, SLeePy KiTTy, BeTH BoMBArA), Big Muddy Records (ruM DruM rAMBLerS, HooTeN HALLerS, JACK GreLLe, BoB reuTer’S ALLey GHoST), and Loud Label (JuMP STArTS, SuPerHero KiLLerS, LAST To SHow firST To Go), plus beer from STL breweries. Also make sure to catch Eleven fave BroTHerfATHer (see Oct ’12 ish) on Sunday. If you’re an Off Broadway regular or you’re looking for a primer in STL shackshakin’ circa right now, clear any plans you had March 8-10. And it ain’t but $5 a night! SUZIE GILB

SouTHXSouTHCiTy AT off BroADwAy

MuSiCALeNDAr MArCH 2013

PhoTo oF ruM druM raMBlers: naTe Burrell, BeForeTheBlInK.coM

lee FIelds & The eXPressIons, Lady at 2720

eMMylou harrIs & rodney croWell, Richard Thompson Electric Trio at Peabody opera house

March 19 QuIeT coMPany, Bailiff at Plush

March 11 BroThers gross, Draw Blood at Foam

young WIdoWs, Your Dukes, White Fire, Fumer at The demo The englIsh BeaT at the duck room

March 21 PInBacK, JP, Inc. at Firebird

sTag nIghT w/ leFT lane cruIser, Red Headed Strangers, Rusty Nail at Blank space

March 14 BrIan curran, Bottoms Up Blues Gang at Broadway oyster Bar ProhIBITIon Thursdays with Miss Jubilee at Thaxton speakeasy

aBI roBIns (album release), My Molly, Zach Balch, Breton Parks at The gramophone

ProhIBITIon Thursdays with Miss Jubilee at Thaxton speakeasy

Friday, March 8

sXscITy day 1 feat. ruM druM raMBlers, Sleepy Kitty, Jump Starts,

BoTToMs uP Blues gang, Steve Ewing &

galaXy eXPress, Volcanoes at Blank space

anIMal collecTIve, Dan Deacon at The Pageant

FaMIly ThIeF, We Should Leave This Tree at lemp arts center

thurSday, March 7

March 20

coTTon Jones, Spectator at off Broadway

FIeld rePorT, Shivering Timbers at off Broadway

In one short year Blank Space has become a crucial addition to the Cherokee scene, helping bridge the underground noise, hiphop, groove and art/rock scenes. Give Kaveh a slap on the back—and look out for a special surprise & big announcement!

chucK Berry at the duck room

March 13

JavIer Mendoza at The sheldon

The sPITs, The Scam, Maximum Effort at Fubar

March 12

on an on, Royal Canoe at The demo

Mad duKez, Fresh Kils at gramophone

BlanK sPace 1 year annIversary ParTy at Blank space

March 18

dogToWn sT. PaTrIcK’s day Parade

Scan this Qr code, or go to elevenstl.com and click on “Venue List” for a complete listing of club addresses.

Mentioned this issue comedy show

LeGeND

MuSiCALeNDAr

langhorne slIM at off Broadway

March 31

greaT Isaac, The Union Electric, Langen Neubacher and the Defeated County, Suzie Cue at Plush

ev’ryBody’s gonna Be haPPy: A Tribute to the Kinks and KDHX benefit: Aviation Club, The Blind Eyes, Burrowss, The Educated Guess, Estevan, Karate Bikini, Melody Den, The Nevermores, Prune, Old Lights at off Broadway

March 30

auTuMn hIll Jazz FesTIval at the sheldon

ThIs cITy oF TaKers, Glass Cavalry at Plush

March 29

grIngo sTar, The Feed at Plush

March 28

JeFF The BroTherhood at off Broadway

red laMB, Black Fast at Fubar

March 27

ToMMy halloran at Broadway oyster Bar

Jc BrooKs & The uPToWn sound at off Broadway

March 24

A Chorus Line at Peabody opera house

oWl cITy, Echosmith at the Pageant

BunnygrunT’s 20Th BIrThday w/ Bunnygrunt, Poison Control Center, Trauma Harness, Chill Dawgs at Plush

March 23

March 17

TrusT, ERAAS at off Broadway

velocIcoPTer, Dinofight!, Heavy Weather at heavy anchor

The BuMP & husTle at Blank space

March 16

3rd annual PhIl ochs TrIBuTe nIghT at off Broadway

The FIve and dIMers, The Vondrukes, Adam Reichmann at Plush

Tegan & sara, Diana at The Pageant

sXscITy day 3 feat. JacK grelle & The Johnson FaMIly Band, Brotherfather, Ransom Note, Bob Reuter’s Alley Ghost at off Broadway

Sunday, March 10

he’s My BroTher she’s My sIsTer, Paper Bird, Shakey Graves at Plush

ducK and cover, Picture Day, Double King at Foam

unKnoWn MorTal orchesTra, Foxygen, Wampire at Firebird

Blues conTrol, Raglani, Eric Hall at Blank space

sXscITy day 2 feat. suPerhero KIller, Hooten Hallers, Jedi Nighties, Jungle Fire, Last to Show First to Go, The Hobosexuals at off Broadway

Saturday, March 9

WedneSday, March 6

Murs, Prof, Fashawn, DJ Mahf at gramophone

WhITe MysTery, Skarekrau Radio, Bruiser Queen, The Brainstems, Dad Jr., Animal Teeth at Mushmaus

tueSday, March 5

Book of MorMon at The Fabulous Fox

PoMegranaTes, Bluefish, Men Working in Trees, Since 1902 at Firebird

Sunday, March 3

Book of MorMon at The Fabulous Fox

The 999 eyes FreaKshoW & surreal sIdeshoW at cicero’s

Mikey Wehling’s new project is hybrid live/ mech foxiness, smoothed out and kinked up with classy keys over verby, vibey drum patterns. The intense guitar wahs provide the hip thrust. Everyone on this bill explores that robo/human eros deftly.

The reverBs (album release), Adult Fur, CaveofswordS, Ryan Wasoba at The demo

KenTucKy KnIFe FIghT (album release), the Ladybirds, Pretty Little Empire at off Broadway

Saturday, March 2

deMonlover, Hellshovel, Acid Baby Jesus, and Little Big Bangs at heavy anchor

Live Music

Kishi Bashi playing an unforgettable show at the Firebird, February 16.

>>PREVIEW

White Mystery, The Brainstems,

Dad Jr, Bruiser Queen, Animal Talk, Skarekrau Radio Tuesday, March 5

more Hot Schtuff: *Kentucky Knife Fight album release with The Ladybirds, Pretty Little Empire Off Broadway

March 2 Bunnygrunt’s 20th Birthday with Bunnygrunt, Poison Control Center, Trauma Harness, Chill Dawgs Plush

March 23 Quiet Company, Bailiff Plush

March 19 *Jeff the Brotherhood Off Broadway

March 27 Ev’rybody’s gonna be happy: A Tribute to the Kinks and KDHX benefit with Aviation Club, The Blind Eyes, Old Lights, Burrowss, The Educated Guess, Estevan, Karate Bikini, Melody Den, The Nevermores, Prune Off Broadway

March 30 * = all ages 20 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

mushmaus Alex White has been shaking her kinky red hair for years now, fronting a variety of different bands in Chicago. She’s a garage-rock dynamo who always seemed like she should be playing to bigger crowds than she was—it was clear she had a vision for her shows, and just needed a crowd who could keep up,

Turns out the secret was to turn up the red: White Mystery is a two-piece band with her brother Francis Scott Key White, who sports just as much ginger shag and shakes it just as hard. Their hair is as eye-catching as any light show—moreso, because anyone can throw up some lights. They rock in a brash and bratty way, and their songs rain down like body blows. They did a ton of touring last year in the US and abroad, including a long stint with the legendary Shonen Knife.

This show celebrates zine releases by both Mr. Ben of Freezer Burn, and the goofballs behind Acid Kat Zine. Both have been livening up the STL music world for awhile, and this is a perfect opportunity to get in on the joke. Evan Sult >>PREVIEW

Tegan and Sara, Diana

Sunday, March 10

The Pageant Put on your best ‘80s prom attire, because with their new album, Heartthrob, Tegan and Sara have created the John Hughes soundtrack for 2013.

Over their 14-year career, Tegan and Sara have steadily progressed from acoustic to electronic-based songs, and Heartthrob

is an unadulterated synth party. Their enduring strength is in simplicity: lyrics and melody lines are straightforward and catchy. The stacked production team and session band fill out the songs, but each track can be stripped down to acoustic guitar and vocals.

The Canadian wonder-twins have been playing the whole Heartthrob album at recent shows, peppered with older hits like “Walking with a Ghost” and “Back in Your Head.” The new songs are doused in Cyndi Lauper-esque dance beats; not coincidentally, they’ve recently covered both “Time After Time” and “When You Were Mine” (a hit for both Prince and Lauper).

Since getting signed to Vapor Records right out of high school, the Quinn sisters have been steadily building an international army of devoted fans, many of who look up to the twins as lesbian icons. The twins are outspoken LGBT activists who have taken on Tyler the Creator and other pop figures for blatantly homophobic lyrics. “When will misogynistic and homophobic ranting and raving result in meaningful repercussions in the entertainment industry? When will they be treated with the same seriousness as racist and anti-Semitic offenses?” Sara fumed in a blogpost titled “A Call for Change.”

Their ambition has grown over time, and Heartthrob is their latest gambit in a plot to storm the world’s arenas. Seeing as they’ve been collaborating with majorleague friends like Greg Kurstin (Ke$ha, The Shins), Mike Elizondo (Eminem, Nelly Furtado), Dorian Crozier (Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato), and drummer Joey Waronker (Beck, Atoms for Peace), it’s no surprise that their live shows have been getting steadily more elaborate as a result.

Canadian chill-wave trio Diana opens, and their lo-fi, disco-steeped single “Born

PHOTo: Micah Mickles

BRING ON THE NIGHT

Live Music Again” fits snugly into the same record collection that includes Neon Indian and Toro y Moi. Nelda Kerr >>PREVIEW

Lee Fields & The Expressions, Lady Wednesday, March 27

2720 Cherokee One of the hardest things to accept as a music fan is that so much of the best music in the world is behind us. We can listen to Electric Ladyland or James Brown or Hunky Dory over and over again, but we can never go there. It becomes easy to fetishize the originality and authenticity of the past, to the detriment of the present.

If you’re a soul fan, there is a solution: Lee Fields & The Expressions. A songwriter and performer of 40 years’ vintage—his first hit landed in 1969—Fields has the voice, the moves, and the lyrics that pluck you out of time and put you where the music is pure, forceful, and as real and bright as the sweat shining on his forehead.

The key to his greatness in the modern age is The Expressions, house band of Truth & Soul Records, who just recently released Fields’ excellent Faithful Man. They play with a bone-deep understanding of the tones and details that make soul music so satisfying, and there is no “updating” the

sound—they simply allow no dust in the grooves, so that every horn hit, bass run, and guitar chank lands in the present with the full weight of the past behind it.

Though I’m sure the 19-year-old Lee Fields was something to see, 2013’s version is no shadow. This might well be the best version of him, in fact: his pipes are clean and his engine is hot, and he’s a showman who knows he has to earn it every single night. That’s a sentiment I wouldn’t mind seeing in modern audiences, actually: when he shows up at 2720, I hope we can generate the kind of reciprocal energy and dancefloor groovin’ that shows the man we’re all here in the present with him, too. Evan Sult <<Review

Samantha Crain, Indian Blanket Tuesday, February 19

The Gramophone Restlessness is a torment best faced with a smile. Thus is the lesson proffered by Samantha Crain, the Oklahoma-based Americanarian whose spirited sermon resonated through the Gramophone Tuesday night. “I feel like I lived here at some point,” she said with a sly grin. “I probably did.”

The lively evening celebrated the release of Ms. Crain’s new album, Kid Face, the latest roadmap to the feisty folksinger’s unending quest to find a muse that will help her escape her hometown. Graciously treat-

ing the packed crowd to several of her new tunes, Ms. Crain’s wondrously commanding voice rose up over the band’s Wurlitzer keys and cigar-box guitar as she left no rootsy cornerstone unturned.

Highlights abounded, from the sweepingly beautiful title track from Kid Face to the Frisco-jam “Equinox” to the fervent “Devils in Boston.” Ms. Crain explained how the latter is actually a geographical misnomer—New York City is even too large syllabically—and song after song, she proved herself the latest in the Sooner State’s long tradition of wordsmithery. “I’m almost young this year, now that I’m older,” she crooned in the dusty blues-infused “Paint.”

Somewhere, Woody nods.

Earlier in the night, reclusive St. Louisian Joe Andert made a rare appearance as the crowd warmed up beneath Indian Blanket’s masterfully woven aural tapestry. Layered strings, each with its own purpose, entwined in plateaus of anticipation until the band allowed itself resolution, always in an unexpected direction. Andert displayed a sharp folksinger’s ear for entering each song just before the audience expected it and then turning the rhythm on its head once they caught up with him. Indian Blanket flaunted boundless creativity throughout in a set that culminated fittingly in a cover of “Moonshiner,” the woefully wily lament penned by one of Woody’s best students. Kyle Kapper

Sweet Deliverance Here’s the deal: Help us get Eleven magazine out on stands each month, and we’ll help you get into shows.

SOUND GOOD? Email getinvolved@elevenmusicmag.com for details. Starts in April!

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 21

Album Reviews

HOT ROCKS = STL release

Guest List Each month we ask a specialist to pick some new release musts. This month’s Guest List is assembled by Rob Levy, host of the show Juxtaposition on kdhx 88.1 Phoenix Bankrupt Glassnote | April 23

Should be interesting to see how they follow up their acclaimed Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. This could be the album that breaks them.

Robyn Hitchcock Love From London Yep Roc | March 5

Hitchcock claims his new record “celebrates life in a culture imperiled by economic and environmental collapse.” Catchy pop melodies surround by lyrics that embrace the chaos of the times.

David Bowie

The Next Day Columbia | Mar 12 C’mon—it’s David Bowie!

Wavves Afraid of Heights Mom + Pop | March 26

Following a brief rough patch, vocalist Nathan Williams has sobered up, creating a conflicting album that embraces the darkness while walking into the sunshine.

British Sea Power Machineries of Joy Rough Trade | April 9

Billed as a “warm and restorative album,” the Brighton lads sequestered themselves in the mountains of North Wales to write the record. All indications are that it should be soaring and expansive.

The Knife Shaking the Habitual Brille | April 9

Been waiting seven years for this album of shake ’em up epicness! New single “Full of Fire” promises good things.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Mosquitos Interscope | April 16

Karen O claims their forthcoming record has more “moodier and tripped out songs.” Don’t be surprised to find rougher and raw tumbles that poleax your nerves.

The Black Angels Indigo Meadow Blue Horizon | April 2

Their fourth album promises even more grimy psychedelics and sonic density.

Billy Bragg Tooth & Nail Cooking Vinyl

Recorded in LA with Joe Henry, Bragg’s first album in five years marks a return to Mermaid Avenue territory.

Still Corners Strange Pleasures Sub Pop | May 7

A potent new dose of dark and dirgy sounds from London. Shoegazer bliss.

Alpine A Is For Alpine Ivy | May 21

Sophisticated groove pop laced with clever melodies, this record from the Melbourne six-piece scored Australia’s Alternative of the Year.

22 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

Boreal Hills Dope Hugz Self Release

I’ve been asking around, and as far as I can tell, Boreal Hills is still pretty much unknown here in town. That makes Dope Hugz all the more sweet a discovery. This little five-song EP has already become one of my favorite STL releases in memory.

Singer-guitarist Karl Frank delivers the lyrics with easy confidence, and the hooks in each song come as much from how he performs the vocal as from the part itself.

Apparently he and drummer Tom O’Connor originally hail from Columbia, MO, but it’s our luck that they’re here now.

The nouveau-garage vocal distortion on opener “Split Lips” brings to mind STL’s own Volcanoes by way of the Black Keys—the main riff is lean and mean, and the guitar solo full of clever surprise colors. But it’s the second track, “Wise Up,” that gives a

Yo La Tengo Fade

Matador Records

Twenty-nine years on, Yo La Tengo remains our most unassuming rock band, a shy group of wallflowers who excel at taking big, challenging musical ideas and rendering them small—screeching feedback as lovely as a music box. Fade, their thirteenth proper album, finds the band leaning on their quieter side to turn in one of their loveliest and tightest sets, ten perfect songs in 46 minutes.

The album starts with a provocation: “Ohm” chugs on a single chord for nearly seven minutes. On first listen, it can feel roundly monotonous, and yet their expert songcraft turns this avant-garde challenge into a compelling pop song. All three band members harmonize over a hypnotic robot beat. It’s propulsive, funky,

clue as to what might be special about this duo. It has a melancholic bittersweet quality I associate with Girls or Smith Westerns, where the emotion of the song is built into the DNA of every note, spoken or shouted.

Then again, “Belcher” might turn out to be the STL hit of the summer, with its excited “WOO OOO OO OOO” kickoff and out-of-control reverb/delay on the distorted lead vocal. The bridge section takes a swipe at Swell Maps’ art-rock classic “Full Moon in My Pocket,” then snaps back out into full-on joy rock a la Arctic Monkeys’ first album.

These guys know how to get max dynamics out of the two-piece arrangement. “Ripped Jeans” starts with a classically simple line— ”No more rocks in the driveway, no more cars on the highway, I’ll see you later when I’m gone”—and lets the image grow from a stray thought to an escape plan to a wild, carefree kiss-off.

By the time you hit the Superchunky hook buried in finale “Kids”—”I want it, I need it”—it seems clear we’ve got a serious contender for a break-out band here.

There’s just enough shamble in the sharpness and pop intuition underneath the seemingly careless delivery. The recordings (apparently by the band themselves, surprisingly) are deceptively complex without sounding dense. Every one of the songs delivers a new dimension and a new character, and I can’t think of a single reason Boreal Hills couldn’t be huge nationwide by this time next year. I sure hope this band delivers live, because Dope Hugz has me hooked and jonesin’ for more. Evan Sult Boreal Hills plays Eleven’s Where Is My Mind Tonight party March 1 at Mushmaus. and mesmerizing, like Neu! collaborating with the Hollies.

Yo La Tengo follow this challenge with the album’s most melodically generous songs: “Is That Enough” would sound like orchestral ‘60s pop, with sweeping strings and bouncing bossa nova chords, if not for the screaming distorted guitar buried low in the mix. And “Well You Better” takes the Motown formula and dials back the energy until its four-on-the-floor stomp sounds almost private—Marvin Gaye’s Saturday night sex appeal replaced by Ira Kaplan’s sleepy Sunday morning affection.

Fade’s vulnerable emotional core arrives in its more sedate second half on the acoustic strum of “The Point of It,” which starts with a lyrical lover’s quarrel before reassuring the listener that yes we are afraid, yes we are weak, yes we are aging, yes. “Maybe that’s OK if we’re not so young,” Kaplan sings…but we are still “we,” after all. And that is the point of it all.

The truly unexpected new moment for the band comes at the finale. “Before We Run” introduces a sophisticated strings and

Album Reviews horn arrangement to Georgia Hubley’s typically shy vocals, transforming her into Dusty Springfield in Memphis, caught up in the sweeping emotion of it all.

Even at their loudest, Yo La Tengo have an unrivaled sense of personal intimacy. On earlier albums, listeners could almost feel they were eavesdropping on lovers. From title to lyrics to the consolidation of past strengths, Fade feels more like the private reassurances of life partners facing the ravages of age. Because 30 years on, here they are, and here you are, together but alone, not yet ready for the end. ryan boyle

Miss Molly Simms Revenants Self Release

Spring is a weird time in STL, veering from t-shirt time to snowy in the same day, so it can be tricky to find the right soundtrack for the season.

Happily, Miss Molly Simms has just released her debut album, Revenants, to warm your cold soul while you wonder wistfully about all the shenanigans you’d be getting into if you could only feel your toes—and then empower you on those days warm enough to finally open the windows and belt along in your car.

Simms has been building a reputation as a blues crooner since she was underage, which is saying a lot in the town that gave the world Tommy Bankhead and Bennie Smith. She’s a veteran of the local Baby Blues Showcase and has musical assistance throughout the record that ain’t nothin’ to eff with. Local legend and master harpsman Eric McSpadden lays down the law on “Usual Suspects,” building a solid contrast between Simms’ enduring alto vocals and the higher range of McSpadden’s harmonica. The call and response between Simms’ guitar and McSpadden’s harp is not just good fun: it demonstrates that Simms really gets how the blues work, though her guitar solos throughout the record are minimal and arguably the thing she can most elaborate upon in future recordings.

Simms is no one-trick pony: Revenants is an interesting mix of sassy, upbeat blues songs and a slower, more introspective style of songwriting more comparable in structure to classic singer/songwriters. Ross Bridgeman’s keyswork shines throughout the album, regardless of the tempo or style.

“Spiritual Healing” is the easiest example of his contribution—if the track were about any other topic, the mix would seem inappropriate, but it instead continually brings you back to the subject at hand. Suzie Gilb

My Bloody Valentine MBV

Pickpocket

For a band that spent 22 years making their follow up to the critical darling Loveless, it seems like My Bloody Valentine haven’t changed all that much—and for the generation of fans who have grown up in the shadow of these shoegaze legends, this is a good thing. After all, if the combination of guitar noise, buried vocals and dreamy washes of sound found on that 1991 genre touchstone were enough to hook in a legion of fans and soundalike bands, why mess with a good thing? So the real question is : was it worth the wait? And the answer, like many things MBV-related, is complicated.

You can say what you want about the bands that have come after, but My Bloody Valentine’s main strength has always been that, despite the complexity of the sound, the song structures remain stock simple.

Right off the bat, blurry grinding dirge “She Found Now” establishes that the band’s writing formula is in full force, made only more urgent by the passage of so much time. The record has many moments like

The Rebellious Jukebox

that, ones that feel as though the ‘90s never ended and that Kevin Shields has found his own personal time machine back to when Loveless was new.

At the same time, there are welcome surprises—tunes that break away from what we expect from a band this storied—and those truly stand out. They include the crunchy “Only Tomorrow,” which puts a garage-rock tune through the MBV blender and comes out the other side like a Brian Wilson B-side that was buried in peat moss and left to decay, stretching its legs to the six-minute mark without breaking a sweat.

Album closer “Wonder 2” also tries to teach these old dogs a new trick, with a layered explosion of sounds, some in tune, some not, that collide together, at first dissonant and then later taking on a form of their own. This experimentation is welcome on a record that seems to dive headfirst into its own nostalgia. All of which makes the whole record more a chronicle of the time between Loveless and now. Consider MBV required listening for ‘90s kids whose indie scene is currently in the throes of a shoegaze resurgence. On the flipside, if you didn’t grow up on My Bloody Valentine or Ride or Slowdive and are wondering what all the fuss is about, you might not find the resulting chaos appealing. Jason Robinson

Life at 45 RPM by Matt Harnish

Frank Zappa once asked if humor belonged in music. I didn’t stick around for the answer (I can only take that guy in really small doses), so this month we’re going to let Snake Ranch & The Chill Dawgs figure it out.

The Chill Dawgs can be considered the house band of Dudes Mag, the long-running, ridiculous, scatological, pop-culture & pop-punk obsessed ‘zine put out by South Side drunk/pizza enthusiast Nighthawk. Much like Dudes Mag itself, though, there’s a lot more thought put into this record than one would expect. Is it funny?

Well sure, of course. These are funny dudes. The five songs all have either “chill” or “dawg” in the title & the subject matters exclusively deal with partying and/or chilling. Thankfully, the Dawgs take these dumb songs just seriously enough. The world is full of pop punk with dumb lyrics, but is less full of pop punk with dumb lyrics that’re crossed with sax-fuelled frat party rock (in the Animal House way, of course) played by a bunch of dudes who aren’t worried about throwing whatever dumb idea at the wall they come up with, because they’re good enough to make most of them stick. Record closer “Space Dawg,” for example, leaves the punk behind for unironic (I think) Flock Of Seagulls-y new wave, splicing in found sound/studio chatter about...stuff. This record shouldn’t be as good as it is!

Late ‘80s/early ‘90s East Side weirdos Snake Ranch also managed the tricky task of taking their music seriously while being complete clowns. Their three-song 45 is bookended by the Public Enemyquoting “Stop The Violence” and the tongue-in-cheek cautionary tale of “Mexian Crabdance,” the subject of which I believe Nighthawk may have also tackled in Dudes Mag. The standout track, however, is “Not The Hands.” History has not been kind to the punk/funk hybrid, but there was a time when there were some pretty great bands mining that territory & “...Hands” is a great example, blending funked-out bass with Dischord Records-style guitar to create a true gem. Check out the youtubes to see some classic footage of Snake Ranch at their dresswearing goofy best. Does humor belong in music? Who cares? Since when has punk rock been about what belongs where?

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 23

Album Reviews

ON AN ON Give In

Roll Call Records

On An On are the best thing to ever come out of a break up. After the split of Chicago’s Scattered Trees, Nate Eiesland, Alissa Ricci, and Ryne Estwing found themselves without a band and recording time with Dave Newfeld, producer of some of Broken Social Scene’s best albums. They chose to stick together and form a new project, which yielded the first perfect record this year—an amazing feat from a newly created band.

No longer haunted by death, the songs on Give In produce bright sounds of happiness, acceptance, and love. The first point of attraction is the backing melody on “Ghosts,” a penetratingly beautiful resonance that lifts your head up and makes you wonder where it’s coming from.

Similar tones crop up in different ways throughout. Stunning power pop songs like “Every Song” and “Panic,” along with mellow guitar on “All the Horses,” show the production influence of Newfeld, as they conjure sounds from classic indie rock of the early to mid-’00s. On obvious lead single “The Hunter,” singer/guitarist Eiesland’s vocoder-altered voice precedes a crashing wall of bombastic drums and a beautiful synth rainbow. Heavy hitters like “Bad Mythology” and the slower, tranceinducting “Cops” vibrate with darker

24 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

tendencies to bring chills down your spine.

Seven-minute closer “I Wanted to Say More” slows the record down to heartbeat pace, and gives time for reflecting upon the greatness that preceded it. Finding the right balance between slow murmurings, unforgettable melodic resonance, and upbeat rockers, ON AN ON has fashioned a flawless sequence of songs that never falter from the flashing start to the slowly burning cinders. Jack Probst On An On plays March 18 at the Demo.

Cloud Cult Love

Earthology Records

Love is a perfectly named record. It begins with pretty encouragements whispered over delicate piano and acoustic guitar. It’s surely nice, but it’s holding back.

A broad cello tiptoes in, providing a depth that makes you wonder if there might be more to this after all. Then the sweet nothings mature into words of resolute optimism, and as the brass make their bold entrance, you find yourself impressed by a body (of work) that has the sand to be both optimistic and awesome.

The album is Cloud Cult’s newest, and it improves on the band’s best two trademarks: their intense baroque electronica and their in-your-face sentimentality. What makes Love uniquely special is that the band finally managed to infuse a studio recording with

the sheer power of their live presence.

Going to a Cloud Cult show means being confronted by a small army of musical and visual artists who relentlessly overload your senses. Now, finally, that sound can be heard by home listeners in its undiluted glory.

It’s especially heartening to hear Craig Minowa, the group’s bandleader, so unabashedly sanguine. It’s been a long ten years since Minowa’s two-year-old son died of unexplained causes in the middle of the night, leading to a year-long separation from his wife. For years, Minowa channeled his grief into hundreds of songs that Pitchfork once described as “insane genius”—a fitting title for a man who once refused lucrative offers from record labels to start an environmentally friendly nonprofit, Earthology Records, that would go on to create the first fully postconsumer recycled CD packaging in the US.

Minowa is now reunited with his wife (who paints onstage during Cloud Cult shows), raising a new child with her, and creating some of the best music of his career. Good times have not hampered Cloud Cult’s knack for taking risks, though.

“You’re no good to the living if you’re too afraid to bleed,” Minowa shouts on the album’s closer, “The Show Starts Now.” The album is full of such harsh reassurances, and you get the sense that Minowa is shouting at himself, reflecting on all the hard lessons that brought him here. We’re lucky to listen in. There’s a lot to be learned from Love. Kyle Kapper

N G IA MA

TUESDAYS

IT

A L IA N O

Vinyl Fight

3.16

Cree Rider Family Band

3.16 3.23 The Trophy Mules

elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 25

Ephemera

THE WAY BACK PAGE

Paper Time Machine

Curated by Paige Brubeck

March 2012 (Off Broadway March 10) Sleepy Kitty poster by Sleepy Kitty

You can see it in record stores and in cafe windows: the SXSW tour season is upon us, so this month is a focus on the tour poster. There are a few ways to make a tour poster, either listing all the cities and dates, or leaving a space to write in. I always like seeing the graphic solutions that show up in this form. One of my favorite posters from my time in STL is Firecracker Press’s Bunnygrunt poster—iconic, eyecatching, and efficient use of two colors. Minneapolis MN’s Aesthetic Apparatus created this beautiful Bazan poster, and a recent discovery is this wild-looking MegaZilla / Warhammer 48K design. Also, for the first time I’m including a poster for my own band for three shows last March that began at Off Broadway, continued to SXSW and ended in New Orleans (where we could check in with the postermakers gathered for the Southern Graphics Council there).

March 2009 Bunnygrunt poster by Firecracker Press

26 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com

March 2010 (Old Rock House March 14) David Bazan poster by Aesthetic Apparatus

2006 Megazilla / Warhammer 48K poster by Ben Jones

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH THE MUD HOUSE

STL STYLEHOUSE

Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?

Why not spend all day here!

Warm coffee and sweet brownies are always appreeciated when winter begins!

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

Off-beat 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 in the historic DeMun area, Strands draws inspiration from the world of fashion and art to stay on top of current trends.

They create designs to showcase your individual beauty!

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

Demun 730 Demun Ave. (63105) 725-1717 | strands-hair.com

SASHA’S ON SHAW

CITY DINER AT THE FOX LATE NIGHT CLUB

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

Shaw 4069 Shaw Blvd (63110) 771-7274 | sashaswinebar.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

Paid Advertising elevenmusicmag.com | ELEVEN | 27

ELEVEN MAGAZINE IS PROUD TO BE A SPONSOR OF

28 | ELEVEN | elevenmusicmag.com