photo by Todd Wolfson

Alejandro Escovedo
8 p.m. Tuesday, May 15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.
By Jaime Lees
Thursday, May 10 2012

Every Alejandro Escovedo show should be required viewing, but this one promises something extra special for fans of St. Louis music. The rock-roots legend’s show will be supported by Jimmy Griffin, frontman of the Incurables and guitarist for El Monstero. A formidable talent on his own, Griffin is also a frequent wingman to Escovedo and did time touring as a member of his band last year. He will open the show with an acoustic performance of Incurables songs, then Escovedo will play solo before being joined by Griffin and an all-star collection of local musicians featuring members of the Feed, the Funky Butt Brass Band and Dr. Zhivegas.

After the Show: Escovedo and Griffin are hitting the road for a short solo tour (in a Lincoln) before Escovedo meets up with his band the Sensitive Boys.

link: Riverfront Times

You want to know what’s some bullshit? Bonnie Raitt is totally under-appreciated and under-praised. Yes, people love her, and she’s well respected, and her shows are expensive and sold out, but she’s playing the freakin’ Pageant. She should be selling out venues ten times that size. Bonnie Raitt is an historically important badass, a hero of the slide guitar, a singer-songwriter, an intellectual and an activist. She’s also a feminist icon because she kicks all the boys’ asses on guitar. Raitt should be worshiped in the same way as Prince or Bruce Springsteen. Show some goddamn respect.

Update: This show has sold out. Next time she tours you can show some goddamn respect by getting yourself a ticket in advance.

link: Riverfront Times

- link: Riverfront Times

photo by Courtney Allessio

Windy City mash-up wizards the Hood Internet will be in town for a heavily sponsored event. This show is being billed as a party, not a concert and for good reason. The duo specialize in mixing hip-hop and ’80s music with modern indie rock ― the resulting sound is a cluster-fuck of ever-changing, highly danceable tunes. The Hood Internet’s contemporaries and co-conspirators are up-and-coming Chicago acts Flosstradamus and Kid Sister, so expect clips from these acts featured among samples ranging from Beach House to Drake to the Black Lips to Jamie Foxx to Deerhunter to Gucci Mane to Grizzly Bear.

Pregame: Hit the Hood Internet’s web site and download the free “mixtapes” to listen to while you’re dressing and dancing in front of your mirror.

link: Riverfront Times

photo by Heidi May

Henry Rollins
8 p.m. Saturday, March 24. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard.

It’s been 31 years since Henry Rollins first joined D.C. punk pioneer Black Flag. Since then, he’s grown older, wiser and even handsomer. Rollins now tours mostly as a spoken-word performer, using his passion and knowledge to offer smart — frequently hilarious — commentary on political mischief, societal missteps and personal injustices. Even when he’s not touring, Rollins spends much of his life traveling. He’s a world explorer, hitting far-off lands and war zones for both work and pleasure. He’s a one-man information-gathering machine, and he’s used what he’s accumulated to become a cranky, entertaining teacher. The uninformed would be wise to listen.

Note: Rollins is still energetic, sweaty and powerful onstage. And he still wraps the microphone cord in loops around his hand, punk-singer style. Old habits die hard.

• link: Riverfront Times

Filed under: Henry Rollins, Riverfront Times Tagged: Black Flag, Henry Rollins, Riverfront Times ]]> http://jaimeville.com/2012/03/21/rollins/feed/ 0 Jaime Image http://jaimeville.com/2012/03/19/nones/ http://jaimeville.com/2012/03/19/nones/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:02:47 +0000 Jaime http://jaimeville.com/?p=1876 ]]>
Why You Should See Nones Tonight at El Lenador
By Jaime Lees
Mon., Mar. 19 2012 at 8:14 AM

Every Spring we Midwesterners reap the benefits of shows from bands that are touring to and from the SXSW festival in Austin. We’re usually stoked about coastal bands that had previously been too lame to swing through the Lou, but this year we can’t wait for neighboring noise makers Nones to play on its victory lap back to Chicago. Nones is one of the newest bands on Chicago’s underground HoZac Records label and its sound is both no wave and psychedelic. These three girls and one (insane) dude front man make both twitching blasters that dip into skronk territory and trippy, kaleidoscopic jams that are frequently interrupted by a squawking saxophone.

For Fans Of: The Fall, Fear, HoZac labelmate Nobunny and David Yow’s stage presence.

• link: Riverfront Times

It was only a matter of time. Insane Clown Posse fans have their own language, style of dress, food / drink, tattoos, rituals and culture — why wouldn’t they have their own Facebook?

Fans of ICP call themselves “Juggalos” (or “Juggalettes” for the ladies) and they have now been supplied with their own social network, Juggalobook. We poked around on Juggalobook for a few hours. And then we pondered the very existence of the Juggalo. Here’s what we thought:

The design and style on Juggalobook is very similar to Facebook, it’s just suckier. Over the course of a couple of frustrating hours, we found that everything on there is just a little bit wonky. The pages take forever to load and the advertisements are both obnoxious and omnipresent. Still, it’s a design that is easy to navigate, especially if one is already familiar with Facebook. And, of course, access to ICP merchandise is always only a few clicks away. (The money-making geniuses sell every kind of merch possible, and it’s all way expensive.)

The direct rips of Facebook were everywhere, but they were all Juggalo’d. For example, instead of clicking “like” on a picture or a post, one clicks “Whoop whoop!” instead. (FYI: “Whoop whoop!” is Juggalo-speak for “yay” or “holla.”) And “add friend” is “add homie,” etc.

The move to launch Juggalobook seems a little late for a group that has always had such a strong Internet presence. Juggalos consider each other family, even if they have never met in person. Frequently ICP fans will “meet” online long before they meet in person at a concert or the Gathering of the Juggalos. (Yes, they have their own yearly festival. Terrifying pictures of it are here.)

As far as American subcultures go, there are few that are more fascinating and easily observable than the Juggalos. Though the FBI has recently classified Juggalos as a gang, most outsiders just see them as disaffected, fat, possibly scary white trash. It is clearly a group for those who identify as outsiders.

There’s actually something kind of sweet there in the way that these (usually) twenty-somethings find and support each other. ICP fans come together from all over the country and get together just to have a good time. That’s not to say that I don’t find their habits to be a little scary- binge drinking, heavy drugs and a misogynistic atmosphere are a given in Juggalo culture, but there is a sort-of all-for-one camaraderie amongst the crew. (And, for what it’s worth, some friends and I went to the ICP show last summer at Pop’s as a goof — pretty much just to make fun of Juggalos — and all of the people that we met that day were super friendly and eager to pass their flask or their joint to us to try to make us feel included in their good times. We went to the show to be jerks and we left feeling like jerks.)

Of course, there are bad apples. These are the ones that I’m scared of running into, and these are the ones that are the most entertaining on Juggalobook. There are dudes who just get way too into it. Going into Juggalo territory is not like entering another country, it’s like landing on another planet. Juggalobook is an extension of this other invented life. Most of the people have their faces painted in a way that completely obscures all facial social cues. Someone in full face paint could be happy or angry and it might be hard to tell how they are feeling. But, hey, you’d encourage painting your face, too, if you looked like Ed Rooney. In keeping with ICP tradition- one uses one’s Juggalo name as a screen name. The screen names are spelled in Juggalo-style and frequently include the words “twizted,” “wykyd,” and “gurl.”

I think the most interesting thing about Juggalo subculture is Juggalettes. How they behave and how they are treated is unique to the group. First of all, rarely does a Juggalette meet average American beauty standards. Stretch marks, C-sections scars, lumpy thighs and saggy tits are the normal in ICP land, not the exception. And these women are seen as pieces of meat. They are frequently groped, put on display and encouraged to engage in public sex acts by their male counterparts. And most of them seem to volunteer for this treatment. It’s interesting because these are women who would never, ever be considered sex objects by conventional standards. With a Juggalette, it doesn’t matter that she’s obese or that her hair is terrible, in this culture even the most busted female can be considered attractive, as long as she is DTF. It’s fascinating and this phenomenon should be something that future anthropologists study in graduate school. (I’m looking at you, Webster University.)

What do you think of Juggalos and Juggalobook? It’s easy to sign up and one is instantly rewarded with shenanigans from a foreign culture. Remember how much fun we all had making fun of the “Miracles” video? (Nearly 10 million views!) You can have that much fun on Juggalobook, but watch out for AdultJuggalos.net. It’s NSFW for life.

MCL, y’all.

• link: Riverfront Times

Peelander-Z is like Gwar on ecstasy. From Japan (via New York City), the members’ bright color-block costumes make them look like after-hours Power Rangers. Described as “Japan action comic punk,” the band is loved almost exclusively by those intrigued by novelty: comic-book addicts, professional wresting devotees, anime enthusiasts and Juggalos, alike. Peelander-Z is a good time wrapped up in a j-punk box. With songs such as “Ninja-High Schooool,” “Ice Cream!” and “Pun! Pun! Punkrock!,” the band gets audiences bouncing like little kids on a sugar high. Come for the spectacle, stay for the smiles.

Did You Know: St. Louis Japanophiles have been in luck lately. We recently had Melt-Banana, now Peelander-Z and soon Guitar Wolf. Arigatou, Japan.

• link: Riverfront Times

Filed under: Peelander-Z, Riverfront Times Tagged: Japan, Peelander-Z ]]> http://jaimeville.com/2012/02/29/peelanderz/feed/ 0 Jaime pz http://jaimeville.com/2012/02/29/princeea/ http://jaimeville.com/2012/02/29/princeea/#comments Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:18:40 +0000 Jaime http://jaimeville.com/?p=1818 ]]>

Craigslist St. Louis: Prince Ea Seeks Pussy
By Jaime Lees Wed., Feb. 29 2012 at 6:01 AM

He would never say it like that, though, because he is a gentleman. In a world where many hip-hop starts are accused of being hyper-sexual misogynistic jerks, Prince Ea proves ‘em all wrong. A smart, driven man with a smooth flow and clever lyrics, Prince Ea would never stoop to begging for pussy.

He does, however, need to borrow a cat to star in his next video. If his past video for “Backwards Rappers” is any indication, your cat might end up being an internet superstar.

This Craigslist post is from last month, so it might be too late to offer up your kitty friend, but it’s worth a shot. Now your cat can be famous somewhere other than I Can Has Cheezburger.

• link: Riverfront Times

There are hundreds of hilarious Craigslist ads posted every day, but we’re partial to the Missed Connections- the section where the besotted post regrets over incomplete love connections.

This week we bring you a music-related missed connection. We’re not quite sure what this post means as a whole, but the individual elements are interesting: vomit, babes, cookies and the Cramps.

Check it out here. And for some reason, it makes us think of this.

• link: Riverfront Times

We get very excited when there is a new recording studio in town. With each new studio comes the promise of new batch of local releases, so we checked in with Gary Copeland of the minty-fresh South-Fi studio for a glimpse of our future. Copeland gives us all of the important details.

Jamie Lees: Would you please describe your history with the local music scene?

Gary Copeland: I moved to the city about fifteen or sixteen years ago from Illinois. I played in bands and projects (Lofreq, Shame Club, Head on Collision, King City Pinks) around town for a number of years. I worked as the front of house engineer at a few clubs and recently left my last position as head engineer for a club in January.

Why did you want to build your own studio?

I’ve been interested in electronics and specifically recording for as long as I can remember. I’ve always liked working with my hands and started teaching myself about things that tied into those interests since I was a kid. It mostly came out of necessity. My family didn’t have a lot of money, so if you needed something done, you sort of had to figure it out for yourself.

It came about from the process of gathering equipment to make demos for my own projects. At a point, I realized I had enough gear to make actual records. Combined with the fact that I really like and am excited by the whole process that is involved, I started asking around to see if my friends would be interested in working with me.

Is the studio a part of your house or is it in a separate location?

It was in a house in south city for about fifteen years. The landlords there were just about the greatest people you could ask to be renting from. They let me do pretty much whatever I wanted to the place. I slowly built it into a pretty decent place to make records. By the time I moved out, the studio had more or less taken over the entire place. These things tend to get out hand.

Around July of last year I got an email from Justin Fisher at Smith Lee in Maplewood about an MCI JH110 he wanted fixed up. He had heard about the JH24 I was working on at the time and wanted to see if I would be interested in getting his machine smoothed out.

We worked out a deal and got his machine working really well (with help from a great MCI tech in Nashville named Steve Sadler). During the process, the idea of me moving into a control room they had open there came up.

Did you use any other studios as inspiration when designing yours?

Not really. Since I moved into a pre-existing, professionally designed, working space, there was no need to do a lot of remodeling type stuff.

The only thing I do require from a space is that things work properly and it’s a comfortable, homey kind of environment. Which it is. I really like being there and am very honored that they would allow me in. The building has so much history, and I can feel it all around. I’m starting to think the place is haunted though.

Do you have a specialty? Any certain equipment or qualities that bands might be seeking?

I use MCI gear here. I have a ’79 JH16 two-inch machine with 24 and 16 track head stacks. There are a few different vintage JH110 two-track machines to mix to, and I am currently putting together a sort of “mutt” JH110 that will be my permanent mix machine when finished.

My console is a ’81 JH636 that used to be Smith Lee’s. They retired it years ago and put it in storage. I rescued it and worked on bringing it back to life this summer and fall with lots of help from Steve. It’s working quite well now and is just an absolute pleasure (in my opinion) to make records on. It just makes so much sense to me and sounds fantastic.

Most of the outboard stuff I have here is either stuff I’ve made, racked, or just “tweaked” in some way. I’m always listening and looking for new stuff, but I also have to balance sonics and overhead to keep the output sounding great, but keeping it affordable for clients. I’m definitely not getting into some kind of silly “arms race” with the other studios in town.

I guess I would say my specialty more and more is analog recording, to make a long story short.

Who have you worked with and who do you have plans to work with in the future?

I just started a project with Troubadour Dali a few days ago on the two-inch machine.

Echo Bravo will be in soon to finish a record we started at the old place in Protools.

I recorded all the Glass Teeth stuff, although their drummer Mike Hanson mixed the full length CD they put out as their last release.

I mixed some stuff for Shame Club that they had recorded themselves.

I just tracked a new EP for Tilts. We actually had to do that at Jacob Detering’s Red Pill studio due to scheduling with the band and the fact that I was in the middle of my move. I really like working in his new room anyway.

I did The Hail Mary’s record (at the old Red Pill).

I also worked last year on a record for a band called Lengrand between there and my place that I thought was really cool, but unfortunately they broke up, so no one will ever hear that one. These things happen.

I did the Nevermores’ new record as well. I don’t think that’s out yet.

I have about three records of my own cooking currently, but I’m not really into pushing myself to finish those with all the other things going on right now. It’s great to not have deadlines sometimes.

John Katsafanas did a bunch of the overdubs for the new Black for a Second and Gubenthal records at the old place as well. Both of which came out great in my opinion.

I can’t really talk about anything in the future currently, but I will say that I’m really looking forward to this year.

Will you be focused on national or local clients?

So far at least, it’s been all local bands, which is totally fine with me. I would like to spread my “reach” out a little, but we have such a great pool of talent here that I wouldn’t consider it necessary. I mean, on any given day, there are probably one or two new bands or projects starting here.

I think St. Louis has an amazing atmosphere for creative people and would be a fantastic place for people from anywhere to camp out and focus on doing the work that is required to make a good record.

What would you like people to know about your studio?

I would like them to know that the place is here for them in whatever way they would like to utilize it. For example, if they have something they have been working on themselves and even just want to hear it in a treated, good sounding space, or whatever, they’re welcome. You don’t have to do your entire project here. I feel like I understand the position that most bands around town are in.

I would like them to feel comfortable in emailing or calling about anything really. I love talking about this stuff and all the ways a record can be made. All of which are completely valid. I want to be an advocate for the bands. If I don’t think I’m the best person to make a particular band’s record, I will be the first one to suggest someone else in town that is.

• link: Riverfront Times

This weekend El Lenador officially became the epicenter of the South St. Louis music scene. It’s a place where locals go to see other locals. There’s a tight sense of community, but that’s not to say that it feels exclusive or exclusionary. It’s a place where bands seem to look out for and support each other.

Friday night brought a packed show with Bloody Knives, Bug Chaser, Tone Rodent and Trauma Harness. A small fight broke out in the crowd when a few rowdy jerks tried to start a mosh pit, but the offenders were quickly shown the door. The crowd, undaunted, quickly went back to enjoying its collective evening.

Saturday night featured the album release party for Catholic Guit with guests Magic City and Shaved Women.

Shaved Women got the crowd head-bobbing around. It was clear that this new band had already made an impression because much the crowd seemed to already know much of the music. They were enthusiastic. And not just supportive friends, but as real fans. When bass player John Birkner fell to the ground and began worming his way across the floor, audience members just smiled and stepped over him and his trailing cord.

Magic City plays a different show every time it plays out. Faithful followers can never be sure what kind of performance to expect. Sometimes it’s a psychedelic freak out, sometimes it’s like funky R&B, sometimes it’s like a basement rock show, sometimes it’s like gospel church. Magic City is delightfully baffling. During its set, each member is separately interesting, and it’s hard to know where to look.

The place fully filled out in time for Catholic Guilt. The crowd was watching the band but the band was watching each other, mostly playing in tight circle. It wasn’t unfriendly; it was actually nice to watch. They were groovin’. The band’s sound is difficult to pinpoint, but it ranges from muddy atonal drone to Talking Heads-type hiccups. It all blends into one extensive, building jam.

• link: Riverfront Times
• link: Catholic Guilt
• link: Magic City
• link: Shaved Women

Bloody Knives is often presented as “industrial shoegaze,” but that description isn’t quite right. Shoegaze was built on shy, passive performances and “swirling guitars.” Bloody Knives ain’t got none of that. This is a long-haired rock band from Austin, Texas without a single six-string guitar. The three band members play drums, bass and synthesizer. This mixture creates a thick bliss: It’s a combination of pretty distortion, eight-bit glitch and melody, backed by heavy stoner rock thumping. Constant touring has spread the band’s reputation as a thunderous live act; check it out with local openers Bug Chaser, Tone Rodent and Trauma Harness.
Go If: You want your 1988 My Bloody Valentine to rock like 1992 Kyuss.

• link: Riverfront Times
• link: Bloody Knives

​The Rams may not be taking the field on Sunday at Super Bowl XLVI, but someone from St. Louis will be: Nick Smarrelli, chief operating officer at St. Louis IT firm GadellNet Consulting Services. He’ll be helping to escort Madonna on the field for her halftime show, as reported yesterday in an article in the St. Louis Business Journal.

With exactly one minute of Facebook stalking we learned a bunch about Smarrelli. He was married a few years ago, he does a bunch of traveling (Tibet, Australia, Jamaica, Lake Tahoe) and he has cute dog named Cooper. He seems swell and he has a very nice smile. We’re glad we have a man on the inside and we want all of the juicy details when he comes home. (Was Madonna a bitch? Yes? In the good way or in the bad way? And seriously, how was her face without HD-ready makeup?)

For those of us who know not one darn thing about football, halftime is the best time. It’s our chance to get excited about what’s on the big screen. But the Super Bowl executives have an unreliable history when choosing the entertainment. It seems to be a crapshoot, really.

I thought that Prince would be the peak of halftime performances, but he was followed with a rad Tom Petty show. And after Petty came that panty-dropping performance from Bruce Springsteen. Damn. But then after Springsteen was a just-okay performance from the Who. And then the worst came last year we were forced to endure that total barf-fest from the Black Eyed Peas. (*Shudder*)

But even if Madonna’s controversial appearance blows or Smarrelli breaks a leg (literally) we will still have Dan Connolly to represent us. Connolly is a native St. Louisan, a full-time awesome dude and a player for the Patriots. Connolly set some kind of fancy football record last season, and this year he’s a starting lineman for New England. And before you ask that all-important STL question, we will tell you that Connolly went to Marquette High School. Way to rep that Marquette Mustang, Dan.

Who else from St. Louis is going to be a part of the Super Bowl?

• link: Riverfront Times

As a long-time member of St. Louis media, Thomas Crone has been it all: author, journalist, photographer, DJ, webmaster, blogger, videographer, producer, director, actor, publisher, panelist and editor. (Including a spell as music editor of this fine publication.)

The dude works on, like, ten projects at a time and seems to have no problem fitting in another job when inspiration strikes him. Crone is always up to something and, luckily, we music fans are frequently the beneficiaries of his hard work.

He’s spent years as a man-about-town, documenting St. Louis history and reporting on local bands. His latest project is a combination of these two interests. As part of his Second Set column at the St. Louis Beacon, he’s been digging out and scanning all of his old show flyers and posting them to a set in his Flickr site.

We did a quick interview with Mr. Crone today and he explained, “As I’m starting a year-long writing project for the stlbeacon.org, I wanted to finally organize my old collection, which has been split up into several, plastic storage boxes. Last night, I hit the mother lode, finding a bunch of pieces that I thought were lost to time. What’s interesting now is figuring out which were outright harvested off of walls by me, which were lent to me for some project or another, and how many will need to be returned. In one case, I have a loan from someone recently accused of murder. Realizing that was a real shocker; but so many of these evoke some type of interesting or unusual emotion. I’m hopeful that they bring the same for others.”

There are over 50 images in the collection now, and Crone plans to post around 25 more per day and promises, “In addition to the flyers, there will also be ticket stubs, zine covers, press photos, bios a few contract riders…. might wind up with a few hundred pieces by the end of the weekend.”

He plans to move all of these images to SilverTrayOnline.com in the near future, but for now there are already flyers posted to Flickr for you to enjoy from Cicero’s, Creepy Crawl, Lo, Tangerine, the Bernard Pub, the Hi-Pointe, the Lemp Brewery, the Mad Art Gallery, Mississippi Nights, Rocket Bar, Side Door, Stages, etc.

Scans and donations of your old flyers will be considered in the future. Keep an eye out for news on this endeavor at ThomasCrone.com and look for future flyers to be posted at SilverTrayOnline.com.

• link: Riverfront Times

Dana Smith with his painting of Tim Rakel

Dana Smith, St. Louis Painter, Celebrates Local Musicians with Southtown Famous
By Jaime Lees
Thu., Jan. 12 2012 at 6:09 AM

For local painter Dana Smith, art and music have always been intertwined. He can he found in the dark corners of music venues, his face obscured by a large lens, capturing live shots of local bands that he’ll later use as a guide for his paintings. The sounds, sights and people of St. Louis are his muse — Smith finds constant inspiration in the friends, music and buildings that surround him. And though he is, in all respects, a guy who prefers to stay behind the camera, his soft-spoken exterior masks a prolific artistic dynamo.

Smith spent his teen years traveling the country as a sponsored skateboarder. It was during some adventures on the West Coast that he first encountered designers who did graphics for skate companies, artists and photographers. He explains, “I was always interested in art but never knew how to approach it. But on those trips, I met people who would just do it.”

Even though he didn’t have any training or any idea what he was doing, one day when he was about eighteen years old he just started painting. Around this same time Smith began many years a musician the South City music scene, playing in the Wormwood Scrubs, the Baysayboos, Asbestos Sister and Cloister. He found ripe subject material in the bands he frequently watched and shared stages with, and eventually decided to concentrate his efforts on painting the local musicians that he felt compelled to celebrate.

Steve Scariano at the Duck Room, painting by Dana Smith

Over time, this hobby turned into his passion. He now paints for hours nearly every day, sometimes working on three paintings simultaneously. Smith’s love for the music is clearly infused into his alive, vibrant canvases. There’s something about the way that he presents light and movement that allows his paintings radiate energy. He captures not just big rock scenes, but the smaller moments, too — giving the observer the feeling of actually being at the show. This unique quality has put Smith’s work in high demand. In addition to filling requests from individual patrons, Smith has also been commissioned by local businesses, including the Royale on South Kingshighway and the Old Rock House, where he works as a sort-of artist-in-residence, painting many of the national touring acts that have played the venue.

Smith’s talents have been tapped for other music-related projects, as well. He’s illustrated show flyers for friends’ bands (including Gringo Star), provided artwork for Vintage Vinyl’s Record Store Day compilation release, had pieces featured on the music website Daytrotter.com and his painting of Bunnygrunt was used by the band as the cover of its last full length album.

Bunnygrunt at CBCB, painting by Dana Smith

His enthusiasm for capturing local underground bands has resulted in an unexpected consequence: Smith has become an accidental custodian of both the current and past south side scene. Over the years he’s produced paintings of many of the big names that rule the small stages: Mark Early (Glass Teeth), Darin Gray (Dazzling Killmen, Grand Ulena), Dottie Georges (.e), Jerry Green (Potomac Accord), Eric Hall, Fred Friction, JJ Hamon (Magic City), Jason Hutto (Phonocaptors, Warm Jets USA), James Weber Jr. (Julia Sets), Tim Rakel (Bad Folk, Union Electric), Tony Renner, Steve Scariano (Finn’s Motel) and Mark Stephens (Highway Matrons, Accelerando).

Smith’s documenting skills also extend to the venues and spaces that housed these performances. Places like the Duck Room, the Firebird, Frederick’s Music Lounge, the Hi-Pointe, Lemmon’s, Mad Art Gallery, Mississippi Nights, Penny Studios, Radio Cherokee, the Schlafly Tap Room, the Sheldon Ballroom, the Typo Cafe, the Way Out Club and White Flag are all represented in his paintings and illustrations. Details like the diamond-shaped wood wall design at Off Broadway (now hidden behind the red curtain) and the neon beer signs at CBGB fill the background of his pieces, offering familiar clues to the location of the performance and adding extra depth and detail to Smith’s paintings.

Rats and People at Off Broadway, painting by Dana Smith

Smith’s first proper retrospective of his work with local bands is being held this month at Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts on Cherokee Street. The show is called Southtown Famous (a nod to the Bunnygrunt song of the same name) and it will display about 40 pieces of Smith’s work throughout the years. The opening is this Saturday, with music supplied for the evening by .e, of course. The show runs though February 4th, and Fort Gondo is open every Saturday afternoon. Read our interview with the artist and then go check out some paintings of your St. Louis musical heroes and neighbors.

Jason Rook at Radio Penny, painting by Dana Smith

Jaime Lees: Tell me about your upcoming show.

Dana Smith: Well, it’s gonna be a collection of paintings from the last seven or eight years. In 2003 or 2004 I had the idea that I was just going to start focusing on St. Louis businesses and people. So most of the people are musicians because that’s what I’m interested in. The idea for this show was to pull all of these paintings together because they’ve never all been shown together.

How do you choose who you are going to paint?

I don’t know… That’s an interesting question. I guess it has to do with how they play or what they play and if I have an interest in it. Because I am kind of picky sometimes, but I don’t know why. A lot of times I’ll just have a camera with me, and I won’t plan on taking any photos or anything. And then something will just hit me and I think, “I have to photograph that.”

But for me, It’s very important that when I do my own paintings that I work from my own photograph. I know I could just pick anything off of the net, but I went to the show. I stood there all night. I sang along. I was right there. And then the photo that I got was my photo. And no one else got that image or that angle or whatever; it’s all me. I go there and I stand there and I wait and I soak up the atmosphere. And all of that goes into it when you’re painting because you experienced it.

Did you ever want to paint somebody specific but couldn’t get the right picture?

Yes! There are a few people who I want to photograph but the circumstances haven’t worked out or I haven’t put myself in the position to get the photo or anything. I want to do one of Jeff Robtoy. And Chris Powers. And I’d like to get a good one of Jim Utz DJing or something. When I was a kid going to Mississippi Nights I’d see him all the time. And I’d be like “Who is that guy? He’s so cool!”

Is it important to you that you always paint live shots? Most of your paintings are from the audience’s point of view, instead of being backstage with somebody sitting down and you take their photo and then paint it.

Well, yeah, if I had that access then I’d love to do stuff like that, too. And sometimes I do. There’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes and I’ll snap a photo of that. But I don’t want anything posed. It would feel fake. I don’t want them to know the photo is being taken. I try hang out in the back and try to be inconspicuous.

The Phonocaptors at CBGB, painting by Dana Smith

That’s how it is in the Phonocaptors painting that you are using for promotion, right? They weren’t playing in that shot.

Yeah, that was the idea. That photo is from 2003 or something, and I didn’t paint it until two years later. Those are the kind of scenes that I was really into capturing. In that painting they’re setting up. And the guy off to the left is Steve Pick and the woman in the middle is Karen [Ried]. But they didn’t know I was taking the photo. They’re just hanging out and talking and setting up and [Jason] Hutto is walking around with a cigarette and getting ready and everything. And I thought that captured perfectly what it’s like to be at CBGB when they’re about to play.

So how has your painting style changed over the years?

I used to do a lot of older paintings just out of my imagination. Just make stuff up, you know? And I liked it but now I prefer to paint from something. It could be a live thing or a photograph. My style is still very rudimentary. Very simple, very rough. But I like to get all the little details in there and make it so that you can recognize that it’s Lemmon’s or the Royale or whatever. And so I pay more attention to details now.

Who buys the paintings? I know bands want to buy their own a lot — does that happen all of the time?

No, and I don’t do the paintings thinking that the band will buy it. It just depends. Sometimes I’ll sell a painting and it will be someone specific in it and I’ll ask, “Oh, do you know the person in the painting?” and the buyer will say “No, I just like it.” And that’s really cool when that happens.

Do you explain to them who is in the painting?

Well, I used to because it, like, meant a lot to me. [laughs] I’d explain who it was and what bands they’d been in. But I realized after I did that a couple of times that the buyer usually doesn’t care. [laughs] So I don’t really do that anymore unless they ask.

N Nomurai at the Way Out Club, painting by Dana Smith

Why are you inspired to paint locals?

When I started out every night I’d be somewhere — at a show or hanging out at a recording session or whatever. This was eight or nine years ago. And there would be awesome stuff going on musically. But it was like “No one is going to know about it.” You’d think, “Who cares what happened nine years ago on a Tuesday night at Frederick’s Music Lounge?” But, like, I cared. Eric Hall would do a show. And I would think “Eric Hall is fucking great. People should know who he is.” And now he’s getting recognition and stuff, but that was kind of the idea back then.

These people that I would hang out with and see perform were doing great stuff. But there was no audience. There was no one there. They weren’t making a living at it or anything. So the idea was to somehow capture this. And sure, you could take a photograph or whatever. And I like photographs, but when you paint it is like you have to spend time painting the nose and getting the light right…

And I love painting pro bands, but at the same time I still want to do local artists and buildings and scenery in St. Louis and paint that and if someone is interested in it, that’s great. But I’m still going to do it. Because the way that you feel when you paint… Well, you paint…

Right.

It’s just a great feeling! And it’s the only thing I know that gives me that feeling.

Tony Renner at Mad Art, painting by Dana Smith

• link: Riverfront Times
• link: Dana Smith’s website
• link: Southtown Famous event info
• link: Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts

photo by Kevin Abosch

Sinéad O’Connor’s Marriage Saga Continues: Totally Into Crack, But Not Crack Rock
By Jaime Lees
Mon., Jan. 9 2012 at 6:08 AM

​Sinéad O’Connor’s sex life has been a source of endless entertainment recently. A few months ago, we told you about her deviant behavior: she was using her website as her own dating service. Sinéad said that she was horny and looking to get laid. She posted a list of all of the things she was seeking in a potential lover. She also included that she would be “deeply unhappy if doing anal wasn’t on the menu” and advised gentlemen not to even apply to be her lover if they didn’t like “the difficult brown.” Oh, yes. Yes, she did.

Then, at the beginning of last December, Sinéad announced that she’d found a boyfriend, Barry Herridge, and that they were to be married the next day in Las Vegas.

In theory, that should have been the end of Sinéad’s shenanigans. Happily married, bum satisfied, end of story, right? Thankfully, no. It all just gets even better.

So about two weeks after they were wed, Sinéad announced that they were breaking up because their marriage was causing him problems with his family. Then more details emerged. As it turns out, Sinéad’s new husband is an addiction counselor and didn’t take too kindly to her forcing him to escort her on a weed run in a sketchy neighborhood on their wedding night and accidentally ending up with “a load of crack” in her hand. Yes, crack rock.

But for now, true love has won out. Sinéad and Barry are back together. She announced on Twitter that they had a beautiful evening of lovemaking and that they were going to try again as boyfriend and girlfriend (but stay married) and that they’d get some counseling and maybe move in together “in like a year, like regular people.”

Like regular people? Yeah, good luck with that. You are freaks and it is great. Please, oh please, get a reality show or make a sex tape or something. Your public demands it.

“groove is in the arse” – Sinead O’Connor’s Twitter

• link: Riverfront Times

photo by Dennis Simmons

Why You Should Go See Chuck Berry As Soon As Humanly Possible
By Jaime Lees
Fri., Dec. 30 2011 at 12:35 PM

One year ago this week Chuck Berry collapsed on stage in Chicago. It was a call to action for many people who had been slacking on seeing his live show at Blueberry Hill.

As residents of this city, it’s hard to get perspective on just how amazing it is that Chuck Berry, the dude who probably invented rock and roll, plays here monthly. And that tickets– while they need to be bought in advance– are mega cheap, relatively.

We don’t want you to miss out on this opportunity so let’s go over some of the reasons that you, St. Louisan, shouldn’t wait any longer to go see the legend in action.

Well, he’s Chuck. Fucking. Berry.
Yes, he’s older now. No, he can’t duck walk for miles at a time. Sure, sometimes he loses his place when playing his songs. But give the dude a break- he’s 85 years old! It’s endearing when he sometimes forgets a line. And chances are that Berry at his worst is still better than you at your best, so put down the Haterade.

Okay, it’s true that he has a sketchy past. He’s been described as scary, intimidating, violent and creepy. He’s been accused of some things that are beyond unsavory. (I’m not even talking about the legendary “sandwich” story, either.)

But he seems to have mellowed. And his musical legacy is still inarguable. As far as history is concerned, he is king. And if Chuck Berry wants to watch me tinkle… well he can, goshdarnit.

He’s an international treasure.
I lived in London for a bit and whenever people asked me where I was from and I said “St. Louis” they immediately said “Chuck Berry!” This happened every time.

The things Europeans knew about St. Louis, in order, were: 1) Chuck Berry 2) East St. Louis and 3) The Gateway Arch.

Kevin O’Connor of STL’s 7 Shot Screamers had a similar experience:

“My singer Mike Leahy and I visited London in fall of 2000. Even though we were both underage by American standards we were of drinking age over there. One night we stumbled upon a place in North London called the Elephant’s Head where, coincidentally, they were having rockabilly/R&B record spin. The local teddy boys in the bar recognized we were from the states and asked us from which part. When we said “St. Louis” they instantly said “Chuck Berry.” That right there was rock and roll diplomacy at its finest. Instant friendship and several pints bought…”

He won’t be around forever.
Music legends are dropping all over the place. Just this month it was Hubert Sumlin. And on the first of this year, we thought Chuck Berry might expire, too.

My sister was at the now infamous Berry show at the Congress Theater in Chicago when he collapsed on stage. She said:

“He was yelling at the other musicians on stage. And then he started slumping over when he was playing his piano. And then people started to assist them and he kept shooing them off, as if they were annoying him. Then it got to the point to where the backup musicians stopped playing the little loop that they were playing. There was a younger lady assistant who came out and she helped him off the stage and he walked off and we call clapped. Then we sat around for about fifteen minutes. My friends and I moved spots to get a better seat because pretty much half of the auditorium left. And then he came back on and basically said thank you for a long time and then he left… I thought he was going to die. I totally thought that I saw the last Chuck Berry show.”

This is something that lots of people wish they could do.
People from all over the world save up for years, spend their life savings or dip into their retirement funds just for the opportunity to travel to the States once to see Chuck Berry play. Each show is full of international travelers and usually more than one celebrity attendee. (I even met Mike Mills of R.E.M. after a Berry show once. He was nice.)

I have a friend who works at Blueberry Hill and has seen Chuck Berry play countless times. One night he bought his dad tickets to the show as a gift. After the show was over, his beaming pops made a declaration that has stuck with him years later: “That was amazing! It was so great to see him real life! Man, John Lennon would have sucked his dick!”

My friend said that it took hearing his dad’s crass remark for him to fully realize what an impact that Chuck Berry has had on everyone, including other legends.

So go see Chuck. And if he asks if you want to share a sandwich, say yes.

• link: Riverfront Times

Esquire‘s Luke Dittrich on How He Got the Chuck Berry Feature, in the January Issue

Just last week, Esquire published this thorough and fascinating Chuck Berry article. Berry is notoriously wary of the media, so author Luke Dittrich couldn’t take a direct route to his subject. We spoke with Dittrich, a contributing editor at the magazine, last weekend about his super savvy journalistic methods and his thoughts on our hometown hero.

Jaime Lees: I was wondering if you’d ever lived here because there’s your Chuck Berry article, and I also read your Joplin article and it was amazing. So I was wondering if you were from here or if you had family here.

Luke Dittrich: Well, thank you very much. Yeah, the reason I have those two Missouri stories is because I went down to St. Louis to profile Chuck Berry and I arrived the day after Joplin was hit by the tornado. So I spent about a week reporting on Chuck Berry and I had planned to stay working longer on the Chuck story but then eventually just decided that I was going to sort-of put Chuck on hold and go to Joplin. It compelled me to go there.

So, the first thing that I wanted to ask you is pretty simple: how did you get the interview? Because Chuck lives here and he’s around but he’s still kind of a mystery to us.

Right, yeah, I went through a friend of his, Joe Edwards, who owns Blueberry Hill?

Uh-huh.

I contacted him, but before I went to Joe I tried to get to Chuck through his agent, but his long-time agent had just retired and I never heard back from him. He’d been Chuck’s agent for, like, literally 50 plus years — I think since the 1950s — so he’s probably an interesting character himself, but I never connected with him.

Then I went through another person who works sort-of licensing deals out for him, who works on the rights to Chuck Berry’s image and all that. So I contacted that guy and he said “Well, I don’t know. Even when I’m trying to get a hold of Chuck he only communicates through faxes and it’s this long ordeal to get to him and I’ll do my best but I can’t promise anything.”

And so finally, I knew he was friends with Joe Edwards so I called Joe up one day and Joe didn’t promise me anything but Joe said “I can promise you that I’ll get him a letter if you want to write up a letter. And I’ll either fax it to him or hand-deliver it to him.”

So I ended up faxing Joe a letter, addressed to Chuck Berry, laying out what I wanted to do and why I wanted to talk to him. And I guess it worked because about a week later Chuck said he agreed. And to be there at the following Blueberry Hill show.

How did you know to get a hold of Joe?

Joe has been mentioned as a friend of Chuck Berry’s in several other stories that I’d read so I knew that he was close friends with him. And I was kind of grasping at straws to figure out who to talk to, so I figured that he was worth a shot, and now it seems like he’s the perfect person to call if you’re trying to get a hold of Chuck Berry.

So why did you want to write about Chuck?

You know, I can’t honestly say that I’ve grown up listening to him or anything, because it was before my time that he was really at the top of the charts, but I’ve had a fascination with him for quite some time. Ever since I saw — there was a great documentary called Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n Roll?

Yes, sir.

When that came out it painted this fascinating and kind of enigmatic portrait of Chuck Berry as both a great artist and sort of a supremely complicated individual. So I found that very intriguing, and so I’d been intrigued by Chuck Berry. And after seeing that documentary, I bought some CDs of his and became a fan, really, of his music. And then I didn’t really think of doing the story until maybe a few months before the interview, because I’d read somewhere about his shows at Blueberry Hill or I saw some YouTube clips and I saw that it was just this very small venue, not the sort of venue that you would expect somebody to play who has had such a, you know, an amazing effect on American culture in general and world culture. If we are saying that — and I made it clear in the story– that it’s hard to actually say that he invented rock and roll, but he came as close to inventing rock and roll as any single individual has done. And his sound has influenced all of subsequent popular music. And the fact that this person has had this amazing influence…

Basically, he’s had as much of an influence on world culture today as any living person, I’d say, yet so many people aren’t even aware that he’s still alive. And he’s playing these monthly shows at this small place, probably not for huge tons of money. Anyway, that surprised and intrigued me and basically I wanted to see what he’s like in person. It was a treat to get to meet him in person but also to try to figure out what he’s getting out of this. What’s the father of rock and roll doing winding down his days, in a certain sense, playing this small club that’s very much like the small clubs that he launched his career in?

Yeah, I thought that was a good point when I read that in your article, it is like a lot of the places that he used to play. It might even be smaller than the places that he used to play when he was first starting out.

Yeah, have you seen him play there?

Yes, yes, I have. I go at least once a year. But it’s hard because… there’s kind of a weird relationship there. Being a St. Louisan we kind of forget that he’s there because he’s there every month, you know?

It’s amazing. I think it’s very similar to a lot of people who live in New York City who have never gone to see the Statue of Liberty, for example. It’s one of those things you’re so close to it that you kind of take it for granted.

Exactly. It changed a little bit after he collapsed on stage in Chicago. People were sort of like “Oh shit, I really need to go see him before I can’t see him anymore.” I think he still sells out every time, though. Every time I go it’s always interesting to talk to all of the people there. There’s always fans in from Japan, from Australia, from all over the world. And they spend tons of money getting here just to see Chuck and it makes me feel like a jerk for not going every month when it would be so easy for me to do. What’s the general sense that you got from the people at the shows? Do they think that these shows are adding to his legacy or hurting his reputation?

I think, ultimately, what’s important is that he’s doing it for himself at this point. I think he genuinely enjoys playing — it’s such a profound part of his being, his playing music — and I think it has to be. And as you can get a sense from the article, my actual interview with him was a challenge because he didn’t have his hearing aid in, so it was tough to get some of the answers from him that I might have wanted to get, had we been able to have a conversation that wasn’t compromised by a lack of a hearing aid.

And not to put words in his mouth, but I would think that it’s a joy for him to play and it must be a joy for him to play with his kids. And as well as for them. I think it’s something that they love doing. And nobody can expect an 85 year old man to be able do duck walk like he did when he was in his 30s, right? But I think the fact that he’s doing it, and that he still has passion enough to do it, and he does it in a braver way than most younger bands do, in a sense. They still never have a set list, it’s still a bit of a grab bag in terms of even the band members never know what they’re going to get. But obviously his performance or energy is going to change over the years. But no, I wouldn’t say that he’s hurting his reputation.

Whenever people are talking about did Chuck or didn’t he invent rock in roll — you mentioned this in your article — that the argument pretty much comes down to Chuck Berry and Ike Turner. And as a St. Louisan, that makes me super happy because as I see it either way I win — because we claim Ike as ours. I just think those two in particular are very interesting. I was glad to see Ike in there because they are both guys who are known not just for their music but for their possibly-not-so-good personal lives. I just think that they’re both fascinating characters.

Yes, they are. And who know if it’s mellowing with age or whatever, but he [Chuck] certainly was extremely nice and gracious with me. And I had no clue how… I’d obviously read a lot a seen a lot of stuff [laughs] about his previous encounters with journalists.

You brought a knife just in case…

Exactly, yeah! But he was disarming in that sense. He was easy to talk to but he just, unfortunately, couldn’t hear everything I was saying.

On stage he seems like every other sort-of winking dirty old man that I’ve ever met in my life. And I’m into that, that’s fine.

Have you ever gotten up and danced on stage at the end? I assume he does that every show?

Yeah, I haven’t gone up yet, that would make me sort-of nervous to do. But I do intend to freak dance on him one of these days. So did you have any other cool observations that you couldn’t fit into your article?

You know… I do have a feeling that like a lot of people of his level of fame he kind of avoid interviews and he’s very wary and cautious about the press and the media and all that. But I don’t think that he lives a particularly cloistered life. Like, I remember when I was trying to convince him to let me spend a couple of days following him around– and he turned me down eventually flat out– but also he was like “Oh, I’m not going to be doing anything. I’ve got some storm damage on the house” and he was going to go oversee the contractors who were fixing the roof over his garage and stuff like that. [laughs] So while he’s a very private man and still remains an enigma, I don’t think he leads a very diva-ish life when he’s out of the spotlight, you know what I mean?

But do you think he wears the sparkle shirts at home?

[laughs] Yeah.

• link: Riverfront Times

This event was both an introduction and a fundraiser. Tower Groove Records was a brand new collective and this was its formal introduction into society — it’s débutante ball. This all-day show was hosted at Off Broadway and featured around twenty local bands playing both inside on the stage outside in the courtyard.

The carnival included Warm Jets USA, Catholic Guilt, The City of Takers, Accelerando, Bunnygrunt, Death of Yeti, Peck of Dirt, Doom Town, The Feed, The St. Louis Shuffle, Tone Rodent, Beth Bombarda, Bug Chaser, Ransom Note, The Skekses, Fred Friction, The Hot Liquors, Theodore and Magic City. The bands played abbreviated sets and when it wasn’t their turn to perform, they ran homemade carnival games to raise money. The party was fueled by love and run by volunteers. (As a fan of local music, I volunteered some time that day, too.)

This was a very heart-warming, feel-good, charitable event — the kind of thing that usually happens at the end of the year. It was bustling all day with both volunteers and revelers; families were out with their little kids, dads munched hot dogs while moms helped their kids play a game of ring toss. (Named ‘My Ding a-Ring’ as a nod to STL music legend Chuck Berry.) The weather cooperated with a welcome break in both heat and rain, and people were streaming in all day. There was smiling, laughing, toe-tapping and even a bit of headbanging.

At then end of the (long, long) day, all of the people power had paid off. The group raised enough money to fund it’s second big project: the TGR debut release, a double-vinyl LP featuring all of the bands involved. Look for the record early next year and for more big news from Tower Groove Records to be announced soon.

Oh Shit Moment: Looked to my left, there was Fred Friction dressed like a clown and smiling at the crowd. Looked to my right, there was TGR founder Adam Hesed (of Magic City) dressed as a ringmaster and smiling at the crowd. Both looked delighted and relieved.

Highlight of the Night: During Catholic Guilt’s mid-day set, the unpredictable noise musicians were joined by a bunch of random kids in the crowd who wanted to rock. The kids were provided with instruments and they played along in the gravel in front of the stage. [pictured, video footage here]

• link: Riverfront Times

Filed under: Riverfront Times, St. Louis music, Tower Groove Records Tagged: Tower Groove Records ]]> http://jaimeville.com/2011/12/27/best-tgr/feed/ 0 Jaime Tower Groove Records Carnival - Catholic Guilt and kids