Blogs

In this week's Homespun, Christian Schaeffer reviews Gotta Be Karim's Bean Pie EP. He has this to say:

Karim Hameed used to perform with Soul Tyde, and his love for old-school samples and smooth soul textures is made plain on “When You See Me.” The track, which kicks off Gotta Be Karim’s five-song Bean Pie EP, operates off of a stuttering, minor-key electric piano loop and sharp snare hits, and lets the emcee plant his feet and say his peace. And, like all great crate-diggers, Karim waits until the song’s end to pull back the curtain on the sample’s source: bossa nova take on the Bacharach/David classic “Walk On By.”

He'll be having a CD release show at Vintage Vinyl on Friday and also appearing with Black Spade -- the local boy turned good, who I hear is hitting Europe in a few months for some performances -- at the Gramophone later that night.

MP3: Gotta Be Karim, "Back on the Grind"

MP3: Gotta Be Karim, "Swagger Back"

In this week's Homespun, Christian Schaeffer reviews Femme Fatality's new CD, One's Not Enough, which is coming out on Stickfigure Recordings. He had this to say:

Like the Strokes' Is This It?, the album title One's Not Enough seems to be Femme Fatality's way of preemptively baiting a backlash — but really, boys, one album was enough. 2004's Never Had a Daddy was a fun dose of synths, drum machines and dumb-dumb club-kid lyrics that came at the tail end of electroclash's brief moment of ubiquity. The darkwave electro-pop duo's Eurotrash stage names and the intentionally ridiculous songs (like the prescription drug-referencing "Dr. K") allowed everyone to be in on the joke. Since that record's release, the band has broken up and reformed several times, only to reemerge with a new album on a respectable little indie label. The question remains: Are these guys for real?

MP3: Femme Fatality, "Lucky Lover"

MP3: Femme Fatality, "Connections"

-- Annie Zaleski

On a night where there is no shortage of good shows (Saturday, April 12), John Henry and the Engine's CD release show at Off Broadway with the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir stands out. In this week's paper, Christian Schaeffer reviews the band's forthcoming CD, Under the Yellow Moon:

On Under the Yellow Moon, it's unclear if John Henry & the Engine send us their greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey, or Columbia, Missouri. The quartet is so steeped in Springsteenisms — piano-led epics, small-town heartbreaks and a heavy reliance on American rock & soul — that it sometimes feels that a Clarence Clemons sax solo is hiding behind every corner. Of course, you could pick worse songwriters than Bruce to mimic, and lead singer and guitarist John Henry brings enough of his own verve and style to keep him from sounding like a tribute act.

Read more at the link above.

Opening for John Henry and the Engine is Chicago's Scotland Yard Gospel Choir -- although that isn't yet up on Off Broadway's Web site. (Come on, guys!) That band's 2007 self-titled album on Bloodshot Records was a pleasant surprise; full of twinkly, lovely co-ed guitar-pop that resembles Belle and Sebastian, the Smiths and other, er, Scottish-pop songwriters. If you like your music melancholy and British, I suggest checking it out. (And for the love of God, go listen to their Pogues cover of "Fairytale of New York" at the MySpace!)

MP3s from all bands after the jump.

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In this week's Homespun column, Christian Schaeffer reviews Rough Shop's Here Today. He has this to say:

While many of [Anne] Tkach's cuts sound sweetly somber, on the title track she settles into a relaxed, acoustic-jazz sway that recalls a more folkified Madeleine Peyroux. [John] Wendland's "Golden Slumber Inn" is a highlight here — the detail-rich cheating song drops in at least two Beatles references alongside some slippery dobro licks. Several of [Andy] Ploof's songs highlight his deft instrumental skills and give a nice counterpoint to his sometimes-flat voice; "Dance All Night" gives a brisk, mandolin-led look at the piety and revelry that took place at big-tent religious revivals. Of course, "revival" is a hard word to avoid when encountering this type of roots music, but Rough Shop finds a way to mix tradition and idiosyncrasy in a comforting and compelling fashion.

The band is holding a free CD release show on Friday, March 28, at the Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood; 314-241-2337). Enjoy the following MP3s:

MP3: Rough Shop, "Stumbling Angel"

MP3: Rough Shop, "Golden Slumber Inn"

-- Annie Zaleski

In this week's paper, Mike Appelstein interviewed the 75s, who will be celebrating the release of their debut CD, Extra Fancy, on Saturday at Lemmons. The show starts at 9 p.m. and also features The Blind Eyes and Kentucky Knife Fight.

The feature can be read here, but Mike also coaxed some great quotes out of the band on topics including Morgan Nusbaum's high school band, Laurel Mydock's run-in with a bottle of sulfuric acid and the 75s' place in the St. Louis music community.

MP3: The 75s, "Like a Dream"

MP3: The 75s, "Chemistry"

Mike Appelstein: So what was Galaxy Rock Meets William like?
Morgan Nusbaum: We started in high school. We tried out for a talent show. Our friend, Matt, had this book of 101 pet jokes. So we were playing music in the background and he was reading these pet jokes. The song kept building up, and the last joke was, “What do you call a cat that bites? Catnip.” And he starts yelling, “CATNIP! CATNIP!” The song was called “Dead Battery Catnip.” Eventually, I started singing crazy backup soul singer type of stuff, playing slap bass. I rapped on one song.
Scott Lasser: What did you rap about?
MN: Bacon. And dyeing my hair.

How long had the 75s been playing together before your first show?
SL: Early spring.
Laurel Mydock: I probably had about five songs together; we wanted to get some songs together before asking a bass player. I think we were all anxious to get back out onstage; it had been awhile.
SL: It helped that very few of our songs were over three minutes.
LM: I think the longest song on our CD is “Oh, Tommy O.” And by the end of it I’m thinking, “God, this is so long!” And it’s three minutes.


On Laurel Mydock's run-in with sulfuric acid:
SL: Laurel was in the lab once – I was outside the door – and I heard this scream. Laurel had managed to spill a four-liter bottle of sulfuric acid all over herself.
LM: The same shirt I’m wearing tonight. I had two shirts on under it so it didn’t quite make it through the shirt, but it got my leg pretty good. I have a scar from it, and this stuff that looks like a tattoo. And I’m really cool with it, since I never bold enough to get a tattoo.
SL: And Laurel wasn’t playing the guitar for awhile. You weren’t sure if there was nerve damage.
LM: Just stupidity, I guess. I was putting this bottle away; I had rubber gloves on and it was a glass bottle, and they stuck together and pulled the bottle back out of the cabinet. And it broke and came shooting at me. You know how something happens and you don’t want to make a big deal out of it? Afterward I was supposed to be going to a party at my professor’s house; I just had to stop by the lab to do something really quick. So I jump in the sink, rinsing myself off. I found my phone and called my friend – she’s at the party already – and asked what I should do. My clothes are disintegrating and I’m questioning whether I should make a big deal out of it. But I ended up writing a song called “Chemistry.”

I wondered about that.
LM: We wanted to do the video in my chemistry lab.
SL:Laurel’s like, “What rhymes with glycosylation?”

Indiepop isn’t such a prevelant genre here in STL.
SL: I wanted to do something kinda girly, kinda indie, and Laurel liked the garage sound.
LM: He always tries to play stuff for me. We were painting the walls bright orange, and. I said “Put something on!” All this stuff tends to go in one ear and out the other. He played Cub and I really took to it. I was painting and moving. That really got the whole thing going, was the simplicity.
SL: Betti-Cola.
LM: That was when I figured out how to start writing vocals. It didn’t matter that they were on the verge of barely being able to play their instruments. You can still detect the vocal melodies and the bass.

In this week's paper, Christian Schaeffer reviews Caleb Travers & Big City Lights' debut, Blue Weathered Dreams. He has this to say:

With a deep, sonorous voice and a satchel full of minor-key strums, Caleb Travers appeared on the singer-songwriter circuit about a year ago. Blue Weathered Dreams is his first album, and it achieves its goal of setting the stage for Travers' country-colored story-songs. These songs ache with the seriousness of a singer who sees darkness on every horizon, from the unbreakable bonds of family to the search for redemption.

To me, Travers' voice resembles Eddie Vedder at his most soulful (that's a good thing, trust me), while others compare him to Beck, ca. Sea Change. Judge for yourself at Travers' CD release show at Off Broadway this Saturday night at 9 p.m. (note the time), as he plays with Via Dove and the Feed.

MP3: Caleb Travers & Big City Lights, "Annie"

MP3: Caleb Travers & Big City Lights, "Enough"

-- Annie Zaleski

Each year, when the weather starts to turn colder and A to Z starts scrambling to find shows to write about, a Very Bert Dax Christmas compilation arrives in our hands to soothe our stressed heart.

This year's model -- volume six in a series -- showcases some of the best up-and-coming and established local bands in the city. Christian Schaeffer examines the newest edition in this week's paper:

"...while these are all technically "Christmas songs," there ain't a lot of reverence for the holiday season here — and there's nary a sleigh bell in sight. Instead, the thirteen bands represented here let the holiday spirit guide them, from the cutesy (the 75s' "Cliché Christmas Song") to the political (the Help's fabulous "All I Want for Christmas is a Billion Dollar No-Bid Contract").

The ladies in Maid*Rite offer a klezmer-inflected take on Spinal Tap's "Christmas with the Devil," promising a "silent night/violent night." Wooden Kites pick up on this theme with "A Christmas Song for Jenny," striking a balance between Pavement and Bright Eyes as Brian Potts sings a disturbing song of seasonal revenge...."

(My personal favorites are Stella Mora's iceblink swirl, Tape Deck Sonata's Weezer-meets-R.E.M. rock gem "Hockey Drinking Games on Christmas Eve" -- hear it at its MySpace! -- and the gorgeous, melancholy Museum Mutters track, found below.)

To celebrate the release, Matt Harnish (the curator of the comp) is throwing several release shows around the city. Stella Mora, Tape Deck Sonata and the Museum Mutters play on Friday, December 7 at Lemmons (5800 Gravois Avenue); Strawfoot, the Rum Drum Ramblers (and out-of-towner Pokey LaFarge) play at. 9 p.m. tomorrow night at Off Broadway (3509 Lemp Avenue) for a mere $7. Plus! For good measure, the Way Out Club (2525 South Jefferson Avenue) presents a show next Saturday, December 15, featuring the 75's, the Wooden Kites and Chico Maciunas.

MP3: The 75's, "Cliche Christmas Song"

MP3: The Museum Mutters, "South City Girls (Like Christmas on TV)"

Oh and beware: This is kicking off A to Z's Holiday MP3 blitz. You've been warned.

-- Annie Zaleski

In this week's Homespun, Christian Schaeffer reviews the High 5's debut CD, One Track Minds. He has this to say:

On their full-length debut, One Track Minds, the High 5's retain the off-the-cuff, tossed-off feel of their early demo recordings. There's a lack of polish on these eleven songs that — one assumes — is by design....

The first few tracks on One Track Minds operate on a kind of nervy garage-rock beat; an urgent snare/hi-hat pattern gives "Cherry Stained Floor" an unsettled urgency that is picked up by clangorous, Strokes-like guitar work. From there, it's a catchall of guitar-based modern rock. Some songs possess a jammy, open feel, while others, such as "Long Distance Heartbreak," strive for introspection with minor-key acoustic strums.

The High 5's CD release show is this Friday, October 12, at the Way Out Club.

Decide about the band for yourself by listening to "Cherry Stained Floor," just below.

-- Annie Zaleski

Due to our "Best of St. Louis" issue this week -- and why look, the shit-talkin' has already begun! -- we didn't have a clubs section, nor room to run Homespun. That doesn't mean the CD reviewed, the Incurables' Songs for a Blackout, deserves any less attention.

Christian Schaeffer's review is below; it's meant to slug the band's CD release show at 8 p.m. on Sunday, September 30 at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room (6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City). Tickets are only $7.50. 314-727-4444. I'll have some MP3s up tomorrow, although in the meantime, check out the band's MySpace page.

Jimmy Griffin is the definition of a St. Louis rock & roll lifer. He almost broke into the bigtime with the early-'90s pop-metal band Kingofthehill, played lead guitar in the final incarnation of Nadine and continues to rock the cover-band circuit with Tiny Cows. The Incurables, however, marks his first time out as a bandleader. This group uses the same players as the Jason Hutto-fronted Walkie Talkie U.S.A., of which Griffin is also a member. (Both men take turns playing Keith to each other's Mick, depending on whose band is headlining.) But where Walkie Talkie goes for buzzy, driving power-pop, the Incurables sticks to a slower pace and a more open feel that splits the difference somewhere between the classicist pop of Wings and the low-slung story-songs of the Wallflowers. Griffin is known first and foremost as an axe slinger, and while there are a handful of hot licks scattered throughout the disc, he keeps the focus on the lyrics. His voice has a sweetly ragged quality, and the songs are more often melodically whispered than expressly sung. It's a style that works perfectly on a song such as "Hotel Nowhere," which has barroom piano and upright bass that manages to mix elements of jazz and soul before turning into a country weeper. The band goes for broke on closing track, "The Last Day of the Rest of Your Life," as the slippery guitar lines and heavy piano chords threaten to turn into the oceanic coda of "Layla" — although that wouldn't be a bad thing.

-- Annie Zaleski

We had to cut Homespun for space this week (boo), but it's important to note that the band featured, Sleep State, is playing a release show at Vintage Vinyl on Friday, August 17 at 7 p.m. with the Ultravviolents. We'll run Christian Schaeffer's review in the paper next week, but here it is in its entirety below; after please take a listen to "Candy Flavored Napalm."

Straight outta High Ridge, Missouri, the two-piece experimental punk outfit Sleep State isn’t the finger-in-your-face kind of band suggested by the album title. Guitarist Curtis Tinsley and drummer Joseph Hess sing about small-town myopia (“Tractor Cancer”), the impossibility of creativity in a mindless culture (“Collapse in the Sun”) and the narrow confines of our identity (“Receipt for Your Integrity”). At least that’s what I think the songs are about: The lyrics aren’t especially artful nor are the arguments well-reasoned, so the listeners are on their own to connect the dots, which lends an impressionist bent to these songs. Sleep State prefers to throw out a handful of sharp darts at a few easy targets, and luckily a few of them stick.

Of the six tracks on the EP, two of them are minute-long instrumental bookends; one starts the disc off with a bed of seagull-like noise squalls, the other ends it with a brief but forceful guitar interlude. While the band lacks the precision and discipline of math-rockers, the stop-start dynamics and shifting tempos merge with Tinsley’s spindly guitar arpeggios and power chords. “Candy Flavored Napalm” begins with light touches of post-rock – jazzy drums and slow, meandering guitar lines – before building into a jerky, full-blown screed full of indignation and bile. The duo is conscious of setting a mood and a tone with their songs; there’s a sense of patience and restraint between passages of bruising chords and bashed cymbals.

"Candy Flavored Napalm":

-- Annie Zaleski

Christian Schaeffer reviews local leftist punks the Adversary Workers in this week's paper. He says:

On many of these tracks, the Adversary Workers come off as a more streamlined Fugazi, trading the D.C. band's guitar interplay and stop/start dynamics for a more brash, guileless form of punk rock. Singer and guitarist Joe Wetteroth approaches the aural sneer of Guy Picciotto but usually opts for a full-on howl — it's the only way to be heard over the din of rumbling bass and scattershot drums. Lyrically, these eight songs are a sampler platter of leftist concerns: suburban sprawl, women's rights and religious intolerance receive an airing on the record.

As is the case in most politically charged music, the Workers are preaching to the choir. And while the songs may not change too many hearts and minds, it's good to know that good-old righteous punk rock is alive and well in St. Louis.

Read more at the link, but until then take a gander at "From the Ashes of Gaslight Square" after the jump.

-- Annie Zaleski

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In this week's homespun, Christian Schaeffer examines Red Water Revival's In the Frostbidden Years (yes, which was nominated for Best Local Album: Self-Released in this year's music awards). He had this to say, among other things:

In the Frostbidden Years comes with a narrative slightly less complicated than a Coheed & Cambria album. The sub-Vonnegut short story in the liner notes alludes to a dystopian future that includes melting ice caps, a self-possessed king and a savior who travels by an aerial wind boat. But don’t let these details scare you away: While the narrative that drives these songs can seem a little bit heady or highfalutin, the band steers clear of prog-rock jack-offery. Instead, the five-piece opts for a slightly bluesy, psychedelic strain of rock & roll with equal debts to Led Zeppelin, the Drive-By Truckers and Spiritualized. "In the Fairest of the Seasons/An Odd-Numbered Year” swaggers with the fuzzed-out guitars and righteous vocals of a White Stripes track...

Here are two tracks for your listening pleasure after the jump:

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True story: After a spin of the New Pornographers' latest CD, Challengers, the ol' office iTunes slipped straight into Not Just Noise's self-titled CD. However, I didn't realize that this had happened. Instead, I mused to myself, 'Boy, who is this? It sounds kind of like Belly or Letters to Cleo. Or one of these random '90s MP3s I have on my computer.'

Coincidentally, in this week's paper, Christian Schaeffer reviews Not Just Noise's disc -- and mentions the very song I heard:

Not Just Noise arrives with a strong, if ominous, presence on the album-opening “I Hate You So Much.” The bass and guitar pluck out countermelodies on the low strings, while the drums play loose, circular patterns before a metallic smack of distortion begins the song. It’s a formula that Not Just Noise employs several times on its self-titled debut, relying on the spookiness of spindly guitar figures and the air-tight pop of the snare drum to create a heavy atmosphere.

Does this mean he likes the rest of the songs? Read on:

Singer Heather Gracey is something of a chameleon on these songs, moving from a Belinda Carlisle-esque coo to a throat-scraping growl. Her range is impressive and her phrasing nimble, but too often it sounds as if she is floating above the music rather than meshing with it. (This may be a problem of production, or it could be a result of trying to have an alto voice with such a bottom-heavy band.)

View the rest of his review here, and check out "I Hate You So Much" below.

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Lapush has been rather busy lately. The group is about to embark on a West Coast tour, while its song "Closer" has been nominated for "Best Alternative Rock Song" in the seventeenth-annual Los Angeles Music Awards. (Confused? Don't be: Lapush singer/guitarist Thom Donovan says the awards are open to indie artists from all over the world and compares it to the Grammys for indie bands.)

Even more exciting (at least to some people I know), the band has licensed music to a Lifetime series, Lisa Williams: Life Among The Dead, a show that revolves around the ability of psychic Lisa Williams to communicate with the spirits of the dead. Really. Awesome.

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In this week's Homespun column, Christian Schaeffer reviews Team Tomato's new self-titled CD, which the quartet will be releasing with a show at 9 p.m. Saturday, June 30, at Off Broadway. (The Monads and Bravo Company open.) He had this to say:

Team Tomato sounds as if it’s having a personality crisis on its new self-titled record. Musically there’s almost an even split between Americana and big-guitar modern rock – making the quartet perhaps one of the only bands to tread the ground between the Jayhawks and Alice in Chains. But the main problem with Team Tomato is that there’s little crossover between these two styles; either the precise power-pop band or the acoustic, open-strumming folk band shows up.

But lest you think that Schaeffer's completely ripping the band's music apart, read on: He's not.

Every now and then, the group takes something ordinary and makes it shine. “Last Lesson” moves from generic alt-rock into something cosmic and wonderful, aided by synthesized strings and a chorus of “oohs” that could happily go on forever. The next track, “Quietly,” continues the trend with a bit of Foo Fighters-esque stomp and strut...

Size constraints prevent us from sharing "Last Lesson," but after the jump, listen to "Quietly" and the Bowie ca. Hunky Dory piano-glam torch song "Is It True?" -- and judge the quality of TT's music for yourself.

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