St. Louis Music Blog

ozarkmusicfestivalexhibit.com

The Ozark Music Festival kicked off 35 years ago last Saturday, July 18, at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia. Concert promoters had assured Sedalians that they would be hosting a "soft rock" festival with 50,000 spectators.

Instead, 160,000 people (and that's a conservative estimate) showed up to watch Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ted Nugent, Bachman Turner Overdrive, the Eagles, Jefferson Starship, Aerosmith and, at the very bottom of the bill, in small letters, Bob Seger and Bruce Springsteen. They were lured by a full-page ad in Rolling Stone and a plug from Wolfman Jack's radio show that promised "No hassles, guaranteed."

On Tuesday, July 7, the recording and Internet radio industries finally agreed on how the latter will compensate the former for streaming music via the web.

The resolution was a long time coming. Former RFT writer Randall Roberts (now music editor for our sister paper, LA Weekly) wrote about the conflict two and a half years ago when he profiled Jim and Wanda Atkinson, Internet radio pioneers and proud proprietors of south St. Louis-based 3WK Internet Radio (est. 1997).

Here's a New York Times story about the newly established rules for royalty payments, aptly headlined "Music Labels Reach Online Royalty Deal." Be warned, though -- the Times piece is rough sledding. You might, after reading it six times through, s-l-o-w-l-y, have a notion about what was at stake in this tussle, and how things now stand. Probably not, though.

So here's some background:

Since the dawn of the radio age, U.S. broadcasters have paid royalties to songwriters. Unlike the rest of the industrialized world, however, American AM and FM stations do not compensate record labels or the performers themselves. That fact has been a bone of contention for decades and a topic of recent debate as Congress mulls it over. (For more, visit the website of musicFIRST, a coalition of artists intent upon making terrestrial radio pony up.) 

Though the U.S. government hasn't yet settled the AM/FM question, when Congress passed the landmark Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), it stipulated that web streamers and satellite stations must pay songwriters and artists and their labels. When the dust cleared, a preliminary setup was established. The price was steep, and especially so for comparative bit players like 3WK with annual revenues of less than $1.25 million -- "small webcasters" in Congressional parlance -- who feared the required payments would force them out of business.

(For a detailed explanation, click through to Randy Roberts' 2006 story, "You Play, They Pay," and search for "DMCA," and, if you still want more, read "Small Webcasters Dealt Death Blow," the 2007 follow-up he wrote, on Daily RFT.)

Now, after much rancorous debate, last week's settlement nails down a structure, with new stipulations for mega-streamers like Pandora and small fry like 3WK.

Click to the jump to read an e-mail Q&A with 3WK's Wanda Atkinson about the settlement and the future of Internet radio...

What I'm assuming is band member Eric Netherland uploaded this video of his '80s local cover band Sceptre, taking Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart" to the next level with an ARSENAL OF SYNTHESIZERS. The other video he posted is a Fixx cover, so we're going to stick with the Yes video below, recorded on New Year's Eve 1984 at Bogart's. Bitching keytar!

Here's the Minneapolis band Soul Asylum at Mississippi Nights in 1987, tearing through some songs like the scorching punk band it once was. Fun fact: Guess who opened for 'em? Why, the Flaming Lips!

"Whoa/Passing Sad Daydream"

Back in 1983, a young St. Louisian named Amy Hardin needed a liver transplant. Friends, family and even President Reagan expressed support for the child -- although perhaps the biggest donor to the cause was KISS, who apparently gave money from a 1983 Kiel Auditorium show to Amy's cause. Here's a video about the situation, posted by an eBay user called EliteWorks who's selling off vintage KISS memorabilia. Incidentally -- anyone know what happened to Amy? [Edit: An anonymous commenter left a link to a newspaper article that reports that Amy died in 1988.]

Here's a YouTube clip of Alejandro Escovedo headlining Twangfest last week at the Pageant. Escovedo prefaces the song "Sensitive Boys" with a recollection of a wild night (or two) he spent playing the old Cicero's club back when he was with the band The True Believers.

Kudos to Jaime for finding this awesome 1994 news segment about "the world of rave" and children going to "so-called rave parties," which are "all the rage." Alexis Tucci is mentioned, as is the record store Deep Grooves. Randy Roberts wrote a great piece about this era a few years ago, right here.

This is one of my favorite YouTube finds, one I didn't get a chance to post before the Springsteen show in August. It's a 1988 local TV clip about the time Bruce Springsteen was in town in 1981, and was spotted at a movie theater. A local family recognized him -- and well, the rest is history. And pretty cool.

Sinister Dane playing "Absence of Angels" at the old Fire House in 1994. Tony Hawk is there skateboarding on a half-pipe. What?

Why has no one ever alerted me to the presence of this band before? A bunch of 1982 clips from an all-girl band called the Remaindrz just surfaced on YouTube. Think the Go-Go's meets Joan Jett, minus the perky enthusiasm and badass snarls. Or the Runaways, minus the spunky naivete. The interview is also priceless -- who's conducting that? And who are these ladies?

"Little Luv"

(Piece by Dean C. Minderman)

Blues enthusiasts know that the music is best experienced live, but when you can't get to one of St. Louis' blues clubs in person, you can still take in some of the sights and sounds online by visiting Lady Di's Blues Corner. The site features dozens of pages of photos and performance videos of St. Louis blues musicians past and present, representing more than a decade of effort by Dianna "Lady Di" Trombino Mestman.

Mestman, a St. Louis native and retired legal secretary, first became a blues fan as a teenager after seeing B.B. King and Bobby "Blue" Bland in concert. Her interest in the music was rekindled years later when she began going to BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups to hear local bands. "I actually found it by accident," she said. "I'd been by there many times, but never knew what it was. Then one day, we were watching the Food Network, and BB's was featured on a travel show."

So, the video isn't embeddable, but last week's indie-rock swap meet brought up so many memories, check out this Boorays video for "Band of Gold" on YouTube. What's the story with this band, scene vets?

Hey, it's Southgang performing "Fire In Your Body" here in 1993. Who's Southgang? Why, rocker Butch Walker's hair metal act. What a hesher.

(Words by Andrew Scavotto; photos by Annie Zaleski)

After devoting a significant amount of time to exploring local music in 2008, moreso than in years past, I've decided to end the year by blogging about my favorite moments. This isn't necessarily a list of my favorite shows -- rather, it's a list of the moments during which I enjoyed music the most during 2008.

(Shame Club, August 2008)

It should be noted that this is the perspective of a fan, not a critic, meaning that this blog is not a critical summary or "best of" analysis. In fact, there are several great local bands that I didn't even see this year, so this list is not even close to being comprehensive or authoritative. I also missed some key shows (the Riddle of Steel finale, So Many Dynamos doing Weezer, reunion shows that I haven't been around long enough to understand), so I'm simply listing the moments that I happened to enjoy the most. Let me know what I missed and tell me about your favorite moments from 2008.

Full disclosure: I have worked professionally with a few of the artists listed below and I planned this year's Lot festival. Regardless, you can trust that everything on this list was included simply because I thought it rocked and was awesome, not because of any self and/or company interest. [Editor's note: I can vouch for that.]

My favorite moments of 2008....

With all of the old-school St. Louis band reunion shows happening in the coming weeks, figured this week was a good time to unroll another installment of local old-school videos. Up first is a clip from Judge Nothing, the much-beloved Alton punk/pop/whatever act. The band played gigs with anybody who's anybody -- Fugazi, Descendents, Uncle Tupelo, Hum, Smoking Popes, Jesus Lizard, Poster Children, Skin Yard, Bad Brains, Pegboy, Trenchmouth and Tar, All, Green Day, Shiner, Joan Jett, Blue Meanies, etc. etc. -- which sort of sums up their broad appeal and influences. FYI: The band has a DVD available of old music videos and performance clips for sale (info here).

Since everyone's enjoying the vintage Lou indie-rock thread, take a look at this...

In this week's paper, we published some awesome photos by Mark Gilliland, a long-time RFT freelance photographer who also documented major rock stars displaying their love of gear crafted by St. Louis Music. (Brand names include major players such as Ampeg, Crate and Alvarez.) Check back here tomorrow afternoon for more about St. Louis Music and its funeral show, which takes place on Saturday, December 13. Click on the photo of Bo Diddley, Johnnie Johnson and Billy Gibbons below for a larger slideshow of Gilliland's work.

Slideshow here.

Slideshow here.

It's always awesome to get new music from Murphy Lee. Here's the video for "My Shoes," which was totally filmed in the Loop! His new album is apparently called You See Me; I first heard tracks from this nearly three years ago.

This popped up on YouTube a few weeks ago: The Beatles playing live in St. Louis, circa 1966. The video is rather dark and spotty, but the sound is pretty good. It's rather haunting watching this clip, in a very hard-to-define way. For some reason it reminds me of flipping through old family photo albums After the jump, compare with a video from the band's 1966 Cleveland show, which shows the hysteria at these shows. (My parents were at that one, I believe, although I can't see them in the clip. I don't think. Mom? Dad?)

Coincidentally enough, I posted this right before I saw that Wired's music blog is reporting that "A Beatles-branded interactive music game along the lines of Rock Band and Guitar Hero will give gamers and music lovers a chance to play songs from every stage of the Beatles' storied career, from the sweet simplicity of "Please, Please Me" to more sophisticated fare like the songs on Abbey Road."

If you haven't read Keegan Hamilton's cover story on old-school St. Louis hip-hop (and why haven't you?), there's no time like the present.

We posted audio of some of the artists mentioned in the story in this blogpost (Dr. Jockenstein, Dangerous D and Early D), but I was just passed this excellent vintage video of Charlie Chan and Dangerous D performing together. Witness the vintage footage of old Busch Stadium and the Eat-Rite Diner.

Keegan Hamilton's cover story in the RFT this week is a fascinating read. Spawned from this A to Z blog post -- in which Hamilton detailed how Vintage Vinyl employees discovered a stash of old vinyl records created by Charlie Chan, Dangerous D and Early D -- the article traces how these LPs were created, and places them in context with hip-hop culture both in St. Louis and nationally.

Here are some excerpts from the story -- along with some rare audio footage of legendary St. Louis DJ Dr. Jockenstein (who passed away in 2007) and MP3s from Early D and Dangerous D.

(Dangerous D and Chan, ca. 1987)

MP3: Dr. Jockenstein, "Roll Call Show Episode"

In the early 1980s, popular hip-hop acts included Kurtis Blow (then managed by an up-and-coming promoter named Russell Simmons) and groups from Sugar Hill Records like the Sequence and the talented lyricist Melle Mel.

In St. Louis, Jim Gates' WESL (which had migrated to the FM dial, where it was rechristened Z100) was still the only radio station in the area blending rap into the regular R&B rotation. The station's most popular programming was a segment that allowed dozens of would-be St. Louis rappers to call in and perform their rhymes live for the radio audience. A DJ named Dr. Jockenstein hosted the show, known as Roll Call.

Via Christian Schaeffer, expert Craigslist searcher: Someone is selling Jeff Tweedy's first bass cabinet, which he used in the Primitives/Uncle Tupelo days, via this Craigslist ad:

I hate to do this, but after holding onto this thing for almost 20 years, I may have to get rid of Jeff Tweedy's first bass cabinet, played in the early Primitives Days and the earliest Uncle Tupelo gigs in the 80's. Jeff took this up to B&G music as trade for some better gear in the late 80's, at which time my friend Joe snagged it for use in his cover band that I later joined.

Through some cajoling I got the cab off of him, since he didn't really think it was worth anything at the time. It was painted by a teenage Tweedy at the beginning of the Tupelo days, reading "Pickle" on one side, and "River" on the other. The band had a song called "pickle river" at that time, a long meandering grungy instrumental that sounded a lot like much of the Sub Pop crap they listened to *LOL*.

See the pic right there; after the jump, a video from a mad early Uncle Tupelo gig which proves this thing's legit.

(The Debonettes)
Chicago's Numero Group is set to release a compilation called Eccentric Soul: The Young Disciples on October 21. According to the label website:

Eccentric Soul: The Young Disciples to be available on compact disc at record stores all over the world. The album brings together for the first time all of Allan Merry’s productions through East St. Louis’ South End Community Center on his Yodi and Merry imprints. The 28 page booklet details how Allan got kids to trade pool cues and guns for horns and drums via the Primes, Primettes, Debonairs, Debonettes, Third Flight, Dauphin Williams, LaVel Moore, Sharon Clark & the Product Of Time, DeDe Turner Happening, and Ames Harris Desert Water Bag Company. A mouthful, to say the least.

The label has all 21 tracks online for sampling -- although better yet, you can buy MP3s of the compilation right now by clicking here. Numero says that "LP lovers will have to wait until January." Still, it's worth the wait; the liner notes included with the compilation are a fascinating glimpse into a period of St. Louis music few know about.

Courtesy of the label, here are a few MP3s included on the collection.

MP3: The Debonettes, "Tears"

MP3: Bobby McNutt, "Country Loving, Country Style"

-- Annie Zaleski

I know we like to talk about the good ol' days here at A to Z and elsewhere, but this vintage Galaxy poster I found at a used record store around town doesn't exactly have the most booming out-of-town show schedule. (Although an opening set from (the reunited?!) No Knife caught my eye -- talk about an underrated band, in the vein of Rocket from the Crypt/early Promise Ring. Watch Listen to "Brush Off" at the website above.) What year was this, anyway?

This show is widely bootlegged and is all over YouTube. I'm sure I've posted something from it before, but it's worth repeating. The Descendents at Mississippi Nights, "Sour Grapes."

Here's something I never expected to find on YouTube: Someone found and uploaded an entire set from Seattle's Young Fresh Fellows, dated November 23, 1985. (This is old Cicero's, judging from the bricks, yes?) The info included with one says, "Video by Eric Donaldson, sound by Conrad Uno." Ring a bell to anyone? View the whole set here.

The YFFs, incidentally, were one of the unheralded '80s quirk-pop groups. Its '60s-inspired jangle-rock never found a wide audience, but its sensibilities and songcraft aligned with Robyn Hitchcock, R.E.M. and They Might Be Giants (who namechecked 'em in "Twistin'") -- and inarguably influenced the Presidents of the United States of America. Co-founder Scott McCaughey has played with R.E.M. for years now, but a new YFF record is in progress -- with Hitchcock's encouragement and help.

"Young Fresh Fellows Theme":

Over at the TIRC list, there is a fantastic discussion going on about the local music/punk/hardcore/new-wave, etc. scene going on. Not sure if that link will let people view them all (or if you need to join), but it's well worth signing up even to lurk and see what happened back in the day.

And been meaning to post about this, the Saint Louis Flyer Project on Flickr. It's also a pretty great snapshot of what used to go on around town. Shows like this:

(original link here)

Video of late rocker Wendy O. Williams of the Plasmatics in a St. Louis production of Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1984.

About a week ago, a Vintage Vinyl employee was sorting through some dusty record crates in a back room storage area when he struck gold. He discovered a handful of still-sealed copies of a pair of rare albums that helped launch St. Louis hip-hop.

The albums were Nasty Cuts Records’ “The Power of Soul” and “Charlie Chan: He’s My DJ” (featuring Dangerous D and DJ Charlie Chan) from 1987, and Wiz-A-Tron Records’ “Culture Shock” by Early D, which was released in 1988.

According to Vintage's promotions and marketing director Jim Utz, the employee found “at least a couple of dozen of each,” and the store is now selling them for $6.99 each.

After sprinting from the RFT’s offices down Delmar to Vintage snag a couple copies for myself, I listened to them – and they’re phenomenal.

The Dangerous D/Charlie Chan album in particular is striking for its innovation at such an early stage of hip-hop as a genre. “Power of Soul” is like a cross between Pink Floyd and Tha World Class Wreckin’ Cru, with a laconic, reverb-drenched guitar backing old-school rap rhymes and cuts. It’s awash with James Brown samples and it climaxes with an alto sax solo that would be best played while wearing Ray-Bans in a smoky bar.

I spoke to DJ Charlie Chan, who was just 17 when the LP was recorded, about the story behind the disc.

In honor of Magnolia Summer's covers set tonight at the Bluebird for '80s night of An Under Cover Weekend, here are two clips of the Replacements playing in St. Louis, January 31, 1991. Tell me about this show. Oh, and speaking of the 'Mats -- just got word that four more reissues of its albums are coming September 23. Tim, Pleased to Meet Me, Don't Tell a Soul and All Shook Down, all reissued with bonus tracks.