PLE’s using the proceeds from the show to help fund their third album, and if it’s anything like the last two, we’ll be more than pleased.

Speaking of, Justin Johnson dropped a little gem in our lap last night: it’s called “Out of Control”, and it’s a brand new song that’ll be featured on that upcoming third album. AND the first 100 people through the door on Saturday walk out with a card to download the track for free. 

We really can’t wait to party with you guys.

Until then, gaze upon these strapping dudes (and great work, Streeter!!!):

Renner came to St. Louis as part of his tour in support of this record. The liner notes, and the artist himself, tell the story about how he recorded the entire album, in solitude, in seven days last February, as an answer to a challenge from label-mate Abi Robins, who was trying to help him stop sabotaging his work with self-imposed perfectionism. The songs are remarkably complex for such a quick turnaround. But the album retains the immediacy and intensity of spirit that further tinkering might well have destroyed.

Watching him recreate that immediacy at Jefferson Warehouse was a delight. As with most looping artists (of which I am a collector: Kishi Bashi, Owen Pallett, Syna So Pro, D.M. Stith and Andrew Bird), you can’t really tell they’re looping artists from their recordings. I love loopers because they get on stage with their wits, a couple of instruments and some microphones, then leave themselves completely at the mercy of their recording technology and their own physical coordination.

In addition to live percussion looping, Renner pulled in synthesizer beats and distorted versions of his own voice, plus sound samples gifted to him by his friends and family during weeks before he started recording. As part of the introduction of each song, he revealed what extra sounds we’d hear: a broken hammer dulcimer, a cork pop, rare Moog synthesizer samples, a table saw, a leaf sucker. Some of the sounds are discernible, some are slowed down, sped up, pitched and chopped into unrecognizable bits. This was how the artist built in the spirit of collaboration and community that he liked, while respecting his rapid-fire recording schedule.

Highlight of the night, for me, was Renner’s performance of his song, “Guthrie, OK.” The haze on the vocals and the tribal electronic percussion channeled the gravity and intensity of the 80′s classic, “Life in a Northern Town” by The Dream Academy. Sean Renner has roots here in St. Louis (both his parents were in the audience), so I’m hoping he’ll make it back here soon and we can offer him a proper audience then.

ALSO

Two local bands also played the Warehouse Friday night. Last to Show First to Go and Morning Bird Records label-mates, My Molly. Both of these bands have the unfortunate distinction of being UTTERLY PHENOMENAL, and not having nearly enough people interested in them. Apparently people have a problem with blistering talent coupled with unabashed earnestness.

Fine, y’all. More for me. Not really, though. Both of these bands deserve a broader audience.

I’ve been following My Molly since they used to play at The Stone Spiral in Maplewood, under the delightful moniker “Fishbowl Buttons.”  By way of introduction, they have this random, unattributed quote from a You Tube commenter highlighted on their Facebook page: “You two may look like losers, but you EFFING ROCK!”

Rebecca and Mallory don’t even look like losers, but they do EFFING ROCK. It is never clear how these two manage to fully fill a room with sound with only the power of their voices, an acoustic guitar, and various percussion instruments, but you often find yourself staring at them with your mouth hanging open. Friday night was no exception. “Tie me to the Mast (The Siren Song)” in particular, was just devastating.

Their set was over too soon, as evidenced by the demands of Becky’s mom that they perform an encore song, their unrehearsed, yet exceptionally brilliant mash-up of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” and The Cranberries’ “Zombie.”

And ending the night on a crazy note, Last to Show First to Go piles on stage, five members strong, and they played a nice long set for us.

I don’t normally cover LTSFTG because I love them too much and it embarrasses me to fangirl out on people I have to see all the time (yes, I have limits!). But they shouldn’t suffer for my awkardness. Bredon, Mikey, Miriam, Jay, and Phil were in really fine form Friday night, and I SO WISH YOU HAD SEEN IT. They played new songs! They played old songs! And they dedicated Andrew Bird’s “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left” to me.

If you’ve never seen Last to Show First to Go, TREAT YOSELF. They are exasperatingly awesome. So good you want to punch them.

Special thanks to Abi Robins for letting IWTAS know about the show, and to Laine Marschik for taking such sweet ass pictures.

When Sherman Alexie tweets you a bumper sticker, it ain't DOG IS MY COPILOT.

You might ask yourself, now what does (fucking rad) poet Sherman Alexie have to do with the Mountain Goats? And if you were 20 years old and at The Gargoyle last night, you might also have asked yourself, “Who the fuck is Joan Didion??” I imagine the students know who Bill Gass is. Point being, four minutes after taking the stage, John Darnielle, the man who IS the Mountain Goats, name-dropped Bill Gass and Joan Didion to a crowd of impressionable fans, without sounding pretentious or pedantic. That’s how you spread intellectual curiosity; that’s how you combat willful ignorance and reality TV.

In the spirit of full disclosure, the Mountain Goats are my sixth favorite band of all time. The fact that I was able to attend the show at all hasn’t really sunk in yet, let alone that I got to watch him sing from the floor, while he held onto the impressive beard of a guy standing two people away from me. I am only writing this review for the boy who was standing directly behind me. It was that boy who kept me awake until 2 am last night. It was that boy who made me wake up at 7:30 this morning. This one’s for you, unknown fanboy. I know you didn’t get any sleep either.

SO.

I’ll assume you know that this is a university show, the closing event of KWUR Week, that only 75 paying members of the general public were allowed entrance, and that The Gargoyle is very wee. So,  Bill Gass, Joan Didion, thank yous, a sound-checky version of “Wild Sage” and a pretty awkward introduction to “Damn These Vampires,” then John Darnielle, Peter Hughes (bass) and Jon Wurster (drums) started nibbling into a sampler of twenty years of material condensed into an hour and-a-half-long set. I was standing in my sweet spot, three and a half feet from center stage, confusing the people who tore in front of me to stand up against it. The boy directly behind me knew about the sweet spot, too, because he stayed exactly behind me the whole night. I know this because I felt his wistful sighs on the back of my neck every time something cool happened. I heard him every time he couldn’t stop himself from singing along, though he really tried. I could almost feel the outline of his neon grin projecting on the back of my head.

I have an electronic viewfinder on my camera. I purchased a camera like that so I could take pictures at shows without annoying the piss out of people behind me. I don’t look at what I shoot after I shoot it, I hold the camera up to my face and I shoot just like a real camera. Three songs in (I think) the Mountain Goats played a new song from their upcoming album, Transcendental Youth. And I was fiddling with my menu settings to try to do something with the infernal red stage lights the venue seems to insist upon, but I was holding the camera to my face for a long time and John Darnielle gave me the worst stink eye I’ve ever received in my life. I felt my socks melt a little, and not in a good way. The new song is really good, and I don’t have a recording of it, I swear.

After the new song, Peter and Jon left the stage and JD played solo. He sang “Dinu Lipatti’s Bones.” I remember this because when it was over, he looked out at us and he said something about Ozzy Osbourne not *really* loving his audience, but that right this minute he really did love us. Realizing he had to explain himself, he said that when he mentioned he was playing The Gargoyle, he got a TON of texts and tweets telling him how awful The Gargoyle was and how he was going to have a miserable time, which baffled him, since he’s a positive guy and the general resignation to misery really rubbed him the wrong way. He mentioned the disaster that was the last time he played St. Louis, at The Billiken Club, where students in pajamas stood in front of the stage and recounted dorm drama while everyone tried to listen around them. (He didn’t say that part, that’s from Travis Bursik, who was there.) But he looked out at us and said that “Dinu Lipatti’s Bones” is one of his quietest songs, and he didn’t hear a peep through the whole thing. The sound was good from where he stood, he was having a great time, and that The Gargoyle shall be vindicated!

The rest of the show was kind of a blur. JD gave into his good time, and he rewarded our model behavior with an intense, mind-shattering good show. He sang, “No Children” and “This Year” into the faces of guys in the front row while they sang back at him, he came down off the stage and held onto the beard of the dude three people away from me. He sang the non-album track “You Were Cool.” He apologized for giving me the stink eye earlier (he did!), and he walked right up to me, then past me, to the fresh-faced, wide eyed young  man directly behind me, and he pressed his forehead against that young man’s forehead, placed his hand around the back of that young man’s neck, and he sang to him for a full minute. And any memorized set list I had in my head was annihilated.

They played another new song, there was an intermission in there somewhere, the band left the stage because JD needed to rest his steroid-addled voice (he’s been ill). But still they came back for two more songs. My memory tells me one was a Black Flag cover, but I can’t seem to find evidence of what song it was, or whether he’s done it anywhere else, so he might have been joking. I’m bummed, because it was a great song and I’d like to listen to it again. First encore song was a cover of Nothing Painted Blue’s “Houseguest” [Thanks, Abby!], and the last song had two lines JD bit from a Smokey Robinson number, but I don’t remember what it was besides awesome. ["California Song" Thanks, Abby!] But fuck a bunch of keeping track of setlists. Me and the guy behind me have more important memories to hold onto.

John Darnielle is a simple musician. He is a poet who plays the guitar. He’s a story teller with a backing band. He creates and nurtures a superhuman bond between himself and the people he sings to. He’s also a mortal dude who has a baby and a cold and he forgot to thank the opening band and he was kind of rude to them backstage. Humans are fragile and finite, but the Mountain Goats’ songs might just live forever. Love, love, love.

ALSO

Watching a completely-uninitiated audience absorb Water Liars for the first time was a TREAT. Crowd-buzz after their set was all surprised and impressed. I know we keep telling you, but buy Phantom Limb, people. It’s brilliant.

UPDATE:
Full Setlist can be found at setlist.fm. Abby’s awesome!!

And don’t miss Jarred Gastreich’s beautiful pictures for KDHX.

Mucca Pazza doesn’t get out of Chicago very often. With 20+ members, I imagine it’s pretty difficult to coordinate a schedule that allows everyone to hold on to their day jobs. Last night, St. Louis was very lucky to host them again (Last time they were here was May of 2010). I’m not sure I’m capable of translating a Mucca Pazza show into words, but I’ll try.

I had a locker in the marching band hall for 3 years in high school, which is remarkable, considering I wasn’t in marching band. I can’t play anything, in fact. But my best friend played saxophone her freshman year, and apparently you can never get kicked out of band, even if you quit, so we shared the prestige and honor of our high school’s marching band. Yes, in Granite City, being in marching band actually made you cool. I didn’t learn that this wasn’t the case everywhere until I got to college. Regardless, I LOVE MARCHING BAND. I have seen the movie Drumline 167 times. I watch marching band competitions on TV and online. It’s ridiculous.

So I missed out on Mucca Pazza the last time they were here, and I remember my friends who attended all got crazy drunk and nobody could tell me what the show was like. “Just You Tube it, yo.” But I resolved to arrive with no expectations, and I managed to. It was probably during the encore, when the band was scattered around the circumference of the venue, standing on benches, the bar, pinball machines, the sound booth, and on stage, creating a 360 degree circle of song around the audience, when I realized I have no idea how to tell anyone what just went down. Something about Romanian/Gypsy music creates a fugue state where you forget where you are. Your body sways in unison with everyone else’s, even when you will it not to.

The cheerleaders are as surreal as the music is delightful. They led the audience (all of whom were behind me, though I assume they were totally into it) with a cheer that was largely comprised of the hand signals you learn in driver’s ed, the ones you use when your brake lights or blinkers aren’t working.

The audience gave the band a good three feet of floor space in front of the band, so they could jump down and march through the audience, as marching bands are wont to do. The cheerleaders also used the space to be excessively silly, but were always very polite when they realized they’d hit someone in the face with their giant caution-tape pom poms.  The floor was also host to drumline solos, a rocking glockenspiel solo, and a stage-fight between the trombones and the string section (violin and an electric guitar).

The next time you get the chance to see Mucca Pazza, go. For hardcore marching band geeks, there is nothing better. Their fans are super laid back and happy, their uniforms don’t even smell bad (I checked), and at the end of the night, everyone winds up on the floor.

More Pictures Here.

A Monday Night at The Gargoyle

First off, note the picture above this sentence. That’s what it looks like if you get to The Gargoyle late.

1.  It is not cool to show up early to The Gargoyle.
2.  I am not cool.

Hair It's At

Wurlitzer, man.

Mikal Cronin @ The Gargoyle

Mikal Cronin

Here are the DJ and band performance schedules for RSD 2012 (April 20th-22nd) in a relatively concise format. We’re a blog about live local music, after all.

Apop Records

Location: 2831 Cherokee

Food/Drink: Schlafly, New Belgium, and based on last year, some tall boys of something cheap and special.

Selling Points: A loud, musically diverse lineup of bands, an excellent backyard/courtyard space that last year included some BBQ, lots of great people watching, and a rowdy, party-centric atmosphere. Unabashed, unapologetic fun.

DJs: Jeff Hess (KDHX), Vijay Nair, and Ryan Snowden

Announced Surprise: Googolplexia

Band Performances:

Saturday, 4/21
Noon – MIDDLE CLASS FASHION
12:45p – VOLCANOES
1:30p – OU OU
2:15p – WHAT WE WON’T SEE
3:00p – TOTALLY GAY COP
3:30p – SPELLING BEE
4:00p – PINK SOCK
4:30p – NEE
5:15p – FAGETTES
6:00p – CATHOLIC GUILT
6:45p – TRAUMA HARNESS
7:30p – EXECUTION TECHNIQUES
8:15p – SHAVED WOMEN

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/209152405860249/

Euclid Records

Location: 601 E. Lockwood

Food/Drink: Hwy 61 Roadhouse, Cyrano’s, and PBR

Selling Points: A 3-day celebration featuring a special Friday night bill with Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship, Doom Town, and Magic City. A wildly extensive DJ and band line-up with highlights including national acts Mucca Pazza fresh off their upcoming Firebird performance and JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound on Saturday, and a Tower Groove Records Showcase to lead off Sunday festivities.

DJ Performance Schedule:

Saturday, 4/21
11:30a – DJ Luxxter (Ever Since Now)
12:30p – Hal Greens (Hustle & Soul)
1:30p – Billy Brown (Ice Nite$)
2:30p – Thomas Crone (KDHX)
3:30p –  DJ Alexis (Hot House Sessions)
4:30p –  MF Drew (Big Brother Thunder & The MasterBlasters)
5:30p –  Parisian
6:30p –  18andCounting
7:30p –  Rob Levy (Juxtaposition KDHX)

Sunday, 4/22
11:00a – Cat Pick (Emotional Rescue KDHX)
2:00p –  Al Swacker (Greaser’s Lunchbox KDHX)
3:30p –  Ashley Hohman (The Sound Barrier!)
4:30p –  Josh Levi (Flood Yr Face)
5:30p –  DJ Needles (Rawthentic KDHX)

Band Performance Schedule:

Friday, 4/20
6:00p –  Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship
7:00p – Doom Town
8:00p – Magic City

Saturday, 4/21 
11:00a – Mucca Pazza
Noon – Big Brother Thunder & The Master Blasters
1:00p – Sink The Bismark
2:00p – Judge Nothing
3:00p – The Painkillers
4:00p – JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
5:00p – The Jans Project
6:00p – Finns Motel
7:00p – Sleepy Kitty

Sunday, 4/22
Noon – The Tower Groove Review w/ Beth Bombara, Ransom Note, Tone Rodent, and The Feed
3:00p – Tenement Ruth
4:00p – Bob Reuter’s Alley Ghost
5:00p – Black Fast
6:00p –  Troubadour Dali

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/279444732133428/
Vintage Vinyl

Location: 6610 Delmar Blvd.

Food/Drink: “Free Beer” (We bet Schlafly and PBR) and Monster Energy

Selling Points: A high volume of RSD 2012 special wax, a diverse crowd, and killer outside band performances coupled with lower volume DJ sets inside the store. Live highlights include two of the few performing hip hop acts on Saturday, ILLphonics and Beat Street, and another Tower Groove Records Showcase, this one featuring Vintage mainstays Bunnygrunt, Hutto-led rockers Warm Jets USA, and dark folk-ists The Skekses.

DJ Performance Schedule:

Saturday, 4/21
10:00a – Jesse Raya & Holly Renshaw (www.thepageant.com)
11:00a – Louis Kwok (http://musicvsman.com/)
Noon – Jason Stoff (http://encor.es/)
1:00p – Mike Cracchiolo & Bert McClimans (www.firebirdstl.com)
2:00p – Dana Plonka (www.rftmusic.com) & Roy Kasten (www.rftmusic.com, www.kdhx.org)
3:00p – Mike Tomko (http://undercoverweekend.com/)
4:00p – Kiernan Maletsky (www.rftmusic.com)
5:00p – Dean Minderman (http://stljazznotes.blogspot.com/)

Band Performance Schedule:

Saturday, 4/21
10:00a – This City of Takers
11:00a – Illphonics
Noon – Tower Groove Records Showcase w/ Bunnygrunt, Warm Jets USA, and The Skekses
1:00p – Dear John
2:00p – Bob Reuter’s Alley Ghost
3:00p – Rough Shop
4:00p – Sleepy Sun
5:00p – Beat Street (DJ Alejan, Fly D-EX, G-Wiz, DJ Needles)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/322583837805827/

The Cave Singers came together as a band as a matter of convenience. The three members happened to live close to one another, so they just started playing together. There wasn’t a certain style they were going for, but what they ended up with was music that’s perfect when you’re drinking canned beer around a camp fire or on the front porch during a rain storm with a labrador at your feet…like right now as I’m typing this. The laid back vocals of Peter Quirk, the bluesy guitar styling of Derek Fudesco, and the rolling drum beat courtesy of Marty Lund combine to make music that’s just a hoot to be in the presence of.

You can expect Quirk to jump around the stage with various pieces of percussion and to crack jokes while they’re tuning for the next song. Fudesco will be seated with his guitar and his hair will be in his face. All three will be a sweaty mess by the end of the night. When they’re playing live, they’re having fun.

Speaking of catching them live, we’d love for you to join us this Wednesday at The Gramophone with local heroes Bo and the Locomotive. We’ve got a pair of tickets to give away and it couldn’t be easier to throw your name in the hat. Just leave us a comment on this post or hit us up on either Twitter or Facebook. We’ll pick a winner Tuesday evening, so make sure we can get in touch with you easily (email preferably) to confirm. You’ll have fun, The Cave Singers will have fun, and that makes us happy!

The former has most recently lent retro-pop songs to highly visible TV shows (“Terrible Things” was on Weeds, for example) and commercials (catch April’s cover of “You Don’t Own Me” in an NFL ad). Her most recognizable track off the 2010 release, Songs For A Sinking Ship, might be “Colors”, which provided the soundtrack to a popular Lowe’s commercial. I don’t use these references to insinuate that Smith and her band are cut from an overtly commercialized musical cloth. Quite the opposite, in fact.

On stage, Smith is a disarming, just slightly sinister circus leader in a vintage polka dot dress. Once the singing begins and her smooth, gimmick-free voice is revealed, expect to be swayed and to be smitten.

On to the latter Smith. I’ll just disclose, Friday will be the third time in two years I’ve seen this lady and the Goodnight Sleeps at Off Broadway. Like I’ll probably have a few beers and buy a CS+tGNS shirt for Christ’s sake…That’s where I’m at at this point, you know? And I’ll go ahead and say that Smith along with her talented band – Jessie Schuster, Arlen Peiffer (of Cloud Cult - neat, right?), and David Earl – didn’t reinvent the folk pop wheel with their 2008 debut full length, Backyard Tent Sets, and they didn’t do it with their more mature and pretty excellent 2011 release, Little Wind.

That said, this band’s sincere, memorable music is what I want played during important past and future events in my life and/or in the unlikely circumstance that a biographical film is made about me at some point.

Caroline Smith and the Goodnight Sleeps and Pabst at Off Broadway.

Leading the evening off (at 9pm sharp!) is Jump Starts, a St. Louis duo featuring two of our personal favorite humans/musicians, Sarah Ross and Justin Johnson, who are close to finishing the follow up to their first record, Ready, Set, Go.

Tickets for April, April, & Jump Starts at Off Broadway on Friday the 13th are $10 ahead and $12 dos if you’re 21+. But IWTAS happens to have a pair up for grabs! Leave us a comment on this post for a chance to win, and don’t forget to include an email address where we can reach you. Contest ends on Friday at 3pm – good luck!

The Head and the Heart is on a pretty good run. The first time they played in St. Louis was last June at the Duck Room. That show sold out. They were invited to play at the highly respected Newport Folk Festival last July along with several other major festivals. They were invited back to Newport this year. Their latest show in St. Louis brought them just a few blocks east of the Duck Room to the much larger Pageant. Yep, that’s a pretty good run.

One thing they don’t seem to be doing is letting this quick rise get to them. When the folks at Show Me Shows asked them if they would be interested in doing a bare bones video shoot on a nearby roof top, they accepted. I was lucky enough to get an invite for a bit of a behind the scenes look at how these videos come together. All I had to do was bring a cooler of beers.

From a layman’s perspective, it all seemed pretty simple. Jonathan had a guitar, Josiah and Charity had their voices. Jarred had a couple cameras and Ryan had a couple microphones that were plugged into a laptop. In reality, there’s a lot of planning that goes into coordinating all of the moving parts. Shoot locations needs to be reserved. Exact spots for the shoot need to be decided on at the last moment to make best use of the light and to minimize various noises coming from industrial air conditioners and head on collisions on the street below. Seriously, there was a head on collision at the exact moment the band walked out onto the balcony. At least that served as an ice breaker and an excuse to joke around for a few minutes. Full disclosure: I was nervous to be meeting one of my favorite bands.

In the end, everything worked out just right. The band played two songs beautifully. The video looked great and the audio was fantastic. The beers were enjoyed (Schlafly APA and Deschutes Red Chair, in case anyone besides me gives a shit) and the mood was light. Everyone involved made it look easy.

And if you’re wondering how their show was at The Pageant later that evening, it was just what I’ve come to expect from this band. A truly passionate performance that’s not without its faults, but whose faults make it more endearing. I have had the great fortune of seeing this band three times over the past eight months. They’re growing right before our eyes and I think they’re gonna be alright.

A big thank you to Show Me Shows and KDHX for allowing me to tag along. It’s something I’ll remember for a very long time. Check out their full write up and interview over at KDHX.

We met some of our artistic idols as they toured through our town. We watched as local bands created bodies of work that surprised and delighted fans here and everywhere. We slept too little and at times had too much fun (read: booze). We encouraged friends and strangers to support musicians in the most direct way possible – attending shows and buying music from the artists directly.

In celebration of another year of existence and mild thriving on the Internet, IWTAS has paired with the fine young men of Pretty Little Empire to put on a show at Off Broadway on May 5th (aka Cinco de Mayo. Boom.) along with Scarlet Tanager and Thankful Tree. 

BEAUTIFUL BRIGHT SPRING COLORS.

The cost for the event is 10 bucks, and most of that cash will go towards funding Pretty Little Empire’s new album. We can’t think of a better way to spend our birthday/anniversary than to support a talented band that’s representing the St. Louis scene so well.

Check back often – we’ll be giving away prize packs, maybe a pinata (just thought of that one so be cool), tickets, and all manner of goodies in the coming weeks. Mostly we just want to hang out with you.

Here’s the Facebook event link. RSVP or perish: https://www.facebook.com/events/334614083268656/