Ok so this site has been dead for a while. But it’s not been without good cause. Most of my free time over the past year has been spent working on a feature length documentary about brick in St. Louis. It’s a topic that might seem obvious to some and not so obvious to others, I won’t spend a lot of space explaining it here when I’ve already done so here and you can read what St. Louis Magazine wrote about it here. But we’re nearing completion of the film which should (hope!) be done sometime this fall. So I thought I would put the trailer up here to let you see it (in case you didn’t know what I have been doing.)

As far as this site goes, I have some great things planned for it to start very soon. But that’s another post. Until then enjoy this trailer for my new film Brick By Chance and Fortune.

Lo-Fi Saint Louis will be back in full force this fall but until then I thought I’d share this wonderful trailer for what promises to be an excellent documentary about Bob Reuter. Bob’s been featured here on Lo-fi Saint Louis several times (check the sidebar of this post) and I’m very pleased to see this project by Josh Rolens near completion. The movie should be complete by the fall. An eleven minute excerpt screened at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase last week.

Live music produced exclusively for us at City Museum. Three rules apply; one camera, no editing, and all sound is recorded live.

Thanks to Doormatt of the Rum Drum Ramblers for turning me on to Mississippi Gabe Carter. He’s actually from Chicago but he spent a few years in Mississippi studying the Bentonia style of Blues from Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and others. When he’s in Mississippi he’s known as Chicago Gabe Carter. He’s on the road quite a bit, so if you keep your ear to the ground you might catch him traveling through your town.

Download this video.

Monte Beauchamp of Blab! Magazine explains the obscure German Christmas myth of the Krampus. This video features art by Gary Baseman and book collections of antique Krampus and Devil postcards curated and edited by Beauchamp and available from Fantagraphics Books.

Download this movie.

Those Darlins showed up and kicked ass even the night that King Khan and BBQ were also supposed to play but got hung up by getting arrested in Kentucky. But this post isn’t about that, this is about Those Darlins, here is how they describe themselves on their web site:

If you’ve followed me on any of the social media networks I participate in you’ve no doubt been aware that I am a big advocate of Pokey LaFarge. I’m not getting compensated for it, though it might seem like it. I just see him as this musician that is exceptionally talented and rare, who has a unique sound that’s willing to work hard to get somewhere in this world. He’s on almost a non-stop tour schedule now with his band, The South City Three. I won’t go into detail describing his sound you can hear it for yourself in the video, but I have gotten to know Pokey personally and I can tell you that his slight frame is packed with southern charm, the relentless drive of a wallstreet tycoon, the mischevious spirit of every class clown you’ve ever known, and, what seems like, one very old soul.

This video is a little different for me. I was driving home from an event this particular afternoon in August and I saw these guys with boxing gloves on the corner. I thought that I’d stop and talk to them to see what the story was. Turns out this was a coach and a couple of his young boxers out hitting up the cars at the intersection for loose change to raise money to go to a tournament in Kansas City. They were more than happy to talk to me and demonstrate their skills.

Download this video.

Scott H. Biram playing at Off Broadway in St. Louis. Scott H. Biram is known as the dirty old one man band from Austin Texas. If you’ve never see him live you’re in for a treat. He plays a blend of country-fied broken blues and is a real crowd pleaser. He’s got a kick ass trucker web site you can check out to get more info about his music and where he’ll be appearing next.

Download this video.

Program note:

Obviously this event has past but we’re leaving the video archive here so you may relive the experience.

Tomorrow TODAY, August 9, at 11:00 a.m. CST Tom Coghill and his crew will build the WORLD’S LARGEST BACON LETTUCE AND TOMATO SANDWICH! Live at the Tomato Fest presented by Iron Barley in St. Louis. Don’t miss this historic event when 500 pounds of magical bacon, 50 gallons of savory mayonnaise, lots of toasted bread, crispy lettuce and bushels of red ripe tomatoes come together in the form of one of the most delicious sandwiches known to modern man, presented in the most gigantic form ever seen.

Often compared to the Black Lips, Davila 666 finally made it to St. Louis with this amazing performance at Off Broadway last week. They hail from Puerto Rico and are on a national tour right now. Check their MySpace page for a tour schedule, and you can get their latest release in MP3, CD or vinyl(!) here or directly from In The Red Records. I want to send a big thanks to Eammon Azizi (video) and Shawn T. Bell (audio) for helping out with this one.

Download the MP4 (for iPhone, iPod or other players here)

This is the second installment of the Lost Tape Series. Shows that I shot in the past but were never posted because they were lost or forgotten or any number of other reasons. This episode features the whacky and energetic rock-a-billy band The Dempseys from Memphis.

The Dempseys in a Scene from Walk the Line (click for larger view)

The Dempseys recorded live at the Way Out Club in January of 2007. The Dempseys are a Rock-a-Billy band from Memphis Tennessee who appeared in the 2005 film Walk The Line as Elvis’s band the Blue Moon Boys.

Download the iPhone/iPod compatible version here.

The Phonocaptors playing their reunion show last month at Deluxe

Download podcast here or jump to the bottom of this post and listen by clicking the play button on the flash player.

This is something new for me and Lo-Fi Saint Louis, it’s an audio podcast. I have been wanting to do this for a while but never really got things together enough to try it until now. I’m not sure if this will be a regular thing or not. So if you like this and would like for me to do more please let me know in the comments.

This podcast is pretty much just an interview with a musician named Jason Hutto. If you don’t know who he his I hope you stick around and find out. The thumbnail version is that he’s one of the most talented guitarist and songwriter, you’ve probably never heard of. He’s played in at least a half a dozen bands in St. Louis in the last decade but is probably best known for his band the Phonocaptors which still has a loyal fan base even though the band officially broke up nearly 4 years ago. They recently played a one off reunion show at Deluxe in Maplewood Missouri to a packed house of old fans who sang along with every song.

Click to download Call It What You Want by The Phonocaptors

Click to download the Walkie Talkie USA 8 Song Demo

Now one more thing that I need to tell you before we get into the interview is that Jason has given me permission to give away, that means free folks, the Phonocaptors entire last album as well as the 8 song Demo for Jason’s followup project called Walkie Talkie USA. So that’s 18 tracks of great music for you to enjoy courtesy of Jason Hutto. And he said please share this stuff with your friends. These are zip files to make them a little more modular to download, and in each zip is a text file that says exactly how you can share this music. (It basically boils down to share with your friends but don’t resell it and don’t use it for commercial purposes without permission).

We talk about this music and more in this first audio podcast from Lo-Fi Saint Louis. Enjoy.

[Show as slideshow]

Editiors note: This is a post by guest blogger, Doc (Scott) Lasser. Doc is the drummer for the band The 75′s and he and some friends traveled to Memphis last weekend to check out the Gories and Oblivians show at the HiTone. I asked him and Jason Potter of Left Arm (who also went) to blog about it for Lo-Fi Saint Louis. Honestly I wasn’t expecting something this long! but here it is! I almost feel like I should pay him for this. But I’m broke as a joke so I guess he’s shit out of luck.

I’m from Detroit, and have a great affinity for dirty, tired, old river towns. This probably explains why I took to St. Louis so easily, and why I like Memphis so much.

Downtown Memphis

This weekend myself (avid garage rock fan and drummer for The 75s), Jeff “Kopper” Kopp (of KDHX’s “Wayback Machine” fame), Jason Potter (the drummer for local garage punk band Left Arm), Ryan Snowden (aka Ryan Katastrophe, a garagepunk.com podcaster from West county), and our friend Tom Quistorff (a local artist) drove down to Memphis to catch the reunion show for two much-beloved, and pretty much defunct garage bands: The Oblivians and The Gories.

A week before this show, I kind of looked at it as a typical rock n’ roll summer road trip: a bunch of hard core music fans giving up their weekend by driving 300 miles in ungodly heat, scarfing down crappy fast food at every stop, cooling down at the club with cheap beer, and eventually crashing in some dive hotel at 2:00 am. And while, yeah, it was all that, by the end of the trip I realized it was much more. It really was a pilgrimage to the place where the garage revival explosion of the 1990′s really started, to see maybe the two bands responsible for it all. Without The Gories there may have not been an Oblivians, and without The Oblivians, I doubt if the world would have ever heard of The White Stripes, The Hives, all the bands on Goner Records, and Hell, even Goner Records itself. I’d also throw Missouri’s own Cripplers into that group.

The trip began on Saturday afternoon, with Jason Potter serving as captain/Memphis tour guide. Jason was kind enough to drive the entire trip, a job which he genuinely seemed to enjoy. (To be fair, if The 75s has a kick ass band van like Jason/Left Arm does, we’d probably never stop touring.) It was, like, 150 degrees outside as we made our way through Missouri and Arkansas, but in Jason’s cavernous mini van that has an A/C unit that works better than the one in my house, everything was cool, literally.

I made the team! (Hand Model: Jeff Kopp)

Once you hit Arkansas, you are officially in “the South”. And there is kind of no mistaking it. The Stuckey’s start popping up like weeds, and the side of the highways are littered with the remains of front and back tires. We stopped off at a gas station in Blytheville, AR, which wikipedia tells me was once the residence of actor George Hamilton (!). It was at this little stop in Arkansas that we found a hat for sale that proclaimed any potential wearer as a member of “Jesus’ All-Star Team”. This of course made me wonder if Jesus wins their Home Run Hitting Derby every year…

Memphis doesn't have an arch, but they do have a Pyramid.

A couple of hours later we hit Memphis, a town with a modest skyline, with a truly great landmark: a big glass pyramid. The Pyramid Arena was once home to the usually lowly NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, who the city stole from the basketball hotbed of Vancouver, British Columbia. The team moved into a new arena, and the Pyramid now stands without a permanent tenant. If that had happened in St. Louis, someone would have turned in to a parking structure or a Walgreen’s.

Now, before I say this, I want to refer readers to the first paragraph of this blog. I’m from Detroit, and I love dirty, tired, old river towns. With that fresh in your minds, I want to throw this out there: Memphis could very well be the Detroit of the south. Memphis is dirty, gritty, and a little crazy. There is garbage everywhere, bars on the windows and doors of what seems to be every other house, and no one seems to mind that people are walking around with open beers everywhere. There are a lot of abandoned buildings and maybe even more businesses. As for the proverbial southern charm… I think Memphians are more likely to tell you to go fuck yourself than provide the lost tourist with concise directions to Graceland. In short, Memphis is just fucking REAL. It doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is: a dirty, tired, old river town with a bit of an attitude. And like Detroit and St. Louis, it has something that a lot of other big cities in America just don’t have. Memphis, ladies and gentlemen, has SOUL. Slow smoked, dry rubbed, fall-off-the-bone SOUL.

So it was against this backdrop that we rolled on into Memphis, and made our way to our hotel, The Artisan. What the Artisan lacked in finesse it made up for in flavor. It turns out that we would be sharing the hotel with a large convention of gay black men. What was that like? I’ll refer you to the picture that Jason Potter took of Ryan Katastrophe that’s included with this blog. Please direct your eyes to the background of that photo…

Dinner at the Bar-B-Q Shop.

We dumped our bags at the hotel, and made our way to find what came to be the unofficial second reason for this trip: barbecue. I’m a huge fan of Memphis BBQ, especially the dry rubbed stuff. Our plan was to head out to Payne’s, an iconic BBQ joint in Memphis, but they closed just after we made it into town. So, we went with Plan B and ate at The Bar-B-Q Shop. I had a chopped pork sandwich served on Texas toast, with a side of beans and some sweet tea to wash it down. After a 4 hour drive in the heat, it was close to heaven. Normally, I have an issue with a lot of the mustard-based sauces that seem to be a staple of southern BBQ; the pungent nature of mustard seems to overpower the smokiness that I think is the hallmark of really great BBQ sauces. But the sauce at Bar-B-Q Shop (which they call “Dancing Pigs”) was really subtle for being mustard-based, and still retained the bit of sweet and smokey flavor that I love. The pork was tender and juicy, and the crunchiness of Texas toast was a nice touch. The beans were sweet with hunks of pork mixed in. All in all, it was a pretty good representation of what Memphis BBQ is all about.

After dinner, we made our way to the club, The Hi-Tone Cafe. To put the place into perspective for St. Louisans, it’s like Off Broadway minus the balcony but with the vibe of the old Hi-Pointe. Now, The Oblivians (who are from Memphis) and The Gories played a show the night before ours, and we did read a few reviews of it online. The one thing everyone mentioned was how steamy the club was. That turned out to be the understatement of the century, which I’ll get to in a second.

Before too long, The Gories took the stage. This was really the treat of the night for me. The Gories are from Detroit, my hometown, and pretty much inspired every garage band to come out of Motown after them. Their stuff is raw, primal, and heavily rooted in the blues. I never got to see The Gories: I moved to California way before they formed, and never caught them in San Francisco. So this was a big deal for me. Mick Collins’ voice was shot, but he played his Strat like a mad man. Dan Kroha picked up the slack on the vocals, and the band did an instro number or two. Overall, I think their set was representative of their 6-year career. On a few songs, Collins and Kroha would pull away from the mic and let the crowd sing a line or two. The one thing that I had forgotten about the band was Peggy O’Neill’s drumming. She never really used a snare drum with The Gories, if ever. In place of a snare, she used a second floor tom. The cool thing about that is… The Gories are a trio with 2 guitars. The 2nd floor tom makes up for the lack of a bass and really adds to the primal nature of their sound. All of which was enhanced by the fact that The Hi-Tone has a great sound system with an engineer that knows what the Hell he is doing. All in all, The Gories turned in a great set, and it everything I had hoped for. And now that I think about it… What’s up with Detroit and minimalist, female garage rock drummers!?!

At this point, I should mention the, um, “weather conditions” inside the Hi-Tone. Everything was okay before the place started to fill up. But after The Gories’ set, which got people to jump up and down and heat the place up, the Hi-Tone effectively turned into a beer-soaked sauna. Seriously. I bet the humidity in the room was close to 90%. There is an A/C unit above the bar, and ceiling fans sporadically placed around the joint, but it didn’t seem help much. It will go down as the dirtiest, nastiest, and sweatiest show I have ever been to.

The Gories

And here is where the story turns a bit tragic. I planted myself under one of the ceiling fans in between the Gories’ and Oblivians’ sets. It was nice when the room cleared out a bit (there is a beer garden out back of the club, complete with an industrial-sized fan to cool the masses down). I managed to plant myself under one of the ceiling fans, and it did cool me down a little. But by the time The Oblivians took the stage, the Hi-Tone turned into a rice steamer again. I only managed to last 4 songs into their set. I was sweating faster than I could drink water to replace it, and my knees started to buckle a little. I fought my way through the crowd to the beer garden, and happily sat next to the giant fan. Ryan Katastrophe was there; he bailed out a song before I did. I wanted to go back in after I cooled down some, but Ryan, who had gone in to use the bathroom at one point, came back after only 6-7 minutes, dripping sweat. Once again, he only used the bathroom, which is in the very back of the club.

I had to console myself by thinking that I had least saw The Oblivians play four songs, which is four more than much of the world is going to see them play for a while. They were really great. Loud, bluesy, and soulful with a hometown crowd throwing beer on them, with love, of course. We all talked about this on the way back home, but so much of the stuff that we love as garage rock fans stems from The Oblivians, it’s hard to imagine what things would have been like without them. During their 5-year run, they were the best, and pretty much proved that they still are.

For the rest of the set, I sat outside and bullshitted with Ryan and some people who had driven 12 hours with 10 other people from Austin, TX in a van with only two seats and no A/C. Ryan and I waited for our friends, and when the show was over, we headed back to our hotel. The disaster area that the Hi-Tone had turned into was a little hard to describe. It looked like a gas station bathroom had exploded and they put out the fire with Pabst.

Finally, we made it back to The Artisan at around 3 am. We were all so beat that the throngs of black gay guys throwing down shots of peach schnapps and smoking weed on our floor didn’t bother us.

We woke up just in time for check out. We went to another southern staple, Waffle House, for breakfast. For added charm, we drove a mile or so into Mississippi to eat there. I had two buttermilk waffles and a side of diced, chunked, and covered hash browns. And a sweet tea. I mean, what ELSE are you going to drink in the south!?!

Goner Records, Memphis, TN

The one last thing we did in Memphis was visit Goner Records over on Young Avenue. Goner, in addition to being a label started by Eric Friedl of The Oblivians, is also a great independent, vinyl-centric record store. While we were waiting for Goner to open, Greg Cartwright of The Oblivians walked up, coffee in hand. After playing back-to-back shows inside of a Crock Pot, Cartwright looked every bit as haggard as you would expect. He commented that “next time I decide to put one of things together, it’s going to be in December…” Goner is a fun place to shop. They have a lot of old Sun and Stax 45s in stock, and a listening station with a turntable and headphones. I picked up a Gories CD and a Carbonas CD. Kopper, Jason, and Ryan bought a lot of vinyl. Ryan also bought a G.G. Allin bobblehead. Try finding one of those at Wal-Mart, kiddies!

And that was it. After we left Goner we hit the highway and headed home. I doubt that I’ll ever get the opportunity to see a show like that again, or ever take a trip like this one again. It’s kind of hard to roll up a convention of gay black men, great BBQ, a legendary garage rock show, and oppressive heat into one big travel package.

Fabulous.

This is the first of a series of shows that I’ve recorded but for some reason never got around to posting. Most are shows that I’ve forgotten I had and recently rediscovered.

This particular show is the Nevermores from the Show-Me Blowout from 2007. Actually, I did post a performance from the Nervermores from this show but it was as a backup band for Craig Moore of Gonn. So this is a performance of their own music. And speaking of Nevermores music they just released their first record, which is available from Trouble in Rivercity Records here (name your price!).

Got a chance to see this band from Columbia, Missouri, last week at Bob Reuter’s record release show. They put on a wild show. I’d link to their Myspace page or something but I’ll be dammned if I can find one. Never mind, I’m an idiot—I was spelling their name wrong, The Hooten HAllers’ Myspace page is here. Anyway, I hope you stick around for the whole video, I think it’s pretty good.

So far in the last two weeks I’ve spent part of two different weekends on Cherokee Street. Something really cool is happening down there. I think it’s been brewing under the surface for a while, but in the last couple of years it’s really bloomed. My pal (and sometime contributer to Lo-Fi) Steve Smith has been wanting to open another bar on Cherokee for a while, but the peculiar oddities of St. Louis Liquor politics have been blocking him for some time. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

So here I provide you with photographic evidence of Cheorkee’s revival. Most of these photos are from the new little punk rock thrift and nick-nack shop Binge & Purge taken at their grand opening two weeks ago, and at Firecracker Press photographed this weekend during the Cherokee Street Open House event.

Oops! I seem to be having an issue with one of my photo gallery plugins, so … until I get this fixed go check out the Album on Flickr

Fixed!

[Show as slideshow]

This is the newest project from the unofficial godfather of St. Louis’ singer/songwriters, the one and only Bob Reuter. He’s been kicking around the local music scene so long it would be hard to imagine it without him. You’re as likely to see him with a camera as you are with a guitar. Both his music and his photography are legendary.

With Alley Ghost we find Bob throwing in with a bunch of the Big Muddy boys, from the Rum Drum Ramblers, The Vultures, Johnny O and the Jerks and the 7 Shot Screamers to make some lovely folky and folksy music. The songs are biographical I’m told. The recording session for the record recently released on Big Muddy Records took place in a kitchen, a story told on the bands Myspace page:

In late summer of 2008, we hooked up with Bob because we love his music. Doormat got behind the wheel and drove us all together. We fell together in the kitchen around a reel to reel and the Alley Ghost sang. But he’s always been singing – nobody sees his body because they aren’t looking – people look at you and not in you so Bob made his life transparent – so that people could always see him. And still people don’t look.

Bob’s CD, Alley Ghost is available on Big Muddy Records.

I’m late posting this too, right about the time my new son was being born, I got word that I had been nominated for a Streamy Award, and award given out to recognize outstanding achievement for shows produced originally for broadband distribution. I was surprised and honored to even be nominated for my work here. I won’t be able to attend the Awards Gala held tomorrow night in Beverly Hill’s so I’ve asked my friend Bill Chott to attend in my place. The event will be streamed live tomorrow night here, so I guess I know what I’m gonna be watching tomorrow!

I am way behind getting this video up, but this was a performance at the Atomic Cowboy on a warm October evening a few months ago. The Rum Drum Ramblers are two members of the Rock ‘n’ Roll band The Vultures plus a guy named Mat who does most of the pickin’ and vocalizn’. They have a sound that’s as deep and fat as the Mississippi river with call backs to the blues of the past. They call their music “PreWar-rag-MaxwellStreet style-HeyLordyMamaMamaGetUp&Go stompin’-ass blues.” Whatever it is it sounds good. And with the help of the Funky Butt Brass Band, a new Orleans style street brass ensemble they had a bit of an early soul edge on this particular night.

Oh and in addition to a bonus track from the same night I also include here a video I made of these guys at City Museum as part of my Lo-Fi Sessions project last summer.

Thanks to John Sheehan for doing an awesome job on the sound recording and mixing on this video.

[update] Sorry to the podcast subscribers I forgot to put the enclosure in, fixed now!

I just had my second child, Travis Everett this month. My wife’s preganancy was somewhat complicated so I really had to pick up the slack on the homefront. But believe it or not things have actually settled down quite a bit since the birth so I can get back to regular programming here. So look for new videos starting TOMORROW! and then every Friday for the foreseeable future. I’m really anxious to get back to work!

Also thanks to my guest bloggers Lori and Steve for trying to help out with content. I was hoping that Lori and I could collaborate more on some videos and things but she has been called away to Chicago because she was offered a job there and has to make a living. So best of luck to her! Steve will be back though, and I hope to get around to writing a proper introductory post up about him soon.

So that’s it, as always there are lots of ways to be notified of new stuff here, email, rss, Twitter, myspace and Facebook, so pick your flavor!

Hi, Lofi. I am Lori.

I’ll be writing here on the Lofi St. Louis blog here and there. Damn glad to meet you. I’m sure i’ll have a bio sometime soon, but there are more important and interesting fish to fry right now!

For example: There’s a crazy debate happening tonight.

In approx. 4 hours, St. Louis will finally remember some things… that it has neighborhoods, and that they should be friendly AND competitive, all this via a local watering hole’s weekly Arguments & Grievances debates. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been to a fair amount of Uptown/Downtown theme parties in my time, and if this is anything like those…it will be pretty much amazing.Only instead of expressing our love/disdain for the uppity/gritty part of town via pointy accessories and the occasional tennis sweater — it’s expressed in words! How eloquent and old school.

Uptown = the Central West End. It’s lovely. It’s a little uppity, and slightly pastel.

Downtown = The South Side. It’s lovely, too. There are more tattoos.

Thankfully, I’m not doing the arguing — but Mr. Brennan of Brennan’s and Mr. Smith of The Royale will be. It promises to be most rambunctious and most likely, slightly educational. I’m sure we’ll here some mentioning of music venues you’ve seen (the majority of which are located on the South Side…can you say leverage!?) here on LoFi STL.

Put up your dukes, it’s time for some friendly neighborhood competition.

I’ll be reporting back.

Hey I’m back and I actually appear on video for the first time in months! Anyway this episode features the Blind Eyes. All of the members of which were in the Gentleman Callers (a band you may remember from episodes of Lo-Fi STL of years past). The Blind Eyes are a bit of a departure from the Gentleman Callers. This band is more of the late 70′s early 80′s brit mod type with sounds that harken back to bands like the Jam or even Elvis Costello.

Also I promised some links, here is the address and the the map to the Royale where you can buy a shirt: 3132 S. Kingshighway (click for map) and here is where you can buy them online. Also check out the new shop for all your rock’n X-Mas shopping needs. I’ll be adding more stuff often so check back frequently. Also don’t forget to tell 2 friends about us and/or leave a review in iTunes (link). Thanks and Happy Holidays!

I wanted to get out and cover this one myself, but it just wasn’t to be. Fortunately someone did, here’s the video …

Kentucky Knife Fight have their first CD out. And no they’re not from Kentucky, they’re from St. Louis! Here is their MySpace page. also threw in a supremely bizzare old trailer for an old movie called “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.” Probably a crappy movie but the trailer is fun!

Buy some Kentucky Knife Fight tracks here:

My friend Rupert Howe who makes these amazingly fun, spontaneous, personal videos with his camera phone made a post recently where he reviewed some of his favorite video blogs. Two of which are ones I produce. Of course I’m flattered that he thinks what I’m doing was worthy of note, but I was also surprised that he thinks that St. Louis is one of the most happening places in the world. I’m not gonna tell him otherwise … Go watch some of Ruperts videos and tell me he doesn’t have an infectious personality.

I had the rare weird opportunity to shoot the above video for MTV on Election day. And I gotta say, it was a lot of fun. I got the gig because my friend Steve Smith, who has been blogging about political issues for MTV (and now a contributer to this site) recommended me to them when they were looking for someone who could shoot something for broadcast. I shot this video in about an hour and rushed home to upload about 2 minutes of the 18 minutes that I shot which was eventually cut down to the one minute you see above. Originally I wasn’t sure if it was gonna show up online, but someone on twitter pointed it out to me. And since MTV offered a share embed link I figured I’d share it here.

I first became aware of Jason Hackenwerth’s amazing balloon sculptures when I did a video about Doc Popular last summer. He was at City Museum creating an enourmous balloon sculpture and in retrospect I was foolish for not stopping to talk to him then. But as luck would have it, Jason came back to St. Louis recently (he is a hometown boy who now resides in NYC) to show some of his work at his Alma Mater, Webster University. I was able to corner him for a few minutes at his opening to ask him some questions. The show closes at the end of this week so catch it if you can. Jason’s web site is here. (fixed the link, thanks Ed Reggi)

Oh the memories. I was looking for my old sketch pad, for I have been commissioned to make another drawing this year for Art Attack so I dug through some old things in a box underneath my bed. And look what I found. How timely.

You see I saved papers. I know it is corny, but I collect all sorts of paper, especially newspapers. I used to be a paperboy for many years. That was my first good money jobs that I started in the sixth grade. I sold the Post-Dispatch year round for about four years on various Saint Louis street corners selling the Sunday three star edition on Saturday night and also the five star final in front of the Catholic Church my family belonged to on Sunday morning. It was great work, and eventually worked up in the game and worked overnights in the distribution at convenience stores, supermarkets and newspaper stands.

So this particular find brings up all sorts of fond memories. It has been interesting looking at them. I remember this vividly at the time. I was just into my freshman year of high school. There are all sorts of things that could be observed about this market crash. I am not sure where to start, or if I even should comment.

After keeping these on my meeting table for a day just to sort of absorb news of this old paper. I glanced at the headlines and looked at the other headlines of the day. The other thing that popped up is that the US shelled an oil platform in the Persian Gulf. That seems odd. I didn’t remember that at all. I guess that stock market crash distracted me at that tender age. That story did remind me of when our country shot down a normal passenger Iranian airliner over the gulf. And then that reminded me of the Korean airliner that was shot down in Soviet airspace.

That was really effed up. But that is all history now. Sad history.

The woman agreed as she stepped back to her delivery minivan.

I picked up the paper and it indeed was light. It made me a little sad. I used to haul these papers and it felt good tossing around bundles. I would read every inch of the papers. I would read the full team baseball stats in the Sunday paper, the editorial page, Ann Landers and Mark Trail. I would read the whole thing.

So I looked at the Post. I am embarrassed to say, but I haven’t been reading the paper. I guess it stopped about three or so years ago but I still get a subscription and also a few other dailies. I have had a subscription to the paper ever since I moved out of my folks house at 18. My apartments used to be littered with the daily paper. I still read magazines, but I don’t read the paper. It makes me rather sad.

But the daily paper is not the same. It feels different. And it looks different. These are superficial, sure, but for certain things I am a sucker for regardless. I like Chevys and shined shoes. I like newspapers that look and feel like newspapers.

I think over the course of the week I will peruse the old Post and the new Post to see what actually makes them different. Hmmm.

Mark Vickroid makes wonderful homemade guitars out of old cigar boxes. Some of them even have an amp built in. I went to his house in South St. Louis to see how he made them and talk to him about how he got started. Check out his band, The Vickroids, on MySpace here.

Photo by Steve Smith

I really do have some more videos in the works, in fact one about Mark Vickroid and his fabulously, lo-fi, handmade cigarbox guitars will be up before the end of the week. So just hold yer horses …

Anyway I’d like to welcome Steven Fitzpatrick Smith to Lo-Fi Saint Louis, as the first person to ever post anything here besides myself. I should have written the introductory post myself but he beat me too it. He has an obligation to MTV until the end of the election season so you won’t see a ton of postings from him until later in November.

Baracktoberfest shirt design

Palin Ale shirt design

And speaking of elections, our favorite Microbrewery, Schlafly has released some special brews in honor of our major party candidates. Actually this ties in with Steve too, because he serves these at his pub as well. They’ve released 4 beers (probably just labels actually) one for each candidate and his running mate (it should be obvious whose who) Baracktoberfest, Palin Ale, HefeBiden, and McCains Maverick APA Ale.

And they also have t-shirts for sale with these designs.

Anyway did I ever mention that Schlafly is my favorite microbrewery ever?

You can get the shirts here.

Also STLhops (great St. Louis based beer blog) has some photos of some of the related posters Schlafly had made as well [link].

My name is Steven Smith. Steven Fitzpatrick Smith is how I usually sign for the name is rather forgettable. I have a blog of my own, STLstreets.com for about four or so years now. I have also been blogging for MTV for the past year covering politics in the state of Missouri. I have done many other projects over the years from training fighters and staging boxing matches to writing to production various of video and film projects. I also own a tavern called the Royale located on the southside of Saint Louis. Becoming a tavernkeeper has changed my life dramatically for now I live above a public business in which hundreds of people tromp through every day. It is great really, but I do not have any privacy at all, but well, it could be far worse.  There is more to tell sure, but this site about the content, not my bio.

Bill Streeter, the man behind the mighty force of LofiSTL asked me to hook up on this project. I am honored to be associated with such a high quality content site, but I cannot promise to deliver anything of the same caliber. I plan on this site being my first and main outlet for my independent content. I will post up some interesting observations, stories, rough video and information all around.

I am still writing for MTV through the election, so my posting will be sparse at best. I plan on taking it easy on the writing and video editing for a few weeks afterwards, but then I will be going full throttle again on some new independent video and writing work around the holidays.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t29fgA5M7VA

So for the time being I will post up some interesting links that I have found.

This is an amazing video of koyaanisqatsi of Pruitt Igoe. I hope at some point to do video that is at least a shadow of this scope. I am not sure I am quite skilled or artistic enough, but I will enjoy trying to do it.

Here is another video of Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO speaking to Union members on race and the Presidential election.  I am not sure this is enough, for I have had a ton of experience with Union guys, but it is a powerful speech.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QIGJTHdH50

I’ve been kind of fascinated with the St. Louis Flyer Project on Flickr. Of course, looking at these old flyers doesn’t really bring back many memories for me since I wasn’t living in St. Louis at the time. But they are curious since they are clues as to what the Rock’n'Roll Scene was like here back in the ’80s. Most of the clubs and halls listed on these flyers don’t exist anymore, and one in particular caught my eye; Turner’s Nite Club. It was this flyer of their February 1986 calendar that piqued my interest, mainly because of the map that showed its location, namely on Salisbury near Hyde Park on city’s north side:

Turners Nite Club Calendar from February 1986

Here is another flyer for the place, probably from the same period:

Imagine seeing this show for only $6!!

Now to know why this is interesting to me one might need to understand that St. Louis has a long history of being pretty segregated–not unlike a lot of cities. Where different parts of town are known as the domain of different races. The north side in St. Louis is known as the “black” part of town. So knowing the racist attitudes of some white people in St. Louis, I found it curious that back in the ’80s there was a Rock’n'Roll venue frequented by mostly white kids on the north side. So recently I thought I’d go see if this place was still standing, and discovered (not surprisingly) ruble. Apparently Turner’s Hall suffered a fire in recent years and burned down–but not all the way. From what I hear it was a fairly large venue, and when I saw it I could tell that it was. It seems to have been a repurposed gymnasium building of some sort. Anyway I took these photos on my visit.

About a block away I met this guy who was selling his home made cookies on a nearby corner. He was very personable but too young to remember Turners. His name is Sim and I included a couple of photos of him here, his cookies are awesome, BTW.

If you have any memories of this place please post them in the comments. I really know little more than what I’ve related here.

[Show as slideshow]

I know It’s been way too long since I posted one of these. I haven’t lost interest in this project, it’s just that life gets in the way of these things you know?

Chris Grabau is one of these people that I’ve heard about over the years that I’ve lived in St. Louis, but hadn’t had the chance to meet until about a year ago. Aparently he’s heard and known about me too so it was probably just a matter of time before we met. Anyway I knew early on that his band Magnolia Summer was one of the many bands around town that I definitely wanted to do a session with. Chris was certainly interested in doing one too, but it just took us a few months to get it together. And unfortunately due to all of these little issues popping up here and there this video is only now getting published nearly a full 2 months since we produced it on one wet but sunny afternoon in July.

Honestly I don’t think we could have picked better weather for this shoot. It had only just stopped raining when we started shooting so everything was wet and the sun came out only to begin it’s decent in the west behind them. It sure made for some pretty imaging to go along with some pretty music. And the little left over raindrops you see in the video made for some nice accidental metaphors here and there.

We recorded this in a timber structure on the giant out door jungle gym/junk sculpture that is called Monstrocity at City Museum. It would be hard to describe this amazingly beautiful mish-mash of scrap iron and other things, so hopefully someday you will be able to see it for yourself.

The Helium Tapes are back! And they have a new CD! This is a song from a show I shot last spring at what was originally planned to be their CD Release party, but one event after another prevented them from releasing it untill now.

You can preview and purchase mp3′s or buy the entire album from Amazon here:

The Helium Tapes (self titled)

The Helium Tapes [myspace page link] have finally released their first CD that they, as near as I can tell, have been working on since they formed. It’s not that they’ve been working on it for 3 years it’s just that several unexpected calamitous events prevented them from getting it out before now. And according to the band they are nearly ready to go in to the studio and record again, so maybe we’ll see something new from them in the next few months too. But for now their self-titled debut is ready to be purchased from multiple vendors–just search for it at your favorite online music emporium and it should be available. Better yet go see them this weekend and buy a copy from the band themselves [follow this link for show details].

Anyway as a bonus here is one of my favorite songs on the record, a bouncy reggae flavored number called early days, enjoy!

Helium Tapes – Early Days

You can preview and purchase mp3′s or buy the entire album from Amazon here:

Warning: This video contains artistic depictions of nudity and sex, it might not be safe to watch in your workplace.

This erotic art show took place last winter just before St. Louis’s big Mardi Gras celebration at the Koken Art factory. You didn’t know that St. Louis had a Mardi Gras celebration? Well yes we do … But this event wasn’t an official Mardi Gras event, but it was fun, and amazingly successful. Keep an eye on their web site here for info on Naughti Gras ’09.

Music by The Blind Eyes.

Just some photos I took at a really fun event back in July. A BBQ sponsored by PBR at Off Broadway in honor of Big Muddy Records and Pokey LaFarge

[Show as slideshow]

Fright!

I also have another thing to tell you about what I’m doing here. I’ve recruited a couple of other people from around town to also blog here from time to time. I don’t want to say exactly who these people are yet. But you’ll find out in good time. So at some point Lo-Fi Saint Louis will cease to be (pretty much) a one man operation.

So thats it. Thats the big news. I wanted to throw a big party again this fall to launch the fall season of videos here, but time just got away from me. But watch for some kind of bug shin-dig next spring to celebrate four years of this mess … such as it is.

Season 4 of regular episodes of Lo-Fi Saint Louis will start this week, and continue until the end of November, and regular photo, audio and text posts will commence shortly. So subscribe via email or rss if you haven’t yet to keep up with all this crap.

Thank you and good night,
Bill Streeter