We’ve been trying to get Ellen Cook (AKA Ellen the Felon) to come do a session for a while and as you can see she finally relented to our requests. She’s one of the newer musicians that’s been making waves in St. Louis in the last year.

It took us awhile to finally decide to shoot this session on the lovely roof of City Museum with Mattronome‘s drum kit set up at the bottom of the giant slide there.

Here Ellen performs two songs, ‘Where the Heart is’ and ‘Oh Timmothy’ and you can keep up with her via her website here.

You might recognize the Paper Dolls keyboardist here as Jenn Malzone from our session with Tight Pants Syndrome. Well this is her other band, one of two other bands actually. So she keeps busy. She told me about the Paper Dolls at the TPS session so when we got a chance we booked this one too. They play three songs here ‘Sparks’, ‘I Was Too Obvious’ and ‘Trash & Suicide’ and you can listen and buy their album ‘Sparks’ here.

Our intern Trent Hover went out and produced this piece on the anual celebration of record stores in St. Louis. We’re blessed for a city of our size to still have as many options as we do for buying vinyl or any kind of physical media. We visited Euclid Records, Vintage Vinyl and Apop Records for this piece but there are even more options than those in the St. Louis area. And remember you don’t have to wait for Record Store Day to go and check out your local record store. Music for this video: Stellar Day by the Phonocaptors.

So a few months ago we got an email from a young musician named André with a link to some videos that he had posted on Youtube. Normally we ignore unsolicited contacts like this but there was something about this guys video that really made us take a second look–he had great energy and enthusiasm if not some musical chops. So we sent him a message to see if he was interested in doing a session for Lo-Fi Saint Louis.

After a bit of back and forth for a few months working out some scheduling bugs we finally got together on a really nice warm evening at City Museum. We were mistakenly under the impression that this was a solo act but André brought a four piece band with him–a project he calls Dear Genre. Since the weather was so nice we made our way up to the very top of the roof near the giant praying mantis sculpture.

This really is a first for us, bringing a relatively unknown and very new band in for a session, and that’s not a bad thing. We love to discover new talent when we can–which is not something that’s so easily done believe it or not. And if André keeps up his work ethic and enthusiasm he should have a bright career ahead of him. Dear Genre on Facebook and on MySpace.

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For this session we returned to the Architecture Hall at City Museum with the power pop collective known as Tight Pants Syndrome who have been on my short list for a while for a session. And finally after several scheduling snafu’s we finally got it together to shoot this session.

If you are familiar with Tight Pants Syndrome you know that they make wonderfully slick poppy rock-n-roll that’s not quite sweet enough to fall into the bubble gum category but really fun and lively none the less. Their music has been featured in the soundtrack of A. (Anonymous) by Daniel Bowers and they have garnered several awards and accolades over the year for their delivery of tight pop hooks.

This was one of the quickest sessions we have shot yet, the band set up and started cranking out song after song we mostly had to just pick a moment and start recording. They perform acoustic versions of three original songs in this video: Calling Panther Lake, Your Buzz is Safe with Me Tonight, and Telephone. If you like these tracks be sure to check out their most recent release Fully Active (itunes link) or one of their earlier releases. Also thanks to our intern Trent Hover for doing the booking on this session.

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Kid Congo Powers has been doing this rock’n'roll thing for quite some time. He started out as the president of The Ramones Fan Club and eventually formed a band that was to become The Gun Club. That led to a stint as guitarist for The Cramps. The Pink Monkey Birds is his latest project and they’re touring like crazy. This is their second stop in St. Louis in the last year (the first being an impromptu show at CBGB’s last spring). This show at Off Broadway was a blast, we hope we captured a little of the fun on video for you.

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We’re a little late getting this one up. But it’s our favorite Philly band Mondo Topless performing at the Beat ‘N Soul fest from last fall. Great show, great band, good times ‘nuf said.

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If you didn’t already know about the Fleshtones you are in for a treat. This band was founded in the mid 1970′s by Keith Streng who was later joined by current member Peter Zaremba. The Fleshtones came up in the legendary NYC punk scene of that era. Unlike many of their contemporaries like the Cramps or the Ramones they never really acheived broad notoriety. But they have cultivated a loyal underground following none the less.

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I wasn’t expecting the Brothers Lazaroff to play jazz infused rock on this session, I thought they would play more of the alt country flavored stuff you’d hear on their MySpace page. They pushed some boundaries with their amps and electric bass, but it all came together and sounded fantastic gathered around the vintage Wulitzer Pipe Organ at City Museum.

These are songs you can hear on the Brothers Lazaroff’s new self released CD Give ‘Em What They Need. Which is available both online and in stores around town. Or you can come to their CD release party at Lola this Friday and buy a copy directly from the band themselves.

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Theodore is a band that I’ve been wanting to get for a session for a long time now. I had them in mind since the first batch I put together a couple of years ago. For some reason it never worked out.

This one was recorded later than most of the other sessions. We met at the museum around nine pm and we didn’t leave until after midnight. And in case you can’t tell, this video was recorded in City Museum’s Enchanted Caves. The first time we’ve shot there since the Irene Allen session.

Theodore is definately a ‘Lo-Fi’ band in the most literal sense. They rolled in with a bunch of toy instruments and some circuit bent gadgets. I’m not even sure they got to play them all. I’m not sure how much they even plan which instruments they’re going to play. I got the feeling from the short time we were together that they kind of thrive on playing right at the edge of chaos.

This video is long, over 15 minutes. I hope you can stay and watch the whole thing. I think it’s worth it. They play three songs here, Butcherbird and a combo of Daisies Never Tell/Death’s Head.

Also we have been getting a lot of questions about the sound on these sessions. For that all credit goes to Matt Giant for the great job he does on the sound. This particular video is exceptional in that regard.

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When we met Sleepy Kitty at City Museum last week we were surprised to find out that they had already sort of choreographed their Lo-Fi Session performance the day before when they scouted out the museum for locations. The choreography eventually required some modification due to the way we record audio but they’re still the first band that actually planned how they would perform their session.

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This is the first performance we’ve recorded on the roof of City Museum. Though this isn’t the first time we’ve shot anything on the roof. We did shoot Doc Pop performing Yo-Yo tricks there when the roof space was still under construction back in 2007. The roof is mostly complete now and it’s a marvel to behold, with fountains and a slide (of course –after all, this is City Museum) and a giant praying mantis sculpture atop a dome.

Beth Bombara is fairly new to the St. Louis music scene (she’s been here just three years) but has had some success making a name for herself.

She performs two songs here, You Don’t Know and Can’t Win here with her husband Kit on violin. You can catch her playing out fairly often around town playing with her full band. She just raised enough money on Kickstarter to press a full length vinyl record due out in November.

Here’s a little behind the scenes video we live streamed at the time of shooting on Justin.tv:

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I think it’s time to bring back the Lo-Fi Sessions, don’t you? The Blind Eyes have been kicking around St. Louis in one form or another for about five or six years now.

Well … that’s not exactly true.

The Blind Eyes are a distinctly different project from these three guys previous band The Gentleman Callers which shared the same members but played a distinctly different kind of music. The Gentleman callers were more of a 1960′s style garage band. The Blind Eyes follow a later tradition of music, starting out with heavy influence of the late 1970′s English Mod revival bands like the Jam but has matured into a sound of their own.

We spent a little time scoping out the museum to find an ideal spot to record this and somehow ended up inside the skeletal remains of one of the Lear jets that sit atop the Mad Max like jungle gym entitled MonstroCity. I managed to stream some of this exploration live to Justin.tv and later moved it over to YouTube for posterity and editing. I’m including it here for your enjoyment (or not as the case may be).

The songs here are “Pages” and “into the Breach.” Both songs are from their regular set but are the first time they’ve been played acoustically, since, normally The Blind Eyes are all electric.

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Last Friday Evil Prints opened up it’s doors to the public to see what kind of debauchery goes on in their large space above Vandeventer Ave. Beer, chili and cookies were served. Print making was demonstrated and prints were sold. Also showing (and selling work) was photographer in residenceBob Reuter who’s dark room and photo archives reside in the space. The space it’s self is a sight to behold. Huck’s trademark red dominates (of course). This is our first visit to the new studio. When we first interviewed Huck it was in his Washington Ave studio nearly 5 years ago. My how time flies.

Also, thanks so much to Left Arm for their awesome music. You can buy their Electric Babies EP from iTunes here or download their album from TIRC records (name your price).

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We visited Coyote and his Sci-Fi Lounge back in 2007 in Lofistl Episode #139. We heard recently that he was moving the lounge to a new location; a dead suburban mall that is now being used as space for artists.

The mall is now known as Crestwood Court and artists can get space at low cost in the mall to peruse their endeavors. It seems a few independent galleries, theatre companies and dance studios have taken the mall up on their offer. See our photo gallery of the mall (t0 be posted here on Lo-Fi Saint Louis tomorrow) to see more views of this space.

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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.

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.

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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:

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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 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!

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!

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:

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)

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.

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:

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.

Fair Warning: This video is not safe for work!

I’ve been waiting for Bob Log III to make his return to St. Louis for years now. This mysterious one man band is always a crowd pleaser with his dirty raw blues and his great sense of humor. His identity is hidden behind the visor of a motorcycle helmet with a hole cut in it for a telephone microphone. This video features a couple of staples of his live act and it shows how much this performer enjoys audience participation.

Production note:
I’m dropping all the format feeds except for the high quality MP4 since none of the others got much traffic. Sorry Windows Media users!

Comments are open now! SORRY!

This band is practically a St. Louis institution, except they might have a problem with being called a St. Louis band, since their official headquarters is in DeSoto Missouri. They’ve probably had more success overseas than here, most recently touring Japan in 2006. I really dig their Ramones inspired sound, good fun raw punk rock and roll. I am posting 3 songs from this spring 2008 performance, partially because they’re short songs, but also because I dig em. Check em out on their own Bug Page or on MySpace.

Last February Tom Huck, printmaker extraordinaire, called me up and begged and pleaded with me to come cover this event of print makers from around the country who had converged on the Contemporary Art Museum to sell prints and socialize. I had already planned to shoot another event that very night but figured that I could squeeze in about an hour at this show before I hit the other event. I’m glad I did, because this was a party like no other. Complete with wild art and poetry and music–there were even half nude performance artists from Estonia. This was nothing short of a blast.

Thanks to The Black Diamond Heavies and their label Alive Records for letting me use their music for the soundtrack for this video. It’s from their record “Every Damn Time” and they have a new record out called “A Touch Of Someone Else’s Class” both are available in most record stores (if you can find one) and iTunes. Here’s a link to all that info.

Also check out the Circuit for more fun!

This is the second time around on Lo-Fi Saint Louis for the Boss Martians. The first time was back in 2005 at the now defunct Little Nicky’s Gearbox. That was when we captured an early performance of Hey Hey Yeah Yeah which is now famous as the soundtrack for an E-Trade commercial that ran during the Super Bowl.

Things are going well for the band now. They are getting ready to release a new record (Pressure in the S.O.D.O.) and are touring extensively through the summer and in to next year behind it. They even co-wrote and performed a song with Iggy Pop.

When was the last time you saw a marching band that just completely rocked? Until I saw Chicago’s own punk rock marching band, Mucca Pazza I hadn’t either. This 25 to 35 member marching band nearly blew the Bluebird down a couple of months ago. This was a really incredible night and an astounding performance, I hope this video has captured even a fraction of how good this show was. I also did an interview with some members of the band before the show, but due to audio issues I decided not to include much of it here. However if you really want to see it hop on over to the Circuit and I’ll post an extended interview there.

Also in this episode: a promo for my other video project Lo-Fi Sessions, and a trailer for an old movie Muscle Beach Party that I thought I would throw in, in honor of the start of summer. It’s pretty fun with cameo appearances by Little Stevie Wonder and Dick Dale. You can get it at Netflix here, or read about it on IMDB here.

This is a 4 piece band with 2 members–I could make a lot of punny jokes here, like, this is a band that likes to play with themselves blah blah etc. Basically they’ve done something unique and creative. They play 4 instruments between them by multiplying themselves with a video projection. They also use the video projection to show short films they’ve made between songs and perform visual gags durring their performances. On top of all this they are pretty damn good musicians and songwriters too, inspite of what they may say. They put on a really fun show. Enjoy! (Link to their MySpace Page Link to a recent article in the Riverfront Times about The Livers)

KDHX held this crazy fundraiser at the South Broadway Atletic Club back in December–they destroyed art! … And sold a lot of it too! It was a lot of fun. KDHX is a not for profit community media corporation. They operate KDHX Radio and KDHX TV, check them out at kdhx.org.

This is the second time around on LO-FI STL for this band that hails from Louisville KY/Chattanooga TN/Port Arthur TX. Even though they’re not from St. Louis they’ve managed to develop a good following here so sometimes they seem like hometown boys. I love them because they are raw, dirty and bluesy. Also in this episode another preview of my new project LO-FI SESSIONS, and a preview of the next episode of LO-FI SAINT LOUIS. Black Diamond Heavies are on Alive Records.