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.

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.

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.

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.

This is the first episode of LO-FI SAINT LOUIS for the new Spring ’08 season.

This episode features Monte Beauchamp, artist and curator of Blab Magazine and other publications. He was in St. Louis last fall for the launch of the latest issue of that wonderful annual publication of Blab. If you don’t know Blab, you should. It’s a collection of artists published lovingly in a magazine only once a year and each issue is kicked off with a gallery opening of work from the book. This past issue was launched at the Philip Slein Gallery right here in our own little city of St. Louis. Beauchamp has published several other books as well. You can get them all from Fantagraphic Books.

Also in this episode, you will get a sneak peek at some other things that I’ve been up to as well as a preview of the next episode of LO-FI SAINT LOUIS.

This is a new design for the site and there are still some bugs and kinks to be worked out. I’m working on it so be patient, please! Thanks!