ShamRock in The Grove is going down this Friday March 17th on St. Patrick's Day with six bands at two venues from 6:00 PM to 1:00 AM. This show is 21 and up. Tickets are $13.00 and are available HERE. Visit HERE for the official Facebook event page. These shows are hosted by Jamo Presents and The Giving Tree Band. The group is pictured below. Let's take a look/listen at the run down, shall we?
The third and fourth installments of the LoFiSTL podcasts have rolled in and if you happened to miss the previous one's you can visit HERE for podcasts 1 and 2 featuring submissions for #LoFiCherokee2017 and more!
This feature focuses on Americana/Country artists in the third podcast and on the fourth it is strictly Rock acts. Also included below is the first half of artists that will be performing at this year's festival. They finally got confirmation from some of the final picks for Lo-Fi Cherokee so more announcements coming soon. Please refer to the embedded tweet at the bottom of this article for the first half of the lineup reveal.
Featuring music from artists that have submitted their music for consideration for Lo-Fi Cherokee. An annual event where LoFiSTL shoot 18 live performance music videos in one day on Cherokee Street in St. Louis.
On this edition of the mixtape LoFiSTL take the submissions from three sub-genres of “rock” (garage rock, metal, and hard rock) and put them together in this podcast.
Featuring music from artists that have submitted their music for consideration for Lo-Fi Cherokee. An annual event where LoFiSTL shoot 18 live performance music videos in one day on Cherokee Street in St. Louis.
Daniel Baggett is DJ Pork Chop Thuggy Fresh from Saint Louis, Missouri. He is a producer and DJ from looking to get connected more with people from our area. He lived in Columbia for awhile before. He has released three beat tapes on SoundCloud. He plans to be releasing much more music this year, shooting for two projects a month. He also DJ's for a good friend of his, DaVon Sparkling. Some of his music is included below along with a music video that he has released.
Tonight at the Firebird brings the debut tour for Chicago/Los Angeles based duo Sunset (feat. Chris Broach of Braid)
This is also a record release for Sunset (members of Braid and The Firebird Band). Also feat. Sean Husick (x-Milemarker) on drums, and Harrison Clark (The Hallow) on bass. Sharing the stage are St. Louis acts Cave Of Swords plus Hope And Therapy. This is an all-ages show and is $8.00 for 21 and up, $10.00 for under 21. The doors open at 5 pm and the show starts at 6 pm. It will be over by around 10 pm. Tickets are available online and any other info. is in the official Facebook event HERE. On 3/3 Alternative Press debuted the new Sunset video HERE and is also posted below. You can also stream Sunset's debut of the song "Remember How It Ends" via Impose MagazineHERE. The debut album is also produced by Will Yip (Nothing, Circa Survive) and is officially being released on April 7th by Broken World Media.
"The album Sigils by Cave Of Swords feels like a succession of slow burns that keep a constant peak, with sinewy riffs riding atop a bright rhythm section. Sunyatta sings with depth, conveying clear melody while concealing a propensity for wilder rock leanings. The beats feel concrete, owing to a busy mixture of booming bass and soft snares. Each song shares distinct tweaks, helping the album to feel greater than the sum of its parts — a whole built with special care to each and every piece."
Broken World Media and Sunset, the newly-formed outfit featuring Chris Broach of Braid & The Firebird Band and Steve Znavor of The Firebird Band & Life At Sea, are proud to announce the band’s debut full-length album titled Turn Out The Lights (pre-order). Produced, recorded, and mixed by Will Yip (Nothing, Circa Survive, Pity Sex) at Studio 4 and set for release on Friday, April 7, Turn Out The Lights represents a new beginning for both Broach and Znavor – a fresh body of work that seamlessly blends electronic and organic instrumentation into a unique amalgam of music that's as apt to make you dance as it is to make you think.
The album’s lead single, “Remember How It Ends,” advances the album’s release and is a song that chronicles Broach’s continued internal struggle with sobriety and coming out the other side. “I still had a part of me that was telling me that maybe it was okay to go back to drinking,” he says. “It was like a switch that would flip once in a while, and I'd have to tell myself to always see through that lie that I was telling myself.”
Chris Broach is a lifelong musician in the truest sense. He started as a member of the influential indie act Braid as a teenager and for the past two decades he's released under the name The Firebird Band. In 2015 Broach and his longtime collaborator Steve Znavor launched a successful Kickstarter campaign, raising money for a new album for The Firebird Band – but Broach quickly realized that these songs demanded a new moniker. “The Firebird Band was just my thing for so long and Sunset is really what Steve and I created together,” Broach explains. “It's a true collaboration in that sense.”
The duo wrote the songs that would become Turn Out The Lights at each other's respective residences in Chicago and Los Angeles, but a true turning point occurred when producer Will Yip (Circa Survive, Pity Sex) stayed at Broach's house while he was producing Braid's No Coast. From the club-worthy, synth-driven groove of “Get Over Yourself” to the stripped-down perfection of “'76 – '78” and angular post-rock feel of “Running From The Girl,” Turn Out The Lights is an album that's difficult to categorize because it doesn't have an allegiance to any one genre – and its strengths lie in the liberating nature of that freedom. “Steve and I both approached this recording in terms of what's best for the song,” Broach explains. “We both have a similar aesthetic but we're coming from different places musically and I think that allows us to combine all of those ideas into something cohesive.”
However just because Turn Out The Lights is infectious that doesn't mean that it isn't intellectual and the duo tackle topics ranging from deeply personal to passionately political within the course of the album. “I felt like I was a little more free with what I wanted to sing about on this album,” Broach explains. And songs like “National Monument” are evidence of that. “That song is about and what was happening in the United States pre-election and I felt like it was important to write about it because it was so upsetting to me.” Alternately, “Don't Forget” was partially inspired by his two young children and the emotional bond that Broach shares with them. “A lot of these songs are just me experimenting with finding a different voice that I haven't expressed in the past.” Yip was integral to helping to finding that voice as the vocals were written and recorded with him over a twelve-day period.
Broach may be a professional musician with over two decades of experience but you wouldn't guess that judging by the childlike excitement that’s palpable when speaks about Sunset. “What I love about this band is that Steve and I are able to do whatever we want without trying to hold ourselves to someone else’s idea of what we ought to be doing. For example, I don't think we're going to have bongos on a Braid song anytime soon but there are on this album,” Broach admits with a laugh. “There's no limit to what we can do with this band and that makes it an important piece of my life,” he summarizes. “As an artist you don't often get a chance to express yourself in this way -- especially at this stage of your career, so I'm just so happy that this project finally came together the way it did.”
Pre-Order Sunset's debut HERE and follow them online at Facebook and Twitter.
Hope & Therapy is a driving force of spacey, rhythmically and dynamically intelligent indie rock. The band is lead by a fiery front woman belting her soul and pounding the keys. Ethereal soundscapes, synth-y bass guitar, and angular drumming from the school of math rock.
This Thursday evening at the Heavy Anchor is a real treat for those that attend. Super eclectic female-fronted synth-pop band, GGOOLLDD (Milwaukee, WI.) is in town and sharing the stage with them is none other than the one woman musical enigma known as Syna So Pro (STL). This is a 21 and up show and will start at 9PM and will be done by 12AM. For more info. visit the Facebook event HERE.
$7 for venue side, free to get in the bar side.
GGOOLLDD has shared the stage with the likes of: Blondie, Passion Pit, The Kooks, Yelle, Death From Above 1979, Yacht, Sylvan Esso, Alvvays, Har Mar Superstar, and The Polyphonic Spree, among others. Additionally, they released their latest single “Undercovers,” which was co-produced and mixed by Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley, Walk The Moon). Domino Records has added the track on Spotify’s “Best of Indie” playlist and it was also featured in an episode of E!’s ”So Cosmo”.Watch the music video for the track above. Additionally, they’ll be playing at this year’s SXSW festival.
Visit GGOOLLDD on their website HERE and on the socials at Facebook or Twitter.
Syrhea Conaway is Syna So Pro. She is a multi-instrumentalist and music instructor who lives and works in St. Louis. Writing, arranging, and performing music since age 10, Conaway has earned several medals in District, and State competitions as well as performing in Carnegie Hall with the National Youth Chorus at the age of 18. She has since performed for TEDx Gateway Arch, given musical speeches for the Arts and Education Council, been a panelist on “Women in Music”, moderated a conversation as a part of USDAC and the Regional Arts Commission’s CultureSHIFT 2016, and opened for many national artist such as, Asobi Seksu, Future Islands, and Paul Rucker (cellist/artist). Conaway has also collaborated with world renown ensemble Alarm Will Sound for a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall in 2015 as well as a plethora of local artists in addition to performing at multiple festivals over the years in the area. Below is a video shot at a Lo-Fi Cherokee's festival and is this week's #VIDEOOFTHEWEEK.
Slothrust (Boston, MA) are currently touring in support of their long awaited third album "Everyone Else" and they are stopping by our region with two select dates. And The Kids (Northampton MA ~ Ottawa, ON ~ New York, NY) are touring along with them on some dates and will accompany them at both events happening around our area. The first is part of the ALT 104.9 Discovery Series on Saturday, March 11th at the Blueberry Hill's Duck Room in the Delmar City Loop. That show is all ages and the general admission is $12.00 at the door. Minors incur a $2 surcharge at the door. The doors open at 7PM and the show is at 8PM. Tickets are also available in advance and the rest of the info. is included in the event page on Facebook HERE and is a Pagan Productions event. The second show is the following day on Sunday, March 12th in Kansas City, MO. at The Tank Room. The cost is also $12.00 for that show and is all ages. The doors are at 7PM and the rest of the info. is included on the event page on Facebook HERE.
Slothrust deliver ten riveting anthems that reward repeated listens. The songs grab the ear and pierce the psyche with complex arrangements and lyrical depth intensified by guitarist/vocalist Leah Wellbaum’s penetrating vocal delivery.
Slothrust is Wellbaum, Kyle Bann (bass), and Will Gorin (drums). The trio first staked out their unique strain of jazz- and blues-afflicted rock as students at Sarah Lawrence College. The band’s 2012 debut Feels Your Pain, and its successor 2014’s Of Course You Do, established the band as a breed apart, serving up deceptively clever epics that veer satisfyingly between incandescent riffing and pop hooks, winsome anxiety and powerful heft.
“People have always had trouble comparing us to other bands, but someone recently described us as Nirvana meets Wynton Marsalis, and I loved that,” says Wellbaum. Even the band’s name inspires a beat of thoughtful consideration as the eyes take in the letters and the brain makes its snap judgement: Slo Thrust? Slot Rust? Slo Trust? Sloth-Rust.
We all studied jazz and blues, so I often use chords and voicings that aren’t quite as conventional for contemporary rock,” she continues. “Certain harmonic movement can get stale, so I try to incorporate colorful notes to give it more depth. The improvisational spirit of blues music is also something we try to always keep with us, even in more composed playing. I am drawn to musicians a bit further outside of the rock tradition, such as John Fahey, Elizabeth Cotten, D'Angelo, and Portishead. Growing up I listened to a lot of R&B and classical music. And musicals."
They've received a lot of press relating to their recently released LP 'Everyone Else'. NPR said, “Listen to songs by Slothrust, and you'll hear aggressive sounds that hearken back to early-'90s rock bands like Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr. Listen more closely, and you'll also hear elements of the blues that the band’s members learned when they met in their college's jazz program."
Village Voice also praised their aesthetic saying, "Tender finger-picking passages lurch into crashing speed-metal crescendos, loping country-western equestrian odes edge into menacing horror-movie pizzicato and back again."
Visit Slothrust on the website HERE and on their socials: Facebook or Twitter.
Growing up, often the safest haven to plot your dreams and get a handle on your identity is within the confines of trusted friendships. For the musicians in the critically acclaimed band And The Kids, these bonds have been a life raft. But as friendships evolve from adolescence to young adulthood, sometimes the lines between friends, lovers and all that comes in between can grow murky. On the Northampton, MA-based band’s latest, "Friends Share Lovers" the group And The Kids examines blurred boundaries in close-knit relationships.
“The friends we grew up with were troublemakers, lost souls, dropouts, and mother figures,” says And The Kids guitarist and vocalist Hannah Mohan. “The title references the incestuousness of friend groups and how things get messy.”
And The Kids channel existential crises into pop euphoria. With this sleight of hand, the quartet manages to conjure chunky indie rock, blissful new wave, chamber folk, jarring avant-garde, and brawny classic rock.
Mohan navigates this expansive creativity with aplomb. Effortlessly she swoops heavenly for high tones, digs deep for swaggering rock n’ roll low tones, and manages to mash up sweet sass with new wave bliss for a vocal feel that masks sage wisdom beneath sweet innocence. In addition to Mohan, And The Kids is Rebecca Lasaponaro on drums, Megan Miller on synthesizers and percussion, and bassist Taliana Katz. The quartet’s beginnings couldn’t be better scripted: Mohan and Lasaponaro met in band class in seventh grade. A few years later, the duo dropped out of school and found themselves at a learning center that provided them with a free rehearsal space. There they practiced everyday, inspired by such diverse artists as Modest Mouse, Rilo Kiley, The Doors, and The Police, among others. Those formative moments in friendship and music have been everlasting.
In 2012, the fledging duo met Meghan when the three were interns at the Institute for the Musical Arts in Goshen, MA, and soon after welcomed her into the band. Recently, Miller has battled visa problems as a Canadian citizen and has been forced out of the United States for five years. To show the strength of their bonds as friends and artists, And The Kids chose to record Friends Share Lovers in Montreal so that Miller could participate. Recently, the trio added bassist Taliana Katz, a close and trusted friend who also attended IMA, to maintain a full sound live in Miller’s forced absence from American touring.
It's going down Sunday, March 12th at The Firebird. Mancuso Concerts presents social change advocates Otep (Los Angeles, CA.) with guests The Convalescence (Toledo, Ohio) along with Saint Louis original acts Saence, Human Pollution and Carolanne. This is an all-ages show. Tickets are available from all of the STL bands, in addition to getting them online in advance for $15. Otherwise, it will cost $20 day of the show. The doors open at 5:30 pm and the show starts at 6:00 pm. It will be over by 11 pm. Visit HERE for the official event page on Facebook for more info. Now let's take a look at the artists involved and their music below. Also included is an album review of the latest by Saence entitled "Relics".
Visit The Convalescence online at their merch store HERE or their label HERE, follow them on the socials at Facebook or Twitter.
Saence:
"Relics" by Saence review:
Saence released "Relics" this past October of 2016 at a Halloween showcase/CD Release show at The Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, IL. after debuting some of their new stuff on 105.7 fm The Point's local show. Dean, Tim, Rya, Jackie all produced this six-song album on location with Shock City Studios. This latest effort by the band flows eloquently and Dean explained that they are really proud of the hard work put in on this album and that they think it is their best, so far. From the lyrics, to the songwriting and the overall sound of "Relics". It shows and it is noticed when you listen to it. But first, one must think to themselves of one key word. That is Saence. Close your eyes, imagine candles burning, the mystic smoke in the back round, cloaked figures in the darkness, symbolism and imagery, etc. You get the picture now. Track one "Pretty Sorry" has a fluent intro that embraces the listener, once engaged in the sound it provides a punchy-hook that leads into a song structure that shows the band's continued growth and sophistication on all fronts. The song seems to be about a failed relationship of some sort that had to be ended from the perspective of one that did everything they could to help. Surely, it is a stand out track. The second song "Red Flag" seems self-explanatory enough. It has some cool guitar work in it too and also some interesting triplets thrown in on the rhythm section during the chorus. "Chinese Up" is another stand out song. One might guess upon listening to it that it was named this appropriately by the oriental sounding guitar work and the up beat groove to it. "Lust(Er)" is another good one. One might sense some slight sexual undertones to this song. Musically, it has interesting ideas and the vocals shine on this one. Finally, "Into Forever" is track six. It is the longest of them and this one really stood out upon multiple listens of this disk. From it's subtle beginning to the crescendo progression at the end that one-eighties into the intro vibe upon first listen it is truly amazing to hear. Dynamic and powerful and well thought out. "Relics" is not going to be a relic anytime soon in many a listener's album collection.
Carolanne recently added a new vocalist, Michael Meyer. He is also the vocalist of Thieves To Kings. In addition, they also added a new bassist named Scott Rehme.
