The Helium Tapes, a powerful rock and roll trio with extensive gigging experience in the St. Louis area, go tight-rope walking with safety net and corded harness on their second and latest release, Ghost Wave, which features heavy, multifaceted rock music coloring in and out of dirgy lines.  The group, who recently downsized to a trio after the recording of the album, buzz and churn out pop-rock spins with a dare-devil vocal mistress cooing woebegones over canyons of her personal history. Read More »

Written by Andrew Frederick, filed under New Music and tagged Ghost Wave, The Helium Tapes.

Photo by Nathan Burrell. More on Flickr

Written by Nathan Burrell, filed under Live and tagged John Hardy and the Public, Off Broadway.

Photo by Ryan Dornfeld. More on Flickr

Written by Ryan Dornfeld, filed under Live and tagged 2720 Cherokee, Future Rock.

If I had to pick a mascot for indie in the oughties (note to self: pitch Indie in the Oughties to PBS as a new Ken Burns documentary), Joanna Newsom would be in the final 4. With a voice that can quickly separate the hip wheat from the lame chaff, a quirky instrument—which also happens to be the logo for a hip foreign beer—and name-dropping opportunities like Steve Albini (10 points!) and Jim O’Rourke (10 points!), the psych-folk (high score!) songstress has one hell of a stacked deck.

But forget all that. Listen to Joanna’s newest song, and make a note in your planner ten years from now (because I know you have a decade-at-a-glance). I’ll probably be saying the exact same thing about indie in the ’10s.

Listen to it at Drag City (the stream is in the top-right corner of the page).

Written by Matthew Ström, filed under New Music.

Friday, Feb. 5

So Many Dynamos, Capybara, and Sleepy Kitty

Where: Old Rock House
When: 8 PM

The sound of So Many Dynamos’ angular guitar riffs and nerdier-than-thou keyboards should be familiar to any self-respecting St. Louisan. Though calling them “local” might get a few rolls of the eye these days, it is impossible to not be proud of what the band has accomplished. Civic pride, people! Regardless, the Dynamos are giving their hometown a show before departing for a European run, and what a better place to send them off than the seemingly now-ubiquitous Old Rock House? Joining them from the other side of I-70 are Kansas City natives Capybara and Cherokee Street heroes Sleepy Kitty. Bring a bottle of champagne to break on the bow.
Read More »

Written by Matthew Ström, filed under Upcoming.

Photo by Ryan Dornfeld.

This Must Be the Band is aptly named.  Complete with a wannabe Tina Weymouth, they rocked through hours of Talking Heads covers ranging from the straightforward “Psycho Killer” to experimental musings from Remain in Light. And for a second, if you closed your eyes, you could see an image of a pontificating David Byrne in your mind’s eye.

Written by Jonathan Fritz, filed under Live and tagged 2720 Cherokee, This Must Be the Band.

Choosing to shed guitar atmospherics and rerecord select songs acoustically, Asobi Seksu is definitely mixing things up.  Be sure to catch them on their Rewolf acoustic tour at the Old Rock House this Thursday, February 4th.  Eleven had the chance to speak with vocalist and keyboardist Yuki Chikudate about recording in the world-famous Olympic Studios and what “shoegaze” really means. Read More »

Written by Jonathan Fritz, filed under Q+A and tagged Asobi Seksu, Rewolf, The Old Rock House.

Photo by Nathan Burrell. More on Flickr

As the second set of Keller Williams’ show at the Pageant began, it became clear that he was getting down to business. A one-man-show with  no opener, this was truly “An evening with Keller Williams,” as the ticket stubs had advertised. Just a few minutes into this second set, Keller began the looping for which he’s famous – and the crowd got down. Read More »

Written by John Stanley, filed under Live and tagged Keller Williams, The Pageant.

Absorbing all ocean metaphors between the 60s and the late 90s, surf rock has long been the medium of summer fun. But in the last decade of DIY spectacles splashing up an ocean-like internet arena, listeners fervently watched innumerable bands take the plunge into a larger online medium that mostly sounds like disorder. Of late it’s been either wipe-out, wash up deserted, get caught in riptides of messiah-like hype or judgmental dissent, or ride the wave long enough to finally earn high marks on their out-of-ten-scorecards and still see modest digital sustenance, see for example Animal Collective/Grizzly Bear/Vampire Weekend. Watching these bands be tested against mega waves of reception is like wondering which kid is going to go first in Lord of the Flies. But here’s Surfer Blood, a lightning rod through the cutthroat internet canonization of 00s indie. Astro Coast is a skillful and patient balancing act calmly recalling an anthology of pop, new-wave, and underground influences and then deftly rerouting it to listeners lost between Pandora and Pitchfork.

Surfer Blood – “Floating Vibes”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Read More »

Written by Kent Szlauderbach, filed under New Music and tagged Astro Coast, Canine Records, Surfer Blood.

Be sure to pick one up at your favorite establishment and let us know what you think!

Written by Jonathan Fritz, filed under Uncategorized and tagged Eleven Magazine, Issue 6.6.