Trouble in River City

Los Angeles, CA - February 28, 2008 - Nebraska s BRIMSTONE HOWL is heading back on the road in support of their debut Alive Records release Guts of Steel - co-produced and engineered by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. The band will wrap their U.S. tour after performing several SXSW showcases then begin a month long European tour. Alive Records is currently offering an exclusive MP3 Cyclone Boy, available for download on their website (see link below). With a furious mix of 60s-influenced garage and old-school punk, Brimstone Howl s Alive Records debut has been described as cranked lo-fi blues rock by Uncut magazine, razor sharp snake rock by NME and lo-fi, loose punk wallowing in the blues by Kerrang. Delivering in-your-face live performances, they describe themselves as Guitar sluts and hook thieves with hearts of chrome, but with pretty good lyrics, and their music as burnt blues, steady tom beats, and looooooowwwwwd fuzz. Brimstone Howl is rounded out by John Ziegler (guitar/vocals), Nick Waggoner (guitar), Austin Ulmer (bass) and Calvin Retzlaff (drums). If retro-styled garage rock gave you an icky feeling in 2007, take two listens to Guts of Steel and burn your red-and-white clothes in the morning. Production by Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach give Brimstone Howl some requisite vintage-sounding reverb, but there s nothing reverent about these Nebraskans unholy hot-wiring of the Sonics, the Damned and the Blues Explosion. - MAGNET Magazine Brimstone Howl - Cyclone Boy MP3 In St. Louis: Tuesday, March 11 at the Billiken Club. The perfect local band to open for the Bimstone Howl would be Kentucky Knife Fight. Or Left Arm. Or the Vultures, Blind Eyes, Nevermores, or any of our great local crop of rock n'roll acts. Unfortunately, that s not the case. Instead, you get some acoustic alt-country band called Theodore as well as a jam band from New England called Deer Tick (are they headlining???). Excuse me while I go bang my head on the fucking wall yet again. Oh well, at least this show is free (that s right FREE!).

I decided to dedicate the newest episode of my Savage Kick podcast to the 2-day all-Missouri garage/rock n'roll fest that I m putting on here in St. Louis next month. I wasn t sure if anyone has ever thought to promote a festival with a podcast before, but I thought it couldn t hurt Click here to listen, and click here for the RSS feed. Playlist: The Cripplers - Feel I m Gonna Explode! The Cripplers - Boone County Pink Socks - Everybody Wants To Pink Socks - Sit Down Rich Boys - L.I.V.I.N. Rich Boys - Toxic Wind Modern Primitives - I May Be Your French Bread, But Not the Croissant Modern Primitives - What s Left to Say, But I Don t Left Arm - As Seen on TV Left Arm - Human Bomb The Geargrinders - Weather The Geargrinders - She Shakes Too Much Thee Fine Lines - I Wanna Feel Fine Thee Fine Lines - Corrine The Vultures - Obsolete The Vickroids - Friday Night The 75s - Finders Keepers The Mad Titans - Overture in E Minor The Von Hodads - Diamond Head The Von Hodads - Shindig Monte Carlos - Domino Monte Carlos - Vampire The Nevermores - Everyday The Nevermores - I Lost Lenore Thanks for listening. See you at the Blowout! kopper

Ded Bugs - Your Daddy Was a Nazi Clone, recorded live at City Diner at the South Side Rocks Off 3 fest.

Got a new camera last week, so I took it to the show Friday night at Lemmons and shot some video. Here s a good one by The Vickroids. You should be aware that this was the first time Dennis Williams (Ded Bugs/Trip Daddys) had played with Mark Vickroid. They hadn t even practiced before this show. Not bad!

Here s a repost from the archives of Lo-Fi Saint Louis. The Cripplers will be playing the soon-to-be-announced Show-Me Blowout festival at Off Broadway in October. More info to come In the meantime, here s a funny homemade video they made several years ago. Enjoy!

Call me crazy, call me stupid, but I had no friggin idea that Zander Schloss s brother was one of the owners of the Atomic Cowboy. I had a vague recollection buried in the deep, dark recesses of my brain that Zander was originally from St. Louis, before high-tailing it to the City of the Angels back in the early 1980s where he would dabble here and there in acting and later join one of the best punk rock bands of all-time (the Circle Jerks, duh). My favorite among his movie roles? Karl, the wiener kid in Alex Cox s 1987 film, Straight to Hell. He was also in such cult hits at Repo Man and Tapeheads. He hasn t done any acting (that I know of, anyway), since 2001 s That Darn Punk, a film whose soundtrack includes a few too many Epitaph bands for my liking, but it s fun nonetheless. But then again, Zander keeps himself fairly occupied these days playing bass with Duane Peters in Die Hunns (as well as the occasional Weirdos reunion) so who knows what the future holds for the wiener boy. Anyway, so someone—I ve no idea who—set up a Zander Schloss fan page on Myspace recently, which I discovered about the same way I discover most Myspace pages—via a friend request, naturally. So Zander was fresh in my mind the day I watched Bill Streeter s Lo-Fi Saint Louis vlog post about the Cowboy Cabaret at Atomic Cowboy. Lo and behold, right smack dab in the middle of it, this guy flashes on the screen and he s actin a little crazy, wavin his arms around and stuff, and I look at his mug and immediately get that astonished wait! I know that dude! look that you often get when you recognize someone but can t quite place their face right away. He looked sooo familiar Glasses, curly blond hair, kind of a nerdy-lookin guy. Then the guy s name pops up on the screen: CHIP SCHLOSS. Lightbulb goes off over my head. Chip Schloss! uh Schloss? Zander! No Chip? Who the hell s Chip? That must be his brother! Bingo, come to find out (thanks Richard Beckman) it is. But damn, he looks just like his brother. See what I mean? That s Zander on the bottom, by the way. I dunno, I just thought that was kinda cool. I d no idea Zander had a brother involved in the music scene in St. Louis. Learn something new every day! Zander Schloss - Salsa Y Ketchup (MP3)