Entries Tagged 'Articles' ↓

I just realized that this October will mark the tenth anniversary of the last Midwest Regional Music Festival (a.k.a. “MRMF,” or “Mr. Motherfucker” fest, as it some of us liked to call it). That’s the one that featured some 200 bands from all over the country playing in venues all over town that (supposedly) rivaled SXSW at the time. Its primary organizer/promoter was the Riverfront Times, back in the days when it was an independent local weekly entertainment rag with a much larger focus on local music than it has today. When the New Times bought the paper in 1999, giving Mr. Motherfucker the old heave-ho was one of its first major accomplishments (you might remember that was also when they moved the publication’s great local music section to the back… the old show listings used to be right in the centerfold and it was once a lot easier to just flip the paper open to it). Dead and buried, after only six years. So ever since then, St. Louis has been without a big, local, annual music festival that had the potential to attract bands and music lovers of every stripe from all over the country (and beyond). True, we still have some good local music festivals here every year (I even foolishly attempted to promote my own last fall, as you may recall), but none of them match MRMF in overall scope, size, magnitude, and potential as far as really putting St. Louis on the map as both a regional and national music mecca, and that’s sad, I think. If those of us that are part of the St. Louis music scene want to help put ourselves back on the national map, we should make a concerted effort to bring this festival back from the grave, or create a new one that’s similar. That would obviously need to be done without the (free) promotional and organizational assistance of the Riverfront Times (unless they, of course, could somehow convince the New Times to let them do it again). But now, ten years later, with the advent of blogging, podcasting and plenty of other new local music publications (not to mention a great new local record store in Apop), it seems to me there could be enough of the right kind of people here to make this happen again… that is, if we WANT to make it happen badly enough. What do YOU think?

I wasn’t able to make it out to the Nevermores/Thee Fine Lines show at the Underground at the Red Sea last Friday night, but I did ask John of the Nevermores about the show and he was nice enough to write a little review, which is posted here. I’ve read of other not-so-nice reports of how bands are treated at the Underground before (this topic came up once before on the GaragePunk Forums message board), but this really takes the cake. To actually tell a band they’re “headlining” and then to flat-out STIFF them, after forcing them to follow another band that wasn’t originally scheduled to even play (and not only plays way too long, but is so BAD that they run everyone out of the club)? Come on! How or why do places like the Underground think this is somehow cool or acceptable? What makes this bozo think ANY band will want to play this shithole once word spreads that they’re stiffing bands (not to mention fucking with lineups)? I’m sorry but this sort of thing is just unacceptable, and you may not read it anywhere else in St. Louis, but FUCK the Underground. Don’t play the damned place. I don’t care HOW desperate you are for shows, that sorta shit doesn’t help anyone, especially yourselves if you’re trying to actually make a few bucks to cover gas money (in the very least). There are plenty of decent venues in St. Louis that you can play these days… Lemmons, the Way Out, the Bluebird, Off Broadway, 2 Cents Plain (admittedly still wet behind the ears but learning), and more. But if you care about integrity don’t play the Underground. Thank you.

I don’t think I even knew who Pete Parisi was until my wife and I moved back to St. Louis in early 1994 after spending a few years in Lawrence, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. Since we found an apartment on the south side of the City, and got a cable TV subscription, we soon stumbled upon World Wide Magazine and quickly became hooked. This odd but extremely wonderful program helped inspire a new perspective on our old hometown, and we have Pete Parisi to thank for that. So I was a bit surprised to see that there is still no entry for Pete over on the St. Louis Wiki. What kinda crap is that? Someone needs to add him there, pronto! Then maybe once that’s done he can get his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame! YEAH!! Go, Diabetoboy, go!!

TIRC - We just want you to sign the petition.Well, hey… we can dream, can’t we?