LOUD Technologies, the company that purchased St. Louis Music in 2005, has closed this long-time (since 1922) locally based company, a designer and distributor of Ampeg, Crate, Dan Armstrong, and other top brands of musicians gear. In May 2007, Loud closed the Ampeg and Crate engineering department in St. Louis, preferring to have new models designed by their own engineers, as well as an Asian engineering group. This followed Loud ceasing manufacturing of Ampeg and Crate at the Yellville, AR, manufacturing facility, outsourcing the manufacturing to contract manufacturers in Asia, and firing the entire sales staff. As if all of this wasn’t bad enough, Loud has also decided to put the final nail in the SLM coffin by eliminating the distribution facility.

Hence, some of the former employees of St. Louis Music are throwing a funeral/party on Saturday December 13 at the Kat Club, 1440 North Broadway, next to Shady Jack’s. Doors open at 7:00 p.m., the cover is $5 and is restricted to 21 & up. The event will feature bands whose employees are part of the SLM family, featuring The Trip Daddys, Giants in the Sky and TBA. Steve Dachroeden is leading the eulogy as well as putting together some pretty cool shit to give away, rumored to be Ampeg and Dan Armstrong shtuff and maybe some of the platinum records that have been given to the company by sponsored artists. There will be two tattoo artists and a mobile soul food unit and I believe PBR is donating beer. Hopefully I’ll have more details to come.

ANYONE can come to this; this event is for past and (until recently) present employees of St. Louis Music/Loud Technologies, as well as SLME. It is ALSO for anyone who has worked with SLM, used or admired Crate, Ampeg, Dan Armstrong, etc., as well as ANYONE who is sad to see a St. Louis company that started eighty-six years ago die.