STACK SESSIONS: BAND OF SKULLS

UK rockers Band Of Skulls dropped by the station to play a couple of acoustic tunes on Monday. If you've heard their new album, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, then you're in for a surprise - their set was a far cry from its stompin' rock n' roll (ala early Yeah Yeah Yeahs or White Stripes). Grab the lushly arranged "Impossible" and "Fires" below, as well as my favorite, "Honest." As always, many thanks to the band for stopping by!









Fires
Impossible
Honest

Or just listen to the whole damn thing here (interview text coming soon)

ANNOUNCEMENT/ADDENDUM:

Lots of bands have/are being confirmed for more Stack Sessions - check the twitter/blog in the coming days for more info!

STACK SESSIONS: MATT AND KIM

Hellooooooooo Broooooooklyyyyynnn
Photo courtesy RFT and Egan O'Keefe

Sat down with Matt and Kim before last night's sold out show at Off Broadway (Stack Sessions alumni Gentleman Auction House opened) and chatted about their VMA nominated video, what it's like to be huge now, and life on the tour bus. For as much fun as it was (and believe me, it was a lot of fun), the duo also offered an interesting and well-spoken take on their fame and appearances in various commercials. Oh, also, it looks like Ben Allen will be producing their next album (he produced "Merriweather Post Pavilion" and Gnarls Barkley's last). Exciting!

Download the interview HERE.

And check out the RFT's coverage of the show HERE. If you missed it, you might have missed one of this year's best concerts.

Also, I think we're going to start publishing interviews in text form. Thoughts on this?

STACK SESSIONS: (partial) FALL LINE-UP

Summer is drawing to a close, and it's been a busy one around here... BUT NO REST FOR THE WICKED. Without further ado, the Fall (September, basically) line-up:

8/24 - Band Of Skulls
8/26 - Hermit Thrushes
9/1 - The New Familiars
9/5 - Casiotone For The Painfully Alone (guest DJ set)
9/6 - Capybara
9/15 - Dear And The Headlights
9/17 - Pomegranates
9/23 - Miniature Tigers
10/16 - Tom Russell

As always, there's more to come; October and November will be fleshed out as time goes on. And who knows, there might be some last minute, exciting announcements too. Exact times will be announced as the dates draw closer - check our twitter (www.twitter.com/KWUR) for more info.

OKAY LET'S DO THIS

STACK SESSIONS: CASPER AND THE COOKIES

Athens pop veterans Casper and the Cookies played a couple of tunes and chatted for a bit last week before their show at the Firebird. They sounded great in the studio and put on a hell of a show on stage - next time they roll into town I'd recommend catching them live. Anyway, we discussed their new album, Modern Silence, the convoluted story behind the 15-minute-long song on said album, and the value of Schnuck brand whiskey, among other things. Check the interview HERE, and snag a song from the performance, in crystal clear stereo, below.

You Love Me (live at KWUR)

(Oh yeah, if you are or know someone who is interested in being our in-house in-studio photographer, drop me a line at music one at kwur dot com. My shitty Canon PowerShot and even shittier photography skills aren't doing these performances any justice.)

STACK SESSIONS - THOSE DARLINS

PICTURE COURTESY NICK SCHNELLE

a couple weeks back me and Ms. Tara Audio Service headed over to Off Broadway for some lively chit chat with those super cool gals, Those Darlins. We talked about country music and female empowerment and getting mooned and also other important things. LISTEN HERE!!!
and If you have not checked out their album you really ought to
and also for all you folks listening at home, let it be known that I won the dance competition
this song is great:

STACK SESSIONS: JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD

Nashville's JEFF The Brotherhood dominated Open Lot last Tuesday, alongside St. Louis' very own Spelling Bee and Radical Sons. It was one of the best shows I've seen all summer, and I'm hoping they roll through town again soon (seriously, check out their myspace - I can't quite place their sound but I'm pretty sure my co-MD would dig it. Thoughts, Dan?) Anyway, I sat down with bros Jake and Jamin after their set for a very entertaining, fairly drunken conversation about the Nashville scene, running a record label, and things we love and hate.

Check the interview HERE. Also, check out their label, Infinity Cat, for a taste of the Nashville sound.

STACK SESSIONS: LANGHORNE SLIM

Aaaand we're back. Langhorne Slim played a sold-out show with Josh Ritter at Off Broadway this week, but before he took the stage he dropped by our humble station to lay down a few tracks. They're all cuts from his new album "Be Set Free" - out September 29th on Kemado - and they're acoustic. This, in itself, is pretty cool; Mr. Slim has filled out his sound with more instrumentation throughout the past few releases, and when you hear these songs on the album, they won't sound quite like this (as is, they sound great). So whether you're a fan of the newer stuff or the older stuff, you'll probably dig these. Thanks again to Langhorne and crew for hanging out!


CHECK IT OUT:

The whole thing
Back To The Wild (new!)
I Love You, But Goodbye (new!)
Land Of Dreams (new!)

STACK SESSIONS: BAD VEINS

Ben and Seb stopped by to play a few tunes and chat for a bit - check the interview for tidbits on their new album, what they've been up to in the mean time, and them stealing my ideas (you'll be hearing from my lawyers, guys). Anyway, it was a great, if short, session as well - they acousticized the single from their self-titled debut, "Gold And Warm," as well as what will probably be the next single, "Falling Tide." Both are of the utmost sound quality, and as always, you can download everything right here.

The whole thing
Bad Veins - Gold And Warm (live)
Bad Veins - Falling Tide (live)

STACK SESSIONS: GENTLEMAN AUCTION HOUSE

In case you missed it, last Sunday St. Louis' very own Gentleman Auction House performed a set on the air in the KWUR stacks. The band braved a torrential downpour, cramped into our tiny studio, and busted out five songs, including a brand new track! Full disclosure: the session was controlled chaos at best, but I had a hell of a lot of fun, GAH were amazing to work with, and the recording is one of our best yet.

The interview is here.





BONUS ::: Check out this incredibly amazing picture from the in-studio (taken by Stephen Tomko). Sorry for all of the megaupload links (I know it blows) - we'll be switching over to WordPress soon and they'll be gone forever! But seriously, snatch that photo, it rules.

STACK SESSIONS: THESE UNITED STATES

First up, schedule changes. Exercise was not able to make it into the studio today due to work scheduling conflicts, so we're in the process of figuring out when they'll be able to drop by next - hopefully soon. Our apologies if you tuned in! HOWEVER, my favorite Cincinnati band, Bad Veins, have agreed to stop by and play an acoustic set right after Dead Confederate on Wednesday. Both bands will be playing the Firebird that night, so you should listen and then go, as it will undoubtedly be an excellent show. Check out an earlier interview with Bad Veins here - if that's any indication, the in-studio should be a lot of fun.


~~~

KWUR Audio Service extraordinaire Tara and I trooped over to the Luminary Center for the Arts to catch DC/Louisville quintet These United States on Saturday. We hung out with the guys pre-show and had a nice conversation, which included talk of their new album (titled "Everything Touches Everything"), their thoughts on these United States (the country, not themselves) and pool parties with 13-year-olds (as featured in a music video from said forthcoming album). Also, Jesse became very upset and yelled at me when I did not know what "crazy bread" was. Sorry dude.

Here's the interview.

Also, here are a few MP3s:

I Want You To Keep Everything (via A-To-Z, and brand new)
West Won (via the TUS website, and from 2008's "Crimes")

STACK SESSIONS: KID SCIENTIST

The (relatively) new local act Kid Scientist dropped by the station to lay down some tracks for Stack Sessions, as well as to help us work out the finer details of in-studio recording (with a lot of help from sound engineer and all around good guy Dan Ruder). They played roughly a billion songs, but we don't want to give away everything, so here are three instead:

Kid Scientist - Micro Boy (live at KWUR)
Kid Scientist - Sea Orphan (live at KWUR)
Kid Scientist - Twenty Two (new!)

These are probably the finest live recordings we've cut yet, so enjoy 'em! And many, many thanks to Kid Scientist and Dan for hanging around all day (on Andrea's birthday, no less!) to help us out.

STACK SESSIONS: THIS WEEK

SO - just confirmed two more Stack Sessions - Dead Confederate (the lower picture) on Wednesday and Sonic Youth (the upper picture) on Friday. Those, on top of everything else going on this week, should keep us fairly busy. Here's the rundown in full, lest we forget:

Saturday: These United States (interview)
Sunday (2:30PM): Gentleman Auction House (in-studio)
Monday (6:30PM): Exercise (in-studio)
Wednesday (6PM): Dead Confederate (in-studio)
Friday: Sonic Youth (interview)

You can listen in online at www.kwur.com and on the radio at 90.3 FM.

OKAY COOL

STACK SESSIONS: CJ CHENIER INTERVIEW/INSTUDIO

Zydeco legend CJ Chenier stopped by to play a few songs and chat with Zak before his show at Pop's a few weeks ago. He brought along his ballin' accordion and a washboard player, and jammed out a few tunes on air. Check the whole interview here, and download/listen to the songs below.

Louisiana Two-Step (live)
You Don't Need To Cry (live)
Got My Eyes On You (live)

oh ps we're in the process of switching over to a new blog client, hopefully something that will take megaupload out of the equation and let us host audio in-house. stay tuned for details as they unfold!

STACK SESSIONS: BENYARO

Ben and Bobby of the NYC outfit Benyaro hung out at the station last Wednesday, played some tunes and shot the shit about their new album, making music in New York City, and why I wasn't wearing pants during the interview (I think I was, but Bobby might disagree). The interview was excellent, and they also played a few rad new songs, which you can grab below!

Interview

Bullet Like Belief (off their self-titled first release)
Cutting Words (new!)
Dog (new!)

Pictures (hopefully) coming soon.

Oh, and a quick shout-out/thanks to the RFT music blog, A To Z, for mentioning us. We appreciate it!

STACK SESSIONS: TELEKINESIS + ANNOUNCEMENTS

First up, new sessions to announce:

July 12 - Gentleman Auction House
July 13 - Exercise
July 28 - Langhorne Slim

Very excited to have all of the above in the studio to perform, although fitting all of Gentleman Auction House in the lounge is gonna be interesting. There are more sessions being confirmed as I write this, so keep yr eyes on the blog.

-----



I sat down with Michael Lerner, the creative force and drummer behind Telekinesis, for a chat about the process of making the new record and St. Louis summers, among other things. I believe you can hear the Smashing Pumpkins in the background throughout - Billy Corgan, please don't sue us.

Interview

STACK SESSIONS: SO MANY DYNAMOS INTERVIEW

(poster by John Vogel)

So Many Dynamos are playing a CD release show/party for their new album "The Loud Wars" at The Firebird tomorrow (more info here), and to getchaself ready, you can download and listen to an interview we did with them this past Wednesday. We spoke about the process of making the album, the St. Louis music scene, and what happens when Dave Matthews Band records are sent to the station.

Check it here!

STACK SESSIONS: CROCODILES

The Crocodiles show at The Firebird on Wednesday has had a lot of coverage in the last couple of days, mostly because it didn't happen. You can read more about it on the RFT's blog A To Z, which posted an initial report here and followed up with Crocodiles' response here. Listening to the interview post-show kind of reinforces my understanding that it was a shitty situation, and that neither party is to blame (The Firebird handled the situation phenomenally and it's certainly not going to stop me from seeing shows there).

The band says right off the bat that they love playing shows in St. Louis, and they came across as approachable and interesting guys, at least to me. Anyway, if nothing else, it adds another dimension to the scenario (the interview took place 2 hours before the show started).

Crocodiles interview

INTERVIEWS TODAY

THE WIYOS - ANY MINUTE NOW


SPLITLIP RAYFIELD - 2:00pm
only on KWUR 90.3 FM

STACK SESSIONS PREVIEW: SO MANY DYNAMOS

UPDATE: due to technical issues (dead keyboard), the in-studio has been post-poned BUT the band will still be in the studio at 4:30 for an interview. We'll be rescheduling the in-studio for some later date, don't worry man!


River Front Times darlins So Many Dynamos will be stopping by the station tomorrow at 4:30 PM to chat about their newly released album, The Loud Wars (full disclosure: it's totally fucking rad go buy it right now). They were originally slated to perform live for your aural pleasure BUT it looks like tragedy has struck in the form of a busted keyboard, so the performance is unconfirmed at the moment. It hasn't been ruled out entirely yet, but things aren't looking good - which is a real bummer for the guys, as they're about to kick off a tour and have a bunch of shows coming up in the next few days. You can follow updates on the situation (whether there'll be a live performance or not, basically) in REAL TIME on our Twitter (so lame). In any case, be sure to turn yr radio dial to 90.3 tomorrow!

WORD

STACK SESSIONS: LINEUP

Here's the line-up for Stack Sessions OH NINE, as promised:

June:
21 - Telekinesis!
24 - CJ Chenier // So Many Dynamos
25 - Benyaro
26 - The Features

July:
5 - The Paper Chase
11 - These United States
24 - Those Darlins

August:
3 - Casper & The Cookies

Okay so that seems a bit sparse, BUT, it's pretty fluid - new shows are announced all the time, and we're working on getting a lot of local acts in as well. Needless to say, this is just the beginning - stay tuned for more announcements in the coming days and weeks (it's like a big 3 month long music festival!). Also, keep your eye out for postings of interviews and instudios past.