CHEER-ACCIDENT will. I promise.

Chris Dee is a lovely lad. Besides manning the guitar for local post-punk performance artists The Conformists, he is a super-chill cat and now, he has offered up a gift to the grumpiest (or goofiest) promoter in town---that's me, Shitbag!
That's right, Mr. Dee came at me recently with an offer that had tears running down my legs the second I read it via the email-enhancement program I beckon towards for such good news. He wanted to know if I could book Cheer-Accident!
This was a bit of a last-minute thing, but the date had been set aside for a Tionol that I regret having worked in the past, so I needed to do some pleading with the folks at the World Headquarters of Schlafly Beer. We are a humble sort down at the Schlafly Tap Room and only bite when numerous folks have spit on, cursed at or poked us beyond a point that we cannot fathom. It was an easy deal that we made to O.K. the booking of the Eliot Room with such genius on the same night that others will be fiddling...that's another story.
Let's get to what you need to know: in short CHEER-ACCIDENT is legendary. They are lovely folks who love their hometown of Chicago. Were they to choose a home-base such as Berlin or Rome or London, who knows what would change.
Listen extensively here.
So much history behind the legend.
I'm waiting for new tires on the Honda. Getting ready to see them on Sunday with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum at the Bottom Lounge in Chicago. But first:
Friday, April 16th
9 to Midnight
at the Schlafly Tap Room
2100 Locust Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
314.241.0986

Four acts: no charge for admission
Amelie Morgan (solo piano
Spelling Bee
The afore-mentioned and hyperlinked act: The Conformists
and
Cheer-Accident

Like it or don't, people will be talking about this show for many years to come.
I'm not exactly bleeding words today, so I give to you a bit from their page on their present label, Cuneiform Records:
For over 20 years, Cheer-Accident have been a creative, interesting force in rock music. They constantly strive to surprise their audience and themselves with constant reinvention. Fear Draws Misfortune is their 16th release and arguably their best release and their album which strives the furthest towards a powerful balance between personalized and unique studio techniques and the excitement of a visceral, live, well-honed rock band. Which is saying something. It is a strongly compelling and high-reaching album that uses a wide variety of ideas, styles and studio techniques, resulting in a cohesive and ambitious album of art-rock. The basic band is a trio who between them perform on vocals, keyboards, trumpets guitars, bass and drums, but they are augmented by 15 additional musicians who, each in their own way, bring their own musical gifts to the album. Fear Draws Misfortune reveals a fortuitous intersection between Cuneiform and Cheer-Accident, both of whom have long admired the other and both of whom finally decided to do something about it! This long overdue marriage, which neatly coincides with a timely (and quite lengthy) cover-feature article in December 2008's Signal To Noise magazine, promises to hurl Cheer-Accident into wider recognition.

" I could easily fill a page talking about any given minute of this album, but suffice it to say that if you’ve ever loved Magma’s apocalypticisms, Neu!’s ghosts in the machine, or Beefheart’s Dada boogie—or at least dreamed of watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir fall down a very long flight of stairs—it might be for you." — Monica Kendrick/Chicago Reader

"...[Cheer-Accident] meld difficult, angular rock with absurdist lunacy in intentionally disturbing ways that are just brilliant." – Alternative Press

"There are few ensembles that can make noise sound both as mysterious and as strangely inviting as Cheer-Accident." – Delusions of Adequacy

SO COME ON WITH IT, ST. LOUIS!
I embed this video b/c it features the ever-present babbling crowd as part of the soundtrack. Please enjoy more by clicking on videos here.

Springtime!

It's mid-morning as
the neighbor lady plops down the steps
huffing and puffing towards the car
gasping for air
arms all akimbo.
Hootin', "Woooo, have mercy. Lawd, Dear God!"
Fannin' herself with the three fingers free
from her oversize bag.
Scuff shoes shufflin' across the pavement now
until one falls off.
Perched on one leg; draped in a muumuu;
she stops to slip it back on
the front of her swollen foot
that won't squeeze in over the heel.
No Cinderalla dreams today.
"Move it, Bitch!" screams the driver.
"We al'ready late!"
But she didn't lose her balance
as bird chirps and the smell of mowed grass
and gasoline
float in on a cool breeze.
The bartender rolls over
and turns up
the radio.
Somebody is angry that the relief
staff won't be enough
for the Fall
classic.
He gives it up.
Gets up.
Shuts the window
and realizes
that he stripped naked
before crashing in front
of the fan
last night.
Howdy, Neighbor!
He chuckles.
But no one is around.

Brett Lars Underwood, 2010

Lungs of the City: GO TO SLEEP EARLY AND SLIP IT IN THE MORNING

Lungs of the City: GO TO SLEEP EARLY AND SLIP IT IN THE MORNING

GO TO SLEEP EARLY AND SLIP IT IN THE MORNING

TAX DAY RELAX DAY
YOU'RE MOTHER'S GOT A TIT OR TWO
CATHOLIC GUILT THAT YOUR FATHER BUILT
AND YOUR AUNTIE'S A LEVIATHAN
A LIAR THEN
SHE CAN'T GET A CAT WET
YOU BETTER BET.
WHAT?


Thursday, April 15th 9 P.M. AT THE SCHLAFLY TAP ROOM:
The Skekses
www.myspace.com/theskeksesstl
Barely-Free Partial Prisoners
www.myspace.com/barelyfreepartialprisoners
Catholic Guilt
http://www.myspace.com/catholicguiltlives