Rant & Roll by Cory Blackwood

Everyone is always mouthing off about how people need to support their local scene, how no one supports local music, and that is what we should do as citizens of the same city as these budding musicians. I agree with this -- to a point.

St. Louis has a great music scene, has some great bands that are very much worth supporting, and I do my best to show my support. Rolling Stone magazine recently mentioned St. Louis as having one of the top five music scenes in the nation, and we even have a Hard Rock Cafe now! (woo-hoo)

Many of the local bands play the same bars on a regular basis, showing fans a good time week after week at their local dives. Bands like Jive Turkey are fun and entertaining, and Chuck Berry (a rock legend who needs no support) puts on a great show every month in the Duck Room of Blueberry Hill. Vargas Swing plays regular club shows around St. Louis, as do bands like Reggae At Will.

Other local bands don't play regular gigs, but sometimes headline the Galaxy, or open for national bands when they get the chance. Fuse 12, Locash, Big Blue Monkey and Not Waving But Drowning all open for metal and hard-rock bands whenever they get the chance, in between recording sessions for their own albums they are working on.

Supporting bands like these is easy enough, they are good, and nearly anyone would want our city to be represented by these bands. What about the bands that are no good, or that you hate? (Caution: my mean streak will be very apparent in the next few paragraphs) What about a band like Gravity Kills, that already made it huge not only in St. Louis, but nationally? Sorry, but I have to admit that I am ashamed at their achievement. The entire success of Gravity Kills is due to their amazing ability to rip off industrial bands across the board. What's worse is that lead singer Jeff Scheel in an interview a few years back accused Nine Inch Nails and Machines of Loving Grace for making industrial music too mainstream for "underground" bands like Gravity Kills. Poor guy, he's so misunderstood that he doesn't even realize that his band wouldn't exist without those two bands.

I don't have any animosity towards local bands that have made it, I'm all for The Urge and happy for their fame. Personally, I would rather not see some of our bands make it big. Mesh for example, I almost wish would flounder. I know, The Point loves 'em, so they must be great! This way of thinking must end immediately if we want to see our scene grow. The Point is owned by a larger conglomerate, and it is not financially sound for them to worry about small local bands, unless they have that one magical song that will make a million bucks. Mesh has one song that The Point thinks can make a million bucks, and oddly enough, that song plays like a bad Matchbox 20 rip-off.

I didn't mean to single out any bands, but think of how Detroit must feel, with everyone looking to them as the city that produced Insane Clown Posse. Do we want to become the city that produced Mesh? I hope not. Support local music, unless you feel that it is not worth supporting. Blind following of anything that comes from this town will not accomplish anything.