R&R Music Labs

The cat is out of the bag…or at least one of his legs is.  We are proud to announce the next installment in the STL LOUD series, which will be released on November 11, 2011 as RFT Music announced today.  Please stay tuned for more info.

Another Loud Engagement:

Thanks to all who came out to the Gardens and Villa show last week at the Gramophone, if you missed it, try to catch them next time.  This Friday marks our second musical presentation in as many weeks and this one is also being co-presented by our friends at Do314.  Last week, the show was free with an RSVP on Do314, this week, you get free music.  So RSVP and you’ll get a download code for Luster’s EP.  Aside from that, I can tell you at least three other reasons to come to this show: Sets from Luster, Paper Dolls, and The Reeling Gilly.

For everyone who caught The Reeling Gilly last week with G&V, I don’t have to tell you how great their sets/songs are, but for everyone else, trust me, you’ll be seeing much more of these fellas in the near future.  Paper Dolls are STL favorites by now, playing with great energy and an interesting mix of styles and instrumentation and I don’t think you’ll get a chance to see them again until their exciting set as ELO at AUCW in September.  If that’s not enough for you though, come out to support a touring band from our neighbor to the North.  Luster is a band who works tirelessly to spread their music and entertain around the country.  They’ve been on tour for weeks at this point, so let’s show them a good time-  If you haven’t seen them, they don’t disappoint.

Catch you all Friday!

A Loud engagement:

Hey everyone, this Friday marks our first show since STL LOUD 2, and the Friday after will be our next one.  We are working with our friends at Do314 to bring in two exciting bands from out of town this month and Gardens and Villa is the first.  The best part is, this show is free if you RSVP on Do314.com, so you’ll want to do that. Included on the bill are two locals, The Reeling Gilly and Spectator, who you may not know of yet, but trust me on this- you want to! I have been catching members of both at the Shed open mic night the past couple months, and they are both very exciting new bands on our scene, so come on out and support them and party with us!

Thanks, in no small part to all of you involved in the St. Louis music scene, the STL LOUD project has seen success with two volumes and a third coming soon.  As I had hoped, STL LOUD is just one example of many things that are supporting music in our city.  In the past few years, St. Louis has come far with many things but not everything- music and art are certainly a couple bright spots, but we still have much work to do.  One of the larger goals of this project is to help establish St. Louis as a destination for artists from elsewhere, because through art we can make our city a more attractive place to live for everyone.

So here is the next step fo us- The Loud Label.  In addition to STL LOUD v3, we will be presenting several other shows in the coming months and beyond, as well as releasing our first few albums on the label.  Some of these events will be all-local, but increasingly, we will make an effort to bring in talent from other cities that can then return the favor down the line with our local talent.  Within another year’s time, we hope to have the capabilities and connections to organize larger tours for St. Louis bands, so they, as artists can focus more on their music.

This page will be the Loud Label’s link to the community for now- I’ll be updating it regularly with what’s coming up and if ever anyone has a suggestion, question, or comment, please feel free to contact us as more heads are always best.  In the meantime, lookout for our logo to be appearing on posters and albums soon- our goal with anything we put our name on will be nothing short of providing the best experience possible for artist and fan alike so everyone wins.

As always, keep going out and supporting your scene, there are many cool things coming up and always more music to be heard!

We had such a great time working on the first EP that we had to keep this project going! At long last, the wait is over…Volume 2 is complete and is being pressed as we speak so we’ll have copies for everyone at the release on the 25th at the Firebird. In the meantime, keep your ears and eyes posted for some updates throughout the local blog scene and we hope to see everyone on the 25th!

If you’d like a chance to hear the EP before the release, all you have to do is buy a ticket for the show this week and you’ll get a digital copy emailed to you a week in advance! Pretty simple, right?

To purchase tickets click here!

Well, we did it.  Thank you all who helped us make the first volume such a great experience…and sorry for the delay in posting this.  The release on the 14th was a great night! Special thanks to the bands, bloggers, and photographers who made this thing happen and thanks to everyone who donated in support of this project.  In case you haven’t heard the tracks yet, here they are!  You may listen, download, and if you’re feeling generous throw us a couple bucks for the next one.  Enjoy!

…and while you’re at it, check out the live recordings!

We’ve been getting things ready for the big show next Friday.  The CDs will be in that day, so be sure to grab a copy then.  I’ll be sending out digital copies to those who donated at that level tomorrow.  The local media have been sent copies and so far the response has been very positive.  I was interviewed on Gold Soundz Radio on KDHX this morning, and next Monday I’ll be on Mystery Train.  Keep your eyes open for reviews on local blogs and maybe in print some places starting next week.  Thank you all for your support of this project, we couldn’t have done it alone.  We’ll be announcing the next lineup soon after the show.  See you all next Friday!

Here we are, we’ve arrived together:  November 11th, 2010.  Nearly five months ago, I first wrote the words STL LOUD on this page.  I was hoping to inspire something (not sure what at the time) in the local music scene.  It worked.  Since then, the idea of doing something together for local music has taken the form of a definite project with a goal, and I’ve met many great people who want to help along the way.

We are now halfway through the recording of this first EP, and I must say, everyone is in for a treat! The artists involved have been nothing but great to work with and have picked some incredible tunes to record! Everyone is set and getting excited for the release in January, and the posters have been finalized too (see below)!

As of this Sunday, November 14th, we will be two months away from the release date.  This is very exciting, but also means deadlines will be coming up soon.  Recording is slated to be finished by the end of this month, leaving the month of December for post-production on the EP: mixing, mastering, layout…etc. These deadlines are not the reason I am asking for your help now- audio production is what we do, so I’m confident we’ll be fine doing that.

In order for this project to be as effective as possible and reach as many listeners as possible, there needs to be a physical product, in the form of a CD.  Unfortunately, we cannot manufacture CDs in our studio, so we’ll need help with this part and that means it won’t be free.  The good news is that, due to the nature of this project, disc manufacturing companies are cutting us deep discounts trying to help as much as they can.  This is where I need you.  If we, the St. Louis music-loving community, can come together and fund the pressing of the first two EPs (the second to be released in late Spring), I am confident that this project will roll on by itself from that point on. That is, after all, the goal- a new 6-song EP, featuring unreleased music from local musicians, every three months or so. If successful, this project will record, release, and promote-the-hell-out-of 24 local artists every year.  How’s that for a boost to the scene?

So I am asking for your help. If we make this happen now, I won’t need to ask for your (financial) help again and together we’ll get to enjoy our music scene with the deep satisfaction of knowing that we helped build it. Please help by funding the Kickstarter and tell your friends about it too.

I appreciate you listening, and keepin’ it LOUD!   Thank You.