Battle of the Bands applications will be available in nearly three weeks.
Emily Hertlein
– Staff Writer –
The spring semester has officially kicked off and without hesitation teachers are piling on the readings, papers and projects. Overwhelmed yet?
Though the homework may not get any easier and sleep may become unobtainable, one thing is certain: entertainment is on the horizon.
Battle of the Bands applications will be available in nearly three weeks. Starting March 1, anyone interested in participating in the Battle of the Bands can pick up an application in the Campus Life office located on the 2nd floor of the Student Center. According to Justin Allen, president of the Activity Council, applications are due on April 1, and 10 bands will be chosen to participate on April 30th in STLCC-Meramec’s gym.
“First place will receive $700, 2nd place, $500 and 3rd place, $300,” said Allen.
There are many opportunities and outlets for students at Meramec, and for some, music has become their outlet. Some bands to look out for at Meramec are Surtsey, Skyscraper, Soundscape, The Mussy Cluves, Granite Cloud, and Man Eating Tiger. Whether these bands will make it to the Battle of the Bands is uncertain, but their love for music and entertaining is inevitable.
Skyscraper
Skyscraper, a melodic hardcore band with a strong work ethic and a love for vintage vinyl, combines a New Age genre with a classic touch. Skyscraper consists of Drew Maxey, 22, as lead vocalist; Keith Canady, 19, the bass player; Sean Myers, 22, on lead guitar; and James Carroll, 20, plays the drums. When Skyscraper chooses to play in town, they play at Fubar, a local venue in the city. The band joined forces in mid-August 2009 after two bands decided to split.
“We don’t really play in town that often. We try not to. We try to branch out and play other cities more,” said Carroll.
“When we started this band, our goal was to be as far away from St. Louis as humanly possible,” said Carroll.
Skyscraper’s demo can not only be obtained on a CD, but is in the process of being pressed onto cassettes. They are currently writing and recording an LP that will be released as 7 inch records and have written a compilation song which will be featured on a12 inch record. The band works with 11th and Bleeker records to produce their vinyl and Listen Up Tapes to produce classic cassettes. To get a taste of Skyscraper’s sound check out http://www.myspace.com/skyscraperhc or http://www.twitter.com/skyscraperhc .
Surtsey
Joseph Bassa, 20, lead singer and acoustic guitarist of Surtsey and a Meramec student says Surtsey can be found at any bar in Cape Girardeau, coffee shops and at Off Broadway in St. Louis. Their music consists of a folk rock “Americana” sound.
“I guess you could compare it to the Rolling Stones verses The Beatles; taking the complete opposite of what’s in right now and seeing if it will catch fire. We’ve had good luck with it,” said Bassa.
Surtsey is a 3-piece band playing only acoustic music. Anyone interested in hearing their music can visit http://www.myspace.com/surtsey, featuring their first album “Broken Beds.” They are currently recording a new album; “It’s gonna be a lot more down-tempo, slower, gushing with reverb,” said Bassa.
Aaron Essner, 20, plays drums as well as the keyboard and xylophone while Drew Koepell, 20, harmonizes and plays the bass. Surtsey is adamant about having constant harmony.
“Our songs can be commercial, friendly; they’re catchy enough to where people could get into it, but it’s a stripped-down basis. There’s no auto tune; there’s no pre-production. Anything done on the computer, you probably couldn’t do with us.”
The band plans to begin another tour at the beginning of the summer.
Granite Cloud
Granite Cloud, a young, energetic group of guys, is an alternative, hard rock band with a hint of metal. They compare their sound to a mix between Story of the Year and The Foo Fighters. With five members including, Matt Bonacsh, 17, on drums; Jackson Frazier, 20, lead guitar; Daniel Blume, 20, guitar and keyboard; Blake Boyster, 20, on bass; and Drew Lance, 17, on vocals.
The band does its best to highlight each member’s talents with a wide range of solos. “Most alternative music seems to be vocal based whereas we try to balance everything out, a lot of instrumental; precision is involved,” said Frazier.
Though they’ve never been on tour outside of Missouri, Granite Cloud can be found at many venues within the St. Louis region. Some of their most visited spots are: Pops, Firebird, Fubar, and Cicero’s. Granite Cloud also has a website, http://www.myspace.com/granitecloud which houses a demo and a variety of merchandise.
Man Eating Tiger
Everyday life serves as inspiration for the rock metal band, Man Eating Tiger. This five man band consists of Jason Simpson on drums, his brother Owen Simpson on bass, Ryan Metz on lead guitar, Jason Emerick on secondary guitar and Robb Martinez on vocals. Martinez says that “life, technology and politics” are what lead these musicians to create the tunes that they do, which Martinez said sounds similar to Thrice.
They have been a band for about a year and since have had two shows, one at Lemmon’s and the other at Fubar. They have also released a demo and are currently putting together more music.
“We are working on a seven song EP and we have put it out a three song demo that we recorded at our drummer’s house. It’s all D.I.Y.,” Martinez said.
Martinez says he enjoys performing for people. “[My favorite part of being a band is] just being able to express myself while playing live and being on stage,” he said.
Man Eating Tiger’s next show is Feb. 18 at Fubar where they will be playing with Vanna.
Tracks by the band are online at http://www.reverbnation.com/maneatingtiger.
Soundscape
Soundscape says they have a deep love for art, not just in its musical form, but also for the practice of abstract canvas paintings as well. As a strictly instrumental band with a progressive and psychedelic sound, Soundscape is distinguished by their use of a live painter instead of a lead vocalist.
“Music is everything. It is what the three of us want to do with our lives: live as performing artists,” said Kevin Danneman, Meramec student.
Danneman, 21, plays the guitar; Taylor Perkins, 20, the drums while “Gecko” performs live canvas art painting with inspiration from the music and vibe of the crowd. Soundscape gains much of their inspiration from the band TOOL but feel they have an original sound and say they do their best not to sound generic.
“We hope to create original music from the depths of our souls to show the commercial world what real art is all about,” said Danneman.
Soundscape is currently writing and hopes to record a full album later this year. The band appears online at http://www.myspace.com/soundscapestl.
The Mussy Cluves
When recording, The Mussy Cluves consists of a mere two members, Matt Heitman and Danny Barton. They play experimental grunge rock with inspiration from blues music.
Though various close friends and trusted artists perform with them live, Barton and Heitman play all the instruments during recording sessions and sing as well.
“We tend to stray toward the bizarre forms of expression by being very experimental in our creative process and not limiting ourselves.” said Barton and Heitman.
Heitman and Barton have been playing music together for nearly a decade.
“Many of our songs were written from weird experiences we’ve had, and lots of them are kind of ’inside jokes,’ among the band and our group of friends,” said Barton.
The band offers any of their seven demo CDs for free to someone interested in hearing their sound.
“Playing music for us is a form of expressing what we feel and what we go through and how we live. Our music is important to our daily life because it’s a way to vent all the weird [stuff] that happens, whether good or bad.”
