If ya ain't seen it yet, Mr. Bill Streeter of LoFi St. Louis did a little video about me an my cigar box guitars.

I just checked up on the comments, and there's some great ones I wanna save for posterity.

here goes:

"Amazing instuments. Hope the dude finds success as he is obviously talented at what he does. As a lifelong St. Louisan, I also find the video an interesting socio-psychological profile in the study of what can be deemed "Pure St. Louis staight up attitude". Not saying it's a bad thing. But on a scale of 1 to 10, this dude is clearly pushing somewhere in the teens…"

"Great video Bill. You find the coolest things to capture. That guy is obviously brilliant.
Very cool!!!"

"Excuse my very bad english
this man : very beautiful
What he does : very interesting
His voice: very beautiful
his guitars very strange
their sound beautiful
the mess in his appartment beautiful
But your film : bad, bad bad
You do not prepare the shooting
You do not think about it ,
you don't go lookink for location
The image, beautiful,
like an advertise,
the sound good, but the film : hopeless
What a pity, knowing such an interesting person to do such a bad film"


Aparently, I am brilliant, beautiful, and full of good ole' St. Louis Piss n' Vinegar..

I'll take it!

Remember kids - stay off the shit!

Has anyone ever had any dealings with these guys?  They have a store on Manchester, in Maplewood right across from Schnucks.  I have a LITTLE beef with them, and I was wondering if anyone else shared my sentiments...  long story quickly:
I've lived in maplewood quite a few times over the years, and sold and bought many things at the Sam Light pawn shop right next to Eddies.  I've always stopped in to Eddie's to oogle the expensive shit, and check out the basement for good deals [NEVER found one...]  I've always got a vibe from the employees that they didn't want me there... a real condescending attitude like I was WAYY beneith them guitarstore GODS that they are.  They always treated me like shit, actually...  Standing around like statues, never offering any assistance until you get to close to an actual guitar [GOD FORBID you try to actually PLAY one...] when they would run over and scold you like a small child..  Anyway, when it came time for me to make my first big expensive equipment purchase some years ago, I checked out some stuff at Eddie's, found what I wanted, and ordered it online.  Whatever..
Fast Forward to today.
I walk in the store [or actually, I was buzzed in..]  and there is a bicycle RIGHT inside the door, balanced on it's wheels with no kickstand.  The breeze from the door knocked it in to a rack of patch cables.  I leaned over and straightened it out, but I didn't see a kickstand to balance it on.  Before I could do anything, one of the employees [who's bike it was] said to me [a potential customer...NOT] 
"I got the bike.  It cost $4000 and if you mess it up I'll break your neck"
Needless to say, I was shocked...  WHO THE FUCK RAISES THESE PEOPLE?  WHERE DID THEIR PARENTS GO WRONG? 
First off, if the bike hadent been right inside the door, it never would have fallen..  Second, I don't wanna mess up anyones stuff, even if they were stupid enough to leave it in the 'line of fire' as it were, and I'm certianly not to uncoordinated to keep it from falling over with it in my hands..  Third, where the fuck does that douche get the impression that it's OK to speak to people that way??
If I wasn't on probation for pulping some other assholes face in, I think I might have wrapped the damn bike around that dudes neck...  I would have liked to, anyway.. and maybe whack him in the head with an overpriced $5000 gibson custom shop les paul for good measure...

Instead, I walked out, stewed a little bit, and went to the internet to rant and rave a little bit...

I don't actually expect to have any effect on their business, as I doubt many TIRC-ers shop there anyway but I'll say it anyway - Please, please, please DO NOT shop at Eddie's guitars.  Don't buy their guitars, or their amps.  DO NOT get your guitar set up there [they SUCK at setup, overcharge, and then don't make it right when you bring back the guitar with a setup problem a week later - this I KNOW from firsthand experience].  I'll fix your shit and setup your guitars for free if it keeps you out of there...  If you want good quality equipment and/or repairs, there are SO many other good shops in town that treat their customers like people, not pests.  In Maplewood?  Try Goez Instrument Sales and Repair on Sutton, less than 1/2 mile from Eddie's.   Or there is Gravity Strings in Soulard.  Or Killer Vintage.  FUCK, I'd advocate Guitar Center [yech] over Eddie's Guitars at this point.

That is all.

-m

It's only $6 postage paid, so do me a favor - buy one!
You'll NOT regret it, promise.
In fact, if you don't like it - I'll BUY IT BACK FROM YOU!
Where else you gonna get that deal?
So far, I;ve bought 0 back. fuckers

http://www.houstonmusicreview.com/smellymenace/merch.html

Extra Extra, Read all About It.
Local Prim-Rockers The Vickroids were none to happy about not being invited to play the slammies(even though they have only been on the scene for a matter of months)
So their burning desire to hit anyone and everyone over the head with their brand of musical destruction, a healthy sense of outrage at not having a legit slot at the slammies, and a few battery powered amps and whatnot led to an event that will not soon be forgotten by those who wittnessed it.
Ol' Cris Powers playing the snare drum and tambourne, plus Mark Vickroid wailing his weird guitars outside on the corner of Delmar & Westgate out fronnt of Blueberry Hill.  An awsome 6 songs were blasted out until the cops came.  They said they'd gotten 2 noise complaints despite the fact the the Vickroids and their 6 C cell batteies were competing with 2 1000 watt+ sound systems also in the neighborhood.  A little crazy, no?  Anyway, the cop pulled Marky over to the car with threats of jail if the rock was not ceased immediatly.  Well, the vickroids had 1 song left in the set!  Due the the smooth talking of Mark, plus the cop actually being cool when told the vickroids were gonna finish no matter what, the rock n' roll continued.  

Observing the whole event were several members of the local media including channel 11 news, and what seemed like hundreds of Slammie goers.

Shit, I hadda open up a guiar case so the money they were throwing had somewhere to go!  Really!

So, to all you motherfuckers who didn't vote for us, and all you promoter types who didn't call us - FUCK YOU!  We played anyway, we'll do it next year weather you ask us or not.  And whoever called the cops (it hadda be someone 'slammie' oriented, come on, noise complaint?)  THANKS!  You just attracted more people, made the whole event a larger spectacle, and after talking to the cops and still finishing the set, The Vickroids are gonna be THE most memorable thing at your little event.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR, SUCKAS!

not that we won't play legitimatly if invited :)