Arrington de Dionyso's Malaikat dan Singa in Saint Louis

On Friday, June 3, Arrington de Dionyso will play Saint Louis for the first time in his 15-year musical career. He is touring in support of his newest K Records release "Suara Naga", an album sung in Indonesian.

Saint Louis' own The Union Electric and The Volcanoes (from Saint Charles) will open the show. Doors open at 8PM at the Jefferson Warehouse, 2501 South Jefferson.

Check out Arrington de Dionyso's music. His band Old Time Relijun has released several albums over the past decade. It is wild and compelling music of a sort that you probably don't hear often enough. Unknown to the point of scaring some people, but be brave readers and listeners, it's worth the attention. De Dionyso has also collaborated with Thollem McDonas, a more frequent visitor to Saint Louis, in a group called The Naked Future. I happened to buy this record from McDonas a year ago while he was touring with his band Tsigoti. Malaikat dan Singa fits into this tradition that De Dionyso has created for himself, with rock guitar, strange horns and some throat-singing for good measure.

The Union Electric's new 45, "Tunnels" b/w "An Irish Orphan" will be available at the show before its official release later this summer. Pressed on marbled purple vinyl.

Upcoming shows in Saint Louis

My friend Joe Eisenbraun reminded me that I hadn't updated this blog in months. It's not like I haven't been doing anything worth mentioning - quite the opposite actually.
Both bands have been busy, especially The Union Electric. We went on a short tour in March with Robert Sarazin Blake of Bellingham, Washington, http://sarazinblake.com/ and another in April with the Fervor of Louisville, Kentucky, http://www.thefervor.com/cms/. We opened for Dax Riggs last weekend,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dax_Riggs, and are releasing a new 45 on Rankoutsider Records this summer. The new record will be available, before its official release, at our shows in June.

Speaking of which, some upcoming gigs:

Tim Rakel, solo, trading sets with Alvan Caby and Chad Ross of the band Rusty Nail - Saturday, May 21 at Urban Chestnut Brewery, 3229 Washington (near Compton). 8PM
Rusty Nail's kickstarter project: http://kck.st/eiUgFT

The Union Electric - Friday, June 3 at the Jefferson Warehouse, 2501 S. Jefferson, opening for K Records artist Arrington de Dionyso, best known for his band Old Time Relijun. 9PM
Arrington de Dionyso's Malaikat dan Singa: http://krecs.com/html/artists/artistbio.php?interest=60

The Union Electric - Friday, June 17 at Foam, 3359 S. Jefferson. 8PM. Middle Class Fashion and a touring band from Ohio are also on the bill.

The May Day Orchestra - Saturday, June 18 at the Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust. 9PM.
Nighty Night from Carbondale, IL will play after us.

new compilation and other christmas gifts

Pancake Productions and the Bert Dax Calvalcade of Stars have collaborated to release a new edition of a local compilation, "A Very Bert Dax Christmas, Volume 8".
The Union Electric chose to cover a song by the Dutch punk band The Ex, one of my favorite bands. Read more about them here www.theex.nl ---
The song deals with nuclear winter a little more than it does the Christmas holiday, but our guitar player Glenn Burleigh got the riff down and brought out a guitar pedal that had been sitting around a while unused. We think it was a good and worthwhile recording.

Speaking of Christmas and gift-giving...
Physical copies of many records are available by mail. Just inquire by a charming old-fashioned letter or at the e-mail address below.

Tim Rakel
PO Box 63098
Saint Louis 63163

You may send a check or well-concealed cash to the PO Box above. You may also send your virtual funds by PayPal to mystery@kdhx.org or by Amazon payments to graveyardshift@kdhx.org - All prices include shipping, just let me know what you're ordering.

Bad Folk "Propaganda" 7" (2007)
(three songs with a cover drawn by Dana Smith and printed by Firecracker Press) $7

The May Day Orchestra "May Day, or Songs For Lucy Parsons" 12" LP (2009)
(8 songs written and performed by members of Bad Folk, The Rats & People and Theodore) $13

The Union Electric 7" (2009)
(Three songs, "Sentence", "You Have Been Served" and "Ship Out Of Luck", cover painted by Dana Smith) $7

The Union Electric 7" (2010)
(Two song 45, "Thylacine" and "Bugs", cover designed by Sleepy Kitty) $7

The May Day Orchestra "Ota Benga" CD/2xLP (2010)
(Ten songs featuring members of the original May Day Orchestra as well as members of Tenement Ruth) $12 per CD / $20 per double LP (both include shipping)

"A Very Bert Dax Christmas, Volume 8" CD (2010)
(featuring tracks by Beth Bombara, Cassie Morgan, Glass Teeth, and a cover of "Jack Frost Is Innocent" written by The Ex and performed by The Union Electric) $7 while supplies last

Asbestos Sister

Dana Richard Smith, whose blog you can connect to over there to the right...,
has created record covers for my bands a few times now.
The May Day Orchestra has just released an LP and CD sporting a recent painting of his on the front. My old band, Bad Folk, released a 7" record with a series of Dana's historical character drawings in 2007. He even painted a cover for the 2008 full-length by Bad Folk which was never released. Still, a nice painting.
Dana Smith has also done cover art for bands such as The Dirty 30s and Bunnygrunt.
Perhaps my favorite work of his was painted for the first 7" record by The Union Electric, released last December. This painting hangs in Dana's hallway last I was there and his young son Louis was intrigued by the small replicas of the picture I had brought along to give to his dad.
Paintings and Records, that's what I wanted to tell you about.

Art Show / Rock Show
Friday, December 10 - 7PM sharp - Vintage Vinyl - University City, MO
Dana Smith, The Union Electric and Bunnygrunt


Music sets by two rock bands, music-related paintings displayed and up for sale.
CDs and records corresponding to the paintings will also be available since the show's at a record store.

Thanks from the May Day Orchestra

The May Day Orchestra hosted a CD and LP release at the Sheldon this past week and we were impressed by the number of people that showed up to see us along with eight guest musicians and two other bands. Thanks to all who came to listen. Thanks to Theodore and The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra for their opening sets and for playing along with us. Thanks to Chad, Kevin and Dominique who also joined our ensemble for the evening. Thanks to my family members who worked the door and friends who tried to sell the new records and CDs.

It was certainly a special night for local music in Saint Louis.

We still have copies for sale in many places. The CD will be released nationally on Tuesday, November 16 - ask for it in your favorite record store. They are also available for order through CD Baby.
The vinyl album is available in four independent record stores in Saint Louis. Outside our hometown, this limited pressing of the double 45rpm 12" has to be ordered directly from us. Feel free to contact me at mystery@kdhx.org to have one sent to you. $20, includes shipping.

May Day Orchestra at the Sheldon - Wednesday night only!

The May Day Orchestra's official LP and CD release show happens tomorrow, Wednesday, November 10 at the Sheldon Ballroom.

The May Day Orchestra headlines the show, along with the full "Ota Benga Family Band", a 13-piece ensemble to be witnessed for one night only.

Members of Tenement Ruth, The Union Electric, Grace Basement, Rusty Nail, The Skekses, Theodore and The Rats & People will all join in to perform songs from the new record "Ota Benga".

Doors open at 7PM, cost is $12 cash.
The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra begins the evening at 8PM with an excerpt from their film score to "Haxan", a surreal Swedish film from the 1920s. The full score will debut with next Friday at the International Film Festival - come get a preview.
Theodore follows with their multiple instruments and great songs - they have dozens to choose from and whichever they play will be good listening.

The new CD will be for sale for a low price of $10 and the double vinyl album for $15. All other related releases from The Union Electric and Tenement Ruth will also be available as well.
Support local music.

Chinese Tunnels

The lyrics to the newest song by The Union Electric were inspired by a chapter in William Vollmann's 1300-page book "Imperial" which was published last year. The thing that first struck me was a passage about masses of people coming up from the ground when there was a widespread fire. "Like ants" one observer said. Worker ants. The song has yet to make it into our live set but it's coming soon. It's about Mexican immigration issues even if the characters are Chinese people from a hundred years ago. This is how I often work, take something a century old, hold up a mirror, and you don't even have to change the names. I have to believe Tijuana and Nogales have similar tunnel worlds going right now.

The 45 single will be available in Spring 2011 from Rankoutsider Records.

---

In the shadow of the mountain of gold,
there are stories of tunnels of which no one speaks
In the days of the great fires raging,
when people came up, up from the ground

Under the street, like some late-night dream,
there's a tunnel under the Hotel Imperial
Building a railroad, a gold rush underground
Inventors of paper, inventors of gun powder

They came for work but they were not wanted,
condemned with the rats and the trash
They were not wanted here, so they go somewhere else
and now there are tunnels from here to there

Believe in something that you've never seen,
believe because it has to be there
That secret dragon haunts that desert,
in the heat with the whirlwinds and the quicksand

The ghost of that dragon haunts the desert
in the secret world along the borderlands
The hopeful and the hopeless all run together
and all night the people sing, please, send money home