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Although John Oliver had appeared on a Daily Show in advance of the writer’s strike ending, with that dispute now resolved (and our reputations in the media firmly preserved), we feel comfortable posting one of our favorite clips from the Daily Show.  We’re posting this clip, in which comedian John Oliver lampoons the CNN/YouTube debates last year, in order for us to celebrate his upcoming performance at Webster University on Monday February 18th @ 7pm. 

Of course if you didn’t read our original post detailing that show, you might want to read 52nd City’s newest contributer Rachel’s input on the event since she’s predicting that hundreds might have to be turned away on the day of the show.  Should any seats remain this evening, they will set you back about $10, or so says these scrawled notes on the sidewalk of Webster University.  And if tickets sell out, or if you’re just inspired by all the drinking in the video, you might considersaving that disposable income and celebrate “political trendspotting” with our friends from Drinking Liberally later this month.

Looks like we’re not the only friends of Gabe Bullard, a frequent contributor to Highway 61, who have really felt his noted absence from Saint Louis.  Not only were his contributions to the media landscape of this lonely berg something different and special, but he was a fun person who made the ordinary parts of town seem extraordinary.  PubDef.net offers another glimpse of the man who made us laugh and look forward to another year.

This blog (and this contributor) are forever indebted to the work of this good man.  We’ll be keeping tabs on his work, especially on his first day of work (today).  Farewell good friend (we miss you).

Normally when I review a concert I try to include a few photos, or even a short video clip I managed to snag (without having my camera confiscated), but for a show last Monday night I found myself too engrossed dancing along to a band playing for visual documentation.  I was trapped in the aural bliss of celebrated pop act Of Montreal at The Pageant, a show I had meant to write about but was merely left included among our Upcoming events page.  So far, I’m sad to say, visual accompanyment hasn’t shown up there, although it’s easily at the behest of my fellow Flickrites and citizen journalists to fill this void.  Aural accompaniment was the real draw, the one luring us out on a school night of the 1st degree to bask in the radient bliss of “The Sunlandic Twins”, and more recently the irrational exuberence of “Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?”

The audience seemed unnaturally enthusiatic in comparison to a more typically subdued crowd for what could be commonly charecterized as an indie pop gathering, frequently jumping for joy and even cheering jubilantly for the sound check guy. The audience seemed dense around the bar and pit, although not quite a sell out.  As for any sell outs besides at the box office, let’s pretend they don’t exist.

Sure everyone is still talking about Girl Talk’s show last weekend, and some video has even been posted on YouTube, but Washington University wasn’t the only internet addled headline maker last weekend.  Another video fell under the shadow of those headlines, from another university around Saint Louis - my alma matter Webster.  You can see for yourself in the video above, a promotional clip celebrating the glorious return of GTV (G as in Gorlok, the Napoleon Dynamite-esqe lion/griffin/other mascot of the university).

Now last time I checked, GTV was still broadcast primarily as a CCTV (or Closed Circuit Television network) to those who live on Webster’s campus, with occasional stints over public access cable in local markets (ie Webster Groves).  But I’m willing to bet this teaser clip is only the beginning of these Broadcast students’ work going Broadband.  After all this blog was started by two Webster students interested in using a new medium, and we see the evidence of broadcast spilling onto the internet every day.  And by every day I mean every day of the television writers strike.  Either way, we’re pretty sure some pirated (ie student produced) content is going to slip onto the web, so I’m looking forward to sharing clips with you pretty soon

PS - Would it kill someone to update this website?  It’s just a little outdated, and we like to give credit where it’s due when we link it.

I’ve written before about the commercialization of indie rock, and hopefully no one thought of our not-quite rock stars as sellouts. Then again, anyone upset over Stephin Merritt lending a song for a dog food ad may be flat-out enraged over this:But for all their hocking of cell phones and cars, indie rockers give something back to the community, as illustrated by these child-friendly, puppet and CG filled television appearances:Eh, I never did like the Aquabats, can’t this show offer something better? That’s more like it.Of course, it probably all started with the band that more or less invented indie rock, from 1999: If a Jim Hensonized Kate Pierson imitator is too much for you, revel in your hipster irony with this, the most dour songwriter on a kid’s network for adults. 

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As a special follow-up on a review written by our own Gabe Bullard, here’s a short clip from last Saturday’s They Might Be Giants performance at the Pageant to show you just how much fun was had at said rock concert. 

Seen here performing “The Guitar,” the band had a little fun with the enthusiastic audience seen here. You might like to check out a clip of “Particle Man” with a Buddy Ebsen reference.

Instead of sharing our own photos of the show, we thought it’d be fun to pass along some properly tagged pictures we found on Flickr.  Using the machine tags from Last.FM and Upcoming is a fun way to organize the events you’ve attended and share public pictures, not to mention making a much better slideshow on FlickR than just using our photos.  And if you were there too, please feel free to pass along your photos through that channel or at least share with us here in the comments.

Members of the Circuit would have already heard by now in their inboxes, but fans of LoFiSTL.com and its podcast have yet to learn about Bill Streeter’s newest project.  Introducing Live-Fi Saint Louis, a live streaming video show offered over the Circuit. It’s set to premier tonight.  According to his e-mail, Bill says

The very first Live-Fi Saint Louis will be TONIGHT Wednesday September 5th at 8:30 CST. It will happen on the front page of The CIRCUIT (circuit.lofistl.com). This will be the first version of the show that will happen live in real time and you can watch the live stream and chat with us during the show (you need to sign up for an account at ustream.tv to chat). If it’s successful we’ll do it again soon. So be there or be … um … not there.

Tonight the guest will be musician Jonathan Baer who will perform a song or two and take questions from your host Bill Streeter.  No word yet on whether this unedited show will be recorded for future viewing, only to say that all viewer/chat room questions will only be available during the show’s broadcast.  Of course, I can’t help but feel I contributed to this process, but so can you based on your viewership tonight.

Of course you might prep yourself for tonight by watching some of our work with Bill Streeter, in the form of Bunnygrunt @ the Lot festival   Yeah, I shot that too.

From last night@ the Lot music festival, here is the final video of the final song of the final set - the 7 Shot Screamers perform “Hey Ya”.  Yes, that song.

Although I was helping take higher quality video for the rest of the festival, I did notice a sizeable crowd that I have been informed was larger than last year’s during this second annual festival.  A couple other acts, notably Bunnygrunt and Jumbling Towers, managed to attract crowds of their own.  Well, that and fire eaters.

With a prevalance of websites taking booths alongside local culture mainstays, it wasn’t surprising to see quite a few bloggers on hand.  Shout outs must be made to Jeff, Bill, Thomas, Danny, Annie, and Michael, all of whom contributed to putting this show together in some way (or at least I saw turn up).  Sorry if I didn’t take time to say hello - I was supposed to be working.  Hope to see everybody there next year too…

Probably one of the greatest inside jokes between music and film fans ever is “The Rutles“, a 1978 mockumentary film about the biggest band from Liverpool.  It’s played in the Webster Film Series’ as part of Strange Brew, and now it’s available online (sort of).   We mention this because we hear a DVD copy is nearly an impossible find.

And sure this film has it’s fans and detractors, but those unfamiliar with the film at all might enjoy this review of the film’s last local screening (mentioned above).  Of course that review fails to mention the collaborative efforts of Eric Idle, the original SNL cast, and more than a couple musicians, all exhibited prominently through links within this video’s timeline.  Seriously, it’s worth a look, or else “get up and go, back home”