Archive for January 2021

When the band Clockwork played for a hometown crowd on the stage of LouFest in 2015, the group was on the rise.

It had been together five years, touring the country and releasing three records. High school buddies Logan Slone and Logan Mohler formed the group when they were in seventh grade, quickly adding Logan Slone’s slightly older brother Jordan, whose status as a high school student made him the group’s elder statesman.

The LouFest gig seemed an auspicious marker of the group’s rise. But it was Clockwork’s final appearance.

The Slones and Mohler felt that band decisions had been taken out of their hands and that they were being marketed as just a lightweight, teen band — a boy band with instruments and a sunny Midwestern disposition. The whole thing no longer felt right. So the trio re-formed as Hounds the next year, with a somewhat scruffier look and a more rock-infused sound.

Since then there have been years of twists and turns. Logan Slone departed and later returned to the band. Bassist Jack McCoy joined the group. And now, Hounds sits on the brink of its biggest success. Hounds’ major label debut, “Cattle in the Sky,” will be released by BMG on Feb. 5.

“For me, it means it’s a payoff for all the years of hard work we’ve put in with this band,” Logan Slone said. “It’s nice to get that validation, that we’re finally making strides toward our end goal.”

The group got a taste of the national spotlight in 2019 when it won the second season of “Who Will Rock You?” — a band competition show viewable online and on Amazon Prime Video. The competition was only meant to lead to some meetings and maybe a development deal, but the label liked what it heard and sent the band into the studio. Hounds turned down opportunities to record in Los Angeles or Nashville, and instead worked with engineer Jason McEntire at Sawhorse Studios in St. Louis.

The album shows off the group’s tuneful, energetic rock ‘n’ roll. It’s also a leap forward for the band’s artistic identity, no longer hemmed in by an image that felt false.

Several songs “really point to the kind of messages we want to accomplish and the kind of — just lack of care anymore about feeling ashamed in front of other people, or feeling like I can’t say something because it’s going to upset someone,” Jordan Slone said. “Being able to be honest in your music is the only way it’s going to feel real to someone else. People can smell a fraud a thousand miles away.”

Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @jeremydgoodwin

St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones, one of four candidates in the March 2 mayoral primary, is the latest guest on Politically Speaking. She joined St. Louis Public Radio’s Rachel Lippmann to discuss her plans to improve St. Louis’ reputation, address its vast racial divides and make a second run for mayor under a brand-new system of voting.

Here’s what Jones talked about on the show:

• Though Jones is not the only candidate to win a citywide race, she points out that she is the only one elected to an executive branch office. “I’m the only candidate with the executive experience of turning a vision into a reality, the management experience of leading a staff of hundreds of people, and the relationships on the state and national levels to put St. Louis back on the map,” she said.
• The city needs to have tough conversations about its racist history, and Jones believes she is the best person to open that dialog. She is a St. Louis native raising a son in her hometown. “I believe the people closest to the problem are closest to the solution,” she said.
• Jones believes that acting on the recommendations of the reports issued by For the Sake of All and the Ferguson Commission will position the city well for corporate and philanthropic investment. There is no better strategic plan than one based on research that’s already been done, she said.

Jones spent four years in the Missouri House of Representatives before running for treasurer. She also has experience in the health care and finance fields.

You can find an episode about the mayor’s race with Alderwoman Cara Spencer, D-20th Ward, here. Utility executive Andrew Jones and Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed will be recording episodes at a later date.

Follow Rachel on Twitter: @rlippmann

Follow Tishaura Jones on Twitter: @Tishaura

Music: “Instrumental #1,” by Seth Ashley.

In the last two seasons of the show, we have covered the COVID-19 pandemic and the current uprising for Black lives, both of which continue to shape society today. The pandemic and the uprising also raised two major questions, which we’ll be addressing in our new season on environmental racism: How do we achieve a healthy life? And what kind of world do we want to leave for the next generation? These are profound questions for a region that boasts some of the most prestigious hospitals in the nation and is home to residents with some of the worst health outcomes. So in this season, we’ll trace the connection between systemic racism, housing conditions, and health outcomes. But we’ll also highlight the organizers, tenants rights advocates, and urban farmers who are working to improve conditions in their communities. The first episode of the environmental racism season drops on Friday, February 12th, anywhere you get podcasts.

St. Louis mayoral candidate Cara Spencer, currently 20th Ward alderwoman, is the latest guest on the Politically Speaking podcast. She joined St. Louis Public Radio’s Rachel Lippmann to discuss her plans to fight violent crime, improve regional cooperation and stabilize the city’s budget.

Here’s what Spencer talked about on the show:

• Among her first orders of business will be getting a handle on the city’s financial picture. Past administrations failed to take advantage of a decade of economic growth, she said, which left the city vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic. “We are going to have to ensure that at the end of the day, we are being smart about how we are allocating the funds that we do have,” she said. “And that’s going to take a real understanding of how we deliver city services. We are very archaic with many of the systems we use.”
• The city, Spencer said, will be unable to grow unless violent crime goes down, and that can’t happen until people begin to trust the police again. “And we are going to make sure that we have the tools in place to better serve those marginalized communities.”
• Spencer rose to prominence in 2019 as a fierce opponent of efforts to privatize the operations of St. Louis-Lambert International Airport, but did not entirely rule it out as a part of a strategy for the airport going forward. Any plan, she said, has to recognize Lambert as part of regional transportation infrastructure like the port and the Mississippi River.

Spencer became involved in politics after the city closed the public pool at Marquette Park in 2014. She defeated a longtime alderman in 2015. Before that, she did mathematical modeling for a local health care consulting company.

The three other candidates — utility executive Andrew Jones, Treasurer Tishaura Jones and Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed — have all received invitations to record episodes of Politically Speaking.

Follow Rachel on Twitter: @rlippmann

Follow Cara Spencer on Twitter: @CaraSpencerSTL

Music: “Instrumental #1,” by Seth Ashley

State Rep. Barbara Phifer is the latest guest on Politically Speaking, where the Kirkwood Democrat talked to St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum about her first couple of weeks in the Missouri General Assembly.

Phifer was elected last year to represent the 90th District after then-Rep. Deb Lavender vacated her seat in an unsuccessful run for the state Senate. Her district includes places like Kirkwood, Glendale, Rock Hill and Oakland.

Here’s what Phifer had to say during the show:

• She detailed her first few weeks in the Missouri House, which began on the day of the insurrection in Washington, D.C., and has included debates over whether to require lawmakers to wear masks in the chamber.
• Why she was the only Democrat who voted to expel state Rep. Wiley Price IV, D-St. Louis, who was censured after being accused of having sex with an intern and trying to cover it up.
• Phifer talked about some of her expectations and priorities for the upcoming session, which will include following through on a constitutional amendment enacting Medicaid expansion.
• She explained some of her longer-term expectations about how House Democrats can make themselves relevant when they are so deep in the legislative minority.

Phifer is a Washington, D.C., native who spent nearly 40 years as a pastor with the United Methodist Church. She’s served as a pastor in churches around Missouri, as well as Montevideo, Uruguay.

Republicans represented the 90th District for many years, until Lavender won the seat in 2014 and was reelected by increasingly large margins. Phifer ended up defeating Republican Rick Perry by more than 13 percentage points — a signal that the Kirkwood area is now firmly aligned with Democrats.

Follow Jason on Twitter: @jrosenbaum