Union Tree Review like to keep things local. By local, I don’t simply mean to the city of St. Louis, but to the very neighborhood they live and play music. Union Tree Review describe themselves as a Cherokee Street band, and they are an ideal candidate to lead the charge of reviving the St. Louis music scene, or rather shine a spotlight on how awesome it is already.

The evidence can be found looking no further than the street they call home. Surrounded by burgeoning arts scene, awesome ethnic food, and tons of people involved in all aspects of local music, one could be content never leaving the block again. This setting is the perfect climate for Union Tree Review’s blend of indie rock and alt country. By adding viola and the occasional horn section to the soothing warmth of singer Tawaine Noah’s voice, their songs shine in the small venues and coffee houses of which their neighborhood is in abundance.

Union Tree Review look to bring elements of the Cherokee community together for their next album. Drummer Matt Strom explains “We’re going to hopefully create an entire album from writing the songs to the people recording, producing and mixing the songs to the people making the album art all within five blocks of each other.”

While Cherokee St. may be tight-knit, Union Tree are tired of the city’s insularity. Noah expounds upon his frustration: “For a while, everyone had their own band and they were wrapped up in that. ‘Oh, you have a band? Well, good luck!’” UTR think St. Louis bands need to be more proactive in promoting shows – and the group practices what they preach. However, guitarist Jordan Howe explains how spreading the word only about yourself isn’t good enough: “You want everyone to work and succeed. If we get a lot of people at our show and Humdrum plays too, maybe more people will come to the next Humdrum show.” It’s this level of cooperation that will elevate not only Union Tree Review, but the entire St. Louis music scene. Isn’t that what “keeping things local” is all about?

Quick Tracks:

“Foreign Eyes”
Simple, sweet but melancholy folk tune with great harmonies, viola and horns that accent the emotion of feeling old at the age of twenty four. One listen, and you can see how it was written after a breakup in winter, while staring out a window over a cup of coffee and shot of whisky.

“Let Me Be”
Song for the over-worked and under-paid, otherwise known as the anthem of the young, post-collegiate city dweller whose frontier is growing up. Slower, low key Ra Ra Riot and Anathallo meet Ryan Adams. This song is itching to be heard live.

You can hear some of Union Tree Review’s music at Myspace and Facebook
They also have a Twitter

1.) “Just Do It” by Breather Resist from Only in the Morning.
2.) “Suicide Soundtrack” by Scarlet from Cult Classic.
3.) “Framce” by Botch from An Anthology of Dead Ends.
4.) “Gleamer” by Intronaut from Void.
5.) “There Will Be No More Scum” by Frodus from And We Washed Our Weapons in the Sea.
6.) “The Deadly Rhythm” by Refused from The Shape of Punk to Come.
7.) “Gift” by Old Man Gloom from Christmas.
8.) “Eagles Become Vultures” by Converge from You Fail Me.
9.) “Guignol Serene” by Trap Them from Seizures in Barren Praise.
10.) “Go Ape” by Spitfire from Self-Help.
11.) “Hexagram” by the Deftones from their self-titled LP.
12.) “I Hate Almost Every Person I Come In Contact With” by Curl Up and Die from We May Be Through With the Past… EP.
13.) “43% Burnt” by the Dillinger Escape Plan from Calculating Infinity.
14.) “Mirrorf***** ” by Young Widows from Settle Down City.
15.) “January 1979″ by mewithoutYou from Catch For Us the Foxes.
16.) “D.E.A.D.R.A.M.O.N.E.S.” by Modern Life is War from Witness.
17.) “Cayman Tongue” by Cave In from their brand new EP Planets of Old.

Overall I’m pretty satisfied. For my taste in hardcore and metal it was pretty difficult to get the mix to breath a little and not have every song hit like a sledgehammer. I also included a few cuts that I hoped my intended audience would enjoy since he’s not entirely “into” hardcore. The Frodus song and the mewithoutYou song I might have saved for a different mix, but they definitely helped keep things more varied.

Anyone making any mixes lately?

1.) I’m In A Bad Way by Satisfact
2.) Put All Your Eggs In One Basket by Marnie Stern
3.) Grass by Animal Collective
4.) Atlas by Battles
5.) Wingwalker by Shellac
6.) Hi-Life by Simonnewcomb
7.) Sex Automata by Ex Models
8.) They Don’t Want Your Corn, They Want Your Kids by Liars
9.) Animal Man by Lungfish
10.) Cut Self Not by Faraquet
11.) King’s Dominion by Black Eyes
12.) Letter to ZZ Top by U.S. Maple
13.) Good Morning, Caption by Slint

And it’s all really good stuff. As you may notice, this mix contains a lot of 90sish post-hardcore and harder electronic “rock” music. There is a forthcoming “softer” mix coming soon from what I hear anyway. Time will tell.

Now I have to respond with a mix of my own containing hopefully all unheard of stuff by Mr. Bursik who seems to be himself a rather versed music appreciator. I think I’m going to make mine a two volume set since I listen to so much hardcore to make a good mix. I haven’t made one of these for quite some time so I’ll have to work on it and listen to it over the course of a few days.

Other than that, I’ve been in the Lou for a few weeks and have yet to hang out with too many people. If I’m free, I’m pretty much always down so hit me up.

*hint hint* *wink wink*

1. While I have a few good ideas, I am very much without a clue as to what I’m going to do with my life.

2. What initially drew me to hardcore music was the marriage of the physical and the emotional. While to some the aggression found in the music is wholly a negative thing, to me it is worship. It also makes me very sweaty.

3. I wished my whole life that I would have this ideal best friend who would be closer than a brother, who was like me in many ways, that we would do everything together, talk all the time, have great stories to tell, name our kids after each other, and I’m still pretty ticked that never happened.

4. While in high school, I had what seemed to me a very serious issue with armpit sweating. I always sweat much more underneath my arms than I ever did anywhere else on my body. I tried to remedy this with wearing layers (something I still do both for embarrassment safety and for fashion), several special deodorants and anti-perspirants and nothing ever worked. I finally found the solution in a product called “Certain Dri” that I have used for 4 years: http://www.certaindri.com/Pages/CD_Home It’s really great.

5. In the beginning of February my Dad had a bad case of laryngitis that left him nearly voice-less for a few days. When I found out about it I became terrified at the fact that he would inevitably die and at the possibility that my children might not have a chance to meet my Dad. This thought is even more scary to me because my Dad’s father died from cancer when I was 2 or 3 and I don’t remember anything about him. Every time I think about my Dad in that way I get choked up. We’ve been able to tell each other that we love each since I can remember, but I don’t think I’ve ever told him exactly how I feel, and don’t know if I’ll ever be able to express it even close to how I feel it.

6. This one is related to the #5, and most know this, but my tattoo is a tribute to my Grandpa Macri. It’s the firemen’s emblem as he was a volunteer firefighter later in his life.

7. I had a thought today that I’m kind of like an M&M in many ways. I have a plain, hard exterior which, when first meeting me, there doesn’t appear to be much under neath. But in reality, I’m rather mushy inside. I am a deep feeling person though I often don’t show it to most people. Even my closest friends, and even to myself.

Speaking of my close friends:

8. I am very proud of them. VERY PROUD, in fact. I consider myself lucky to be considered of the same level as them. I am constantly impressed by their intelligence, goals & aspirations, abilities and good humor.

9. I’m also intimidated by them. I often wonder what they think of what I’m doing, the art that I am creating, the questions I ask, the comments I make. I often wonder if I’m matching up. If I’m “leveling” with them, and am not being left behind. So I try my best to impress them. I’ll try to be very thoughtful and observant in conversation, and often feel that my good days are defined by how much I stimulated the conversation between all of us. Which also says a bit about my bad days.

10. I think my main love language is quality time. Which has made our separation incredibly difficult. And also why the first two New Years celebrations that I was neglected to be invited to were so painful to me.

Enough about my friends:

11. I have the strength of Activator which I really appreciate. I can get a lot of things done pretty quickly, but I’m a little quick to jump into things without proper preparation, training or thoughtfulness as to the consequences of my actions. Up until the past year of my life, this hasn’t been too much of a problem. But lately I seem to run into situations that I wish I had the strength of Deliberative, and sometimes Empathy, so I would be less of a dumb-ass.

12. When I do make a mistake, and particularly when I wrong someone, I feel abysmally terrible and want to apologize immediately. When I do it to my friends, I’m afraid that if I don’t make it right immediately, I’ll be cast out of the “inside.” The concern for how people think of me seems to be more of a motivator to fix things than making sure the wronged feel better. Not that I don’t care about their feelings, I do. Just not as much. I’m not sure how to change that either.

13. Praise for achievements and recognition for “doing a good job” in public makes me feel very embarrassed. I don’t understand why but whenever it happens I feel exposed as though I’ve someone tricked the person into thinking whatever it is that they’re saying is true, and now that person and everyone else who is witnessing can see the truth as well. Sometimes I feel that way in private too.

14. I think #13 plays into #10. My love language is not words of affirmation, which makes it hard for my wife. Her love language is all the nice things I say and write to her. I don’t say to her even a third of the things I think about her.

15. About having activator again. I think it plays into how easily I can lodge my foot deeply into my mouth. I mean, I have kind of an inappropriate sense of humor. I am usually very over-the-top in whatever sentiment I am exalting or lambasting because I think it has more comedic value. Some people don’t get it, and it makes other people angry. I also think swearing is hilarious most of the time. Most don’t. Particularly my Mom.

16. I love my family very much. I grew up with both sides of my whole extended family five minutes from me and each other in Hampton. I’m more than grateful for that, and for how I was raised. But I feel different from them and I don’t know if they will ever understand that. And I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to tell them either.

17. Some know this. I started seeing a chiropractor in November because of some low back weakness and overall instability. Turns out I have this rare thing that happens to like 1 and 100 patients called ligament laxity in my hip area. That basically means I’m too flexible and have too much range of motion down there. This makes my case more difficult for treatment too. I felt like such a BAMF when I found that out, as if it’s possible to be proud of having something medically “wrong” with you. I’ve also had some work done on my neck. My neck likes to turn my head slightly left. The doctor and I discovered that it was caused by how I would play guitar. When I play, I constantly turn my head slightly to the left to look at the fretboard. Now I do it for apparently no good reason just a bad habit, especially when I play sitting on chairs.

18. I’m thinking of doing Script Frenzy during the month of April. I just need a good idea for a movie. http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/

19. In high school I wrote the majority of the lyrics to a metalcore album based on Dante’s Inferno. I looked them over recently, and for the style of metal of I was going for at the time, they’re still pretty good. I hope one day to finish writing the music and maybe record it.

20. I’ve started writing a post-rock album about Justin’s death. So far I have a few song titles, and the overall feel in my head. I expect it’s going to be difficult to write and I wonder if he’d like it.

21. Justin’s passing instilled in me very deeply that there is life after death, and that I will see him again but I won’t recognize him at first because he’ll be walking.

22. My all time favorite TV character is Agent Dale Cooper from the TV series Twin Peaks. My second favorite is the Tool Man.

23. Caitlin really wanted to get a cat since before we even got married. She had cats all through her childhood and always didn’t like how she couldn’t have one in the dorms. I’ve always been rather ambivalent to cats mostly because my Dad was allergic to them so we didn’t ever have one growing up. My Mom had extended family in Richmond that we’d go up to see every year the Saturday before Christmas for our Christmas celebration. They had cats, and Dad would be drugged up on allergy medication, and would sometimes have to take several 5 minute breaks in our van just to survive the evening. So, we never had cats when I was a kid. The apartment Caitlin and I rent had a no pet policy when we moved in, so I figured I was saved at least for a little while from getting one of those little buggers. Recently, Caitlin has been going to the Greenville Humane Society to check out cats to adopt because she recently asked the landlord “pretty please could we have a cat” and it seems they’re probably going to let us. (Actually, the reason was Metzgers Furniture on the bottom floor owned the whole building and rented the top half and they set the no pets policy, not our landlords. Metzgers closed, so now they’re going to reconsider the pet thing since there doesn’t seem a good reason not to. It’s not for sure, and we should know soon.) I didn’t want to get the cat. Caitlin pleaded with me, then borderline threatened me, that if she didn’t have a creature to “nurture” she might “forget” to take her birth control… if you know what I’m saying. I thought that was rather low, but then I came to a realization that it might be cool to have a cat. What brought on this realization you ask? http://www.icanhazcheeseburger.com/

24. I was thinking today about how perfect my wife is for me. Out of all the wom’s out there, and the few I had relationships with, Caitlin really meets my needs seemingly naturally. She’s very intelligent and thoughtful, two qualities I appreciate in all my friends as well; she’s hilarious and makes the funniest facial expressions you’ve ever seen. I think she has incredible potential and passion for truth, her studies and for what she wants to do in the future. I’m envious of the quality of work that she has done through college. And while this is supposed to be a list of 25 things about me, I can’t not talk about how great she is. I’m pretty sure that if I didn’t have her in my life I’d be very worse off. I’m more than grateful that she’s a check to my selfishness, that she challenges what I say and think which forces me to rethink things that aren’t truth. She has strengthened my ability to love an incalculable amount, to which I think I’m a much more pleasant person to be around (still a long as from being described as “sweet” by an acquaintance, but she’ll get me there.) Caitlin is just so wonderful that she deserves all my time and attention and I am so terrible when it comes to that and want so much to be better for her. I feel very lucky that I ended up with such a steal of a woman and am the most proud to be know as her husband than anything else.

25. The one pretty sure idea I know about my future is I want it to have something to do with music. There’s nothing in my life that has had as profound an affect on it than the notes, the rhythms and the emotions of music.

Anyway, New Years was great.  While there I had a chance to talk to most of my friends about what’s been going on in their lives, particularly John Brit and Bekah.  John mentioned another blog of the name The Idea of the Writer by TV writer David Milch.  John talked on and on about Milch over the course of New Years, and if any of my friends are ever that excited about any one thing, it’s worth checking out.  He explained, and I’m very much simplifying this because I couldn’t convey John’s comments any justice, that Milch’s blog is all about writing the best you can and how to get there.  He said every writer needs to remove themselves from the process, they need to destroy all self-consciousness in writing.  Meaning, you can’t write for your audience, your peers, for what people will think of YOU because of YOUR writing.  You cannot even write for yourself, you must write for what is written, for who you are writing.  This was the voice of God in my ears.  Exactly!  I’ve been doing that for years!  This is particularly helpful even for me, though I do not write for a living, I do create and I must create for it’s sake alone and not for what people will think of me or to impress anyone with my creation. Well, how does one overcome, John, errm, um, or Milch?

Milch says one way is to spend 15 minutes every day writing, or creating, and then throw it away.  Write charactere exercises, write situations, write dialog, write descriptions, and throw it away.  Get out all self-consciousness there so you can free yourself to write for the product.  I need to go read more of Milch’s blog to fully understand this idea, but to start I’m going to do my best to write more.  Write just a little every day, and see if that helps motivate me to write more and more and more until I’m actually producing things that are good.  Which maybe shouldn’t be the impetus, but at least to get out some of the thoughts I have before I forget them.  And to create because I love creating.

This is the first of these 15 minutes blogs.  I’m going to categories all this work with “15 mins” to keep track of my progress and to keep myself accountable.  Will you help me too?

Thanks for your email.  Justin has been on my mind almost every day in the past few months.  I am so grateful to have known him and the rest of you, Chesnuts.  I have two things to share.  The first is an article I wrote for the Papyrus that was printed a week after Chester passed.

Justin Chesnut was a 2007 graduate magna cum laude of Greenville College.  He was a double major: Social Work and Management. He was a brother, a son, a boyfriend, a best friend and one of the most beautiful people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Justin suffered from muscular dystrophy, and died of heart failure at his home in Effingham on Wednesday, October 15th in the morning.
There are so many things that can be said of Justin, that it’s very difficult to whittle it down to a few short paragraphs for this article so I won’t try. I will say for myself that Justin had the faith of biblical proportions. Through constant struggles with his health, he achieved more than most: valedictorian of his high school, continued walking until he was 20 (when doctors said no later than 12), nearly straight A’s through 5 years of college, competed nationally at Future Business Leaders of America, Chi Beta Sigma scholar, and many other accomplishments. Never once did he complain about his disease, or use it as an excuse not to do his best. Justin’s life is a beacon and an example to all of us.
I wanted a few others to share their thoughts about Justin. Professor Jack Chism had this to say: “Justin couldn’t reach behind him to pass papers; he couldn’t raise his arms high enough to write on a chalkboard.  But in his years here, I never heard him complain about that or anything else.  He knew he’d never see a thirtieth birthday, but still studied hard, prepared for the future, and faced his troubles with good cheer, always.”
Chair of the Management Department Dr. Ivan Filby “I have so many good memories of Justin. My overwhelming memories of him were that he was always well prepared for class and was very bright indeed. I recall being with him in Nashville when he placed 4th in the nation in the Phi Beta Lambda Management Analysis and Decision Making competitive examination. I was so proud of him and bragged about him in all of his classes. I still do! He had a deep faith and was always positive. I am really glad to have known him and that we will have eternity to hang out together.”
While praying together the night after he passed, Ian Kitterman, a 2006 graduate who was Justin’s personal assistant for nearly 3 years, said “I think it’s ironic that God would use someone who was so weak, to teach me about strength.” Muscular dystrophy is a degenerative muscle disease, and Justin was confined to a wheelchair.
Before Justin passed he spent a lot of time talking to his brother Jared Chesnut about heaven, and he was confident that the first things he would do would be to play the piano, the saxophone, and baseball again. Justin said he’d be the best shortstop Jared had ever seen. And if I know Justin, he’s practicing ever so diligently, and he will be the best that any of us have ever seen.

The second thing I’d like to share is not so much a memory but how Chester still has a huge affect on my life.  And at the risk of sounding kind of silly, I’ll tell you.  Whenever I’d use a public restroom I’d almost always use the handicap accessible one.  This was simply because it’s larger, less of a chance for me to touch anything in the bathroom other than the floor with the soles of my shoes. Often I’d wonder what would happen if an actual handicapped person came in while I was using it, “would I be embarrassed?”  Luckily it never happened.  In light of what happened recently I decided to stop using the “extra large” stall and use a regular (read that as “extra small”) stall instead.  I call it a “pouring one out for my homie” just like I’ll take every opportunity to make a pun joke in tribute to Ian Kitterman.  This adjustment of my behavior is a tribute to Chester, though the tribute is only known to me, which is fine.  Every time that I go against my regular actions I think of Chester, I think of our friendship and his great love for me, I think God for him, I pray for him and his, and I pray for myself.  In this way I also do not forget about him (how could I possibly?)  For this is one of my biggest fears, forgetting.  I’m so happy that Chester is in a better place, and he’s whole, and completely fulfilled, but I am also still very sad to be without him.  Thank you for the opportunity to put my memories of him into words yet again, because he still lives on inside us, and remembering him makes him feel alive to me.

Merry Christmas, Chesnuts.

These pretzels are making me thirsty… You wouldn’t believe just how much I’ve eaten in the past two hours, just take a guess… I’m sitting across from Brandon Ross and he smells like flour, that cake-eater… If I could just have two things in this life one would be satisfaction… Yeah, right, surely, who do you think you are Mick, you can’t get no satisfaction… You may think that’s love, but I think “Oh my God!”… Aquamarine is a fair colour, and I like the British spelling of that word… I asked God if he had many employees in heaven, he said no, but he does have quite a collection of gossip… Jon Brownhill is wearing a red bandana but I prefer an afro… My feet are sweaty and have warts on the bottom of them… Which is funnier: a small child hitting its father between the legs with a baseball bat much like on America’s Funniest Home Videos or the thought of Pat Robertson in flames… Can you spell oddyssey, committment, or peice [sic]?… Fantastic!… Be ye cheerful and merry of heart for Christ is born this day in the City of the USA!… Don’t you fools know you can’t get up this way?.. This might be counterproductive, but Matt was looking for you… Grape Fanta® isn’t that good really, definitely not for a grape soda. I usually prefer orange if I gotta drink a fruit flavored soda anyway… It’s quarter of ten, maybe… Mel Gibson is very convincing in Signs, he makes me feel what he’s feeling… Apparently, and I didn’t know this beforehand, Greenville College’s entire baseball team hails from Scandinavia… I think I might be in love with Bob Dylan… Jon Brownhill also has dreads, but I still prefer an afro… I think if Jameson Ramirez wore a beret he’d look like Che Guevara, well, probably not, that guy looks like Benicio Del Toro… Dag nabbitt… I think what “senioritis” means is you’ve found something you want to focus on but you have 5 or 6 other classes trying to distract you from that, one of them being COR401… At Greenville College, different is good except when it offends and I aim to offend… Did he really just lie on the ground?… He’s a college graduate but he’s pretty much useless, he just sleeps all the time… Misinformation abounds… You silly, rabbit, Trix are for kids… I don’t know what it’s like over there? My roommate’s freaking Matt Good and you think I don’t know what it means to live in constant chaos!?… One of the best deals I ever came across was the Cardigans’ First Band on the Moon for $.25… Randy Bergen is a very fine looking man… I’ve eaten pizza about every day this week… As I child I went back and forth all the time between either the ability to fly or teleportation if God came down from heaven and ask me if I wanted to have a super power, or if I found a magic lamp that only had one wish left in it… According to the Disney movie Aladdin that proposition isn’t possible, each new master has three wishes, but who needs both the power of flight and teleportation because it’s a given that if you can fly you can fly with the speed of 7 747s… I’d like to transcend both time and space, well, I have transcended time, no, space, well, I don’t know what I’m talking about… I wish Allen Ginsburg was still alive ‘cause without him I feel as if a void as been put in my soul, but it could be the 5 pieces of pizza I ate tonight… Driving 4 cars to a show is xlocal bandx style…

While seeming trite and rather comical at the moment, the pastor encapsulated the meaning of community as well as making it clear how each member should respond to Lars. Through the love that each member shares throughout the film, Lars begins to understand that he is loved, and the delusion fades.

What is it about love that is so hard for many of us to practice in community? How are we responding to those at the fringes (Lars and his church or coworkers), and those who are close (Lars and his brother.) What can we do to create a loving atmosphere for those who truly having something wrong with them? And how can we love ourselves to prevent things like that happening to us on small and large scales?

I’ve been playing around with the layout of the website. I’m pretty poor at this web editing business, but know very well how to work around things. Maybe one day I’ll find time to learn how to do it (especially since I have the CS3 suite. It would make sense to put it to use.) Let me know your comments, and especially a way to make the twitter RSS in the top right look decent.