The Conformists, “None Hundred”

August 28th, 2010

If you were to ask me what I liked most about playing in a traveling rock band, I would tell you this: friendships. The most rewarding thing about going on tour is seeing all the friends you’ve made, catching up, sharing stories, telling jokes, and schooling them at hoops. Being in a band means dotting the countryside with talented, kind, fun and friendly people, and some of the best ones I’ve met in my time reside in St. Louis, Missouri. Collectively, they’re known as The Conformists.

The first time I met Mike, Jim and Chris (and at the time, Tom) was in 2005. STNNNG was on our first tour, sharing a van with another Twin Cities band, Falcon Crest, and our trip took us through St. Louis, where we had a show lined up at the Lemp Arts Center. At the time, Chris was still sporting men’s formal wear as a part of his regular attire, which inspired certain preconceived notions in The Conformists about what the quality of our music would be. Likewise, when half their band took the stage decked out in little more than muscles and sweat, we prepared ourselves for whatever rock-and-roll cliche was about to ensue.

Instead, The Conformists played one of the most confounding, bizarre, and dramatic shows I’d seen since getting introduced to the music of Arab on Radar at the Foxfire Coffee Lounge in 1999. The music was perplexing, the imagery was peculiar, and the commentary was, well…let’s just say it took a good year or so before you could tell whether the things that would come out of their mouths were serious or not (they aren’t).

We became good friends, and over time, St. Louis became somewhat of a destination.

The Conformists’ long-time drummer, Tom, left the band in 2007. In 2009, I had the honor of filling in for a few shows while they were integrating their newest drummer, Pat. We spent Memorial Day weekend rehearsing a handful of songs from their second album, Three Hundred, in preparation for a pair of shows the following month. The second show was held at Union Rock Yards in Chicago, IL for the “PRF BBQ”, which was hosted by members of the Electrical Audio message board. One of the forum members, Toomanyhelicopters, took footage of the entire set, which I was grateful to have as a memento when I returned to the Twin Cities.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJBGy9e7Dlg&hl=en&fs=1]

The whole point of this long and convoluted story is to tell you that this great band has finished recording their third album, None Hundred. It is being released on LP (with an included CD) by the criminally-underrated label Sick Room Records on Tuesday, September 21st.

Two tracks, “Jesus was a Shitty Carpenter” and “Swim Home” can be heard on the band’s Myspace.

I will endorse few things in life, but friendship and great bands are two of them. I hope this record makes them rich.

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