Best Band to Leave Town in the Past 12 Months

Those quick to assume that music fans in St. Louis can't handle anything too challenging will be at least slightly relieved to find out that Hroom Hroom weren't driven out of town on a musical rail; instead the duo relocated to Chicago for the higher purpose of higher education. Made up of drummer Aleta Lanier and guitarist/singer Blueberry McGregor (previously seen as two-thirds of the amazingly powerful feminist art-punks the Star Death), the band brought a wide-eyed wonder and a playful willingness to experiment to the handful of shows they played during their brief existence here, every one of them unique and fascinating. An early performance featured the pair making breakfast and chasing each other around the venue with a flute before delivering a set of free jazz-tinged punk/skronk; the next show found them singing sweetly while trading off new-wavy keyboard lines. The St. Louis indie/experimental/punk scene was a richer, quirkier place for having had Hroom Hroom around, so here's hoping they come home to visit often.