'How Does St. Louis Do It' Is the Most Accurate STL Anthem Ever

A new song has St. Louis' number — describing the city in ways that feel both startlingly accurate and completely fair.

"How Does St. Louis Do It (We Got Range)" highlights the area's dichotomies. "Artsy, liberal, exceptionally literate/ sometimes our public schools get unaccredited," one lyric goes. "Hosted Olympics, hosted riots/ mostly hosted economic decline."

The chorus summarizes the whole "we're up/we're down" perspective on St. Louis: "How does St. Louis do it?/the good, the bad, and the strange (we got range)/We got range/Strange/How it can be so great to land on your feet when you fall on your face./We got range." Really, you can't argue with any of it.

And beyond the (expert) analysis, we have to respect the way the song delivers a full dose of local history — from the Great Divorce of 1876 to the screwed-up local patchwork that's led to predatory policing to Provel to, yes, the fact that we can claim 20 percent of the featured cast on The Office.

It's not 100 percent clear who was involved with the making of this perceptive little ditty, but the video is trademarked to Karate Lunchbox, a long-dormant band associated with St. Louis musician Andrew Volpe. Volpe all but confirmed his involvement by tweeting on X, "Super-proud to announce this song and video! I think it pretty well sums up my hometown in all its resplendent whatnots. St. Louis: We land on our feet when we fall on our face."

Best known locally for his work with Ludo, Volpe lists his current location as Los Angeles, a perspective that might explain how he's able to see his hometown so well — sometimes it takes a little distance to capture the truth about a place.

Watch the full video below.


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