Euclid Records employee and dude-about-town Rob Wagoner has been quietly at work on a major endeavor -- cataloging and archiving VHS tapes for his STL Music Video Preservation Project. Wagoner gets tapes of old local TV shows (including Critical Mass and Velocity, among others) and translates them into more modern, easily viewable formats. He posts clips to YouTube and to the STL Music Video Preservation Project Facebook fan page.
St. Louis music history fans have already been gabbing all over town about Wagoner's videos (which amounts to a much-appreciated community service project), but he has now taken this adventure further by posting a complete version of the famous cult documentary, STL 2000: A Year in St. Louis Underground Rock.
STL 2000 was produced by Matt Meyer (of the Ded Bugs) and it offers a time-capsule glimpse into the local rock scene in the year 2000. It features a diverse range of subjects, from kids in their first bands to rock'n'roll lifers. It includes interviews with band members, talent bookers, journalists, 'zine makers, scenesters and KDHX DJs. There's footage of long-forgotten bands and from musicians that are still active. And it features scenes from places that are only memories now- like Centro Sociale, the Galaxy and Mississippi Nights.
It's dark. It's crappy. It sounds like shit. And it's totally awesome.
Give it a peek. See what your friends looked like before they got fat, or while they still had hair or even when their bands were crappier / better. And consider getting active in documenting your own current scene, you might like to look back on it one day.
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