The Brainstems are Profiled by the ‘St. Louis’ PD (Press Department)
“There’s a lot to unpack here.” “And that’s a good thing!” As a precaution both phrases were scanned for in this x-large St. Louis Magazine profile of The Brainstems. Our bot found neither. Ruling it click-safe for you. Then our intern—who cuts-and-pastes things our bot approves of, like the brakes of internet mods and interview excerpts—pasted the following:
STL Magazine: If you were forced to pick one song from The Brainstems' history as a band to name as your favorite, which would song would you pick and why? And don't punk out with the “songs are like children, I can't pick a favorite” excuse, pick one.
Sam Clapp: “4244” from the new record [No Place Else] is one of my favorites in the ‘Stems catalog. It was written 100 percent collaboratively, which is great, because it allows everyone the pride of authorship while sparing everyone the self-critical shame that inevitably bubbles up when you’ve written something alone. It’s got a weird structure that really jerks you around emotionally, the mixing is good and everyone’s riffing their hardest. Plus, it’s a jam!
Andrew Warshauer: I think I would have to say "4244." I think it's maybe the best-sounding recording we've made. I'm proud of the work we did on it. I like that it was a group effort to make that song. We even snuck in a key change to a rock song that doesn't feel corny. I had this little riff that is just a run of a scale that you hear at the end of the song for 10 seconds. But we jammed it out into this really great song.
Personally? We would have pasted excerpts detailing the band’s uphill downhill history (that thankfully culminated in No Place Else) or their spooky on-tour encounter with a certain most-wanted costumed bank robber, subject of a true crime podcast, but the entire enlightening feature by journalist Joseph Hess is well worth reading. Our intern is now holding up a mod’s thumb. And pasting it to a wall? Consensus is in. Highest rec.
