Cloister

Starting a band is a tough thing. Maintaining it is even harder. It takes time, money, luck and talent. A serious lack of any one of these attributes and it's not going to last very long.

The first time I was ever on stage in front of people with a band was in Kansas City in 1984. I was only 10 years old hanging out at some club during a Sodbusters (whose members eventually became The Sin City Disciples) show. Someone noticed how young I was and thought it would be funny to get me to sing a song. So up on stage I went. I was told to sing something. At the time the only song I knew all the words to was Wall of Voodoo's "Mexican Radio". The musicians on stage started playing and I started singing. It was such a thrill I have no real recollection of it, just a vague impression. That impression has turned into a lasting influence on me even today. The first band I was in started around 1991 called The Asbestos Sisters. The one and only band I started and attempted to maintain was a band called Cloister.

Cloister began while I was living in South Saint Louis in a house on Alfred Ave. I had convinced Mike Cook to move from Jackson, MO to Saint Louis and help me with the band. He did so and we set up the basement as a rehearsal/recording space. Also from Jackson, MO was Garrett Fronabarger who was already living in Saint Louis and was interested in the idea of playing in a band. Garrett played guitar and was a natural. While in high school he had played with The Church of Bowling (which also featured Tim Evans on guitar) but it had been awhile since he had played with a group. We had no real idea of what type of music we wanted to create. I wrote simple tunes on an acoustic guitar, Garrett was great at playing lead and Mike wrote songs, programmed a drum machine and played a mini-Moog. Needless to say the music that came out was kind of strange.

Organized Chaos

Organized Chaos

2000

Our first recording was called "Organized Chaos" and that's exactly what it sounded like. You couldn't tell where the songs started and the noise ended. It was recorded on one of those Roland digital recorders that were being sold left and right at Guitar Centers across the country. It was a nice machine but we weren't going to waste any time reading the instructions. We started recording sometime in late 1999 and had 10 songs by Janurary of 2000. I "engineered" and "mixed" the recordings. It actually got a little attention in the local press.

A layer of static covers the music of Cloister, but it's probably intentional. There's fuzz deep inside the guitar, and said fuzz, combined all the various pedals, keyboards and Moogs Cloister employs, renders any individual sound indistinguishable. You know there's a lot happening inside their first CD, aptly titled Organized Chaos, but you'll have a tough time nailing much of it. It's a big wide wash of melodic static that recalls the music of My Bloody Valentine and Grandaddy. Musically, Cloister is solid and adventuresome. In a local community of soundalikes, the band is worth hearing because they're stretching to create something new and different and they're better than most for that reason alone. - Randall Roberts, The Riverfront Times Mar 29 2000

We were amazed and excited so we kept working on songs.

Mike Cook - drum machine programming, moog, vocals
Garrett Fronabarger - guitars
Dana Smith - guitars, vocals

Track listing

1. Duck-Billed Women

2. Moment of Wow

3. Dull Pennies

4. Homecomers

5. Actions

6. Punctuation

7. Route 3

8. Electronics

9. Hic Pi Barbeque

10. Reality

Bombs

Bombs

2000

This was a batch of songs we made just for fun on Mike's old four track. More about experimentation than anything else.

Mike Cook - drum machine programming, keyboard, moog, vocals
Garrett Fronabarger - guitars
Dana Smith - guitars, keyboard, vocals

Track listing

1. I Don't Want To Know

2. Cars/Changing

3. Bombs

P.S. I actually saw a copy of this CD being offered on EBAY a couple of years ago by someone in Kentucky.

Recorduroy

Recorduroy

2001

The year 2000 was slow for Cloister. We played a few gigs, our first, thanks to Tony Renner was at the Way Out Club when it was on Cherokee Street opening for Tiger Mountain. However, we were finding out it was tough to reproduce our recordings. We didn't have a drummer or bass player and the sound didn't always translate live. The end of 2000 was spent working on a new batch of recordings. I had a pretty good grasp on the digital recorder and the songs we were writing were getting better. Also during this time we started hanging out at Frederick's Music Lounge. The owner, Fred Friction, took pity and offered us some regular gigs. This was a chance to figure out how we can translate what we're doing on recordings in a live setting.

By March of 2001 we were getting more confident in playing live and we were satisfied with the new CD we produced. Once again I "engineered" and "mixed" it in my basement. It got a number of nice mentions in the local press and helped garner a Riverfront Times Music Award Nomination (we lost to Grandpa's Ghost). One of the most interesting things that happened when we put that disk out was the attention we got from an Internet radio station called 3WK. The station was one of the first (if not the first) Internet radio stations known globally that was playing independent music or Indie Rock. It had a stellar reputation and was by chance located in South Saint Louis. The owner and programmer, Jim Atkinson, had started playing a couple songs off of "Recorduroy" and we began hanging out at the station together. Another friend, Martin Garner, produced an Internet video (pre-YouTube) for one of the songs on the disk called "Operator Malfunction". The last gig of the year ended on a high note as well. It was an event put on by Eric Hall then organizing the Third Lip Cabaret shows that were held in various locations around the city. This show was on Thanksgiving at the Galaxy and the bands included were The Highway Matrons, Fred's Variety Group, Julia Sets and members of Grandpa's Ghost. Playing at that show is a highlight of my life. By no means was this a runaway success, but all these things made for a very encouraging year and by December we were back in the basement working on new material.

Mike Cook - drum machine programming, keyboard, moog, vocals
Garrett Fronabarger - guitars, keyboard
Dana Smith - guitars, keyboard, organ, vocals

Track listing

1. Possibilities

2. Rubbing the Curb

3. Cars/Changing

4. As Small As Your Pants

5. Operator Malfunction

6. I See You

7. In The Countric

8. Shooting Eyes

9. Drunk

10. Burrows

Sketches

Sketches

2002

In December of 2001 we started recording demos for some new songs that were quickly written. The recordings were all done on Mike's old Yamaha four track and most of the instruments were played live as in all together at the same time. We'd come up with an idea and put it down to tape as fast as we could. Garrett and I were in total sync with each other in our playing. He had the perfect lead complement for my simple chord progressions. Mike learned to ad lib on the drum machine which he had going through an array of effects including the cherished KAOSS PAD. The recordings had a unique sound to them and I dug them. I played some of them to Jim at 3WK and he liked them also, so much so that he offered to promote them on his station. I was thrilled. We put together a CD and called it "Sketches" cause that's what the songs were and it began heavy rotation on 3WK. This was a great boost but the group began to fracture.

Musically we were all going in different directions with our personal tastes and influences. This at first creates incredible tension that can be utilized to great effect. However, after a time the tension can become too much and things don't work out so well. By August Cloister consisted of just Mike and I. We had worked out a deal with Chris Deckard for him to engineer and produce our next CD at his studio Radio Penny. In September we played what was to be our last show at the Way Out Club on Jefferson with The BaySayBoos. While unloading for that show I broke my foot and ankle. By November Cloister no longer existed.

Tracks 1 - 4, 6 - 8, 11
Mike Cook - drum machine programming, keyboard, moog, vocals
Garrett Fronabarger - guitars
Dana Smith - guitars, keyboard, vocals

Track 5
Garrett Fronabarger - guitar
Martin Garner - bass, harmonica
Dana Smith - guitar, drums, vocals

Tracks 9 - 10
Garrett Fronabarger - guitars
Craig Goodson - bass
Dana Smith - drums, guitars, vocals

Track listing

1. Attention Span

2. Goodbye

3. Keep It To Yourself

4. Go To College

5. Westmere

6. Orange Juice

7. My Window

8. In This Way

9. Stuffed Fish

10. Mad Hatter

11. Illusions of Culture

Blue Tile Rock

Blue Tile Rock

2003

Most of the songs for “Blue Tile Rock” were written in the summer of 2002. By that time it was just Mike and I. We spent the summer working on demos not only for what would be “Blue Tile Rock” but also another album that was tentatively called “Tandem”. For the last couple of years we had gotten to know Chris Deckard who owned and operated a recording studio in Saint Louis called Radio Penny along with his partner Jason Rook. This studio used analog tape and Chris was genuinely interested in what we were doing. Chris is a great talent with an excellent ear and Radio Penny had recorded bands like Julia Sets, The Conformists, The Star Death and countless other artists. We gave Chris our demos and booked time for a week in August.

In addition to the BOSS-Dr550 Drum Machine, Mike had acquired an Akai Sampler and this thing was pretty magnificent. With this machine Mike could now record sounds he wanted to use in songs, he wasn’t just limited to whatever sounds were already programmed. One of the first things he recorded was the sound water makes when it spills over from making coffee and burns on the hot plate of the coffee maker. So for a week in August we moved into Radio Penny and began recording what would end up being our last collection of songs. The week of recording was rather uneventful, we’d track the drum machine or sampler, then I’d add some guitar parts, Mike would put in the Moog and then we’d work on vocals. There was a short trip to a local swimming pool where Chris did a field recording of kids playing in the pool which was used throughout the song "Orange Juice". We did have some visitors while recording. First was Ben Hanna of Grandpa’s Ghost who stopped by on the first day of recording to wish us luck. Then Eric Hall dropped by at my request to track sounds he was doing at the time with bowed objects such as egg beaters and cymbals which created a sustaining, haunting sound of a lost subway train. Andy Benn from The Potomac Accord added some dissonant piano and keyboard to a couple songs as well. By a stroke of luck my old friend and previous band mate Don Cento was in town for an Elvis Costello concert and he agreed to add some Captain Beefheartish guitar to one of the tunes.

All in all things went smoothly and by the end of the week we were pretty happy with what we had. Chris made us a rough mix of all the songs and we took them home to figure out what we wanted to do. Unfortunately we never could figure out what to do. By November of 2002 the band no longer existed. The recordings were forgotten and life went on. In the spring of 2003 Chris contacted me and asked if I was ever going to do anything with the recordings. I told him I didn’t have the energy to put into it and asked him if he’d mix and produce the recordings and he agreed. In addition to mixing he also added bass, guitar, drums, vocals and even got John Goddard to do some spoken word stuff on one of the songs. When he gave me the final mix I was extremely pleased with what he had done. He was one of the few people in town who really understood what we were trying to do and it’s because of him that we even had these recordings. That group of songs was the last thing Cloister ever created.

Mike started working on solo tunes and collaborating with other musicians. I recorded two solo things on my own and then started playing the drums with The Wormwood Scrubs and The BaySayBoos and guitar with Chris Deckard’s Incorporated. Nothing ever happened with the “Blue Tile Rock” recordings except for one song, “Orange Juice”. The recording of that song was part of a compilation CD released by 52nd City called “Sounds”.

Starting a band is a tough thing. Maintaining it is even harder. It takes time, money, luck and talent. A serious lack of any one of these attributes and it's not going to last very long.


Andy Benn - keyboard, piano (My Window)
Don Cento - guitars (Backwards Town)
Mike Cook - drum machine/sampler programming, keyboard, moog, bass, vocals
Chris Deckard - drums, guitars, bass, keyboard, vocals
John Goddard - spoken word (Under the Gun)
Eric Hall - bowed egg beater and cymbal (Peace of Mind)
Dana Smith - guitars, vocals

Produced and Mixed by Chris Deckard

Track listing

1. Orange Juice

2. Under the Gun

3. Peace of Mind

4. Duck-Billed Women Demo Fragment

5. Backwards Town

6. Perils

7. Reality Demo Fragment

8. My Window