On a Saturday night in August, the dance floor in the basement of Tschüss couldn’t be more packed with dance music fans.
The Cherokee Street bar and basement club inspired by German dance venues has brought out plenty of regulars since opening in 2024, many who discover new St. Louis artists by going to the club.
Morgan Gallagher came to see Tilda Sweatin, a St. Louis-based house music DJ.
“We go here kind of a lot,” Gallagher said. “This is the place.”
For Gallagher and the packed basement of fans, the club has become one of the most popular ways for house music listeners to discover new music from St. Louis artists.
Going out to venues is one way for many fans to discover new music. Fans can follow popular podcasts where their favorite artist reveals their album cover and title.
They can also tune into their favorite artist’s cryptic livestreams across the world or watching a series of skits of an artist on a New York City subway and sharing copies of their album. But unless you know or are engaged to a podcast host, are on a world tour or can somehow get people in an NYC subway to care about a local album, these tactics might not work for homegrown talent.
In St. Louis, people are creating ways to introduce music fans to local artists in an increasingly crowded field of music releases.
Venue owners, events organizers and music fans have been trying to make it easier for listeners to explore their favorite genres and find their next favorite artist. Part of that includes finding ways to connect St. Louis artists with one another and boost their profiles.
Tschüss hosts a residency program for St. Louis-based DJs. The program puts a spotlight on emerging artists and builds connections with other artists, Tschüss creative director and booking manager Kalaija Mallery said.
“That's another thing that's important as a venue,” Mallery said. “To try and be a space that people could look to to find new talent and then that creates that web.”
St. Louis on the Air producer Miya Norfleet launched a new music roundup last year. She invites local artists to share their music on the show. She said discovering music is just as simple as stepping out of your comfort zone and paying attention to the flyers at a coffee shop or restaurant.
“I really will stop and look at that and just be like, ‘Oh, I hadn't heard of this venue before, let me look that up,’” Norfleet said. “If I like it, then I'll pay five bucks to see it. And if I don't like it, then I'll just leave because it was five bucks.”
For a lot of people at Tschüss, those old school methods are exactly how they find music.
“Mississippi Underground has so many just, like posters and like, you'll get like 10 flyers,” Zendaya Lewis said.
Others use social media.
“I like to use Instagram to follow some people that you know are already on the scene, kind of producing for the scene,” said Logan Jackson.
And of course, there’s the most radical method, and one of Norfleet’s favorites: just walking into a venue.
“When I see a crowd of people waiting patiently outside in any weather, I'm curious enough to ask, ‘What are y'all doing, what are you here for,'” Norfleet said. “And they are more than happy to tell you.”
Norfleet said that’s how she discovered St. Louis Metal band Fister after seeing a crowd of people waiting to see them perform at Fubar, which has been replaced by Red Flag. That led her to see them perform at the RFT Music Showcase, a local music festival that brought 100 artists to venues across the Grove.
Joseph Hess helped book the acts for the showcase and has since co-founded Free 4 All, an event that launched in September that featured performances from 100 St. Louis punk, country, alternative, hip hop and R&B artists.
Hess says he designed the event to be a place for people to discover new local artists and artists can meet with one another.
“What this is supposed to be is a local music holiday that is for musicians, made by musicians,” Hess said. “More than anything else, I want local creatives to be able to mingle and collaborate in the future in ways that would not have been possible if this event did not put everyone in the same place at the same time.”
The showcase ran Sept. 6-7 and brought music fans to nine stages across Grand Center. Each artist played 30 minute sets before handing the stage off to another act. Hess wants the festival to highlight that St. Louis is a music city with a large swath of artists that tackle every genre imaginable.
And he wants music fans to know that, too.
“I just wish that residents throughout the St Louis region would acknowledge how incredible the St. Louis music community is and start taking chances by going out to those smaller clubs and investing their time and their attention into the local arts,” Hess said.
Many venues across the U.S. have gone through enormous changes over the past several years. Spaces like Blank Space and Fubar have transformed. Storied venues like BB’s Jazz, Blues and Soups and Beale on Broadway closed their doors as well. And of course, the coronavirus pandemic shuttered many sites and events.
“The infrastructure we need here isn’t here,” S.L.U.M. Fest Co-Founder John Harrington said. “That's why it's so hard to find new up and coming artists, you really have to go out and look for them.”
Harrington said that’s why it’s so important to attend local festivals and shows, to support the many local music scenes across the region.
He founded S.L.U.M. Fest, the St. Louis Underground Music Festival, in 2010 with a focus on underground hip-hop and R&B artists. The coronavirus pandemic shut the festival down in 2020.
It returns this month after a four-year break, and he said it was an easy decision to bring it back; to make sure St. Louisans have a way to find new music because their favorite new artist could be one new event away.
“It's a legacy, really,” Harrington said. “I think it's trying to keep the music going and keeping the scene going and keeping you know music available for the next generation of people.”
