Big Star Kadillac

A long time coming

1987-1989

Dave and Andy, having known each other since preschool, bond over their shared love of music. They both have different taste in music. Dave listens to Poison, Metallica, and Guns n Roses. Andy is already a budding music snob at this point and listens bands like the Smiths and the Cure. They spend long hours hanging out over at a friends house. The three of them play guitars together attempting to cover songs by R.E.M., U2, The Church and others. Nothing much comes of this other than good times shared amongst friends. They get older, move on to high school and stop playing music together.

1992-1994

Andy becomes friends with Mike S their junior year of high school. They both have study hall together and share a love of tormenting the teacher. Mike S and Andy start hanging out driving around, chasing girls, talking about and listening to bands. They go to some local shows and see bands like Pale Divine and The Urge. Mike S has never played an instrument before but has always wanted to. They form the satire band Spam I Am and begin playing over at Andy's parents house. At first the whole thing is a joke, a chance to make things up via their rock star alter egos. Despite their best efforts, they actually get better on their instruments. They enter in a battle of the bands at their high school (Bishop Duborg) and thoroughly confuse both the students and faculty with their strange brand of intentionally bad rock. Dave (who also went to high school with Andy and Mike S) was almost added to Spam I Am's lineup for this contest but never showed up for practice the night before. Dave would have to wait 10 years for that opportunity to arise again. Needless to say they lost the contest but continued to play together although now they made "serious" music. They had a couple different drummers to play with but they never left Andy's basement. Eventually they didn't hang out as much. Mike S started playing with Uncle's band while Andy wrote songs on his own.

1997-1999

Mike S and Andy start playing together again along with their mutual friend Amadeus (yes that's his name). They practice at a large building formally used as a half way house for convicts where Amadeus is living at the time. They have fun playing together and eventually Andy moves in with Amadeus. They soon add another drummer with Amadeus taking over lead vocals and name themselves Big Star Cadillac. They play several open mic nights at The Way Out Club and a few shows there as well, opening up for the now defunct Tiger Mountain. The band tries to record and things go bad. They allow a cranky studio producer convince them that the band isn't any good and start fighting with each other more often than not. They add a second guitar player but break up shortly thereafter. Andy continues to play with the bands drummer but nothing much comes of that either.

2001-2003

Dave, Andy, Amadeus, and Mike S begin playing acoustically together in Andy's basement. They record a few cds but never play out. Mike S and Andy continually butt heads with Amadeus. Amadeus stops playing music with them. Dave, Mike S and Andy start playing over at Mike S's mother's basement. They now play plugged in with amps and get very loud. The three get together at least once a week to stand in circle, playing and writing songs without a drummer. As you can imagine it gets a bit difficult to play rock music with no drummer and they try out a few guys to fill the spot. One never shows (probably after listening to a very bad demo cd) and the other comes over twice but doesn't gel with the band. The band recruits an old friend, Larry Buchelle formally the bassist from local band Trailer to play drums. Larry comes over few times but doesn't have the free time for a band.

2003-present

Out of desperation to land a drummer they convince a co-worker (Mike D) of Mike S to come over and play with the group. Mike D at this point has about 3 months of drumming under his belt but makes up for his lack of confidence/experience with immense musical talent. They also meet an accomplished singer (Claude) around the same time. Claude was already in a band with Dave's Great Uncle. Dave's Uncle's band had no prospects of ever playing out so Claude decides to join Andy, Dave, Mike D, and Mike S. They call themselves Big Star Kadillac (yes this time with a "K" instead....I guess so they wouldn't get sued by Big Star?) The band finally plays their first show at Panama Reds. The band is hired for a hip hop show to fill in between DJ sets. Despite the inexperience of the band, they make an electric connection with the crowd.

Big Star Kadillac is an all-original band. Our influences range from: U2 to Fugazi to the Flaming Lips to Stevie Wonder to Prince to Coheed and Cambria to Led Zepplin, to Lynard Syknard to Radiohead to Van Morrison (etc...). We play with emphasis on passion over precision. We play aggressively beautiful melodies tinged with soul and psychedelic overtones built on top of rock solid rock/funk/blues rhythms. Our songs try confront the listener into thinking for themselves. We are outsiders to any "scenes" or trends. We couldn't fit in even if we tried. We want the radio waves and we're aiming right for your hearts.

The band has played (at 60+ shows) all around the St. Louis metro area with the likes of: Red Eyed Driver, Team Tomato, The Highway Matrons, Scene of Irony, Shame Club (etc..)and out of town with bands like Lojic and Ardent Eyes (etc...). We've won the battle of the bands at the Red Sea in University City and played live on the radio (KPNT 105.7 the point) at Pops in Sauget Il. Our music has been played on KDHX 88.1 fm We have a 5 song EP titled "Open your eyes" which was recorded at Radio Penny Studios. Please come out to one of our shows if you haven't seen us yet.

Yes about 2 times a month on the average. We live to play out and wish we could do it more often. Everytime we play it's great.

Ok, I'm just going to name band names:

The Flaming Lips, Radiohead, Fugazi, Weezer, New Edition, Brian McKnight, U2, Helmet, Sigur Ros (sp?), Stereo Lab, Aphex Twin, Metallica, The Replacements, The Beatles

guitars, bass, yamaha sampler, roland mixer, beer