[show_avatar email=jess@iwenttoashow.com align=left avatar_size=62] First, a semi-personal story. Earlier this year, my friend Megan and I traveled five hours from St. Louis to Nashville’s adorable little T-shaped venue called 3rd and Lindsley to see three singer-songwriters named Allison Weiss, Bess Rogers, and Jenny Owen Youngs.

Little did we know, the individual-artists-turned-lady-super-group-for-tour was one of three acts playing that evening. As Meg and I awkwardly chatted post-show with Weiss, Rogers, and Youngs, we were stopped mid-fawning as Company of Thieves, out of Chicago, rattled on to the stage. C.O.T. plays energetic live sets that grab you right by the face. Leading lady Genevieve Schatz is charming, commanding, and a hell of a vocalist.

Listening to their notable debut release, Ordinary Riches, is a different experience than seeing the band live. They are loud. They are lyrically clever (their single, “Oscar Wilde,” won the 2007 New York Songwriters Circle contest). They are very arresting.

Spinner interviewed C.O.T during this year’s Lollapalooza, during which Schatz wears a fantastic squid shirt.

Two local groups will set the stage for Company of Thieves. A new incarnation of rock trio Peach features Mark Easley on drums, along with Alex Powers and Melissa Roberts. Being unfamiliar with Peach up until this point, Roberts provided me with a brief history of the band.

In mid-2009, Peach came to be as a self-described rock/pop-trash trio, fronted by Melissa. In the year and a half since Peach’s birth, they’ve been working on developing new material – enough for an EP that will be recorded this year. Roberts offered up the story of how the band’s new line-up was formed:

One night, at an otherwise uneventful gig in Belleville, IL, a guy approached us and offered to record us for free. As we had a lot of old material that we were essentially getting rid of (but still wanted “on record”), we took his e-mail address.

That guy was Mark Easley. After a few weeks of working with him and teaching him the old songs, we asked him to be our real, full-time drummer (it felt very much like “pinning” one’s beau back in the day, at least we imagined it to be such). He said yes.

We’re really excited about things to come, including our second show with Company of Thieves, and our official recording debut. Mark is an excellent addition to the group, and it feels so good at times that we’re convinced it’s a new band. It’s “Peach 2.0,” so in a way it is.

Additionally, Stephen Baier of the new local folk group Dots Not Feathers sat down with us (on the Internet) to chat about the band’s inception, musical influences, and their forthcoming debut album, which will be available for purchase at the Company of Thieves show.

JL: First, how long has DNF been together, and how long have you been playing organized shows?

SB: DNF started in February with Ryan and I deciding to form a folk act. We’ve been best friends since high school and had always wanted to start a project together. Ravi and Katy joined us in March and that’s when the lineup solidified. Our first real organized show was this fall at Foam. Until that point, we’d played at different open mics and relied on word of mouth.

JL: You all seem to be pretty talented musicians, and you’re still wee, right? Are all of you in school for music study of some kind?

SB: Everyone still is in college. I’m 22, Ravi’s 24, Ryan’s 22 and Katy is 19. Ravi and I study Vocal Music Education at UMSL, Ryan studies Vocal Performance at UMSL, and Katy was a vocal performance major at UMSL as well.

JL: I know it’s shitty and/or difficult to ask you to describe your sound, but can you name some artists from whom you draw or have drawn inspiration?

SB: Well, one thing that I really like about this group of musicians is that we all draw from different areas. As a group, I think we collectively draw inspiration from acts like Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver, and Fleet Foxes.

JL: You have an album coming out, and soon. Tell me about it.

SB: It’s called A Thousand Novels and we should have it in hand this week. We started recording for it in June and finished three weeks ago. Thankfully, we had the time to really delve into the recording and make sure it was exactly what we wanted. We even ended up adding a song about a week before our deadline! It was a lot of fun to make; I’m really excited just to get it out there for people to hear.

JL: Can you talk to us a little about the content and/or concept of A Thousand Novels?

SB: Lyrically, the album is really honest. Most of the songs came from real situations in my life or members of the band’s lives. A lot of times that’s the only way I know how to write, to just be honest and let the cards fall where they may. It’s all very personal. However, there are a few songs on the album that came from either short stories that really resonated with me, or story lines that the band came together to write as a whole.

JL: Who handled the album art?

SB: Jesse Kuhn at rawtoastdesign.com. He did a fantastic job. I basically gave him the go ahead to do whatever design he wanted after sending him tracks and lyrics. We couldn’t be happier with the results.

JL: So how stoked are you guys about opening for Company of Thieves? Are you familiar with their music?

SB: We’re so excited! Katy has been in love with them for a few years now. I jumped on the Company of Thieves bandwagon over the summer. It’s a little surreal to think that we’ll be playing this show with them – we almost started dancing in the streets when we found out that we were on the bill.

JL: Thanks for chatting with us. Anything else you’d like St. Louis to know about Dots Not Feathers?

SB: We just love playing music, and we hope to get the opportunity to share it with as many people in St. Louis as possible.

JL: I think you’re on your way.

Do yourselves a favor this Thursday and come up to The Firebird for a show. Details here.