I love September. It’s the beginning of fall (objectively the most glorious season), it hosts Labor Day weekend (the *best* excuse for drinking on a Sunday), I get to start wearing black as my primary wardrobe color again (I never stopped in the first place), AND IT’S UNDERCOVER WEEKEND, YOU GUYS.

For those new to this blog or new to AUCW, An Under Cover Weekend is an annual concert series in St. Louis that takes place over a couple of days on one special weekend in that one special month. Local groups choose a famous band or artist (you’re all stars to us, locals!!!), learn some jams, and audition said jams to Michael Tomko, proprietor of AUCW and St. Louis renaissance man extraordinaire. Finally, after a drawn-out process (c’mon, we were all thinking it) of revealing each band’s “personality” for the evenings, we wait anxiously for those nights to arrive.

The 10 bands involved, along with Mr. Tomko, were kind enough to provide IWTAS readers a chance to aquaint themselves with this year’s AUCW bands as themselves, before we dance/rock out to them as MJ, Aerosmith, Oasis, U2, and MORE.

Enter An UNcovered Mix Tape – ten original songs available three fancy ways. First, have fun with our analog-meets-digital “Cassette Player”. Or, chug along at your leisure by downloading tracks individually from the list below, which includes my notes on each song (like it or not). Finally, take a minute or two and grab the entire album zipped file-style using the link after the track listing.

An UNcovered Mix Tape via the IWTAS Cassette Player, by Annie.

LTSFTG will cover Neil Young. Photo by Bryan Sutter.

01 Oh My God – Dots Not Feathers: I’m watching them grow up big and strong before my eyes! Katy takes lead here, which is always fun and pretty. As close to DNF gets to a rocker, and I dig it.
02 Alone – Aquitaine: Seasoned musicians produce pro tunes. Take this track with a High Life after a shitty day, and watch it melt away.
03 Second Line Mambo – Arthur and the Librarian: The current recipient of my “Most Intriguing New STL Band” traveling trophy. They sound as pleasant as a 3-day weekend, and they’re supposed to perpetually conjure this image, right?
04 All We’ve Got – Via Dove: Dang. These guys are kings of killer lead-in lyrics. Sit back, relax, and feel like a bad ass.
05 All We Need – HUMDRUM: Equal parts clever and cool, a dash of electronics nerd…that’s how the HUMDRUM sausage gets made. And it is delicious. (I know that last sentence was too much. I KNOW.)
06 Cracks – Last To Show First To Go: With Bredon Jones at its helm, LTSFTG employs intelligence and self-awareness with style. The brass on ‘Cracks’ is a swell aural anchor.
07 Goodbye – Animal Empty: Empty is what you’ll be…after this song EATS YOUR HEART.
08 Treetop Lover – Palace: I liken myself to Liz Lemon when it comes to the term ‘lover’, but that didn’t stop me from loving this snappy AUCW mix tape submission from Palace, a band that should be considered current St. Louis pop royalty. 
09 A Knife In The Dark – VOLCANOES: Two young men and one #RAGER of a track. You might do well to have this playing while cruising the streets of our crime-riddled city. Plus, that moment at the 2:45 mark where it sounds over and then just gets more awesome.
10 90 M.P.H. – LucaBrasi: I wrote a detailed, passionate report on Foo Fighters in 6th grade English. It was a thing. For this reason and others, I relish LucaBrasi’s sound. Listen to ’90 MPH’ at the end of a big night out and see why. You’ll feel free, man.

Download all of the songs as a zip

Friday, September 7th: AUCW6 Night 1 – The Firebird, 8:30pm. Tickets here.
Aquitaine as Oasis.
Animal Empty as PJ Harvey.
HUMDRUM as Beck.
VOLCANOES as The Killers.
LucaBrasi as U2.

Saturday, September 8th: AUCW Night 2 – The Firebird, 8:30pm. Tickets here. 
Arthur and the Librarian as Simon & Garfunkel.
Last To Show First To Go as Neil Young.
Palace as ABBA.
Dots Not Feathers as Michael Jackson.
Via Dove as Aerosmith.