St. Louis Post Dispatch 25 august 05

A "Lot" of music is on tap for saturday

St. Louis will put its best original-music feet forward with this year's collection of perfomers at the Lot, an annual free concert sponsored by Metropolis St. Louis. Since 1998, the Lot has provided a showcase for diverse range of local perfomers
As has been the case in recent years, the lineup does skew heavily toward the rock side of the spectrum, but there is plenty of variety within that genre, including Riddle of Steel, The Transmitters and The Helium Tapes.
Waterloo is playing smack in the middle of the event, has been together for as long as the Lot has been around. That kind of longevity is rare in local-music circles, but Waterloo hasn't worn out its welcome. In seven years, the band has released two albums and probably performed less thatn two dozen live shows.
"In the Light of Day," the second album from Waterloo, released in 2004, is a beautiful collection of songs and soundscapes, big guitar hooks and little keyboard nuances.
"My hope with Waterloo," says guitarist-pianist-vocalist-songwriter Mark Ray, "was always to put a kind of shimmery, hazy lens on my love/hate relationship with the Midwest – it's atomosphere, geography, inertia, politics and values. If there are interesting things to say about all of that, I'll keep doing it. I've never had any commerical goals, only a desire to craft the records well enough to hold up."
Ray, bassist Dave Melson and drummer John Baldus have been together since the band began. In 2001, original guitarist Marc Chechik left, and Chris Grabau replaced him. Grabau is also the leader of Magnolia Summer, in which Ray plays as well. Both are partners in the Undertow Music Collective, a record label and artist-matnamtne company. Not surprisingly, Waterloo (and Magnolia Summer) records are released on Undertow. Matt Pence, of the respected indie-rock band Centro-Matic, has become an unofficial fifth member as producer/engineer.
Next month, the band wil head down to Denton, Texas, to begin recording a third album, slated for a spring or early summer release, and that's one of the motivations for Waterloo's appearance at the Lot.
"I'm not sure we monrmally would have played something like this festival," says Ray, "but I'm still surprised/honored when people ask us to play. And we've got a bunch of new material that's never been played live. While I don't love playing out, I do love how playing in front of people tightens up the material for recording."

– Steve Pick