June 30, 2017
Post-punk enthusiasts Gary Robert, Brandon Glenn and Jeff Statler form Gary Robert and Community
You never quite know what you will find in the community. To bear that out, look no further than a windowless, "single-car garage" in Cape Girardeau. It does not house a single car. In fact, there's not even an overhead door. There's a single walk-in door entrance, however, flush against a second door. ...
You never quite know what you will find in the community.
To bear that out, look no further than a windowless, "single-car garage" in Cape Girardeau.
It does not house a single car. In fact, there's not even an overhead door.
There's a single walk-in door entrance, however, flush against a second door. The small interior features gray wall-to-wall carpeting, which just happens to match the carpeting on the ceiling and walls. The only illumination is provided by orange and blue bulbs and a neon Coors Light sign.
The outside world is silenced by thick insulation, making it seem more like a room in a psych ward, which seems to become more a possibility when looking at a side wall. Attached are 11 white pieces of paper with words written in black marker. The words form interesting combinations -- "Hell Whisperer" and "Explanation Overload" among the scribble.
A drum set, guitars, foot pedals and amplifiers provide a new angle on the room, however.
As it happens, the words are titles to songs written by a 1969 Illmo-Scott City graduate.
Most of the songs are tracks on CDs, each displayed on one of the other sound-deadening walls, a self-released collection of punk-rock mutations that has grown over the years.
The latest CD, "Curse of Siam," features the current three-man configuration of lead singer and guitarist Gary Robert, drummer Brandon Glenn and bassist Jeff Statler.
In some circles, they are better known as Gary Robert and Community.
The 66-year-old Robert has been fending off Father Time quite well and still carries the laid-back air of California, where he has lived a good chunk of years, in appearance and speech.
He advises visitors to the tight quarters to wear earplugs, like the band members, and then proceeds to fill the air with his youth secret, pounding out "Hell Whisperer," the tentative title track of their upcoming post-punk CD.
"It's definitely a passion," Robert said. "Once you get it in your blood, it's hard to stop doing it, if you really love what you do. It's very good for the blood pressure, too, or, if you're not feeling good, I can play music and the blood pressure goes down and everything goes away. All the worries and everything is gone."
He's a lifelong fan of Iggy Pop, and his music carries similar tones with his deadpan vocal delivery in front of usually hyper-paced, straight forward chords synced to Glenn's drumming.
"A big, big fan," Robert said about Pop, one of punk rock's enduring faces. "He's probably my biggest influence. He was everywhere. I mean, he was there even before punk. So I was into him and continued all the way through the punk movement and through, even up to now. His last album was awesome, I thought."
Robert has played in bands since the age of 15, including in California during the heyday of punk music in the late '70s and early '80s.
When he returned to the area around 1992, he found himself at a loss for fellow musicians of similar composition.
"I was trying to find musicians who were into the same thing I was, and I couldn't find any for, like, years and years, and finally found some guys and started putting it together and do different stuff," Robert said. "But yeah, it was hard to find somebody at first that was into the post-punk type stuff."
Glenn hooked up with Robert in 2005 when the band was called Mass Diffusion and has remained. The group changed its name to The Sorries in 2008 and released "Suicidal Maniac," only to be notified by an established group the name was taken. The end result was the unmistakable branding of Gary Robert and Community, which next produced two "punk Americana" CDs.
They're a bit of a dark period for Robert, and he's moved on.
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"That's two albums of songs that we don't play," Robert said. "They're not on the board. We don't do that stuff live."
Robert got back in tune with his post-punk roots with the release of his "Tumble Fur" CD in 2014, but shortly after lost his bass player.
Finding bass players with a soft spot for post-punk music is not easy in Cape Girardeau -- that is, unless you happen to stumble upon a U.S. Postal Service truck driver disenchanted with playing in cover bands.
Enter Statler, a native Californian who graduated from Cape Girardeau Central High School. He had similar sentiments about a seemingly hopeless quest for musical compatibility.
Statler, now 51, had lived outside the area, traveling around with bands before returning in 1996 to Cape Girardeau, where he played some original music before settling into cover bands. Through repetition, he found himself despising songs he used to like. He told his wife he'd had it with bands, but with a slim caveat.
"She said, 'Are you just done?'" Statler said. "And I was like, 'I'm done with playing covers. If I can find somebody who wants to do original stuff -- which is the kind of music I love the most, which is this post-punk and late '70s and early '80s stuff -- if I can find that, like-minded people who just want to do originals, then I'll do it again.' So I'm like, 'We're in Cape; that's not going to happen.'"
Timing is everything, especially when it has a fashion quality.
In a matter of weeks, he learned of the opening in Robert's band. Statler looked up their music online, listening to a couple of releases on "Tumble Fur." It agreed with his ears, and that was before "Time is Fashion" came styling.
"When I heard 'Time is Fashion,' I sat up, and I was like, 'Yep, I'm the bass player for that band. This is the band,'" Statler said.
He soon joined Glenn, another Central graduate and youngest band member at 39, and was banging out the arrangements of songs brought in by Robert. Some require little work, others more.
"He has a lot of cool stuff, and I like playing it," Glenn said.
Likewise, Statler never finds himself bored with the music Robert walks in with, appreciating variations at which he marvels. He likes working out the details and pores himself into the music, joking he knows the only way the songs will ever catch on is if they clone teens of themselves to play the music.
"It's all about the creative process now," Statler said. "It's not anything but doing what we do. It's not for money. We're obviously not going to be getting any record deal, unless we decide to get the clone thing going."
The free-spirited Robert, a painter by trade, said he just lets the songs happen in his head, aided by the windowless vault in which the band practices.
"I like small rooms to write in and no distractions, just concentrate on music," Robert said. "There's nothing in here that isn't connected to the band, so that kind of helps to focus."
The group created 12 songs for "Curse of Siam" and has 12 more on the way for an upcoming October release. They have three live performances scheduled in St. Louis over the next five weeks and will appear Aug. 19 at The Rude Dog Pub in downtown Cape Girardeau.
"I feel blessed to find these guys who have the same ambition," Robert said. "We all think pretty close to the same as far as music goes."
And when they get together in the "garage," it's a tight fit.
You never quite know what you will find in the community.
jbreer@semissourian.com
(573) 388-3629
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