So Many Dynamos w/ Tie These Hands & The Stay Awake

As the old adage goes, not many people heard the Velvet Underground in their prime—but every one who did started a band. For those of us growing up amidst the modest-but-thriving indie rock scene of the late ‘90s, the experience was not all that different; for years, my likeminded friends and I left innumerable shows muttering to ourselves “some day I want to be in a band like that.” Bound as we were by the noise constraints of apartment life, we could only imagine following through on this wish, but we could also imagine that there were kids somewhere else in America, blessed with the unfathomable luxuries of garages and drumsets, leaving those same shows, thinking those same thoughts and becoming one of the awesomest bands we would ever see. Turns out that band is from St. Louis, Missouri, and they are called So Many Dynamos. So Many Dynamos have released two solid albums (The Loud Wars is their third, and their first for Vagrant) and toured relentlessly for years, slowly but surely picking up fervent devotees without succumbing to the bitterness of a band that sees themselves as “paying their dues.” Somehow, they have retained urgency of four friends playing in their basement for the first time, while developing the confidence of a band with hundreds upon hundreds of shows under their belt.