The Yeasties, a punk four-piece of friends and super-stars Shawn, Olivia, Bethany, and Shannon, played their “last show” a couple weeks ago at STL DIY scene’s pandemic-patio, The Slab. In the skatepark anything-goes atmosphere, they set off fireworks in a pumpkin during their set; a triumphant and silly goodbye.
Although many of us wish this wasn’t the last time we could “gabba gabba gay” with them, The Yeasties graced us with recordings to listen to forever. Following 2020’s DUM DUM ROCK, The Yeasties released four new songs on October 4th, 2021, HERE FOR FLESH. Some lucky ducks snagged the now-sold-out cyan blue cassette EP, featuring spooky artwork of a cemetery angel with eyeballs and a dancing skeleton on the back.
The group’s freaky energy matches this playful darkness. In short little gnarly tunes (no song goes over the 1:48 minute mark), The Yeasties spit out harsh guitar and bass over crashing drums, as Shawn’s strong and snarky vocals curl: “I didn’t think so, I didn’t think so!” Their rhythmic forces evoke moshing movements, ringing in our ears long after the brief EP is through.
These songs have reached far past our close-knit scene. Bandcamp Daily highlighted The Yeasties in their monthly round-up of worldwide acts, “The Best Punk on Bandcamp: October 2021”, describing HERE FOR FLESH as “pop music put through a meat grinder.” It’s always a moment of celebration whenever a St. Louis band is recognized outside of our often overlooked city of incredible music.
The Yeasties are not the only STL band to get more recognition as a result of their release. At the end of HERE FOR FLESH, they pay tribute to a forgotten part of St. Louis music history by covering The Welders: an all-female punk-rock band who played locally from 1975-1980. According to a 2010 RFT article exposing the “oral history” of this obscure band, The Welders wrote “P-E-R-V-E-R-T” when they were fifteen years old. “P-E-R-V-E-R-T” concludes The Yeasties EP in a fun and bratty way, with a chorus scream-along and anti-creep anthem: “You’re a Perv with a capital P!!” We are so grateful that they rediscovered this gem of a song and shared it with us. We hope that audiences near and far will keep discovering The Yeasties.
Side note: Apparently you can find The Welders mentioned in the current exhibition at the St. Louis History Museum, St. Louis Sound, which will stay up through 2023.
Stream HERE FOR FLESH by The Yeasties via Bandcamp below:
The St Louis Music Report 