Melody Den has been around. Singer and songwriter Marc Chechik played in disturbingly forgotten St. Louis rockers The Relatives from 1995-1997, then co-founded the band Waterloo and aided and abetted the fledgling Undertow Music Collective in 1997. He used to win the Blueberry Hill songwriting contest so regularly people thought he was really Joe Edwards. In 2001, he released the solo debut 10 & 2, which features the rhythm section of John Baldus (drums) and Dave Melson (bass), both of whom have done time in numerous St. Louis bands including Waterloo, The Linemen and Magnolia Summer. The three of them have been playing together for over a decade, in rented rooms and blasted out lofts, dank dives and spacious concert halls, Why? They simply like the way rock & roll feels.

In August 2005, the band called up guitarist and producer Joe McMahan (originally of New Haven, MO and currently of Nashville, TN), and long-time accomplice to Webb Wilder and Kevin Gordon. They tracked 12 songs in the living room, kitchen and bathroom of Chechik's old house in Holly Hills, MO. With sonic help from McMahan (guitars, vibes, melodica and who remembers what else), Kevin Gordon (voice and guitar on "Stupid Drunk"), Jennifer Niceley (voice on "Starting Line") and Steve Poulton (voice on "Forgiveness," "When The Buzz Was Cool" and "Like To Believe"), the band crashed and burned and crashed again. The ten songs that survived reflect the heat of the St. Louis summer, the heart of collaboration, the joy of anger and the death of a marriage. Marc lost the house but he kept the record.

Recently joined by guitarist Jerry Baugher, Melody Den has a plan, and it goes something like this: They're going to stick around for the unforeseeable rock & roll future.

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