Hey, hey, hey. Welcome back to Shecky's Jam Bands. I'm your host Shecky, and if you're joining us for the first time, this is the show where we go all the way in on bands that make the live music world turn. No fluff, no rankings, just the music and the stories behind it. Today, I want to tell you a story. It starts in a suburb of Atlanta that most people have never heard
of. It winds through Mayan cosmology, a battle against the music industry, a sold -out Red Rocks show in a rainstorm, and an unexpected moment on a September night in Colorado where five musicians were inducted into the Hall of Fame they didn't even know they were being considered for. The band STS9, Sound Tribe Sector 9, and if you don't know them buckle in because by the time we're done today you're going to want to find a show, buy a ticket, and show up ready to dance until
your legs fall off. Let me paint you a picture. It's 1997. You're in Snellville, Georgia, a suburb just outside of Atlanta. This is not a music industry hub. This is not a city where record executives are wandering around looking for the next big thing. Snellville is a regular place. Quiet roads, strip malls, Friday night football, not exactly where you'd expect a genre -bending, festival -headlining, hall -of -fame -worthy band to spark into an existence. But that's exactly
where it happened. Guitarist Hunter Brown, bassist David Murphy, and drummer Zach Velmer had been knocking around together, experimenting with fusing live rock instrumentation with the electric music they were obsessed with. They weren't trying to be a jam band. They weren't really trying to be anything defined. They were just chasing a sound. Keyboardist David Phillips joined soon after and the four of them played their inaugural
show on October 3rd, 1997. October 3rd, 1997 is a date that STS -9 fans treat almost like a birthday. In fact, nine years later to the day the band marked the anniversary, with a celebratory show at the historic Georgia Theater in Athens. That's how much the first show means to them. Now, at this early point, they actually were called Sector 9. Just Sector 9. The expanded name came a little later, and then not long after the debut, percussionist Jeffrey Lerner joined
the group. With Lerner on board, adding layers of rhythmic complexity, Conga's auxiliary percussion, and the stuff that makes you feel music in your chest, the five -person core of this band were complete. Self -described as post -rock dance music, STS -9 from the very beginning was adamant about one thing, no solos, no one musician showing off at the expense of the group. Everything was
in service of the collective sound. Group rhythm, texture, movement, and that philosophy, born in a suburb outside of Atlanta in 1997, has never left them. Okay, let's talk about the name, because the name is fascinating and I don't think enough people know the full story behind it. Sound Tribe Sector 9, when they graduated from just being Sector 9, the full name came in two pieces. Each
piece means something specific. Sound Tribe, that refers to the band's nomadic followers, their fans, the people who travel from city to city, festival to festival, who make this music their lifestyle. There is a tribal quality to a STS9 crowd. A sense of belonging, of shared language, of being part of a community. The word tribe wasn't chosen casually. It was chosen to honor the people who make the whole thing possible. Now, Sector 9. This is where it really gets interesting.
Sector 9 is derived from a specific period in the Mayan calendar. A period associated with what the Mayans described as boundless creativity. Infinite creative potential, no ceilings, no limits, just pure generative power. Think about it for a second. These guys from Snellville, Georgia in 1997 are naming their band after a concept from an ancient Mesoamerican civilization because it represents the exact philosophical space they want to inhabit. That's not an accident.
That's a mission statement. Hunter Brown, STS -9's guitarist and one of the band's primary creative visionaries has said that that story will always be their founding story. It never was just a cool sounding name. It was, as Brown put it, always this inspiration for us, an anchor, a compass, a reminder of what the music is supposed to reach for. And here's the thing about STS
-9, they live up to it every single night. STS -9 built their reputation the way all great ones do, by touring constantly, by taking care of their fans, and by being absolutely undeniable on stage. They released their debut recording called The Brown Album, a live improv document in 1999. That same year came their first real album, Interplanetary Escape Vehicle. The name alone tells you what kind of band you're dealing
with. They began playing small clubs in Atlanta, they expanded into the southeast, then the whole country. It wasn't overnight, it was relentless. And the reputation for live shows grew. and the word spread about this instrumental electronic band that made a room full of people move like one organism. Bigger and bigger things started happening. In 2003, they got one of those validation
moments that young bands dreamed about. They were tapped to open for the String Cheese Incident, a band we covered on a previous episode of Shecky's Jam Bands at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado. Red Rocks one of the most beautiful, most storied outdoor venues on the planet. And get this, the night before that Red Rocks show, they played the Fox Theater in Boulder. And tickets sold out in under 15 minutes. 15 minutes. These tickets gone. For a band that still didn't have a major
label deal, that was a seismic moment. By 2004, they were back at the Red Rocks. this time as headliners, and they didn't stop going back. As their 20th anniversary in 2017, they had played Red Rocks 23 times. 23 times in one of the greatest venues in America. Every year consecutively. That is a residency in everything but the name. Their 2005 album, Artifact, hit number 12 on
the Billboard's top electronic albums. They opened for Jay -Z in Denver in 2010, a band that describes itself as post -rock dance music, playing for Jay -Z's crowd. That's definitely a range. And then there's the night of September 8th, 2017, the 20th anniversary celebration at Red Rocks. Three nights, the first night they performed their beloved 2005 album, Artifact, in its entirety, something they hadn't done since a release 12
years earlier. The crowd was electric. Fans had flown in from all over the country just for this. During the song Artifact itself, it started to rain over Red Rocks. One reviewer wrote that it felt like a sign from the gods. Whether it was or not, it was perfect. And then, quietly, on the first night, while the audience was still buzzing, the band was inducted into the Red Rocks Hall of Fame. As a surprise. The band members
didn't know it was coming. Hunter Brown, Jeffrey Lerner, David Phillips, Zach Velmer, and Ilana Rocklin, standing at Red Rocks on their 20th anniversary, rain -soaked, euphoric, and then someone tells them that they've been inducted into the hall. Every band member was shocked. Every one of them was honored. That story, that is STS9. The music first, The recognition catches
up eventually. Let's talk about the music itself, because STS -9 exists in a space that is genuinely difficult to define, which is, in my view, the highest possible compliment. They call it genre live -tronica. That's a word that the community created for what STS -9 and a handful of bands like them do. Full live instrumentation. real drums, real bass, real guitar, blended with the electronic elements, synthesis, loops, and productive techniques you'd normally associate with studio
work or DJ sets. The result is something that feels both organic and futuristic all at the same time. Their sound draws from instrumental, rock, jazz, funk, drum, and bass, psychedelia, dub, and hip hop. And the key word here is instrumental. There are no lead vocals, no lyrics telling you what they feel. The music has to do all of the emotional work itself. And it does. Powerfully. Percussionist Jeffrey Lerner has described the challenge and the gift of their genre perfectly.
He said, the challenge of defining STS -9 sound is ultimately the greatest compliment. because they simply play the music they love. They refuse to be cornered by genre. And the lights. I have to mention the lights. STS -9's light shows are legendary. Their longtime lighting designer Saxton Waller has been pushing the creative edge for live lighting technology for as long as they've been touring. Seeing STS -9 in a dark venue with their full light production is an experience
that fans describe as transcendent. The music and the visuals work together as one. They complete sensory environment. You don't go to an STS -9 show, you enter it. I told you I was going to pick one song for this episode and I've thought hard about this. Because STS -9 has a catalogue of incredible tracks. Camus, Inspire Strikes Back, Golden Gate, When the dust settles, grow, any of them could anchor an introduction to this band. But I'm going with Scheme. Scheme was released
on STS9's 2011 EP, When the Dust Settles. And when it dropped, it announced itself immediately as something special. From the first few seconds, the song makes a promise. I'm about to take you somewhere. And it keeps that promise every single time. Here's what makes Scheme extraordinary as a piece of music. It starts with a groove, layered bass, a shimmering keyboard figure, percussion, and feels like almost ritualistic in its patience. It doesn't rush. It doesn't announce itself in
a big dramatic opening. It just builds a floor under your feet, and then the melodic theme arrives. And it has the quality that is very specific to SDS -9. at their best. It sounds ancient and futuristic all at the same time, like it was transmitted from a civilization that hasn't been discovered yet. So here's where I land on STS -9. They named themselves after a period of the Mayan calendar associated with boundless creativity, and then they spent the next 27 plus years trying
to justify that name. And mostly, overwhelmingly, they have. What separates STS -9 from the pack isn't just the music, though the music is extraordinary. It's the totality of what they are and who they are. They built an independent infrastructure when the industry was against them. They committed to environmental responsibility before it was fashionable. They raised funds and literally
constructed homes for displaced families. They named their label after a frequency, built a community around it, and then gave other artists a home. And every night they walk out onto the stage, no lead singer, no lyrics to hide behind, and they say the music alone is enough. Come with us, trust the groove, let the sound take you somewhere. They are, in their own words,
the biggest band you've never heard of. If that's still true for you after today, go find them, go to a show, Stand in the dark under the lights, feel the bass in your chest, and let the Sector 9 do what it was always meant to do. Take you somewhere you've never been. Thanks for being here for Shecky's Jam Bands. I'll see you on the next episode. Until then, stay curious, stay dancing, and keep the flowing tribe.