Rapper, promoter, and community organizer John Harrington wears many hats. As the co-founder of Paint Louis, he has worked to make St. Louis a more vibrant and colorful place with the world’s largest graffiti festival, which started in 1995. As an organizer of SLUM Fest, Harrington has helped set the table for local rappers, beat makers, and other artists under the broad umbrella of hip-hop since 2010. Whether he’s working to uplift other musicians in the scene or dreaming up new ways to contribute to the broader art community, Harrington can often be seen wearing a literal hat with the logo of Midwest Avengers, his own band that combines elements of rap and rock for a style that he calls “headbanger hip-hop.”
From the project’s early start in 1992 at a basement party on the South Side to performing in front of 10,000 people in 1994 at a rave in Minneapolis, Midwest Avengers spent its first few years as a group freestyling for every show. The band hit a major milestone in the mid-’90s, when they wrote their first real song with an intro, verse, bridge, and chorus. Since then, Harrington’s crew has released 10 studio albums, three mixtapes, and one compilation, including their latest EP, The People’s People.
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In its 33 years as a band, Midwest Avengers has opened for Afrika Bambaataa, De La Soul, Crystal Method, Tech 9, The Roots, Digital Underground, and Insane Clown Posse, just to name a few. This Friday, Harrington and his extended musical family will celebrate the release of The People’s People with a lineup of friends and like-minded artists at Red Flag. We recently caught up with the Midwest Avengers frontman ahead of this week’s monumental celebration for the new EP.
Midwest Avengers has been active for more than three decades. What’s your secret? Originality, diversity, and living the music versus just performing it. Musically, we stick to our influences rooted in hip-hop, rock, metal, punk, funk, R&B, blues and jazz. Also, Midwest Avengers is a family. There have been 37 members of the band, but the MWA crew is made up of about 150 people who all started in St. Louis but now live all over the world.
If you could travel back in time to your first live performance, what advice would you give to a young John Harrington? Hold the mic up to your mouth, but don’t cup it. Project from your diaphragm, and always be nice to the sound man.
In what ways has Midwest Avengers evolved between the release of 2020’s Vengadores del Medio Oeste and the new EP? We’ve added Kourtney Harris “Kourt with a K” as lead singer and Shelby Carter Jr. “Q” as vocalist and trumpeter to the group. That has added a big band sound and multiple layers of melodies.
What does the name The People’s People mean to you and Midwest Avengers? We are “the People’s People.” We’re a racially diverse group of everyday people. We work jobs, have kids, and care about our community and city. A third of our band is Native American/Mexican/Tejano, so we’re supporting them now, like they did for us during Mike Brown. And we most definitely protect and uplift our women.
The production on “Rapture” and “Divide” blew me away. Can you talk about how you were able to capture that magic in the studio with an extended lineup of eight band members? Who worked on the new EP? We actually recorded and produced the EP at Sawhorse Studios with Jason McEntire as the mastermind sound engineer. He helped us layer melodies and thicken up our sound. The board he uses was also used to record Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus album. So there’s musical magic already in the sauce.
The lineup for the release show this Friday is stacked. Could you talk about some of the performers sharing the stage with you? The return of Reigning Heir will be amazing! When MWA hit the metal/rock scene in 2004, they were the best of the best. Apollo’s Daughter has been bringing solid hard rock anthems for years, and both bands are led by Black women singers, which is rare in St. Louis. Reup Von Wolfgang, Altayzie, Egan’s Rats, Quali-T & J Pizzle, and Track Vandals are all amazing writers and performers known to get the party started. We have DJ O.B. Juan, one of the creators and original six members of MWA, and the mixmaster Soopaman DJ Speed on beats and vibes. And our artist homie Dormir [who will be making live art throughout the night].
What’s on the horizon for Midwest Avengers? This is our 33rd year of releasing music and performing under the MWA crew name. We plan to keep releasing music and touring until the next generation of musicians step up and fill the void of a live hip-hop/rock/metal band. I’m personally excited to keep experimenting with mixing genres and creating new sounds and styles to stretch the limits of St. Louis music. And I hope to be here in seven years for our 40th anniversary show!
Follow Midwest Avengers on Instagram, and listen to the new EP The People’s People.
