Email Author Christian Schaeffer

2008 Stories by Christian Schaeffer

• Homespun: Leslie Sanazaro

  published October 1, 2008

  Leslie Sanazaro has been a well-kept secret around town for the past few years, though it's not for lack of trying. Besides her solo work, she's... More >>

• Cardinals

  published October 1, 2008

  It's the start of October and our St. Louis Cardinals have already settled into their long winter's nap, after a season punctuated by bouts of... More >>

• Hayden

  published September 24, 2008

  For more than ten years, the singer-songwriter known simply as Hayden has written gentle, acoustic folk-rock songs that seem to emanate... More >>

• Guitar Anti-Hero

  published September 17, 2008

  The title of artist Pepe Mar's upcoming gallery show asks a question that's sure to send all rock & roll survivors into a fit: Who Needs... More >>

• The Helium Tapes

  published September 17, 2008

  Local scene veteran Sunyatta Marshall (Fred's Variety Group) leads the Helium Tapes, a quartet with a flair for dark-tinted power pop and... More >>

• Neko Case/Giant Sand

  published September 17, 2008

  You can forgive Neko Case for delaying the release of her next solo album, which is tentatively titled Middle Cyclone. After all,... More >>

• Various Artists

  published September 10, 2008

  The second installment of the The Space Parlour: Live in St. Louis series does what any good local compilation should do: It provides a... More >>

• Liam Finn

  published September 10, 2008

  It's impossible to listen to Liam Finn's debut album, I'll Be Lightning, without picking up strains of the melodic gifts and... More >>

• Lamar Harris

  published September 3, 2008

  Lamar Harris is a trombonist, trumpeter and all-around brassmaster who takes the most staid of brass instruments (even the tuba) and turns them... More >>

• Bellafea

  published September 3, 2008

  For the North Carolina trio Bellafea, the lines that separate punk, metal, art-rock and folk completely dissolve in a barrage of... More >>

• Eat, Dance, Laugh

  published August 27, 2008

  Over the past few millennia, the Greeks have given us so much to Western civilization– The Odyssey, the Olympics, ouzo, John Stamos... More >>

• The Educated Guess

  published August 27, 2008

  In the press materials for Beautiful Strangers, the piano-based quartet the Educated Guess swears allegiance to wall-of-sound pioneers... More >>

• Tom Waits for No One

  published August 27, 2008

  When Tom Waits had his long-awaited return to St. Louis earlier this summer, he put on a hell of a show: There was laughter, a few tears and... More >>

• Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

  published August 20, 2008

  There is little left to be said about Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band that hasn't already been echoed in the cheers of a million... More >>

• The Makeshift Gentlemen

  published August 13, 2008

  Gentleman Auction House is still flying high after the release of its debut full-length, and garage-rockers the Gentleman Callers broke up and... More >>

• Life and How to Live It

  published August 13, 2008

  No one can accuse Cormac McCarthy of being a feel-good writer. McCarthy's works contain a pervasive sense of doom and desperation, but the... More >>

• Kenny Loggins

  published August 13, 2008

  The soft, fingerpicked intro of "Danny's Song," the scat-like "chickity-pah, chickity-pah" that opens "This is It," those brassy synthesizer... More >>

• White Out

  published August 6, 2008

  The revitalization of the Grove neighborhood continues unabated: The once-dormant stretch of Manchester Avenue between South Vandeventer Avenue... More >>

• Chapters

  published August 6, 2008

  The presence of misogyny in rock & roll isn't exactly headline news. From the crass objectification of 2 Live Crew to the dark sadism of the... More >>

• Bob Log III

  published August 6, 2008

  He plays a raggedy hollow-body guitar and kick-drum simultaneously, wears an Evel Knievel-style jumpsuit and sings through a telephone grafted to... More >>

• Dear Diary

  published July 30, 2008

  Mark Mothersbaugh has been creating for more than three decades, and not always while donning that red flower-pot chapeau he made... More >>

• File Under "Jazz"

  published July 30, 2008

  The flicker of fingers across a card catalog, the tap of a pencil eraser on a hardwood desk, the occasional "shhh!" of a cross librarian:... More >>

• That's My Daughter

  published July 30, 2008

  Have the three ladies and one gentleman in That's My Daughter softened their mix of flash and fury for the group's second release? The opening... More >>

• Steve Ewing

  published July 23, 2008

  Steve Ewing may very well be the model of how to remain a working musician after fame and major-label backing has vanished. After reaching a... More >>

• Come Together

  published July 23, 2008

  With the interminable "Where'd ya go to high school?" questions, it can be easy to see St. Louis as a bit provincial. But global consciousness... More >>