Email Author René Spencer Saller

2001 Stories by René Spencer Saller

• Doing Our Best

  published December 26, 2001

  In this, the last installment of Radar Station for the year 2001, we celebrate the best in local music. Unlike the Slammy Awards, which are more... More >>

• Urge to Submerge

  published December 19, 2001

  After 14 years as the Midwest's favorite ska-funk/metal-punk band, the Urge is calling it quits. On Dec. 10, the hard-touring local sextet... More >>

• Cock-a-Doodle To-Do

  published December 12, 2001

  Local band showcases are as common as dirt and half as interesting, a dreary procession of people lugging crap on and off the stage, plugging and... More >>

• Minstrel Tension

  published December 5, 2001

  If the radio charts were the only indication, black music is all about the booty, not the brain. It's about shakin' it, not about delirium... More >>

• On a "Roll"

  published December 5, 2001

  Remember way back in 2000, when Nelly got signed to Universal and soon thereafter became the biggest-selling pop star St. Louis had ever... More >>

• Child's Play

  published November 28, 2001

  In the mid-'70s, Hans Fenger, a young hippie musician turned elementary-school music teacher, decided to forgo the classroom's usual saccharine... More >>

• Bum Rap

  published November 21, 2001

  Thanks to Clear Channel and other entertainment behemoths, the days of regional hits on commercial radio are pretty much over, except when... More >>

• Farrar and Away

  published November 14, 2001

  Laconic. Taciturn. Oblique. Such adjectives pop up with predictable frequency in articles about Jay Farrar, whose old band, Uncle Tupelo,... More >>

• Bug on the Wall

  published November 14, 2001

  Contact the author at rene.saller@riverfronttimes.com More >>

• Please Release Me

  published November 7, 2001

  Every weekend, someone's having a CD-release party, and someone thinks it's a very important occasion, one that Radar Station is duty-bound to... More >>

• Judgment Day

  published October 31, 2001

  Among the legions of disgruntled Radar Station consumers -- the squeaky wheels, the shameless crybabies, the justifiably indignant, the people in... More >>

• Raising the Ceiling

  published October 24, 2001

  A couple of weeks back, scenesters lamented what appeared to be the imminent demise of the Tin Ceiling, recently anointed "Best All-Ages... More >>

• Berry, Berry Good

  published October 17, 2001

  Somewhere around the middle of the long, long list of things that make Radar Station sad, somewhere between kitten torture and the demise of the... More >>

• Brother Act

  published October 10, 2001

  The poster that accompanies the Aluminum Group's most recent album, last year's Pelo (Hefty), depicts tablets of Valium being ground up and... More >>

• Band Together

  published October 10, 2001

  Two local bands are joining forces for a two-week tour this month. The Fantasy Four, temporarily augmented by Sexicolor guitarist... More >>

• Cruising on Denial

  published October 3, 2001

  ascetic adj 1. Practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal and esp. spiritual discipline 2. austere in appearance,... More >>

• War Room

  published September 19, 2001

  At press time, the U.S. is on the brink of war, a situation that makes the St. Louis music scene seem, if not exactly irrelevant, relatively... More >>

• Band Aid

  published September 12, 2001

  Michael Azerrad's new book, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991, will come as a shock to... More >>

• Caught in the Net

  published September 12, 2001

  Fanzines, sadly, are becoming increasingly quaint in their near-extinction -- kitschy, smeary photocopied-and-stapled relics of a bygone analog... More >>

• Open Door

  published September 5, 2001

  Exciting news for both the indie-rock and jam-band scenes: The late, lamented Side Door is returning, with the goal of bringing the same... More >>

• Tune Town

  published August 29, 2001

  Mutabaruka, the Star Death and Narvel Felts, three acts that would seem, on the face of things, completely... More >>

• Whole Lot of Fun

  published August 22, 2001

  On the heels of the big KDHX-FM shindig last weekend, another free music festival approaches: The Lot, organized by members of the... More >>

• Married, with Music

  published August 15, 2001

  If product is gonna move (and don't kid yourself, babe -- moving product is what the music biz is all about), record clerks have to file said... More >>

• Cue Up the Tunes

  published August 15, 2001

  This Sunday, from noon-8 p.m., the place to be is Compton Hill Reservoir Park on South Grand Boulevard (by I-44). First, it's a rare opportunity... More >>

• Jet Lag Redux

  published August 8, 2001

  Obnoxious, self-indulgent, retarded, fascinating, brilliant, hilarious -- any publication that deserves to be called a fanzine is all these things... More >>