Email Author Roy Kasten

2008 Stories by Roy Kasten

• Ian McLagan and the Bump Band

  published July 2, 2008

  If there's another keyboardist in the history of rock & roll with a more stunning, voluminous résumé than Ian McLagan, the... More >>

• True Love Waits: The legendary Tom Waits plays St. Louis for the first time in years

  published June 25, 2008

  If you're mad enough to be among those still trying to figure out what makes Thomas Alan Waits tick, you could do worse than to just reflect on... More >>

• Susan Cowsill

  published June 25, 2008

  Susan Cowsill is best known for her childhood role in bubblegum family band the Cowsills, but she shouldn't be. Her exquisite harmony... More >>

• Langhorne Slim

  published June 18, 2008

  Sean Scolnick's first significant career move was to ditch his name. As Langhorne Slim, his first major musical move is this year's... More >>

• Matthew Ryan Vs. the Silver State

  published June 11, 2008

  When last we heard from Matthew Ryan, he was getting in touch with his inner Eno, electro-soundscaping the peripatetic songs he writes... More >>

• B-Sides makes sense of Iron & Wine while Lemuria continues to Get Better

  published June 11, 2008

  Judging from the trance-inducing, whispered meditations of Iron & Wine, the group's singer and songwriter, Sam Beam, should be far less affable... More >>

• Poi Dog Pondering

  published May 28, 2008

  Given the resurgence of worldbeat sounds favored by slightly left-of-center rock bands Vampire Weekend and the Dodos, maybe now really is the... More >>

• Pieta Brown

  published May 28, 2008

  On last year's Remember the Sun, Pieta Brown starts with the wrong question. "Peace on earth, where'd you go?" she asks, as if it... More >>

• The Dirtbombs

  published May 21, 2008

  The Dirtbombs have achieved the improbable with We Have You Surrounded, its fifth full-length over a decade of destroying decibel... More >>

• B-Sides grooves to the global sounds of DeVotchKa and Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra

  published May 21, 2008

  Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra La La Band started as a modest three-piece spinoff of the dynamic avant-garde instrumental... More >>

• Low's Alan Sparhawk finds comfort in noise with the Retribution Gospel Choir

  published May 14, 2008

  The paradox of the Retribution Gospel Choir starts with its name. The Gospel, both the divine text and the divine music, is based in forgiveness... More >>

• Chicago Afrobeat Project

  published May 14, 2008

  Studious, meticulous, reconstructive genre projects aren't normally well-springs of funk, but most projects don't have unkillable juju driving... More >>

• Slaid Cleaves

  published May 14, 2008

  Slaid Cleaves is known as a "songwriter's songwriter," which is usually a polite way of saying "he can't sing." But there's no need for... More >>

• The Brakes

  published May 7, 2008

  The dark, sweet piano march that opens the Brakes' Tale of Two Cities, a collection of precisely choreographed live recordings,... More >>

• Fifteen things you might not know about the Bottle Rockets, on their fifteenth birthday

  published April 30, 2008

  To paraphrase a former Secretary of Defense and closet alt-country historian, when it comes to the Bottle Rockets, there are known-knowns and... More >>

• Allison Moorer/Steve Earle

  published April 30, 2008

  Allison Moorer has become so identified with the outsider country scene and the singer-songwriter militancy of hubby Steve Earle... More >>

• Martin Sexton

  published April 23, 2008

  Dean of American blue-eyed soul troubadours, Martin Sexton started out a singer-songwriter in the Marc Cohn or David Gray mold, but his... More >>

• The Shackeltons

  published April 23, 2008

  Unsolicited advice for all bands: If your big break is winning a battle of the bands competition, don't tell anyone. Best to make music journos... More >>

• Anders Parker

  published April 16, 2008

  To look at the band Anders Parker assembled for his most recent album, 2006's Anders Parker on Baryon Records, is to... More >>

• Blue Mountain explores the Southern-rock roads less traveled while the Mars Volta tries to shed its bad voodoo on the way to releasing The Bedlam in Goliath.

  published April 16, 2008

  The Mars Volta has always found a way to overcome difficult circumstances — such as the tragic deaths of bandmates and close friends... More >>

• Peter Mulvey

  published April 9, 2008

  Over the last decade, the Massachusetts label Signature Sounds has been quietly assembling a sparkling roster of folkies who seem more... More >>

• Chris Scruggs

  published April 9, 2008

  The son of country star Gail Davies and the grandson of Earl Scruggs, BR549 guitarist and Grand Ole Opry stalwart Chris Scruggs might... More >>

• Mark Pickerel

  published April 2, 2008

  If you're the original drummer for the Screaming Trees, you either resign yourself to being the answer to a trivia question, or you do what... More >>

• The Everybodyfields

  published April 2, 2008

  The Everybodyfields hail from the high and lonesome terrain of Johnson City, Tennessee, which sits 100 miles east of Knoxville in the... More >>

• Patty Larkin

  published March 26, 2008

  Her hair spills in flames and her guitar work — a fusion of flamenco and the Mississippi delta — follows suit, but Patty... More >>