Email Author Roy Kasten

2010 Stories by Roy Kasten

• Aqualung

  published May 5, 2010

  Jethro Tull's Aqualung is a destitute, phlegmy pedophile redeemed by one of the greatest of all classic rock riffs. Matt Hales' Aqualung... More >>

• The Nadas

  published May 5, 2010

  The Nadas have a problem, and they know it. As a veteran, semi-acoustic, singer-songwriter-ly rock band from Des Moines, Iowa, the... More >>

• Frightened Rabbit floats its way to St. Louis for the first time

  published May 5, 2010

  Scott Hutchison, singer and songwriter for Scotland's Frightened Rabbit, has the day off in Washington, D.C., so he's hitting the museums and... More >>

• The Bangles

  published April 28, 2010

  It took a bitter breakup, sweet make up and fifteen years between albums for the Bangles to release the remarkable Doll... More >>

• David Olney/Steve Dawson

  published April 28, 2010

  David Olney and Steve Dawson, who share a stage this weekend at Off Broadway, have nothing and everything in common. Olney is a... More >>

• The Dead Weather

  published April 21, 2010

  The Dead Weather plays "gothic blues." Also, Jack White wants to be Son House, Alison Mosshart wants to be PJ Harvey, and the... More >>

• Mark Knopfler

  published April 21, 2010

  The adult-contemporary shark makes a tempting target for a genre jumper such as Mark Knopfler. On Get Lucky he traverses that... More >>

• King Sunny Ade & His African Beats

  published April 14, 2010

  King Sunny Ade didn't invent juju music, a sizzling mix of African folk music and Western pop, but he became the genre's biggest star... More >>

• Rosie Flores/Jon Langford

  published April 14, 2010

  Worlds collide in the pairing of rockabilly filly Rosie Flores and country communist Jon Langford, but sometimes music trumps... More >>

• Heartless Bastards

  published April 7, 2010

  The heart of the Heartless Bastards is Erika Wennerstrom, a Dayton, Ohio, native, transplanted to Austin, Texas, where she fits in like a... More >>

• Cheap Trick: No Back-Up Plan, Just Hard Work and Loud Guitars

  published Apr 01, 2010

  In this week's RFT, I interviewed Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander and Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick during the influential band's first appearance at South By Southwest in Austin. Read the feature here and ... More >>

• Raul Malo

  published March 31, 2010

  Though he is best known as leader of the Mavericks, the most consistent and daring country band of the '90s, Raul Malo has fully... More >>

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  Cheap Trick, Rockford, Illinois' favorite sons, never surrender

  published March 31, 2010

  Three men, dressed mostly in black, sit in a sixth-floor suite at the Four Seasons in downtown Austin, Texas. It's the first full day of the... More >>

• Show Review: Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller at the Pageant, Friday, March 26

  published Mar 27, 2010

  "Those are plants out there," Buddy Miller said last night, pointing to the Pageant pit where stood 150 devotees, most applauding a maestro of American music. Miller was self-deprecatingly plugging hi... More >>

• Photos of Alex Chilton Tribute at SXSW. Plus Marianne Dissard, Jakob Dylan, Courtyard Hounds

  published Mar 22, 2010

  Scenes from the Alex Chilton tribute at Antone's in Austin, March 20, 2010, plus more SXSW action. All photos by Dana Plonka. ... More >>

• SXSW Days Three and Four: Big Star Tribute, Band of Horses, Marianne Dissard, Jakob Dylan, Courtyard Hounds, Boxer Rebellion, KDHX/Twangfest Day Party -- and More

  published Mar 22, 2010

  To conclude: Susan Cowsill and the Watson Twins sang "September Gurls," with the remains of Big Star playing loose and beautiful all around them. It shouldn't have happened; most of what happens shoul... More >>

• Patty Griffin

  published March 24, 2010

  Of all the major contemporary country folk chanteuses, Patty Griffin is second only to Emmylou Harris in having negotiated the star... More >>

• JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound

  published March 24, 2010

  The soul revival led by Daptone Records, upstarts such as Black Joe Lewis and veterans such as James Hunter is no longer new, although it... More >>

• SXSW Day Two: KDHX/Twangfest Day Party, Ray Davies, John Hiatt, Morning Benders, Roky Erickson/Okkervil River -- and More

  published Mar 19, 2010

  Hating on South By Southwest is too easy. Just look around: Shit-faced lawyers waxing bizness gobbledygook to shit-faced salesmen of exercise bikes, members of psych-metal bands (probably called Red O... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  SXSW Day One: Billy Bragg, Broken Bells, Miranda Lee Richards, Jason Collett, Fanfarlo + more!

  published Mar 18, 2010

  The text that Alex Chilton had died came through just before midnight on the first full day of South By Southwest 2010 in Austin. I was on my way to the sleeze-and-cheese-and-bathroom-cologne club Pra... More >>

• Appleseed Cast

  published March 17, 2010

  The name Appleseed Cast suggests thespians specializing in patriotic musical theater, but it's probably a drug reference. On 2001's... More >>

• Deadstring Brothers

  published March 10, 2010

  Composed of four Detroit amigos and one amiga (harmony singer Marsha Marjieh, who is too good not to sing some lead), the Deadstring Brothers... More >>

• John Doe

  published March 10, 2010

  A poll of women in attendance at a recent house concert in St. Louis indicated that the featured artist, John Doe, is the sexiest man... More >>

• Band of Heathens

  published March 10, 2010

  Band of Heathens should have collapsed under the weight of its own talent. Led by three singers and three songwriters, the Austinites do... More >>

• Show Review: Rhett Miller and Cassie Morgan at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, Thursday, March 4

  published Mar 05, 2010

  "It's a school night, and I've got a shit load of songs." It was and he does. As the spaghetti western overture faded down, Rhett Miller strapped on his Gibson Hummingbird and bounced into "This Is Wh... More >>