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21. B-Sides

    It's the Smashing Pumpkins, Charlie Brown!

    John Peel's legacy lives on, Billy Corgan has to rely on his to carry him through Zeitgeist

    By Annie Zaleski and Mike Appelstein

    Published: July 4, 2007

    Those of you hoping that the Smashing Pumpkins' comeback record is an unmitigated disaster will be disappointed: It's not. Those of you afraid that head Pumpkin Billy Corgan...

22. Rotations

    Au Revoir Simone

    The Bird of Music (Our Secret Record Company)

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: July 4, 2007

    There's a great video on YouTube of Au Revoir Simone walking through the streets of its native Brooklyn, playing a song on portable keyboards, oblivious to passersby even when...

23. Critics' Picks

    The Besties

    10 p.m., Tuesday, July 3. CBGB, 3163 South Grand Boulevard.

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: June 27, 2007

    Summer's here, and the time is right for sweet and cheerful indie-pop music. Enter the Besties, a Brooklyn-via-Florida band that's been playing the popfest circuit for the past...

24. Critics' Picks

    Asha Bhosle

    7 p.m. Sunday, June 3. Roberts Orpheum Theater, (416 North Ninth Street)

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: May 30, 2007

    Asha Bhosle is the once and future queen of the "playback singers" of Indian cinema. Since the 1940s, she has recorded anywhere from 5,000 to 25,000 songs; no one seems to know...

25. Critics' Picks

    Old Haunts

    8 p.m. Monday, May 21. Way Out Club (2525 South Jefferson Avenue).

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: May 16, 2007

    Olympia, Washington's Old Haunts certainly sound haunted by something, even if the band rarely clarifies what it is. Over swampy and minimal guitar lines, lead singer Craig...

26. Critics' Picks

    The Decemberists

    8 p.m. Saturday, April 14. The Pageant (6161 Delmar Boulevard).

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: April 11, 2007

    Since releasing 2006's The Crane Wife, the Decemberists have faced a typical dilemma for rising, formerly underground bands: How do you play to larger audiences in larger halls...

27. Critics' Picks

    The Fake Fictions

    8 p.m. Saturday, March 24. Schlafly Tap Room (2100 Locust Street).

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: March 21, 2007

    The members of the Fake Fictions are as capable of sweet melodies, handclap percussion and appealingly awkward boy-girl vocals as the next indie-pop band. Listen closely,...

28. Music

    A new book explores the history of the influential U.K. label Rough Trade — but does it get history right?

    Plus, a sidebar detailing some of the label's essential releases.

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: February 28, 2007

    For all the early punks' Year Zero rhetoric about destroying the music business, most of them were pretty serious music scholars. John Lydon, we now know, was a huge fan of Can...

29. Music

    Dream into Action

    Jennifer O’Connor’s unexpected career path has helped her land among the stars.

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: February 7, 2007

    If you saw Jennifer O'Connor at the Gargoyle last October, you may have noticed a camera crew swarming around the front of the stage. It turns out they were recording the show...

30. Critics' Picks

    Styx

    8 p.m. Thursday, December 28. The Pageant (6161 Delmar Boulevard).

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: December 27, 2006

    For a Chicago band, Styx has a lot of love for St. Louis. Consider that the group's recorded two live albums in St. Louis this millennium, and that it's kicking off its latest...

31. B-Sides

    Beep Beep, Yeah!

    B-Sides explores the van woes of Cars Can Be Blue, talks to Split Lip Rayfield's Kirk Rundstrom about conquering cancer for one last tour and downloads some screaming Sleater-Kinney.

    By Mike Appelstein, Roy Kasten and Andy Vihstadt

    Published: August 23, 2006

    Kirk Rundstrom, 37-year-old songwriter, singer and guitarist for the Wichita, Kansas, punk-grass band Split Lip Rayfield, has built a career on clever and graphic country-esque...

32. Rotations

    The Pipettes

    We Are The Pipettes (Memphis Industries)

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: August 16, 2006

    For all of their '60s-girl-group moves, the Pipettes have more in common with the early '80s, when formerly spunky girl groups such as the Go-Gos and the Bangles went through...

33. Critics' Picks

    Patience Please

    9 p.m. Saturday, August 5. Lemmons (5800 Gravois Avenue).

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: August 2, 2006

    Let's face it: As far as touring indie-pop bands go, St. Louis is too often neglected. But when fab Athens, Georgia, indie label Happy Happy Birthday To Me (home of Bunnygrunt)...

34. Critics' Picks

    The Smittens

    10 p.m. Monday, August 7. CBGB (3163 South Grand Boulevard).

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: August 2, 2006

    Indie-pop was never all about hearts and flowers. While Beat Happening, Tiger Trap and their musical progeny trade in childlike imagery, it's not that hard to hear layers of...

35. B-Sides

    Stars and Bars

    Slumber Party's Aliccia B.B. goes it alone, while B-Sides gives good Download and makes a mix of anti-patriotic songs

    By Mike Appelstein, Michael Moore and Andy Vihstadt

    Published: June 28, 2006

    B-Sides understands if you're feeling a little Grinchy about this whole America-lovefest known as the Fourth of July — what with our rising deficit, diminishing...

36. Rotations

    The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau

    What If It Works? (125 Records)

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: June 28, 2006

    Being a critics' darling can have its disadvantages — especially when it feels like only the critics are paying attention. So when Scott Miller disbanded the Loud Family...

37. Critics' Picks

    Zolar-X

    Saturday, March 25. Way Out Club (2525 South Jefferson Avenue).

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: March 22, 2006

    Even by LA standards, Zolar-X must have been a bizarre sight. The official story is that they beamed down to Southern California from the planet Plutonia sometime around 1972....

38. Critics' Picks

    Cars Can Be Blue

    Wednesday, November 30; Frederick's Music Lounge (4454 Chippewa Street)

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: November 30, 2005

    If Revenge of the Nerds was correct in its theory that "all nerds think about is sex," then New Hampshire's Cars Can Be Blue must be the nerdiest band alive. On its debut...

39. Rotations

    Edith Frost

    It's a Game (Drag City)

    By Mike Appelstein

    Published: November 16, 2005

    It's been four years since Edith Frost's last album, leaving only an online collection of four-track demos (well worth downloading for free at www.comfortstand.com) to keep her...

40. B-Sides

    Take Me Out

    We trace Franz Ferdinand's family tree, talk with Idlewild and dig the truth behind Brian Jonestown Massacre's St. Louis cancellation

    By Mike Appelstein, Rich Sharp and Annie Zaleski

    Published: September 21, 2005

    Idlewild is often described as a mix of the Smiths (poetic, existential lyrics like "Gertrude Stein said that's enough/I know that that's not enough now"), R.E.M. (melancholic,...