Celebrity News

For Some Reason, Mayor Slay Wants to Know if You Like Justin Bieber

Every week, Mayor Slay's website runs a poll, taking the pulse of St. Louisans on a wide range of topics, such as genetically modified foods, the actions of Congress, and what it takes to deliver a good political speech. The raw data gathered is synthesized and used to custom-build the city of St. L ... More >>

The Six Worst Hybrids Of Country Music and Rap

There is absolutely nothing wrong with cross-genre collaboration. Anything that widens an artist or listener's musical scope is encouraged. Rap and country, as disparate as they can seem, can coexist peacefully within a single track (ie. most of Odelay). But when it's bad, good God almighty it's bad ... More >>

Sorry, But Kanye Is the GOAT

Kanye West is the greatest hip-hop artist of all time. He's made the best albums and changed the game the most, and his music is the most likely to endure. One thing before we get going: This isn't one of those arguments meant to piss people off or "start a conversation." I really mean it. And, co ... More >>

Here are Five Charity Songs that Sucked for the 28th Anniversary of "We Are the World"

Way back in the '80s, people liked feeling magnanimous. "I hear there are starving kids in Ethiopia." "Fuck that! We can feed people with a song!" And thus, the idea for "We Are the World" was born. Maybe. I haven't actually talked to Lionel Richie about his motivation for coordinating the song, bu ... More >>

2012 Village Voice Film Poll Results

View the 2012 Village Voice Film Poll

Madonna at the Scottrade Center, 11/1/12: Review, Photos and Setlist

Madonna is considered a living legend, a cultural icon and one of the best performers of her time. She is one of the most influential artists in the history of American music, and last night at the Scottrade Center we found out why: hard work and natural charisma. If we are to believe any of the pe ... More >>

What We've Gained from Twitter: Knowing your Favorite Musician Can't Spell

Miley Cyrus is quitting Twitter, reportedly. She's not unfollowing herself over music -- her tweets were reportedly an affront to Liam Hemsworth, which is reportedly the name of a real person -- and the RFT Music demographic, so far as our ad guys can tell, is probably not very broken up about it. B ... More >>

Matthew Sweet

9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22. Duck Room at Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City.

Taxi Driver

Mariah Carey, No Doubt The Latest Victims Of Inexplicable NFL Counter-Programming

Disclosure: I like both No Doubt and football, and after I used Mariah Carey's "Heartbreaker" to make a 90s-pop-related point I couldn't stop listening to it. I think this puts me in a unique position to say that the NFL's continued attempts to attract a non-traditional audience by tossing female po ... More >>

VMA Awards 2012: Handicapping the Video of the Year Nominees

The 2012 VMA nominees are out, and while there are certainly plenty of big names and obvious choices, there are a few surprises buried in there. Frank Ocean gets a nod, as do A$AP Rocky, Jack White and Regina Spektor. But those are curiosities -- Rihanna, Drake, Katy Perry et. al. get the lion's sha ... More >>

If You Don't Buy Katy Perry's Songs, You'll Get More Katy Perry Movies

Katy Perry: Part of Me came out last weekend, and early returns are not great. Friday-to-Sunday it made $7.1 million, edged out by the month-old Madagascar 3 and Madea's Witness Protection, which is a real movie that exists. In spite of its 3D release, no movie in the Top 10 made less money per scre ... More >>

Rodney King and The Psychotic World We Live In

Editor: Tef Poe is an artist from St. Louis City. Through powerful imagery and complicated honesty, he has earned a reputation as one of the best rappers telling the story of St. Louis, which is about much more than one place. Poe has been featured in music publications such as XXL and Urb Magazine. ... More >>

From Rihanna in Battleship to Will Smith in Men In Black III: Some Notable Music-to-Movie Mistakes

Last week, Battleship, a movie based on the movies based on Transformers and a board game starring a bunch of plastic pegs that really suck to step on by accident and Rihanna, opened to $25 million. This week, Men in Black 3, starring noted pop-rapper Will Smith, will open to significantly more than ... More >>

Six Most Overused Rhymes

You've been there, listening to a song for the first time, hearing the word at the end of one lyric and thinking "please don't end the next line with (insert predictable rhyme here)." Of course, nine out of ten times, the internalized wish is futile. Nobody expects songwriters to reinvent the wheel ... More >>

Six Bieber-Free Moments When Boxing and Music Collided

Whether Justin Bieber is being chased by a pack of fans while riding a Segway or pretending to get shot and killed on a popular television show, he can is increasingly dispatched in any setting. Your moment of certainty came this weekend, when Bieber and 50 Cent accompanied Floyd Mayweather, Jr., ... More >>

Just Blaze

10 p.m. Saturday, April 14. Lola, 500 North 14th Street.

"The Sweet Escape" Showcased Akon's Cooperative Mentality

Akon hasn't been perfect throughout his career, but it's hard to accuse him of being selfish. The St. Louis native developed a propensity to share the spotlight with other artists, even if it means his presence isn't always noticed. That cooperative mentality allowed Akon's behind-the-scenes career ... More >>

Alert: SXSW Coverage Ahead

"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area." -- Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive You don't have to spend much time at South By Southwest to know that all of the above building ... More >>

Whitehorse

9 p.m. Thursday, March 8. The Duck Room at Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City.

Jacko's Back

The Six Most Absurd Pop Songs of 2011

​The old model of popular music: dumb it down to the lowest common denominator and make it go down easy. Reviewing the Billboard and iTunes charts of this past year, the tides have obviously changed. In days when nobody is buying, the flashiest, loudest, weirdest thing sells -- how else can yo ... More >>

Local Author Totally Predicted Kardashian Divorce

image viaYeah, this totally should have been prevented.​OK, it may be true that any cynic with a subscription to US Weekly could have said the same thing, but Anne Milford, the local author in question, has expertise. Nearly 20 years ago, Milford, then 29, called off her own wedding. The stor ... More >>

Sorry, Jim Carrey: Eight Actors Who Can Actually Sing

​Great. We've got another actor who thinks he can sing on our hands. At least Jim Carrey's sticking to karaoke bars for his awkward warbling of Radiohead's "Creep" and Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", instead of taking the Gwyneth Paltrow route of bringing awkward warbling t ... More >>

Lindsay Lohan's Billy Joel Tattoo: Five Other Lyrics She Could Have Used

Photo credit to... what's that? You figured it out already? ​Lindsay Lohan got a Billy Joel lyric tattooed on her rib cage, and frankly we can't believe it took this long. The gossip mill says that, "It represented where she is in life and everything she's been through ... it signifies that sh ... More >>

Frances Bean Cobain And The Other Nine Hottest Offspring Of Musicians

Rocky Schenck​Today is Frances Bean Cobain's 19th birthday. Time flies, right? In celebration of Miss Frannie, we've compiled a list of hot rock 'n' roll spawn. These people have at least one rock star parent and their moms are frequently models. (Figures.) They are all totally bangable, and m ... More >>

Taylor Swift Is Saving America

Communing with fans: One of many ways Taylor Swift is a superior pop star.​Let's get one thing out of the way: I am not a teenybopper. Never was. As a kid I never liked Grease or New Kids on the Block or Dirty Dancing. Even now, I can't give a crap about your Biebers or your Mileys. And how in ... More >>

The Drug Cocktails That Might Fuel Five Of Our Favorite Musicians

Big Boi mugs for the camera.​Did you hear the one about the rapper who got busted for Ecstasy and Viagra? Earlier this week, Outkast rapper Big Boi got pinched for MDMA powder, Ecstasy pills, and an illegal prescription of the little blue pill for his disco stick. Which got us thinking -- what ... More >>

23 Musicians with Michele Bachmann Eyes: Horrifying and Hypnotic

Jeff Tweedy as the Queen of Rage​Michelle Bachmann's Newsweek cover, on which she stares out icily over the headline The Queen Of Rage, has provoked intense reaction, mostly because of Bachmann's rapidly ballooning public caricature, but at least partly because the look in her eyes is somethin ... More >>

Kids These Days: The Six Least Impressive Music Careers Of Respected Musicians' Children

​By now you've probably heard about Pablo Dylan, Bob Dylan's grandson's aspiring rap career, which, if you're like us, probably made you cringe, especially if you've listened to any tracks from his mixtape, 10 Minutes. After we wiped the blood from our ears, we started to think about other o ... More >>

The Ten Most Facepalm-Inducing Uses of French in Pop Music: In Honor of Bastille Day

​Bastille Day is upon us, when all the world celebrates Louis XIV crossing the Delaware or something. We're not clear on the details, and on that front we join countless English-speaking pop and rock stars who took similarly haphazard forays into the Language of Love. In honor of the Frog's b ... More >>

The Five Most Bizarre Genre Crossovers

Why yes: That is one person.​It happens to the best of us: You do the same thing over and over (and over), so you feel the need for change -- or at least a good drink. For Beyonce, that meant a new personality: Sasha Fierce. For Vanilla Ice, it meant launching a hard-rock career. For Fred Durs ... More >>

What It's Like To Audition (Unsuccessfully) For American Idol

One of these people might have moved past the first round. Maybe. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.​Ed: The American Idol Season 11 auditions attracted more than 10,000 hopefuls to the Scottrade Center yesterday. Recent Mizzou grad Mallory Gnaegy was one them, and she has agreed to let us publish her ac ... More >>

Handsome Furs, Beyonce, Thievery Corporation: This Week's New Releases

​Each Tuesday, record-store clerks unpack boxes of albums and restock shelves with the latest releases. This week brings an abundance of noteworthy releases, including new albums from pop diva Beyonce, Canadian couple-duo Handsome Furs and D.C.'s DJ group Thievery Corporation for starters.

Britney Spears's "I Wanna Go" And Three Music Video Teasers That Weren't

image via​Britney Spears's new music video, "I Wanna Go," was apparently such an event that a teaser had to be released ahead of the video itself, presumably to tamp down demand, or else reduce a mounting supply of those YouTube/VEVO comments about TURNING OFF THE ADS ALREADY!!! that get thumb ... More >>

The Ten Most Cringe-Worthy Celebrity Vocal Duets

The soon to be collaborating Voices. Courtesy of NBC​Oh great. The judges/coaches from NBC's hit karaoke tournament vocal competition "The Voice" are going to collaborate. Specifically, Maroon 5, led by slightly soulful popster Adam Levine will be joined by Christina Aguilera to perform their ... More >>

Weird Al Yankovic In Town, Time Warped By Lady Gaga Parody

​"Weird Al" Yankovic, America's favorite Michael Jackson parodist this side of Chris Brown and the star of UHF, thirteen-year-old Male America's favorite movie this side of any movie where a woman is about to step into a shower, is coming to Effingham, Illinois on June 1 and St. Charles, Misso ... More >>

Wedding Bands Answer the Five Essential Questions About Playing the Royal Wedding

Photos courtesy of the artists​Kate Middleton and Prince William are getting married in a matter of hours (have you heard about this at all?). You can watch the Royal Wedding via webcam, but let's be honest: Weddings are boring when you're actually there. So we'll take a pass on grainy video f ... More >>

Ten Girl Talk Mashups That Should Exist

Tonight, Girl Talk returns to the Pageant for what will inevitably be a sweaty, calorie-burnin' good time for those who possess an affinity for pop culture and a lack of attention span. In light of this event, A to Z was contemplating the (debatable, perhaps illegal) art of the mashup, and came up w ... More >>

2010 is old news. Here are Ten to watch out for in 2011

2010: The Year In Music

Top Sellers at Area Record Stores: Week of November 29 through December 5

* = coming to town, = local ​Euclid Records 1. Shelby Lynne - - Merry Christmas 2. Various Artists - - A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector 3. Mavis Staples - - You Are Not Alone 4. Doors - - Live in Vancouver 1970 5. Norah Jones - - Featuring Norah Jones

Top Sellers at Area Record Stores: Week of November 22-28, 2010

* = coming to town, = local ​Vintage Vinyl 1. KANYE WEST---My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 2. THE NATIONAL---High Violet (Expanded Edition) 3. NICKI MINAJ---Pink Friday 4. RIHANNA---Loud 5. LATIMORE---All About The Rhythm & The Blues 6. NELLY---5.0 7. LIL WAYNE---I Am Not A Human Being 8. ... More >>

New Release Highlights For November 16: Local Boy Nelly Returns With 5.0

(New albums are typically released on Tuesdays, i.e., today. What can you spend your hard-earned pennies on this week? Find out below.) Cassidy's C.A.S.H.​*Cassidy, C.A.S.H. The once gold-certified rapper returns with a new studio album. Stream the C.A.S.H. in full here. *Crushed Stars, Con ... More >>

KEZK Wants You to (Oh-So-Softly) Rock This Holiday Season

A still from the "Last Christmas" video.​As of 5 p.m. Friday, November 12, KEZK (102.5 FM) has started programming Christmas/holiday music 24-7 on the terrestrial airwaves and online at KEZK.com. According to a press release, the station "will feature traditional songs from top artists like Bi ... More >>

Top Sellers at Area Record Stores: Week of September 27

* = coming to town, = local ​ Vintage Vinyl 1. ICE CUBE---I Am The West 2. GUCCI MANE---The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted 3. TREY SONGZ---Passion, Pain & Pleasure 4. BAD RELIGION---Dissent Of Man 5. JOHN LEGEND & THE ROOTS---Wake Up!

Lady Gaga

8 p.m. Saturday, July 17. Scottrade Center, 1401 Clark Avenue.

(100) Days of Summer Movies

Top Sellers at Area Record Stores: Week of January 11 to 17

Although Vampire Weekend dominated both stores this week, I would just like to note that Dr. Dre's The Chronic was a top seller at Vintage Vinyl last week. Proof that it's always Dre Day. Euclid Records 1. Vampire Weekend - Contra 2. Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind 3. Tom Waits - Glitter & Doom L ... More >>

Top Sellers At Area Record Stores for 2009

Who says the record store is dead? Not us here in St. Louis, where both Vintage Vinyl and Euclid Records sold a lot of tunes. Below, please find the top selling albums from both stores, including a separate top vinyl list from VV. Enjoy! Vintage Vinyl: Top CDs ​1. Murphy Lee - You See Me 2. ... More >>