Neil Young

The Six Best Songs About Ohio

If you are a human with access to the news, you are probably sick of hearing about Ohio, the swing state that will likely determine the shape of today's Presidential election. Luckily, Ohio sounds better out of some musician's mouths than it does coming out of Rush Limbaugh's. Here are the six best ... More >>

The Six Best Diss Tracks

This month, you won't be able to watch an episode of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" without seeing a half-dozen attack ads. The music world doesn't have attack ads, it has diss tracks. In honor of the onslaught of negativity in our political process, here are the six best diss tracks of all time. Let us ... More >>

Tributes and Tribulations

Art and life co-habitate, informing, imitating, and enriching each other constantly. Each week in Better Living Through Music, RFT Music writer Ryan Wasoba explores this symbiotic relationship Last week, RFT Music's Jamie Lees wrote an op-ed piece entitled The Problem With An Under Cover Weekend. I ... 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 >>

This Weekend, Catch Live Music at...Schnucks?

The check out at the Schnucks in Richmond Heights is a gridlock six carts deep and ten lanes wide. The soundtrack is a chorus of bar-code beeps. But if you walk away from the registers, toward the expansive produce section, the mood shifts. The lights are softer, the ceiling higher and what you hear ... More >>

The 33 1/3 Series is Accepting Submissions

​Earlier this month, Spin announced that it is moving most of its album reviews to Twitter. Music writing is getting shorter, not longer, and yet the 33 1/3 Series, which has the gall to publish entire books on albums that aren't even current, soldiers on. There are 85 installments in print n ... More >>

"Free Bird" is Actually, Seriously a Great Song

wikimedia commons​The extraneous requesting of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" is one of the longest running jokes in rock and roll history. It also ranks among the least funny. Each time a lazy heckler yells "Free Bird" at a rock band, a lose-lose situation results. The band is mocked and the he ... More >>

Nashville's Amelia White: Considerably More Neil Young than Taylor Swift

courtesy of the artist​Amelia White, who will be playing at Off Broadway with Sam Knutson on Sunday, is an enveloping singer and a prolific songwriter (she runs her own small song publishing company and has co-written for artists like Tony Furtado, Anne McCue, Molly Thomas, Stephanie Schneider ... More >>

The Ten Best Things To Do This Weekend in St. Louis: April 1-3

​No April Fool's Day jokes here. Just good shows to see this weekend. More stuff over at the RFT's main music page. Friday Shagy Kennedy Memorial Show @ Fubar All details about the celebration/memorial show are at Diana Benanti's post about the Everything Went Black guitarist. What Happened ... More >>

Living Things Releases a Free Mixtape, Malocchio

Living Things, which still proudly claims St. Louis as its home, yesterday released a new, free mixtape on its website. Called Malocchio, the release is "influenced by the sounds of Afrobeat and psychedelic-era Nigerian dub," according to a release sent out by the band's publicist. The genesis for ... More >>

Bonnaroo 2011 Lineup: Buffalo Springfield, Eminem, Arcade Fire and Lil Wayne(?!)

​We here in St. Louis are lucky to get spillover from a few of the summer festivals. The first of these, Bonnaroo, just announced its 2011 lineup -- and there are some tantalizing wishlist potentials in the list. The biggies are Eminem, Arcade Fire, Widespread Panic, The Black Keys, Buffalo Sp ... More >>

Top Sellers at Area Record Stores: Week of December 6-12, 2010

* = local, = coming to town ​Vintage Vinyl 1. T.I.---No Mercy 2. KANYE WEST---My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 3. CHARLIE WILSON---Just Charlie 4. ERIC BENET---Lost In Time* 5. QUINCY JONES---Q: Soul Bossa Nostra 6. NICKI MINAJ---Pink Friday 7. TEMPTATIONS---Give Love At Christmas 8. ANGEL ... More >>

Booker T.

9 p.m. Saturday, September 4. Laclede's Landing Main Stage, North First Street and Lucas Avenue.

Deer Tick goes its own way on The Black Dirt Sessions

Interview Outtakes: Emily Haines of Metric on Her Internet Admirers and Vampire Love

Metric is finally coming back to St. Louis.​Later today, I'll be trekking out to Maryland Heights for Lilith Fair. Expect photos and a recap tomorrow. In the meantime, please check out our interview with Metric's Emily Haines -- and some outtakes below. Snag Metric's Daytrotter session right h ... More >>

Interview: Blitzen Trapper's Eric Earley on Timeless Music, His Dream Opening Slot and Describing The Band's Tunes

Todd Reoth​Eric Earley started Blitzen Trapper with just a guitar, his Portland basement studio and an insatiable desire to create. After its 2007 breakthrough, Wild Mountain Nation, the band jumped into a life of vans, planes, festivals, and opening slots for Wilco, Fleet Foxes and Iron & Win ... More >>

Blitzen Trapper

8 p.m. Monday, June 21. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Shannon McNally/Big Smith/Colonel Ford

8 p.m. Wednesday, June 9. The Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust Street.

Show Review: Psych-Folk Sextet Decibully Quakes the Firebird, Thursday, April 29

J.W. Lawson​The Milwaukee based psychedelic-folk sextet Decibully, which is usually known for its solemn and melodic album tracks, shook the Firebird's foundation this Thursday with a sound that was both disproportionate and disappointing. The small crowd came expecting contemporary rock-psy ... More >>

Tegan and Sara find that Sainthood suits them quite well, thank you very much

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 >>

Show Review: Bottle Rockets and Otis Gibbs at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, Friday, October 9

While the Bottle Rockets could command a larger venue, it would be a shame to lose the intimacy the quartet fosters at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room. Better to play two shows in a small venue that feels like home, instead of one show in a big venue. Troubadour Otis Gibbs opened with nearly an hour o ... More >>

Interview Outtakes: Bobby Long, Playing at the Firebird on Sunday

Dirty Pond Songs, the debut album from English singer-songwriter Bobby Long, is a quiet album, a collection to put on when you're deep in thought or otherwise thinking about life's weightier matters. It's also an album indebted to many of Long's favorites, which he named in a recent RFT interview. ( ... More >>

Show Review Photos: Slobberbone and Glossary at Off Broadway, Wednesday, August 12

Before we begin, a pledge. This review will not use the following words which fall like random keystrokes from a chimpanzee blogger's laptop: rock (or its derivations), crunchy, drunk, Americana, twang, testosterone, Neil Young, alt.country (or its derivations), wasted, and/or dudes. In other words ... More >>

Farm Aid at Verizon Ampitheater in October

farmaid.orgFor the past several days it has not been a matter of if Farm Aid would play in St. Louis this year. The question has been where in town organizers planned to stage the concert. That's because the organization has been dropping hints like crazy this month on its Twitter account pointing t ... More >>

Top Sellers at Area Record Stores: Week of June 15-21

Here's a new feature on A to Z: Every Monday, we'll publish the best-selling releases from area independent record stores for the preceding week. And so without further ado: [Update, 4 p.m.: Apop's top sellers are also below now!] Euclid Records' Top Ten 1. DAVE MATTHEWS BAND: Big Whiskey & the Gr ... More >>

Review Setlist: Matthew Sweet at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, Friday, June 19

Over the years Matthew Sweet has proven that all he really needs is a "room to rock in," which is what he laments in the second song ("Room to Rock") on his latest album, Sunshine Lies. On Friday night, St. Louis fans of the veteran songsmith and power-pop genius were lucky enough to see him and som ... More >>

Crosby, Stills & Nash

8 p.m. Wednesday, June 3. The Chaifetz Arena at Saint Louis University, 1 South Compton Avenue.

Apop Records Celebrates Its Fifth Birthday with Shows, Movies, Record Store Day

It's almost hard to believe that Apop Records (2831 Cherokee Street) has had a St. Louis storefront since 2007. Fittingly, the experimental record store/shop was ahead of the Cherokee Street renaissance curve -- in fact, the record store arguably kickstarted the resurgence. To celebrate its second L ... More >>

Out of the Fog: Will Oldham's warm and fuzzy return as Bonnie "Prince" Billy

Jeff Tweedy's Son Spencer: His Blog Is Better Than Yours

(Via Stereogum) When you were thirteen, what were you doing? Me, I listened to a lot of R.E.M., had poofy hair and braces and wrote angsty, depressed journal entries about how terrible my life was and how Spanish class sucked. But kids these days -- man, they're just so sophisticated. Take Jeff Twee ... More >>

Setlist Photos Review: Calexico and the Acorn at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, Sunday, November 9

Dark Meat

8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 21. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street

Kathleen Edwards

9 p.m. Tuesday, May 6. Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City

dios malos

Monday, April 18; the Gargoyle (on the campus of Washington University, Forsyth and Skinker boulevards)

Classics Meet the Cults

All at Euclid Records

Two Cow Garage

Saturday, October 23; Frederick's Music Lounge

Best Local Album of the Past 12 Months

Yes-Wave

Books on Tapes

Lo-tech gift giving is easy with these rock books

David Bowie

Reality (ISO/Columbia)

Two Cow Garage

Thursday, July 17; Off Broadway (The band also performs on Friday, July 18, at Frederick's Music Lounge)

2003 Music Awards

The readers spoke, and the RFT music staff listened. Find out who's large and in charge on the St. Louis music scene.

Red, White and Bleaaaah

If Radar Station ran the post-9/11 world, the playlist would change

The Weakerthans

Friday, May 17; Creepy Crawl

Do Look Back

The Band dances The Last Waltz, but can time heal old wounds?

Hank Williams Jr.

Almeria Club (Curb Records)

Touch of Evil

History tells us that musicians who turn to the written word are just asking for trouble. Occasionally, though, something special sneaks through.

Ghost Stories

Grandpa's Ghost release their fourth album -- this time with some outside help

Sloan

Tuesday, Nov. 16; Side Door

Sound Checks