Neutral Milk Hotel

The Great MP3 Compromise: Credits Where Credits Are Due

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. For the average music listener, Mp3s are a compromise. Sound quality is traded for portability. For the ... More >>

Jeff Mangum at the Sheldon Concert Hall, 1/16/13: Review and Setlist

Jeff Mangum | Tall Firs Sheldon Concert Hall, January 16, 2013 After a few years of performing solo acoustic shows around America and Europe, Neutral Milk Hotel leader Jeff Mangum finally made it to St. Louis. Tickets sold out in less than an hour, and for good reason: It's been a decade and a half ... More >>

Jeff Mangum is Coming to St. Louis

Huge news today: Jeff Mangum is touring again after the New Year, and his itinerary includes a St. Louis date. The semi-reclusive singer/songwriter, whose unique twisted visions propelled Neutral Milk Hotel, is scheduled to play the Sheldon Concert Hall on January 16, 2013. New York duo Tall Firs w ... 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 >>

An oral history of Neutral Milk Hotel in St. Louis

Jeff Mangum's Tour Kicks Off Today

Sasha Barr​Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum launches his first national tour since 1998 today. Unfortunately, none of the shows are in St. Louis -- he'll play a pair at the Athenaeum Theater in Chicago on February 6 and 7. Still, his resurrection has not gone unnoticed in these parts. In this ... More >>

The new sound of local music

Ten Musicians Who Support Occupy Wall Street

Adbusters​"Occupy Wall Street" started out as a 1,000-person mid-September protest in a New York City park against, among other things, financial disparity and corporate influence. Since that time that protest has grown into a nationwide movement, spurring on the creation of "Occupy" spinoffs ... More >>

Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin: Defending the Republic

Can you feel it? Discontent has been in the air this week. The news has been full of #OccupyWallStreet and its various regional sympathy protests. On the face of it, it's hard to think of something more diametrically opposed to the Occupy movement than "Defending The Republic," a rally/appearanc ... More >>

The Six Best Song Count Offs

​In popular song, the count off is a tool of function. Somebody counts from one to four (or three, or if people have even once compared the band to Don Cabellero, seven), and the musicians know when to begin playing and how quickly to play. Some have used the countoff as a jumping off point fo ... More >>

Chris Mills

9 p.m. Thursday, June 23. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Show Review Photos: Dresden Dolls at the Pageant, Tuesday, November 16

Todd OwyoungDresden Dolls Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione at the Pageant​Halfway through its 10-year anniversary tour, the Dresden Dolls hit the Pageant with the bombastic fury, humor and authenticity borne of two tight musical partners playing in celebration and remembrance. The Dolls, Ama ... More >>

Elf Power

8 p.m. Wednesday, September 29. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Sarah Jaffe

9 p.m. Thursday, September 2. The Billiken Club, in the Busch Student Center on the campus of Saint Louis University, 20 North Grand Boulevard.

Last Collector Standing: Nicole Peterson on Bowie, Beatles and Bands Who Love Vinyl

Jon ScorfinaNicole Peterson, this week's Last Collector Standing​Nicole Peterson has worked in many facets of the music industry, including retail at Slackers CD's and Games and (currently) at Suite 100 at the Pageant handling merchandise and ticket sales. After looking through her modest reco ... More >>

Show Review Setlist: The Apples In Stereo Time Travel to the Billiken Club, Tuesday, May 4

Diana BenantiThe Apples in Stereo got their space-disco on last night at The Billiken Club.​The Apples in Stereo have been around since the early '90s. It's one of the founding bands of the Elephant 6 Collective (others include Of Montreal, Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel). A test ... More >>

The Best of 2009 in Music

Bird Names

9 p.m. Thursday, December 17. Mangia Italiano, 3145 South Grand Boulevard.

The Rural Alberta Advantage

8 p.m. Wednesday, December 9. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Tonight! Brazos and White Denim MP3

www.myspace.com/brazosbrazos​Brazos/White DenimWhere: FirebirdPlaying With: Troubadour DaliSounds Like: White Denim is equal parts Scooby-Doo-esque psychedelic textures and stoner-rock skronk. (Zoinks! They aren't interchangeable.) And as for Brazos, Roy Kasten says: "With a sound somewhere betwee ... More >>

Brazos

9 p.m. Monday, November 2. The Firebird, 2706 Olive Street.

Rural Alberta Advantage

9 p.m. Tuesday, March 31. The Billiken Club, in the Busch Student Center on the campus of Saint Louis University, 20 North Grand Boulevard.

The Visitations

8 p.m. Sunday, March 1. The Wedge, 442 Bates Street.

Review: Los Campesinos!/Titus Andronicus, The Gargoyle, February 5

So imagine the scenario: You're sitting around a Lawrence, Kansas coffee shop, blissfully unaware that you're due to play across Missouri on KDHX that very moment. Such was Titus Andronicus' dilemma earlier Wednesday afternoon. It's to Titus Andronicus' credit that they not only made it to KDHX (eve ... More >>

Vintage Vinyl's Top 50 Best-Selling CDs and Top 25 Best-Selling LPs of 2008

Vintage Vinyl just released its list of best-selling LPs and CDs of 2008. (Physical product? Remember that?) Interesting to see how many local releases -- and how much hip-hop/R&B/rap -- is on the CD list, while how much old (and new) indie rock is on the LP list. Looks like you kids are downloa ... More >>

Xmas Jams: A roundup of 2008's best Christmas albums

Photos Review: Vic Chesnutt and Elf Power at Off Broadway, Saturday, November 22

(Words and photos by Keegan Hamilton)The Athens, Georgia-based groups Elf Power and Vic Chesnutt played a fantastic show last night at Off Broadway. Elf Power, which is part of the famed Elephant 6 Collective that includes Neutral Milk Hotel and Of Montreal, opened with a quick set of its driving, t ... More >>

MP3 Weekender: James Jackson Toth and Ohtis

Ohtis

9 p.m. Saturday, September 13. Billiken Club, in the Busch Student Center on the campus of St. Louis University, 20 North Grand Boulevard.

Pitchfork: Interview with Elf Power's Andrew Rieger

Titus Andronicus

9 p.m. Wednesday, June 23. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street

Apples in Stereo

9 p.m. Saturday, July 19. Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City

Brief Show Review: Dark Meat, Quiet Hooves at the Bluebird, Wednesday, May 21

We Versus the Shark

9 p.m. Thursday, October 11. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.

Sundance Kids/Cataldo

10 p.m. Saturday, August 18. Lemmons, 5800 Gravois Avenue

Matt Pond PA

8 p.m. Saturday, October 14. Mississippi Nights (914 North First Street).

Matt Pond PA

Thursday, February 23. 8 p.m. at Pop's (1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois)

Dance Me In

Of Montreal

Monday, May 2; Creepy Crawl (612 North Tucker Boulevard)

Pit er Pat

Saturday, March 19; the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, 3301 Lemp Avenue

Verboten!

We ban rock cliches, fatwa Eric Clapton and read up on music nerds

Smells Like Indie Spirit

Music that made the world safe for the word "alternative" again.

The Misfits

The fantastic, the majestic...the Decemberists

Best Concert of the Past 12 Months

The Dresden Dolls at Frederick's Music Lounge

Psycho Bikers

Streetfighterz survive another video shoot

Essex Green

Tuesday, September 9; Rocket Bar

Red, White and Bleaaaah

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

Little Grizzly

Friday, August 9; Frederick's Music Lounge

Sunshine Fix with the Fantasy Four

Monday, Dec. 10; Rocket Bar

Apples in Stereo, the Golden Spiderz and the Fantasy Four

Saturday, May 19; Rocket Bar