Oceania

The Conservati of Oz

Homicide for the Holidays

The Smashing Pumpkins at the Chaifetz Arena, 10/18/12: Notes, Photos and Setlist

Thematically, the Smashing Pumpkins is a very predictable band. For those familiar with its imagery and history, thoughts of the band conjure up visions of moons and stars and other celestial entities. But last night, Billy Corgan had a lot of love to give to St. Louis. Literally. Corgan sang the ... More >>

The Great Pumpkin Speaks: Billy Corgan drops the filter

Billy Corgan Talks About Writing Spiteful Songs and the Impending Death of Rock & Roll

In this week's music feature, we talked to Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan. He was wordy and well spoken; most notably, however, he was open -- there was no topic we couldn't broach. We talked about his bitter break-ups with former band members, what he's trying to accomplish with the new m ... More >>

Smashing Pumpkins Tickets on Groupon

The Smashing Pumpkins will be in St. Louis in just over two weeks at the Chaifetz Arena as part of the tour for new record Oceania. And there are tickets right now on Groupon for more than half off. Read into that what you will, or simply go jump on the chance to get a $57 ticket for $25. See also ... More >>

Caledonian Weekend

Pal Joeys: Two New Kangaroo Babies at the Saint Louis Zoo

The population of the Saint Louis Zoo increased by two over the winter, but the cuteness factor just grew exponentially. Kasbeth the Matschie's tree kangaroo and Conundrum the red kangaroo both gave birth to lima bean sized babies back in January; now those younguns are big enough to start venturing ... More >>

[Kim Dotcom Arrest Video: Update] The Eight Most Eyebrow-Raising Elements of the Megaupload Shutdown

Editor's Update, 8/9/12: Video of the raid on former Megaupload CEO Kim Dotcom's enormous New Zealand home in January has just emerged -- you can watch it above. The report, from 3 News in New Zealand, includes testimony from Dotcom -- who is accused of the largest copyright infringement in U.S. hi ... More >>

Five Things Like 'Glee' Gotye Must Erase From The 'Somebody That I Used To Know' Wikipedia Page

I like to call this move the Jonathan Franzen: Gotye, who managed to get a rock song onto the radio in 2012, has rolled his eyes at the Glee version of "Somebody That I Used To Know," probably while covered in angular paint swatches and looking really nervous about something. Which is fine, becaus ... More >>

Coin-Roll Scam That Rocked Maplewood Has Medieval Roots

Shut up and listen because you're about to learn history -- usable history. As reported Monday by KTVI Fox2Now, a band of ne'er-do-wells paid visits to Kakao Chocolate in Maplewood and other area businesses a couple of weeks ago. They posed as delivery people and claimed they needed to give yonder c ... More >>

The Naked and Famous at the Gargoyle, 4/12/12: Snapshots

The Naked and Famous brought a serious crowd and an even more serious light show to the Gargoyle on Washington University's campus last night. The New Zealand band left the crowd sweaty and happy. The show follows a last-second cancellation for a Raekwon concert and a poorly attended Teengirl Fantas ... More >>

Tea Fertilized by Panda Poop and Other Crap We Can't Afford

Image viaHey, panda! We have plans for that bamboo when you're done with it.​How often have you stared at your cup of tea while it's steeping and thought, "You know, the only thing that could make this tea better would be if it had been fertilized in panda poop."If the answer is very often, then s ... More >>

Remembering St. Louis' Korla Pandit -- The Godfather Of Exotica

​Fantasizing about being somewhere else isn't a new concept. And as Americans moved into suburbs that took boredom and conformity to new heights, daydreaming about distant locales became a commodity. Indeed, the suburbanizing 1950s featured a wave of music glamorizing distant destinations in ... More >>

Those Darlins at Off Broadway, 9/16/11

Those Darlins at the Pageant in February. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.​Those Darlins | Wagons | Bunnygrunt Off Broadway September 16, 2011 Those Darlins loves St. Louis, and St. Louis loves the band right back. The beloved mid-Tennessee quartet was preceded by Bunnygrunt, which played a set full of ... More >>

Five Places We Wish Earl Sweatshirt Was

Image via ​At this point, the story of Odd Future rapper Earl Sweatshirt's disappearance seems to have lasted almost as long as his early career. The 17-year-old is known almost as much for his brash, aggressive and strictly NSFW lyrics as he is for the fact that almost no one knows exactly wh ... More >>

Missouri Tattoo Artist, Warner Bros., Settle Over Rights to Tyson Tattoo

​It looks like Tattoogate has finally reached its end. The south-central Missouri tattoo artist who sued the producers of The Hangover Part 2 for copyright infringement has now reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount of cash. As far as legal narratives go, this was one of the wackies ... More >>

Molly Rockamann, First Recipient of the Young Food Leader Award, on Organic Farming and Sustainable Urban Agriculture

Screenshot via​Molly Rockamann grew up in the suburbs of Creve Coeur, where vegetable farms consisted of small tomato gardens in backyards or a few pole beans creeping up the sides of fences. But it was there where Molly developed a real passion for vegetables at an early age. As co-founder an ... More >>

Battle Meat Pie: England vs. Australia Grudge Match!

​England vs. Australia may sound like a cricket match, but it's merely the latest Fight Club Sandwich installment: battle meat pie. The two nations may share one language and a similar gene pool, but culturally they're as far apart as they are geographically. One is planning a royal wedding; ... More >>

Parkway Drive

Doors at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, February 19. Pop's, 401 Monsanto Avenue, Sauget, Illinois.

Study: Oysters "Functionally Extinct"

Image via​Do you love oysters? Looks like you might have two choices:1) Eat all you can now before they disappear for good.2) Don't eat them at all -- for a while, at least -- until the population rebounds.A new study from the Nature Conservatory and the University of California has found that oys ... More >>

"I Was Wondering Why All the Birds Are, Like, Dying": 911 Calls From Beebe, Arkansas

image via​It's still unclear why several thousand birds fell from the sky over Beebe, Arkansas, on New Year's Eve and whether this is, indeed, an early sign of the impending apocalypse. Mysterious bird deaths have now been reported in Sweden and Louisiana and, adding to the sense of doom, mill ... More >>

A Bowl of Noodles for $324? A Bowl of Noodles for $324

Image via$324 would buy you a lot of ramen.​Today the Wall Street Journal (via Eater) checks in with Taiwanese chef Wang Cong-yuan and his restaurant Niu Ba Ba, where diners can purchase a bowl of noodles for $324.The price -- a cool 10,000 in New Taiwanese dollars -- was set when the chef asked V ... More >>

Baby 'Roo At The Zoo Looks At You

Your Friday dose of excessive cuteness is brought to you today by Nokopo, an absurdly adorable joey (that's a baby kangaroo to you and me) at the St. Louis Zoo. Nokopo is a six-month-old Matschie's Tree Kangaroo, an endangered species native to mountainous rainforests in Papua New Guinea.Like all 'r ... More >>

Egg Chef On New Tribute to New Zealand Punk Icons Toy Love

​Our Bellevillian sludge overlords Egg Chef have teamed up with Burning Sky Records for an international tribute to the late New Zealand punk greats Toy Love. Though Toy Love was only together for less than two years, the pioneering punks inspired a sonic movement that later became known as Du ... More >>

Top 10 Values of the World Goblet 2010

​Now that Gut Check's World Goblet 2010 tourney is in the books -- France won, if you've been asleep in a cave for the past month and a half -- here's a handy shopping list of the wines we consider to be the best values we tasted, along with a link to the pertinent post and an encapsulation of ... More >>

The World Goblet 2010 - Recap and Awards

It's been more than a month since Gut Check got a wild hair up our corkscrew and decided to stage a World Cup, as it were, of value-priced wines. ​We did it because we're cheapskates, and because we drink a lot of wine, and because we blog like a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest. Well, we ... More >>

The World Goblet Final: France vs. New Zealand

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet: Semifinal 1 - New Zealand vs. Spain

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 3: Portugal vs. South Africa

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 3: Greece vs. France

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 3: Chile vs. Germany

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 3: Italy vs. New Zealand

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 3: Australia vs. United States

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 2: Germany vs. Australia

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 2: New Zealand vs. France

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 1: France vs. Italy

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 1: Greece vs. New Zealand

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 1: Australia vs. Chile

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

Sick Puppies

7 p.m. Sunday, December 13. Scottrade Center, 1401 Clark Avenue.

Rhone, Rhone on the Range

Miles to Go

Aussies bomb Maplewood

Runway Wishes, Fashionable Dreams

Don't Be a Day Late

Or a dollar short

Bat Signal

I Scream, You Scream

We all scream for dance!

Absolutli Grand

Martini madness at a new South Grand watering hole

Side Dish

Food for thought from St. Louis restaurants