South by Southwest Festival

The Best Shows at SXSW 2013

This year, our sister papers at the Houston Press music blog Rocks Off and Dallas Observer music blog DC-9 at Night teamed up to bring you only the choicest moments from last week's SXSW madness. See Also: -The Scene at SXSW: Here's What You Are Missing -SXSW 2013: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Spai ... More >>

The Best Shows in St. Louis Week: March 4 to 10

Welcome to March, aka insane show season in our fair city of St. Louis. Bands from all over begin to defrost from winter weather and warm up to the road once more, loading up vans and booking mini tours to Austin's South by Southwest fest and beyond. Catch some in the act as they swing through in co ... More >>

Student Startup Madness: Local Collegians Compete to Be Next Mark Zuckerberg

Many people come up with the dumbest ideas of their lives during college. But, as Sean Branagan, director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Syracuse University, observes, some pretty good ideas have come from college students, too: Facebook, FedEx, Dell computers, Google, Reddit, t ... More >>

Daniel Pujol on the United States of Being

Daniel Pujol is a man of many talents. Whether he's completing his degree, playing ragers at SXSW, putting out records or writing poetry in an online series with his girlfriend, Pujol remains a vital voice for the hustling world of evolutionary rock & roll. Checked by tastemaker Jack White and his T ... More >>

Fiona Apple Presale Password [Update]

Update, 4/19/12: The Fiona Apple presale password appears to be "criminal" for the St. Louis show. You can buy presale tickets for the show on Ticketmaster right now; the general sale is tomorrow. Prices range from $35 to $75 before fees. That's the same password used in February for the March 31 s ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Saturday 3/17/2012

So, we come to it: the end of all things. Four days of madness, Doritos, Skrillex and finally, St. Patrick's Day. Before we bid SXSW 2012 farewell, allow us to share our favorite moments from SXSW day four. Later, we'll let you know which shows weren't so hot. Find our favorites below, and if there ... More >>

Norah Jones, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Do it Right: SXSW 2012 Day 3

Thursday, March 15, 2012 1 p.m. SXSW is time machine, not always dialed towards the future. Though the clubs change names every season, the gimmicks get more and more outrageous -- witness the skyscraper-sized vending machine stocked with minivan-sized bags of chemically-enhanced corn chips whose n ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Wednesday 3/14/2012

​If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the bright, scintillating chaos, Village Voice Media's roving musi ... More >>

Download the iLLPHONiCS EP Before Tonight's Release Show

Since its early days back in 2006, when the iLLPHONiCS was working out of the recording studio at Webster University, the group has shaped and molded its style into the well-polished hybrid genre that its members now call "hip-hop fusion." While the iLLPHONiCS may lean on a variety of different musi ... More >>

Tonight, Tonight: Greenhornes, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Chapel Club, Small Black, Torche, Liturgy and more

Small Black is at the Luminary Center for the Arts tonight with .e and Wise Blood​The post-SXSW embarrassment of riches continues in town tonight. Besides the Greenhornes at the Firebird and Eli "Paperboy" Reed at Off Broadway, there are several other shows featuring awesome/not-to-miss bands. ... More >>

SXSW Days 3 and 4: Dum Dum Girls, Joy Formidable, La Sera, The Vaccines, Josh Ritter, Lucinda Williams, Venice Is Sinking, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Asobi Seksu, Hurray For the Riff Raff and Twangfest Party, Friday, March 18 and Saturday, March 19

Dana PlonkaLa Sera at Waterloo Records​At the end of the final night at South By Southwest 2011, I walked down 6th Street, a scene you can surely picture without my assistance. But I have this press badge to earn, so: By 1 a.m. on Saturday night / Sunday morning, downtown Austin was a zombie m ... More >>

SXSW Day 2: Toro Y Moi, The Civil Wars, The Baseball Project, Bob Geldof, Vandaveer, Abigail Washburn, Charles Bradley, Ron Sexsmith and Surfer Blood, Thursday, March 17

Dana PlonkaThe Civil Wars​12:24 In the South By vortex, all news - or at least news not related to Jack White pop-up performances, Cee-Lo Green cancellations, Kanye gossip and R.E.M. show rumors - gets obliterated. Japan's nuclear nightmare is no exception. Glancing at an RSS reader under 75 d ... More >>

I Can Has Cheezcat at SXSW

​What hath the internets wrought? Mostly, hilarious cats. And now, they've been rendered in cheese. Really, why not?This weekend at South by Southwest, Austin's annual music and technology conference, St. Louis-based Friskies cat food unveiled an enormous (640 pound) statue, made of cheese, commem ... 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 >>

Trashcan Sinatras, Rural Alberta Advantage Returning to St. Louis

Annie ZaleskiJohn Douglas of Trashcan Sinatras​March is always good to St. Louis. If it's not bands coming from SXSW, it's bands going to SXSW -- if not just general spring thaw. The latter seems to be bringing Scotland's Trashcan Sinatras back to St. Louis. According to the band's website, it ... More >>

Valient Thorr

9 p.m. Tuesday, September 14. The Firebird, 2706 Olive Street.

Interview Outtakes: NOFX's Fat Mike Talks Cokie the Clown, Playing at Pop's and His Lyrical Evolution

courtesy of Fat Wreck ChordsNOFX returns to the St. Louis area for the first time since 1998.​In this week's paper, Michael Dauphin scored a rare interview with NOFX figurehead Fat Mike. The band will be performing at Pop's on Saturday, May 1, its first local club appearance since the late '90 ... More >>

Photos of Alex Chilton Tribute at SXSW. Plus Marianne Dissard, Jakob Dylan, Courtyard Hounds

Scenes from the Alex Chilton tribute at Antone's in Austin, March 20, 2010, plus more SXSW action. All photos by Dana Plonka. Dana PlonkaMike Mills of R.E.M. at the Alex Chilton tribute at SXSW 2010

Alex Chilton's Missouri Ties: How the First Big Star Reunion Happened in Columbia

Big Star/Box Tops legend Alex Chilton's sad, unexpected death continues to reverberate throughout the music industry. Tributes are pouring in, from the LA Times and Rolling Stone to the NY Times and basically the entire SXSW music festival. Jason HarperThe cover of the Austin Chronicle's SXSW suppl ... More >>

New Video From Family Affair: "Still the Same"

Dope production from twin St. Louis emcees QB and Rep courtesy of MadeMonarchs.com and AnonymousInsolence.com.Family Affair "Still The Same" from MadeMonarchs on Vimeo.If you're headed to SXSW check out Family Affair and the rest of local hip-hop collective The Force on Friday March 19 at the Creeks ... More >>

Win a Pair of Tickets to Cubic Zirconia's March 14 Show at Fubar!

We introduced you to Cubic Zirconia -- the new, dance project of St. Louis native Nick Hook, formerly of Men, Women & Children -- last October, via a video interview. The group is currently on a tour that'll take it to next week's SXSW music festival, a trek that includes a stop at Fubar on Sunday, ... More >>

Saturday! Gringo Star at the Firebird

St. Louis faves Gringo Star are sneaking back into town for an Independence Day gig at the Firebird with Kid Scientist and Pet Rock: The Musical. Roy Kasten wasn't entirely impressed with the band at SXSW, but Jaime Lees has given them plenty of love in the past. Decide for yourself this weekend -- ... More >>

RFT Music Awards Nominees & Showcase Performers

White Rabbits and the Harlem Shakes at the Firebird, Wednesday, June 10

White Rabbits, the Brooklyn band with local roots, will be returning to the Firebird on Wednesday, June 10. The act has a new album, It's Frightening, due May 19. Opening will be Harlem Shakes, a band friends were raving about at SXSW, based on zippy, Britpop-leaning indie. Update: Pitchfork is ... More >>

SXSW: Twangfest Party with Magnolia Summer, The Deep Vibration, Edward Burch

Roy KastenOtis GibbsSaturday afternoon at SXSW 2009 started early this year, with the second of the 10th annual Twangfest and KDHX parties at Jovita's (disclosure: I'm a KDHX programmer and Twangfest volunteer), and Nashville-based songwriter Otis Gibbs, whose protest sing-a-longs, earthy folk and b ... More >>

St. Louis at SXSW: The Pragmatic, Black Spade, Theodore and more

Going into SXSW this year, I was curious to see how the economic meltdown was going to affect the festival. I had heard that fewer labels were having showcases, and fewer journalists and label employees were attending. More people I know personally went down to Austin on their own dime, with no plan ... More >>

SXSW Day 2: No Leonard Cohen, the Hold Steady Stay Positive, Blind Pilot Soars

Imagine, if you will, the worst possible way to spend a day at SXSW, one that doesn't involve an emergency colonoscopy or a Marnie Stern showcase, and then imagine something even more tedious and despairing, a day of utter humiliation and loathing. And then it really starts to go downhill.I should h ... More >>

SXSW: Day 1 with M. Ward, Billy Bob Thornton, Caitlin Rose and Gringo Star

On Sixth Street in Austin, it's Day One of SXSW 2009 (for Day Zero, go here) and the promotional and busking stunts are on: A couple of kids dressed in epidermally fused body suits to hype (sweetly) their outer space band Frontier Brothers, some Transformer mechano-dude on stilts, a posse with a sig ... More >>

Teresa Jenee

10 p.m. February 26. Atomic Cowboy, 4140 Manchester Avenue.

R.I.P. Stooges Guitarist Ron Asheton

Via TIRC, via NME: Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton was found dead at the age of 60 at his Michigan home. Cause of death is unknown right now.You know, it's almost easy to forget how influential the Stooges are on modern music -- all strains of it. Every time I listen to one of their older songs, I'm s ... More >>

No Age at the Gargoyle, Sunday, November 16

Dead Confederate at the Bluebird with Catfish Haven, LoveLikeFire, Monday, September 29

CMJ: Shame Club, Gentleman Auction House Also Playing

John Roderick of the Long Winters Does New York, Lets Sleeping Bands Lie

SXSW From a First-Timer's Perspective: R.E.M., Undertow, Dead Confederate, Thurston Moore, J Mascis, more

Top o' the Morning Brew: Monday, 3.17

Does It Offend You, Yeah? at the Fader Fort

Ra Ra Riot, the RAC and SXSW

Texas Tornado: St. Louis musicians invade SXSW

Billiken Club Day Party at SXSW, New Shows In Town

The Breeders: New Album, Mountain Battles, and SXSW 2008

White Rabbits on Late Night with David Letterman

The Sterns

7 p.m. Tuesday, April 24. Creepy Crawl (3524 Washington Boulevard).

Still More SXSW Coverage, Part Two

South by Southwest by Annie

Check out our exhaustive recap of Austin's indie-rock fest.

Looking South (XSW)

St. Louis bands make a fine showing at Austin's annual indie-rock spring break.

SXSW and St. Louis

And the Smooth Shall Become Rough...

Smooth jazz fans want answers. We've got 'em.

Austin City Limits

The Living Things were the living end at South by Southwest

Beat-Crazy

Miami's Winter Music Conference draws anybody who's anybody in the electronic-music world