Union Electric Company

The Melvins, Portugal. The Man, Murphy Lee, Big Muddy Blues Festival and More in This Week's Show Announcements

Here again: every newly announced show for the week! On page one you'll find a quick list of shows that particularly caught our attention, followed by embedded YouTube videos; there, you can check out some of the artists you may not be familiar with. Page two contains our complete listing of new sho ... More >>

Local Record Store Day Wax from Tim Rakel's Extension Chord Records, Cassie Morgan, and More

It's one of the perks of this gig that, sometimes, Record Store Day comes a little bit early. The Vinyl Fairy has been making stops at my doorstep and leaving advances of this weekend's local wax offerings, which are every bit as exciting as, oh, the 1,000-quantity Todd Rundgren picture discs (or wh ... More >>

The Best St. Louis Punk/Hardcore Shows in April

Are you sick of being responsible? Does it annoy you to have to follow rules or be pro-social? Do you like basements? Well, if you are a goofy, degenerate weirdo who doesn't quite fit in anywhere else, you might consider our city's DIY hardcore/punk shows.Your underlying anger problems can be brough ... More >>

The Ten Best Shows in St. Louis This Weekend: March 29 to 31

Welcome to the weekend! I'm operating from a strategic satellite location out of town at the moment, so I can't tell if it's spring in St. Louis yet. Regardless, I am bummed to be missing out on some awesome shows this weekend. For starters, Fister, Old Salt Union, Great Isaac and Tear Out the Heart ... More >>

Lil Wayne, John Mayer, Animal Collective, Pokey LaFarge and More in This Week's Show Announcements

Here again: every newly announced show for the week! On page one you'll find a quick list of shows that particularly caught our attention, followed by embedded YouTube videos; there, you can check out some of the artists you may not be familiar with. Page two contains our complete listing of new sho ... More >>

Public Enemy, Har Mar Superstar, Water Liars, Pink and More in This Week's Show Announcements

Here again: every newly announced show for the week! On page one you'll find a quick list of shows that particularly caught our attention, followed by embedded YouTube videos; there, you can check out some of the artists you may not be familiar with. Page two contains our complete listing of new sho ... More >>

Patti Smith, Toots and the Maytals, Shooter Jennings, Ghostface Killah and More in This Week's Show Announcements

Here again: every newly announced show for the week! On page one you'll find a quick list of shows that particularly caught our attention, followed by embedded YouTube videos; there, you can check out some of the artists you may not be familiar with. Page two contains our complete listing of new sho ... More >>

Garbage, Rakim, Fall Out Boy, the Deftones and More in This Week's Show Announcements

Here again: every newly announced show for the week! On page one you'll find a quick list of shows that particularly caught our attention, followed by embedded YouTube videos; there, you can check out some of the artists you may not be familiar with. Page two contains our complete listing of new sho ... More >>

The Ten Best New Year's Eve 2012 Parties in St. Louis

New Year's Eve is upon us! And in 2012 too -- it is the New Year's Eve that they said would never happen. Boy do they look dumb now. Now that all that Mayan Calendar crap has passed, can we finally all agree that these end-of-the-world prophecies are completely stupid? I mean, that was the biggest ... More >>

2012: The Year in St. Louis Music

Homespun: The Jump Starts

What Hides Inside
Loud Label

Homespun: Née

Finches EP
www.neemusic.com

Nee Gets Muscular on Finches: Read the Review and Listen to the EP

With a catchy and captivating take on electro-pop and enough smarts to marry buzzy hooks with a kitschy/glam style, Kristin Dennis turned her Née project into a must-watch act on the rise. Her first EP, The Hands of Thieves, presented a gridwork of synths and drum-machine patterns, but Dennis was s ... More >>

The Wailers, Wussy, Swayback and More in This Week's New Show Announcements

Here again: every newly announced show for the week! On page one you'll find a quick list of shows that particularly caught our attention, followed by embedded YouTube videos; there, you can check out some of the artists you may not be familiar with. Page two contains our complete listing of new sho ... More >>

The Best of An Under Cover Weekend at the Firebird

An Under Cover Weekend is a time to get silly, abandon caution and get lost with ten St. Louis bands in some of the most loved music ever. Many of us will never see Aerosmith in concert. The majority of the two sold-out crowds missed Michael Jackson. And here they are, in joyful incarnation. Just fo ... More >>

DIY to Death: Remembering Dancing Feet March To War

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. RFT's Daniel Hill wrote an article last week about Stlpunk, a localized proto-social networking site that ... More >>

The Ten Best Shows In St. Louis This Weekend: July 27 to 29

Today's word of the day is "brevity." Lesson learned and applied: 1. Naked Raygun at the Firebird 2. Darin Gray / Bill Horist at the Schlafly Tap Room 3. Fang Island at Off Broadway 4. Future & Pusha T at the Ambassador 5. Click through for the rest of our picks! "Soul of wit," and all that... ... More >>

The Ten Best Shows In St. Louis This Weekend: July 13 to 15

This weekend would have been the hundredth birthday of Woody Guthrie, if he'd only lived that long. To celebrate, both Plush and Off Broadway are hosting tributes -- Plush's is on Friday night and Off Broadway's is on Saturday. It was good thinking on the part of these two venues to put their shows ... More >>

Elvis' Producer Spent Time at Webster University's Recording Studio, and So Can Local Musicians

Settled in Webster Groves, Webster University is making big noise in the sound recording field. For 24 years, the University's Department of Audio Aesthetics and Technology has been offering professional quality recordings to international and local musicians. Webster's classes take a hand on app ... More >>

STL Loud 4

Noon. Saturday, June 23. PrideFest at Tower Grove Park, 4256 Magnolia Avenue.

Out Every Night: The Best Shows From June 18 to 24

According to my new calendar, the word of the day is "volant," and it is defined as "moving lightly" or "nimble." I'm not really sure how to incorporate that into a post recommending shows for this week, but I'll do my damnedest. Legendary metal monsters Corrosion of Conformity play the Firebird to ... More >>

Paper Dolls Breaks Up

Paper Dolls - Lo-Fi Session from Trent Hover on Vimeo.Paper Dolls perform in a Lo-Fi St. Louis Session. After four-plus years and one EP, chamber-pop quartet Paper Dolls is calling it quits. "The project has been very close to my heart, and it's bittersweet to see it end," keyboardist/singer Jenn ... More >>

Eric Hall's Live Solos 2011: The Best Value in St. Louis Music

Eric Hall does not play songs. It's hard to describe the meaningful element of his improvised electronic performance without falling into hopeless abstraction: He fills the room, sends his audience within themselves and documents a time and place. Each show is recorded and mastered, and Hall has bee ... More >>

Gateway Drug Release Show

2 p.m. Saturday, January 14. Apop Records, 2831 Cherokee Street.

40 Best St. Louis Releases of 2011: Part Eight

​Part One: The Union Electric, Sweet Tooth, King Kong Magnetics, Warm Jets USA Part Two: Glass Teeth, Ryan Spearman, the Breaks and Adult Fur Part Three: Rum Drum Ramblers, Humanoids, Old Lights and Volcanoes Part Four: Bo & the Locomotive, Rockwell Knuckles, Dubb Nubb and Palace Part Five: S ... More >>

40 Best St. Louis Releases of 2011: Part Three

​As you may have noticed, we were excited to be St. Louis music fans this year. And there is no more substantial document of the sound of this city in 2011 than the music released by its bands and artists. It is not an exaggeration to guess that the releases in the metro area number in the th ... More >>

40 Best St. Louis Releases of 2011: Part Two

Did we ruin the surprise? ​As you may have noticed, we were excited to be St. Louis music fans this year. And there is no more substantial document of the sound of this city in 2011 than the music released by its bands and artists. It is not an exaggeration to guess that the releases in the m ... More >>

New Year's Eve in St. Louis: Ten Best Things to Do Under $10

It's a metaphor: We do not advocate infant boozing. ​The best part of New Year's Eve is getting ready for it. The worst part is usually right around 11:57pm, when it dawns that you just blew a couple hundred dollars to end up chugging pink Andre curbside while your best friend blows chunks in ... More >>

The Ten Best Things to do in St. Louis This Weekend: October 14 to 16

​We should all probably be napping right now because there isn't a moment to lose this weekend: The Occupy St. Louis movement gets a six-band bill at Kiener Plaza, and after that show stops Hawthorne Headhunters starts up at Lola. Caleb Travers is releasing his EP at Off Broadway this evening ... More >>

Occupy St. Louis Gets Music Community Support: Weekend Shows At Kiener Plaza

Last night's welcoming committee meeting. Photo by Diana Benanti.​It's Wednesday night, and the dulcet tones of Adele's lovelorn balladry are coming through a boombox. There's a documentary playing on a makeshift screen on the eastern side of Kiener Plaza. Everywhere you go, people are talking ... More >>

The Ten Best Things To Do On Labor Day Weekend In St. Louis

​Welcome to our favorite Commie holiday, where we celebrate the laborers by taking Monday off and no longer wearing white. We'd say something about the coming of Fall, but our landlord just announced they've decided to keep the pool we share with a nearby apartment complex open until the end ... More >>

Glass Teeth's Matty Coonfield Talks About The Band's Breakup And Final Show

Nick LucchesiJeff Robtoy in his element.​Tomorrow night, there are no fewer than four major local shows vying for your weekend attention. Two of them are sad occasions -- Dynabro Griffin Kay's final performance with So Many Dynamos, Glass Teeth's final show as the five-man powerhouse you've co ... More >>

Jason Torbitzky's Last Show With Theodore Is Tomorrow: What He Meant To The Band

Jason Torbitzky playing with Theodore. Photo by Ellen Herget​Theodore's Jason Torbitzky is making his leave from the band much in the way he played with it: Without flailing or fanfare. His new job won't leave enough time to devote to the band; his final show will be tomorrow for the Union Ele ... More >>

Band Of Heathens And Theodore At Off Broadway, 7/27/11

Theodore. Photo by Kiernan Maletsky​On another muggy Wednesday in St. Louis, Band of Heathens brought towering piles of equipment and merch and Theodore brought its two new members. The shakeup in Theodore: Drummer Jason Torbitzky got a job he couldn't share with his duties as a member of a ... More >>

Centro-matic and Sarah Jaffe, 7/5/11: Review, Setlist, Photos

Christian Schaeffer​Centro-matic | Sarah Jaffe Off Broadway July 5, 2011 In a perfect world, the makers of Auto-Tune - the vocal pitch-correction software that makes starlets sing like robots - would come out with a Will Johnson Sound-Alike module. The singer and guitarist for Centro-matic ha ... More >>

The Ten Best Things to do in St. Louis This Weekend: June 17-19

Wikimedia Commons​The time has come again, and we hope you're as pumped as we are for this weekend's psychitzophrenic spread. It's all about the well-rounded experience: You can ponder art over an exhibition of electronica artists at the SLAP Conference, check out a Robert Plant sound-a-like o ... More >>

The Ten Best Things To Do This Weekend in St. Louis: April 15 to 17

​It's the most wonderful time of the year: Record Store Day! For us at A to Z, it's like Christmas, only we're receiving special gifts from Wayne Coyne and Thom Yorke, and enjoying DJ sets and live performances by the best in local music. Which, as far as we're concerned, beats the pants off o ... More >>

LouFest Wants You to Guess Its Lineup, Win Passes

​First, here's some good news on this Day of Snow Reckoning: According to organizer Brian Cohen, LouFest is looking to announce its lineup in late March. Hooray! In the meantime, 'Fest will be presenting shows at several venues around the city, starting with February 8's Tokyo Police Club show ... More >>

Daydream Lullaby releases sleep | wake | delete EP at Fort Gondo

It's not often that an artist sends in a press kit that makes us stop in our tracks. But a handcrafted, epically beautiful release landed in our laps recently, that of Daydream Lullaby's sleep | wake | delete EP. The music sounds just as quixotic the name implies. Eric Ryszkiewicz, who just happen ... More >>

2010 Music Showcase: 1 night, 50+ bands, 5 bucks this Saturday on Wash. Ave.

Your 2010 RFT Music Showcase Schedule is Right Here

​On June 5, the RFT Music Showcase is happening on Washington Avenue. All day, all night. Have you voted yet for your favorite bands? If not, I suggest you do that right here! Perhaps the schedule for the music showcase will spur on your clicking fingers. Read on below for the bands, venues an ... More >>

Show Flyer: The Third Annual Anti-Wrecking Ball, Saturday, May 22

​The third annual official Anti-Wrecking Ball fundraiser is taking place on Saturday, May 22, at 8 p.m. at the Historic Stahl Stables (2412 Menard) in Soulard. $10 gets you a free keg beer (singular) and performances from the Union Electric, Leadville and Pretty Little Empire. The show's proce ... More >>

Local News Rodeo: Bunnygrunt, Union Electric, Sex Robots Band Break-Ups

Firecracker Press​It's time for a local news rodeo! Yee-haw. Bunnygrunt is having what it's calling a Wedge-i-dency every Monday in April at the -- you guessed it -- Wedge, at the corner of Bates and Virginia. "We're using these shows as a chance to work up some new songs in a low pressure -- ... More >>

Featured Review: BRICALEUR-ing

May Day Orchestra Pens Second Folk Opera

The May Day Orchestra dropped me a line a few weeks ago to report that it's penned another "folk opera" and plans to debut it on Friday, October 30, at the Black Bear Bakery. Details! The first May Day Orchestra project concerned Lucy Parsons and the anarchist labor leaders of Chicago in the 1880s. ... More >>

St. Louis Weekend Concert Calendar: Friday, October 16 to Sunday, October 18

Friday, October 16 *Mirah/Norfolk & Western, Billiken Club *Tom Russell, Off Broadway *The Blakes/The Orbz/Via Dove, Firebird *Ernie Isley and the Jam Band, Blueberry Hill's Duck Room *Flow Clinic/Mustardfish/Lord of the Yum-Yum, Lemmmons *Trey Songz/Mario/Day 26, The Pageant *This Is Energy/Novell ... More >>

St. Louis Weekend Concert Calendar, May 15 to 17

Friday, May 15 *Paper Dolls/Heather Perry, Off Broadway *Cracker, Blueberry Hill's Duck Room (also appearing at Vintage Vinyl at 5 p.m., free beer & BBQ!) *Left Arm, Vintage Vinyl, 8 p.m. *The Linemen, Atomic Cowboy *Messy Jiverson (CD release as Blown Speakers), Old Rock House *The Syn (members of ... More >>

St. Louis Weekend Concert Calendar, April 17 to 19

Busy weekend! Friday, April 17 *Solange/Teresajenee, Webster University *Pretty & Nice/Radical Sons, Firebird *Jason Ringenberg/Rough Shop, Off Broadway *Loyal Earth Fest at the Old Rock House*Unwed Sailor/Jovian Chorus/Dear Future, Luminary Center for the Arts*Alvin Jett and Phat NoiZ, Riddles* ... More >>

"Damn! Every time a person farts too loud, out goes the lights."

Week of August 24, 2006

The Lord’s Player

Leeora Daniels serves as coach, quarterback and cheerleader for the Gospel Super Bowl