Yo La Tengo

50 Photos from January 2013: Seized Cash, Sexy Plumbers, Craft Beer and More

Pics, pics, pics, pics: They make the Internet run. Here are some our favorite photos from the month of January, published within the pages, deadtree and digital, of the RFT.

St. Louis Hanukkah Celebrations: Hipster or Hasidic?

The Jewish festival of Hanukkah (or Chanukah, if you can manage that guttural "ch") starts Saturday night at sundown. A few weeks ago, Jimmy Kimmel ran a segment on his show called "Hipster or Hasidic" in which the audience had to determine whether a series of beards belonged to Brooklynites of the ... More >>

Trey Songz, Yo La Tengo & Calexico, Speedwolf 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 2012 RFT Music Showcase Lineup for June 2

New Band: Meet the 2012 RFT Music Award Nominees

The 2012 Riverfront Times Music Showcase is a month away. And if that is our own St. Louis Music holiday, then consider this the season: Over the next month, we'll be making our cases for all 125 bands and artists nominated for an RFT Music Award this year. Each weekday between now and the showcase ... More >>

The Six Best Key Changes In Pop Music

The key change is an essential device in the pop canon. Play song, move chords and melody up a half step or so, continue in new key until otherwise noted. It's simple, really, and often effective, which is why it has been employed to the point of abuse. Here are the six best key changes in pop music ... More >>

Biggest St. Louis Music News Stories of 2011: Part One

Bloodshot Records​The Bottle Rockets' Acoustic Album Finally Sees the Light of Day Not So Loud: An Acoustic Evening With the Bottle Rockets was a long time in coming -- four years in fact. Recorded over two nights in 2007 at the now defunct Lucas School House, the live album was one of this ... More >>

Okkervil River And Wye Oak Are Coming To The Pageant

​Okkervil River is coming to the Pageant! And Wye Oak is opening! The show's on September 20th -- tickets are $16 ($19 day of show) and go on sale July 22nd at 5 p.m. Okkervil River, touring in support of the recently released I Am Very Far, went to the head of the mid-to-late-Aughts indie ... More >>

Last Collector Standing: Carlos Ruiz Isn't a Pretentious Record Store Guy -- He Just Draws a Comic About One

Jon Scorfina​The "pretentious record store guy" has long been the bane of the record shop. Despite their wealth of archaic knowledge, music lovers were never sure whether these pompous clerks were an asset or a plague to their shopping experience. Local comic artist and graphic designer Carlos ... More >>

Last Collector Standing: Best-Selling Author Scott Phillips Dreams About Vinyl, Writes While Listening to Michael Nyman and Yo La Tengo

Jon Scorfina​Scott Phillips is the national best-selling author of the novels The Ice Harvest and The Walkaway; his newest book is the Western-tinged, black comedy Cottonwood. He's also a vinyl collector who has recurring dreams of shifting through bin after bin of lost music in an imaginary r ... More >>

Top Sellers at Area Record Stores: Week of January 18

Euclid Records 1. Spoon - Transference 2. Eels - End Times 3. Vampire Weekend - Contra 4. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast 5. Tom Waits - Glitter & Doom Live 6. Josh Ritter - Hello Starling 7. John Mayer - Battle Studies* 8. Nirvana - Live At Reading 9. Ring ... More >>

St. Louis Weekend Concert Calendar: Friday, January 22 to Sunday, January 24

Please look here and here for Haiti benefits happening around town this weekend. Friday, January 22 *Corey Smith, The Pageant *Jeff Coffin & the Mu'tet, 2720 Cherokee *Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, Deluxe (last show at the venue) *Soul Kiss (reunion), Duck Room *Mario Pascal, Lamar Harris a ... More >>

St. Louis Concert Announcements: Week Of November 10

​Scottrade Center *Jay-Z/Young Jeezy, Friday, March 19 Off Broadway *Bobby Bare, Jr./David Vandervelde, Friday, January 1 *Agent Orange, Wednesday, January 20 *Po' Girl, Wednesday, February 3 *The Hot Seats/Pokey LaFarge, Friday, February 19 Sheldon Concert Hall *Alison Brown, Friday, November 20 ... More >>

RFT Music Awards Nominees & Showcase Performers

Obscurity Knocks: The Cucumbers

(Welcome to Obscurity Knocks, where every Thursday we'll unearth something good -- but obscure -- we think deserves notice.) MP3: "Susie's Getting Married"Artist: The CucumbersAlbum: The Cucumbers four-song EP Year: 1983Label: Fake Doom RecordsWho were/are they?  A band from the New Jersey sub ... More >>

Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple: A Career Retrospective, Via Video

If you don't like geeking out, unabashed fandom or good music, stop reading now. Anyone else, please forge ahead. It's no surprise that I'm stoked for this weekend's appearances by Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple. But why is this such a big deal? Roy touched on this in his story, but these two men ... More >>

Show Review: Mates of State, Headlights at the Bluebird, Sunday, June 8

Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs Review: A First Listen, Track-By-Track Analysis

The Raveonettes, Land of Talk, Jens Lekman at SXSW

Dream into Action

Jennifer O’Connor’s unexpected career path has helped her land among the stars.

Living in Oblivion

Neither meeting Sonic Youth nor covering seminal '80s songs fazes Grant-Lee Phillips.

Clare Burson/Richard Ferreira

8 p.m. Sunday, August 27. Blueberry Hill's Duck Room (6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City).

Av Almighty

Unlike Jesus, Avril Lavigne will live to prove her haters wrong

Bettie Serveert

Friday, July 1; Blueberry Hill's Duck Room (6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City)

Camera Obscura

Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi (Merge)

Sounds Around Town

Week of September 29, 2004

Sweet Jane, You Ignorant Slut

These are the best rock & roll conversations in the world. No argument.

Sounds Around Town

Week of June 9, 2004

Rattle and Humbug

Cronyism! Nepotism! Backstabbing! Secrecy! So that's why they call it "community radio"!

Lost in Paradise

Grandaddy is California nightmarin'

Television

Marquee Moon / Adventure (Rhino)

Sounds Around Town

Week of September 24, 2003

Glorious Glut

Could '02' mean "Oh, too many records?"

Mag Hags

What's wrong with the state of music journalism -- and how to fix it

Children's Audio

Japanese composer Nobukazu Takemura has released some of the most important experimental electronic music of the past decade

The Sixths

Hyacinths and Thistles
(Merge)

Devo

Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology (Rhino)

Black Magic

Listening Post

Listening Post