Black Metal Documentary Until the Light Takes Us Leaves Some Fans Wanting More Last Night at Webster

The black metal documentary Until the Light Takes Us wrapped up its weekend stay in St. Louis with a showing last night at Webster University. The documentary focuses on the formation, meaning and messages in the scene during its beginnings and heyday in Norway in the early- and mid-'90s. As with all documentaries on music sub-genres, key players, bands and stories are inevitably going to be excluded.

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Metal fans Andrew Shafer (left) and Max Barnett (right) at Until the Light Takes Us on Sunday night.
After the jump, a recap and what a few fans thought of the film.

Cardinals' Matt Holliday is on Twitter, "Big Fan of the New Creed Album"

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He's @MattHolliday7
Fresh off signing a seven-year $120 million contract, Matt Holliday is reaching out to St. Louis Cardinals fans through Twitter to share life's little moments.

And defending his admiration for incredible rock band Creed.

Holliday tweeted this Thursday afternoon:


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Fair enough, right? A man's entitled to telling people about his favorite bands. And fans are happy to see this guy is already training for the season. But then it got ugly, sort of.

Black Metal Documentary Until the Light Takes Us Showing at Webster This Weekend

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Until the Light Takes Us shows this weekend at Webster University.
The new documentary about black metal -- that satanic, unholy combination of thrash guitars, blast beats and guttural vocals -- is made by posers. That's the assumption one might have going into a viewing of Until the Light Takes Us, the documentary which looks back on the Norway's now-infamous black metal scene of the early and mid-'90s.

If author Michael Moynihan's Lords of Chaos is the definitive account of the black metal scene,  Until the Light Takes Us might be likened to an evil Behind the Music, spiked by prison interviews with one of the scene's godfathers. Filmmakers Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell moved to Norway from San Francisco for "several years"  to make the documentary.

The result is, as stated by the documentarians:
A poignant, moving story that's as much about the idea that reality is composed of whatever the most people believe, regardless of  what's actually true, as it is about a music scene that blazed a path of murder and arson across the northern sky.

Photos: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Flaming Death Trap Last Night at the Billiken Club

Last night, Springfield, Missouri's Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (writers of this winter's hot stove baseball anthem) played the Billiken Club with fellow Missourians Flaming Death Trap, who hail from "shit towns across Missouri," according to their MySpace page. Photographer Todd Owyoung was at the Saint Louis University venue last night and took these photos.

View Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin slideshow here.

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Photo: Todd Owyoung
Flaming Death Trap last night at the Billiken Club. See full slideshow from last night here.

It's Only Barack & Roll: How Did Obama Fare With Musicians in His First Year?

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A photo imagining what Obama's year has been like.
Last year on this day, President Barack Obama was sworn into office. Although the hum of health care reform, Afghanistan troop surges and the ten percent unemployment rate dominated news in the past year, when the president chimed in about something less important, your ears had to perk up.

Take, for instance, his, um, colorful take on Kanye West, after the hip-hop star crashed the MTV Video Music Awards stage and interrupted Taylor Swift's speech.

But Obama also had positive interactions with musicians  during his first year in office -- a list that happens to include several of Forbes magazine's top-earners. (Rankings are for 2008; rankings are traditionally published the following June.)

Here's a rundown of Obama's relationships with these big-money artists, and of course, that infamous Kanye comment.



Cut to :20 seconds in to again hear Obama call West "a jackass".

Protesters Will Get Gaga for Lady Gaga Before Her January 7 St. Louis Concert at the Fox Theatre

Human lightning rod Lady Gaga and her handlers aren't letting many press photographers into her show at the Fabulous Fox Theatre on January 7, but there could be more news cameras outside the venue when her tour hits St. Louis.

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Timothy Norris / LA Weekly
Lady Gaga at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on December 23, 2009. See more photos here.
Pastor Fred Phelps, best known for his rallying cry (and Web site URL) "God Hates Fags," has been drumming up support for a protest outside the Fab Fox.

Now other groups are lining up to counter Phelps' protest and show their support for Lady Gaga.

With Its Fourth Venue Change, We Ask a Dozen Questions of London Calling's Doug Curtis

On Saturday night, popular indie/electro night London Calling held its "grand opening" at the loft above Shock City Studios (2200 Gravois), which represented the fourth venue change for the club in three years (and the third in the past year). The dance night began at the Upstairs Lounge on South Grand and moved to bigger digs at the Stable in late 2008 before capacity issues shut it down. It moved to the Halo Bar on Delmar before heading back to the South Side late last month. We talked with the proprietor of on-the-move dance night, Doug Curtis, on Sunday night about the latest space. Here goes.

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Photo: Egan O'Keefe
Doug Curts, the person behind London Calling (and those awful sunglasses). See photos from Saturday night's London Calling here.
How did the grand opening night (Saturday) go?
Last night was a lot of fun! Our crowd is still just getting used to the new venue and so are we, as we found out last night with the sound issues. Our crossover settings got turned up and we ended up drawing too much power from the circuit breaker. So for a little bit we were blowing the breaker every five minutes, not fun. Fortunately, Michael from Designer Drugs got on stage and helped us out by turning up the stage monitor and keeping the crowd rocking.  It wouldn't be a South Side party if the power didn't get cut, right?

What's the capacity?
Ah, this is a very good question. It depends on who you ask? The city said something like 200, but the architects said over 400. Seems like a pretty wide gap if you ask me?  I'd guess somewhere in between the two numbers.

See a slideshow from London Calling on December 12.

Old School Back In Session: Vintage Vinyl Unearths Another St. Louis Hip-Hop Original

Last year, while digging through a cluttered storeroom, a Vintage Vinyl employee discovered a pair of rare 12" records with roots that stretched back to the very beginning of St. Louis hip-hop.

The records-- "Power of Soul" by Dangerous D and DJ Charlie Chan and "Culture Shock" by Early D--eventually became the subject of an RFT feature story, detailing the history of rap in St. Louis and some of the early scene's key players, including Vintage Vinyl owner Tom "Papa" Ray.

Well, it's just about a year later and--just in time for the holidays-- the boys at Vintage have dug up another obscure old school St. Louis jam.

The cuts, "Life's Hard" and "Fresh New Group," are from 1985 by the group Gateway Rockers. Here's the disc:
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As for the back story behind this record...

LA Ink's Corey Miller Talks Old School LA Punk, Says "Circus" Of Show Will Be Back

Watchers of LA Ink either loathe the guy or champion him, but Corey Miller -- who plays second fiddle to camera-magnet Kat Von D on the reality show -- describes himself as an old-school carny and folk artist, instead of a dramatic lightning rod. He also has an old-school surf-punk band (naturally) with skateboarding legend Steve Alba.

Miller will be in St. Louis this weekend for the Old School Tattoo Expo and talked about tattooing, punk and being a reality TV star. This interview was conducted while Miller was waiting in line for a ride at Knott's Berrry Farm amusement park outside LA, where he was celebrating his daughter's birthday. Guy is a trooper.

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Photo: Tim Sutton
"TV is going to end, this shit is going to end eventually. I took the ride. The circus was in town and you do that," says Miller about his time on LA Ink.
What do you look for at these tattoo conventions?
I come not necessarily to look for work, but for me to see what's going on, what artists are doing, who's doing radical new stuff, that's what inspires me. I love going out and seeing guys getting creative and doing neat things. Especially for the fact that it's an old-school convention. I know Lyle (Tuttle), he's a great guy, to be invited by those guys it means a lot to me too. I've been around along time, but now I'm in the big limelight of the whole tattoo industry, and for those guys to appreciate me coming around, it's a good feeling.

Interview Outtakes: Tom Russell, Playing at Off Broadway on Friday, Turner Hall on Saturday

This week in the RFT, freelance writer Roy Kasten interviewed Tom Russell about his creative process, especially for the new album Blood and Candle Smoke, which prominently features the sounds of Calexico, and some of his strongest compositions after over 30 years of songwriting. He'll be in the St. Louis area this weekend, with a show at Off Broadway Friday night and at Turner Hall in Mount Olive, Illinois on Saturday. Outtakes from the interview below.

Roy Kasten: Tell me about the recording process for the album.

Tom Russell: With the combination of not only Calexico, but some of the other Tucson musicians, Nick Luca, and then Winston Watson, a brilliant drummer, who played with Dylan on the Unplugged record and Love and Theft, he brought a lot to the record, but also Barry Walsh, the pianist. The piano is very central to the record. Barry played with Roy Orbison and Waylon Jennings. He brought a classical sound; a lot of those intros were made up by Barry Walsh. And Gretchen Peters, his girlfriend sang some of the harmonies. Once the songs were done, we brought in Jacob Valenzuela from Calexico to play trumpet over the top of everything because everything he played was pretty brilliant, so we just let him go. That was kind of the mix. I would say experimental sonically but not in the writing of the songs. I sat down with these guys with my guitar and just played them, and we saw where it went.

Last Night: The Presidents of the United States of America at Taste of St. Louis

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photos by Keegan Hamilton
Chris Ballew of PUSA
No self-respecting St. Louis music fan went to see the Presidents of the United States of America at Taste of St. Louis last night. Between Sea Wolf, Michael Franti, the Big Muddy Records rooftop party, Darker My Love, and the Cardinals game there was a whole bevy of "better" things to do than to go see some one-hit wonder goof rock band from the '90s sing songs about peaches and insects and lumps.

Bullshit. The Presidents rock.

Perhaps, as a native of the Pacific Northwest who grew up listening to PUSA blow the roof off every venue between Portland and Bellingham, this reviewer is more than a little biased. But I'll be goddamned if there is a band on this green Earth that puts on a better rock and roll show than PUSA.

Yes, they are best known for one song that came out in 1995 and yes, their last album (yes, they still make new albums) wasn't very good. But this is a band that takes the high art of rock music, sees the silliness in it, and plays to the bone with windimill strummin', drum kit standin', finger-tappin', guitar-swingin joy.

Tonight: Age of Illumination Release Party at Star Clipper

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Jennifer Silverberg
Benjamin Sawyer, DJ Champ, and Tef Poe kick ass and create comics
Age of Illumination, ​t
he hip-hop-themed comic book project from Tef Poe, DJ Champ, and illustrator Benjamin Sawyer, drops tonight at Star Clipper, with a release party that kicks off at 6 p.m. Stop by, grab a free copy of the book, and meet the artists.

If you haven't heard, here's the word:

From Flavor Flav's oversize alarm clock to the diamond-encrusted chains of the crunk era, bling has long been a part of hip-hop culture. Comic books, on the other hand, are a relatively new addition, with rap-influenced illustrations from Public Enemy and Madvillain among the only noteworthy examples. Now, thanks to Age of Illumination, an ambitious new project from a trio of St. Louis artists, the two elements will be united with a comic book about a mythical piece of bling. 

Age of Illumination consists of a comic book and a concept album. The creators are local rapper Tef Poe (given name: Kareem Jackson), Nicholas "DJ Champ" Randall and comic-book artist Benjamin Sawyer. The first issue of the comic book, a release party for which will be held at Star Clipper Comics on September 16, is an odd mix of historical fantasy, spiritual mumbo jumbo and glorification of the St. Louis underground hip-hop scene, starring Tef Poe and DJ Champ as the leading men.

Read more about the project by clicking here.

Fear and Loathing In Indio with Feekee

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For a variety of reasons, I've never been to Coachella. Chiefly, it's expensive and it's in a desert thousands of miles away. (Minor obstacles, I know.) Still, as a huge enthusiast of music mega festivals and the mind-blowing benders that usually accompany them it's always been at the top of the list of concerts I hope to experience sometime in the future. 

And that was before I heard Wafeek's dope new project.

Feekee, the finest STL emcee in the OC, describes the seven track album as "an experimental drug binge [that] blurs the lines between Sex, Drugs, and Popular Music." All the songs were inspired by his own Hunter S. Thompson trip to the California desert this past April.

More info, tracklisting, and MP3s after the jump.

Local Duo Scripts N Screwz in MTV U Contest

The multi-talented East St. Louis hip-hop duo Scripts N Screwz has a new music video for their song "Brick" entered in MTV U's weekly "Best Freshman Video" contest.

The track is off their debut album, The New Noise, and it's a heavy, wailing underground jam with a dash of auto-tune (think of it as a little sugar to help the medicine go down) in the chorus. The video pretty badass, with kitschy digital animation and an offbeat underwater story set right in the middle of the mighty Mississippi. Screwz and New Jersey-based animator John T. Hill get the production credit. Check it:

MP3 + Video: Wafeek "Feekee and the Flux Capacitor"

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photo by Keegan Hamilton
It's been a minute since we checked in with Wafeek, everyone's favorite St. Louis hip-hop ex-pat, and it's probably best we've left him alone: He's been busy making a kick-ass new album. The project is titled Feekee and the Flux Capacitor and it's, well, complicated.

As the Back to the Future reference suggests, time travel is involved. Most tracks are R&B and rock classics re-constructed and re-imagined with Feek ryhmes. Highlights include three Beatles cuts (all from Sgt. Peppers), Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Real Thing," Marvin's "Mercy Me," and, gulp, Nirvana's "Sappy." The Fab Four songs--especially the infectiously catchy and clever version of "My Friends"-- are phenomenal. Others have strengths (syrupy pop charm on "Real Thing") and weaknesses (Lyrics like "I bet you wonder how I knew/the password to your MySpace Page" on Gaye's "Grapevine").

It's also a satirical tribute to T-Pain's favorite production technique and the bane du juor of Top 40 rap: Auto-Tune. Appropriately, then, there are at least a dozen samples of Kanye's 808's and Heartbreak, including a wickedly self-depreciating take on "Amazing," complete with the line: "...and then I came too quick/cause I'm a bitch."

Finally, it's a break-up record. Almost all the songs allude, in one form or another, to parting ways with his ex-girlfriend on not-so-friendly terms. This leads to hate-fueled lines like "Ridin' the high horse/baby's so pretentious/make me rip the bathroom door off the hinges," and moments of levity, like Rockwell Knuckles showing up to provide moral support, spitting, "Sorry you lost your pootnanny provider/ only means it's time find something more fire with more money and less mouth."  

So, if you're keeping score at home, it's a concept album on three levels. Convoluted? Perhaps. Hilarious? Occasionally. Original? Definitely.

Download links and possibly NSFW video after the jump.

The Best of Sheryl Crow Fans

Official estimates put the crowd that gathered under the Arch on Saturday to watch the Kennett, Mizzurah (that's how Crow herself pronounced it) native perform at nearly 50,000 people.

It was sweaty, it was impossible to park, it was entertaining -- a Chuck Berry cover featuring Elvis Costello!? Christian Schaeffer approves -- and it made for some outstanding people watching.

Even though there was a sizable contingent of out-of-towners (made obvious by their sweated-through Derek Jeter t-shirt jerseys), it's probably safe to assume that the following five are all from, as Crow would say, Mizzurah:

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The Mullet makes it's first (but certainly not last) appearance of the evening.

Interview: Martha Reeves, Part Two

This is part two of Roy Kasten's interview with the legendary Motown star Martha Reeves (who performs with the Vandellas at the Argosy Casino in Alton, Illinois on July 10 and 11. Read part one here.

The Vandellas had something really special. It was gospel and group sounding, somehow more raw than other Motown acts.

I like the word "real" as opposed to "raw." My gospel influence still shows. I was raised in a Methodist church, my grandfather's church at that. That's where I learned to sing. At the age of three, my brother was four, we sang in the church, and we sang, "I Want Candy." One of my first prizes was chocolate-covered cherries in my grandfather's church. That set the pattern for my life. I always wanted to sing with a group. I like harmonies. I like blending my voice with others. I love choir singing. So the music is real. The feelings are real. There are a lot of tears on our tracks. There were songs written about our pain, our loves, our realizations growing up. And I think the musicians appreciated me. They knew that when they finished recording, they'd get their pay. That became a rule. I was helpful getting that established. It was my idea. Our music sounds nothing like the Supremes or Stevie Wonder.

Interview: Martha Reeves, Part One

From 1959 to 1968, the Motown label defined American popular music. Other labels, styles and visions competed, but ground zero for the "sound of young America," as the slogan proclaimed, was Hitsville USA. The catalogue is astonishing, beyond condensation, but if you had to choose only one record, one single to capture the Motown spirit, you could do worse than "Dancing in the Street," the 1964 #2 hit for Martha and the Vandellas. All the exhilaration, all the joy, all the pop soul of Motown is conveyed in two minutes and forty seconds. Marvin Gaye had originally conceived the song as a ballad, but Reeves, who had started at Motown as a secretary, and who was establishing herself as one of the label's most reliable singers, rearranged the song, and along with co-writer Ivory Joe Hunter banging on a crowbar to Gaye's drums, the record came alive--and took over the country.

On July 18, Martha Reeves will turn 68. She's never stopped singing, and though her career has taken a political turn in the last four years (she's a city councilwoman in Detroit), she says she'll never stop dancing in the street. Along with the Vandellas (sisters Lois and Delphine), she'll be performing at the Argosy Casino in Alton, Illinois on July 10 and 11. Her story is as big as her music. It will take two posts, one today and another tomorrow, to tell -- as only Martha Reeves can tell it.

Video: Alejandro Escovedo at Twangfest; Recalling Wasted Night at Cicero's

Here's a YouTube clip of Alejandro Escovedo headlining Twangfest last week at the Pageant. Escovedo prefaces the song "Sensitive Boys" with a recollection of a wild night (or two) he spent playing the old Cicero's club back when he was with the band The True Believers.



This Weekend in Hip-Hop: Nelly at the Pageant and The Derrty DJ's Midwest Summit

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www.zazzle.com
It's a concert ten years in the making: Nelly is headlining a show at the Pageant on Sunday. 

He's performed a few times over the past year (making cameos when various St. Lunatics opened for Lil' Wayne and T.I. at separate gigs at Chaifetz Arena) but this is the first time in a long time that the Lou's best-known rapper actually has his name at the top of a marquee.

So what if Brass Knuckles sounded like it was produced by an ADD kid who forgot to take his Ritalin? This is Cornell Hayes Jr people! He's the man who put Missouri on the hip-hop map, made the men and women of St. Louis proud to pronounce here and there hurr and thurr, and wore a band-aid on his face for no good reason and still looked cool.

If you like St. Louis hip-hop, you best be at the Pageant on Sunday. I recommend wearing your Apple Bottom jeans and them boots with the fur.

One thing you may not know, though, is that Nelly's performance is a keynote address of sorts. The second annual Midwest Summit (sponsored by The Derrty DJ's ) kicks off tonight at the Sheraton downtown.

Free MP3 Download: Wafeek "Earth Day"

Another number to add to today's eco-friendly playlist: "Earth Day" by Wafeek, from The Aristocrats Mixtape, released at the end of last year (and covered in this article from the RFT).
 
Anyone who gives a damn about the environment knows local is always better and this song has a pair of St. Louis ties: Wafeek was born and raised in the 314 (he now calls LA home) and it's produced by Stoney Rock aka Black Spade.

While you've probably heard of "conscious" hip-hop before, this might be the only "environmentally conscious" hip-hop song ever written. And with lines like "Wipe my ass with the trees that give me air to breathe" it has to be the best.

Last Night: Bonnie "Prince" Billy at the Pageant

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photos by Keegan Hamilton
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Bonnie "Prince" Billy. I'd never seen him perform before and the eccentric singer/songwriter/actor formally known as Will Oldham has such a deep and diverse catalogue that I had readied myself for nearly anything, including, I feared, solemn, solo renditions of every song from his somewhat disappointing new album Beware.

Instead, Oldham brought a tight four-piece band to back him up and the support, particularly from foxy fiddle player Cheyenne Mize, coupled with the singer's playful stage persona made for a thoroughly entertaining and impressive performance.

Clad in white from head to toe with his Yosemite Sam beard freshly shorn into a thick horseshoe mustache and soul patch, Oldham whooped and stomped like he was performing at a crowded hoe-down in a barn in his native Kentucky.

A man with a reputation for excess, Oldham joked about his giddy demeanor and all-white outfit between songs.

"Cocaine makes a guy feel so young," he said, waving his arms over his head. "I swear man, after seven and a half days without sleeping, cocaine says 'Dress like me!' And I'm like 'Okay, anything you say man.'"

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Oldham's flirtatious chemistry with Mize was particularly enjoyable. The violinist did her best June Carter impersonation as the pair sang several duets, turning lethargic songs like "So Everyone" from the band's 2008's stellar album Lie Down in the Light, into sexy, rollicking scorchers.

Beat Stealing Beef: Black Spade vs. Charles Hamilton

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http://media.phoenixnewtimes.com
There aren't enough beefs in hip-hop anymore. I seriously miss the golden era-- back in the days of East Coast/West Coast feuding and Pac/Biggie rivalry-- when there was a new beef starting up damn near every week. Not only did that era inspire the best diss track of all-time, Tupac's "Hit 'Em Up," it was a real-life soap opera turned tragedy that gave people something to talk about.

Maybe that kind of nostalgia explains why the hip-hop blogosphere can't seem to get enough of the recent rift between St. Louis' own Black Spade and New York's underground sensation Charles Hamilton.

If you haven't already heard, here's the Cliffs Notes version of the dispute: Both Spade and Hamilton were on the bill at SXSW. Spade heard Hamilton perform a song called "Shinin'" that sampled the Frankie Beverly and Maze song of the same name. Spade thought the song bore more than a passing resemblance to a beat called "Shinin'" that he produced a few years back and put up on his MySpace page.

After the show, Spade says he approached Hamilton, complimented him on creatively using the beat, then asked him where/how he got the track. Hamilton claimed he produced himself using ProTools. Spade felt he was being lied to (he now alleges that Hamilton stole the music off of MySpace) and a once-innocent argument over who did what first and how has since turned into a war of words on Internet message boards and a whole lot of bad publicity for Charles Hamilton.

Here are the two respective songs so you can hear for yourself:


Shinin - Charles Hamilton


Read quotes from Black Spade on how he's handled this situation and why it may benefit his career after the jump. 

Also after the jump are videos from both artists trying to offer up evidence that they were the first to produce the beat/song in question.


Gotta Be Karim Visits the Lou, Drops New Mixtape

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photo by Jennifer Silverberg
Fresh off a pair of performances last week at SXSW, Gotta Be Karim stopped by RFT headquarters earlier this week to pimp his new mixtape and offer on update on what he's been up to since he left STL for ATL a few months back.

In case you haven't heard, Karim, a St. Louis native, moved to Atlanta in December to pursue his music career in a bigger market. Now he and his wife are living in Stone Mountain, about 30 minutes east of the city in DeKalb County. As for what life has been like in Hot-lanta, the soft-spoken rapper says simply, "Workin' hard and just grindin'. Just grindin.' Doin' music full-time, not punchin' no clocks and just lovin' it."

His latest project is a Trackstar the DJ-produced mixtape called 10,000 Apples. Almost all of the tracks are produced by Black Spade, with some guest spots for Vandalyzm, Rep from Family Affair and DJ Needles.

The title he says, is inspired by a trip he made with his father to the Million Man March in Washington D.C. The family brought apples (presumably 10,000 of them) and bottled water to sell to the hungry crowd. Now, according to the lyrics in the album's title track, he's applying the same enterprising work ethic to his music.

He said he was only in town for a few hours before catching a flight back down to GA, but he'll be back in town April 10 for a performance at the Gramophone with Finale, Black Spade, Vandalyzm and Rockwell Knuckles.

Scripts 'N Screwz: Hardest Working Men In St. Louis Hip-Hop?

East St. Louis' finest (and perhaps only) underground hip-hop duo, Scripts 'N Screwz, will take the stage tonight at SIUE's Morris University Center but the performance is barely a blip on the radar in comparison to all the moves the pair has been making lately.

To recap just a few of the multi-talented crew's latest and greatest exploits:
  • A new mixtape, Sound Cinema, that dropped last week, and is available for free download over on their blog.
  • The upcoming premiere  of Borrowed Time (July 16), the second episode of The Color of Justice, a documentary film series about Reggie Clemons, a death-row inmate who may have been wrongfully imprisoned. The pair co-produced and directed the film with stellar local director Ronnell "Falaq" Bennett, and contributed to the soundtrack.
  • Pre-production on a Purple Rain-style, full-length, hip-hop film called The Hunger, which stars the duo and is loosely based on the career of famed local group Bits 'N Pieces.
  • A no-holds-barred marketing campaign for their album The New Noise, which originally dropped last April but has only recently started to get some love from the blogosphere.
  • And finally, the release of this kick-ass video for their single from New Noise, "Big City Lights."

            

I caught up with the pair last night at Skybox on the Landing to find out if they ever sleep -- and get the details on a few of the aforementioned projects. A few choice quotes are after the jump.

No "Butts" About It: "Donk Dat" by Yung Ro

When it comes to songs about butts, there's a rich musical tradition. If you've been to a St. Louis nightclub lately, you've probably heard the latest candidate vying for a spot in the pantheon of ass anthems: "Donk Dat Booty" by Yung Ro. 

If you haven't, click below to download and stream it.

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Courtesy of Yung Ro


MP3: Yung Ro, "Donk Dat Booty"


The song, which was released last September, sounds like the bastard offspring of Soulja Boy's "She Got A Donk" and the infamous dance sensation "Da Stanky Leg."

My President Is Black: St. Louis Rappers and Obama

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Today, the brainy pundits at Slate tackled this interesting topic: "How will Obama's presidency change hip-hop?"

Beyond mentioning that Obama has dusted off his shoulders like Jay-Z, author Jonah Weiner does an admirable job breaking down the history of hip-hop's hatred for the establishment (i.e. Public Enemy), pointing out how Obama's campaign had an immediate impact (i.e. Jay-Z's "My President"), and predicting how a black leader of the free world will change a genre that prides itself on being the mouthpiece for an oppressed race.

Here's the highlight:

There is something inherently radical about hip-hop, period, a genre in which the historically voiceless command the microphone and, from the repurposed DJ equipment of hip-hop's South Bronx infancy to the artist-owned labels of today, the means of production. Obama's rise might weaken the position of those less explicitly political MCs, for instance, who rap about the allure of the drug trade in neighborhoods low on viable careers, or those whose gangsta tales make an implicit point about the conditions that create gangstas in the first place. Even an unabashedly crass commercialist like 50 Cent casts his boasts of alpha-male domination as a socioeconomic symptom: "Some say I'm gangsta, some say I'm crazy--if you ask me, I say I'm what the 'hood made me." Going forward, there may be less patience for this line of thinking. Our president overcame the disadvantages of growing up black and fatherless--what's your excuse?

So how have St. Louis' rappers responded to having a hip-hop president?

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 (eventually) and the Gargoyle within a reasonable time, but they apologized profusely onstage and attempted to make up for it with a ripping cover of the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird." Somewhere, the Cramps' sadly-departed frontman Lux Interior (who made "Surfin' Bird" a cornerstone of their catalog) is smiling.

The rest of their set wasn't bad either: Titus Andronicus live is a sloppy but riveting spectacle in a manner rarely seen since the glory days of Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control. This New Jersey band take what are essentially conventional rock and blues structures, trashes and deconstructs them, and places Patrick Stickles' deranged screaming (which, live at least, resembled a hoarse cross between David Yow and Jon Spencer).

Audibly losing his voice after a few songs, one wonders how Stickles manages an entire tour of such antics. They seemed genuinely glad to be in St. Louis, which they called "familiar territory," having played the Gargoyle last year with No Age. Come back soon, folks.

Paul Simon to Play Costas Cancer Center Benefit @ Fox Theatre April 18

Paul Simon's bound for the Fox Theatre Saturday, April 18 to play the 21st annual Bob Costas Benefit Concert for the Costas Cancer Center at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital.

Show's at 8 p.m. Tickets are priced at $25, $35, $50, $75 and $100.



The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c


Tonight! Stone-Zelenka-Ota Free Improv Orchestra at the Way Out Club

A big band doing free improvisation is a rare occurrence in St. Louis, so it's worth making note of tonight's gig by the fifteen-member Stone-Zelenka-Ota Free Improv Orchestra at the Way Out Club.

Jay Zelenka, who also runs Freedonia Music, and Dave Stone organized the show to celebrate a visit this week by Takanori Ota, a graduate of Webster University's music program who now lives back in his native Japan.
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