St. Louis Music Blog

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.

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.

Jennifer Silverberg

Benjamin Sawyer, DJ Champ, and Tef Poe kick ass and create comics

Age of Illumination, ​the 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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

www.zazzle.com

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

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.'"

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.

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.

            

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. 

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

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?

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'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.

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.

Chicago hipster hip-hop duo The Cool Kids just wrapped up a five-week North American tour that took them pretty much everywhere in the Midwest except, it seems, for St. Louis. Still, the pair have a strong connection to our fair city on the banks of the muddy Mississippi.

Just a reminder, L.A.-via-St. Louis rapper Wafeek (previously the subject of an RFT music feature, "Royal Contrast") will be at Atomic Cowboy tonight to premier the kick-ass music video for his song, "I'mma Learn Ya."

Artist: Rufus and Chaka

Album: Masterjam

From: Vintage Vinyl

Year: 1979

Label: MCA Records

What it sounds like: The awkward, disco, Jan Brady middle child between Kool and the Gang and Thriller.

Hundreds of aspiring singers, musicians and rappers took a shot at fame on Tuesday afternoon at Blueberry Hill, by auditioning for P. Diddy's latest reality TV show, StarMaker.

The prize for the winner of the show is a record deal with the Warner Music Group subsidiary (and P. Diddy label) Bad Boy Records. The reality show will keep with the formula of P. Diddy's other reality show, Making the Band. StarMaker's co-hosts will be P. Diddy and Mark Burnett, the British reality TV guru behind The Apprentice, The Restaurant, The Casino, Rock Star, Combat Missions, The Contender, Martha Stewart and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, among others.

Heavy metal hasn't changed much in the 30 or so years it's been played by long-haired rockers.

Or has it?

Zillions of T-shirt designs help bands stay afloat in the era of digital downloads. And up front, cell phone cameras are just as visible as headbangers. Sometimes fans are headbanging and snapping pics of the sweet riffs -- at the same time.

Here's a rundown of positive, without-a-doubt signs you're definitely at a metal show. I've included thirteen, because of its unlucky, bad-ass reputation among numerals. But feel free to throw out some more in the comments.

Here are some photos from Tuesday night's At the Gates/Darkest Hour/Municipal Waste/Toxic Holocaust show at Pop's to help get the message through the most beer-bruised brain.

"Awesome Party Fest" gets underway tonight at the American Czech Center.

St. Louis' Cross Examination

Announced minutes ago by reps at the Fabulous Fox Theatre was the rescheduling of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' concert at the Fox. Good news though, the Fox show -- now set for two shows on Sept. 24 and 25 -- will be included in a DVD. Read press release here.

"The Robert Plant & Alison Krauss concert at the Fox Theatre on June 19th has been RESCHEDULED to September 24th to allow for the planned filming of a forthcoming concert DVD. Due to popular demand, an additional second concert has been added for September 25th, which is also scheduled to be filmed.

[Note published 5/13/08 7:35 a.m.: This story has been updated here.]

It has been a wild few days for freelance photographer Nichole Torpea. The 22-year-old UMSL grad was shooting the My Chemical Romance concert at the Pageant for Riverfront Times this past Saturday night when, she says, she was assaulted by a member of the band's security team.

But she'll be shooting an MCR concert again this Friday at New York City's Madison Square Garden -- as a special guest of the band.

While taking pictures from the balcony of the Pageant during last Saturday's sold-out show, Torpea says, she was approached by a man she believes is a member of MCR's security team. The man, whom she later described to St. Louis police as six-foot-three, 210 to 230 pounds and dressed all in black, grabbed her arm, led her through a door to a stairwell and forced her to the ground. Torpea says the man paid little attention to the photo pass attached to her shirt.

"I was collapsing under his pressure," she says. "I had no idea what was going on. He had no ID and wouldn't tell me who he was. He kept saying, 'You know what you did. Give me the fucking camera.'"