​Blake Griffin can jump very high and has very long arms. Last night, his Los Angeles Clippers played the Oklahoma City Thunber, and he put those two skills to work in turning six foot ten inch, 260 pound Kendrick Perkins' into a wisp of smoke. We are lucky to have someone like Griffin in our current culture of bytes, so that we could all find out within an hour and watch it over and over in .gif form instantly. Fun is being had on the Internet, and we would like to play. So we've picked out the five songs we think most hilariously/awesomely/superlatively accompany the Dunk Heard Round This Particular Fifteen Seconds. It's an NBA clip, so in order to ensure it doesn't get yanked we've left their original video below with the audio posted separately. It's really easy: Just mute the video and start the audio clips at your convenience. Tell us your favorite, of the ones below or ones we missed, in the comments.

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Dove Shore

​Mention Steve Aoki in a crowded room and watch the reactions; some will cross themselves in reverence, most will nod their recognition at the name, and the rest will know him only as "a DJ." But Steve Aoki has never been just a DJ; he's a modern auteur with his finger rammed in the proverbial sphincter of music and culture. Aoki got his start as the singer of a hardcore screamo band, but he's made a name for himself in indie, electro, EDM, pop and every musical mutation between. He started his own label, Dim Mak Records, in 1996, and he's broken artists from Bloc Party to the Bloody Beetroots. He's got more A&R skill in him than an army of big label drones. He's producing, opening a couple of nightclubs, touring the world, and this month he put out his first good and proper studio album, Wonderland. The kicker is, Aoki doesn't have to do any of this. The fact that he's the heir to the Benihana fortune barely merits a dependent clause in the larger Aoki narrative.

Wonderland has gotten mixed reviews -- mostly owing to the fact that it is an album of singles, by Aoki's own admission -- but the range is incredible: Rivers Cuomo, LMFAO, Kid Cudi and Lil Jon on the same disc as Nervo, Die Kreuzen and Blaqstarr. Aoki and Dim Mak have gone through so many about-faces in the past decade, the guy should probably consider a run for political office. For Aoki though, it's not flip-flopping to go from hardcore to indie to electro house. It's observing the ebbs and flows of popular music and predicting when and where the tidal wave will hit. Make no mistake, Steve Aoki understands music on a subatomic level.

We caught up with him in Salt Lake City to talk about Wonderland, band albums versus DJ albums, the great EDM schism of '07, Hipster Runoff, and what it was like to crack the Top 10 iTunes charts. Catch him on Wednesday with Datsik at the Pageant (6161 Delmar Boulevard, 314-726-6161)

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Jason Stoff

​Update, 1/30 Tickets for this thing sold out in fewer than 30 minutes, which is fast. Wilco fast, even.

Original post follows...

Florence + the Machine has announced a string of US tour dates for this spring, and one of them is on April 29 at the Peabody Opera House. (14th Street and Market Street, 314-241-1888). Tickets go on sale January 27th at 10 a.m. Some mezzanine tickets are $32, and the rest are $42. No opening act has been announced. The full tour schedule for 2012, below.

Related: Florence + the Machine at the Pageant: Review, Photos and Setlist

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White Denim

​Probably time to start looking into a permanent camping spot in the parking lot of the Firebird (2706 Olive Street, 314-535-0353). Today the venue announced, among other things, an April 7 show featuring White Denim. Tickets are $10 and on sale now.

The Austin band is incredibly difficult to define -- it shares some of the psychedelic inclinations of many of its hometown's most well-known bands, but White Denim is weirder, louder and, by the estimation of many, better than nearly any band in Austin or anywhere else, for that matter.

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Michael Dauphin

​The Lemonheads
Old Rock House
January 28, 2012

Between Evan Dando's Lemonheads set at Old Rock House on Saturday and the Ryan Adams show at the Peabody this Tuesday, St. Louis is being paid visits by two of the more mercurial personalities in alternative rock n'roll. Both have let fits of erratic behavior over the past several years -- largely due to self-destructive demons -- get in the way of their genius within. And without taking for granted the beauty of their work, it's hard to walk into either one of their shows without wondering which Dando or Adams you're going to get.

But when the news came that the Lemonheads would play its flagship 1992 album, It's a Shame About Ray, in its entirety, it actually made sense. Perhaps the best way to keep Dando on point is to confine him to playing songs in the exact sequence they were recorded; there's less of an opportunity to meander too far off.

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Genesis changes direction.

​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.

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Jason Rosenbaum

WWE wreslter Sheamus is elated after winning the Royal Rumble on Sunday, January 29, 2012, at the Scottrade Center. The Irish-born wrestler will get a title shot at Wrestlemania 28 in Miami, Florida.

​Pro wrestling and arena concerts may seem like vastly different species. But they're not that far off.

World Wrestling Entertainment camped out Sunday at Scottrade Center for this year's Royal Rumble, arguably the mega-federation's second biggest pay-per-view of the year next to its annual Wrestlemania extravaganza. Pro wrestling has a long and storied history in St. Louis, as evidenced by Albert Samaha's recent profile of legendary grappler Harley Race.

It would be a stretch to say that pro wrestling and arena concerts are one and the same. Performers as concerts don't get injured as much as wrestlers, with notable exceptions. But there were some commonalities between the two entertainment vehicles, as evidenced by what we observed Sunday at Scottrade:

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Tony Perolio, October 6 1981-January 25 2012.

​Anthony Perolio was a Marine, a gifted drummer, an engineer, an athlete, a leukemia survivor, a loving husband and the father of two joyous poodles. His on-paper accomplishments, though varied and many, pale in comparison to who Tony was when he woke up every morning and went to sleep every night -- a kind, wonderful person who gave amazing hugs and never saw a face he didn't smile at.

Tony died on January 25, 2012 at the age of 30. He is survived by his wife Jessica, his parents, Steve and Connie, his sister Andrea and half-brother Adam. A visitation will be held on Monday, January 30 and a funeral service will follow on Tuesday at the Journey Church.

In November 2006, Tony was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and was told he had days to live. He underwent a stem cell transplant in May 2007 that beat the cancer. He completed an engineering degree at Washington University and got engaged to the love of his life in 2008. In January 2009, he was diagnosed with GVHD, or graft-versus-host-disease, where the body fights against the transplant. Though common in transplant patients, Tony's GVHD was out of the ordinary, confounding some of the top oncologists in the nation. In September 2011, he was told that his health would continue to dissipate without drastic measures. He re-entered Barnes-Jewish Hospital in January 2012 for chemotherapy and treatment and spent his final days surrounded by his family, friends and devoted wife.

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Shabazz Palaces

​The 2012 calendar is rapidly filling at the Luminary Center for the Arts (4900 Reber Place, 314-807-5984). Today the venue announced the addition of Shabazz Palaces -- the Seattle based group comprising Ishmael Butler (formerly of Digable Plantes) and multi-instrumentalist Tendai Maraire. The duo's 2011 release Black Up found its way into the heavyweight class in the year-end list-off.

Shabazz Palaces' St. Louis show -- its first ever -- is on April 24. Tickets are $15, and no opener has yet been announced.

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​Dots Not Feathers' pristine harmony and elegant song constructions have earned the band a spot near the top of the folk heap in St. Louis. The Mountain EP, released today, comprises two of DNF's strongest songs to date -- both will appear on an upcoming full-length. Listen below or download the EP for free via Bandcamp.

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