Yesterday, Wednesday, May 23, St. Louis radio station WSGX 100.3 FM switched formats from '90s music mecca "GenX Radio" to "The Brew," a classic rock station. The last song for the Generation X-aimed audience was Blind Melon's "No Rain" followed by jarring transition song "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister to inaugurate the station's new direction.

And there it is. One minute it was here, the next it was gone. Like a thief in the night, the station so subtly and smoothly stole away that I didn't realize it was missing until the following day's morning commute. "Who was listening to KSHE 95 FM in my car?" I wondered aloud to no one but myself this morning -- because it's normal to talk to yourself if you're a self-involved Gen-X kid. So what if my age technically makes me a 'Millennial" -- I reject that nonsense because I can't accept Z107.7 FM as my generation's sound. I can accept Blind Melon. And the Beastie Boys, the Cure, Guns N' Roses, Ying Yang Twins, Fiona Apple, Prince, Harvey Danger, Salt-N-Pepa, Nine Inch Nails. To put it another way, one that honors my fellow Echo Boomers: If I could afford Sirius XM satellite radio it would be permanently playing "'90s on 9."

More >>

Helmet - Playing with the Toadies August 11 @ Pop's

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 shows, so you can do some digging of your own and let us know which ones you are excited about! Click through and start planning ahead:

More >>

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.

I was thrilled five-ish years ago when I found out about Last.fm, the music recommendation service that doubles as an obsessive analyzer of one's listening habits. I had long been fascinated with the play count feature in iTunes, since previous mediums of music enjoyment were lacking in the statistical department. Last.fm took that concept and ran with it. If you need to retroactively find out the third most heard artist in your life during the second week in June of 2009, the site can tell you in chart form.

More >>

The 2012 Riverfront Times Music Showcase is two weeks away. And if that is our own St. Louis Music holiday, then consider this the season: Throughout May, we've been making our cases for all 125 bands and artists nominated for an RFT Music Award this year, introducing the nominees from one or more of our 25 categories. For each artist you will find a photo, a streaming track to sample and a few words from the staff at RFT Music.

Vote for all categories at the official 2012 RFT Music Showcase Reader's Poll.

Previously
Pop
Rock
Indie Rock
DJ
Chamber Pop
Metal
Folk
Electronic/Dance
Americana
New Band
Singer-Songwriter

More >>

The 2012 Riverfront Times Music Showcase is two weeks away. And if that is our own St. Louis Music holiday, then consider this the season: Throughout May, we've been making our cases for all 125 bands and artists nominated for an RFT Music Award this year, introducing the nominees from one or more of our 25 categories. For each artist you will find a photo, a streaming track to sample and a few words from the staff at RFT Music.

Vote for all categories at the official 2012 RFT Music Showcase Reader's Poll.

Previously
Pop
Rock
Indie Rock
DJ
Chamber Pop
Metal
Folk
Electronic/Dance
Americana
New Band
Singer-Songwriter

More >>

Artwork by Jason Potter

The RFT Music Showcase is just over a week away -- on June 2, 79 of St. Louis best bands and artists will play at twelve venues on Washington Avenue. But there's quite a bit of great music happening in this city before then. Our RFT Showcase Team will be at nine of the best of those shows, giving away T-Shirts, posters and more (all featuring the excellent artwork of Jason Potter). Say hi to us -- we're friendly.

We'll be at 2720 Cherokee tomorrow for oddball Bobby Conn, and Lola on Friday for local futuristic hip-hop/soul duo Hawthorne Headhunters. Somewhere in there we'll squeeze in some time downtown at the newly expanded Bluesweek festivities (the subject of this week's music feature). Saturday night we'll be on hand for Devin the Dude and a stacked bill of local openers at the Firebird, Sunday we'll test out the offerings at the Big Muddy Records Chili Cookoff at Off Broadway and on Tuesday you can find us at the Old Rock House for Orgone. There's more -- the full list is below.

See you around.

More >>

Justin Bieber, professional cultural lightning rod, has just announced a sweeping North American tour in support of his upcoming album Believe (he makes music as well as social media appearances, we're told). And on it is a stop at the Scottrade Center on October 27. Tickets are $37 to $82 and go on sale Saturday, June 2 at 10 a.m.

This is his first St. Louis show since November 2010, back when he had bangs. He doesn't now, and the mind boggles at the thought of how much discussion and suit-wearing hand-wringing went into that haircut.

More >>

Liz MIller

Mayer Hawthorne and the County | the Stepkids
May 22, 2012
The Firebird

Mayer Hawthorne is so smooth. His pitch-perfect pipes slide from fragile falsetto to deep, soul-filled croon; his style and swagger resemble a mix of Buddy Holly and Andre 3000. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, less than 50 miles from the city that bore Motown, Andrew Mayer Cohen came of age during the rise of rap and R&B in the 1980s and 1990s. The stage name Mayer Hawthorne combines his middle name with the name of the street of his childhood home, otherwise known as the formula for generating porn star names. His breakout album, A Strange Arrangement (2009), and his latest release, How Do You Do (2011) share his talented, soulful sound, but understanding Mayer Hawthorne is best explained in his live show, where polished stage presence and creative crowd interaction bring the song to life.

More >>

The 2012 Riverfront Times Music Showcase is two weeks away. And if that is our own St. Louis Music holiday, then consider this the season: Throughout May, we've been making our cases for all 125 bands and artists nominated for an RFT Music Award this year, introducing the nominees from one or more of our 25 categories. For each artist you will find a photo, a streaming track to sample and a few words from the staff at RFT Music.

Vote for all categories at the official 2012 RFT Music Showcase Reader's Poll.

Previously
Rock
Indie Rock
DJ
Chamber Pop
Metal
Folk
Electronic/Dance
Americana
New Band
Singer-Songwriter

More >>

Not much for metaphor, this group.

It took a while, but local hip-hop trio 12 to 6 Movement finally unleashed their new collaboration-heavy album, Titties Out. Since our last interview with the group, they added songs with Joe Budden, Opio and A-Plus from Souls of Mischief/Hieroglyphics and Psycho Les from The Beatnuts to a tracklist that already featured appearances from Sadat X, Raekwon, Bubba Sparxxx, Planet Asia, and Keith Murray, as well as a lot of local talent. 12 to 6 Movement admits that the extravagant guestlist, the cleavage-boasting cover and title are partially ploys for attention, but underneath the brazen marketing is a fun album. Titties Out mostly focuses on braggadocio and good times over beats that range from dusty soul/funk samples to modern synth-driven club fare to guitar-driven rock. Although the album is not without its tacky moments, every member of 12 to 6 Movement brings their A-game and the guests prove worth their fees. RFT Music caught up with the trio and Matthew Sawicki, who mixed and mastered the album, to discuss how they assembled the album, reaching across genre lines for guests, and why they went with that title cover.

Questions and answers edited for length and clarity.

Bob McMahon: We touched on this topic last time, but what was your motivation for get everybody you got on this album? I remember, Spark1duh? that you said, "Talent is not enough."

Spark1duh?: Because in the entertainment industry right now, people care a lot about image and shit. And this wasn't so much of an image move as it is an attention getter. Like to say "Hey, all these other people we've worked with, our friends or people that we've done business with, playing shows and stuff like that, we are on the same level as these people. You just need to fuckin' think about it that way." So many people think locally in this town, they don't even think to the next state. They're trying to take over this city. They're not thinking big picture or shit like that. In this industry, there's so many ways to market yourself. And the ways I see a lot of these more like "hood rappers," or whatever you want to call it - we're not backpackers, I don't know what people call us. Everyone has a label for something these days - they got big money behind them. Whether it's from drugs or loans or however they're doing it, you know what I mean? And they're paying to get radio play and shit like that. We figured why not sidestep all the money that we could spend to get played on the radio and for marketing, and hopefully people would just pay attention based on the strength of the songs alone that we did with these bigger rappers.

More >>