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The Ten Best Shows in St. Louis This Memorial...

By Mabel Suen
Chamber Pop: Meet the 2013 RFT Music Award...

By RFT Music
Missouri Filmmakers Tap Punk Legends Ian...

By Joseph Hess
Rats & People Compose Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

By Mabel Suen
Nine Best Neighborhood Bars 2013

By RFT Music
Metal: Meet the 2013 RFT Music Award Nominees

By RFT Music
The 2013 RFT Music Showcase Schedule

By RFT Music
Did Rapper Tim Dog Fake His Own Death? Arrest...

By Mike Appelstein
Photos: Soundgarden Plays to a Sold-Out Crowd...

By Nick Lucchesi
Last Shot: Battling Cancer to Shoot the Red...

By Andrew Youssef

Homespun

BDR Records Re-Releases Material By Classic St. Louis Band Max Load

By Christian Schaeffer Wed., May 15 2013 at 7:17 AM

Categories: Homespun

It's no stretch at all to think of BDR Records as St. Louis' very own Numero Group. That Chicago-based imprint quickly became the king of archival reissues, resurrecting long-forgotten and barely remembered sides from music scenes in Cleveland, Wichita and, on the Eccentric Soul: The Young Disciples release, East St. Louis.

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Mastermind Einstein's A.D.D. (Artistically Day Dreaming): Read Our Homespun Review and Listen

By Christian Schaeffer Thu., May 9 2013 at 6:13 AM

Categories: Homespun

North-side native Muhammad Austin may have a hard time paying attention, but his work as Mvstermind has no trouble paying dues. You can probably guess from the title of A.D.D. (Artistically Day Dreaming) that Austin looks at his childhood diagnosis of attention deficit disorder as more of a blessing than a curse. His open-eared style encompasses several hip-hop threads, with a bent toward an almost psychedelic strand of experimentation. His backing tracks can be syrupy and hazy, leading to some alternating soulful and outré grooves.

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Grace Basement's Wheel Within a Wheel: Read Our Homespun Review and Listen to a Track

By Christian Schaeffer Wed., May 1 2013 at 8:04 AM

Categories: Homespun

Biblical prophets, Irish poets and American songwriters have all used the image of a wheel inside a wheel to speak toward some larger unity -- of many moving parts operating in a unified sphere. It's hard to know what Kevin Buckley is referencing with the title of his third LP, Wheel Within a Wheel, but it's tempting to look at the cyclical nature of his musical evolution.

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Tone Rodent's Latest, A Bit Disconnected: Read Our Homespun Review and Listen

By Christian Schaeffer Thu., Apr. 25 2013 at 8:03 AM

Categories: Homespun

Guitarist/vocalist Adam Watkins and bassist Matty Coonfield have been the anchors in the member-shifting Tone Rodent, a band that swerves from psych to shoegaze to no-wave without losing a thumbprint of foreboding ambiance. The current six-piece lineup locks in nicely on this four-song EP, with Ashley Hohman's backing vocals adding an ethereal underpinning reminiscent of those first few Black Mountain LPs.

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Local Record Store Day Wax from Tim Rakel's Extension Chord Records, Cassie Morgan, and More

By Christian Schaeffer Fri., Apr. 19 2013 at 9:15 AM

Categories: Homespun

New Releases from the Chainsaw Gentlemen, Beth Bombara and the May Day Orchestra.

It's one of the perks of this gig that, sometimes, Record Store Day comes a little bit early. The Vinyl Fairy has been making stops at my doorstep and leaving advances of this weekend's local wax offerings, which are every bit as exciting as, oh, the 1,000-quantity Todd Rundgren picture discs (or what have you) that will have folks lining up on the sidewalk in the wee small hours.

Tags:

beth bombara, cassie morgan, extension chord, record store day, tenement ruth, tim rakel

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Prairie Rehab's Weights & Measures: Read Our Homespun Review and Listen

By Christian Schaeffer Wed., Apr. 17 2013 at 7:01 AM

Categories: Homespun

The fateful Craigslist ad that brought songwriter and guitarist Lacie Mangels into the company of ex-Linemen Scott Swartz (guitar), Greg Lamb (bass) and John Baldus (drums) continues to pay dividends. After the appropriately titled Philology was released in 2011, careful listeners heard the grace in how Mangels' intricate turns of phrase and unblemished, plain-faced vocals lie atop gentle, melodic roots rock. With Weights & Measures, Prairie Rehab takes both more experimental and more conventional detours while maintaining an easy, steady sway.

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Last to Show, First to Go's Everything's Fine, America: Read Our Homespun Review and Listen

By Christian Schaeffer Wed., Apr. 10 2013 at 7:23 AM

Categories: Homespun

You probably won't need a particularly heightened sense of sarcasm to figure out that Last to Show First to Go isn't playing it straight with the title of its new EP, Everything's Fine, America. The Americana-leaning quintet isn't interested in false assurances or rose-colored glasses -- its songs are built on the premise that things will, indeed, fall apart -- and are probably already broken.

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Homespun Double Review: Tight Pants Syndrome's All Alive and Whoa Thunder's You're Under Attack

By Christian Schaeffer Wed., Apr. 3 2013 at 8:19 AM

Categories: Homespun

[Editor's Note: For a change, this week's print edition features two Homespun reviews written by RFT Music Senior Writer Christian Schaeffer, because why not?]

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Picture Day's Every Day Is Picture Day: Read Our Homespun Review

By Christian Schaeffer Wed., Mar. 27 2013 at 7:30 AM

Categories: Homespun

It's good to see Brian Wiegert leading a band again. He was at the center of the foursome Team Tomato, a band that made mostly solid records, gained some national attention and then went kaput. He was a binding force for the Red Headed Strangers, the country project of the Sullivan family, but with Picture Day, Wiegert is back slinging crunchy guitar chords and sharp lyrical darts.

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Trotting Bear's Currents: Read Our Homespun Review and Listen

By Christian Schaeffer Wed., Mar. 20 2013 at 6:34 AM

Categories: Homespun

If you've been paying attention to the acoustic singer-songwriter scene in town, you might know that Andy Berkhout has been, in his own quiet way, releasing a prolific number of albums and EPs. The emphasis is on "quiet": His gentle finger picking and close-up vocal performances come across like a soft breath on your neck. While he has continually recorded and performed under his own name, Berkhout has once again picked up with Trotting Bear, a three-piece in which he is joined by Joanna Laws Landis and John Donovan.