Ian "Parisian" Jones

In this week's print edition, RFT Music writer Evan C. Jones interviewed local electronic artist Ian "Parisian" Jones (no relation), whom some may remember as one half of the now-defunct, locally acclaimed duo Safety Words. Since splitting and pursuing music solo, Parisian has repeatedly turned toward darker, more emotional themes, as opposed to the simple joys of 8-bit video games and Wu-Tang verses.

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Angela Vincent

Nikki Hill

In this week's print issue, Senior Writer Roy Kasten profiles North Carolina-born, St. Louis-based singer and songwriter Nikki Hill and her debut album Here's Nikki Hill. One of the stand-out originals on the record is "Right on the Brink," a passionate blast of no-frills rock & roll & R&B.

See Also:
-Rock & Roll Whirlwind: Nikki Hill never phones it in

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Tef Poe

[Update 2/1/13: Tef Poe just won Freestyle Friday again! In addition, since this post was originally published Tef released his latest mixtape, The Hero Killer (produced by DJ Trackstar) on January 21 in anticipation of the upcoming album Cheer For The Villain. He also took home the awards for Best Male Hip-Hop, Best Mixtape (War Machine 2), and Artist of the Year in this year's SLUM Fest awards. Tef is on a roll this year -- congrats to him for the win!]

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Maybe you've seen him on one of those huge, looming billboards lining the highways. Maybe you caught him on BET's 106 & Park, where he currently reigns as FreeStyle Friday champion. Maybe you caught his performance at a sold-out Old Rock House last month with Talib Kweli. Or in the pages of the Source last year, or in XXL. Maybe you've read his insightful words within these RFT blogs themselves. Whatever the case, the point is clear: Tef Poe is everywhere lately.

See also:
-The Top St. Louis Hip-Hop Artists to Watch in 2013
-The Best Hip-Hop Release to Come Out of Saint Louis in 2012
- Here's Why You Never Get Booked as an Opening Act

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Jennifer Silverberg

Bruce Stinchcomb is one of three collectors maintaining the Missouri 78 PRM Archive in Ferguson.

In this week's Riverfront Times feature, "Hold the Phono," we pay a visit to the Missouri 78 RPM Archive, which encompasses more than a quarter of a million records spread over three houses in one neighborhood in Ferguson.

The three collectors whose records make up the archive, Bruce Stinchcomb, Alan Carell and Richard Tussey, describe the archive as a core sample of everything in America from about 1895 to 1960: not just the music people listened -- and danced -- to, but also their cultural references, their slang, their thoughts on current events and even how they spoke and sang.

Carell and Tussey were kind enough to let us record these gems from the archive for a trip through the twentieth century.

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Roy Kasten

Boss Hall at the Shanti in Soulard

In this week's print edition, we spotlighted the band Boss Hall and its debut CD In the Pale. The group features five of the most prolific performers in St. Louis: Margaret Bianchetta, Tom Hall, Bob Breidenbach, Vince Corkery and Kevin Buckley. Along with its weekly Sunday afternoon shows at the Shanti, you can catch Boss Hall at Joe's Cafe (6014 Kingsbury) on Wednesday, August 2 at 8 p.m.

Listen to the leadoff track "Crossroads," and read songwriter Bianchetta's take on the origin of the song below.

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Roy Kasten

In this week's print edition, we profiled veteran St. Louis guitarist and flamenco artist Lliam Christy, chief composer for the Reventones. The group, also featuring guitarist and singer Jon Oliver Knight, released the album Dirty It earlier this year. Below, listen to standout track "Bosforus" and read Christy's explanation of the song.

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The announcement came last night: Osama Bin Laden is dead. St. Louis rapper Jonezy dropped us a line this morning because he has something to say about this; his song "Proper Gander" is a call for critical thought. "I think Bin Laden's death is being hyped in an aim to provide relief to the masses," he says. "It's really just the 'hype machine' swinging it's pendulum to the other extreme." Listen below.

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In recent times, Jay Fay (a 2011 RFT Music Awards nominee for Best New Artist) has quietly started making quite a name for himself around the St. Louis area. He was well-received as an opener for Mount Kimbie at the Luminary Center for the Arts on March 27, and he's starting to pop up on many blogs. His remix of "Look Pon Mi" was recently highlighted on Mad Decent.

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In Aimee Levitt's profile on Marci Soto, who wrote a memoir about her relationship with Ray Charles titled Ray & Me, she noted that Soto taped a lot of her correspondence and casual times with the music legend. The author was kind enough to share some of these tapes with A to Z. Below, please take a listen to some unheard Ray Charles performances/recordings. Before each, Soto gives a brief description of what we're about to hear.

Charles playing a piano piece which Soto's daughter was practicing. This one in particular is goosebump-inducing.

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It's always great to wake up on a Monday morning, check Twitter and see that an album you've been anticipating has been unexpectedly released. Today that honor goes to Force member Rockwell Knuckles, who unleashed You're F*ckin Out, I'm F*ckin In via the Smoking Section. Rocky's follow-up to Choose Your Own Adventure contains a few familiar tunes -- the bananas "Silly Human," for one -- and plenty of familiar collaborators, including Tef Poe, Vandalyzm, Trifeckta and Theresa Payne. In is a creative leap forward, however: The sci-fi production -- everything from jagged rock to electro-funk -- lets Rocky recontextualize and reinvent his tongue-twisting rhymes. Download it for free at the Smoking Section or stream it below.