Roxanna Loa

KDHX (88.1 FM) Co-Executive Director Nico Leone will be leaving his post here to take a job as the General Manager of KCUR (89.3 FM) in Kansas City. He'll start on August 1 and remain at KDHX until then.

Leone has been with KDHX for eight and a half years. He started as Music Director and has been serving as Executive Director with Beverly Hacker for the past five.

"I moved here from Austin ten or eleven years ago and KDHX is how I discovered the city," says Leone. "Like so many people in St. Louis, it's how I've connected to the community.

"It's been an honor and a privilege to have worked here, alongside so many great people -- so many people passionate about music, art, culture and St. Louis."

More >>

No, this is not super exclusive footage of Hologram Freddie Mercury. But sometimes archive footage does more to preserve a memory of deceased musician than a special effects trick.

A few days after Tupac Shakur came back from New Mexico appeared as a "hologram" during last month's Coachella festival, cynics wondered aloud about the optical illusion becoming a trend. Somebody even put together a humorous "poster" advertising next year's show, which consisted exclusively of either bands with deceased members or performers who have long since passed away.

Anybody who dismissed such a prophecy as far-fatched was probably a little taken aback when Queen announced it would use an optical illusion of Freddie Mercury to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the musical We Will Rock You. According to BBC interview with Queen guitarist Brian May, members of the band had been planning the special effect:

More >>

The dude about to get noogied by Thom Yorke is Nigel Godrich, the long-time producer of Radiohead. Godrich recently formed Ultraista, a side-band from his usual producing duties.

If there was ever an example a good musical soldier, it would be Nigel Godrich. The British producer has been an essential behind-the-scenes figure with Radiohead for years and years and years, so much so that he's colliquolly referred to as a sixth member of the band.

Radiohead's titanic sound shift throughout the years may have confounded most producers, but not Godrich. He's deftly moved the band from being another cog in the 1990s alternative rock machine to one of the most influential groups in the world. Certainly the actual band members deserve the lion's share of credit, but a wise producer can stop a group from doing incredibly stupid things.

But while it's easy to envision producers as introverts who fiddle with buttons all day, many are actually talented performers themselves. Pitchfork reported that Godrich had started a new band called Ultraista with fellow producer Joey Waronker. This isn't the first time Godrich emerged from the producer-y shadows, as he played with Thom Yorke's live band Atoms for Peace.

More >>

Brian Keith Dotson, a.k.a. Priest DeOlivera

Update: Per St. Louis Crimestoppers, Brian Dotson was arrested last night without incident. Adds Crimestoppers, "Thanks to all our callers. The response to this was great." You don't say...

Update: According to the probable cause statement obtained by RFT Music from the Jefferson County Prosecutor's office, Brian Dotson was involved in a sexual relationship with the daughter of a family friend. The victim says he would sometimes stay at their house in Jefferson County and that, starting in May of 2011, any time he did they would engage in a variety of sex acts. She was thirteen when it started and is now fourteen.

Original post follows.

Shattermask frontman Brian Keith Dotson is wanted on two counts of statutory rape and three counts of statutory sodomy. An arrest warrant was issued on April 8; Dotson remains at large and has now started appearing on St. Louis Crimestoppers billboards in the area.

The first charge, from May 15, 2011, is for first-degree statutory rape, meaning the victim was a person less than fourteen years old. If found guilty, Dotson faces a prison sentence no less than five years. The maximum authorized sentence is life imprisonment.

The other charges, all from August 17, 2011, are one count of second-degree statutory rape and three counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, meaning the victim was under seventeen years old. Each of these four counts carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years.

More >>

Captain Planet: Big fan of Yacht Rock, we're told. The theme of this year's St. Louis Earth Day Festival is Heroes for the Planet.

Music and environmentally geared celebrations seem like a good fit. They bring people together, and both have been described at one point or another as hippie activities. The brains behind St. Louis's Earth Day Festival know this. The festival -- the third largest of its kind in the country -- begins Sunday, April 22 at 10 a.m. in Forest Park. And the celebration will incorporate a diverse line-up of St. Louis musicians.

Speaking with RFT Music via telephone, Jeanette Reynolds of St. Louis Earth Day detailed how music has become an integral part of the eco-friendly jubilee. Planning an event of this scale is an undertaking that lasts five months. Starting in November, the Earth Day posse, a hodge-podge of volunteers, part-time and full-time employees, begin making decisions about the theme of the festival and what they hope to expand upon from last year. Between then and February, vendor and exhibitor applications come in, and during February, St. Louis Earth Day starts filtering the applicants and deciding which musical acts will be a part of the festival.

More >>

Timothy Norris

Coachella is back, for two desert weekends this year, April 13-15 and April 20-22. Our massive team of writers and photographers will be covering everything from the performances to the fashion trends to the drug-induced-tomfoolery. We're also rolling out preview profiles and interviews all week.

Over 140 artists are performing -- we've got the full list below. But, you may be wondering, who the hell are some of these people? To help you out we've got stories on many of them culled from our sister Village Voice Media papers around the country. You'll learn about that time Flying Lotus pretended to be a UCLA physics major, Seun Kuti's first Minneapolis performance as an eight year old, even the mysteries of Merrill Garbus and why Chuck Klosterman can't handle her. Dig in! -Ben Westhoff

More >>

Rock Band Blitz takes the Rock Band video game series back to its roots, jettisoning expensive instruments for a game controller.

Recent music games have become opulent affairs, pulling out all the artistic stops to capture gamers' attention spans. The Beatles: Rock Band for instance was a beautiful visualization of the legendary group's music, complete with dazzling virtual representations of the Fab Four. And various iterations of the Guitar Hero franchise upped the ante by recruiting uber-popular bands to virtually appear during gameplay.

While grand-scale decision-making made the genre more interesting, it also ended up being something of an albatross. After all, licensing and promoting a game featuring The Beatles' music isn't exactly cheap. And with the economic slowdown prompting decreased consumer demand for pricey instrument peripherals, it wasn't long before the music game genre's hash was supremely mellowed.

More >>

Photos by Blair Stiles

Parking in the Quad of Washington University yesterday was a bus carrying a staff of five AXE employees. Their intent was to hand out free passes to see the Lord of Mad Decent, Diplo. Teaming up with joyful duo Chiddy Bang for AXE's One Night Only tour, the producer/DJ is touring the country playing shows such as the one tonight at the Firebird. But to get in, you needed to find the AXE bus.

More >>

In the spirit of fostering conversation, the Firebird, the Luminary Center for the Arts and St. Louis Secret Sound Society are starting a new series of music workshops. It's called Sound Advice, and each monthly installment will feature a panel of experts talking about the ins and outs of the increasingly tangled world of making and sharing music.

The first workshop will be this Saturday, March 31 from 1 p.m. to 3 at the Luminary. This first one will serve as an introduction to the series and a general discussion -- confirmed panelists include Jacob Detering of Red Pill Studio and badass guitarist Andrew Elsner of Torche, Riddle of Steel, etc. Admission is $5. You can buy tickets here or at the door.

More >>

Johnny Venus

About a month ago, Greek Fire drummer Johnny Venus noticed that the exhaustion he attributed to his band's recently completed Japanese tour had not faded. He was reluctant to see a doctor because he does not have health insurance, but his friends and bandmates eventually convinced him to get his blood tested. Hours after the test, Venus was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of leukemia.

Fortunately, Venus received medical attention before more serious damage occurred. He has responded well enough to treatment to leave the hospital last week after a taxing 33-day stay, and his blood count continues to improve. But Venus still faces outpatient treatment and a mountain of bills for medication that counts as an out-of-pocket expense (you can help cover this cost by donating here). RFT Music caught up with Venus' Greek Fire bandmate, singer Philip "Moon" Sneed" to discuss the situation, how he and his band plan to raise money for Venus and the state of healthcare.

Bob McMahon: Your tumblr statement notes that Johnny attributed his fatigue to jet lag from the flight home from Japan. Did you notice anything off about him before the flight?

Phil Moon: No, not really. We had a couple shows in the US... I'm a musician so I'm not very good with time. But just before we went to Japan, we had a few shows in the US, one being Chicago, I'm thinking a couple of other things, but I saw him almost every day. He was out having a good time while rehearsing or playing shows here and there. Everything seemed normal. We went to Japan and the first day or two you always experience a little jet lag. So he wasn't necessarily out. He said he wasn't in the mood to booze and do all the food stuff that we were doing. But that's not necessarily out of the ordinary. No red flags were hitting anybody.

More >>