Ben Moon

In this week's RFT, Senior Music Writer Roy Kasten chronicles the story behind Blind Pilot, a rising Portland folk-pop band touring behind its sophomore album We Are the Tide (produced by Tucker Martine, best known for his work with the Decemberists and Laura Veirs). The band performs at Plush (3224 Locust Street, 314-535-2686) on Friday, March 3.

In this story outtake, lead singer and songwriter Israel Nebeker gives a glimpse into his songwriting process and shares a stream of the track "White Apple."

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Bryan Sutter

Neil Hamburger at Cicero's

In this week's music feature, RFT reported on Cicero's surprising decision to fire booking agent Mike Cracchiolo and publicist Kenny Snarzyk after less than nine months of employment. They were understandably disappointed, but not all of our conversation focused on the story's negatives. Cracchiolo and Snarzyk also reminisced about their favorite shows at Cicero's during their brief stint at the venue.

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hollygolightly.com

In this week's RFT, we interviewed singer, songwriter and one-woman, country-blues-punk wrecking crew Holly Golightly. But, in truth, she's not a solo artist, as her most recent album No Help Coming and her live performances feature the Brokeoffs, aka Lawyer Dave, a one-man band of sorts who drives the duo's sound (largely with his feet) in and out of the rural route ditches. Here's more from the interview to get your ready for the duo's return to St. Louis at the Firebird tonight.More >>

Jo Mccaughey

Pokey LaFarge

(Editor's note: This weekend, Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three is celebrating the release of a seven-inch, "Pack It Up" b/w "Chittlin' Cookin' Time in Cheatham County." The record is being released by Third Man Records, the label founded by Jack White. In fact, the White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather frontman produced the seven-inch, and LaFarge and crew went to Nashville and recorded it in White's studio. In this week's paper, LaFarge shared some of the artists and musicians who have meant something both to him personally -- and to the music he's creating. Below, he elaborates on modern artists, both local and national, who excel in bringing old-time swing, soul and blues to the masses.
Tonight's release show is at 9 p.m. at Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. It's $10 for 21 and up and $13 for those under 21.
-- Annie Zaleski)

There's a lot of music being made today that reaches out and grabs people and makes them know that they're alive, but it's on the underground. If you'd like to see a list of today's performers who I feel are keeping the real spirit of American music alive, check out the following list.

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Jennifer Silverberg

Flame, photographed as part of 2005's RFT feature story, "Rap vs. Rapture"

As we explore in this week's print edition (see "Music to Swing To"), choosing the right at-bat music for each St. Louis Cardinal can be a matter of science. But it can also be a matter of tradition -- or faith.

Back in 1998, when Mark McGwire was chasing after Major League Baseball's single-season homerun record, someone decided it'd be a good idea to play Guns 'N Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" for the slugger.

"We just thought it sounded good, and it stuck," says John Ulett, the Card's public address announcer. (In that capacity, Ulett coordinated at-bat music for the team from the mid-'90s until 2006.) "We'll probably never play that one for anybody else in the future since it's so well recognized as his song during that special time."

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Courtesy of It Is Done Communications

Following the success of last year's Fresh Fest concert tour, rap icons Salt-n-Pepa are making the rounds once again and bringing with them some of the finest names in vintage hip-hop. The Queens, New York, duo gained notoriety in the mid-'80s with its debut album, Hot, Cool, & Vicious, and reigned as the top female emcees in the game well into the '90s. After a nasty split -- and a reconciliation on reality TV -- Salt, Pep and Spin have returned to the stage and have been regaining momentum ever since. In this week's paper, we spoke with Sandra "Pepa" Denton about the group's long and storied journey in the music business. Below, enjoy some outtakes in which she discusses Nicki Minaj, telemarketing with Martin Lawrence and Kid 'n Play and breaking into the music business.

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Dan Zanes

Children's music isn't just about Raffi, Disney and Kidz Bop anymore, and thank goodness for that. From They Might Be Giants to Elizabeth Mitchell, more and more respected artists are trying their hands at a different kind of children's music, one with an emphasis on inclusive, family-friendly fun.Dan Zanes may be the foremost proponent of this new approach. He frequently speaks of wanting to inspire families to make their own music for fun. Since 2000, he's enjoyed a thriving career with just that attitude. His CDs -- all on his own independent label, Festival Five Records -- combine elements of the blues, jazz, early rock & roll, folk and African music in a lighthearted mélange. In this week's paper, I spoke with Zanes; below, here are some outtakes in which he discusses an upcoming Del Fuegos reunion, playing his children's music in Bahrain and how having his own label has been a boon to his career.
Dan Zanes and Friends will be at COCA (Center of Creative Arts), 524 Trinity Avenue, University City. 7 p.m. Friday, March 11. 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday, March 12. 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, March 13. Tickets are $18 to $22. 314-725-6555.

Mike Appelstein: You have your own label. Has that helped you weather the current music business climate?
Dan Zanes: It has. When I made my first recording, it was really just a cassette tape. I was making a solo record when my daughter was born. When she was about three, I made this cassette to give out to friends with kids. I was thinking of all-ages music, and I was also thinking about parents going to get CDs for their kids and not enjoying them. There's a window of opportunity when your kids are young where you can have a musical experience without resorting to pop music. There are a lot of themes of romantic love that are difficult for three-year-olds to understand. So I decided to see if I could make all-ages music, made this cassette and gave it out to people. No one cared about my solo record, but everyone wanted copies of this cassette. So I decided I would leave pop music behind and start a record company. It was an incredibly easy decision to make because I was having so much fun doing it. I have a business that's [been] working for ten years. I have some incredible people running the label, and by staying nimble and independent we've been able to survive the downs of the music business when others haven't.

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Alan Messer

There are lots of reasons to hate Rodney Crowell. He's had scores of country hits and penned definitive progressive country anthems such as "'Til I Gain Control Again" and "Old Home Place Revisited." He records with Joe Henry and sings like a fallen angel. And he's had breakfast in bed with Rosanne Cash. Now he's turned to prose, writing the beautiful and heartbreaking Chinaberry Sidewalks, a memoir of his childhood that forms the occasion for a solo acoustic storyteller night at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room on Monday. Read the first part of my interview with Crowell here and the outtakes below.

Roy Kasten: Can you explain a bit more about your sense memory?
Rodney Crowell: Memory actually becomes intuitive in a way, after a while.

What do you mean?
When you take your adult self back to the past, I remember that shotgun, a .22 rifle, the weight and feel of that, the sound of it. And then when you get yourself back there, the tone, the way the characters in the room had their hair combed or the way the women were shimmying their butts around [at a party], it all comes back to you. It comes back like waves off the ocean.

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Jamie Soja

This week's cover story comes from our sister paper in San Francisco, the SF Weekly. Music editor Ian S. Port went into the studio with Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn, who are otherwise known as Pomplamoose, and found out exactly how the duo are making a comfortable living doing music -- whether these tunes are covers of tunes by Lady Gaga and Beyonce or ads commissioned by Hyundai. From the story:

Pomplamoose doesn't release music on CD or any other physical media. The group has no deal with a record label. It also doesn't tour -- in three years, it has played only three live shows, all of them in San Francisco. The band has no publicist or traditional manager; the only outside professionals it uses are a lawyer and an accountant. Conte and Dawn handle every other aspect of Pomplamoose themselves: arranging songs, recording and mixing tracks, editing video, posting new songs online and even marketing to new fans. And they retain a sense of humor through most of it.

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Tyson Wirtzfield

California retro-pop perfectionists Dum Dum Girls are at the Billiken Club tonight, with Minks and Dirty Beaches. In last week's paper, Mike Appelstein chatted with Dum Dum Girls' Dee Dee; below are some outtakes in which she describes writing music despite her mother's illness, what's in store after the recent He Gets Me High EP and what other bands she's a fan of.

Mike Appelstein: What else is on the schedule for 2011?
Dee Dee: After this tour, we're immediately going to the U.K. and Europe for another month. Then we'll spend the spring and summer months playing more occasionally, festivals and random shows, and gearing up for the next record. That's coming out in the fall, and then we'll start it all back up again. We just finished recording the next record, and we're in mixing mode right now. It's funny to be doing interviews about the EP. Now I'm having to go back and listen to it and go back to the headspace I was in at the time. A lot has happened since then.

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