Most Popular
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Red Alert: Everything they really don't want you to know about those pesky traffic-light cameras
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Thousand Dollar Baby: By day Jamie O'Hare studies for a master's in social work. Her night job is anything but.
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Seeing Red: Partners battle over a Wash. Ave. eatery's ownership
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Grand Old Patty: Ian goes on a beefy binge at Burger Bar and Sub Zero New American Burger Restaurant
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Feel a Draught?: Tigín opens an outpost in a Hampton Inn downtown? O'Really!
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Seeing Red: Partners battle over a Wash. Ave. eatery's ownership (17)
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Red Alert: Everything they really don't want you to know about those pesky traffic-light cameras (11)
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Can Taqueria los Tarascos' tacos make you feel homesick for a place you've never lived? Si! (2)
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Fist City: Rockwell Knuckles aims to punch through St. Louis hip-hop's glass ceiling (2)
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Grand Old Patty: Ian goes on a beefy binge at Burger Bar and Sub Zero New American Burger Restaurant (1)
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Dora Magrath was blessed with a beautiful voice. She's gone, but you can still hear it.
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Producer nonpareil Pharrell Williams is happy to be just one of the band again
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Texas Tornado: St. Louis musicians invade SXSW
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LA punks X celebrate turning 31 in style
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The legendary Mavis Staples looks ahead with a Turn Back
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It's always (vintage) Fashion Week in St. Louis
09:56AM 03/26/08 -
Download This: A 1986 Metallica Show from Cape Girardeau
02:37AM 03/26/08 -
The Morning Brew: Wednesday, 3.25
09:39AM 03/26/08 -
This Is Hawkwind -- Do Not Panic
06:08PM 11/09/07
What we are writing about
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Recent Articles By Matt Harnish
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The Cynics with Thee Lordly Serpents and the Gentleman Callers
Saturday, July 26; Blueberry Hill's Duck Room
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John Wilkes Booze
Tuesday, July 22; Way Out Club
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2003 Music Awards
The readers spoke, and the RFT music staff listened. Find out who's large and in charge on the St. Louis music scene.
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Back of Dave
Saturday, June 7; Rocket Bar
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FM Knives with the Incisions and the Kings of Pop
Monday, May 19; Hi-Pointe
National Features
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Village Voice
A Long Way Wrong?
Another celebrated memoir threatens to blow into a million little pieces.
By Graham Rayman -
LA Weekly
Hoop Dawg
Billionaire Donald T. Sterling owns the L.A. Clippers and loves the ladies. And those are just two of his problems.
By Patrick Range McDonald -
The Pitch
Children of the Porn
Elvin Boone's sex-shop empire crumbles as his offspring feud.
By Justin Kendall -
Westword
The Good Soldier
When the Army tried to take down Andrew Pogany, they messed with the wrong coward.
By Joel Warner
Centro-matic with the Deathray Davies and Shelby
Friday, Sept. 7; Hi-Pointe
By Matt Harnish
Published: September 5, 2001
Denton, Texas, indie-rockers Centro-matic have, over the course of their relatively short career, crafted some of today's most interesting and rewarding quiet rock. Striking a perfect balance between strong songwriting and creatively experimental arrangements, their albums -- the latest of which is Distance and Clime, on Idol Records -- never fail to surprise and challenge. Even after repeated plays, new wrinkles in the songs reveal themselves. Similar to experimental risk-takers Calexico, there's a uniquely American sense of lonesome desert in Centro-matic's sound, of wide-open spaces that are best filled with weirdness. Singer/keyboardist Will Johnson brings a strong Southern drawl to his vocals, which have the raspy, whiskey-soaked rawness of Jay Farrar or Archers of Loaf/Crooked Fingers singer Eric Bachmann. This may explain why the band is occasionally lumped in with the alt-country crowd, despite the utter lack of anything resembling traditional country in their music. Centro-matic, though truly resembling no one but themselves, should appeal to fans of other American adventurers such as Granddaddy, the aforementioned Calexico or Canyon. St. Louis' Shelby open the show with their clean, pretty indie emo-pop. Their newest recordings are hook-filled state-of-the-art Vagrant Records-style punk, reminiscent of a full-band Dashboard Confessional or Alkaline Trio, minus the distortion pedals.
