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Recent Articles By Roy Kasten

  • The Campbell Brothers
    8 p.m. Friday, February 15 and 11 a.m. Saturday, February 16. Edison Theatre, 6445 Forsyth Boulevard
  • Nina Nastasia
    8:30 p.m. Saturday, February 9. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.
  • Richard Thompson
    8 p.m. Monday, February 11. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard
  • Parachute Musical
    9 p.m. Friday, February 1. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.
  • Giant Bear
    9 p.m. Wednesday, February 6. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Recent Articles By Dean C. Minderman

  • B.B. King
    7:30 p.m. Wednesday February 13. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St. Charles.
  • Chris Botti
    8 p.m. Friday January 18 and Saturday January 19. Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, One University Boulevard.
  • Smooth Operators
    Schoolhouse Rock's songwriter celebrates a few special birthdays in St. Louis while we pit Kenny G vs. Trans-Siberian Orchestra in a fight to the holiday death.
  • Preservation Blues

    Local niche labels keep the music coming.

  • Backstoppers Benefit
    7 p.m. Sunday November 4. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard.

Recent Articles By Andrew Miller

  • Tesla
    7 p.m. Saturday, February 16. Pop's, 1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois
  • Oh, Sleeper
    6 p.m., Monday, January 7. Creepy Crawl, 3524 Washington Boulevard.
  • Light This City
    6 p.m. Monday, November 26. Pop's, 1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois.
  • The Action Design
    8:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 28. Cicero's, 6691 Delmar Boulevard, University City
  • Xasthur
    Defective Epitaph

Recent Articles By Christian Schaeffer

Recent Articles By Brooke Foster

Recent Articles By Ben Westhoff

  • Being Darryl Strawberry
    Baseball's bad boy is now doing the Lord's work in O'Fallon, Missouri. How long will that last?
  • Doomsday Disciples
    Be it nuclear holocaust, quake or hurricane, St. Louis' Zombie Squad is ready for anything — even an attack from the living dead.
  • Vokal Critics
    In the cutthroat world of urban fashion, there's lies, damn lies — and sales statistics.
  • Yo! RFT Raps
    Week of February 8, 2007
  • Yo! RFT Raps
    Week of January 18, 2007

Recent Articles By Annie Zaleski

  • Sleep State
    8 p.m. Saturday, February 9. Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, 3301 Lemp Avenue.
  • Soft
    9 p.m. Tuesday, February 12. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.
  • Lloyd Dobler Effect
    9 p.m. Monday, January 14. Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.
  • Career (Remix)
    The trials and tribulations of R. Kelly.
  • The Aviation Club
    9 p.m. Friday, January 4. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Recent Articles By Malcolm Gay

Recent Articles By Kristie McClanahan

Recent Articles By Kristyn Pomranz

Recent Articles By Jaime Lees

National Features

  • Phoenix New Times
    Canine Crusaders

    That drug-sniffing dog up ahead? He may not be your best friend.

    By Ray Stern
  • Broward-Palm Beach New Times
    The Muscle Men

    Thanks to a string of Florida "anti-aging clinics," baseball's steroid scandal isn't limited to superstars.

    By Michael J. Mooney
  • Miami New Times
    Picked On

    Farm workers earn nada in America's green-bean capital.

    By Janine Zeitlin
  • Village Voice
    "Why I'm No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal"

    An election-season essay from one of America's greatest playwrights.

    By David Mamet

Ruka Puff
www.myspace.com/rukapuff; www.rukapuff.net
Ruka Puff's album title proclaims I'm A Star — and with his high-rise Mohawk and flashy jewelry, he already looks the part. A member of the Supreme Team collective, Ruka spits rugged rhymes over grimy bass-heavy beats. Whether rapping about footwear (and delivering the most intimidating "don't step on my Pradas" warning ever issued) or comparing shoes to rims ("High Tops"), this mountainous MC economizes syllables. At the clubs, a commanding bark carries more weight than an ostentatious vocabulary. (AM)
11 p.m., Blueberry Hill's Elvis Room

Black Spade
www.myspace.com/blackspade
Black Spade has one foot firmly placed in the old school — the school led by A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, that is. Like those pioneers, Spade favors a sample-delic style of hip-hop where classic soul-jazz merges with socially conscious storytelling. Throw in his molasses-smooth, laid-back flow — a delivery that has nothing to do with Nelly's drawl and everything to do with Anthony Hamilton's croon — and Spade's poised to kick back like it's 1975 all over again. (AZ)

Best Hip-Hop DJ

Needles
www.myspace.com/djneedles
If you ever stumble upon a large cache of high-caliber rap, hip-hop or R&B twelve-inches in the used bins at Vintage Vinyl, chances are you've just discovered the latest collection purge by Needles. But it isn't reinvention that's kept the affable DJ consistently near the top of the St. Louis scene; it's seamlessly mixed sets. Whether you're seeing Needles spin at Boogaloo, the Hi-Pointe or 609 — where he helms the long-running "jazzyphatnappy" night of laid-back soul, Afrobeat, hip-hop and more — he drops encyclopedic music knowledge and mad skills almost as much as he drops killer beats. (AZ)
11 p.m., Pin-Up Bowl

DJ Crucial
www.myspace.com/djcrucial
St. Louis has known for years that it had a gem in DJ Crucial, the man who helped make Blueberry Hill's The Science a must-attend Friday-night destination for hip-hop heads. But the rest of the world seems to be waking up to Crucial's talents, what with the warm reception to his first album, Test Presses and Dub Plates, a platter that features collaborations with hip-hop luminaries MF Doom, MF Grimm, Atmosphere's Slug and MC Eiht. (AZ)
10 p.m., Pin-Up Bowl

Charlie Chan Soprano
Monday nights at the late, lamented Hi-Pointe Café just wouldn't have been the same without the presence of Charlie Chan Soprano, a past RFT Music Award winner who's also heard on Craig Blac's Hot Morning Show on 104.1 FM. And while the veteran DJ doesn't have much of an Internet presence, he's become so well-known that national hip-hop magazines have cheekily punned on his name — cf. The Don of St. Louis, which Chan then used as the name of a mix CD. Oh, and he's also DMC's tour DJ (which perhaps explains the "Kings of Rock" megamix promo single that's shown up on eBay). (AZ)

DJ Agile 1
www.myspace.com/djagile1
One might say that longtime Science DJ/F5 Records homegirl Agile 1 lives up to her name. For starters, the firebrand is just as passionate about crafting blazing hip-hop sets and winning battles as she is about production (check myspace.com/agile1beats for samples of her work), or fighting back against racism and sexism. Oh, and did we mention Agile has a master's degree in education and currently teaches middle-school history? Knowledge certainly is power for this monster talent. (AZ)

Trackstar
www.myspace.com/djtrackstar
When DJ Trackstar (a.k.a. Gabe Moskoff) isn't cooking up banging mixtapes at a dizzying rate that Robert Pollard would envy, he can be found spinning and/or supporting the local rappers at the Halo Bar — or collecting concerts, news and other happenings for his weekly e-mail newsletter. Throw in the work he does for his nonprofit, along with plentiful mentoring and coaching gigs, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a DJ who does more to improve the city and its scene. (AZ)
7 p.m., Blueberry Hill's Elvis Room

Best Indie Band

Bunnygrunt
www.myspace.com/therealbunnygrunt
Ah, good ol' Bunnygrunt. They've been known as the godfathers of St. Louis pop music since the mid '90s. They've been called "indie" and "cutesy." Heck, they've even been labeled "twee." But in reality, Bunnygrunt are ambassadors of a new genre we'll call BootyShakingPopalicious, with boy-girl harmonies and tail-feather-twitching beats producing tunes that are undeniably catchy. Although they took a break for a few years, the band's now back with the same sing-along, power-chord sound that can only be described as — you guessed it — BootyShakingPopalicious. (JL)
Midnight, Delmar Restaurant & Lounge

That's My Daughter
www.myspace.com/thatsmydaughter
The three gals and one guy in That's My Daughter stick to the rock & roll basics: noisy, sexxxy tunes about making out and getting high. The songs are quick and dirty, and they stick to you like vinyl car seats on a hot August afternoon. Cory Hammerstone of the Mega Hurts recently joined the group, giving the band a twin-guitar attack. That's My Daughter's new record, Virgin Appeal, will be released this fall; look for their CD-release party at the Way Out Club on September 23. (CS)
4:30 p.m., Market in the Loop Outdoor Stage

So Many Dynamos
www.myspace.com/somanydynamos; www.somanydynamos.org
Taking cues from destructo-pop bands such as Les Savy Fav and Thunderbirds Are Now!, So Many Dynamos make music that's off-kilter and somehow still danceable. In fact, the spazz-rockers upped the ante with their recently released album, Flashlights. The disc trades Moog explosions for contained guitar chaos — while pushing Aaron Stovall's yelps to the edge and jamming sing-along sections between buzzsaw guitars and lugubrious trombones. It's a juggling act that works, and Flashlights (along with its 7.3 rating on Pitchfork.com) should propel SMD toward greater acclaim. (CS)
3 p.m., Market in the Loop Outdoor Stage

Ghost in Light
www.myspace.com/ghostinlight; www.ghostinlight.com
Ghost in Light can hang with the noiseniks at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center or buddy up to cool-kid indie-rockers at Off Broadway — making it one of the few bands in town who don't have a specific clique to call its own. But this social fluidity has everything to do with how impossible it is to categorize the quartet's tunes. Their full-length debut focused on dreamy, lo-fi slo-core — references include Sigur Rós, Hum and Red House Painters — but their new demo layers plenty of post-rock-anguished vocals and throttling guitars atop transcendent instrumental textures. (AZ)
10 p.m., Delmar Restaurant & Lounge

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