Most Popular
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Cock and Awe
St. Louis pickup artists rule the roost.
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The strange and violent world of St. Louis' bail bondsmen
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A Village Runs Through It: The RFT unveils its big bold plans for that big damn hole
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All In A Name
Did the Post-Dispatch deliberately give its new blog the same title as the competition?
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Heat Rises: Pappy's Smokehouse elevates humble barbecue to ethereal heights
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Was it Colonel Mustard or Professor Plum who killed MLK? (4)
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Too Many Cooks (3)
Missouri’s days as the nation’s Meth Lab Capital are numbered. So what’s next?
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Heat Rises: Pappy's Smokehouse elevates humble barbecue to ethereal heights (3)
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The strange and violent world of St. Louis' bail bondsmen (2)
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A to Z (2)
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Tegan and Sara find their sister act soaring with The Con
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Fifteen things you might not know about the Bottle Rockets, on their fifteenth birthday
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B-Sides gets personal with Alicia Keys, as she is, and examines the parallels between Metallica-worshippers Apocalyptica and Harptallica
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Using Their Illusion: Ferocious — and funny — locals the Livers hope video builds the radio star
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Slice of Life
John Vanderslice celebrates warmer weather with an exclusive mix of tunes.
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Cards Blog: Death to Dinger
09:39AM 05/07/08 -
If Only Pujols Was Free on Monday Nights...
12:28PM 05/06/08 -
Homespun: Gotta Be Karim, Bean Pie EP
12:29PM 05/07/08 -
Video: Nelly Interview (Part 2): Talking Collaborators and Kanye West
09:16AM 05/07/08 -
Maplewood Farmers' Market Opens Today
11:31AM 05/07/08 -
The Morning Brew: Wednesday, 5.7
09:45AM 05/07/08
What we are writing about
- 7-Up
- A Closer Walk with...
- Araka
- Central West End...
- COCA
- Cory Spinks
- Craft Alliance
- foie gras
- Kevin Kline Awards
- Ludo
- Mensa
- Mexican cuisine
- Mosaic
- musicals
- Othello
- Playstation
- RFT DJ Spin-off
- sexual harassment
- St. Louis theater
- The Black Rep
- The Ghost of the Forest
- Three Monkeys
- Tuesdays with Morrie
- University City
- Vashon High School
- Washington University
- White Flag Projects
- Wii
- Xbox
- ~scape
Recent Articles By Roy Kasten
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Allison Moorer/Steve Earle
8 p.m. Monday, May 5. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard
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Fifteen things you might not know about the Bottle Rockets, on their fifteenth birthday
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The Shackeltons
8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street
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Martin Sexton
8 p.m. Saturday, April 26. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard
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Blue Mountain explores the Southern-rock roads less traveled while the Mars Volta tries to shed its bad voodoo on the way to releasing The Bedlam in Goliath.
National Features
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Broward-Palm Beach New Times
Last Step to Redemption
Drug counselor Richard Entrekin swam a little too easily in a sea of sharks.
By Amy Guthrie -
Village Voice
The Cro-Mag Diaries
Remembering the brutal life and times of John "Bloodclot" Joseph, New York hardcore icon.
By Rob Harvilla -
Seattle Weekly
Being Gary Busey
Everybody thinks Jeff Swanson is somebody famous. And he does nothing to dissuade them of the notion.
By Aimee Curl -
SF Weekly
Party Crashers
If you think Ralph Nader won't screw the Democrats again, you're not paying attention.
By John Geluardi
The Brakes
9 p.m. Tuesday, May 13. Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University Cit
By Roy Kasten
Published: May 7, 2008
The dark, sweet piano march that opens the Brakes' Tale of Two Cities, a collection of precisely choreographed live recordings, snakes into trumpet blats and other sadistic pleasures: "Bite my lip and drain this blood into the ground," croons Zach Djanikian. But that's as rough as these kids from Philly get. Their navigation of '70s AOR and guitar jamming may be their way of liberating Wilcoland from experimental pretensions, but it's also as hooky and swift as a schooner captained by Matthew Sweet. They pay no mind to political winds — "I'm not afraid of the state of the union," sings a blissful Djanikian — but that doesn't make them yacht rockers. A course this smooth and straight raises the question of whether they're having any fun at all; when they cut loose with the guitars you know the answer.
