For the past two-decades-and-change, Thomas Crone has covered alternative music and culture in St. Louis for the St. Louis Beacon, Riverfront Times, Post-Dispatch and St. Louis magazine, along with a host of smaller, deceased titles like Jet Lag, 15 Minutes and his own zines Silver Tray and 52nd City. He's co-produced the music documentaries "Old Dog, New Trick" and "The Pride of St. Louis," along with several shorts. He's currently pre-producing the web series "Half Order Fried Rice," while teaching media writing at Webster University. He's making a lot of his memorabilia available to the public at www.silvertrayonline.com/
The "Second Set" series highlights the known and unknown stories of St. Louis musicians, deejays, promoters and gadflies. Each week's edition will showcase artists, albums and songs that collectively make up a fascinating Midwestern musical culture, one filled with both major successes and vexing could-have-beens. Combining personal recollections with interviews of the principals, these articles will put into context the people, recordings and venues that have informed St. Louis' recent rock'n'roll and pop music.
"Encores" are being printed as Crone and The Beacon work on a book that will include new essays and other related content. Read more Second Set columns.
The first reunion came about after Tom Hall broke his collarbone and musicians came together for a fundraiser. Then came two more. Hall simply says, “We decided that it’s fun to pay. We make good music. And people want to hear it.”
The band's setlist comes from a wide swath of American music, mostly AM radio music from the 1950s-’70s, though that’s a bit too limiting. Their classic honky-tonk singalongs have audience members humming-to-roaring along. And with every member of the band having decades of live experience, it can essentially play live only – a rare trick.
The bassist plays in the Jerry Garcia Band and has long led The Schwag, one of two Grateful Dead cover bands that grew out of the St. Louis music scene. But Tebeau's working extra hard now as a couple of months is all he expects to have before the federal appeals court here either sends him to jail or ends his long legal nightmare.
Within the past two weeks, Mangia Italiano celebrated 30 years in business. And tomorrow, the South Grand establishment will end daytime service, obviously calling an end to the restaurant’s three-decades of serving a pasta buffet. But it is not the loss of food that has the writer in mourning.
With Rerun Records and BDR Records, Jason Ross has collected the lost music of St. Louis' '80s and '90s and rereleased it to local music fans. The latest blast from the past: a Max Load package that includes just about every tune the band ever recorded.
Dan Potthast is based in California now, but took off with MU330, a St. Louis band that had a steady following until kids and other aspects of life interrupted. For just a brief set at the Pageant, however, the magic was back.
The Brothers, a seven-piece, all-star band dedicated to playing the music of the Allman Brothers is coming to the Pageant Friday night. This is just one part of what Danny Liston's doing. Mama's Pride has returned to a somewhat regular groove and Liston's new release, “God Used Mississippi,” is unofficially making the rounds.
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Breaking the Second Set mold, Crone tries out experimental music, gives The Schwag another try (and is becoming a convert, maybe) and hears Baby Ghosts and Bruiser Queen at a new North Side venue called Ye Olde Haunt. He recommends that others break their normal musical routines.
It’s been interesting to drop in on people in different stages of life, as they negotiate the necessary and the meaningful. At core, the Second Set series has visited with musicians who may have enjoyed their greatest moments of (relative) fame in the 1980s or 1990s.
It's one thing to be recognized as one of the better guitar players in the area, but Griffin is nurturing a whole new generation of players in the area. Recognizing young rockers is something Crone is also experiencing.
Rob Wagoner · Matt Harnish · Mike Apirion · Joe Schwab · Tiffany Minx · Frederick Boettcher Sr. · Bob Chekoudjian · Kevin Renick · Chris King · Morgan Nusbaum
The Grove · Venice Cafe · Pop's · Frederick's Music Lounge · Roxy's · Fortune Teller Bar · Way Out Club · City Museum · Jacobsmeyer Pub · Gaslight Square
Apop Records · Bruiser Queen · Liquid Gold · Euclid Records · Kidzrock · Dave Simon's School of Rock · Dear John · Capone · Judge Nothing · The Schwag
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Meeting in St. Louis next week, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious will have its first opportunity as an assembled group to consider what to do after the Vatican issued a mandate for change this spring. It calls on the conference to reorganize and more strictly observe church teachings.
When a family of four goes to the St. Louis Zoo, they can be forgiven for not knowing it will cost them $60, $72 if they park. If they can't pay, the alternative is to tell the kids they can't do what kids do at the zoo.
Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley gave reporters less than a half-hour’s notice today when he announced that conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh’s sculptured bust will be formally installed in the Capitol at 1 p.m.
The world seems eager to learn more about Pope Francis, so learning that he admires St. Philippine Duchesne and her spiritual daughters — Argentinean nuns who have been under Francis' spiritual direction as they live among the poor — adds to understanding.
The celebration in Sikeston will reunite residents of the community which was destroyed in May 2011 when the Army Corps of Engineers opened the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway to alleviate flooding on the Mississippi. Residents are still hoping for a FEMA buyout so they can relocate their village.
The Newman Money Museum at Washington University has a quirky pseudo-robot Ben Franklin in the basement that is essentially a TV screen projected into a plastic shell head.
The Beacon's Mary Delach Leonard and Rob Koenig extensively covered flooding in 2011 in Missouri. Now this coverage is compiled in an iBook. Read the stories.
"Lost Egypt," at the St. Louis Science Center, combines real images shot in Egypt with art and artifacts as well as interactive and family-friendly features and explanations of the science used to uncover the ancient world. The exhibit will run through Sept. 2.
Opera is for snobs. Country music is for rednecks. Everybody loves Chuck Berry now that he's been around for a few decades, but what about Nelly? Why can't we simply respond to what's before us without dragging preconceptions and prejudices into play?
Organizers aren't trying to replace the rib fest, but music lovers will be able to find tangy sustenance as they listen to such greats as Mavis Staples (pictured), Big George Brock, Trombone Shorty, Kim Massie and Marquise Knox take the stage.
Donna Korando is the Beacon's arts and features editor. You can contact her at dkorando@stlbeacon.org.
Developers on the south side come in all shapes and sizes, with ambitions that vary from single buildings to entire city blocks. In the first of a two-part story, Jason Deem talks about building community.
Speaking to reporters at Monsanto, Howard Buffett warned that future generations would foot the bill for irresponsible soil use. He urged leaders to address thorny issues such as malnutrition and environmental destruction.
Twenty winners will split a million dollars and a wide array of professional services after this year's Arch Grants competition. Victors will also see one-on-one business mentoring in their prize package. The diverse group includes everything from biotech concerns to fashion enterprises.
Innovation and entrepreneurial activity are on the rise in St. Louis, especially in bioscience, technology and alternative energy. The Beacon's InnovationSTL section focuses on the people who are part of this wave, what they're doing and how this is shaping our future. To many St. Louisans, this wave is not yet visible. InnovationSTL aims to change that. We welcome you to share your knowledge, learn more about this vibrant trend and discuss its impact.
The Academy of Science-St. Louis hosts tours of EarthDance, an organic farm, and the Monsanto Agronomics and Breeding Facility May 21-22. The workshop is meant to prompt discussion and answer questions about these two competing philosophies of food production.
Speaking to reporters at Monsanto, Howard Buffett warned that future generations would foot the bill for irresponsible soil use. He urged leaders to address thorny issues such as malnutrition and environmental destruction.
Vernon Bowman's challenge to Monsanto Co.'s patent on its Roundup Ready soybean seeds was billed as a David vs. Goliath contest. Goliath won and won big. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that an Indiana soybean farmer had violated Monsanto's patent on its genetically engineered soybean seeds.
Sally Altman is the Beacon's Health and Science editor. You can contact her at saltman@stlbeacon.org.
Opera is for snobs. Country music is for rednecks. Everybody loves Chuck Berry now that he's been around for a few decades, but what about Nelly? Why can't we simply respond to what's before us without dragging preconceptions and prejudices into play?
You have to know your audience: McDonald's regulars don't need free-range chicken or a certain breed of beef; a second-chance high school needs personally motivated students as opposed to people ordered to attend and low-income Democrats by and large don't want a cigarette tax.
Last week, Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura sacrificed his crown as the King of America. He faced an individual decision to play against the best in the nation or the best on the planet. Find out what happened at that world-level tournament.
Donna Korando is the Beacon's Voices editor. You can contact her and submit opinion pieces for possible publication at dkorando@stlbeacon.org.