1. B-Sides

Light Up the Night

B-Sides finds its relgion with gospel legends Blind Boys of Alabama, and eases the burden on its wallet by snagging some free music via the Download.

By Roy Kasten and Andy Vihstadt

Published: December 12, 2007

The new album from the Blind Boys of Alabama, Down In New Orleans, opens with a quick flourish on a Hammond B-3 organ and a stuttering second-line groove. The rest of the album sounds...

2. Cafe

Center Cut

Jim Edmonds' days with the Cardinals might be numbered, but F15teen's a keeper.

By Ian Froeb

Published: December 12, 2007

"Joe Buck just walked by." My wife turned, but she was too late. The fair-haired broadcaster and scion of St. Louis royalty was gone. Had I hallucinated him? (Again?) I did the math...

3. Critics' Picks

The Lemonheads

8 p.m. Thursday, December 13. VooDoo Lounge at Harrah's Casino, 777 Casino Center Drive, Maryland Heights.

By Shae Moseley

Published: December 12, 2007

After the frustrated manner in which Evan Dando left the stage at the end of the Lemonheads' set at the VooDoo Lounge last February — the poster boy of '90s slackerdom threw...

4. Critics' Picks

Robin and Linda Williams

8 p.m. Friday, December 14. The Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Boulevard.

By Roy Kasten

Published: December 12, 2007

Launched by A Prairie Home Companion just a few months after the program first aired in 1974, Robin and Linda Williams are to contemporary folk what Garrison Keillor is to Minnesota....

5. Critics' Picks

Silversun Pickups

6 p.m. Saturday, December 15. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard.

By Shae Moseley

Published: December 12, 2007

The steadily climbing career trajectory of the Silversun Pickups is almost unheard of in the music business these days. After releasing its first full-length, Carnavas, in the summer...

6. Critics' Picks

Tony Danza TapDance Extravaganza

6 p.m. Tuesday, December 18. Creepy Crawl, 3524 Washington Boulevard.

By Ryan Wasoba

Published: December 12, 2007

The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza is pissed off about something — but thanks to their difficult-to-decipher lyrics, it's hard to tell exactly what. Perhaps it's the government,...

7. Critics' Picks

The Shondes/The Helium Tapes/That's My Daughter

9 p.m. Wednesday, December 19. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.

By Jaime Lees

Published: December 12, 2007

Some are quick to call the Shondes a "queer-core" band based on the presumed transgendered identities of a few members — and because its sound easily attracts a college-aged...

8. Critics' Picks

Rough Shop

8:30 p.m. Friday, December 14. The Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Boulevard.

By Annie Zaleski

Published: December 12, 2007

Rough Shop's annual holiday music show (or "extravaganza") is becoming as much a seasonal tradition as eggnog, gingerbread lattes and gaudy Christmas sweaters. But while the fourth...

9. Critics' Picks

Behold the Arctopus

7 p.m. Friday, December 14. Pop's, 1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois.

By Chris Glenn

Published: December 12, 2007

Danger and destruction are imminent, and an ominous presence dwells in the outskirts of our psyches: Behold the Arctopus is coming. Believe it or not, you really don't need to be a...

10. Drink of the Week

Jakes Fault Shiraz

Sage
1031 Lynch Street
314-256-1203

By Kristie McClanahan

Published: December 12, 2007

Crack. Crack. Pop-pop-pop. A playful tap on the back of our hand and a mock stern warning: "Hey!" he says. We snap out of it. "Oh, right," we say. "Sorry. That's gross." It is. We...

11. Feature

Flipper Fanatics

A small community of pinball wizards keeps the game alive in St. Louis.

By Kathleen McLaughlin

Published: December 12, 2007

Darkness makes it difficult to see the addresses of the few places of business off Highway 111 in South Roxana, Illinois. There's a bar and an American Legion post, and somewhere under...

12. Film

Legend Has It

That old "last man on earth" setup? It really works.

By Scott Foundas, Ella Taylor and Julia Wallace

Published: December 12, 2007

There are two momentous performances in the Darwinian horror fable I Am Legend. One is by the movie's star, Will Smith — but more about him in a minute. The other is by the movie's...

13. Homespun

Elsie Parker & the Poor People of Paris

Je T'aime Encore
(self-released)

By Christian Schaeffer

Published: December 12, 2007

In "Give Paris One More Chance," Jonathan Richman claims that "the home of Piaf and Chevalier/Must have done something right to get passion that way." Vocalist and woodwinds player...

14. Keep It Down

Fizzix Fizzy Yogurt Snack

$2.50 (eight fizzin' tubes)
Schnucks
60 Hampton Village Plaza

By Malcolm Gay

Published: December 12, 2007

The jury is in: Yogurt is the new black. Sure, the current craze may be traced to the crude "fruit-on-the-bottom" 1970s when yogurt positioned itself in the emergent field of health...

15. Letters

Black Christmas

One reader wants to flush the RFT, another is flushed with pride.

Published: December 12, 2007

Cover, December 6, 2007 Christmas Killers RFT really crossed the line: I have been a fan of the RFT for many years. The paper has been a voice for the disenfranchised and forgotten,...

16. Ask a Mexican

Meet us in St. Louis, Mexicans

The Mexican takes a look at the biggest cities in the U.S. with the smallest Mexican communities.

Published: December 12, 2007

Dear Mexican: I'm sad that there aren't more Mexicans here in the Detroit area. We're one of the few areas in the country that is predominately Catholic. We've welcomed wave after...

17. Music

Kick Out the (Holiday) Jams

Here are ten holiday releases to deck your halls.

By Christian Schaeffer

Published: December 12, 2007

Forget boy bands and Barry Manilow: Christmas music may be the ultimate guilty pleasure. It's inherently corny, unrepentantly joyful and the tiniest bit reverent — all qualities...

18. News Real

Striker's Guilt

Chesterfield's Paul Guyot feels isolated from his fellow picketers in Hollywood.

By Aimee Levitt

Published: December 12, 2007

Since November 5, when the members of the Writers Guild of America raised their picket signs against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, television and film screenwriters...

19. Rotations

Wu-Tang Clan

8 Diagrams
(Motown/Universal)

By Keegan Hamilton

Published: December 12, 2007

The title 8 Diagrams is an homage to a Shaw brothers kung fu flick called The Eight-Diagram Pole Fighter. A standard tale of revenge, Pole Fighter should have been just another Hong...

20. Rotations

Sigur Rós

Hvarf/Heim, Heima
(XL Recordings)

By Dave Wallen

Published: December 12, 2007

Iceland's Sigur Rós are no less majestic in 2007 than when they first broke worldwide a few years ago. Case in point: The two-EP set Hvarf/Heim and the concert/documentary DVD...