SVJ Album of the Week: Bruiser Queen's Let's Fall in Love Again All Over

In case you missed it -- I know I didn't see it coming -- Saturday was the third annual Cassette Store Day, when fans across the globe celebrated the glory of the cassette tape.

Don't ask. I'm not sure I can provide a satisfactory answer. I only bring it up because Bruiser Queen joined in the festivities by releasing Let's Fall in Love Again All Over, a collection of demo recordings spanning the St. Louis duo's five-year career.

SVJ Album of the Week: The Fuck Off and Dies' Dear Liver

Dear Liver is the second full-length album by St. Louis trio The Fuck Off and Dies, a side project of Story of the Year front man Dan Marsala.

The LP, released in July, is a fast-paced, high-energy blast of punk with Marsala's tongue planted firmly in cheek. If you like loud songs about partying hard or saying the word "fuck" in some form or another, buy this album now.

Remembering Lou Reed: Going solo

Lou Reed was 29 years old, living at home with his parents and earning $40 a week as a typist in his father's accounting firm in the summer of 1971.

He had left the disintegrating Velvet Underground in the hands of Doug Yule and Steve Sesnick, and all he had to show for it was four albums that died almost as soon as they were recorded and a portfolio of dozens of songs he had written that never saw the light of day.

SVJ Playlist: Divide the Empire CD-release show

This Saturday at Pops greatness will be brought into the world
Remember how important music is to the planet and please share.....thanks
Posted by Randy Shanks on Monday, October 5, 2015

Divide the Empire plans to bring its new CD into the world with a bang this weekend.

The alternative rockers will unveil their second album, Three Winters Vol. 1, at a show Saturday night at Pop's Nightclub and Concert Venue in Sauget, IL.

Remembering Lou Reed: The Yule-era Velvet Underground

Doug Yule was a 21-year-old kid in 1968 with little professional music experience. He was a guitar player with a local band in Boston who was a friend of the Velvet Underground's road manager.

With the departure of John Cale soon after the band's split from Andy Warhol, Lou Reed clearly now was the Velvets' dominant force. Yule just happened to be the right guy in the right place at the right time. The band needed somebody to play bass, and Reed was extremely attracted to Yule's pliability.

SVJ Album of the Week: Popular Mechanics' Onramp to Irrelevance

St. Louis power-pop band Popular Mechanics lets you know from the start of its second album, Onramp to Irrelevance, that it's not kidding around.

Opening track "Always Down" begins with a sonic blast of guitars that doesn't let up through the first half of the album.

The band takes a breather with the tender "My Target," an acoustic number sung beautifully by Dave Todd

Remembering Lou Reed: The Cale-era Velvet Underground

I'm starting this series with a fudge. This video really isn't the Velvet Underground, technically, and it didn't come from the era under discussion here.

This is Lou Reed and John Cale as a duo performing "Heroin" during a one-off acoustic performance in Paris in 1972, about four years after Cale left the VU and a couple of years after Reed's departure. Nico also was part of this show, though she doesn't participate in this song.

Remembering Lou Reed: Introduction

For decades, I fantasized about the day I would meet Lou Reed face-to-face and somehow be granted an audience with the man. Sadly, it never happened

Even so, Lou Reed held a prominent place in my orbit for more than four decades and probably had as profound an impact on my life as anyone outside of immediate family.