Together as JEFF the Brotherhood since 2002, Jake and Jamin Orrall are brothers from Tennessee who use guitars, drums and a whole lot of distortion to make a psychedelic-grunge-punk sound that rocks hard. Songs like “I’m a Freak” are heavy, hard rock reminiscent of the early 1970s, while “Bone Jamm” and “The Tropics” are more akin to surf-garage rock with a reverberatingly bouncy, noise-pop sheen. Maybe that’s why their upcoming tour for “We Are the Champions,” their sixth full-length album, includes shows with Heavy Cream, Black Lips, Vivian Girls and Fergus and Geronimo, to name a few. They claim on their MySpace profile that the sound in Saturday’s opener, Diarrhea Planet, is “Dub/Rap/Reggaeton,” but they are similarly hard-rocking with a more punk, guitar-laden sound. Whether you’re in the mood to mosh or to just bounce along to the beat, Saturday’s (free!) show will guarantee a great time.

Gentle dubstep composer James Blake has released an EP every few months since “Air & Lack Thereof” appeared in July 2009. His self-titled debut LP represents a true culmination of his evolution from a haunting dubstep sound to a combination of intricate electronic beats and incredibly soulful vocals.

The resulting album is achingly beautiful and astonishingly accessible. Tracks like “Lindisfarne I,” and “Landisfarne II” and “I Mind” quietly employ dubstep sound and vocal manipulation techniques, while in “The Wilhelm Scream” and “I Never Learnt to Share,” Blake pares down the manipulation and deftly weaves in his soulful voice. He plays more with the contrast of introspective lyrics—“My brother and my sister don’t speak to me, but I don’t blame them,” he sings over and over in “I Never Learnt to Share”—mixed in with the syncopated bass line, drum clicks and vocal loops of dubstep.

“Give Me My Month” and a cover of Feist’s “Limit To Your Love” are pure piano ballads. Placed right in the middle of the album, they are its most simple and accessible songs. Their sparseness isn’t as innovative or intricate as the rest of the album, but both tracks showcase the beautiful anguish in Blake’s voice and may attract listeners otherwise wary of electronic or dubstep music—which is crucial as Blake’s innovation is likely to make a sizable impact on the music industry.

KWUR will team up with Jazz at Holmes for a night of avant-garde jazz on Thursday at 7 p.m. featuring the Jazz X-Tet with David Stone and Peter Schlamb. The Jazz X-Tet, based at the University of Chicago, is a loose collective of a dozen or so musicians renowned for their wide-reaching understanding of jazz; their genre-bending shows feature everything from standards to hip-hop. They will be joined by saxophonist David Stone and vibraphonist Peter Schlamb. For the uninitiated, a vibraphone is the xylophone’s trippier, echoing, electric little brother.

Saturday night will bring electronic artists Paper Diamond, Robotic Pirate Monkey and up-and-coming student disc jockey Peter Kaufmann, creator of the blog “Bright Shiny Music.”

“We wanted to bring crowd pleasers,” said Matt Curry, events director for KWUR. Curry notes the performers’ dance ability and points to Paper Diamond’s recent EPs, which have earned a dedicated online following. Though many students, even some within KWUR, are unfamiliar with Paper Diamond and RPM, the night is sure to win them some new fans.

The week will come to an exciting close with Saturday’s Wave Night at the Gargoyle featuring Thee Oh Sees, Fergus & Geronimo and Flaming Death Trap. First up: Flaming Death Trap, one of the biggest rock bands in St. Louis, who recently opened for Oberhofer at Saint Louis University’s Billiken Club and even recorded in the KWUR studios last June, combine a folk sensibility with surf-rock sound. Next, Fergus & Geronimo will bring their eclectic blend of lo-fi, ’60s soul, garage rock and psychedelic-pop sound in what’s sure to be a fiery St. Louis debut. Finally, after years of refusing to perform in St. Louis, Thee Oh Sees will unleash their mix of reverberating psychedelic-garage rock to close out the night and the festival. If you want to dance, rock out, hear some fantastic music and support KWUR’s great efforts, this night is not to be missed.

All shows are free with a student ID or $5 for the public. Public tickets are available for purchase online at http://www.metrotix.com/search.php?method=search&keyword&category&venue=255&page=1, or you may pick them up in person at the Edison Theatre box office in Mallinckrodt Center.

"Destiny's Child," the band's first album, was released in 1998.

Believe it or not, before Michelle Williams was ever in the picture, Destiny’s Child consisted of Beyonce, Kelly Rowland, Roberson and Luckett. They released their self-titled debut album in 1998 and the best-selling “The Writing’s On the Wall” in 1999 as a foursome before conflicts with manager Matthew Knowles (Beyonce’s father) drove Roberson and Luckett to be replaced with Williams and Franklin. In 2000, Franklin was also soon vanquished from the group. Confused? Let’s break down what the three artists have been up to since leaving the group.

Once Roberson left the group and reached a settlement with the Knowles’, she fell out of sight, aside from a role in the 2008 play “Those Jeans,” described as “a truly well written love story, about a fashion designer and a high fashion photographer, looking for love in all the wrong people” by an unnamed source on Wikipedia. It seemed we had heard the last of LaTavia, but last November she appeared briefly on “Real Housewives of Atlanta” to discuss her alcohol addiction and jail time post-Destiny’s Child breakup and her dreams of getting back to work. Her twitter account confirms that she’s both recording a new album for 2011 and feuding with Luckett, evidenced by numerous “#lataviarants,” so it seems that Roberson is gearing up for a revitalized career. We’ll see if it takes off!

Luckett’s first solo album apparently debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, receiving multiple nominations and spurring a tour with Mary J. Blige in 2006. She’s currently recording a new album and had appeared in the films “Preacher’s Kid,” “Killers” and “From the Rough.” She also has a recurring role on the HBO series “Treme.” Luckett tweets entirely too often for this reporter to find her response to #lataviarants, but she seems to be faring quite well.

Franklin’s personal quote on IMDB is “Life may not always be fair, but it can be Farrah.” She has done some modeling, is shooting an untitled movie and is working on a solo album she hopes to release in 2011. She also owns an independent film company, One Love Pictures. Most notably, she appeared on Bravo’s “Millionaire Matchmaker” as a client, with little success—but presumably, her five-month stint with Destiny’s Child is what made her a millionaire, and that’s just impressive.

The “Wall of Sound” certainly remains intact throughout, especially on tracks like “Call Me,” “Stop the Music” and “I Vibe U,” but instead of precise, complex harmonies and rhythms, they just pile on synthesizers, incessantly-thumping beats, snaps, whistles, horns, drums, strings, and doo-wop vocals tacked on for good measure. To make matters much, much worse, the Saunders sisters’ vocals are grating and desperately emotive as they croon about nothing (“I vibe you/you vibe me/let’s turn this mother into a party”), making the finished product somehow both boringly forgettable and jarringly tedious. Maybe the Earth is against you for a reason, ladies.

Where
Firebird
2706 Olive St.
St. Louis, MO 63103

Metro Access
A 20-minute walk from the Union Station MetroLink stop
How much?
$15

Matt Costa began his career opening for Jack Johnson’s summer 2005 tour, but don’t hold that against him. Sure, his sun-drenched melodies are infectious, but by incorporating elements of folk, blues, psychedelia and even classical music, Costa pushes beyond the “mellow lullaby” boundary to create sparklingly lush songs. On his newest full-length, “Mobile Chateau,” Costa strays from the happy-go-lucky as he ventures into 1960s psychedelia à la The Doors while still retaining his signature velvety-bright tone. So take a leisurely stroll on what promises to be a beautiful Sunday night to the Firebird, and enjoy a head-bopping show that will both relax and cheer you for the week ahead.

A spinoff of “16 and Pregnant,” “Teen Mom” follows the struggles of four young girls in their day-to-day lives after giving birth. The show could easily be exploitative: These girls clearly aren’t mature enough to make the best decisions, and most don’t have a stable family support network to help them do so. And the bizarre scrapbook theme of the credits and transitions almost seems to make light of their real problems with cutesy graphics of rattles and rubber ducks surrounding still photos memorializing arguments, tears and heartache.

Somehow, though, “Teen Mom” manages to be one of the most honest and riveting television shows I’ve ever seen. Seriously. Besides the fact that it’s probably the most convincing public service announcement for safe sex ever made, watching these girls confront the harsh realities of their lives and grow up—sort of—onscreen is fascinating. Take Farrah, whose immaturity makes her slightly incompetent as a mother: Baby Sophia is usually left sitting on countertops, if Farrah can even remember where she left her. Still, Farrah goes to culinary school, waitresses, takes care of her daughter, tries to mend her relationship with her abusive mother and deals with the grief of losing Sophia’s father in a car accident. This is no “My Super Sweet 16.”

Amber seems to be the most falsely dramatic, in the traditional “reality show” way: She’s whiny, abusive and selfish, constantly breaking up and getting re-engaged to hapless Gary. This show, however, doesn’t allow for any falsity, so she just comes off as a pathetic and dangerous teenager, trapped in a squalid apartment without even a high school degree to her name.

The most endearing story is that of Catelynn and Tyler, the only couple who decided, heart-wrenchingly, to give their baby up for adoption. They made the right choice in not wanting to bring a baby into their unstable lives, but their parents—her mother is married to his father, making them step-siblings, more “reality show” gold that is all but ignored here—still harbor bitter resentment for that choice. Catelynn and Tyler legitimately look like they’re 12 years old; they had unprotected sex almost immediately after Catelynn gave birth, and they say things like “I just frickin’ love you.” But they are also unbelievably mature, especially in the face of their home lives. In the season finale, they visited their daughter and her adoptive parents, and instead of emotionally breaking down and doubting their decision, they simply took joy in the fact that they made the right decision in giving her up—making it one of the more poignant scenes I’ve seen on television in quite some time and adding some much-needed hope and optimism to these stories.

“Teen Mom” is what all reality TV should be: actual reality, with all of its ups and downs. Watching it is an emotional experience that’s not fun but definitely affecting and addicting. Interested? A new season of “16 and Pregnant” premieres Tuesday on MTV at 10 p.m./9 p.m. Central.

Doors for the Gargoyle’s 18+ show open at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 14. Tickets are free with a Wash. U. ID and $10 for the public. Male Bonding will kick off the show at 8 p.m.

Christopher Lo | Team 31

I have attended a decent number of music festivals: Bonnaroo, All Points West, Sirenfest, even Hardfest—M.I.A.’s insanity-fueled festival on Governor’s Island, NY—and now that Loufest weekend is over and done with, I can say that it was easily the best-organized and smoothest flowing festival I have ever attended. The event consisted of 18 acts in two days from, as the website proclaims, “a range of genres including rock, pop, folk, and bluegrass.” Set up next to the sprawling baseball fields on the Central West End side of Forest Park, Loufest included every necessary element of a good music festival. There were merchandise stations for both artist and Loufest memorabilia as well as tents for local vendors featuring handmade clothing and jewelry. The food stations featured food from a variety of St. Louis restaurants, such as The Drunken Fish, Local Harvest, Pi Pizzeria and HWY 61 Roadhouse, and the food ranged—in typical indie festival style—from hamburgers to crêpes filled with pears, honey, arugula and goat cheese, to toasted ravioli, to vegan gazpacho. They also took sustainability very seriously, with recycling tents and cans everywhere and a free water station for people with reusable bottles.

The Loufest organizers did an extremely good job of creating the festival atmosphere, and that extended in a huge way to the music itself. The acts were set up in the best possible way: two different stages with alternating hour-long sets for each band, meaning the longest wait for a band to come on was 10 minutes—worlds away from that time at Bonnaroo when we waited from 2 to 4:30 a.m. and Kanye West still hadn’t showed up for his set. Furthermore, the wide-ranging genres of all the bands mixed well into a relaxed, yet excited, atmosphere. My favorite of the more obscure acts was Stephaniesid, consisting of Stephanie Morgan, Chuck Lichtenberger and Tim Haney. Their sound is a rich stew of Alanis Morissette and Macy Gray’s vocals with the Cranberries and Bat for Lashes’ haunting, lush melodies. They were one of the earliest sets of the festival, yet they gathered a large crowd of genuinely adoring fans.

Many of the lesser-known bands also won my heart by incorporating unexpected instruments into their sets: So Many Dynamos, who sound like a whiny-pop version of Of Montreal, brought the Funky Butt River Band on. The saxophones and trumpets were a great contrast to their sound, as were the violins and cellos in both Titus Andronicus and Airborne Toxic Event’s sets, establishing the intermingling of genres as a certain theme of the festival. Even Broken Social Scene, Saturday night’s headliner, brought the violinist from Airborne Toxic Event on to perform with them in the most uproarious and uplifting set of the festival.

She & Him was the headliner for Sunday night, and their retro, prancing prairie sound was a perfect bubbly end to the festival. They performed all of the crowd favorites, such as “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” “Sweet Darlin’” and “In the Sun,” even encoring with Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” as an homage to St. Louis. I still managed to enjoy myself despite Zooey Deschanel’s completely stoic expression throughout the entire hour-and-a-half-long set. In fact, I would have been impressed that she managed to never so much as crack a smile while jumping around shaking a tambourine, if it weren’t so strange and disconcerting.

Christopher Lo | Team 31

Write to Hannah Schwartz at hannah.schwartz@studlife.com.

If there’s one show that defines the comedy sitcom of this decade, it would have to be “Scrubs.” The show’s absurd and irreverent humor propelled it to a steady eight seasons (I’m just going to ignore the fact that the creators are bringing in an entirely new cast for next year) that never fail to delight me when the reruns are on Comedy Central. The last few seasons were a bit lagging, due largely to a loss of the randomly specific, utterly ridiculous daydreams and side characters and plots. In honor of the golden days of “Scrubs” that will always be emblematic of the past decade, I’ve compiled a list of the best characters “Scrubs” has introduced who have absolutely no bearing on the plot whatsoever.

5. Nurse Mophead

The scene opens as a nurse with a clipboard and a bushel of red hair enters a patient’s room. The Janitor appears behind her, and his inner monologue commences: “Who’s there? Nurse Mophead. Nurse Mophead who? You have a Mophead.” The nurse then promptly leaves the room, proving that her entire existence in the scene has no purpose but to provide a 12-second showcase of the Janitor’s amazing wit. That clip has stuck with me ever since I first saw it (it’s perfect for a quick YouTube giggle), especially because Nurse Mophead never makes another appearance on the show.

4. Dr.Beardfacé

This thickly bearded doctor has the unfortunate last name “Beardfacé,” prompting everyone in the hospital to call him “Beard Face”—understandably so but much to his chagrin. While his presence is a bit more frequent than Nurse Mophead’s, Beardfacé’s outbursts are always a welcome joke, especially because they are amplified by his unidentifiable accent. At one point, Turk ponders what Beardfacé is hiding under all that hair, and the world may never know the answer to this illustrious question, but we’ll always have an “It’s Beardfacé, damn it!” to laugh at.

3. Hooch

Hooch is perhaps the most developed character on this list, and with good reason. He started off as a good-natured guy, but after constantly mistaking conversations about “Turner & Hooch” or beer with people calling his name, Hooch snapped and became legitimately insane. His soft delivery and grimace-smile are terrifying to the entire Sacred Heart staff—except Turk and J.D., who constantly pull pranks on him. They revel in his reactions, creating the catchphrase “Hooch is crazy,” always uttered in a chiding, joyful tone. For instance, J.D. and Turk put bouillon cubes in Hooch’s shower head and then grabbed some popcorn and a front row seat for his outburst. Hooch’s response? “If it happens again, I will wait in my SUV, blast me some speed metal—5.1 surround sound, heavy on the bass—and someone will be getting mowed down.” Hooch’s delivery matches that of a criminally insane villain in any film, but in the “Scrubs” environment, with J.D. and Turk’s constant merry provocation, he just becomes hilarious. He never factors into the main plot, and he is eventually fired, fittingly, for being involved in a hostage situation, only to be seen in J.D.’s dream sequence in the series finale in a straitjacket, saying “Hooch IS crazy!”

2. Johnny the Tackling Alzheimer’s Patient

This is another 12-second gem that has constantly entertained me since 2002, when I first saw it. There’s not much to say about this one except the sage advice that Dr. Cox gives J.D.: “No matter where you go in life, always keep an eye out for Johnny the Tackling Alzheimer’s Patient.” J.D.’s natural reaction, “What’s that supposed to mean?” is interrupted by good ol’ Johnny screaming “Who am I?” as he tackles him, resulting in one of the most brilliantly literal gags ever created on television.

1. Old M.C.

Old M.C. is my personal favorite, and a truly extraneous-yet-amazing character, whom J.D. and Turk encounter at a medical conference—much to their excitement, as he is the best Young M.C. impersonator on the circuit. At first, they take much delight in asking him questions such as “Say I was too nervous to hit on that girl over there. What advice would you give me?” knowing that the inevitable response is “Bust a move.” Things quickly turn sour, though, when they realize that he literally cannot say anything except “Bust a move!” Old M.C.’s attempts to enter the main narrative of the episode provide the most humorous parts of his character arc: As J.D. wonders aloud about girlfriend problems, saying, “Part of me wants to talk to her, part of me wants to—” he is cut off by Old M.C. saying, “Bust a move?” J.D. angrily retorts, “You have a problem, sir. Seek help!” And we can only hope he did.