After maintaining radio silence for over a year and half after their well-received LouFest 2011 appearance, Jumbling Towers is taking to the waves once again.

St. Louis has it good. Good beer, good music and good venues. And Saturday night local was king at the Pageant in celebration of Schlafly Beer's 21st year in operation.

Each year hundreds of musicians perform live in the intimate confines of the Magnolia Avenue Studios of 88.1 KDHX.

In June Amanda Palmer raised over a million bucks via Kickstarter from fans wanting to help make her new album possible. Four months later, when she invited professional musicians to play in her shows without pay, she kicked off the Great Kickstarter Backlash of '12.

The musicians of St. Louis don't just love performing; they love seeing others perform. And the year 2012 offered hundreds of opportunities to do just that.

Off Broadway hosted Steam-Powered Soul: A Tribute to John Hartford and KDHX Benefit on Saturday night. The event featured a seated early show and a standing late show, both of which brought capacity crowds.

Dear STL, keep being awesome. This year saw the band I'd nurtured for six years coming to an end, but a beginning to so many cool, freaky awesome bands from friends of mine. If 2012 is any indication, St. Louis music is back in a big way.

The Hobosexuals kept it simple and clean at Off Broadway on Sunday evening with a set of folky blues.

On the show "Elevated Rhymestate" I feature the latest and greatest in hip-hop and urban music. To my ears, 2012 was a great year for music.

Animal Empty opened the raucous evening at the Firebird with a gothic set of tunes helmed by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Ali Ruby. The four-piece band slid from heavy post-rock verses to jams that featured a light Latin influence, which Ruby accentuated with nice trumpet work.