The Blind Eyes and Morning Teleportation rocked Plush as the artists for this year's lineup for LouFest rolled across a screen.

Last weekend was St. Louis' hottest two day indie music festival, Loufest. Loufest 2011 featured TV On The Radio, Deerhunter, Questlove, Cat Power, The Hold Steady, the Low Anthem, Lost in the Trees, Ume, and many more bands.

The second and final day of LouFest was headlined by TV on the Radio and featured performances by Ume, Das Racist, !!! and many more.

St. Louis' own Old Lights opened the second day of LouFest with class and passion. Their set was mostly attended by old fans and friends with a slow trickle of people coming in during the music.

Day one of LouFest in Forest Park featured headliner The Hold Steady and included everything from St. Louis local Troubadour Dali to a DJ set by Questlove of the Roots, Deerhunter and many more.

Much like the Japanese apricot of the same name, Ume blossoms with power-trio beauty, nourished on pop, punk and hard rock music.

It was surreal to roll through Forest Park Saturday morning, past bikers and joggers, the quiet fountains, apartment buildings looming like mountains on either side of the park, and then, the sound of Troubadour Dali's "Ducks In A Row" coasting out from atop the central field.

Quirky bedroom pop rock gets a live band update as Dom hits the road and the KDHX studios.

Veteran St. Louis band Jumbling Towers stands out in the field of modern indie music with an eccentric brand of pop -- a dynamic collision of electronics, guitar hooks, startling vocals and beats.

David Beeman, of St. Louis band Old Lights, likes pop hits and the fact that his band's name is not rooted in meaning.

I recently had the chance to talk with violinist Jenavieve Varga of Lost in the Trees about what it takes to make the band's big, complex sound happen onstage and how it's possible to reconcile a love of chamber music with an affection for rock 'n' roll and platform heels.

It took awhile for Ben Hinn of Troubadour Dali and I to get together. Our first appointment fell through, and Hinn mistakenly showed up a day early for the second. When we were finally able to meet over coffee, Ben and I had a good, long conversation.

San Francisco knows its psychedelia. So when a young band like Sleepy Sun materializes from the Bay Area and quickly makes its name on the scene, you know that some serious psych fans have vetted them.

Craig Finn is a wordy chap -- but in the best way. For many of the Hold Steady's most ardent fans, Finn's narrative lyrics and spoken vocal delivery are central to the appeal.

I caught Jeff Prystowsky, multi-instrumentalist for the Low Anthem, during morning rehearsals for a short U.K. tour continuing to support the band's latest record, "Smart Flesh" (Nonesuch, 2011). The Low Anthem returns to the U.S. for fall dates beginning with a summer festival show in St. Louis.

Don't call it a comeback. Funk and soul have always played a part in Andy Noble's repertoire as a DJ, record collector and store owner.

An awesome sound just might come naturally to Austin's beautifully dissonant Ume -- either that or through hard work and passion.

Hat tip to A to Z, but the big summer festival in Forest Park is back with a swell lineup.

Photos from the second day of LouFest by Dana Plonka.

Photos from the first day of LouFest by Roy Kasten.

For those of you who don’t know, Sunday was Jeff Tweedy day in St. Louis. Local devotees gathered in Forest Park to mark the momentous occasion and celebrate with a day full of diverse music and good beer. Judging from reports of the first day at LouFest the crowd and vibe seemed fairly equivalent for day two — even if festival-goers were looking a wee bit more sunburned and stiff from all the time spent rocking in the park. It was an interesting scene to be sure. Hipsters mingled with hippies and there were plenty of adorable little kids on hand to twirl ecstatically to the raucous sounds of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and back up Jeff Tweedy on the harmonica.

It’s 8:35 a.m. the morning after the first day of LouFest. I’m a bit sore. 11 hours in Central Field at Forest Park best belongs to the dragonflies, burrowed rabbits and the significantly younger.

As it turned out, LouFest, despite a good first-year crowd — could there have been more than 3000 through the gates? correct me if I’m wrong — seemed dominated by the 35-and-up, though the starting lineup was the most youthful of the first two days. And most of my aging cohorts stuck it out to see the 7/8 moon rise over the east and an epic closing set by definitive indie rock collective, the Broken Social Scene.

Formed here in St. Louis in 2005, Gentleman Auction House self-released its first EP a year later, following up with two other EPs and 2008’s full length disc, Alphabet Graveyard on Emergency Umbrella Records. GAH has performed at South By Southwest and Daytrotter, and the Riverfront Times named the group Best Indie Band of 2009.

Emerging from the dirty yet alluring morass of culture and humidity that is Chicago, Fruit Bats share a musical pedigree with their early contemporaries and collaborators such as Califone and the larger group of artists on the Perishable Records label.

Disclosure: I've known and been friends with Adam Reichmann since he was in a band called Sourpatch and an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis, working part-time at Olin Library. Adam took care of a few late fees for me back in the day.

These days, he's been working full-time with video at an advertising agency. He hasn't released a record in 6 years, but he hasn't stopped writing songs, and he's surfaced from time to time at a low-key show around town.