“This CD goes out to those who corner me, poke their fingers in my chest and say, ‘Why did you stop SCD?’” Sin City Disciples’ singer Ernie Locke reveals in the liner notes of Layla Deluxe. And after listening to this expanded version of the four-song cassette Layla that the rockers used to hawk back in the glory days, it…
Dear Willa Ford: On the chorus of “Tired,” you sing that you’re tired of the clones that look like me/ tired of the people saying Britney. Oh, Willa. Willa, Willa, Willa. You might be one of the loveliest minxes to grace the charts, but your debut disc doesn’t stray far enough from the Brit pack to immunize you against comparisons…
On her 1999 release, Mary, Mary J. Blige removed her bandages, exposed her wounds and forced listeners to feel her suffering. On No More Drama, she attempts to cover her scars with makeup, putting on an ill-fitting party hat. That she still brings the pain on a few deeply personal songs, though, results in an awkward, uneven mix of celebratory…
There are many reasons to be suspicious of The Cure’s latest Greatest Hits collection. The group has released two singles packages already, 1986’s indispensable Staring at the Sea and 1997’s spotty but more commercially relevant Galore, and fifteen of the new disc’s seventeen tracks appear on these earlier works. More ominously, two unreleased studio tunes have been tacked on, a…
After years of planning and painstaking renovation, Kerry Duffin realized his dream — the glamorous Madrid Theatre, complete with an indoor fountain, a hardwood dance floor, a balcony with unobstructed views and classy decorative touches galore. Soon after it opened, “the distinctive theater” started attracting impressive crowds, drawing roughly 300 people to its weekly salsa/ballroom nights and near-capacity turnouts for…
In the old days, people actually danced to live music. Now, with the exception of gentlemen’s establishments and awkward “Look! I have not lost it! I am down with the kids!” parental displays at wedding receptions, rock elicits next to zero dancing. Perhaps this is due to the inception of the Indie Rock, a slight movement of the head with…
The first thing you don’t need to know about The Strokes is that its members are handsome. All five of them — singer Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., drummer Fabrizio Moretti and bassist Nikolai Fraiture — are Gap-ad good-looking, with the right haircuts and the right wardrobe and enough style to pull it all off without…
Lovely magic, this. An enchanting family classic. If you believe in magic, you’ll love Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. And if you don’t, you will, and you will. True, the hype has been a bit much. And yes, a mad, desperate world choked with reproduction and reprobation could hardly be expected to resist such a high-concept commercial incantation….
Scarlet Letters The divine comedy: I agree with “Name Withheld Upon Request” that the Pitch’s pick of some unknown “mook” probably does not represent the best of the comedic talent in Kansas City (Letters, November 8), but who has ever heard of the names she/he listed? Why not mention those who have kept Kansas Citians in stitches for decades? Like…
Poor sports: WHB 810 morning host Jason Whitlock is trying to defect to KMBZ 980 to compete head-to-head with his current boss, whom he accuses of stealing his big scoops. Editors and execs at Whitlock’s night job (the Star) are helping him secure the new day job. They met two weeks ago with Bob Zuroweste of Entercom, 980’s parent company,…
With America’s doors closed to international refugees since the September 11 terrorist attacks, Kansas City’s busiest resettlement office is restructuring. The Don Bosco Center plans to catch up on the needs of refugees already in town, many of whom have endured a rude shock of squalid living conditions here (see “Housing Heartbreak,” July 12-18). At an abandoned six-unit apartment…
Walter Hallam, author of numerous Christian books and recordings, steward of a perfect head of untouchable evangelist hair, stands before the Solomon’s Porch congregation on a Thursday evening in early November and commands: “Pray with me.” Rising from metal chairs that last year displaced antique oak pews, a few hundred worshippers raise their hands and speak in tongues, loudly….
It doesn’t matter that revered local personality Walt Bodine hates chicken — fried or otherwise. The dish remains one of Kansas City’s most popular culinary choices (after steak and barbecue). Stroud’s is the city’s best-known, best-loved fried-chicken restaurant, though it has had its rivals over the years, including the long-vanished Green Parrot Inn and the legendary Wishbone Restaurant. For more…
Cold fried chicken for breakfast? Although I’m not usually one who cares enough about leftovers to take them home, after my first visit to the new K. T. Fryers in Waldo it seemed criminal not to pack up the giant chicken breast and the sugar-glazed cinnamon roll I hadn’t been able to finish. The roll survived only until 3…
8 Thursday Kansas Citians have one more chance to see the exhibit of traditional Saudi Arabian and Islamic Art now on display at the UMKC University Center Art Gallery (50th Street and Rockhill Road). Included are 400-year-old relics of a coffee ceremony, something the caffeine addicts who frequent Kansas City’s numerous coffeehouses should be able to appreciate. Other items…
Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara’s cotton-candy-colored paintings and sculptures depict cute kids in fluffy animal suits, but also include disturbing details such as knives, scowls and slash marks. Nara doesn’t consider the deviant children to be aggressive, though. “I’m creating this generation that has no power,” he once told an interviewer. “I’m articulating or producing a scream for them.” Nara’s…
The travelling exhibition on display at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center isn’t composed of work by artists selected by jury. Rather, the verdict that brought in Marching Toward Justice: The History of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution came from Jackson County Circuit Judge Jon R. Gray. Though it houses a museum dedicated to the civil rights…
Natalie Merchant finished recording her third solo album, Motherland, on September 9, so by no means should anyone listen to the disc’s first song, “This House Is On Fire,” and think it has anything to do with hijacked airplanes, collapsed skyscrapers and the thousands buried beneath the rubble. The song is about the dispute over the Florida ballots during the…
“Only about two or three people know true identity.” — Bob Moore “The Royals need to be honest with the fans. We’re never going to win here under the current economic structure of baseball.” — Jamie Quirk, former Royals bench coach, WHB 810 “O. J.’s real cool. He’s a down-to-earth guy.” — Drew Gooden, on meeting O. J. Simpson in…
The Chiefs’ 2-6 record isn’t the only reason Tim Grunhard is shaking his head about his former team. Forced into retirement after eleven years as the Chiefs’ center and eager apologist, Grunhard is now at a loss to explain the anonymous columnist dubbed Rufus Dawes on the Chiefs’ Web site. “That’s the kind of stuff that embarrasses me about the…
Given the woes of Kansas City’s school board and public transportation system, J. Kent Barnhart wisely excludes “Everything’s Up-to-Date in Kansas City” from Kansas City Cabaret at Quality Hill Playhouse. Otherwise, Barnhart and company serve a bounty of Kansas City songs and songs composed by Kansas City alumni — especially John Kander. Twelve of the cabaret’s 24 songs are…
Since September 11, thousands of artists around the country have played for free or contributed unreleased songs to charitable compilations. Many of these high-profile projects have been well-received; even more impressively, most of them apparently were born from genuine concern and grief rather than a need to seize the PR moment. But such efforts may also have saturated the market,…
Sometimes it’s funny how life can twist and turn, shaking down dreams along the way. For the Kansas City-bred and Los Angeles-based singer and percussionist Vinx, the highs and lows of that meandering path have been plain spooky. At one time, in the late ’70s, it looked as if Vinx were destined for Olympic greatness, having made the world’s second-longest…
The most culturally important clarinetist since Benny Goodman is a mad, near-vaudevillian eclecticist. That’s on record — but on the record, speaking from his home in upstate New York, it’s a different story: Don Byron, the 43-year-old child of the Bronx, is as calm, wry and consistent as his chosen instrument is by reputation. Though classically trained, Byron has unfurled…
