Nothing’s more dreary than the first few months of the year in the Midwest. It’s frigid and gray, and the crusty black remnants of snow are depressing. Maybe that’s why there are so many occasions to imbibe this time of year. We’re still recovering from the all-day drinkfest that was Super Bowl XXXVII. And just when we thought we could…
A friend of mine is a waiter at Skies and calls me when there’s a celebrity sighting in the dining room. Filmmaker John Waters was there last year, and my friend, a gushy fan, ran over and asked him what it was like to work with Kathleen Turner. “He just rolled his eyes and asked for more bread,” my friend…
My life as a food critic began in kindergarten. Not that I realized it at the time, of course. I was a relatively unfussy eater as a toddler, but even I drew the line at eating crayons. Not so for several of my classmates at Public School No. 86, who gnawed on those thick school-issue Crayolas as if they…
At a coffee shop south of the Plaza, writer and actor Ry Kincaid downs a muddy cup of joe as he skims a biography of James Dean, who interests both the writer and the actor in him. In less than an hour, the 26-year-old self-published author of Sexycash tosses around names like Jack Kerouac, Vincent van Gogh and the Marx…
People who lived in Kansas City in the mid-’90s might remember a few vibrant coffee shops that featured great acoustic music almost any night, including Java Gaya, Mildred’s and Whistler’s Mother, upstairs from the still-mourned Whistler’s Books. If the names of these venues make you want to cry, you’re not alone. Thankfully, however, many of the musicians have simply picked…
Last October, Sue Vertue found herself in a Los Angeles soundstage watching the filming of a pilot for a would-be NBC sitcom. The storyline of this particular episode dealt, more or less, with the horrific (and, of course, capital-H hilarious!) fallout that comes when a man’s girlfriend finds his porn stash—in this case, a bit of video self-help titled…
“Bud Lathrop has been a role model in our community, and for anybody to take any other kind of stance on this is absolutely ludicrous.”— Bill Maas, after Raytown South High School suspended its longtime basketball coach for cursing at players and Lathrop admitted his habit of hitting players with a wooden paddle during practice, WHB 810 “Years ago we…
The year was 1969. I stood in the defensive huddle of my high school football team’s third practice of the day. As a freshman starting at defensive safety, I mostly watched, listened and tried not to screw up. The heat, humidity and dirt had stained my practice jersey. What I watched unfold across the scrimmage line that afternoon stained my…
For Quality Hill Playhouse’s cabaret revue Still Swingin’, syncopated ladies and gentlemen evoke a time when people got “Misty” over one another, weren’t embarrassed to proclaim “I’ve Got the World on a String” and found the innuendo within “Hit Me With a Hot Note and Watch Me Bounce” much sexier than whipped cream. Though the world was at war,…
There’s not a comedic actor alive who doesn’t cite Lucille Ball as an influence. Blessed with impeccable timing and a flexible ego that allowed her to look ridiculous, Ball was what playwright Philip blue owl Hooser calls “the great wall of China of physical comedy.” Hooser has turned his respect for the actress into a play called Loving Lucy,…
Paying homage to her Southern roots, Memphis, Tennessee, native Cindy Wolfe draws from just about every genre of music that region has ever produced: zydeco, ’50s country, bluegrass, rockabilly and just plain rock. The result is the aural equivalent of an inexperienced chef making jambalaya with every meat, fish and spice in the kitchen. Wolfe’s intentions are good, but she…
On “A Hit,” an uncharacteristically upbeat track on Accumulation: None, Bill Callahan (who records as Smog) sums up his career: I’ll never be a Bowie/I’ll never be an Eno/I’ll only ever be a Gary Numan. As this collection of singles and previously unreleased tracks proves, he’s right on — and not only because his painfully lo-fi sound bears little resemblance…
It’s obvious from “La Breeze,” the brilliant Big Beat/Magical Mystery Tour hybrid that opens Simian’s sophomore album, that this music could only have come from Britain. Both this song and “Sunshine” sound like surefire chart toppers, assuming people still want to hear indelibly flatulent analog-synth hooks, chikka-wikka guitars and beautiful backing vocals that recall baroque ’60s pop bands such as…
For jam fans, live shows have become like fantasy football. Followers study setlists religiously, trying to predict openers, pick encores or guess an obscure cover or two. Though few will admit as much, it’s all an attempt to break the monotony of predictability. Though the Dave Matthews Band has done a lot to separate itself from that scene by conspicuously…
The history of rap music is filled with loudmouthed characters who turn out to be their own worst enemies. Having witnessed several cinematic assassinations, Bushwick Bill’s eye hanging out of its socket and Snoop Dogg’s decision to give up the ganja, hip-hop fans have become notoriously difficult to shock. But Source magazine co-owner Ray Benzino has turned a few of…
Claudia Gonson, the drummer and occasional singer for Magnetic Fields as well as the frontwoman for the Future Bible Heroes, possesses an enchanting voice that’s simultaneously adorable and unnerving. Stephin Merritt, the extraordinary songwriter who also lends the Fields his charming deadpan, contributes droll lyrics that complement Gonson’s transfixing chants and Chris Ewen’s strange blend of somber tones and chorus-line-caliber…
Hoping to rid hardcore punk of its tough-guy overtones, the Blood Brothers prance and pirouette onstage, then peddle purses at the merchandise table. Despite its dainty delivery, the group’s dual shrieking vocalists and erratic high-volume blasts eventually won over large portions of the mucho macho crowd it encountered on a recent tour with M2 mainstays Glassjaw. If early tracks…
Celebrity MCs, megaproducers and even superstar record-company moguls are a dime a dozen in Hip-Hop America, but it’s still unusual for DJs to rise to mainstream prominence. British cut chemists such as Paul Oakenfold and Fatboy Slim have built successful careers, but they’re exceptions to a nearly indelible norm. Arizona’s DJ Z-Trip is trying to change that, appearing everywhere at…
Trumpet player and noted pedagogue John McNeil has been an active member of the modern jazz community for nearly 25 years. Getting his start as a touring member of the Horace Silver Quartet in the late ’70s, McNeil has appeared on a number of recordings as a capable sideman while also releasing ten albums, including 2001’s Fortuity, as a bandleader….
Contemporary bluesman Larry McCray’s 1991 debut, Ambition, scored high marks with fans and aficionados, winning the Arkansas-born guitarist a respectable following. Ensuing efforts failed to strike the same chord, but an undaunted McCray continued to maintain a relentless touring schedule. His 2000 release, Believe It, found McCray back in critical favor as his rock-steeped sound rediscovered its edge. Touring as…
Oklahoma has produced its fair share of both all-Americans (Mickey Mantle, Garth Brooks) and rejects (Oral Roberts, Leon Russell), but rarely, with the exception of Brian Bosworth, has the state produced an icon that embodies both. The Stillwater, Oklahoma-based All-American Rejects resembles the Elvis Costello-inspired, melody-heavy acts (Weezer, Superdrag) that briefly dominated modern-rock radio in the mid-’90s. The group’s twin…
There are a lot of spiky-coiffed wonderteens vying to be king of the TRL mountain right now, but Something Corporate has the postmodern-boy-band blueprint down cold: an emo-tive pianist and frontman who knows that teen angst doesn’t call for bad-hair days, cuddly regular dudes who just want to play guitar and read Sylvia Plath, and a rhythm-section member with a…
Mark Selby’s biggest claims to fame so far have been mostly behind the scenes — he penned the Dixie Chicks’ first hit, “There’s Your Trouble,” for instance. He deserves fame in his own right, though, and with a little luck and some hard touring, he just might win it. Selby’s brand of blue-eyed blues treads familiar ground — his new…
Last fall, the Senate passed Resolution 316, declaring 2003 the “Year of the Blues.” The sponsoring senators cited the art form’s influence and cultural importance and revealed an impressive agenda, including a Martin Scorsese-produced PBS series of seven blues-based films and a February 7 concert at Radio City Music Hall starring a stunning mix of genre masters (B.B. King, Buddy…
