Most heavy bands attempt to split wigs with take-no-prisoners bombast and production flourishes that would bankrupt George Lucas. Although Jumbo’s Killcrane is certainly no slouch in the decibel department, the group’s sub-lo-fi approach is straight from Satan’s garage. On JK’s forthcoming effort, Carnaval de Carne, the drums don’t replicate Grand Canyon cannon blasts as much as they approximate the…
The most interesting thing about the rise of commercially viable pseudopunk is the gap between the polished albums, which gleam like Mr. Clean’s dome, and the sloppy live shows. On record, Finch (pictured) seems radio-ready, with producer and engineer Mark Trombino (Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World) sanding every jagged edge into oblivion. There’s an off-key scream shadowing the easygoing vocal hooks,…
Legend has it that when Ed Williams took his first step into a recording studio in 1986 — invited at the request of Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer to contribute a couple of tracks to an anthology featuring aspiring Chicago blues acts — he tore the place down. After getting two numbers on tape, the guitarist turned the studio into…
When Chris Stringer left Lawrence, his Space Pocket bandmates Luke Stone and Chris Handley refused to let their dance contraption disappear. Rather, they added Brian Egan and Ken Lovern, changed the outfit’s name to Pocket Space and continued to concoct primarily instrumental improv-inclined loose numbers that incorporate jazz’s myriad disciplines, including space rock, funk and hip-hop. Meanwhile, down in his…
The buzz about KZPL 97.3 spread quickly, mostly because the station once known as Moberly, Missouri’s home for the “hottest country” had switched to an ingenious, easy-to-love format. Starting with a week of the Beatles last month, the fledgling frequency played the music of only one band at a time. There were several advantages for listeners, the most important of…
Four of the five members of Grand Fiasco crowd around a small table at McCoy’s in Westport, engrossed by a recently released Widespread Panic DVD. As the conversation floats from the 2002 show featured on the disc to Widespread’s just-announced two-night run at the Uptown in May, their faces light up in anticipation. “I’ve been listening to those guys since…
The pain of 9/11 has slowly given way to a certain numbness, not so much a sharp stinging sensation as a dull and distant throb. Still, the memories of that day continue to haunt New York City. The damage to the Pentagon has been repaired, and the scorched earth of the field in western Pennsylvania has begun to heal itself,…
Someone’s got to say it. We’ve underestimated Will Ferrell. It wasn’t hard to do. His Saturday Night Live stint was never hugely impressive. (His George W. Bush impersonation didn’t sound or look particularly like G.W., and given the wealth of material to draw from wasn’t nearly as funny as it should’ve been.) And of course, Ferrell was one of the…
Dark Blue is based on a story by Los Angeles-born author James Ellroy, who writes grisly, guilt-ridden pulp-noir haiku. Its screenplay was penned by cop-caper fetishist David Ayer, a native Angeleno with an affinity for dark stories that unfold beneath the hazy Hollywood sunshine. Set during the hours before the verdict in the Rodney King beating trial in the spring…
Hydro phobia: Thanks for Casey Logan’s revealing article about the waste of water by the city departments (“Take a Leak!” February 6). My water bill increased last year, and I wondered why. Now I know it’s because the Water Department allows 24 percent of its TREATED water to go down the drain. Hey, Water Department, next time you want to…
This election season, Kansas City voters have almost as good a chance of spotting Elvis at a campaign function as Mayor Kay Barnes. “She’s just a no-show,” says one of her opponents, Stanford Glazer. “I’m beginning to think I should change my cologne.” Glazer says he attended more than thirty candidate gatherings without catching a whiff of one of Barnes’…
Holly Steinhauser was serious about cleaning up Kansas City. An assistant city attorney, she once convinced a judge to order a 76-year-old woman arrested for refusing to pick up trash from her yard. In May 1998, Steinhauser became the first city attorney assigned to enforce city codes full time. She hammered homeowners and renters whose paint bubbled, whose gutters…
On a snowy night in January, Fric & Frac on 39th Street was packed with an even bigger crowd than usual. In the smoky bar, people drank beer, laughed and loaded up on barbecued chicken, salad and brownies from a buffet. The festive event wasn’t a celebration, though. It was a benefit for John H. Gronemeyer, a longtime Fric…
Election Day, 1992. Mission Hills, Kansas.Sam Stepp sat on the couch in his living room, staring at the TV. A hard-core Republican and political junkie, Stepp loved Election Day even more than a Chiefs game. As he waited anxiously for polls to close, he thought back on the campaign. President George Bush had been lagging in the polls nationally,…
We like to think that if a satellite took one of those heat-measuring nighttime pictures of Kansas City, Westport would be one big, pulsating red area because of its hormonal energy. And Kelly’s would be the reddest, most pulsating spot, but in an STD way. During the day and on weeknights, Kelly’s is a great, laid-back place filled with grizzled…
Most Kansas Citians remember Larry “Fats” Goldberg as being skinny. After all, he was famous for being thin, despite the nickname that his Southwest High School pal, noted author Calvin Trillin, gave the once-obese Goldberg after he first lost 150 pounds. That was before he went on to write diet books and open pizzerias in New York, before he wrote…
I’m always amazed when I get phone calls — from complete strangers — asking my advice on where to go for a romantic dinner. I’m not a good source; I’ve only had two such dinners in my life, and both involved excessive amounts of booze. One was at a trashy drive-in (we brought our own champagne) and consisted of…
With both the threat and the reality of terrorism rarely out of the headlines, people are pondering the human capacity to commit politically motivated acts of violence. Half a century ago, playwright Albert Camus was thinking about the same thing. Based on real-life events of 1905, The Just Assassins concerns a group of revolutionaries in Moscow planning to assassinate…
Thursday, February 13 The Thursday-afternoon Let Iraq Live vigils have moved. Beginning today, anti-war protesters should go to the intersection of Blue Parkway and Cleveland (just north of Swope Park) — not to Westport. Between noon and 12:45 p.m., protesters hold signs while passersby honk their horns in agreement. Occasionally, the pro-war people jump out of large vehicles to…
Get your head out of the gutter. We’re not talking about sex; we’re talking about art. And music. And politics. After all, the artists whose work is included in a big group show at the Next Space have far-reaching interests. The downtown space is perfect for a show that combines punk tendencies, a hip-hop flavor and a general street…
It was supposed to be make-believe, a disturbing but ultimately uplifting work of science-fiction from a celebrated author of grim futurama and glorious fantasy. The subject matter of Orbiter, a hardback graphic novel about a spaceship that disappears for years and returns sheathed in skin after visits to faraway places in the final frontier, has been the stuff of…
“I’m kind of gradually drifting away for numerous reasons. My life has changed.” — George Brett, whose three children and two businesses are taking more of his time these days, KMBC Channel 9 GH: Not only are the Royals unable to retain their current on-field talent, but now they’re also losing the guys who have long retired! “Priceless Moment: Trent…
An arctic wind howled through Kansas City the night of January 25. Temperatures plummeted, as did any hope that the UMKC men’s basketball team could revive its pitiful season. “I’m past frustrated,” said Michael Watson, the junior shooting guard from Kansas City Central High School following the Kangaroos’ sixteenth loss in 18 games — a 76-62 defeat to Oral Roberts….
The Coterie Theatre’s inspired idea for staging Zorro steers clear of calling its hero “The Gay Blade” and then making good on the flamboyant nickname. It is, after all, a children’s theater. Director Jeff Church sets the show in a theater 100 years ago and makes it a production by the fictitious Hatchford and Ramsey Theatrical Players, whose signs announce…
