Multi-instrumentalist Xian Hawkins played with electronic-rock pioneers Silver Apples when they reunited in the mid-’90s. Although that looks good on a résumé, the reformation didn’t produce much worthwhile music, save for 1998’s Decatur. But since that brush with faded legend Simeon, Hawkins has had a prolific solo career, most notably 2000’s Musicforafilm. That disc’s title telegraphs Hawkins’ forte: evoking vivid…
Nerdy Norwegian singer and guitarist Erlend Øye is born to be mild. His band Kings of Convenience received hype for its role in the acoustic-rock revival (how quickly we lose interest) with the genre-defining album title Quiet Is the New Loud. Øye dipped a toe in the electronica pool as vocalist for two tracks on Röyksopp’s popular Melody A.M. and…
When he’s not scratching the ivories for the Get Up Kids or clobbering the skins for Coalesce, James Dewees hams it up as frontman for Reggie and the Full Effect. On his third full-length under the Reggie pseudonym, Dewees picks up where he left off on 2000’s Promotional Copy, which juxtaposed hip-hop, powerless pop and what can politely be called…
Sevenfold Symphony alum Brother of Moses is a busy MC these days. Following fast on the heels of Land Mind, his fall pairing with producer Tall Tale, Bro Mo returns with another collaboration, this time alongside knob twister Leonard Dstroy. On Land Mind, Tall Tale’s atmospheric production created an outer-space electroscope that set the stage for Bro Mo’s revolutionary prose….
What I know about tango can be jotted on a napkin: Astor Piazzolla is the genre’s Duke Ellington, it formed in midnineteenth-century Argentina, and I feel indifferent toward it. (Still, Last Tango in Paris is one of the best films ever.) This admission made, Tango Lorca’s Mujer Sola has opened my mind to tango’s sublimely melancholy melodies, grandiloquent dynamics and…
Hank Williams Jr. is as problematic a figure as country music has produced. Juvenile and cocky, he (or at least his public persona) practically begs us to dismiss him. His music has been jingoistic (his 1990 hit “Don’t Give Us a Reason”), womanizing (1980’s ” Women I’ve Never Had”) and reactionary (1988’s “If the South Woulda Won “). He’s also…
What started out as a solo side project, from metal bands and other pursuits by Jason Molina and his oddly tuned tenor guitar, has grown into one of today’s most prolific indie-rock cottage industries. Songs: Ohia’s sprawling discography spreads over albums, myriad 7-inches and compilation appearances. The latest addition to that list is The Magnolia Electric Co. Recorded live for…
It’s our turn to write the Beatles song, sing siblings Adam and Erin Fein as “The Dreamers Song” begins. And if it’s all the same with everybody, they would like to go ahead and do that while leisurely kicking back on some clouds far up in the sky. Absinthe Blind can make the earthbound feel like they’re floating. On…
Trailer Bride is one of those lightning-rod bands like Southern Culture on the Skids or the Cramps, the kind that people either love for their frenetic, spooky weirdness, or hate the way Georgia Senator Zell Miller loathes the planned Real Beverly Hillbillies “reality” show. Either way, gangly mystic Melissa Swingle, a North Carolina native who spent part of her…
Formed in 1996, Skeleton Key made an immediate impression on the underground with its nonlinear approach to the art of noise. Its debut, an eponymous EP issued the same year, tossed every available dissonant clang and clatter into a sonic kitchen sink that was already overflowing with propulsive robopop and junkyard metal. A year later, the outfit’s major-label debut,…
War, worldwide recession, overall uncertainty — all of these were major factors in forming punk’s first wave. And though the genre experienced its greatest commercial success during the prosperous ’90s, it still seems that hard times and hard music should go hand in hand. Just don’t tell that to Seattle’s dirtiest-sounding outfit since Mudhoney, the Gloryholes, whose hard-fast-rules punk…
To be a successful band out of Detroit these days, you need a gimmick. With insane clown, legitimate white rapper and vaguely incestuous blues-rock duo already taken, there weren’t many options left for Dirtbombs. So lead guitarist Mick Collins had a musical epiphany, cobbling together a unique two-drum, two-bass-guitar lineup. Dirtbombs rocks with a wall of sound that could damage…
It’s doubtful that Kelly Osbourne’s debut, Shut Up, will ever be designated a record for the ages. That said, there are a few ways to look at Shut Up. It could be (or, well, it is) a quick cash-in that wouldn’t have been made if Kelly’s dad were not the almighty Prince of Darkness or someone else suitably famous….
Trumpet player Wynton Marsalis, jazz’s Young Lion turned Pulitzer winner, is without a record label for the first time in his two-decade career. Judging from writer David Hajdu’s respectful profile in the March issue of The Atlantic, though, demand for Marsalis and respect for his work remain enviably high. Marsalis’ stringently classicist view of jazz continues to rankle some critics…
There was a time when local jazz enthusiasts actually complained about festival overload. In the mid-’80s, multiband extravaganzas studded the concert calendar, and fans bitched about how to fit all the shows into their schedules. Oh, to have that problem again. Outdoor jazz dates have dried up like drought-stricken Kansas farmland, and even the indoor scene suffers in the summer,…
Rod Stewart hung up his kilt with his balls still tucked inside and Aztec Camera leader Roddy Frame is MIA, so it falls to Idlewild singer Roddy Woomble and guitarist Rod Jones to restore integrity to that most Scottish of names. The Edinburgh five-piece is only 40 percent Rod — drummer Colin Newton and recent additions Allan Stewart (guitar) and…
In the opening cut of Spoon’s Kill the Moonlight, singer Britt Daniel describes a life lived for “Small Stakes.” It could be about any wage slave who feels all right from Friday night to Sunday while trying to avoid getting taken and used. But in the middle of the song, Daniel yanks the line to hook one particular species…
David Lynch is known as a triple threat in film circles — a man in control of a vision. With his own feature film debut, Pale Blue Moon, Mark Hosack writes, directs and edits as well. In his case, though, three into one does not compute. Hosack’s movie — this month’s Indy Film Showcase — is an unmitigated mess. It’s…
Ever since Amores Perros burst onto the international scene two years ago, Latin American cinema has been experiencing one of the most fertile periods in its history. Encompassing such works as Alfonso Cuaron’s Y Tu Mamí También and Walter Salles’ Behind the Sun, these socially conscious, frequently brutal portraits of life south of the border marry elements of Italian…
Between Iraq and a hard spot: A discussion on the role of patriotism and dissent in the time of war is desperately needed right now, so I was glad to see Allie Johnson’s article on the youthful peace movement (“Young Guns,” February 20) and Bryan Stalder’s and David Youmans’ responses (Letters, February 27). Of course, Stalder, protesters are not really…
Emanuel Cleaver insists that he has never, ever, in all his years of political involvement, participated in race baiting. So check this out. On the day before the February 25 primary election, hundreds of Kansas City voters came home from work to find a phone message from the former mayor. “I want to talk to you about a matter of…
One windy November day, Pastor Sydney Ramphal was sitting down to a ministers’ luncheon in Independence when he got a phone call from his daughter. “I don’t want you to panic, Dad,” she told him, “but the church is on fire.” It was just a few weeks before the Grace Assembly of God Church was to celebrate its 25th anniversary….
At 5 feet 9 inches and compact, Jeremy Collins is built like a featherweight boxer. He has electric blue eyes and Popeye forearms scribbled with veins. Collins doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t cuss. He goes to church on Sundays in Lee’s Summit. But right now, commuting through the River Market in his silver Honda Civic, Collins has one serious problem…
Thursday night might mean must-see TV for some, but for us it’s must-drink night. Thursday is practically the weekend — plus we have absolutely no interest in those soon-to-be has-beens on Friends — so why not go out? Though there are many Thursday-night drinking incentives to choose from, such as ladies’ night at Buzzard Beach and jukebox night at Dave’s…
