Having been educated in a suburban public school rather than in a Catholic school, I admit I’ve never understood the fascination with making nuns into entertainment. Though movies like The Trouble with Angels (starring a rowdy Hayley Mills sneaking cigarettes in the church basement) and various productions of Nunsense and Sister Mary Ignatius have amused me over the years,…
In the ’90s, it was OK to be gay and depressed, Brian Jerkins says. After the conservative political climate of the ’80s, his theory goes, people yearning for change started sharing their deepest, darkest feelings about intimate things. In a way, that was the only thing left to do — society had already explored politically charged topics like discrimination….
For Lawrence native Preston Girard, the decision to leave his hometown in 1997 to pursue an acting career in Chicago must have held some measure of anxiety. Yet it’s hard to gauge whether Girard’s thoughts on the subject, as expressed on the title cut of his latest self-released effort, Simple Life, are meant to carry the sort of ambivalence they…
British duo Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian are part of a burgeoning movement (known, heinously, as quietcore) that sends editors of glossy-paged monthly magazines into a nostalgic froth, reminding them of their misspent youths revering Simon and Garfunkel and the Incredible String Band. Turin Brakes’ 2001 debut disc, The Optimist, earned a nomination for Britain’s Mercury Music Prize and sold…
The rock concept album is a fading artifact. Chalk it up to shrinking attention spans or the apathetic avoidance of anything that remotely resembles a movement toward art in popular culture. Yet for local guitarist Brian Baggett, it’s a realm still ripe for musical exploration. The Web is Baggett’s first completely self-produced solo project, but it’s certainly not his first…
Since genre godfather Fela Kuti’s death in 1997, a void has opened in Afrobeat that’s been only partially filled by New York’s Antibalas. The seventeen-strong Najite Olokun Prophecy further eases the pain caused by Kuti’s departure with vigorous orchestral firepower. Nigerian master drummer Najite Agindotan studied under Kuti and later moved to Los Angeles, where he mingled with some of…
Soon after it opened in 1935, Max Gordon’s bohemian New York hot spot, the Village Vanguard, became the world’s window into the newborn soul of a uniquely American art form — jazz. For pianist Fred Hersch, a prominent fixture of the New York scene for the past 25 years and one of the club’s regularly featured veterans, the Vanguard is…
With its matching uniforms, whippersnapper backbeats and chicken-greased six-strings, Sweden’s (International) Noise Conspiracy could be any of a dozen Euro-rock outfits on the market today. But you don’t have to listen too deeply to (I)NC’s lyrics to realize that the quintet’s agenda includes a lot more than rump shaking. KRS-One dubbed this marriage of pedagogy and rhythm “edutainment,” and (I)NC…
For every musical masterpiece inspired by a breakup, there must be an ex who’s silently seething about not getting to tell his or her side of the story. Perhaps Cursive lead singer and guitar player Tim Kasher realizes how unfair this is. After making his mark with 2000’s Domestica, a concept record about his divorce, Kasher turns the interrogation…
Even in the veteran-venerating blues world, longevity alone does not guarantee legendary status. Koko Taylor earned her accolades both by maintaining her tenacity over a forty-plus-year career and by holding her own when standing toe-to-toe with her male blues-belting counterparts. Born in Memphis to a poor sharecropper family, Taylor moved to Chicago’s rough-and-tumble South Side at age eighteen. She quickly…
Sometimes the best move a band can make is to sell out, at least in the sign-to-a-major-label-and-try-a-commercial-sound way that indie purists who live with their parents hate. Back when Cave In was a death-metal-influenced hardcore band, it released a highly regarded thrash opus, 1998’s Until Your Heart Stops. Two years later, the band shocked its burlier fans with Jupiter, an…
Need more proof that rock music is indeed the expressway that leadeth straight to hell? Then consider the early days of the twosome now collectively known as the Deuce Project. Back when they were impressionably young, Josh McMillan and Noah Pearce attended the same church. The temptation of the instruments tucked away in the church’s basement, however, proved too great,…
Although electroclash has encouraged a certain segment of the concertgoing population to shake its booties, there has to be an option for people who don’t necessarily want to get gussied up like crack-whore versions of Cyndi Lauper and bump rumps to distorted synth beats. Washington, D.C.’s Q and Not U is the rockin’ dancer’s savior. Like its labelmate Fugazi, Q…
When Mac Lethal fought his way to first place at Scribble Jam last year, the one-man hip-hop army proved that he’s capable of winning battles. However, his latest single, “Pass the Ammo,” indicates that he’d prefer to ditch the war altogether. In March, Mac rush-released the scathing critique of U.S. foreign policy and encouraged free downloads (www.soundclick.com/bands/0/maclethalmusic.htm). “Ammo” has received…
Deep Elm Records feels your pain, and it wants to help. The label that gave the world The Emo Diaries is cosponsoring (with American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) the Too Young to Die tour. Emotionally expressive acts such as Brandston (pictured) offer cathartic release, and the door-charge cut for the AFSP delivers tangible assistance. This should be one of…
Known for its relentless touring schedule, let’s-get-quirked-up songwriting and uproarious onstage patter, Guster knows how to give concertgoers their money’s worth. The Boston trio met as Tufts University students in the early ’90s, drawing crowds with a challenging anti-rock recipe: Take two acoustic guitarists, add a guy on bongos and try not to make it boring. Without help from a…
What breed of bulldog has multiple heads and knows how to do the bunny hop and the crab walk? The third Bulldog B-Boy Battle, of course. DJ-ing, rapping and beat making are well-known facets of hip-hop culture, but elements such as breakdancing tend to get overlooked. Downplay’s third hip-hop dance competition should be its largest yet, taking place over…
For music fans, especially the obsessive branch, few things provoke more frustration than the prospect of an amazing artist shrouded in obscurity. Even today, with microspecialized Web sites and ‘zines guaranteeing publicity for puzzling genres (the phrase “hip-hop polka” produces 19,400 hits) and far-flung locales (landlocked Midwestern indie rockers boast expansive knowledge of the Iceland scene), some stellar talents…
The Douglas County 4-H Fairground is hardly Lawrence’s most prestigious venue, but that doesn’t bother X Dash. The twenty-year-old rapper just wants to perform, even if it’s in front of the two dozen people who are currently milling about the cavernous barn that agreed to host this underpromoted charity event. Grabbing the mic and stepping onto a makeshift stage,…
If you were among those who thought the Anniversary’s sophomore album, Your Majesty, was a whimsical departure from the Lawrence quintet’s relatively straightforward debut, wait till you get a load of the new stuff. “Oh, it’s completely different,” singer and guitarist Josh Berwanger explains. “I have a feeling every one of our albums will be that way. It’s kind of…
It was only in 1967 that Great Britain struck from its jurisprudence the “common scold,” essentially a crime of catty insolence for which the convicted party — almost always a woman disturbing the peace by nagging a man — was punished with a public dunking in cold water. Nobody likes a bitch, but that’s arguably kind of oppressive. Consider…
Bye bye Birdies: I thought I had just missed the aesthetic appeal of Peregrine Honig’s work — that is, until I read Deb Hipp’s article (“Panty Raider,” April 3). When I read about the opening of Birdies and the Live Panty Auction, I think I finally got it. What I am seeing is a very talented entrepreneur running a soft-porn…
Imagine our horror when we heard there’d be no more booze at the city’s coolest party. First Fridays — soirées in the Crossroads, when art galleries open new exhibitions on the first Friday of every month — might be responsible for everything Kansas City has going for it. A downtown housing boom? We doubt Overland Park empty nesters would be…
Ed Ford wanted things to make sense. In his eight years as a city councilman, Ford had heard a lot of griping about the way City Hall hands out tax breaks — that is, with all the discretion of a drug dealer on a Saturday night. So he championed an idea that would curb City Hall’s trafficking in tax breaks….
