Embarrassed by the worldwide success of its 11-million-selling debut, Pearl Jam has become increasingly anti-social; the formerly radio-friendly unit-shifter is now lucky to go gold with its new releases. Some of that has to do with PJ’s own reclusive nature — its limelight-avoidance tactics have stifled CD sales. But the Seattle quintet’s slide into semi-obscurity is also the result…
Maybe there’s Pabst in the water or something. A whole generation of college students has transmuted into a rabble of beer-swillin’, bloody-knuckled badasses. As you know if you’ve been reading the music press, these proto-punkish rawk bands, these cold-blooded, hog-ridin’, Gibson-wieldin’ Visigoths are here for one reason: to kick ass. Ooh, I’m sooo scared. The fact is, the bands actually…
I got a fistful of demons, growls guitarist and vocalist Count Lyle. I got some boots made of lead/The grave may cool my rotting bones/But it won’t cool my head. Good thing he’s in a band, because as many an expert has opined, playing music is often therapeutic. Allied with his compatriots in Ghoultown, which includes acoustic guitarist and vocalist…
When The Wailers appears on a marquee in 2003, it’s natural to wonder about the strength of the link between the current touring incarnation and the late Bob Marley’s band. Fortunately for fans, this reggae supergroup maintains the integrity of its name, much more so than plenty of stadium-touring, gray-mulleted rock headliners. Guitarist Al Anderson joined the band in 1972,…
It’s become common practice for musicians to scowl when they enter a nightclub and spot two turntables. DJs are killing music, cries the guitar-slinging set. They’re conditioning people to dance to computerized breakbeats instead of live instrumentation. They’re the first step in a harrowing metamorphosis from humanity to android rule. Soon, robots will run the stage, and displaced rockers will…
When heaping praise upon punk’s founding fathers, music fans often follow the misguided advice offered by the title of the defunct music-trivia show Never Mind the Buzzcocks. “People say, ‘Oh, they’re kind of legends,’” says singer and guitarist Steve Diggle, an original member of the Manchester, England-based outfit. True, Diggle’s band isn’t the most notorious of punk’s first-wave acts, but…
The van in which Shiner traveled the country looks brand new. It’s as gleaming-white as a smile in a toothpaste ad, with a recently rebuilt engine and transmission. And renovations have quadrupled the value of the midtown house where Shiner practiced. Allen Epley, the Shiner singer and guitarist who spearheaded both efforts and owns the home and the vehicle,…
My whole life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn’t, Eminem declares in “Cleanin’ Out My Closet.” He even makes a reference to Munchausen syndrome, the medical anomaly that is also the subject of the new documentary Mama/M.A.M.A. Directed with an unblinking eye by Nonny de la Pena and produced by Amy Sommer, the film screens…
If you’re reading this paper, chances are you’re more literate than the average American. But what if you were confronted with something like cephalalgia? Do you know off the top of your head whether distractable or distractible is correct? Now imagine you’re not yet a teenager and this knowledge is expected of you. Such is the lot of the competitors…
Having seemingly exhausted all permutations of the sports-comedy formula (Bull Durham, White Men Can’t Jump, et. al.), Ron Shelton has now moved on to another obsession: the Los Angeles Police Department. Earlier this year, we got the uncharacteristically somber (for him, anyway) Dark Blue, a “what if” tale of the alternately corrupt and beleaguered force circa 1992. Shelton’ s…
In March 2002, days before President Bush was scheduled to visit Peru, a car bomb exploded near the U.S. Embassy in Lima, killing nine and injuring dozens. Government officials, here and in Peru, blamed the attack on Shining Path — a Marxist terrorist organization with roots dating to the 1960s. The claim stunned those who believed Shining Path had…
Tackett on: So Chuck Tackett’s brother finds it necessary to defend him from the slings and arrows of outraged misfortune (Letters, May 29). I give him kudos for filial loyalty. It has been my regret to know Mr. Tackett for a number of years. I was there when a long-time KKFI 90.1 volunteer found himself homeless, and Mr. Tackett took…
Scofflaws are soon to be kickin’ it in style at the Wyandotte County Jail. Unified Government carpenters are busy designing a custom cabinet with wheels for the inmates’ new, $1,300 wide-screen television with surround-sound capability; it’ll be rolled from pod to pod for the enjoyment of the best-behaved lawbreakers. Those who keep their cells and noses clean currently get to…
“It is necessary to travel,” William Burroughs said. “It is not necessary to live.” Anyone who ever called on Burroughs — one of the twentieth century’s most notorious literary figures — saw that quote. It was inscribed on a small stone plaque in the living room of the red bungalow in a leafy East Lawrence neighborhood where Burroughs lived…
It’s the lobby of the Adam’s Mark on a Saturday morning in May, and most of the guests stumbling out of the hotel look like they’re from Omaha or Ames, groggy but ready for tailgating at the Royals game across I-70. The guests filing into the hotel are a different story, though. A woman in a red, white and blue,…
Bryan Heitman might have had a hunch his homespun business would make him a millionaire before he was old enough to drink legally. But there’s no way he could have predicted the lessons he’d learn: Lesson 1: The more customers you try to please, the fewer customers you’ll have. Lesson 2: The more customers you have, the less likely you’ll…
Yep, what they said about us in the May issue of Kansas City Magazine was right. We were more than slightly geeky in high school — this über-lush was a total orchestra nerd back then. The reason we bring up our dorkitude is because we recently went on a bar-scouting foray to Lee’s Summit, and really, the only time we’d…
Is it just my own irritation at having to take idiotic, poorly planned detours — like the one leading “to” Johnson Drive from Shawnee Mission Parkway — or are too many roads ripped up by construction throughout the metro? The torn-up ramps at 119th Street and Alternate 69 Highway are hurting business for the new Altizio’s Italian Restaurant (see review),…
Call me a snob, but I have a visceral reaction to restaurants located in strip shopping centers. I’m sure that much of my negative feeling dates back to my waiter days, when I had jobs at a couple of “hot, new, fun” restaurants that had been squeezed — with little thought and much less inspiration — into suburban strip malls….
TUE 6/10 You know that feeling you get when someone’s telling you a story, and at first you’re hooked but pretty soon the ludicrous details pile up until you’re convinced the story can’t be true? That’s the feeling we got when we heard about Tuesday’s show at Starlight (6601 Swope Parkway). Daring, clever, Golden Book-style DJ Kid Koala usually does…
FRI 6/6 The art being auctioned off at the Arts Incubator (115 West 18th Street) from 6 to 9 Friday night will rake in cash for two causes: the Kansas City Skate Park Task Force and the “Lovely needs a video camera really f*’n bad” Fund. Zach Wilson runs the West 18th Street skate shop known simply as Lovely….
SAT 6/7 Kids are always told to eat more fruit, but the burning question is whether strawberry shortcake counts. It’s strawberry season, and on Saturday the Vaile Mansion (1500 North Liberty in Independence) makes the most of it with the seventeenth annual Strawberry Festival. We’re talking strawberry soda and shortcake galore. The Vaile grounds have music and entertainment from 9…
DAILY People who tuned in to Animal Planet’s Superstar Challenge or ESPN’s Great Outdoor Games last year might know this, but here’s some sports news: Canines are the up-and-coming superstar athletes. If you think about it, it makes sense. Americans have always had a special fondness for their tail-wagging sidekicks, and sports fans are fed up with overpaid ballplayers and…
WED 6/11 The rap world is enjoying another positive-message trend. With “I Can,” Nas encourages kids to choose education over drugs and sex. Eminem proclaims the healing potential of rap in “Sing for the Moment.” And even Snoop is full of redemption, declaring monogamy to a “Beautiful” woman (though he indeed will smack a nigga that tries to pursue it)….
