Cannibalization, child abandonment, witchery — it’s no wonder the story of Hansel and Gretel, a truly grim fairy tale, appeals to musicians who embrace the dark side. Like Rammstein, the goth juggernaut Hanzel und Gretyl combines robust riffs that require no translation with inherently frightening German vocals. Singer Vas Kallas adds some English, Italian and French to the mix…
After just its first album, awestruck critics started describing the seminal Los Angeles outfit X as “the band that matters.” John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom and D.J. Bonebrake made their chords as poetically raw as their harmonies, giving the Southern California sound a bloody, red-eyed urgency. Back together after a hiatus that found Doe in the movies and Cervenka…
Eels albums have always been something of a downer. But they haven’t always sounded that way, thanks to songwriter E’s penchant for upbeat melodies. Though still angst-ridden on paper, Shootenanny! sounds a couple of shades lighter than its predecessors. That’s not too surprising considering that E has always managed to distance himself from his bleak worldview by making a crack…
Save the denim. This is the pet cause of Faux Jean, a high-fashion pop-rock outfit that spreads the gospel of fake denim wherever it goes. Hop on the sextet’s bandwagon, and there’s potentially a prize in it for you. To enter this propagandistic contest, visit the Faux Jean Web site (fauxjean.com) and head to the Shows page, where there’s a…
Precocious is a word rarely used to describe hard-driving, in-your-face blues-rock bands, unless the act in question is the North Mississippi Allstars. Yet with three studio albums and two Grammy nods behind them, young blues brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson are no longer new kids on the block. With Duwayne Burnside, son of famed bluesman R.L. Burnside, joining the lineup…
Way back in 1986, Frank Orrall, Poi Dog Pondering’s founder, audaciously launched an acoustic-based, truly cheerful band into the gloomy world of what was just becoming known as “alternative music.” Now, after two relocations (to Austin, Texas, where members of the band made brief cameos in Richard Linklater’s Slacker, and Chicago, its home for the past eleven years), Poi Dog…
A budding talent on the Kansas City-based Second Nature label, San Diego’s Ilya uses myriad instruments to produce minimalist sounds. Each mild percussive tap, stardust-sprinkled note and delicately plinked piano melody fits unobtrusively into a particularly comfortable sonic quilt. Singer Bianca Rojas employs elfish enunciation that conjures images of a heavily sedated Bjork, while her backing quintet spikes trip-hop-tinged jazz…
“I grossed my first million dollars on a kid who had six piercings and three tattoos,” Circus ringleader Jim Rose recently told Spin. “Today, I couldn’t give a ticket away for that.” As is so often the case, a freak-show mastermind puts everything in perspective. Twelve years ago, Lollapalooza was a seriously trippy proposition, a castaway from the island…
Believe it or not, dozens of self-respecting scenesters share an acute interest in Justin Timberlake and/or Christina Aguilera. And this isn’t the faux-fan-gone-wrong phenomenon, like when trendsetters got a bit too excited about singing Britney Spears tunes at karaoke nights. (After a while, cognitive dissonance started to override ironic intent, and — oops! — indie folks became convinced that…
For all gangsta rap’s bullet scars and arrest records, the genre’s boastful tales of shooting sprees often ring a little hollow. It’s just not very likely that Ja Rule or anyone associated with Murder Inc. is or at any time was a hired assassin. So what’s a gore-starved kid to do when he’s already beaten Grand Theft Auto: Vice City…
When Dow Mossman’s first novel, The Stones of Summer, came out to favorable reviews in 1972, the author was not alone in thinking it would ignite a blazing career. The book sold a mere 7,000 copies, though, making it a success only in the eyes of its cultists. Mossman’s angst about being the literary equivalent of a one-hit wonder created…
The last thing the Roman Catholic Church needs at this point is another exposé of its misdeeds. The shock of the pedophilia scandal and its official cover-up isn’t going away anytime soon. Collection plate revenues continue to dwindle as the lawsuits multiply, and even many fervent Catholics are questioning their church — if not their own faith. The latest…
Copy writer: I just read C.J. Janovy’s story about Glenn Rice (“Copy Cat,” July 3), and it’s disturbing, to say the least. If it’s true — and the reporting here looks convincing — then it could be just the black eye on diversity that all too many people have been looking for since Jayson Blair and long before. That point,…
Pinup boy: We all know Bob Dole needs help erecting things. It appears the former senator can erect neither boners nor libraries without public ceremony. It started with the ads for Viagra and continued with Pepsi commercials in which Britney Spears gyrated with soda bottles in ways that inspired Dole to grunt, “Down, boy” — to his dog or to…
Celebrations of marriage vows don’t get more public than the recent Toronto wedding of Brent Stallone and Steve Scheuerman, who own a jewelry and gift store in Mission. The day after their June 28 wedding in Toronto, the couple attended that city’s Gay Pride parade. At the request of a parade organizer, they hopped into a limousine there in honor…
You can learn a lot about a guy by sitting next to him at a doubleheader. Today, prolific, best-selling baseball writer and lifelong Kansas resident Bill James has made the trip to Kauffman Stadium to watch the Royals play a pair against the Cleveland Indians. The Royals aren’t putting on much of a show for their guest, dropping the first…
Anyone who was around Kansas City in the ’80s knows that one significant event of that era was the zenith of pre-Fox Channel 41 and the classic programs it used to air, like I Love Lucy, Petticoat Junction and The Dick Van Dyke Show. We fondly remember the summer days when, after Night Ranger Mom and Dad would go to…
You’ve never heard of the Split Oak Mall? I hadn’t, either, and I nearly got lost driving around looking for the place. It’s not really a mall anyway, but a Northland strip center boasting a video store, a gift shop and — starting this week — a sophisticated new restaurant called The Sour Octopus (11129 North Oak Trafficway). The 65-seater…
Don’t get me wrong, I think change is a good thing. But when the pendulum swings so far in the opposite direction, you have to wonder: What happened? Like the wild party guy who has an epiphany and, almost overnight, becomes a fundamentalist preacher. Or the bon vivant of the ’70s gay scene who re-creates himself as a married icon…
SAT 7/12 If you’re among the lucky few who attended a Last Call Girls show when the local alt-country duo made frequent appearances at The Brick (which was called The Pub at the time), we guarantee you haven’t forgotten it. You were probably dancing — everyone else was. Though the Last Call Girls sang many catchy tunes, our favorite was…
ONGOING How does someone become almost someone else, as Tom Bradshaw has become Almost Willie Nelson? The answer is simpler than you might think. In 1987, then-used-car-salesman Bradshaw grew a beard and dressed up as Nelson for his company’s Halloween party. His act was more convincing than he imagined it would be. “I’ve been Almost Willie ever since,” he says….
FRI 7/11 Time was, Westport wasn’t the best place for the kiddies on a Friday night. But members of Pilgrim Center and the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association want to reclaim a piece of their district from the weekend’s Babylonian swarms. They’ve organized the Westport Children’s Film Festival, offering free outdoor entertainment for parents, children and anyone who isn’t packing heat….
SAT 7/12 Shelling corn beneath a hot sun can be a spiritual experience. A hypnotic state sometimes results from watching the separation of kernel and cob while sweating through your jeans. Loading dried ears into the sheller, you can watch them move down the drive line like fish down a stream. Hear the shelled corn blowing against the wagon walls….
SAT 7/12 Some people love Westerns for taking them back to a simpler time — a time when men were tough, women were modest and enemy combatants always wore black. But many of the best Westerns, on film and in print, show how heroes wrangled with history and won or got trampled in its path. The authors of Westward: A…
