MON 8/18 When we think Frankenstein, we think angry. The stilted lurch standing in a doorway, some poor unfortunate caught between his massive fists, has become an icon of old-timey terror. Nowadays, with the president talking about banning cloning, the tropes of sewn-together corpses animated by lightning have withered in the face of a more fantastic reality. Frankenstein: Penetrating the…
8/16-8/17 With CSI all the rage on TV and America’s love of furniture superstores only growing stronger, the arrival of Court TV’s Mobile Investigation Unit this Saturday and Sunday has synergy written all over it. A traveling forensics lab designed to spark kids’ interest in high-tech detective work, the MIU will set up shop from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m….
8/15-8/17 People looking for an excuse to squeeze in one last summer road trip can pack a tent and head to the Lake of the Ozarks for the Soulful Union Music Fest. The festival offers an eclectic lineup of jam, blues, funk, bluegrass and hip-hop bands, all against the backdrop of Bagnell Dam. The Osage River runs through the campground…
FRI 8/15 According to the Weekly World News, Elvis Presley broke his leg in a motorcycle crash back in 1992. The esteemed news source described the incident as “a chilling reminder that is, after all, only human and that one silly mistake could be the tragedy that snatches him from our lives forever.” Coincidentally, the grand finale of the 16th…
For most of us, bowling is a way to kick back, change shoes and revel in that time-honored tradition of hitting things with balls. (This, after all, is the unifying theme when it comes to most popular sports.) For the women competing in this weekend’s Professional Women’s Bowling Association Regional Tournament, however, there’s a lot more on the line. Take…
Thursday, August 14 You think you know what cacophony sounds like — until you attend an event where young laymen and laywomen (ages four and up) can learn to sing opera. We think this library-hosted Night at the Opera sounds wonderfully fun in an experimental-noise-band, performance-art kind of way. The event unfolds as follows: Kids enjoy opera singers and their…
He knows there are people, too many, who do not like him. He has to know. They’ve told him to his face—the studio executives who slice and snip the scenes he loves the most and suffer his outbursts for it, the directors he’s pushed out of the way so he could take control of the camera, the critics who adored…
Every year, the Coterie Theatre tries to mount one new play. The effort is strongly suggested by one of the theater’s longtime funders, the National Endowment for the Arts. So far, the Coterie’s record in this department is spotless. Artistic Director Jeff Church says it’s not a burden to stage new works — they don’t necessarily take any more…
During its hiatus-busting tour in February 2003, Phish started offering official soundboard recordings of shows (complete with printable artwork) to its fans at LivePhish.com through a pay-per-download system. This allows fans to upgrade the often shoddy quality of the concert bootlegs that circulate on the Net and through blank-tapes-and-postage snail-mail trades. Within 48 hours of consuming their last post-show parking-lot…
Dead Meadow takes a familiar, lead-booted trudge through stoner rock’s fugged-up back roads. With its stumbling-mastodon rhythms, seesawing guitar riffs and lost-in-the-cosmos vocals, Shivering King sounds as dense and heavy as the rhetoric and pot smoke at a NORML rally. However, other than a couple of nods to Led Zeppelin-style medieval balladry, Dead Meadow’s dirge overkill induces stasis rather than…
If any band has been anthologized to excess, it’s Stereolab. The group has already issued three volumes of Switched On odds-and-sods collections in its twelve-year history, but this new double-disc comp of live recordings from the BBC is excusable because it could be Stereolab’s epitaph; singer and keyboardist Mary Hansen’s death last December leaves the beloved British post-rockers’ future uncertain….
Given that the Kansas City music scene encompasses a remarkable range of sounds, it’s always exciting when a newly formed group manages to find a fresh approach. The latest epiphany comes from Hot Children, an electronically enhanced duo that allows plenty of personality to slip between the drum loops. Touchstones include Kansas City’s Ssion (with the shock-value satire toned down…
There’s a vocal trait, a rattling scrape just below the words, that somehow makes every sung syllable seem sincere. Elvis Costello has it, and so do Alejandro Escovedo and Aztec Camera’s Roddy Frame. Minibar’s Simon Petty (how’s that for a British-American name?) has it, too. That vocal “realness” turns Fly Below the Radar from a slow, meandering record by a…
Known for crafting some of the most memorable pop ditties in recent memory, Fountains of Wayne returns after a four-year absence with its strongest effort to date. Welcome Interstate Managers kicks off with a string of whip-smart songs that playfully explore the existential despair of Jane and Joe Average. “Stacy’s Mom” is a hummable ode to MILF lust, and its…
Like its companion film, the Bad Boys II soundtrack is a big-budget affair featuring today’s top stars. Predictably, the record shot straight to No. 1 upon release, and it appears to have a shelf life that will outpace its celluloid counterpart. Issued on Sean Combs’ Bad Boy imprint, the compilation is weighted by the executive producer’s platinum-planked influence. A little…
With the release of its self-titled album on the Silvertone label, the Native American blues-rock act Indigenous is poised to push its intensity level up a few more notches. That’s exactly what its fans demand from the Nakota Sioux powerhouse quartet, which up to this point has had better luck showing its mettle onstage instead of in the studio. From…
In retrospect, it’s funny how casually James Taylor shouldered the burden of being tapped by the Beatles in 1968 as the first artist signed to their newly formed Apple Records label. While the Beatles themselves were already starting their slow slide to disillusionment and dissolution, Taylor quietly came onto the scene with his eponymous debut less than a year later….
When Ferris Bueller decided during his infamous day off to take over a parade in the heart of downtown Chicago, he wasn’t lip-synching to Frank Sinatra or Tom Jones. Bueller knew what the rest of the world had forgotten at the time: Wayne Newton rocks. Sure, he’s smarmy, swanky and even a little greasy, but damn it, that’s exactly what…
They don’t call Al Green “the Reverend” for nothing. When the man opens his mouth to sing, you’re instantly taken to church. Beloved for an extended string of ’70s soul masterpieces, including watershed singles such as “Let’s Stay Together” and “Tired of Being Alone,” Green famously freaked out after years of roadwork, heavy drug use, and a pan of boiling…
San Francisco-based DJ and producer Sage (aka Laura Totten) has a lot of hot drum-‘n’-bass wax on her decks, and she also has way too much on her proverbial plate. Just reading about her myriad activities will exhaust you as much as her hyperkinetic DJ sets. Besides holding residencies at S.F. clubs Ultra, Phunckateck and Eklektic, Sage runs (with…
One of the more interesting questions right now in country music is: What will become of one of its very best singers, Lee Ann Womack? Several of her early singles (“A Little Past Little Rock,” for instance) were big radio hits. But her strong traditionalist bent (her favorite singer is Conway Twitty, and she has a clear affinity for…
Quit hatin’: You know you love Nelly just as much as the rest of us. With his radio-friendly hip-pop confections, Body by Jake abs and rags-to-bitches back story, Nelly is the personification of the new American Dream. The man who put St. Louis on the rap map continues to offer inspiration to Midwestern MCs everywhere — spitters from Topeka to…
With its oppressive heat and its government’s overuse of the mercy seat, Texas provides a perfect breeding ground for death-obsessed malcontents. Nocturne, the cream of the Texas goth crop, adds erotic allure to its aggressive concoctions. Seductive singer Lacey Conner leads unwitting victims into a churning maelstrom of programmed drums, combative rhythms and buzzing guitars, but her graceful delivery numbs…
Originally, the Epoxies were scheduled to play El Torreon, but it’s just as well that Davey’s adopted the gig as part of its goth/industrial Monday night. Like many of the groups customarily heard at these showcases for sulky sounds, the Epoxies combine pouty vocals with guitar rattles and synthesizer hums. However, this fabulously attired five-piece advocates partying its sorrows away…
