Acid Mothers Temple ringmaster Kawabata Makoto claims he channels his music from a divine entity. If you’ve heard any of his back catalog, the admission seems plausible. In Tsurubami, the Japanese guitarist teams with drummer Emi Nobuko (Makoto’s ex-bandmate in Tenkyo No To) and bassist and fellow AMT member Higashi Hiroshi to strafe the heavens with a free-noise rock din…
Local talkbox Approach and producer Been are the latest Lawrence hip-hoppers to issue an underground effort found only on CD-R. This is a laudable concept for a number of reasons: First, because there’s no time to think things over (Soiree was conceived and recorded within a week), which lends the discs a spontaneous vibe akin to catching a freestyle cypher…
Metallica’s recent performance at the MTV Music Awards (the superstars stumbled through an instrumental medley of hits by Michael Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Nirvana and the White Stripes) lent credence to the notion that the iconic metal shepherd has abandoned its headbanging flock. The question now is: Who will step in to fill the void? Orange County, California, quintet Avenged Sevenfold…
As a teenager, Da Brat made her name by freestyling at a Kriss Kross concert, where she turned heads with a hard-hitting flow and an undeniable spunk. Scooped up and molded into a B-grade celebrity by Hotlanta hitmaker Jermaine Dupri, Brat (née Shawntae Harris) has grown up in the public eye. Her 1994 debut, Funkdafied, produced a number of popular…
This year has seen a boon for long-suffering fans, with the release of live Led Zeppelin material and new songs from My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields. But as wonderful as it is to hear from such great artists again, their re-emergences come with the bittersweet realization that we’ll never see these larger-than-life heroes onstage again. Fortunately, we can still catch…
The Midwest Jazz Festival claims to be the largest contemporary jazz event in the Heartland. Boasting a varied lineup that blends smatterings of traditional and modern fare with an emphasis on quiet stormers such as Brian Culbertson and Steve Cole, the two-day outing takes place in the appropriately aquatic setting of Clinton Lake, on the outskirts of Lawrence. One of…
In the 2003 documentary Hell House, a once-raved, now-saved DJ lovingly designs the set for his scene in the haunted-house production. He obsesses over every detail, such as graffiti that references everything from the Christian electronic outfit Joy Electric to the hopelessly unhip, dance-culture-plundering Angelina Jolie vehicle Hackers. He oversees the music from a booth, producing a steady techno…
Like stoopid summer blockbuster flicks, trance music has wide appeal because it’s so damned unsubtle: Grandiose melodramatic melodies, over-the-top arpeggiated synths, boom-boom-boom-boom kick drums and the occasional diva wail suck in the gullible. Kimball Collins, who began spinning in Florida in 1987, is one of America’s most popular trance DJs. After helping to ignite Orlando’s rave scene, Collins hauled his…
Billy Idol was one of the great rock stars of the ’80s, complete with chart-busting hits, disastrous follow-ups, cartilage-shredding motorcycle crashes and enough booze, drugs and girls to stock the set of a Mötley Crüe video. The former Generation X frontman was also one of the first neo-wavers to owe his entire career to MTV — viewers couldn’t get enough…
Whereas many garage-sound revivalists take their Stooges fandom to tribute-band proportions, the Lust-R-Tones turn back the clock to an earlier era, focusing on the rock before pop. On its self-titled debut disc, the Kansas City quartet covers its catchy numbers with a thin layer of fuzz. This effect enhances rather than obscures the melodies, which might be a bit too…
For years, James McMurtry has been singing the stories of hard-drinking, vaguely murderous itinerant boyfriends; hard-drinking, unhinged women; kids with hard-drinking parents; and, occasionally, guys who might just be doing all right. With a sense of humor much drier than his novelist father Larry’s, McMurtry writes razor-edged ballads and rock freakouts that beg for word-by-word attention. The man has ways…
At the Warped Tour this year, Tsunami Bomb was a refreshing oasis from the boy-punk outfits and their arid angst. Valuing fun more than any other attraction on the tour save Andrew W.K., the female-fronted California quartet made the most of its early afternoon slot at Verizon this summer. By the end of its set, fans were pushing close to…
Q and Not U hails from Washington, D.C., and records for Dischord, but this three-piece is anything but another unquestionably organic outfit in the Minor Threat/Fugazi vein. Those groups’ common link, indie icon Ian MacKaye, recorded Q’s 1998 debut, No Kill No Beep Beep, which merged guitar clatter with spastic beats. The squiggly sound showed potential, but the group…
One of 2003’s most anticipated outings on the underground electronica circuit is the pairing of knob-twisting, wax-spinning, wig-flipping powerhouses East Coast Boogiemen and LawnChair Generals. A tag-team duo of turntable wizards (they use three apiece), the Boogiemen have garnered substantial critical acclaim for their funk-inflected house music, and even more attention for their dance-friendly live sets. LawnChair Generals features respected…
It’s been said that movie audiences will sit through just about any act of man-on-man violence, but if you show a villain kicking a dog, you’ll send spectators scrambling for the exits. Similarly, it was with jaded eyes that most observers skimmed headlines about the Recording Industry Association of America targeting college-enrolled download gluttons. After all, it’s hard to make…
Like most spectators at Liberty Hall on September 2, Season to Risk frontman Steve Tulipana was duly impressed by Reggie and the Full Effect’s amazing ability to craft a spectacular show out of emo tunes that are unremarkable on record. But unlike the other fans in attendance, Tulipana was promptly asked to join the costume-intensive circus on its next tour,…
Picture a small living room in a modest Berkeley apartment, the kind a budget-conscious Cal student fills with CDs, empty beer bottles and a chair from IKEA. Now picture it completely crammed with people and a band, and you have a typical Friday night for Numbers. On one recent night, the group was playing a friend’s birthday party, and people…
Never mind the trailers, which advertise Cold Creek Manor as some kind of horror thriller, complete with the image of a hand emerging from the shadows to silence (yes!) Sharon Stone. Mike Figgis, most recently a maker of unwatchable art-house fare shot on digital video (Timecode, Hotel), has no interest in spooking us. His haunted-house movie is as scary as…
Most will deny it, but inside every grown man lurks a hypersensitive adolescent girl. Allow me to tell you all about mine and to share some of my poetry…. Whoah! Put away that gun. I’m just trying to emphasize that, in the case of director Catherine Hardwicke’s confident, engaging debut feature, Thirteen, it doesn’t necessarily take one to know…
Shallow end: I really enjoyed Ben Paynter’s article that exposed the entire Abercrombie & Fitch philosophy (“Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful,” September 4). I’ve been disgusted with this company for over six years now, what with their soft-core pornography “advertisements” and “pretty people only” reputation. Nothing would please me more than to see the company LOSE their lawsuit for…
A couple of weeks ago, hoping to stock up on a few items before the Chiefs home opener at noon, we went on a brief Sunday morning shopping jag and found ourselves in a Shawnee grocery store. Being from the godless side of State Line, we were startled to see placards at the store notifying shoppers that sales of beer…
Back on June 14, the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department announced that officers in its vice unit, working with cops from other jurisdictions across the metro, had concluded a prostitution sting leading to 100 arrests — johns as well as janes and at least one Reverend john. Kansas City media outlets jumped on the story, eager to expose local citizens’…
Paul Silverman’s face is all over Kansas City — beaming over late-night TV, rolling by on the sides of metro buses, taking up three full pages in the Yellow Pages. In one ad, Silverman is dressed in a gaudy royal getup: a silver cardboard crown and a red-green-and-white-striped suit with flared sleeves and puffy shoulders. With raised eyebrows, a gleam…
Some might think the Night Ranger lifestyle is pretty much one überfest of going out and getting hammered, all under the guise of “research.” Well … sure. But we’re much more than that — so much more. In between the drinking and the writing, we also ponder various obsessions, such as our perpetual fascination with cheesy TV shows. Take, for…
