I think I saw a ghost in a restaurant the other day. It wasn’t any ordinary ghost but rather the ghost of an American business mogul. It might have been Henry Ford, who mass-produced his namesake cars. Or maybe it was the spectre of Ray Kroc, who turned a California burger shack called McDonald’s into an international empire. Or,…
MON 10/20 It’s too bad the Grand Emporium isn’t the sort of place that’s fit for a horse (unless, of course, you’re telling one of those “horse walks into a bar” jokes). This week’s special guest at the Rural Grit Happy Hour is Pop Wagner, also known as the Renaissance Cowboy. Not content merely to play the part onstage, Pop…
SAT 10/18 On the day that Rolling Thunder comes to Kansas City, there will be only 459 days left of Bush’s residency in the White House — that is, assuming he doesn’t snag the election next November. We’re hoping that nationwide rallies like this one will drum up enough visible leftist enthusiasm that Dubya will feel compelled to think about…
ONGOING During the summer of 1999, fourteen kids from Kansas City’s urban core came together and followed that age-old advice for writers: “Write what you know.” The result is a brightly colored mix of confessions and fictional tales compiled in a new book called Your Name Ain’t on the List. In it, city kids Crystal, Kevin, Reggie and Brandy embark…
WED 10/22 Arrowhead Stadium will have a significantly different vibe this Wednesday. Whereas the usual action on the Chiefs’ home field involves brute power and battle tactics, the members of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team bring a different style of grace and finesse when they play their Italian counterparts at 7 p.m. Although it’s a shame that the…
SUN 10/19 Wes Anderson or Steven Soderbergh? Cher or Madonna? These are but two of the many weighty choices facing modern American pop-culture aficionados. Erudite consumers may wish to turn back the clock to the days before the talkies and consider the following dilemma: Lillian or Dorothy Gish? It is akin to choosing between Exquisitely Beautiful and Beautifully Exquisite….
Had his Emmy-winning portrayal of bumbling deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show been his only gig, Don Knotts would still be a beloved comic icon. If lover-man-in-his-own-mind Ralph Furley on Three’s Company had been his only role ever, he’d still be a beloved comic icon. But thanks to The Incredible Mr. Limpet, in which Knotts starred as Henry…
Thursday, October 16, 2003 Russians are so behind the times. While our talented teens dial in the choreographed moves that will surely catapult them to certain fame and fortune on American Idol, Russian young ‘uns perfect the mandolin licks and banjo finger-picks that will propel them toward the Grand Ole Opry. Independent documentary filmmaker Nina Gilden Seavey’s Ballad of Bering…
Imagine a guy whose sole purpose is to be dragged down from utility poles. That guy is “hurt man” Tuff Kelly. Kelly — a man of integrity, vinyl and steel — gets hauled to safety by hundreds of utility workers from 236 power companies this weekend during the International Lineman’s Rodeo. In spite of having been through more than his…
As Halloween nears, the Coterie Theatre is repeating its profitable strategy of the last two Octobers — that is, skewing toward an older audience by issuing a compilation of classic horror stories like a late-night infomercial for hits from the ’80s. This go-around, it’s called Gatherings in Graveyards III, and with such masters of irony as Shirley Jackson, Mark Twain…
The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art is expanding and remodeling — last September, the museum purchased a grand, three-story brick house at 200 East 44th Street, just north of the Kansas City Art Institute’s sculpture department buildings. By the end of this year, the museum’s administrative offices are supposed to move into the second and third floors of the refurbished…
Welcome to the world of Chris Carrabba, where kisses are nuclear-powered, tattoos cannot cover enough forearm space and no album title is too pretentious. It’s easy to forget that Carrabba is a musician — the lock-jawed crooner’s dewy looks, alterna-Gap fashion sense and adoring teenage fan club make him easy critical prey before he utters a single note. But the…
War, oppression, evil and greedy politicians have always been with us. So, too, have the musicians who rail against them. Terry Hall and Mushtaq (along with a United Nationsesque troupe of musicians and vocalists plus Blur frontman Damon Albarn) pull off their aural/lyrical protest with more skill than most on The Hour of Two Lights. Forget anything you know about…
Kriss Kross and Another Bad Creation learned it the hard way: Rap fans aren’t interested in watching baby gangstas transform from boys to men. Now that he’s reached the latter stages of puberty, Bow Wow is acting all grown up. The cherubic Columbus, Ohio, native even dropped the Lil’ from his name and added a few pounds of floss to…
Salt the Earth’s intense live sets have earned it a devoted local following. These chaotic concerts remain the group’s main selling point, but the best show in the world can’t compensate for poorly written material, a trap Salt sidesteps by penning highly memorable tunes. Following a masterful 2001 full-length debut, the Lawrence quartet lightens its sound somewhat on Process of…
Far and away the most overrated local band in recent memory, Mates of State returns with its third wince-worthy attempt at noisemaking. Like its predecessors, Team Boo mixes Tweety Bird keyboards, slap-happy rhythms and the shrillest singing this side of Yoko Ono. Even the album title is cutesy and annoying, but that’s the least of the concerns here. The musical…
More often than not, even the most accomplished bands must overcome early stumbles. In many cases, the subpar products aren’t widely available major-label debuts but rather demos that disappear soon after dissemination like Mission: Impossible briefings. Local music fans, the ones who went to the first shows and shelled out a few bucks for three-song cassettes, are the first to…
This just in: It rains a lot in Portland, Oregon. Thank you, Captain Obvious. But meteorology is important to note when considering the musical meanderings of Portland’s Bronwyn. The indie quartet evokes the soft gloom of cloudy skies using relaxed rhythms, staggered vocals and moody melodies that float cosmically like a swirling Pacific Northwest mist. Plus, all that rain gives…
Disco lives! Well, kind of. Detroit’s Electric Six utilizes some roller-rink rhythms and leisure-suit lyrics, but it’s really a bastard amalgam of Motor City DNA ranging from Motown and the MC5 to Kiss and the White Stripes. Mr. Jack White even lets his neighbors borrow his sugary yelping on “Danger! High Voltage!” Fun, if harmless, songs such as “Gay Bar”…
GWAR disembowels the president and the pope in crimson geysers of Kool-Aid blood. 50 Cent sports custom Kevlar and a 9-mm slur. Britney toys with her coy Lolita smile and unholy tatters. Captured! By Robots has, uh, robots. As gimmicks go, C!BR has cornered the market on three-robot, two-ape, one-man bands. Now the apocalyptic Chuck E. Cheese ensemble has gone…
Once upon a time, somebody must have stolen Mark Everett’s lunch money. Spat in his food. Kicked his dog. Pushed his grandmother down the stairs. Ah, but “E” holds no grudges. The Eels frontman just continues to churn out mournful torrents of sad, savvy songwriting bliss. Ever since numbing the masses with 1996’s “Novocain for the Soul,” E and his…
Lucky Dube launched his career at age fifteen, issuing traditional Zulu records to South African audiences. Inspired by Peter Tosh’s socially charged lyrics, Dube turned to reggae in the mid-’80s, secretly recording the scathing anti-apartheid call to arms Rastas Never Die. The effort generated considerable controversy when the government banned it from the airwaves. The censorship strategy nearly worked —…
After its tumultuous departure from Vagrant Records earlier this year, many wondered if the Anniversary would continue to exist. Fortunately, the Lawrence-based quintet shows no sign of waning, as evidenced by a pair of compelling demos (“The Lonesome Road,” “Death of the Season”) that have surfaced online in recent weeks. If the new tunes are any indication, the Anniversary will…
Years before Al Jourgensen, Trent Reznor and their sequencer-happy disciples started mixing industrial keyboard clangs with heavy-metal thunder, KMFDM was forging the sound in dank nightclubs and B-grade recording studios. The acronym stands for Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit, which translates to No Pity for the Majority, a fair assessment of the group’s nihilistic worldview. Fronted by enigmatic German vocalist…
