There are times when a play unintentionally reviews itself. In a scene from the new play How This Happens at Westport Coffee House, a self-absorbed writer named Mitch (Tom Beaver) says, “There’s merit in raising these questions.” He’s talking about American class distinctions, but he may as well be holding a mirror up to the play, which has grand…
It’s almost always unbearably cold the first weekend of December, but that doesn’t stop hundreds of people from standing in a line stretching halfway down the block from the Kansas City Art Institute’s ceramics department. Pottery and sculpture enthusiasts hoping to add to their personal collections and shoppers simply looking for unique holiday gifts show up an hour or…
There are concept albums that challenge listeners to search for deeper meaning, and then there are concept albums that put a musician’s mental stability in question. The premise of KLT Presents is that this album is the first of a trilogy based on a superhero named Butch, an “orphaned stick figure from a planet called Grunt,” who becomes the patron…
You’ve probably seen that guy who’s been sliding onto the same rickety stool in the same dingy corner bar. Tindersticks is that guy. For a decade now, the British sextet has been serving up ever-so-slight variations of its tortured cabaret-pop, which paints an image of Leonard Cohen, Scott Walker, Bryan Ferry and Jarvis Cocker scattered about some barren lounge, slowly…
T. Raumschmiere (Marco Haas) is stoked about bringing raw rock energy and grit to techno’s often antiseptic beatscapes. His second album, Radio Blackout, departs from his debut’s stoic, minimal techno workouts like a kid who just got out of detention and pounded a liter of Jolt. The platform-heeled stomp of Gary Glitter’s “Rock & Roll, Pt. 2” figures in several…
It’s easy to want to hate The War of Women. First, there’s Firstman himself, a foolishly attractive lad with just enough stubble to keep away truant officers. Then there are the liner notes filled with photos of him in poses with a scantily clad waif and a thank-you to “all at William Morris,” the powerful Hollywood talent agency. After all…
According to Playboy, far and away the authority on all things fake and packaged, the Nadas are “the best college rock band you’ve never heard of.” That particular decree, however, was issued back in September 2001 and remains a dubious honor the Nadas have carried into the waning months of 2003. With Transceiver, the fourth studio album from the hard-touring…
You would think selling nearly 6 million records would improve somebody’s disposition. Of course, you’d be wrong. But you gotta go with what works. And what works is that Puddle of Mudd lead singer Wes Scantlin apparently has miserable luck with women. Life on Display picks up where the band’s major label debut, Come Clean, left off. Which is to…
Given that a lot of alt-country these days shares closer ties to the original spirit and feel of old-school country music, it makes you wonder what the hell the alt is for. Is it because it’s an alternative to today’s crap-country of Toby Keith or the pop-country-diva posing of Shania Twain? When exactly did alt-country come to be considered…
A song like Hot Action Cop’s “Fever for the Flava” can really make you stop and re-evaluate yourself before raising your fists and screaming to the heavens, “What is the matter with me?” That is the only correct reaction for anyone beyond his freshmen year of college, if not high school, who giggles at the rap-rock song in spite of…
Odds are good you are a former Poison the Well lead singer. I could be an ex-guitarist. Your mom could have been the original drummer. The mailman might have played bass. Such is the band’s revolving door. The Florida metalcore kids are a fivesome in theory, though they’ve churned through three singers, three bass players, three guitarists and two drummers…
Jane says she’s done with Sergio, and this time she really means it. In fact, Jane doesn’t even seem to have much of an addiction anymore. Dave Navarro and Perry Farrell are married. Farrell lopped off those nappy dreads that could have easily hidden a dozen hypodermic needles. And everyone seems so … sober. But why fret? Jane’s Addiction…
In Kansas City metal, the lines between bands blur, making the scene seem less like a collection of individual groups and more like an extended family. These guys attend each other’s shows, root for each other at ostensible competitions, and address each other with mysterious terms of endearment such as phony. Now, these supertight siblings consummate their inevitable march…
Oh, woe is Alkaline Trio. Major-label record deals. Headlining tours. Legions of devoted fans. Fawning groupies. Angst coming out the wazoo. But naturally, the band is less concerned with moping than with tearing up a stage with its dark-edged pop-punk. Think more AFI and less Sum 41. In the wake of the band’s latest, Good Mourning, Alkaline Trio is throwing…
Apparently Norway is really pissed off. Fuck the fjords! We’re sick of the snow! We hate constitutional monarchy! We loathe ice skating! And Norwegian Cruise Lines drives us bat-shit insane! OK, maybe not. But Dimmu Borgir certainly seems to have some pent-up Nordic nastiness. The dark metal outfit from the happy little town of Bergen is touring in support of…
Fifty Cent is a pussy. Sure, he got shot nine times and survived. Big deal. Ned Kelly, the nineteenth-century Australian bank robber from whom Reckless Kelly takes its name, caught 28 slugs and lived to tell the tale. At least until he was hanged a few days later. But the moral of the story is simple: Australians must use some…
The Prairie Dogg finds the dirt on strip searches, Xbox and the merits of fighting dirty with Thrice drummer Riley Breckenridge. PD: How’s Quebec treating you? RB: I’m freezing my ass off up here. Do you Orange County boys even own warm clothes? I definitely didn’t own any before this tour . I had to go out and buy a…
Jesus, you’re a mean bastard. Man, you’re a dick. You really aren’t very nice. Somebody’s going to kick your ass. Has anybody kicked your ass? That’s the kind of feedback this column garners from friends and family. You can only imagine what the people with no moral obligation to love and support the Prairie Dogg might say. Exhibit A: Kasper…
Kurt Cobain’s head is split in two, and that’s the way Pat Scantlin likes it. “Our son Scott painted that,” she says, pointing to a portrait. “He made it in two pieces, so we split it up.” Pat is referring to an oversized image of Cobain hanging in the dining room of a three-story A-frame overlooking Lake Waukomis. The…
I really like the cold — it makes me feel really alive.” When wunderkind Sarah Polley utters this line in My Life Without Me — to a gullible dork she is seducing with unconscious malice — we are definitely in the realm of allegory. Our tragic-romantic heroine is meant to be perceived as a person, but she’s also a symbol…
In his career as a Hollywood action figure, Tom Cruise has been dressed in some pretty hip outfits — a macho fighter pilot’s sleek leather jacket, a NASCAR driver’s logo-speckled fire suit, even black cape and fangs. So it’s a bit unsettling to see him stuffed inside an oversized, scaly, red-leather carapace of samurai armor. He looks less like…
Pass the ammo, sister: After reading the responses to Tony Ortega’s “Half Cocked” piece (KC Strip, November 6), I decided to track down the article. Nothing new here. Both sides of the gun issue refuse to print anything objective and informative. It’s just so damn boring for me. Just once, I’d like the media to pretend they have an actual…
The Strip is so happy that November has gone away. This prime cut loves sweeps, but after a month of the local television stations trying to scare the bejesus out of us, we’re ready for TV news to go back to being mediocre. For a few weeks, however, it’s entertaining as hell to see the local helmet-hair contingent chasing auto…
The Kansas City, Missouri, School District is having a hard time shaking its image as a den of political patronage. Superintendent Bernard Taylor recently directed a massive reorganization of the district’s central office, creating five top-level positions. It’s the kind of thing that in the past would have encouraged cronyism and backroom deal making. But this time, Taylor and school-board…
