P.O.D. fans were shocked early last year when founding member Marcos Curiel departed abruptly after more than a decade of six-string service. Even more stunning was Curiel’s insistence that he was canned for refusing to adhere to the SoCal quartet’s quasi-Christian dogma. This makes it difficult to listen to Payable on Death — the band’s follow-up to its 2001 multiplatinum…
When Laika dropped its Antenna EP and debut full-length, Silver Apples of the Moon (in 1994 and 1995, respectively), the group — led by singer and bassist Margaret Fiedler and production guru Guy Fixsen — was the most exciting cog in the nascent postrock machine. A mercurial melange of off-center tribal funk, marimba-fueled exotica, postmodern dub, and spacey jazz, Laika…
As a party DJ, Rice excels at dropping old-school soul into the mix, adding a classy complement to hip-hop’s hottest right-now jams. When crafting beats, he follows the same formula, bouncing between atmospheric R&B tracks and grimy, dungeon-rap bangers. On The City, Rice combines both blends with some of the region’s fastest flows. Xta-C, an in-demand contributor on the strength…
I must admit, this album caught my attention because of its name. And because it’s a one-woman band. Born in Bangladesh and raised in England, programmer-singer-etc. Shikhee pinpoints where goth morphed into industrial with chilly synths and driving, danceable beats. Old-school goth and industrial fans not satisfied with what the genre has evolved into can find solace in The Dividing….
On his fourth solo effort, Wyclef Jean continues to push further away from traditional hip-hop as he embraces world music, especially reggae. Not that the former Fugee lacked Rasta influences before, but Preacher’s Son pointedly reduces the amount of verbal swordplay. The album starts promisingly with “Industry,” a potent cry to end rap-related beefs. But it’s followed by a number…
Cut from the same broad cloth of sensationalized wunderkind that once draped across the young shoulders of artists like Frank Sinatra, jazz crooner and pianist Peter Cincotti is an American idol for another age, when big bands ruled the earth and singers were handpicked, groomed and traded like all-stars. Yet even though Cincotti boasts maturity beyond his years, jazz is…
Way back in the way back, when poking fun at Eddie Vedder and helping out a fledgling singer-songwriter named Jewel were things to put on a résumé, Steve Poltz had it goin’ on. As one of the ’90s founders of the Rugburns, one of those oh-so-scarce funny on purpose bands, Poltz gave the world songs such as “Me and Eddie…
It’s a short reunion tour for the Urge, consisting of just a trio of dates, but it’s good that Lawrence is one of the stops. Until its 2001 breakup, the ska-punk band best known for “Jump Right In” (from 1998’s Master of Styles) could always count on a crowd built from its word-of-mouth reputation for a killer live show. The…
About a decade ago, Guttermouth gigged with Earth Crisis at a VFW Hall in Kansas City. For these provocative punks, the crowd packed with vegans and militant straight-edgers couldn’t have been more perfect. Singer Mark Adkins took the stage drinking and smoking, surveyed scores of angry glares and deadpanned, “Why the long faces?” At that point, it was already a…
At its first show, Unicorns took the stage brandishing a boombox loaded with a Dio tape, the raw materials needed to make ten peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, barbells and an old slide projector — anything to distract the crowd from its threadbare two-song set list. These days, this Canadian duo knows many more tunes, but it still provides complete sensory stimulation. Relying…
You gotta feel a little sorry for Lee Rocker. While former Stray Cats frontman Brian Setzer continues to jump, jive and wail his way into the hearts, minds and wallets of the American mainstream, Rocker toils in relative obscurity. That’s too bad given his energetic live show and its heavy emphasis on roof-raising antics. Since the Cats’ first breakup…
Toby Keith ain’t your typical bad boy. Oh, he’s a bad boy, but he’s built along the down-home lines of eatin’ biscuits and gravy three times a day (screw the doctor), tippin’ back a few cans of Coors after work (screw the beer snobs) and writin’ any damned song he wants (FUDC). Like the best musical bad boys, Keith’s…
Kansas City’s blues community is rallying to benefit Levee Town harmonica player Jimmie Meade, who was severely injured in a car accident on November 26. Meade, a curly-haired Chicago native, grew up emulating the likes of Little Walter while gigging for various blues, bluegrass and jazz bands before joining Kansas City’s Levee Town. He suffered critical injuries in the accident…
With such a sunshine-and-rainbows band name, it’s no wonder Murder By Death’s first album since ditching its former moniker, Little Joe Gould, has the doom-and-gloom title Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them? The Bloomington, Indiana, quintet had little to be cheery about last fall when thieves helped themselves to the contents of the band’s van,…
You know Sevendust. The white guy with blond braids who looks like the stoned offspring of Perry Farrell and Dee Snider. The black dude with the nest of chest-length dreads. The other three guys providing the chugging backdrop to the snarling and soothing vocals, yet tragically neglected by the band’s hair stylist. You know them. I know you do. But…
The Prairie Dogg finds the dirt on deflecting criticism and keeping it real with guitarists Jeff Stinco of Simple Plan, Tom Wisniewski of MxPx and Josh Cain of Motion City Soundtrack. PD: Are you sick of fame yet? JS: We started out playing in front of seven people. Now we’re playing for thousands, and we can feed off of the…
Kids aren’t stupid. Gangly. Moody. Horny. Maybe. But not stupid. It wasn’t that long ago that you were popping zits, wacking off into a gym sock and diluting the contents of your parents’ liquor cabinet. Not so many years have passed since your average Tuesday consisted of choking down bologna sandwiches, tenderizing your brain with third-period trig, soiling yourself whenever…
“Our motto: anything but Bush,” Lou Reed recently told Rolling Stone, voicing a refrain that’s becoming increasingly common among musicians. Not since the Reagan administration has a president catalyzed so much protest music. For every Toby Keith or Lynyrd Skynyrd jingoistic jingle, there’s a protest song keeping pace. In the past year, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Don Henley, Moby, Willie…
Bless me, father, for I have sinned. How long has it been since your last confession? Uh, what’s today? Let me see … I guess that makes it … two … divide by three … carry the four … uh, it’s been about 24 years, 6 months, 25 days, 11 hours, 37 minutes and 16 seconds. I’ve seen worse. Tell…
There is a recent generation of American men who came of age too late for free love and too early for postgrunge emotional wankery. Stuck on their iceberg, isolated by oceans from anything real, like the original punk or goth movements or Australia’s cinematic new wave, they loitered in the suburbs, became obsessed with David Cronenberg videos (primary theme: Sex…
So, have you ever wondered what exactly goes into the painting of a portrait? You might have suspected there would be more to it than a painter saying something along the lines of, “Hey, baby, can I, uh, paint you?” and then someone else saying, “Yeah, sure, that’d be cool.” You might be right — there does, indeed, tend to…
Taxing thoughts: I just read Tony Ortega’s Kansas City Strip about the ATA tax and the Star’s lack of investigative reporting (December 18). I was struck by the same sentiment when I viewed KCPT Channel 19’s KC Week in Review segment a few weeks back. I don’t remember who exactly was on the panel hosted by Nick Haines (Mike Mahoney,…
Pity poor Frankie Abernathy. Earlier this month, the Kansas City native made her debut on the latest season of MTV’s The Real World. The unfortunate girl no doubt arrived in San Diego with dreams of attaining celebrity status such as that of Real World alumni Judd “Hi, I’m a footnote in a Dave Eggers book” Winick and Julie “That Mormon…
A tricky political maneuver seems to be the latest step toward changing Westport’s festive atmosphere — even though plenty of business owners there have opposed the move. For twenty years, the Westport Merchants Association has been the unified voice for more than seventy bar and restaurant owners, retailers and property owners, who must constantly deal with issues unique to an…
