Go ahead, laugh. No, really. It’s OK. Sure, you’re laughing at a bunch of handicapped kids, but they pretty much asked for it. The Kids of Widney High are a rotating group of special-education students from Los Angeles who write and perform original songs. Original, yes. Entertaining, yes. Hilarious, most definitely. But why? Because they’re funny. If Tenacious D performed…
I don’t care are the first words out of Scott Kannberg’s mouth on Preston School of Industry’s second album. Given his provenance — coguitarist for überslacker indie pioneer Pavement — you might be tempted to believe him. But you shouldn’t. Unlike the conspicuously clever postrock deconstructions that characterized his work with Stephen Malkmus and the gang, Kannberg’s creations on Monsoon…
When a near-metal band covers Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain,” it has to know it’s tossing huge chunks of its potential audience overboard. Hugo Ferreira belting Stevie Nicks’ parts in a Drano-gurgling grumble is disorienting enough; the bona fide yingoes kick in when the harmony parts suddenly sound like they’re coming from the cast of American Chopper. Yet Tantric may turn…
Cheryl Wheeler is one of the workhorses of country music, the kind of singer tourists rave about “discovering” at a songwriting showcase. She’s written plenty of songs that became hits for others. “Addicted” went to No. 1 for Dan Seals, and Suzy Bogguss pulled “Aces” into the Top 10. But Wheeler’s own versions are even better. Fans of Patty Griffin…
Imagine a veteran Texas roadhouse songwriter releasing a double live CD from a tape he lovingly crafted for a Norwegian radio station after playing the Bergen Blues Festival. It’s not only available without paying Euros on Ebay but also well-distributed in the United States. And nobody really even makes fun of it. In fact, in some circles, this particular offering…
Pretty Girls Make Graves takes its name from a lilting Smiths tune, but the Seattle quintet sounds nothing like Morrissey and company. If anything, the group owes its style and approach to algebraic art-house acts like Fugazi. Andrea Zollo sings with the grit and determination of a burly rocker, infusing every screech with enough balls to stock an NBA…
Loud, edgy, manhandled guitars. A collective sense of purpose. The willingness to say what they mean and mean what they say. Yeah, Switchfoot: four San Diego boys who fall somewhere in between causehead politicos and sensitive rockers. But sometimes that’s where you find the best music. Switchfoot has proven it can hold its own with the indie groups pawing each…
Something Corporate is supposed to suck, a theory that has plenty of evidence to back it: First, the band consists of five pretty boys who look like they spend way too much time on their hair; second, the Orange County quintet plays radio-friendly pop that excites its teenage fan club and make music snobs blanch; and third, that horrible fucking…
I want to know what the hell is going on in Montana. I mean besides peyote smoking and militia forming. Because it takes a certain kind of person to concoct an EP consisting of one 18-minute song based loosely on a Celtic myth that tells the tale of the Cattle Raid of Cooley in which a witch queen tries to…
His name is Bobbbbbbbbb! It’s Bob, baby. Bob Ritchie! Huh. Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like “Kid Rock,” does it? Well, get used to it, Nancy. Mr. Ritchie may still be the Kid, but he’s all grown up. Or at least as grown up as a guy who drives the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard can be….
Roger Daltrey is dead. If he isn’t, he’s gotta be pissed. The Who singer was, after all, the one who hoped to die before he got old. Now look at him. Mumbling “My Generation” and waiting for senility to set in. Pining to become the pinball wizard of Shady Pines Nursing Home. That’s OK. I feel ya, Roger. Aging sucks….
Leftover Salmon is the musical equivalent of the atomic clock: steady, consistent, dependable. Able to withstand nuclear holocaust and the whimsical winds of pop music. In a world of constant change, the genre-bending slamgrass outfit is as regular as sunset when the house lights go down and the spotlight comes on. But take the band away from the stage and…
C-Rayz Walz likes to freestyle. A lot. The Bronx-born rapper, whose persona lands somewhere in the cosmic space between George Clinton and Old Dirty Bastard, is constantly prattling off an endless chorus, whether he’s discussing his music or reciting from a stereo manual. The man’s dexterous rhymes never seem to stop. In a recording studio or a grocery store, he…
As a professional wrestler, the Rock faced down giants like Hulk Hogan, the Undertaker, and Big Show. As an actor, in a relatively short period of time, he’s held his own onscreen with Oscar winner Christopher Walken (whom he describes as “geniusly insane”). Behind the scenes, in his home life as Dwayne Johnson, he’s been dealing with the challenges…
The golden age of the comic-book movie has turned the color of tarnished copper. But there is no going back, not when comic shops have become movie studios’ research and development labs. Hellboy, based on Mike Mignola’s beloved Dark Horse comic and adapted by Guillermo del Toro, is fanboy heroin: the cult hero with bright-red skin and sanded-down horns…
There have been numerous books written about architect Louis I. Kahn, whose monumental creations — among them the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, and the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas — were like ancient Roman buildings transplanted into some not-so-distant future. Vincent Scully, professor emeritus of art history at Yale, says of his…
No beef: I wish to voice my thanks to Allie Johnson for sourcing our publication and our daily Web news site in her article about Creekstone Farms (“Mad Cowboys,” March 25). We have been the original reporting source for literally hundreds of Creekstone news stories, yet, as far as we can determine, only the Pitch and The New York Times…
The Strip is trying not to panic now that the Kansas Senate has dealt a serious blow to the chances of putting a state constitutional same-sex marriage ban on the November ballot. You see, this cutlet talked with state Senator Kay O’Connor, and now the Strip has serious worries about the future of American civilization if the amendment doesn’t…
On April 6, Kansas City, Missouri, voters will be asked to approve $30 million in city-backed bonds for the Kansas City Zoo. The money would supplement the $4 million a year the city already spends to subsidize the now privately run animal park. If passed, revenue from the bond sales would pay to renovate the zoo’s original building and make…
Kristi Carroll worked Friday and Saturday nights at Mad Jack’s on 79th Street and Troost, so she didn’t have many opportunities to go out and live it up with her friends. She was saving money for college. Her dad had promised to match every dollar she socked away so she could be the first in their family to earn a…
