In our society of instant gratification, everything can be boiled down to something catchier and pithier. The members of the Lawrence-based E.M.U. Theatre company considered this when they were developing their festival of 10-minute plays for the Lawrence Arts Center. The task of the area writers behind the ten plays that make up Face Down in a Pool of…
Thursday, August 5 With so many worthy cultural organizations in Kansas City, we’re never sure which ones to join, if any. There are so many things to consider. Who has the most attractive members? Whose happy hour offers the best specials? Whose dues are the cheapest? Luckily, they’re all convening from 5 to 7 tonight at Harry’s Country Club…
The posters have come down, the bar has been replaced and the bathrooms have finally been cleaned — and tiled. The result? A newer, shinier Grand Emporium that promises to continue to bring the best live acts in blues … and rock, country and bluegrass, as well as some big-name DJs. When the Grand Emporium, one of Kansas City’s most…
Polly Apfelbaum Like any good artist, Polly Apfelbaum makes complex work. But it is also dazzlingly beautiful, which in the past has caused some snooty art-world folk to dismiss it as mere décor. “People don’t want you to deal with beauty,” Apfelbaum says. “I was interested in the decorative arts. I was interested in the everyday. Screw you. If it…
Cute is the new ugly. At least that’s how it seems upon first glance at the Johnson County Community College Gallery of Art’s Borderland. The show, which explores the grotesque in contemporary art (it’s up in conjunction with Boundary Creatures at the Kansas City Jewish Museum’s Epson Gallery at Village Shalom), was inspired by Modern Art and the Grotesque,…
Hollywood’s increasing interest in computer technology doesn’t threaten the careers of pen-to-paper cartoon artists alone. Flesh-and-blood thespians also face the possibility of being displaced by pixelation. Virtual characters — including a computer-generated Tom Hanks — have top billing in the upcoming film The Polar Express. But as Entertainment Weekly noted in its July 23 issue, their “blank eyes, waxy…
It’s hard to get lost in Ottawa, Kansas, where I’ve been a few times to visit a family friend. At Christmastime, the city hangs tinselly banners on either end of Main Street bidding visitors good tidings. As you drive under the first banner, the second is already in plain view. So when Pitch photographer Luke Echterling and I traveled an…
Hipnotics vocalist Jay Mowbray doesn’t flinch when he sings People like to say/That a white man can’t sing the blues on “The Blues Don’t Know.” A blues group willing to open that Pandora’s box has to have some cajones, but the Hipnotics handle the stereotypes by crankin’ out loud, spare, slanky blues until their ears crack. Accident is engineered with…
When it comes to At the Drive-In offshoots, the members of Mars Volta have a lock on conceptualizing unexpected detours into weirdness. But Sparta gives the prog freakers a run for their money on Porcelain, a second album that bends the boundaries of screamo, metal and punk with a little experimental action of its own. Detached electro clicks perforate the…
All my favorite singers couldn’t sing, Silver Jews ringleader David Berman once sang. No crooner himself, Berman was referring to such greats as Lou Reed and Johnny Cash, artists whose presence and verbal skills trumped their vocal acumen. Berman and college buddy Stephen Malkmus of Pavement were among the most revered talk-singers of the 1990s, wobbling on that tightrope between…
When he’s not inventing new and evil ways to make a quick buck, alleged musician Gene Simmons releases the occasional album. After all, it’s hard to maintain the illusion that one is a musician if one doesn’t make a record at least once in a while. Plus, there are a few thousand Kiss diehards out there who will lick up…
As musical expression goes, joyous rapture (i.e., spirituality) gets too good a rap. Unless it sounds like joy and feels like rapture for the listener, what’s the point of putting it to music? The Polyphonic Spree, a band with more than twenty members — including a choir — has admirers in the mainstream music world. Unfortunately, that only exposes how…
If brevity is the soul of wit, then the Hives are bursting with guffaws. Though the band’s third disc clocks in at a speedy 30 minutes, the wing-tip-sporting Swedes pack enough herky-jerky bravado and manic energy to make past hit “Hate to Say I Told You So” sound like a funeral dirge. As before, the quintet’s garage punk is flavored…
Enjoying the twilight of your career as one-hit wonder after your smash single fades from memory is a much more palatable experience if you happen to have scored a club hit. A DJ can hop from club to club with only a case of choice records, whereas their rock counterparts must pack vans, tow heavy gear, endure ridicule, pay…
If you mention Lowell George to the average person, you’ll get a blank look. Ask about Frank Zappa, and you might catch a spark of recognition. But if you start belting out the chorus of “Dixie Chicken,” people will probably join in before you’re done. George, the former Mothers of Invention guitarist and Zappa disciple, was on to something when…
There are quite a few things that Burning Brides do not do well. Band members do not soothe nerves. They do not sit still or take it easy. They do not shy away from heavy riffs or glossy choruses. They do not come into your town to play tiddlywinks. They do not spend half of their sets throwing devil…
There aren’t many 56-year-old bluesmen featured in action photos that show them midflip, like a cowboy chucked headlong off a bull, seemingly in peril of flying off the lip of the stage, guitar and all. Then again, there aren’t many bluesmen like Guitar Shorty. Not to be confused with his main influence, Guitar Slim, Guitar Shorty is a throwback to…
Maybe Struction seems so chaotically exciting because singer-guitarists David Podrid and Jaime Meira Sonin always seem to be arguing, with Sonin’s shouts going up against Podrid’s barks song after song. Or maybe it’s because Struction embodies elements of some of the best artcore since Lollapalooza was king — Sonic Youth’s burnt-rubber fuzz laced with Blonde Redhead’s angular angst, with hints…
Let’s face it — with the possible exception of those Bible thumpers in Stryper, Christian rock pretty much sucks Satan’s cock. Enter Blindside, a hardcore unit from Sweden that just happens to have faith in a higher power. You might not know that from the group’s early output, which featured a blistering mishmash of Euro guitar and drum noise that…
Yes, we’re shameless. All forms of self-promotion are. But it just so happens that the 2004 Pitch Music Showcase represents the biggest and best collection of local musical talent to assemble all in one place all in one night since the beginning of time. Don’t believe us? Well, where else can you see top regional artists, including Mac Lethal, Conner,…
Feet don’t really turn me on. Neither does getting throttled by a stocky, leather-clad dominatrix named Svetlana. I don’t want to bark like a dog, kick like a mule, cry like a baby or clamp jumper cables on my nipples. I would prefer not to bathe in your golden shower — but thanks for asking — and I implore you…
The first thing I saw was the candy. A shitload of candy. Twizzlers, M&Ms, Kit-Kats, Hershey’s Kisses, Big League Chew, Blow-Pops, Atomic Fireballs, malted milk balls — all piled high on a huge table surrounded by cases of root beer. It was like a Willy Wonka version of Mötley Crüe’s debauched backstage spread. And it was all for Hanson. It…
Let’s say some well-intentioned, music-loving asshole (maybe he’s your former-college-radio-DJ friend; maybe he’s Steve Albini) has come to your house and said, “Sorry, you got too many CDs. Hand over 10 percent of ’em.” You protest — your collection is a finely calibrated expression of self, an index to your moods and history. There’s no ballast here. But preference has…
Phil Anselmo is nodding off. But you’ll have to forgive him — it’s been a long day. More than 15 bands have taken to Ozzfest’s two stages already as the metal caravan enters its tenth hour on a blistering Tuesday evening in Columbus, Ohio. It’s only been about half an hour since Anselmo led resin-coated hardcore revisionists Superjoint Ritual through…
