After the sublime first half of his magnum Want opus, Rufus Wainwright returns with Want Two, 12 wildly ambitious and compelling songs chronicling his often thwarted desire for completion in long-lasting love and self-satisfaction. From the opening dissonant strings on “Agnus Dei,” Want Two is more experimental and less accessible than the acclaimed 2003 release Want One. The singer’s personalities…
Things haven’t boded well for Encore, Slim Shady’s first full-length since 2002’s gajillion-selling The Eminem Show. D-12’s genuinely awful summer single “My Band” was eclipsed in wretchedness by Encore’s first offering, “Just Lose It,” a formulaic and unfunny ditty with a video that took aim at the easiest targets in show biz. “Lose” was followed by “Mosh,” a dark anti-Bush…
The measure by which fans gauge the weight of heavy music — call it the lead standard — has fluctuated frequently over the past three decades. Black Sabbath’s profoundly gloomy blues, Judas Priest’s piercing guitar tones, Metallica’s punk-informed thrash and Sick of It All’s bludgeoning breakdowns all unquestionably qualify as precious metals, whereas flimsy-riffed rap-rock acts might be aluminum at…
There is a lot of work cut out for anyone just copping to MF Doom after catching him bend space and time on that damn-near-relevant new De La Soul album. Between pseudonymous releases (Viktor Vaughan, King Geedorah) and his collabs (Mad Lib, MF Grimm), Doom has dropped four records in 2004 alone. Whenever digging anything from the underground, it’s best…
Mandy Levy and Pete Ohs are trying to make your favorite band look like a bunch of chumps. And they’re succeeding. Granted, the duo — which performs as Toy Band — has a shtick. They play only toy instruments. As in the kind of flimsy plastic Panasonic crap you’d find at Toys “R” Us. Oh, and they have a ludicrously…
Ah, to be 16 again. The innocent romances, the carefree lifestyle … the acne scars and crippling self-consciousness. OK, so maybe adolescence ain’t always pretty. But with a handful of bounding emo anthems, the Starting Line manages to capture the trepidation of growing up without sounding out of its element — not surprising, considering that most of these guys are…
How’s this for trendy indie-rock cred? Saddle Creek artists Son, Ambulance debuted on an EP split with Omaha labelmates Bright Eyes. Faithful to its popular hometown record company, Son has stuck around for two subsequent albums (2001’s gauzy Euphemystic and this autumn’s Key). The band, a revolving group of musicians, has at its center Joe Knapp, whose obsession with lyrics…
The Crystal Method didn’t just get frat boys to like techno. America’s answer to the Chemical Brothers also helped DJs earn rock-star status while the digital duo revitalized the rave scene with the 1995 hit “Keep Hope Alive.” Since then, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland have cranked out big beats birthed in the Bomb Shelter (their garage) on albums such…
Is it spoken word or bloody murder? I’m not sure. But take for granted that Mewithoutyou’s kind of calculated screaming comes from a dark and complex place. As expressive as it is startling, the band has a sound that scares you into listening just a little bit longer. The group, which claims among its influences Jawbox and Burning Airlines, has…
Day-Glo hardcore probably isn’t what Ian MacKaye had in mind when he bellowed his brains out in Minor Threat. But that’s exactly the type of pummeling threatened by the Start, a Los Angeles foursome that zips with new-wave keyboard sass even as it explodes with crusty punk action. “I wouldn’t want our record to be so complicated that people wouldn’t…
At a recent Kansas City show, Skinny Puppy likened George W. Bush to Hitler and squirted fake blood from Super Soakers. That stage show was about as subtle as a stabbing spree, but the Puppy’s industrial-pioneer peer Ministry takes Bush-bashing to new extremes. During every concert on its Evil Doer tour, Ministry’s Al Jourgensen pummels a Bush-mask-wearing roadie. He also…
PD: How are you coping with the election results? JF: I survived, you know? I would have hoped it would have gone another way, but it really wasn’t all that surprising. Has the political climate affected your songwriting? It’s something that I consciously don’t want in there. But I’ve noticed that over the last four years, things have begun to…
Everyone has a price. All those morals in the so-called moral majority are waiting in the discount bin. Those principles are the blue-light special. All of our souls are priced to sell, and everything must go. All we ask is fair market value. $1 million and the keys to an H2? $10,000 and an iPod? $100 and a used Slip…
It didn’t take long for the vultures to strike. Less than 48 hours after Jesus died in a New York recording studio — 48 hours before his 36th year in the world began — Ebay had more than 100 listings for “Rest In Peace” commemorative T-shirts, caps and hoodies being hawked by eulogizing entrepreneurs. Happy birthday to you. Not that…
Let it be known that I do not take the release of a new U2 album — or the public disparaging of same — lightly. Harsh personal experience taught this lesson. After writing a few discouraging words about the band’s last record, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, for a Cleveland paper, I received angry hate mail. From my mother….
It the bottom of the ocean, inside a giant pineapple, lives a yellow, oblong sponge who likes to blow bubbles, eats more ice cream than is good for him, and works as a fry cook. The “Krabby Patty” sandwiches he makes are so popular that a one-eyed plankton who runs a failed restaurant across the way regularly comes up with…
Throughout P.S. , a thoughtful, self-possessed film from director Dylan Kidd (Roger Dodger), there is a sense of the disaster it could have been. A 39-year-old woman, divorced and emotionally shuttered, meets an adorable young man who is a replica of her high school boyfriend — the one who painted her portrait, left her for her best friend and…
There is something important to know about Enduring Love that is not apparent from its title: It’s a thriller. More specifically, it’s a creepy, twisted, overproduced (but often intelligent) psychological thriller (adapted from Ian McEwan’s novel) with an ending all too loyal to the genre. Director Roger Michell (most recently of The Mother, a nearly perfect family drama) withholds this…
It was just last year that Paul Giamatti played the hilariously beleaguered Harvey Pekar in American Splendor, a role that he occupied with slumped, head-hanging perfection. Did you know how much you missed him? As soon as Giamatti appears onscreen in Sideways, the lovely new film from director Alexander Payne, you realize how long it’s been. Where did he go?…
No ill will: C.J. Janovy’s column on Heather Cave deeply moved me, and I applaud her for bringing to light such a poignant example of courage and what is wrong with the health-care system in the United States (” Now What?” November 4 ). I must admit, however, the piece probably did not affect me as much as it will…
Net Prophet Notes from KC’s blogosphere. This week was my last week at the retail job so now I work at the radio station as the only source of income while I’m kicking it in school. No more having to put up with inbred mutant freaks. No more having to kiss ass just to sell one more rental movie. No…
The Strip had talked to Jack Phinney only one time — about his concerns over Election Day chaos — before the 50-year-old Kansas City resident called up this meat patty last week to tell us that he’d figured out why his life sucked so hard. It’s not every day that folks call up this chuck steak to discuss why their…
I’m gay. That’s not big news — a lot of people already know it — and I’m not bragging or anything. It just might bear repeating because of what I’m about to say. Gay marriage is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard. I’m not saying the queer-nuptials set cost John Kerry the election. Plenty of other folks might be saying…
Beth Garrett and Blake Elliott spent a recent Monday evening at the Blue Koi on West 39th Street. They ordered appetizers, drank Merlot and left happy. “We love it,” Garrett says, standing on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. “It’s one of our favorites.” Garrett, a speech pathologist, lives near 58th Street and Wyandotte. Elliott, an architect, lives near 65th Street…
