The Ex-Models attempt to inspire spastic dancing convulsions with playful art rock that features high-pitched singing, whines and yelps that constantly lead cock-rock lead guitar and drums to places unknown. The band’s Other Mathematics is discordant and mentally jarring but has a twinge of Blood Brothers-like pop sensibility. Meanwhile, the band’s other release, Zoo Psychology, finds the Ex-Models turning up…
Rock may be dead, but the theater sure ain’t. In almost 20 years of obscenity charges, market research, iffy thrash and splattery rock spectacle, these Grammy-nominated sickos have come perilously close to becoming an institution, just a decade away from playing dinner shows with Mrs. C and Radar. Now Gwar is the gold standard in horror-show theatrics, the slick punch…
Keller Williams plays improvisational folk with missionary zeal, injecting so much eager-to-please energy and goofy humor into his performances that even the normally jam-averse might be inspired to go for a twirl. Filling his marathon sets with imaginative makeovers, he finds the dark side of “Moondance,” invents falsetto funk-folk during his rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get…
PD: How was your Valentine’s Day? JB: “We hung out with some friends in San Diego. I got some presents from my girlfriend. Talked to her on the phone. Rested. That’s about it.” What’s good music for those not-so-Blood Brothers moments? “Lately, I really like this Ike and Tina record, River Deep, Mountain High. It’s a great record. I’m also…
Back in 1998, Hot Rod Circuit moved from Auburn, Alabama, to New Haven, Connecticut, on a single day’s notice in an effort to snag more exposure. Now singer Andy Jackson is back in Alabama with his wife and daughters. If ever something good has come out of a long-distance relationship, it’s the band’s new album, Reality’s Coming Through, a crisp,…
Evermourn can endure hecklers. As an old-school headbanging band that shares bills with punk-scene purists, the Kansas City quintet weathers rude remarks and the odd projectile without comment. However, it does not suffer sacrilege. When an El Torreon audience member, likely a fan of hardcore-by-numbers headlining act Dry Kill Logic, greeted Evermourn’s cover of “The Trooper” with “Iron Maiden sucks!”…
We were somewhere around the bar stools on the edge of the Grand Emporium when the music began to take hold. There weren’t any flying manta rays. No dead grandmothers with knives clutched in their teeth. But onstage we had an R&B singer. A folk duo. A rap battalion. A soft-pop group. A metal contingent. An eclectic quintet. The lineup…
The latter stages of the first Pitch Ultra Music Festival DJ competition were a feverish blur of writhing bodies, spraying champagne, throbbing electronic beats and some dude in a woodchuck costume dancing on a table. From a stockpile of album submissions, the Pitch selected five finalists — DJ Clockwerk (Brian Scott), DJ PDP (Patrick Kelley), Thump ‘n’ Thor (Brennan Shirk),…
Life is miserable here in the New Mexico desert. It’s cold, dark and absurdly quiet. The only sound comes from the radio — Rex Hobart quietly singing, Baby, don’t you make me break your heart — while the windshield wipers lazily sweep spatters of rain onto the barren asphalt of Route 14. It’s a perfect night for heartache. And Hobart…
Bride & Prejudice is the third major film released stateside in the past few years to fuse the epic romantic musical stylings of Indian “Bollywood” movies with more Westernized, “Hollywood” elements. It’s also the most successful of them. But when the only significant competition has been The Guru and Bollywood/Hollywood, that isn’t saying a whole lot. As the title suggests,…
When Paul Sturtz and David Wilson conceived their True/False Film Festival, which debuted last February in Columbia, Missouri, their ultimate ambition was to become the premier documentary film festival in the Midwest. Mission accomplished. So impeccable were the programming and execution of the inaugural True/False that Sturtz and Wilson are already talking about spin-off festivals on the coasts. For…
He’s got Wessonality: The issue of “pundit payola” has finally hit Kansas City, and The Kansas City Star appears less than thrilled. Kansas City’s very own Emanuel Cleaver hired a local reporter to work as a “consultant” for his congressional campaign last fall. The Star and political correspondent Steve Kraske did not address the situation until The Washington Post reported…
Jimmy the Fetus Hey, kids, Jimmy the Fetus here, your guide to moral values in the Midwest, helping everyone see that what we learned in Sunday school really matters. Dear Jimmy: I read somewhere that the No. 1 question preachers get is how God could let so many bad things happen to people all around the world. And I was…
Last August, Bill Ford Jr., the heir to the auto empire himself, came to Kansas City to show off a new bright-green Ford Escape Hybrid, an SUV that runs on electricity and gasoline. Ford explained that the Claycomo auto plant was going to build at least 25,000 of the Earth-friendly rides by the end of 2005. The announcement drew praise…
When Al Latta moves, he shimmers. His face is masked by cigar smoke, but his short, boxy frame is lit up by amber ceiling lights, and his dark suit is ringed with golden sequins. It’s standing room only inside the Cigar Box, a dimly lighted downtown bar next door to the neon glow of Totally Nude Temptations on Grand…
For some reason, we really didn’t expect to meet a dominatrix at mod night at Slam-erz. We weren’t sure what to think when we first spotted this new bar and grill near the corner of Main Street and Westport Road (in the space formerly occupied by Muddy’s). The name alone conjured up images of frat boys, and, well, the capitalization…
Well, I’m all for driving for an hour or more outside of town if I think I’m getting a fabulous meal at the end of the road trip. But in the case of Wyandotte County’s wildly popular Cheeseburger in Paradise (see this week’sDinning Review), I added together the 20-minute travel time from midtown, the irritating 30- or 40 minute wait…
Dozens of great mysteries have gone unsolved through the centuries. I mean, was there really an ancient continent called Atlantis? Was the boy pharaoh King Tut murdered? Who was the model for Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”? Whatever happened to Jimmy Hoffa? And why in the hell are people waiting in line — sometimes for hours — to eat at…
2/23 & 2/24 William Shakespeare’s Henry V opens with a plea “for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.” Such a wish couldn’t help but inspire award-winning dancer and choreographer David Gordon, whose Pick Up Performance Company brings its brisk interpretation of the play, Dancing Henry Five, to the Lied Center in Lawrence (1600 Stewart…
2/17 & 2/21 It’s a classic formula that forces us to appreciate what we take for granted: Create an alternate universe wherein one chance occurrence changes the future. In It’s a Wonderful Life, an angel takes suicidal George Bailey to a Bizarro world where he never existed. When Bailey sees that everything sucked without him, he goes back to reality…
SAT 2/19 We’re excited that professionals aren’t allowed at the amateur Missouri Valley Judo Championship Saturday at the KC North Community Center (3930 Northeast Antioch Road, 816-784-6100), although we would hate to see someone flub the subtle art of strangulation. The entry fee is $10; spectator admission is free. — Annie Fischer Run Like Hell You’ll definitely feel it in…
WED 2/23 Lots of kids say they want to be cowboys when they grow up, but Rex Purefoy is one of the few who made it happen. “When I was 13, I saw a film with Herb Jeffries, the only black singing cowboy,” Purefoy says. “And the next day, when everybody came to school twirling ropes, I thought, I’d…
Kansas City presents few physical obstacles for thrill seekers. Landlocked and flat, the metro area has no waves to surf and no slopes to ski. However, it does have more than its share of intriguing abandoned buildings, which makes it attractive territory for urban explorers. These amateur archaeologists survey everything from limestone mines to empty office buildings. There are no…
Thursday, February 17 Some parents are vaguely disappointed (or terrified) to discover that their college-bound child wants to study music. So just imagine the reaction of Kyle Lapidus’ mom and dad when they realized they were paying for their science-minded son’s education in electronica — at Harvard. We don’t know for sure how they responded to young Kyle’s penchant…
