A hemophiliac, MoMo Studio owner Lee Tisdale, who is known as Mott-Ly, spent much of his childhood wheelchair- or bed-bound in hospitals. “Drawing pictures was the only thing I could do,” he says. “I think this is one of my earliest works,” Mott-Ly says. The picture in the frame is a stark white background with a child’s marker drawing…
Affluenza! High praise goes to director Mark Ciglar and the bountifully gifted cast of James Sherman’s smart, tart comedy about the poisonous effects of having too much money. Sherman’s choice to write the show in rhyming couplets, à la Moliere, is distracting only until the ear gets used to it — then it becomes damned clever. Of the uniformly winning…
From Bingham to Benton, Midwest as Muse Those of us who grew up around here have seen paintings by Thomas Hart Benton and company from such an early age, and on such abysmally boring field trips, that the artists’ work constitutes — for us — the visual equivalent of white noise. Incredibly, this exhibit could change that. George Caleb Bingham’s…
When Lawrence’s E.M.U. Theatre began mounting shows in 2000, it was as if the troupe were daring audiences to like it. “We’re hoping some people will be so offended, they leave,” company member Trevor Rudor told me back when they were preparing to debut a show called Futurism Restated. Another company member told me that the actors had been…
Ska-revival survivors such as Gwen Stefani still populate the pop charts, but swing-scene stalwarts have all but disappeared, save for scattered symphonic collaborations. Recently, though, James Curd found a fresh way to make cool kids groove to jump jazz — he reinforced the rhythms with massive beats. Pleetch, the brand-new disc from Curd’s Chicago-based Greenskeepers, attaches big-band hooks to…
Rappin’ Twan (Major Factor) There are those who treat gangsta rap from any area code as if it were a highly contagious terminal disease. And, trust us, a lot of it should be treated that way. But a remedy for anyone with an uptight aversion to gangsta rap is to follow a listening of Spiritual Warfare immediately with a selection…
The Pretenders seem like a dubious selection for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The aptly named 2005 inductees produced one excellent record, a couple of above-average follow-ups and a disc’s worth of standout singles. This mystery achievement comes to mind when spinning Hot Fruit’s Lost Control because singer and guitarist Megan Kasten pulls off a convincing Chrissie Hynde…
On his first solo release, Lawrence hip-hop producer Nezbeat (Jeremy Nesbitt) builds a varied collection of mellow, jazz-influenced loops, beats and samples to house an equally varied assortment of guest lyricists and musicians. Nezbeat digs into his overstocked jazz crates to extract big-band horn lines, vibraphones and muted trumpets to coax a substantially cool vibe. Psych-rock guitar riffs, choir loops…
Jeremiah Kidwell was conceived between the gyrating hips of old-school rock and roll. The singer’s explosive, sweat-drenched delivery — which summons the likes of Elvis and Chuck Berry — gives legs to a band that may be one of the city’s best-kept secrets. On Look Out for the Bottom Line, Kidwell kicks off the opening chorus of “Top of the…
Relentlessly engaging and dazzlingly complex, the Golden Republic’s debut full-length is the rare pop record that allows listeners to become actively aware of the compositions’ intricate underlying craftsmanship. “The Turning of the World,” for example, follows a two-minute progression that begins with a slow-winding riff settling into a garage-rock groove before erupting into a quick climax with no afterglow. The…
During a show more than a decade ago — at the height of the Grand Emporium’s heyday and at the peak of Brave Combo’s usual polkasetic explosion — the band suddenly began a bleary-eyed parade around 1 a.m., storming off the stage and — with accordion blazing — Pied-Pipering the whole crowd gingerly across Main Street toward the now dearly…
Once the brooding frontman for New York glam punks D-Generation, Jesse Malin pulled the ultimate transformation in 2003. The release of a Ryan Adams-produced alt-country album, The Fine Art of Self-Destruction, established him as an embittered solo artist, if not Adams’ protégé. That the two artists are friends is no wonder. Both specialize in heartbreaking melodies and lyrics that would…
Although metal and hardcore vocalists try to evoke pain or anger with every howl, too many insist on flat, uniform lyrics. If you’re going to be screaming all the time, you may as well show enough real emotion to make the audience scream along. Self-pity and self-absorbed rage just aren’t going to cut it. Luckily, metalcore quintet Walls of Jericho…
In 1974, when Ladysmith Black Mambazo made its first radio appearances in South Africa, Nelson Mandela was a decade into his life sentence. By 1993, Mandela had been released and the inspirational vocal group was performing at Mandela’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Nowadays, Mandela is appearing on The Rebel Billionaire while Ladysmith just won a Best Traditional World Music Album…
The Kansas City Symphony is going to get bigger, badder and voodoo daddier than ever — for one night at least — when Big Bad Voodoo Daddy snaps and crackles during its Symphony Pops debut. Daddy is one of the last bands standing after the group’s appearance in Swingers jump-started the ’90s swing revival. Thankfully, these survivors are more akin…
“I’m the motherfuckin’ Bill O’Reilly of this hip-hop shit,” Sage Francis claims on A Healthy Distrust, his first release from punk staple Epitaph Records. He may not be too far off the mark. With a journalism degree and a passion for political wordplay, Francis has seamlessly combined aggressive battle rhymes with spoken-word since he was a preteen, earning a place…
Question 1 for Femme Fatality, St. Louis’ theatrical indie-electro bounce-pop crew: Are you guys shitting us? The outfits, the lust for pills and outdated drum machines, the danceable depression and gayed-out ’80s fabulousness, the jittery synths and occasional beyond-the-moon theremin effects, the vocals that seem part Pet Shop Boys, part Nick Cave, part honky hip-hop and part karaoke. These guys…
Being born the grandson of a country-music pioneer and the son of the singer of the Monday Night Football theme song must be hard. This probably explains why it’s so damned difficult to pin down exactly what the hell Hank Williams III is all about. The man could have coasted by on name alone through a typical Nashville career of…
Reviews of Eighteen Visions’ recent Obsession invariably liken the Hot Topic heartthrobs to Stone Temple Pilots. That would be an encouraging comparison for a fledgling glam-grunge hybrid, but because 18V once played concrete-cracking hardcore, some longtime fans bristle at hearing the band’s bazooka breakdowns replaced by a velvet revolver. Eighteen Visions has not, in fact, become a headbanging boy band,…
There are really only two types of Modest Mouse fans — those who have been listening to the trio for at least half a decade and those who just say they have. After all, 2004 was the year the word indie truly became a contradictory term, and leading the charge of art-house-turned-pop-culture-darlings was a 12-year-old college-radio band and a little…
Excuse me, Ms. DiFranco. I was just wondering … you’re so creative. If I were more creative, I could think of a word other than creative to describe your creativity. And if I were more honest about my straggling creativity, I’d own a freaking thesaurus. Anyway, madam, from where does thou creativity spring? “That’s just my spirit — I came…
Until recently, Tsunami Bomb’s claims to fame were unusually intelligent punk-pop and a fashion-forward frontwoman in Agent M, who sports a pink streak that weaves through her stark black hair like a flamingo floating facedown in an oil slick. But then the tsunami hit in December and killed thousands of people. Like Anthrax and I Am the World Trade Center,…
Brother acts are notoriously volatile. If the Davies brothers had just gotten along, we might have had the Kinks at the Super Bowl this year instead of that meager Paul McCartney set. If the Gallaghers could stop killing each other onstage, Noel and Liam might expect to take Oasis to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yet here are…
Ladies and gentlemen! It is my distinct honor to welcome you to the biggest title bout in the history of history. I’m talking life and death. Man versus machine. Or, rather, man and machine versus man and machine. From a trove of submissions, five finalists have been chosen for the Pitch Ultra Music Festival DJ competition. A panel of Pitch…
