Marc Broussard is the Bayou’s male answer to British siren Joss Stone. At the tender age of 22 (though he doesn’t look a day over 16 in person), this Louisiana native can certainly wrap his growling baritone around tunes such as the lamenting “Lonely Night in Georgia” and “The Beauty of Who You Are” to transform decent songs into radio…
Warren Haynes’ rock résumé is a hippie’s dream. Over the years, he has lent his guitar licks and throaty blues yowl to the likes of Phil Lesh, the Allman Brothers Band and the Dead. He even co-wrote “Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House,” for Garth Brooks in a moment of country bliss. Haynes’ own heady outfit, Gov’t…
Proper timing is the essence of some things — birth control and cookies, say. And musical trends. The members of Moving Units learned about the latter the hard way. After forming in Los Angeles in 2001, the trio released an EP on the 31G label in 2002. Excited buzz followed, and the group commenced work on its full-length debut, Dangerous…
Rob “Bucket” Hingley has a simple motto: Don’t let the bastards grind you down. It’s fitting for a longtime champion of ska and the leader of the genre’s American flagship, the Toasters. All the preconceived notions and prejudices people may harbor against ska — however justified — are thrown out the door the minute the Toasters take the stage. The…
Aptly named after the final resting place in New Mexico’s tourism industry, Hangar 18 (think Area 51) used its dark and eerie club-banging beats on tour recently to warm up crowds for label mate RJD2. Returning three months later, DJ Pawl and MCs Alaska and Windnbreeze have yet to reach the desired expectations of The Multi-Platinum Debut Album, but, hey,…
Matt Pryor is a busy man these days. Between spells comforting his teething tot — and fresh off the Get Up Kids’ 10th anniversary shows — he spoke to the Pitch about the New Amsterdams record for children he’s developing. Sounds like the album is really coming along. “The bass and drums are done. A kids’ record isn’t necessarily the…
Yeah, we all know that 42-year-old Mike Ness is a punkabilly legend, having fronted SoCal’s trailblazing Social Distortion through numerous lineups, ass-kickings, calamities and triumphs for 26 years and counting. And you’ve probably also heard that Social D is on the road behind the band’s first album in eight years, the snarling, introspective Sex, Love and Rock ‘n’ Roll. But…
After turning heads with two albums of stripped-down cleverness, Canadian wonder twins Tegan and Sara were inundated by some serious hipster buzz for 2004’s So Jealous, which featured charming combinations of folk-punk, new wave and gather-round-the-campfire strumming. Tegan talked with the Pitch about Valentine’s Day, fan incest, penny-pinching exes and the execrable presence of Freddie Prinze Jr. What is…
Ben Grimes is having a seizure. Right here beneath the glittering chandeliers of the Oak Bar in the Fairmont Hotel. The lead singer of the Golden Republic is lying on his side. His eyes are closed. His mouth is open. He is speaking fluent Mumble with the men from the Kansas City Fire Department who are hovering over his prone…
Bad Education, the new film by the flamboyant Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, opens on a man sitting at a table, poring over the tabloids for stories of interest. The apartment is quintessential Almodóvar, awash in bright, saturated colors cut by modern lines; it’s the kind of place where the director might live. So what’s this, a film about a film…
One should expect little from the man who has directed an Olsen twins movie (It Takes Two, the one with Steve Guttenberg); Matthew Perry’s first Friends-to-film entry (Fools Rush In, its title an apparent nod to its audience); and Sweet Home Alabama, one of those interchangeable romantic comedies located at the bottom of Reese Witherspoon’s barrel. Andy Tennant is…
Tear in my beer: This letter is in response to the “Booze Cruise” letter of the January 27 issue. By the tone of your angry and quite personal attack on Jen Chen and her column, I can only imagine what a frustrated artist you must be. I think your disdain for living in a “so-called city” with such a “disgusting…
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 was sort of nervous about dating a really religious girl. You know how it is — you do all that work, and what’s it going to get you,…
The Strip hopes the rest of the city finds it as fun and fascinating to see The Kansas City Star propaganda machine operating at full tilt. This meat patty was pretty entertained, for example, when sports columnist Jeffrey Flanagan sounded outraged when he argued a couple of weeks ago that sports stadiums’ promised economic benefits are grossly exaggerated. He did…
It feels like I’m living in the sequel to Footloose. At the Kansas Capitol in Topeka, preachers from all over the state are holding a rally in the rotunda. They’re crusading against the evils not of dancing but of gay people getting married. Carloads of Christians have slid across the state’s highways in an icy drizzle. A couple hundred of…
Our first official foray to NV, the sexy new gay club at Seventh Street and McGee, began on a less than auspicious note. We attended its recent Thursday-night dance-floor grand opening, but we use the term attended loosely because we had stopped by the Kansas City Press Club’s happy hour beforehand and unwisely mixed our drinks. We hobnobbed with various…
I’ve always maintained that part of Osteria Il Centro’s success (see review) is its location, on the southern fringe of the Country Club Plaza but without that neighborhood’s parking headaches. And unlike the Plaza’s chain Italian restaurants — Brio, Buca di Beppo, Figlio — it’s a real neighborhood joint, owned and operated by a single restaurateur, just like Joe Accurso’s…
The other day I had a phone call from my energetic 83-year-old Aunt Josephine. She had just finished some incredible task, such as reroofing her garage or chopping down a tree in her back yard, and had taken a brief break to call me from her home in upstate New York. “Are you eating well?” she asked. Too well, I…
It has become grossly apparent that Americans, adept as we are at turning sacred ritual into profane shit, have irreversibly mucked up Mardi Gras. And although it’s still a perky B cup to New Orleans’ double-D, Kansas City’s Fat Tuesday celebration at 18th Street and Wyandotte has also swelled. The hosts — generally acknowledged to be David Ford of Y.J.’s…
Thursday, February 3 Tonight kicks off the Kansas City Art Institute’s spring “Current Perspectives: Transformative Identities” series with Linda Weintraub at 7 p.m. at Epperson Auditorium (Vanderslice Hall, 4415 Warwick). Weintraub served as the first director of the Edith C. Blum Art Institute at Bard College, leaving behind a legacy of 50 exhibitions and more than 20 catalogs. She contributes…
The word relocation conjures unpleasant episodes in American history — the kidnapping of slaves from Africa, the Trail of Tears, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. When Anita Dixon, president of the Mid-America Multicultural Travel and Tourism Network, uses the R word, she has less grim times on her mind, namely Kansas City’s banner years in the 1930s…
SUN 2/6 Add mud to the sweat and tears that a good sprint generates during Sunday’s Buffalo Run 5K, which begins at 2 p.m. at the Line Creek Community Center (5940 N.W. Waukomis Drive). The muck-loving participants scuttle through grassy fields, dirt trails and — logically — said creek. Cost is $25; call 816-822-9000 for information. — Annie Fischer Major…
FRI 2/4 We aren’t sure where the first piece of art is that we ever made. It’s probably still hanging on Mom’s fridge, filed away in a storage box or laid gently to rest in a landfill somewhere. It certainly never traveled overseas to gain international acclaim. Textile artist Sherry Whetstone-McCall’s first creation, on the other hand, was selected to…
SAT 2/5 Columbia’s Jazz Series might “always swing,” as its title suggests, but it hasn’t always connected. Founded in 1995, the jazz promotion and preservation program struggled to fill seats for its first six concerts and posted a daunting $9,500 loss during its second season. Still, organizers persevered, reaching a season-ticket-sales zenith in 2003. Last year’s peak performance, propelled by…
