A word of caution to the 20 die-hard Gorillaz fans who have held on since the “cartoon band” debuted four years ago: Blur’s Damon Albarn is the only contributor to return for Demon Days. The same fictional characters fill the liner notes, but every real-life musician has been replaced, with DJ Danger Mouse of The Grey Album taking on the…
In the ’80s, affable palooka Eddie Money became the root of all sorts of evil, but at 55, this cop-dropout-turned-paradise-ticket-scalper is no longer “a man of no control.” In fact, he’s so wholesome that his tour itinerary includes cherry and balloon festivals, not to mention this area’s own family-friendly Old Shawnee Days. The Brooklyn native born Edward Mahoney speaks in…
Like Billy Corgan, Allen Epley bid his influential ’90s outfit farewell and assembled a lineup that only lasted for a single 2003 release. The erstwhile pumpkin smasher now records solo, but the former Shiner singer simply recruited a replacement rhythm section (ex-Stella Link drummer Chris Metcalf and Ring, Cicada bassist Eric Abert) and kept the Life and Times moniker intact….
Twenty questions The Pitch would have asked Martin Pelland, bass player of Montreal’s operatic pop visionaries the Dears, had he called at the time we’d hammered out with the band’s publicist: 1. Every rag compares the Dears to the Smiths, Suede and — when the writer’s a true Anglophile — dear old Gene. Does it make any damned sense that…
What started as a launch party for a Cincinnati hip-hop rag has become the American Royal of freestyle rap. Scribble Jam kick-started the careers of lyricists such as Slug, Eminem and Kansas City’s own Mac Lethal, who took the 2002 championship. But this year, our KC and Lawrence MCs won’t have to go all the way to Ohio to throw…
I once learned in science class that if you could actually hear all of the radio waves that pass by your head throughout the course of a day, you’d probably go insane. I later discovered that the same effect could be achieved simply by turning on the radio and listening to a few hours of commercial broadcasting. Between car dealers’…
The nightclub Kabal and the Deep Fix Records shop couldn’t be much further apart. Kabal is a River Market hot spot where sexy people buy sexy drinks under sexy lighting. Deep Fix is a weathered storefront next to Gomer’s liquor store at 39th Street and Broadway, a corner where the foot traffic isn’t exactly beneficial to a high-quality vinyl shop….
Layer Cake, the new British crime drama from first-time director Matthew Vaughn, is a block of granite struggling to liberate the statue inside it. Vaughn (producer of Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) has plenty of dark threat and compelling visual style, but his ambitious trip into the London underworld is so tricked-up with double-crosses, hidden motives, vengeful…
There was no reason to expect much from Cinderella Man, Ron Howard’s biography of boxer James Braddock, who, in the summer of 1935, became the most unlikely heavyweight champion in the history of boxing. It’s a true tale with a predetermined outcome; surely there could be no tension in its telling, no shock at its finale. Howard, like Braddock…
Sign language: In regard to Josh Ziegler’s strip of May 12 (Backwash), I can’t tell you how amazed and impressed I was to finally see someone, anyone, draw attention to one of the most humorous but perplexing trends in local business: burned-out sign letters. Ziegler’s clever idea to juxtapose the phenomenon with Wheel of Fortune rhetoric was absolute genius. I,…
Jimmy the Fetus Hey, kids, Jimmy the Fetus here, your guide to moral values in the Midwest, helping everybody see that what we learned in Sunday school really matters. Dear Jimmy: I recently visited Kansas, and I’m pleased that such a liberal thinker as yourself is writing a column to address the pressing political and moral issues of the day….
When Wil Pujols steps into the batter’s box, the eyes of a half-dozen major-league scouts are upon him. Pujols is a senior at Fort Osage High School in Independence. His cousin Albert Pujols — the feared St. Louis Cardinals slugger — played on the same field and graduated from the same school in 1998, after emigrating from the Dominican…
Last week, the KC Strip watched as budding movie star Austin Nichols practiced beating the crap out of a stuntman at Kelly’s Westport Inn. The old Westport watering hole had been closed to customers and turned into a set for a crew filming Lenexa, One Mile, the indie movie being directed by Third Watch regular Jason Wiles. The project has…
One Thursday in late April, this spring’s collection of material girls turned out in droves. Toting reluctant boyfriends and sipping high-priced mojitos, the ladies packed the humid basement level of the Plaza hot spot Re:Verse for a Coach fashion show. The concrete bunker known as the Red Room held low glass tables, ottoman-style bench seats and a giant mirror mounted…
