D:Fuse hails from Austin, Texas, the self-proclaimed “Live Music Capital of the World.” Given that DJs are the enemies of live musicians (at least according to bar-band rhetoric), it figures that D:Fuse had to hustle hard to score gigs. The fact that New Kids on the Block monkey man Danny Wood released a trip-hop-slash-smooth-jazz album under the alias D-Fuse couldn’t…
I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House sounds like it fits neatly on the concert poster next to our two favorite imaginary acts, the punk band Urinal Ice and the Scottish-pop outfit Lickable Nipples (who play in suits with the nipples cut out). Seriously, though, these guys aren’t foolin’ on their latest bare-knuckled effort, Menace. Sure, there’s plenty…
Willie Nelson has earned the status of legend, but that museum tag is way too somber for a guy who still puts on such a thrilling live show. His trademark vocal phrasing wrings every drop of emotion out of a song without resorting to cheap stunts, and his crack Family Band swings from raucous to refined with the flawless intuition…
Thirty-six years is a real journey for any artist or group, but considering the ongoing journey of the Allman Brothers Band, such a lifespan more than defies convention — it abandons logic. Having survived disco, new wave, hair metal and more teen-pop idols than anyone can or should remember, the group has been able to carry on in recent years…
For all the cool things that can happen when metal either melds with another style of music or is reinterpreted from an unexpected angle, it’s sometimes hard to shake the feeling that we’re being condescended to when classical or jazz or avant-garde musicians give us their take on the form — even when the results are totally fresh (Fantomas, for…
There are a lot of phrases to describe From Autumn to Ashes’ rise to stardom — bumpy ride and dark horse come to mind — but fairy tale certainly isn’t one of them. After all, in the egocentric world of metalcore, doing something different can be the key to success or a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately for FATA, its emo-anthem-over-blistering-hardcore…
Coldplay is like the current (sad) makeup of the Democratic Party: consummate people pleasers. The music of this megapopular British band can be heard at the dentist’s office, in the J.C. Penney housewares department or on this week’s very special episode of The O.C. Lead bloke Chris Martin croons behind his piano and the group’s sweeping orchestral textures with a…
Like fellow Scottish outfits Aberfeldy and Belle and Sebastian, Sons and Daughters divides its vocal duties between male and female members. Scott Paterson’s brogue-tinged, low-key delivery alternates with Adele Bethel’s cannon-shot croon. But while its compatriots’ material combines cynical lyrics with charming chamber pop, this Glasgow group’s output feels as raw and rural as a shotgun shack surrounded by barbed…
Late-’60s Brit rocker Terry Reid was Jimmy Page’s first choice to sing for Led Zeppelin. Now 57, the legendary band’s unsung architect (who also passed up the chance to front Deep Purple) lives in Palm Desert, California. Reid, whose compilation Superlungs is being released this week, took a few minutes to indulge some weighted questions. The Pitch: There are two…
All hail Doctor Demento, who has carried the torch of the novelty song for many years. For we are not some dour Radiohead fan who requires stone-faced “important” music. But novelty can be taken too far, and Universal Records has abused the idea with its new album, Crazy Frog Presents Crazy Hits. The very idea makes us vomit a little,…
When Sufjan Stevens started playing live — which wasn’t really until Michigan, the first album in his ambitious states project, hit the radar — he suffered from debilitating stage fright. “It wasn’t fear of performance or of the public,” Stevens tells the Pitch. “It was more of a hyper-self-consciousness. Knowing people were watching me … I had an inability…
For most people in my generation, jazz music is like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We’ll never go there (instead we’ll see a few pictures of representative caribou), but we’re comforted by the fact that the place exists. All that beauty protected by law. To trample nature by drilling for filthy oil is unthinkable. Likewise, we like having jazz around…
The Kills treat feedback as foreplay. When Jamie “Hotel” Hince points his guitar at Alison “VV” Mosshart, she writhes as if he’s hit an orgasmic pitch. When Mosshart fixes her fire-starting gaze on him, he paws at his instrument as if possessed by lust. Steam rises from their stage show, though the perspiration starts out as cold sweat before the…
If you’re a character in a movie, and the rain is coming down so heavily that you cannot see through your car’s windshield, for the love of God, don’t drive! Truck drivers will assume in such conditions that honking their horn provides ample warning before plowing into you and knocking you into a coma or, maybe, the afterlife. Reese Witherspoon,…
Andrew Niccol’s first two films as writer-director, 1997’s Gattaca and 2002’s S1m0ne, were hollow, sterile sci-fi masquerading as earnest satire: The former told of a near future in which parents could genetically engineer perfect children; the latter was about an actress who became the most famous and beloved movie star in Hollywood, though she existed only as bytes on…
Ebony and irony: In the September 1 issue of the Pitch, The City featured the “White Middle Class Suburban Man.” Driving gas guzzlers — particularly SUVs — is not a trait unique to white guys in Olathe or Parkville. In my part of town (southeast Wichita), a black neighbor a few houses away has a big Chevrolet Suburban. Around the…
Hip-hop MC Priceless Diamonds describes herself as a “boss bitch” who grew up boosting clothes and turning the occasional trick. She swears that she’s leading a straighter life now, but we figure she’s still learned lots of good life lessons. So listen up, y’all. There’s a lot of criticism of the president’s handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Is…
It was a crazy little Kansas City moment. A big white tent had been set up on the well-kept lawn of a public housing project half a block east of 12th Street and Paseo. Across the street, obliterated by time, was the corner of 12th and Vine. It’s no corner anymore — city planners realigned Vine Street decades ago —…
On a hot morning in mid-August, Tanya Jackson sat on the curb where her son had been shot dead the evening before. Four news crews surrounded her, pushing microphones in her face. When she looked up, the sadness in her eyes hardened into anger as she explained that she’d moved to the Paseo Corridor a few weeks earlier because she’d…
The party at Club Evolution was crashing more spectacularly than its regulars knew. On Saturday nights last summer, the club was the final stop before last call, a 3 a.m. bar where the city’s normally self-segregated cliques converged, pulsing toward a capacity of 1,500. The dance floor overflowed with various tribes — spiky-haired white boys, skate-styled Asians, blingy African-Americans and,…
After Sex (New Yorker Video) Ben-Hur: Four-Disc Collector’s Edition (Warner Bros.) Candlemass: The Curse of Candlemass (Navarre) Carlito’s Way: Ultimate Edition (Universal) Escaflowne: The Movie — Ultimate Edition (Bandai Entertainment) Everybody Loves Raymond: The Complete Fourth Season (HBO Home Video) Fever Pitch (20th Century Fox) Happily Ever After (Kino International) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Buena Vista) Jimi Hendrix:…
Da Ali G Show: Da Compleet Second Seazon (HBO Home Video) Sacha Baron Cohen is inching closer to Tom Green territory; come this time next year, his HBO show is likely to be on the pop-culture junk pile. Which isn’t to say this double-disc set doesn’t hold up — it’s just wearing thin, as evidenced by the “unseen shit”…
The last time we were in Kennedy’s, we were waiting for a ball drop. (Heh, heh — we said “ball drop.”) Actually, the date was New Year’s Eve, and right before midnight, we ventured out to the parking lot at 75th Street and Wornall Road, where a foil-covered ball was lowered down a flagpole. Cheers erupted, firecrackers popped, and cheap…
A friend of mine asked me which restaurant in town was the sexiest. I asked if he meant a place that could be a romantic prelude to postprandial lovemaking, like the dark and intimate Raphael Restaurant in the Raphael Hotel (325 Ward Parkway), where a secluded suite is only an elevator ride away. Or did he mean a place that…
