When a popular sitcom goes off the air, its cancellation typically spells doom for the showbiz careers of its cast members. Prime-time lightning rarely strikes twice, and the actors who captured our hearts week after week end up as security guards (Gary Coleman), beauty-pageant judges (Alan Thicke) or singers in appalling alt-rock bands (Tina Yothers). The most recent vehicle for…
Thursday, October 20,2005 If Munchiez had been around during our first year of college, there’s a chance we would have suffered the freshman 50. The kitschy café, open from 4:20 p.m. to 4:20 a.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays — nope, no Wednesdays — has a deliciously lowbrow menu that includes not only the standard soups and sandwiches but also…
Sad thing about smallish towns: The greats leave. But when Kansas City life force Queen Bey titled her Bar Natasha revue I’m Still Here, she wasn’t talking geography. “When you stay home, you get branded as local,” says Bey, a native we’d probably call a jazz institution if institution didn’t imply a museum’s stuffiness or that she — or her…
Nunsense Transubstantiation tells us you never know where a man’s body is going to turn up. When director Therese Riley conceived of an all-male, all-drag riff on this musty sister act, she knew she had something: The original was always a little funkier (and nastier) than its dinner-theater popularity would suggest, and its campy songs and pretty-good liturgical sex jokes…
Exhibición de la arte de vida y muerte The Day of the Dead Festival is over. Gone is your chance to buy skull-shaped lollipops, refrigerator magnets and pens. No more can you enjoy funnel cake while watching lithe flamenco dancers stomp gracefully in high heels. But the art and ofrendas (or altars) at Mattie Rhodes Gallery are still on display,…
The newish Zona Rosa development, just a few miles north of downtown, is what J.C. Nichols might have dreamed up if he’d been a dentist. For all the rococo nonsense of the original Plaza, its creator at least aspired for it to look like something greater than a shopping district for the area’s elite. His fluting towers and filigreed…
Martin Morehouse is a real softy. His show at Leedy-Voulkos — The Snug Sensation — is an installation of pounding, purring, vibrating white vinyl columns that can be fully experienced only if they’re hugged. When you’re just standing around in the gallery, not hugging the art, the punching-bag-like sculptures make noises that are subtle and ambient, like sound dampened underwater….
DJ SVS Dance music is the only genre in which up-and-coming artists alternate between playing major festivals and free club shows. Even the 10 a.m. Ozzfest openers command $7 or so when they come to town, but they’re compensating for travel costs. Unsigned DJs play most gigs near home, and they’re willing to sacrifice cover charges for wider exposure. Last…
Like recent-vintage Cowtown crooners Big Jeter and Rex Hobart, Johnny Belt combines traditional twang with smart comic timing. But Belt is a storyteller more than a singer, spinning yarns in a conversational drawl. He also has a knack for dialogue, best evidenced by this exchange: He said, ‘I think you’ve got a problem with the sauce’/I said, ‘I’ll have to…
On 2004’s Middletown, OK Jones frontman Richard Gintowt struggled to carve a unique identity; he seemed content instead to faithfully emulate the sounds of Americana. His Lawrence band’s third album picks up where Middletown left off, but Push/Pull is less contrived than its predecessor and much more of a group effort. Oh, Gintowt is still dying to be the bastard…
At a time when hip-hop is mostly concerned with escapism, the song “That Night” is an enormous exception. The song is about Marissa Mathy-Zvaifler, a 16-year-old who was slain a few hours after a 2003 Atmosphere show in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and rapper Slug doesn’t hide behind metaphors. Sample couplet: He raped and killed her at the venue/Can’t comprehend what…
Rhode Island’s Lightning Bolt approached 2003’s Wonderful Rainbow like two ski-masked horsemen of the apocalypse, frenzied metal-punk harriers hellbent on the merciless ravaging of all available eardrums. Allied in studio-annihilating forward thrust, Brian Chippendale’s meth-freak drums and Brian Gibson’s amazingly versatile bass were perfectly calibrated to reduce listeners’ inhibitions — and brains — to mush. Despite boasting some of the…
The Magic Numbers are something of a guilty pleasure. Made up of two sets of siblings, all of whom sing, this London outfit dangerously treads the line between indie rock and adult contemporary. Not to say it’s another Hootie or Matchbox Twenty, but most soccer moms would approve of the band’s simple, organic sound and lighthearted harmonies. Nonetheless, the self-titled…
Caveats, qualifiers and disclaimers run rampant among jazz aficionados, and Kansas City-turned-Chicago pianist Jo Ann Daugherty has likely heard them all. She’s been called a “stunning surprise” (one writer’s attempt to dismiss her provincial status as a Midwestern native) and been outed by a reviewer as “a fox,” as if her considerable improv and compositional chops didn’t warrant attention on…
Jemma Griffiths has a secret identity: Jem, the Welsh singer-songwriter whose diverse rhythms and introspective lyrics have helped her land hits such as “They” and “Flying High” stateside. Don’t mistake her for the other Jem, the outrageous lead singer of Jem and the Holograms, who used to throw down weekly with the Misfits and the Stingers. For one thing, Jem…
What ever happened to good old-fashioned harmonizing? Not just a bass player singing along for a few words on the chorus — we’re talking thoughtful, calculated harmonies, two or three voices gracefully colliding to create a perfect sonic moment. When it’s done right, nothing in any genre of art can compare. This concept is not lost on Philadelphia’s Dr….
It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since Proudentall hung its hat for good at the Replay — the memory loss has gotta be because of those crazy-strong, cheap drinks. While we were still hung over, Proundentallers Sean Bergman (vocals, guitar) and Bill Ning (bass) formed Volara, a rare Lawrence-Kansas City hybrid, with Brandon Akin (guitar) and Paul…
Thank God that ’70s and ’80s new-wave-influenced pop is all the rage these days, because there ain’t nothing wrong with getting your dance on. Behold Chicago’s tightly wound the New Black. The band’s sophomore release, Time Attack, delivers a robust fusion of retro-quirky postpunk and synth-pop, seamlessly integrating experimental riffs and reverb with dueling vocals and keyboards. Some songs build…
Although they’re not technically rock operas, Nevermore’s albums appropriate the dramatic elements of that form, especially the expository lyrics. Warrel Dane’s theatrical delivery differentiates the ominous growls of the pain inflictors, the tortured wails of the victims and the resilient bellows of the heroes. The Seattle band’s sixth album, This Godless Endeavor, revels in futuristic settings, but it’s no fey…
If cool were measured in Chuck E. Cheese tickets, Metric lead singer and keyboardist Emily Haines would get you a prize from the top shelf. From sharing a New York flat with Yeah Yeah Yeahs bad girl Karen O. to moonlighting as a member of the show-stealing Broken Social Scene, this siren is just a little too fuck-you punk for…
There have been a lot of good reasons to be charitable this year, so here’s one that gives something back. With profits going to help children in war-torn countries, War Child Music has put together Help: A Day in the Life, a compilation of 22 new and exclusive songs by the likes of Radiohead, Gorillaz, Bloc Party, Belle and Sebastian,…
When the Ssion’s Cody Critcheloe and I met to listen to his band’s new 7-inch, there was nothing especially punk about our afternoon. I did take notes on fliers I’d pocketed from the Broadway Café. And we did go off on a lengthy, heartfelt tangent about how real underground culture is dead, which I guess is pretty punk. But…
After several weeks off the air in Kansas City, Little Steven’s Underground Garage returns to KZPL 97.3 Sunday, the station said Monday. The show, a survey of rough-hewn pop, vintage rock, and surf instrumentals curated and DJ’d by E Street Band guitarist, Sopranos actor (he plays consigliere Silvio Dante) and “Sun City” writer Little Steven Van Zandt, was an early…
As of now, everything at the Hangout is just as it was before young entrepreneur Tony Choi took over the place on Monday, October 10, and dropped the word Bobby’s from its name. The interior is still lush and crimson with velvet curtains lining the wall, there’s still that Lost City of Atlantis chandelier over the bar, and Shepard Fairey’s…
