Sam Peckinpah’s Legendary Westerns Collection Warner Bros.) At a mere $42 through most websites, this four-film boxed set ranks among the best ever compiled; not only does it contain the restored version of one of the greatest movies of all time (The Wild Bunch), but also three other brilliant westerns (The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Ride the High Country,…
I don’t make many New Year’s resolutions anymore because, well, I rarely keep them. I always plan to start an exercise program on January 1, and last year I even forced myself to get on a treadmill a few times, promising myself that if I could stay on the damned machine for 30 minutes, I could treat myself to a…
My friend Bob isn’t a superstitious soul, but he does think it’s a bad sign if he walks into a restaurant and there’s nobody in the dining room. It’s an omen, he says, that there’s something terribly wrong with the restaurant. I told him that I have experienced the flip side of that theory. After waiting for a table in…
As with mail carriers, neither rain nor snow will deter Kansas Citians in their quest to drink (though sleet might be our limit). A recent snowstorm was no exception. Westport drew a good number of lushes willing to brave the craptacular weather, and we felt a skewed sense of civic pride at seeing the bustle. That night was the opening…
Alt-country’s answer to Frank Abagnale, Will Oldham has recorded under such pseudonyms as Palace Brothers, Pushkin and Superwolf. Although his work under these names has gravitated toward 11th-hour Dust Bowl despair and acoustic minimalism, Oldham has spent much of the 21st century loitering as the warbling country gent Bonnie “Prince” Billy. The changeling Prince is as laid-back as J.J. Cale…
The biggest debates in rock music are about the great mimics. The Strokes outlasted comparisons to the Velvets, Coldplay somehow became bigger than Radiohead, and you can’t even speak the word Nirvana without thinking the word Pixies. So it’s understandable that one of the most refreshing groups to surface this year, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, isn’t exactly refreshing. A…
Charisma in the rap world usually equals the strut of someone who knows he’s untouch- able. Someone like Cam’ron, whose savant flow comes with the underlying message “Yeah, I’m wearing purple fur — the fuck you want?” On What the Game’s Been Missing, Cam protégé Juelz Santana brings his mentor’s swagger, but with a toothy grin instead of a screwface….
Once one gets past the sophomoric band name (huh-huh, they said “wood”) and the junior high-level double-entendres — the single “Take Off Your Clothes,” references to tits and hits rocking hard — Morningwood is pretty darn irresistible. The New York City group’s oft-delayed full-length debut whirls in a hormone-charged haze of fizzy new-wave cheerleading chants, punkish dance beats and singer…
Ike Turner Overdrive has paid its dues, having played all over Lawrence since 2002 and gained a small but crazy-loyal fanbase. Like their hotheaded namesake, the boys of Ike Turner Overdrive have no problem offending their crowd, and their guitar windmills and flying beer bottles can be hazardous to anyone standing too close. Their over-the-top attitude and guitar solos reflect…
Even though David Allan Coe hasn’t had the commercial success of Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson, the grizzled ex-con can not only kick the shit out of ’em both (it helps that one is dead) but also is the credited author of the archetypal country-and-western song. Like some hat-wearing, whiskey-soaked Aristotle, Coe established the poetics for the “perfect” song…
Few white bluesmen can sing and play with the ease and ooze of swamp water, but Grayson Capps fits squarely in the tradition of J.J. Cale and the few others who can. His voice is husky and languid, and his woolly licks sometime sound like they’re being pried from his guitar with a putty knife. But let’s not mistake being…
When fire engulfs a small town, does the minuscule metropolis vanish in an ashy flash? Based on clandestine tests conducted on unwitting outposts, current wisdom holds that Small Towns Burn a Little Slower, which also is the name of a Minneapolis band. It’s unclear how five residents of a city with a population of nearly 3 million became experts on…
All hail Slayer! The monstrous sound of Reign in Blood inspires to this day. Unfortunately, much of what it inspires is adolescent claptrap such as the majority of death metal. Even though most fans of this “scariest” form of music are pimply dipwads, every once in a while, the music attracts a batshit loonball who takes the silliness seriously and…
Last month it was revealed that Sony Music BMG had been covertly installing spyware on its CDs in order to combat music piracy. Sony used a program called XCP, created by UK firm First 4 Internet, that employed a cloaking system to hide the proprietary media player that consumers were forced to download to play Sony Music CDs. Software included…
We couldn’t leave the locals out of the resolutions game, so we tapped in to ask what was on the minds of scenesters at the turning of the year. Their answers: “Just to keep playing.” — Bob Walkenhorst, singer-songwriter “To become unrecognizably familiar to all who eat griddle cakes with mustard and jelly.” — Forrest Whitlow, singer-songwriter “I resolve to…
Nowhere else in Kansas City’s music scene have I witnessed the kind of strong, continuous push for positivity that I see from underground hip-hop heads. There’s a reason for that, too, because the scene has a shitload of stereotypes to contend with — stereotypes that repeatedly undermine efforts to promote live local hip-hop. At any given time, maybe three area…
It’s that time of year again when all our sins come back to bite us in the ass. Right around midnight on New Year’s Eve, we start trying to fix all the things we keep doing wrong — once we’re sober, that is, and after we’ve made out with someone. So, OK, like not until New Year’s Day, say, in…
For your Heath Ledger holiday-movie options, you have (a) a cowboy in love with another man or (b) history’s most infamous womanizer. Because the name Casanova is synonymous with an un-quenchable thirst for straight sex with women (or at least boasting about it), the role might seem to be a strategic selection for a guy concerned about being perceived as…
The gifted Irish novelist and filmmaker Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Michael Collins) says that his overriding concern is “how individuals work with what they’ve been given.” Case in point: Jordan’s new feature, Breakfast on Pluto. This bittersweet, gender-bending drama takes a page from Candide — its beleaguered hero, too, happily perseveres in the face of disastrous misadventure and…
Without a prayer: Although I find the behavior of many Christians repugnant, my heart goes out to the people who gathered in front of Kit Bond’s office to protest proposed cuts in Medicare, food stamps and student loans. Maybe these “liberal Christians” weren’t very effective protesters, but I think they deserve our thanks, certainly not the demeaning comments they received…
Hip-hop MC Priceless Diamonds describes herself as a “boss bitch” who grew up boosting clothes and turning the occasional trick. She’s no angel, but she’s got advice. So listen up, y’all. Kate Moss is making a comeback with a commercial for Virgin Mobile, her first after all those fashion companies dropped her for snorting coke in a tabloid photo. What…
Everyone else in town may be fixated on football at the moment, but the Strip is looking forward to baseball season. This contrary cutlet has been watching the Royals sign a handful of veteran free agents — so when the team loses 90 games in 2006, at least it’ll do so with the sort of dignity that only flecks of…
From the moment she walked into the service at Temple B’nai Jehudah, people could tell something was wrong with Esmie Tseng. In Esmie’s 16 years, she’d been to the temple only once before, on a church field trip, though she could probably see its roof from her Leawood home a few blocks away. It was 6 p.m. on a Friday…
All in the Family: The Complete Fifth Season (Columbia/Tristar) Annie Duke’s Beginner’s Guide to Texas Hold ‘Em (Big Vision) As Time Goes By: Reunion Special (PBS) The Cave (Sony) Dumb and Dumber: Unrated (New Line) Football Collection: Radio, Jerry Maguire, and Rudy (Sony) The Gospel (Sony) Green River Killer (Lions Gate) Gunsmoke Gift Set (Paramount) Jesus, You Know (Kino) My…
