England’s Arctic Monkeys have it pretty good right now. Along with topping UK singles charts with “I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor” and “When the Sun Goes Down,” the four-piece sold a record-breaking 360,000 copies of its debut in its first week on the shelves. So what’s all the fuss about? Sure, the band sounds like nothing more…
The haunted-house love child of Black Dice’s Eric Copeland and Animal Collective’s Dave “Avey Tare” Portner, Terrestrial Tones is more lunatic-fringe pastime than just-above-ground vocation — a hypnotizing synthesis of each player’s day job and a good excuse to hang out together and make music to take drugs to make music to. The duo’s lysergic, Technicolor bloodlettings on Dead Drunk…
For a woman who has written some of the toughest introspection and sharpest hooks of the past decade, Beth Orton’s last record was uncharacteristically washy. But on Comfort of Strangers, Orton — whose lyrics frequently negotiate a truce with the blues — is fully recovered from the melancholia of 2002’s Daybreaker. The almost rustic arrangements have something to do with…
Ad Astra Per Aspera Ad Astra Per Aspera expects its fifth year together to be a frantic one. Rather than sticking to a traditional anniversary gift made of wood (BO-ring), they’ll open it up with a South by Southwest appearance next month, to be taped by Lawrence’s live music TV staple, The Turnpike. Afterward, it’s back to Black Lodge in…
No one’s going to dress as a drum major or haul out Sly Stone, but the collaboration of David Bazan (of Headphones and the recently disbanded Pedro the Lion), Will Johnson (Centro-matic), Mark Eitzel (American Music Club) and Vic Chesnutt counts as an event. The four, who share a management company (called Undertow), operate far outside the orbit of Grammys…
You know what’s messed up? Well, actually, a lot of things. But you know what ain’t? Mest. Named by guitarist Tony Lovato when, in a much-inebriated state, he misread the label on a case of Milwaukee’s Best beer, the South Chicago-born punk rockers signed to Maverick four albums ago and have churned out ever-improving emo ever since, under the tutelage…
Unless you’re a cinema nerd, you probably don’t know the term “Wilhelm scream,” but trust us — you’ve heard this sound effect before. Depending on which legend you believe, the sound was first heard in the 1953 film The Charge at Feather River. When an actor playing a cowboy gets shot in the leg with an arrow, he lets out…
Sitting on a record store shelf, Hello, the full-length debut from South London’s the Capes, was worried. “Just behind me is that Buzzcocks comp, Singles Going Steady, and on down the way are the first couple of albums by the Jam,” the album chirped to itself. “Even beyond that is XTC’s entire catalog. I hope someone finds me.” Luckily, a…
Played without warning in any public place, Washington, D.C., band Orthrelm’s OV — a single 45-minute instrumental track — will induce hysteria. Some of the terror comes from the music’s sonic proximity to distress signals: Riffs blare like air-raid horns, and other guitar notes hover at an urgent pitch like Emergency Broadcast System tests. For properly prepared listeners, OV can…
The BoDeans Not many bands can pull off the double live album, an odd bell-bottom remnant invented to let hallucinating graphic artists lavish their labors on the spread of a gatefold LP sleeve. But the BoDeans — beer- and battle-scarred veterans of the last dozen commercial roots insurgencies and subsequent heartbreaking beatbacks — did just that with last year’s Homebrewed:…
All hail R.E.M.! They were the jingle-jangle morning of indie rock, and their latest albums are … not bad for a bunch of old farts. For all the great tunes, we have held our tongues in regards to goofy frontman Michael Stipe. But no longer. For releasing yet another of these tiresome charity songs, this one for the victims of…
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Soldiers are about to release their debut, So Many Musicians to Kill, after struggling through nine years together. Thing is, they’re barely in their twenties. The Eugene, Oregon, rockers formed in seventh grade, named their band after a tour by legendary Australian punk rockers Radio Birdman, and spent their high school years learning how to play…
Trent Reznor appeared genuinely vulnerable on early Nine Inch Nails releases, with stringy locks topping his severe features and spindly frame. This was the original goth gone wild, a cowering, black-clad outcast finally bullied past his breaking point. But after his traditional lengthy layoff between albums, Reznor returned to the road in support of 2005’s With Teeth looking like…
The Overland Park Convention Center is about as close to heavy metal as National American University commercials are to reality. Situated among monolithic office towers and colorless parking lots in Johnson County, the place is a testament to glassy facades, anonymous artwork, gray walls and padded partitions. But last Sunday, it also was the site of the third-annual Heavy Frequency…
Flying sucks. This, of course, is no great observation. We’ve all cursed the interminable lines and inexplicable delays that lead us only to cramped coach seats on Almost Bankrupt Air. But these irritants cause us to lose more than our sanity: Gone is an appreciation of the raw power required to lift us into the air. Gone is the childlike…
Garden state: That old hag we have for a mayor needs to be gone — the sooner, the better. Now we are to catch rainwater so the city won’t have to spend the money that we pay on our water bills for sewers to upgrade them (Backwash, February 2). I find it hard to take that the people here went…
Prison Over Politics Disgraced former Jackson County politician John Carnes is making a comeback. Sort of. On February 3, at a ceremony held in the Independence courtroom of Jackson County Judge Vernon Scoville, Carnes regained his license to practice law. Among a group of about 50 people who watched the one-time eastern Jackson County political boss rejoin the legal fraternity…
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. Where can older folks go to chill in this town without getting overrun by young gunslingers? I like to go to the Green Duck Lounge sometimes for a cocktail…
A cold wind was blowing outside the Sprint store in Westport last week, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed some answers, and the only way to get them was old-fashioned, man-on-the-street-type interviews. I’d wondered about Sprint since December, when The New York Times broke the story that George W. Bush had allowed spooks from the National Security Agency…
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt and Cerner Corporation CEO Neal Patterson think alike. During his State of the State address on January 12, Blunt pushed for spending $25 million on a Healthcare Technology Fund. Such a program, Blunt said, would enlist information technology to improve the delivery of health care and reduce costs. A citizen didn’t have to look far to…
I’m slow-dancing with a 60-year-old man. I figured it would be like dancing with a grandpa at a wedding, but I get the feeling that this guy is checking me out. Full-length mirrors line the ballroom of the Rick West Theatre in Independence, and I catch him eyeing our reflection in a very ungrandpalike way. A minute later, he confirms…
Bambi II (Disney) The Batman: The Complete First Season (Warner Bros.) The Best of the Electric Company (Shout!) The Best of Youth (Miramax) The Cary Grant Box Set (Sony) Cote D’Azur (Strand) Daltry Calhoun (Miramax) Doom: Unrated Extended Edition (Universal) Elizabethtown (Paramount) Eros (Warner Bros.) Grounded for Life: Season 1 (Anchor Bay) Just Like Heaven (DreamWorks) National Lampoon’s Adam &…
Maybe it’s because we’re hung up on our past more than ever — riding a wave of giddy, nonstop nostalgia and absorbing anything that will help recapture the bliss of the good ol’ days — but Capcom’s Mega Man X Collection feels more fun than ever. The follow-up to last year’s wildly popular Mega Man Anniversary Collection, Mega Man X…
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (DreamWorks) Not since Finding Nemo has there been a movie so easy to recommend for all ages and tastes. But despite having crafted a near-perfect film, directors Nick Park and Steve Box second-guess themselves constantly on their audio commentary, as well as revealing which parts of the “claymation” are actually computer-generated (more…
