Our anemic movie industry recycles so relentlessly that even our complaints about such plasticized repackaging comes off as recycled product of its own, offered primarily to draw the line between concerned aging cinephiles and the target consumers who don’t care a whit. Still, we’ve become a culture not merely tantalized by never-ending resurrections of our own recent junk but doped…
If you don’t know how to eat those little bitty Louisiana crustaceans known as crawfish, don’t worry. Gloria and Kevin Burns, owners of Westport’s two-year-old LaCroix’s Creole Bistro (4019 Pennsylvania), are more than happy to show customers the right way to break open a hot boiled crawdad and pull out the succulent meat. Last year, when the couple held their…
I once worked for a restaurant owner who was a gambler. He actually believed that dumping coins into a slot machine had better payoff odds than opening a new restaurant. Restaurants can be a bad gamble, he said, because so many variables can throw off your luck. “A bad location, a menu that never catches on or quickly goes…
In our ongoing quest to drink outdoors as much as possible between now and September, we present to you Part II of Deck Quest ’06: Sol Cantina. (Insert ta-dah trumpet sound here.) Located on Martini Corner, in the building just east of the Velvet Dog, Sol Cantina is a fairly cool addition to the neighborhood. Its concept is brilliantly simple:…
Since the beginning of the year, the Hangout on Broadway has been on fire. Local DJs Milo and J Fortune, the founders of Fourmation (Kansas City’s first weekend drum-‘n’-bass residency), have played no small part. On May 12, Fourmation hosts the Seattle DJ E.M.U. for a benefit to sponsor the families of six young people who were murdered after…
In 2003, Tool’s unprecedented sense of rhythmic interplay absorbed the listener’s attention with an almost supernatural gravitational pull, positioning fans to expect a streak of groundbreaking releases over a long, sustained career. Then Tool started taking forever between albums and fell into a rut of self-imitation — which, for the most part, appears to be over. For starters, the new…
Sigmund Freud’s theory of the psyche divides it into three parts: the ego, the superego and the id. Based on the lyrical depth and delivery on Taking Back Sunday’s latest album, Louder Now, it’s safe to say that lead singer Adam Lazzara isn’t nearly that complex. Instead, he has perfected a streamlined personality — one that worked well for him…
Any sins that I committed, I have to answer to God, raps Anthony Alvin Hodge, the 22-year-old Marine corporal who rhymes as Amp. Out of context, Hodge’s sentiment is a near cliche of tough-guy military-speak, but after 19 tracks of Voices From the Frontline, a compilation of hip-hop and R&B by American soldiers serving in Iraq, Hodge’s scratchy field recording…
The 18 tracks compiled on Invaders present a rare glimpse inside Kemado A&R chief Keith Abrahamsson’s troubled cranium. Though these bands share musical touchstones (it’s pointless even to mention Black Sabbath), each takes its influences in a slightly different direction. Leaning toward the sludgy bludgeoning of groups such as Saviours, Danava and guitarless duo Big Business, the collection gets a…
To the Confusion of Our Enemies is the Riverboat Gamblers’ fire-breathing new album, and to the delight of their fans, it rules. Born in Denton, Texas, but now raising hell in Austin, the Gamblers explode onstage with crystal-clear lyrics and ankle-twisting rhythmic changes. Singer Mike Wiebe, who’s been known to swing from rafters while howling the band’s songs, leads a…
After more than a decade, Portishead’s Go still serves as cinematic shorthand for dangerous romance. Mixing potent, mood-setting powers with ominous undertones, that group’s songs play mischievous matchmaker, catalyzing affairs fated to end badly. In real life, ill-advised romances seldom receive the star-crossed musical backdrop they deserve. However, anyone looking to approach Mr. or Ms. Right Now, Wrong Later couldn’t…
Ed Kowalczyk began “Selling the Drama” as a long-haired art wuss. Then he shaved his locks down to one freakish kung fu braid and issued the threatening proclamation I alone love you/Fear is not the end of this. Now, the lead singer of Live looks as though he wants to be a G.I. Joe character (his code name: Sparhawk, the…
The members of Emanuel, Vagrant Records’ baby screamo band that hails from Louisville, Kentucky, may not be legally able to drink within the walls of the venues they play, but rest assured that the tenderness of their years doesn’t stop the rock. Harnessing the thrashing sounds of three-chord Warped Tour punk, the foursome jumps around the stage with the attitude…
Canada already has it good — universal health care, generous arts grants and a low crime rate — but there’s another cause for envy: Islands, the latest strand of the Montreal music web that also spawned the Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade and Belle Orchestre. Not that the band needs the cred; core members J’aime Tambeur and Nick Diamonds were once…
It’s hard to mourn the now-disbanded Guided by Voices when its former frontman puts out a constant stream of new material. Robert Pollard will release three new projects in May, including Psycho and the Birds, The Takeovers and Keene Brothers. You can score a song from each of the new LPs, along with a hefty amount of other free tracks,…
A curse is attached to the UK’s coveted Mercury Music Prize, commonly referred to as “mercury poisoning.” Previous winners such as Roni Size, Talvin Singh and Badly Drawn Boy have been doomed with steady declines in album sales and label support. Gomez is one of those bands, but it’s getting back on its feet. The Southport, England, quintet formed in…
The duo known as Atmosphere — featuring the RZA-esque production of Anthony “Ant” Davis and the self-deprecating lyrics of Sean “Slug” Daley — sits at the center of the Minneapolis-based Rhymesayers collective. Proudly shouting out DJ Run, Kool G Rap and KRS-One on 2005’s You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having, Atmosphere gleefully proclaimed its allegiance to the…
Kansas City’s jazz scene needs a shot in the arm. But judging by the age of most local jazz patrons — and half or more of the musicians — a jolt of adrenaline might trigger a heart attack. What jazz needs is fresh, young blood — an influx of teens and twentysomethings turning to the music for the same intoxicating…
Here’s why L. Frank Baum —yes, that L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz —is full of shit. In the real world, tornadoes don’t whisk you away to a magical land of lollipops and emerald cities, where all you have to do is start crying and your troubles will just disappear. No, that sounds more like an…
High on 5: Dear editor — or is that “Manufacturing Director for Pitch-brand Propaganda”? I was quite distressed to read your KC Strip article knocking KCTV Channel 5 for finally digging into the corruption pervasive in the Independence city government (April 27). What you don’t understand is that this town has been this way for years, harboring rogue policemen and…
Mention the words NFL draft, and we think of boring Chris Berman yakking away for eight hours straight on ESPN. But this year’s recruitment actually registered a slight blip on our radar screen o’ love, thanks to one of the Chiefs’ top picks: Brodie Croyle. OK, so his position is of no interest to us — outside the bedroom, that…
Foot, Meet Mouth I don’t want anyone to get the impression that I’m in favor of changing the official language of the national anthem, but this pisses me off: Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander, Majority Leader Bill Frist, both from Tennessee, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, and Pat Roberts of Kansas submitted a nonbinding resolution on the Senate floor last week that…
Firefighter Stephen Johnson came across as something of a real-life hero when ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came to town. The show tore down Johnson’s modest pad and, in a week, built his family an east side palace. The producers played up Johnson’s role-model status: The single father of five risked his own neck back in 2004 to save a…
Dear Gabachos: Bienvenidos to the world’s foremost authority on America’s favorite beaners! The Mexican can answer any and every question on his race, from why Mexicans stick the Virgin of Guadalupe everywhere to their obsession with dwarves and transvestites. (In the course of his answers, the Mexican will use certain terms and phrases for better-rounded answers; for definitions, see…
