File Oregon export Glass Candy under that ever-burgeoning genre “no-wave electroclash,” but don’t write it off as another keyboard-toting Yeah Yeah Yeahs ripoff. Though both trios rely on an ultrasexy and charismatic female caterwauler, Glass Candy gets off on the frigidity of Kraftwerk, whereas the Yeahs ape soulful blues. Live shows can be hit-or-miss; audiences are either won over…
Danger and destruction are imminent, and an ominous presence dwells in the outskirts of our psyches: Behold the Arctopus is coming. Believe it or not, you really don’t need to be a 12th-level dungeon-master to enjoy something as seemingly esoteric (read: nerdy) as prog metal. Anchored by the virtuoso hammering of a 12-string Warr guitar and frequently wandering into the…
While Death Row Records was locking down West Coast rap in the ’90s, Aceyalone was quietly building an underground empire. As a co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Project Blowed, a record label and workshop dedicated to the fundamentals of hip-hop, he has contributed his scholarly brand of lyricism to a number of projects. Best known for his work with…
Nobody who saw Johnny Winter at Woodstock or 20 years ago at Westport’s Lone Star guessed he’d make it this long, even with “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo” and his pre-Stevie Ray guitar lightning to keep him going. Onstage, his albinism and plain ol’ skinniness made his tattoo-covered body — done way before people did that sort of thing —…
More and more neglected hands, howls Constantines lead singer Bry Webb, judgment ripe, they’re starting bands. Showcasing a brilliant combination of arrogance and ignorance, these Canadian postpunk rockers are exactly what they sing about: a boisterous operation spouting romance, poetry and rowdiness. Their music, injected with an almost innocent urgency, is built on stripped-down riffs followed by sudden explosions of…
The Stills stumped everyone with their recent sophomore effort, Without Feathers. The Montreal five-piece not only passed the mic to drummer-turned-guitarist Dave Hamelin but also changed its sound completely. When a band reinvents itself, it typically spells trouble (see the Dandy Warhols, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Death Lurks), but the Stills have earned sweet returns. The postpunk moodiness that once…
Every summer, thousands of Nebraskans and out-of-staters take a break from the NCAA College World Series to pack Omaha’s Memorial Park for a free concert. Typically, the acts are state-fair caliber, but this year, Saddle Creek Records’ golden ox, Conner Oberst, headlines the show on Saturday, which begins at 5 p.m. at the park (5651 Underwood Avenue). The next Bright…
Though largely an East Coast diversion, the tradition of the large, multiple-band noisefest is making its way to Kansas City, courtesy of Lawrence sound guru Craig Comstock. He has performed live as This Is My Condition since 2003. His live setup consists of a guitar strapped to a drum kit, which he pounds and tortures to danceable heights of…
The Vans Warped Tour, the original punk-rock summer camp, is celebrating its 12th year this summer. According to tour founder Kevin Lyman, this shouldn’t be happening. “We should never talk in the present,” Lyman says. “We should be talking in the past tense, like this is history. For this to still be around 12 years later … I can’t…
This is going to hurt. That’s what I thought, walking down the long road from the box office by the daytime parking lot to the entrance of the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival. It was probably 90 degrees that Saturday, with the breeze offering little relief. I could already feel a blister forming on the sole of my foot. Rain…
In the fall of 1879, in the small seaside community of Blackpool, England, a handful of residents gathered on the city’s shoreline to power up eight arc lamps, casting an electrified glow on the dark waters below. Today, almost 130 years later, the Blackpool Lights — or Blackpool Illuminations, as they’re known in the city — are the centerpiece of…
Straight dope: As a leading advocate for the reform of policies governing medical marijuana, I believe Eric Barton’s “High Above the Law” (June 8) to be one of the most skewed articles on the subject I’ve ever read. And to refer to sick and dying patients as a “parade of oddballs” was deeply offensive. It seemed to betray an inability…
When Myrna Dick visited an immigration office two years ago to renew her work visa, authorities arrested her on charges that she had falsified information at a border crossing in 1998. Forget that the Raymore woman had lived in the States since she was a kid and now had a son of her own with an American hubby. Dick’s story…
We really shouldn’t bash the new Kansas City Star. After all, it is brighter. And bolder. But more than a week after unveiling the nearly Pitch-sized Star, yellowing copies of the paper still littered lawns all over the metro. In an effort to show off the paper’s new, $200 million printing press, the Star set out to print a copy…
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 our obsession with dwarves and transvestites. Awright, cabrones: laugh and comprende! Dear Mexican: What is it with you Mexicans who want to take back California? Is…
On inauguration day 2005, freshman Kansas state Rep. Patricia Kilpatrick told The Kansas City Star to call her Trish. “I don’t know Patricia,” said the Republican from Overland Park. “That’s only if I’m in trouble.” Court records obtained by the Pitch reveal that Kilpatrick has seen plenty of trouble over the past five years. She has bounced checks and…
Kansas City rock star Shaun Hamontree, the singer for American Catastrophe, passes through the metal detector at the downtown Jackson County Courthouse. In his beat-up leather jacket, Hamontree looks out of place in this dingy marble rotunda. But he’s here to get a copy of his personal property-tax records, the same kind of mundane business that requires many of…
Heidi Harper cusses only at school board meetings. And on radio talk shows. Harper is the designated cusser for Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools, better known as ClassKC — better known as the Blue Valley School District’s book-challenging parent activists. Harper says she doesn’t normally have a trash mouth. But it’s her official duty to attend school board…
Looks like I have some congrats to give to the owners of the Beaumont, Karma, Westport Beach Club and Grand Emporium. They’ve hired someone who’s actually cool and in touch with the local scene. Her name: Cat Simpson. I run into her several times a week out and about, and so I personally know how super neato she is. Witness…
I’m going to brave the ranks of the Great Unwashed and the barricades of buzzkilling, drug-stealing cops and security guards at Wakarusa, but for those of you hitting the clubs this weekend, here are some leads that didn’t make it into the Pitch print this week — at least, heh, that I saw: FRIDAY Yeager, Birds, Nameless at the Brick…
I just got word that El Torreon is really and seriously having to shut down until further notice. It’s a fact: the city has clamped down on laws regarding permits for liquor, catering and dancehalls — laws that have evidently been on the books a long time but have gone largely not enforced — and the city’s busiest all-ages music…
Everybody needs a little help getting over the hump. That’s where DJ Proof and True School Wednesdays come into play each week at Louise’s Downtown in Lawrence. “It’s kind of something to get people through the week,” bartender and host Samuel Copeland says. Club kids at Louise’s say the event is a welcome addition to the Lawrence scene. With fewer…
Collect All Four How about if we collect two instead? Julie Farstad uses stark imagery to convey a nightmarish reality, placing painted toy baby dolls in compromising positions; the slightly grotesque, shiny baby fat in her paintings is indelible. In “Bad Bad Girls,” one doll lifts the dress of the other for a spanking against an austere, glowing-red background. In…
Collect All Four How about if we collect two instead? Julie Farstad uses stark imagery to convey a nightmarish reality, placing painted toy baby dolls in compromising positions; the slightly grotesque, shiny baby fat in her paintings is indelible. In “Bad Bad Girls,” one doll lifts the dress of the other for a spanking against an austere, glowing-red background. In…
