Signal to Noise, a free-form radio show hosted by Barry Lee, has recently reappeared on Sundays from 1 to 3 p.m. on KKFI 90.1 after a four-year hiatus. (Lee tells us that he resigned back then to protest changes in KKFI’s management; he returned once he considered the station “in good hands again.”) Now Lee’s asking for submissions he can…
Charlie’s Angels: The Complete Third Season (Sony) Cyberteam in Akihabara: Complete Collection (ADV) Eastern Horror Double Feature: Satan’s Slave and Corpse Master (Brentwood) King of the Cage: The Superstars of KOTC (Brentwood) The Kinks: The Live Broadcasts (Classic Rock Legends) The Legend of Prince Valiant: The Complete Series, Volume One (Brentwood) Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School (Sony) My…
When Rockstar Games, the company behind the infamous Grand Theft Auto series, announced that it would be making a title for Xbox 360, gamers naturally envisioned a game featuring next-gen hookers. But then Rockstar revealed that the game was actually going to be an elaborate Ping-Pong sim, and fanboys the world over responded with a collective WTF? Sorry, virtual…
The Matador (Weinstein) Richard Shepard’s spec script, sent to Pierce Brosnan’s production company out of desperation, wound up as 2005’s best buddy pic — damned if I can recall a funnier movie from last year, except the one with the middle-aged virgin. Brosnan, not afraid to don cheerleading skirts and black bikini briefs, is a down-on-his-luck hit man who…
King Henry V Under director Sidonie Garrett, this show is the tightest, most exciting production I’ve seen at the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival — crisp in its action, plush in its pageantry and all aclang with speeches and swordplay, with a fine brace of actors taking hacks at the most ringing martial poetry in the language. But, like always,…
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…
A small crowd of well-dressed people stand in front of a TWA airplane with a banner reading “Kansas City Welcomes You.” They set a perfect tone for The Photographer’s Eye: Kansas City Through the Lens of Warner Untersee 1950-59 at the Kansas City Museum. Warner Untersee owned a commercial photography studio in downtown Kansas City from 1949 until 1976. But…
Summertime entertainment, even when pitched at adults, is usually about adolescents — their fantasies, their worldviews, the products that moneymen would like to sell them. But they’re rarely about adolescence — who kids are, what they feel, how they become us. Instead of giving us kids who grapple realistically with life and its messiness, Hollywood films offer little but…
That 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was such a hit had much to do with viewers’ pre-launch expectations, which were approximately none. Who could have been blamed for thinking a Gore Verbinski-directed, Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie based on a theme-park ride would proffer anything remotely approaching the thrill ride it turned out to be?…
Last week, I went back to my hometown of Indianapolis and immediately got an earful from my sister, who had also flown in for a visit — from Los Angeles, where almost all restaurants and saloons are nonsmoking. That first night, she and her husband and their 6-year-old child had tried to eat at three different restaurants in the Westport-like…
A few times in my life, I’ve wanted to curl my lip like Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest and bark out, “Don’t fuck with me, fellas, this ain’t my first time at the rodeo.” Most recently, it was at the new breakfast and lunch joint called Eggtc. My initial experience at this pretty little bruncheonette was a complete disaster,…
It’s not every day that a guy asks us to autograph his chest. Then again, it’s not every day that we mark our triumphant return to this column by visiting a bar housed in a former funeral home with a crematorium still in the basement. The setting for such a scene? Kansas City, Kansas, of course. We wanted to take…
The Country Club Plaza isn’t exactly known for its nightlife, but the tasteful club known as Blonde may surprise the average after-dark enthusiast with its more-than-qualified DJs. This month kicks off Cherry Sundays, Blonde’s new weekly gig hosted by a sextuplet of DJs collectively dubbed the Abe Froman Showmen. Vice, Stone Rokk, Graham Funke, Cobra, 5ive and Ob-One arrive at…
According to legend, Percival was one of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. It also sounds like a name an imaginative child might give a stuffed unicorn. But regardless of what comes to mind at first mention, Percival is the name, and rootsy, alt-country rock is this band’s game. Indian Summer, the Lawrence quartet’s debut EP, showcases Percival’s versatility…
It takes a certain amount of hubris — or genius — to create a record as musically varied as Apollo 13’s sophomore album, Love Bomb. Whereas Beck can slide easily in and out of genres with each new release, Apollo 13, a fun-loving, loose-limbed sextet of friends living in Lawrence, risks drifting off into space as the record veers from…
Contrary to popular belief, Dashboard Confessional frontman Chris Carrabba is one of the ballsiest men in popular music. That statement might seem absurd, considering that … well, he’s Chris Carrabba, for chrissake. But during the early part of the decade, when critics and other musicians were busy distancing themselves from emo’s fallout, the breathy-voiced singer-songwriter was still proudly waving his…
The rumors surrounding the long-awaited follow-up to one of Kool Keith’s most infamous creations, 1996’s Dr. Octagonecologyst, only serve to complicate an already convoluted character. To bring about The Return of Dr. Octagon, Kool Keith’s vocal tracks (supposedly from a 2002 session with producer Fantik-J) were appropriated by Simon Walbrook, John Lindland and Ben Green — a trio of knob…
Before selecting Manifold Array, this Kansas City quintet watched several monikers go awry. Formed in February 2006 to back singer-songwriter Valorie Engholm, Manifold Array initially christened itself the 39th Street Band. When informed that an area blues act had already claimed that name, the outfit married a random adjective and noun. Guitarist Chris Hutchins picked “Crazy,” and drummer Kehinde Onikibun…
Sure all good things must end, but what about things dirty and debauched? After nearly 10 years together, Filthy Jim (pictured), Lawrence’s staple sludge-metal and whiskey-rock act, is bringing its venture to an end with a farewell show at the Replay Friday. The band’s name, slang for a used condom, is indicative of both its raw, garage-metal sound and…
She Wants Revenge, or so claim DJs Justin Warfield and Adam 12. If you ask her, the reasons are pretty clear, too. See, she always hated Joy Division, ever since her first boyfriend killed himself high on their postpunk misery. Two decades later, along comes Interpol, and memories come rushing back. She begins drinking. She loses her job. All she…
With so many first-generation country stars gone, Dale Watson has become our honky-tonk go-to guy. Watson’s Texas baritone heals aching hearts every bit as reliably as the options laid out on his latest CD, Whiskey or God. Watson’s traditional country, with its distinct Nashville-avoidance signals, always travels Hurtin’ Road, a detour that has sidetracked Watson more than once in his…
Local rhyme slinger Gunn Jakc is set to release 144 Killahurtz later this month, but you can already stream a couple of tracks on his MySpace page. Along with guest spots by a host of local rappers, the debut features production by Miles Bonny, who has been busy launching his own podcast. “The Purple Jungle mix is just one link…
Julie Christmas, the alternately angelic and aggressive singer for the artfully noisy space-sludge outfit Made Out of Babies, rated a full-page photo in Revolver’s March 2006 “Hottest Chicks in Metal” issue. Christmas tells the Pitch that this accolade prompted guys she grew up with in Brooklyn to ask, “Who did ya get to stand in for you?” — not to…
If Dean Martin had been alive to celebrate his 89th birthday earlier this month, he might have dropped his Titleist on the green in the hazy morning, then slipped into the dimmest booth of some Hollywood time-capsule steakhouse for dinner. He might have watched TV all day, hour after hour of contemptible programming crawling by without a single reference…
