It’s been a long time since anyone’s had good news about 18th and Vine. Most of the storefronts sit empty, though the city has dumped $30 million into the area’s rehabilitation. Even the Cajun place closed in April, leaving just one restaurant open. That’s probably why a recent Thursday morning press conference held by the Jazz District Redevelopment Corporation, the…
The free clinic’s rocking. It’s a Wednesday night. A Latino mother with three kids comes through the door, followed closely by a dark-haired woman in modest business attire and an African-American man sporting immaculate Nikes. A woman dressed in pink from her hair-tie to her pulled-up ankle socks maneuvers through the entrance with a cane and sits across from a…
Are those Fruity Pebbles in Superwolf’s bowl? I took myself out last night to celebrate the fact that I’m cool. I recommend everybody do this from time to time (take yourself out, that is, not me — though you’d have more fun if you took me out, probably). I started at the Brick around 11, which is later than most…
Rowr! That’s Kenn on the right. William Blake? You know, that poet…never mind. So, anyway, Friday night, I was out with friends (yes, I do have a few), and crossed paths with one Kenn Jankowski, whom I knew only as lead guitarist for the Golden Republic, which, if I may say, is the only band in town that dresses like…
Evidently, I missed a great show last night — all the more painful because I was there and left early. The Roman Numerals kicked off “The Great American Smoke Camel Cigarettes, Be Cool and Die Painfully and Alone! Rock Carnivale” last night at the Madrid around 8 p.m. The boys sounded good, I thought, but the crowd was rather sedate,…
United 93 (Universal) A suggestion to those who’ve put off watching the year’s most wrenching and essential film: Before rolling the feature, first watch the documentary in which the families of those who died on the plane give the filmmakers their blessing, without reservation. If the mother, father and sister of Richard Guadagno can meet with actor Daniel Sauldi…
Everyman What we dread doesn’t change much as the ages fly by, so this 16th-century morality play, which concerns a regular Joe accounting for himself before death, is as contemporary as, say, The Odd Couple. Granted, it’s the kind of Western Civ-type exercise in which sins have speaking parts and the characters have names like Goods and Discretion. But this…
Elissa Armstrong: Objects of Innocence and Experience Lawrence artist Elissa Armstrong takes the lighthearted concept of “sit-arounds” (or “set-arounds,” depending on how rural your accent is) —decorative objects, including porcelain unicorns, free-standing arrangements of dried flowers and Precious Moments figurines — and flips it on its innocent little head. For this show, the Alfred University-educated ceramist (and University of Kansas…
The shame is that print can’t shout. Too bad the fancy new presses that spit out this rag can’t add a pop-up Nathan Darrow bleeding from the head, or a glossy Rusty Sneary, or an MP3 of these two excellent Kansas City actors raising holy hell with their dialogue in The Pillowman. I just hope I can somehow snag…
The 13th-annual event presents more than 40 movies from Friday, September 8, through Thursday, September 14, at the Screenland, 1656 Washington. For details or to purchase tickets ($8 apiece or $45 for a festival pass), see www.filmkc.org or call 816 -421-2900. Capsule reviews of select FilmFest movies and current releases appear below as space allows. Writers are Michael Atkinson…
Whereas Superman Returns attempted to resurrect the Man of Steel as mythic hero, the season’s other Superman movie wants to disabuse us of any such childish illusions. The glamorously adult Hollywoodland purports to part the veil on the circumstances by which George Reeves, the actor who embodied the superhero on ’50s television, wound up with a bullet in his brain….
Arestaurant doesn’t have to be located in a casino, like The Range Steakhouse (see review), to ante up a little card game every so often. The 2-month-old Embassy International Bistro and Bar (3945 Main) serves up some Texas hold ’em action on Tuesday nights, giving away prizes that include gift certificates to … the Embassy! Among the fans of the…
You know how sometimes — well, most of the time in my experience — your supervisor at a new job waits until you’ve been there for a couple of days before he throws a curveball that wasn’t on your job description? I have dozens of examples from my own employment history, dating back to my first reporting job with…
We’re fans of Johnson Drive — not to mention driving johnsons (buh-dum-bump). And we’re excited for the city of Mission’s “Gateway Project,” which will transform Johnson Drive into a pedestrian-friendly street of coolness. Before that change, though, we wanted to explore its bars — the ones located within walking distance of one another, anyway. Plus, some Night Ranger cohorts have…
In the middle of what’s been accepted as one of the slowest summers for clubbing in Kansas City for some years, Phocas.net has proven that the younger club kids in town are completely wrapped around its logo. As good as that is for Phocas, it could also bode well for the future of electronic dance music in KC. Holding top…
Even when Primal Scream didn’t match the creative heights reached by Screamadelica’s rave-worthy bliss-outs or the electro-punk of XTRMNTR, the group never lacked self-confidence. After all, Scream coaxed (and kept) My Bloody Valentine’s reclusive Kevin Shields out of hibernation and had the courage to embrace sinewy dark wave long before it was hip again. But it’s taken the UK band…
At the dawn of the decade, Pittcore shared stages at now-defunct venues such as Niener’s and The Bunker with rap-metal bands. Even at the time, frontman Wes Kennon never employed a hip-hop cadence, preferring instead a feral fire-belch. However, N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton clearly influenced this Kansas City quintet at some point in its evolution. “Serve and Disrespect” offers the…
In case you haven’t kept up with the indie math-rock that bands such as Don Cab and Shipping News helped pioneer — maybe you thought that it had become too repetitive after its late-’90s swell in popularity — Stella arguably represents the apex of where this style of music could and should evolve. It also demonstrates a welcome evolution in…
With the Appleseed Cast’s relentless spring and summer touring schedule, there’s been little time for frontman Christopher Crisci’s criminally overlooked side project, Old Canes. The band’s warm, understated Americana can’t easily be labeled bluegrass, country or rock, but the ease of its execution is nothing but down-home. Preferring the overall effect to be slightly washed-out both on disc and live,…
Great music is birthed when a collective of people get together and believe in the silly idea that banging on instruments can somehow change the world. It won’t, of course, but when a band like the North Atlantic comes along, it doesn’t really matter. Drummer Cullen Hendrix and bassist Jason Richards live in San Diego, and singer-guitarist Jason Hendrix (Cullen’s…
Executing what has to be one of the more creative uses of Apple’s notebook computers, Sound Tribe Sector 9 has turned its laptops into live instruments. Since the late ’90s, STS9 has churned out largely wordless electronica that sounds organic, even jazzy. Like Lotus, this quintet is best experienced live, in the sweaty funk of the moment. Sound Tribe’s genre-defining…
Pop music is nothing if it doesn’t pop. Whether it’s Britney Spears or the Flamin’ Groovies, it’s a prerequisite that you bob your head and sing along. Extra Blue Kind has the head-bobbing pop aesthetic down to a science. Neither too cheery nor too thorny, the group’s songs bounce and pine in the grand tradition of the Beatles and the…
The Prids are among the few bands associated with Nebraska that aren’t haunted by the shadow of Omaha indie-fairy-dust sprinklers Saddle Creek. Of course, the all-vegan quartet now lives in Portland, Oregon, so it has some distance from its heartland roots and appears more comfortable in its dark-wave skin than ever. On albums such as 2003’s Love Zero and this…
After a decadelong hiatus from the studio, the Lemonheads are back — or at least Evan Dando is. (Come on, feel it.) The all-new lineup includes members of the Descendents, so expect Dando’s bittersweet brand of pop to rock out a bit more. The self-titled return hits shelves September 26 (and features guest guitars from J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.),…
