On a recent Saturday night, we found ourselves in line behind about two dozen stiffs waiting to get into Tonic, that hybrid restaurant and nightspot in downtown Overland Park. Well, in our big book of night-life observations, we’ve always maintained that the longer the line outside a bar, the higher the douche-bag factor inside. Thankfully, we’ve found that Tonic flouts…
We’ve been abundantly clear in previous issues about how much grinding, groping and gaping goes on down at 5401. But it’s all for the sake of the party, right? Each Friday, DJs Sku and Konsept bring out all the flavor-of-the-month vinyls for Flash Fridays at Club 5401 on Johnson Drive in Mission (formerly Lucky Brewgrille). Justin Timberlake, Fergie and…
Kill Pop may be the band that ignites the post-grunge movement of the new millennium, or it may just be proof that grunge is still dead. The loud, Quicksand-meets-Nickelback delivery of II even comes with a cover that looks like it could have been used by Alice in Chains. Maybe that’s not so bad. The Granada was playing “Sickman” over…
The Carolina Chocolate Drops are buttoned-up traditionalists, and Andy Statman is a wild-eyed fusionist, but put them on a bill together and they could make Virginia Senator and would-be good ol’ boy George Allen real squirmy. These are black and Jewish artists celebrating the ethos of their respective traditions with, of all things, bluegrass (or something close to it). It…
Since the group’s bratty beginnings in 2002, fans and nonfans alike have debated whether a band as noisy and defiant as the Blood Brothers really jibes with the textbook definition of hardcore — or punk, for that matter. Turns out, the point isn’t really worth arguing. Like all of the albums that preceded it, Young Machetes, the latest release from…
For the past 15 years, being a member of the Wailers hasn’t been the easiest job in the world. It’s hard enough when any lead singer leaves a band, but when that singer happens to be Bob Marley, you’re pretty much shit outta luck. Then again, there’s a reason that you’re still reading about the band 25 years after Marley’s…
If record swaps are any indication, there are dozens of music lovers out there willing to scour a booth for Bear Family Charlie Rich boxed sets and Philly soul collectibles — The Best of the Intruders, for instance. For those rabid few, the Hacienda Brothers’ brand of western soul is as custom-tailored as a Saturday afternoon with a wad of…
Calvin Johnson’s thick-as-molasses voice belies the fact that he’s a lanky white boy with spazzy dance moves who, in the faux-naif Beat Happening, sang from the heart, as in the song “Indian Summer”: Cover me with rain/Walk me down the lane/I’ll drink from your drain. Perhaps suffering from some sort of hipster ADD, Johnson founded ’90s twee haven K Records….
If you like Simon and Garfunkel or Iron and Wine, you’ll hate aptly named Heavy Heavy Low Low, a screamo hardcore act from San Jose, California, that thrives on layers of guttural vocals and thrashing bass. In concert, the band members look appropriately scary: all sweat-drenched manes and spotty facial hair that dots their contorted faces like scabs. Predictable as…
Ryan Adams has either lost it or he’s just going through a Garth Brooks-as-Chris Gaines midlife crisis: He’s trying his hand at the rap game. To celebrate his newly revamped Internet home, he’s streaming his freshly minted track “Look Who Got a Website” (Stereogum.com was demented enough to preserve it as a downloadable mp3). The song provides a glimpse into…
Scandal. What can be a career ender for one celebrity (Gary Glitter) can be a boon for another (Tommy Lee). Even some politicians manage to survive the front-page torture treatment with their jobs intact (Dick “Quickdraw” Cheney). But for others — such as actor and crusader Mel Gibson and disgraced ex-Congressman Mark Foley — a little well-publicized egg on the…
If you head over to the venerable All Music Guide online database and enter the name Electric Six, you’ll find the following “themes” attributed to the Detroit sextet: “Cool & Cocky,” “Guys Night Out,” “TGIF,” and, of course, “Party Time.” Those are fitting topics for a group that blends cock rock, disco, and new wave with hilariously absurd lyrics. “Wait,…
There are only so many dudes with guitars a guy can take. After a four-night rock-and-roll bender, I needed to spend some weekend time in the care of DJs. And when you’re in need of beat rehab, not just any DJ club will do. You need a place that’s dark and cozy, that has a dance floor but isn’t just…
Andre Williams — the godfather of rap, the last rock-and-roller, the don of dirty R&B — has lots of kids. There are the five he sired himself, who have mixed feelings about his music. “They hated it — they didn’t even want to be represented by it,” Williams says from his home in Joliet, Illinois. “They didn’t come to…
Bendheim Wall Systems, exclusive North American distributor of Lamberts LINIT, is proud to have supplied the custom channel glass enclosing the five lenses of the Bloch Building, the largest channel glass project in the United States. We are also proud to have been installed in the Steven Holl/Rogers Marvel collaboration for the restored center section of Higgins Hall at Pratt…
We always had one reason to go to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum: the chance that we’d be guided by Buck O’Neil. Talk about a grandpa crush. With Buck gone, though, we need a stand-in escort, and Frank White is our top choice. As a kid growing up in KC, White was recruited by Ewing Kauffman to play in an…
When Gov. Matt Blunt suggested that the idea of giving guns to teachers (in light of school shootings) was “worth discussing,” we thought back to our eighth-grade gym teacher. That red-faced pull-up fanatic was one mean SOB, and he just carried a whistle. We don’t want to imagine what he might have done with a .50-caliber Desert Eagle. But gun…
Beaned Bad Dear Mexican: I once got into a fight with a cholo. We beat the crap out of each other, but when all was said and done, I kicked his ass harder than he kicked mine, and the cholo ran off swearing and spitting. I assumed the matter was settled, but the next day, I got jumped by…
This miserable meat patty was as depressed as the next Kansas Citian after Buck O’Neil died. But what has this steak still steaming is the Baseball Hall of Fame’s rejection in February of baseball’s biggest champion. So the Strip worked its own computer magic and came up with a plaque that deserves a place next to the likes of Satchel…
Let’s go,” Peter Billionaire says. “I don’t like standing here. Come on.” With that, the five-man squad starts to run. They all go by code names so their employers don’t know that they regularly break the law. Youth Sonic, the point man, goes first. He’s decked out in a blue Gore-Tex jacket and green cargo pants. Though he had…
The new owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins officially ended speculation that the hockey team might move to Kansas City, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported last week. Jim Balsillie, chairman of the company that makes Blackberry devices, scoffed at the idea of moving his team to the City of Fountains. Balsillie lives in Waterloo, Ontario, and told the paper he wouldn’t want…
We’re accustomed to hearing about Regulated Industries, the city’s department that lords over liquor licenses and strip clubs, ruining a good time. But by disrupting business at the Mutual Musicians Foundation, the office is messing with a Kansas City institution. It all went down September 22, when a pair of Kansas City, Missouri, police officers happened to stop by the…
Hear ye! Glass Candy and the Chromatics play tonight at the Pistol, 1219 Union, in the Bottoms! It’ll be a lot like this. I recommend you go. Categories: Music
Johnny Eggerman can’t fret enough. It’s always the nights when you expect nothing out of life that you end up getting your face rocked off for a couple of hours and then top off the night dancing sockfooted in the back room of a bar. Last Monday evening began at the Record Bar, where a local band I’d never heard…
