Adult Adult’s intimidating eccentric electro-punk plays like the soundtrack to that oft-staged movie scene in which a strait-laced, sheltered character must navigate a freaky nightclub due to some plot contrivance. (A few songs into this show, concertgoers familiar with Martin Scorsese’s After Hours will be surprised that they didn’t have to submit to a bizarre haircut at the door.) The…
Since 2002, Banzai Magazine founder Jim Kilroy has kept the battle-of-the-bands tradition alive and disturbingly ubiquitous with Club Wars. In 2005, Cover Wars marked the first in a line of spinoffs that bred contests such as Punk Wars, Country Wars and Alt Wars. (See www.clubwars.net for the fall schedule.) He already beat us to Funk Wars, but here are some…
Erika Wennerstrom is a native of Dayton, Ohio, who speaks with a slight country drawl. Her voice has a homespun grittiness that rumbles softly, like worn-out tires on a dusty road. When she sings, however, she summons a deep-throated hum that rises into a bellyache howl. Her Cincinnati band, the Heartless Bastards, recently released its sophomore effort, All This Time,…
Shortly after Motley Crue embarked on its 2005 reunion tour, amid promises that it would go for two years nonstop, guitarist Mick Mars checked in with the Pitch. Given Mars’ health problems and constant physical pain (he’d recently had both hips replaced and has struggled with a degenerative illness for almost two decades), not to mention well-publicized past squabbles in…
In a postapocalyptic future world, a villainous cadre of B-boys has set up a factory in order to make bootleg CDs. The fashion of the age is retro-’80s, so the nefarious breakdancers all wear matching red warm-up suits. Their dance moves are their defenses, but they’re no match for the rhyme-slaying creation of a cybernetic scientist named Ataxic. In the…
Amy Farrand, Mark Smeltzer and J. Howell live by a simple credo: “Anything is an instrument if you know how to play it.” “Anything” might include a saucepan, a pitchfork or a washing machine. Whatever it is, these three usually know how to squeeze, jolt or coerce it into making music. “There are about eight different ways you can get…
If Pitch editor C.J. Janovy doesn’t like the military adventurism detailed in her anti-Iraq-incursion column (“Uncle Sam,” September 21), why is she running a dubious slam on ethanol in the same issue? “Ethanol Pushers” incorrectly concludes that ethanol will be of no help in the search for energy independence. Biofuels are evolving into substantial and valuable contributors to our domestic…
A couple of Thursdays ago, the battery light came on in our car. The Cav’s been with us for seven years, and it’s not uncommon for those little red signals to flash intermittently, regardless of whether anything needs to be fixed. The vehicle had been serviced back in July, and a dear friend installed a new battery for our last…
Last year, the Solomon’s Porch church put on a haunted house at 3604 Main called Nightmare. It included a scene of a girl sobbing on a bloody toilet and crying for her aborted baby. Then there was the car accident with bodies of teenagers still clutching beer cans amid twisted metal. In the final room, Nightmaregoers were greeted with a…
In June, Kansas Citian Chris Mihlfeld found himself at the center of the biggest steroids scandal in sports history. Major media outlets claimed that he may have helped supply pro baseball players with performance-enhancing drugs. The frenzy grew, even as big-name players stepped up to defend Mihlfeld’s name. It began when federal agents busted former Royals pitcher Jason Grimsley after…
Dear Readers: Folks went loco following my September 14 column that blamed Chicano studies for spawning a generation of humorless activists and “corrupt the brains of young Mexicans with antiquated concepts like victimization, objectification and grade inflation.” Too many letters and comments from professors, activists and Zach de la Rocha to publish here, though special recognition goes to the…
A couple of weeks ago, the Strip noticed something funny — not funny ha ha but funny peculiar — when it got one of its regular e-mails from Capt. Rich Lockhart, the spokesman for the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department. Bein’ a member of this town’s media, the Strip gets all the public statements sent out by the cop shop….
The boy looks to be about 8 years old. He’s wearing the fluorescent orange vest of a road worker over a black T-shirt. The boy holds a bucket. He seeks help for his church. He offers a piece of candy in exchange for money. “Our church burned in a fire,” he says. It’s 3 p.m. on a late July Wednesday….
The new owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins officially ended speculation that the hockey team might move to Kansas City, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Sunday. 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 a…
Last night was the first that I’ve spent at home in about a week, so I’ve got to dredge hardcore through memories of the past, I don’t know … five? … concerts I’ve seen, starting with… International Playboys, Season to Risk and NoMeansNo, Wednesday, October 4, at the Record Bar. The International Playboys look like that pretty much all the…
Wipe your tears away — the Hurricane cometh. Big news, folks. The Hurricane is reopening. The owners of Jerry’s Bait Shop have bought the place and intend to turn it back into a “raw rock bar” like the Hurricane of yore, according to my source. There was also mention of the owners not wanting to host hip-hop, like the old…
TONIGHT, TONIGHT, TONIGHT If you’re down at First Friday, stop by the brand-new Phenom men’s clothing store. It used to be BBlaze, which was on 39th Street, but it moved to the Crossroads — and we welcome it heartily. Browse the threads and listen to beats provided by Sike Style and Miles Bonny. Record Bar Doris Henson’s final (*sob*) show,…
Avenger (Warner Bros.) Calvaire: The Ordeal (Palm) Cedric the Entertainer: Taking You Higher (HBO) Changing Times (Koch Lorber) Confidence (Lionsgate) Deadfall (Lionsgate) Edmond (First Independent) The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series (Anchor Bay) Harvey Toons: The Complete Collection (Sony Wonder) Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection, Volumes 1 & 2 (Warner Bros.) The Little Mermaid: 2-Disc Platinum Edition (Disney) Meat…
Let’s not beat around the bush: Saints Row is creatively bankrupt. The latest in a long list of Grand Theft Auto imitators, this clone replicates Rockstar’s controversial games so closely that the uneducated eye could mistake it for the real deal. But unlike past rip-offs, Saints Row is actually a solid game. And in some small ways, it’s actually better…
Lewis Black: Red, White & Screwed (HBO) Like many other Daily Show success stories, Lewis Black is a comedian made for these times; his facial contortions and verbal tics are expressions of the Bush-era phrase “outrage overload.” But unlike other big names in political stand-up right now (David Cross, Bill Maher), Lewis isn’t smug and smirking — he’s yelling his…
Whoop Dee Doo The troupe of artists behind Whoop Dee Doo is attempting to create a Kansas City incarnation of the Chicago-based public-access TV program Chic-a-go-go, a show with a cheesy set, loud music and lots of dancing. The Kansas City version is less cheesy but more absurd — and fun. This exhibition contains, among many other things, a large…
Eric Bashor: Who’s Your Daddy? He’s not our daddy, but Eric Bashor is recently a daddy, and we get the impression he couldn’t be happier. Objects that make up a simple baby’s world — stroller, nursery, jumpers and bathtub — are here in oversized glory, presented from a child’s perspective. This is a cute but sometimes lonely realm. In “Elsa,”…
A standing O doesn’t mean much in Kansas City. After all, this town is so friendly to performers that cops yell “Encore!” for any drunk who can make it through the alphabet backward. Even before going to plays became a lavishly compensated duty, I found myself resisting the great upward sweep of audiences at final curtain. Lines may have been…
No studio director was a greater hero to the Hong Kong new wave than Martin Scorsese. John Woo dedicated The Killer to him. Wong Kar-wai modeled his first feature, As Tears Go By, after Mean Streets. Taxi Driver’s rain-slicked streets wind through countless lesser Hong Kong films. With The Departed, Scorsese returns the compliment — striving to bring it all…
