Whoever’s running things at the Hangout on Broadway should win an award. Whether they’re bringing in drum-‘n’-bass producers from Europe and Canada, well-established house and hip-hop locals such as Pat Nice and Joc Max, or making you Feel Sexy with Miles Bonny, the folks at 3611 Broadway know how to throw a party. Coming in for Shake and Pop…
Known for their over-the-top songs about anal sex, heavy drinking and (duh) gambling, Austin, Texas’ Riverboat Gamblers pack enough dynamite into each show to blow up the venue and take down most of the block as well. Though their new album, To the Confusion of Our Enemies, is effectively punchy and raw, it barely captures the intensity of the band’s…
Next time you’re in Omaha, Nebraska, take a moment to stop and listen. Hear that giant rush of air? That’s the sound of a city collectively breathing a sigh of relief now that Cursive has found a way to successfully follow up 2003’s The Ugly Organ. After nonstop touring in the wake of that masterly collection, the members of the…
There’s really no reason to sugarcoat things here: Valient Thorr kicks ass far beyond the dreams of any of those psychedelic-stoner-garage-riff-‘n’-rollers who make careers out of copying Sabbath or Iggy Pop and get drooled on by forgiving fans. OK, so Valient Thorr talks about being from Venus. This would be lame or merely amusing, except that the music really does…
Perhaps destined to be best-known for letting rubber-band-fetishizing wrestler Captain Lou Albano know that “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” Cyndi Lauper has had an intriguing but too unheralded career. The onetime platinum seller debuted to good notices on Broadway this past March in a production of The Threepenny Opera. Too bad the critics were about as kind to…
Being a band from Los Angeles can be a double-edged sword. That’s the one place where music fans and label scouts sort through thousands of wanna-bes to find their favorites, but … it’s a place where bands must compete against thousands of wanna-bes. Luckily, Silversun Pickups made it to the top of the pile, even if it did take a…
He’s a radio guy who used to work for record labels in California. She’s a bartender who used to play drums in a band called Frogpond. They’re both single parents, and together, they have one kid. It’s called OxBlood Records. I never expected KCUR 89.3 music programmer and Sonic Spectrum host Robert Moore to suddenly start a record label. I…
Let’s be honest. The emotion that drags fully grown, busy people to reunion shows — local shows, that is, not nonsense like Creedence Clearwater “Revisited” — isn’t mere nostalgia. In part, it’s undying loyalty (frequently signified by tattoos) and the faint, sweet breath of rejuvenated youth. The plain truth is that reunion shows are funded by fear. Fans won’t admit…
With a high of 90 degrees forecast for Saturday, the Kansas City Marathon should feel like a run through hell, only hillier. Warm temperatures will test runners on what is already considered a difficult course on account of Kansas City’s rolling terrain. “It’s going to be tough,” says Mike Potts, a runner who manages the Gary Gribble’s Running Sports in…
I was reading Gustavo Arellano’s “Ask a Mexican” and noticed his usage of the Spanish word chanate. My Mexican wife from Oaxaca says it’s zanate. Who is right? I’m also curious about Sr. Arellano’s background. (I am German and Filipino.) Did he learn his Spanish from his mother, like most Chicanos, or is he a real Mexican? Newly arrived here…
The Strip will never forget its first tour of the new addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Back in the winter of 2005, this cultured cutlet wanted to see for itself what redeeming qualities might be discovered inside the giant shipping containers going up just east of the city’s neoclassical landmark. After all, most of us regular folks…
A college dropout with 20 years of reporting experience and a Pulitzer Prize on his résumé, Gary Webb broke the biggest story of his career in August 1996 when he published “Dark Alliance,” a three-part series for The San Jose Mercury News that linked the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to America’s crack-cocaine explosion via the Nicaraguan contras, a right-wing army…
When I got to the Record Bar last night about a quarter to 10, Rex Hobart had just finished, and most of the sizable, mostly seated crowd didn’t look ready for a conscious hip-hop throwdown. Jay Zastoupil, booker for P. Ott’s Sunday nights, Last of the V8s guitarist and El Torreon associate (that’s my best guess at what his non-existent…
Warm enough for you, Kansas City? The idea of an Indian Summer sure sounds romantic, but the reality of it is rather wretched. Why must we poor Midwesterners suffer climate change so acutely? Alas! As if to add to the misery, it’s pretty much official now that Doris Henson is breaking up. The band will play its last (oh, please,…
