In a way, the three discs that make up Tom Waits’ latest release, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, represent a rescue effort for songs that never made the cut. Some had been in the works for years and were never released; others were recorded for movies or plays. Although the set misses here and there, it’s ambitious and eclectic. The…
The MC known as El-P returns this March with I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, his first proper album in five years. As the CEO of the Definitive Jux record label, he’s sure to be supported by a laundry list of rappers and producers in his employ, so we weren’t surprised that when he leaked an MP3 of “Smithereens (Stop Cryin’),”…
The surprising thing about Deftones’ latest album, Saturday Night Wrist, isn’t that it’s a phenomenal listen but that it even exists. A year ago, the long-running, well-respected California alt-metal quintet nearly called it quits: Frontman Chino Moreno split for six months in the middle of recording sessions to tour with side project Team Sleep. There was talk of replacing him…
When XTC’s Andy Partridge is reached by phone at his home in England, he’s doing exactly what one expects the prolific studio musician to be doing. “You caught me having a secret strum on the guitar,” the 53-year-old says cheerfully. “I just blundered into quite a nice chord change that I haven’t blundered into before. That’s kind of how I…
So many new bands rose up over the past year, you’d think someone was giving away instruments somewhere. To show my appreciation (and, in some cases, to offer advice), I’ve decided to send Christmas greetings to some of the more noteworthy new acts around town. American Catastrophe: You guys really took off this year. You not only played a shitload…
At first, Lawrence musician Craig Comstock called his one-man band Untune the Sky. “I thought it was just such a beautiful phrase,” he says wistfully. Wistfully, indeed, because a few weeks later, the musician buddy who’d offhandedly thought up the moniker in a late-night bullshit session demanded it back. “I thought he just tossed it out there, but I…
Dear Readers: Many kind, drunken words from ustedes regarding my November 30 column proclaiming Mexicans and Irish “brothers in depravity.” Let’s start with a wab. Dear Mexican: Man, did you make me laugh with “leprecanos.” I never had more fun on Cinco de Mayo than I did in 1974 in a Cambridge, Massachusetts, mick bar called the Plough and Stars….
Picture Perfect First, thank you for using my photo in Josh Ziegler’s cartoon about Fred Phelps’ funeral. I’m flattered that you chose me, and I can imagine there are plenty of folks who wouldn’t mind if he met his demise! I’m from Chicago but worked in Little Rock, Arkansas, for 10 years. In Chicago, I loved the Reader weekly, but…
It’s safe to say that by the end of next summer, the Royals will not be challenging the American League champion Detroit Tigers for dominance. Sure, Royals owner David Glass has agreed to bump up his payroll to $55 million. But these days, that means the Royals will still be at or near the bottom of the heap in…
When it comes to managing their money, the Strip’s pals down at City Hall like to live on the edge. This freewheelin’ filet winces whenever it dares to look at the balance in its checkbook — that’s why it understands how the moneymen at 12th and Oak operate. Two recent events confirm the Strip’s theory. First, winter happened. There…
Kansas City Star columnist Jeffrey Flanagan showed a gift for understatement as he sent off Runelvys Hernandez, the fat and ineffective pitcher the Royals released recently. In a December 14 piece, Flanagan lamented the unfulfilled potential of a starter who had pitched decently in the first half of his four-year career with the Royals. Flanagan wrote that the excess poundage…
Bob Mauer has claim to prime panhandling real estate. He hustles on a small patch of grass near the Broadway offramp of Interstate 35. He carries a crumpled cardboard sign that reads “HELP HOMELESS VET. Thank you!” He wears a U.S. Army logo shirt and fatigue pants to make that image bankable. Mauer works the corner in shifts with…
Help me out, people: Should White Whale be considered a local band? For those unfamiliar, White Whale came out of Lawrence at the end of last year and spumed right on to Merge Records, playing the label’s showcase at SXSW in March. I was there, and I haven’t seen them play since. Before that, the Whale did a few local…
Break out the Cubans! Miles Bonny’s self-released solo CD Smell Smoke? has just been picked up by Fat Beats Records out of Brooklyn. Miles can see for miles. A label attached to a store (or rather, three stores: in NY, LA and Amsterdam, all of which Miles has visited), Fat Beats distributes independent hip-hop worldwide. Our own Love Garden, for…
The American Jazz Museum just sent out the following press release: Kansas City, MO. (December 7, 2006) — Jay McShann, the veteran pianist closely identified with the Kansas City tradition of jazz and blues, passed away today at the age of 90 at St. Luke’s Hospital. A master of many styles, McShann established an evolutionary bridge between traditional Kansas City…
AFI: I Heard a Voice (Interscope) Air Buddies (Disney) Ali Rap (ESPN) The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series (Paramount) Barnyard (Paramount) The Chronicles of Narnia: Four-Disc Extended Edition (Disney) A Dead Calling (Lions Gate) The Doors (Lions Gate) James Bond: Ultimate Edition Volumes 3 and 4 (MGM) John Wayne in Color (Legend) Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Action Adventure…
Nintendo has achieved the impossible: My 50-year-old, non-gaming father wants a Wii for Christmas. Either I’ve been whisked to Bizarro World, or The House That Mario Built is on to something big. With the release of its oddly monikered next-gen system, Nintendo may just have revolutionized the way America will think about videogames. As promised, the innovative console immediately hooks…
Talladega Nights (Columbia) This cut of Will Ferrell’s NASCAR comedy runs 13 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and that doesn’t take into account the deleted and extended scenes, outtakes, phony commercials, public-service announcements, and gag reel. A movie that already seemed to be constructed from deleted scenes is well served by a DVD overflowing with them; watch 5 or…
Hidden deep within the transit plan that voters approved this year is the requirement that Kansas City build itself a way for tourists to travel easily between Union Station and Liberty Memorial. The mode of transportation? Gondolas. The plan requires a $10 million aerial tram system between the two historic attractions. Clay Chastain, the author of the plan, says he…
The Architect (Magnolia) Beerfest: Unrated (Warner Bros.) Charlie Chan Collection, Volume 2 (Fox) Coma Girl (Cinequest) The Conformist: Special Collector’s Edition (Paramount) Dinosaur Valley Girls: Mammoth Edition (Cinema Epoch) Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series (Brentwood) Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton: The Film Collection (Warner Bros.) Gwen Stefani: Harajuku Lovers Live (Interscope) High School Musical: Remix (Disney) How to…
I did not have to fend off a horde of bloodthirsty geeks for my PS3. And nobody shot me either, as one hapless Connecticut gamer was. Actually, I just preordered my console weeks ago, and on the day it came out, I walked into the store, paid for it, and walked out. It took 10 minutes. Nothing Mad Max about…
Rocky: Two-Disc Collector’s Edition (MGM) An old TV commercial for Rocky included here compares Sylvester Stallone to Pacino, De Niro and Brando. Though we now know this to be pure madness, it’s easy to see what inspired it. Sure, Stallone (who also wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay) slowly destroyed Rocky’s legacy during his rise and fall as a bloated megastar, but…
Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale A cryptid is a creature like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster — that is, lost, rumored or thought to be extinct. Cryptozoology is a science — or pseudoscience, depending on whom you ask — that studies such creatures. A real-life cryptozoologist named Loren Coleman joins 17 artists from around the world in a…
A Christmas Carol Could even that hooded and horrifying Ghost of Christmas Future have guessed that Charles Dickens¹ slight, sentimental Christmas ghost story would outshine even Great Expectations or David goddamn Copperfield in the public imagination 163 years after its composition? This is the Kansas City Repertory Theatre¹s 26th stab at it, and the troupe has again assembled a grand…
