You saw it here first. Or, actually, you’re about to see it here, uh…first, unless you’ve already seen it. Fuck. Happy MLK Jr Day, everybody! Anyway, what I was stumbling over myself to tell you about was this video and revamped song local singer-songwriter Jon Yeager has done in honor of Dr. King. I know, I wouldn’t have expected Yeager…
This article is interesting. It’s about how some organizations in Chicago are studying the economic impact of local music on their city, basically. One of the groups involved is with the University of Chicago, which is a pretty fancypants school if you didn’t already know, and the other, the one leading the research, is the Chicago Music Commission, “a nonprofit…
For two and a half years now, city leaders have promised that they wouldn’t shell out another dime to attract a tenant for the Sprint Center. The promise is even part of the 11-page contract with Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Los Angeles-based company that will manage the new arena. But in a speech on Wednesday, Mayor Kay Barnes revealed…
America’s Funniest Home Videos: Salute to Romance (Shout Factory) Behind the Mask (Good Times) Broken Bridges (Paramount) Color of the Cross (Fox) Conversations With Other Women (Hart Sharp) Crank (Lions Gate) Everybody Says I’m Fine (BFS) Good Morning World (S’More) Hello Kitty’s Animation Theater: Complete Collection (ADV) Live Nude Girls (Republic) MI-5: Volume 4 (BBC Warner) Murder Set Pieces (Lions…
It’s been 20 years since the first Castlevania bewitched gamers with its gothic horror. Twenty years of vampire hunters going fist to fang with Lord Dracula. With almost two dozen titles in the series, Castlevania is one of the most enduring and beloved game franchises of all time. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, the latest entry in the series for the…
Bandidas (Fox) This review is not long enough for a suitable treatment of the beauty of Penélope Cruz and Salma Hayek. The makers of Bandidas would certainly prefer I tried, though, than to discuss this plodding cliché of a western featuring the two. You could write the script right now if you wanted: One rich girl (Hayek) and one poor…
Death had laryngitis, which fit, even though it wasn’t in the script. This Death, a leggy young woman in black capri pants, is worn out, disgruntled, given to bitching and boasting like anyone else run down by work — or life. She’s punctual, she insists, and she hates that people don’t appreciate this (or any of her services). She abhors…
Art and Science The title of this show says it all. These seven pieces by Stanton Fernald — a scientific illustrator with an awesome name — blend the two fields into a delightful whole. The science side is more intriguing because Fernald has built nearly every aspect of his installations. For each, wood-hinged tripods stand on the floor and hang…
Angels in America Tony Kushner’s epic has survived the transition from news to history to HBO miniseries, suffering no loss of urgency. A decade after the exemplary Unicorn productions that marked its regional premiere, and a full 15 years after Millennium Approaches first debuted, the full two-part Angels in America is back in the area, this time in Mark Swezey’s…
Notes on a Scandal, brilliantly adapted by Patrick Marber from the darkly comic Zoë Heller novel, is a grim piece of work — Fatal Attraction for the art-house crowd, minus the fearful misogyny. Set in a dreary London where a gray funk of fog and cigarette smoke hangs over everyone’s head like a gathering storm, Notes fits perfectly into the…
Men are disposable in Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver. But the film, particularly for fans of the gynophilic, flamboyantly color-coordinating maker of loco melodramas, is essential. The title translates as Coming Back — as in back from the dead, referring to the matter-of-fact resurrection of Irene (Carmen Maura), an old grandmother who refuses to let her own demise get in the way…
A friend of mine, who prefers that I don’t use his name, called recently to say he had resigned his position as a waiter in one of Kansas City’s corporate-owned fine-dining restaurants after 25 years with the company. Because I don’t know many waiters who honestly consider the service profession to be a respectable career, my friend’s decision to toss…
That legendary eater James Beard once wrote that good bread was the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods, “and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” I’ve eaten more than my share of good bread and butter over the years, but never to the point of nearly ruining a perfectly good dinner. That’s exactly what happened the first…
Most of us have one thing we can do really well. But the artist known as Sike Style (or DJ Sike Steez) attempts a number of endeavors — promotion, sponsorship, DJing, fashion design — then waits to see which do the best business. Or maybe he really does want to do everything. This Sunday at the Peanut downtown, Sike will…
For at least a dozen years, Neil Young fans heard rumors of this album’s release. Originally intended to be part of a 10-disc boxed retrospective, Live at the Fillmore East 1970 is the first chance many diehards have to hear Crazy Horse live with original guitarist Danny Whitten, who died of a heroin overdose in 1972. Though Whitten was often…
The guys in White Demons may occasionally wear eyeliner and tight jeans, but there is not a single song about a chick on this CD and not one stinky whiff of shitty emo. What we’ve got instead is explosive, trashy, borderline-glam punk and roll with shouted choruses and crisp, fiery guitar solos akin to AC/DC’s hot licks. The album opens…
Every syllable that Tupac Shakur uttered near a microphone constitutes a potential sample, and a decade after he hit the grave, his estate’s caretakers are still finding ways to turn old recordings into “new” songs. The latest posthumous Shakur disc diminishes his legacy by turning him into the equivalent of Disneyland’s robot Abe Lincoln — a once-independent figure now totally…
When Willie Nelson wears your band’s trucker hat onstage, you might just be on to something. The Weary Boys don’t dabble in biodiesel, but they do beg King Willie’s good graces when they sing their songs of universal struggles, reaching beyond contemporary country clichés. There’s even a bit of Buddy Holly and the Crickets and the Tennessee Three in the…
If you count Kristie Stremel’s Frogpond days, the Exit 159 era and a few band incarnations, you’ll realize that she’s been rockin’ for a full decade — and has plenty of strength for more. Ten Years, her brand-new release, recorded with producer Lou Whitney, features full-band rerecordings of such favorites as the lush “Shimmer and Glow” (from her homemade last…
Never ones to please their fanbase, the members of Colorado’s Fear Before the March of Flames released their latest album, The Always Open Mouth, expecting complaints at the album’s cleaned-up sound and weightier, more melodic vocals. Further distancing themselves from 2004’s raw Art Damage, singer Adam Fisher and screamer David Marion have chosen to switch roles, adding more punch to…
Ozark-pride lyrics such as Don’t call me trash ’til you’ve slept in my trailer are just one of the reasons that Big Smith has earned a reputation as the best thing to do in southwest Missouri when Party Cove goes flaccid. The Springfield-bred hillbilly quintet — composed of five cousins, none of whom have been spotted kissin’ — is back…
Mix tapes ruled hip-hop last year, but it looks like the digital EP might be king in 2007. The Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, in collaboration with Chocolate Industries Records, has posted Chocolate Swim, a five-track blend of rare and exclusive mixes from indie rappers like Lady Sovereign, Mos Def and MF Doom. Download the complimentary EP at Adult Swim’s site,…
Man has been boiling meat and veggies for about 5,000 years now, but it wasn’t until some Neolithic primitive had a flash of genius and invented the spoon that the age of soup began. A few thousand years and countless varieties of the runny stuff later, man gets the next step in the evolution of boiled cuisine — Bowling for…
Bent Left’s name reflects the liberal content of its records, 2004’s Steal Back the Government and 2005’s Skeletons in Your Closet. Historically, though, the term pays giddy teenage homage to a slanted penis. And though the band now says its agenda involves “promoting political and social action and awareness,” this local street-punk outfit maintains its Animal House aesthetic, treating tours…
