This is a town with a serious ceramics legacy, shaped by Ken Ferguson and his circle of students and colleagues. Ferguson, who was 76 when he died in 2004, was one of the most influential and well-known ceramic artists in the world. He taught at the Kansas City Art Institute for more than 30 years, and now his students…
After an hour or so of QED, a gabby drama (mounted by the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre in a drafty, gorgeous garage) about a physics professor, I felt the tickle of new theories. Physicist Richard Feynman — played with rumpled charisma by Richard Alan Nichols — had been talking and talking about his remarkable life, his goofy passions and, occasionally,…
For all the praise deservedly heaped upon 2004’s Shaun of the Dead, the zombie-flick spoof was little more than an extended sketch. But the movie, created by director Edgar Wright and star Simon Pegg, provided such a bloody good time that its admirers — those weaned on George Romero gorefests and the Pegg- and Wright-penned slacker Britcom Spaced, chiefly —…
This week’s generically titled studio suspense thriller, Fracture, has the good sense to begin where last week’s generically titled studio suspense thriller, Perfect Stranger, ended — with the solution to that tedious riddle: Whodunit? The answer this time is Anthony Hopkins as Ted Crawford, an aeronautical engineer whose money and modernist mansion aren’t enough to dissuade his much younger…
Several readers have e-mailed me to ask what happened to Terry Barkley, who was the first chef at Nara (1617 Main), until owner Casey Adams bid him sayonara a couple of months ago. The last time I saw Terry, he was toying with the idea of taking over the tiny restaurant spot on the second floor of Halls Crown Center,…
I know this nice couple in Leawood who not only bought into the suburban dream but also cranked it up a few notches. They purchased a 1960s-vintage ranch house on a big lot and then bulldozed the home. When the rubble was cleared away, they built a handsome mansion. This suburban renewal project was so successful that it inspired…
“Gangsta Coat” by Anti-Crew, from Dat’s Wassup! Hip-hop artists often use the informal mix-tape format to demonstrate different sides of their personalities, and Anti-Crew gets goofy on Dat’s Wassup without sacrificing its intellect. Flare the Rebel and DJ Eternal pay aggro-rap homage to 24’s Jack Bauer and parody gangstas over a convincing crunk beat. Even the scattered serious tunes have…
The German duo Phace stops at Balanca’s on Saturday, continuing what seems like a never-ending line of Funkadelic drum-‘n’-bass events that have grown steadily in crowd strength and lineup power. Phace is about as big in the drum-‘n’-bass world as a group can be right now. Delivering cold, primal sounds, Phace practices a style that Mixmag describes as “neurofunk” in…
After waltzing gloriously onto the scene at 2005’s South By Southwest festival, What Made Milwaukee Famous snagged a record deal and promptly rereleased its 2004 debut, Trying to Never Catch Up. Dashing off a genteel, affected pop vibe — something the quartet manages without sounding too stylized — WMMF fuses pleasantly melancholy heart-on-sleeve lyrics with Michael Kingcaid’s warm, George-Harrison-like voice….
On 2006’s Friendly Fire, Sean Lennon evokes a far less sunny mood than on his debut, 1998’s Into the Sun. Fire is Lennon’s breakup record over wild child Bijou Phillips, a fellow rock-legend progeny. Phillips slept with Lennon’s best mate, who died before they could make up. On standout track “Dead Meat,” he mournfully warns, You’ll get what you deserve…
Lightning Bolt’s noise-metal is all-eclipsing. These two Brians — Chippendale on drums and Gibson on bass — specialize in carpal-tunnel-inducing, Rhode Island havoc that’s way more controlled than it appears at first blush. Chippendale guests on Björk’s forthcoming album, churns out demented comics and spins his muse into wilder pastures as Black Pus. Gibson gets his twisted animation on with…
“C’est Tranquile” by Les Fossoyeurs, from Live à Springfield, Missouri: Unlike, say, the combination of wet hair and lipstick or pre-9 1/2 Weeks Mickey Rourke, Les Fossoyeurs’ beer-sloshing pub rock possesses no sense of je ne sais quoi. When the Parisian seven-piece digs its horns and axes into an eclectic live set of punk, ska, blues and rock laced with…
“Black Grease” by The Black Angels, from Passover (Light in the Attic): The Black Angels travel in the same druggy psychedelic ether as the Brian Jonestown Massacre, the Jesus and Mary Chain and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. The Texas-based drone denizens treat pop hooks like the plague, coddling a sludgy concoction of reverb-molested guitars and single-note solos. Some listeners might…
“Valkyries” by Jana Hunter, from There’s No Home (Gnomonsong): Houston songstress Jana Hunter is a signee to Devendra Banhart’s Gnomonsong label, but she is neither freaky nor folkie. She sings and strums with a quietude that shadows the shiny, happy lurch of traditional folk musicianship. By weaving piano, violin, lap steel and synthesizer into each song, Hunter adds body…
Five years ago, Ted Leo was rocking house parties in Lawrence. Nowadays, the workaholic power-pop baron commands bigger stages with the same DIY aplomb that made him a fan favorite in the first place. Leo’s latest, Living With the Living, is full of the same fiery punk spirit and go-for-broke hooks that defined earlier works such as The Tyranny of…
Women who sing pop-punk know that it’s a never-ending tightrope walk between sounding too singer-songwriter and too pop. For sisters Meg & Dia, however, that balance comes naturally. Factor in an album on Doghouse Records, production by an All-American Reject and a song on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtrack, and you can see why a genre known for predictability…
A good handle is important. Maybe that’s Bill Callahan’s new angle. After all, he shares the same name with the coach for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Later this month, the artist who has usually recorded under the name Smog will release his first LP as a solo artist. “Sycamore” suggests that the name might not be the only change we should…
“Ice” by Antibalas, from Security (Anti-): When you’re a band sporting a fiery left-wing message and rolling about 15 deep in a multiethnic caravan that looks like a UN delegation which took a wrong turn, cornfed Middle America presents certain challenges. Imagine, for example, what the reaction at highway truck stops must be to New York Afrobeat band Antibalas,…
“O Valencia!” by the Decemberists, from The Crane Wife (Capitol): For its major-label debut, The Crane Wife, the Decemberists consummated a long flirtation with prog without straying from the stylized bucolic pop of its best work. The result: last year’s most accessible cult album. Frontman and songwriter Colin Meloy talked to the Pitch about the weight of expectation and the…
Plenty of people claim that KC radio sucks, but these rabbit ears usually manage to pick up something listenable on local airwaves. Between 90.1 and 105.1 on the FM dial, there’s enough pop, hip-hop and classic rock to entertain me on the 10-minute drive between home and work. Of course, that’s about the only time I tune in. As plenty…
The first time we ventured into the new Plaza outpost of the 810 Zone we were on a mission. We were searching for the crush of a research assistant, whom we’ll call Kate. The crush had told Kate that he had plans and couldn’t go out. But a source told us that he was watching KU’s Sweet Sixteen tournament game…
Track 1 by Konsept, from the War Won mix: The scene: an apartment in Lawrence. The setting: the afterparty for Flosstradamus, a visiting pair of It DJs from Chicago who just rocked the Bottleneck. It’s crowded, it’s sweaty, and the leftover revelers are drawn to that magical place that attracts the most people at house parties: the kitchen. The…
Dear Mexican: I lived here illegally for the first half of my life, so I’m very offended when I hear anti-immigrant comments. I especially can’t stand “Illegals don’t pay taxes, so they shouldn’t be here.” When my father applied for residency during the amnesty in the 1980s, part of the requirement was to provide proof you had worked for a…
Burnt Ends, April 5 Zap To It I was the first person in Kansas City to buy a Zap car (from a bad dealer in Colorado). You can read about me on the blog at www.evfinder.com, a Web site set up to help people find electric vehicles. My experience is noted under the category “Range Myths and Realities”: “Of course…
