“Forts” (demo) by the Boggs: Being a bandleader with a rotating cast of supporting players means not having to convince other members to follow your new musical directions. On the Boggs’ 2002 debut, We Are The Boggs We Are, Jason Friedman’s project played spur-propelled cowpoke punk, with banjos, slide guitars and rustic percussion. Featuring Christian Obermaier (from the indie-electronic outfit…
As far as grindcore scourers go, Boston’s the Red Chord is among the genre’s most satisfying practitioners — a slamming, shifting-time-signature blur of aggression propelled by Brad Fickeisen’s eight-limbed drumming and Guy Kozowyk’s satanic-whirlpool growl. That the group’s 2005 release, Crimes, found its way into so many used bins suggests that the disaffected either couldn’t hang with the rampaging, unadulterated…
In 1982, George Thorogood crossed over from blues to pop charts because MTV played the fuck out of the video for the title track of the Destroyers’ major-label debut, Bad to the Bone. In it, Thorogood chugged bottles of beer, smoked ciggies and schooled dudes in pool at a local roadhouse. He was like Bob Seger’s tougher, meaner baby…
It’s hard to talk about Spoon these days without furrowing your brow. The band’s upcoming Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga might bear the worst album title since REO Speedwagon’s You Can Tune a Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish. Luckily, “The Underdog” (recently leaked for mass consumption) makes up for any titular shortcomings. Download the track at Pitchfork and head…
“R. Kelly in Cambodia (feat. Jello Biafra)” by Blowfly: The music of quasi-legendary soul-funk-rap pioneer Blowfly is primarily about three things: fuckin’, fuckin’ and fuckin’. Often foul and always funny, singer-songwriter Clarence Reid has been rockin’ the triple-X Blowfly persona for more than 30 years now. This alter ego requires a wardrobe full of dazzling, retina-searing cape-and-cowl outfits, a…
Music radio is mostly shit, with a few bright spots. A giant, bejeweled turd. People who are interested in other things — say, sacking villages and torturing heretics — may still turn to the radio for their music needs. But a lot of people rely on the Internet, or magazines that come with free CDs, or their boyfriends, etc., for…
%{}% The inspiration for Pillage the Village — our bar tour of Prairie Village — came from an unlikely source: some guy’s T-shirt. Apparently, it’s also the rallying cry of a Borat-ish polka band. Whoever originated the phrase, we decided to steal it for our Saturday-night exploration of PV watering holes. For Pillage the Village, we had just one requirement…
%{}% “The Sower” by the Winston Jazz Routine: At the height of Wilco’s legendary battle with its former label, Reprise Records, Jeff Tweedy and his bandmates made a crucial decision to stream the entire contents of their upcoming album on the band’s Web site. It was a gutsy move, especially back in 2001, but it worked. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot became…
Dear Mexican: So often, when we see Mexican bands perform in the United States and Mexico, the crowd at some point starts chanting “¡Cu-le-ro!” Why do people yell “Asshole!” at a band that they seemingly adore and paid a lot of money to see perform? Even fellow Latinos are really confused by this one. Need Más Earplugs Dear NME: “People…
Hey, You! June 7 Clothes Encounters More than likely, the “stripper-clothes guy” was actually a stripper-clothes sales guy. Many clubs let folks exercise their entrepreneurial spirit by setting up shop outside the dressing room and selling the girls the bare necessities they need to look great onstage. A girl’s gotta shop, after all. Arthur “Two Sheds” Jackson, Grand Rapids, Michigan…
%{}% Hey, you, pretentious employee of Local Burger. You and I probably share a lot of the same views on environmentalism, sustainable agriculture and the merits of eating organic. But the way you treated my party the other day will make me think twice about returning to your establishment. I’m sure we looked like total yokels as we stared, dumbfounded,…
Nothing says “I’m sorry I made you suffer” like a couple of free tickets to Pirates of the Caribbean. At least, that was the brilliant thinking of a marketing guru at Carondelet Health. This month, the two Carondelet hospitals in the Kansas City area issued a guarantee: If an emergency room patient at St. Joseph or St. Mary’s medical center…
%{}% Usually you have to flip to the back of this fine publication to learn about how to spank someone with a wooden spoon. Well, save your fingers from getting covered in ink and read on. Because recently, the Department of Burnt Ends heard about fliers posted around the Kansas metro area for a seminar on “responsible steps towards a…
%{}% This week, I’m going to do some free consulting work for Wyandotte County. The Unified Government needs my help. Its leaders recently took a step toward approving a $980 million field-of-dreams idea put forth by a team of developers that includes a former bodybuilder with a bankruptcy on his record. On June 7, the Board of Commissioners voted unanimously…
%{}% It was nearly two weeks before Republican Party leaders met in December to pick a new Johnson County district attorney. Two of the leading contenders, Phill Kline and Scott Hattrup, had arranged a secret meeting in a prominent Johnson County Republican’s basement entertainment room. It was a weekday, after business hours, and Kline was fresh from meeting with GOP…
…or Sandstone, or whatever you call it. Anyway, the company once known as ClearChannel just sent out this press release, penned by its Hollywood-based communications director: LIVE NATION TO EXIT VERIZON WIRELESS AMPHITHEATER IN BONNER SPRINGS AT END OF 2007 CONCERT SEASON Move Reaffirms Company’s Strategy to Refocus Venue Mix in Certain Markets LOS ANGELES, CA – June 20, 2007…
Kelsey Smith’s alleged killer, Edwin R. Hall, has at least one supporter. Local blog Heycameraman dug up a MySpace page in support of Hall. The MySpace page is set to private, so I couldn’t check it out without becoming a friend of the 31-year-old woman from Newfoundland, Canada. The page is titled “Innocent until proven guilty” and “Pray for…
Three months ago, 17-year-old Jawanza Brown was acquitted of a double homicide — and was the subject of this cover story in the Pitch. Now he’s in a new kind of trouble. Brown was the target of an undercover operation by the Kansas City Police Department’s Narcotics Unit. According to these court documents filed by the Jackson County prosecutor,…
Attention! This is what a bicycle looks like: According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, it is “a light two-wheeled vehicle with a steering handle, saddle, and pedals.” And get this: Bicycles were once used as transportation devices! Ha! Can you believe it? People once used those man-powered contraptions to get to work instead of fueling up the mini-tank SUV! The…
Wolfmother. Tuesday, June 19, at the VooDoo Lounge. Reviewed by Ashley Brown In a complex designed with the glazed, somnambulatory gambling patron in mind, it’s hard to tell things apart. The eye swirls at the epileptic lighting within the gut of Harrah’s Casino. In fact, after we ran through the revolving door at the main casino entrance, my friend Derek…
Going through some piled-up e-mails, I came across a dispatch from a fellow named Tim Sylvester. It was amazing. And I must share. This fair-skinned youth went to Wakarusa, was really looking forward to it, and the first day, he gets sunburned. So what does he do the rest of the festival? Wears a ninja mask. And what happens? He…
If you’re part of the X- or Y- Generation, you probably have a fondness in your heart for Dave Coulier — unless you’re some lame, humorless twat. In the early 1980s, he was one of the first stars of then-fledgling, now-juggernaut kids’ cable channel Nickelodeon. Coulier helmed the desk on Out of Control, a half-hour fake news show that…
If University of Missouri-Kansas City Provost Bruce Bubacz has his way, Kansas City will lose its most vocal supporter of the working stiff. Judy Ancel, the director of the university’s Institute for Labor Studies, was informed of her impending unemployment via letter sent by Bubacz to Longview Community College on May 29. The letter said UMKC would be ending its…
The Supernauts and Making Movies. Monday, June 18, at Jerry’s Bait Shop in Lee’s Summit. Photos & Review by Crystal K. Wiebe To a Westport dweller, a trek to Lee’s Summit is no small thing, especially on a Monday night. But I heard through the grapevine that last night’s gig at Jerry’s Bait Shop could be the Supernauts’ last,…
