Metal Mark Mathison, aka SCSI Bunny, is doing something that a lot of DJs wish they could do: Make a living off playing records. On his DJ grind, Mathison travels all over the area, from Westport to Lawrence, nearly every night of the week, paying the bills with just his CDJs, turntables and iPods. Mathison makes little attempt to mix,…
%{}% “Stitch Me Up” by Minus Story, from My Ion Truss (Jagjaguwar): Give Minus Story a glockenspiel, and they’ll make like Mozart for four bars. My Ion Truss, the Lawrence band’s fourth release on Jagjaguwar, finds the crew further honing down its patented “Wall of Crap” approach to a Menu of Crap, becoming more selective and restrained in its use…
“One in a Million” by the Belated, from You Will All Fade Away: The Belated’s new album is summed up by the title of its final track: “Trying Too Hard.” Regardless, You Will All Fade Away contains fleeting glimpses of the Kansas City band’s indie-rock potential. Driving refrains on both “One in a Million” and “Freedom in the Underworld” induce…
From 2000 to 2005, Dark Matter reigned as one of the region’s most compelling hard-rock groups, blending chunky grooves, seismic rhythms and John Hindes’ charismatic theatrical vocals. Like Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the riff-driven avant-garde California collective that it bonded with by sharing several bills, Dark Matter transcended simple “metal” categorization. Citing exhaustion, Dark Matter dissolved without farewell-show fanfare, but it…
%{}% “It’s All Around You” by Tortoise, from As Tall As Lions (Triple Crown Records): One of last year’s most overlooked albums is full of soulful lullabies about the fleeting nature of life and love. Ghosts and faded lovers populate the dreamy and haunting melodies of As Tall As Lions’ self-titled Triple Crown Records release. With frontman Daniel Nigro’s vocals…
%{}% “It’s All Around You” by Tortoise, from It’s All Around You (Thrill Jockey): Chicago post-rocker outfit Tortoise is at an interesting career crossroads. While 2004’s uninvolving It’s All Around You represented its first clear stumble, last year saw the release of an adventurous, omnivorous all-covers collaboration with Bonnie Prince Billy (The Brave and the Bold) and a three-disc set…
Like Broken Social Scene, which hails from the country that provides this Michigan-based band with its name, Canada spawns spinoffs with amazing frequency. That’s Him! That’s The Guy writes country-tinged folk, Broads of Canada creates dual-cello Britney Spears and Gnarls Barkley covers, and Champions of Breakfast plays pulsing electro-pop about unicorns and wizards. Sadly, these uniformly amusing outfits won’t get…
Musicians might not have a 401(k) to fall back on, but at least they can make a small fortune on eBay. A corset worn by Neko Case recently fetched $300 for charity, but don’t expect the alt-country goddess to open up her hamper to the highest bidder just yet. Her side project with A.C. Newman and Dan Bejar, the New…
%{}% “The Fall of Bunter” by AngelsAmongUs: Eyes of the Betrayer frontman Dustin Albright is a master of stage banter. Whether starting a performance with “What’s up, friends? You’re all going to die some day and go to hell” or prefacing a set from his new group Molech with “If you’re a white guy, you’re a piece of shit and…
%{}% “The Game” by Rex Hobart’s Spaghetti Western: Scott Hobart is no stranger to schmaltz. For nearly a decade, he has performed in the shoes of his country alter-ego Rex Hobart, a beat-down, repentant crooner who often appears as the polar opposite of the cheery Scott his friends know and love. Hobart’s theatrical streak aims for even campier heights with…
In my sloppy early 20s, you had to chain me to the radiator to keep me from going out every single night. Bars like Balanca’s and the Empire Room threw ongoing weekday dance parties that attracted thirsty crowds. In those blurry, Stoli-infused years, I probably danced poorly to the Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry” and Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us…
%{}% On a recent visit to Seven, we learned an important lesson about bars that feel like wedding receptions. We can indulge in our evil people-watching ways — without feeling guilty about mocking someone’s beloved cousin once-removed. Seven is a new restaurant-slash-nightclub at Seventh Street and Walnut. It serves cocktails named after the seven deadly sins and boasts a swankish…
The Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival is a Gemini of an enterprise, with two distinct sides to its personality: anarchy and government. The June event happens to occur under the astrological sign of Gemini, the twins, which denotes contradiction, changeability, two-sidedness. Here at Clinton Lake State Park, near Lawrence, such dichotomy is evident. Thousands of modern-day flower children spin…
Dear Mexican: I was sitting around with my daughter and her Mexican husband the other day talking about her past. Jokingly, I mentioned that when she was a teenager (30 years ago), lots of boys came by the house to see her. Her husband flew into a rage and said that Mexicans consider such a comment extremely discourteous. Since his…
Ask a Mexican, May 24 Window Dressing Don’t listen to my radio when I’m at your drive-thru window. Yes, I have the volume loud, but that’s only because I’m hard of hearing. I’ve spent a few months in a war zone and, frankly, I don’t believe I was there losing my hearing to protect the rights of your husband. Nor…
Hey, you, miss rude diner, who came into my restaurant late one night. You having a problem with my company’s policies should by no means have been transferred onto me. Your threats to call corporate offices because you didn’t get your way did not encourage me to help you out in the least bit. In fact, it made me wish…
Evangelist Sam Rose and his wife, Julia, liken getting saved by Jesus to visiting a traveling carnival. For the past 20 years, they’ve run Rose Ministries, a tent revival missionary service that has canvassed the 48 continental states. They roll in an 8-mile-per-gallon 1969 Silver Eagle bus. The duo recently erected their giant crucifix-bearing tent near Elmwood Cemetery off…
When St. Louis rapper Nelly goes on tour, he gives shout-outs to the “314.” When USC running back Reggie Bush plowed through Texas in the 2006 Rose Bowl, he had the numbers “619” smeared like war paint beneath each eye. Over the past few years, musicians and celebrities have been giving props to their area codes as a fast…
I went to the Dolphin Gallery a couple of weeks ago. The work of an artist named Matt Wycoff was on display. The exhibition featured a series of small sketches that Wycoff had done of various folks and a much larger sketch of the artist himself. On another wall was a series of abstract paintings — just colors, really. The…
In late 1999, 22-year-old Anthony Vital and James Hawkins were penned up together in the Douglas County Jail. Friends since they’d met as teenagers in Lawrence, both young men were also aspiring hip-hop artists. So when they found themselves locked up together, the two friends pounded out pages of lyrics to stave off boredom. “We had nothing else to…
The Hold Steady, with Illinois and Blitzen Trapper. Tuesday, June 12, at the Blue Note in Columbia, MO. Concert Review by Jason Harper “Road trip!” That’s the only appropriate reaction when one is told that the Hold Steady is playing in a nearby city and one has nowhere important to be that night. So it was with me and…
Mayor Mark Funkhouser wanted to root out “elitism and community divisiveness” when he appointed a new slate of board members for the city’s parks department this week. But tapping Northland activist Frances Semler sparked an immediate rift with the Latino community. Semler, a quiet woman with a librarian’s fashion sense, is a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps –…
Contest season is officially upon us. Last week, our indoor arena football team wanted input for their new mascot. Now, the Royals are sponsoring a contest to pick a city-specific theme song to be played after “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch. (On a side, note: Don’t believe what you read on the Web…
One of our favorite Saturday traditions is getting fucked up. Oh, we can still wake up around noon, one, whenever, brew a pot of coffee and turn on 89.3 KCUR, but once Cyprus Avenue is over, we’ll hear … what? For three four and a half years, KCUR’s Sonic Spectrum, on from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, has…
