TV news and sports-talk radio stations howled yesterday at the latest Larry Johnson controversy: a free-style rap in which he glorifies guns, says the n-word about 14 times and disses Priest Holmes and Carl Peterson. Johnson has denied making this rap, above, which appeared on the MySpace page of Kansas City group SBL Mob. But James Tinberg, owner of…
O PEOPLE OF LAST WEEK! I am Lord Magnus Tuareg, and I bring you a message from the future date of Monday, September 17, 2007. Heed what I say, my ancestors, for the coming weekend is SO CRAZY SICK YOU ARE TOTALLY GOING TO WIG OUT. And yet I am unable to rejoice – for me, Saturday shall be a…
Live Nation has announced that the Cure is playing at Starlight on May 19, 2008. Don’t believe me? Come to my office. I got the press release right here, signed in lipstick by the man himself. (Not really, but the rest is true.) Categories: Music
Blonde Redhead, with School of Seven Bells. Wednesday, 8-12-2007 The Blue Note Better than: Getting trampled by a horse. Review and pics by Richard Gintowt If I were a sumo wrestler, I’d probably listen to Blonde Redhead to get me psyched up for a match. There’s something sinister about the trio’s music. Very few of their songs are memorable…
After the KCMO parks board shot down the idea of a dog park in Waldo, many of the supporters blamed the idea’s failure on board member Aggie Stackhous. They said she laughed at their disgust over being denied a fair hearing. And according to several people who were there, Stackhous said she was “loving every minute” of the group’s defeat….
Who: Nick O’Malley, bassist, Arctic Monkeys Where: Tonight, Thursday, September 13, at the Uptown Theater Interview by Jason Harper The Arctic Monkeys bring their pint-swilling, dancefloor-filling, blue-collar British rock and roll to the Uptown Theater tonight. The Sheffield band is touring on the heels of its second full-length, Favourite Worst Nightmare. Not only did the new album shoot to…
Wayne, Steven, Mike, Kliph, and everyone else involved with the Flaming Lips show at the Uptown last night, thank you. It was like a birthday party planned by an archangel, attended by gods. Thanks for reminding all us lost souls to cultivate happiness in life, surround ourselves with friends, celebrate, sing and seek beauty. Here’s looking at you, Lips….
Back in July, Titus Bond’s emergence in Kansas politics raised alarm like a Katie Horner forecast. Bond ran for a Kansas House seat vacated by Stephanie Sharp. A former Missouri resident, Bond registered to vote July 3 in Johnson County using an address in Shawnee. The problem is that it’s unclear whether 23-year-old Bond ever actually lived in the house….
If you didn’t know better, you might think The Crossroads Infoshop is trying to keep one step ahead of the FBI. After all, the often-surveilled radical bookstore has moved three times in as many years. After a celebrated launch in 2004, the local anarchist haunt lasted barely a year at its original Crossroads location, shutting down in mid-2005 because it…
Leawood globetrotter and filmmaker Chris Turner, the subject of Tonya Dreher’s fascinating documentary A Life in Hashistan, hasn’t yet set foot in Gitmo. That fact, one supposes, is proof that our government is capable of greater nuance than it has been credited for previously. Someone at Homeland Security apparently understands the difference between sympathy, which Turner never seems to come…
Mark Funkhouser trudged through the downtown twilight. Construction workers had all gone home for the day, and he kicked at a chunk of concrete along the sidewalk in front of what, next spring, would be a fudge factory in the new entertainment district. Funk was bummed. This whole mayor thing was turning out to be not so fun. Mostly, it…
Charlie Parker’s saxophone, Ella Fitzgerald’s dress and Duke Ellington’s suit might be the main attractions at the American Jazz Museum (1616 East 18th Street, 816-474-8463), but the institution’s first decade has been defined by its contributions to the Kansas City music scene. Stop by the Blue Room for a Monday open jam, and you’ll understand why the 18th and Vine…
God Bless the booty call. Who first gave America this phrase designated for late-night telephone invitations to no-strings-attached sex? Comedian and former MTV Jamz host Bill Bellamy. The Rutgers grad’s philosophical waxings about the booty call on Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam made Bellamy a star. After that, he appeared in Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday and taught us How…
Serving wine in the United States can be tricky even for trained sommeliers. For instance, the international tradition of pouring the first full glass for the oldest woman at the table can be misinterpreted as the culinary equivalent of saying, “Hi! You’re the oldest woman at the table!” Which doesn’t necessarily go over well. Nonetheless, the servers at Pachamama’s (800…
There’s much to be said for a good, old pub crawl: Transportation betwixt venues is magically easy, a bounty of alcohol flows and many a meaningful hookup can be had. The enterprising minds behind Waldo Astoria’s Waldo Crawldo know the value of an organized crawl — which is why they created a sister to May’s Waldo Crawldo, the Falldo Waldo…
Tonight’s Fall Concert by the Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company includes “Variations,” by New York choreographer Milton Myers; an exotic work called “Havoc” by Tony Award winner Bill T. Jones; a contemporary ballet set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach; and a world premiere, set to the music of Otis Redding, by Wylliams/Henry Artistic Director Mary Pat Henry. “I always…
It happens all too frequently at local hip-hop shows. Someone bobbing her head and sipping her Red Bull and vodka will silently wonder, Am I wasting my time attending these concerts? Or would my time be better spent — oh, I don’t know — curing cancer? Fret not, bass heads, because tonight at the Beaumont Club (4050 Pennsylvania, 816-561-2560) music…
Warren Rosser is known as a painter — his large-scale works have been displayed throughout the world, and he’s the chairman of the painting department at the Kansas City Art Institute. Yet the artist’s latest creations don’t incorporate a single drop of paint. They’re made of fabric. “Starting about a year ago, I decided to change my medium,” Rosser says….
Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not the same as Mexican Independence Day. The spring boozefest commemorates a victory over French troops, while Independence Day — September 16 — honors the events that led to Mexico’s independence from Spanish rule. To celebrate this momentous holiday, Teocali (2512 Holmes, 816-221-4749) is throwing a fiesta. The restaurant, just south of…
The Indian Springs Shopping Center at Interstate 635 and State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, pretty much died about a decade ago, but it has been putt-putting along ever since with a makeshift combination of Hispanic businesses, trade schools and DMVs. A recent takeover by local government bought the mall a date with the wrecking ball, but University of Missouri-Kansas…
Sequential art fans who believe that the best things in life are free, as well as those who believe that it’s perfectly acceptable to wear storm-trooper armor in public, should rejoice at this weekend’s second-annual Free State FreeCon Comic Book and Toy Convention in Lawrence. The two-day event, held in Building 21 of the Douglas County Fairgrounds (2110 Harper), includes…
Look for more hippies than usual tonight on the sidewalk along Massachusetts in Lawrence, when the electro-granola rockers in Sound Tribe Sector 9 bring their trippy, Mayan-influenced tunes to Liberty Hall (644 Massachusetts, 785-749-1972). It’s the kind of repetitive music that makes you want to close your eyes and shake your vegan booty as you contemplate the meaning of existence….
When your grandma was a pistol-packing bootlegger around 18th and Vine, you don’t lack for credibility. Although Avila artist-in-residence Stanley E. Banks’ poetry often trips down the unkind streets of his childhood, a redemptive thread binds his lamentations. In “Carl,” Banks’ eulogy for a casualty of those streets, he tenderly considers the human aspect omitted by sensationalist news stories: In…
Its ghoulish name and metallic rhythm riffs aside, the Birthday Massacre plays an inviting brand of electro-industrial pop. Singer Chibi’s voice recalls such coquettish chirpers as Altered Images’ Clare Grogan and Nu Shooz’s Valerie Day. Even when she’s eulogizing doomed relationships or fantasizing about mass murder (as on “Happy Birthday,” which elaborates on the band’s moniker), Chibi never strains to…
