Throughout its original 15-year run, Alice in Chains regularly alternated electric assaults with acoustic breathers, such as the early-’90s EPs Sap and Jar of Flies. The band’s 1996 episode of MTV Unplugged remains haunting — not least because of the visible toll that drug abuse had taken on singer Layne Staley, who died of an overdose in 2002. So it’s…
As the irresistibly luminescent Andorra demonstrates, Caribou’s Dan Snaith has come a long, long way since being legally stripped of his old Manitoba moniker. Today, the same guy who once spent albums such as Up In Flames and Start Breaking My Heart playfully monkeyshining about with postrock’s corpse is writing delightful, textured, fake-’60s pop baubles. Among the best: the buoyant, chiming…
Songwriters commonly use the follow-up to breakthrough albums as vehicles for introspection, but Chiodos’ Craig Owens gets intensely, almost uncomfortably personal on the recent Bone Palace Ballet, converting a former lover’s unedited correspondence into lyrics (“A Letter From Janelle”) and singing the phrase (All the world’s a stage) he has tattooed across his sternum. The record takes its title from…
My friend Randy has a theory that a few yards of taffeta, a couple of tassels and a can of peach paint can hide a multitude of evils. “I’ve turned the filthiest, flea-infested crackhead cribs into castles,” he likes to boast. “If you have a can of cleanser, a paintbrush and some tasteful accent pieces, you can turn a slum…
Laz Abalos had a brilliant vision when he made the first commemorative Sprint Center shirt. Abalos, by the way, is the KMBC Channel 9 photographer behind the blog HeyCameraman.net. His shirt idea reads: “The Sprint Center: Home of the ______ .” Yeah, we’re still waiting for a home team to go with our $276 million arena. We liked Abalos’ idea…
The local Symbol Heavy collective used an astounding collage of ’70s-inspired funk and psychedelic hip-hop to introduce itself last year, and it looks like SH producer Boyd Pro is the first to deliver a follow-up full-length. Set your browser to the label’s site for a few freebies from Boyd City, a sample frenzy of ’80s electro-punk, ’60s soul and eerie…
“Lake Michigan” by Rogue Wave, from Asleep at Heaven’s Gate (Brushfire Records): Rogue wave swims through deep pain and surfaces in sunlight on a new album. Since releasing 2005’s Descending Like Vultures, Rogue Wave has found itself the victim of circumstances that pretty much measure up to its name. There was the split with Sub Pop, the record label that,…
The best aspects of China’s extraordinarily rich culture and heritage tend to be overshadowed by its dearth of human rights and the touchy marriage of an oppressive regime to its own version of capitalism. The country rolls forward on its own terms, often rattling us here in the United States. All of which makes the Nelson’s Rising Dragon timely…
Deseos Deseos means desires in Spanish, and this installation is an abstract representation of the artist’s hopes and desires placed at the foot of an altar. Carolyn Kallenborn’s inspiration comes from the ubiquitous makeshift altars known as ofrendas, or offerings, found in Oaxaca, Mexico. Kallenborn has transformed this folk-Catholic tradition into a river of rose petals and painted stones that…
Leave it to Gawker to write this completely unoriginal piece about Kansas City’s revitalization. It sounds just like everything else on Gawker, as if it were written by a basement-dwelling, wanna-be hipster who thinks that his 212 area code qualifies as coolness. While I appreciate Gawker thinking of KC as “Missouri’s largest city” – uh, did you forget the home…
According to this anonymous YouTube poster, this video is a Kansas City classic. Stacy Hedger, Miss Douglas, uses her trumpet to entertain — and to ward off storm troopers — for the talent portion of an unnamed beauty contest. Unfortunately, there’s little on this tape to help identify where the talented Ms. Hedger lived. There are towns and counties named…
It was a very good omen, I thought, when the Cordish Company announced it had snagged a local outpost of the popular Bice (pronounced bee-chay), a stylish Italian restaurant on New York City’s East Side, for the Power & Light District. The Bice Restaurant Group will open three concepts – a bistro, a café and a lounge — in…
%{}% It was a very good omen, I thought, when the Cordish Company announced it had snagged a local outpost of the popular Bice (pronounced bee-chay), a stylish Italian restaurant on New York City’s East Side, for the Power & Light District. The Bice Restaurant Group will open three concepts – a bistro, a café and a lounge — in…
Now, science was never my strong point back in school. However, science in the context of drinking, I can do. “MISTology: The Science Behind the Cocktail” was hosted by the Young Friends of Union Station. This quasi-lecture-slash-happy hour was to raise awareness Science City, though I presumed I wouldn’t see a “The Science of Curing a Hangover” next to that…
One of the few experiences from my life I will never, ever take for granted is that I got to see Morphine live before frontman Mark Sandman died eight years ago. Here’s a picture I got from the show on a disposable camera, circa 1994 at a HORDE tour stop (headliner: Neil Young & Crazy Horse) in Michigan. Morphine…
Underoath and Every Time I Die Monday, October 15 The Beaumont Note to self: Get a better camera. Review and Photos by Crystal K. Wiebe The Beaumont Club was so packed last night that getting close enough to the bands to take decent pictures with a crappy point-and-shoot digital camera was laughable. I tried to make up for the distance…
In the October 18 issue of Rolling Stone, Robert Christgau gives our boy Mac a 3&1/2-star review. In it, the self-described Dean of American Rock Critics says, “Fitting perfectly articulated rhymes to efficiently catchy beats in an accent as Middle American as canned peaches, he’s a contemporary cross between a folk singer and a stand-up comic.” Read the whole thing…
Yesterday, The New York Times ran a front-page story reported from Fort Leavenworth, which writer Elisabeth Bumiller calls “the intellectual center of the United States Army.” There, on a campus officially known as the Combined Arms Center, which includes the midcareer officers’ Command and General Staff College, the elite School of Advanced Military Studies and the Center for Army Lessons…
Wilco Saturday, 11-13-07 The Crossroads Better than: Elton John at the Sprint Center Review by Richard Gintowt Wilco has been my favorite band since high school. I’ve spun each record endlessly and faithfully driven to god-forsaken places like Omaha and Wichita to catch the band live. Heck, I even gave Jeff Tweedy a tape of my band when I was…
BY ANDY VIHSTADT What Deaner Was Talking About According to the band’s Web site, Ween “looks forward to blowing up your eardrums and dicking you over with our music.” Gene and Dean Ween of course are referring to LP11, La Cucaracha, which will be released next week. Download the first single, “Your Party,” courtesy of Stereogum. Ween: “Your Party” MP3…
The Washington Post is latest media outlet to be appalled by the way studios use WDAF Fox Channel 4’s Shawn Edwards and other insignificant critics to hype their movies. — David Martin Categories: News
The Kansas City Ballet turns 50 this year. That’s still younger than a lot of people who were in the audience Thursday night at the season opener. To be fair, the Lyric Theatre crowd wasn’t all grandmas. There were a lot of pretty little girls there, too – decked out for a night on the town. My favorite was a…
And a very merry band it is. No, seriously, Kevin Costner and Modern West are playing at … where else? … the VooDoo Lounge, this Sunday, October 21, at 9:30 p.m. The media’s been invited to a 5 p.m. meet and greet, and I’m really tempted to go, but I’ll probably be at the weekly softball game. I’m sure Kevin…
Tonight on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Goren and Eames are investigating a homicide that leads to a corporate scandal. The preview looks intense! Troy never misses an episode of any of the Law & Order series, and Friday has become our “Criminal Intent Date Night!” I usually call Pizza Hut and order up a Pepperoni with a cheese-stuffed crust,…
