Feature: “My Secret Life in the Klan,” September 27 Under the Hood I have never been so moved by a Pitch article. I am still shaking from reading it over lunch. Peter Rugg is very brave to have gone undercover to expose such wrong, strange and scary people. I am encouraged to learn that there are not many of these…
At this point in history, we don’t need art to tell us that marriage can be a grueling slog, an Iditarod of two, whips and all. We need art to help us deal with it. There’s not much aid in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, the mother of all bad-marriage dramas, which is enjoying an extraordinary revival…
Over the years, local veteran hip-hop group Heet Mob has hosted the most colorful open-mic nights in Kansas City. The Mob’s first open-mic night started at Club Mardi Gras in the jazz district in 1999 and later moved to the Hurricane in 2002, where the event held on until 2005. Now, Heet Mob has started a brand-new thing at the…
Veterans shouldn’t have to fight with their local Chamber of Commerce over beer, but that’s what’s going on in Blue Springs. In mid-September, the town celebrated its annual Blue Springs Fall Fun Festival, which has been a rite of the season for 38 years. From Friday, September 14, through that Sunday, around 100,000 people headed to the town’s quaint…
American Buffalo A formalist’s dance of dazzling profanity, idiotic repetition and go-nowhere action, David Mamet’s breakthrough play about a coin heist planned by the dim confederates of a junk-shop owner can feel like a clever exercise. Fortunately, Kansas City newcomer Forrest Attaway wrings real life from the material as the hyperactive bruiser Teach. Well-directed by Bob Paisley, Teach stomps about…
“Dear Prudence” by Megan Birdsall, from Track 13 (self-released, 2005): If you pay attention to the local jazz scene, you’ve heard the smoky singing of Megan Birdsall. The petite blonde with Rapunzel hair and a classic, Ella Fitzgerald kind of voice gigs regularly at classy joints such as Jardine’s and Café Trio. But Birdsall is no diva. She used to…
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season Three (Universal) Black Sheep Unrated (Genius) Bob Mould: Circle of Friends (Granary) Bruce Springsteen: Under Review-1978-82: Tales of the Working Man (Sexy Intellectual) Concert for Diana (Universal) CSI New York: The Third Season (Paramount) Man Push Cart (Koch Lorber) The Marx Brothers Collection (Passport) Meerkat Manor: Season One (Animal Planet) Michael Palin: Pole to Pole (BBC…
Carlos Mencia| Dave Chappelle|graffiti Dear Mexican: I’m a minority, and I know we can be overly sensitive sometimes, but I just can’t stand Carlos Mencia. Not only do I think his jokes are asinine, but I also feel they are actually racist. Whereas Dave Chappelle tried to make fun of society’s racist thoughts, Mencia seems to promote them. I know…
Apparently, you can’t keep former Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo from doing what he does best for very long. Following the shocking murder of former bandmate Dimebag Darrell, Anselmo and the rest of the New Orleans band were forced to endure the devastation and displacement wrought by Katrina less than a year later, not to mention personal demons and complicated back…
Until my first visit to the three-month-old Rockrose Grill & Bar in Shawnee, I’d never heard of the five Toubia brothers of Wichita. How was I supposed to know that the Toubia clan was culinary royalty in the “Air Capital of the World”? My friend Bette, who lives in Wichita, set me straight. “It’s a restaurant dynasty here that was…
“We’ve got a long program for you tonight,” Jeff Tweedy announced at the beginning of Wilco’s recent two-hour performance in Columbia. What followed was pure bliss for die-hards who feared that the shape-shifting band would forsake its back catalog in favor of mellower material from this year’s quietly resplendent Sky Blue Sky. Refueled versions of “Passenger Side” and “Casino Queen”…
“Hennin Hardine” by Jucifer, from If Thine Enemy Hunger (Relapse): Jucifer is the White Stripes of Bizzaro World. Frontwoman Amber Valentine’s narcotic croon replaces Jack White’s yelp, and a sludgy, proto-metal rumble subsumes the Stripes’ quaint garage racket as easily as Ozzy biting off a bat’s head. Such is the power of the grimy, dirge blues pouring out of…
Following up July’s excellent homage to Radiohead’s OK Computer, titled OKX, Stereogum marks the 15-year anniversary of R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People, which arrives just in time for the band’s live CD and DVD next week. Indie favorites, including the Wrens, Rogue Wave and Catfish Haven, summon their inner Michael Stipe for Drive XV, a track-for-track tribute album available exclusively…
Along with river otters and meth tweakers, Missouri is richly populated with a dazzling variety of garage-rock bands. And in a moving spectacle reminiscent of the big coronation scene in The Lion King, 14 of the wildest migrate to St. Louis this weekend for the Show-Me Blowout. This garage-rock festival was conceived by Jeff Kopp, the man behind Garagepunk.com and…
It might be the best one-two punch on a hip-hop album this year, but Mac Lethal is more than a little modest — and un-PC — about his twin killers. “They’re pretty much polar opposites,” he says of “Pound That Beer” and “The Make-Out Bandit,” the first singles from his new album, 11.11. “One’s totally abrasive, and the other one’s…
The sight of Wilbur Niewald painting in Loose Park always cheers me. Even on the most brutal summer afternoon, he’s there at 5 p.m., absorbed in the landscape. Knowing I’ll see that painting later, in an exhibition, lets me feel part of his artistic process. In Niewald’s exhibition at Dolphin, 25 paintings and watercolors — most of them from…
RADIOHEAD – IN RAINBOWS by Annie Zaleski Editor’s note: Our girl in the ‘Lou, Annie Zaleski, was one of the first yankee writers to blog-review the new Radiohead, for her blog at the Riverfront Times. Here’s all she wrote: You know, Radiohead, I was just about to go to sleep when I checked my email one last time. And lo…
Bruce Springsteen Magic (Columbia) BY MICHAEL ROBERTS Magic is being hyped as Springsteen’s rocking return to his classic period, and that’s understandable: The album contains lotsa familiar musical totems, not to mention lyrics about driving a highway until the road turns black, and a diner on the edge of town (bet it’s dark there). But while Boss buffs will scarf…
In Buffalo last night, Dallas Cowboys rookie kicker Nick Folk banged home the game-winning field goal from 53 yards — not once but twice. Folk was forced to repeat the feat because the Bills called for timeout just before the ball was snapped, the soul-killing gimmick that the league’s competition committee can’t outlaw soon enough. The Cowboys selected Folk out…
Melissa Etheridge tells USA Today that the pastor of Topeka’s gay hating Westboro Baptist Church inspired a track on her new album, The Awakening. Etheridge told the paper that “The Kingdom of Heaven” is an answer to Fred Phelps and “the hating going on in the name of God. We have to stand up to people and say, ‘You don’t…
There can’t be a lot of people named Paul Saleh out there. That’s why it seemed like such a find to stumble upon Paul Saleh’s MySpace page. If the name’s new to you, as of today, Paul Saleh is the acting CEO of Sprint Nextel Corp. after the ouster of Gary Forsee. Google the name and you’ll come across this…
Klaxons Friday, October 5 The Bottleneck Photos and Words by Scott Spychalski Editor’s Note From Harper: Even though the label denied the Pitch press credentials to Klaxons’ show last Friday at the Bottleneck, our truly intrepid photographer, Scott, went early, bought a ticket and hung out with the band, duping them at one point into endorsing our little publication. No…
Alert reader Angela Lutz sent in this photo she captured recently in Westport. This photo is enough to make us want to return when this place is open. Categories: News
BY ANDY VIHSTADT Been Caught Stealing (Ah the twisted, perplexed look of someone who is being sued a quarter of a million dollars for copying, among other atrocities, a Richard Marx song.) Minnesota resident Jammie Thomas has been ordered to fork over $220,000 to the RIAA for sharing songs 24 songs on Kazaa, marking the first copyright infringement case to…
