The Republic Tigers continue to shape up to be the biggest band to come out of this area since … who knows? The day after the band’s debut LP, Keep Color, comes out, the Tigers’ll play the Late Show with David Letterman on May 7 May 22. The last local band to play Letterman was the New Amsterdams, two years…
%{}% By ALAN SCHERSTUHL Maybe it worked better on radio: Today, everyone visiting KMBZ 980’s Web site — a group made up mostly of mouthbreathers, Minutemen and anyone interested in using this century’s technology to access last century’s political thinking — is confronted with this catchy headline command: “Spell ‘Participate.’” That’s not hard to do when the word’s printed right…
By ERIC BARTON Journalists spend most of their time pointing out the screw-ups of others, so you have to hand it to Joe Posnanski for pointing out his own in this recent post on his blog. He lists three self-effacing — and pretty funny — blunders early in his career. Truth is, we can all likely relate to that feeling…
By Justin Kendall Erotic City has filed a federal lawsuit that asks a judge to overturn a Jackson County ordinance outlawing sex in the video booths of adult bookstores in Blue Summit. Click here to read the lawsuit. And stay tuned for a cover story in tomorrow’s Pitch on Jesse Franklin Herd III, who admitted to prostituting his stepdaughter…
By ERIC BARTON Suck it, Wichita. If you believe everything you read on Wikipedia — and why shouldn’t you? — we get the word bombardier from Joseph-Armand Bombardier, a Quebec mechanic “who dreamt of building a vehicle that could ‘float on snow.’ In 1937, he designed and produced his first snowmobile in his small repair shop in Valcourt, Quebec.” So…
By ANDY VIHSTADT Friends of P Portishead returns after a decade for its Third on April 29. Click here to order the special edition before eBay scavengers deplete the supply. The box set includes a P-shaped USB card with the album and five films, as well as a double LP and an etched 12” of the first single, “Machine Gun.”…
%{}% By PETER RUGG Fuck you, Grandma: You know how everything seems more competitive these days? Tougher job market, better-trained athletes, etc. But maybe we’re starting to carry it too far. Sure, a week ago everyone was talking about that woman who was on the toilet so long that she became a new species of human-toilet hybrid. Most people would…
By PETER RUGG According to the site’s counter, not many people are watching Aaron Nickens’ series of videos on YouTube titled “Urban Testimony.” Not that it bothers him. “I’m not trying to get the most hits. I’m trying to show that there are some people in the inner city who care enough to give other people a platform to say…
Cody Critcheloe and Drew Bolton of the Ssion have sspun video gold once again. The product this time is far more sinister than their previous opus, a dance-party-themed video for Tilly and the Wall’s “Beat Control.” In the video for the Ssion’s slow, dubby and sleazy maternal address “Ah Ma,” Critcheloe gives a lady, presumably his ma (played by KC…
By NADIA PFLAUM Happy Friday! Today’s Daily Briefs is brought to you by your cousin Greg in Omaha, who always forwards you outdated Internet jokes and photos of kittens. It’s a hell of a drug. Jacques Lavigne, also known as Frank Moran (yeah, I like the Frenchy name better, too. Much more sophisticated) pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday…
Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears Wednesday, 3-19-08 The Replay Lounge By RICHARD GINTOWT The measure of a good show isn’t how many people show up; it’s how many people stick around. Bryan Scary knocked ‘em upside the head last night with a balls-out glam rock set that inspired onlookers to shout “goddamn,” “oh my god” and (my personal…
%{}% By ERIC BARTON Ash-har, I am your father. It’s a sad day for the city’s “investigative” TV news reporters, who won’t have retiring Independence Police Chief Fred Mills to kick around anymore. And it’s a sad day for Daily Briefs, which won’t be able to make fun of the “blockbuster” investigations that TV news reporters often turned in from…
Tonight, dear friends, on KKFI 90.1 FM, the Buckle Bunny and I will be on the air from 10 p.m. to midnight, playing and discussing musics from the realms of Kansas City and Lawrence. That’s right! We’re taking over the Local Showcase Radio Exploding-Head Extravaganzaaa! Our out-of-town friends (i.e, Sean Connery, Tom Clancy, e.e. cummings, you) can listen to…
David Brewis, one-third of the acclaimed British indie-pop trio Field Music, has a beast of his own. Working as School of Language, Brewis’ debut solo outing, Sea from Shore, is more raw and rocky than the poppy, harmony-driven Field Music formula. The melodies are sweet, but the music is more distorted, with jagged guitar riffs dashing across blatty bass and…
Queen Bey was barely out of her teens when she packed her bags, tucked her infant daughter under her arm and headed to Los Angeles. But Bey, now 70, had already started her jazz career before she left Kansas City: She sang at the Orchid Room nightclub at age 12. Bey returned to her hometown in the 1980s to prove…
Tonight at 7, Victoria Holt delves into a subject that most people don’t like to think about: genocide. Holt, a senior associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., is an expert on the topic. She co-directs the Future of Peace Operations Program, which is part think tank, part nonprofit outreach. Tonight at the University of St. Mary…
Today is Thirsty Thursday. At least that’s what they call it at McFadden’s Sports Saloon (1330 Grand, 816-471-1330), where Bud Light and Absolut vodka go for cheap. So do pizzas. Get a pie for just $5 between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. While you’re in the Power and Light District, check out some of the other watering holes in…
Jazz vocalist, pianist and bandleader Karrin Allyson flew her Kansas City coop about seven years ago for a more cosmopolitan roost in New York City, but her visits to the area are always welcome homecomings. Allyson has garnered three Grammy nominations over the course of her 16-year career: two for her Coltrane-inspired Ballads release in 2001 and one for her…
A member of the Dresden Dolls’ extended family, Jason Webley shares that duo’s musical preferences (cabaret punk, showtune-style ballads, sea chanteys) and its penchant for dramatic presentation. Webley uses the accordion’s full emotional spectrum, playing the sort of laments that prompt tears in classic French films and the kind of fast-paced romps that get mugs clinking at Polish wedding receptions….
The winner of tonight’s KC Crown Showdown will have to withstand the scrutiny of a panel of judges, as well as the audience itself. Taking a cue from the Apollo Theater, the crowd decides who’s talented enough to finish their set.”It’s gonna be audience participation — the audience can boo or cheer a performer, but we also have judges to…
In 1890, Shakespeare aficionado Eugene Schieffelin set loose 60 to 100 pairs of European starlings in New York City’s Central Park in an attempt to bring all of the birds ever mentioned in the bard’s plays to the United States. The starlings got fruitful and multiplied (there are now more than 200 million in North America), and Schieffelin is now…
The hourlong documentary I Exist presents a candid look at the feelings and struggles experienced by many people who balance the realities of being both homosexual and of Middle Eastern descent. The film explores the pain that may be compounded when vast distance and an alien culture separate them from their families. It shows at 7 tonight at All Souls…
Hey, kids! Ya’ll listen close. Forty years from now, when you’re suing the local casinos and learning what “alimony” means, ya ain’t gonna look back fondly on those spring breaks spent shooting vodka up your nose with a rolled-up McDonald’s gift certificate. Things might work out better if you spend your spring breaks at the real party cove: the…
All that frightening footage out of the Middle East fails to illustrate an often-ignored fact about Israelis — they really know how to party. They aren’t shy about showing up to events in costume, for example, or dancing in front of strangers.At last year’s Purim celebration, pairs of Israeli ex-pats living in KC showed up in coordinated costumes: women dressed…
