While El-P wraps up his follow-up to last year’s I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, the New York rapper, producer and label CEO is giving away the second installment in his mixtape series. Hit up the Definitive Jux online store to download We Are All Going to Burn in Hell Meggamixxx 2, which, until now, was available only on merch tables….
“Blues That Defy my Soul” by Dexter Romweber, from Blues That Defy My Soul (Yep Roc Records): Dexter Romweber’s admirers include Jack White, Neko Case and Cat Power — all of whom have testified to the legacy of the former Flat Duo Jets frontman for a new biopic, titled Two Headed Cow, that’s making the festival rounds. It’s easy to…
“Over and Over the Same Things” by the Spidermums, from Spidermums (self-released): After six promising months, the best-named band in Kansas City is breaking up. Yet, even after two members move in coming weeks, the story of the Spidermums could continue through additional releases. “We’re gonna be like Tupac,” jokes singer and guitarist James Capps. He’s one of the ‘Mums…
“Statement,” by Boris, from Smile (Diwphalanx Records): No band frustrates record collectors quite like Tokyo’s Boris. The hyper-prolific and experimental trio’s latest full length, Smile, comes in enough varieties to upset the most ardent completists. Released in Japan, then later Stateside, the two versions of the album include essentially the same songs yet sound nothing alike. Whereas the American version…
Often, an artist’s answer to ennui is to risk commercial viability by striving to break new, often uncomfortable ground. For fans, this can be painful to watch, and for Black Crowes fans, it’s downright hard to handle. In the roughshod 18-year career of this Southern-soul band, the bro-centric Crowes have soared (sparking an unexpected early-’90s R&B and blues revival) but…
What a brooding pleasure it is to return to Christopher Nolan’s Gotham City — if pleasure is the right word for a movie that gazes so deeply into the souls of restless men. In The Dark Knight, the continuation of Nolan’s superb 2005 reboot of the Batman franchise, Batman Begins, fair Gotham is a modestly cleaner, better-lighted place than it…
“Rebel in You” by Supergrass, from Diamond Hoo Ha (Astralwerks): It’s been said that Oasis was the new Beatles and Supergrass was the new Monkees, but now it’s the other way around. Twelve years after the height of cool Britannia, no other band from Britpop’s ’90s division has continued to make more varied, inventive and entertaining records than Supergrass. While…
MelBee’s was an interesting case study. It was a sophisticated, upscale restaurant in a neighborhood populated mostly by inexpensive diners (Town Topic, Village Inn), hardware stores, shoe-repair shops and Apollo Hair Replacement System. I once asked MelBee’s owner Lloyd Boothe if “downtown” Mission was somewhat blue-collar for the MelBee’s crowd, who drank martinis and not only knew the lyrics to…
My restaurant specializes in home cooking, but everyone who writes about us just talks about the doughnuts,” Karen Allred said one day recently as she swept a wisp of red hair off her forehead. Hell, the fried doughnuts were what first brought me into Allred’s six-month-old Skillet Licker Café. I hadn’t seen any of the write-ups she was talking about…
Translations, the second show of a promising new season from the Actors Theatre of Kansas City, is the second rich, demanding drama from Irish playwright Brian Friel to hit town in recent months. The first, Faith Healer, was, for all its fine performances, like watching a book on tape. It had too little to tell us yet persisted in telling…
Central Avenue curves fast through Kansas City, Kansas, lined with auto-detailing shops, gas stations and panaderias. At 18th Street and Park Drive, it meets a confusing, asterisk-shaped intersection. Aaron Becerra was 21 when he approached that intersection on the evening of September 30, 2000. This drive was part of his daily routine. He’d just gotten off work at the KCK…
As Pastor Troy Campbell roams the courtyards of the Chouteau Courts housing project on Independence Avenue, a boy jumps on his back. Campbell is a strapping 6-foot-2, but the boy slides off, having grown too big for piggyback rides. It’s a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon. Campbell is knocking on doors and talking through windows of the project’s two- and…
Mexcians on Patrol Dear Mexican: Why are there Mexicans in the Border Patrol? What a hypocritical thing to do to our people. Carne Asada Carlos Dear Wab: Not only are Mexicans in the Border Patrol; la migra’s own figures show that Latinos make up about 52 percent of its force, comfortably outnumbering gabachos. (That pop you just heard was the…
Editor’s note: Correction appended. Kansas City is known for its water: the odorous Brush Creek, the murky Missouri River, hundreds of fountains — and now, monster mansions guzzling millions of gallons of water a year. With lawn-watering season upon us, the Department of Burnt Ends decided it was time to call out the top water users in Kansas City, Missouri….
Martin, “White Sale,” July 3 ACLU to the Rescue In his July 3 column about the dress codes in the Power & Light District, David Martin was evenhanded and factually accurate — with one exception. The ACLU is indeed involved in looking at the seemingly racist dress codes at KC Live and in the Power & Light District. We have been processing…
By C.J. JANOVY At the downtown library, I recently checked out Aram Roston’s new The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures, and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi. I had hoped to learn more about Chalabi’s relationship with Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback. Chalabi is the Iraqi exile and charming con man who fabricated the Iraqi National Congress –…
