Look, we know you’ve been eyeing those overpriced, noise-canceling headphones for months now. If you really need an excuse to splurge, the eponymous debut EP from the KC-native Audiovox is it. Singer, guitarist and keyboardist Martin Bush (Salt the Earth, Paper Cities) and drummer Brad Chancellor (Orion), in an unexpected step away from their harder-edged backgrounds, have teamed up to…
If ever an album title summed up the makers, it’s the Architects’ fourth record, The Hard Way. As soon as the album is released this month, the group will leave Kansas City for the Vans Warped Tour. It’s the first time that the band will play every date of the cross-country, heavy-music and youth-culture festival. “I’m looking forward to coming…
I don’t know Micheline Burger or her daughter, Mijanou Cackler — I’ve never spoken to them — but if they had come to me with their idea for opening a European-style bistro in a strip mall on the west side of Interstate 35, I would have done my best to talk them out of it. I mean, I’ve seen more…
Although we’re in the traditional dead weeks of early summer, fresh work is flourishing on Kansas City stages. That’s a problem in which to luxuriate. At the Unicorn Theatre, Speech & Debate concerns unlikely friendships among teenage outcasts — a stock situation that’s given uncommon power by director Missy Koonce and her superior cast. Lauretta Pope is all dazzling tumult…
Seven other men were in the cell with Quentin Carter, so when he started to work, he put on his headphones. Any other time, their chatter would have been good material for the book, but now it was just a distraction. On a bad day, the headphones helped. More than a year had passed since Carter was caught with a…
Leavenworth used to take hard cases without flinching. A military prison opened at Fort Leavenworth in 1875. Twelve Nazi prisoners of war marched to its gallows in 1945. Current occupants include Ronald Gray, who received a death sentence for rapes and murders he committed while stationed at Fort Bragg in the late 1980s. The U.S. penitentiary in Leavenworth, a separate…
We’ve all done it. The Van Halen is loud, the place is all yours, and so you jam a little air. More than a little — you wail on that invisible ax, your features distorted in guitar-solo concentration. Let the pros waste their spotlight turns thinking about the groupies and cold cuts awaiting them after the show. You feel the…
Dear Mexican: I write to you with a doubt that’s similar to the one Incensed in Chicago felt a couple of weeks ago, when her friend couldn’t believe that Mexicans worked in professional, white-collar jobs. I live in Tijuana, and of the gabachos who put down roots here, you can’t find a single professional. Just starving people and retirees. People…
Title: Sports, classified and TV sections of the Kansas City Kansan Date: Sunday, May 7, 1967 Discovered at: Fairway estate sale Representative quotes: “Proud Carlton, a 30-to-1 shot, stormed around horses in the stretch Saturday to score a stunning one-length victory in the $162,000 Kentucky Derby as 2,500 security officers guarded against incidents that never occurred.” “About 50 Negro and…
Studies in Crap: “That was entertainment,” May 28 Century’s End — Not I really enjoyed the recent Studies in Crap article “That Was Entertainment.” The final tidbit was about The Century, at 12th Street and Central. What wasn’t mentioned, which many Pitch readers might have enjoyed knowing, is that this is the Folly Theater! The Folly was indeed shuttered in…
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been watching my homies over at Lifted Logic (a design and media company that I wrote the “Troost Tube” feature about in January) put together their second annual Independence Day street party near their headquarters on the grounds of 7th Heaven, at 7621 Troost. Last year, it was a neighborhood affair that featured mainly…
The Gaslight Anthem’s The ’59 Sound is one of my favorite records to come out this year. I fought and fought and fought against buying into them, but once I had my come to Jesus moment regarding their punk meets Bruce Springsteen sound, I was a much happier man. Seriously, just watch the damned video. You’ll watch, you’ll start to…
Normally, something like this wouldn’t warrant a whole separate entry, but since lead singer and bassist Steve Kilbey apparently did an interpretive dance routine to illustrate his blogged apology for his band, the Church, cancelling its show here at the VooDoo, well, we think he deserves extra credit. Step in time, Steve! Dance Move 1: “The Fetal-Down-Under” (or Untitled Dance…
In this week’s feature, “Story of My Life,” we introduced you to East-side native Quentin Carter, who spent close to a decade in federal prison on drug charges and came out with five bestselling novels. A lot’s changed since Carter was put away, and we were curious how Kansas City’s redevelopment looked to a fresh set of eyes. On the…
… Elrod. Behold Kansas City’s best air humper. The Record Bar hosted the Air Sex World Championships Monday night, and Kansas City’s fake fornicators weren’t afraid to let out their kinks. More videos after the jump. Categories: News Tags: Air Sex World Championships, record bar
I used to put smug vegetable gardeners in the same category as militant bicycle riders, self-satisfied Prius drivers and people who can afford to cover their roofs with solar panels. But when a friend invited me to hear Michael Pollan’s talk at Unity Temple regarding his newest book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, I was amazed at the…
… Like making friends. And having a social network. Or so the Kansas City Chapter of No Kidding! tells us. Not really, but the organization has been formed because it’s not so easy for child-free adults — especially those who’ve just moved to town — to make friends and socialize without the crutch of children’s school activities and social circles….
When it came to me that I should write about the country top 10, I figured two things, both of them wrong. First, I assumed I’d be writing a lot, but come to find out change comes slowly to country radio, which means even after a week off there’s only two hits I haven’t gotten to, yet. They’re below. Second,…
