Everyone has a Troost story. For me, it was getting put in my place by a feisty, middle-aged, black comedian at an open-mic night at G’s Jamaican Cuisine a few years back. For those who answered an informal Facebook poll, stories included hookers, hobos, pigs’ feet, a good mechanic, misadventures in and around Mike’s Tavern, a police standoff, good times…
For many politicians, pundits and bareheaded militia members, the U.S.-Mexico border is a scary place. They fear that there is something potentially Bolshevik about the influx of Mexican imports — whether people, drugs or culture — slipping by unnoticed to American turf. For xenophobes, Supa Bad, the second from Vincent Galicia (who traffics beats as VG), is a perfect dystopia….
They’re all about where people come from. Nobody seems to wonder where somebody’s going.” So says the Depression-era bank robber and folk hero John Dillinger, upon surveying the clientele of a chic Chicago eatery in a key scene from Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. And, much like its subject, Mann’s exhilarating movie exists in a state of perpetual forward motion. Dillinger…
Those who think remixes are as compelling as originals can find proof in the pudding on Norrit’s new Feel the Remix EP. The Lawrence-based DJ and producer makes over his own “Feel the Rhythm” cut (originally from The Rhythm EP) with gurgling bass lines and phased-out samples, essentially creating a new track while retaining its original intent: maximum dance-floor hotness….
What with Gwen Stefani still popping up everywhere, it sure doesn’t seem like five years since No Doubt’s last hit, a cover of Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life.” But now the ska revivalists turned new-wave enthusiasts are back and on tour, using these shows as an opportunity to recharge before recording the follow-up to 2001’s Rock Steady. That means the…
Young jazz musicians and spoken-word artists from Kansas City and the nation get their turn to listen, learn and play live at the Next Generation Jazz Summit. The American Jazz Musuem is the host for this two-day event, which will include roundtables, master classes and live performances in the Blue Room. The lineup will feature area jazz ensembles, the KCMO…
Low has seemingly taken a backseat to Retribution Gospel Choir in the last couple of years, as Duluth, Minnesota, mainstay Alan Sparhawk indulges his rock muse with feedback-laden guitar jams and more cathartic crescendos. Low, by contrast, is the anti-crescendo, with most of its compositions putting along at glacial tempos and with cymbal- and floor-tom-heavy percussion. The genius of the…
Robert Pattinson (Twilight) plays bi-curious Salvador Dali in this silly portrayal of the 1920s Madrid university days of the painter and his pals, gay poet/playwright Federico García Lorca and gay-bashing Luis Buñuel. Written by first-time scripter Philippa Goslett, Little Ashes (named after one of Dali’s paintings) is a typically bombastic lives-of-the-artists production made even more stilted by having all the…
As with Shrek and countless other overextended studio franchises, the well has run bone-dry with this one. Part Three sends woolly mammoths Manny (Ray Romano), a very pregnant Ellie (Queen Latifah), and the rest of their cobbled-together family of misfits to a lush land below the ice that’s fraught with dangers — like a burping purple plant that ingests foreigners…
Electronic artist H Stewart’s fifth release, Letters to Kansas City, is not so much an album as a soundtrack to a journey through the city. Forgoing traditional song structures, Stewart runs a cheap Casio keyboard through distortion software to create ambient soundscapes that evoke the locations for which the songs are named. The arpeggios of “South Hyde Park” conjure up…
It’s quite fitting that both Joan Jett and Morrissey were instantly impressed with Girl in a Coma. (The former signed them; the latter invited them to open for him.) Like those two icons, but to an even greater degree, Girl in a Coma keeps part of its sound planted in crunching punk ‘n roll and the other in dreamy pop….
“For the first time in my life, I felt morally certain of having written a novel for which I need neither blush nor doubt,” Colette said of Chéri, her 1920 novel of the belle époque Parisian demimonde. Stephen Frears’ anemic adaptation, written by Christopher Hampton, would most likely make the author nod off or plug her ears. Chéri, the most…
Buy low, sell high. That’s the refrain sung by Kansas City’s London Transit on its song “Capital.” Like the stock market itself, the lyric’s creation has more to do with chance than clairvoyance. “I was kind of blank on lyrics, and I had an IRA envelope on my desk,” explains songwriter and keyboardist Brian Schick. “It’s pretty relevant now. No…
Two people walk into this bar and grill on a Monday night. They sit down and see this big sign — a poster, really — on the wall that lists the weekly specials. In plain English are these words: “Every Monday, 1-pound crab legs, potatoes and corn $12.99.” The two people say to each other, “Well, that’s a nice deal.”…
On rare occasions, we’re treated to shows that we don’t want to end. U:Bug:Me, the new, bug-themed rock musical premiering at the Coterie Theatre, is one that I didn’t want to start. As the audience settles in, a four-piece band in shades and mop-top wigs bangs out sunny, bouncing instrumentals in a loose surf-garage style. Tapping Be/Non’s Brodie Rush to…
The revolvers hanging from his belt are loaded, but at the moment, Croaker’s hands are busy with the tin coffee cup suspended less than an inch from his lips. He’s a big man of 52, and he carries his weight in front, mostly in a great stomach now clothed in a red shirt underneath suspenders, and pants the same black…
When the feds sell a project, by God, they really sell a project. Representatives from the National Nuclear Security Administration and the General Services Administration dropped by City Hall June 24 to ask for the Planning and Zoning Committee’s final blessing on Honeywell’s move of its Kansas City Plant from Bannister Road to a new facility in what one presenter…
Dear Mexican: Looking back recently on my distant youth in northwest Ohio, I came to the realization that the sweetest, most beautiful girl this gabacho ever went out with (indeed, the most beautiful in my entire senior class) was the pure-blooded daughter of Mexican immigrants. Am I under the sway of (1) simple nostalgia, (2) racist exoticism, (3) premature senility,…
Martin: “Making Her Mark,” June 11 Mark One Monitor? Why is it that so-called city employees don’t want to do their jobs? If Mark One Electric Company is illegally getting contract work, why did it take so long to find out? Is the city administration so incompetent, or are they receiving something on the side? Either way, maybe it’s time…
Erik and Colleen Voeks announced on Facebook this morning that their record store in Shawnee, Needmore Discs, will be shutting its doors for good on August 2. Thanks to Robert Moore for passing along the note. July 3rd is Needmore Discs six year anniversary, and six years is a pretty fair innings. Right? We’ve had some good times. Sold a…
View Larger Map An 83-year-old mansion at 6315 Ward Parkway will be auctioned on the steps of the Jackson County Courthouse tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. The Kansas City Star reported that the home went into foreclosure after SolutionsBank made the owners a $1.1 million dollar loan in October 2007 that since defaulted. The mansion’s most recent owners had planned to…
Damn, of all the weekends to muzzle Kansas City’s most enigmatic crooner, why does it have to be the Fourth of July? According to this story, Latta’s home base, the Cigar Box, has its liquor license suspended for two days due to violating city ordinances, selling booze to minors among them. The suspension starts at 6 a.m. July 4th, and…
According to a Craigslist Missed Connections post, two bikes on I-35 fell in love. But love at 55 miles per hour can’t last, can it? (Lots of in the following.) Today my big green bike seems to have fallen in love with your little red bike. I know, I was as surprised as anyone to learn that my bike is…
