The long, storied history of the Moscow Mule begins in 1941, when an East Coast liquor distributor and a West Coast bar owner came together and concocted this cocktail of vodka, ginger beer and lime juice served over ice in copper mugs. Give this smooth, summery drink a whirl at one of these fine establishments.• City Tavern (101 West 22nd…
For warm, fuzzy introspection and possibly a fresh musical take on social issues, pop into the Thom Hoskins Songwriters Consortium, which meets Tuesday nights at the Czar Bar (1531 Grand, 816-221-2244). The former Buffalo Saints and Blackpool Lights multi-instrumentalist holds court from 7 to 9 p.m. with invited musicians; the interactive audience experience includes live performances and a discussion on…
The Sidecar at the Beaumont Club (4050 Pennsylvania, 816-561-2560) has a new tune master on Wednesday nights. From 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., Justin Lake Whedon spins the freshest indie and electro rock he can get his hands on. Tonight’s Crisp.Fresh playlist might feature the Decemberists, Kasabian, Starlight Mints and Passion Pit, plus Roman Numerals and Delorean. Between midnight and…
The three-day music festival that accompanied the iconic 1974 Muhammad Ali and George Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match in Zaire is the subject of this documentary. Director Jeffrey Levy-Hinte culled it from more than 125 hours of footage, shot by Paul Goldsmith, Kevin Keating, Roderick Young and Albert Maysles. It features performances by Celia Cruz, the Spinners, Fania…
If they’re French, even dweebs get to lounge around in tastefully beige Paris interiors, clutching long-stemmed glasses of Merlot while discussing the potential collateral damage of an exploratory kiss on the lips. In Emmanuel Mouret’s comedie d’amour, the writer-director plays a skinny, cow-eyed math teacher who asks his best friend, a skinny, sloe-eyed and very married scientist played by Virginie…
For those who have only heard Rick Malsick playing his acoustic guitar and singing in coffeehouses around town, this new CD is full of surprises from the get-go. Malsick has never sounded so electric as on track 3, “Money Dancer” — no trace of acoustic-ness here, just blues-rock with bendy sixth-string licks. Malsick’s clever wordplay is still intact, though, as…
You gotta hand it to Peter Bjorn and John: They don’t give a squirt. On the heels of a breakthrough single that was probably stuck in your head longer than you would have liked (“Young Folks”), the Swedish trio went and made the most out-there album of 2009. Living Thing sounds like a fake album that was leaked before the…
With their woodsman beards and Prohibition garb, the New Familiars look the part of a throwback act. In a sense, the Charlotte, North Carolina, band is just that: a rootsy, blues and folk-infused quintet that brings to mind quintessential American music makers such as Leadbelly, Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead. But these five Appalachia dwellers weren’t born in the…
London Transit’s sleek and stylish debut lands the local synth-poppers smack in the middle of the indie-electronica landscape, blipping and humming away somewhere between the catchy beats of Hercules and Love Affair and the sugary vocals of Hot Chip. With a quirky, lighthearted approach to heavy subjects (the sinking economy, for example), the Kansas City trio successfully floats candy-colored dollops…
Lee “Scratch” Perry is to reggae and dub what James Brown was to funk: among its first proponents and one of its greatest popularizers. The diminutive Jamaican has made music for more than 50 years, authoring an unfathomable number of releases and producing Bob Marley’s early hits. A feisty iconoclast, the colorfully attired singer has a voice as distinct as…
Take the last novel you read and add 10 words, and you’ll have some idea of the verbosity of CES Cru’s latest. Don’t ask — trust the math. Words are crammed into every corner and crevice of Playground, and the lyrics spin and wail like an overcrowded merry-go-round. But that’s CES Cru — these guys drop 20 verses every time…
Everybody knows an ax-wielding or drumstick-slinging road dog, a bandsman who flits around the country bringing music to the midnight masses. But for every handful of musicians rolling down the highway, there’s someone else whose job it is to keep the roll in check. Meet master tour manager Robert Holland. It’s possible that you already have. When the world wanderer…
The gorgeous, avant-folk pop of Portland, Oregon’s AU (pronounced a-you) reflects an aural appreciation of the beauty of the natural world. The airy, highly percussive tunes of the duo — multi-instrumentalist and singer Luke Wyland and drummer Dana Valatka — should fill up the big, open loft of the Pistol quite nicely. Though often compared with Animal Collective, AU is…
Other than Rose Byrne’s on-screen radiance and a soothingly warm palette lit by cinematographer Seamus Tierney, there’s not much to get passionate about in this amiable chamber piece from theater director Max Mayer. Hedging just about every bet it lays on the table to the tune of a gentle guitar, Adam spins a wish-fulfilling romance between a recently bereaved young…
Doby Watson’s 22nd year was a pivotal one. The Kansas City songwriter traces his “early life crisis” to the funeral of a cousin last year who was close in age to Watson. At the time, Watson was living in an art gallery. He had a tiny bedroom with a shoulder-level ceiling. When he finally got tired of crouching, he moved…
If local restaurants got the same gossipy tabloid coverage as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, then Café Trio’s move from 35th Street and Broadway to the Country Club Plaza would have been the talk of the town for the first half of 2009. Ever since the owners, Chris Youngers, Tai Nguyen and businessman Al Richey (who keeps a low profile),…
As the crowd-pleasing, packed-house production of Big River demonstrates, Musical Theater Heritage is getting better as it grows. The company’s take on Roger Miller’s adaptation of Huckleberry Finn is, like Miller’s score or Mark Twain’s novel, somehow both humble and heroic, a likable affair that just happens to center on what might be the most powerful moment in all of…
Jim Haus barreled down a dusty road to Kuwait, piloting an M816 recovery truck. Sitting behind the wheel of the 5-ton machine, with rockets exploding nearby as the vehicle tore through the desert, Haus wasn’t anxious. It was his first charge into combat. It was fun. A mortar hit close to the truck and dislodged a piece of the hood….
Charles Chappelle moved out of the inner city several years ago, but he still feels a connection to the area. “My church is there,” he says. “My barber is there.” Chappelle also owns a couple of houses along East 29th Street. A daughter lives in one of them. So Chappelle makes frequent trips to the East Side, though he’s retired…
Dear Mexican: A gabacho in the local daily suggested that some of our prisons be outsourced to Mexico to save us some money. What are your thoughts? Would wabs make for good guards looking after homies and white-trash inmates? Have a chew on that taco. Mike the Mick From Missouri Dear Mick: My thoughts? Ew … a Missouri taco. Dear…
Martin: “The Electric Slide,” August 13 Contract Labor As a former federal contracting officer, a subcontracts manager for a major defense contractor, and a contract administrator for an EPA contractor, my concern with Mark One Electric’s contract to perform maintenance on the city’s electrical systems and equipment would be why it was not made to the low bidder. Unless this…
Ten years ago, you were much more likely to see Kansas City native Mike Elder — a Chevrolet-certified auto mechanic — working on an car engine than fussing with the details of a cake. But that was ten years ago. Since then, it’s cakes, not cars, that dominate Elder’s life. You can see for yourself this Monday, August 31 at…
From Lefse Records: Hear ye, hear ye! It is time now for us to present you with a gift. We weighed many options in deciding what to give, but the only obvious gift was one that keeps on giving. Click the link below to download your FREE copy of the Lefse Records Compilation, highlighting all of our current artists (and…
Raise your hand if you knew that And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead is coming to the Record Bar on Monday, September 28. Well, aren’t all y’all clever. The band, which hails from the southern Kansas City suburb of Austin, Texas, brings with it a new album, The Century of Self as well as an excellent…
