“We are not these people! We are a boring couple from New Jersey!” Claire Foster (Tina Fey) complains to her husband, Phil (Steve Carell), in Date Night. Phil and Claire are middle-class, suburban parents whose plans for a night on the town are thwarted when they’re pulled into a web of crime and conspiracy. They wanted a night off from…
Erika Wennerstrom’s lean, muscular alto is a fine match for her band’s sturdy rock. Heartless Bastards churn out gritty tunes with unrelenting beats and bursts of dingy guitar. For the band’s third album, The Mountain, Wennerstrom relocated to Austin, Texas, and refreshed her lineup and her sound, which finds a more laconic country-rock tone reminiscent of Neil Young. Though the…
Without the movie Juno, which featured the Moldy Peaches song “Anyone Else but You,” Adam Green’s idiosyncrasy might have fated him to obscurity. That doesn’t mean silent, however — the musical gadfly has released four albums since the Moldy Peaches’ breakup, each guided by a genre-spanning A.D.D. that has made room for horn-and-organ-driven, blue-eyed ’70s soul; austere ’60s folk-blues; aching…
The chances are slim that Julian Casablancas will croon his comedic Saturday Night Live tune “Boombox” at the Beaumont this weekend. But who knows? At this point, Casablancas seems confused about what he’s doing with a solo career anyway. After leading the Strokes into the spotlight 10 years ago as one of the formative bands of the millennium, Casablancas embarked…
Art rock’s two elements are rarely in balance and often result in music best suited for someone’s mantel. True to this form, As Tall as Lions’ richly textured third album, You Can’t Take It With You, initially seems like it belongs on a shelf. Keyboards cast shimmering backdrops, guitars drizzle with brief bursts of lightning, and horns sprout periodically like…
Japandroids infuse their music with enough unfettered exuberance for a coming-of-age movie. The Vancouver duo’s full-length debut, Post-Nothing, echoes the melodic, distortion-laden roar of Superchunk and Hüsker Dü. Noisy, ragged jams push meters into the red with manic shouts and syrupy, fuzzed-out chords. We used to dream/Now we worry about dying, they intone on the infectious “Young Hearts Spark Fire.”…
A friend of mine recently asked if I remembered when McDonald’s hamburgers “used to be good.” Huh? Sure, I’m old enough to remember when McDonald’s burgers were cheap. But good? My memory’s not that sharp, I guess. And, anyway, I’m one of those people who grew up thinking a burger was just a burger. Yes, I knew the difference between…
For years, legions of suburban white kids have dreamed of hip-hop stardom. And for years, few white rap artists (other than the Beastie Boys and Eminem) have made so much as an Olympic diver’s splash in popular rap. The fact that Kansas City’s Mac Lethal is white, from the suburbs, and also one of the nation’s most respected underground rappers…
Martin: “Crowded Houses,” April 1 Disaster Support I appreciate David Martin’s position about the number of fire stations in Kansas City, Kansas, but with a sales tax in the balance and public safety on the line, I’d like to rebut a few points. Pumper 15, in Fairfax, ran 368 calls in 2009 — a few more than “one or two…
The late author David Foster Wallace remains best known for his sprawling, prodigious Infinite Jest, a large-canvas novel encompassing hundreds of characters and multiple plot threads. By turns horrifying, funny and sad, the book (and its 100 pages of endnotes) touches on professional sports, addiction, mass media, mathematics and geopolitics. This high dynamic range was both a virtue of the…
As anyone who’s heard MGMT’s new album, Congratulations, can tell you — it’s a bit of a change. The album is a definite switch-up from Oracular Spectacular, and especially a step away from its massive hit, “Kids.” The record, due out next Tuesday, April 13, has a first half that’s psychedelic garage pop remiscent of 1910 Fruitgum Co. or the…
Update: It’s official. Xavier Henry is going pro. ***Xavier Henry is likely one-and-done at Kansas. The freshman guard is expected to announce that he’s heading to the NBA at a 3 p.m. press conference today (you can watch it here). Fox Sports basketball writer Jeff Goodman reports via Twitter that he’s gone. Henry had a good freshman campaign, averaging 13.4…
Schlitz’s 16 oz. “Tall Boy” cans are returning to Kansas City at the end of the month — a year after the beer re-entered the market in 12 oz. brown bottles. The Schlitz brand is now owned by Pabst Brewing Co. and is once again brewed in Milwaukee. It’s undergoing a revival, with a return to the recipe of the…
Kansas City police say Toni L. Payne was the victim of a homicide in the 3000 block of East 31st Street. Payne, 25, was found from an apparent gunshot wound around 6:26 p.m. Tuesday. View Larger Map Witnesses told police that they saw a black man leaving the scene in a gray, four-door sedan. Kansas City, Missouri, has recorded 24…
Jason Harper has footage of the Grisly Hand’s performance at the Columns’ EP release party at the Record Bar. His vid also includes a short Q & A with the band to see what’s up, and what’s coming next (like their album, for example!). Categories: Music Tags: the Columns, the grisly hand
%{}%U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran hid behind the long, flowing robe of Jesus of Nazareth when asked about the hospitality he receives at the famed C Street house in Washington, D.C. A student at Washburn University asked Moran about the C Street house on Tuesday. Operated by a secretive outfit called the Fellowship, the house provides meals and lodging to conservative…
Butler didn’t quite get there, but Blanc Burgers + Bottles scored one for the little guy by winning the Burger Business.com Burger Brackets. “I was amazed at the strength of support that Blanc had from the start,” says Editor Scott Hume. Blanc bested a field of 64 burger chains from across the country, defeating In-N-Out Burger in the finals. The…
Jeriney is the host of 96.5FM’s “Homegrown Buzz,” which is the last man standing in terms of your chance to regularly hear local music featured on the radio (yes, yes — KJHK has it in rotation, but Plow the Fields died a slow death several years ago, and the station no longer has a showcase). The program features tons of…
A Jackson County jury just issued a $6.5 million bitch slap against the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners. In the lawsuit, former KCPD officer Danny Holmes claimed that he was fired in 2005 because of his race, because he’d been a whistle blower against police misconduct, and that he was terminated without good cause, representing a breach of contract….
This week’s “Where am I eating?” question garnered a lot of comments — and some very good guesses. But let’s hear it for Thomas, who threw out the winning guess: Houlihan’s. We’ve praised this Kansas City-based restaurant chain for its “Mealio Dealio” promotion — in fact, The Pitch gave it “Best Cheap Food” honors last year. The steak dinner, pictured…
“Is everybody feeling romantic?” Beach House guitarist Alex Scally softly asked the audience midway through the band’s performance at the Granada Tuesday night. It was hard not to feel a little bit romantic watching Beach House perform, especially with lighting cues that cast the band members in passionate reds, purples, and blues amid swirling vortices of pumped-in fog. Often there…
Kansas City’s honky-tonk cowpunk rebels Them Damned Young Livers announced via their blog the other day that they’ve finished recording the follow-up to their debut, Let the Sin Begin. It’s entitled Psalms of Ill-Repute, and here are all the details you need: We’ve recorded one bad ass set of tracks. We’re mixing it this weekend. We filmed a bad ass…
Despite what the name might imply, T&A was neither a crappy Y&T knock-off, nor was it a gaggle of ladies with artificially-enhanced bosoms. In point of fact, T&A was Tawni Freeland (of the Glitterkicks) and Anj Stevenson (of the Domestics), two very talented ladies, and the only thing “busting out” with these women were catchy lyrics and sweet, sweet harmonies….
