Kansas City rapper James Christos debuted his new single, “A Beautiful Life,” yesterday, and we’ve got it for you to download. The song is from his forthcoming album, Enigmatic, due out on June 22. The song’s got some definite crossover appeal, with rock guitars and melodic vocals mixing to make the song something that could appeal to fans of both…
Everybody is mad as hell that big investment banks put the country on the brink of economic ruin. Few people get a chance to vent in front of Congress. Bill Black, a law and economics professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, appeared before the House Financial Services Committee last month. The subject was the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. Black…
By now, everyone and their mom has forwarded you Sunday’s New York Times travel piece “36 Hours in Kansas City,” by KC native Charly Wilder. The New York University grad’s portfolio is impressive; her work has appeared on the NYT’s In Transit blog, in Spin Magazine, at Salon.com and in the Village Voice. We asked Wilder what it was like…
Local design studio MK12 crafted this amazing opening animation for Green Day’s forthcoming Rock Band game. Video Games | Green Day: Rock Band | Exclusive Opening Cinematic HD XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii Categories: Music Tags: Green Day, MK12, Rock Band, video, video games
%{}% A body was discovered near Interstate 670 and State Line Road, and Kansas City, Kansas, police are calling the death “suspicious.” We don’t know the cause of death or the person’s identity, yet. We’ll know more after the person’s family has been contacted. If you have information about this person’s death, call the KCK police’s at 913-573-6020 or the…
Grab the cooler and warm up your bottle opener — it’s American Craft Beer Week. The celebration of domestic microbrews begins today and goes until Sunday. And when it comes to craft beer, the discussion in Kansas City begins with Boulevard. “It’s an interesting time to be in the beer business. On one hand, global consolidation continues to create fewer…
It’s been said that if you gave monkeys enough time on a typewriter, they would eventually produce Shakespeare. Swap out monkeys for the crowd on the Internet and that’s the latest strategy for Pepsi’s MTN Dew brand (which is so extreme, the Mountain can no longer be spelled out). Fans have designed the advertising, packaging and fruit combinations for the…
The most fun I’ve ever had at a show was seeing Look Mexico in the tiny room on the bottom floor of the Knitting Factory in New York City. The Tallahassee band played first to a crowd of maybe 50 people, and about halfway through the band’s set, they decided to take everything down a notch. By “taking it down…
Food and restaurants have inspired popular music for decades, at least as far back as the early 1900s. Composer Charles L. Johnson (born in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1876) had a big hit with the “Dill Pickle Rag” in 1906 — the second best-selling rag of the era, after Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.” Over the years, songs have been…
Hey, everyone— In a few weeks, we’ll start throwing parties and probably getting all nostalgic as The Pitch marks a significant anniversary: In July, the paper turns 30. Myself, I’m quite a bit beyond that. And I’m wise enough to know when it’s time to hand the baton to someone new. I’ve been editor of The Pitch for a decade…
The beloved accretion of tics and self-effacement known as Conan O’Brien performed live at the Midland last night. While it’s possible to discuss last night’s show while avoiding the elephant shit in the room — Tonight Show host Jay Leno, a man whose talent and ambition long ago vanished in the rear-view mirror of his 1938 Phantom Corsair or whatever —…
Mayor Mark Funkhouser is holding what amounts to a $6,300 school carnival at the Sprint Center tonight at 6:30. Funk is promising “a fun family event” with “prizes, entertainment, local celebrities, RenFest performers, demonstrations and face painting.” Does Chris Stigall count as a local celebrity? This is all Funk’s way of luring you to the Super 8 Sprint Center so…
Douchemaster Records put out one of my favorite records last year (the Hex Dispensers’ Winchester Mystery House), as well as one of my favorite 7-inches ever (Live Fast Die’s Pissing On the Mainframe). They’re a label I trust, which is why I picked up one of their recent releases purely because it was on DMR. The description of the Half…
In an absolutely horrible way to die, a contract landscaper for the Kauffman Foundation ended up trapped underneath a riding lawnmower in Brush Creek on Friday afternoon. Kansas City police officers pulled the mower off of 29-year-old Elias Perez of Olathe and pulled him out of the water near 4801 Rockhill Road around 4:15 p.m. View Larger Map The officers…
Money Shots is a glimpse of random happenings when we’re out and about on Kansas City’s music scene. Matt Pond PA’s likable, friendly indie-pop reverberated nicely within the intimate cave of the Bottleneck. It was like a Friday night spent in snug slippers rather than ass-kicking steel toe boots, or sexy high heels; but why argue with what’s comfortable? Categories:…
In his bizarre column yesterday, Aaron Barnhart tells a creepy story about sneaking into 30 Rockefeller Center late one night two years after Conan O’Brien first got a show. (That’s what TV critics do!) Barnhart skulks around, because of journalism, and then he sees Conan playing guitar by himself in a room with an open door. Barnhart stands there nervously…
In an effort to address concerns over salt content, the H.J. Heinz Company announced at the end of last week that it will change its ketchup recipe (earlier this year, the ketchup packet got a makeover). Heinz will cut the amount of sodium by 15 percent — the first change to its iconic, market-leading ketchup in 40 years. This decision…
Jazz pianist Mark Lowrey teams up with local MCs for a fusion of jazz and hip-hop on Saturday night with Mark Lowrey vs. Hip-Hop II.
%{}% After 20 years on NBC, Law & Order has been canceled (though it may get picked up by TNT). The show had an extraordinary run — one season shy of a TV drama-series record. So it would seem reasonable to blame its demise on old age or perhaps a superfluity of L&O spin-offs, right? Not in rightblogger world. “IT…
There are two bands to review: Phantogram, and Phantogram’s live show. The Riot Room hosted a very short and concise Phantogram set on Friday night. But if you’re only as good as the company you keep, Phantogram may be in a real pickle. The crowd was one of the worst I’ve encountered in Kansas City. It was as if every freshman who didn’t…
%{}% A guide to local community supported agriculture programs and what you get with a share. Thoughts on the Macaroni Grill, where an average meal is saved by a giant piece of cake. A vegan reinvention of every recipe in the Betty Crocker Cookbook. A slideshow of the 18 contestants on the seventh season of Top Chef, which will be…
