Archives: February 2011

Video: Ying Yang Twins get nasty at The Granada

Ying Yang Twins — the men who created “Whisper” — brought grinding, sweaty Southern hip-hop to The Granada on Saturday night. If you weren’t there to witness the troupe’s tribute to crunk, The Pitch has video of some of the bass-buzzing tuneage. (Click here for a slideshow.) Categories: Music Tags: crunk, slideshow, video, Ying Yang Twins

Graffiti Grill: Island-themed Castaway’s tries to fit in on Broadway

The charming storefront of 3535 Broadway seems to possess more lives than Charlie Sheen. Over the years, it has housed the Athena, Pappagallo, Cafe Trio and Rhythm Lounge. And it’s about to open as something new, the Graffiti Grill, formerly Castaway’s Marina and Grill of Smithville. Owners Shane and Stephanie Kesterson lost their lease after three years of beach-bumming at…

Click it or no ticket: Some Kansas City cops don’t buckle up

Here’s the latest in do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do news: Some Kansas City police officers don’t buckle up while on duty. The hypocrisy was highlighted after a drunken driver slammed into the side of a police cruiser on December 5, The Kansas City Star reported. One officer was knocked out, and the patrol car’s internal camera revealed that neither officer in the car was…

The five foods that should never be classed up

Chefs are creative people and tinkerers. They often can’t leave a dish alone, instead searching for the perfect version. And who can blame them? Serving a chicken dish for the thousandth time has to be a bit mind-numbing.  But sometimes those instincts to make a dish better leads a chef to destroy the very reason that a dish was successful…

Less Than Jake’s JR on 19 years of touring, failure, and why bands need to ‘pick up their fucking sneakers’

Less Than Jake has been playing its high-energy, ridiculously tongue-in-cheek form of ska-punk for nearly two decades now. While many bands went under when third wave’s heyday ended in the late ’90s, Less Than Jake has thrived. (Actually, it’s probably the only ska band to actually sign to a major label in the last decade, hopping from Capitol to Fat…

Homegrown professional bassist fuses music and retro technology

Music and art come together to bring Kansas City a night of premiere electronic music, courtesy of homegrown bass extraordinaire Jeremy Baguyos. The Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project and the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance present Back to the Source Code, a project developed by Baguyos that marries digital music and electro-acoustic bass lines by exploring the…

Reigning Sound helps usher Love Garden Sounds into legal adulthood

Reigning Sound with Mouthbreathers, Approach and Miles Bonny and Suzannah Johannes
: Love Garden Sound’s 21st Birthday Celebration
 Saturday, Feb. 5, 2011Jackpot Saloon Greg Cartwright has plowed through a few 21st birthday bashes before, so he knows what plays well with a last-call crowd. “At this time of night, it’s best to stick to the really retarded stuff,” Cartwright, Reigning Sound’s…

The Melodians at Crosstown Station

The Melodians unveiled some of these new tunes — the first in more than 20 years — to Kansas City ears at Crosstown Station on February 3.

What’s Poppin’ Off: That 1 Guy, Henry Rollins, Travie McCoy

Mike Silverman — also known as That 1 Guy — will be at the Bottleneck on Saturday, April 9, promoting his latest album, Packs a Wallop! It showcases the one-man band’s diversity in combining rock, funk, blues and electronic blues. Categories: Music Tags: adam carolla, Henry Rollins, Hunx and His Punx, Jimmie Vaughan, Kinky Friedman, of montreal, That 1 Guy,…

Tannin Wine Bar & Kitchen opens for lunch today

Tannin Wine Bar and Kitchen will open for lunch today in the former JP Wine Bar space (1526 Walnut). Fat City talked to executive chef Brian Aaron last month about the new restaurant, which will have some lighter options alongside a few JP favorites. Tannin will begin with lunch service from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. before adding a dinner…

Ying Yang Twins at the Granada

The “Whisper” rappers graced Lawrence, KS with their southern-bred crunk flow. All photos taken by intern Allie Mason.

Rightbloggers celebrate Reagan’s 100th birthday; attack his son, Ron Jr.; cheer his daughter, Sarah Palin

%{}% You may remember Ronald Reagan, whose centenary was celebrated last weekend, as former Secretary of State James Baker does — as the man who “taught us how to love”; or, as Arizona GOP Congressman Ben Quayle does, as “the nice man who gave us jelly beans when we visited the White House” and “shrank the scope of government,” somehow,…

Brad Lager wants to limit lawsuits against his porky BFFs

Their high-priced attorneys can’t beat ’em in court, so pork giant Smithfield Foods has turned to law-making homies like Missouri state Sen. Brad Lager (R-Maryville) to fight against multimillion-dollar nuisance settlements.  Last April, we followed the loony litigation between a group of landowners in rural Missouri and a factory farm (owned by Smithfield), whose practice of storing millions of gallons…

Russ Ptacek’s reporting leads to payouts for sick workers at the Bannister Federal Complex

NBC Action News investigator Russ Ptacek is doing the Lord’s work. It takes saintly patience to untangle the federal tapestry of bureaucratic red tape that is the Bannister Federal Complex. Ptacek continues to uncover shady details regarding a coverup at Bannister, which houses offices for the GSA as well as the Honeywell-operated factory for making parts for nuclear weapons for…

Kris Kobach’s ID-at-polls plan moves closer to reality

Attention, Kansas voters: Be sure to never lose your ID during election season. Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s big dream of requiring Kansas voters to show photo identification at the polls, and first-time registrants to prove citizenship, is sprinting toward reality. The Associated Press reports that the Kansas House Elections Committee is poised for a vote on the measure by…

It was a cold, cold week for hot restaurants in Fat City

The last seven days will go down in history for the brutal blizzard that wreaked havoc on Restaurant Week (it was extended through next Wednesday), a Valentine’s Day holiday market (it was postponed until tomorrow) and restaurant business in general. Restaurant customers who frequently dine out stayed home during the worst nights — Monday and Tuesday — and either made…

David Blaine will make you believe in the magic of Sprint again

Sprint has never been a company afraid of using big names to sell its products. Ludacris, Dan Hesse, the 1997 Denver Broncos … all credible men, to be sure, with well-informed advice on choosing a wireless network. Yet have any truly captured the feelings of a new product roll-out? You know that sense of being undone at your core by…