Archives: May 2011
Sleepy Sun gets hazy at Crosstown Station tonight
This San Francisco six-piece pays homage to the psychedelic rock that made its native city the capital of sex, drugs and jammy guitar solos in the late 1960s. It’s almost as if LSD had been spliced into the DNA of young bands in Northern California — conspiracy theorists, have at it — because all that psychedelic history is certainly at…
Tune-Yards and Here We Go Magic
Under a cheeky stage moniker, popularly rendered as tUnE-yArDs, Merrill Garbus practices the art of obtaining the most sound possible through the least amount of hardware. In 2009, Garbus self-released her debut album, Bird-Brains — or BiRd-BrAiNs — on recycled cassettes before she was picked up by 4AD (the National, Iron and Wine). The album, which was recorded solely on…
Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams is the perfect woman. She’s brilliant and gritty and can probably drink any average schlub under the table. She also has written some of the most haunting love songs of the last 20 years, thanks to a series of indispensable alt-country albums, including her widely acclaimed Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Williams has lightened up in recent…
The 2011 KC Spring Invitational
How many political punks does it take to change a light bulb? None: Political punks will never change anything. So goes the joke, right? The members of Kansas City’s Bent Left traffic in politically charged pop-punk with songs like “Application for Federal Assistance,” but they’re trying to prove that punks can change things with Recycled Rockstar’s Spring Invitational. Half of…
Hunx and His Punx
The Oakland, California, garage-pop outfit Hunx and His Punx stopped through Lawrence for Scion’s Garage Fest last fall. While washing my hands in the crowded men’s room at Liberty Hall, Seth “Hunx” Bogart approached the sink next to me and muttered under his breath, “Ugh, there’s way too many straight people in this town.” To call Hunx flamboyantly gay would…
The KC Rep’s Peer Gynt is a magnificent spectacle
Ingmar Bergman owes it all to Henrik Ibsen. Especially The Seventh Seal, but really, everything. So does Federico Fellini (especially Satyricon), and so does Richard Foreman’s famous Ontological-Hysteric Theater in New York City’s East Village. The impressively whiskered Norwegian (he wouldn’t have looked out of place in Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet) fearlessly destroyed all that came before and, with equal fearlessness,…
Big Scoob digs deeper on Damn Fool
The stereotype of the successful hip-hop artist is marked by a rise from poverty and squalor to vast independent fortune. Naturally, then, rappers need an appetite for self-aggrandizement to make it in hip-hop’s ruthless business. It’s simple: To be the shit is to know you’re the shit. Of course, there are the stray rappers who rep their work with an…
The Liberty Memorial’s World War I Museum still can’t stand on its own
On December 21, 2005, the Liberty Memorial Association celebrated an achievement. Members of the nonprofit group held a reception to mark their success in raising $26.5 million for a World War I museum. Politicians and the public were invited to the event, which was held at the memorial on a day when the sun hid behind the clouds. A Kansas…
Mac Lethal North Korean BBQ (Black Clover)
Two tracks on this baker’s dozen of a mix are classic Mac. The wordy rapper spits pop-culture cartwheels on “My Favorite Song,” doling out party lines over energetic, Seven-produced synth: I get dressed, show the world what fresh is/And then I have a bar of Xanax for breakfast. The next track, “Little Mac,” is a deliciously hostile diss in which…
Lee’s Summit gets a good – and pricey – steakhouse
I experienced the weirdest déjà vu last week. I was at a combination bar and steakhouse in Lee’s Summit, and I had the sensation that I’d suddenly been transported back to a loud and louche “lounge” in the late 1970s. Back then, men wore their hair longer, artfully feathered and spray-lacquered (just the right tonsorial accompaniment to polyester leisure suits…
John McKenna and Sara Swenson steel the spotlight
Few things are more beautiful than the aching croon of lap steel. In fact, John McKenna and Sara Swenson are so bewitched by the sound, they’ve curated an entire show devoted to the instrument. The first annual Steel Show at the Brick includes cameos from Darryl Logue (of Rex Hobart and the Honky Tonk Standards), Mike Stover (of Dead Voices)…
Olive Cafe is gone, replaced by Little Egypt
Four months after The Pitch extolled the virtues of the Olive Cafe, the cozy little Middle Eastern restaurant at 3927 Broadway — with its pretty house salads and restorative sage tea — the owner of that restaurant, Salah Mansi, sold the business to Egyptian-born businessman Mohammed Hakam. Hakam’s beautiful fiancee, Yumna Mohamed, is a cousin of Mansi’s and is now…
Layoff ax takes another swing through The Kansas City Star
Kansas City Star publisher Mark Zieman is becoming adept at writing memos in which he states his hope for better days ahead as he announces the involuntary departure of people who work at the paper. Zieman announced today that the Star was “eliminating about two dozen jobs and cutting a smaller number of unfilled positions,” the fifth round of cuts…
Now we will fill a hole in your heart with midget-wrestling pictures
Last weekend, we followed St. Jo’s Little Kato and the Half-Pint Brawlers into the gritty world of midget wrestling (see the feature “Little Bastard” for more on that). It’s a tough way to make a living, to put it mildly. Promoters try to screw you; sometimes you have to drink your own urine; and, if you’re lucky, you get cash…
Kevin Funderburk — attempted rapist knocked out with a frying pan — gets 21 years
After being thumped on the head with a frying pan, all-around terrible person Kevin Funderburk got the book thrown at him. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison last week for attempting to rape a 71-year-old woman in her home in December, the Hutchinson News reports. Back in December, Funderburk told the woman that he was homeless and looking…
You can have your morels and eat them, too
Saturday was such a beautiful balmy day, Kansas City’s City Market was extraordinarily busy with shoppers wandering through the stalls and looking at the array of merchandise — a lot of potted plants were for sale that day, particularly fresh herbs and tomatoes. There wasn’t much fresh produce yet, but the usual assortment of farmers were on hand selling honey,…
John Vanderslice plays at RecordBar on Friday night
John Vanderslice with Damien Jurado Friday, April 29, 2011 RecordBar After spending countless days writing about music and countless nights checking out bands, live music begins to wear a little thin after a bit. Then, someone like John Vanderslice comes along and completely reinvigorates your energy and passion for what you do. I should begin by saying that John Vanderslice…
The reason you might want to think about what you’re tipping your delivery guy
I think we may need to convene a summit among diners, restaurateurs and employees to discuss some basic rules of conduct for how we’re going to air grievances online. Consumerist has the story of a Brooklyn delivery guy, Larry Fox. Irritated (jusfiably) with the lack of tips from hungry apartment dwellers, Fox (unjustifiably) decided to post their names, addresses and…
Mizzou celebrates Osama bin Laden’s death by singing ‘Nah Nah Nah Hey Hey Hey Goodbye’ (video)
<center>College students across the country celebrated Osama bin Laden’s demise. University of Missouri-Columbia students partied in the streets and sang “Nah Nah Nah Hey Hey Hey Goodbye” and Queen’s “We Are the Champions” last night. Not really surprising. Mizzou is home to the Antlers, after all. Check out BuzzFeed for celebrations at Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa State and elsewhere….
Mizzou celebrates Osama bin Laden’s death by singing ‘Nah Nah Nah Hey Hey Hey Goodbye’ (video)
College students across the country celebrated Osama bin Laden’s demise. University of Missouri-Columbia students partied in the streets and sang “Nah Nah Nah Hey Hey Hey Goodbye” and Queen’s “We Are the Champions” last night. Not really surprising. Mizzou is home to the Antlers, after all. Check out BuzzFeed for celebrations at Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa State and elsewhere….
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