The ACBsLittle Leaves (High Dive Records)The best song on Little Leaves, the new LP from pop savants the ACBs, is unfortunately also the shortest: “Surface” clocks in at only a minute and 40 seconds. That leaves you no other viable option but to just keep queuing up the song, over and over, to soak up its gorgeous, heartbroken melodies. (I’m up near…
In 2010, Icelandic post-rock act Sigur Rós announced what sometimes amounts to a coded death knell: the dreaded “hiatus.” But there’s a happy ending: Sigur Rós has emerged from its two-year break re-energized and once again eager to release new music and tour. Not everything is the same: Longtime keyboardist-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson has departed, after more than 10 years with…
Year three of Middle of the Map is shaping up to be the music festival’s liveliest yet. More than 100 acts — many local, some national — play in and around Westport Thursday through Saturday. Who should you be hopscotching to see? Forecast has you covered. (See middleofthemapfest.com for the full schedule.) Thursday, April 4 White Lung’s blasting, visceral punk…
This year’s KC FilmFest, which runs April 10–14 at the Alamo Drafthouse Mainstreet (14th Street and Main), comes loaded with discoveries — movies neglected or rarely screened or almost entirely unseen. It also offers local audiences a crack at films that have won awards at other festivals. And it has booked some talented filmmakers and cult heroes to appear at…
I keep waiting for some enterprising TV producer to build a reality show around Renée Kelly. She’s a natural for the Food Network: a young, photogenic and smart chef and restaurateur, ready to be captured in her namesake venue, a century-old stone farmhouse in a Kansas City suburb. The star’s vivacious personality would be on display, as would an eclectic…
At the Blue Gallery (118 Southwest Boulevard), Brooklyn artist Alyssa Monk’s Presence offers a striking display of hyper-realistic oil-on-linen paintings with an edge of surrealism. There’s affordable art at Mattie Rhodes Gallery (919 West 17th Street), where Maria Calderón is divesting herself of as many of her past works as possible. She’s off to the Amazon next fall to delve…
Molly Kaderka’s mysterious, emotionally charged figurative paintings stand out in an art scene saturated with abstractions and social practices. Their fleshy figures occupy fantastic wooded landscapes or domestic interiors that resemble midtown Kansas City apartments. The Pitch stopped by Kaderka’s Urban Culture Project studio as she prepared for two exhibitions at Spray Booth Gallery, the first of which opens on…
Angela C. Bond Fourteen months after opening in Westport, Aaron Confessori’s the Boot has been sold to another restaurateur; it closes April 5 at 1:30 a.m. If you’re a fan of the Boot, the 14-month-old Italian bistro at 415 Westport Road, opened by Aaron Confessori and Richard Wiles, you have until Friday morning at 1:30 a.m. to enjoy the place….
Joss Whedon, the well-regarded writer and director of last year’s overlooked mumble-core indie The Avengers, is represented at this year’s Planet Comicon (April 6 – 7 at Bartle Hall) by the sheer quantity of his fin de siècle work. Other celebrity guests include Buffy the Vampire Slayer actors Nicholas Brendon and Clare Kramer, and the crowd-pleasing Adam Baldwin, who portrayed…
Peter Vermes is in the hall of fame. He probably won’t relax anytime soon, though. Sporting Kansas City has a hall of famer at the helm. Head coach Peter Vermes was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on Wednesday. Vermes scored 11 goals in 67 career games for the men’s national team from 1989 to 1997. His international…
Renee Kelly’s Harvest brings the farm-to-table concept to Shawnee in a century-old stone farmhouse. Photos by Angela C. Bond.
Gordon Biersch The new white-chocolate-mousse lemon cake at Gordon Biersch. The only way to make it feel like spring is to switch what’s in your glass. Find a bit of spring with Gordon Biersch’s Maibock. The limited-release Einbeck-style lager will be tapped at the Leawood location (11652 Ash) at 5:30 p.m. today, and at the downtown location (100 East 14th…
Duncan Hines wasn’t a gourmand; he just liked good food. Duncan Hines, America’s first national food reviewer was – despite the boxed cake mixes bearing his name – less likely to ever bake a cake than to eat one…and write about it. Hines was probably America’s first official “foodie.” Hines, who was a traveling salesman for most of his career,…
Royals fans are ready to come to pray at the K. I will start by admitting that I am not a fan of the Kansas City Royals. I root for the Chicago Cubs, as my father does and my grandfather once did. With the Jewish holiday of Passover coming weeks before opening day, and Jews all over the world pledging…
BrightFarms A rendering of the planned greenhouse. You could call it the greenhouse effect: A $4 million plan that not only encourages Kansas Citians to buy locally grown fruits and vegetables but also generates so much local produce that local food becomes the norm. A small crowd of politicians and urban-agriculture advocates gathered March 25 at City Hall to announce…
Name: Alli Baker Occupation: Tattoo artist Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri Current neighborhood: Austin, Texas Who or what is your sidekick? My pet dogs, Peewee and Oscar What career would you choose in an alternate reality? Rocket scientist Categories: News Tags: Alli Baker, Best Ink, Kansas City, kansas city, Oxygen
Dawes returns. The Crossroads KC at Grinders summer dates keep trickling in. Today, word came in that California folkies Dawes will play the venue on Tuesday, May 28. Tickets on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. Categories: Music Tags: dawes
Kei Kamara: Prank winner. Sporting Kansas City fans surely miss star forward and crowd favorite Kei Kamara. The club loaned him to the English team Norwich City before the Major League Soccer season began. And Kamara must have known Sporting fans are dying to get him back, because he burned them but good on Monday. Kamara tweeted a photo (after…
Futbol Club It’s nearly game on for the Futbol Club. Soccer fans should get a kick out of a new Overland Park sports bar. The Futbol Club Eatery & Tap – a sports bar dedicated to showcasing local and global soccer – is set to open in the third week of April at 12030 Blue Valley Parkway. “There are a…
The act of dining out is often motivated by a desire to not think about the kitchen. But Saru Jayaraman wants to change that. The author of Behind The Kitchen Door and co-founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Center United (a national restaurant workers organization) is speaking at the Kansas City Public Library (the Central Branch, at 14 W. 10th St.)…
Facebook: Twin Peaks Twin Peaks has arrived in Olathe. Finally, someone has found a place for all those underdressed lumberjacks. Twin Peaks opens tonight in the former My Big Fat Greek Restaurant space at 14805 W. 119th St., in Olathe. The sports bar with servers in plaid tops and short khaki shorts has a mountain-lodge theme and the self-described coldest…
There are dozens and dozens of hilarious Rob Thomas photos in Google Images. Wikipedia says the Matchbox Twenty (formerly Matchbox 20; keep it straight, y’all) song “Real World” hit the airwaves back in 1998. That means I’ve been doing an impression of Rob Thomas singing I wonder what it’s like to be the head honcho in his stupid voice for…
deejayres The sticky, gooey concoction known as the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is an American standard. The marriage of peanut butter and jelly seems like a timeless one. Because Tuesday, April 2, is National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day, it seems as good a time as any to celebrate the culinary combination, which most Americans seem to love (for…
Kansas City has long been in the nuke biz. When you close the curtain behind you in the voting booth tomorrow, a certain ballot initiative – Question Three – might seem a little confusing. Basically, if the measure passes, Kansas City would be barred from becoming financially involved in weapons-manufacturing plants. The ballot measure was prompted by the construction of…
