As the Unicorn Theatre’s production of The Mountaintop begins, we’re treated to a memorable series of stage pictures. It’s Memphis, April 3, 1968, the stormy eve of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. We watch as King enters his dark room at the Lorraine Motel and sets down his briefcase, silhouetted by lightning flashes and street lamps beyond the open…
The Rich Wheeler Quartet He can be heard in the band Alaturka playing intimate Turkish jazz. He does time in the People’s Liberation Big Band, playing the most eclectic large-ensemble music this side of Mingus. He plays some of the weirdest music this side of the moon in Snuff Jazz. Rich Wheeler is one of the most versatile and in-demand…
A decade or so ago, shortly before Jordan Geiger joined the Lawrence post-rock group the Appleseed Cast on keyboards, the group did a West Coast tour opening for emo icons the Get Up Kids. The hope, as with all opening acts, was that an established group like the Get Up Kids could help expose a fellow local band like the…
Gee Watts doesn’t look like one of the two men sharing a blunt in the dugout of the baseball field at Parade Park, southeast of the intersection of Truman Road and the Paseo. But there’s nobody else in the park on this rainy Wednesday afternoon. Watts said he’d be here. Maybe the 22-year-old rapper looks older in person? “What you…
Father John Misty The best indie-rock breakout story of 2012 was Josh Tillman’s: He quit his gig drumming for Fleet Foxes, moved to Los Angeles, and released an album under the name Father John Misty. That album, Fear Fun, climbed onto a lot of year-end lists, and deservedly so — it’s full of smart, psych-tinged, alt-country songs with sticky melodies. He…
A small pile of wood scraps and four green stakes stand guard over a water pump at the end of a driveway on a dead-end street in Northeast Kansas City. A few hundred feet onto the property, the driveway gives way to muddy ruts, still wet from late-May storms. A woman walks toward the backyard of a low-slung brick home….
It sounds crazy, but I know people — reasonable people — who won’t go back to the five-year-old Stroud’s in Fairway because, well, it’s not the old Stroud’s on 85th Street. The fried chicken tastes the same as it did in the original location, but I’ve had people scream at me that it doesn’t. Kansas Citians can be like that…
Jessica Brandl’s functional ceramics explore a rural Midwest that’s not the usual picturesque farm scenes. Her Great Plains is a place racked by distinctly regional threats: F5 tornadoes, flooding along Interstate 29, rural blight. In one piece, a jar titled “Midwest of Oz,” a sinister twister curves toward a small farmhouse. Instead of lifting off to Oz, the house here…
Hospital Ships. On stands today – and in this digital space – you can read our feature about Lawrence indie-rock act Hospital Ships’ latest endeavors. The group’s new album, Destruction in Yr Soul, is getting some nice pre-release press, including shout-outs from Pitchfork, Stereogum and NPR. As of yesterday, you can stream the new album online via Pitchfork Advance. Do…
My Bonnie. Bonnie Raitt’s most recent album, Slipstream, is about a year old now. On it, she covers a couple of late-era Dylan songs (“Million Miles” and “Standing in the Doorway”) as well as cuts by Gerry Rafferty and Loudon Wainwright III. The roots-blues queen comes to the Midland in support of Slipstream on Friday, October 18. Tickets are on…
Food for Thought serves children’s “social/emotional needs” through burgers! School is out for Kansas City kids. And, in the grand American tradition, our young’uns will soon crank the air conditioning, grab a Capri Sun and plop themselves in front of the TV for hours of entertainment. Don’t worry about their brains, though. The Federal Communications Commission has them covered. The…
This is evidently what Lynyrd Skynyrd now looks like. Heads-up to all the classic rock fans out there: Lynyrd Skynyrd will play the 101 the Fox Birthday Bash at Starlight Theatre on Friday, August 30. Kansas opens. Tickets are on sale this Friday at 9 a.m. And certain tickets are available for only $10.10 the first week of sales, if…
Johnny Morris is one of Missouri’s few billionaires It turns out that Missouri has another billionaire: Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris. Bloomberg News on June 3 dispatched a rare profile of Morris, a 65-year-old who is not keen on media attention. In fact, Morris wasn’t keen on finding his way onto Bloomberg’Äôs list of billionaires, with his estimated net…
Chris Mullins Garcia saw the ghost and lived to tell about it. One wing – how hot could it be? That’s what Nicolas Garcia told himself as he stared at the menu inside the Wing Dome a few years ago. The Seattle restaurant scores its chicken wings from one- to seven-alarm, with that highest a firehouse warning for your digestive…
Photo by Sabrina Staires Name: Nick Bolton Occupation: Personal trainer, fitness model, sponsored athlete Hometown: Des Moines, Iowa Current neighborhood: South Overland Park Who or what is your sidekick? My cellphone, with everything from my schedule to music to Internet. What was the last local restaurant you patronized? RA Sushi Where do you drink? Wherever my friends are. Anything from…
The Jinxed. A couple recent, smallish, local online releases we thought we’d bring to your attention. Following the departure, last year, of singer-glockenspieler Michelle Gaume Sanders, Hidden Pictures is sounding more and more like a straight rock outfit than a cutesy folk-pop group. Last week, the revamped group released a three-song EP called Sister Wife, which you can hear here…
If you love the food at Shirley’s Homestyle Restaurant, you better go and see her. It’s only Tuesday, but it has already been a hell of a week for restaurateur Shirley Van Black. Van Black has operated the Grandview diner Shirley’s Homestyle Restaurant for 19 years. Back in the 1960s, this venue was a Dixon’s Chili franchise. Business has been…
At last. Neko Case has finally announced a release date for new album, her first in four years. Yesss! It’s called The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You, and it’s out September 3 on ANTI-. Today, Case dropped the lead single, “Man,” an uptempo rocker that features some guitar work…
Jayhawk boobs can stay on Twitter, KU says. The University of Kansas has told the popular KU fan website KUBoobs.com to stop selling merchandise branded with “KU.” Enterprising Jayhawks fans started the @KUBoobs handle, which publishes self-submitted photos of the chests of female KU fans in Jayhawks gear. For obvious reasons, it became a hit. Royals fans soon started their…
Flickr: kcnewbz The breakfast burrito at Burrito Bros. in the City Market. Burritos are a way to send a clear message to your stomach – ‘You’re about to get full’ or ‘something spicy this way comes.’ And they seem to be served in only three sizes: gut-stretching, gut-busting and food challenge. At one end of the spectrum is the plethora…
Facebook: Marco’s A Deluxe Uno’s at Marco’s Pizza. Domino’s recently tested DVDs in Brazil that give off the smell of cooking pizza as they play (ink on the discs releases the odor as they heat up) in promotion with a local video store. Marco’s Pizza (6638 Nieman Road) in Shawnee thinks it can do one better. The new pizza shop…
Angela Bond Big burgers will remain the calling card at Parkville’s Rusty Horse Tavern. Chef Miguel Sanchez is out at Rusty Horse Tavern in Parkville. “It was a mutual decision,” says Sanchez, who left the year-old saloon and grill after nine months. The Pitch reviewed the restaurant before Sanchez took over the kitchen. Sanchez and his wife, Susan Welling-Sanchez (the…
