Archives: February 2014
February’s First Friday art openings: a big slate for a small month
In December 2012, Kansas City, Kansas, funk icon Marva Whitney died at 68, just before the publication of her memoir. Curator Patrick Alexander honors her memory and gives us a “platform to celebrate, educate and discuss the musical heritage of Kansas City’s soul music” with a multimedia exhibition called Art & Soul, It’s My Thing, at Kultured Chameleon Street Art…
iPho Tower will serve up Pho, French cuisine and a little karaoke
If you’re ready for a lychee martini with your bowl of steaming pho – and maybe a little live jazz – restaurateurs Spike and Jessie Nguyen think they’ve got the restaurant for you. Last summer, the Nguyens took over the iconic restaurant space at 3623 Broadway that has had a veritable United Nations of past tenants (Sidney’s, Chubby’s, Royal Kabob…
Regulators say Missouri Gas Energy didn’t act quickly enough in gas leak that demolished JJ’s Restaurant
Missouri Gas Energy’s responders to the gas leak last year that blew up JJ’s Restaurant, off the Plaza, found that natural gas concentrations in the restaurant were four times higher than the minimum required for an evacuation. And while the gas company’s workers did tell JJ’s staff to evacuate the building, they acted lackadaisically given the danger at hand, according…
Radkey has a new single called ‘Feed My Brain’
You’d think, listening to Radkey – the three underage brothers from St. Joseph who have no business sounding as face-meltingly badass as they do – that it would be impossible for them to be more gnarly, serious and raw. And then they go and drop a track like “Feed My Brain,” and you’re like, “Dude, what brain? It exploded.” Because…
The Bill Charlap Trio with Houston Person is at MU’s Reynolds Alumni Center this Sunday
Two-time Grammy Award nominee Bill Charlap is one of those jazz pianists whom you see in old films, a timeless sort of character who makes standards look easy and feel even better. Fortunately for jazz fans, the New York artist is making a rare local appearance this Sunday at MU’s Reynolds Alumni Center. He’s bringing Houston Person with him, another…
Miss Tess’ ‘People Don’t Come Here for Gold’ is your Folk Alliance International Song of the Day
The International Folk Alliance Conference & Winter Music Camp comes to KC February 19-23. To get you geared up for the folk blowout, every day we’re posting a song we like by one of the event’s showcase artists. Brooklyn’s Miss Tess and the Talkbacks have very consciously curated a vintage rockabilly meets Patsy Cline sound, and that would all sound…
Here’s the 2014 True/False Film Fest lineup
Gearing up for this year’s T/F. The 11th annual True/False Film Fest – the four-day documentary film festival in Columbia, Missouri – is fast approaching. It’ll be held at the end of the month, from Thursday, February 27, through Sunday, March 2. We always have a pretty great time, and based on the lineup that the fest just announced, this…
Clooney finds more pals than art in The Monuments Men
In construction, wit and delivery, jokes don’t get much better than the good-natured zinger that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler lobbed at George Clooney last month at the Golden Globes. The one about Hollywood’s 52-year-old bachelor king preferring to drift into space and die rather than spend another minute with a woman his own age (as Clooney’s character does in…
Jazz Beat: Peter Schlamb Quartet, at Take Five Coffee + Bar
The vibraphone has always found a home in jazz (think Lionel Hampton and Milt Jackson) but not so often in Kansas City. Until now. Vibraphonist Peter Schlamb is one of the young musicians reshaping KC’s jazz scene. His vibes jump with a contemporary sensibility — he’s at home swinging a standard, weaving a bop line or commanding his own modern…
The Pixies and Cults talk band breakups and makeups
Last year’s out-of-nowhere EP1 ended more than two decades of studio silence from legendary rock band the Pixies. It was also the first release from the Pixies without bassist Kim Deal, whom guitarist Joey Santiago affectionately refers to as “the favorite Pixie.” Now the Pixies are on tour with a new bassist, Paz Lenchantin, promoting EP2 and the upcoming EP3,…
The Phantastics’ debut takes everybody on a funky ride
Back in December, a wild seven-piece group called the Phantastics released its debut album with uncharacteristically little fanfare. Amid the holiday buzz and chatter, Closer (on Lawrence’s Silly Goose Records) slipped quietly under the local radar. But the Phantastics isn’t the kind of band to go ignored for long. Since forming back in 2010, it has steadily built a reputation…
Music Forecast 2.6–2.12: Nikki Hill, 2 Live Crew, the Kin, and more
Nikki Hill, with the Blank Tapes Nikki Hill has superwoman vocal cords. Think Mavis Staples meets the Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard. On last year’s full-length, Here’s Nikki Hill, the St. Louis singer delivered a dazzling concoction of roots, blues and rockabilly tunes. She shrieks, whoops and slides over the album’s 10 cuts, including the roadhouse rambler “I’ve Got a Man”…
Sean Kelley’s art-world charm offensive goes on and on.
Pat McCormick and Barry Eisenhart’s Gatsby-like house towers over Interstate 35 near downtown. It’s the crown jewel of the modern homes dotting the West Side, an ideal location for a ritzy afterparty on the opening night of the Lyric Opera’s production of The Magic Flute. Sean Kelley, standing outside the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts with his boyfriend, Jim…
At least one restaurant chameleon helps Carma’s karma
Turning the Leawood outpost of Carmen’s Café — the garlic-scented Brookside bistro serving Italian and Spanish dishes — into a similar restaurant called Carma involved more than a spelling change. There was the dropping of two brothers (Juan and Francisco Bautista, owners of the original Carmen’s Café). There was the addition of people related to the restaurant’s major investor, Don…
Mission Chateau: A development saga in Prairie Village that only a lawyer could love
There has been an untold number of facts, figures, guesses and allegations thrown out by all sides of the Mission Chateau development controversy in Prairie Village during the last two years. But only one truism has persisted throughout that time: No matter what happens, Prairie Village is going to get sued. A group of 44 Prairie Village residents (plus two…
The Mowgli’s, Misterwives have a free concert downtown on St. Patrick’s Day
Continuing the barrage of concert announcements this week, 96.5 the Buzz announced this morning that there will be a free St. Patrick’s Day concert at the KC Live Block in the Power & Light District with the Mowgli’s and Misterwives. Those bands don’t have anything particularly Irish about them, but that shouldn’t impede the party. Also, free. Here’s a song…
Andrew Ripp, Judah and the Lion are at the Bottleneck tonight
Andrew Ripp wants to be a pop star. That much is obvious on his latest full-length, the Charlie Peacock-produced Won’t Let Go. (It’s also pretty obvious by his Bieber-like hair swoop and near-constant leather jacket, but anyway.) And you know, the Illinois native is not a bad singer, and his songs are pretty catchy, and he seems to be on…
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