It’s been more than three decades since John Cougar Mellencamp first blessed us with his instant-classic “Jack and Diane,” basically one of the greatest songs ever written. He may not be dominating the charts in the way he used to, but that doesn’t mean Mellencamp has slowed down. Later this month, the singer-songwriter will release his 22nd studio album, Plain…
Four years after tea-loving entrepreneur Keith Buchanan opened his small venue, Tea House & Coffeepot, at 4309 Jefferson, the British-born Buchanan has decided to close the shop. “We just weren’t doing that well,” Buchanan says. “We had our regulars who came in frequently — we simply didn’t have enough of them. We had a ‘closed’ sign up for a while to…
I arrive at Halls on Grand a couple of weeks ahead of its public debut, and I wonder whether I’m at the right address. Everything I see — exposed brick, concrete, LED lighting, glossy red mannequins, Dalmatian statues with spike collars, retro televisions — appears more in line with some far more sophisticated version of Urban Outfitters. The place doesn’t…
Name: Jeana Van Sickle Occupation: Director of development for HappyBottoms Hometown: Wichita, Kansas Current neighborhood: South Hyde Park What I do (in 140 characters): Work with the incredible team at HappyBottoms to ensure that low-income families have enough diapers to keep their babies clean, dry and healthy. What’s your addiction? I can’t survive without coffee or Netflix. I could probably…
In the mid-1990s, like today, Kansas City, Kansas, leaders were working to figure out how to spark a renaissance in that community’s downtown. In the mid-1990s, unlike today, Kansas City, Kansas, had a bundle of cash available from the federal government. In 1994, KCK received several million dollars from a federal program aimed at reversing decline in distressed communities. And…
Clipping Los Angeles’ Clipping — MC Daveed Diggs and producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson — seems content under the rap umbrella. Or, at least, it doesn’t really make a big deal of genres. That’s fine, but the group’s latest full-length, July’s Clppng, is not an album that can be easily labeled and filed away. Clppng employs exploratory rhythms, explosive…
El Mambo is back, and this may be your last chance to hear him. Miguel “El Mambo” DeLeon’s percussion and vocals propel the ensemble Carte Blanc into some of the wildest, most energetic and most fun Latin jazz you’ll hear north of the Mexican border. Their salsa makes you sway in your seat — if you manage to stay put…
Yacht’s Claire Evans has built an intimidating résumé. When she isn’t creating scintillating electro pop with Jona Bechtolt, Evans is the editor in chief of OMNI Reboot, an online science magazine. The Los Angeles band’s co-founder also is a science journalist and sci-fi writer and reviewer. Those outside interests end up intersecting with Yacht’s music, which makes for an intellectual…
From the nominal kitchen area of Topeka’s Rundown Studios, you can hear Stiff Middle Fingers recording a track for its upcoming album, Songs About Sucking. The Lawrence punk quartet is attempting to get a take for a new song, written this morning. The band runs through it four times. That takes about 10 minutes. Songs About Sucking, out September 23,…
I really believed that I would never again witness the tableside presentation of lobster soufflé. Once a staple of high-drama restaurants, that dish long ago joined steak Diane and cherries jubilee on the list of fine dining’s spectral remnants. But last weekend, I saw a ghost: a lobster soufflé, at the three-month-old Newport Grill in Overland Park, hustled out by…
The Unicorn Theatre would have a lot to celebrate no matter how it opened this, its 41st season. For one thing, it’s the Unicorn’s first season in a building that the company owns. And this opening show is a regional premiere, playing on the newly christened Levin Stage. But the best part might be that the production, the offbeat musical…
Mel Croston, representative of Ward 3 in the Roeland Park City Council, resigned at a council meeting last night. In a letter submitted to the governing body, Croston said she was stepping down for “personal issues” and that her resignation would be effective September 30. Croston was elected to the council in April 2013. There were just over two years…
The Zac Brown Band are in the middle of their incredible Great American Road Trip Tour. Seeing the tour when it stops in your city is a must for any fan of rock, folk, and country. The newly eight-piece genre bending Zac Brown continues to impress at every stop. On September 11th The Zac Brown Band will be stopping in…
Don’t ask Meg Heriford, the proprietor of the two-week-old Ladybird Diner in Lawrence, Kansas (721 Massachusetts, 785-856-5239) if she’s using artisan breads for the sandwiches in her restaurant. After all, she’s not that far away from the iconic WheatFields Bakery. “No, no,” Heriford says, ” this is a diner. We’re not using fancy breads or fancy coffee. Our sandwich buns…
Fans of the Smiths: Rejoice. The legendary guitarist Johnny Marr is on tour this fall in support of his forthcoming solo album, Playland, out October 6. On his list of North American dates: the Midland, on Wednesday, November 26. If Marr’s latest music video for “Easy Money” is any indication, this will be one of those shows that you definitely…
The KCMO police department today announced that Ann Taylor, who was assaulted as part of last week’s horrifying violence on Woodbridge Lane in south Kansas City, has died after being taken off life support. Fox 4 is now reporting that her husband, George, who was also assaulted, has also been removed from life support. The Taylors’ deaths bring the tally to…
Missouri Department of Corrections director George Lombardi earlier this year testified in front of a legislative committee and lamented that the media was beating up on his office for the way it carried out its executions. Prior to 2013, Missouri had taken a breather from killing inmates, in part because corrections officials couldn’t track down a willing supplier of lethal-injection…
Oh, the Architects. They make our music listening time all the more interesting. Especially considering the ongoing Border Wars project they are committed to, a five-part album and graphic novel series. A year ago, the Architects released the first episode. Today, we finally have Part II. It’s a six-song fistful of punk-rock aggression and hard-hitting melodies, and it makes us…
One of the small, sublime joys of having a Netflix subscription is the ability to queue up a 20-minute episode of Trailer Park Boys whenever you feel like it. On Friday, Netflix uploaded the freshly filmed eighth season of the Canadian TV series, a mockumentary-style show that follows a coterie of petty criminals and degenerates around a trailer-park town called…
