Archives: November 2014

S. Carey calls on Kansas City fans to give him a living room to play in

It’s not a big stretch for fans of Bon Iver to fall in love with S. Carey, the longtime drummer for the international star and Grammy Award winner. Carey’s recent full-length, Range of Light, is a delicate collage of songs referencing the geographical points he encountered on tour with Justin Vernon, and it retains a stunning, meditative quality throughout. Carey…

Vinyl Junkies Fall Record Sale is going down this Saturday at RecordBar

Audiophile alert: It’s time again for the Vinyl Market’s biannual record sale, taking place at RecordBar this Saturday. The Vinyl Junkies fall sale features more than 10,000 records across all genres – including a few you’ve probably never heard of – from venues across the Midwest. If you don’t feel like battling the crowds for Record Store Day, this is…

Up-Down Arcade Bar to take over Hamburger Mary’s space

The bright-purple building at 101 Southwest Boulevard that has been home to soon-to-relocate Hamburger Mary’s will next be Up-Down, a bar and arcade featuring vintage video games from the 1980s and ’90s. As soon as Hamburger Mary’s owners, Erik Christensen and Jeff Edmondson, complete their move from the Crossroads to the Uptown Theater (3700 Broadway), tentatively at the end of this…

Here’s what Missouri Department of Transportation employees have to say about working for the agency

While reporting for this week’s feature story about a spate of discrimination lawsuits against the Missouri Department of Transportation, we heard that the agency took a survey to gauge how employees felt about their jobs. The Pitch filed a Missouri Sunshine Law request to obtain the results and the comments that employees left in an open-ended section of the survey, among…

Boulevard and Odell tap takeover tonight, Beer KC’s Strong Ale Festival Saturday, and more beer events

The joint Boulevard and Odell 25th anniversary celebration continues tonight with a big tap takeover at Flying Saucer (101 East 13th Street). Boulevard is bringing a killer lineup, including Collaboration No. 4, Harvest Dance, Tank 7, Two Jokers, Saison Brett, Foeder Projekt, Imperial Stout, Silver Anniversary Ale and more favorites. The party starts at 7 p.m. Saturday afternoon, Beer KC is…

Foodoo is open, but no longer serving dinner

Don’t believe those rumors: Foodoo, the five-month-old vegan cafe and juice bar at 3605 Broadway, is not closing. It  has, however, stopped serving dinner. Co-owner Carlos Mortera, who opened the intimate dining venue in June with help from chef-consultant Bryan Merker, says the dinner business for a meatless restaurant in this stretch of midtown was too hit-or-miss to continue evening…

Here’s the police report that alleges Kansas City Councilman Michael Brooks choked his assistant

Word began circulating early Wednesday morning of an assault incident involving Michael Brooks, a Kansas City councilman from the 5th District, and his legislative aide, Tonia Titus. KSHB Channel 41 broke the news by midmorning of allegations that Brooks, an embattled councilman, attacked Titus in a troubling Election Day incident last week. A report from the Kansas City Police Department…

Compute Midwest brings together big brains to talk big ideas at the Kauffman Center

Michael Gelphman has a message for Kansas City’s business leaders: “If you’re a company that’s not thinking about the future, you’re in the past.”  Gelphman, the founder of the Kansas City IT Professionals community, hopes to get local businesspeople pondering the future Thursday, November 13, during his third annual Compute Midwest conference, at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts….

Boulevard breaks ground on Cellar Five expansion

Boulevard Brewing Co. broke ground this morning on the $12 million expansion project known as Cellar Five, which increases the brewery’s fermentation capacity by 40 percent and by 75,000-80,000 barrels.  Boulevard founder John McDonald and other dignitaries did the ceremonial groundbreaking and dirt tossing at the 3,600-square-foot Cellar Five site, which will face Southwest Boulevard. Once completed, Cellar Five will…

KCMO’s lowball condemnation offer on a prominent downtown billboard lands the city in court

In normal real-estate transactions, a property’s value is determined by what a buyer is willing to pay a seller. When Kansas City, Missouri’s attorneys get involved, sometimes the value isn’t going to be what a property owner likes. In the case of Lamar Advertising and TLC Properties, owners of a prominent billboard at 20th Street and Main, the city’s offer…

Jim Mitchum, CEO of Heart to Heart International, answers The Pitch‘s questionnaire

Name: Jim Mitchum Occupation: CEO of Heart to Heart International Hometown: Rolla, Missouri Current neighborhood: Old Leawood What I do (in 140 characters): I work with some dedicated people, including hundreds of volunteers, trying to improve the lives of people in need … and getting it done! What’s your addiction? Antique maps What’s your game? Squirt guns at 6 feet…

Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons go head to head in Whiplash.

%{}% Andrew, the young jazz drummer at the center of writer-director Damien Chazelle’s thrilling Whiplash, is, to use the clinical term, a major dick. Certain of his own considerable talent, he is self-centered, brusque, sometimes cruel. Knowing that considerable talent is not enough, he pushes himself to physical and emotional extremes to reach the next level (and the next) —…

Justin Wright’s Expo Seventy envelops you in strangeness

“I feel like my music is an acquired taste,” Justin Wright tells me over beers at Dave’s Stagecoach. “It won’t relate to everybody, but if people are really into music, they’ll understand where I’m coming from.” It’s early on a weeknight, and our conversation is audible to the handful of patrons at the bar. One or two occasionally cast sidelong…

Numero Group excavates Cavern Sound for a new compilation

Jim Wheeler welcomes me into his spacious Crossroads studio, Wheeler Audio, looking every bit the child of the 1960s he is: faded jeans, wavy hair, chunky silver rings, and an oxford shirt printed with peace signs and doves that opens over a Cowtown Ballroom T-shirt. He recorded dozens of live shows at that legendary Kansas City venue during its prime,…

Jazz Beat: Karl McComas-Reichl Trio, at Green Lady Lounge

Since relocating to Kansas City, Karl McComas-Reichl has established himself as one of this city’s most in-demand jazz bassists, performing regularly with Shay Estes and Mark Lowrey. McComas-Reichl sets a solid foundation with his bass lines, then slides into solos of surprise and imagination. This week, he leads a trio of exceptional musicians, with saxophonist Matt Otto and drummer Todd…

Music Forecast 11.13-11.19: David Bazan, Rhonda Vincent, Chrissie Hynde, and more

David Bazan + Passenger String Quartet As if the chance to see David Bazan perform wasn’t enough to lure us out, the singer-songwriter — formerly of Pedro the Lion and Headphones — is appearing Friday in Lawrence with fellow Seattle act Passenger String Quartet. In September, Bazan released a collaboration album with the quartet (David Bazan + Passenger String Quartet:…

JJ’s Restaurant — the new JJ’s — opens tomorrow at 5 p.m.

Jimmy Frantze is overwhelmed with details today — everything from a new computer system to a waiter’s station that doesn’t operate as he wants. (“It’s completely inadequate,” I hear him say.) But nothing is going to stop the veteran restaurateur from opening tomorrow. The new JJ’s Restaurant, at 900 West 48th Place, is finally here.  “Not a grand opening, mind you,”…