%{}% %{}% When the news is good, Kansas City loves to throw a party. Take, for example, the jubilant September 10 announcement that the Shriners would hold their 2020 convention in Kansas City, two years after the projected opening date of the new convention hotel, which is slated to go up next to Bartle Hall. A band made up of…
%{}% %{}% Caroline Rose It’s not hard to imagine 24-year-old singer-songwriter Caroline Rose as a woman on her own, living out of her van and roaming from city to city at her leisure. That was how she wrote the songs for her gorgeous 2014 debut album, I Will Not Be Afraid. She can turn a phrase like she’s summoning an…
%{}% Guitarist Julian Lage was an acclaimed child prodigy. At age 11, he began a professional recording career. At 13, he performed at the Grammy Awards. And when he was 15, he joined the faculty of Stanford. Now in his 20s, Lage has established himself as one of his generation’s premier guitarists, with stylings that bring together elements of jazz,…
%{}% %{}% After Lawrence’s lauded Cowboy Indian Bear called it quits in 2014, co-frontman and guitarist Marty Hillard refocused his creative energy. Ebony Tusks, Hillard’s socially conscious hip-hop group that started as a side project in 2010, moved to the foreground. Over the past year, rapper Hillard has pushed Ebony Tusks further than he imagined possible with more shows, including…
%{}% %{}% Carl Smith stands over the grill in his front yard, tongs in one hand, beer in another. Strips of marinated chicken breasts are cooking, but Smith, our wayward “grill master” — as he insists on being called — has not glanced down at these pieces in some time. He has been too busy answering my questions about his…
%{}% %{}% Thirty years ago, the West Side neighborhood was a crime-infested hilltop just across the highway from downtown. Now, it is to the creative community what Mission Hills is to the metro’s business community: a sought-after enclave with a clubby vibe and a finite amount of suitable housing stock. Progressive restaurants and cute shops have taken root at its…
%{}% Today marks Boulevard Brewing Co.’s 26th birthday. It’s an anniversary marked in Boulevard lore with the sale of the first keg of Pale Ale to Ponak’s Mexican Kitchen — a delivery the brewery’s founder John McDonald made himself. Last year, I chatted with McDonald about the state of Boulevard on the brewery’s 25th anniversary — a conversation that included a…
%{}% When the American Royal got all upset earlier this year because City Hall wouldn’t cave in to its pricey demands to replace Kemper Arena with something new for itself, Kansas City leaders sought bids for some other group to make use of the aging arena. The city got two offers in August but wouldn’t say who made bids or…
%{}% Back in March, Leslie Stockard sold her business, the Classic Cookie, to former McLain’s Bakery owner Don Peattie. Recently, however, she once again took over the restaurant. This, she says, isn’t a failed deal. The past eight months count instead as the best vacation she has ever had — one that was a long time coming. Stockard purchased the…
%{}% Cody Wyoming is no stranger to band life — he’s had his hands in countless projects over the years — but there’s always been something a little different about the Philistines. The heavy-hitting psych-rock six-piece, helmed by Wyoming’s longterm partner Kimmie Queen, seems to grow its audience with every splashy show it plays. So it’s no surprise that the…
Twitch of the Death Nerve / Arecibo by The Philistines
%{}% I’ve always maintained that the Thanksgiving meals I’ve been most thankful for over the years are the ones I didn’t have to make myself. A variety of local restaurants — we’ll have a listing of possibilities tomorrow — will be open on Thursday, November 26. But there are people who prefer to celebrate the holiday at their own dining…
%{}% In September, Metric released Pagans in Vegas, a sexy, brass knuckle-bearing rock album that will have you worshipping at the altar of lead singer Emily Haines (as if 2012’s Synthetica didn’t have you there already). Good news: The band has just announced string of tour dates in support of the new album. On Monday, February 15, the band stops at…
%{}% Update: Todd Schulte responds to commenters, below, by saying he has no plans to change the name of his unopened deli business — Speak — because another Crossroads business is also using the name. “That business is a hair salon,” Schulte says. “Our deli is a completely different kind of business at a different address. There’s no conflict of…
%{}% Here’s a fresh piece from a rapper we haven’t heard much from since he released his full-length, 199x, in July last year. Gee Watts is back on the scene in a big way with the celebratory new single “Hallelujah,” the first off his forthcoming new record, CaviART (due out in February). The video for the track came out last week, and we’re…
%{}% Phil Glynn is off the Kansas City Tax Increment Financing Commission. Kansas City Mayor Sly James announced on Friday that he had replaced Glynn with development attorney Jennifer Dameron. To those who follow the TIF Commission’s politics, Glynn’s departure wasn’t much of a surprise. It’s known that James keeps signed and undated resignation letters for his appointments to key…
%{}% Following the band’s postponed show at RecordBar (originally scheduled for Saturday, November 21), Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats have announced a replacement Kansas City date. The break-out band will be joining Leon Bridges, Houndmouth and Spencer Mackenzie Brown for the Night the Buzz Stole Xmas on Thursday, December 10 at the Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland, and…
%{}% Next summer, a full decade after their most recent studio album, Taking the Long Way, the Dixie Chicks are reuniting to make all our country crossover dreams come true. The group stops at the Sprint Center on Tuesday, August 30 — one of over 40 dates on its 2016 DCX MMXVI World Tour. After scooping up the Grammy for…
%{}% Taryn Miller’s Jekyll/Hyde EP was one of the strongest local releases of 2013 — and it didn’t go unnoticed. In February 2014, Miller — who performs as Your Friend — was newly signed to indie powerhouse Domino Records, and the label re-released the EP for mass consumption on digital platforms (the vinyl followed in April). There is happy news…
