Shy Boys, Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys, and Yes You Are play The Pitch‘s Best of Kansas City party on Thursday

We’re making The Pitch‘s Best of Kansas City party extra special this year with a local music lineup you won’t want to miss. It’s an eclectic pack, including members of the Kansas City Symphony, sure to amp up the energy as we raise a glass to the finest examples of local talent in Kansas City.

Yes You Are

Yes You Are is just over a year old, but since forming, the band has made great strides. Case in point: Without the support of a label (Yes You Are is unsigned) and without an album or even an EP, the band snagged the supporting slot on Neon Trees’ summer tour. This is thanks, in part, to the incredible drive of frontwoman Kianna Alarid, the former lead singer for Tilly and the Wall, which rose to considerable heights in the mid-aughts. Alarid knows the industry and all its games, and she’s determined to win them all. Onstage, she rules as the dark queen of power pop who inspires you and haunts your dreams. World domination may soon be in order for Yes You Are: For now, we’re just happy that the band is with us.

Shy Boys

Shy Boys has played only a handful of local shows since releasing an excellent self-titled album in January. That album — released on local label High Dive Records — remains a standout, and not just in local circles. Thanks to the Internet community of music nerds, Shy Boys became a beloved — if thoroughly under-the-radar — album of 2014. Live, it’s easy to understand why: The trio has mastered, with an unsuspecting charm, the jangly sound of 1960s surf and given it a fresh spin with gauzy reverb and crooked chords. Guitarist and lead singer Collin Rausch’s delicate, precious falsetto is inseparable from these subtle layers. In the last year, Shy Boys has embarked on two successful tours: a spring run along the West Coast and a summer set of dates opening for Starfucker. The band heads back into the studio to record a follow-up LP in December. We’re only too happy to have this band on the rise celebrating the best with us Thursday.

Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys

When Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys released Long Shot of Hard Stuff in March, the album surprised a lot of people — in particular, Scott (Rex’s actual first name) Hobart. It was the first album from him and his band since 2005, and one he had never expected to release, despite its having been written over the past decade. But when local roots label Little Class Records approached him about new material, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get back in the studio, and the resulting collection of songs on Long Shot of Hard Stuff makes the wait worth it. Expect Hobart to deliver us to honky-tonk heaven Thursday — and even the anti-country sticks-in-the-mud should have a hard time not enjoying his cowboy spirit.