Music Forecast 8.28 – 9.3: Alabama, Kawehi, Islands and more
Kawehi
In March, Hawaiian-born artist Kawehi uploaded a pretty stellar cover of Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” to YouTube. In the video, she’s seated in her Lawrence home, in front of her synth pad, keyboard and looping tools with headphones on and a glass of red wine at the ready. It was supposed to be just a “practice run,” she said, mistakes and all. But within a few days of the video’s mention on the Esquire website, Kawehi’s Internet profile had skyrocketed, and she was getting calls from all over, including invitations to play shows internationally — all before she’d even had a local gig. (She moved to Lawrence last June.) At long last, we have Kawehi to ourselves. Get your tickets early for this one-woman wonder.
Saturday, August 30, the Bottleneck (737 New Hampshire, Lawrence, 785-841-5483)
Bishop Allen
We’d almost forgotten about Bishop Allen and its likable high-fructose pop. It has been five years, after all, since the group founded by Brooklyn’s Justin Rice and Christian Rudder last put out new material (2009’s Grrr…). Now, this favorite early-aughts act is back with Lights Out, an album that sounds kind of like the band has been holding onto it for a few years. It’s full of happy-go-lucky guitar work and bouncy, lighthearted drums — the same sounds that dominated the charts when Bishop Allen was first earning its wings, back when Rice and Rudder were wee pop stars in training at, uh, Harvard. Hit up Czar Tuesday to see if BA still has its chops. And if you have any questions or complaints about online-dating site OkCupid, bug Rudder — he co-founded the thing.
Tuesday, September 2, Czar (1531 Grand, 816-421-0300)
Islands, Teen
Since its inception in 2005, Montreal’s Islands has seen more than a few changes. The brainchild of Nicholas Thorburn (of Unicorns fame), this rock-pop outfit — now based in Los Angeles — has cycled through no fewer than 10 members in less than a decade. The present four-piece incarnation seems about as stable as the previous ones, but Thorburn has a proven ability to roll with the punches. Case in point: The band’s latest album, 2013’s Ski Mask, which comes across as the best-possible assemblage of the four variant records that came before it, with bits and pieces of orchestral pop, rock anthems and sad-sack ballads. Bonus: Brooklyn’s Teen, a dreamy folk-pop four-piece, opens.
Tuesday, September 2, the Riot Room (4048 Broadway, 816-442-8179)
Folkicide
Listening to Folkicide’s June-released The Meaningless Glare of Broken Human Beings, it’s hard to imagine a sound more at odds with itself. Lead singer Burnie Booth’s voice hovers between monotonous and whiny — a sort of off-key drone that would have been perfectly charming in the late 1990s. Add that to the halfhearted plucking of what sounds like tired strings on an untuned guitar and a rhythm section so rife with mood swings that it sounds like it needs therapy, and it all starts to suggest a score for a mockumentary about haunted houses. Still, there’s something about Human Beings that is deeply fascinating. As each song ends, you wait for the next to sound somehow more normal. It never happens, and Booth is probably fine with that. Hear the weirdness live Wednesday at Davey’s.
Wednesday, September 3, Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club (3402 Main, 816-753-1909)
Alabama
Only eight years after its supposed farewell tour, Alabama is once again hauling its 1970s and ’80s Southern thing to arenas around the globe. The fun restarted in 2011, and the fellas haven’t hit the Pause button since. If you’ve yearned for the harmonic twang of this beloved ensemble, the wait is over: Alabama stops at Starlight Theatre Saturday night, with 64-year-old lead singer Randy Owen ready to croon his way into your jaded old heart. If you doubt this, find YouTube’s “When We Make Love” and feel the ’80s-soft-rock warmth.
Saturday, August 30, Starlight Theatre (4600 Starlight Road, 816-363-7827)
