Around Hear

After two years of persistent touring and plenty of lineup changes, Be/Non, the area’s most adventurous psychedelic rock outfit, has returned to recapture local listeners. Its first showcase is Thursday, August 24, at The Bottleneck, as part of a bill that also includes the indie-rock all-star band Enon (with former members of Skeleton Key and Brainiac). But singer/guitarist Brodie Rush isn’t overjoyed at the rare prospect of playing with a band whose name rhymes with his own group’s obscure moniker.

“Brainiac was the only band I ever sent a postcard to with a Be/Non sticker on it, and I figure it’s kind of wickity-wackity that the guitar player comes up with a band called ‘Enon,'” he explains. “Meaning ‘none,’ so why don’t you just call your band ‘None’?”

However, rather than sulking about this alleged intrusion on his creative property, Rush is planning a party — a beach party, no less. “I’m making a set that will look like we’re playing on an island with an ocean background, and there will be beach balls and all kinds of stuff,” Rush says of this event, which washes up on the shores of the Replay Lounge on Wednesday, August 30, and includes a set by Jumbo’s Killcrane. “The rules are that you either bring your swim trunks or a Hawaiian shirt,” Rush says.

Rush stripped to less than swim trunks at a recent show at the Hurricane, writhing in his underwear while singing a Prince tune. “He put on the greatest show,” recalls Season to Risk singer Steve Tulipana, whose band was headlining that night. “He forgot about the show until the last minute, and the rest of his band was out of town, so he found a drummer, and for most of the show he was just singing. He sang the Prince song perfectly. He’s talented and creative.”

Given such raves for an impromptu performance, it’s not surprising that Rush seems destined to make the same mistake again. “I haven’t talked to any of my band members about the beach show,” he admits. “They don’t even know this is happening. I just get ideas and go for it.”

Regardless of whether the rest of the group is on board, Rush will unveil all-new material from the band’s forthcoming third full-length release. However, if bassist John Huff and drummer Ryan Johnson are in attendance, fans will get to see how this trio has gelled because of what Rush dubs “pirate-style” touring: “We’ve been coming into towns, taking shit, getting drunk, going to strip clubs, and just reaping the fruits. Now it’s our job to hit Kansas City and Lawrence.”

Season’s Greetings
Rush’s spontaneous crooning might have been a hard act to follow at the Hurricane on August 12, but Season to Risk was well equipped for the task. In addition to a lineup change (Billy Smith has replaced Josh Newton on bass), the group is exploring new sonic terrain, incorporating keyboards into its trademark chaotic mix. “Some of it still has that heavy dissonance to it,” Steve Tulipana says of his band’s latest work, “but we’re working a little more with melody and adding some different flavor to the songs. All of us play the keyboards. On some songs, several people are playing, and on others there’s just one, and just for a section of a song. Some of it is loop-based, and the drummer uses a sampler.”

Season to Risk didn’t unleash any of this material on its recent jaunt across the East Coast with pop-punkers All and Wretch Like Me, but it did manage to win over plenty of fans outside its core demographic. Bands that get listed in CMJ alongside the words “recommended if you like Pantera” don’t usually share the stage with cheery pop acts that sing about girls and such. But Season to Risk recently joined Shiner on the roster of Owned and Operated Records, which is run by former and current members of All and Wretch Like Me, among others, so this was a prime opportunity for the group to show its new label what it had to offer.

[page]

“We played in the middle every night, which was pretty nice, but we definitely got some cockeyed stares,” Tulipana says. “But all those other bands were really good about coming up front and rocking out so those kids would say, ‘Oh, this is cool to like? All right!'”

Meanwhile, back in Kansas City, where people have long known that it’s cool to like Season to Risk, fans should be delighted to learn that on the day after Thanksgiving, the group will head into Owned and Operated’s vaunted studio The Blasting Room to record its new album with the help of Descendents/All members Bill Stevenson and Stephen Edgerton.

The Power of Paws-itive Thinking
The idea is so obvious, it’s astounding no one has thought of it before. People love cute dogs, and people love live music, but until now the two have never intersected, at least not in Lawrence. But on Saturday, August 26, at the Granada, all this will change as the Lawrence Humane Society hosts the first-ever Paws Fest, featuring Shaking Tree, The Roundups, Bulldog Front, B.L.R.W., Esoteric, Celia, Mustard Couch, Kelly’s Heroes, and Jumbo’s Killcrane. The event, which runs from noon to 9 p.m. with a $10 cover, will also include a dog wash, a pet photo booth that offers the opportunity to get a picture of your beloved pooch taken and framed, and a dog-adoption booth.

“We have two different major fundraisers each year,” says organizer Christine Stegman. “One of them is a walk, and everybody does the walk, and the other is an auction, which isn’t very much fun if you don’t have any money. We have so much art and so many young people here that it’s ridiculous that we’re not doing something to include them. And these are the people that are going to be having animals in the future, so we’re trying to get our message out to them about responsible pet ownership.”

While pet-lovers can come to the event looking to adopt a pup, Jumbo’s Killcrane is hoping to welcome a new bass player into its fold. The band recently returned from a successful stint on the West Coast, after which its bassist decided he wasn’t made for life on the road. “We had to cancel our September shows, which really sucks, but he’s still going to play the local shows, and we’re just going to keep booking local shows until we can find someone to go on tour with us again next year,” says singer/guitarist Erik Jarvis.

However, even if it weren’t looking to pick up a new member, Jumbo’s Killcrane would have agreed to play Paws Fest, both for the exposure and for the cause. A pet-lover himself, Jarvis has owned several dogs and cats and at one point allotted a room of his house to an iguana. “It got really big,” he explains. The mammoth lizard lived until age 13, and Jarvis now has a new reptilian housemate, although this one does not yet rate its own room.

In its continuing quest to fill its touring-bassist slot, Jumbo’s Killcrane has packed its schedule, with shows at Davey’s Uptown with Season to Risk on Friday, August 25, the Be/Non beach party on August 30, and a gig with Bottom at the Replay Lounge on September 5.

[page]

Nature’s Best
As any promoter can tell you, putting together a festival is a massive hassle, with all of the pressures and unpleasantries of dealing with booking agents and spacy musicians magnified immeasurably. However, if you own your own record label, putting together an event to showcase the acts on said label makes hosting such a festival a virtual cakewalk. With the exception of the Michigan-based Small Brown Bike, the entire lineup for Meet in the Middle, slated for Friday, August 25, at El Torreon, is composed of bands signed to Kansas City’s Second Nature Recordings. Kill Creek, The Casket Lottery, Waxwing, The Higher Burning Fire, Eulcid, and an acoustic set by Waxwing’s singer, Rocky Votolata, round out the day’s entertainment.

“It all started with Waxwing,” says label owner Dan Askew. “They’ve never really played outside Seattle and California. No one has ever seen Waxwing, so, well, let’s make a day of it. I’ve been talking about putting a big music festival together this summer, and it ended up just being a Second Nature thing with all Second Nature bands because I didn’t really want to go through the headache of actually getting a full music fest together. And I didn’t want to call this a fest, because it’ll jinx it. I tried to do a fest in 1995, and there were some great bands, but no one showed up. I don’t know if anything like this can even be pulled off in Kansas City.”

One promising sign is that Askew has already received calls from music fans in St. Louis, Omaha, and even Texas who are excited about attending the event. Another is the presence of Kill Creek, whose recent return to the club scene has proven that the group’s drawing power has not waned during its absence.

Although Meet in the Middle might not have taken that much effort, Askew remains quite occupied with Second Nature, which has a promising crop of fall releases in the works. Among them are Kill Creek’s latest, which is tentatively planned for November; The Higher Burning Fire’s new full-length, which is on tap for October or November; and a string of releases by The Casket Lottery. Add to that recent albums by Waxwing and Eulcid, and the result is what Askew describes as the “busiest year ever” for his venerable label.

“I’ve been really fortunate that things have fallen in my lap,” Askew says, noting that side projects and breakups have led to multiple releases from the same core of musicians. “It all goes in a cycle, and I’m still working with the same friends I’ve been working with, yet there’s a lot more going on.”

A year ago at this time, there wasn’t a lot going on with Second Nature, which led to some misguided speculation that the label was closing up shop. In reality, says Askew, “I was just kind of laying low and trying to pay off debts. I put out four or five records between April and May, and that’ll catch up with your wallet really fast.”

Askew plans to take a similar hiatus early next year, during which he will work on his Web site (www.secondnaturerecordings.com), which will eventually feature online ordering and an extensive description of the label’s sizable back catalog. With the added reach of the Internet, Second Nature should improve its already impressive range. Aided by No Idea distribution, the label’s records already make it out to most of the nation’s biggest chains and distros — and beyond. “The Get Up Kids went to Europe, Australia, and Japan this year,” Askew notes, “and they said they saw my stuff everywhere they went.”