Music Forecast January 19-25
The Kills, with Jeff the Brotherhood and Hunters
Still-around supermodel Kate Moss recently married Kills guitarist Jamie Hince, which gives a sense of the Kills’ current prestige across the pond. Over here in America, the other half of the Kills, vocalist Alison Mosshart, moonlights as the singer in the Jack White-led supergroup the Dead Weather. The Kills, we can then infer, is a “cool” band. It’s a loud band as well. Despite skeletal musical constraints — a guitar, a drum machine and a microphone — the group creates a massive, gut-punch sound that’s dirty, bluesy, dark and tense: rock and roll, baby.
Saturday, January 21, at the Midland (1228 Main, 816-283-9921)
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Best known for singing on Paul Simon’s landmark 1986 album, Graceland, vocal ensemble Ladysmith Black Mambazo dates all the way back to Simon’s days rhymin’ with Garfunkel. The South African male choral group, which recently celebrated its 50 years of existence, is in the midst of a North American tour stretching across 40 cities in support of its most recent a cappella album, Songs From a Zulu Farm.
Tuesday, January 24, at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway, 816-994-7200)
Bleached
Sisters Jessica and Jennifer Clavin spent the middle to late ’00s as two-fifths of exuberant L.A. punk act Mika Miko. That group disbanded in 2009, but the sisters reunited early last year. Their new duo, Bleached, draws on the peppy punk of the Ramones and the Vivian Girls’ fuzzy garage pop.
Monday, January 23, at the Replay Lounge (946 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-749-7676)
KC Bear Fighters, with Carrie Nation & the Speakeasy, Damn Arkansan, Joe Sundell and Honky Suckle
What’s to be made of the fact that, as we live through what is arguably a depression, so many musicians are gravitating toward the sounds of the 1930s? I’m not one to hazard theories on such matters. But perhaps some insight is to be found at this Davey’s show, which features five acts inspired by sounds along the bluegrass-country-ragtime continuum.
Friday, January 20, at Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club (3402 Main, 816-753-1909)
Jazz Winterlude, featuring Poncho Sanchez and His Latin Jazz Band, and the Brubeck Brothers Quartet
Going on its third year, Jazz Winterlude presents a steady procession of local acts: the Brandon Draper World Jazz Quartet, the Bill Crain Quartet, the Jazz Disciples, plus seven others. (See jccc.edu/jazzwinterlude for a full schedule.) Joining them are a couple of national acts. Friday features the Brubeck Brothers Quartet (the spawn of legendary pianist Dave Brubeck). And Saturday, Poncho Sanchez and His Latin Jazz Band dig into some swing and salsa grooves.
Friday, January 20, and Saturday, January 21, at Yardley Hall, Johnson County Community College (12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, 913-469-4445)
Brad Paisley, with the Band Perry and Scotty McCreery
Country sensation Brad Paisley had dubbed his current outing the “Camobunga!” — marking the first and last time I will type that word in my life — “2012 World Tour” but changed it, for obvious reasons, to the “Virtual Reality World Tour 2012,” whatever that means. At the top of the bill, the West Virginian empties out his truckload of hits — 10 consecutive No. 1s on the Billboard Hot Country charts between 2005 and 2008. Preceding him is the Band Perry, a young trio of siblings hammering away at the divide between pop and country. Opening is recent American Idol winner Scotty McCreery, whose deep country voice belies the fact that he was born in the first year of the Clinton Administration.
Thursday, January 19, at the Sprint Center (1407 Grand, 816-949-7000)
