Rant and Raven
From its metal-filled club wars to its annual worship of saggy idols at the hard-rock revival tent called Sandstone to its Scorpions sing-alongs at Camarohead before Chiefs games, Kansas City loves its riffs and roars.
Sure, pixie poppers Frogpond attracted respectable crowds, as do the Get Up Kids now, but both faced an uphill climb for hometown acceptance, even as crowds in other cities showered the orphaned outfits with sold-out shows. For the most part, it doesn’t pay to be cute and catchy here, given that top live venues such as Davey’s Uptown, El Torreon and Niener’s specialize in heart-breaking country, bone-breaking hardcore and break-stuff nü metal, respectively. In a state that’s virtually named “misery,” happiness doesn’t always sell. And yet Jade Raven, a group with more perky bounce than a cheerleading squad, managed to win a Best New Band Klammie in 2001. The then-trio became one of the area’s top local draws, spray-painting happy faces on the dour walls of mirth-starved clubs and sugar-shocking fans of the angst-ridden bands with which it shared bills.
Jade Raven also attracted more than its share of haters. Drooling misogynists revealed crass fantasies about frontwoman Holly King; macho moshers dismissed Jade Raven as cotton candy, devoid of nutritional value and sickening in large doses; music snobs attacked the simplicity of the group’s songs, especially when King unstrapped her guitar, leaving the band bassless while Eric Cornwell assumed ax duties. Yet Jade Raven continued to spread its sunshine, with King winning over more skeptical jocks than Goldie Hawn in Wildcats. The group added another member, Kelly Cook, eliminating one of its critics’ favorite harping points and freeing King for more crowd-pleasing choreography. But the addition of Cook, an L7-loving, brick-heavy bassist, steered Jade Raven into rocky terrain. Its recently released EP, Plus One, bristles with previously untapped intensity, replacing peppy guitar leads with meatier stop-and-start progressions. Granted, Jade Raven is still more Josie and the Pussycats than Kittie, but the group wears its new weight well.
While some skeptics accuse Jade Raven of selling out, King says the band’s new edge is the result of months of steady sharpening. “We already had an urge to rock out,” she explains. “When we added Kelly, she had a lot of influence on our direction.”
Jade Raven has been custom-fitting its sets to venues for some time, testing out addictive Plus One tracks such as “Cigarettes” at Niener’s, where it plays its next gig on Saturday, May 18, alongside Fatal Candy Machine and Trophy Wives. Moody and anthemic, “Cigarettes” documents King’s struggles with the Marlboro man. Its chorus warns, Cigarettes, cigarettes, cigarettes are bad, and it’s easy to imagine the old Jade Raven turning that chant into a cheery, commercial-ready jingle. By contrast, the new group chants the phrase nervously and guiltily between puffs. “I don’t want to be a smoker, but there is a time in everyone’s life where the man brings you down,” King says.
Such times explain the difference in tone between Plus One and its powerpuff predecessor, In the Dark. “It’s harder when you’re not a kid anymore,” King explains. “You have to take responsibility for your own decisions and deal with the consequences.” King also draws inspiration from national events, as on “5000,” her response to both the September 11 attacks and turbulent relationships. “It’s about individuals’ using jealousy as a weapon, which creates so many disasters in friendships across the world,” she says.
Now that King has begun reflecting on such matters, she admits it can be difficult to get into character for Jade Raven’s early works. “I just try to put myself back in the state of mind I was in at that time,” she says. “The feelings come back, and I remember why we wrote those songs. It’s like looking at a photo book and smiling at the past adventures.”
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But while Jade Raven’s past adventures might inspire a smile, the group’s future should excite its following. Plus One songs such as “Chemical Trick” and “You Don’t Know Me” — confident, neatly constructed up-tempo dual-guitar rockers that showcase King’s expanding vocal range — are better than anything from Jade Raven’s back catalog, and there’s plenty more where those came from. “We probably have twelve new ones since the EP,” King promises. “We keep poppin’ them out of the oven.” And though the group’s members have always been prolific chefs (for each track that made Plus One, there was another concert regular that didn’t make it to record), its freshly baked concoctions are much more fulfilling than its previous pastries.
Last but Not Least
Untying 31 knots in 41 minutes would be an exhausting experience, resulting in numb fingertips and a throbbing stress headache. Unraveling the music of 31 Knots over the course of its 41-minute album A Word Is Also a Picture of a Word can be equally perplexing. Authored by three boy scouts who hold prog-rock merit badges, each track seems to contain a dozen intriguing minisongs, with subtly executed transitions easing the passage from jagged garage-rock to melodic indie intimacy to majestic symphonic swoons. The group spins its colorful yarns at the Hurricane on Thursday, May 16; Elevator Division, Namelessnumberheadman and All American Rejects join the bill.
Two of 31 Knots’ openers support other worthwhile acts later in the week. At El Torreon on Saturday, May 18, Namelessnumberheadman warms up for Dub Narcotic Sound System, who chilled area listeners at a 2000 Bottleneck gig with an instrumental-heavy sleepwalk-rock set. Not that anyone really minded — as long as indie-icon-turned-funky frontman Calvin Johnson‘s fancy feet factor into the evening’s entertainment, its fans would probably accept fizzy kazoo renditions of Dub Narcotic hits. On Friday, May 17, also at El Torreon, Elevator Division shares a lineup with two emotionally expressive hardcore groups whose names are fully formed sentences, Forever Has Fallen and Flattery Leads to Ruins. Fittingly, all this verbosity goes to benefit the written word, with proceeds from this show going the local zine Subterrane.
KKFI 90.1’s latest fund-raising event, which takes place on Sunday, May 19, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the New Point Grille, boasts an impressive assortment of artists, including Luqman Hamza, Myra Taylor, D.C. Bellamy, Alaadeen, Dan Bliss and hosts David Basse and Tom “Trashmouth” Baker. Factor in the Coda Jazz Fund Benefit Concert on Friday, May 17, at the Gem Theater, which features Kevin Mahogany, Gerald Dunn, Bobby Watson, Mike Metheny and Stan Kessler, among others, and the city’s blues and jazz fans have a chance to take in a nearly comprehensive collection of the city’s finest talents in a three-day span — without the weather woes that usually accompany such opportunities.
Finally, a few low-dollar shows at unorthodox venues: A Day’s Refrain, another scream-through-the-tears sensitive hardcore ensemble, brings its lame-duck tour (the group plans to break up in early June) to the Pirate House, 14th and Kentucky in Lawrence, on Tuesday, May 21; My Space Coaster, who puts a Christian twist on that ever-popular scr-emo sound, teams up with area turf-scorchers Salt the Earth at the Pink House, 1131 Tennessee in Lawrence on Friday, May 17; Manifest to Destroy and Captain Obvious work overtime at the Fifth Quarter Café, 8822 Parallel Parkway, on Friday, May 17; and the Cup and Saucer serves up regional jangle-pop trio the Vetivers, who celebrate their fifth anniversary on Saturday, May 18. Not a lot of big names in this batch, but young, allowance-starved live-music fans take note: All of these shows are all-ages affairs that cost $5 or less.
