Taking stock of Kansas City’s year in music
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We’ve built some big memories in 2015. New bands. New venues. New record stores. New beginnings — and a few goodbyes. There were live-music moments that we’ll try to top in the new year. We experienced concerts that might not have made headlines but have remained in mind. Here are a few of the highlights.
Say Hello …
It has been a great year for the local vinyl business, with Josey Records — a Dallas-based record-store collective — opening a 6,500-square-foot store in the Crossroads in June. In October, Kyle Maggart — formerly of Hi-Fi Records in Olathe — and his brother, Cole, opened Brothers Music in Mission, offering vinyl, turntables, guitars and other music equipment. And after losing its space on 39th Street in June, Zebedee’s RPM reopened two months later in the Crossroads (at the former Midwestern Musical Co. location) under a new name: Revolution Records.
As Folk Alliance International completed the second year of a five-year Kansas City residency, its new executive director, Aengus Finnan, discussed changes he had made to — and had planned for — its annual conference. And in August, after a three-year hiatus, Ray Pierce (aka rapper Steddy P) — the founder of Indyground Records — brought his hip-hop music festival, Indy Fest, to the Riot Room.
We also welcomed a new midtown music venue, Blind Tiger, in July. Though largely a bar and a restaurant, it has a large stage that bookers Kenneth Kupfer and Zach Campbell plan to keep filled with rock and punk acts. And Prohibition Hall, at 1118 McGee, makes its debut December 31 with a music-filled NYE blowout.
… Wave Goodbye
We’ve lost some good places this year, too — including two notable jazz venues. In August, Take Five Coffee + Bar shuttered less than 10 months after moving to its new location at Corbin Park Shopping Center, in Overland Park. A month later, the Broadway Kansas City announced its plans to close. (Krokstrom Klubb & Market, opening next year, will replace it.)
In November, the Union of Westport announced its sudden closure at the conclusion of a bitter lease dispute; Mistake Mondays, the always-free, usually local weekly concert series there, moved to Blind Tiger. And this coming January 2, the decade-old RecordBar holds the final concert at its Westport location (as owners Steve Tulipana and Shawn Sherrill, unable to renew their lease, search for a new home).
Midtown record enthusiasts will have one less option when Vinyl Renaissance & Audio closes its 39th Street location and consolidates operations in Overland Park.
We also bid adieu to two favorite local acts. In August, after 12 wonderful and strange years, Jeffrey Stolz and Wallace Cochran — who together make up Drakkar Sauna — slid into retirement with a grand finale at the Lawrence Arts Center. And just this month, prog-rock group David Hasselhoff on Acid performs its final show at the Riot Room.
A Hallmark Year
Every year, Kansas City chips away at the (unfair) label of “flyover country.” In 2015, a few local bands continued their hot streaks, proving to the nation what the rest of us have known all along.
In June, Independence mother-son duo Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear released their debut full-length, Skeleton Crew, on Glassnote Records. Beautiful Bodies, signed to Epitaph Records in 2014, released Battles on that label in June. In August, Radkey debuted Dark Black Makeup, an album produced by Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, the Fall, the Kill) on Little Man Records. Tech N9ne gave us Strangeulation Vol. II in November, a heavy-metal album that further boosts his profile as a crossover artist. And Lawrence’s Taryn Miller — who performs as Your Friend — is set to release Gumption, her first full-length with Domino Records, in January.
Local labels, too, have stayed busy. In September, after a 15-year hiatus, Lotuspool Records hosted its first music showcase, featuring Lawrence singer-songwriter Heidi Lynne Gluck; the label has four releases planned for 2016.
Jeff McCoy has nearly doubled his roster at High Dive Records, with the addition of the Conquerors, Bummer, Fullbloods, Rooftop Vigilantes, Psychic Heat and Berwanger. High Dive put out five albums in 2015, and four are already planned for next year. And Brenton Cook’s Haymaker Records continues to welcome under-the-radar acts; in 2015, the label released albums from Mysterious Clouds, Piercing Eyes, Be/Non, Hmph, Riala and Sie Lieben Maschinen.
