Kansas City Music Blog

Brooklyn's Screens and San Francisco's Sleepy Sun make a diverse bill when they play Lawrence's Replay Lounge on Monday, March 22.

​Both bands are making their ways back home after SXSW, and aren't actually on tour together.

Screens' prior touring compatriots Aa and Golden Triangle miss us by two days, so this just happens to be a fortuitous pairing, as well as an interesting one.

Whereas Sleepy Sun plays dreamy indie pop with a little twang, Screens have a serious percussive edge to them. It should definitely be a study in contrasts when the two bands meet. For those of you out there who complain that Mondays offer up nothing good, take advantage of this post-SXSW gift.

MP3: Screens, "Saturday"

Today, I urge everyone to go out and rent Corey Haim's magnum opus. I refer, of course, to License to Drive, starring a young Heather Graham as the object of Haim's affection, Mercedes Lane.

And, hey...the Thrills got their question answered.

Once a week, Wayward Blog brings to you sounds of the area's musical past.

Olsen Terror existed during a hardcore heyday in the Kansas City/Lawrence area. It seemed that you could see bands playing everywhere for a few years around the turn of the century: house shows, community centers, and even the Lawrence Visitor's Center.

Hell, if you look at Olsen Terror's lineup, it's a veritable who's who of the local punk scene:
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Justin Betterton on vocals -- current host of KC-DIY Radio, owner of Big Brown Shark Records.

Mike Tuley on guitar -- Short Bus Kids, Or Die Trying, the Madd Scientists, and this little band called Ad Astra Per Aspera. I think we could do an entire month of Throwback entrees devoted to bands Tuley used to play in.

Luke Stemmerman on bass -- also known as "Loco Luke-o Concern" of straight-edge hardcore legends One Concern. Show promoter extraordinaire.

Kurt Lane on drums -- Ad Astra Per Aspera (when back from Brooklyn, where he currently lives with his wife and AAPA member Julie Lane). Has also drummed for Ssion.

Their shows were notable for being something like five minutes long. Kind of like an extended string of firecrackers, the band would show up, go off, and leave you wondering what the hell just happened. You'd be slightly dazed and blinking, wondering if you could get the license of that truck that hit you. You can get a much better-phrased review of one of their shows over at Too Much Rock.

MP3: Olsen Terror, "Autobiography of An American Drone"

Scene & Heard -- wherein local music scene makers give you the lowdown on the soundtrack to their lives.

While his mom might've named him Sean Hunt, the rest of you probably know the man better as Approach. In addition to being a hip hop badass in every possible way, he's CEO of Datura Records. His new album, Aloe Park, hits in April, and a freebie mixtape, SweetKnuckleJunction is out next Tuesday.
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My World - Kid Cudi

"It's a feeling I get from the track. It hits me in a way I can't explain. It gives me goosebumps."

Grav I Be - Epcot

"This my boi. You need to get on iTunes and purchase his album, Heroes. My potna Salva produced this and it has so much energy. When the snare finally hits, my neck just snaps. Classic club energy! Salva is the king of the beats."

Let It Rattle - P.O.S.

"This make me wanna burn my studio down. It has the spirit of a classic hardcore/punk song. What a build up this track has. It's a anthem, man. You can't help but sing along."

Supermagic - Mos Def

"My homie Oh No on the beat and Mos on the mic.....Classic! That's it, classic hip hop!"

Battles, "Leyendecker"
This whole record is so good. I had a tough time picking a track. I love the drums and the vocal sample. What a great and original band!

MP3: The Grouch, "Whatever I Say"
"I love The Grouch. I don't know what it is about him, I am just a big fan. Look up the video for this song on YouTube. You will love it, too."

Hunt also jams to Louiz Rip's "Interrupt": "He is just ripping this breezy groove to shreds. Wait 'til his free EP, Vestige Autonomy drops later this month. Everybody will be praising this guy! DatGang!"

In an effort to add yet another great show to this Saturday's already-crowded schedule, Chicago's Light Pollution will be appearing at the Brick. They'll be opening for Auternus and Williams Rite, in what promises to be an evening of seriously epic psychedelic soundscapes.
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Light Pollution is touring in advance of their debut full-length, Apparitions, due out June 15 on Carpark Records. You can hear a track off that record below.

MP3: Light Pollution, "Good Feelings"

We sat down over the weekend with Josh Martinez, the main organizer of Kansas City's newest SXSW showcase: Midwasteland Takeover. 

Scott Spychalski

Josh Martinez, of the Gusto Lounge.

​The project is the brainchild of Martinez (who runs the Gusto Lounge), Czar Bar's Billy Smith and Steve Tulipana of the RecordBar, working with the Midwest Music Foundation and various other musicians and music heads. For its maiden voyage, Midwasteland Takeover hits Austin this week with 32 local acts. Over a cup of coffee, Martinez talked about his vision for Midwasteland Takeover as well as his encounters with Outkast's Big Boi and how to scrape by SXSW on almost no cash.

The Pitch: What are your expectations for the Midwasteland Takeover?

Martinez: I hope that one of these bands will break out this year, and that good things will come for them. I don't want to show favoritism to anyone, but two bands that I am in total love with -- and would push so hard for them to do good things -- are Capybara and Olympic Size. I will do everything in my power to put them in front of people. Capybara has four showcases that they're playing down there, and they're hoping for a fifth. They'll play anywhere. They'll play in somebody's basement. They'll play on the street. They'll play on top of a car, whatever it takes to get somebody to notice them. They have a very can-do attitude. Olympic Size -- it showcases everybody amazing in this town in a sort-of super group of sorts from Kansas City. It's beautiful music. It's music to make love to, to break up to. It's good stuff. I'm trying my hardest to make sure that certain people will be there, at certain times, to make sure that people hear this stuff. Ultimately this is giving us a little bit of validity, and we hope that South By Southwest will invite us next year as an official showcase. It's guerilla marketing. It's getting out there and pushing yourself. You make people notice you, and they have no choice but to invite you in. If you can't knock on the front door, go ahead and smash the front door in.

Empty Glass is a weekly post devoted to furthering the alcoholic rock star image and mythos. That's right, kids -- drinking has no negative side effects and makes you look cool, to boot.

Nick Spacek

Curvacia Vavoom with Scary Manilow on cocktail duty.

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Curvacia Vavoom, the lovely and mysterious lead guitarist for Lawrence's garage creepies the Spook Lights, has a couple of different answers to the question we ask here at Empty Glass -- namely, "What is your favorite drink, and where do you drink it?"

Nick Spacek

The Bourgeois Pig's delicious infused liquors.

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I am known to be partial to a certain bartender at the Replay Lounge, but when it comes to liquor, hello house infusion! The sparkling row of infused vodkas at the Pig trigger my radar from blocks away, sometimes further, depending on the day. Any one of them makes a perfect mix with soda water. Good afternoon, Pineapple and Ginger! I love you, Blackberry. Orange you going to have another cocktail?

The Spook Lights play the Jackpot this Saturday, March 13, with Kid Congo Powers & the Pink Monkey Birds and the Harrisonics.

Rappers like Biggie don't die. They metastasize in the music that comes after them.

Words rhymed after Christopher Wallace's two major works, Ready to Die and Life After Death, necessarily bear his indelible imprint. To this day, over a decade after his death, other rap artists are best judged by their proximity, far or near, to his imaginative excellence.

Also known as Biggie Smalls, Notorious B.I.G. or simply Biggie, Wallace combined the masterful storytelling of Slick Rick with the lyrical complexity of Rakim and a playa's ball sensibility that had yet to find its way from blaxploitation films to wax. He added to those elements a command of language -- metaphors, puns, imagery, cadence -- and a trunk-rattling, baritone voice.

Gunned down following a Soul Train Music Awards party in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, today marks the 13th anniversary of the rapper's death.

R.I.P., Biggie.

If you can't afford the gas--or the time-off--to get down to Austin for this year's South by Southwest music festival, that's okay. The kind folks at Metropalife, a locally-run hybrid blog and online radio station, are going to pop open a few bottles in homage right here. Before they head south to the Longhorn State to cover the festival themselves, they're inviting area residents to join them this Friday at Gusto Lounge for "Metropalife Goes to South by Southwest." DJ Miles Bonny will keep asses in the air with an evening inspired by local artists, including Deep Thinkers, Ces Cru, Greg Enemy, James Christos, Stik Figa, and the many other artists that make Kansas City hip-hop go. If you haven't heard music from these local performers, you should a) bludgeon yourself with the rock you've been hiding under, and b) fork over the $5 dollar cover to receive a proper introduction.

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Usually, a Monday night punk show means a total lack of crowd. Happily, at the Jackpot last night, there was a healthy number of people to see San Francisco's Dead to Me with Reno's Cobra Skulls and Kansas City openers Bent Left and Fists Up.

​Dead to Me rocked it from start to finish. Despite the fact that the incarnation of the band that took the Jackpot stage doesn't feature any of the former members of One Man Army, the three piece carries on in the grand tradition of that West Coast punk act, as well as the band to which One Man Army was frequently compared, the Swingin' Utters.

If one were asked to find an analogue for Dead to Me here in the Midwest, it would be Lawrence's own KTP, to whom Dead to Me sent out "Runnin' Through My Brain," with Chicken introducing the song by saying, "I walked in here once and they were butt-fucking the stage with their music." A strange compliment, to be sure, but an enthusiastic one.

​Right before them, the Cobra Skulls had thanked the audience in a similarly backward fashion, saying, "Thanks for coming out on a Monday night. You're either unemployed or really alcoholic."

Judging by the reaction to the band's "Honorable Discharge Under the Influence," I'm guessing that much of of crowd was like me and taking great advantage of the various drink specials available.

It was Cobra Skulls' first time in Lawrence after several shows in Kansas City, and the people in attendance seemed extremely excited to not have to make a drive to see them. The band's blend of rockabilly and punk rock didn't disappoint.

​I felt the same way with openers Bent Left and Fists Up. Both acts are stellar examples of the pop punk scene currently going on in the area, and it's great to see that both acts managed to get on to a Lawrence show.

The reaction to both acts was stellar, with Fists Up in particular sounding better than they have the last couple time I've seen them. While former lead singer Kyle was energetic, since his exit from the band, Fists Up has become a tighter unit.

The first time I saw them, it was a steady decline from first song to last, and they now manage to rock out from set's start to end. Now, they're a fully tuned-up, rarin' to go, punk rock machine.
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Both acts manage to embrace a classic pop-punk sound, the sort of which bands around here like the Primetime Heroes have done so well -- it's a little rough around the edges vocally, but the gruffness works and adds a sense of authenticity to the mix.