Blogs

Clutch, with Murder By Death and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster
Thursday, February 28
The Beaumont Club, Kansas City, MO
By JASON HARPER

First of all, Cancun Fiesta Fresh is fucking good. Being wary of its placement in a doomed location -- across from the Westport Coffee House, set back from the street by a half-acre of concrete in a white storefront that has housed several failed restaurants over the years -- I would never have eaten there if a friend hadn't suggested it last night for the preshow vittles. My fish tacos were loaded with fresh cabbage and sweet, crispy peppers, and las quesadillas de mi concert amigo, Lethal D. of Bacon Shoe, were like big-fat packets of the chicken flavoring you put in Ramen noodle soup only with real stuff in them, and, uh, not in foil. They were good, I'm saying. The salsa was fresh and had raw onions and cilantro in it. Even at 7:30, the place was busy, with townies coming in to get takeout, including one Mitch Rich of the Rich Boys. When he was introduced to Lethal D., he confessed that he'd never seen Bacon Shoe, and D. confessed right back that he'd never seen the Rich Boys. I give them both a demerit -- I mean, WTF? Local musicians gotta support each other.

Meanwhile, across the street, a very non-local show with VERY local people attending it was underway. Parked outside was this monster, whose rider is so hardcore he (or she) prefers to sit on hard metal rather than on anything sissy, like a cushion.

Then again, it's likely that whoever rides this bike snatches up babies from along the roadside and uses them for cushions.

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Rooney
Wednesday, February 27
The Sprint Center
By CRYSTAL K. WIEBE

I’m going to be deaf one day and rock and roll will be to blame. But whatever damage I did to my ears last night at the Sprint Center was in no way the fault of any musician. I barely wore my bright orange earplugs while Rooney performed. Even on the floor of the Sprint Center, the sweet pop rock didn’t seem too oppressive. But when the music stopped and thousands of ‘tween girls started shrieking – that’s when I started to really fear for my ear drums.

Back in the day I screamed like that, too – at Boyz II Men, All 4 One and Kris Kross. Hell, if I found myself in the middle of a Justin Timberlake concert, I would totally squeal in a frequency that only a dog could hear. And I would do the same if Elliott Smith rose from the dead or the Faint gave me a shout-out from stage. But I wouldn’t make a poster or in neon puff paint write on my shirt “Will You Merry Me?” (sic) like one girl did – especially not for last night’s headliner, the Jonas Brothers. But I don’t hold those little girls’ enthusiasm against them. Everyone has to start rocking out somewhere. And we can’t all be as lucky as my plus one for the night, Miss Mandy Mustacha, whose first rock show was Joy Division – when she was 6.

The Jonas Brothers: WAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!.

(Click More for more.)

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By AARON LADAGE

He doesn’t look like the glutton-for-punishment kind of guy, but Nathan Reusch, co-founding father (or is it founding co-father?) of local-turned-national label the Record Machine has been burning the candle at both ends this week.

On Tuesday, the Machine launched a spit-polished new Web site, released the marvelously peculiar Mostly Ghostly by Ohio’s State Bird (who, coincidentally, was named Spin’s Band of the Day last week), and announced the signing of a new band – the Louisville, KY, electronic twosome Interstates.

Photo courtesy Recordmachine.net

Why would a nice fella like Reusch partake in such self-inflicted masochism? In his words, “I don’t like to sleep.” Somebody get this guy an Ambien – and while he’s resting, be sure to listen to some of the spoils of his hard work below.

Interstates: "Uniforms Forever" MP3

State Bird: "Gold Glowing Mask" MP3

The Ssion continues to blow up, this time on the shoulders of Tilly and the Wall, with a Critcheloe-created video for the Nebraska band's new single that premiered on Stereogum and was picked up by celebrity gossipppper Perez Hilton.

Wow. Some Peggy Noland costume-action up in there?

Tilly and the Wall: "Beat Control"

By ANDY VIHSTADT

DangerKeys

Photo by Melanie Pullen for Fat Possum Records

Akron, Ohio’s Black Keys called on Danger Mouse and a handful of guests to flesh out their two-piece sound for LP5. Stream the first single, “Strange Times,” at the duo’s MySpace page. Attack & Release hits stores April Fool’s Day on Nonesuch.

Thought @ Work

The Roots return with Rising Down on April 29. Lyricist Black Thought has been quoted as saying, “I want to be the first rap artist to actually make a good 10th record,” although there isn’t much competition (LL Cool J?). “75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)” is the first taste from the upcoming LP. Listen to it at Okayplayer.com.

Click More for more Junkie.

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The winner of The Pitch Ultra Music DJ Contest is... these guys!

Photo by Emily Moore (www.emilylaurenmoore.com)

Woo! Congratulations, Nomathmatics. You guys rocked this past Friday night at NV. Enjoy your trip to Miami. Send us a postcard.

To the other DJs: Thank you — you were all phenomenal.

Don't miss it.

Five of the best DJs in the city.

Facing off.

At NV (220 Admiral Blvd.)

Tonight.

Holy shit, it'll be good. So good, you'll jump like Tactic.

The contest begins with the first beat dropping at 8:30. The Mighty Five will play one 30-minute set each. There's no cover to get in before 9 p.m. Afterwards, it's $5.

You haven't been reading The Pitch if you don't know about the Ssion or Murderbot. Murderbot, aka a young DJ named Chris, recently relocated to Chicago and founded Sleazetone Records, on which he has released the latest Ssion single on CD and vinyl. However, Chris is having trouble getting the release out on the DJ-friendly digitial distro site Beatport. Below is the e-mail we received this morning from Chris. It's both a good primer on the Ssion's recent accomplishments and it contains a dilemma of which everyone who wants to dance to the Ssion at clubs should be aware.

"Hi, my name's Chris, and I just want to release a record by the Ssion."

From: "Chrissy Murderbot / Sleazetone" Subject: A favor for Murderbot / Ssion / Sleazetone — THIS IS IMPORTANT!

As many of you know, I recently started a second record label called Sleazetone. The initial release, a CD & 12" single by a really wonderful band called Ssion came out on Feb 12. There's been a lot of critical acclaim -- features in Better Propaganda, Big Stereo, Fluxblog, Gorilla vs. Bear, Imageyenation, Missing Toof, Music For Robots, Palms Out Sounds, Paper Thin Walls, Pitchfork, Pop Tarts Suck Toasted, RCRD LBL, Slutty Fringe, Stereogum, Pitch Weekly, GBH.tv, Pensatos, Vice, the Village Voice, XLR8R, a nice big feature in Urb's new Next 100 issue, and forthcoming reviews in Ghetto Blaster & Pitchfork. It has also been charting well in CMJ (Top 200 & RPM charts), and the live shows have been getting an EXCELLENT response. Cody (the lead singer) has just done a new video for Tilly and the Wall, in addition to his previous video and art design work for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, The Faint, Black Dice, etc. Basically, this is an amazing project.

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Bang Camaro
Monday, February 18, 2008
The Bottleneck
Better than: David Lee Roth’s solo vocal take on “Runnin’ with the Devil”
By RICHARD GINTOWT

Ever since the advent of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, I’ve had a horrible premonition that video games are going to seriously fuck things up for kids who want to be musicians. I’ve already heard stories of kids who rule at Guitar Hero but can’t play an actual lick to save their lives. Are we doomed to suffer another generation of crappy emo bands because kids spend all their time pushing buttons that mimic crapola My Chemical Romance riffs?

Last night, however, I glimpsed a ray of hope. They’re called Bang Camaro, and they’re a lot like Guitar Hero and Rock Band (the latter of which they appear on) with one notable exception: they shred real guitars. The band’s three lead guitarists are so good that they’re placed center stage in front of the group’s eight touring vocalists, who collectively mimic the hair-metal choir patented by Skid Row and so many other retroactively hilarious '80s bands.

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Limbeck, with John Ralston and the Jen Say Kwahs
Saturday, February 16
The Jackpot Music Hall
By GREG FRANKLIN

Walking into a club wringing water from your pants is never a good start to an evening. Torrential downpours, we thank you for providing crops and lush greenery for us (oh, and I suppose drinking water is pretty alright too), but c'mon...you've never given us a "rain day" from work or school. Thankfully, in Lawrence, Kansas on a Saturday night, a couple great bands could make this man forget about wet pants and relish in some well-crafted rock and roll.

Lawrence's Jen Say Kwahs opened up, and were a bit of a strange addition to the bill, which was by no means a bad thing. Having seen Limbeck more than a few times, I was expecting some sort of singer/songwriter/alt-country thing (typically what bookers match them up with) and was therefore not looking forward to the requisite a scruffy, bearded dude with acoustic guitar singing stripped-down songs about whiskey and girls. Instead, the Jen Say Kwahs came on as a really full-sounding quartet, with great vocal harmonies and confident playing, dropping hooky song after hooky song but never staying in the same stylistic vein.

Elements of the Saddle Creek influence (Cursive especially) and some of the noisy jubilance of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah showed through, but more exciting were those moments that hit Yo La Tengo dual-guitar transcendence; also the last song ("All Hearts Restored"), which built off a sparse tremolo-soaked riff and sorrowful lap steel and transformed mid-way into a Calexico-like shuffle. It was a captivating way to end the set, and a nice transition back into the alt-countryfied world of Limbeck.

Limbeck guitarist Patrick Carrie. Photo by Greg Franklin.

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Tanka Ray, with Outlaw and 8ighty 6ixed
Saturday, February 16th
The Record Bar
By FLANNERY CASHILL

Tanka Ray's Saturday night show at the Record Bar honored the first birthday of a family friend, Penelope. Her father held her in his arms as strangers cooed and smiled, but Penelope, in her velvet dress and earplugs, looked unimpressed. At one year old, she'd already negotiated the reunion of one of the area's longest-lived and most fondly-remembered punk bands. She had persuaded their guitarist to fly down from South Dakota for her first-ever birthday party. No wonder she snubbed her buttercream cake with such easy disregard.

Reunion shows can be problematic; like inside jokes, you either get them or you don't. It's hard to guess how many of the attendees knew Penelope, or were able to make sense of the pink banner announcing "The Big 1" onstage. The big-haired, spandexed regular? The drunk girl doing that lazy, arrhythmic wag in the corner? It didsn't matter. Nearly 200 people crowded the Record Bar Saturday night, some of them family, some of them practically family, many of them neither.

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Mark Olson
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club
By RICHARD GINTOWT

On a rainy Saturday night at Davey’s Uptown, Mark Olson presented a picture of informality. Dressed in a natty grandpa sweater and a pair of argyle trousers, the founding songwriter of the Jayhawks casually inhabited a booth and chatted up the locals on presidential politics (he’s an Obama supporter). By 8 p.m. there were enough millers-about to justify a performance, and Olson sauntered onstage with his Norwegian female accompanist Ingunn Ringvold and Italian violinist Michele Gazich.

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By ANDY VIHSTADT

Sex & Violence

For your viewing pleasure: the new Kanye West video, directed by Spike Jonze. Much like his 1995 vid for Wax’s “Southern California” (reminisce here), Jonze shows his penchant for slow motion and fire. Add a shovel-wielding lingerie model to the equation and you’ve got gold. Ironically, dousing a fur coat with lighter fluid has been deemed the most explicit part of “Flashing Lights,” not that we’re complaining. See for yourself.

Under Cover

Brooklyn’s Mobius Band gave its fans a special treat this Valentine’s Day with the Love Will Reign Supreme EP. It’s all covers, including MB’s version of Daft Punk’s “Digital Love”. Download it free at the band's site.

Here’s another cover that made its way around the blogs this week.

Kate Nash: “Seven Nation Army (White Stripes cover)” MP3 courtesy of My Old Kentucky

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They're really getting things off with a big, hairy bang at the Riot Room, which is the club now operating in the space formerly occupied by the Hurricane. Word on the streets it's the same owners as before -- the guys who own Jerry's Bait Shop -- but with a new name and, likely, some changes to the interior and the club's M.O. [ -- Ed.]

TROGLODYTE
Friday, February 15, at the Hurr -- oops... The Riot Room
By ANDREW MILLER

Metal dudes are a hirsute, burly bunch, many of which might bear more than a passing resemblance to the lumbering hominoid (local boy?) Bigfoot if spotted in a densely wooded natural setting. But only Troglodyte’s members stand up to stage-light scrutiny, with their Neanderthal features, unruly tufts of facial hair and pronounced, permanently furrowed brow ridges unquestionably asserting their Sasquatch status.

Native to Kansas City, Troglodyte devotes entire 30-minute sets to Bigfoot-specific topics, offering helpful advice (“Don’t Go in the Woods”) and harrowing forest-insider accounts (“Skunk Ape Rape.”) Skeptics claim Troglodyte’s “singer,” who communicates through primal grunts and guttural roars, is actually Jeff Sisson, a mysterious local resident who has created prosthetics and gore effects for more than a dozen films, donning a self-fashioned disguise. Circumstantial evidence corroborates a cinematic connection: “Skunk Ape Rape” appears in the awesome trailer for The Legend of the Sandsquatch:

Cryptozoological status aside, Troglodyte leaves gargantuan musical footprints, alternating plodding riffs with unnatural bursts of speed. Tracking patterns indicate Troglodyte should surface at the Riot Room tonight, sharing a bill with Seeking Surreal, Christ Hate, Ancient Creation and At the Left Hand of God.

Crap. There's a lot going on this weekend. For what feels like the past six months, the scene's been as frigid as the weather, but suddenly there's a thaw. As always, this week's music section contains the in-depth, comprehensive, critically tempered coverage that your mom has come to expect from the world's greatest altweekly, but I also felt compelled to focus in on the clubs where the action's at. Expect this entry to morph as I find out about more stuff, but for now...

The Brick (1727 McGee)

Local cover/tribute band Magfuckingnificent takes over the club Friday, playing a three-hour set of songs by the Cure. Magfuck has been around awhile and sounds GOOD. Expect to hear your favorites later in the night (when you're drunk and will enjoy them more).

Saturday night, the little guys get their turn. Drop in and hang out with the friends and family members and maybe even fans of local bands Vertigo Drive, Tumble and Trip, and Red Kate.

Davey's Uptown Ramblers Club (3402 Main)

Friday night, catch garage-y acts the Also Rans and the always fucking awesome, southern-gospel-influenced, criminally underrated KC band the Pink Socks.

Pink Sockses Bidwell and Kidwell

Saturday, join the older Americana-loving crowd for the sweet songs of former Jayhawks frontman Mark Olson. It's an early, 7:30 p.m. show with a $12 cover at the door. Buy a ticket in advance and save two bucks.

The Record Bar (1020 Westport Rd)

Given Friday's lineup, it's hard to think of a reason not to head to the RB after work and stay until closing time. At 6 p.m., locals the Abracadabras take the stage, opening for buzzy Chicago bands Catfish Haven (funky acoustic soul-blues that manages not to sound lame) and the Redwalls (retro powerpop). The evening brings local electronic acts The London Transit and Onemilliontinytinyjesuses, with headliner Sonic Boom's Spectrum. We ran a story last time Sonic Boom (aka Pete Kember) was in town, and by all accounts the show was awesome. Kember used to be in a band called Spacemen 3, a fucked-up, American-blues-influenced British psychedelic dronerock band that was active in the late '80s and was pretty great. Evidently, Spectrum isn't too different. Familiarize:

Continuing the RB's M.O. of stacking three-band bills on top of each other Saturday starts off with an all-ages punk show featuring Clash-loving KC streetpunks Outlaw, Minnesota act Eightysixed and longstanding locals Tanka Ray. The night brings more loud rock and punk with psychedelic St. Louisans Victoria, KC's the Big Iron and jump-blues/rockabilly band the Twistin' Tarantulas.

Sunday, six more bands play, but you'll have to check the Record Bar's site for the details.

The Mission Theatre (5909 Johnson Drive)

Saturday and Sunday: METAL

(P.S. The Mission Theatre has its own MySpace page, but the shows are listed at the link above. However, the song on the Mission Theatre's page on that annoying Zune player thing grabbed my attention. It sounded like a cross between Semisonic and Uncle Tupelo -- in a good way -- and when I went looking, it turns out it's a local band. How come no one's ever told me about Satellite Soul? They even still around?)