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As a courtesy to fans, band managers, radio personalities, members of the clergy, Mennonite farmers, door-to-door vacuum cleaner salespeople and others who were shocked and appalled to read of the sordid misadventures of New York, New York, popular music recording artist Matt Pond on the night of March 29, 2008, at the Record Bar, in Kansas City, Missouri, the editors of this blog have removed all details of the night, save the following photos and snippets of dialogue (sans attributions), taken by the post's original author, Crystal K. Wiebe, who, it should be noted, did at the time inform Pond and associates that she was a writer for The Pitch and would be filing a report of the evening, thereby obtaining their assent for her to proceed in good conscience.

However, because we at The Pitch fear for the youth of this country and recognize the power of after-hours-rock-and-roll reportage to occasionally and unintentionally drive wedges into the mighty trunk of this nation's moral character; and because we do not wish our writers, readers, or the drunken wannabe rockstars we write about to be haunted unto their dying day by one seemingly minor but in fact morally corrupt blog entry, we have amended this entry -- for a better tomorrow.

“Do you guys like Aerosmith?”

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Just in from LiveNation...

YES RETURNS TO THE CONCERT STAGE TO CELEBRATE THEIR 40th ANNIVERSARY Wednesday, August 6 Live at Starlight Theatre Tickets on sale this Saturday, April 5 at 10 am! Reserved Tickets*: $39.50, $59.50, $75 and $150 (price does not include Ticketmaster service charge)

This begs the question: What kind of Yes fan are you?

Are you a roundabout geek?

Or are you the owner of a lonely heart?

Anyone recognize these Kings of Leon-lookin' motherfuckers? They crashed Saturday night with Pitch cartoonist Josh Ziegler's upstairs neighbor and stayed up until 4 a.m. jamming on the Who and the Beatles. In the morning, Ziegler sniped 'em.

(Three more shots after the jump.)

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Back to the Block
Sunday, March 31
The Record Bar
by NADIA PFLAUM

Last night, Vert from the Record Bar hosted a bear of a hip-hop show, featuring the Bluez Brothers (aka Deuce and Lou of the Soul Servers), the Soul Providers (Reach, D/Will, Hozey-T, Les Izmore), James Christos with Gunn Jakc and the True Spittaz, Heet Mob and Dutch Newman.

The sets were tight, and so was the footwear; a dude named Dietrich won $50 in the sneaker contest for his custom shoes with blue-light ground effects, narrowly beating out a pair of rare Bambi dunks.

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By ANDY VIHSTADT

D.C. Cab

Death Cab for Cutie returns with Narrow Stairs on May 13. Listen to the first single “I Will Possess Your Heart” at the group’s MySpace page, and check out a live acoustic version of another new one below.

Death Cab for Cutie: “Cath…(acoustic live)” MP3 courtesy of Pretty Much Amazing

On the Side

Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) and Miles Kane (the Rascals) are the Last Shadow Puppets. The duo’s debut LP, The Age of Understatement, releases in the US on May 6. Check out the video for the title track and first single, here.

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Carbon/Silicon
Saturday, March 29
The Record Bar
Photos by SCOTT SPYCHALSKI
Words by CRYSTAL K. WIEBE

Ha ha, Chicago! Kansas City got to play host to a pair of honest-to-God punk grandpas last Saturday night. Mick Jones (the Clash) and Tony James (Generation X) stopped at the Record Bar with Carbon/Silicon. The tour was supposed to stop in Chicago tonight, but according to the band’s Web site, that gig has been “posponed”. Some die-hard punk fans in Chi-town are probably pretty pissed about it.

Unlike Architects drummer Adam Phillips, they won’t get a whole stack of old Clash albums autographed by Jones. Apparently, Jones left his plush tour bus to hang out at Record Bar on Saturday afternoon and planned to mingle more after the show. When Phillips gushed about his newly signed booty, I started wishing I’d worn my vintage Clash T-shirt. (Since I hadn’t, I decided not to stick around.)

Oi, Mick.

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School of Language, with Riddle of Steel and OK Jones
Thursday, March 27
The Record Bar
Review by JASON HARPER
Photos by KEANON LIGGATT
Bird Illustration by JOHN JAMES AUDUBON

For the lead singer and guitarist in a challenging, sonically adventurous post-hardcore rock band, it must be more than deflating to be in the bathroom of a bar after playing a set and have a broseph in a crew cut tell you your band reminds him of Incubus. But for Riddle of Steel frontman Andrew Elstner, this is an opportunity to exhibit grace and class and extend welcome to a new (if not cultured) fan. "Oh, OK, yeah, thanks. I'll take that, as long as you dig it," Elstner said, simultaneously considering the source (i.e., fratboy) accepting his comment as a compliment, AND also making sure the guy wasn't making fun of him. Turned out, the fratteur loved Incubus and meant the remark kindly.

(By the way, it must also really SUCK when you go to start a MySpace account using your band name only to find that some random person somewhere has already registered the name. Imagine Riddle of Steel's chagrin when they attempted to reserve www.myspace.com/riddleofsteel only to find that "DMDemise" had already claimed it:
)

All beeswax aside, it was a boutique of chops last night at the Record Bar as Riddle of Chops played between OK Chops and School of Chops, the last of which I'd been excited about seeing since discovering Field (of Chops) Music over a year ago.

Fronted by David Brewis, who plays in Field Music with his brother Paul Brewis and keyboardist Andrew Moore, School is rounded out by two guys with huge reputations in Midwestern music circles: Doug McCombs of Tortoise on bass and drummer Ryan Rapsys of Euphone and Heroic Doses.

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I was rooting around for Spoon videos to post with our preview of the band online (found a rad Paul Simon cover), and I found these beguiling videos of a Japanese robot dancing to a couple of recent Spoon hits. The robot is called Keepon, and it consists of two conjoined yellow spheres, with perky, rudimentary eyes and a black-button nose on the upper sphere. (I don't know why, but it reminds me of Baron Silas Greenback's pet caterpillar Nero from DangerMouse.

I'm not usually the type to give two farts about some Japanese toy, but this little critter is compelling -- hell, it dances better than every single white person in midtown. And then I think, how it is it even possible to communicate "dancing" with a squiggly little ball-like creature, much less higher emotions like "curiosity" and "look at me I'm cute and quirky"? That question's for the behaviorists, I suppose. I do know the music helps, because Spoon, of course, gots the groove.

Here it is, dancing to "I Turn My Camera On"

Follow the link to robot heaven.

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By CRYSTAL K. WIEBE

If I were a more scientifically-minded person, I would have conducted an experiment last night at the Mission Bowl. During the 10 p.m. to midnight Rock 'n' Bowl session, I would have written down the name and title of each music video playing as I tossed the ball down the lane and then made a note of my score for that frame. Would modern butt rock inspire more strikes than emo rock? Probably, the results would have been a wash. As it was, butt rock ruled the night, anyway, and all those pitchers of Bud Light surely had the most effect on whatever my final score was.

But the Wednesday night Rock 'n' Bowl is a great concept: two hours of unlimited bowling for $8, plus cheap food and beer, and music videos on a big screen. Granted, one of the videos was for “Paralyzer,” Finger Eleven’s lame song about meeting a girl at a club. But considering the only other place I see videos these days is online, I swallowed my elitism for the night.

Finger Eleven: Take the nu-metallers bowling.

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Aloha, with Anathallo
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The Jackpot Saloon
Better than: Slim Goodbody’s upcoming appearance at the Folly Theater
By RICHARD GINTOWT

Great drummers have a way of making ok bands into great bands. Aloha has two of them, but the veteran indie band’s music has always been more about sublime post-rock melodies than showy sticksmanship.

The quartet has played in Lawrence a ton of times since its inception in 1997, sharing tours with self-reliant acts like Ted Leo, Q and Not U and Cex (the latter of which included drummer Cale Parks). They’re distinguished by their liberal use of mallet instruments such as vibraphone and marimba as well as their top-shelf musicianship. It's heady stuff with righteous intentions -- a post-modern fusion of Steve Reich and the Zombies.

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Mike Doughty
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The Beaumont Club
By JOHN KREICBERGS

Maybe it was the casual, small-bar rockiness of evening’s opening act, the Panderers. Or maybe it was the soothing aroma of nag champa drifting from the stage area. Whatever it was, the atmosphere at the Beaumont for Mike Doughty’s Kansas City stop on his Golden Delicious tour was about as relaxed as it could be without handing out Xanax at the door.

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R.E.M.
Accelerate
(Warner Brothers)
By ANNIE ZALESKI

R.E.M.’s Jackknife Lee-produced fourteenth studio album, Accelerate, lives up to its speedy title. It’s loud, quick and dirty, spinning by so fast that it takes multiple listens to absorb. It’s full of buzzing guitars and stream-of-conscious discontent, along with an abundance of Mike Mills’ choir-boy harmonies and sinewy bass. And naturally, it hints at the Athens, Georgia, band’s past – fuzzy riffs à la 1994's Monster (the title track); the dirty distortion and droning yowls of 1988's Green (“Mr. Richards”); orchestrated elegance circa 1992's Automatic for the People (“Houston”); and the slick political earnestness of 1987's Document (“Until the Day is Done”). Yet the amped-up atmosphere of Accelerate is unique within R.E.M.’s catalog, and doesn’t resemble the mood of previous releases – meaning that you can’t exactly herald it as a return to form (whatever that means, anyway).

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Sweet! M.I.A. has just announced a U.S. tour that brings her to Lawrence on May 14, at Liberty Hall.

Let's have a lookalike contest, whaddaya say!? We never do that anymore!

OK, let's not.

M.I.A. - "Bird Flu"

With the Wildcats out of the basketball tourney, it's now time to turn our attention to K-State football, and that means: The Goo-Goo Dolls.

This just in from the PR desk.

March 26, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LUCKY LOCAL BAND WILL OPEN FOR THE GOO GOO DOLLS AT GRIDIRON BASH!

One local band will have the chance of a lifetime…the opportunity to open for the Goo Goo Dolls as part of the Gridiron Bash!

A Battle of the Bands will determine which local band will open for the Goo Goo Dolls. The Battle is at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 9 at the K- State Student Union.

Five bands will be selected to play in the Battle. Each band will play a 20-minute set. A panel of judges will select which band opens for the Goo Goo Dolls Friday, April 18 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

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The Republic Tigers continue to shape up to be the biggest band to come out of this area since ... who knows?

The day after the band's debut LP, Keep Color, comes out, the Tigers'll play the Late Show with David Letterman on May 7 May 22. The last local band to play Letterman was the New Amsterdams, two years ago, on May 12, 2006.

The Tiger Tour:

April

08 Albany NY - Jack Rabbit Slim's

09 Clinton NY - Kirkland Arts Center

10 Northampton MA - Iron Horse

11 Westport CT - Toquet Hall Teen Center

13 Boston MA - Great Scott

14 Brooklyn NY - Southpaw

15 New York NY - Bowery Ballroom

17 Washington DC - DC9

19 Plymouth MI - Salem High School

Our story: Go Tigers