Kansas City Music Blog

Two things we love that are all too rare in this world: local zines and Murderbots.

Get both tomorrow night at Balanca's (1809 Grand) when Chrissy Murderbot returns home from Chicago to beatslap KC in the face in honor of the Fall/Winter issue of hip-hop/DJ-scene 'zine Demencha Magazine.​

Demencha founder Chris Milbourn, who used to write the Spin Cycle column for The Pitch, has always been a Murderbot champion, so it's fitting that he booked the eclectic electronic killer for the show. Chrissy (short for Christopher Shively) is a prolific producer and label owner who's constantly releasing mixtapes, but it's his latest self-titled solo album that really gets the party going for us.

Murderbot is a master at taking bizarre, off-kilter ragga, drum-n-bass and depth-charge dubstep and mixing into sharp and deliciously funky jams that are easy to dance to -- if you have three legs. Which we do.

Case in point:

MP3: Chrissy Murderbot, "Red Bone (The Yoshi Track feat. Don P & Tha Basix)" off Chrissy Muderbot (SleazeTone)

Cover is $5. Dirty D and the Galactic Soul Tribe featuring Z-Sonic will get the dancefloor greasy before Murderbot goes on.

​Remember that flurry of hip-hop shows last weekend? It's surprising that more multimedia didn't wash up from that (or maybe we just missed it), but here's a nice slice. It's a live MP3 of MC Reach performing Mouth, the band which, you'll remember, set up a night of live-instrument-backed hip-hop at the Scion Lab last Friday -- and did a good job promoting it. Before and after.

MP3: Reach, "Radio Love (feat. Mouth)" Live

Sounds like Mouth is on some Medeski, Martin & Wood + wah-guitar shit. Not sure how I feel about that, but it does sound good with a top-caliber rapper like Reach on board.

I have to openly admit I didn't know jack about rapper XV until stumbling across this video last night. His MySpace -- which boasts over a million views -- says he's from "Smalltown, KS." I had trouble digging up bio info, but apparently he's gotten Lil Wayne to guest on a track, and this blogger thinks he's the second coming.

The local connections continue with the video for "Fall Out of the Sky," which was directed by Kyle Harbaugh, the man behind all those excellent Mac Lethal videos. I even paused the video in places to try and identify buildings and street signs. It's not KC...

XV is also apparently working with Wichita producer Michael "Seven" Summers, who has worked with Mac and Tech N9ne. He's the dude playing the upright piano in the video. He's also the guy playing Guitar Hero with XV in this fun but not very informative EPK video.

School me on XV in the comments?

The compilation this tune is from, Kansas City Jazz - 20s, was put out by Audio Book & Music Company, also known as ABM. It's one of those companies that puts together compilations of songs with obscure copyright statuses. George E. Lee died in 1958 in San Diego, where he'd moved after retiring from music in 1940, so I imagine that the copyright on this tune is long-gone.

​"Merritt Stomp" was recorded for the Merritt label in 1927. It's interesting, as the band is billed as the "Novelty Singing Orchestra," and you hear not a whit of human voice anywhere on it. Still, the banjo and clarinet on this hot jazz tune give it a bit more of an edge than the rest of the songs on the compilation on which it's found.

All information and images regarding George Lee come courtesy of Club Kaycee.

MP3: George E. Lee & His Novelty Singing Orchestra, "Merritt Stomp"

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rock,

It has been a profound pleasure to serve the Kansas City scene as music editor of The Pitch, but after nearly five years of burning my Guitar Lamp at both ends, I will be leaving my post early next year.

I am not leaving The Pitch because of any shakedown, bad trip or other negative sort of vibe at this paper. From day one, I have thrived in a thoroughly positive and supportive work environment, and I'm proud to have been a writer and editor at what I feel is Kansas City's best journalistic enterprise.

I just feel that after five years in the local-music trenches, it's time for me to move on to other things and let someone else have a go at this gig. As I pursue work in other fields (mainly freelance writing), I'll keep an ear perked toward the people, musicians and artists who have treated me so well since I became a steward of the scene in 2005.

Though you will see my byline in the paper through the end of this year and the beginning of 2010, there will be a new music editor's name on the masthead starting sometime in early January. In the coming weeks, The Pitch will field applicants from this market and beyond, looking for someone with a werewolf desire to run amok in this town's vibrant soundscape - and with the writing and editing skills, blogging drive and ironclad spleen needed for the job.

Get in the running by sending a cover letter, resume and writing samples to
C.J. Janovy, editor, The Pitch, 1701 Main, KCMO 64108; or e-mail them to cj.janovy@pitch.com.

That's it for now, friends. I'll see you soon. The club is open.

For those of you wanting something a little classier on a Sunday than some synthpunk at the Jackpot, there is hope for you.

​At 2 p.m. Sunday, in the Jewish Community Campus' Lewis and Shirley White Theatre, there will be a performance from Tiberius Klausner and Richard Cass. The Klausner and Cass concert will include piano and violin duets and solo performances, featuring music from Dvorak, Paganini and Chopin.

This is a real treat for fans of classical music, as Klausner is a former concertmaster of the Kansas City Symphony, and Cass is professor emeritus at the UMKC Conservatory of Music. If you miss it, Klausner and Cass will perform together again in March. That concert will also be at the Jewish Community Center.

And, y'know -- that show at the Jackpot doesn't start until 7 p.m. You could make both, if you were so inclined.

Released yesterday online, O Foolish Pride is the second in a growing series of digital mini-EPs from Ghosty. The first was the delightful A Mystic's Robe EP, which the Lawrence band surprised us with September.

Frontman Andrew Connor tells us that the band will release "4 or 5, maybe more" of these digital EPs, with plans to compile the best tracks into a full-length vinyl release.

As with Mystic's Robe, the tracks on O Foolish Pride can be streamed for free or downloaded in a variety of formats, including 320k MP3, for $1 each or more, if you're feeling generous.

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Also as with Robe -- as you'll read in the online liner notes -- Pride contains some new material plus some stuff that was recorded in '07 but never completed. In any case, these two recent releases seem to be continuing Ghosty's evolution from a college-town indie-pop band to a more sophisticated, seasoned group of music pros.

Just listen to "Rose-Colored Glasses." Damn. That's just some great musicianship right there.

This one's not so much a remix as a mashup. ​

In a fit of what could only be described as cartoonish inspiration, Soul Server and Losers' Clubber Deuce Fontane has taken the vocal off Milk Drop's "Dirty Ls" and laid it over the famous '80s bloop-reel "Axel F," with a bit of Family Guy mixed in at the end.

The original D/Will-produced track, which is on Milk's Falling Back to Earth LP, is definitely of higher musical value (no disrespect to Deuce), but, hey, this is good for some fun.

Go ahead an air out both the remix and original below.

MP3: Milk Drop, "Dirty Ls (remix w/ Peter Griffin)" by Deuce Fontane
MP3: Milk Drop, "Dirty Ls," from Falling Back to Earth

Going into a show aware of an artist's reputation, but completely unfamiliar with any of that artist's material is a double-edged sword. I've not a clue as to how any of Brendan Benson's studio work compared with the live show he and his band put on Saturday night at the Bottleneck. Thus, while being completely ignorant with anything he's done, I'm going into this without any preconceived notions.

Nick Spacek

Brendan Benson

​I can state categorically that every single word of praise I heard from friends was 100 percent deserved by Mr. Benson. In fact, I can think of no higher praise than the fact that I ran into Tim Gutschenritter, owner of the Riot Room. His birthday was at midnight, and rather than hang in Kansas City, he chose to make the drive to Lawrence to see Brendan Benson. If a club owner takes his birthday off to see an artist, it's probably an artist worth seeing.

While the show was decently populated, it didn't seem many people shared Gutschenritter's affinity for Benson. The club was mostly full in the area immediately in front of the stage, but the bleachers were mostly empty, and the booths lining the raised portion along the club's south wall were empty, save for a few.

Benson and his band played a solid set that ran just over an hour, playing songs that seemed to draw equally from all of his releases, with a slight emphasis on this year's My Old, Familiar Friend. Benson's vocal delivery style is conversational, taking equal parts Frank Sinatra and Robin Zander of Cheap Trick to create a pop singer that has a little class.

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The band was tight. It's an interesting thing to note that most of the mid-level power-pop acts that tour regularly, like Benson (or any of the mid to late '90s alt-rock acts still plying their trade) tend to have a band that knows how to knock out the songs in a way that makes you forget that they're playing them live. Every guitar lick, drum beat, bass line and vocal aren't a bit out of place, and you could close your eyes and imagine that you're just listening to an album on a gigantic sound system.

Since May, the free Scion Radio 17 Monthly series has brought heaps of beats to the Czar Bar, much of it executed by DJs who probably wouldn't have come through KC at all -- certainly not to play shows that cost you nothing other than an e-mail address to get into. Last night was the season's final installment and featured a bad-ass lineup of Nomathmatics, Franki Chan, Rob Wonder, AC Slater and Le Castle Vania.

In addition to repping sweet beats, Chan is the founder of LA's IHEARTCOMIX Records, home to Matt & Kim, so it was very cool to have him in the house. Here he is with local dubstep producer and DJ Ryan "Hoodnasty" Hood (who wants you to know that he's spinning tonight at Gusto Lounge).

Franki Chan (left) with Hoodnasty

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The atmosphere in the place was nothing short of jubilant, reaching its peak during Slater's set. Even though toward midnight the crowd began (inexplicably) thinning, there was a two-dozen-strong core down front going absolutely apeshit for just about every record the DJ threw on.

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People were dancing like they wouldn't be shaking a leg again all winter. And though, as I said, this was the last Scion Radio 17 show of the season, Kansas City's DJ scene won't be hibernating anytime soon. Keep an eye on our listings and also on Umove.net for upcoming dance parties.

Homegrown Buzz favorites Thieves recently sent us this track from their new Divider EP to share in hopes of promoting their CD-release party.

Erin Hiser

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Unfortunately, that party took place last weekend (with Cowboy Indian Bear and Sailor Sequence, so you know it had to've been good). Hey, we get backed up here sometimes at the Wayward Blog.

But it's never too late for a dope jam, and that's just what "Swan Song" is. The live/digital drum combo and minor-key atmospherics and strangled vocals on the bridge are out of the Radiohead playbook, while the big, gothic-cathedral production evokes Britpop balladeers like South and Stereophics.

Take it away, Thieves. And please, book another show soon. We'll be there. Probably.

MP3: Thieves, "Swan Song"

After over a decade of rocking and rolling you all over Kansas City, the Throttlers are throwing down for one last time tonight. Born out of the ashes of Johnny Black & the Assassins, the Throttlers have been the closest thing this poor world has seen to a hot rod rock 'n' roll band since the New Bomb Turks broke up.

​In their time, the band's played with every Kansas City rock band that's ever mattered, as well as opening for touring badasses like the Boss Martians. When they play tonight, the Throttlers will be rocking out with the help of some friends: The Haunted Creepys (direct from Transylvania), the Federation of Horsepower, and the Klusterfux.

I saw the band play numerous times over the years, both as the Throttlers, and as Johnny Black & the Assassins, and they never gave anything less than their all. PK would play his heart out, and I saw him break out a full-on "YEAAAAAAAAAH!" when sick once. Cuzin' Mike played bass like he was born to it, and Claes Frehley was a welcome addition, adding some serious breadth to the band's sound when he joined on guitar, adding to the three-piece they'd been with drummer Rob.

Now, despite the fact that the band's playing their last show tonight, and despite the fact that you've only got one album's worth of material -- Let the Eagle Fly -- you can find a silver lining to this black cloud. The band might be declared after this show, but the band does remind you "the dead have been know to walk on occasion..."

Resident INnatesounds producer and turntablist Leonard DStroy has been living up to his adopted surname this year, destructing the decks on his own solo album, Game Over, as well as on CES Cru's celebrated Playground.

Most recently, he's returned to his brainy cradle as beat helmsman for MC Brother of Moses on the Deep Thinkers' brand-new release, Make It Quake. Snag a track on the house.

MP3: Deep Thinkers, "Mid-West Flambay"

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The Thinkers are a household name in the conscious hip-hop scene in KC, and this, their fourth album (and first since 2007's Reprogram) is sure to further establish their progressive rep. Make It Quake is being released by INnatesounds and LA's Wilshire Records, a label founded by KC native Brian Hanis, aka DJ Ice.

A release party is scheduled for this Saturday, November 14, at the Riot Room, featuring performances by Lenny D and BroMo (of course), Reggie B with Miles Bonny, and Reach.

Adding historic significance to the lineup, comedic hip-hop legend
Chief Rocker Busy Bee is buzzing into town to host the show. If you're not familiar with Busy, check out this 10-minute doc on "hip-hop's first solo MC."

Bonus listening: The DTs recently teamed up with electronics company VTech to produce an exclusive podcast.

The Runaway Sons have a new album out, entitled Soy España, and they'd like you to hear it. Rather than just listening to rockers like "Jerk and Gyrate" or "Kathleen Turner Overdrive" via the tinny speakers on your laptop, the band would like you to get a taste of the album the way it was meant to be heard -- blasting out of some speakers, surrounded by a bunch of like-minded individuals.

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Now, should you care to hear the EP at ear-blistering volume, you can join the band and other fans at the Soy España listening party tonight.

The party gets going at 6pm tonight, at the Hot Topic in the Great Mall of the Great Plains in Olathe. To find Hot Topic in the vast oval that is the Great Mall, follow these easy instructions:

Hot Topic is located inside the theater entrance at the NorthWest side of the mall. Walk past the movie ticket kiosk, and we are right after Java Jive on the right hand side.

Coalesce not only released the amazing OX earlier this year, they planned the followup OXEP as a continuation of the full-length's brutal roar.

​In other words, these aren't b-sides or leftovers that were released yesterday. This is an honest-to-goodness new release. As the band puts it:

These songs are not cuts that didn't make ox. We wrote and recorded these songs specifically for an ep release after ox was already done and delivered to Relapse for production. We continued our americana theme and expanded them on these songs, therefore wanted them to be considered part of the 2009 ox sessions.

MP3: Coalesce, "Absent In Death"

MP3 via Stereogum.

Via 2dopeboyz, this is the second leaked track off Stik Figa and D/Will's upcoming release, hellogoodbye, which will arrive December 1. Contrasting the first leaked track, the restless, banging "Seasons," "Knowwhere" is more laidback and funky, an easy ride over a popping bass-guitar and laden with crackly vinyl static. Still with the catchy chorus, though.

MP3: Stik Figa & D/Will: "Knowwhere"
Left-clicky: Usershare or Mediafire

iknowdwill.com

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Looks like I'll to have add Imeem to my list of social music sites, which, at last count, already includes Lala, iLike, Blip.fm, Pandora, Last.fm. Hell, I may even have an Imeem account and just forgot. So many sites, so little time.

D/Will, meanwhile, maintains a sharp blog at iknowdwill.com.

Lord, there's not a day that goes by that I don't miss BR5-49. Now, to be fair, the world's greatest hillbilly band wasn't really local. Chuck Mead had fronted Lawrence's Homestead Grays, and was in fact from Lawrence, but BR5-49 was really based out of Nashville.

​The band's first release, the Live From Robert's EP, has a fairly fantastic story. The band got their start at the western wear store, playing for nothing but tips every night for years. When it was released back in 1996, Rolling Stone listed the band in its "Hot issue," giving them a high profile.

BR5-49 released a full length live album later in their career, but their debut was probably the high point. Featuring covers of songs by Doc Watson and the Stanley Brothers alongside the band's originals, as well as a healthy dollop of clever stage banter ("plugs" abound, both for tips and to get people to buy some boots), Live From Robert's is one of those albums that leaves the listener wanting more, and whet my appetite for the band's full-length.

My favorite number on the EP is "Me n' Opie (Down by the Duck Pond)," a true story of "drug abuse and sexual deviance," also known as the untold story from the Andy Griffith Show. Led by its military cadence, it certainly bears more than a little musical resemblence to Jimmie Driftwood's "The Battle of New Orleans" -- although the lyrical content is more akin to Homer & Jethro's "Battle of Kookamonga."

Interesting fact: 1/3 of the writing credit goes to Kief's Downtown Music's (and former member of Ricky Dean Sinatra) Mark Roseberry.

MP3: BR5-49, "Me 'n' Opie (Down By the Duck Pond)"

We mentioned a couple of weeks ago about Ian MacDougall, guitarist for the Riverboat Gamblers, and the injuries he sustained when hit by a car while he was riding his bike.

​While you can still go to the Help Ian page to donate, perhaps you're the sort of person who needs to get a little something for your donation -- the person who doesn't send any money to PBS until they offer up the tote bag, as it were.

Well, here you go: tonight at the Riot Room, there's a benefit for MacDougall, featuring some of the finest rock 'n' roll Kansas City has to offer. When benefits for musicians are usually done, it's inevitably the case that the bands playing have little-to-no connection with the musician whom they're helping, other than the tenuous "fellow musician" connection.

In the case of tonight's show, you get a healthly dose of bands who share a sonic connection with MacDougall's band: The Sixteens, Wrong Crowd, The Also Rans, Hopeless Destroyers, and 45th St. Porch Band.

The Rumblejetts have provided the Kansas City area with high-quality, high-octane rockabilly for over a decade now, and the group shows no signs of stopping. Their live shows are a guaranteed good time, with a mix of classic Sun Records covers, as well as the group's originals, which blend into the set so well as to be indistinguishable from songs written half a century prior.

​Oh, and their fliers are always stellar. Usually designed by drummer Jud Kite's Killer Kite Productions, they are by far the most professional fliers you will ever see in the Kansas City area. Much like the poster you see to your left, most of Kite's work wouldn't look out of place hanging in the garage of a filling station somewhere. They're always wholesome, but with a hint of hot rod racer edge.

The Rumblejetts' new CD is called Summertime Apples, and is the band's third full-length (in addition to Roostina and Cool Down, Baby, they've also released the Branded EP). You'll be able to grab it when they have the CD release party for the record at Knucklehead's on Saturday, November 21.

You might also want to give the guys a hug. They'd made it to the second round of CMT's Music City Madness competition, but didn't make it past that to the final sixteen.

Watch the video for Summertime Apples' first single, "Blue Broadway," below.

Just over a year ago, friends of musician Abigail Henderson rallied to help her defray the cost of the expensive cancer treatments she was undergoing. And in true Kansas City fashion, that first benefit show, called Apocalypse Meow, rocked. Now Henderson is cancer-free, and it's time for another round of musical fundraising.

Forester Michael

Abigail Hendson at last year's inaugural Apocalypse Meow

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Taking place Saturday at Crosstown Station with a pre-party tonight at Midwestern Musical Co. (1830 Locust), Apocalypse Meow 2 will raise money for the burgeoning Midwest Music Foundation, which grew out of the first Meow and is bent toward helping musicians with health-care costs.

Beginning at 7 p.m. Friday at Midwestern, Howard Iceberg and the Titanics, followed by Henderson's band, the Gaslights, kick up the dust. Live-music-oriented photographs will be on display and for sale.

Saturday, the party moves to Crosstown for a blowout headlined by the Pedaljets and featuring the Columns, the Grisly Hand, Alacartoona, Sara Swenson and Tiny Horse. Scores of sweet prizes will be auctioned and raffled, including two pairs of Leonard Cohen VIP tickets, an autographed Zach Greinke baseball and a one-year pass to the Riot Room. Get there early for the health fair if you haven't had your blood pressure checked in a while. But watch out -- later, when the bands go on, it's gonna rise.

Go here for more info, plus an hour-by-hour, audio-enhanced schedule.

When Brad Hodgson told me, on a recent First Friday night, that he had left his position as frontman for In the Pines, one my favorite Kansas City bands ever, I would've sliced off his ear with a sword cane. But (a) I had no sword cane and (b) I had heard tracks from his awesome new project, Biarchy.

Matt Naquin

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Launched in early October, Biarchy is a two-man project conceived by Hodgson and fellow former ITP member Mike Myers (who drummed for the band, which, by the way, is forging on toward album two with new members). The duo's radiant, electronic-steeped music is warm and etheric; it filters into the brain's auditory cortex as if through electroencephalography.

Fans of Thom Yorke's The Eraser, Moby's more somber moments, Sparklehorse and/or late-'70s instrumental art-rock compositions in the vein of Brian Eno and David Bowie (see: "Warszawa") will find a lot to sway to in Biarchy. On songs like "Informed" (streaming now on MySpace.com/biarchy) there's even a delightful sprinkling of Sea & Cake.

And of course, this is still a Hodgson project, so you'll traces of that evocative, shoegaze-folk sound that has marked his songwriting. In fact, a Hodgson solo tune I first noticed back in late 2006 has been beautifully repurposed by Biarchy.

MP3: Biarchy, "Runs on Blood"

But music is only half of what Biarchy's about. Hodgson and Myers hope that visual artists -- filmmakers, videogame makers, animators, etc. -- will use Biarchy's sounds to soundtrack their projects. And to that end, they're giving away their entire 12-track album free. Download it at Biarchy.com.

They've already had a couple of video submissions, including this one, by Jordan Kerfeld, set to "The Coldest." View more at Biarchy's Vimeo profile.

The Coldest from biarchy on Vimeo.

Well, we're a little behind on this news, but it bears mentioning nonetheless: Kansas City pop-dance act Queens Club signed to Tooth & Nail, home to MxPx and Underoath, among others.

​And, not only did Queens Club sign to Tooth & Nail, they just released their debut recording for the label, the Nightmarer EP, which dropped back in September. They've also recently tapped Record Machine recording artist Max Justus to remix the title track, and the label has made that available on their blog as November's "Song of the Month."

Download it below, and hear how "Max brings his signature dark vibe to the track giving it a pulsing electronic rhythm through out [and] finds a way to bend and warp the original track into something all together new."

MP3: Queens Club, "Nightmarer" (Max Justus Remix)

The Central Library has made a Flickr gallery of the ragtime/early-20th-century sheet music covers held in the Missouri Valley Special Collections, and boy is it a hoot!​

Locally themed compositions like "The 12th Street Rag," "Kansas City Blues" and "Somewhere Along the Missouri Tonight" are displayed alongside quirkier offerings, such as "Oh, You U-Boat!" "The Tickler" and the racially specific "It Takes a Long Tall Brown-Skin Gal to Make a Preacher Lay His Bible Down."

From the text on the Flickr gallery:

Kansas City's growing music and entertainment scene in the late 19th and early 20th centuries encouraged local music stores to join the ranks of sheet music publishers. Stores like J.W. Jenkins and Sons Music Company, Kansas City Talking Machine Company, and Carl Hoffman Music Company began publishing the work of local composers like Charles Johnson and Scott Joplin and distributing it across the nation.

If you wish to leave your computer and get your history on in person, you can attend a presentation on the history of ragtime in Kansas City at the Central Library on Sunday, November 15, at 2 p.m.

As a journalist, one of the most validating experiences one can have is being quoted by someone else. It indicates that someone finds your words to be worthwhile enough to bear repeating elsewhere. There are exceptions to this, of course. Someone could be using your work as an example of bad journalism, holding you up as the Uwe Boll of writing. ("Seriously, I don't care what the fuck you do. Just don't do this. Please. For the love of God.") Another way to have that validation slapped right the hell down?

When someone dies.

My mom called me five years ago to say that the Star had quoted me in an article about the death of "some kid who was in a ska band." She then asked, "Do you know a kid named Richie Restivo?"

I had to search my brain, and I realized he was a kid whom I'd interviewed via e-mail the previous year regarding his ska band, the Uprights. He'd been nice, and incredibly enthusiastic about ska, and El Torreon, and pretty much everything we'd talked about. He ended up getting stabbed in the throat and dying, the result of a high school parking lot encounter gone terribly wrong.

​The terrible thing is...I never actually saw the Uprights when Restivo fronted the band. I later saw them opening for someone at the Bottleneck, a couple of years later, but they'd become a full-bore reggae act, completely lacking all the 2-Tone influences they sported on their one and only release, the Going Somewhere EP.

This is the song I've always associated with the band. It's a tribute to the all-ages club the band often played, and whether you're a ska kid, someone who hung out at El Torreon or not, you'll recognize the exuberance that comes with having a place where you're welcome and comfortable.

MP3: the Uprights, "31st & Gillham"

The competitors for Farmer's Ball, KJHK 90.7FM's annual battle of the bands, have been announced. In no particular order, the bands and acts are:
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Cloud Dog
Burger Kingdom
Dutch Newman
Katlyn Conroy
Hidden Pictures
The California Craisins
Eagle Us Pets
DJ Avi

Impressive.

Preliminaries are November 20 at the Jackpot, and finals are November 21 at the Bottleneck.

Lawrence kaleidoscopic art pop act Mammoth Life recently returned from a trip to New York and the CMJ Music Marathon. As they're settling back in to life in the Midwest, the group has begun recording new songs in hopes of soon completing their second full-length, An American Movement.

​They are releasing their next single, "Boy Blue, An American Lion" sometime in December or January, in advance of the album's drop in 2010. An American Movement was described thusly in a press release from the band:

A self described 'spaghetti-pop, western opus' about a character that goes by the name of Boy Blue...it is said, 'Boy Blue can do anything that he wants to do.' It is a romantic and introspective account about the author, but also a passionate and fanciful doctrine that asserts individuality, creativity, freedom acquired from knowledge, ego, critical thinking, perseverance and drive, tolerance for diversity, and attainment for this is to be an American movement.

MP3: Mammoth Life, "Boy Blue, An American Lion"

John Bersuch's loft in the West Bottoms was one of the many places to be this past Saturday night. In case you missed it, Bersuch built his own haunted house and even recorded an original soundtrack. Umberto played. We took our magic instamatic into the fray. Click on the snow bunny for a slide show.

Jason Harper

Click for slide show.

There were even more amazing costumes at the Power & Light District .

We've recently clued you in to the upcoming Deastro performance opening for Max Tundra at Cazr Bar. We've also given you the skinny on Sam Billen's new album, Headphones and Cellphones.

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What in the hell does a Kansas City electro-pop artist have to do with a touring electronic artist named after a GI Joe character? Not only do they both bring indie to electronic music in beautifully crafted songs, but the Record Machine was kind enough to provide for us a meeting of those two amazing characters, with Sam Billen's cover of Deastro's "Spritle."

MP3: Sam Billen, "Spritle" (Deastro Cover)

In other Record Machine news, also of a fantastic nature, Record Machine artist Capybara were featured in a Sound Advice mixtape put together by Spike Jonze and assorted other folks as sort of an unofficial Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack part two. A gentleman over at MTV was cool enough to single out Capybara for praise over artists like Girls and Times New Viking.

Way to go, Capybara!

In what we hope is the master list for your Halloween shenanigans, there's a lot to get through. For one thing, since the holiday falls on a Saturday, some folks are getting it started a little early Friday night.

​For instance, Fourth of July is at the Eighth Street Taproom (801 New Hampshire in Lawrence) Friday night with Sultan Sea. As you can see from the flier (by Pre Sense Form and Zaguar Collages, featuring the sexy Brendan Hangauer from last year's Halloween), costumes are not only encouraged, they are mandatory. Does that mean they'll bar your entry if you're not wearing one? Best not to tempt it, I think.

Also on Friday night is "Trick or Treat '70s Style" at the Brick (1727 McGee). Solid Gold Easy will provide the sweet sounds of the '70s before Everywhere: A tribute to Fleetwood Mac takes the stage. The best '70s mustache will win you money, too, so anyone rocking a porn 'stache a la Thomas Magnum or the Bandit should attend.

Now, on to All Hallow's Eve proper.

​At the Power and Light District (downtown KC) is a big ol' free show, co-sponsored by the Pitch, kicking off with Company of Thieves at 8pm. Our Lady Peace is on the KC Live! Stage at 9 p.m., and Pomeroy closes things out at 11:30 p.m.

There will be a huge-ass costume contest, with the grand prize winner walking away with $1,000. Second place is nothing to sneeze at, either: $750, and third place gets $250. The contest judging starts at 10:30 p.m. Admission is free, but as with all Power and Light concerts, it's 21 and up.

Hearts of Darkness and Ad Astra Arkestra provide the freak-out experience of the night at Davey's Uptown (3402 Main). Both bands are epic in numbers, and the music will certainly be a pleasant change from the innumerable cover bands out there. Hearts of Darkness' Afrobeat will have a potent counterpart in Ad Astra's rhythmic experimental jams. There is also a costume contest at 11:30 p.m., with a $150 first prize, $50 second prize, and a tantalizing Mystery Goodie Bag third prize.

Stone in Love, Kansas City's premiere Journey tribute act, will be at the Record Bar (1020 Westport). The band, featuring such Kansas City music luminaries as JD Warnock of Ultimate Fakebook and Hipshot Killer's Mike Alexander, will give you all the lovin' touchin' squeezin's you'll need for the night starting at 10 p.m.

If you want your Halloween to be a little brutal, Circle of Trust brings their brand of hardcore to Swagger, at 85th and Wornall. There will be a costume contest, and the first prize is a trip to Vegas. Rock starts at 8:00 p.m. sharp.

​Also brutal is the Haunted Creepies CD release party at the Riot Room (4048 Broadway). Not so much for the Haunted Creepies, who will rock and roll you, but for Hammerlord, who are metal as fuck. DJ Chadillac and Clockwerk will be spinning out on the patio for those not inclined to loud rock music.

The Brick's tenth anniversary is on Halloween, meaning this is a double-shot of awesome. The Brick is also your old-people-punk-rock headquarters for the holiday this year, as they'll play host to Blood Feast, the Misfits tribute act fronted by Faster Than Hell's Kriss Ward, alongside Switchhitter and the Sex Offenders.

Up the street at the Czar Bar (1531 Grand) is the mock-public-access-TV show Whoop Dee Do's Halloween party featuring the Ssion, Nomathmatics , Max Justus and games such as bobbing for eyeballs and zombie body shots. Costume contest? These people invented the costume, what are you talking about?

If you want to hang out with the new-school punk rockers, hit the Newsroom (3740 Broadway) for a massive free show. Under Ogre, Demon Horse, Burger Kingdom, Hanna Barbarians, and Wrong Crowd will bring shoegaze, garage, punk, and assorted distortions to your ear holes starting at 10 p.m. Donations are appreciated at the door.

Groove Pilots will perform a combination of rock, funk, and blues covers (with a few originals thrown in) at Kelly's Westport Inn (500 Westport Road), starting at 10 p.m. Kelly's will also play host to a costume contest and grand prize giveaway (although there are no details on what prizes will be awarded).

Going down the highway, you can catch all the shows in Lawrence after the jump.

Man, the hip-hop scene is putting all other camps of local music TO SHAME these days as far as videos (and, by extension, actually enjoyable online self-promotion) goes.

Peep Steddy's P's new one, "No Matter How," from his Style Like Mind album. We gave the album a not at all bad review a couple weeks ago, but it wasn't good enough for commenter Kevin from Colorado Springs, who called it the "most disorientating, unfocused, ignorant display of writing" he's "EVER" seen. And then he went on to give his own 1,600-word review. Do we begrudge Steddy his passionate fanbase? No sir, we do not. Carry on, Steddy P.

Key lyric: I'm tryin' to change the city that booted out DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Trivia question: Can you name the storefront featured in the video?

Challenge to other recording artists: Quit sending show texts and direct Facebook e-mails and make a freakin' video.

Show tie-in: Steddy P. performs Friday, November 13, at the Record Bar with CES Cru, Stik Figa and DJ G-Train.