Video: Hall & Oates On the Cleveland Show

This video is not for fans of Family Guy, American Dad, or the Cleveland Show. This short from CollegeHumor pretty much sums up the output of Seth MacFarlane over the past decade:

That said, as scattershot as the man's approach is, he's bound to hit every once in a while. Such is the case of Hall & Oates in a scene from this weekend's episode.

And now you've seen the good part and can go back to watching Time Warp episodes on DVD, which is what I've been doing all week.

New XV video: "Fall Out of the Sky"

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 Saddest Thing Ever?

We like to post about record collecting here at Wayward Blog because we like records a lot. Also, we do it because we think people who get really worked up over records -- buying multiple copies of one title on different colors of vinyl, test pressings, etc. -- are sad, strange, little men who have our pity.

Much like this gent. If there's anything more disturbing than a vinyl collector's stash gone unchecked, it's somebody who buys records and doesn't listen to them. A warning: this video may or may not put you to sleep, cause you to weep tears of pity, or simply laugh in mockery for seven minutes straight. Enjoy.

Video: Nouvelle Vague, "Ça plane pour moi"

Nouvelle Vague have become well-known in the music world for their enchanting bossa nova records Nouvelle Vague and Bande à Part, wherein they cover popular songs of the new wave era, with a rotating cast of mostly unknown singers, mostly female. As a matter of fact, it's only on Bande à Part's cover of "Heart of Glass" that a man sings -- doing a song originally sung by a woman. Clever, no?

The production duo's newest album is entitled 3, and is a departure. While still doing covers, the act now features guest artists, and the focus is not on the bossa nova style, but on American roots music, like country and bluegrass. Check it out below in a live performance featuring Jenia Lubitch on Plastic Betrand's "Ça plane pour moi" (which is exactly the same song as "Jet Boy, Jet Girl").


ça plane pour moi, performed by Jenia Lubitch

Nouvelle Vague | MySpace Video

Video: the Riverboat Gamblers, "DissDissDissKissKissKiss"

Let's take a moment to focus our attentions away from the Riverboat Gamblers' injured guitarist Ian MacDougall, and return them instead to the rocking amazingness that is the band's music.

The Gamblers released Underneath the Owl on Volcom earlier this year, and this is the first track on it, continuing in the fine tradition of leadoff tracks to which the band has treated us, such as "Let's Eat" on Something to Crow About and To the Confusion of Our Enemies' "True Crime." It's called "DissDissDissKissKissKiss," and that other fellow you hear singing with Mike Wiebe is Todd Congelliere of Toys That Kill.

Wow: Barclay Martin Ensemble performs with freaking choir

And what did you ever do?

Barclay Martin and his Ensemble rightly got a standing ovation at the end of a concert on Sunday, November 8, at JCCC's Yardley Hall. Thanks to production by Quixotic and on-stage artillery from the Sampaguita Choir and the Sinag-Tala Dance Troupe, this was not your usual Barclay show. (The Star ran a review.)

Behold, the finale.

The concert was in celebration of the release of the Barclay-penned soundtrack to the upcoming documentary Zamboanga: Poverty, War, Music. The film traces the production of a January 2008 concert held in one of the Philippines' poorest regions.

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As we wrote back in April, the concert found Martin performing alongside native Filipino musicians before a crowd of 10,000.

All proceeds from CD sales are going to a scholarship fund backed by the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (that's the group that made the film with Barclay). Buy it online and contribute here.

Or, you can probably pick up a copy tonight at Jardine's, where the Barclay Martin Ensemble is playing two shows, at 6 and 8:30 p.m.

Incoming: Digital Leather at the Jackpot, November 22

Digital Leather is dark, almost evil synthpunk. The first thing I heard from Shawn Foree was the single he release on Goner, "She Has A Cameltoe," which has made heads perk up every time I've played it somewhere.

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"Who's this?" is the usual response, with head cocked to the side like the RCA dog. It's good stuff -- dark, but not too dark; synthy, but with enough rock to keep the punk kids interested.

Digital Leather is touring in support of Warm Brother, their first studio album. Everything else has been recording live on on four-track (or both, in the case of their last album, Sorcerer). It's out now on Fat Possum. They hit the Jackpot for an early show on Sunday, November 22 with fellow Nebraskans the Dinks.

Watch the video for "Hurts So Bad" below.

MP3: Digital Leather, "Dead Sound" (Raveonettes cover)

Concert Review: Brendan Benson at the Bottleneck (plus Dead Girls video)

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.

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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.

Concert Review: Those Darlins and Spook Lights at the Jackpot

When the headliner bails, it's a crap shoot as to whether or not the show cobbled together from the remnants will be worth a good goddamn or not. When your headliner is a duo as energetic, exciting, and entertaining as the Kentucky-detained King Khan & BBQ Show, any band trying to please the people expecting them is fighting an uphill battle.

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Nick Spacek
Those Darlins

Those Darlins would've been a fantastic opener. As a headliner, they leave a little bit to be desired. I'd not been particularly entertained by their self-titled debut, finding the blend of country and Vivian Girls lo-fi garage a better idea than actuality. On that album, I'd been able to enjoy about one song before getting bored and uninterested. Live, the band was able to hold my attention for about two songs -- three, if you count the solo number crooned by the gentleman sporting an evening gown and five o'clock shadow the rest of the band called "mom."

Part of the problem may have been the fact that Jessi Darlin has a voice that brings to mind someone like Kasey Chambers. That wouldn't be a bad idea if they were playing Kasey Chambers' style of music, keeping everything to a country bomm-chick rhythm. Those Darlins play country-tinged garage at a Ramones pace, however, and yelping that country twang takes the vocal delivery into the realm of Melt Banana annoyance after a little bit.

Now, I don't want that to take away from the fact that the band is an energetic presence on stage. For the crowd that said, "Fuck it. We're seein' a show tonight, I don't care who's playing," the band gave a performance. Bassist Kelley Darlin, clad in leotard and tutu, was bouncing around like a five year old on too much sugar, and the enthusiasm of the band is evident. While the Vivian Girls comparisons pretty much evaporate once the band takes the stage (Those Darlins move around, for one), the band is still lacking some definition in their songs. Everything's played in the same tempo, with one song bleeding into another, to the point where I probably couldn't tell you what songs they played with a lyric sheet and full video of the show.

Let's just put it this way: if you put three attractive young women in tight outfits on stage, and have the rather busty bass player jump up and down for the entire set, and I'm still having trouble finding anything interesting in the band, you might want to mix things up a little bit.

Those Darlins at the Jackpot 11/13/09 from Nick Spacek on Vimeo.

Music Made For Monkeys

While this story from Wired about music for monkeys might be a few months old, it's still a fascinating read. Entitled "Monkeys Don't Go For Music -- Unless It's Made for Them," it demonstrates that monkeys don't really respond to human music, instead preferring silence.

However, "when a psychologist and a musician collaborated to compose music based on the pitch, tone and tempo of tamarin calls, they discovered that the species-specific music significantly affected monkey behavior and emotional response."

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omahazoo.com

When you read the whole story, they have two monkey "songs," 30-second pieces made with human voice and cello, "based on specific features from recordings of tamarin monkey calls." The recordings are actually far more tuneful than your average experimental music piece, but are probably no more appealing to humans than blasting Melt Banana at a gibbon would be.

Of course, in news that should be of no surprise to anyone with pets, David Teie (the composer who collaborated with psychologist Charles Snowdon on the paper) has started a company called Teyus, which is "the world's only provider of species-specific music to institutions: authentic cat music based on feline communication and hearing."

That music is far more pleasant to listen to than the monkey music, and my cats will probably enjoy it more than the Japanese hardcore I was blasting a couple days ago. Still not as good as this, however:

An Open Letter to Nudity-Loving Musicians

Dear Rock and Roll Scene:

Hi. Nick here. While I was at first amused by the notion of rockers stripping down to their birthday suits and making a video, I have begun to lose interest. It's not that this is played out -- I am just tired of seeing your genitals. I am comfortable neither with seeing Hunx's penis used as a microphone, nor seeing one of the dudes from Rammstein blow a load.

Thanks to the video for the Flaming Lips' "Watching the Planets," I've now seen Wayne Coyne's penis, and I'm not entirely comfortable with that. Although, after watching the video, which seems like a GWAR-meets-hippies collaboration, I suppose I should be thankful it's not Kliph Scurlock. I'd never be able to look him in the eye again.

You can watch the video over at NME.

Flier of the Week: The Rumblejetts' Summertime Apples Release Party

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.

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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.

Video: Mr. Gnome, "Spain"

We mentioned how attention-grabbing the name of the group was a few weeks back, but we were a little unsure of how Mr. Gnome would sound live. Thankfully, the duo just released a video of them performing their song "Spain" live.

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Click the image above to watch it in high-quality Quicktime.

Tags: Mr. Gnome, video

New releases, Tuesday, November 10

In this week's new releases, we'll be looking at new albums from Dashboard Confessional and Tori Amos, as well as reissues from Anthrax and the Tubes.

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Dashboard Confessional's Alter the Ending seems to be getting unfavorable reviews. I've been split as far as Dashboard's evolution goes. While I enjoyed early stuff like Swiss Army Romance, mainly because of the solo nature and raw emotion inherent, I always felt that Carraba didn't do so well when Dashboard became a full band. Carraba sounded better fronting Further Seems Forever. The new album is fairly well savaged, near as I can tell. Consequence of Sound writes the "songs feel belabored and overwrought," while Allmusic's opinion is that Alter the Ending yields "a track list that includes some fine songs but couches them in uninspired arrangements."

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Abnormally Attracted to Sin, Tori Amos' last album, came out just six months ago, but the prolific pianist sees fit to bless her fans with a Christmas present this year. And quite literally, too -- Midwinter Graces includes such traditional tunes as "Star of Wonder" and "Emmanuel." I never thought I'd see the day Tori Amos released a holiday album, which is what this record is more properly called, but then again, I never thought I'd see one from from Bob Dylan, either. It's being called "competent," which is about the best one can hope for regarding a holiday album. Unless you just subvert everything entirely, a holiday album is something that only gets broken out for one month a year. Even then, you've got to try and one-up Bing Crosby's Christmas album to get into my stereo.

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The first three songs on Anthrax's Among the Living might be the finest thrash ever recorded. The way the title track builds is a masterpiece of heavy metal, and I've probably cranked it while breaking speed limits in at least four states. If you don't own this, here's your chance to. Fans who already own it can hear it new, as it's remastered. The Deluxe Edition being released today also includes unreleased studio outtakes of "Indians," "One World" and "Imitation Of Life." There is also a bonus DVD, the live-in-London concert film OIDIVNIKUFESIN (N.F.V.), originally issued on video in 1987.

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If you don't own the Tubes' self-titled debut album, you are lacking an important piece of music, my friend. A combination of freak-out rock that would impress Zappa, combined with prog and nascent new-wave elements, the Tubes are so much more than their later hit, "Talk to Ya Later," would lead you to believe. Hearing some of those classic tunes, like "White Punks On Dope" or "Mondo Bondage," in their infancy is something that would be even more chaotic. This is probably only for the serious fan, like most demo compilations.

DVD Review: You Weren't There

After three straight nights of shows last week, it was nice to spend my Saturday evening doing nothing more than watching DVDs while my wife worked on the laptop for NaNoWriMo. While I quite enjoyed working my way through the complete series of Spaced, as well as The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes, the American Masters portrait of Garrison Keillor, I wasn't quite as entranced with You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk, 1977-1984.

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Regressive Films has made a nice history of the Chicago punk scene, and does a great job of introducing the viewer to bands of which they've likely never heard. The big names of Chicago punk obviously get covered: Naked Raygun, Steve Albini, Articles of Faith, and the Effigies all get copious amounts of screen time.

However, the bands that I came away from You Weren't There with a better understanding and appreciation for were the acts that really never got past the opening stages like Chicago's "first" punk band, Tutu and the Pirates. They were a band that really pushed the boundaries of music, and played punk like the folks in New York did -- as a deconstruction of music, rather than a genre in and of itself.

Despite the fact that the film makes a distinct point of allowing everyone interviewed to make a lot of statements about how inclusive the scene was when it was in its infancy at La Mere Vipere -- with gays, rockers, freaks, and punks all together under one roof, dancing to the music -- what hurts the film is the point that gets hammered in at the end of early sequence: that when more people started becoming aware of punk, it started to lose its importance.

Where You Weren't There really and truly fails is that most of its interview subjects are middle-aged men looking back at the scene with nostalgia. It's right there in the title: You weren't there. It's like the other old punk aphorism, "If you're not now, you never were."

The end of the film only serves to reinforce that view. The last ten minutes are all these guys from back in the day just slagging the current punk scene, while simultaneously remaining protective of what they once had. Vic Bondi of Articles of Faith sums it up the view fairly well in his response to a kid who wasn't even born when Minor Threat broke up wearing a Minor Threat t-shirt: "Get your own fucking scene."

Steve Albini might be a massive prick with some seriously self-important opinions, but of all the people interviewed for the documentary, he seems to be the one with the most open mind regarding punk. It's a rather backward view -- he sees punk as a style, not a genre or a code by which one should live. Straight-ahead hardcore like Articles of Faith aren't his cup of tea.

As a snapshot of an era, and a presentation of a scene that wasn't widely known as those on the coasts, You Weren't There is a wonderful documentary. The live footage presented in the film is of exceptional quality, with far better sound and image than found in most coverage of the era, allowing bands that never properly released anything to get their music presented to a greater public.

As a presentation of people, it seems that everyone in a band comes off as either an opinionated prick or a clinging-to-the-past old man. The promoters and radio DJs are, for once, the people who come off as nicest and most rational, most likely because they weren't part of the seemingly omnipresent inter-and-intra-band rivalries.

Video: CoCoComa, "It Won't Be Long" (live on Chic-A-Go-Go)

Oh, CoCoComa -- you are so amazing. You had me hooked the instant I put your first 45 on my turntable. Your garage beat is infectious and makes me want to dance all over my living room. So, it makes a certain amount of sense that kiddie dance program Chic-A-Go-Go would have you on to perform/pantomime/lip-sync -- whatever -- your song "It Won't Be Long," off your new album Things Are Not All Right.

It's also amazingly adorable that Bill and Lisa Roe (the husband and wife team behind CoCoComa) brought along their 6-month-old child, Ronnie Roe. He's the little bundle dressed up like a hot dog.

The Roes also recently started a record label, Trouble In Mind, which releases limited-edition 45s. The label's first release is from CoCoComa, and features two songs not on the new full-length, "Ask, Don't Tell" and "The Anchor." It's on gorgeous purple swirl vinyl, too.

Video: Broadway Calls, "Midnight Hour"/"Van Rides and High Tides"

To get you ready for tonight's Riot Room show, here's a video of Broadway Calls playing the FEST this weekend shot by the dudes from Punknews. They "took a day off from their West Coast tour to fly into Gainesville and play The Fest. The crowd at The Venue showed their appreciation by stage diving. A lot."

In the video the band performs one song from each of their full-lengths: "Midnight Hour" from this year's Good Views, Bad News and "Van Rides and High Tides" from their 2007 self-titled full-length.

Broadway Calls - "Midnight Hour" / "Van Rides and High Tides" from Punknews.org on Vimeo.

Video + MP3: Tigercity, "Fake Gold"

Oh, how much does Tigercity love you? Not only does their new album, Ancient Lover, drop today via your major digital retailers, but they're offering up the single off it for free. And not only that, but they're offering "Fake Gold" as a free download, they're offering up the video and a remix of the song by Only Children (the Chicago duo, not the Lawrence act with the Berwangers).

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Casimir Krupinksy

And I guess that wasn't enough, because they're bringing their smooth grooves to the Brick this Saturday, November 7. You've got four days to memorize all the words. Go!

MP3: Tigercity, "Fake Gold"
MP3: Tigercity, "Fake Gold" (Only Children remix)

MP3: Of Montreal, "Brush Brush Brush"

The Yo Gabba Gabba soundtrack, Music Is Awesome, came out nearly two weeks ago, and nobody saw fit to let us know.

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No, no -- that's fine. It's only the coolest kids' show since 321 Contact or the Electric Company. It's not like I wanted to blast "Party In My Tummy" or anything like that while I was doing dishes or anything.

The soundtrack to Yo Gabba Gabba has all the original music from the series thus far, along with tunes from the Shins, Chromeo, Money Mark, and the Roots, as well as others. All the songs are perfect for your little ones, but not likely to annoy the ever-loving shit of you a la Raffi.

GOGO13's "Pick It Up" isn't on there, though. Let's hope for a Volume II at some point.


pick it up

Give it up NORM! | MySpace Video

MP3: Of Montreal, "Brush Brush Brush"

Small Brown Bike Debut New Songs

While we knew Small Brown Bike had reunited and returned to playing shows, we didn't know anything about new material.

However, during their set at the FEST this weekend, the band debuted two new songs, entitled "When We Run" and "Hourglass," which are evidently available on a new 7" entitled Composite, Volume 1, out on No Idea. It's yet to go up on the No Idea store, but since they're the ones who throw the multi-band, multi-venue, multi-day shindig, you might want to give them a day or two. In the meantime, you can watch the band's performance of those new songs below.

Thanks to Alternative Press for the news and the video. You can find more FEST coverage at their dedicated FEST 2009 site.

Alice Cooper, "Keepin' Halloween Alive"

If ever there were a man who could claim to "keep Halloween alive, honey, 365," it'd be Alice Cooper. I'd no idea the man had anything new out, much less a perfectly suited song such as this. It's available for download on iTunes.

If you download the song off iTunes, you get a "Cooperoke" version. Record a video of yourself singing the song and post it to YouTube, and you could win $1,000. Nice, eh? Entries due by 10pm Central Standard Time tomorrow. You can find all the info at the above link, and download the "Cooperoke" version here.

The Best Halloween Vids Ever

Over at the Woot! blog, they've got a mixtape made up of YouTube videos for Halloween. It's "a bunch of really cool songs with monsters in them which never ever get played on the radio."

More than just "Monster Mash," there's tunes from Oingo Boingo and the Guess Who. Never thought I'd see those acts next to each other, but there you go. Enjoy this version of "Monster Mash" as done by Bad Manners, and have a happy Halloween.

New Steddy P. video: "No Matter How"

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.

New Greg Enemy video + free EP

Kansas City MC Greg Enemy now has a video to go with his signature song -- an illustration, if you will, proving that he is indeed a cool little dude with some fly-ass glasses.

Ah, but he is more than a diminutive gent with fancy specs. He is a talented rapper and, some would say, even better producer, having lent beats of late to upstanding locals such as Stik Figa (who seems not to have a primary web home anymore, WTF?).

Greg has just dropped The Protocol, a three-song EP containing the above single, plus "The Protocol" and "Red Chuck Taylors." Download it below via Mediafire.

ZIP: Greg Enemy, The Protocol EP

Video: Flight of the Conchords, "Sugar Lumps"

I don't care what your opinions on novelty music are, this video for Flight of the Conchords' "Sugar Lumps" is comedy gold.

And still better than the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow."

But is it better than the Mighty Boosh?

More (intentionally) comedic hip-hop after the jump.

Tonight: This Is It at Screenland Armour

The Michael Jackson documentary This Is It opens today at about two dozen theaters across the metro, but tonight, the elegant, bar-equipped Screenland Armour in North Kansas City beckons you to its It premiere at 11 p.m. You can reserve a VIP suite by calling the box office at 816-994-7380.

If you're a Jacko fan, then you already know what this movie's all about. If not, it's basically a behind-the-scenes-style documentary about the King of Pop rehearsing in the spring of '09 for what would've been a series of summer concerts at the O2 arena in London. Here's the trailer.

Wayward Video: How to Soundtrack a Haunted House

Every year at Halloween, Kansas City musician John Bersuch, of bands such as Bacon Shoe and Minds Under Cover, builds a haunted house inside of his West Bottoms loft. For this, the fourth year that he's built it, the Interior House of Horror will be open to the public for the first time, on Sunday, November 1, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. (The address is 1524 St. Louis Avenue.)

Also for the first time this year, Bersuch made and recorded scary noises to be played throughout the haunted house on a system of speakers. I wondered how a person would go about producing such a soundtrack, so I invaded Bersuch's ghostly emporium with my camera of doom to find out. Enjoy.

New releases, Tuesday, October 27

Creed reunited after five years and decided to release a new album. It's called Full Circle. There is no God.

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In what has to be the biggest release in Kansas City today, we get the tenth studio release from powerhouse rapper Tech N9ne, entitled K.O.D.. The title stands for "King of Darkness," and as you might expect, the album continues Mr. Yates' plumbing the depths of the human soul. The album also has appearances from the Oscar-winning Three 6 Mafia, in addition to the usual Tech N9ne collaborators Kutt Calhoun and Krizz Kaliko.

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The Swell Season's Strict Joy not only comes in a regular compact disc, but a limited deluxe version includes the CD, as well as a live CD and DVD entitled One Step Away - Live from the Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI. May 8, 2008. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova came together during the making of Once, and the relationship in the movie turned into something real and beautiful. Now they're broken up, and still making music and touring. This should be interesting.

MP3: the Swell Season, "Low Rising"

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Los Lobos Goes Disney is an Amazon exclsuive, meaning you'll have to order it from the online retailer to get it. On the bright side, the album features their cover "I Wan'na Be Like You," originally release in 1988. It also has some very nice, not obvious covers. The two songs from Robin Hood, "Not In Nottingham" and "Ooh-De-Lally," pretty much make this worth buying in and of themselves. "Heigh Ho," "Bare Necessities," and "Cruella De Vil" are just icing on the cake at this point.

Lastly, the movie I exhort you to buy this week is Night of the Creeps. Fred Dekker's first movie -- the one that allowed him to make the also-fantastic Monster Squad -- is finally seeing a DVD release after being unavailable for years, except in Internet bootlegs. A large portion of James Gunn's Slither took its plot from the film, as well as its tongue-in-cheek delivery. It's one of the most fun horror comedies ever -- I ranked it number six on a list I did for Scene-Stealers last Halloween.

Video: the Measure [SA], "Unlucky"

I'm starting to become that guy who gets all annoyed at the radio and wonders why all the bands I like can't get played on the radio. Every ten minutes, I'm spouting off the usual:
"Well, if [Band X] can get airplay, [Band Y] should be tearing up the charts! They're so much more talented!"

However, since most of the bands I really really like are either broken up, dead, on labels that are completely lacking in any sort of promotional budget, or not on a label at all, I tend to just go on my merry way, trying to make sure I hip people to the groups I think deserve a little more attention.

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This is the case with New Brunswick, New Jersey's the Measure [SA]. Not quite punk, not quite indie, they're one of those bands that would've blown the hell up on college radio at one point. However, college radio isn't what it once was, and they're not really playing anything that's "off the moment" (i.e., fuzzily recorded shoegazer garage) enough to warrant a lot of hipster attention.

They just recorded a Pink Couch Session of an until now unreleased song entitled "Unlucky." Watch it. Tell your friends.

The Measure [SA] - Unwritten from If You Make It on Vimeo.

The Abracadabras first and last video: "An Argument"

This Friday, October 23, the Abracadabras come back from the defunct to play their farewell show and to show this new video. Directed by Zac Eubank, the video is for "An Argument," from the once-popular local band's only release, Be Still, Be Cool. Its central theme is lead singer John Nixon in a sweaty, understated, Hypercolor spazz out. Honestly, I kinda wish it had the whole band in it rocking out, because those guys were so interesting to watch. But, as Geordi LaBurton would say, you don't have to take my word for it...

An Argument -The Abracadabras from Zac Eubank on Vimeo.

Show info: The Abracadabras, with Jessica's Box and the Noise FM. Friday, October 23, at Czar Bar.

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