KC music
Album review: The Author and the Illustrator - Crane Operators Who Move The Moon
Crane Operators Who Move the Moon, the recent EP from The Author and the Illustrator—Kansas City’s primary purveyors of classic DIY emo—is something to be heard by all. And by emo, I am talking about the 2013 sense of the genre, not The Used circa-2003 sense of the genre.
Though there are several emo bands bred in KC, The Author and the Illustrator are by far the most accessible. Whether or not you’re a fan of the punk scene, the indie sound, or anything in between, you’ll find solace in this 20-minute album.
A quiet, subtle fade-in brings up twinkling guitars in the debut track, “Fear.” Low, almost spoken vocals come to attention. The song picks up for a short time, before heading into “Home State,” a considerably more upbeat song.
The prominence of the bass track on all songs from this album is soothing. It isn’t often that a bass line will grasp you as it does here. The drums are sporadic but on point. Sometimes the beats don’t make sense at first, but upon closer inspection they bring the piece together. The vocal works vary between—as I mentioned—a mellow talking tone to a strained and close-to-yelling stature.
The Author and the Illustrator is growing as a band, playing more shows more recently around town. These boys definitely have a place in Kansas City, filling a niche that needed to be filled. They have a unique ability to fit on almost any bill. Listen to this album, and you’ll quickly understand.
--Steven Ervay
Album review: Midwestern Audio, Vol. 2 - Electric Hullabaloo
(Photos by Todd Zimmer)
Love letters are funny things. The communique between two besotted people is such a private thing. Midwest Music Foundation has taken to writing very public love letters the last few years. The most recent being the release of Midwestern Audio: Volume 2: Electric Hullabaloo. The sampling of Kansas City music covers many genres and shares the talent and passion of Kansas City area musicians with fans and the uninitiated alike. Electric Hullabaloo kicks off with the catchy pop of Rev Gusto’s (pictured below) “Boys Are at it Again” and moves slowly into more straight forward rock and roll via Sons of Great Dane’s “Approximately 18th St.” The first three songs are rounded out by all-out-bare-knuckles-rock-and-roll with Cherokee Rock Rifle’s “Six to Midnight.” The initial offering is finished off by the fourth track, “Divorce Sea,” from Lawrence-based distorted punk-laced garage rock band Bloodbirds.
Lest the listener think pop and rock are the extent of the musical offerings in Kansas City, Electric Hullabaloo gives you musical whiplash by offering the sonic stylings of “Animate” by Middle Twin. The electronic indie band flawlessly flows into Heartscape Landbreak’s “God Money Problems’” fuzzy guitars, melodic lyrics, and speech sampling. Victor & Penny’s early twentieth-century rock and roll pulls you into each punctuated note on “Rickshaw Chase” and segues into the next chapter of the record.
This love letter has something for everyone, no matter your “type.” Dead Voices carry on the tradition of sad songs in happy keys as they bounce along through “Trust of a Fool.” Olassa delivers “Podner” with a deceptively slow start and then hits their indie folk groove with staccato guitar and subdued harmony. The mood mellows with The Silver Maggies’ “Slow Poke” and its smoky, gravel-laden vocals and keening harmonica.
Midwestern Audio’s compiler and mastermind, Brenton Cook, picks up the pace with Betse Ellis’s fiery fiddle in “Long Time to Get There.” The happy vibe of Metatone’s “Dark Empress” pulses with African-influenced beats and a nearly monotone lead vocal that clashes in the best way with the peppy popsplosion pulsing behind it. Spirit is the Spirit (pictured at top of article) follows with a throbbing beat, the distorted remnants of 60’s television science reporting, and angelic moaning in “I Believe That We Will Win.”
Margo May appears next as a counterpoint to the multi-faceted Metatone and Spirit is the Spirit tracks. Chanelling Lisa Loeb’s Firecracker, May offers a simple acoustic guitar and a broken heart’s lament. “Close the Door” spills into “Broken Wing” by Sam Billen, maintaining a similar tone and emotional state. Billen’s is a song you would like to put on at the end of the day to ease your transition home. Like a sonic bucket of water thrown on your sleeping ears, Drew Black & Dirty Electric pounce on you with “Love & A Riot.” The driving rock and roll beat and theatrical saucy spoken word “I love you. Let’s riot,” is reminiscent of Rocky Horror Picture show. Six Percent’s “Live Out Loud” is evocative of early Green Day, if Green Day had a horn section. Pounding drums and slamming vocals urge listeners to stand up and listen.
Heartfelt Anarchy’s “Funk” opens with horns in a dramatically different sound from the way Six Percent blasted them. Undulating horns flow under Les Izmore’s lyrics and the song exits on shimmering tambourine and harmonica. The experimental music of Various Blonde’s “Blind Samurai” sounds, oddly enough, like The Kinky Wizards in High Fidelity (which is really Royal Trux “The Inside Game”). You just can’t stop listening to the guitar riffs and space sounds twisted all around a manic beat. Furthering your trip down the rabbit hole of experimental music, David Hasselhoff on Acid rides into your eardrums on a wave of weedling guitars and in-your-face drums. Bowing in and out of the speed and thrust of loud and high sounds and the simplicity of drums and guitar, “Breakfast” will either make you lose yours or ask for seconds. The farewell of this love letter from Kansas CIty music is Jorge Arana Trio (pictured below). The experimental noise-rock of “Catching Bullets with Your Teeth” dodges in and out of instrumental traffic to express a frantic conversation.
To us, from the Midwest Music Foundation and the musicians of Kansas City, this love letter expresses the passion of expression that must be released lest the heart of the musician explode. Enjoy.
--Angela Lupton
Spotlight: Mike McCoy's 50th Birthday with Cher UK at Davey's Uptown, 10.4.13
(Photo by Todd Zimmer)
We young pups could stand to learn a thing or two from Mike McCoy.
McCoy is best known as the man behind Cher UK, a band that has been around in various arrangements and cities along the way. Originating in KC in 1989 with Mark Reynolds and Jeff Nichols, Cher UK has undergone several incarnations throughout the years, with McCoy as the only constant—even geographically. In addition, he’s had his hand in other projects here and in his current home of Austin, where he moved in 1998. Among them, The Service Industry, The American People, Wood Roses, Black Rabbits, and Yard Pups.
Throughout his years in his different projects, he has accumulated a smorgasbord of talented players in Kansas City straight down the I-35 corridor to Austin. In fact, he started the North vs. South Music Festival with Baby Grant Johnson in 2003, which brought bands from KC, Austin, Minneapolis, and surrounding areas to collectively display their musical abilities in one place—for the common goal of appreciating of music.
“I am a very fortunate man to have known all these players all these years. The list is long and the people on that list know who they are and why they play music in the first place,” says McCoy. This Friday, he’ll join some of these longtime KC musicians at Davey’s Uptown to play newer tunes and old favorites from the Cher UK catalog. The lineup will include Lyle Wells on guitar, Bernie Dugan on drums, and Jason Beers on bass.
Cher UK reunited at Middle of the Map Fest 2012 and has played a small handful of shows since. Friday’s show will be a special one: McCoy makes his way to the half-century mark.
His thoughts on the big shindig?
“Sometimes you have to go ahead and live in the self enough to fabricate good times with people you love from your history, musically or otherwise. It is indulgent, but it's also not a fucking sport.” To McCoy, performing his songs with friends in front of loved ones and supportive fans has become an integral part of his being. “Though I have intentionally made my life to be a slave to this idea, it also has given me more fulfillment than any one man has a right to. I am a spoiled white American male who depends on his friends' happiness in order to see balance in the world.”
After this symbolic coming of age, McCoy will be working on his first solo record at Sparta Sound in Minnesota with friend Rich Mattson. The studio is in Mattson’s house, a renovated small-town church. “It will be a completely different recording for me, but the lyrical content will be my best so far, appropriately,” remarks McCoy.
The songwriter looks forward to heading back to see old friends. And being a veteran of both the KC and Austin music scenes has given McCoy some perspective on why he’s moved on and what he’s left behind.
“For me, [Austin] is the perfect place to write songs as we get further and further from the ‘good old days’ here. My favorite thing about Austin is its ability to complain about itself and then sit smugly in its own greatness and ballsy creativity,” quips McCoy. “But I need the aural consideration of a town so helplessly out of control and self-indulgent. Austin is the place for that. I need the confusion, I guess.”
But seeing the music community in KC grow over the years has also provided him with valuable insight. “The KC scene is unique and more well-rounded than most scenes. It's insulated at times, but the growth there is surprisingly not marked with the stain of American groupthink that is so common in ultra-fashionable cities and overhyped festival towns.”
Most importantly, there seem to be no doubts in McCoy’s mind that he’s made some incredible musical moments because of the passion he's put forth and has gained from those around him. “It's time with good friends recreating songs that left some sort of mark on my life due to the people who have been kind enough to let me onstage with them, the people who came/come to the shows, the people who have sold the product, the owners of the clubs, the talent buyers in any given region, the production people, bartenders, door staff, sound engineers. Hell, it’s just people.”
Help toast McCoy as he celebrates his 50th on Friday, October 4 at Davey’s Uptown. Get there early for a song-filled evening: the show kicks off at 8 pm with Baby Grant Johnson, followed by Dolls on Fire, John Velghe and The Prodigal Sons, Drop A Grand, The Dead Girls, Cher UK, and Ernie Locke with Missouri Bultaco Association. Facebook event page.
--Michelle Bacon
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Michelle is editor of The Deli Magazine - Kansas City, and also plays drums Drew Black & Dirty Electric and bass in Dolls on Fire and The Philistines. She likes to schedule naps in between her regular schedule whenever possible. There's no shame in that. |
Show preview: J. Roddy Walston and The Business, Gringo Star, Scruffy & The Janitors at Czar, 9.28.13
Rock n roll, oh God how I’ve missed you.
It seems we, as music junkies, have been awash in bands that embrace dance music (disco), the bearded banjo hipster class (faux folk, neo bluegrass), or stupid songs about what a fox says; these are cold days to be a rock music fan. Well, fret no longer. On September 28, young retro rockers will converge on Czar Bar for an ass-shakin’ good time.
Headliners J. Roddy Walston and the Business are riding high on the success of its single “Heavy Bells,” taken from their latest effort Essential Tremors. With strong airplay on stations across the country, including KC’s own 96.5 The Buzz, J. Roddy Walston’s blend of barroom rock, piano soul, and down-and-dirty boogie has lit a fire in an otherwise dark, rehash-filled world.
Great bouncy songs like “Marigold” (a tune that would make Fats Waller and Leon Russell proud), the jaunty “Black Light,” The Band-influenced “Nobody Knows” or the sock-hop-ready, fuzz-drowned “Tear Jerk” drive an album as refreshing as a mojito on the beach.
Joining J. Roddy and the Business will be indie stalwarts Gringo Star and St. Joseph’s own Scruffy and the Janitors. Gringo Star blends the influences of British Invasion (think The Kinks mixed with Supergrass) with ‘90s alternative to make a racket that is as moving as it is fun.
Scruffy and the Janitors, a local favorite known for the high energy of their performances and musicianship well beyond their years, draw from references like electric blues, alternative, ragtime and punk rock to create a sound that’s familiar, yet fresh. Be ready to hear some new songs from Scruffy as the trio is readying its second full-length album Friendship Forest to be released in the upcoming months on This Tall Records. You may hear splashes of Arctic Monkeys, The White Stripes, or The Animals within their sound, but as soon as vocalist/bassist Steven Foster sings the first note, it’s a whole new ballgame.
So, if you are missing rock ‘n roll or want to hear some new, young talent while the tickets are cheap and the room is intimate, bring yourself down to Czar this Saturday, September 28. You will not regret it.
The rock show starts at 8:00 pm. It’s 18+, $10 advance and $12 at the door. Check it out if you can.
--Danny R. Phillips
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Danny R. Phillips has been reporting on music of all types and covering the St. Joseph, MO music scene for well over a decade. He is a regular contributor to the nationally circulated BLURT Magazine and his work has appeared in The Pitch, The Omaha Reader, Missouri Life, The Regular Joe, Skyscraper Magazine, Popshifter, Hybrid Magazine, the websites Vocals on Top and Tuning Fork TV, Perfect Sound Forever, The Fader, and many others. |
Radkey's rapid ascent to success
A little over three years ago, Dee, Isaiah, and Solomon Radke were regular teenage brothers from St. Joseph who indulged in video games, movies, comics—stuff that most teenage boys enjoy.
Fast-forward to the not-so-distant future. Radkey has amassed a giant resume, from playing its first live show with Fishbone to recording “Cat and Mouse” (also the title of its debut album) at Adrian Grenier’s Wreckroom in Brooklyn to rocking the Download Fest in England earlier this year to recently completing its first full-scale tour to releasing its second EP Devil Fruit on Little Man Records AND undertaking a European tour this October. And… they still enjoy the same things as before.
“Quite a bit has changed,” said bassist Isaiah Radke, “but we’re still just a bunch of dorks hanging out at home whenever we’re not off doing the music thing.”
Modest, considering their rise from the St. Joe-KC music scene to international heights. But having had several off-the-record conversations with all three of the guys and their father/manager Matt Radke, a large key to their success has been in their ability to continue to hone their craft, remain humble, and stay involved in local music. Though Radkey has enjoyed accolades around the country and across the pond, it hasn’t been uncommon to see them on a KC or Lawrence stage with other local acts.
They kicked off their very first US tour to a full house at Czar with Naam last month, and played the KC Live stage with Silversun Pickups a couple weeks before that. A couple weeks ago they played Riot Fest in Chicago. This weekend, they’ll be one of the main acts at Beach Ball, alongside Cage The Elephant, AWOLNATION, Alt-J, and more. Despite all the huge bills they’ve already played on, the boys had never done a real tour before. So, why not?
Isaiah explains. “You can practice every single day—which we have done—and get pretty good, but you can only get so good. Playing lots of shows makes you a better musician and it also improves your live show. We finally hit the wall where touring is the only way to become better musicians, so we finally had the opportunity to break that wall by playing live every day.”
Since my first observation of a Radkey live show a couple of years ago, their onstage confidence has steadily grown with their musical cohesiveness and audience interactions, both crucial for success. That’s not to say they were lackluster in either department before, but at each performance, Dee’s monstrous voice becomes a bit more menacing and intimidating (in a good way); Isaiah’s banter with the crowd becomes a bit more sophisticated; Solomon’s drum patterns become a bit more complicated and precise.
“Because they are so young they will inevitably evolve and change, but there is something magical about the raw energy and earnestness of who they are right now,” said Joel Nanos, owner of Element Recording Studios.
Nanos also recorded tracks off Devil Fruit—the first single “Romance Dawn” was released in August, and “Overwhelmed” was released last week on NME. He calls the tracks fast, raw, and real. The brothers announce themselves to the world with a youthful immediacy backed by production that captures them at their purest and most formidable. Already, the songs are receiving a notable amount of attention on reputable music sources, and the album hasn’t even dropped yet.
But all for good reason. In spite of their quick strides from being three homeschooled kids to self-taught musicians with a steady local following to a buzz band getting radio play on the other side of the globe, the Radke brothers haven’t taken any of this for granted.
“I dunno; I mean, we practiced every day, and did our best to write songs that we loved. Plus, our dad was a great manager so that helped,” said Isaiah. “We pretty much worked very hard and had some percentage of luck on our side. We’re pretty thankful for that.”
They’ve also maintained support from the local music community, many of whom recognize their dedication to creating music and spreading the kick-in-your-teeth gospel of rock ‘n roll. Nanos sums it up best: “Those kids are just super cool, definitely beyond their years in maturity and knowledge; they have a great sense of self-awareness. They are the ones teaching me about cool stuff.”
You only have one more chance to see Radkey before they head out on their month-long European tour; they’ll be on the main stage at Beach Ball this Friday, September 27 at Berkley Riverfront Park. They’ll be touring the UK with Drenge, plus Germany and Holland, and return to the US in November to tour with Black Joe Lewis. Devil Fruit will be released October 15. And here's a link to the NME exclusive of their super-cool video for "Romance Dawn."
--Michelle Bacon
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Michelle is editor of The Deli Magazine - Kansas City, and also plays drums Drew Black & Dirty Electric and bass in Dolls on Fire and The Philistines. She once gave Isaiah a button from her old band and he might still wear it. She will eventually be one of those people who says, "I knew them way back when... AND gave one of them a shiny button." |