live music review

03/25/12: The Growlers / TRMRS / Savage 7 / Radkey @ Riot Room

They say trends always make a comeback. Whether or not “they” is the indecipherable force behind the return of things like cut-off jean shorts, or hypercolor t-shirts (don’t act like the latter won’t be hanging off the skeletal frames of every malnourished hipster six months from now) is to be decided, but if “they” got one thing right, it is the resurgence in an appreciation for that which gave birth to future generations of rock. I speak of the well-deserved praise of golden oldies and soulful pop that has been dripping into even the most volatile parts of modern independent music for the last few years.

In spite of the short attention spans, I am blessed to be part of a generation that has instant access to music traversing more decades than you can count on one hand. From the dawn of the girl groups, to the bandstand-hungry gents with matching suits and perfectly coiffed hair, to the beach-clad co-eds who wanted nothing more than a fun day in the summer sun, the sounds that our parents experienced as a brand new sensation are returning as influences in the most odd of places: the dingy basements and beer-soaked floors of venues around the country.

Kansas City newcomers Radkey began an impressive 40-minute set promptly at 8:30. The trio of teenage brothers Dee (guitar), Isaiah (bass), and Solomon Radke (drums) threw out an energetic set that jumped in influences from the most obvious of Misfits and Ramones, to the earliest days of a Mod-friendly The Who, and plenty of variety in between. Dee and Isaiah, each pulling harmonies from the deepest parts of the larynx, were rarely immobile for the duration, constantly bouncing to and fro to the rhythm provided by Solomon. Most songs were prefaced with a short introduction that charmingly aged the band (leading into “Little Man” with a dig at their grandfather, about whom the song was written), and the band closed out their set with covers of Faith No More and the Teen Titans theme song.

The Savage 7 played a raucous thirty-minute set of acerbic rebel rock n’ roll pulled from the pages of full-throttle bands like Zeke and prairie punks Cocknoose and Cretin 66. With a name lifted from a cult ’60s biker gang movie, the band’s wurlitzer-fueled rock was robust, though the existence of only six members must not go without mention. The crowd dispersed to the bar and the patio through most of the set, leaving only a few stragglers to take in a set far more deserving of a rowdy audience than what it was handed. Next time I plan on seeing the band, I will grab the first denim jacket I see, cut the sleeves off, and chug a beer. Respect.

TRMRS brought their washed-out beach pop to the stage at 10:20, madly thrashing about for forty minutes and giving the audience shiny garage gems covered in a layer of grime. At times psychedelic, even downright tribal in their rhythmic drone, the quartet would not be the last band of the evening to combine unrestrained influences of ’60s rock, pop, surf, and country. They and headliners The Growlers created the musical equivalent of drawing Sharpie pentagrams on the beat-up covers of dollar bin Eric Burdon and Roky Erickson records. By the end, guitarist/vocalist Tommy Stewart was a writhing pile of melted flesh on the stage, slumped to his knees as the band closed their set with a blister-inducing psych opus.

Upon southern California desert pop quartet The Growlers taking the stage with Stewart on bass, what existed of the crowd became an ocean of wobbling bodies and make-out parties. There may have been a child conceived while the band was on stage. Vocalist Brooks Nielson was drowning in the pale blue light offered by the Riot Room, swaying with his microphone in a single hand like a lounge singer, eyes fixated on an invisible object behind the crowd for most of the set. The band’s approach to the entirety of early rock and pop is worth noting, each song in its own right seething with the timelessness that takes one from being doomed to psych-pop compilation appearances, to having LPs that are required listening for a generation.

The Growlers and TRMRS, good as they are, will not be the first or last of such bands to bring older influences to the forefront of their sound. Surfer Blood, Wavves, Vivian Girls, Hunx and His Punx, Shannon and the Clams, Sonny and the Sunsets, and the dreadful Best Coast are but a few of the household names that have surfaced in recent years, and the selection beyond those is growing more and more vast by the day. Now, more than ever, people are digging further and deeper into the roots of what once made a hit, and pulling out the most base ingredients required to craft a song that, while certainly not possible of earning a gold record in this day and age, will have a staying power that outshines almost anything heard on the radio in 2012.

This review was originally written for Lost in Reviews.

03/20/12: Chuck Prophet / The Grisly Hand @ Davey’s

Hometown pride is a necessary thing in music sometimes. The phenomenon can be found across a variety of genres, and blues rock is no stranger. Even those not from the places they refer will typically write of the streets of Austin, the pawn shops of Memphis, or any number of dives across the Mid- and Southwest. Chuck Prophet is elated to call San Francisco his home, so much so that nearly the entirety of his newest album Temple Beautiful is a Cupid’s arrow shot directly into the heart of the Bay Area.

Prophet has been a boomerang of musical force for over 25 years, his craft taking him across the world and back, and into the studio with musicians as varied as Warren Zevon and Cake. His roots have always been firmly planted in the world of blues, but his songwriting effortlessly jumps from a salute to the early days of lip-curling punk, a subtle nod to ’70s arena rockers, a nudge in the direction of ’60s pop, and a hat-tip to power chord ambassadors The Kinks. Throw on any of his albums and you’ll be greeted with a concoction of decade-spanning sounds blended together in hour-long assortments.

Local fledgling bluegrass sextet The Grisly Hand kicked off the night shortly before 9:00, and in a brief pause after their opening song, audience members could be heard frantically trying to remove their jaws from the floor. The band unquestionably gave Prophet a run for his money with an animated half-hour set that bounded back and forth among the band’s currently humble discography. Accompanying Lauren Krum’s extraordinarily immense voice was guitarist Jimmy Fitzner, whose vocal style both contrasted with Krum’s and provided a proper stylistic companion, and his banter between songs gave enough levity to keep the crowd attentive.

Bassist Johnny Nichols, guitarist Ben Summers, and fiddler Kian Byrne all contributed vocals throughout the set in varying amounts, and Matt Richey backed up the group on drums. In a blur of limbs and swinging guitar necks, the band reached some moments of unequivocal unity during the set, with all players on stage perfectly in sync in unintentional choreography. It was genuinely fascinating to the only two senses that mattered at the time.

By the time Chuck Prophet was joined on stage by his band The Mission Express at 9:45, there was already a vacuum-sealed crowd packed tightly in front, eagerly awaiting the 100-minute set. With only a foot-wide path leading to each of the bars, anyone expecting to stand in front of the stage was out of luck. Greeted by drunken cheers and the kind of heckling you would expect to hear only at a place like Davey’s, Prophet and company quickly jumped into an opening set filled with numbers from the last two decades.

“Storm Across the Sea” got things moving with one of many slide guitar songs that were played that evening, underscoring guitarist James DePrato’s ability to keep up with Prophet’s frequent veering off in a story or guitar solo. The set covered much of the newest release, with “Castro Halloween,” “The Left Hand and the Right Hand,” “Willy Mays Is Up at Bat,” “White Night, Big City” and the title track among those. Prophet’s dedication of “White Night” to late gay rights activist Harvey Milk was met with a room so quiet a pin could be heard landing on the concrete floor.

Keyboardist (and spouse to the leading man) Stephanie Finch provided two of the highlights of the set with her vocal contribution to Temple‘s “Little Girl, Little Boy” and a spiced-up version of “Tina Goodbye,” the opening track to Finch’s 2010 debut Cry Tomorrow. Additional highlights were the covers of Alex Chilton’s “Bangkok,” and an irony-free version of Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen.” The encore of “Always a Friend” (co-written by Alejandro Escovedo) was followed by the quirky “You Did,” the only song in history that poses the question of who did, exactly, put the boom in the boom-boom-shaka-laka?

This is the second time I have seen Prophet, and both times it has been at a reasonably filled Davey’s Uptown. After seeing a knock-out set twice in a row, I must pose a question I heard others in the venue asking that night — why the hell isn’t this guy more popular?

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Nerd talk: Grisly Hand’s Jimmy Fitzner honed his voice in the late ’90s working-class punk band Tanka Ray. Their 2002 album …And So I Abide will continue to be one of my all-time local favorites, and it comes highly recommended. After Tanka Ray broke up, Fitzner went on to play in the short-lived Dead Dora, then formed Grisly Hand with Lauren Krum, Johnny Nichols and Chas Snyder, who was also a member of Tanka Ray. Nichols played in the ska revival band The Uprights, who deserve their own post on this blog at some point, and will get it in due time. Nichols and Fitzner also play in the psyched-out “drum punk” supergroup Ad Astra Arkestra, with former GH member Mike Tuley. Kian Byrne, in addition to being a recently inducted member of his father’s band The Elders, plays in soul/ska/riddim band The New Riddim, and joining him is the Uprights’ Dan Loftus.

Matt Richey plays in minimalist country band The Blessed Broke, and lo-fi throwback pop band Dead Voices, whose frontman David Regnier also plays with Krum as Ruddy Swain. Ben Summers probably has the most complex music history of all members, having been in multiple punk bands that played basements across the city but never recorded anything. A few of his bands worth noting are U.S. Americans, Anne Emergency! (who went by An Emergency! early on), The Controlled, and Kill Brochtune, not to mention currently performing his own written material.

This review was written for Lost in Reviews. All photos taken by the talented Matt Cook.

02/25/12: Egomaniacs reunion @ The Brick

I overheard a conversation at The Brick on Saturday night, wherein two patrons discussed briefly that the show happening that night was a reunion, of sorts, for the Manhattan, KS, music crowd of the mid ’90s to present day. Though it may have been spoken as a bit of an exaggeration, the pitifully filled room would beg to differ. Standing about the floor were a few dozen concert goers engaging in conversations or entertaining themselves at the bar, almost all of them having been of the age to have witnessed not only Little Apple locals Egomaniacs‘ initial shake as a performing band, but to have also been witness to the members’ previous acts, of which there are many.

The night opened right after 10:00 with The Chaotic Goods playing a 35-minute set. Though the members hail from various parts of Kansas (namely the city to which I have referred), the five-piece now collectively call the Kansas City area their home. I had experienced the band’s set only once prior (at the same venue, no less), and concluded upon the second time that in the nine months since then, the band has cut a lot of the fat out from their sound. Gone was the hour-long, multi-genre set, in its place a well-trimmed handful of songs displaying what I initially liked best about the band: quirky, nerdy and poppy rock songs with an added bite. So well received they were, that even as an opener, the crowd that gathered requested an encore. That may have been the already freely flowing drinks talking, though. Overall, vocalist and frequent air guitar player Ralph Reichert harmonized well among guitarists Marty Robertson and Ray Kristek, only falling flat with one another a time or two.

“Good evening,” drummer/vocalist Tyson Schroeder proclaimed once sitting behind the kit at 11:15, “we’re (the) Medicine Theory, and we love whiskey.” What followed was a 40-minute set that calls to mind the best stripped-down Chicago and twin cities filth that Amphetamine Reptile Records ever released in the early days of noise rock (refer to the first few installations of the Dope, Guns & Fucking in the Streets compilations or St. Louis band Drunks With Guns for guidance in this area). Joined only by guitarist Jeff Irvine and a variety of pedals, the duo blasted through weird, out-of-tune, and often downright crude songs that covered topics from pornography to Presidential hopefuls. That’s a two-for-one, actually, as both appeared in the same song, along with the line “I’m gonna occupy Rick Santorum’s mouth.” Some in the crowd seemed uneasy, but Schroeder’s light-hearted banter and the public calling out of those who were leaving between songs kept up the mood.

Egomaniacs started their 45-minute set about 12:30 and ran through more than a full-length’s worth of songs in that time. I recall in my younger days listening to the band’s only legitimate album, Primer (their triple-disc The Rest Of can be found in digital format as well), and thinking how great it would have been had I not completely missed out on their existence. This night was only one of a few reunion shows the band has played since they parted ways about a decade ago. Not to say the members have not kept busy with great projects in the interim, as singer/guitarist John Evans has kept himself busy with music for the last 15 years. The band’s live show was both deafeningly loud and blindingly fast, all of the songs played at a rhythm that puts the source material to shame. Evans would mostly shout or growl the words to the songs, occasionally hitting a shriek reminiscent of Black Francis or Poster Children’s Rick Valentin. Despite the crowd yelling for more songs at the end, the trio gave a thank you and quietly left the stage.

Egomaniacs setlist:
ADD
e/go
Boba Fifth
I Dress Smartly
24
Swooner
Electropolis
Green Machine
Training Heels
So Pedestrian
Egolope
BSCSMC
Egofemmes
In Europe They Like Their Metal with Swords
Short Bus Union
Whiteshirt/Birdshit
Hernia

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Nerd talk: As mentioned above, John Evans (not to be confused with the KC-based Evans with the stage name John Velghe) is a rather prolific musician in his hometown of Manhattan, KS. Before forming Egomaniacs, he spent time with Marty Robertson in El Fontain, and since then has been seen in The Pembertons, Faultlines, Variable Speed Control, The Goodbye Sort (with Egos bassist David Boomer), The Hard Guilt (with Egos drummer Matt Anderson), and Thick Electric (once again with Boomer on bass).

Tyson Schroeder and Jeff Irvine have been playing music together intermittently for nearly two decades. First, in the ’90s noise band Methods of Man, then upon both members residing in the same city once more, in the mid-’00s rock band (I hesitate to refer to it as noise, as it has much more melody than the current project) under the name of kill.pop., a band which essentially morphed into MT. In addition to the listed bands, Irvine has played with instrumental rockers Auternus and is currently honing A Light Within for their debut live performance this spring. Schroeder, who when not professing his affinity for adult beverages and entertainment, is a locally renowned artist (and creator of the poster you see at the top of this piece), and plays in Knife Crime with Byron Huhmann, a doorman at The Brick, and Brad Huhmann, who played in Onward Crispin Glover with Marty Robertson.

02/24/12: The ACB’s / Fourth of July @ The Brick

Maybe it was the drink specials, or maybe it was the end of the work week. It could have been because four-piece The ACB’s recently had a Daytrotter session go live, even though it was recorded on a stop in Chicago last summer. Just as well, it could have been that both The ACB’s and opener Fourth of July are something of local darlings to corporate alternative trash station 96.5 The Buzz when they are allowed the weekly two-hour respite from playing Jane’s Addiction and Muse to air up-and-comers in the local music scene. Regardless of the reason, I’ve never witnessed The Brick get as packed as it was the night that two of the area’s best acts took the same Kansas City stage to display material both new and old.

Brendan Hangauer’s Fourth of July began their set at about 10:35, stripped down to a four-piece, free of the horns and keys that frequent their recordings and live shows. Joining him on stage was his brother Patrick on bass, and another set of siblings in Brendan and Brian Costello on lead guitar and drums, respectively. At its peak, the band’s lineup has grown to six people, with additional contributors, and in the early days the project was started as an outlet for Brendan alone. The band played a 40-minute set, during which songs that are normally meandering and melodic in their recorded direction were given a different focus, taking on a faster-paced jangle pop vibe which perfectly synced into the evening and the energy of the crowd.

There was a noticeable lack of Katlyn Conroy and Adrienne Verhoeven on stage, both of whom provided an additional charm on the songs to which they contributed on the band’s most recent full-length, Before Our Hearts Explode! Songs that were played in their absence received a commendable fill-in from members present, while others (“Bad Dreams (Are Only Dreams)”) were omitted from the set entirely. The band’s time on stage was spent frequently shifting between songs from the most recent record (the hyper-catchy “Self Sabotage”) and the first full-length, Fourth of July on the Plains (“Purple Heart”), but always kept a fool-proof musical theme combination: drinking and girls. Furthermore, new songs were played from a record (produced by Chris Crisci) that is expected to drop in 2012, and the band is adamant it will be their best yet.

The ACB’s began their set at 11:40. Last time I encountered the quartet in a live music setting, they all were dressed in drag (complete with smeared lipstick) for the Ultimate Fakebook-hosted Halloween show at the Bottleneck last October. I’m sure they were all very thankful to be able to play without worrying about getting a stocking run, and lord knows those heels can be a pain in the ass. The set has not changed drastically since then, with much of it focusing on their lauded sophomore album Stona Rosa, though they threw in debut album opener “You Did It Once” to appease the crowd. There is no reasonable explanation as to how singer/guitarist Konnor Ervin can hit the falsetto notes he does, but that single feat instantly sets the band apart from most others in the area, not to mention the group’s inclination toward hit-makers of former times.

My single complaint about the set is the speed with which the band plays “My Face.” It is arguably the best song on Stona, and is likely one of my favorite locally-released tracks in recent years, and deserves the same patience when played live that it was given in the studio. That said, I still must praise the harmonization and vocal trade-offs that take place during the chorus and that the pace is kept steady, if not sped up a beat or two. Besides playing staples from the newest album such as “Italian Girls” and “I Wonder,” the band played some more recent efforts like “Feel Winter,” a song which also appeared on the previously mentioned Daytrotter session. There was also a brief 30 seconds where they played Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash Into Me,” and we are all better off for that not having lasted longer than it did, even if their tongues were placed firmly in cheeks at the time.

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Nerd talk: While Brendan Hangauer has almost exclusively kept his songwriting under the Fourth of July moniker, the same can hardly be said for the rest of the band. As mentioned above, the newest album has voice contributions from both Adrienne Verhoeven and Cowboy Indian Bear‘s Katlyn Conroy. Conroy probably would have been in attendance had it not been for a prior engagement at The Bottleneck with her newest band La Guerre. Patrick Hangauer has not only collaborated with Verhoeven on her post-Anniversary project Dri (who have a surprising lack of crossover thrash songs), but also plays all instruments under his electronic alter-ego 1,000,000 Light Years. On that note, former FoJ guitarist Steve Swyers can be seen these days remixing and skewing others’ tracks under his Say My Name alias.

Patrick and Brendan’s brother Kelly still contributes to the band at times they require horns, keys, or additional vocal harmonies. Kelly has also worked with the Costello brothers in Save the Whales, an experimental Lawrence group whose permanent lineup is about as murky as Fourth of July’s; and White Flight, former Anniversary frontman (and ex-FoJ drummer) Justin Roelofs’ love letter to the extraterrestrial plane of existence for which he yearns. It should also be noted that Lawrence label Range Life Records has released output from most of the bands that you see listed in this section of the story thus far. If your mind has not yet melted, there is also former lead guitarist Andrew Connor, who miraculously juggles his time between Ghosty, Power and Light, and The ACB’s.

By comparison, the direct family tree of The ACB’s may not be quite as complex, but there is still some interesting blood lines that tie in with Kansas City music. About a year ago, Konnor Ervin formed a Belle & Sebastian and late ’60s psych-influenced pop band called The I’ms with Kyle Rausch and his brother Collin. One listen to the debut ACB’s album and one can instantly and correctly presume they were influenced by Cheap Trick. The sounds were not unfounded, as both Kyle and Collin were previously a part of rock/powerpop band The Abracadabras, which paid tribute to the ’70s powerhouse bands like T Rex, though to speak in more recent terms, both the Abras and the ACB’s could be compared at least in part to the sounds of Supergrass. Alternately, Kyle and Collin’s cousin Kasey Rausch has been a well-respected musician in the local bluegrass and Americana music scene for well over a decade.

02/20/12: The Jealous Sound / Anakin @ Riot Room

The benefits of a 3AM bar that doubles as a venue are essentially void once you realize you must scrape yourself out of bed before the sun comes up the next morning for a rousing eight hours of subservience to the overlords without whom you would be penniless. Westport venue the Riot Room is guilty beyond doubt of taking advantage of their last call time, often pushing a live show back to a 10:00 start time or later. With a two band bill, I was dreading getting to the venue at 9:15 and gawkily mulling about for an hour or more before the first band started.

As luck would have it, local space rock group Anakin took the stage promptly at 9:30 to play what was billed as their very first live performance ever. Let me preface that last sentence by saying that the band recently released their debut, Kickstarter-funded full-length, Random Accessed Memories, have appeared on a HUM tribute compilation, and have merch readily available for purchase. To most, if not all, this logic would seem a bit flawed and a sure way to lose money before your band even gets a foot in the live music door. Don’t put your prejudice pants on just yet, though, as the members are anything but amateurs in the world of public performance.

The five gentlemen on stage have spent time in touring and recording bands like The Escape, Tablets of Orion (which later became Orion — two separate entities, both of whom had a submission on a Failure tribute compilation), Sons of Great Dane, and a recently revamped lineup of The Casket Lottery. The band wear their influences on the sleeve (and chest, as noted by drummer and co-founder Brad Chancellor sporting a Rentals shirt), and leading man Brent Windler quietly croons into the microphone like a Fantastic Planet-era Ken Andrews. The band played a 45-minute set and performed their new, 10-track album front to back, for better or worse.

I spoke with a fellow show-goer and we both agreed that we wanted to like Anakin a lot more than we actually did. Their set expectedly began a little rocky, by the bass guitar cutting out halfway through “Action-Reaction,” but they quickly recovered by following with synth-heavy cuts from the album like “Magnified,” “Abort.Retry.Fail,” and “Disconnect,” but I regrettably grew tired of the set about 30 minutes in. Not to say their sound is a novelty or a conscious mimic of elder bands that are in the annals of worship for fans of space rock, shoegaze, or even dreampop, but I came wanting just a taste, and left feeling I had absorbed more than intended, my senses on overload from the sheer onslaught of sound that came from the stage. Kudos to the band regardless for playing likely the best first gig I have ever witnessed, and for having a great album with which to back it up.

I may have been just a little too harsh on newly reunited Los Angeles natives The Jealous Sound in my recent review of their latest album, A Gentle Reminder. If their nearly hour-long live show is any indication, they still have energy to spare for a future album or three. Singer/guitarist Blair Shehan took the drunken revelers in front of the stage with a smile, and made references throughout the set to the now dwindling audience that remained about the last time they played in Kansas City. If anyone wants to date themselves, it was in early 2004 at the short-lived west bottoms venue The Spitfire, opening for Statistics and Engine Down.

The Jealous Sound effortlessly tackled a career-spanning set, with a few hiccups and false starts, but those that were there to see the band were not left disappointed. With the exception of set opener “Beautiful Morning,” which I referred to as “background noise from an episode of Grey’s Anatomy” in my review of the album, the entire set was energetic and was met with bouncing heads and people dancing in a way only acceptable in the privacy of their own homes. After playing the opening track from the most recent full-length, they jumped to the opening track from their last full-length (which is now sitting at nearly a decade old) and continued to jump between the two while throwing a few EP tracks in (“Got Friends,” “Priceless”).

By all accounts, the band had fun while on stage and worked with the audience they had. It’s an odd thing, but I’ve never been to a show at the Riot Room where the audience was larger for the headliner than the opener unless the header was also a local. You could chalk that up to the place being very representative of a certain sect of Kansas City music (a sound which some, or just myself, refer to as Riot Room rock, but that’s another story in itself). While a national headlining act may not have the pull of a local opener, I have repeatedly witnessed a small group of dedicated fans loudly requesting an encore from the headliner once their set ends. This night was no different, and after the band laid their instruments to rest and walked off the stage, Shehan decided to strap on another guitar to play a solo version of “Turning Around.”

The solo encore was met with inebriated approval from the group in front of the stage, at which point the rest of the band came back up to play one more song, “Naive,” from their 2003 full-length Kill Them With Kindness. The crowd was given a genuine thank you from the band, then the house lights came up and the group in front of the stage began to gradually stagger off, with a few individuals remaining behind to enthrall one another with slurred stories of how much the band meant to them at a certain point in their youth. Tabs were paid or further increased, and the patrons began to tightly wrap their necks in scarves in preparation of braving the outside weather. Some, like myself, were already bemoaning the workday that stood ahead of them in a matter of hours.

The Jealous Sound setlist:
Beautiful Morning
Hope For Us
Got Friends
Promise of the West
Perfect Timing
Abandon! Abandon!
Your Eyes Were Shining
A Gentle Reminder
The Fold Out
Priceless
Anxious Arms
Turning Around (Blair Shehan solo electric) – encore
Naive – encore

This review originally appeared on Lost in Reviews. All photos taken by the talented Matt Cook.

02/10/12: Katy and Go-Go / John Velghe + More @ RecordBar

Entering the RecordBar around 10:00 last Friday, one could not walk through the narrows without rubbing shoulders amid those throughout. The venue was particularly crowded for an all-local lineup, though as the night raged on, the audience noticeably waned from a college-aged demographic to a weekend warrior vibe. As though it were filled with drunken Cinderellas, the place all but cleared by midnight, save for some table or booth clusters and a pack of patrons standing near the patio door.The night opened at 10:05, as The Sawyers launched into a 40 minute set of No Depression alt-country lifted from the altar of Tweedy and Farrar, with some elements of honky-tonk thrown in for good measure. The band is led by local songwriter John Greiner, and is backed by Chad Rex on guitar. Rex fronts The Victorstands and previously played in Colorado’s own No Depression purveyors Armchair Martian with St. Joseph, MO, natives Jon Snodgrass and Steven Garcia, the latter of whom now plays in KC powerpop trio Deco Auto. Betse Ellis of The Wilders played the fiddle at stage right, and Chris Wagner (most recently of punk trio Hipshot Killer) filled in for the group’s recently departed bassist. Jonathan Kraft, a sound engineer who has spent time with SSION, and in another life, played with Florida screamo band Kite Flying Society served as the drummer. That was a mouthful, but I thought it necessary to document how varied the backgrounds are of the five members that shared the stage.

Over the duration of the band’s time on stage there was very little audience interaction. I don’t require a story when watching a band play live — and there are many artists that don’t really know when to shut up and play — but at the close, I was left wondering if there exists a tangible album that could be purchased, and remained without answer as nothing of the kind was mentioned.

Author note: I’d like to apologize to those reading this as a casual music follower. What you are about to see in the next two paragraphs is nothing short of conspiratorial six degrees of Kevin Bacon nerding out. If you can’t keep up, feel free to skip through it. I won’t take offense.

John Velghe (née Evans, as the man took his matrilineal surname for the stage to stand apart from the other musically inclined Evans’ in the area, of which there are apparently many) was joined on stage by the full-band form of The Prodigal Sons. Tonight, this included Mike Alexander, who as of this writing plays punk with Hipshot Killer, country with Starhaven Rounders, and Irish rock with Blarney Stoned. Alexander has done everything short of playing the part of Neil Schon in a Journey tribute band. Wait, what’s that? Oh, he has totally done that as well, and will undoubtedly be forming a new band by the time you finish reading this sentence. Chris Wagner pulled a double shift on bass, and in addition to playing with Alexander in a band now mentioned twice (not to mention the Revolvers), provided the rhythm section for Velghe in The Mendoza Lie, a post-Famous FM/Saint Jude band that had a backbone provided by Dan Dumit, who is still billed as a drummer for the Sons, though he did not make an appearance on this night. “Go-Go Ray” Pollard sat behind the kit, and is a nationally recognized performer who has served as the touring drummer for a few major label bands which, if mentioned, would sully the anticipation that you as a reader have surely built about this lineup.

But wait, there’s more. On trombone was Mike Walker, who played in the well-received, though tragically defunct Olympic Size (with Wade Williamson and Kirsten Paludan, both of whom play in Alexander’s Starhaven Rounders) as well as The Maytags, a “neo-dub explosion” led by Zach Phillips of the Architects and The Gadjits, of which Alexander was also a part for some time. On saxophone was the illustrious Sam Hughes, also seen as part of the seven-piece horn ensemble in Afrobeat jazz sensation Hearts of Darkness. Additionally, Hughes was in good company with Walker as a five-piece horn section on the most recent release by The Hearers, a country-spanning membership whose horn section can also be seen in various pairings in the jumpin’ and swingin’ Grand Marquis, roots reggae group The New Riddim, soul revival band The Good Foot, and almost any other act in town requiring some brass. Last, but certainly not least was the talented Hermon Mehari on trumpet, who moonlights in the Diverse trio, playing compositions that pay homage to the 18th & Vine sound that put Kansas City on the proverbial jazz map long ago.

Whew. Now that I have that out of the way, let us continue with the live performance. The band played an hour-long set that alternated from the full lineup that I made a passing reference to above, to an electric four-piece with the addition of Betse Ellis lending her fiddle and vocals. I spoke with Velghe briefly before they began hauling their gear up on stage, at which point he acknowledged his twenty year musical crush on Ms. Ellis, so for her to contribute those talents to a few songs (“Assume the Ground”) from his upcoming full-length, Don’t Let Me Stay (to be released on Lakeshore Records, the label that brought us The Belles‘ Omertà), must be a thrill. The set meandered very little from a full-bodied country-tinged Americana rock with strong horn presence (“Blood Line”), but the instrument changes were plenty.

Acoustic guitars and mandolins replaced electric Telecasters and hollow-bodies for portions of the set (“Stage Inside the Main”), and near the end, the full band took the stage once again for what Velghe referred to as a part of the set in which they will be playing some songs in the key of Paul. Following this, he plucked the opening notes to The Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait,” which they played at the Sonic Spectrum tribute series for the ‘Mats at the same venue nearly a year ago. The lone song that saw Velghe without a guitar around his shoulder was a set closer of The Jam’s “Town Called Malice,” which brought a little less excitement from the crowd than one would think, but it was a fitting end to a very energetic, if instrumentally attention deficit set.

Whether by choice or by chance, the lineup thus far had built up to a swelling climax that could have potentially come crashing down if someone closed the night and was not prepared to hand the crowd their asses on a plate of rock (don’t let that imagery slip past you). Lucky for the audience, Katy Guillen (of The B’Dinas) took the stage and dished out a three-course meal of ass (already regretting that metaphor) and Go-Go Ray was there to serve as the second musician of the night to pull in some overtime. Taking a look at the two of them on stage, an obvious reaction would be to assume you are about to hear something of the White Stripes or Black Keys variety, both two-piece bands who built their reputation out of playing stripped-down blues rock in their own, weird ways. Well, you would have been wrong to assume that, and should be ashamed of yourself.

The reality is that the assumption is not a complete fallacy, but the sheer force with which Katy and Go-Go exerted sound as a two-piece, with Ray given the chance to show off on extended drum fills, and Guillen slinging out fast-paced blues riffs while the two kept in perfect stride with one another was something impressive. The two jammed a full 45 minutes until the house lights came up and the bar was ready to start kicking people out into the cold, and then they played one more song even after that. The two-piece is expected to release an album in late March, and a new one from Guillen’s full rock band is due out in the near future as well.

01/28/12: Michael Byars Birthday Show @ RecordBar

Saturday night at the RecordBar one could find a motley crew of Kansas City music lovers, listeners, and performers. It was not just another bill of local bands on this night, but a celebration honoring local radio personality Michael Byars’ 50th birthday. Byars, an announcer and coordinator for NPR satellite station KCUR, also runs local music podcast The Mailbox, with frequent contributor and music guru Chris Haghirian. The guest of honor seemed to be in good company, as the whole of the venue was filled with people in high spirits, laughing, drinking and cavorting about between bands, and Byars was rarely spotted without a drink in hand. A testament to the man’s dedication and influence, he received toast after toast from those that took the stage before and during performances.

Deco Auto began their set shortly before 10:00 and played an all too short 30 minute set of sugary sweet power-pop. The trio has only been performing together for about a year and have yet to even record a demo, but they have already built a steady reputation on a foundation of well-written hooks by guitarist/vocalist Steven Garcia. When I caught up with Garcia afterward, he admitted that he was raised on the timeless anthems of the Ramones, so he plays pop because it is what he knows. After seeing the band once previously shortly after forming, the rhythm section of Tracy Flowers and Michelle Bacon have become a tightly meshed companion with Garcia, playing a rigid melodic punk that is at once brand new and recalls the best eras of pop music that relied on simple harmonies and nothing more.

American Catastrophe, for lack of a better description, are the only thing imaginable when one is asked to picture Nick Cave playing apocalyptic country. In their 40 minute set, the band displayed a range of depth and gloom greater than many in our city these days, and seated front man Shaun Hamontree bellows into his old broadcast microphone with a force that can take an entire room’s attention in mere seconds. Hamontree has been playing Great Depression influenced Gothic Americana with multi-instrumentalist Terrence Moore since the experimental late ’90s band The Black Water, and their fusion of talents has only grown in the last decade. Add to that the bass work of eclectic musician (and host for the night) Amy Farrand and the sound becomes a booming timbre and an aural experience one must encounter first hand.

Local legends the Pedaljets began shortly before midnight and played a set largely made up of new songs. This is good news, as the band’s last release came out in 1989. Whether they like it or not, the Pedaljets are a part of regional music history, infamously destructing in the midst of being courted by a few larger labels of the day. In the early-mid ’90s, singer/guitarist Mike Allmayer found respite with drummer Rob Morrow in the MCA-released Grither, and the Pedaljets’ self-titled sophomore release and ultimate swan song had new life breathed into it in 2007 when it was re-mixed and re-issued. Rumors have been aplenty in recent months concerning if and when a new album will see the light of day, but as yet there is no definitive answer. In any case, the band seems to have mellowed in recent years, opting for a much poppier, but no less fetching cadence than was present in the occasionally abrasive sounds of the band’s first two releases from their youth.

Closing out the night was a reunion from local slowcore merchants The String and Return. The group has played a handful of times in recent years, but their most recent output is quickly nearing the decade mark in age. By this late into the night (or early into the morning, since it was just before 1:00 at the time they struck the first chords), the crowd had quieted down to a dull roar and seemed to be in admiration of the melodic, somber lull displayed from the gents on stage. The ebb and flow of music that came from the corner of the room over the course of the evening ranged from poppy to melancholy, and from baby-faced to new classic, but the general theme stayed fairly jubilant for the celebration at hand. If the toasts given were any indication, the guest of honor likely can’t remember much through the haze of the evening, and may very well still be nursing a hangover. Happy birthday, Michael Byars, and thanks for caring about what goes on in this town.

This review originally appeared on Lost in Reviews.

01/27/12: The Lemonheads / The Dead Girls + More @ The Granada

There really isn’t much to say about Lemonheads front man (and sole original member) Evan Dando that has not already been mentioned at some point in the songwriter’s 25+ year career. The word “prolific” can be associated with Dando just as much as the word “junkie,” and though you could condemn the use of the word in respect of the man’s personal life, his habits have been public fodder in his own writing for years. Songs such as “Style” (I don’t wanna get stoned / but I don’t wanna not get stoned) and “Ceiling Fan In My Spoon” are but a few in which he has made reference of his afflictions. Regardless of any negative connotations brought upon by his substance abuse or rumored diva antics, this reviewer was still filled with childlike excitement at the announcement of a 20th anniversary tour for the groundbreaking 1992 album It’s A Shame About Ray.

I arrived at Lawrence’s Granada Theater shortly after the 9:00 door time to discover a sparsely filled auditorium with barely two dozen patrons littered about. Most of the crowd could be found nursing beer and having casual conversations among friends, with the occasional lone wolf standing about awkwardly or engaged in the latest time wasting application on their iPhone. Stories could be overheard from the thirty and forty-somethings in attendance of their last experience seeing or meeting Dando, each varying in context and content from nostalgic but cautious optimism, to a group regaling each other of music equipment that turned up missing after a time playing with the man himself.

Local power-pop foursome The Dead Girls took the stage at 9:15 to play a thirty minute cross-section of their material to date, including a few as-yet released tunes to be expected on the next record later this year. The crowd began filling in midway through the band’s set, and anyone who was not yet aware of the opener seemed to have become a fan by the end of their slot. The band still gets occasional billing as a quartet boasting members of well-liked, albeit defunct Lawrence (via Manhattan, KS) groups Ultimate Fakebook and Podstar, though in 2012 The Dead Girls have been around as long as or longer than the aforementioned from which they came. Whereas the former acts were distinctly two-dimensional power-pop or pop-punk crossovers, they now have free reign to allow their music to grow, unashamedly glorifying the works of Big Star and Thin Lizzy in their song structures.

Fred Mascherino walked into the spotlight at 10:00, slung a guitar around his shoulder and introduced himself to the crowd. He then played what seemed to be a fairly impromptu 15-minute set full of mostly solo acoustic-electric songs, save for inviting fellow Philadelphia native Chuck Treece to the stage for a short-lived rhythm section. Both Mascherino (formerly of Breaking Pangaea and Taking Back Sunday) and Treece (one-time touring drummer for Bad Brains and Urge Overkill) are currently serving as Dando’s touring band. While Mascherino played well and made idealistically folksy references to revolution (e.g. the aptly named “Revolution,” by his current band Terrible Things), the placement of his set after the opener seemed to perplex more than a few in the crowd, but he was on and off the stage in the time it takes some bands to soundcheck.

Meredith Sheldon was joined by a three member back-up band shortly before 10:30 to perform thirty minutes of mellow, throwback indie-pop kindred to the era in which It’s A Shame was released, replete with occasional chunky riffs and keyboard-driven melodies. Sheldon carried an air of confidence when performing, but her audience interaction between songs revealed a slightly different stage presence. She sheepishly asked how everyone was doing at the beginning of the set, to a very disenthralled reaction; but upon playing a few songs from her recently released EP then asking the question once more, the crowd let out a series of cheers. At the close of the set, the band left Sheldon on stage to conduct an intriguing acoustic cover of Big Star’s “Kangaroo,” before slinking away into the shadows.

Nearly 45 minutes passed from the time Sheldon’s equipment was torn down to the headlining act hitting the first note. In that time, more than one person in front of the stage asked aloud if Dando had canceled at the last minute. Just as the crowd reached the pinnacle in its restlessness, Dando came stumbling out to the microphone, dirty blonde hair hanging in front of his gaunt face, appearing to have just been woken up by the stage crew. Guitar in hand, he then put his mouth so close to the microphone that his lip movements shifted it on the stand, mumbled something in typical incoherent fashion, and began a set of six acoustic songs. This included, in no great detail, a rendition of Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting Around to Die,” that appeared on the 2009 covers album Varshons. To be perfectly honest, much of the first few songs could barely be understood due to his proximity with the microphone and his annunciation (or lack thereof).

Mascherino and Treece walked out once the acoustic set was done and immediately launched into the opening notes of “Rockin Stroll,” the kickoff song from the album whose anniversary everyone was there to celebrate. It’s A Shame, in its proper form, clocks in at just under 30 minutes, and the trio wasted no time knocking out one after another until the album was played front to back. Highlights included, among others, the title track and the crowd pleaser “Alison’s Starting to Happen.” The other crowd favorite from Ray, “Bit Part,” was unfortunately not only played in the absence of Juliana Hatfield, but without the addition of female vocals at all. On the topic of being absent, Dando frequently looked as though he had no idea what he was doing or where he was, his eyes occasionally drifting up toward the lights and rolling into the back of his head as he fought to remember the chords (or words) to the song he was playing.

Upon the album being performed with a noticeable lack of the “Mrs. Robinson” cover present on the re-issue, the set went back and forth between acoustic and electric, with a few songs even appearing in a more or less A Capella style by Dando between switching or tuning guitars. The audience heard electric versions of “Style,” from the Ray follow-up album Come On Feel; “No Backbone,” from the self-titled 2006 album; and “All My Life” on acoustic guitar, in the same broken-spirited refrain with which it appeared on Dando’s 2003 solo album Baby I’m Bored. After giving the audience a set totaling over 100 minutes of live music, the only people left to be upset are the ones who wanted to hear “Into Your Arms,” or had the audacity to hope for some of the songs from the Taang! Records years before Ben Deily left the band. I would be in both of those camps, but I left satisfied that even given all of his apparent quirks, antics, and habits, Evan Dando can still put on a hell of a performance.

This review originally appeared on Lost in Reviews. All photos taken by the talented Matt Cook.

05/28/11: Cowboy Indian Bear / Conduits / Reward Tree @ The Brick

In my attempt to turn this page into something of a legitimate source for local music coverage, I attended two mostly local shows at The Brick over the weekend, the first of which was posted late last night. Full disclosure: I am not a photographer, so some of the shots I took over the weekend (with two different, borrowed cameras) may not necessarily be from the most flattering angles or have the most visually appealing lighting possible. What can I say, I am a caveman and your use of portable picture-taking technology both frightens and confuses me.

I arrived at The Brick shortly after 9PM on Saturday, still rubbing sleep from my eyes from a nap cut short only 15 minutes earlier. The event was advertised as having a start time of 9, so I may or may not have been driving the legal speed limit on my way down to the venue. Already there was a very sizable crowd sitting and standing about, and a revolving group of twenty-somethings coming from and going to the outside to smoke, leaving a pile of half-full PBRs and frosty pint glasses near the door on their way out.

Reward Tree took the stage at 10, and played a 20 minute set that circled around the band’s small but varied discography. They opened with a song from last year’s Needy EP, an electronic based indie-pop effort that introduced the band to the Kansas City music scene, though they had been playing shows for a short time before that. Followers of Kansas City indie rock may notice that all four of the gentlemen in Reward Tree made up the core membership of Jump Rope For Heart, a band that called it quits in late 2007, but not before touring Japan for two weeks in 2005. If you search the darkest corners of the used bins (a home away from home for myself), I’m sure you can come up with one of their CDs.

During the band’s electronic songs, guitarist/vocalist Taylor Dunn would remove his guitar and instead don a pair of cheap sunglasses while concentrating on the sampler in front of him, removing the glasses and strapping the guitar back on for the instrument-based songs. This trend continued a few times, until the band began playing songs from their latest release, 2011’s Making Beds, which includes many songs that were reworked and re-recorded from an earlier Jump Rope release. Before starting their final song, Dunn told the story of a time they thought they had been asked to play as part of a Pixies tribute show, and prepared a short set of covers only to find out that they were actually supposed to be opening for a Pixies tribute band. After this, they launched into a cover of “Debaser” that was so true to the original, all it was lacking was Kim Deal.

The second band of the evening was Conduits, a fairly new sextet with a lot of hometown hype in Omaha, NE. They opened with “Misery Train,” a slowly building minimalistic pop song that crescendos in the latter half, becoming a reverb and bass driven shoegazer opus, and a great start to a set from a band that had only played Kansas City once previously. Front woman Jenna Morrison’s vocal mix was initially too low to hear, but the problem was fixed before the second song began. It was quite easy to become enamored with Morrison’s sultry voice, at times it recalled the smoke-filled piano bars of years past. And yet between songs, the larger than life voice turned meek to give the crowd a quiet “thank you” while she sipped at a cup of hot tea, her eye contact with the audience at a minimum.

Out of the spotlight was a group of the best musicians the Omaha indie rock scene currently has to offer, from drummer Roger Lewis (of The Good Life), to guitarists Nate Mickish and J.J. Idt, and the bass of Mike Overfield that would have otherwise made the band’s sonic sound lack were it not present. Conduits ended their set with a nearly ten-minute-long driving, droning and at times deafening song that again emphasized the sheer size of Morrison’s voice resonating from the walls of The Brick in intervals, the music repeatedly surging into a culmination of distortion in the band’s climax. After they left the stage, I overheard no less than three people exclaim to their friend in excitement that the band was “fucking awesome.” Succinctly put, comrades.

Closing out the evening was Lawrence, KS, trio turned quartet Cowboy Indian Bear, who took the stage and struck the first chord of “Saline” at midnight sharp. A rush then occurred, with a few dozen people clamoring to get a better view of the group. I wish I could say that I was able to hear keyboardist Katlyn Conroy, but her voice was mostly washed out among the harmonization between C.J. Calhoun and Marty Hillard. In fact, at one point during a break to the back of the room, I mistook what I thought to be her voice with a rather impressive falsetto from Hillard. Conroy’s vocals aside, the lot could be seen exchanging glances with each other before key time changes during the newer songs, but the four have undoubtedly found their niche as a group.

Cowboy Indian Bear have played in Kansas City many times over the last two years, and proclaimed proudly from the stage that this would be their first as a headliner in the city. A notable reaction I took away from their performance was a respect for their multi-instrumentation, Calhoun frequently trading back and forth between a guitar and a keyboard within the same song, Calhoun and Hillard trading guitars and basses, and both Calhoun and Conroy playing a small set of toms placed in front of their stations, which in turn created an explosion of sound in unison with drummer Beau Bruns. Their aurally pleasing set ran for the better part of an hour, and included a number of songs from their full length debut, but the group played a few well-received tunes that have not yet been recorded. You will know as soon as I do when those are going to be released.

05/27/11: The Dead Girls / The Chaotic Goods / Deco Auto @ The Brick

There is no better downtown location in which to see a powerpop/rock show than The Brick. With the exception of the dive bar bathrooms, the venue is one of my favorite places to not only see a reasonably priced show but to eat a good meal with cheap drink specials to boot. I am lucky enough to both work and live within blocks of The Brick, and try my damnedest to patronize the location on at least a monthly basis. Although they are not operating within a very large space, I’ve noticed their sound is always exactly as it should be and have rarely encountered a night when I am unable to hear one of the musicians on stage. This past weekend, I attended live shows at the venue two nights in a row, a first for me at any venue in KC since I was a teenager and had the extra money to hang out at all-ages places such as the El Torreon a few nights a week during the summer. My double night attendance was nearly pushed into a triple night, but alas, I missed the tour kick-off of The ACB’s with headliner Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin the night before.

The night was kicked off at around 10:30 with opener Deco Auto, a powerpop trio who only made their debut as a performing band back in April. I would have been in attendance had it not interfered with my previously scheduled plans to be in Westport for the Middle of the Map Festival. The band played a seemingly short set that turned out to be half an hour and consisted of ten songs with only a few moments between having any kind of banter from guitarist/vocalist Steven Garcia, who later explained to the crowd that he is usually much more friendly. Few and far between were the people who watched the band play without talking to their nearby friends, and the set was only viewed by a sparse two dozen people.

It is easy to judge a young band still trying to get their footing within the music scene, even if the members are veterans of live music themselves. Deco Auto, young and fresh as the entity itself is, really don’t have far to go before they can book time in a studio and get some of the songs I heard recorded to tape. The rough edges seem to still be an ongoing process, but the combination of Garcia’s strong voice for melodic punk-influenced rock and bassist Tracy Flowers supplying an additional level of melody with her vocals, creates a kind of catchy, late ’90s pop-punk/powerpop sound that is best with rough edges intact. The rhythmic backbone from drummer Michelle O’Brien completes the trifecta of Deco Auto, her stripped down playing style taking cues from the earliest days of pop music from seminal acts like The Yardbirds and The Dave Clark Five.

The next to take the stage was another new band called The Chaotic Goods, five guys who hail from Manhattan, KS, and most of which have been active in music for nearly two decades. I was particularly looking forward to seeing this band due to the inclusion of guitarist Marty Robertson, known for his work in Frogpond, Abileen, Onward Crispin Glover and the embarrassingly unspoken of El Fontain. The band began their set strong, touching on a Danger Bob-esque approach to quirky nerd rock/powerpop, vocalist Ralph Reichert at one point exclaiming simply “we write songs about girls,” among other quips between he and a few of the more talkative members of the audience. As the band progressed, there were more and more hit-or-miss songs, some that were an outright throwback to grunge in the worst way, and some that could have been considered for inclusion on an iconic Kansas City Misery type compilation, had the band existed more than 15 years ago when the original was released.

The longer the band played, the more restless the crowd was becoming and the more their talking amongst themselves was increasing. Let it be noted, that had the band played half as long as they actually did, and cut out an equal amount of their set list, they would have been overall well-received by not only myself but the majority of those in attendance that had grown tired of some of the very repetitive songs being played. When they left the stage, I was left a little bitter that they could have been so much better had they not tried to cover so much musical ground in an hour. The vocal harmonization among Reichert, Robertson, and guitarist Ray Kristek was generally in tune and certain songs would have severely suffered had they lacked it, and I was amused with Robertson and bassist Chad Myers frequently trading instruments between songs, but I think the band was just on the wrong lineup on the wrong night.

If there is any band in the metro area that doesn’t get the respect and attention they deserve, it’s chronic room-clearers The Dead Girls. Blame it on their name (someone once told me they expected them to be a metal band) or the fact that, if headlining, they don’t begin playing until some bars and venues are having last call. Blame it on the cringe-worthy banter between guitarists/vocalists Cameron Hawk and JoJo Longbottom, but nobody can say the quartet aren’t all equally talented musicians who put on one hell of a rock show. One could only speculate why the ‘former members of’ hype doesn’t catch up to the powerpop group composed of 2/3 of Ultimate Fakebook and 1/2 of Podstar, but they still manage to play to a small but dedicated built-in audience multiple times a month between Kansas City and their home of Lawrence, KS.

Sitting at a table prior to their performance, and with a cup of hot tea at his side, Hawk explained that he was losing his voice and so their set list that night would largely consist of songs written by Longbottom, Hawk performing the necessary back-up vocals. He seemed rather unfazed upon taking the stage, playing just as hard as he would have otherwise. The band barreled through a set with songs that spanned their discography to date, including the crowd pleaser “You Ignited,” from the 2010 vinyl-only full length Out of Earshot. The band has been gradually unveiling new songs in their recent performances, preparing for the release of a 7″ EP coming out on the same label that released their last effort, as well as the vinyl issue of Ultimate Fakebook’s Electric Kissing Parties. The EP is scheduled for release later in 2011 on Rocketheart Records.