Riot on the Plaza
anakin
In Review: The Year 2012
Hello there! As you can tell from the glaring vacancy between the last post and this one, I haven’t really written much in the last six months. It’s a new year, and with that I’d like to continue to entertain the twelve three people that read this website. I haven’t really been able to make the time for writing, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t kept my ears open for great things happening in our fair city. There was such a considerable amount of good music to come out of the metro that I find it difficult to cut the selections down to a top five or ten. With that, I present you with Riot On The Plaza’s ABCs of 2012, a few dozen bands with great releases, many of which went largely unnoticed.
A is for Anakin, who released an astounding space-rock debut, instantly aligning themselves with the likes of HUM, Shiner, and Failure. The band recorded and released Random Accessed Memories before even playing their first public performance.
B is for Black On Black, a raging hardcore punk trio so humble they don’t even want to charge you for a download of Help Yourself, the LFK band’s six-track debut. Take a listen to “No Good So Far” above.
C is for CVLTS, edging themselves into the #1 spot with the internationally released Realiser, an aural oddity rife with tape loops, improvisation, and drastic mood changes. Hear “Wamego Fluff” above.
D is for Droves, who are the uncomfortable pitch blackness to the warm glow in which Soft Lighting allows the listener to bask. Bryan Cox and Michael Protzmann collaborated on an EP released last year. Listen to “Belial” above.
E is for Expo ’70, the perpetually recording project of Justin Wright. Beguiled Entropy pushes the number of his releases to the area of around fifty, and “Mark of the Rising Mantis” exemplifies what I like best about his music: a feeling of hopelessly drifting through space.
F is for Fiat, a fusion trio who blend classical, jazz, and rock together to form a very different kind of beast for the local music scene. The group released Returns over the summer, not so much an EP as a “bundle” of songs that stand on their own.
G is for Ghosty, who continue to please with well-crafted pop rooted in the ’60s and ’70s. “Joy In My Sorrow” is only one of the many stand-out tracks available on their self-titled release.
H is for High Diving Ponies, whose summer release of Suspended in Liquid received an unjustly quiet response from others in the area. The band will be releasing a split double cassette with Rooftop Vigilantes in the coming weeks.
I is for Is It Is, a band that shares with the High Diving Ponies a guitarist in James Capps, who also provides the vocals for the oblique shoegaze present on their debut, Hollyhocks.
J is for John Velghe and The Prodigal Sons, who at their fullest are comprised of nearly a dozen immensely talented musicians from the metro area. “Bloodline” is the first track on Don’t Let Me Stay to prominently feature a horn section.
K is for Katlyn Conroy, who released the three track sampling of Savannah > Jacksonville during the summer under her performing moniker of La Guerre. Listen to closing track “Lights Go Out” above.
L is for Lazy, an ever-evolving and always entertaining group of Kansas Citians who set fire to any semblance of their former selves with the release of Obsession, nine songs of filthy sounding lo-fi punk.
M is for Minden, who left us all in the dust by moving to Portland on the eve of releasing their debut full-length, Exotic Cakes. It was written and recorded here in KC, so as far as I’m concerned this little glam pop gem still deserves inclusion.
N is for No Class, who released their sophomore LP on Canada’s Deranged Records over the summer. Keine Klasse II piles more anger on the band’s already wholesale pissed off hardcore punk.
O is for Osiris-1, the name under which glitchy hip-hop producer Rick Mauna releases many of his recordings. This untitled album was recorded with inspiration from his then still in utero child.
P is for Power and Light, a Euro-inspired synth pop collaboration between Nathan Readey and Ghosty’s Andrew Connor from which I hope to hear much more than a three song EP in 2013.
Q is for The Quivers, an unabashedly retro rock band that draws from the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, pop, and motown. The track above is from the band’s debut EP.
https://soundcloud.com/ninthstreetopus/never-mine?in=ninthstreetopus/sets/the-roseline-vast-as-sky
R is for The Roseline, the ongoing project of Colin Halliburton and one of the best alt-country acts the metro has seen since Buffalo Saints dissolved. Vast As Sky is the third and likely most expansive album the band has released to date.
S is for Soft Lighting, the ’80s-influenced synth project of Bryan Cox. Slow Motion Silhouettes took me by complete surprise, and on multiple occasions it could be heard blaring from my car’s stereo while I was driving around at night. It’s that kind of record, I guess.
https://soundcloud.com/middleofthemap/thee-water-moccasins-on-a-wire
T is for Thee Water MoccaSins, a local supergroup of sorts, who self-released their towering debut From the Rivers of Missouri and the Banks of Fear and currently only get around to playing shows when Billy Smith is back in town from his current home of NYC.
U is for UMBERTO, Matt Hill’s monstrous creation that made a return to form last year with the release of Night Has a Thousand Screams, a score which was made to coincide with a 1982 horror film.
V is for Vital Forms, whose breadth of sound on their demo EP ranges from dark electronic beats with complementary vocals, to the chunky riffed dream pop you can hear in the track above.
W is for The What Gives, who will appear on this list regardless of their not being an active band in over a decade. Futureman Records dug up some unreleased sessions from the Lawrence lo-fi indie rock/pop group and finally let it be heard by the public.
And in lieu of an X, Y, or Z, I will post a list of honorable mentions:
Capybara‘s Dave Drusky, Coke Weed X‘s self-titled debut, Discoverer‘s Tunnels, Dry Bonnet‘s Seeds EP, Gemini Revolution‘s self-titled effort, Jorge Arana Trio‘s Mapache, Levon Realms‘ Other Time Period, Loss Leader‘s First Assembly, Mouthbreathers‘ Die Alone single, Prevrat‘s Intelligent Discontent, Radar Defender‘s Satellites and Airports, Sundiver‘s Vicious EP, and Surroundher‘s triple CD debut.
I hope you take the time to check out the bands above, they all deserve a listen. What are a few I’m looking forward to in the year ahead?
New ones from The ACB’s, The Dead Girls, and Fourth of July, and the debuts of Bloodbirds, The Conquerors, Radkey, and Shy Boys.
The Casket Lottery debut new track, 7-inch preorder
Earlier this week, I missed out on seeing The Casket Lottery play their first non-festival KC show since their decision to be an active band once more. I caught the group back in spring as part of the Middle Of The Map Festival (their second year as a performer) which happened to be at the same venue they played on July 8th with Anakin and In the Grove. I forgot how quickly time has passed since then, as the band’s new label No Sleep Records just posted the pre-order for the band’s new 7″ record (with multiple colors for the nerds). The Door EP features the title track on one side, with “My Father’s Son” as a b-side. The EP is a precursor to the upcoming full-length, Real Fear.
Any who were familiar with the band in their former life will note that there has been not much change in their sound since the last release nearly a decade ago. The songs still ride heavily on the bass of Stacy Hilt, drums of Nathan “Junior” Richardson and the miraculously un-aging vocals of Nathan Ellis, but with a revamped lineup the founders are now joined by Brent Windler (Anakin) on second guitar, and Nick Siegel on keyboard. You can stream the a-side and title track from The Door below.
Anakin debut “Send/Receive” music video
Local space-rockers Anakin have unveiled their new Fernando Cordero-directed music video for “Send/Receive,” the first single from their debut album Random Accessed Memories. Watch the video below, and read a review of their recently played first show here. Rated R for robot content.
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.
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