I was a member of the target demographic for the 1980 punksploitation flick “Times Square”. As a disaffected teen stuck in the boonies and desperate for dispatches from the punk scene in New York City, I enthusiastically acquired the soundtrack and bought a ticket to see the film the week it opened. This gullible rube was expertly played by a cynical marketing team that made Suzi Quatro’s “Rock Hard” the theme song of the deservedly forgotten movie. Even though tracks including “Rainbow Shiner” on Ex Hex’s It’s Real are vastly superior to “Rock Hard,” the throwback “new wave” on the album catapults me back to an almost incomprehensibly foreign era.
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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.
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Nipsey Hussle was gunned down on March 31. I don’t share the hip-hop community’s adoration of the rapper. The memory of his dreary outing at the Granada in 2009 still grates on me.
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The Chicago house vocalist Kim English has died. Here’s “Natural High”.
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David White of Danny and the Juniors, has died. Here’s “At the Hop”.
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There have been moments during the last 20 years in which I believed that attending Kansas City’s Rockfest was my sole reason to exist. I don’t know what to do with myself now that this year’s blowout isn’t happening.
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Marvin Gaye's You’re the Man, the would-be follow up to What’s Going On, is only half as good as his classic 1971 work. But man, there are still a dozen spine-tingling moments scattered throughout the newly reassembled version of the nixed project.
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Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? is the love child of Lorde’s Pure Heroine and Taylor Swift’s Reputation. Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys served as the midwife. “Bury a Friend” is the baby picture the proud parents sold to a celebrity tabloid.
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I paid $14 to hear The Wild Reeds and Valley Queen at RecordBar on Wednesday. The show was altogether adequate.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
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