Love My Way: Saluting the New Wave of Classic Rock

In the last 28 days I've attended concerts by Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Cheap Trick, Urge Overkill, Limp Bizkit, They Might Be Giants, Blue Öyster Cult and the Psychedelic Furs.   Scheduling conflicts kept me away from performances by the Smithereens and Greg Ginn's Black Flag.

With the possible exception of They Might Be Giants and Soundgarden, these bands are well past their artistic and/or commercial primes.  And while I'm far more interested in contemporary sounds than in music from past decades, I enjoyed all but one of these nostalgia-fueled events.  A ranking of the shows in the order of my appreciation of each performance follows.

1. Limp Bizkit Ticket price: $32.  Audience: 800.  Look, I'm not particularly fond of Limp Bizkit, but there was no denying the electrifying nature of its performance at the Granada.

2. They Might Be Giants Ticket price: $24.  Audience: 500.  I have great memories of seeing They Might Be Giants and Poi Dog Pondering at the Grand Emporium on Halloween in 1988.  TMBG is an even better band 25 years later.

3. The Psychedelic Furs Ticket price: $13.65.  Audience: 800.  As Tim Finn's review of last night's concert suggests, the band's enthusiasm was infectious. 

4. Blue Öyster Cult Ticket price: free. Audience: 3,000.  The oldest band in this grouping opened its headlining performance at Old Shawnee Days with the proto-speed metal classic "The Red & the Black".  Aside from dodgy drum and bass solos, the underrated band's 90-minute set remained taut.   BOC deserve to be as revered as Judas Priest, Kiss and Motörhead.

5. Cheap Trick Ticket price: $50.  Audience: 500.  Cheap Trick has returned to its roots.  The band played early influential jams like "Heaven Tonight" with childlike glee. 

6. Alice In Chains Ticket price: $50.  Audience: 40,000.  Alice In Chains' headlining appearance at Rockfest was a slick, by-the-numbers effort.  The songs are great but the polished approach was too slick for me.

7. Urge Overkill Ticket price: free.  Audience: 500.  Like a poor man's version of Cheap Trick, this woulda-shoulda-coulda band played with exuberance. 

8.  Soundgarden Ticket price: $40.  Audience: 3,000.  Soundgarden is my favorite of these eight bands, but their concert was spoiled by nightmarish sound. 

While I'm not too cool to appreciate REO Speedwagon, Styx and Ted Nugent, I passed on their triple-bill appearance at Starlight Theatre last month.  The new and surprisingly vital face of classic rock with roots in the '80s, '90s and 00's has overtaken the previous generations of rock and rollers. 


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Chad Kassem and his Salina-based Acoustic Sounds are featured in a The New York Times story about the vinyl resurgence.  

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The newly announced Buzz Beach Ball concert doesn't replace Kanrocksas- it lacks the hip hop and R&B acts I was most eager to see at the ill-fated festival- but it boasts a pretty darn impressive lineup nonetheless.

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As evidenced by this telling fan footage of the Shy Boys, people standing near the stage would not STFU at the Crossroads Summer Block Party last weekend. 

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Damir Out Loud consists of "eight Berlin-based musicians from five different countries."  The band's new Graduation Day album is RIYL Balkan brass bands, Bobby Hutcherson, ECM. 

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King Khan & the Shrines' "Born to Die" is mindblowingly great.  RIYL: Cream, Nuggets, Ty Segall.

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Who doesn't love Wayne Coyne?

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A video for Dessa's "Call Off Your Ghost" was released today.  RIYL: Ani DiFranco, Doomtree, Alanis Morissette. 

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I can't wait to hear the new album by David Murray Infinity Quartet featuring Macy Gary and Gregory Porter.  Also out this week are new releases from Joseph Arthur, The Black Dahlia Murder, Black Sabbath, Boards of Canada, Marc Cary, Children of Bodom, Davell Crawford, Jason Isbell, Chrisette Michele, Aoife O'Donovan, Gary Peacock and Marilyn Crispell, Carmen Souza and Hezekiah Walker.

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Kansas City Click: The Riot Room hosts Lord Huron on Monday.

David Ramirez appears at the Czar Bar on Tuesday.

David Nail sings at Kanza Hall on Wednesday.

Gee Watts hits the Czar Bar on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Mulgrew Miller, 1955-2013

The day after I learned that Mulgrew Miller had died, I shuffled into my museum of dead people to inspect my collection of the pianist's works. I uncovered a ticket stub for a 1994 concert at the Folly Theater titled "Four For Phineas."  

The four-piano tribute to Phineas Newborn, Jr., included Miller and some combination of James Williams, John Hicks, Harold Mabern, Geoff Keezer and Donald Brown.  (I want to say that Jay McShann was also in the mix as a special guest artist, but a cursory search doesn't provide any evidence of that fine concept.)

The stub indicates that I paid $17.50 to attend the Sunday afternoon show.  The relatively expensive ticket reflects the tenor of those times.  Miller was a heavily promoted artist signed to a major label.   The accepted wisdom was that he'd become a major star.  The idea seems hopelessly quaint today.  The ongoing marginalization of jazz began to accelerate in the mid-'90s.  The 1994 concert might have represented Miller's commercial- if not artistic- pinnacle.

Although I enjoy his recent work for MaxJazz, I find myself drawn to Miller's material for Landmark.  (That's Kenny Garrett on sax.) 

In today's harsh climate, I wonder what kind of career awaits aspiring tradition-minded jazz pianists.  Maybe the best a young artist in possession of a portion of Miller's bluesy earthiness and sparkling intelligence could hope for is a handful of regular gigs at an upscale piano bar and a teaching position at a local college.  There's no shame in that prospect, of course, but the era in which guys could fill large concert halls playing Phineas Newborn selections in support of a major label album are long gone.


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Clarence Burke, Jr. of the Five Stairsteps has died.

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The schadenfreude that's greeted the announcement of the cancelation of Kanrocksas is discouraging.  What's with all the bitter people who can't stand the idea of others having a good time?

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Beau Bledsoe offers a fascinating peek behind the curtains at Fado Novato's successful fundraising campaign to finance an extended trip to Portugal.

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Tech N9ne is featured on Wrekonize's "Freak".

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Hodgy Beats' "Years" is impressive.  RIYL: OFWGKTA, alcohol, "Swimming Pools (Drank)."

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People continue to attempt to commiserate with me about my work at Rockfest.  They don't get it.  I relish the annual event.  Here's an anecdote from this year's edition of Rockfest.  As the Danish band Volbeat played a medley of Johnny Cash covers, I watched a pair of strangers bond over their NASCAR tattoos.  Witnessing the encounter filled me with joy. 

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: New Ear- Strangely Familiar at All Souls Unitarian Church and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

"We're in a spaceship here," composer Paul Rudy said as he pointed to the futuristic protuberance on the ceiling of the foyer of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.  "It's just masquerading as a museum." 

An audience of about 125 heard the world premiere of Rudy's "Martian Chronicles" on Friday, March 1.  Mark Southerland's saxophones and horn sculptures took the lead during the spacey piece as the members of New Ear provided accompaniment.  After I realized that the rudderless composition didn't have a determined destination I was able to enjoy the ride.  Only the repeated use of an irritating and incongruous vibraslap-style percussion effect interfered with the celestial journey.  (KCUR produced an excellent piece about "Martian Chronicles.")

The first half of New Ear's "Strangely Familiar" program across the street at All Souls Unitarian Church was even better.  Lawrence Figg's cello playing over the spectral prerecorded sounds on "fits + starts" clearly blew the minds of the stoned college-age kids seated near me.  Robert Pherigo's work on treated piano during " Still Sorrowing" blew my mind in turn.  Jan Faidley and Thomas Aber evoked the work of the World Saxophone Quartet on the Tim Berne-inspired "We Speak Etruscan."  Only a composition by Chong Kee Yong failed to delight me.  It sounded a riot in a yoga studio. 

The Kansas City Star published a proper review of Friday's concert.


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I reviewed a concert by 3 Doors Down, Daughtry and Aranda.

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I introduced selections by six locally-based artists on Friday's edition of KCUR's Up to Date. 

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"We had that Bannister Mall crackin'!"  Here's the video for Kutt Cahoun's "I Been Dope" from his new Black Gold album.

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Here's a four-minute promo video for Kanrocksas. 

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Van Cliburn has died.

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The openng segment of a new documentary about the Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin is amazing.

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Gionvanni Guidi's City of Broken Dreams seems promising.

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I listened to the new ambient album Selected Studies, Vol. 1 by Lloyd Cole (yes, that Lloyd Cole) and Hans-Joachim Roedelius as I read last night.  Thumbs up.

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: Bentcousin- Everybody's Got One

Everybody's Got One, the new six-song EP by Bentcousin, is a mess.  And I love it.  The bum notes and questionable production values make the British duo's ramshackle project all the more charming.

On the opening track "Bentpaperboy," Amelia Innit gently croons lines like "I never met a Catholic that I didn't like."  The ingratiating acoustic piece recalls the dry wit of Belle and Sebastian.  Amelia's twin brother Pat admires a girl named "Susan" and "my favorite LP" on the chaotic rocker "Slade."  "I Quit You" is a feisty duet in which a modern-day Eliza Doolittle asserts her independence.  "You went out drinking when she had the flu!" Amelia sneers on the delightful "I Think I Like Your Girlfriend More Than You".

The modest Everybody's Got One is precisely the type of hidden gem that replenishes my faith in the giddy power of popular music.  I recommend it to aficionados of Billy Bragg's love songs, the lighthearted side of the Mekons and the enthusiasm of Frank Turner.  Everybody's Got One will be released in February.


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Cowboy Indian Bear's new four-song single is very impressive.

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"I'm Hustin'" is the latest video from Rich the Factor.  (Tip via Tony's Kansas City.)

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B-Sides And Confessions Vol. 2, the new album by former Kansas Citian Jeff Black, was released on January 15.

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Here's a tease from Kanrocksas.

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My friend K.S. turned me on to Wichita's The Travel Guide.  RIYL: Indie kids bashing away in a basement.

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Jimi in Salina.

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Steve Pick's insightful review of Jimbo Mathus' White Buffalo suggests that the album resembles an inferior version of Exile On Main Street.  It reminds me of a Joe Grushecky album.  That's a good thing.

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I first heard the Eddie Fisher Quintet's The Third Cup this week.  RIYL: Wes, Grant and George.  (Via Euclid Records.)

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ASAP Rocky's LoveLiveA$AP is the most immediately sonically rewarding album I've heard in a while.  It's a fun listen but I'm not convinced that I'll still be enamored of it come December.

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I've been riding shotgun on the Emily Armstrong bandwagon for about a year.  Hear what she does with "Gone Away".

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Big Jay McNeely is alive!

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Yes, I'm a hypocrite.  I'm offended by this promotional video for Jazz Fest.  It seems wrong to use a brass band's music to pitch the likes of Billy Joel, Fleetood Mac, DMB and Maroon 5.

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Forget Dirty Projectors- Bahamas is where it's at.  This stunning live performance is RIYL Alan Jackson, Dirty Projectors, Bruce Springsteen.

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Here's the sonic representation of my Facebook news feed.  (Not that I didn't sign up for it…)

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)