Album Review: Sturgill Simpson- Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

I'm skeptical when people who wouldn't know Ray Price from Luke Bryan rave about a country artist.  Having been raised on albums by Waylon, Willie and Kris, I take it personally when jokers subvert those sounds to amuse people who look down on the form.  That's why I avoided Sturgill Simpson's fashionable Metamodern Sounds in Country Music for months.  I'm finally willing to admit that it's really good.  With lyrics that could have been written by Jimmie Dale Gilmore and production modeled on Honky Tonk Heroes, the album sends me back to my smoke-filled childhood home.


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I reviewed the Zombie Pub Crawl.

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I participated in a discussion about Kansas City's jazz scene on KCUR's Central Standard last week.

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D/Will and Stik Figa made a video for "Work".

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Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar are at their best on "Never Catch Me".

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Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood is my favorite jam band.  Juice is RIYL: Garage a Trois, outdoor festivals, Umphrey's McGee.

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It really goes without saying, but Prince's messy new Art Official Age contains about 20 minutes of brilliance.  RIYL: Controversy, freaks, Sign o' the Times.

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Yelawolf's "Till It's Gone" is one of my favorite songs of 2014.  RIYL: Lindsey Buckingham, classic rock, Tech N9ne.

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Roni Size is back.  His new album Take Kontrol is RIYL: 1997, video game soundtracks, Orbital.

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Jazz can be a chore.  It took four sessions for me to work my way through Joris Roelof's Aliens Deliberating.  RIYL: Eric Dolphy, nails on chalkboards, Ned Rothenberg.

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Everclear's spoof of U2's partnership with Apple is perfect.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Eric Benét at KC Live

I couldn't have imagined the sexually-charged mayhem I was about to experience when I entered Kemper Arena to see Marvin Gaye in 1983.  I've since been part of dozens of similarly fevered audiences.  It never gets old.  Sunday's free Eric Benét concert on the KC Live stage in the Power & Light District was one of the best of the type I've attended.  As Halle Berry's ex-husband crooned ballads like the sensitive "Sometimes I Cry" and the sultry "Chocolate Legs", many in the audience of 9,000 screamed deliriously.  While earsplitting, their shouts and the fine work of Benét's five-piece band competed with the canned music that blared from many of the adjacent taverns and restaurants, an inexcusable insult that's plagued concerts in the district since 2008.


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I reviewed the Preservation Hall Jazz Band's concert at the VooDoo Lounge.

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In the previous There Stands the Glass post I lamented the lack of truly great new music.  The Architects may have rescued me.  At first listen, Border Wars (Episode II) sounds magnificent.  RIYL: The Clash, rock and roll lifers, Sham 69.

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Here's Ces Cru's amusing video for "Jimmy Stewart".

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Lou Whitney, one of the greatest living Missourians, is ailing.  Here's 75 minutes of prime Morells.  (Via D.W.)

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The video for Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood's "Juicy Lucy" is solid.

(Original images by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Aloe Blacc- Lift Your Spirit

It happened as I watched the NFL draft earlier this month.  "I'm the Man," the ubiquitous hit by Aloe Blacc, was used as bumper music during the broadcast.  Already weary of the song, I began to actively loathe "I'm the Man." 

Burnout was inevitable.  The song's blockbuster potential was immediately apparent when it popped up in December.  But what about the rest of Blacc's album Lift Your Spirit?

Well, it's more of the same.  The third track is a version of "Wake Me Up," the inescapable Avicii hit featuring Blacc's vocal.  The shameless hooks of "Here Today" and "Can You Do This" make the biggest hits of One Direction and Ariana Grande seem likes studies in subtlety.

"Owe It All," the closing track that sounds like a late period gem by the Four Tops, is one of two or three selections that successfully seduced me.  I have little doubt that several additional songs will win me over when I see Blacc perform.

I have nothing against blatantly commercial music, but Lift Your Spirit resembles a collection of expertly crafted advertising jingles.


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I reviewed Tony Bennett's concert at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on Friday.

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Sunstroke?  I saw ghosts at Union Station yesterday.

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My Brothers & Sisters' "How To Move What To Wear" was my pick of the week for KCUR's Local Listen segment.  It's my favorite song from the band's Violet Music: Volume One album.

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Metatone's video for "When the Dreams Come" is excellent.

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The trailer for a 1974 music festival in Sedalia is hilarious.

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A recent edition of Barry Lee's Signal To Noise program on KKFI featured music from the collection of the late Anne Winter.  (Via Tim Finn.)

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Herb Jeffries, "the bronze buckaroo," has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

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Motivational Jumpsuit, the latest outburst from Guided By Voices, is unaccountably excellent.  RIYL: Rubber Soul, weirdos, Robyn Hitchcock.

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Medeski Martin & Wood's collaboration with Nels Cline on The Woodstock Sessions, Vol. 2 contains plenty of fine skronk, funk and noodling. Here's a track.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)