Review: Beaten By Them- Invisible Origins

Video of Beaten By Them recording sessions from 2009.

Rock and roll isn't rocket science. In the case of Beaten By Them, however, it actually is. Two of the band's members met while working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Along with three band mates, the pair make foreboding but never sterile instrumental music. Imagine a heavier version of the Feelies or a really cranky Brian Eno. The prominent use of a cello allows even the most industrial moments to radiate a sort of classical aesthetic. The forthcoming album Invisible Origins would provide an ideal soundtrack for a remake of the lonely deep space film Silent Running. A free download of Signs of Life, a 2007 title originally released by Thrill Jockey, is available at Bandcamp.

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Thinking about Beaten By Them compelled me to listen to "Hocus Pocus" for the first time in years.

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"KC icon" Tony DiPardo has died.

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Charlie Louvin has died. Here's a photo I took of Louvin at the Grand Emporium in 2007.

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Bobby Poe has died.

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A video of Mac Lethal speed-rapping has racked up 600,000 views in five days. I don't get it. He uploaded Dazed and Confused (in 120 seconds) this morning.

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Another new song by True Womanhood is available at RCRD LBL.

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Kansas City Click: Trouser Mouse hosts Mary Bridget Davies on Thursday.

Jim Mair appears Friday at Cascone's in Overland Park.

Radu Lupu performs Saturday at the Folly Theater.

The Wild Women of Kansas City return to Jardine's on Sunday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: Ozzy at the Sprint Center

I was kicking myself for failing to secure a ticket to Joshua Bell's concert Saturday when I caught wind of a special day-of-show deal at the Sprint Center. Twenty dollars for an Ozzy Osbourne ticket? Done! So much for my backup plan of spending just five dollars to catch Kid Sister and Hearts of Darkness at the VooDoo.

As the photo indicates, sometimes you get what you pay for. I initially felt as if I was watching people watch a concert. The laughably awful sound for Slash's opening set had me considering abandoning the arena. I'm glad I didn't bail. How I love Ozzy! As the proper reviews by Joel Francis and Peter Rugg indicate, it would have been impossible not to have a good time as Ozzy stumbled around the stage.

Even from the cheap seats.

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Here's my review of the opening night of the Jazz Winterlude festival.

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I held a pity party for myself Friday night. Oh Mercy provided the soundtrack. I'd intended to compound my misery by playing a third-tier Bob Dylan outing at full volume. It didn't go as planned. Those songs are stunning. The conventional wisdom is that Dylan's career renaissance began with 1997's Time Out of Mind. That's simply wrong.

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I enjoyed reading this profile of opera singer Joyce Castle. Here's a preview of her performance Wednesday at the Lied Center.

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I'm going through some stuff right now, so I'm especially susceptible to disposable pop music. That's a fancy way of admitting that I love The Script's "For the First Time".

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I wish Nelly had spent thirty seconds longer on the words to the chorus of his most recent hit.

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Nashville recording engineer Jim Williamson has died.

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Kansas City Click: Miranda Cosgrove appears at the Uptown Theater on Monday.

The Garrett Nordstrom Situation perform Tuesday at Jazz in midtown.

Diverse, Les Izmore and Reach will "Check the Rhime" Wednesday at the Blue Room.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Don't Waste Your Time Waiting

Got a head-on collision smashin' in my guts, man.

One of my best friends is dying. I first visited his deathbed last night. Light classical music was being pumped into his room as painkilling drugs coursed through his veins. An ex-wife and I agreed that the combination wasn't the least bit appropriate. I returned today with a few albums by the Beatles and Bruce Springsteen, his two favorite artists. Even as the eyes of my son's friend lit up, the man's mother immediately disparaged Bruce. Damn it. I'm counting on you, friends. Please do right by me when the time comes.

I believe in the love that you gave me.

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Tim Finn's implication that I'm "well-adjusted and loved" in his essay on Ozzy Osbourne came at precisely the right time.

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I reviewed There Are Rules, the new Get Up Kids album.

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"I've forgotten more about punk rock than you'll ever know." That's right- I'm the token crusty old guy at Warped Tour every year. Of the bands announced for the 2011 tour, I possess a measure of enthusiasm for the Aggrolites, Foxy Shazam, MC Lars and Grieves with Budo.

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Don Kirshner introduced me to the Ramones. Kirshner died January 17.

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Kansas City Click: The Jazz Winterlude festival began Thursday and concludes with a Sunday brunch.

Kid Sister and Hearts of Darkness appear Saturday at the VooDoo.

Sonic Spectrum presents a tribute to David Bowie at the Record Bar on Sunday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: Social Distortion- Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes

Stream of "Machine Gun Blues" at YouTube.

If you babble long enough you'll eventually say something smart or funny. Accordingly, I've coined a few memorable phrases. One of my favorites came to me during a mid-'80s performance by zydeco musician Beau Jocque.

"He only knows one song," I yelled to a friend. "But it's a good one."

That's how I feel about Social Distortion. I love the new album Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes. I loved the aging punk band's previous recording and I'll almost certainly love the next one. I suppose you could characterize Social D's formulaic approach as a predictable rut. I prefer to think of it as a comfortable groove.

Let other artists innovate. I love Social Distortion's song just the way it is.

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I reviewed Saturday's performance by Tech N9ne.

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Here's a new song from Mac Lethal.

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Here's low-budget video for the Lonely Hearts Club's "Sweet."

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I have mixed feelings about the first single from The Streets' "fifth and final album." Here's the video.

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Dude!

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Kansas City Click: Hey everybody, B.B. KIng is in town! He appears Tuesday at the Independence Events Center.

Ruthie Foster plays Knuckleheads on Wednesday.

Clint Ashlock's New Jazz Order featuring Megan Birdsall opens the Jazz Winterlude festival on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: Abraham Inc.- Tweet Tweet

You can't force the funk.

I could happily listen to Fred Wesley play trombone all day. Unfortunately, the work of Wesley and the rest of the horn section are the only elements of Tweet Tweet I can fully endorse. On paper the 2010 album by Abraham Inc., an ambitious collective that includes Wesley and clarinetist David Krakauer, should result in "an all-out klezmer-funk dance party."

Instead, the result is the sort of musical novelty regularly featured at NPR. Here's the inevitable All Things Considered interview.

While I fully endorse the concept and intent behind Abraham Inc., it sounds like the self-conscious musicians are trying way too hard to merge klezmer, funk and hip hop. And the rapping is often embarrassing. Perhaps not coincidentally, the klezmer-based "Baleboste" is the album's best song. Abraham Inc. has dates booked in locations ranging from Iowa to France during the next twelve weeks. I suspect that many of my objections would evaporate in a live setting.

Good intentions don't always make for great music. Abraham Inc. is attempting to free my mind, but my ass won't follow.

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I reviewed the debut album of the People's Liberation Big Band of Kansas City for Ink.

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Kiss Kiss Kiss, the free new Kid Sister mixtape, is a lot of fun.

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I monitored Tuesday's NEA Jazz Master induction ceremony on Ustream. The view count never surpassed 575. A friend informed me that Wednesday's Joe Lovano Ustream broadcast was watched by less than 200. Ouch. As I type these words, 516 people are tuned into a hummingbird nest cam on Ustream.

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A new ECM label collaboration between Dino Saluzzi, Gidon Kremer and Andrei Pushkarev is right up my alley. Listen to excerpts here.

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The New York Times' obituary of Jack Towers provides a lot of back story on Ellington's (in)famous Fargo recording.

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Margaret Whiting has died.

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I realize I dissed Grace Potter's most recent album in this space, but I never tire of watching videos of her live performances. She's captured here having fun with her band on New Year's Eve. I dig her wig.

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Kansas City Click: Andre Watts performs with the Kansas City Symphony Friday and Saturday at the Lyric Theater.

Earl Klugh plays guitar at the Folly Theater on Saturday.

Shay Estes collaborates with Mark Lowrey Sunday at Jardine's.

Review: Kasey Anderson- Heart of a Dog

Video stream of Kasey Anderson performing at SXSW in 2010.

Another album that serves as a de facto tribute to Exile On Main Street? No thanks.

That was my initial reaction to Heart of a Dog, the new release by Kasey Anderson. Songs like "Mercy" and "My Baby's a Wrecking Ball" are little more than homages to Keith Richards. Thing is- they're really good homages. And Heart of a Dog feels entirely honest. Contemporary references, such as a mention of Sharon Jones, show that Anderson isn't living in the past. And the album closes with a rough-and-tumble version of the English Beat's "Save It For Later."

Heart of a Dog obviously isn't a ground-breaking album. But the next time I'm in the mood to hear authentic, no-frills rock'n'roll, I just might turn to Heart of a Dog instead of Gaslight Anthem, Green On Red, Lucero or out-takes from Darkness On the Edge of Town.

(A free download of "Mercy" is available at Twangville.)

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My first impression of "H.A.M."? The mashup of Teflon Don and Kanye's MBDTF is disappointing mixtape fodder.

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I'd considered featuring the late Mick Karn in an elaborate post, but I just couldn't put it together. I'd seen him perform just once, and my memory of that event is sketchy. Karn died January 4.

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Pyramidwest provides a profile of Ron Ron.

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Joe "Crunchy" Espinosa of Ozomatli has died.

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I'll be surprised if Joe Lovano's Bird Songs isn't in my year-end Top Ten list.

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Kansas City Click: New Jazz Order returns to Harling's on Tuesday.

You'd have to pay me to attend Wednesday's Koo Koo Kangaroo at the Record Bar.

Rhonda Vincent is featured at the recently reactivated Northtown Opry on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Charles Fambrough, 1950-2011

After naming Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green's thorny Apex my third favorite album of 2010, I'm hardly in a position to wax nostalgic for the era in which serious jazz could also double as pleasant background music. Yet I pine for the time in which giants like Herbie Hancock made high art that was also accessible and melodic. Bobby Watson is one of the few remaining jazz men in that tradition, and with the January 1 death of Charles Fambrough, that select group became even smaller. (Fambrough and Watson, perhaps not coincidentally, were band mates in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.) The Philadelphia bassist's 1995 album Keeper of the Flame is smooth but never trite. He'll be missed.

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Beatle Bob is interviewed about his quasi-Grammy nomination. (Via the Riverfront Times.)

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Brian Rust has died. (Tip via BGO.)

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The Wakarusa lineup for 2011 was announced today. My favorite acts at this year's festival are My Morning Jacket, Sharon Jones, Toots & the Maytals, Lucero, Ryan Bingham, Budos Band, Grupo Fantasma and Carrie Rodriguez. (Tip via CH.)

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Kansas City Click: Red Line Chemistry perform an acoustic show at Crosstown Station on Friday.

Easton Corbin plays the Beaumont on Saturday.

The Dixieland sound of the New Red Onion Jazz Babies will fill Jardine's on Sunday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Gerry Rafferty, 1947-2011

Stream of The Humblebums' "Rick Rack" at YouTube

Gerry Rafferty died yesterday. This remarkable compilation covers several phases of his eclectic career. On Humblebums songs like "Rick Rack" he sounds like a British version of Harry Nilsson. His early solo work resembles James Taylor. Steeler's Wheel's big hit continues to be regularly mistaken for Bob Dylan. Rafferty's later solo material possesses the post-Beatles air of George Harrison and Jeff Lynne. It's all highly enjoyable. I admire Rafferty's resourceful malleability. And "Baker Street," of course, is one of those inescapable era-defining hits.

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I've always liked The Damnwells. Here's a no-budget video for its new song.

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A new song from True Womanhood features the sound of a tack piano.

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Here's the first video from the forthcoming album from Doomtree's Sims.

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R. Kelly is in Jackie Wilson mode for much of his new album. Here's the video for the lead single.

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Kansas City Click: The Grand Marquis perform at 75th Street Brewery on Wednesday.

Guitarist Will Matthews plays at Chaz on Thursday.

Review: Matthew Dunehoo at the Record Bar

That yelp!

Matt Dunehoo's vocal affectation Saturday at the Record Bar immediately brought another Kansas City-area rocker to mind. Bob Walkenhorst of The Rainmakers often employs exactly the same mannerism. The commonality made me realize that Dunehoo- best known for his work with Doris Henson and Baby Teardrops- is to 2011 what Bob Walkenhorst was to 1986.

Both men are handsome, charismatic Midwesterners, but where Dunehoo might have learned to yelp while listening to David Byrne, Walkenhorst's version is probably inspired by Little Richard.

No one I spoke to Saturday at the Record Bar appreciated my observation. My youthful friends probably think of Walkenhorst as that gray-haired dude who performs weekly folk matinees for people in their 40s and 50s. They might not realize that The Rainmakers were genuine international pop stars for a year or two. Here they are on Top of the Pops. That clip may look and sound dated, but Walkenhorst's band represented a refreshing alternative to the era's "corporate rock" acts like Journey, REO Speedwagon and Styx.

Dunehoo was excellent on Saturday. I hope he achieves at least a Rainmakers-level of success. That might help ensure that he'll end up playing popular weekly matinees for old people in a quarter century. I can hardly wait.

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I made an animated short about jazz promotion in Kansas City.

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Credentials Hip Hop lists its Top 20 Kansas City Hip Hop Albums of 2010. I'll confess to being completely oblivious to of a few of the picks.

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M.I.A.'s new "Vicki Leekx" mixtape is extremely entertaining. Just Google it.

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Scary Monsters was the first David Bowie album I bought as a new release. Here's a set of alternative takes from those sessions. (Via Largehearted Boy.)

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Demencha conducts an awkward but informative interview with Ron Ron.

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Lina Romay has died.

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Kansas City Click: Stan Kessler leads Monday's jam session at the Blue Room.

Chad Bryan of The Ants plays Tuesday at the Record Bar.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)