The Ten Best Kansas City Music Videos of 2017

I was goaded into pledging to compile a list of my favorite locally sourced music videos of 2017 when I was a guest on Chris Haghirian’s Eight One Sixty radio show earlier this month.  I’m a man of my word.

1.
Bummer- "Freedom Cobra"
I’ll always love rock that’s big, dumb and dangerous. 

2.
Isaac Cates & Ordained- "Hold On"
Harrowing images are paired with unshakable faith.

3.
Ssion- "Comeback"
Just a wee bit over-the-top.

4.
Kawehi- "(Not Another Lame) Fight Song"
A not-so-casual stroll down Massachusetts Street.

5.
Samantha Fish- "Chills & Fever"
Cold sweat.

6.
Stik Figa- "Cold"
Top City in slo-mo.

7.
Pistol Pete- "Konichiwa"
Hijinks at an east side tavern.

8.
Wick & the Tricks- "Tough As Nails"
Party time.

9.
Aaron Alexander- "Faces"
Post-“Get Out” anxiety.

10.
Hermon Mehari- "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face"
Mehari is one of the few Kansas City jazz musicians who bothers to use visuals to promote his work.

A Besieged Rhythm Nation

Curious pacing and lousy sound didn’t prevent me from thoroughly enjoying Janet Jackson’s appearance at the Sprint Center on Thursday.  Frontloaded with most of her biggest hits, the concert often resembled a low-budget 1980s music video.

I was unable to ascertain if Jackson’s singing was canned, partly because most of the rhapsodic women who surrounded me in the cheap seats were superior vocalists.  And that was the point of the concert- the real action took place in the stands, where thousands of my valiantly optimistic comrades continued to embrace the tragically neglected message of Jackson’s 1989 hit:

With music by our side to break the color lines

Let's work together to improve our way of life

Join voices in protest to social injustice...

We are a part of the rhythm nation.

It may not have been the show I wanted, but it was the show I needed.  Here’s Tim Finn’s review.


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I reviewed Queens of the Stone Age’s concert at Crossroads KC for The Kansas City Star.

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My review of Hudson’s concert at Yardley Hall is at Plastic Sax.

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I named Roman Numerals KCUR’s Band of the Week.

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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

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Sign of the times: I listened to Memento Mori, the impressive new album by the Kansas City rapper Aaron Alexander, before I auditioned the Tech N9ne album that was also released last week.  RIYL: J. Cole, potential, Schoolboy Q.  Here’s ”Faces”.

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I’m not credited on the compelling piece, but my enthusiastic tip resulted in KCUR’s Story of the Song segment about Isaac Cates and Ordained’s rendition of “Hold On (Just a Little While Longer).”

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I hear St. Vincent’s Masseduction as an Adrian Belew-era King Crimson album.  Here’s ”Los Ageless”.

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If Raymond Scott, Fats Waller and Frank Zappa collaborated on a Brazilian jazz album in a celestial afterlife, their collusion might sound something like Hermeto Pascoal’s kooky No Mudo dos Sons.

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Miley Cyrus has a magnificent voice and a free spirit.  I won’t be surprised if her name eventually appears on one of my year-end album lists.  Moments of Younger Now floor me, but most of the good ideas aren’t fully realized.  RIYL: K.D. Lang, nice tries, Chris Isaak.  ”Week Without You” is the album’s best song.

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Led Zeppelin’s legacy is enhanced by the high quality of each new solo endeavor by Robert Plant.  Carry Fire is RIYL John Renbourn, aging gracefully, Fairport Convention.  Here’s “The May Queen”.

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Marquise Knox’s live Black and Blue is a fine modern blues album.

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King Krule prattles like a dazed combination of Linton Kwesi Johnson, Allen Ginsberg and John Cooper Clarke on The Ooz.  (That’s a compliment.)  RIYL: sizzurp, DJ Screw, quaaludes.  ”Half Man Half Shark” may be the album’s least interesting song.

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Oh snap!  Every line of Alan Jackson’s new single ”The Older I Get” rings devastatingly true.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Pure Disgust at the Encore Room

I was out for blood on Wednesday.  Not having attended a proper all-ages punk event since last summer, I wanted to taste danger and smell teen spirit at the show at the Encore Room headlined by the consequential Washington D.C. based hardcore band Pure Disgust. 

During its best moments, the abrasive jamboree looked and sound a lot like this. Shuttlecock documented the evening with a photo set.

After paying the $8 cover charge, I joined a distressingly meager audience of about 75 (including the members of the five bands and their significant others) as Agent made a racket on the low-slung stage of the venue adjacent to the Uptown Theater.  The band’s defiant slovenliness and the blood smeared on the face of the front man put me in mind of Sex Pistols.  The amateurish insolence of The Drippies evoked Sorry Ma-era the Replacements.

Incomprehensibly loud, Blindside’s set sounded like a plague of locusts descending on a bowling alley.  With my ears blown out by Blindside, I only managed to track Pure Disgust’s surprisingly nimble rhythm section during the quintet’s exciting but abrupt set.


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I yakked about Isaac Cates & Ordained on KCUR yesterday.

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My selections are among The Kansas City Star’s compilation of Top Albums of 2016 lists.

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I previewed Andy McKee’s concert at the Bottleneck for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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I reviewed a concert by the Floozies, Autograf and Linear Symmetry in December. 

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I felt thousands of brain cells dying horrible deaths as I listened to Chief Keef’s Two Zero One Seven- and I enjoyed the sensation.  I won’t argue with anyone who insists that the first important rap mixtape of 2017 is infantile trash, but a willingness to get stupid has long been an integral component of the form’s history.

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The late George Michael was the Justin Timberlake of the late 1980s.  The pop star’s unexpectedly wonderful album Faith received an inordinate amount of spins in my home in 1987 and 1988.

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The jazz fusion giant Alphonse Mouzon has died.

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Bobby Previte’s Mass is recommended if you like Bill Laswell, noble but failed experiments, Black Sabbath.

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I like what J. Cole is trying to do.  I just wish he did it better.  4 Your Eyez Only is RIYL thoughful hip-hop, Big Sean, maudlin raps.

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Quality control is an issue on Whale Mafi 2, Rich the Factor’s fifth album in nine months.

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Kindred the Family Soul’s Legacy of Love is RIYL the Isley Brothers, love, Ashford & Simpson.

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Hey!  Van Der Graaf Generation releaseed a new album last year.  RIYL: Soft Machine, lovable geezers, Kevin Ayers.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: Tamela Mann at the Folly Theater

For a sanctified second on Saturday, the Holy Spirit seemed to roll through the Folly Theater.  A member of Isaac Cates & Ordained stepped to the front of the stage and began to roar with a voice that belied her small frame.

The sound issues that plagued the concert momentarily dissipated.  Taken aback by the ferocious power of their colleague's conviction, several members of the choir doubled over in celebratory shock.  A significant portion of the audience of approximately 700 jumped to their feet.  I was similarly overcome. Tears flowed down my cheeks.

It was the highlight of a night of rapturous peaks and scandalously disappointing lows.  The concert was part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City's annual celebration of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Tickets were $16.

The evening got off to a rough start as the opening remarks of Mia Ramsey- a woman who proved to be an excellent master of ceremonies- were inaudible.   Patrons of events at the Folly Theater can usually count on the opportunity to bask in the venue's pristine acoustics.  The sound was disastrous Saturday.  If the sonic technicians were attempting to recreate the crackly and distorted sound of a 1950's field recording of a tent revival, well, they succeeded.

A brief opening appearance by Shanice and Maurice Hayes was a fiasco.  Their prerecorded backing tracks were a muddle.  The father and daughter had one semi-functional microphone between them.  What a shame.  Isaac Cates & Ordained overcame the sonic debacle through sheer talent (and a possible act of God). 

David Mann, the husband of the celebrated actress and gospel star Tamela Mann, wasn't about to leave the fate of his wife's headlining performance in God's hands.

"I want to make sure you get the real Tamela Mann," David Mann told the audience as the sound was tested.

The precautionary work didn't pay off.  Mann may have opened with "Best Days."  I'm not sure.   I couldn't hear her over the wildly distorted music.  A solid band was game, but Mann inexplicably insisted on a karaoke approach for selections including the Grammy-nominated and current chart-topping gospel hit "Take Me To the King".

Mann is an amazingly dynamic performer.  Yet she was on stage for just 45 minutes.  She spent part of that time indicating that she and her husband David were eager to sell "product" (her word) in the lobby.   This essential fan footage shot at the concert reveals the best and worst aspects of Mann's performance.  Mann dances as the house band fires on all cylinders.  Then she sneaks a peak at her watch at the 1:08 mark.

Clock-watching- even in a trying situation- is a bad look.


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Claire and the Crowded Stage made a video for "Technicolor".

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"Slidecam duet."  (Via Hey Cameraman.)

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Kansas City Click: Hermon Mehari and Mark Lowrey open the week by trading their regular nights at the Majestic.  The switch allows Mehari to play on Sunday while Lowrey will appear on Monday.

John Fullbright returns to Knuckleheads on Tuesday.

The RecordBar hosts Ryan Lee Toms on Wednesday.

Wayland plays the Riot Room on Thursday.

(Original image of Isaac Cates & Ordained by There Stands the Glass.)