Pop Life

Even though I acknowledged the awful news in April, I hadn’t shed a single tear over Prince’s death until last night.   The magnitude of the loss finally hit home as the There Stands the Glass favorite Bilal delivered a libidinous version “The Beautiful Ones” on the broadcast of the BET Awards.  By performing with lust rather than grief, Bilal’s effort was the only one of the many tributes I’ve seen in the last ten weeks that caused me to crack.


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I reviewed a free Public Enemy concert.

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I reviewed a concert by Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo.

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I discussed the late Little Hatch and the return of the Kansas City Kansas Street Blues Festival on KCUR last week.

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I scrutinize a pet peeve at Plastic Sax.

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Ralph Stanley has died.  I last saw the pioneer at Starlight Theatre in 2002. 

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Chips Moman has died.

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Amjad Sabri was murdered.

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Freddy Powers has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

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Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns has died.

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Bernie Worrell has died.

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Katy Guillen & the Girls’ Heavy Days is RIYL: Mountain, boogie, Foghat.

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Dâm-Funk’s entry for the !Z7 label’s DJ-Kicks series is my jam.  George Clinton, DJ mix tapes, Reggie B.

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The New Breed, the new album by the Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker is RIYL: the Lounge Lizards, anti-jazz, Marc Ribot.

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DJ Shadow's The Mountain Will Fall doesn’t disappoint.  RIYL: possibilities, Pimp C, space.

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It seems quaint that albums like the Bill Charlap Trio’s Notes From New York are still being made.  I’m charmed in spite of myself.  RIYL: Barry Harris, anachronisms, Tommy Flanagan.

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YG’s Still Brazy is RIYL: Dr. Dre, 1993, Tha Dogg Pound.  Here’s ”Gimmie Got Shot”.

(Original image of Sheila E. by There Stands the Glass.)

Way Down Yonder On the Chattahoochee

One of the most common transgressions made by music fans is judging a genre by the people it supposedly attracts.

I encounter it daily:  Country fans are drunken homophobes.  Only elitists listen to jazz.  Hip-hop heads are illiterate. 

I’m also guilty of making rash generalizations.  Thankfully, I caught myself before I responded to a friend's direct provocation regarding Sturgill Simpson (a musician I appreciate).  I was going to suggest that most members of the audience at Simpson's concert in Kansas City last week were status-conscious bandwagoners who wouldn’t be caught dead at an Alan Jackson show.

That wouldn't have been nice.

Jackson's music may not be worthy of consideration by Pitchfork obsessives, but it will always have a place in my life.  In the parlance of 2015, plenty of the songs on his new album Angels and Alcohol are “basic.”  I'm not bothered that the album demonstrates no musical or ideological progression.

“Mexico, Tequila and Me” may be just as tired as its title suggests, but I genuinely appreciate the cliches of “Jim and Jack and Hank.”  I also think that the spiritual cheese of “God Paints” is delicious.  And the title track- easily the album’s best song- hits close to home.

Now, for the rest of the story: I wore a pink shirt to an Alan Jackson concert in 2007.  Harassed for hours by drunken homophobes, I thought I’d be killed in Bonner Springs, Kansas.


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I reviewed Tech N9ne’s Special Effects for KCUR.

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I reviewed a concert by Keith Sweat and Blackstreet featuring Teddy Riley and Dave Hollister.

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I reviewed a concert by the Dave Matthews Band.

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A segment about Jeff Black is among the recent Local Listen items I've contributed to KCUR.

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Shades of Jade’s new single ”That One” is RIYL: Brian McKnight, Kansas City neo-soul, Bilal.

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Bummer’s punishing Spank EP is shockingly great.  The Olathe band’s new EP is RIYL: Paw, blind rage, Tad.

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The Kansas City Star recalls the infamous Ozark Music Festival of 1974.

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Joan Sebastian has died.  I reviewed his concert at Cricket Wireless Amphitheater last year.

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Max Richter’s Sleep is “an eight-hour lullaby.”

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Man Plans God Laughs is the title track of Public Enemy’s new album.

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Heads of State’s Search For Peace is a standard-issue post-Coltrane jazz date.  RIYL: Gary Bartz, old school jazz, Larry Willis.

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”God bless Rod Stewart.”

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

It Serves Me Right To Suffer

News of Jimmy Dawkins' passing caused me to reflect on my relationship with the blues. 

During the last big blues scare I avidly consumed the music.  I frequented gigs by the likes of Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker, Little Hatch and Jimmy Rogers and avidly kept tabs on the new release schedules of labels like Delmark Records. 

Money is tighter these days and I have to deal with the real-life challenges faced by most adults.  While I have plenty of reasons to embrace the blues, the form no longer holds much interest for me.  Am I a loathsome bandwagon-jumper or has the quality of the blues scene diminished?

Soul and R&B-oriented acts like Linda Shell & Her Blues Thang and Bobby Rush excepted, I'm not inclined to spend a Friday night at a club listening to a blues band.  Even acclaimed outliers don't stir me.  Most of the blues I listen to for pleasure was recorded before 1970.

It serves me right to suffer.


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Dave Douglas reconfigured my DNA earlier this week.  Here's my review of his appearance at the Blue Room.

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Mac Lethal is in cranky old man mode on "Late 20's & Early 30's.  I like it, but I'll be even happier when he starts complaining about 1099s and mortgage deduction paperwork.)

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Here's an update on Kerwin Young's affiliation with Public Enemy.

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KJHK filmed an in-studio session by Fourth of July.

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Kvelertak is my favorite thing right now.

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I pray that I never outgrow my love for sleazy rock albums like Too High Too Kross by the Dirty Fences.

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This Is The End, Beautiful Friend is a set of the "silent final grooves of records" available at the Free Music Archive.  RIYL: vinyl, noise, mixtapes. 

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: Teena Marie- Beautiful

Two years after her premature passing in 2010, I continue to mourn Teena Marie.  The posthumous album Beautiful was released last week.  Rolling Stone provides the project's backstory. 

Beautiful is about what longtime fans might expect.  Late in her career, Marie wasn't attempting to replicate the upbeat funk of big hits like "Square Biz".  Instead, Beautiful contains mostly ruminative love songs.  Innocuous and unobtrusive but consistently pleasant, Beautiful would provide ideal background music at an upscale salon.

The two best tracks- "Rare Breed" and "Definition of Down"- don't match any of her career highlights, while the limpid "Carte Blanche" and "Wild Horses" should have been left in the can.  An embarrassing production choice spoils "Maria Bonita."

Completists won't regret the need to acquire Beautiful, but casual fans who already own a Marie compilation or a couple of her prime albums aren't missing out.


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Last weekend's performance by Julian Lage and Jorge Roeder at Yardley Hall is my concert to beat in 2013.  Here's my review.

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I reviewed Bloc Party's concert at Liberty Hall on Sunday.

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UMKC's Kerwin Young will be on hand when Public Enemy is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April.

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My new favorite time-suck is the archive of a defunct Midwestern music publication called The Note.  Check out the amateurish  advertisement for the 1988 Monsters of Rock tour.

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I'll stop listening to the "melo-death" of Aether Realm only after you pry the flanged mace from my cold, dead fingers.

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Pantha du Prince's new Elements of Light album is like a groovy Tubular Bells.  Here's a taste.

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Larry Rosen, co-founder GRP Records, explains how the promising concept of smooth jazz became a "sad joke".

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Mixed Blood Majority's new album is released today.  Watch Lazerbeak perform his magic here.

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When (my) worlds collide: Bargain Bin Blasphemy is hilarious.

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Kansas City Click: Gravity A headlines at the RecordBar on Tuesday.

The Kill Devil Club features Steve Lambert on Wednesday.

Inspectah Deck appears at the Riot Room on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)