Middle Muddle

I spent seven hours at the two-day Middle of the Map festival last weekend.  Much of it wasn’t time well spent.  A cover band's faithful back-to-back interpretations of “Helter Skelter” and “Love Shack" forced me to question the curation of the ninth edition of the event.

The headlining acts at the Uptown Theater on Friday were particularly dissatisfactory.  For an alleged industry plant, Clairo was shockingly lackluster in her Kansas City debut.  She performed prosaic pop with the reticence of an unwilling participant in a high school talent show.  Clairo’s tourmate Beabadoobee was similarly stilted in a set that sounded like Kidz Bop interpreting Pavement.  Lindsey Jordan of Snail Mail is a major talent, but she made it explicitly clear that she wasn’t happy to be there.  A drab collaboration between Clairo and Snail Mail on “Speaking Terms” was the ostensible highlight of the evening.  The giddy teens in the audience of about 600 deserved much better.

I would have stayed home if I had known that the clutch of singer-songwriters featured at Songbird Cafe were going to be my favorite component of Saturday’s day parties.  I defaulted to the folkies when few of the rock bands at the three other venues proved worthwhile.

Una Walkenhorst was a revelation.  I’d written her off after witnessing a dismal set a couple years ago.  Walkenhorst made huge strides while I wasn’t paying attention.  She may be the best folk artist to emerge from Kansas City since Iris Dement played open mic sessions in the 1990s.  Walkenhorst justly heaped praise on the precocious teen Jo MacKenzie: “she’s gonna be selling places out soon, so you’d better get on that train early.”  She may be right.  I detect similarities between MacKenzie and Addie Sartino of the on-the-cusp Kansas City indie-pop band the Greeting Committee.

I expected bracing blues-rock at the debut of Womanish Girl.  The duo of guitarist Katy Guillen and drummer Stephanie Williams didn't disappoint.  I left during the two-hour break between the festival’s day parties and the evening sessions.  A friend’s invitation to join him at the Tyler, the Creator concert in Independence didn’t work out, but the momentary prospect of seeing a musical giant made the idea of returning to the unassuming festival untenable.

(Original image of Jo MacKenzie by There Stands the Glass.)

I Got a Rock

At a moment in which the world’s most lauded rock band can’t be bothered to play rock music, I suppose it’s not surprising that the form will make a poor showing in my year-end rankings.  It’s not as if I’m not trying, but I fail to be moved by most rock recordings.  The most exciting music is being made elsewhere.  A few 2018 rock releases that had yet to receive mention at There Stands the Glass are ranked in order of my preference below.

Shame- Songs of Praise
It’s taken me all year to grasp Shame’s rowdy exceptionalism.  Here’s “One Rizla”.

Art Brut- Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!
Eddie Argos is still the funniest man in rock.  The cautionary “Hospital!” is among the songs that compel me to laugh out loud.

Parquet Courts- Wide Awake!
Garage rock done right.  “Almost Had to Start a Fight/In and Out of Patience” is close to perfect.

Drug Church- Cheer
I’m not embarrassed to admit that I’ve always liked Puddle of Mudd.  Drug Church combine the Kansas City band’s commercial post-grunge with the geeky mania associated with Weezer.  Here’s “Unlicensed Hall Monitor”.

Snail Mail- Lush
Lindsey Jordan is a sad sack.  I ordinarily don’t have much patience for whiners (unless I’m the one doing the fussing), but I can relate to her bad mood.  “Heat Wave” is among the songs that kinda/sorta rock.

Idles- Joy as an Act of Resistance
The breathless praise heaped on this entirely ordinary album is a classic case of embarrassing group-think.  Blood-and-thunder songs like “Colossus” are merely adequate.

Oh, and that new 1975 album?  While it has its moments, I continue to maintain that the British band sounds like One Direction in the midst of a month-long bender.


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I yacked about a few of my best-music-of-2018 selections on 90.9 The Bridge’s Eight One Sixty last week.

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I ponder Pat Metheny’s de facto boycott of Kansas City at Plastic Sax.

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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)