Given that Cheating Kay, a relatively recent import from Columbia and hardly the best-known act in the metro area, scored an upset reader's poll victory in the Pitch's Best Of Kansas City issue, skeptics might judge the group guilty of the gerund that opens its name. But there was no cheating involved; this is an underground success story about a group that earned its impressive following at under-the-radar spots such as the New Earth Coffee House and Studio 24. Cheating Kay's best-kept-secret status likely won't last long; in addition to the Best Local Bands accolade, the band earned a spotlight show at the recent CMJ Music Marathon in New York, and it's working on a new disc that should push its ethereal coed art-folk to unprecedented levels of irresistibility. Now's the time to catch Cheating Kay on the low-key circuit, before some big label gets wise to the group's commercially viable charms.
