You remember local legend Howard Iceberg from C.J. Janovy's profile of the singer-songwriter about a month ago. If you're not familiar with Kansas City's rock shaman, now is a good time to get acquainted: Iceberg is playing a marathon two-hour show with a brand new full-band lineup on Saturday afternoon at Jardine's. (Iceberg writes that he and his new acoustic band will be playing "every song they know, and some we don't.") It's the first time Iceberg has played with this lineup, and it's a perfect excuse to relax and get boozy on a Saturday afternoon (and don't you always need one of those?). Catch them from 3:00 to 5:00 for a five dollar cover.
After heading down to Austin, Texas, to play SXSW's official showcase this year (which is awesome), local electro-funk rock group Antennas Up are heading out to remote Western Maine to record their sophomore album. (Specifically, they're going to the Sunday River region, which looks kinda like this. Sounds pretty sweet.)
They're leaving in mid-June, and the band will be taking a sabbatical from live shows through the fall to finish work on the album, slated for release in Spring 2011.
Hell, kids -- this is so technologically advanced, you don't even have to leave this blog. Just hit up the embedded player below, and you can rock all nine tracks of thrash-laden goodness that Hammerlord has to offer on their new album, Wolves At War's End. If you really like it, you can buy the album for $5 at their Saturday night Riot Room release show. They also promise vinyl at some point in the near future (score!).
Thanks to a tweet on the Get Up Kids' Twitter feed last week, we now know that GUK guitarist Jim Suptic relaunched his side project, the Blackpool Lights.
If you add the Blackpool Lights' Twitter feed (@BP_L), you can follow the band's progress in the studio as they record their new album.
It's a damned good thing the new Get Up Kids EP, Simple Science, starts with "Your Petty Pretty Things." It's the only song of the four on the record to really come close to the earlier Get Up Kids formula of simple poppy rock 'n' roll that builds to a cathartic release when it hits the chorus.
It's understandable that this album would be as different as it is. Simple Science comes a full six years after the last Get Up Kids album, Guilt Show. However, the spacey aesthetic of the second track, "Keith Case," is barely recognizable as the same band, as is the fourth track, "How You're Bound.
Ryan Marchman, formerly of Crazy Talk and the Shaker Hoods, is now pounding the skins for rock 'n' rollers Faster Than Hell. He will replace former drummer Glen Hockemeier, who left the band "due to other commitments."
Marchman is currently recording the Federation of Horsepower's new album.
Faster Than Hell will soon finish up their own album, and then start gearing up for summer shows starting in July. The band was nominated in the 2009 Pitch Awards for "Best Rock Band," and features FoHP drummer Kriss Ward as its frontman.
After months of "breathless buzz," as Pitchfork calls it, you can finally hear LCD Soundsystem's rabidly anticipated third album, This Is Happening, in its entirety. Taking a cue from the buzz-heavy peers MGMT, the dance-punks have posted a legal stream of the album to their website a full month before its May 18 release date. You've already checked out their head-bobbing, debauched single, "Drunk Girls" -- now, you can spin through LCD's other highly anticipated tracks.
Alexander Abnos, the leader and frontman of the indie-electro collective Tut Tut, is a busy guy.
He just got his solo project featured in this week's Pitch, and now, his other project, Secret Cities (formerly known as White Foliage) just got plugged by Stereogum as a "Band to Watch." Clearly, the dude's doing something right. Here's what Stereogum had to say:
The band's twisting kaleidoscope of crystalline psychedelia, chirpy folk, dark baroque pop, and bare emotions comes lined with male/female vocal harmonies, guitars, percussion, piano, loops, field recordings, viola, violin, fuzzed-out whistling, ambient hiss, trumpets, etc. The results are non-linear and mysterious, but intimate and immediately likable. The Antlers in a blender? A chillier Grizzly Bear brought up on the Unites States Of America ('60s band, not present place)? Or, in a track like "Slacker," you hear Sufjan Stevens in the pulsing, cascading choirs. The Wilson theme comes through clearly on standout "Boyfriends." As does their knack for melancholic, uplifting hooks. (Note they do have smiles on their faces.)
Grizzly Bear, the Antlers and Sufjan Stevens: those are some pretty potent comparisons. Well done, guys! You can check out Secret Cities in Kansas City on June 29, when they stop by Record Bar.
While we had some shots of Federation of Horsepower's frontman Gregg Todt and drummer Kriss Ward in the studio as part of Money Shots, in this video you can hear Todt and guitarist Troy Van Horn work out some fantastic riffage. Producer Ryan Marchman also explains the specifics of the recording process in Locust Studio.
Kansas House ignores Brownback, Senate, goes home early for long weekend
Royals fan sprints on the field, steals rosin bag
Story celebrates with a pig roast and other weekend possibilities
Oklahoma Joe's ribs named the best in the country by The Daily Meal
Parisi's Pete Licata is a World Barista Championship semifinalist
Soundgarden's sludgy sound, last night at the Midland (review)
Homer's Drive-In: the oldest drive-through in the metro
Potbelly Sandwich Shop opens June 4 on the Plaza