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Friday, January 25, 2013

Music / Wayward Blog / Tonight's Show

Vagabond Swing and Jorge Arana Trio are at the Brick tonight

Posted by on Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 9:02 AM

Vagabond Swing
  • Vagabond Swing
Nobody can accuse Vagabond Swing of false advertising. As its name suggests, the Lafayette, Louisiana, group cooks up a funky mix of Depression-era sounds: ragtime, bluegrass and spunky jazz. The group is joined tonight at the Brick by Jorge Arana Trio, a local outfit that plays a kind of extremely loud jazz built from polyrhythmic drumming, screeching guitars and fat, jam-band-style bass lines.

Friday, January 25, at the Brick, 8 p.m.

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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Music / Wayward Blog / Tonight's Show

Trampled by Turtles, with Carl Broemel - tonight at the Granada

Posted by on Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 12:57 PM

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Because of its terrible name and the people on my Spotify feed who stream its songs, I assumed that Trampled by Turtles was another shitty Mumford & Sons knockoff band. As it turns out, that's not entirely true, although it does employ a lot of acoustic instruments. The group, which formed in 2003 in Duluth, Minnesota, plays fast-paced bluegrass ("newgrass," if you must) minus the sheen and bombast of the folkies currently dominating the pop charts. They're better than I had them pegged for, although I still won't say their name out loud in public. Opener Carl Broemel, guitarist for My Morning Jacket, has released two pretty solid solo records. The more recent, 2010's All Birds Say, touches on the gentle gothic country that MMJ favored on its early albums, as well as a sunnier AM-radio pop.

Wednesday, January 23, at the Granada, 7 p.m. doors, $20 in advance, $22 day of show.

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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Music / Wayward Blog / Tonight's Show

The Drive-By Truckers are in Columbia tonight

Posted by on Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 7:24 AM

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Once or twice a year, when I'm feeling especially suffocated by Kansas City, I pick a night and drive to Columbia for a show, usually at the Blue Note. (One time, I ended up staying for six months, but that is a story for another day.) Being in the middle of Missouri purifies and rejuvenates some part of the soul. Incidentally, so does listening to the Drive-By Truckers, the unofficial poet laureates of Southern rock. The group's most recent release, 2011's Go-Go Boots, is a standout in DBT's already excellent catalog, and its sprawling live show is a massive bonfire party of stories, sing-alongs and deeply felt rock jams. Opener Houndmouth hails from the Louisville area; I caught its set at Forecastle last year and was impressed with both its bouncy, Band-like Americana and its ridiculously hot - like, she should be playing Don Draper's secretary on Mad Men; she is that hot - singer-instrumentalist Katie Toupin.

Tuesday, January 22, at the Blue Note, doors at 7:30 p.m., $20, all ages

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Friday, January 18, 2013

Music / Wayward Blog / Tonight's Show

Billie Joe Shaver is at Knuckleheads tonight

Posted by on Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 7:49 AM

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Billy Joe Shaver has never tasted the success of outlaw country contemporaries Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. But if we're talking true outlaw cred, the Texas singer-songwriter has the rest of the pack beat by a country mile: In 2007, Shaver shot another man in the face outside a place called Papa Joe's Texas Saloon, in Lorena, Texas. In court, Shaver claimed self-defense. When the prosecution asked him why he didn't just leave the bar if he felt intimidated, Shaver responded that doing so would have been "chicken shit." (Before firing away, he reportedly asked the victim, who's now walking the streets with a bullet permanently lodged in his neck, "Where do you want it?") Because it's Texas, and that's just how things are done down there, Shaver was acquitted. Now 73, he's back on the road, Crazy Heart-style.

Friday, January 18, at Knuckleheads Saloon, 8:30 p.m., $22.50 advance.

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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Music / Wayward Blog / Tonight's Show

John Fullbright is at Knuckleheads tonight

Posted by on Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 7:53 AM

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One of the new great hopes of the No Depression/alt-country scene is John Fullbright, a 24-year-old singer-songwriter wunderkind. He's been compared with everybody from Steve Earle to Townes Van Zandt to Randy Newman to Woody Guthrie, with whom he shares a hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. But I think his work most resembles the literary Southern wisdom you find in Mike Cooley's songs for the Drive-By Truckers. (See: "Jericho" from 2012's From the Ground Up.) Fullbright is playing with a full band for this Knuckleheads show; it's a special "living room session" - high on intimacy, low on seating.

Tuesday, January 15, at Knuckleheads Saloon, 8 p.m. The show is sold out, but you might be able to rustle something up on Craigslist.

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Friday, January 11, 2013

Music / Wayward Blog / Tonight's Show

Me Like Bees is at the Riot Room tonight

Posted by on Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 11:33 AM

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Fans of mid-'00s indie rock will warm to Me Like Bees. The Joplin quartet conjures the nervous bombast of Cold War Kids, and singer Luke Sheafer's voice recalls Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock at his most deranged. Openers Gentleman Savage traffic in Beatlesesque psych. Man Bear, who we featured this week, are all about power pop. With Burrowss.

Friday, January 11, at Riot Room, 8 p.m., $5.

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Monday, January 7, 2013

Music / Wayward Blog / Tonight's Show

Father John Misty is at the Bottleneck tonight

Posted by on Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 7:32 AM

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The best indie-rock breakout story of 2012 was Josh Tillman's, who quit his gig drumming for Fleet Foxes, moved to Los Angeles, and released an album under the name Father John Misty. That album, Fear Fun, climbed onto a lot of year-end lists, and deservedly so - it's full of smart, psych-tinged, alt-country songs with sticky melodies. He also gets points for his next-level stage presence, which is intense in a Neil-Diamond-on-peyote type of way.

Monday, January 7, at the Bottleneck, 8 p.m. door time, $13-$15.

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Friday, January 4, 2013

Music / Wayward Blog / Tonight's Show

At the Left Hand of God is at the Riot Room tonight

Posted by on Fri, Jan 4, 2013 at 6:17 AM

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Kansas City has its fair share of bands with hilarious metal names - Hammerlord, Koktopus - but none approach the epic ring of At the Left Hand of God. The thrash crew's 2012 album, Bayonets and Tourniquets, is about as bruising as its title suggests. They're joined on this Friday-night bill by fellow brutalists Trogdolyte, Moire and Sequoia.

Friday, January 4, at the Riot Room, 9 p.m., $5-$8.

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Friday, December 21, 2012

Music / Wayward Blog / Tonight's Show

The Hips celebrate Replay Records' new release tonight

Posted by on Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 11:38 AM

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Replay Records just put out a split 7-inch with a song apiece from Lawrence acts Hospital Ships and the Hips. It is excellent, and you should totally pick it up. If I'm not mistaken, it's also the first official-ish thing the Hips have released, even though they've been playing together around Lawrence for almost two years. The group includes members of Fourth of July and Drakkar Sauna, and homes in on an oddball stoner-pop vibe that lands on just the right side of goofy. With Monsoon Lazer.

Friday, December 21, at the Replay Lounge, 10 p.m.

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Music / Wayward Blog / Tonight's Show

The Casket Lottery is at the Riot Room tonight

Posted by on Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 8:39 AM

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After nearly a decade sans new releases, the Casket Lottery had a prolific 2012. The Kansas City group released "The Door," a 7-inch single, and "Split," an EP with Touche Amore that features a surprisingly pretty cover of Beach House's "Myth." In November, its new full-length, Real Fear, arrived. It doesn't sound much like Beach House. It's more what fans would expect from the Casket Lottery: heavy, atmospheric emo rock. You can't say you weren't warned - the About section on the band's Facebook page reads, "Bummin' you out since 1998." With Dead Girls and Simple Lines.

Friday, December 21, at Riot Room, 8 p.m., $8.

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