Could this be the next Scion event? It’s possible.
Drop the Lime‘s been around for awhile, releasing since 04 and a few high-profile remixes here and there. He’s done a few things I’ve liked and a bunch more I’m more or less ambivalent about.
Seeing the Discogs entry for a 2009 Scion compilation pretty much solidifies it though – it’ll be interesting to see who else is on this bill when it’s announced.
When a producer/dj of Roy Davis Jr’s stature comes to Kansas City, it’s a big deal. At the same time, for most of the city, it’s historically been ignored.
With the backing of Scion and its team of local marketeers, though, that’s probably going to change. I was a bit surprised to get a text from a friend around 9:15 last night letting me know Czar Bar had hit its roughly 100-person capacity already.
Any thought of having plenty of room to stretch out and get down to some Chicago house were quickly dashed. We made our way down there, greeted by a line of about fifteen people waiting for one-in/one-out.
In all honesty, it was a little shocking. Kansas City’s dance music scene has more or less languished in stagnant rot over the past ten years – terrible club djs pass off terrible music to terrible people, while a small, core group has continued fighting the good fight for the funk. To show up to a bar and see it packed at 9:30, with a line to get in, for a guy with twenty years of history was actually somewhat rewarding. We didn’t mind waiting in the cooler air outside to get in.
We queued up towards the middle of Eli Escobar’s set and were able to hear everything pretty clearly from the street. We could see the dj booth thanks to a projection on the wall outside of Czar Bar – a nice touch. This meant, however, that there was no place to hide for Escobar as he wrecked mix after mix. After mix. It gave me hope for my own dj career. I will give him credit, I do think he was trying – his track selection was surprisingly sleek and funky for a good portion of his set – but he wasn’t allowing the tracks to fully develop before cutting them down with the rusty butterknife of his mixing style.
Cosmo Baker came on next. His was a set heavy with edits of classic disco tracks, but again, volume control problems and abrupt transitions were an issue. The casual crowd enjoyed the 70′s sounds that would ultimately became house music stereotypes, and were able to endure the sound and mixing issues through his set. It was nice to actually see some vinyl being used as well.
Treasure Fingers then set up a Mac and Serato for his set. While the time-encoded vinyl was able to reduce the wrecking, it couldn’t solve all of the technical issues that had seemingly become the theme for the night.
Possibly ten years too late, I’m going to go ahead and say it now: please don’t abuse the phaser and delay effects on the mixers. It might sound “cool” for a mix or two when needed, but when it’s used on every mix to get out of a messy transition, it becomes a point of contention.
Beyond that, I would dare say Treasure Fingers had the best track selection of the night. Although he too was hamstrung at times with timing and phrasing issues, he had the crowd jumping by the end of his set.
Roy Davis Jr finally took the small stage at the Czar Bar around 12:30. Wearing a red Chicago t-shirt and white sunglasses, he promptly went to work, shifting a big kick beat into Treasure Finger’s last track – and then the mix fell apart. Davis’ years of experience helped him work the transition back into something salvageable – just as the power cut out on the mixer, causing the sound in the room to die.
After a minute or so of rushed wire fumbling, sound was returned, and what ensued was a rough hour or so of uptempo, heavy on kicks low on bassline Chicago house, with some nice acid stuff thrown in towards the end. Davis had his issues mixing as well, and seemed to find his comfort zone only after the sunglasses came off.
Something I’m just realizing as I’m thinking back over the night – I don’t recall seeing any monitors for the dj’s. That probably explains a lot of last night’s issues if that’s the case.
The crowd was enthusiastic and into it all night. I truly hope this shows bars like Czar Bar and local promoters that there is a crowd in town that will come out for this sort of thing – even if it’s not being sponsored by a car company’s marketing department.
Detroit and Chicago are both regional to us – we should be looking to both the old-school masters and fresh talent that these cities have to offer more often. Kansas City has ties with a lot of these men and women; blue-collar roots and the blues run deep in all three cities. It’d be nice to see how our city reacts to the true future funk of the Motor and Windy Cities after years of being misled by so many of our own local selectors.
Several years on after a destructive show at the El Torreon, several years on from a solid first three albums culminating in Source Tags & Codes, several years on from a controversialy (but deserved) high rating from Pitchfork and the deal with Jimmy Iovine at Interscope that made it all possible, Trail of Dead is back in Kansas City, playing the Record Bar in late September.
Notice the bio used on the Record Bar’s site was seemingly last updated around 2002. Not sure about the Sonic Youth comparisons, though. Okay, actually I am totally sure that comparison is ridiculous.
I found No Strings Attached in my car just a few days ago.
TinyMixTapes reports the following dates:
09.05.09 – Tuscon, AZ – Club Congress
09.16.09 – Tempe, AZ – Marquee Theater *
09.17.09 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up Tavern *
09.18.09 – Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theater *
09.19.09 – San Francisco, CA – Slim’s *
09.20.09 – Sebastopol, CA – Hopmonk Tavern *
09.22.09 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom *
09.23.09 – Chop Suey – Seattle, WA *
09.24.09 – Boise, ID – Grizzly Rose *
09.25.09 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge *
09.26.09 – Boulder, CO – Fox Theatre *
10.24.09 – Atlanta, GA – 40 Watt Club *
10.31.09 – Houston, TX – Rudyard’s
11.01.09 – New Orleans, LA – Voo Doo Music Experience
11.03.09 – Oxford, MS – Proud Larry’s
11.04.09 – Little Rock, AR – Revolution Room
11.05.09 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ball Room
11.06.09 – Kansas City, MO – Record Bar
11.07.09 – Omaha, NE – Waiting Room
11.08.09 – Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
11.10.09 – Columbia, MO – Mojo’s
11.11.09 – DeKalb, IL – Otto’s
11.12.09 – Chicago, IL – Schubas
11.13.09 – Chicago, IL – Schubas
11.14.09 – Chicago, IL – Schubas
11.15.09 – Indianapolis, IN – Radio Radio
11.17.09 – Louisville, KY – Headliner’s
11.18.09 – Cleveland, OH – The Grog
11.19.09 – Ithaca, NY – Castaways
11.20.09 – Albany, NY – Valentines
11.21.09 – Teaneck, NJ – Mexacali Live
11.25.09 – New York City, NY – Bowery Ballroom
11.27.09 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
11.28.09 – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live
* Dead Confederate
Yes, you read that right. The temple is located at 1330 Linwood in KCMO.
This is being billed as the Legends of HipHop, and also features SHOCK-G and DJ FUZE of Digital Underground. Tickets range between $20 and $30 for this thing.
If you’ve ever wanted to hear Slick Rick drop some original crazy rhymes in a masonic temple, now’s your chance.
This is another of those Scion-sponsored events. It’s unfortunate RDJr is involved with them and I’m hoping he’s getting a solid paycheck out of it. It’s free for the cost of a name and a fake email address and quite frankly, the guy’s a legend, so suck it up.
RSVP here, and remember – use a fake email address or you will be inundated with terrible marketing emails about acts that you probably couldn’t care less about. I’m going through that pain for you, so let me.
By the way, some other acts are listed on the bill. Treasure Fingers put out a record on Adam Freeland’s Marine Parade in 08. Eli Escobar has more or less just done remixes, and Cosmo Baker is uh . . . not Roy Davis Jr. Treasure Fingers is in the biggest font.
Like Blu Jemz from a few weeks ago, here’s to hoping Davis either plays early so I can avoid the rest of the mess, or plays late so I can be good ‘n’ ready by the time he comes on.
According to the title of this article, Au are playing the Pistol on September 1st.
Folk at its roots, the group’s not afraid to get experimental at times. Check more out on their Myspace.
Jason Molina brings the sunnier side of his disposition to Kansas City next week. I’ve been looking forward to seeing Magnolia Electric Company for a few years now and have never been able to make it to previous regional shows.
$10, 18+, with MEC scheduled to go on around 11.
Like a bonus 7″ unknowingly slipped down into the dustjacket, I wanted to say a few more things about the local record-buying scene, especially with the announcement of Needmore Discs’ closing this past week.
I love records. I love buying them. I’m proud of my sleeve-flipping speed and my ability to sight-read and to know what I’m looking for. The records I bought today are actually sitting behind me in my little corner of the cube farm in the air conditioning instead of warping out in my hot car. I love them. I want to buy them. I don’t want to buy CDs and I don’t buy CDs unless that’s the only format on which the band I just saw live absolutely has ever only issued a particular release that I can’t find on ahem any other format. I will buy tapes before I buy CDs. Rebellious, I know.
To all the record stores out there, especially those in the metro Kansas City area, regardless of whether you’re a mom & pop store or a nationwide chain like Half Price Books – the idea that those legions of albums from the 50′s, 60′s, 70′s, and 80′s are ever going to sell is ridiculous. When you stock your selection with row upon row of Elvis, Wings, Toto, Joni Mitchell . . . you are catering to a buyer who will only ever buy on impulse, and generally only out of an underlying sense of irony. They did it, as the kids say, for the lulz.
Look, I know you’ve got some gems, but you know where most of the gems are? On GEMM. I’m not interested in paying $20 for some some obscure soul release from 1964 – it’s not my thing, but it’s also not most people’s thing either. If you choose to cater your entire store’s selection to only a niche market, you’re going to have a very hard time staying in business.
When I walk in a place that calls itself a “record” store, and I have to ask myself if I’ve accidentally wandered into the back corner of a Goodwill, I immediately give the place a negative mark. When I look through your “NEW!” or “Just Arrived!” bins and all I find are the same Todd Rundgren and Pointer Sisters LP’s every other failed shop in town has been pushing for the last X-number of years, it really makes me question shopping locally.
Yes, there’s a flipside to this. If you, as the buyer/proprietor of the shop, choose instead to round out your selection with five or six $20 copies of let’s say the new Connor Oberst, or God forbid some major label release like Franz Ferdinand or the Killers for $30 (corporate mark-up of course) . . . then just forget it.
These, to me, are the sorts of acts that the “average” fan is just going to buy on CD iTunes or download, and I totally understand that those sales, with your 50% markup, are what helps keep your store open. You’re a business, I know – but what about the idea of record store as Mecca for the disaffected youth looking for counter-culture salvation? What about the dozens of labels and hundreds, thousands of artists out there still releasing on vinyl only? Yes, their eps ARE unsellable at $10 apiece – but I can read Tonevendor, I can look at Insound – they don’t COST $10 apiece. I’d rather buy from you directly, take advantage of your wholesaler discount, take my records home that day, than pay shipping and wait a week.
Anybody who’s ever sat down and ripped records, whether it’s a 7″ or a triple-vinyl release, knows it a labor of love. A CD takes 5 minutes to get that ratio boost heading up. No eq’ing. No worrying about signal path. No delicate caress of errant dust specks out of grooves. You want to fight the spectre of downloading, start offering things that aren’t available for download – the stuff the torrent sites never even see.
I have chosen to download because my time is not filled listening to releases I chose to instead buy from you.
Is it fair to say you can’t compete with online stores like Insounds, Tonevendor, or Boomkat? Maybe. Is it fair to us to say you won’t compete? It’s up to you, I guess. We are the consumers, we can always find it cheaper elsewhere if that’s the tack you want to take on it. I’m not about to drop $15 for a New Edition full-length just because it has a poly sleeve and “Candy Girl” on it. Doing that once was enough.
As with any industry, consumers don’t owe you pity sales. For a shop like Needmore Discs, or Music Exchange, or Zebadees, or Earwaxx, or a lot of other really great stores around town, I appreciate what you do. The customer service has generally been outstanding. I will say this – you’d get a lot more of my money if you were to cater to the dedicated, informed – and by informed I mean past the year 1985, much less 1995 – record buying audience; this seems to be the secret behind a store like Love Garden’s success.
With the number of bands that are starting to choose Kansas City venues over Lawrence, here’s to hoping more local stores start catering to the crowds it seems they’ve otherwise given over to our neighbor to the west.
Oh yeah, and like a free sticker thrown in at the last second – electronic music. I mean techno and its descendents, not just Kraftwerk or Terry Riley or Vangelis. Please stock it. It’s been around for over thirty years. If you’re so afraid of being seen shaking your ass, please take down all of your James Brown, your rare soul/funk, etc. Find somebody knowledgeable about it to help buy it into the store. I’ll do it for a good discount, just let me know.
Had some time to kill at lunch today, so I dropped into the Half Priced Books store in Westport. Looks like they’ve finally removed the general 12″ section, and everything in that bin is now labeled (and unfortunately correctly so) as “Hip Hop 12″s” . . . not much worth seeing in there today except for three copies of a Dilated Peoples single. I have a feeling the days of being able to grab the classic Detroit and oddball house releases out without sifting through the whole collection of Jackson Browne and Bonnie and Delaney albums are over with.
I usually start the album flipping at the Z end of the alphabet – it’s just closer geographically to the 12′s. I immediately saw a Throwing Muses release as the first record in one of the bins – ended up being the Chains Changed ep from 1987 – a solid $4.98.
Immediately behind that was the band’s 4AD Fat Skier 7-track mini album for $3. Stephanie’s a big fan of the band and has been asking for more female-front indie/punk stuff lately, so these definitely fit the bill.
Initially sidetracked by those finds, I started digging through the tail-end of the alphabet, finding a copy of a Full Cycle split with Die and Krust (“Timing Mechanism” and “21st Century” respectively) for 99 cents. Turns out this is actually the E/F sides to a 3×12 edition of the Through the Eyes label compilation. The other two pieces were not to be found.
A couple of bins over was a $3 12″ of Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Wishing Well” single and remixes – happen to flip it over and sure enough, it featured a Francois Kevorkian remix, as well as one from The Human League/Heaven 17′s Martyn Ware.
So I keep digging . . . no Talk Talk as usual. I make it into the R’s and find a copy of Baby Ford‘s BFord 9 album from ’92 for $5 misfiled and had to do a double-take. I’ve been hesitant to buy into the Baby Ford resurgence as of late – like most electronic musicians active since the late 80′s, the early/mid 90′s produced a fair share of cheese . . . but it’s hard to pass up a classic like this on double vinyl for $5.
The middle area of the alphabet produced a couple of nice gems – a $5 unopened copy of Barbara Manning‘s 1212 from 1997, laid out across three sides of double vinyl, should catch Stephanie’s attention. Another front-of-the-bin find was a little black-sleeved 10″ with odd script on the front which read “fins to makes us more fish-like” . . . instant buy. Red vinyl too . . . I’d been looking for decent prices on this vintage of Liars stuff for awhile – $8, but worth it.
Back to finishing out the M’s and I come across Ministry’s “The Nature of Love” 12″ from 85 on WaxTrax. Can’t wait to see what the “Cruelty Mix” is about.
The rest of the alphabet in was pretty boring – no Cocteau Twins either, as usual. I pretty much knew what I kept seeing out of my peripheral vision was going to be the last good thing I’d find, there in the next-to-last bin, again, like the Throwing Muses and the Liars, in plain sight to everyone.
Yep, Brainiac‘s Hissing Prigs in Static Couture. Stephanie wants more weird stuff, here you go, cause this one’s a classic. It also draws to close a long, drawn-out chapter in my life, one wherein I just keep repeating the words “Why didn’t I buy this for $2 at Superflea oh so many years ago” for thirty pages. Glad that’s done, right?
So that’s the haul for today. Total set back: $40.
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