events

Description:
$5
family friendly

When a great rock n’roll band comes to an end, where does the music go?

Bob Walkenhorst, lead singer and songwriter of The Rainmakers, answers that question on his first solo CD, The Beginner.

In thirteen new (and very short) songs, Walkenhorst has p ...More

Description:
$5
family friendly

When a great rock n’roll band comes to an end, where does the music go?

Bob Walkenhorst, lead singer and songwriter of The Rainmakers, answers that question on his first solo CD, The Beginner.

In thirteen new (and very short) songs, Walkenhorst has pared his already elemental approach to song arrangements down to a skeletal acoustic guitar, bass, and drums, most often played by his one-man-band. Harmonica is the lead instrument of choice, with the notable exception of a honking sax solo by Johnny Reno on “Jan Vermeer,” a Chuck Berry-style rocker about the great Dutch painter. The only lead guitar solo on the CD is played by Kansas City guitarist Jack W. Hayhow, Jr., on another retro-rocker, “J-Walkers,” about the first band Walkenhorst ever heard. Vocal harmonies appear on only one song, “Just Leaving.” From the sparse instrumentation to the early-’60s-style extreme-stereo production, the overall sound of The Beginner is as much about what has not been recorded as it is about what you do hear.

Also, you can watch Bob's weekly show broadcast on the web at
http://www.ustream.com/channel/bob-norm-jeff


Website:www.bobwalkenhorst.com/

Description:
I love RBD and I haven't had the chance to see them in person, but I have seen them in Kansas City when they were her Sept. 29, 2007 at 7:30. But that's not enough. I want to see them again. And there are only 2 possibilities of that happening. 1 is that they schedule a San Antonio, Austin, or Corpu ...More

Description:
I love RBD and I haven't had the chance to see them in person, but I have seen them in Kansas City when they were her Sept. 29, 2007 at 7:30. But that's not enough. I want to see them again. And there are only 2 possibilities of that happening. 1 is that they schedule a San Antonio, Austin, or Corpus Christi concert(b/c I'm going there for X-Mas break), A Kansas City concert(which I would perfer b/c I live there). Thats the only 2 scenarios that could work. And I know I'm not the only person in KC who wants RBD to come back.....so lets convince them to do it!!!!!!!!! There is strength in numbers!!!!! I love RBD!!!! They are my idols!!!!!!!!!! I want to meet them!!!!!!!!!! I have everything.... I have posters, DVD's of there tv shows, DVD's of some of their concert tours, I have all of their songs on my ipod, a t-shirt from their Tour Celestial from when they came here and the ticket stubs too, and etc.... so in conclusion.... I'm a RBD fanatic!!!!!!!! Whoo!!!!!!! Go RBD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Description:
18+
$7/$9

Some songs feel as though they were created in laboratories, the results of hours of pencils scribbling on notepads and test tubes pouring into each other. Other songs feel like they were found, as if they have always existed but just required the right musical geologist to p ...More

Description:
18+
$7/$9

Some songs feel as though they were created in laboratories, the results of hours of pencils scribbling on notepads and test tubes pouring into each other. Other songs feel like they were found, as if they have always existed but just required the right musical geologist to pluck them from the soil. "Stereo Tonight" by Target Market would fall into the latter category. It is the marriage of an elementary guitar riff with a complicated vocal melody floating above a rhythm section that rolls patiently like a dimly lit 3 AM subway car. The fact that an ambulance drove by the band while the song was being recorded, coincidentally blaring its sirens into the drum microphones at the exact moment that the track self-destructs into a tornado of broken strings and cracked cymbals, only solidifies the song's desire to exist. It is the song that the Velvet Underground forgot to write in 1968, the song that slipped through the cracks during 1989's Daydream Nation sessions, and the song that 2015's lo-fi buzz band will be aping.

"Stereo Tonight" is just one of the standout tracks on Target Market's sophomore album Up on the Moon, recorded in various houses and apartments in their hometown of Edwardsville, Illinois. Target Market has existed since 2003 in several incarnations with singer/guitarist Nathan Bernaix serving as its nucleus, but Up on the Moon marks the group's official transition from curious project to confident rock band with hundreds of shows under their minivan seat belts. Their previous work garnered comparisons ranging from Q and Not U to Arcade Fire, but Moon hints at classic influences: Thin Lizzy's harmonizing lead lines, Sonic Youth's transcendent instrumental passages, and Pavement's slack-guitar gymnastics (minus their disrespect for musicality).

These timeless inspirations parallel Target Market's newfound fascination with simplicity. The complex arrangements and kitchen-sink overdubs that defined the group's 2006 debut No Thrills have been eschewed in order to shine a brighter light on Bernaix's thoughtful lyrics and deliberate melodies. This isn't to say that the other members merely serve to realize their lead singer's vision. Joe Winters emulates a sped-up drum machine on album closer "Marked for Death" and multiplies into three drummers on the high-fiving climax of "Space Tourists". Andrew Mossman's buzzing steamroller bass on "Highways" is as persistant as the dotted white lines on I-55, and he creates more melody on "Killer Cars" than either of his 6-string comrades. Clayton Parker's dizzying guitar line halfway through "Lakes and Streams" builds into an intensely satisfying release, and his endless synth lines on "Highways" make for some of the record's sweetest ear candy.

Throughout Up on the Moon, Nathan Bernaix's lyrics are brimming with self-awareness and restlessness. "Killer Cars" paints a stunningully accurate portrait of twenty-something boredom ("And we're thrown into another year with nothing to do/...our words are stronger and our drinks are too"), but the album's opening couplet captures its spirit quite well: "And the comets fall at your feet/ as if they were drawn to them naturally." Sometimes things fall from the sky and land where they belong. Sometimes songs are discovered rather than invented. Sometimes ambulances drive by at the perfect time. Sometimes bands from small towns in the Midwest make timeless indie rock records, and sometimes you hear a record like Up on the Moon by Target Market and you feel like the universe has properly aligned itself, if just for 32 minutes.

Written by: Ryan Wasoba
Website:www.myspace.com/targetmarket

Description:
18+
$10
advance tix available at www.groovetickets.com
or at the bar

Ten years into a dynamic career marked by 7 LPs, 2 EPs and a live concert album, Erin McKeown delivers Hundreds of Lions, her first collection of original songs since 2005’s We Will Become Like Birds.

...More

Description:
18+
$10
advance tix available at www.groovetickets.com
or at the bar

Ten years into a dynamic career marked by 7 LPs, 2 EPs and a live concert album, Erin McKeown delivers Hundreds of Lions, her first collection of original songs since 2005’s We Will Become Like Birds.

Although Erin started writing songs while still in high school in hometown Fredericksburg, Virginia, she really began earning her chops while attending Brown University, releasing two albums before graduation and gigging on weekends whenever and wherever possible. She hasn’t slowed down, famously averaging 200 live shows a year. As a multi-instrumentalist, Erin’s become in demand as a session player, recording vocals, piano, bass lines and of course guitar tracks for other artists’ records all while steadily working material that became Hundreds of Lions.

At the center of the album, the song “The Lions” brims with bright piano, cathedral spire atmosphere and traces of carnival-noir pop as Erin sings, “There’s a risk, there’s a twist, in anything worth doing,” with a voice clear and strong as glass ribbon.

Website:www.erinmckeown.com/