Don’t be baaaashful today, don’t be sheepish, just be the beast!!
Archive for March, 2016
Don’t Be Sheepish.
March 4, 2016Are These for Sale?
March 4, 2016
I walked by my local outpost of hipster chain store Urban Outfitters the other day. Are these display yurts for sale? What a great place to crash while at your next “relevant” music festival. These yurts will likely be featured at a Mountain Dew-sponsored shanty town at SXSW. The hipster tiny house could also provide functional living space after we all default on our student loans.
McClain Approved: MisterWives “Best I Can Do.”
March 3, 2016
MisterWives (image via http://www.interviewmagazine.com)
McClain Approved is a column where I give you the rundown on an artist you need to know and share a track from them.
As it starts to ease into spring and summer, I get in the mood for some happy-clappy indie pop. MisterWives put out some of the best high energy happy-clappy tunes out today. They are also a past interview subject of mine.
The New York City-based band is gaining a lot of popularity on the strength of their songs and excellent live shows. They bring the heat live. KC folks: MisterWives will be with Walk the Moon at Crossroads KC August 17th. Vocalist Mandy Lee is one of the best singers in music today. She can sing her ass off. Their debut album, Our Own House, was one of my favorite releases of last year.
I love the touches of horns on album track “The Best I Can Do.” Songs like this can give you the energy to outrun all the bath salt smoking zombies downtown. Amazing vocals and a sugar rush of a song. MisterWives make quality tunes for getting out there and beasting it hardcore
Best Coast and Wavves Bring the Indie Rock Heat to Kansas City.
March 2, 2016
Best Coast at the Midland, 2/26/16
When watching an indie rock show, I know the feeling I am trying to find. I want my indie sensors to start tingling. The music hits you right in the enjoyment zone, those internal buzzers fire up. It is a feeling that lights you up and makes your soul rise up with joy. California-based bands Best Coast and Wavves brought their Summer is Forever II co-headlining tour to Kansas City February 26th. They filled the Midland with an evening of fuzzed out surf rock and indie goodness.
I have been wanting to see Best Coast and Wavves live for eight years. Nathan Williams (of Wavves) and Bethany Cosentino (of Best Coast) are an indie rock power couple. They represent a style of indie that is popular with a slightly older crowd. Both bands are strangely underrated.
Met a fan with a tattoo of the album art for Best Coast’s The Only Place.
For example, Best Coast’s second album sold over 500,000 copies in it’s first week. The local indie/alternative radio station can park their van out in front of the show, but that doesn’t mean they are playing Wavves and Best Coast on the radio. Some critics bag on Cosentino for her lyrical simplicity, but there are a lot of indie bands out there that wish they could write a song as quality as “Sun Was High (And So Was I).”
Cherry Glazerrat the Midland, 2/26/16
Up-and-coming band Cherry Glazerr started off the night with spacious, trippy indie vibes. The young band shows a lot of promise with a live show that held the crowd’s attention.
Wavves at the Midland, 2/26/16
Wavves hit the crowd hard with scuzzy indie vibes. The set focused on tracks off of their latest album album, V. Lead singer/guitarist Nathan Williams’ aggressive guitar work whipped the audience into a frenzy. The crowd was dancing and indie moshing it up all throughout the band’s hour-long set. Wavves closed with the vicious rocker “Demon To Lean On.”
Best Coast at the Midland, 2/26/16
The tighter, hook-laden songs of Beat Coast served as a nice counterpoint to the sprawl of Wavves. The band closed out this date of the tour. The newer tracks off of last year’s California Nights have more grit and punch live than their studio versions. Songs like “In My Eyes” swing for the indie pop fences and sound even bigger and better live. The uptempo surf rock vibes of “When I’m With You” had the crowd joyously bouncing and singing along. Best Coast finished the hour-long set with their lo-fi, reverb-laced classic “Boyfriend.”
From the hard-hitting to the sublime, the Summer is Forever II tour showcases an excellent combination of indie bands that crush it live. Wavves and Best Coast brought the indie rock joy to Kansas City.
Here’s a snippet of Best Coast performing “When I’m With You” at the Midland:
Past Interview Subjects Playing Buzz Beach Ball 2016.
March 1, 2016
Beach Ball 2016 lineup (image via http://www.beachballkc.com)
KC folks: Several of my past interview subjects are playing Buzz Beach Ball 2016. The Joy Formidable, Fitz and the Tantrums, Glass Animals, J Roddy Walston & the Business and X Ambassadors are all a part of the lineup for this year’s show. Always great to see past interview subjects featured on a lineup.
Here’s a snippet of the Joy Formidable from their last show in Kansas City. They really rock hard live:
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