Remember when punk rock mattered? Local group Under the Black Sails does and they'd like you to do the same if their current cycle of songs is any indication. Their six track demo is filled with the sort of anger fueled lyrics, power chord progressions and speed trial drumming that would make an otherwise reasonable man say "Oy!". Fans of early punk groups like Black Flag or the Damned can rejoice that someone is still staying true to the roots of the sound and disregarding all of the whine that has accompanied the punk-pop/emo movement (damn you Tom Delonge)...
Poets Come from all over the U.S. to read Poetry in Kansas City!! On June 20th and 21st, 2008 Kansas City will be host to a pair of poetry readings featuring over 20 published poets from a variety of small presses around the country, including Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Toledo, San Diego, Cleveland, Palm Beach, Denver, Seattle, Lawrence, Kansas City, and more. It is a gathering of writers we’re calling Unregulated Word. This event was organized by two Online Literary and Art Magazines: the Kansas City based Off Beat Pulp and the Los Angeles based Kill Poet Press. We’re proud to feature dozens of new and established poets reading their own work. It is a gathering of “Small Press” poets in the tradition of Charles Bukowski and in the spirit of the Beat Generation, a combining of arts, politics, and words. There are already three different publications surrounding Unregulated Word, put out by three separate “Small Press” Publishers. Such big names as S.A. Griffin, John Dorsey, and David Smith will be in attendance as well as other writers who all have a significant presence in the circles of American poetry. In all, there will be the authors of over twenty books of poetry in attendance; it is the sort of poetic firepower that starts literary movements. And it is all happening in Kansas City! Featuring Editors and Contributing Writers from such small presses as: Off Beat Pulp Press Kill Poet Press Brainbox Press Rose of Sharon Press Covert Press Fri. June 20: The Writer's Place 3607 PennsylvaniaKCMO 64111
Sat., June 21: The Metropolitan Ensemble Theater 3604 Main KCMO 64111
A five-piece out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, Cage the Elephant bring big, hooky funk-rock anthems with all the sass of the Violent Femmes and the swagger of the White Stripes.
"Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" is a rootsy funk-rock foot-stomper reflecting the plight of the lonely working-class. It's a pretty catchy little tune that is easy to get into, especially now in the middle of the summer. I wouldn't be surprised to see this on the modern rock charts.
Showing a pretty different approach, "Tiny Little Robots" is a fairly straight-forward pop-punk song that disintegrates into a kind of loose jam/spoken word piece near the end. Nothing terribly original, but it's a competent and fairly fun rock song.
Your next chance to win 2 spots on the Dethklok guestlist will be around lunchtime Thursday. Listen to the stream, and when you hear the Dethklok sounder, be the 10th caller at 816-355-2315.
Rock Out With Your Klok out with Popfreeradio.com!
The summer festival season is rolling again and the train pulled into Lawrence, KS last weekend.The promoters of Wakarusa have always had a vision for the festival and they’ve done a great job of keeping the focus on the patrons within the confines of the chosen venue.They will tell you that a mega-festival with 200,000 fans is not something they are interested in; they prefer to keep it a relatively small affair.
Mother Nature can be an evil co-host. She put bookends on the weekend in the form of powerful storms.After a long spring of wicked weather, we in the Midwest don’t take chances with tornados, so once the threat was real for severe weather on Thursday evening, the show was shut down at 7:30.After a pleasant Sunday afternoon with skies that became increasingly ominous as the day wore on, the evening gave way to more heavy rain that brought the weekend to a thunderous and early close.The two days in between couldn’t have been better though. The temperature was near perfect with a pleasant breeze and just enough cloud cover.As is often the case some very creative art came from the adversity of the weekend, an impromptu sculpture garden of shade tent frames ravaged by the storm went up in campground one and got a lot of attention.
When I came into the festival on Friday morning my heart sank just a little when I saw an unfortunate sight. On the road to the marina was a driver getting a ticket. Was he not wearing a seatbelt, was he speeding?I didn’t stop to ask. Soon after this I was on the same road and saw the officer sitting, waiting for the next unsuspecting violator to come along.Is a speed trap inside a festival really necessary?When you go to a festival you should be allowed to feel like you can let your guard down; you expect the people there with you to be kind and that the authorities are there to help, not to ruin a good time.I must say that after that relatively petty incident, everyone that I saw was having a great time; the police were visible but not intrusive.
I have read comments from the local police after several festivals in which they say they are trying to keep drugs out of their community, which is understandable, but keep this in mind; any drug dealers who come to town for these festivals will also be leaving as soon as it is over.Shaking down a bunch of college students, ruining their weekend only makes them resent authority even more.Imagine if the police came down to the local craft festival and started demanding to see the business licenses and proof that Gertrude had not made the macramé plant hangers from an endangered species.
My best advice for everyone is to have fun with police and security. They are regular people doing their job, most of them have a great sense of humor and appreciate it when we talk to them as we would talk to any person we meet on the street.If I saw a clown walking down the street I wouldn’t expect him to start juggling and honking his nose, likewise we shouldn’t expect the police to arrest us when we see them.Now, if I threw three beanbags at a clown he is going to oblige and toss them, if you give them a reason, the police will also do their jobs.
Everyone I spoke to at the festival had a terrific time sans weather, however there is always possibility for improvement.The shuttle service had more problems than a math book.There were some golf carts that you could get on and ride for free and others you had to pay $3.00 per person regardless of the number of stops and detours we had to endure.The worst part was that there was no real way to determine which was which. At least the “for hire” taxis were timely; I walked past a shuttle stop where there was a father and two sons waiting for the free shuttle.I asked them how long they had been there and the younger of the sons immediately told me “17 minutes” I considered that if a free shuttle did come along it would probably be full or filled by these three so I walked on to the show.I paid close attention to every shuttle that passed me on the way and I never saw that family again, as far as I know they are still there, the young man counting down the time, minute by minute.I trust that the festival organizers will make some adjustments; every complaint I have ever heard through the years about this festival has been addressed by the following year. Kudos to those in charge, keep up the good work.
All in all Wakarusa ’08 was wonderful and the future looks good for the festival.Clinton Lake State Park makes for a very good festival ground, it would seem there is room for growth.
