New Orleans’ Jason Ricci & The Bad Kind played the Winter Blues Festival in Des Moines on February 9. Ricci, is an award-winning harmonica player who performed on Johnny Winter’s Step Back, which won the 2015 Grammy for Best Blues Album.
Keep up with Jason Ricci here.
Last night in New York City on a balmy 70 degree February evening Storytown played a stripped down acoustic set at Manhattan venue The Bowery Electric. The group who usually plays with a full four piece set up reduced the size without reducing the sound, performing an intimate set with only an acoustic guitar and acoustic bass. The set felt honest and personal. Guy Story – the guitarist and vocalist – led us into the songs with a memory, anecdote, or a frame of reference about how the music came to be.
The band have a unique sound in the modern Indie Rock climate. Picture David Byrne and Michael Stipe recording an album together with modern day world issues and modern production technology. If you can mentally piece that together you might have a good idea where Storytown’s sound begins. Storytown will be releasing an album later this year.
Keep an eye out via Facebook and Soundcloud.
On December 14th, X Ambassadors headlined The Night The Buzz Stole XXMas at the Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland in Kansas City. We got some action shots to rival your favorite comic book.
Keep your eyes peeled for new music from X Ambassadors in 2018 here.
Friday night in the Hudson Valley and The Ballroom Thieves played the Helsinki Hudson. The indie folk trio (Martin Earley, Calin Peters, and Devin Mauch) have had an incredible year of touring, new music releases, the festival circuit, and are finishing the year off with a short run up the east coast including this hometown show for drummer Devin. With support from Nashville duo The Harmaleighs it was a beautiful night in front of a packed house.
Keep up with The Ballroom Thieves here.
On Tuesday, October 31st, The Used took on the Uptown Theater in midtown Kansas City, Missouri to party it up on the most spooktacular evening of the year with help from post-hardcore favorite Glassjaw.
Members of the audience moved about the theater dressed as Clint Eastwood, Batman and Wayne Campbell of Wayne’s World. Not to be outdone, lead vocalist Bert McCracken debuted his look as the Pope as he twirled his garments and hat through “Take It Away” and “The Bird and the Worm.” Bandmates Jeph Howard, Justin Shekoski and Dan Whitesides also dressed for the occasion as a banana, the grim reaper and the Kool Aid Man respectively. McCracken’s ferocious vocals and the eerie Art Deco architecture adorning the venue’s walls added to the sinister night.
The band is touring in support of their just-released seventh studio album, The Canyon. The 17-track analog record stretches 80 minutes and is the first in which Shekoski stepped in for former guitarist Quinn Allman. It is also written as McCracken recovered from the sudden loss of childhood friend Tregen Lewis. Songs featured during the show included the Kurt Cobain-inspired anthem “Over and Over Again” and the live debut of the self-aware galvanizing chorus that is “The Nexus.”
Inspired by Michael Jackson to dance at the age of eight, McCracken refrained from performing his version of the Thriller dance. Though he spoke to the healing abilities of music and power of expression. “Try not to escape your problems but face your fears and maybe you’ll walk out (of it) feeling better,” he said.
Photographer Ashleigh Lee nabbed some stills for us, and you can check them out below!
Keep up with The Used here!
**Copy by Chris Ruder.
**Photos by Ashleigh Lee.
Last fall, Bishop Briggs made her first ever stop in Kansas City as part of 96.5 The Buzz’s Halloweenie Roast. We had been flabbergasted by her talent with her first major single “River,” and covered her for miles on Impose after meeting her and realizing she’s one of the good ones. Here are some dark throwback photos we captured before the Halloween-themed event. (Though I’d say our photo game has improved immensely the last couple of times we have seen her.)
Keep up with Bishop Briggs here.
**Originally shot for Impose.
