Fourth of July Scenester Guide / Hanging Out With Hidden Pictures / Free Local Underground Compilation / Spot Those Scenesters

It's the 4th of July, and if we know our readers you already have a PBR in one hand and an illegal firework in the other.

The family-friendly place to be today is, of course, Watson Park, for the Lawrence Originals Food Festival and fireworks extravaganza.

But an even better spot for Larryville people-watching, as usual, is the Replay, which kicks off with an early matinee featuring the wizard-rock of Harry and the Potters, an event sure to attract a truly bizarre mix of young Potter-loving girls and random holiday drunks prone to showing people their "wands." This is sort of a troubling combination. We predict several arrests. Opening the matinee is The Lone Gunman, who plays "filk music" with song titles like "My Girl is a Magic Champion." Prepare to get geeky. And we invite you to prepare for this 4th of July geek-a-thon by watching the trailer for 1978's Stunt Rock, which is full of wizardry and explosions.

Stick around the Replay late and catch Fourth of July's annual patriotic evening. Wave a flag and chug a PBR and see if your heart explodes (Chip: "That last part sounds like an inside joke which I don't get?").

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Last night brought an evening of delightful duos to the Replay matinee. Arthur Dodge (with Matt Mozier) offered up some bearded country laments. The Dead Girls' Cameron Hawk (with Barry Swenson) indulged his taste for Neil Young and The Beatles. And Hidden Pictures' Richard Gintowt and Michelle Sanders opened up with a sweet set of guitar and glockenspiel (and tambourine).

We've known Gintowt awhile from back in the glory days of L.com, where he wrote music criticism (not recipes), and we enjoyed a wide-ranging post-set discussion with him and Michelle about the current state of cultural coverage in Larryville, our hopes for Wilco's new album (no more "dad rock"), their favorite local band (KC's The ACBs ), and whether the weird dude roaming around the bar with a suit and briefcase was the official Replay drug dealer.




If you haven't watched Hidden Pictures' video for "Anne Apparently," we'd highly encourage you to do so (especially if you enjoy tales of sexy librarians and cute lyrics as much as we do: "Anne Apparently / is pretty / like so many girls / who aren't with me."). And visit Hidden Picture's Bandcamp page to download the new album , Synchronized Sleeping.
















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Do you enjoy pretending to be hipper than you actually are by listening to free compilations of "underground" local bands? We do, and we're pleased to see our friends in The Leotards (King Tosser and Stephanie Stix) popping up on a new collection. The last time we spotted The Leotards in public, they were playing a supposedly "family-friendly" gig at the Lawrence Percolator, where they debuted some new tunes such as "Is That Your Dick in my Mouth?," which consisted mostly of sultry songstress Stephanie Stix shouting "Is that your dick in my mouth?" We talked to a few parents at the show who weren't really impressed by this catchy new lullaby their kids were singing along with, but the rest of us enjoyed the set very much. Now you can hear The Leotards' "Hee Hi No,' along with songs from High Diving Ponies, Meth Horse, Strong Smells, and others by visiting the Empty Land Records site and clicking download. You'll be hipper if you do this.




















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A. Ruscin is back in action on L.com with a set of Party Pics from this weekend's Hospital Ships show at Replay. Spot these scenesters and win some beers.