Weekend Art Picks: LFK Throws a FIRST Friday (and maybe Saturday, in one case) Due To Snow

We've sort of fallen out of the scenester art loop of late, but--as near as we can tell--a lot of last week's Final Friday events were cancelled due to the snowstorm and will happen this week.  The Final Fridays Wordpress site here has a list of galleries that are supposed to be open this week.  So...LFK will be feeling very much like KC as we enjoy some FIRST Friday art.

Our picks:

Wonder Fair serves up "Cheese and Rice Sonic Rush."  Visit the FB event page here for full info.  An excerpt:

"Inspired by Humour Noir and Bizarro Fiction, ‘Cheese and Rice Sonic Rush’ is an ironic composition of consumer culture banality, wherein the viewer is invited to empathize with sell-outs and hypermarkets.  The work presents a comedy whose familiar characters are cast from the shelves of convenience stores and the ad columns along side Internet browser windows."

Chip: "?"

Richard: "If I knew how to make art, this is exactly the kind of art I think I'd want to make, at least thematically."

Chip:  "Is this a Coke can covered with cheetos?"

 

Over at the Blue Flame Gallery (are you hip enough to know its location?), Sean Minton's "We Are The Stuff of Stars" (watercolors and illustrations) will be accompanied by live music from La Guerre. FB event page here ; our old interview with La Guerre over here (actually, it's the very first interview we did!).  The last time we were at Blue Flame, Tyler Gregory was playing, and we predict he'll try to jam with La Guerre at some point in the evening.



"Hucksters, Barkers, and Sideshows" at the Percolator also intrigues us.  The FB event page here lists it as happening on Saturday, which seems...confusing (but presumably it's correct?).  There will be a lecture from Erika Nelson, who will discuss "snake-oil salesmen, the carnival culture of Kinsley (Midway, USA), and the infamous “goat gland doctor,” John R. Brinkley of Milford, among others."

Chip:  "There BETTER be corndogs on sale at this lecture, and deep-fried Snickers and deep-fried butter on a stick."

What else is essential viewing/listening on this rare First Friday (and maybe Saturday)?  Let us know.

Scenester Pick of the Week: Marty Hillard's Birthday Bash at Bottleneck With Cowboy Indian Bear and Much More / Django Unchained at Liberty Hall

Readers, we've been on a bit of a hiatus here at the LC, and that's likely to continue for a bit.  If you like, you can pretend we were cancelled by NBC and our "show-runner" was fired.

Chip: "So now we only pop up occasionally, Community-style, with boner jokes that are only about half as clever and "meta" as before."

Anyway, we wanted to make sure and pop in today because we (like most of LFK) think that Marty Hillard is pretty fucking awesome and you all need to know about his birthday bash with Cowboy Indian Bear at the Bottleneck this Saturday, March 2.  Also on the bill:  Cloud Dog, Soft Reeds, and Paper Buffalo.  Visit the FB event page here for full info on the bands and the show, and know that a portion of the proceeds go to Family Promise of Lawrence, so you'll be doing a good deed while shaking your asses on Saturday.

Reread our old interview with Marty over here (it's mostly about his Ebony Tusks project) and reread our Cloud Dog interview here .  We hope those Cloud Dog gents aren't out practicing shirtless in the snow this week, or they might catch frostbite of the nipples.






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Sure, they show a lot of sports on their big-screen these days, but we assure you that Liberty Hall is still a movie theater!  And we suggest you sled your way down there this week and catch the Oscar-winning Django Unchained (congrats Christoph and QT)  in lovely 35mm this week.  They just opened it up over the weekend and we're told it look great and is even more awesome when you pair it up with some Free State beer (we recommend at least three during the film, one per hour).  It's playing at least till Thursday, so check it out, along with the Oscar-winning Best Foreign Film Amour (Chip:  "Beware, you have to read the sonofabitch!") and the Oscar-nominated shorts (both live-action and animation).  Visit the recently remodeled Liberty Hall website here.  Now that's a bingo...if you catch our Christoph reference!

Important LFK Music Event of the Week: SXSW-Fest at the Jackpot / Important LFK Music Reminder of the Week: Farmer's Ball Deadline Is Near

It's not easy for broke-ass scenesters to make their way down to SXSW in Austin, so our friends at the Jackpot and I Heart Local Music have put together two fine evenings of entertainment (for $5) to benefit a bunch of the artists who are making the trek.   Check out the I Heart Local Music coverage here for full info and information on all the bands (although, as a scenester, you should already be more than familiar with these bands).  And visit the FB event page here .

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Speaking of raising money for bands, musicians should be especially excited about this year's Farmer's Ball competition, which is offering cold hard cash instead of the usual studio time to the first and second place acts:  $2000 and $1000 bucks.  That will buy a lot of PBR.

The deadline to submit music is looming on March 1 with the competition itself scheduled for late April.  Visit the KJHK site here for all the info.  And please, someone step up with a band that's delightfully twee! We're getting bored with all this raucous garage rock (although Chip's raucous garage rock project, Boner Party, has already been submitted).

Nerd Nite 14 Recap / Weekend Scenester Picks: Rock and Roll; Pudding; Books and Bars

The nerds partnered up with the Lied Center and the "It Gets Better" project to bring us an unusually moving evening of nerdery.  As best as we could tell, no nerds were bullied at all during this event.  Some highlights: 

Bill Bowersock's  "How Gay Men’s Choruses Helped Shape the Gay Rights Movement (1978-Today)" led us from the formative years of gay choruses (in SF around the time of the assassination of Harvey Milk), through the AIDS crisis (where such choruses served as the "emotional heart of the gay community," a compassionate counterbalance to the ACT UP protests) to their work in high-schools today.  If you didn't cry a little during the video clip of the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles singing Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" you're probably some sort of monster. Watch it here .

In "Reparative Therapy: A Nerdy Perspective on a Hot Social Issue,"  Ruth Ann Atchley showed how the scientific community arrived at today's "homosexuality is NOT a pathology" mindset by examining the earlier years of problematic, biased scientific research, as well as continuing efforts such as "reparative therapy"  to "cure" homosexuality.   Prior to Atchley's presentation, "It Gets Better" cast member Drew Tablak provided an excellent, personal experience introduction involving such therapy.

Best line: "For therapists, a 27% 'success' rate is not that bad."


Finally,  Liesel Reinhart's "Galileo's Finger and the Diffusion of Innovations" began with the promise that we WOULD see Galileo's finger during the presentation (and we did).  We learned that some ideas won't diffuse (like that pesky metric system) while others (the Earth is not flat; Iphones are awesome; acceptance of homosexuality)  operate on a spectrum from "innovators" and "early adapters" on one end to "laggards"  on the other.  Also, the word "laggards" made us giggle every time. 

Best line:  "It's not always that laggards won't innovate, it's just that they die first."

The "It Gets Better" touring project has its performance at the Lied on Saturday at 7:30.  Details here .  

Chip: "Not to be a bully, but could they please move it to 10:00 pm, right after the KU/Texas game?"

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Kick off your Friday evening with a matinee of EXTRAordinary and NEVA at the Replay.   NEVA is our friend Michael Buck's rock project and his first time playing with a full band in quite some time.  Go rock with them. 

 

Then stick around, because Dry Bonnet has a 7" release show at the Replay on Friday, along with Pale Hearts.  Question:  why's the Replay firing all our favorite scenesters these days?   Check out the FB event page here.




Across the street, Iowa's Har di Har is at the Jackpot.  (Re)read our interview with them from earlier in the week right here.  Also on the bill is Something and the Whatevers, and we asked that band's Quinton McPanda to send us a little blurb about the show.  He offered this fun little rejoinder to the Har di Har interview:

"We're really excited to play this show, mostly because of
Har-di-Har's adamant avoidance of 'loops, samples and programming.'
Something And The Whatevers believe robots are the future, and we will
probably have to challenge the Har-di's to a drum battle, which will
consist of Ben manning the iPod while Quinton and Travis try to start
an actual battle. So come get drunk and dance and help us punch the
other bands in their stupid organic faces! Robot rock forever!"

 

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Film Church is back at Liberty Hall on Sunday with PT Anderson's Punch Drunk Love.  We're going to eat so much pudding!  

Chip:  "I hear there will also be pudding-wrestling afterward!" 

Visit the FB event page here.

Great promo material from Liberty Hall:








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And later on Sunday, our friends at Free Borders (Lawrence Public Library) are presenting an author reading in the Sandbar from 4:00-5:00.   This should be a perfect locale for Florida crime novelist Tim Dorsey:

"If you take a little Dave Barry, throw in some Carl Hiassen, mix in a bit of John D. MacDonald, add a pinch of Dexter, and bake it in the Florida sun, you’ll end up with Dorsey’s series featuring Serge Storms."

You had us at John D. MacDonald!  Also, why aren't all readings in bars?  Get the full scoop from LPL here.

Valentine's Day Picks: Purple Rain at Liberty Hall; Ladies' Love Songs At Percolator; Broncho at Jackpot

Readers, if you're like us, you're finding it hard to get laid this Valentine's Day without the aid of Boulevard's delicious Chocolate Ale (since they frustratingly decided not to bottle that much-in-demand aphrodesiac this year).   But perhaps Liberty Hall can help you out with a screening of Purple Rain followed by karaoke. If it's half as fun as the recent Stop Making Sense/karaoke evening, it should be pretty fun indeed.  Let's go crazy!

Chip:  "I'll be singing 'Darling Nikki," because that line about her 'masturbating with a magazine' in the hotel lobby always gives me a boner."




And the Percolator is hosting a romantic event called  "Pot O'Honey" : "an evening of Love Songs...performed by an All-Women cast of Lawrence Musicians."  We're not sure if they realize that The Silos actually contains our male friend King Tosser, local punk scholar and vulgarian, who may well be burned at the stake by the ladies at the Percolator's ever-present campfire before this night is done.






































If you're less inclined toward romance, you'll certainly want to end your evening at the Jackpot, pushing and shoving your friends around in a sweaty fury with Broncho, Up the Academy, and The Sluts.  Then again, Broncho's "Try Me Out Sometime" is pretty fucking romantic (as well as a very great song).

Mardi Gras in LFK / Night Beds at Jackpot / Nerd Nite 14 Preview

It's Fat Tuesday in LFK, which means the annual musical Mass. Street march from Aimee's to Free State has been going strong.  We tagged along for a few blocks and settled in for the Free State festivities. 

A few pics:

Bumblebee Man and Tyler Gregory:

 

Mike West leading the "Mardi Gras Mambo" on the street corner:





Topical Mardi Gras humor!



A bad-ass costume:

 

Good work, LFK, except for the lack of boobies, which Lawrence never seems to understand is an ESSENTIAL part of the celebration.  You'd think a town famous for starting the "Boobment" could step it up a bit in that regard.

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Our music buddies over at the Yankee Calling blog (check 'em out here ) tipped us off to an interesting Jackpot show this evening:  Night Beds.  Read  this this Guardian piece and be convinced.  Night Beds debut album, Country Sleep, was apparently recorded in a pre-Civil War home once owned by the Man in Black, which is hip enough on its own to lure you out on a Tuesday.  Even Pitchfork is impressed (7.7) writing of Night Beds' Winston Yellen:

"The guy is blessed with jump-out-of-the-gym vocal athleticism and throughout Country Sleep, it's unclear whether he's a showoff or if he's still trying to figure out how to corral it. Though there’s a fair share of C&W formalism and cask-aged drawl, Yellen's more of a Buckley or even a Banhart in terms of his ability to work without strcuture. A diva, in other words." (full review here ).

Try not to get drunk and yell "Diva" at him, though.  He might not like that.

 


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And Wednesday brings a major Nerd Nite event at Pachamama's in which the nerds have partnered up with the Lied Center and the "It Gets Better" project, which is in town for a week of events culminating in a Saturday event at the Lied.

The presentations:

 "How Gay Men’s Choruses Helped Shape the Gay Rights Movement (1978-Today)" by Bill Bowersock, Show Producer for the It Gets Better production

"Reparative Therapy: A Nerdy Perspective on a Hot Social Issue" by Ruth Ann Atchley, Ph.D.

"Galileo's Finger and the Diffusion of Innovations" by Liesel Reinhart, Writer and Director


Chip:  "For one night, and one night only, out of respect for the It Gets Better project, I will NOT bully the nerds who are in front of me in the beer line."

 

 

Sharing Some Laughs With Iowa's Har di Har: "You Will Be Able to Shake Your Ass Half the Time."

Iowa duo Har di Har hits LFK on Friday, February 15 for a quadruple bill at the Jackpot alongside Something and the Whatevers (we showcased them recently: read it here), Electric Needle Room, and Tiger Waves.

Will Har di Har make you laugh?  Perhaps.  Will they make you dance?  Yes (at least half of the time).  Will they impress you with their technical prowess?  You bet.  Check them out on FB here and take a listen to their Feudal Kind EP via Bandcamp.

We caught up with Har di Har's Andrew to chat about "experimental folk" and whether or not Chip can dance continuously through an entire Har di Har set to score sweet prizes!

Chip:  When a lot of people hear the phrase “experimental folk” they get a little nervous, because it might sound like a bunch of different-sized frogs getting hit over the head with mallets or something.   You just never know what you're getting into.   Describe your sound to our readers and convince them that there’s nothing to be frightened about.

Andrew: Your readers don't need to worry about frog brutality in our case.  We use soft mallets when dealing with frogs.  "Experimental folk" is a bit dated as the best description of our music as we've been writing and touring a lot for the past five months so our sound is evolving.  Yes, some of our songs are reminiscent of Fleet Foxes/The Antlers/Bon Iver/early Dirty Projectors, but our new music is reaching into new realms.  A better way to describe our music would be progressive psychedelic-pop/folk with echoes of four-on-the flour minimal B-movie synth-scoreing chamber-rock... what's there to frightened of?        

Richard:  I like the description on your FB page that the music sometimes sounds “as though Miles Davis were performing Gregorian chant.”  Can you offer us another comparison that fills in the blanks with another odd combination?  

Andrew: If Janis Joplin had been parented by Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchel, befriended Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, and received consultation from Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear while recording music, the result would be similar to Har-di-Har...     

Chip:  I hear you have a passion for dance music.  Will I be able to shake my ass at this show?

Andrew: You will be able to shake your ass half the time.  Or you could shake half your ass all the time.  All of our songs have sections where you will want to dance your face off.  However, it is a goal of ours to make the crowd work for it.  With winding instrumental break downs, meter changes, and grand pauses, we reward anyone who can successfully dance continuously through our set either with presents or beer.   

Chip:  I'll take that challenge!

Richard:  I like the haunting refrain in "Campaign" : “What a mess we’ve made... in the garden…what a mess we’ve made.”  Tell us what that song is all about?   It doesn’t sound like a very Har-di-Har kind of message!

Andrew: People often say "Hardy har har" when a bad joke has been told or when a good joke is poorly delivered.  We feel like the US political system and electoral process can be compared to one such joke.  That is what "Campaign is about".  Har-di-Har is a reaction to how cultural and societal norms become adopted/adapted over time.  To some this is process is comical; to others it is a serious matter.  We chose to lie somewhere between the two.  If you think about it, the underlying reasons why things are funny are frequently serious in nature.  

[Chip reflects for awhile on his boner jokes].

Chip:  What’s it like being a married couple on the road together all the time?   Do you play a lot of shows in which you’re secretly or not-so-secretly PISSED OFF at each other?


 Andrew:  There are pluses and minuses to arguing in a car.  + We can't walk away from an argument.  - We can't walk away from an argument. + Julie can't throw high heels at my face when she is pissed off. - She can neglect to feed me while I'm driving...which makes me hungry and also makes me not want to argue. 

But, seriously, we are very rarely pissed at each other. We really don't fight that often.  There isn't much to fight about besides who gets to eat the last of the trail mix or some stupid shit like that.  How can you fight with your spouse when all she wants to do is write music, play shows, travel the states, drink good beer, eat good food, and meet stellar people?  I can't complain and neither can she.  
Honestly, the best part of being married on the road is going home with a lady every night.  Duh.  

Richard:  Leave us with a blurb that convinces our readers that they absolutely MUST attend the Jackpot show on the 15th, right after Valentine’s Day.

Andrew: Look, to be honest Richard, what we do in a live setting is fun to watch and difficult to pull off, whether it's the day after a made-up holiday or not.  If your readers don't like our songs or music (which they will), they should at least come out to see two people play four instruments while singing at the same time.  

Julie is the lead singer, but she sings while playing keyboard and drums simultaneously, and I play bass or guitar while drumming with my feet and singing back-up vocals.  Your readers are probably asking, "Can they actually pull this shit off???!!"  Honestly, the only way to find that out is to make it out to the show.  I really don't know that much about Electric Needle Room, Tiger Waves, or 
Something and the Whatevers, but what I've heard online I dig, so the bill alone should be an added incentive for your readers to come out to this show.  We've heard really good things about the scene in Lawrence, so we have high hopes for this show and for music lovers in Lawrence.  Don't let us down and we won't let you down!!  

 Show flyer:

Feudal Kind EP cover:

This Week in KU Basketball: Meltdown! / Scenester Picks of the Weekend: Double Dose of Berwanger in LFK

With a stunning one-two punch of an unexpected home loss to Oklahoma State that shattered the second longest home win streak in the nation and an unforgivable road loss to the puny horny toads of TCU, it's been a tough week for KU basketball.

Bill Self says: “It’s the worst team Kansas has ever put on the floor since Dr. Naismith was here. I think he had some bad teams when he lost to Topeka YMCA in his first couple years."

Let's see how the fans are handling things on the LJ-World talkbacks:

leftylucky blames "the curse of KU endowment and Rock chalk park." 

FluteinD says:   "I'm going to put KU's offense on a milk carton. I think I last saw it in December, and that's long enough to warrant a search party."

flloyd says:  "ROCK, CHOKE CHICKEN HAWK!!!!!

And what about our old pal Chip:  "Not even KU Boobs is making this loss easier to handle.  But I suppose some naked ones might."

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Maybe you should forget about sports for awhile with some rock and roll.  It's a Berwanger weekend in LFK, as the new(ish) band brings their "Rock n' Power Rust" to the Jackpot tonight on a quadruple bill that has an intriguingly groovy flyer:




You scenesters certainly know Josh Berwanger from The Anniversary and The Only Children, so you'll want to check out the new stuff.  While you're there, make sure to ask Hidden Pictures' Richard about his recent trip to New Zealand's finest hobbit holes.

On Saturday, Berwanger crosses the street to the Replay for a triple-bill with Soft Reeds and Dark Satellites.  It will be a good way to have some fun before Saturday's likely KU road loss to Oklahoma.






But the absolute best Berwanger flyer is this one from an upcoming show in KC.  We're big fans of Country Mice, so it's too bad we're usually too lazy to make the trek to KC:

Our Interview With The Rouge: "We like PBR and most things alcoholic and we were wondering if you guys wanted to watch some Gilmore Girls?"

The Rouge is an ex-Denver band currently making its way in Music City, and they are bringing their well-crafted indie/Americana tunes to the Bottleneck on Tues. Feb. 12 along with local badass Y(our) Fri(end).  The Rouge has a new EP called Blurry (on Atlantic Records) which will hit the streets on that very day, which also happens to be...Fat Tuesday, folks!   It's going to be a party.  Hopefully some of you kind LFK revelers will see fit to show the band your boobies.    

Give The Rouge a "like" on FB over  here and enjoy our chat with Josh and Nick, lead singer and drummer, in which we talk about the hipness of Denver, what it means to be "mature," and the likelihood of the band hooking up with Taylor Swift in Nashville.  All that and a reference to one of our favorite running jokes on Parks and Rec!  Great job, Rouge! 


Chip:  What’s the origin of the band name?  Do you guys wear a lot of makeup or something?

The Rouge:  Beards are our makeup. A magical unicorn (a little redundant) flew into our kitchen window (it was a Lil Sebastian-sized unicorn) and told us to take the moniker because it was good luck.

Richard:  I’ve heard and enjoyed your new EP Blurry, which lands on the same day as the Bottleneck gig, and I think my favorite track is “Handcuffs,” which is full of great phrases like “looking metal in an indie way” and “let’s make love until we throw up.”  Tell us some of the stories behind that song.  Also, what’s your personal favorite line from the album?

The Rouge:  "Handcuffs" is a song about Denver.  We started the band there and had quite a few nights of "celebration." Seems like you can celebrate every night in Denver.   Sputnik is a bar on Broadway that we would frequent as it was "stumbling distance" to our yellow house.. There was a bartender named Matty that worked there who was in a band named Taun Taun. They were totally metal in an indie way.  He looked tough as nails in skinny jeans.  He was and is awesome.  "Make love until we throw up."  Me (Josh) and my ex were nuts...crazy sausage!

Favorite lyrics : "I don't mind singing for the devil in eternity. As long as till I die, you can be the one to sing me to sleep." -- Nick aka Slim

Chip:   It seems like every press blurb for Blurry mentions your newfound “maturity.” Does this mean you guys are going to adjourn right after the show to go watch Downton fucking Abbey or something, or will you stick around and have some beers with us?

The Rouge:  We like PBR and most things alcoholic and we were wondering if you guys wanted to watch some Gilmore Girls?

Richard:   We know that the band moved from Denver to Nashville a few years back.  Compare and contrast the two music scenes for us.  And what’s the best show you ever saw in Denver at the Hi-Dive?

The Rouge:  Denver is such a fascinating and hip-as-shit scene. It is an intense and glorious time. Lots of quality music, lots of quirky musicians, hipsters, oldsters, hippies. The Baker neighborhood is a haven of creativity and class. We love Denver.  It's where we grew from boys to older more wiser boys.  We got our asses kicked.  Everybody needs a good ass kicking..

Nashville...the music industry city.  It's hard to find 'music fans' when everyone is a 'musician' We've met tons of great people and made fantastic relationships. But it's hard to make the same impact as in Denver.  Or maybe it's just us?  Either way the creative energy can be very plastic.. or for the dollar dollar bills, ya'll.  More about the 'cut' than the love of music, love of emotion.  But, hell, the people are sweet as pie. And like it or not we are another cog in the machine. Rebellious little cogs we are!!!

Born in the Flood at the Hi-Dive changed the way we wanted to play music.  Shit, so did the Hi-Dive.  We love that venue..

Chip:   Do you have any good tales about rubbing shoulders with famous Nashville country stars? Have any of you made out with Taylor Swift?

The Rouge:  Our roomate C3PO has an extraordinary crush on Taylor (I call her by her first name because I think we will know her someday).   C love (another name for C3PO, or Chris) is convinced they will someday be together..... forever...in loving matrimony.  And we wish him the best on his journey to becoming Dr. Swift.  We suspect he will receive a doctorate upon consummation.

Richard:   Leave our readers with a blurb to convince them that they absolutely MUST come to your Bottleneck show on the 12th.

The Rouge:  If we sell out the Bottleneck on the 12th,  I (Josh) will start the longest fucking conga line of all time. We will take it to the streets, clothing optional,  because its Lawerence Fucking Kansas!

 

Monday and Tuesday Scenester Picks: Pole-Dancing, Burger Parties, and Super Nerd Night

Kick off your Monday night at Fatso's by sketching Foxy by Proxy's Bunny Baltimore as she does some pole-dancing.  We can't make this shit up. 




And, for those of you who haven't ditched the Burger Stand for Dempsey's,  you can celebrate the Burger Stand's 4th anniversary bash all day today featuring $2 Free State pints and $2 Birthday Cake shots & $2 Rumpleminze shots all day (our Rumple-loving friend LarryfuckingKS is sure to be on the scene!).  There will be drawings for free meals for a year and such.  Get details over at their FB page . Our old pal Matt Clothier, who has of late become the official "Bard of the Burger Stand," will be singing some cover tunes at 8:30.  He knows a Replacements tune or two and will _occasionally_ play them if you yell at him long and loud enough.  Also, our old guest columnist The Burger Wizard STILL owes us a fucking review of the Stand.  Also, we hope they have bacon-wrapped frog legs on sale today:




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Our friends at Nerd Nite get a lot of attention these days but let's not forget about our even-nerdier brethren (and sistren?) over at Super Nerd Night.  They are back in action on Tuesday with the delightfully named "Call of Booty" edition of their long-running event which will feature (in addition to the usual nerdery) a dating game involving the Felt Show puppets (where have those giant puppets been hiding recently?), a V-Day performance by Foxy by Proxy (boobies!), and a sure-to-be-romantic set by Robocopter.   Check out the FB event page here to find out that a whopping 100 of your nerdiest friends will be there.