Thunder Eagle- Classical Decomposer

Thunder Eagle- "Classical Decomposer" (MP3)

Heavy metal is hilarious.

It can be the most liberating and cathartic of musical forms. It's also inherently ludicrous. The head-banging? Hysterical! The guitar solos? Absurd! The song titles? Laughable! The band logos? Preposterous!

Thunder Eagle understands this. Their implicit acknowledgment of metal's contextual silliness allows them to rock even more convincingly. Songs like "Classical Decomposer" and "Alcoholocaust" (grab the MP3 at PureVolume) demonstrate that humor and head-banging go together like vodka and tonic.

As displayed in this year-old video, Thunder Eagle masterfully fuse post-AC/DC blues with Southern rock and contemporary thrash. They've since released the five-song Ride The Timberwolf (another local gag) and are working on their first full-length album.

They hit the Riot Room on Monday.

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I happily downloaded two free mixtapes by regional artists this week. There Stands the Glass-favorite Stik Figa has a new project with D/Will. It's here. And the download from Mouth, a jazz-funk-reggae-hip hop jam band, is a shockingly diverse project.

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Kansas City Click: Spoon, The Bravery, Metric and Hockey play for fans of a radio station Thursday at the Midland Theater.

Angela Hagenbach croons Friday at Jardine's.

Megadeth touches down at the Beaumont Club on Saturday.

I wouldn't mind hearing Darius Rucker sing "Alright" at the Midland Theater on Sunday.

Thunder Eagle rocks the Riot Room on Monday.

(Image of Thunder Eagle pilfered from Pure Volume.)

Review: Sugarland's Gold and Green

Sugarland- "Silent Night" MP3 download available at Oprah's site

If ever a pop act was suited to the unique sensibility of Christmas, it's Sugarland. The folksy and sincere voice of Jennifer Nettles is tailor-made for the season. Not only is her voice more expansive than Santa's belly, she and her partner Kristian Bush demonstrated that they're masters at interpreting familiar material on this year's impressive Live On the Inside album. (Here's my review.)

Besides, the unapologetically cornpone component of the band's sound gave Gold and Green, the band's first Christmas album, the potential to be a fully realized holiday classic.

Alas, they don't quite get there. Split between original and classic material as well as the sacred and the secular, the album is too disjointed to become a holiday staple. Still, a handful of individual tracks are excellent. The Leon Russell-style gospel-blues of "Comin' Home" works, as does "Maybe Baby (New Year's Day)." And I don't know why Nettles breaks into Spanish on "Silent Night" but I like it a lot.

It's not perfect. "Nuttin' For Christmas" is the sort of condescending hillbilly tripe that represents Sugarland at their worst. I'm not suggesting that Sugarland forsake its country roots, but the song doesn't ring true to my ears. Their ill-advised satirical advertisement for the project isn't funny either.

I remain convinced that Sugarland has a classic Christmas album in them. It'd be just fine with me if Sugarland put out a Christmas album every year until they get it right.

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I compile a list of The Ten Most Important Jazz-Related Events and Stories of 2009 at Kansas City jazz blog Plastic Sax.

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Jazz musician Jason Parker blogs about his experiment with "free." (Tip via AZ.)

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I had occasion to interact with Bob Keane of Del-Fi Records a few times. He died November 28. (Tip via BGO.)

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Folk music historian Bess Hawes has died. (Tip via BGO.)

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Kansas City Click: Rex Hobart plays an early show at The Record Bar on Tuesday.

Jerry Hahn plays Jardine's on Wednesday.

Eddie Henderson- Ceora

Eddie Henderson- "Ceora" (MP3)

I watched HBO's airing of The Jazz Baroness this week. As this trailer of sorts indicates, it's an odd little documentary. Trumpeter Eddie Henderson, the owner of a Doctors Degree in psychiatry, is one of the film's talking heads. I didn't know what to make of his explanation of the electroshock therapy administered to Thelonious Monk. Henderson's excellent mid-70s funk-fusion efforts like this are far less ambiguous. "Ceora" is from the much tamer Think On Me album from 1990.

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I have no idea how many thousands of CDs, DVDs and albums I acquired during the last ten years. I imagine that the majority of the music I accumulate in the forthcoming decade will be MP3s or just borrowed and rented streams. The only way to make physical product appealing today is by offering something unique. The Old Canes and Saddle Creek have the right idea for Feral Harmonic. This video shows the Kansas band's new release being assembled by hand.

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I reviewed recent shows headlined by Hatebreed and Tech N9ne.

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Kansas City Click: Lenny Williams sings "Cause I Love You" Friday at the Uptown Theater.

Baroness gets loud in the Riot Room on Saturday.

Erin McKeown and Jill Sobule provide a fine double bill Sunday at the Record Bar.

It'll be date night Monday at the Uptown for The Swell Season.

Maria Marquez- No Lo Digas Tu

Maria Marquez- "No Lo Digas Tu" (MP3)

An old friend called me yesterday. He was beginning to crack under the pressure imposed on him from family and work. I told him to ignore all the needy people. Had he paid me a visit, I'd hook him up with a beverage and an album by Maria Marquez. She could help him slow down. Just listen. Some have compared the Venezuelan's voice to Nina Simone's. That's fair. She manages, however, to create an entirely unique sensibility on the quiet 2001 release Eleven Love Stories.

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Johnny Almond of the Mark-Almond band died November 18. My friend BGO noted that Almond lived in the Kansas City area for a while. It's a little before my time, so I'm only now hearing "The City". I can't believe commercial radio once played this sort of folk-jazz fusion.

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I heard four high school bands play at a basketball tournament last night. As heard here, Schlagle was best. It was a suburban band's arrangement of "Enter Sandman", however, that blew my mind.

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While I love pop music, I was embarrassed for myself as I watched the American Music Awards. What an unmitigated disaster!

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The new video for Mac Lethal's "Speak Low" is outstanding.

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When I first saw the video for "Body Language", I thought it was an "I'm On a Boat"-style parody. It's not.

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Kansas City Click: Hidden Pictures are at the Bulldog tonight.

As noted in the previous post, Willie Clayton appears at Bodyworks Phase II on Thanksgiving.

Howard Tate- She's a Burglar

Howard Tate- She's a Burglar (MP3)

As I recently noted, the traditional Thanksgiving blues dance in Kansas City, Kansas, isn't happening this year. I learned this week, however, that an excellent alternative is going down on the other side of the state line. Willie Clayton is playing Bodyworks Phase II on Thanksgiving.

Since I featured Clayton at There Stands the Glass in 2006, I'm casting the spotlight today on the great soul singer Howard Tate. He hit the big time with "Ain't Noboby Home" in 1966 but subsequently experienced a couple decades of personal and professional turmoil before being "rediscovered" in recent years. "She's a Burglar" is from the astoundingly powerful Live album. The document captures an excellent 2004 gig in Denmark.

Because I've been living right, I associate Thanksgiving less with turkey and football than with Courvoisier and lewd dancing. I'll need a ride home Thursday afternoon.

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I caught the fourth and final set of the Jeff Hamilton Trio's two-night stand in Kansas City. Here's my review.

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The fact that Miley Cyrus' "Party In the U.S.A." is in rotation on KPRS makes me proud to be an American. Seriously.

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I'm a reluctant self-promoter. Even so, I have to say that I'm absolutely killing it over at my jazz blog Plastic Sax.

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Kansas City Click: The Get Up Kids return to the Record Bar on Friday and Saturday. Here's footage of the band's 2008 reunion show at the club.

Here's the promotional video for Tech N9ne's Saturday show at the Independence Events Center.

Bassist Gerald Spaits is featured at the Record Bar's monthly alternative jazz series on Sunday.

Review: PacSun PacTour

I think PacSun is brand of clothing. I'm not entirely sure. Lookin' Bros, however, are obviously all about it. A significant percentage of the 300 people at the Beaumont Club on Sunday for the PacSun PacTour were scarf-toting, guyliner-sporting, designer jeans-wearing dudes.

A schlubby music nerd, I was on hand to see P.O.S. The lookin' bros were not.

Sandwiched between four rock acts, the rap-based artist faced a hostile crowd. Underground hits like "Optimist" failed to convince much of the rockist audience. And even though his set looked and sounded much like this, many refused to be won over. They didn't even laugh when P.O.S. dedicated "P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life" to a couple of particularly venomous haters.

It's their loss. P.O.S.' Never Better is one of the best albums of 2009 regardless of genre.

Industrial dance-rock act Innerparty System went over far better. They were solid, as was A.M.I.M., the Kansas City winners of the tour's battle of the bands component. They'd do very well in an opening slot for One Republic or Maroon 5.

I wasn't nearly as tolerant of Eye Alaska. Of the 300-plus acts I've seen in 2009, I enjoyed their excruciating set the least. Plenty of footage of Saosin's performance has already been uploaded. I didn't stick around for it. I felt obliged to immediately begin shopping for hats.

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Kansas City Click: DJ Logic spins Tuesday at Crosstown Station.

(Original image of Innerparty System by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: The Lionel Loueke Trio at The Bllue Room

A few of the songs Lionel Loueke performed Thursday at the Blue Room clearly evoked the musician's roots in Benin. Yet they weren't exactly exercises in traditional African roots music. Loueke applied an Auto-Tune-style effect to his vocals. It was funny, surprising and entirely delightful. That's Lionel Loueke in a nutshell.

About fifty people- at least a third of whom were area jazz musicians- witnessed an extraordinary musical dialogue between Loueke, bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth.

I told someone at intermission that the intense way Loueke and Nemeth locked eyes for minutes at a time made me slightly uncomfortable. This intimacy, however, allowed the men to interact at an incredibly high level. While their music was serious, the musicians played with a rare sense of humor. Thursday's show was one of the funniest I'd seen all year. Nemeth, in particular, is quite a comedian. He'd occasionally raise his stick as if to bash a drum only to pull back at the last moment.

A trumpet player shot some footage of the show. Suggesting that it's not representative of the trio's performance is misleading. No two selections were alike. General references points in the trio's vast stylistic range included Pat Metheny-style gracefulness, John Scofield-ish funk and a bit of James "Blood" Ulmer-style skronk in addition to the African explorations.

The trio's next gig is in Martinique on December 3. I can't imagine a place I'd rather be that day.

(Cross-posted from Plastic Sax, my Kansas City jazz site.)