Think of this weekend as the calm before the storm…
The storm being next weekend’s Middle of the Map Fest that’s going down at a handful of venues in KC and features a ton of local and national bands like Deerhoof, Grizzly Bear, The Joy Formidable, Tennis, Cowboy Indian Bear, Quiet Corral, and about a hundred more.
Here’s the kicker – a ticket for all three days of music at all the venues is $45. That’s a pretty damn good deal in my book.
So this weekend we can take it a little easy…
Friday, March 29th
Lex Norwood Group at the Jazzhaus in Lawrence
Lex is a Lawrence-based keyboard player and vocalist who churns out a mix of jazz, hip-hop, and r&b. His style is definitely smooth and mostly instrumental, so it should go down easy with a few cocktails after a big Jayhawk win Friday night.
Check out a few tracks here.
Rev Gusto at Coda in KC
Fresh off a successful outing at SXSW, this KC-based indie band is playing all over the place lately. And Coda should be a cool and intimate venue to catch the Rev boys up close and personal. A few months ago, just prior to getting some radio run and releasing an EP, they talked to the Larryville Chronicles and described their sound thusly:
We like to think of it as if the Modern Lovers had a baby with The Kinks, then that baby grew up listening to The Violent Femmes and Frank Ocean. Each member has their own influences (Blues, Hip-Hop, punk rock, soul) so its just a fantastic mix of genres that gives off an energetic and dancy indie-pop/rock vibe.
I love when bands say they sound like everything, or that they have influences from every genre of music. It’s a great way of telling me nothing about what you sound like. I know you don’t want to be pigeon-holed, but seriously, you know who you sound like, there isn’t anything that isn’t derivative of something else now. You aren’t creating a new genre of music, just tell me who you sound like and if I like them I’ll probably like you…if you don’t suck. Or I guess I could just search for some of your music online, but come on…I’m fucking lazy, help me out.
Also, side bar, most of Frank Ocean’s album sucked balls. Seriously, push enough press and money behind a turd and people will listen to anything. Also, the Violent Femmes sucked balls too, and everyone knows it. I know everyone learned how to play “Blister in the Sun” like two days after they got a guitar (cause it’s fucking easy as shit). But admit to yourself….they suck…balls. And not just the music. I saw them live 10 years ago, and I could not believe the amount of balls that were sucked by them. I was like, “Holy shit! Are they going to run out of balls to suck? Seriously, are there enough dudes here for them to pull off this amount of ball suckery? Ironically, there were, and they did.”