The Pitch: The Music Issue (July 2022)

30 Years of

The Bump Band - Our Music

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Panel Donor - Lobedom and Global

Bully Pulpit - Beyond Elysium & Into the 7th Layer

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Heidi Lynne Gluck - Pony Show

Voice of Action w/Mark Henning

August Henry - South Ramp

Hollow Body - I Hate to Tell You This

180 Gram LP/Digital

CD/LP/Digital

CD/Digital

Digital

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Purchase tickets online at Ticketmaster.com SUNDAY, AUGUST 21

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24

FRIDAY, AUGUST 12

FRIDAY-SATURDAY, AUGUST 5 & 6

SATURDAY, JULY 16

July 2022 CONTENTS THEPITCHKC.COM

Photo by Liz Goodwin

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FOOD & DRINK

Brunch and ballads for all who enter

BY LIZ GOODWIN The Phoenix combines live music with comfort food in a historic building with its roots in jazz and blues. Weekend brunch serves up a variety of cocktails and local artists in a venue known for its hospitality and rhythm.

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MUSIC

Swiss Army Life

BY LAUREN TEXTOR What can’t Ada Brumback do? As a musician, photographer, and videographer she essentially covers all media pathways. From behind the camera to plucking guitar strings, Brumback certainly keeps us tuned in on the inner workings of music production and live performance.

7 LETTER

11 Drink This Now

26 Connective Tissue

Tropical Matcha Latte at Café Corazón

BY KALA ELKINTON

8 CULTURE

12 Mise en Place

Woodland Ave. is getting the band back together THE PITCH STAFF

10 FOOD & DRINK

14 MUSIC

32 FILM

24 Auteur Theory

34 EVENTS

Letter from the Editor Strolling the PopMart

BY BROCK WILBUR

Girls (run)way the world West 18th Street Fashion Show puts our city on display

BY EMELINE HUTTON

Brunch and ballads for all who enter The Phoenix brings classic comfort and musical versatility together

BY LIZ GOODWIN

11 Eat This Now The Mozarella Salad at Fox and Pearl

BY KALA ELKINTON

Nighthawk’s Jay Ferries on elevated classics, homemade stock, and selfless cooking

BY LIZ GOODWIN

The Pitch’s Infinite Playlist

BY STEPH CASTOR, BROCK WILBUR, NICK SPACEK

An extreme close-up on Making Movies’ long shot

BY BROCK WILBUR

Courtesy Ada Brumback

28 Swiss Army Life

36 LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS Keep Them Coming Age gaps and algorithms

BY KRISTEN THOMAS

Multi-hyphenate Ada Brumback keeps musicians in tune

BY LAUREN TEXTOR

The Legend of the Prairie Punks A new film nearly 20 years in the making tells the story of Wichita’s The Embarrassment

BY ABBY OLCESE

July Calendar

BY STEPH CASTOR, EMELINE HUTTON, HANNAH SCOTT, LAUREN TEXTOR Making Movies photographed by Travis Young.

Design by Miroslav Pavlovic THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

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July 2022 CONTENTS THEPITCHKC.COM

37 Savage Love

32

FILM

The Legend of the Prairie Punks

BY ABBY OLCESE Fasten your seatbelts, and strap in for a journey back to 1979. Starting off in Wichita, we revisit the self-described “blister pop” group known as The Embarrassment and indulge in a history of reuniting and disbanding once more, along with a glimpse at live gigs, covers, and inspirations.

Judgement day

BY DAN SAVAGE

38 KC CARES

KC Shepherd’s Center

BY BETH LIPOFF

Letter from the Editor

Director of Marketing & Promotions Jason Dockery Assistant Editor Steph Castor Community Manager Sarah Sipple Music Editor Nick Spacek Film Editor Abby Olcese Little Village Creative Services Jordan Sellergren House Designer Miroslav Pavlovic Contributing Writers Emily Cox, Liz Cook, Barbara Shelly, Liz Goodwin, Beth Lipoff, Michael Mackie, Kristen Thomas, Kala Elkinton, Michael Cripe, Thomas White, Jordan Baranowski, Tyler Shane, Adrian Torres, Patrick Moore, Justin Burnell Contributing Photographers Zach Bauman, Chase Castor, Travis Young, Jim Nimmo, Chris Ortiz, Destiny Frack, Barry Meitler, Archana Sundar Contributing Designers and Illustrators Alex Peak Turley, Jake Edmisten

STROLLING THE POPMART

By Brock Wilbur Hello, dear readers of The Pitch. Welcome to our new annual celebration of the auditory and sonic superstars of our city: THE MUSIC ISSUE. Jazz hands. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. And to celebrate the best and brightest of what our metro brings to the megamix of modern melodic masterpieces. We’ve got features on some of the ferocious new faces making their first marks and a deep dive into a band who may become the ur-text of what comes next for all of us. In summation, we’re fairly stoked on this mag.

Growing up in smalltown Kansas, my big trips to Kansas City mostly came at the side of my father. Despite being, y’know, dad-aged, he would drive three hours both directions on a Tuesday night to sneak me into a club to catch rare Midwest performances of, say, Interpol.

We only started doing these maddeningly long mid-week adventures after I found my love of music.

We’d made one attempt to get me into rock music, circa the second grade. We went to Wichita to see Bon Jovi. I was, at the time, terrified of fireworks and made my family promise that no one was gonna “do fireworks at me.” The lights went down for that gorgeous former hairstylist from New Jersey, and immediately a parade of pyrotechnics blasted from every corner of the arena.

I left in tears. So was sidelined any interest I had in guitars, explosions, or New Jersey.

In May of 1997, a little known group of Irish lads operating under the moniker “U2” stopped through Kansas City. My dad thought he’d swing the two of us out here to watch the biggest rock band in the world do the biggest stupid rock show in the world to

Editor-in-Chief Brock Wilbur President & Chief Operating Officer Andrew Miller

Editorial Interns Emeline Hutton, Hannah Scott, Lauren Textor

U2’s PopMart Tour in May 1997. Creative Commons

a sold out Arrowhead Stadium.

It broke my tiny sixth grade brain, and I went out to get a guitar the next day.

I always cherish this as my breakthrough moment for live music. What I saw in a football arena that evening was not your typical greatest hits showcase that you probably see in your head. This was the PopMart tour, and nothing in modern rock will ever approximate the sheer spectacle of this event.

U2 had just released an album called Pop. It was an electronic dance-club glam celebration of the excess of America, capitalism, marketing, and the increasingly thin line between religion and the almighty dollar. Much as the Rolling Stones’ disco track “Miss You” is remembered as an embarrassing outlier, Pop is an album that is so hated by U2 themselves that they will do anything in their power to make you forget it happened.

But it’s still my favorite U2 album. Perhaps mostly because I know how much its existence irks them. In part because it ends with an acoustic ballad called “Wake Up Dead Man,” where the famously religious Bono begs Jesus to come fix this “fucked up world”—the only use of the F-bomb in the band’s catalog. [If anything, this is just a painfully layered cultural artifact.]

The PopMart tour became what was

at the time—and still remains—the single most expensive nightly performance cost in rock history. The stage featured the largest video screen ever constructed, licensed intellectual property from pop culture (like Tomb Raider) would appear at random, and at some point the band emerged from a gigantic martini glass, wherein the olive turned into a stadium-illuminating disco ball. The entire engagement was so unreasonable that it nearly bankrupted the band.

Yes, they went that big.

Waxing nostalgic for the night KC taught me the greatest passion of my life, in pursuing live music to the ends of the earth, I’ve uncovered a bootleg VHS recording on YouTube of that entire show. Amid a grainy wave of pixelated crowd, I am somewhat convinced that I can see myself standing next to my father. So this is me, raising a disco ball martini to all the musicians featured in this issue. So many of them will serve as some kid’s indoctrination into the world of reverbs and abandon. I’m just thrilled knowing how many of these performers can accomplish so much more while depending on so much less.

Pitch in, and we’ll make it through,

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DISTRIBUTION The Pitch distributes 20,000 copies a month and is available free throughout Greater Kansas City, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $5 each, payable at The Pitch’s office in advance. The Pitch may be distributed only by The Pitch’s authorized independent contractors or authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of The Pitch, take more than one copy of each week’s issue. Mail subscriptions: $22.50 for six months or $45 per year, payable in advance. Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pending at Kansas City, MO 64108.

COPYRIGHT The contents of The Pitch are Copyright 2022 by The Pitch LLC. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the express written permission of the publisher.

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CULTURE

Girls Run(way) The World WEST 18TH STREET FASHION SHOW PUTS OUR CITY ON DISPLAY

By Emeline Hutton The West 18th Street Fashion Show started at dusk on June 11, 2022. Due to heated impending weather circumstances, what once was supposed to be an outdoor show with spotlights illuminating the runway and live music seeping through the evening air, was quickly hustled inside to the safety of AC. The show was originally set to be staged upon the streets outside of The Bauer—a historic warehouse in the Crossroads District. The threat of impending thunderstorms left stagehands and set attendants tasked with rapidly packing up microphones, speakers, and bleachers to an interior location. Metal arches that were supposed to line the original runway were transported inside to embellish street-facing windows.

A new last-minute runway was crafted within The Bauer’s ballroom—a masterwork of MacGyvering from the production crew behind one of the city’s most expansive live performances.

Instead of walking a straight line down the street, stopping at the end of the runway and turning around, the models took a path in the shape of a rectangle, walking the perimeter of the ballroom.

The spotlights were replaced with string lights, and the pavement was swapped out for a hardwood floor. With such a short turnaround time for an event that was prepared to be outside for months in advance, the West 18th crew pulled it off without a hitch to be seen by the public. A phenomenal feat for the kind of production with hundreds of hours dedicated to perfecting its every frame.

Peregrine Honig, Senior Artistic Director, has been with the show since

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Degree & Certificate Programs in: its inception in 2000. After this year she’ll be passing the torch to Missy IsaMoore, who will take over the same role starting with next year’s show—becoming West 18th’s leader and head of operations. But as much as strong leadership matters in this situation, the artistic thrust of this gigantic fashion production is as delightfully unhinged as the artists behind it insist upon.

Honig reminded the public that every year, West 18th comes with a bit of delightfully unpredictable chaos. “I mean no one really knows what fine art is anyway,” Honig says of the unpredictable nature of fashion presentation. “That’s the whole point.”

For the designers, the show offered the opportunity to show off their collections to the public. Courtney Varner, co-owner of NidaLu Handmade, says that the Medusa

pendants featured in her collection had already come to fruition, so the show’s theme of “Summer Colosseum” seemed like the perfect opportunity to show them off.

The list of designers for the show included 3 Minc, Renee’ Larouge, Craig Rohner, Birdies, NidaLu Handmade, Red Hare Leather, 2S Design House, and Zaid Farouki.

From leather apparel to unisex daywear, these creators showed off their artistic talents, alongside their take on the show’s theme. All of the designers besides Zaid Farouki are local, and their storefronts can be found online, and on Instagram.

Farouki is a Dubai-based designer, but can be found through the same platforms, and serves as a delightful outside influence to expand the boundaries of what this local production can tag in.

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FOOD & DRINK

Brunch and Ballads for All Who Enter THE PHOENIX BRINGS CLASSIC COMFORT AND MUSICAL VERSATILITY TOGETHER

By Liz Goodwin The Phoenix has a history of throwing down.

Although this jazz bar and eatery didn’t come into its current form until 1990, the building’s roots go back another century. It’s been a party spot of sorts for decades, but its modern era is bringing folks together in the name of music, French toast, and signature old fashioneds.

The staple institution draws everyone from grandmothers in their Sunday best, to young couples recovering from a long night (or still in the midst), to families stopping in for music and mimosas. No matter who you are, the staff will treat you like a regular until you become one.

“The staff is really the reason everyone comes back,” says Carisa Lynch, general manager at The Phoenix. “If you don’t have great service, then you have nothing. It’s totally about the experience.”

That’s something that Lynch, affectionately known by her bar nickname as “Cola,” takes to heart. Her jovial laugh and remembrance of your drink order embodies the ethos of the joint: comfort. It’s reflected in both the music and the menu, with an offering for everyone.

The bands vary in genre and overall vibe, bringing in a Broadway-style party and often transporting listeners back to the 1940s with the echo of brass instruments.

Regular acts include Tayla Groves, Tim Reid Jr., and Millie Edwards with Dan Sturdevant.

“I want people to come because they love music, they’re comfortable, and they’re having a great time,” says Lynch. “We want to have a good mix because we want it to be

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THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

an open environment where there is something for everyone.”

The daily menu is an homage to your favorite diner with a few twists, sampling bar staples like sliders and buffalo chicken wraps while venturing into other territories.

Lynch’s personal favorite is the Phoenix Mac made with wine and garlic. All of the offerings are fresh to order, and the portions are huge, to put it lightly.

“I wanted it to be a big plate. It’s always been about comfort and sharing,” Lynch says. “Our chicken tender basket, alone, gets people calling us crazy. We want it to be enough to where you take your time and, of course, get some leftovers to bring back with you.”

If you find yourself lucky enough to get a table for weekend brunch, you’ll see similar stick-to-your-ribs dishes like chicken and waffles, biscuits and gravy, and even a

THE PHOENIX 302 W 8th St. Kansas City, MO 64105

EAT THIS NOW | DRINK THIS NOW

THEPITCHKC.COM

The Mozzarella Salad at Fox and Pearl

BY KALA ELKINTON

g ro wn b y h a n d

Fox and Pearl 2143 Summit St., Kansas City, MO 64108

Come for the aesthet-

ma d e b y h a n d

816. 221 . 7 5 5 9 | b l u e b i rd b i s t ro . c o m 1 7 0 0 S u m m i t S t re e t

Opposite top: Alex Abramovitz and His Swing’n KC Jazz Band get down during weekend brunch. Opposite bottom: An Aperol spritz is poured during early hours.

Above: The Chicken and Waffles is one of the many comforting dishes on the menu during The Phoenix’s weekend menu. Photos by Liz Goodwin

crab cake benedict concoction. The breakfast fare has brought in an explosion of foot traffic. Some brunch-goers even like to join in on vocals between nibbles, singing everything from Ed Sheeran to Billy Joel.

“I mean Sunday brunch truly is crazy,” Lynch says. “It’s really just a huge party.

People ask why we can’t take reservations, but we literally can’t. We are packed.”

The cocktail offerings make the restaurant a triple threat. They’re revered for their old fashioned, as they make their own orange oleo-saccharum by the bucket full and torch the orange peel before garnishing to open up the citrus pores and let the liquid gold seep out. A Tito’s Bloody Mary, mimosa pitcher, Aperol spritz, and a few coffee cocktails also grace the brunch menu for those interested in more traditional breakfast libations.

At the heart of this historic venue, Lynch and her team want The Phoenix to be an open door for the hungry, thirsty, and musically-inclined. Locals and out-oftowners are called in for a celebration at this jazz joint on the corner of 8th and Central, and they will leave with their ears and stomachs satisfied.

SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM

ic, come back for the mouth-watering food. Either way, get your booty over to the Westside for the mozzarella salad at Fox and Pearl, stat.

Make it your go-to dish Photos by Kala Elkinton this summer, and enjoy delicate mozzarella cheese chunks paired with cherry tomatoes that have been preserved and charred. The simple ingredients are topped with a smoked tomato vinaigrette and served with perfectly baked and airy focaccia ready for soaking up the leftovers.

Stick around and admire the interior flora and mood. The lower room surrounds a stunning bar, and the main dining room is decorated in a warm and modern rustic style. Towards the back, you’ll find a romantic twinkle light-covered brick patio, complete with a tree canopy and pergola perfect for date night.

Tropical Matcha Latte at Café Corazón

BY KALA ELKINTON Café Corazón 1721 Westport Rd., Kansas City MO 64111 110 Southwest Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64108

Now with two locations,

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Café Corazón is serving up a tropical matcha latte as part of its summer menu. The coffee shop recently added an array of dishes that lend to their Latinx and Indigenous heritage, including an Photos by Kala Elkinton Argentinian choripán and classic Cuban sandwich. They continue to serve up delicious coffee and Yerba Mate tea as well.

The tropical matcha latte is a fan favorite, even amongst all of the tasty new offerings.

They combine sweet mango with frothy and earthy matcha tea and finish it off with creamy coconut milk. The drink is simple and refreshing while served layered for a beautiful clean line effect.

The team at Café Corazón is warm and helpful, and their two locations are conveniently located in Westport and Crossroads. They are open seven days a week, perfect for a cool-down stop on that hot summer commute.

THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

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Mise en Place NIGHTHAWK’S JAY FERRIES ON ELEVATED CLASSICS, HOMEMADE STOCK, AND SELFLESS COOKING

By Liz Goodwin

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The odds are that Jay Ferries doesn’t know your mom or grandma personally. But the food may cause you to think again.

Ferries is the chef at Nighthawk, the basement bar and live music venue inside Hotel Kansas City. It’s one of the culinary endeavors overseen by Executive Chef Johnny Leach, and it’s focused on drinks that dazzle and food that’s fast, snacky, and harkens back to homegrown flavor. From a twist on a bologna sandwich, to meatloaf, to chicken-fried steak—we’re talking all the classics.

And whatever you choose to chow down on, you’re guaranteed a good soundtrack.

Ferries plays on comfort, but he also likes to take it up a notch. Below he dives into putting others’ tastebuds before himself and his favorite spots around town.

The Pitch: Tell us about your love affair with food. What led you to Nighthawk?

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Jay Ferries: I’ve worked at a lot of places around the country including Nashville, Memphis, Asheville, Portland, and Denver, eventually landing down here. In Portland, I worked at a place called Clyde Common, and that’s where I met Johnny Leach. I ended up meeting my wife there as well, and we spent a few years in Denver before moving closer to her family here in KC. She managed Parlor for a few years, and when the pandemic hit we took a year off or so until we were ready to start looking for work again. She actually looked at Hotel KC and came home and said, “Do you know who the chef is there? It’s Johnny.” So, I called him up, we got a coffee, and now here we are.

What’s the mentality of the culinary and bartending team here? What makes it stand out? The center of what we are doing

thing that’s salty and savory that makes you want to grab another beer or seltzer, and that’s what we’re here to do.

Mise En Place is a series of questions, answers, recommendations, and culinary wisdom from the food and drink masters that push KC flavor further.

The following answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Can you name your go-to ingredient?

Stock. I always have it at home. You’ve got to make your own, too. You can’t go buy that foil box in a grocery store. Go to the Asian market and buy a pack of chicken feet or pork knuckles and boil it for 12 hours. Now that’s got substance. It’s the base of my family’s go-to meals, which is something brothy with noodles. A big bowl of something hot and nutrient-rich—that’s what it’s about.

What restaurants and bars have been capturing your attention lately? I love the Antler Room. They’re just killing the game.

And Waldo Thai. I mean, boom. We did a combo dinner with them about six months ago at Town Co. [the restaurant above Nighthawk, another Johnny Leach concept], and they just blew me away. We had these pig brains that were so amazingly good. I love them a lot. As far as a bar, I love Lucky Boys.

It’s a great industry hang spot.

What are some of your other staple family dinners? I love Asian food in any capacity. It’s hands down my favorite thing. You only need a few ingredients to make a killer dish. One of our favorite things at home is when we do “app night,” so we make a bunch of wontons and stuff them with crab. My kid will help me, and he’s slow, but it’s okay.

He’ll help me wrap little egg rolls too, and we’ll just crush them.

relies on elevated bar snacks. We’ve got a nice selection of bar nuts, our wings are amazing, and we have beef jerky. It’s really stuff that you’d eat in a dive bar anywhere. Now we are also focusing on our fancy plates, which is a larger format that showcases one plate per night. That’s more of your full dinner featuring grandma’s comfort food—stuff like our “laziti,” which is a layered lasagna with ziti in the middle. We’re really sticking to our roots and making the stuff we used to eat taste really, really good.

What guides your personal approach to cooking? “I don’t matter,” is my approach.

That’s the short version. My goal is to make someone else happy, whether it’s my 6-yearold who wants a cold hot dog cut up, or if I’m making a staff meal for everyone at the end of the night. In a place like this, you want that thing that you’re going to just crush—some-

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THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

Nighthawk’s Jay Ferries puts a spin on comfort food.

Photos by RW2

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Kansas City is known for its contributions to the jazz music scene. More so than “funny cigarettes” and saxophones, we think this city brings a metric heck-ton of incredible music to the table.

If jazz is all about merging disparate elements into a sense of joy and theme that builds to an achievement bigger than any one individual part, then the entirety of KC’s music scene is jazz-incarnate.

Here at The Pitch, we get an opportunity to feel almost every new single and album in the city filtering through our grubby little paws. Once you’ve dipped your toe in the stream of everything that’s streaming, it’s almost annoyingly impressive how diverse and talented this city’s music scene is in the current moment. In policing, they call it “an orgy of evidence” when too many clues show up at the exact same place, pointing to the exact same person. The influx of absolutely baller talent on display in the metro feels like an orgy of evidence—and the killer is how goddamned bloodstained our upand-coming names have become within their various lanes.

PRESENTED FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION, HERE IS A SMALL HANDFUL OF THE FOLKS OUT THERE SLAYING THIS YEAR.

TAYLA GROVES A taste of the Big Apple is showing up in the Midwest thanks to triple-threat performer Talya (Miss Groves, if you’re nasty), who began making a name for herself on Broadway prior to the pandemic. Since COVID, Groves has returned to KC and can be seen on a different stage nearly every night of the week. From resident performances with Her Boyfriends at Fountain Haus, to Tuesday nights at The Phoenix, Groves is quickly bringing her star quality to every room in the metro. And you’ll know her when you see her. [You can see her on this page. Look over there -->. Yup, that one.]

THE GREETING COMMITTEE Undeniably the band from our little hollow that had the best year of all was Harvest Records’ bright shining star: The Greeting Committee. Addie Sartino and the squad pulled off an otherworldly album of bangers in Dandelion, and then did the kind of brutal cross-country tour that could be expected of a group that spent pandemic waiting to take revenge on the road.

Along with such incredible highs as a string of sold out shows—including Los Angeles’ legendary Troubadour and an all-timer homecoming spectacular at Uptown—the group also faced the departure of two founding members. While the (perhaps temporary) loss of Austin Fraser and Brandon Yangmi from the lineup poses an interesting challenge to the future of the group, their parting on excellent terms also reflects the band’s general ethos regarding respect for personal agency and mental health. As great as these new tracks are, and as incredible as the live shows have become, watching a rock ’n’ roll corner piece of our community practice what it preaches is equally punk to behold.

THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

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HEMBREE In February, Hembree released their second album, It’s A Dream. Preceded and accompanied by a slew of music videos, the band’s sophomore LP sees the KC-to-LA transplants engaging more positively with the art of performing. Tracks like “Reach Out” are pure bursts of danceable joy, while “Operators” sees the band bring in a big honking sax line and a guest verse from Topeka’s Bodye to great effect. The band is playing shows and festivals all across the country this summer after having Covid repeatedly slap them down earlier in the year, making this a belated run to celebrate It’s A Dream.

BABY AND THE BRAIN One of the year’s biggest-little delights has been the indie quirk and oddly affecting satire of pop music itself to spin out from the not-yet-old-enough-to-drink duo behind Baby and the Brain, and their album BrainBaby. Yes, It’s very difficult to keep the words in the right order around that. They titled all of this, we think, as a deliberate prank on just us. The duo of AAPI producer/songwriter Jo MacKenzie and queer singer/songwriter Dia Jane are simply magic in a bottle. You’ll find yourself hooked in the album by the songs, and charmed by the inclusion of off-thecuff in the studio moments where the pair of Dia and Jo talk and laugh. It’s a touch which only enhances the intimate nature of songs like “Icarus.” Those intimate cuts are contrasted by the rollicking “PT Cruiser” or the country-inflected (with banjo!) “Sarah.” It’s all wonderfully different, but the harmonies and emotional honesty come through on every cut. Both musicians are doing equally impressive solo outings or guest spots across the board. Dia and Jo are the foundation upon which the church of late 20s KC scene shall be constructed. This is holy ground, and you can get in early.

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STEPHONNE

FROGPOND

Nearly two years after dropping Sis: Side A, the genre-mixing Stephonne dropped the first single from the flipside EP, Sis: Side B, right at the start of summer. Entitled “X My <3 (Sexy MF),” the song’s genesis was described by the artist as one of those “written-in-5-minutes-magical blurs that happened on a walk break at my old corporate job,” but you can hear how the time since its writing has given it heft and weight, rather than feeling tossed off. It’s the perfect companion to last year’s single, “The King’s Gambit,” in that they’re both masterful combinations of the musician’s alt-rock listening habits and shimmering R&B (with last summer’s single featuring a brilliant spoken-word middle which is heartbreakingly confessional). While it’s about a boy, it could also apply to Singleton’s approach to his music over the last couple of years.

In November, after more than two decades, Kansas City rockers Frogpond returned with a new album, TimeThief, released on local label Black Site. In the late ’90s, the band’s albums for Tristar Music and C2Records, Count To Ten and Safe Ride Home, were radio mainstays, and the band would pack clubs. That debut, Count To Ten, was even produced by Everclear’s Art Alexakis and spawned two enduring classics, “Be” and “Trust?” Their return to live performances was one of the worst-kept secrets in town, but the announcement of a new album still managed to surprise nearly everyone upon its reveal.

ThimeThief is a return to what made the band so amazing in their heyday, with catchy choruses, big guitar hooks, and a pop sensibility that still manages to feel fresh, thanks to the addition of Emmaline Twist’s Kristin Conkwright on rhythm guitar and Michelle Bacon of Other Americans on drums. They join frontwoman and guitarist Heidi Phillips and bassist Justine Volpe from the original lineup on the recording, although Volpe recently left the band, and has been replaced by another Emmaline Twist member, Meredith McGrade. The vinyl edition of TimeThief also recently arrived nine months after the album’s release, just in time for summertime spins on your turntable.

As he wrote on Facebook ahead of the release of The King’s Gambit: “This is my art. Art is my life and it’s the only thing that makes me feel like I have a purpose here some days. You can hear that in all this new music. I have put my whole heart, all of my money and life into this work, more than at any other time in my life so far.” Thanks to $5000 in online fundraising, we’ll hear Sis: Side B later this year, with its songs performed by Stephonne’s own version of The Revolution—The Gay Rodeo.

When Fritz Hutchison released his debut album on Center Cut Records, Wide Wild Acres, in the spring of 2020, we were big fans here at The Pitch. Thanks to a selection of inventive and clever videos, the Kansas City artist’s music rapidly hooked us, and we’d been eagerly awaiting a follow-up ever since. That release comes in the form of Movie Night, released in April on Manor Records. It’s a fun collection of songs, alternately raucous and introspective, and sometimes both at once. When The Pitch premiered the first single off the album, “Ladder Shake,” Hutchison aptly described the album as having “a lot of genre-hopping and sleeve-worn influences” and “sort of an island of misfit songs,” with “the horns in particular [...] much more integral to the arrangements on this album, not just frosting on top.” Be it the rambunctious rockabilly of the title track or the ska’d up arrangement of album closer “Pocket Protector,” you’ve no idea what to expect, but that you’ll be overjoyed to hear it.

BOXKNIFE Boxknife is here, they’re queer, and they’re likely the tastiest dark-pop you’ll hear this year. We premiered their debut single, “The Tower,” earlier this spring, and it’s safe to say it sounds as if Sleater-Kinney got together with a bunch of fashionable new wave vampires and had a super kinky, fun time. Where was our invitation? The quartet maintains a fiery DIY attitude, which can be seen in everything from their flyer designs, to word-of-mouth shows, to their cheeky social media hustle. They won’t be under the radar for long as they approach their upcoming Manifestering EP Release Party with The Creepy Jingles and Collidescope at Lemonade Park on July 29.

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TAYLOR LENZ ALL BLOOD For the last decade, Kansas City’s Jonathan Brokaw has been recording music under the name All Blood. While the project has ebbed and flowed over the years, and gone in and out of genres as disparate as lo-fi folk and Devo-inspired avante garage, the connecting thread has always been Brokaw’s unique lyrical voice. The musician’s ability to convey personal matters in a way which makes them feel universal is a particular skill, and Brokaw succeeds at it every time.

On All Blood’s latest, Rattle Rattle, Thunder Clatter! Boom! Boom! Boom!, recorded as a bedroom project during the pandemic, Brokaw leans into a sound which can best be described as an intimate Of Montreal. It’s gloriously poppy, but shorn of all Kevin Barnes’ usual adornments. It’s music for quiet introspection via headphones while curled up on the couch, but you’re still going to find yourself wriggling around and dancing in place.

There’s also a gloriously brilliant song about tenant rights, which might be a first.

JO BLAQ The new album from Jo Blaq, Blaq Gold, which hit Bandcamp on New Year’s Day, shows off the Grammy-nominated musician and producer’s studio chops. Blaq offers up the same aplomb at his own work as he’s given to artists like Ariana Grande or Justin Bieber, crafting a masterfully uplifting collection of R&B, with spots from Irv Da Phenom and Flutenastiness raising the bar even further.

Pop singer Taylor Lenz’s debut single, “Tease,” came out of left field when it was released last July, garnering an impressive amount of airplay across the country, including spins on long-running local pop juggernaut Mix 93.3. Given that Lenz grew up in the Kansas City area, attending Park Hill South High School, it was a dream come true for the young singer, who moved to Los Angeles just after graduating in 2015 to make a go of being a pop singer. Last year, she released both “Perfect” and “Boomerang,” with the latter inspired by a relationship that Lenz found herself going back to over and over again. Written in her car in about five minutes before heading into the studio where the track was produced by Grammy Award Winner Zack Djurich, “Boomerang” is another earworm of a cut from Lenz. Showcasing her voice and ability to craft a hook which instantly has you singing along, it’s—as the kids say—a bop, equally light in its production, while getting dark lyrically.

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PURE XTC In July 2021, we premiered pure xtc’s “Ghost,” the debut single from Baltimore-to-KC transplant Taylor Hughes. It was a minimalist piece of darkwave synthpop, and the full EP on which it appears, Nobody’s Home, followed in November.

Now, Hughes is preparing to release another EP later this year, and the first single from it, “Shadow,” dropped in June. The new track is an absolute explosion of energy and power, with an ebb and flow which will absolutely suck you in as you listen. The way Hughes has honed pure xtc’s electro-pop into something this instantly memorable is striking, and we can’t wait to hear more.

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RADKEY Opening for the Foo Fighters? Enough said. Literally, enough said. We’ve written about Radkey so much at this point that if you don’t have the album, perhaps you don’t deserve Radkey. We have been shouting it from the rooftops for years, and even Dave Grohl heard us. Go. Go get yourself a Radkey album. We’ll wait. [We won’t. We already have. Catch up, bud.]

CUEE

LK ULTRA

MUSICBYSKIPPY

Coming Out, the latest EP from the Lawrence rapper, came out at the end of June and marks a real turning point in Quis Wright’s career. The three-song collection was, writes the musician, “inspired by my journey towards liberation, finding unapologetic love, and thriving in a world that marginalizes people with my identities.” With songs like “Extra Extra” and “Man Now,” it is, in fact, “a proud celebration” of who Wright is both as Quis himself and Cuee the rapper. Coming on the heels of last year’s Gospel and “Ball in Your Court,” released just in time for KU’s NCAA championship, Cuee is having their year exactly as they planned—including getting to read a touching personal statement when Lawrence declared June as LGBTQ Pride Month—and it’s thrilling to watch this artist become their most authentic self in life and on the mic.

While the queer and Indigenous punk trio from Lawrence, LK Ultra, broke up after their show opening for Naked Giants at the beginning of April, it wasn’t before releasing one final single, “I’m Doing This Because I Love You.” The song starts out quietly, with Robbie Robinson singing over a strummed guitar, before going into a big rocker of a track.

It’s only made even more huge by the addition of gang vocals on the chorus from producer Giovanni Ventello and fellow young rockers Oxford Remedy, with this final single sounding like a mixtape fixture in the making. While we didn’t know it was going to be the last thing from the band, in retrospect, it seems like a fitting farewell.

Musician and singer Luke Harbur’s musicbyskippy project’s first album, my dying wish, released back in February, takes the listener on a journey with interstitials, beat-boxing, and pop choruses all intertwined in a way that conveys a very authentic desire to communicate Harbur’s thoughts and feelings to the listener. Appropriately enough, it began on a journey back in 2017 when Harbur was studying abroad in London, where the musician says he “had all this extra time because I wasn’t committed to the a capella group I was a part of, I wasn’t a part of the newspaper—I had all this time to think.”

Because of that, the second song on my dying wish, “By the Way,” was birthed in a tiny dorm in London, produced by Harbur’s friend, Mark Farnam. That song would become the first musicbyskippy music video, which he says, “...is me just jumping around and singing the lyrics in this park that was actually locked out to the public. Me and my friends snuck over some gates and then, right when we finished, we were stopped by the park police.”

Needless to say, from the start, Harbur was having a lot of fun with his music. Given that he has, for the better part of the last eight years, performed as part of various ensembles, taking the leap and trying to do his own thing is no small undertaking. It becomes even more impressive when you realize that not only did Harbur follow it up with an immersive album release show, but he also did the dinner theater production Ope! A Play & Cabaret at the Westport Bowery and released his second album, the 12-song EDM-inspired we press play, just ahead of premiering it live at Boulevardia.

THE SHEBANGS KEVIN MORBY Written and recorded over the past two years, Kevin Morby’s album This is a Photograph was a way to process the overlapping events of his father’s health scare and the world on pause.

“There’s this whole sentiment on this record of like saying goodbye to good times and the good times being over my shoulder,” says Morby. “I wanted it to feel at once like this melancholy saying goodbye to certain things, but at the same time, celebrating that there’s this new future that no one knows exactly what’s in store for us.”

Morby taps into the emotional undercurrent at the intersection of global tragedy and the shifting cadence of an aging family.

Rich arrangements fill the space around isolation and build an environment that is as intuitive as it is cinematic.

Way back in 2007, Lawrence garage-rock trio The Shebangs released a single called “Maybe Yes Maybe No,” and ever since, there’s been promise of a full-length recording. Here we are, 14 years later, and it’s available. Entitled Now! Is When, appropriately enough, the official release date was in October of last year, when folks were finally able to buy vinyl and CDs from Boston’s Fabcom Records, and the album was absolutely worth the wait.

The Shebangs are one of those bands that plays out once or twice a year, and a bunch of 40-somethings pack onto the patio at the Gaslight or inside at the Replay to bop around like they’re in their twenties again.

The songs that Tamyra Heim, Kit Cole, and Bret Dillingham put together are perfect distillations of what a band should sound like after coming of age while mainlining a solid diet of Nuggets and Pebbles compilations during the college radio explosion.

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BEARS AND COMPANY It has been four years since Bears and Company graced the airwaves with any new music and nearly a decade since their fulllength debut with South of the Mountain.

Debatably an April Fools’ joke, the band teased on April 1 that they were finally out of hibernation and would be back with a new album in 2022. Photos from the band’s Instagram in summer 2018 indicated that the post-rock outfit had teamed up with producer Aaron Crawford. One thing is for sure: these guys know how to maintain an element of mystery. From fuzzy bear masks to cryptic videos, OG fans are definitely on their toes.

OXFORD REMEDY It seems like just yesterday that the members of Oxford Remedy were finding their footing as students at School of Rock.

What was once a high school band is now an acclaimed indie fuzz pop quartet tearing up stages like the Replay Lounge, recordBar, and beyond. Their latest EP, For Those Who Know, Tell Me What I’m Supposed to Do, shows early signs of mastery in songwriting cohesion, DIY ethos, and garage rock instrumentation. A recent appearance at Manor Fest 4 suggests that the group is gearing up for a busy summer.

DUNES DAY On May 20, Dunes Day dropped their Shattered Glass EP, which introduces a sonic concoction of retro electronic, postpunk, and abstract hip-hop. Their recent “Drowning in the Sand” music video showcases a montage of young adult debauchery through vintage style footage captured in Columbia, MO early last winter. Imagine Rage Against the Machine and Gorillaz met at a high school party, sprinkle on some nihilistic teen angst—you’ve got yourself a budding Midwest masterpiece.

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THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

THE GRISLY HAND JENNA RAE

BUMMER

Over the past year, the long-running Kansas City roots collective has been dropping new singles, teasing and eventually promising that there’d be a new Grisly Hand album sometime this year. The band, seemingly reinvigorated by the return of founding member Johnny Nichols on bass and vocals, not only started recording new music but returned to performing live with a double set at Lemonade Park in June 2021. Since then, we’ve been graced with three songs, beginning with “Now That You Know,” a slow, soulful number with a bit of a sway in the musicality. The band has always been known for walking the line between introspective and barn-burning when it comes to their songs, but these new tracks feel like they walked right out of Muscle Shoals circa 1973.

That feeling continues this summer with the release of Traitors, their first LP since 2016’s Hearts & Stars. In righteous world, that album’s latest single, “Jukebox Money,” would blare from every car stereo on every single roadtrip all summer long.

Lawrence musician Jenna Rae’s debut, Workin’ Woman, released in 2018, presented her as more than just a singer-songwriter, but a force with which to be reckoned. Not only was it a fully-produced country album, it was the debut release on her label, Lost Cowgirl Records. In the intervening years, Rae has performed with her partner, Martin Farrell Jr., as cosmic country duo Jenna & Martin and as part of the bluegrass quintet Unfit Wives, who released their debut, Live & Unfit, last fall. Add into that Farrell and Rae getting married just last month, and it’s been one hell of a year for this country singer.

Our music editor first saw Kansas City’s Bummer when the band members were just out of high school, playing a parking lot show in the middle of the afternoon. In the intervening decade, the band has grown from a bunch of doom metal kids into a sub-genre-defying powerhouse, incorporating everything from early ‘90s AmRep noise to the harshness of NoLa’s Thou to the pummelling influences of fellow Kansas Citians Coalesce. The music of Bummer can be blazingly fast or grindingly slow, but it never loses its gut punch power.

BOOTKRIEG

It’s really a delight to hear these songs, many of which have appeared in those aforementioned YouTube videos, in a finished form. This is a very warm and intimate album, but it has just enough verve and spark to make for a perfect accompaniment to a sunny Sunday drive. The opening track and first single from Country Lo-Fi, “Friend in High Places,” might initially seem like an homage to Garth Brooks’ omnipresent single, but it’s more than that. It’s a paeon to missing friends and trying to push on, and sets the tone perfectly for the nine songs which are to follow.

In May 2020, two songs dropped to Bandcamp with minimal fanfare. Credited under the name of Bootkrieg, “Boot on the Street” and “State of Misery” were swaggering pieces of boogie pop. We finally had someone tip us off that Bootkrieg is the oneman recording project of Inner Altar’s Neal Dyrkacz, and we were hopeful that we’d hear more soon of the project’s note-perfect glam meets oi sound, which brings the spirit of ’77 straight to the modern era, replete with gang vocals and ripping guitar lines. Fast-forward to early June and Dyrkacz has revamped the Bootkrieg Instagram page, announcing that there’s a four-song EP due out, hopefully by the time you’re reading this. Entitled The Power Storm, the four tracks contained within see the Bootkrieg sound mixing its bootboy disco stomp with glittering power-pop melodies to make for an intensely-catchy, absurdly-danceable 15 minutes.

Jenna Rae came back this April with her second solo outing, entitled Country Lo-Fi. The album was recorded with acoustic guitar and vocals tracked live, with Farrell adding in one other lead instrument per song, along with found sounds including a fly swatter, BB gun, screen door, and—of course—Rae and Farrell’s dog, Roy, who has made multiple appearances in Rae’s live YouTube videos.

BLACKSTARKIDS For the third year in a row, Kansas City’s Blackstarkids dropped a frighteningly amazing collection of songs when Puppies Forever came out via British label Dirty Hit in October. The second single from the album, “Fight Club,” saw all three members of the group—Ty, Deoindre, and The Babe Gabe— trading verses back and forth on a track, which hit a little harder than what you might have expected from previous albums like Surf and Whatever, Man. Nevertheless, the group’s playfulness and exuberance came through just as strongly, and paired with Puppies Forever’s first single, “Juno,” had us champing at the bit for the full album. Thanks to tours opening for Grouplove, Glass Animals, and Beabadoobee, it seems like this trio is fully poised to do whatever they could possibly want as 2022 progresses.

Bummer’s debut LP, Dead Horse, released last fall on Thrill Jockey, and it’s a cathartic listen after a bad day or an energy blast to get you going in the morning, but no matter when you put it on, you need to crank it loud and make your ears bleed. Speaking of Coalesce, the album’s first single and lead-off track, “JFK Speedwagon,” features Coalesce frontman Sean Ingram on guest vocals. Not for nothing have the band’s recent tours been met with ever-increasing pandemonium from the crowds to which they play.

LOTUSPOOL RECORDS While Lotuspool’s release of the Bump Band’s Our Music might be the most uplifting story to come out of Kansas City in 2022, it ties into a grander celebration for the label, which also celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Founded in 1992 by Chris Garibaldi and Matt Hyde, the label came out of the gate with three releases in that first year from Lawrence indie-rockers Zoom. 1993 also saw the the label compile Feast Of The Sybarites - A Collection Of Lotuspudlians, a scene snapshot which features essential cuts from Kill Creek, Sufferbus, and a then little-known band from Champaign, Illinois called Hum. While Hyde left the label in 1994 (and now owns downtown Lawrence restaurant 715), Garibaldi has soldiered on over the years, really revitalizing Lotuspool in 2015 when he began a series of new releases, starting with Heidi Lynn Gluck’s EP, The Only Girl in the Room, along with reissues from the Poster Children and Zoom.

The releases might be all over the place, what with the Bump Band’s funk, Zoom’s angular mathiness, and the indescribability of Garibaldi’s own Suneaters; but it’s all quality and well worth your time. Here’s to celebrating them again down the line.

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MUSIC

AUTEUR THEORY AN EXTREME CLOSE-UP ON MAKING MOVIES’ LONG SHOT

By Brock Wilbur, Photos by Travis Young I’m overdue to head home for a family holiday celebration. I’ve postponed because there is an event taking place here in KC for which I struggle to find an appropriate way to dial-in my expectations. A group of musicians is throwing a year-end bash that seems both fantastical in scale, but equally an infraction on some ill-defined level. What they’re setting out to do breaks an unspoken rock ’n’ roll rule, and I need to be there in person to witness the grand spectacle and/ or catastrophic misfire.

They’re going to cover the entirety of Radiohead’s album Kid A on its 20th anniversary. Making Movies promised in an interview earlier with The Pitch that they’ll be taking one of the bleakest electronic albums ever recorded, and turning 50 minutes of unyielding existential dread into a block party.

I’m not aware of it yet, but this gig will wind up serving as my introduction to a band that can’t simply be enjoyed, but demands to be celebrated. Who else would dare to promise they can make the Debbie Downer vibes of Radiohead’s 2001 album… fun?

• •

•

Making Movies is composed of immigrant brothers Enrique Chi (vocals, guitar) and Diego Chi (bass), along with Juan-Carlos Chaurand (percussion, keys) from Mexico, and Duncan Burnett (drums) from Kansas.

Since 2009, the group has toured the world, been nominated for a Latin Grammy, and featured on NPR multiple times. Their mix of cumbia, psychedelia, American roots, Son Cubano, and spoken word—all passed through a heavy rock and roll filter—is so singular that it becomes its own genre.

Enrique Chi was born in Santiago, Panama, and moved with his family to Lee’s Summit, MO when he was only six years old.

“We moved to this suburb because there was a great ESL teacher there,” Chi says. “She taught me English, but she made it feel safe to learn. There were only 12 immigrant kids that would go to her for education, and we literally took the short bus to grade school. She also went above and beyond with the families of her students— helping them fill out tax paperwork or deal with other facets of life in the United States.

I don’t know what my perspective on America would be without her, especially with the way American kids would treat us. I’m not sure without her that I would be able to handle the country I see now, reflected on social

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THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

media and in the post-Trump era.”

From an early age, he was fascinated by the sounds of bands like Dire Straights.

“At nine years old, my dad bought me this little crappy classical guitar,” Chi laughs.

“It was cool because it rattled so hard and was so cheap that it actually wound up sounding a little like an electric guitar, which I loved.”

Chi would later find friendship and musical partnership mostly through a church his family attended. But his belief in a higher power began to waver, and sought opportunities to create elsewhere. The music of everyone from Steeley Dan to South African instrumentals began to brew into a blend of influences that would help define the sound he’d begin chasing.

“We had an alternative rock band, and we were offered this opportunity to play some big shows and maybe have a song on the radio,” Chi says. “They gave us this contract and I didn’t understand what it meant, so I took it to a local guy named Bill Rush. Bill said not to sign because it said these people would own our soul. So, I started working for Bill as an intern.”

Chi’s work under Rush would teach him the intricacies of the music industry.

Unlike most musicians that simply dream stardom will find them by sheer luck, Chi set his expectations on becoming a normal day job studio musician and developing an understanding that would eventually allow Making Movies to leapfrog years that other bands may have wasted while waiting on the world to find them. By the time the group was ready for mainstream attention, Chi understood how to get invited on NPR Tiny Desk concerts and industry showcases. The only real hurdle was finding a way to make their sound work.

“The idea for our sound was this aggressiveness of alternative rock, but with our understanding of Panamanian-centric rhythms,” Chi says. “More or less an abundant mindset as a melting pot so you get a bunch of the Cuban stuff and the salsa music. Puerto Rico takes the claim for reggaeton as a genre. We had a very nascent understanding of it. We hadn’t found the right drummers yet. People were playing it with an outsider’s understanding. I kind of knew that could pair with rock and roll risks, and would have been kind of amazed that no one was doing it. Santana meets Sonic Youth.”

Since 2013, the band has released three albums, each with increasing fiscal and critical success. As a group dedicated to the art

of storytelling, each of the albums has a conceptual throughline and a narrative arc. A La Deriva is about an immigrant family that succumbs to the pressure that America places on “outsiders” and the impact this inflicts on the generation beneath them. I Am Another You is a tale of three people from different parts of the world, and the tragedies in their lives, but reveals that these are all actually one character.

•

•

•

It is May 2022, and I’m at a pickleball restaurant that is about to become high-profile group therapy, followed by a loud concert.

Making Movies has helped arrange an event to discuss mental health for musicians and to serve as a graduation concert event for the kids from Rebel Song Academy, a digital sister program to an organization founded by the band called Arts As Mentorship, which allows kids from across the metro to not only learn an instrument but to have access to studio facilities and other technical and spiritual guidance. It’s one of a half-dozen non-musical side projects that make you wonder, “Where do they find the time?”

“Eleven years ago we were in San Antonio,” Chi says. “We saw these punk kids and they were standing up for everything they

cared about and sharing their work, and we realized we didn’t need to wait to have a much larger platform in order to make change in the world. You can just get started doing it. Right now.”

While in high school, local musician Dia Jane entered the program.

“That was my first experience, being in KC and having someone who built a genuine career in music telling me that I could do it too,” Jane says.” And that’s not just movitivational soft skills buillshit, it was a sincere insistence that we—that I—was going to make this happen.”

Jane is one of a dozen musicians that I’ve written about in the last few years at The Pitch who considers the work of Making Movies and this program to be responsible for her ability to have a career in the industry.

“Ever since I was a kid, people kept telling me I had this great voice and all this talent, and all that I needed was to get into a studio,” Jane says. “But how do you get into a studio? My family didn’t have any wealth to put me up in one. Suddenly, through Arts As Mentorship, I have access to all these resources. And out of nowhere, maybe they’d just bring Brandon Yangmi into the room in the middle of me recording. I wasn’t prepared for that. The younger kids didn’t

MUSIC

know who he was, but I was pretty startled that suddenly I was performing for someone from The Greeting Committee.”

Over the summer, the band finished construction on a new rehearsal space and recording studio, which will serve as a permanent base of operations and central hub for the mentoring program.

• •

•

It is the eve of the XOPA release, the band’s first album since ameri’kana three years prior. Chi and I chat for the last time before this story heads to press. The second single “Sala De Los Pecadores” has been out since April, and features one gigantic brutal guitar riff on repeat, that only appears to become louder and thicker as the track pummels forward. Yesterday, the music video for title track “XOPA” released, featuring a high-end short film wherein not even a plane crash can prevent the members of Making Movies from continuing to annihilate the chords of another near-barbaric earworm.

“In our career and blending these influences, we’ve been told to be careful if you’re building a Frankenstein. When you’re building a Frankenstein, it still has to walk. Don’t put the arm where the leg goes, or it’s gonna hobble. What makes the new album special is that we built a functional Franken-

stein. Now it just feels good. Sometimes our old music was conceptually exciting—the theme and thesis were exciting. This is the first time one of our albums feels like it fully merges our ideas and just… the ability to listen and immediately enjoy it,” says Chi. From start to finish, the ten tracks of XOPA feel like Making Movies’ best opportunity ever to break into some form of the mainstream music world. But for a band from the Midwest, who mostly performs in Spanish, this is a bit of a big ask from that same mainstream audience, based on how they’ve received non-English music in the past.

In the lead up to the album drop, the band has criss-crossed the country, playing industry showcases to get their music in front of the kinds of folks who decide which bands get their music in TV shows and advertisements. So, how do you sell Making Movies to The Decision Makers when they might not be buying exclusively Spanish-language rock tracks?

“We’re getting onto a lot of big festivals in other parts of the world,” Chi says. “But we aren’t getting invited to things at the level of a Coachella in the United States. Ten years ago we were pushing our first record and trying to make this crack in the wall; sneak into the scene. That album was split— half English songs, half Spanish songs. We weren’t getting booked and our manager at

the time suggested we try something based on an old Charley Pride story. He started just sending out press information that we were a rock band from Kansas City, including the English-speaking songs only like our cover of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” and in no way mentioning that we were this blend of styles and languages. And we got booked. We wound up doing that again in 2018, and it worked again.”

Sometimes, Chi admits, he gets mad as hell about it.

“It’s the ignorance. This is the only country in the world that expects all of its entertainment to come in its own language.

If you’re in Latin America or Europe, they’re fully down for whatever you’re bringing to the show. You need a wider world view. I try to let go of some of that anger, but you wish so much for people to find… empathy.”

•

•

•

Back to December and The Truman.

The lights go down and four men take the stage. The opening notes of Kid A’s “Everything In Its Right Place” fills the cold winter venue, and a wave of cheers push through the crowd. Almost immediately, the stark and pensive brood of the original recording is toppled by Latin percussion elements. There are guitar solos. By the mid-

song, those in attendance have pivoted into a full-on dance party. And for the next hour, this never lets up.

They did it. They pulled it off, and it is glorious. Kid A is now Kid Chi, and there is no going back.

The band takes the stage for an encore, and a Spanish-language cover of Radiohead’s “I Might Be Wrong” turns into a ten minute jam session, I start to feel like I’ve seen an event that is not just special, but singular.

Throughout the evening, Making Movies is joined on stage by more than a dozen guests from other bands. Brandon Yangmi of The Greeting Committee comes out with his guitar to add yet another layer to an already explosive wall of sound. Dia Jane serves as the lead singer for one of the tracks. Co-owner of recordBar, Steve Tulipana, absolutely annihilates the vocals on a cacophonous full jazz band version of “The National Anthem.”

Every person on this stage can trace their success, in some way, to the contributions made by a band formed by immigrant kids who grew up in the KC suburbs and cannot seem to stop paying it all forward.

Making Movies is not making a documentary about themselves. Making Movies is shooting a Technicolor, manic Hollywood blockbuster—telling a story that belongs to this entire city.

STOP WONDERING. GET YOURSELF TESTED. Schedule online for STD testing and treatment: ppgreatplains.org THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

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MUSIC

Connective Tissue WOODLAND AVE. IS GETTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER

By The Pitch Staff Woodland Ave. isn’t just a band, they’re a collective.

Not simply made of members bringing sounds to the table, this lifelong group of friends works to achieve a shared vision, whether the contributors play an instrument or not. The concept of working together to give life and weight to something bigger than oneself can certainly require more skillsets than a single artist can hope to achieve. As a united set of diverse talents, Woodland Ave. promises KC a project grander in scope and scale than your average five-piece plugging into amps and putting on a show.

Having all played music together in various configurations since childhood, these friends have united again in their 30s to form an outlet perhaps best described as a “supergroup.”

The best-known name to readers of The Pitch is probably Flare Tha Rebel, who exists offstage as Jeff Shafer. The frontman rapper is married to Lauren Williams, the bassist providing low-end to the project’s inventive tracks. Williams is also the only member involved to have not met through a childhood spent at local middle school, Lincoln College Prep. If you know the area, you know that Lincoln sits on Woodland Ave. and is what ties this extended family together.

Production coordinator Daniel Edwards owns Eastside Lumber, which serves as the group’s rehearsal space. As the only non-musical member of the band, Edwards brings more than just a convenient and personal venue for honing the group’s sound by developing media to extend the creative breadth of W.A. and helping to establish just how a collective with embedded artists in other mediums can contribute to a grander concept.

Matt Phoenix serves as guitarist. His father, Steven Peters, famously played double bass in the Kansas City Symphony from 1986 until he was fatally shot in his home during a botched burglary in 2005. Drummer Bob Pulliam III licenses music at The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. And then there is keyboardist virtuoso Ryan Marquez.

Their recent submission to NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts series is called “Child’s Play”—a track addressing gun violence, which is a deeply personal topic for the group who knows about the direct human toll, especially in a city plagued by years of such losses.

Check out this link to read a greatly expanded, personal roundtable with the members of the group, written by Emily Cox—yet another member of this extended friend group from their collective past.

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MUSIC

Woodland Ave. rehearses at Eastside Lumber. Photos by Chris Ortiz

Several years ago, Andy Hemmen, M.D. began his deep dive into the motivation enhancing properties of dopamine. Utilizing an antidepressant that works through dopamine, this hospitalbased physician saw firsthand how effectively a small boost of brain dopamine made his patients quickly come back to life after debilitating illnesses. “I was fascinated by dopamine and neuropsychiatry,” he says. “I saw first hand how the effects of the medication quickly motivated patients. If they were wiped out or depressed from a psychiatric standpoint, turning up dopamine just a little bit had a profound effect—and fast.”

Sensing he was on to something, Dr. Andy started looking for a natural way to enhance dopamine for the masses and soon found the key: a natural form of L-dopa, the amino that turns into dopamine in the brain. The result was his new high-performance elixir called BeyondEnergy. “We found an herb that contains L-dopa, that’s how it all started,” says Dr. Andy. “It’s mucuna pruriens, which has been used for centuries in India to treat Parkinson’s disease and promote brain health. In essence, L-dopa is oral dopamine.”

After extensive research and testing, Dr. Andy looked to the energy drink market. “We knew that ‘energy’ needed to go beyond caffeine, and L-dopa was the obvious key,” he says. “BeyondEnergy is based around L-dopa, and a modest amount of caffeine, alongside other healthy energy ingredients, like ginseng, gingko, and green tea, which work to enhance the dopamine effect. It gets all your energy moving forward like no other—and it’s one powerful antioxidant!”

Now that the drink is readily available to consumers, Dr. Andy says the response has been amazing. “So many people are already familiar with what dopamine can do, and now they can really feel the dopamine difference,” he says. “People say they aren’t just awake—they’re happy, motivated, and in a great mood. And people truly feel the mind-body connection from the L-dopa, which is the complete opposite of the jitters. People truly feel smooth and in control. It’s the highest level of performance.”

With three flavors from which to choose—dark berry, mango, and blood orange—this lightly carbonated, 15-calorie drink will enhance your mood and performance beyond any other. Dr. Andy couldn’t be happier now that the drink has finally hit the shelves at most Hy-Vee and Price Chopper locations.

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THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

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MUSIC

Swiss Army Life MULTI-HYPHENATE ADA BRUMBACK KEEPS MUSICIANS IN TUNE

By Lauren Textor Imagine Phoebe Bridgers performing to a sold out crowd of screaming fans, shredding on her prized Danelectro ‘56 Baritone.

Suddenly, there’s a crackle and a pop! as an amp blows. Who comes to the rescue? Kansas City’s own behind-the-scenes superhero, Ada Brumback.

A rockstar in her own right, Brumback has toured all over the U.S. with her own bands and while working with other professional musicians.

She joined local post-punk group Regret, the Informer as a drummer while she was still in art school and has played guitar for Chase the Horseman’s live band at venues such as recordBar and The Riot Room.

“I’ve been in a lot of situations where I’ve just learned all the songs on Spotify and flown in and joined the tour,” Brumback says.

If there’s one word to describe her, it’s versatile.

“It’s too much to say photographer, videographer, drummer, guitarist, lighting assistant, stage manager, tour manager, merch person, and 15 passenger van driver, you know what I mean?” she says. “I tell people sometimes that I want to be like the Swiss Army knife of people.”

Brumback even has a song named after her—“Ada” by The Greeting Committee, one of KC’s most beloved bands. She directed the accompanying music video and inspired the lyrics with her experience as a trans woman.

Although Brumback recently moved to LA, she was in KC for the May 31 Reunion tour date and spent two days resting on top of the local performance date. It made for a bittersweet experience.

“It was weird because we’re in this Covid lockdown where we’re not allowed to see anyone, or do anything, or go to public places. We’re limited to walking around outside the hotel or at the show,” Brumback says. “If we’re around any people that are not in our bubble, we have to wear masks.

So, in KC we got a private session at Inner Space Yoga. It was the most beautiful place

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I’ve ever lived. It was so perfect. I left, and I touched my old apartment door, and then I kept going.”

Brumback spent her free time riding around on Bird scooters and showing her tour family around her favorite spots. After the show at Starlight, she was able to see her friends briefly.

“It was nuts to be there from the production standpoint,” she says. “I just never expected to be on the other side of that

​​”I tell people sometimes that I want to be like the Swiss Army knife of people.” stage. And that was really cool. That felt like kind of a big deal to me. So, my mom was there, you know, and she was dancing, and clapping, and just really going hard on being excited about me. It felt cool to be like, ‘I’m here doing this thing. All my friends can see it.’”

At the time of this interview, Brumback is staying at Hotel X in Toronto as the guitar tech and backline manager of Bridgers’s Reunion tour. It’s her day off, but she’s still double-fisting two mini mugs of coffee.

When room service knocks on her door, she orders more Nespresso, even though it makes her feel awkward to ask them for anything.

Her primary job on the tour is setting

Above: A superhuman stage manager hangs by the bus. Below: Brumback displays a custom Gibson guitar to raffle for gender-affirming healthcare. Photos courtesy of Ada Brumback

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up and maintaining equipment. This can include tuning guitars, organizing equipment orders and manifests for international travel, and keeping inventory.

Life on tour isn’t especially glamorous.

Brumback has a designated bunk on one of the three Reunion buses. She keeps a humidifier, three bags of clothes, and shoes at the foot of the bed. Her time on the road has taught her to pack light.

Still, it’s much comfier than where she started out.

Brumback found tour life exhilarating the first time around. Regret, the Informer traveled in a Hy-Vee catering van without any back seats or windows.

“We would sit on the floor in sleeping bags because it was so cold,” Brumback recalls. “Because there was no insulation, there was just sheet metal—like bare ass sheet metal. And we were broke, so we ate kidney beans, or whatever. Like, we were literally in Boston and went to the dollar store and bought all the canned vegetables. And then next door was an Asian market, so I got a bottle of Sriracha. We would, like, dump Sriracha in kidney beans, and that was a meal. A can of beans was a meal. We were broke as fuck, but living the dream.”

Brumback says she lost around 40 pounds on that tour. Now, she eats meals cooked by the team’s chef.

“It’s weird to have finally had something that’s recognizable as success,” Brumback says.

In 2021, her close friend Megan Mantia cashed in on a favor from Brumback.

Mantia was working as the producer and production designer of Mitski’s “Love Me More” music video, and the budget was tight. Brumback worked as a behind-thescenes photographer as a one-time freebie to help cut back on the team’s costs.

She took photos of everyone on the set, the day’s filming activities, and the crew’s individual experiences. A few months later, she was hired to do the same for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs—rockers she has admired for much of her life. Their 2004 MTV Movie Awards live performance of “Maps” was a turning point for her, and she can still recall much of the set design.

“I grew up in a quaint town called Wellsville, Kansas,” Brumback explains.

“Wellsville is an hour south of Kansas City.

It’s like 1,000 people. It’s pretty country.

My parents separated when I was 13, and I moved to the suburbs [in Olathe]. I finished the end of middle school and all of high school there. It was the first time that I’d had cable television, which was nuts. It was so crazy that I could watch something that wasn’t public television. So, MTV was always on, and I remember sitting there and seeing this extremely beautiful performance.”

Working with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was

the first time Brumback felt that she had come full circle. While she says she doesn’t entirely understand the circumstances that brought her to this point, she attributes much of it to persistence and is enjoying the ride, despite how exhausting touring can be.

Brumback maintains a connection to KC by working full-time for Seen Merch throughout the year. When at home, she repairs guitars and works on photo and video projects. She rarely has a break but takes it all in stride.

Part of the reason for her tireless work is to fund her transition, which she began in 2015. The expense has posed additional challenges.

To help fundraise, Brumback raffled off a custom Gibson guitar that she stripped, painted, and finetuned. The winner was announced Jan. 1, 2022, and the guitar found its new home with the owner of Arizona Trading Company.

Brumback says she didn’t know her transition held significance for others until she was playing guitar with Potty Mouth in 2019 and was approached by a fan while plugging in her pedalboard.

“This girl came up to me and said, ‘Hey, my girlfriend thinks you’re really cool.

Could she get a photo with you?’” Brumback says. “And I was like, ‘That’s weird. I’m just the hired guitarist. Like, I’m not even in this band. I’m not on the poster. Who am I?’ And I looked up and realized that her girlfriend was trans. She was so stoked to see me performing and representing who she was on stage.”

Amplify Lawrence, formerly Girls Rock Lawrence, is another avenue where Brumback has imparted her identity. She hosted beginner guitar workshops and supervised groups of femmes and marginalized gender identities aged 12-18 as they wrote an original song over a week and then performed on stage in a camp showcase.

At the national Girls Rock Camp Alliance conference, she worked with committees on matters related to trans identity to ensure that the organization’s language is inclusive and creates a welcoming environment for all youth.

“As my visibility has increased, due to the achievements that I have made, or whatever, it just so happens to coincide with the fact that my identity intersects that,” Brumback says.

While Brumback is still getting used to her success, she’s already accumulating fans of her own. She has over 5,000 followers on her Instagram (@adabrumback), where she posts behind-the-scenes photos, her experiences as a trans woman, and personal snapshots from her life. *Additional reporting for this story by Ellie Booton

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FILM

The Legend of the Prairie Punks A NEW FILM NEARLY 20 YEARS IN THE MAKING TELLS THE STORY OF WICHITA’S THE EMBARRASSMENT

By Abby Olcese Once upon a time in Wichita, there was a band called The Embarrassment. In 1979, guitarist Bill Goffrier, vocalist John Nichols, bassist Ron Klaus and drummer Brent “Woody” Geissman formed a quartet that, over the course of five years, went from playing shows in backyards and a studio in Wichita’s now-abandoned Flatiron Building to touring with the likes of John Cale and the Ramones.

The Embarrassment brought major players to Lawrence’s punk scene in the 80s, with a sound somewhere between the danceable proto-punk of Jonathan Richman and The Feelies and the college-friendly power pop of The dB’—with a bespectacled art-nerd look to match. The band had a devoted underground following outside Kansas as well. Stop Making Sense director Jonathan Demme even shopped them around for record deals. In 1983, the ride stopped almost as suddenly as it started. The band was done.

The sands of time have all but buried mainstream knowledge of The Embarrassment, but the band’s cadre of die-hard fans refuse to let them go. “It’s the band that no one will let die,” Geissman says. “I’m grateful that our fans keep those memories and the music alive.”

Journalist and historian Thomas Frank quoted The Embarrassment’s lyrics in his now-classic book What’s the Matter with Kansas? Legendary rock critic Robert Christgau once called them a “great lost American band.” With online streaming making even the most obscure music accessible to new audiences, the writing’s on the wall: it’s time for an Embarrassment revival.

Right on time (if you discount a 17year production history) comes Dan Fetherston and Danny Szlauderbach’s documentary We Were Famous, You Don’t Remember: The Embarrassment, which charts the rise and fall of the band and the lasting impact their fleeting career had on music in the early 80s. The film, which premieres at Wichita’s Tallgrass film festival this fall, represents a labor of love and a surprising collaboration that traversed geography, generations, and technological advancements.

Two paths converge Fetherston, a New York-based musician-turned filmmaker, and editor, first discovered The Embarrassment in the late 90s.

“It was the era of the CD, when all these

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amazing things were being excavated for the first time, lovingly curated by archival record labels,” Fetherston recalls. “There was a big late 70s, early 80s music revival happening in New York. I found The Embarrassment and fell in love. My band covered one of their songs, and I couldn’t get them out of my head.”

Compelled by The Embarrassment’s music and folk-hero mythos, Fetherston started interviewing band members in 2005. Those interviews make up early portions of We Were Famous. But as a touring musician himself at the time with his band Oxford Collapse, the project started getting away from him.

“We would be on tour for six months and I couldn’t work on it. Technology changed. I’d started shooting on mini DV, and then DSLR happened,” Fetherston says.

“My footage looked really old. I thought the movie was dead.”

Then, in 2019, Fetherston got a call from Szlauderbach.

Growing up in Wichita, Szlauderbach’s older brother introduced him to the band’s music at an influential age. “I think it was Heyday, their compilation album that I first heard, but I also saw this black and white photo of them in the Flatiron,” Szlauder-

combine forces.” The pair then collaborated on a 10-minute short film to commemorate the band’s induction into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame, which in turn led to them sharing, in Szlauderbach’s words, “countless gigabytes of stuff we’d shot.” Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, they started work on the film in earnest.

Fetherston says the creative collaboration process quickly clicked from that point onward.

“We both have this love for this super specific, idiosyncratic band, so it’s not sur-

“So many other people had that question about them. How does a band like this come out of a place like Kansas?” bach says. “There was something about this photo of them, and the sound of their music that just said ‘This is what indie feels like.’

After I graduated from KU, I thought if I ever got serious about filmmaking, I’d want to make a movie about The Embarrassment.”

In 2016, Szlauderbach learned the band’s former manager, Dan Rouser, still lived in Wichita. He called him up with plans to propose a documentary of his own on the band, only to learn from Rouser about Fetherston’s project.

“I realized I couldn’t travel around and talk to all the people Dan had,” Szlauderbach says. “I called him up to see if we could

prising we were on the same wavelength,” he says.

Szlauderbach adds that the advancements in technology since Fetherston started shooting the film allowed them to pull content together in unexpected ways. “We were able to make this without even meeting face to face. It’s not a given that if you just call someone up that they’ll be cool and just collaborate,” Szlauderbach says. “I’m surprised and grateful.”

Why a documentary?

The story of a beloved local band that nearly made it big is hardly unique—it exists in countless essay collections, regional

music anthologies, dramatic films and, yes, documentaries. Szlauderbach says what made The Embarrassment worthy of their own movie was the specificity of their location and artistic identity.

“So many other people had that question about them. How does a band like this come out of a place like Kansas?” Szlauderbach asks.

It also helped that there were heaps of quality archival footage to sift through.

“A lot of bands from this era have limited footage, but several music videos, good live footage, I think it’s pretty rare for bands from this era,” Szlauderbach says. “They’re all visual artists as well. Bill Goffrier is a painter, and even shot legitimately good, striking movies as a teenager. More and more reasons popped up as to why this would be a good movie.”

Fetherston admits his interest in making a film was selfish. “I had this realization that I wanted to watch all of that footage myself,” he says. “We’re spoiled by YouTube now, but when I started making the movie there was this mystery in that you know these shows happened, but there was no way of seeing it without trading illegal VHS tapes and DVDs. I’d have friends come over and we’d watch their Flatiron concerts in their entirety.”

Looking at the concert clips and DIY music videos that make up much of We Were Famous, it’s easy to see why anyone would get hooked—there’s loose, youthful energy to it all that evokes the feeling of seeing your friend’s band play in college. The difference, though, is that The Embarrassment sounds better, even without production polish.

Take the video for their song “Celeb-

FILM WH E R E

CA N N A B I S

M E E TS

H O S PI TA L I TY

Stills from the documentary. Courtesy of Danny Szlauderbach and Doug Hitchcock

According to Geissman, however, the chemistry is natural. “We really trusted each other in terms of delivering what I always felt was a powerful performance,” Geissman says. “But it was kind of brotherhood to me.

I mean, here we are years later and we’re all still very close.”

“You guys deserve this.”

In September, Tallgrass will celebrate the premiere of We Were Famous, You Don’t Remember: The Embarrassment at Wichita’s historic Orpheum Theater, alongside a reunion show and a few other surprises.

“I’m glad the story of some of Wichita’s own will get the time and attention it deserves this year,” Andre Seward, the festival’s programming director, says. “It’s a perfect fit to celebrate 20 years of stubborn independence.”

Goffrier says it’s an honor to have his band’s legacy embraced in his hometown.

“I feel lucky to be here at the right time when this can happen, and I’m hoping as many of the band’s friends and followers

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rity Art Party” as an example. Nichols delivers sly lyrics from behind blocky hornrimmed glasses while a goofily grimacing, lei-adorned Goffrier pounds out complex guitar riffs and Klaus nonchalantly chugs a beer between galloping basslines. Geissman is keeping up with a frantic rhythm that lesser drummers would trip over like a hapless nerd with loose shoelaces.

It’s not a great video; it looks like the band just grabbed some props out of a closet and captured a quick recording session in a cramped room. But the appeal is obvious: you want to be friends with these guys.

All of that, Goffrier says, is the result of extensive trial and error on the band’s part.

“We had to learn a lot of this on the fly, and none of us were formally trained in anything like songwriting,” he says. “But being as we had such a love for songwriting and popular songs, we wanted to follow that same path.”

can be here for that gathering. It’s a oncein-a-lifetime occasion.”

Szlauderbach says he sees it as an opportunity to give back to the community that helped him discover music he loves.

“This was where I discovered The Embarrassment, but also the Clash and the Velvet Underground,” he says. “For me, it’s all jumbled up together as a discovery of music that was important to me for the rest of my life. I can’t wait to give back and honor that time in my life.”

The similarities between the band and Szlauderbach and Fetherston’s winding road to the finish aren’t lost on the band’s members, either. “I think these guys put a lot of work into the movie, so I anticipate some real fireworks,” Geissman says. “In the spirit of The Embarrassment, if you don’t give up and you keep working at it, something good’s gonna come out of it.”

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July 8 & 9

Feastival: A Forks & Corks Pop-up Union Station

Eat your heart out at Harvesters’ largest annual fundraiser. Dinner is a five-course affair July 8, served by some of the finest chefs in the metro. Be sure to save space for the next morning, as a spread of samples from the hottest brunch spots in town are plated. Then work off any extra calories by packing bags of fresh produce for those experiencing food insecurity as a volunteer opportunity. Forks & Corks is coming to Union Station July 8 from 6-10 p.m. and July 9 from 9:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. Tickets start at $35 on the Harvesters website.

July CALENDAR

By Steph Castor, Emeline Hutton, Hannah Scott, Lauren Textor

July 3 Liberty 4th Fest, Capitol Federal Sports Complex of Liberty Liberty, MO Old Fashioned July 3rd Picnic, Shawnee Indian Mission Fairway, KS Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls, Liberty Hall Dirty Heads / SOJA / Tribal Seeds, Grinders KC

Independence Day Festival: Gardner, Gardner, KS Olathe’s July 4th Fireworks, Olathe, KS

July 4

Brandi Carlile / Tanya Tucker, Starlight Theatre Open Mic Comedy Competition, Harley’s Hideaway Bar & Grill

Lenexa Freedom Run, Lenexa, KS Community Days Parade, Lenexa, KS Louisburg Freedom Fest, Louisburg, KS 4th of July Celebration, Platte City, MO Parkville 4th of July Parade, Parkville, MO Beach Fest: Olathe, Olathe, KS Parkville 4th of July Celebration, Parkville, MO VillageFest 2022, Prairie Village, KS 4th of July Celebration at Worlds of Fun, KCMO Red, White & Blue Springs, Blue Springs High School Blue Springs, MO

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THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

July 5 Bryan Hicks Duo, Chaz on the Plaza Pandora’s Box, The Black Box

July 6

July 7 Family Fun Nights - Fireworks: 1860s Style, Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Olathe, KS Chris Isaak / Lyle Lovett, Starlight Theatre STRFKR, Granada Open Jam, The Bird Comedy Theatre Rock Steady, The Black Box

July 16

Prom

The Bird Comedy Theatre If your high school prom was one of the worst experiences of your life, we have good news. The Bird Comedy Theatre welcomes patrons to its re-imagined Prom event. On July 16 at 8 p.m., step into a world of corsages and formal attire. Since we don’t need chaperones anymore, feel free to indulge in an adult version of your punch bowl. The improv comedy event will be hosted by resident comedians of The Bird. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

July 8

July 12

Machine Gun Kelly / Avril Lavigne, T-Mobile Center Man Man, The Bottleneck Temp Tats / Via Luna / Face Face, recordBar Thor: Love and Thunder, Theatrical The Sea Beast, Netflix Carolina Cuevas, Kansas City Artists Coalition (July 8-29) Summer Brooks, Kansas City Artists Coalition (July 8-29) Later @ The Bird, The Bird Comedy Theatre Felonius Munk, The Comedy Club of Kansas City (through July 9)

Earth, Wind & Fire, Starlight Theatre Twin Tribes / Wingtips, recordBar

July 9

July 13 AJJ, Granada MAYA: The Exhibition, Union Station (opening day)

July 14 Granger Smith, KC Live Big Gigantic, Arvest Bank Theatre Luis J Gomez, The Comedy Club of Kansas City (through July 16) Open Mic Night, The Comedy Club of Kansas City (through July 21)

Memphis May Fire, The Truman Eddie B, Arvest Bank Theatre Queer Bar Takeover, The Black Box Kenny Chesney, Arrowhead Stadium

July 15

July 10

July 16

Mandy Moore, Uptown Theater Halestorm / The Pretty Reckless, Starlight Theatre Christmas in July: A Fundraiser Party for The Living Room, The Black Box

Drive-By Truckers, Knuckleheads Kansas, Azura Amphitheater

Nelly, KC Live Levee Town, Thompson Park Amado Espinoza Quartet, recordBar

July 17 Mary Chapin Carpenter, Liberty Hall Bad Bad Hats / Gully Boys, recordBar Kansas City’s Lawn Party 2022, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Kurtis Conner Live, Uptown Theater

July 23

July 30

Taylor Fest

Hot Dog Festival

Taylor Fest is the Swiftie event of the year, second to only a surprise album drop. As an event made by fans, for fans, it is sure to be a full-on celebration with nostalgic tunes and newer hits. Long live all the magic that will be made and all the memories you won’t forget. Don’t keep it like a secret; keep it like an oath, and be there at 9 p.m. Tickets are $20 before fees.

Since 2013, hot dog lovers have come together to play games, collect autographs, visit the museum, enjoy live music, and—of course—eat hot dogs. Taking place at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, this event brings together lovers of America’s favorite pastime and the food that keeps it running. Celebrating history and hot dogs, there is nowhere better to spend a Saturday night.

Uptown Theater

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

July 19

July 23

July 29

Motion City Soundtrack / All Get Out / Neil Rubenstein, Granada Thank You Scientist, The Bottleneck The Jokers Room, Lumpy’s

John Mulaney, Starlight Theatre The Dinner Detective: Murder Mystery Dinner Show, Crowne Plaza

Quiet Riot, Ameristar Casino and Hotel Boxknife Manifestering EP Release Party, Lemonade Park

July 20

July 24

July 30

The Mengel Brothers, Chaz on the Plaza Off the Rails Comedy, Knucklehead’s Saloon Explicit Comedy Takeovers, Legends Comedy Club & Sports Lounge

George Strait / Chris Stapleton, Arrowhead Musicbyskippy: We Press Play Album Release, recordBar Tiny Moving Parts / This Wild Life, Granada WIN for KC Try-athalon, Sailboat Cove Nclusion Plus - Aesthetic: Euphoria Edition Drag Show, Lifted Spirits Distillery Sip & Shop, KC Wine Co. Big Time Rush, T-Mobile Center

Celeste Barber, Uptown Theater Free HIV & Hep C Testing, Kansas City Center for Inclusion Lily B. Moonflower Band, Percheron @ Crossroads Hotel

July 21

Stay in the know about KC’s upcoming events on our interactive online calendar!

Sheryl Crow, Grinders KC Maren Morris, Starlight Theatre Pete Lee, The Comedy Club of Kansas City (through July 23)

July 22 Ultimate Fakebook / Frogpond / Ashtray Babyhead, recordBar Scarface, The Truman Josh Groban, Starlight Theatre Emo Nite, Granada The Gray Man, Netflix Nope, Theatrical

July 25 Boy Harsher / Hiro Kone, recordBar

July 26 mike. / Skeez, The Truman

July 31

July 27

L.A. Witch, recordBar Davi Crimmins, The Comedy Club

BLVCK HIPPIE / Various Blonde, recordBar The Shins / Joseph, Arvest Bank Theatre Little Feat / Andy McKee, Uptown Theater

July 28 COIN / BLACKSTARKIDS, Arvest Bank Theatre Andrew Dice Clay, The Comedy Club of Kansas City (through July 30) Jackie Myers Duo, Chaz on the Plaza

THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

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Photo by Nicole Bissey. Illustrations by Shelby Phelps

THE PITCH SEX & LOVE KEEP THEM COMING

AGE GAPS AND ALGORITHMS “Oh you’ve got a younger man—you Cougar!”

I gently remind folks who say this to me that culture dictates with an age gap of under nine years, I am instead referred to as a Puma, thankyouverymuch. My partner and I have an almost 6-year age gap, making me a cusp Xennial and him solidly a Millennial.

By all accounts, from the research papers I’ve combed, my guy and I shouldn’t be a thing. A Hitsch, Hortacsu, and Ariely 2010 study found that both men and women avoid online dating matches in which the woman is older than the man.

Our culture isn’t exactly supportive of age gap relationships, though we are generally kinder when the man is older. We use terms like “Daddy,” “Cougar,” “Cradle Robber,” or “May-December Relationship.”

Keanu Reeves has been lauded for dating someone his own age, which means the expectation of our society is that men will date younger women as a rule, rather than as an exception.

I remember a woman in her 50s—let’s call her Linda—who I once sold a car to in

my mid-20s. Linda had a 20+ year age gap between her and her husband, who was in his 70s. You get to know a lot of personal shit while you’re spending hours with another person test driving car after car. She said it was fun as hell when she was younger because he was active and loved to travel with her. Eventually, he’d become “a boring old man” to Linda. He didn’t like the sporty little car she’d picked out for herself because the ride was too rough for him. She advised me to not marry someone too much older than me and bought the Honda Civic she wanted.

A 2017 Australian study says, “Couples with an age gap of one to three years (with the man older than the woman) were the most common and had the greatest levels of satisfaction.”

So is it a “chicken and egg” kinda thing? Is the lack of social acceptability of wider age gaps and of women being older affecting the happiness levels of couples, especially when they are in an outlier group and experience additional negativity? Is this causation or correlation?

In Justin Lehmiller and Christopher Agnew’s chapter “May-December Paradoxes: An Exploration of Age-Gap Relationships in Western Society” in the book The Dark Side of Close Relationships II, they reported that around 8% of hetero couples have a decade or more age gap. It climbs to 15% for lesbian couples and 25% for gay couples. That’s millions of couples with 10 or more years between them.

Does it really matter if their pop culture references match up? A mere five years can mean growing up with very different media and music influences, and this is what daters in my practice often bring up as reasons they choose to exclusively date a similar age group.

Close family or friends’ judgment is also often cited. Age gaps are no big thing in my family. Not one couple on my Mom’s side married within two years of their age, except for my grandparents. Age gaps have in fact been a defining factor for most of us.

Let go of the stigma of age differences and simply choose partners based on shared likes and life goals.

What I see is couples that keep having fun together are the ones that work. Each couple has to define what that is. For my parents, currently, it’s gardening and getting out on the weekends. For my Aunt B and her husband, it’s camping in national and state parks and doing wine tastings. For

Chronological age isn’t what really matters for couples. Who cares if you have to explain a movie reference, a historical event you lived through, or if you experienced the same bad fashion as a teen?

Who are you now? Do you align in significant ways? Are your long-term goals similar? Are you emotionally on the same maturity level? Are you on the same wavelength about kids?

Your relationship will evolve over time because you will evolve. So will the world.

Ten years ago, no one was offering Drunken Fiddles, but now it’s the date night that I keep bugging Matthew to book. Ten years ago, I would have laughed if my dude asked me to go to the game store and play Friday Night Magic, but current Kristen absolutely loves going when there’s a new expansion released.

Who knows what we will we be up to another 10 years from now. Couples have to wake up each day and choose to love the person next to them. Both of you will slowly evolve over time because of your experiences, and you are each responsible for learning about yourself and each other as time passes.

No matter what the numbers say for the likelihood of age gap success, relationships actually end because of things like poor communication, financial insecurity, lack of support from family and friends, low

Let go of the stigma of age differences and simply choose partners based on shared likes and life goals. me and my guy, at the moment, it’s playing Magic The Gathering and going to cheap movies on Tuesdays.

Esther Perel talks about how she’s had four or five marriages with the same person.

What she means is that each time they realized they’d changed and grown as people with different needs and wants, they either had to adjust to honor this new version of the person they fell in love with or move on.

emotional intelligence, and a lack of satisfaction or confidence with your sexual status.

If you and your Silver Fox or MILF have all the makings of any good relationship, and both parties are consenting adults, don’t worry about your age gap. If you’ve avoided swiping on people outside your age bracket, consider some wiggle rooms by a few years and see who’s out there.

You can find Kristen @OpenTheDoorsKC on Twitter or openthedoorscoaching com. Check out her podcast Keep Them Coming.

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THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

THE PITCH SEX & LOVE SAVAGE LOVE

JUDGEMENT DAY

sic kind of shitty person and/or making the same basic kinds of shitty mistakes—such as ignoring red flags, committing too soon, or “working on it” too long—then you need to make changes.

And the single most important change you can make—the thing you can do differently as you head back into the dating world—seems obvious to me, my readers, your friends, and your therapist: listen to your friends and your therapist! They saw the red flags, UNSURE, and pointed them out. The problem wasn’t that you couldn’t see those red flags—you’re not blind—but that you looked away and/or attempted to explain them away. (I’m not blind to the fact that using “blind” to mean “can’t understand or comprehend” is ableist, and I promise not to use it like this again.)

Anyway, UNSURE, the lesson to learn from these two shitty relationships isn’t, “No more relationships for me! I can’t trust my own judgment!”, but instead, “The next time everyone in my life tells me that the person I’m with is shitty or that we’re shitty for each other, I’ll end it.” To be clear: I’m not telling you to substitute the judgment of your friends and therapist for your own, UNSURE, but to supplement your judgment with theirs—unless you wanna empower your friends and your therapist to make an arranged marriage for you, in which case you can substitute their judgment for your own.

Dear Dan: I’m trying to date again after back-to-back negative relationship experiences. Experiences that have made me question my own judgment and ability to set good boundaries. My friends and therapist all pointed out the red flags, but I was apparently blind to them. I love what you’ve said about how there is no “The One” out there for us, only .72s and .83s, and that we have to “round someone up to The One.” But it seems like I’ve been “rounding up” some numbers that were too low. As things stand now, I’ve never felt so mistrustful of people, and I’ve never doubted by own choices so strongly.

Basically, my walls have gone up. But I love being in a relationship and I want to be in one again. What things should I be mindful of as I venture back into that world? What’s a good way to be deliberate without moving at a glacial pace? What should I be asking myself as I begin to form new attachments, especially after showing such bad judgment in the recent past?

—Understandably Nervous Since Upsetting Relationships Expired

Dear Dan: I don’t have a super high sex drive, so I generally have sex once or twice a week and mostly for my husband. He prefers sex at night, but I am generally exhausted and disinterested by that point. However, in the mornings I am often horny. Problem is my husband has a medical condition that makes morning sex uncomfortable for him.

I occasionally masturbate in the mornings, but I’d rather be screwing him. Do you have any suggestions for how I can teach myself to be horny at the end of the day?

—Sexual Time Zones

Dear UNSURE: First, let’s put things in per-

Dear STZ: Disco nap—get some sleep ear-

spective: you had two shitty relationships in a row. While that was no doubt unpleasant, UNSURE, and while it’s understandable you might hesitate to put yourself back out there, two shitties in row isn’t evidence your judgment is flawed. Very few of us can say we haven’t had two shitty relationships in a row, if not more. A shitty person is often the common denominator in a string of shitty relationships, but sometimes shitty relationships happen to good people—and sometimes they happen with good people, i.e., a shitty relationship can happen without a shitty person being involved.

Still, there’s shitty, and then there’s spectacularly shitty. There are also shitty patterns. If you keep picking the same ba-

ly in the evening, STZ, fuck your husband when he comes to bed, watch some television until you’re ready for bed, then enjoy a bonus wank in the AM after he gets up and leaves.

and my boyfriend saw me. I felt bad about it and apologized. I want our relationship to work because I love him, and we are such a good team. Please give me some advice on how to control myself, because right now I feel it is almost inevitable that I am going to cheat again and wind up losing the man I love over nothing.

—Is Needing Love Over Variety Endurable?

Dear INLOVE: If your boyfriend can forgive you and you can learn to lust after other men without touching them, INLOVE, you can make this monogamy thing work. But don’t kid yourself: however much you love your boyfriend, you’re always gonna wanna fuck other men. And unless your boyfriend is a toaster with a dildo duct taped to it, he’s always gonna wanna fuck other men too.

So, maybe instead of having to pretend you don’t find other men attractive—instead of having to lie to each other—you can give each other a little space, i.e., a little erotic autonomy. Be monogamous, yes, but go ahead and flirt with other guys, check hot guys out together, watch and share porn that turns you both on, and then plow all that sexual energy back into your relationship and into each other.

But if you wind up cheating again…

There are two ways to look at the cheating you’ve already done and the cheating you might do in the future: you’re a terrible person who can’t honor a monogamous commitment, INLOVE, or you’re a good person who shouldn’t be making monogamous commitments. It took me a while to realize that I wasn’t failing at monogamy, INLOVE, but rather monogamy was failing me. When I stopped making monogamous commitments I couldn’t keep, my committed relationship(s) began to thrive. If being in a closed relationship leaves you feeling frustrated and generates conflict—internal and relational—and your boyfriend doesn’t want to be in an open relationship, then you two might not be right for each other. Two people who aren’t on the same page where monogamy is concerned and can’t negotiate their way onto the same page, INLOVE, won’t and shouldn’t be together for long.

You can still love each other, but as exes and friends, not boyfriends.

Question for Dan? Email him at mail@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Check out his new website at Savage.Love!

Dear Dan: I’m a gay man in his late 20s living with my boyfriend. We are monogamous but I have a hard time being faithful. I’m in love with my boyfriend, he is caring and sweet, and the sex is good. But sometimes I feel this hunger inside of me. I desire other men. I look around at work or at the gym or when I’m out shopping, and all these other men turn me on. I cheated on my boyfriend once when we were on holiday together. I did it in a clumsy, selfish, and inconsiderate way, THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

37

KC CARES

KC Cares

KC Shepherd’s Center

By Beth Lipoff

“You are not alone.”

That’s the message the KC Shepherd’s Center is sending with their long-running senior companion program and the newer Phone Pal program to keep older adults happier and more engaged.

The idea behind the senior companion program is that seniors can aid other seniors living nearby. Both participants have to live in Jackson County, and there are certain income requirements. Companions aren’t there to provide in-home care—they’re there to interact with the clients for up to 30 hours per week, helping to reduce social isolation and give family caregivers a break. That might mean watching a movie, putting puzzles together, or even going out to a senior center program.

“The last few years, there’s been more research on the effects of isolation. You’re not stimulating your mind the same way. Just having that interaction with people is important to our health,” says Danielle Wootton, director of programs and strategic initiatives for the KC Shepherd’s Center.

Volunteers get a small stipend from the AmeriCorps-funded program, paid training time, and reimbursed transportation costs.

The stipend does not affect any government assistance, such as Medicaid, that the volunteer may be receiving.

“They have big hearts. They want to give back, and they want to be active and engaged,” Wootton says.

Although the center had stopped recruiting new companions during the pandemic, they resumed the training program for new volunteers in June. They’re looking for both men and women who are at least 55 years old.

There are approximately 100 people on the waiting list for a companion right now,

but it’s not just about numbers. The center tries to pair people who live within five miles of each other, and their personalities have to click for the relationship to work.

Geraldine Coleman has seen the program from both sides. She used to be a companion. Now she has one, and she knows what a difference it makes for both parties.

“I love people. I’ve got this hang-up.

I just can’t seem to get away from people.

I’m the old one now, but I love the old ones,” Coleman says. “I kind of liked the fact that it gave me the chance to get to know someone different, and gave me freedom to do things with her, but not overdo it.”

The engagement wasn’t a one-way street. Coleman learned to play dominoes and swapped recipes with her client for the two years they spent together. Her compan-

“I think it’s just important for people to know it’s not just nice. It really can make the difference in someone’s life. In 30 minutes per week, you’re helping to give someone something to look forward to.” ion even helped her learn to thread a sewing machine and sew much more complicated projects than she’d ever done on her own.

After her client died, Coleman decided that she didn’t always have the energy to be a companion at 85 years old. So, she signed up to have one.

“It improves my life, I would say, a good 85%—I don’t have that down depression. We laugh and talk, and we play games, and I try to outdo her in something—it’s a thing with us,” Coleman says.

When the pandemic hit, having that inhome interaction wasn’t possible for a while.

That’s when the center fired up its Phone Pals program. Volunteers call a client twice per week at a mutually agreed-upon time to check in for at least 15 minutes.

“We just saw this need with everybody being isolated and not seeing family members as much. It was something we had talked about getting started,” Wootton says.

The response was immediate. Nearly 100 people responded to their initial plea for volunteers. In contrast to the companions program, volunteers and clients for Phone Pals can come from anywhere in the metro area. Volunteers must pass a background check and turn in a log of all their client call times.

“We have one lady who likes to talk.

She’s physically isolated in her home, but mentally, she is very active and engaged. She wanted someone who can talk about current events and politics. We had to find someone whose views matched up,” Wootton says.

Carly Skjervem of Fairway was looking for a way to volunteer but was limited by the pandemic and the schedule constraints of working as a nurse practitioner and having a newborn. Phone Pals was perfect for her.

“I love the opportunity to get to know someone that’s completely different than me—a different generation, someone I likely wouldn’t have met otherwise,” Skjervem says.

She’s been talking with her current Phone Pal since November.

“I just love hearing about how she views the world. She’s a poet, so I just feel like she has a unique perspective on life. She’s been through a lot, and I just really enjoy even hearing the small things about her week,” Skjervem says.

Despite their relationship being completely over the phone, she feels like they’ve really made a connection.

“Even though I haven’t met Christina in real life, I’m surprised by the ability to connect over the phone without knowing much about her. It’s been really easy and a warm, comforting presence—something you wouldn’t expect to find over the phone with a stranger,” Skjervem says.

That’s not unusual for Phone Pals, and it’s something Wootton thinks many people don’t expect.

“I think it’s just important for people to know it’s not just nice. It really can make the difference in someone’s life. In 30 minutes per week, you’re helping to give someone something to look forward to,” Wootton says.

For more information on how to become part of either program, visit kcshepherdscenter.org/volunteer.

Friday, August 26 JazzooKC.org

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THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

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THE PITCH | July 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM