popwreckoning

Popwrecker Scott Spychalski and Editor in Chief Joshua Hammond had a chance to rock out at Warped Tour in Bonner Springs, KS last Wednesday with cameras in tow. Check out their amazing shots from the festival. Click on any artist’s name for more information.

*Larry and His Flask: (Keep an eye out on Popwreckoning for an interview with Larry and His Flask!)

*Bad Rabbits:

*Against Me!:

*Foxy Shazam:

*Less Than Jake: (Keep an eye out on Popwreckoning for an interview with Less Than Jake!)

*I Set My Friends On Fire:

*Moving Mountains:

*It Boys:

Black Veil Brides:

Pour Habit:

Foxy Shazam:

The Devil Wears Prada:

Sharks:

Big D and the Kids Table:

Bad Rabbits:

Grieves (with Budo):

New Years Day:

Acacia Strain:

General Festival Shots:

*Photos by Joshua Hammond

All others by Scott Spychalski as marked

When Electric Six was forced to cancel their October 30 tour date they promised to make up their Kansas City stop. Thursday, March 31, they’ll roll into The Riot Room alongside The Constellations and Kansas City’s Antenna’s Up. Popwreckoning has been blessed with the opportunity to gave away four sets of tickets to the show.

Winning them is easy. All you have to do is answer the following question below by leaving us a comment: What is your favorite Constellation and why? Please be sure to leave us a WORKING email address and first and last name in which we can contact you at. This contest will end Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m. CST. You will be contacted that evening to let you know if you have a place on the guest list that evening.

As usual, I’d like to thank you for reading Popwreckoning and would like to wish everyone the best of luck.

After four years of writing and recording, Synchronized Sleeping, the debut full length from Hidden Pictures will be hailed with a public celebration April 1, 2011, at The Brick, in Kansas City, Missouri.

In addition to the groups core members, Richard Gintowt and Michelle Sanders, the album which was will feature a newly revised lineup of Erik Voeks on the bass, Cameron Hawk (of Dead Girls) on the drums and Nate Holt (formerly of OK Jones) on the keys. Additional musicians contributing to the completion of Synchronized Sleep include Josh Adams (of Ghosty), Tim and Alan Brandsted, Nate Harold (of Waking Ashland), Billy Brimblecom, Pat Tomek (of The Rainmakers) and Dave Gaume (of The Caves). Engineering was handled by Ed Rose, Paul Malinowski and Mike Giffin, in addition to work completed at Gintowt’s home studio.

Not only will you be able to get your hands on Synchronized Sleeping, but those fans who purchase the album on Hidden Pictures’ Bandcamp Page will also receive the lost OK Jones album Stealing Dan as a bonus. The album was shelved when OK Jones disbanded in 2007 when Gintowt and Gaume started Hidden Pictures. The six songs on Stealing Dan were finished upon the completion of Synchronized Sleeping.

The band’s previous EPs Choosing Sides, Whitney Houston and Self-Titled can be purchased on the group’s Bandcamp Page as well. You can find the video for the song “Annie Apparently” from the Choosing Sides EP below.

Hidden Pictures in Anne Apparently from Zac Eubank on Vimeo.

Twenty-four hours after their March 1 release of their seventh studio album Going Out In Style, Dropkick Murphys will bring their Celtic punk sound to the stage of Kansas City’s Beaumont Club. Set to burn the place down with cohorts in crime, Rise Against, this March 2 show is simply not to be missed.

PopWreckoning is offering you and a friend the chance to attend this show free of charge. In addition, we will throw in an autographed cd booklet to sweeten the deal.

Winning is simple – just comment on the site, answering the following question: If you were a leprechaun what would you leave at the end of your rainbow?

PopWreckoning staff will choose the most creative answer on March 1, 2011 at 1 p.m. CST. Winner must be present at the show in order to receive their autographed booklet, as PopWreckoning will not be responsible for mailing the prize to contest winners. Please make sure to leave both your full name and working email address in the comment so we know where and whom to contact.

Okay, enough said. Go, comment, dance, mosh! Also, read more about the Dropkick Murphys on their website here.

The time has come to update your Google Calendars and fill out your vacation and time off request forms. It is very important that you be free and in Kansas City’s historic Westport area on both April 8 and 9 for the first ever Middle of the Map Fest.

Taking place within the music venues of The Record Bar, The Beaumont Club, The Union and The Riot Room, festival goers will be given access to four different musical choices. Tickets can be purchased on day to day basis ($20 for either Friday only access or Saturday only access) or both days for a mere 5 additional dollars, of $25 total.Tickets can be purchased here.

With the lineup due to be announced soon (which PopWreckoning has not only seen, but is 100 percent in support of) keep checking back for more news on this exciting hometown event. The festivals’ twitter has confirmed that Two Door Cinema Club and Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s are some of the many bands playing the fest.

Local singer-songwriter Jenny Carr is as seasoned as local artists come. With stops fronting the bands The Afternoons and The Waiting List, as well as playing bass for the like of The Sunday Paper, Lights and Sirens and Anvil Chorus, the road leading Jenny Carr to the release of Maybe Definitely Really For Sure has been as winding as they come. However, the growth experience along the way can be heard clearly in the lines of her debut studio album which you can hear in its entirety here.

In addition to the full stream, Carr has opted to release a digital version of the album with a “name your own price option.”  This way a buyer can choose to donate whatever proceeds he or she believe seems fair while also helping provide funds that support local music. The name your own price option will only be in place for a limited time before rocketing back up to the minimum of $5 for a digital copy.

Compact Discs, which were released at Carr’s cd release party December 16th at the Czar Bar, will also be available for purchase on the site for those who demand physical copies. Their cost will be $9 before shipping. They can also be purchased at any of Jenny Carr’s upcoming shows to avoid shipping costs.

Sometimes, usually when I have too much time on my hands, my mind drafts off to the land of make-believe where I ponder situations such as this – if The Beatles had formed today, what would they sound like? Who would’ve inspired them? How would’ve the updated technology change their playing styles and instrument choices? Would they still matter?

I have to believe their updated sound would end up somewhere in the range of Smith Westerns. Heavy with vintage overtones, Smith Westerns take an approach to album creation that few bands are currently attempting. On Dye It Blonde, they simply playing the hell out of their instruments. Refusing to hide behind the trendy wall of computer generated hooks the indie movement has currently adopted, the band’s gutsy guitar solos and swooning vocals combine for a glam rock meets the white album sound if it were produced in the highlight of the 1990s. While looking in the rear view mirror and using the road map left for them by their founding fathers of music, somehow Smith Westerns manage to not only be relevant today, but turn out to be pretty vital.

With scruffy but danceable numbers like “Imagine Pt. 3” and “Dance Away” placed on an full length that is listenable from start to finish, Smith Westerns has succeeded where MGMT could not. They’ve managed to be more than just a throw back synth-pop band producing a spin-able single and a bunch of album filler. Hell, just give “Weekend” a spin and try to tell me that it cannot go toe to toe with “Time to Pretend.”

It needs to be stated just how extreme of a cleansing process it has been for Smith Westerns to get where they’re standing now. Just over a year ago, the band released a lo-fi, do-it-yourself garage rock release that yielded a limited future and limitless possibilities of failure. However, the obvious growth between releases is not only worth a listen, but worthy of praise. Keeping in mind that these kids are 21 at their oldest, one should be pleased with the unquestionable amount of maturity blasting through your headphone speakers. Hopefully that pans outward into a long and fruitful career. If it sounds anything like Dye It Blonde, I’ll happily add the catalog to my shelves.

4.5 out of 5 stars

The last time Gang of Four released an album Yahoo had just had its global takeover, O.J. Simpson was still on trial and Bill Clinton was still President. Since the start of their career in 1979, they’ve released seven full-lengths and influenced bands in the better half of five different decades. One has to wonder if the recent popularizing of bands such as Franz Ferdinand or Bloc Party would have ever been possible had it not been for Gang of Four. Hell, even Kurt Cobain describes Nirvana as starting as a “Gang of Four…ripoff.” Their thumb print on music is cannot realistically be minimized as fleeting.

However, like most bands 15 years removed from the scene, Gang of Four’s reemergence is absolutely a hit or miss occurrence. While they crank out a few fairly catchy post-punk numbers at the start of Content, such as “She Said You Made a Thing of Me” and “Who Am I,” the B-side seems pretty compact with fairly forgettable tunes. I found myself extremely unimpressed with the overly repetitive“A Fruitfly in a Beehive” which reminds me of simplified version of a bad Police song. Things shift even further south on the follow up track, “It was never going to turn out too good.” With robotic vocals placed over ignorable guitar riffs signifies not only the album at its worst, but possibly also the band’s career.

It is always rather disheartening to witness the unraveling of such a historic band. However, while life long fans of this band will be happy to have a few new titles to add to their catalog, I have no doubt they will be disappointed with the bulk product that Content is. At some point, songs which damage the overall credibility of a band’s legacy outweigh the benefits of a few new songs. Sadly, it might just be that time for Gang of Four.

As first reported by Wayward Blog, via Capybara‘s blog, local band Saharan Gazelle Boy has appeared in a graphic for Apple’s Application Store. The screen shot seen below is of the blog Paper Brigade, who recently covered the band.

For more on Saharan Gazelle Boy, Capybara or other bands from The Record Machine, feel free to click the following links:
The Record Machine
Saharan Gazelle Boy
Capybara

Since November 2009, The After Party have achieved a lot. They’ve dropped their debut EP All The Wrong Places, toured with Rookie of the Year, and played shows supporting Cartel, Runner Runner and All Star Weekend. For some bands that would be enough to hang up their hat happily and call it a day. The After Party however are just getting started.

Come Spring of 2011, look for the band to drop their second EP which will simply be self-titled. Produced by Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount (All Time Low, Mayday Parade and Cartel), PopWreckoning expects nothing less than Top 40 success from featured songs “Don’t Wanna be” and “Secret Lover.” Those songs will be found on their purevolume starting tomorrow, January 7.

Take some time and check them out!