popwreckoning

Going downtown is scary enough, but when you combine Halloween with an eerie fog, it takes that scariness to a whole new level. The mysterious fog didn’t disrupt the festivities in Kansas City’s Power and Light District where local station 96.5 the Buzz was hosting their annual Halloweenie Roast. In between musical acts, the Buzz embedded mini “horror” films starring the DJs. They were actually pretty funny. This year’s free Roast included The Beautiful Bodies, Shiny Toy Guns, The Dirtbombs and headliner TV on the Radio.

by Bethany

by Bethany

Local act The Beautiful Bodies started the show off. Helmed by Alicia Solo, this local act has been getting a lot of attention. I first took notice of them after Solo lent her vocals as backup to my favorite Kansas City act’s debut album, Keep Color, by The Republic Tigers. I must admit, while I respect this act and I’m all about representing Kansas City, I simply do not get the hype over this group. They are energetic and the crowd went wild when Solo jumped off the stage to start hugging almost every person in the front row, however, I just feel like the group is struggling to define their sound and consequentially they come off as a little confused musically. But, they are a young group and this may change and become improved.

by Scott Spychalski

by Bethany

Following Beautiful Bodies was Shiny Toy Guns. I caught this group about a year to two years ago, but they since lost their female vocalist Carah Charnow and replaced her with Sisely Treasure. Treasure filled Charnow’s shoes surprisingly well. She appeared timid at first, but soon she was bouncing around the stage and strutting her stuff in her brightly colored Halloween costume. Male vocalist Gregori Petree also wore a costume, but while Treasure had a backpack and bright pink tights, Petree took the darker approach to Halloween and dressed as a bloody mummy.

Due to his big arm movement while drumming, drummer Mikey Martin had to take his costume off on stage, but while walking around the district, he had on one of my favorite costumes of the night. Martin was dressed as a the “Karate Kid” shower curtain. Shiny Toy Guns played a fine mix of old and new songs (their new album Season of Poison drops today) with a set that included songs like “Rainy Monday,” “Le Disko,” “You Are The One,” “Ricochet,” “Poison” and more. The new material held its own against the older songs that had more radio play.

Set list:
Starts With One
Shaken
Le Disko
Poison
Rainy Monday
Stripped
Ghost Town
Ricochet!
Rocketship
When Did This Storm Begin
Don’t Cry Out
You Are The One

by Scott Spychalski

by Bethany

The Dirtbombs played after Shiny Toy Guns and it was kind of an odd transition from STG’s dance-rock music into the more surf rock music of the Dirtbombs. Granted, the whole line-up seemed like a bit of an odd combination, with the metal edge to the Beautiful Bodies and TV on the Radio’s surf rock with a flair of jazz. Since this was a radio show and the Dirtbombs were the only band not in rotation at the station sponsoring the concert, they had a bit more work to do to win over the audience. They first caught the crowd’s attention with their two drummers, saxophonist and multiple vocals. However, they lagged in the middle of their set and their music started to blend.

I don’t think KC was ready for the set to sound like one long jam song. Attention was regained, however, when one of the drummers (Ben Blackwell, I believe) did something unexpected of a drummer: he moved away from the set and stood on a speaker playing the snare while the set was slowly broken down. Throwing the snare into his drum set, he then went over to the other drummer’s set and stood on the bass drum. Both played off the same set until all that remained to be cleared off the stage was that set. The audience really enjoyed watching this, and it was a clever idea to entertain while the stage was deconstructed instead of having that be done in silence as is customary.

by Bethany

by Bethany

At last, it was time for the headliners TV on the Radio. Now I’m not sure what memo they got about the holiday, but they seemed to have combined Christmas and Halloween. One member was dressed as a gingerbread man and another as a kind of scandalous Santa Claus. I’m not sure Kris Kringle would show as much leg as this costume did. Vocalist Tunde Adebimpe did dress as a spooky skeleton. The stage lights made his make up look extra cool.

As for TVOTR’s music, I had recently caught these guys at Monolith Music Festival and they played a fairly similar set at both places with a mix of old and new. It was nice to see that this band is consistently good as they continued to give a spot-on performance in Kansas City. This being a radio show, the crowd was ecstatic when the band broke into radio hit “Wolf Like Me” about four songs into their set. It was fun to watch everybody dance in their Halloween costumes.

Set list:
Young Liars
Wrong Way
Golden Age
Wolf Like me
Dirtywhirl
Province
Shout Me Out
Dancing Choose
Blues From Down Here
DLZ
A Method
Let The Devil In
Staring At The Sun

by Bethany

by Bethany

by Bethany

by Scott Spychalski

by Bethany

This was probably my favorite Buzz Halloweenie Roast and I think it was the biggest that they’ve ever done. The district was at its capacity and there were huge lines outside all the entrances of people waiting in hopes to get in if somebody left early. This concert definitely beat trick or treating.

by Bethany

The Beautiful Bodies: website | myspace
Shiny Toy Guns: website | myspace | Season of Poison review
The Dirtbombs: website | myspace | phila
TV on the Radio: website | myspace | Monolith | phila

Writing by: Bethany

Electro rock group Shiny Toy Guns is finally releasing a new album and it is actually all new songs. I know it got a little confusing after they released We Are Pilots three times, but Season of Poison is their legitimate second album. Granted, there are several similarities, but many more differences.

The first major and most noticeable difference is that Sisely Treasure has taken over the duties of Carah Faye Charnow. Treasure is a good fit for the band and she manages to balance between finesse and grittiness just as well as Charnow did, but Treasure still brings her own style to the table. Her duets with Gregori Chad Petree on songs like “When Did This Storm Begin” and
“I Owe You A Love Song” show that they work seamlessly as a team. I think it’s a very good thing that she lost the CW’s game/reality show to be the next Pussycat Doll [Ed. Note: Ugh.] because this is a much better fit for Treasure.

Many songs sound similar to the first album. “I Owe You A Love Song” reminds me a lot of “You Are The One,” but it’s cutesier. This song has the potential to really catch on with all of its hooks. I love the progression of how Petree sings the encouraging lines, “These broken days won’t last forever, / You know I’ll put us back together,” but Treasure has a more cautious outlook and it sounds like the girl has been burned before as she says, “Your words aren’t good to me, / It’s like hearing a song without a melody.” However, by the end of the song, she starts echoing him, so it sounds like she has either forgiven or found some hope.

As sweet as that one sounds, the record doesn’t stay cute for long and with a title of Season of Poison, the songs slowly turn venomous. “Ghost Town” picks up the pace and adds a rock edge. Treasure’s voice on this one sounds like Gwen Stefani in “Hollaback Girl.” Current radio single, “Ricochet!” takes the normally melodic phrase of “La la la” and turns it into an angry growl.

Fittingly, “Poison” is the longest song on the album and its dark intro and multiple progressions will capture your attention completely. A faint background noise in the background gives the felling like you are on a jungle safari into the hear of darkness.

While I would still choose We Are Pilots to listen to first if you are unfamiliar with Shiny Toy Guns, Season of Poison is still an interesting, complex that is also rather enjoyable despite of few dull moments.

Season of Poison will be released November 4, 2008.

Tracklisting:
01. When Did This Storm Begin (Featuring Binary Finary)
02. Money For That
03. I Owe You A Love Song
04. Ghost Town
05. It Became A Lie On You
06. Ricochet!
07. Season Of Love
08. Poison
09. Blown Away
10. Turned To Real Life
11. Frozen Oceans

Shiny Toy Guns: website | myspace

Written by: Bethany