popwreckoning

In an age where digital music is supreme, album art is easy to lose in the shuffle. So perhaps when handed Belief in the Process, carefully pondering the mysteriously blue cast series of cylinder objects that look like a cross between buttons and compartments on the front cover, then flipping over to wonder why the album had divided itself into three parts for the track list and then even continuing to wonder over the selection of incomplete lyrics on the inside was a mistake. Yet, when considering the band is the Belated, then analyzing every little decision made on this record doesn’t seem so insane.

Kansas City’s the Belated is a rare breed in the city. While many of the new bands in the area are busy experimenting with electronic loops and whistles and other bizarre gimmicky sounds popularized by the hipster crowd out of Lawrence, the Belated is staying more traditional to the guitar-rich, lots of cymbal-crashing rock band sound. The band does have a nostalgic 90s sound (which isn’t that surprising when considering one of the members hosts a ’90s at noon’ radio show), but that isn’t to say the Belated is stuck in the past. No, what it does say is that the band is aware of the past and knows how to respect it. So perhaps, carefully examining something like album art isn’t so crazy for a band like this.

The album starts with the band’s first single, “Intelligent Redesign,” a song ripe with big rolling drum crescendos ending with even bigger cymbal crashes.  A low bass riff trickles throughout the song. The pre-mentioned 90s vibe is most evident in the Soundgarden-like vocals. It’s a big song with a title that promises exactly what it delivers. The music video for the song says a lot about the band, too. A 90 percent serious video lightened with brief interludes of dancing from Kansas City’s favorite concertgoer.

From “Intelligent Redesign,” the band continues mixing broody vocals with even moodier instrumental patterns. The lyrics are dark, yet an aire of sarcasm and irony serve to lighten the mood rather than darken even deeper into a lyrical black hole. Just like the video, the band is mostly serious, but still fun. Singer Michael Richardson showcases phenomenal, dynamics as he goes from whispering “I Don’t Remember” to yowling down the scales like on “Someone – Somehow.”

The only problem with his vocals is that this is the element that is almost too unwavering. While the band, instrumentally progresses between bluesy riffs from the keyboard on songs like “Sacred” to the latina marching band sounds from the percussion on “Someone – Somehow” to the straight up rock on many of the others, the vocals seem stuck creating a slight tension. Yet, the diversity of the instrumental sound is something that is quite welcome on this album. The band shows that they are capable of engineering a new sound with just their skills and not modern music’s common desire to make “new” with computers. Sure, there are effects like reverb and echoed layering. There’s even the occasional synthesized string, but this is still very organic and fresh. They’re ranging from early Smashing Pumpkins to Silversun Pickups in the instrumentals and it works well for the Belated.

Though there are strong single possibilities with “Intelligent Redesign” and “Escalation,” the band crafted an album: not a collection of singles. Check the whole thing out, and yeah, the album art is significant. The album does seem to have three distinct sections. The first two thirds of the album is bigger than the last third, which serves as more of a catharsis by the time “Daily Rose” comes about. The selected lyrics are some of the more significant stand out lines in the songs. Yet as for the image and the arrangement of those lyrics? Those are best left to the imagination of the album’s owner.

As said before, the Belated is a rare breed not just for Kansas City, but for music in general. This is an album worth checking out.

The Belated is celebrating the album’s release this Friday, January 8 at Crosstown Station. They’re joined by fellow locals Nutchhatch 47 and Pet Comfort. Doors are at 8 and tickets are just $10. It is one of the first chances to see new drummer Stephanie Williams in action as well as hear the new tunes.

Track Listing:
01. Intelligent Redesign
02. I Don’t Remember
03. Sacred
04. Someone – Somehow
05. How Did You Know
06. Easy
07. Escalation
08. We Don’t Belong
09. Lazy Fascination
10. Wound
11. Daily Rose

Kansas City’s 96.5 the Buzz and Rock the Vote recently teamed up to put on a special Rock the Vote event to get Kansas and Missouri voters registered, inform them about local politicians’ stance on the issues and to provide some great musical entertainment.

Politicians from both states were given a few minutes to speak in between performances by the bands. For a full list of politicians in attendance look here. I was more so interested in the bands, so I’ll be brief about the political stuff.

Some were better than others. There was a crazy libertarian who was all about the legalization of pot and an adorable, elderly Missourian named Dennis Moore who performed “This Land is Your Land.” Oh, and the biggest news of the day was that presidential candidate John McCain was staying at a hotel (The President Hotel, funnily enough), which was only a block away and he happened to have a free schedule that day.

Discovering this turn of events, those in charge of the concert gave information about the event to the hotel’s front desk and attached information to his bus. Alas, he was a no-show. Pity, too, because he really could have used the opportunity to reach out to the younger voters, especially when said voters live in a swing state like Missouri. Not wise, McCain, not wise. But enough about politics and on to the real reason you would check a music site: the music!

3:15-3:50 // The Belated
The Belated, a local Kansas City band, started off the show with a rocking set that showed them to be one of the better KC groups and sadly one of the more underrated ones. They even had the added draw that one of the sponsoring radio station’s DJs, Jason Ulanet, is a member of the band. Despite the quality rock present in their set, the audience didn’t give the band the warm reception they deserved. Regrettably, I believe the early set time left them with a smaller audience than what was present for the other bands when they easily deserved to have a crowd as large as the headliners.

4:30-5:10 // Waiting For Signal
Waiting For Signal was the other local musical representation. They had a harder sound than the other bands present and would have been better at an event for brother radio station, 98.9 The Rock, instead of 96.5 The Buzz. As much as I love seeing local bands supporting national acts at an event like this, Waiting For Signal seemed out of place…and this was not in a stand out, this-band-is-so-interesting-and-unique, way.

5:45-6:30 // Wombats
Liverpoolians The Wombats aren’t American and probably don’t really care too much about getting American voters registered, however, I am so glad this group was at this event because they stole the show. The threesome started off with an endearing a capella rendition of “Tales of Girls, Boys & Marsupials” and jumped right into a set filled with fun numbers that had people dancing to more than just their current single, “Let’s Dance to Joy Divison.” The band also kept the audience interested with more than just their tunes, but with fun stage banter as well. About midway through their set they took notice of a large screen that people were sending text messages to and the group started to make witty comments about the texts, saying things like, “George Bush doesn’t like Wombats, eh? Well the feeling is mutual.”

Set List:
Tales of Girls, Boys & Marsupials
Kill the Director
Lost in the Post
Party in a Forest (Where’s Laura?)
Here Comes the Anxiety
Moving to New York
Patricia the Stripper
Little Miss Pipedream
Let’s Dance to Joy Division
Backfire at the Disco

7:15-8:00 // Carolina Liar
I’m so over Carolina Liar, especially their overplayed unimaginative radio single “I’m Not Over.” Maybe if they weren’t so pitchy I could forgive this group getting such a prime set time and give them a better review, but I guess asking for correct intonation is too much to ask. They keyboardist came close to redeeming the band with some interesting riffs that were very Cure-esque.

8:50-9:40 // Ludo
St. Louis group Ludo headlined the event and they got really into the Rock the Vote theme of the night, constantly asking the audience if they felt they were rocking the vote and also declaring, “Ludo is America!” A bold claim.
Their set featured many of their more quirky tunes “Love Me Dead,” “In Space” and “Lake Pontchartrain,” but still had a nice balance of sweeter songs like “Topeka,” which turned out to be a real crowd-pleaser, especially because there were some Topekans in the audience. I have to give this band credit for being one of the more entertaining stage shows I have seen in awhile. Lead singer Andrew Volpe had hilarious facial expressions and gestures. I am pretty sure the guy was doing the splits for a majority of the set. I especially could not stop laughing when the band covered Faith No More‘s “Epic.” I would recommend checking them out live just to see what Volpe does on stage.

The Belated: website | myspace
Waiting For Signal: website | myspace
The Wombats: website | myspace
Carolina Liar: website | myspace
Ludo: website | myspace

Written by: Bethany
Photos by: Joshua