WaMoo Papez in many ways represents both the old and new schools at once. His use of chopped up elements brings contemporary Brooklyn DJ’s like DJ/rupture into focus, but there’s a stateliness here that reminds me almost of RZA’s ability to pull hypnotic repetition together from minimal sources. And like RZA, Papez is known primarily as the producer behind a group of similarly named emcees: Warrior Monks.

The producer’s hypnotic adventures propel the listener through torrid explorations of hard-hitting bass drops projected under time-stretched vocal and string samples that become something entirely different when heard outside of an emcee’s verse. Papez’ new instrumental full-length ‘We Float’ finds you lost in the middle of some dream woods. ‘Golden Wishes’ and “Little Fish’ especially reach freakout territory; but all is held together by Papez’ knack for perfectly elastic beat flows. A deeply felt cluster of songs, it’s great to hear how well everything comes together in ‘We Float,’ even without an emcee there to lead the track. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Starbolt 9 comes at rock with the enthusiasm of the unrealized sexual fantasies of a million restless teenagers. New York has plenty of rockers cut from the cloth of the Strokes and Interpol; mopey musicians too cynical to truly get lost in their music. Not so with Starbolt. This has all the naive optimism of glam rock in its finest freakishness. Bordering on Broadway anthem on occassion, Starbolt gives an innocent pleasure with the roaring guitar solo of ‘Bottomless,’ and keyboard vamps of ‘Say Yes.’ These are episodes of largess that would make even Michael Hutchence blush. But hey, that’s what makes rock fun.

Check out their latest album ‘Human Strings and Mechanical Things’, excerpts from which are available on their Facebook page, and see them when they play Mercury Lounge on September 2nd – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

(Photo by Steve Gardels)

The Quivers‘ new EP, aptly titled Gots To Have It!, serves up 13 minutes of raucous music that you can dance to, straight up!

Track 1: “Blue Light”
Abe Haddad’s push and pull Stratocaster guitar intro on “Blue Light” is like the turnover of an old dormant Studebaker that has finally been untarped for a summer of hot, late night love runs. Bernie Dugan’s backbeat sets the idle on this Midwestern tavern dance number that also reveals lead vocalist/bassist Terra Peal’s ability to blend her strong, soulful voice—which somewhat resembles Pat Benatar’s—with her patent banshee screams that could have crumbled the former Iron Curtain, had it not been for David Hasselhoff’s embryonic Berlin Wall performance…

Track 2: “He Had It Comin’”
With its reserved country pickin’, hip-poppin’ diner waitress vocals, and county fair carousel keyboards, “He Had It Comin’” will keep your feet movin’ and your hair swishin’ back and forth, even if the lyrics aren’t really appropriate for either. Haddad’s honky-tonk guitar work, Todd Grantham’s playful keyboard licks—all infused with traces of soul—make delightful, each time the refrain comes around so you can sing, “He had it comin’… He had it comin’…”

Track 3: “I Sleep Here”
“I Sleep Here” may musically sound like some kind of mash up of Huey Lewis, Booker T., and Tommy James & the Shondells, but it very much stands on its own as pure Quivers’ canon…and a song that you can’t help but grin ear-to-ear and wiggle to. Grantham sings lead on this ‘upbeat’ ballad, assuring us, “It’s pretty clear. I live alone with bravado, and ignore the phone.” And yes, that is Terra Peal growling out “Lordy, lordy!” in the background, tougher than Billy Idol ever was. That redheaded vixen sounds very much capable of damaging something if provoked.

Track 4: “What Went Wrong”
Peal struts her country vocal sensibilities to the pattering player piano saloon riffs in “What Went Wrong,” a song that will surely leave a dance floor full of boot scuffs and whiskey splatters. When Peal confesses, “I’ve been bad all my life,” it can make for some anxiousness, because her singing lends to many desires in the minds of many. Musically, perhaps the most contemporarily solid track on the EP, The Quivers show off their prowess and versatility, yet again.

Track 5: “Gots To Have It!”
“Gots To Have It!” bursts forth in purely fun, sock hop n’ roll fashion. Heavy snare hits (surely with some drumstick points toward the crowd), jogging keyboard chords, stacked vocals, and a tipsy rockabilly guitar solo that gets all up in your face and absolutely gets it done. This closing number burns a candle in the Church of Eighties Ending Credits Movie Songs … Wait. It didn’t appear at the end of a John Cusack movie? Well, it should have!

The Quivers play rock n’ roll that is sometimes soulful, sometimes rockabilly, sometimes country, sometimes…well—sometimes it’s hard to classify just what they do best! One thing is for certain; they are the perfect entertainers for pretty much any given night. You will smile, and you will quiver, when that band—the one straight from the garage on Sex Appeal St.— thrusts upon you when you – Gots To Have It!

You, too, can be rocked by The Quivers tomorrow night, August 15, at Aftershock for the KC Wednesday Night Jamboree. They’ll be performing with The Cave Girls. They’ll also be playing at Greaserama on Sunday, September 2.

–Christian Anders Liljequist

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Generator Ohm formed now two years ago, as Willie Chen and Ernest D’Amaso finally found in Mike Morales the drummer they’d been searching for to pursue a collaboration that began with Chewing Picks in 2008. Drawing influences from punk, grunge as well as hard rock/heavy metal, they put together a first album ‘Upon The Me Om I’ which, if quite the gripping ride, is neither as heavy nor as invasive as one could expect from a band with a defined taste for restless drums and powerful guitar work. Their sound is on the contrary very open, unclettered, however certain it is that they’d ‘never miss a beat‘, rolling steady through complex arrangements with a fluidity that finds them as committed to the aesthetics of prog-rock as there are to delivering effective rock’n’roll to the NYC crowds. Speaking of which, they’ll be playing a handful of Brooklyn shows before the end of August, the first being this Thursday (8.16) at The Trash Bar’s WilliFest, followed by XPO 929 on the 17th and Bar Matchless on the 31st, avis aux amateurs. – Tracy Mamoun

If you’ve been wanting to know a little bit about The Deli KC’s very own editor-in-chief, now’s your chance. Michelle Bacon shares with us her views on smiling, Phil Collins, and why she loves Kansas City’s music scene so much. Oh, and playing drums. Catch the beat right here!

On The Beat is a weekly interview brought to you by drummer Sergio Moreno (of Hillary Watts Riot and Alacartoona), and features some of the many talented drummers in the Kansas City area.

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After an EP, a first-full length album and a series of sold-out shows in NYC, Deadbeat Darling switched over in 2011 to the UK label SpearHavoc Records, with which they released their second full-length album ‘The Angel’s Share‘ (released in April), a delicately gritty indie-rock record soaked in nostalgia that travels through memories of past relationships, nocturnal turmoil and other deceptions punctuated by touches of scat, fingerpicked guitar strings, and tints of stripped down reggae/dub; if anything, it’s hard not to be seduced by the fragile, sometimes raucous voice of Deadbeat Darling’s lead singer Joseph King, a voice that breaks as it pushes too hard and softly makes every one of their songs sound so very intimate. A month exactly after their last NYC show, The Mercury Lounge will be welcoming them back from their US summer tour this Saturday (8.18), with Saratoga Springs soul/rock outfit Wild Adriatic.

Hey kids, here’s a suggestion: next time you decide to ride on a carousel while on acid, be sure to bring along Tropical Ooze‘s latest self-titled odyssey. Taking their cues from The Flaming Lips and The 13th Floor Elevators, theirs is that promise from the ’90s that psychedelia and heavy guitars might finally share the same party with one another. The band’s been around a little while, and when they’re not backing up the great R. Stevie Moore, they’re busy exploring the many flavors (and colors) the new EP has stirring together in the pot. Opening with the bombastic ‘Fresh Gum,’ the record quickly moves into the dream material of ‘Pride,’ and only descends further into the unconscious from there.
This is the band for anyone wondering what happened to NY’s psychedelic scene. So go find yourself a carousel to ride… or see the band live on Friday (8.17) at The Cake Shop –  Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

‘Top Ten Songs Of The End Of The World’ (Paw Tracks) is the new project by Brooklyn-based psychedelic duo Prince Rama, that sees the Larson sisters curate the apocalypse from an imaginary past, by impersonating ten fictitious bands on the eve of destruction. ‘So Destroyed’, streaming below, is a first glimpse into the record, a gripping, hypnotic fusion of Indian music and new-wave/pop courtesy of ‘Rage Peace’, introduced as ‘the Bob Dylan of a whole generation of angry youth‘. An ambitious move, both aesthetcially and conceptually, this pseudo-compilation gives Prince Rama the freedom to explore a vast array of musical influences, thus giving us a lot to look forward to for the end of the year, even if our planet doesn’t collapse onto itself as promised by CGI-based fantasies.

Note that on November 6th, when the full album is released, Prince Rama will be off touring Europe with Animal Collective; before they leave though, you can catch a couple of NYC shows, the next one being on Friday (8.17) under The Archway, for a free DUMBO summer bash.

Have you heard The Mailbox yet? It’s a weekly podcast brought to you by Midwest Music Foundation, hosted by Michael Byars of 89.3 FM KCUR and guest hosted by Chris Haghirian of Ink Magazine. Each week, Michael and Chris bring you their picks of the best, newest music around the globe, and typically a large dose of local music love. They also provide an update on what’s happening around Kansas City in the coming week, so along with The Deli’s comprehensive calendar, there’s no way to miss what’s going on around town.

This week’s podcast features some local pride from The Hearts of Darkness, as well as several other national bands that will be coming to town soon. You can stream it at the link here. The links below will take you to The Mailbox’s Twitter and Facebook pages, and allow you to subscribe to it on iTunes! Make The Mailbox a part of your weekly music routine.

–Michelle Bacon

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Schwervon! is the newest, hottest band to hit Kansas City. They recently located here from NYC and have already had a successful career together, opening for acts like The Vaselines and Belle & Sebastian. The dynamic duo of Nan Turner and Matt Roth sits down with us and gives us a little introduction to who they are.

The Deli: Gun to your head: one sentence to describe your music.  What is it?

Schwervon!: Folkicide, The Cave Girls, Deco Auto, Soft Reeds, The Quivers, Cowboy Indian Bear, The Ants and Radkey. To be fair, we are still in the process of discovering the rich fabric of KC local music! Ask us in a week and there may be 5 more bands!.

The Deli: Who are your favorite not-so-local musicians right now?
 
Schwervon!: The Schwervon! trinity all-time favorites are probably Pixies, Yo La Tengo, and Sonic Youth. But more "now" bands we like are Grass Widow, Jeff Lewis, Sleepy Kitty, The Vaselines. Matt likes the new Japandroids. We also discover new "old" music every week, in the form of cheap vinyl at the Cowtown Mallroom.

The Deli: What is your ultimate fantasy concert bill to play on?

Schwervon!: We’re about to go play one actually! We’re opening for The Vaselines in Brooklyn on August 30. Curating an All Tomorrow’s Party Festival would also be a good job to have…
 
The Deli: Would you rather spend the rest of your life on stage or in the recording studio?
 
Nan: On stage! I like playing our songs for an audience, and unlike recording, I don’t have to listen to take after take of what went wrong!
Matt: We’ve recently evolved into the mindset that for us playing better together live results in a better recording. I love working in the studio, but I hate recording my own band. I love playing live with Nan.

The Deli: A music-themed Mount Rushmore.  What four faces are you putting up there and why?

Schwervon!: This question makes our heads hurt. We’re not big fans of things set in stone. Put the Rolling Stones up there and we can move on!
 
The Deli:  All right, give us the rundown.  Where all on this big crazy web can you be found? 

Schwervon!: Eat something green every day.
Break free of the 5 day-40 hour work week.
Prepare, prepare, prepare. Then let go.