According to several sources, the Kansas City area’s first homegrown rock band of note was Larry Emmett and the Sliders. While African-Americans were playing and listening to rhythm and blues in local clubs at least since the early 1950s, the flowering of white rock bands did not occur until after the Elvis Presley explosion of 1956. In fact, Larry Emmett was not a white man, but a Native American who was born on the Prairie Band Potawatomi Reservation near Mayetta, Kan. His parents moved to … [Read more...] about KC’s first homegrown rocker
Bands
Site of early clubs rocks again
Rod Peal is a rock musician-turned-entrepreneur who opened Halcyon Diversified Trading in December 2009 at 4706 Mission Road, Roeland Park, Kan. Peal buys and sells a variety of hip goods, from used vinyl records to musical instruments to furniture. On the second Friday of each month, he hosts an art opening with live music. Peal had heard that the location was once a rock club, but no one was able to confirm it for him until now. The building once housed not one but two rock clubs catering … [Read more...] about Site of early clubs rocks again
Own a piece of KC Rock History
Those Chicago-based musical archaeologists at the Numero Group are offering up a chance to own a slab of Kansas City Rock History. Three years ago they released a brilliant 2-CD set titled “Titan: It's All Pop!” It is 40 tracks of locally recorded, 1970s-vintage power-pop from the Titan label, which was headed by Tom Sorrells and Mark Prellberg. Now Numero has released a four-LP version. Says Numero: “The original 40-song double disc was sequenced as a kick-ass mix tape. For the 52-song, … [Read more...] about Own a piece of KC Rock History
No posts
No posts for this category yet. This is here so I can add the new sub categories to the menu. … [Read more...] about No posts
Punk/new wave posters
Here are some posters I saved from the early 1980s punk/new wave scene. My faves, the Embarrassment, are represented with a poster from the same general time frame as the photos in the post below. Some of the other key punk venues are here, too: the VFW Hall, Louis Craig Post #18, 3027 Walnut St.; Parody Hall, upstairs at 811 W. 39th St., near Southwest Trafficway; and Lawrence, Kansas' fabled Outhouse, carved out of a corn field three miles west of the city limits. (See map detail on how … [Read more...] about Punk/new wave posters
The Music Box
This little club at the southeast corner of 47th and Troost was the home of the punk movement in KC. Here are a series of photographs of Wichita's great The Embarrassment playing there. Click on pix to embiggen. If you have memories of the Music Box, or its neighbor to the south a few doors, the Downliner, please share them by commenting below. … [Read more...] about The Music Box