There Stands the Glass

As part of an ongoing effort to preserve my sanity in a preposterously challenging year, I choose to believe Ty of Blackstarkids was joking when he recently told a journalist he was unable to secure the interest of a single Kansas City based record label. I fell in love with his trio in February after hearing just 30 seconds of “Sounds Like Fun,” the first song on Blackstarkids’ self-released debut EP. Ty’s group subsequently signed a pact with the prestigious London based Dirty Hit consortium. Blackstarkids is the most exciting act to emerge from Kansas City in years.

Top 25 Kansas City Albums of 2020

1. Blackstarkids- Whatever, Man (My review.)

2. Bobby Watson- Keepin' It Real (My review.)

3. Molly Hammer- I'm Feeling Mellow (My review.)

4. Mike Dillon- Rosewood (My review.)

5. Ebony Tusks- Heal Thyself

6. Steve Cardenas- Blue Has a Range (My review.)

7. Shiner- Schadenfreude

8. Pat Metheny- From This Place (My review.)

9. Rich the Factor- Blaccfish (My review.)

10. The Freedom Affair- Freedom Is Love

11. Brian Scarborough- Sunflower Song (My review.)

12. Guitar Elation- Double Live at Green Lady Lounge (My review.)

13. Kevin Morby- Sundowner

14. Matt Otto- Alliance (My review.)

15. Shy Boys- Talk Loud

16. Flutienastiness- This Is Me (My review.)

17. Krizz Kaliko- Legend (My review.)

18. Black Light Animals- Playboys of the Western World

19. Ashley Ray- Pauline

20. The Casket Lottery- Short Songs for End Times

21. Rich the Factor- Rose Out the Concrete 2

22. Howard Iceberg & the Titanics- Kansas City Songs, Vol. 3

23. Orphans of Doom- II

24. Purna Loka Ensemble- Metaraga

25. The Black Creatures- Wild Echoes

Top Ten Kansas City EPs of 2020

1. Blackstarkids- Surf

2. We The People- Misunderstood (My review.)

3. Una Walkenhorst- Woman of the Year

4. Blackstarkids- Surf (Basement Demos)

5. Hermon Mehari- A Change For the Dreamlike (My review.)

6. Stik Figa- ...If It's the Last Thing I Do

7. The Cur3- The Anecdote (My review.)

8. Tech N9ne- Fear Exodus

9. Jo MacKenzie- Let Me Give You What I Wish I Had

10. Dylan Pyles- Solo Acoustic Guitar, Vol. 1

My late friend R. and I huddled with a few dozen other weirdos in the basement of All Souls Unitarian Church for a performance by Peter Hammill in 1979. The extraordinarily unlikely event was my first meaningful experience with a literal and figurative music underground. Artlessly Falling, the frequently harsh prog-rock freakout by Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl, reminds me of the transformative concert. Not only does Artlessly Falling feature Hammill’s art-rock peer Robert Wyatt on three tracks, I witnessed Halvorson’s showcase of what I suspect was some of the same material at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville last year. I realize it’s the perilous times talking, but I fear that if my presence at the 1979 concert in Kansas City was the inception of my proclivity for patronizing performances of outsider music, my trek to Tennessee to catch Halvorson might end up being its unexpectedly premature conclusion.

---

I reviewed I’m Feeling Mellow, the new album by the Kansas City vocalist Molly Hammer, at Plastic Sax.

The Top Kansas City Albums and EPs of 2020

Revelation