B A N D S
©Too Much Rock, 2022
Red Kate
Red Kate is a no bullshit, class conscious punk rock and roll band from Kansas City, MO. Hard working both on and off the stage, the band’s locale has lent its perspective in sound, lyric, and work ethic. Straight off the factory line, RED KATE hearkens back to a time when musicians played hard, stayed up late, and carried a union card.
photo by Fally Afani, i heartlocalmusic.com
Stiff Middle Fingers
Stiff Middle Fingers formed with the intention of covering a few of their favorite punk songs for fun — "In My Eyes", "California Uber Alles", "Bikeage", the entire Nervous Breakdown EP — you get the idea. One day, they decided they could start writing some of their own. Flash forward several years and SMF has completely Hulked-out into one of the Midwest's foremost must-see/must-hear punk bands.
Wick & the Tricks
Wick & the Tricks is a glittering juggernaut of Rock-&-Roll that will leave you sweaty, smiling, and staggering home like a fiery one-night-stand. Ever since they crawled out of the trash soaked shores of the Missouri river and slipped into the streets of Kansas City, middle America has never been the same. Nationally infamous for their salaciously energetic performances full of political undertones, it's likely by the end of the show you'll either be making out or in a fist fight with one of them. Lucky you.
Chess Club
Redefining the Power Trio for the next generation, these "kids" from Lawrence, KS zig and zag through an emo-math rock maze of pop melodies and punk rock growl with a musicianship not seen in bands many years their senior. Relentlessly DIY, the future is bright for this already veteran band.
Rich Yarges & the Pop Mechanics
Some twenty years after the breakup of the band that made Manhattan, KS almost famous, Truck Stop Love singer/guitarist Rich Yarges is back making genuine, honest-to-God rock and roll with a band of veteran rockers out of Minneapolis. Loud guitars, a thumping groove and great songwriting is all you need to make you dance your life away.
Liquor Beats Winter
Winter nights on the Northern Plains can be long and brutal. Distilling equal parts punk pandemonium and boozy blues, Liquor Beats Winter delivers rock and roll straight to the central nervous system. These Minnesota heaters are guaranteed to cure ailments you didn't even know you had.
Emmaline Twist
Emmaline Twist doesn’t “write songs”. This band constructs vast soundscapes that evoke the urgent, anxious energy of bustling cities enveloped by a sonic atmosphere as wide as the prairie sky. With the workmanlike spirit that is the hallmark of Midwestern rock music, Emmaline Twist combines the angular rhythms of post-punk with the dreamy ambience of shoegaze to create a sound unique to this Paris on the Plains.
Libations
Self-described as dry-hopped indie rock, Libations enjoys fitting in between genres as best they can. Influenced as kids by Epitaph, Merge, and Saddle Creek, the band pulls bits and pieces from all its favorite predecessors in an attempt to create something fun, heartfelt, and uniquely its own.
Madman
Worshiping at the altars of stoner metal, post-punk and experimental music, Madman began forging their heavy rock sound in late 2016. Ex-members of some of the city’s heaviest hitters -- Faultfinder, U.S. Americans, Der Todesking.
Hummin’ Bird
Coming to you from a small storage space in Tulsa Oklahoma, Hummin’ Bird gives you the Southern twang punk rock you didn’t even know you were missing in your life. This isn’t the store bought brand of basement rock that never satisfies, this band is as authentic as they come.
Faultfinder
Formed from the remnants of Corbeta Corbata, Dick Cheney’s Dick, The Adversary Workers, Eyesight Television, Brain Idea, and U.S.Americans, Faultfinder baffled critics and polarized audiences in and around Kansas City from 2010 to 2018.
Headlight Rivals
Established in 2014 out of the ashes of punk rock band The Mathematics, Headlight Rivals have served the Midwest as Manhattan, Kansas' hardest working band, playing bars, barns and basements everywhere from Austin to Minneapolis (MN, not KS) to Garden City.
Fred Wickham Caravan
The Fred Wickham Caravan blends country, soul and rock and roll into a sound that can only be called pure Americana. Comprised of some of Kansas City’s finest roots musicians, the Caravan originally formed to support Wickham’s 2017 solo release Mariosa Delta.
Photo credit: Amanda Medford
No Thanks
The gothest motherfuckers in Omaha are a working class band for working class people that make stripped down, honest rock and roll. Combining proletarian ethics with blood, bats and ripped black mesh, the band creates a fearsome sound with a dark, looming menace that aptly captures the mood of our hellscape era.
Knife Crime
Since its inception more than 10 years ago, the Kansas City band has entertained hometown fans with its appealing brand of brash, multi-flavored rock.
Frogpond
What began in 1993 as an unadorned rock project between then-college student Heidi Phillips and a handful of novice musician friends catapulted into an all-too-brief staple of ‘90s alt and indie rock. The band’s meteoric rise was initially defined by an all-girl lineup, college radio airplay, and major label deals.
Pizzasaurus Rex
What started as a side project in 2003 between life-long friends Barker Gee and Nathan Comer, Pizzasaurus Rex quickly became each band member’s impetus to pull themselves out of the musical vacuum that was Southeast Missouri.
Truck Stop Love
Long before it was cool to wear a trucker hat, a little band from Manhattan, Kan. called Truck Stop Love stopped drinking long enough (well, not really stopped) to record a 1993 self-titled EP and a 1995 full-length that, courtesy Los Angeles' Scotti Bros/Backyard Records, slowly crept its way across the plains and into the stereos of America.
