Lawrence's own Cowboy Indian Bear (hence more referred to as CIB) have grown both sonically and structurally on their second release, Live Old, Die Young. While their first album was a ramshackle collection of indie-pop and a picture of a group still in flux, Live Old...
Former Kansas City native and dance music savant, Chrissy Murderbot is releasing his new album Greatest Hits ***** on Murder Channel Records today. (For those of you that are unfamiliar with the sound of footwork, it stems from Chicago ghetto house/juke music. The footwork...
Kansas City was blasted on a national scale at least twice last year resulting from occurrences at Kauffman and Arrowhead Stadium, beginning with some extended heckling of a Yankee at their own All-Star Game. The Matt Cassel and Eric Winston debacle didn’t exactly uphold the...
![REVIEW: Hymnlayas – “Lift Ya Hands Hy” [Wilshire District]](http://demencha.com/wp-content/themes/widezine/thumb.php?src=http://demencha.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/hymnlayas-EDIT-2.gif&w=200&h=200&zc=1&q=80&bid=1)
Kansas City hip hop vets, Tommy Lift, Mic Brass, and DJ Hylanda are The Hymnlayas and they have just released their first full-length album, Lift Ya Hands Hy. The beat collective has gathered up an impressive roster of guest appearances with their minimalist, loop driven...
[photo courtesy of Javonne French for Demencha Magazine, 2012] Given any amount of attention to KC’s rap scene for damn near a decade you’re most likely familiar with CES Cru, whose multi-faceted, electric, elastic flows have consistently dominated a city brimming with a...
![REVIEW: Tef Poe – “The Hero Killer” EP [St. Louis]](http://demencha.com/wp-content/themes/widezine/thumb.php?src=http://demencha.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/tef-poe-EDIT.jpg&w=200&h=200&zc=1&q=80&bid=1)
St. Louis mic assassin Tef Poe, released his newest EP, Hero Killer, just a couple of months ago. Mixed by DJ Trackstar and featuring prodcution from Dream Makaz, ChaseTheMoney and Tech Supreme, among others, Hero Killer offers it up loud and mean, setting out on a mission to...
Some might think of jazz as an art form of the past, that it seems like something from a different time, a form of art that is lovingly re-enacted by devotee's, correctly citing its era and context with every note played: culture in a vacuum. This opinion, if you're asking me,...
A collection of seven songs dating from January 2010 to early 2011, Nuff Said stands as an exposition of style. VerBs (pictured) and Pistol McFly provide rhymes over the expansive production of L!sted, forming a Los Angeles-based hip hop trio. The three create a modern, yet...
![RECOMMENDED: Tree [Chicago]](http://demencha.com/wp-content/themes/widezine/thumb.php?src=http://demencha.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/tree3-EDIT.jpg&w=200&h=200&zc=1&q=80&bid=1)
2012 was a grim year all around for the city of Chicago. Drill music came to enjoy rapid national prominence with young hittas of the movement like Lil Reese and Lil Durk getting snatched up feverishly by majors, and critics everywhere finding a bellwether (+ or -) in the form...
![REVIEW: Miles Bonny & Brenk Sinatra – S3 [Melting Pot Music]](http://demencha.com/wp-content/themes/widezine/thumb.php?src=http://demencha.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1112929402.jpg&w=200&h=200&zc=1&q=80&bid=1)
The world continues to get smaller, and this has resulted in some unlikely bedfellows, mostly for the worst. Whether you read the global, national, or hyperlocal news, chances are you’ve caught a whiff of that sort of thing. In the music world, globalization (or at least the...
