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Janelle Monae gets presidential props

Springsteen announces first leg of tour ... and we're not on it

His U.S. tour opens in Atlanta, then goes north and east, west and south before ending in Jersey on May 2. He and the E Street Band will be in Europe from May 13 through  July 31 so it looks like any show in KC will have to wait until fall. You can preorder his new album, "Wrecking Ball," and hear one of its tracks, "We Take Care of Our Own," at his web site. Tour stops are listed below.

Help some local bands mess with Texas

For the third year in a row, a large caravan of Kansas City/Lawrence and other regional bands will invade Austin, Texas, during the annual South by Southwest music conference, which runs March 14-18. The MidCoast Takeover will be March 16 and 17 at an Austin venue called the Shangri-La. The organizers are throwing four fundrasing shows on four consecutive Fridays starting  Feb.10 to raise money for this event (they gotta rent the  place, for starters). The list of fundraisers is below. Admission to each show is $10; the RecordBar and Czar shows are 18-and-olderl. Also, if you are in a band that is interested in applying to perform at the Takeover, the deadline is Feb. 1. Go here for more information.

Review: The Kills

Alison Mosshart of the Kills. Photos by Susan Pfannmuller/Special to The Star

Not many lead singers can surpass Alison Mosshart when it comes to visual charisma. Her hair is a neon-blood-orange mane. Her frame is long, lanky and spidery. And her choreography is primal and sexual, whether she is dancing with her mic stand as she sings, tossing her hair back-and-forth and up-and-down, as if trying to shake it from her scalp, or pacing the stage panther-like during an instrumental flurry. As flamboyant as it can get, there is something un-self-conscious about it. Mosshart doesn’t demand attention as much as she dares you not to pay it.

Q&A with Albert Mazibuko of Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Ladysmith Black Mambazo performs at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Muriel Kauffman Theatre in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $29 to $55.

Most music fans in the United States were introduced to Ladysmith Black Mambazo in 1986. That’s the year Paul Simon released “Graceland,” which fused Western music with traditional South African music and showcased several black South African musicians and artists, including Ladysmith, a male choral group.

Review: Brad Paisley

Photos by Allison Long/The Star

Brad Paisley doesn’t need to add much luster and flash to his live shows. He has the music (including 17 No. 1 singles), his longtime band, the personality and the guitar wizardry to pack a house and throw down a no-frills, two-hour show filled with modern-country hooks and hard-rock licks. But these days, depending on the venue, that isn’t always enough. 

Farewell, Etta James

She  died today of complications from leukemia. She was 73. She was beloved and will be missed. Read more here.

Samantha Fish: Hard work pays off, rapidly

Samantha Fish, Go-Go Ray and Paul Greenlease at Knuckleheads.Photos by Shane Keyser. For a schedule of her shows around Kansas City, visit her web site.

In the world of music, success doesn’t always come to the most disciplined. Nor does it always ordain the most talented.

But sometimes, success gets it right and embraces those who deserve it.

Cheer up, get blue or go country this weekend

Cadillac Flambe performs at the R Bar on Saturday.

The local music menu is stocked with plenty different flavors of music, but espeically roots, country and blues. Here are some offerings. Feel welcome to add your own.

KC Academy to launch music series

Brandon Draper is an instructor at the Kansas City Academy. His jazz band will perform in the academy's theater on Saturday.

The Kansas City Academy is about to become a regular live-music venue, thanks to some well-known members of its faculty and staff.

Saturday night, the private, nonprofit performing arts school at 7933 Main St. will host its second music concert and the first show in its Grassroots Concert Series.