On this week's Eight One Sixty, our Best Of season continues with a Zoom visit from special guest Bill Brownlee. He's a long-time contributing writer for The Kansas City, a prolific blogger at There Stands the Glass and Plastic Sax, a virtual opera aficionado, KCUR 89.3 contributor, and a long-time guest on this show.

We’ll take a look back at music from 2020 and he’ll walk us through his favorite releases from Kansas City musicians, as well as national/international musicians.

We’ll hear music from Blackstarkids, Ashley Ray, Flutienastiness, Mike Dillon, Jo MacKenzie Music, 070 Shake, Gil Scott Heron and Makaya McCraven, ZSELA, Beatrice Dillon and Jyoti AKA Georgia Anne Muldrow.

On this week's episode of Eight One Sixty, Chris runs down his favorite EPs of 2020 — including music from Una Walkenhorst, Katy Guillen and the Drive, Silver Girl, Jake Wells, Jo MacKenzie, Amy Marcus, Kadesh Flow ft. They Call Me Sauce, Lava Dreams, Sam Wells, Nick Siegel and Christine & the Queens.

On this week's episode of the Eight One Sixty, we celebrate Pledge Week by playing all new music from great KC musicians! The Bridge is a listener-supported radio station, which means we get by with a lot of help from our friends — good people like you.

And because of people like you, we can dedicate an entire show to KC musicians — young ones, vetted ones, ones that have toured the world and more. This week's show is a fine hour-long representation of what makes The Bridge special.

We’ll hear brand new releases from Radkey, Christena Graves, IVORY BLUE, Emma Evans (she’s only 11 years old!), Doubledrag, Charlotte Bumgarner of Manor Records, Howard Iceberg, Ken Moran, Kadesh Flow and Lazy Projector.

Also on the show will be special guests, Sarah Bradshaw and John Kreicbergs, via Zoom (of course)!

We realize a lot of folks are going through tough times right now, but if you love The Bridge and are in a position to make a pledge, we would love your support. 

On this week's episode of the Eight One Sixty, we're celebrating The Riot Room! For 13 years, The Riot Room has been hosting shows here in KC, and owners Tim and Dallas Gutschenritter have worked hard to run a great venue. They recently launched a GoFundMe to stay afloat.

This week on the show, we’ll do a deep dive into The Riot Room, as well as talk about some of our favorite shows and stories from our many (many) nights at the venue over the last decade.

We’ll hear music from and stories about Lord Huron, Hooray For Earth, Phantogram, Sharon Van Etten, A Lull, Adia Victoria, The Joy Formidable. and Fucked Up. We'll also have some honorable mentions from names like Donnie Matthews “The Beer Guy”, Neill Smith, David George, The Lumineers, RL Brooks and Sisters Of, The Appleseed Cast, The Casket Lottery, Jason F. Harper, Strand of Oaks, Radar State, Hermon Mehari and Heartfelt Anarchy, Thom Yorke, Shabazz Palaces, Nathan Reusch, Middle of the Map Fest, EBONY TUSKS, Russian Circles, El Ten Eleven, Jacki Becker, Mammoth and so much more.

If you’re missing shows and the conversations you have with people between sets, this will be a fun show for you. I’m hoping if you were at any of these shows, or have similar stories of seeing great bands at Riot and how they’ve left a lasting impression on you, you’ll consider throwing a few bucks in the hat for their GoFundMe page.

Hat tip to Dallas, Timmy, and their crew over the years for giving KC a great space to see live music, and hopefully we’ll get back to doing that soon.

On this week's episode of the Eight One Sixty, we're celebrating The Riot Room! For 13 years, The Riot Room has been hosting shows here in KC, and owners Tim and Dallas Gutschenritter have worked hard to run a great venue. They recently launched a GoFundMe to stay afloat.

This week on the show, we’ll do a deep dive into The Riot Room, as well as talk about some of our favorite shows and stories from our many (many) nights at the venue over the last decade.

We’ll hear music from and stories about Lord Huron, Hooray For Earth, Phantogram, Sharon Van Etten, A Lull, Adia Victoria, The Joy Formidable. and Fucked Up. We'll also have some honorable mentions from names like Donnie Matthews “The Beer Guy”, Neill Smith, David George, The Lumineers, RL Brooks and Sisters Of, The Appleseed Cast, The Casket Lottery, Jason F. Harper, Strand of Oaks, Radar State, Hermon Mehari and Heartfelt Anarchy, Thom Yorke, Shabazz Palaces, Nathan Reusch, Middle of the Map Fest, EBONY TUSKS, Russian Circles, El Ten Eleven, Jacki Becker, Mammoth and so much more.

If you’re missing shows and the conversations you have with people between sets, this will be a fun show for you. I’m hoping if you were at any of these shows, or have similar stories of seeing great bands at Riot and how they’ve left a lasting impression on you, you’ll consider throwing a few bucks in the hat for their GoFundMe page.

Hat tip to Dallas, Timmy, and their crew over the years for giving KC a great space to see live music, and hopefully we’ll get back to doing that soon.

On this week's episode of the Eight One Sixty, it’s one of our favorite days of the year — Mark Manning Day! Mark is an amazing human and long-time host of the Wednesday MidDay Medley on KKFI 90.1 FM, a couple clicks down the dial. Each year he hosts a massive four-show, eight-hour presentation of his favorite recordings of the year. Over four weeks he’ll run through his favorite 120 recordings of 2020. On our show, we’ll get a preview of his massive list and share  songs from his favorite recordings of the year.

Also, co-host Sarah Bradshaw will be joining us on the show, for the first time since March! If COVID has depleted your music nerd conversations, have we got a show for you. We’ll turn it all the way up to 11!

We'll talk about and hear music from Miss Boating, Quiet Takes, Betse & Clarke, Shy Boys, We The People featuring Eddie Moore, Una Walkenhorst, Blackstarkids, and The Freedom Affair.

This week on the Eight One Sixty, we're going to have an early Thanksgiving celebration by stopping to give thanks to several KC-area musicians who go above and beyond to share their gifts with so many people.

Two weeks ago was Apocalypse Meow, a massive fundraiser for Midwest Music Foundation, plus Thundergong over the weekend — a massive fundraiser for Steps Of Faith Foundation. Both of these events run deep through our KC music community and do amazing things, but it'd be fun to do a deep dive into some other amazing things happening around us.

On the show we'll hear music from these acts and talk about the good that they do right here in the KC area:

These artists have raised awareness and thousands of dollars for charities like Midwest Music Foundation, The Greenline Initiative, MOCSA, Midwest Innocence Project, Beat Academy of Kansas City, Black creatives in Kansas City, GIFT, a 2 year old girl fighting leukemia that they found on GoFundMe, NOISE, Culxr House, Vote the Change: Voter Empowerment Event, United Way of Greater Topeka - the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Work Group, Kansas City Anti-Violence Project, Water.org, Community Kitchen, The HALO Foundation, Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors, NAACP, KC Black Community Scholarship Fund, No Shame: A Period Product Project for Our Houseless Community, National Orange Popsicle Week and more!

I know several KC musicians do amazing things and the show could be FIVE hours, but this hour will be an amazing sample of how — even during such a difficult year — these musicians have gone the extra mile. Cheers to them and everyone else working hard!

On this week's episode of the Eight One Sixty, it’s all about Thundergong 2020! This is the 4th annual event and it is a massive fundraiser for a great KC-based charity called Steps Of Faith Foundation. We’ll be joined via Zoom by Billy Brimblecom, Jr., the executive director of Steps of Faith and along with Jason Sudeikis, a co-founder of Thundergong. The charity works with people who are uninsured or underinsured to help them get prosthetics and they work with people to get back to living a more full life.

Since 2017, Thundergong has raised nearly $850,000 for Steps of Faith, helping provide prosthetics to more than 400 individuals. Each year the event hosts an A-List roster of guests, musicians and comedians, but this year they have knocked it out of the park — they even landed a 007!

Thundergong is happening this Saturday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. streaming for FREE at Thundergong.org! There are also amazing raffles, great merch, and so many surprises.

We'll talk all about the event and hear about the performers and guest appearances. Including two brand new guests we can’t even announce yet, one of which sold out Sandstone in the past.

Here’s the massive lineup, we’ll hear music or musings from some of these guests:

Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte, Fred Armisen, Wynonna & Cactus Moser, Brandi Carlile, Blake Shelton, Ben Harper, Nathaniel Rateliff, Tom Morello, Camila Cabello, Seth Meyers of Late Night With Seth Meyers, Ted Lasso, Fastball, The Get Up Kids, Quixotic, Madisen Ward of Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, Pierce Brosnan, Kay Cannon and Summer Breeze: a tribute to Yacht Rock!

On this week's episode of the Eight One Sixty, it’s all about new music. We’ll celebrate Election Day with 10 new songs from 10 KC-area bands. We’ll also remind you that this Saturday is the very special livestream broadcast of Apocalypse Meow 13, the 13th annual fundraiser for the amazing KC-based charity, Midwest Music Foundation.

We’ll hear new music from The Way Way Back, Connor Hampton, EBONY TUSKS, Bahroot, Daniel Gum, Jenna Rae, The Casket Lottery, The Widow's Ride, The Sexy Accident and Porchlight Mamas.

With just ONE week to go before the election, we’ll be playing Protest Songs from projects fronted by WOMXN. We’ll hear from some powerful acts from right here in the KC, like Hi-Lux, The Freedom Affair, Maria Cuevas/Maria The Mexican, LK Ultra, Julia Othmer, Krystle Warren, Una Walkenhorst and Janelle Monáe. We’ll also hear new music from a new KC project called No Germ Candy via Too Much Rock Records. We’ll hear from some national acts too, including The Chicks, Rapsody, and the great Dolly Parton.

For the past several weeks, we’ve been kicking off the show with protest songs, songs about voting, and with a countdown to the election. Now with just one week left, it felt right to celebrate protest songs with a full show.