I took Alicia’s picture a few months ago at a party, and pretty soon after that we found each other online and got in contact to spew accolades at each other. So when she came back into town after a trip to Italy (she’s from Kansas City), we met up to discuss her music, my music, her travels, and my… back yard. I had a great time just fucking around and hanging out. No pretension or awkwardness, really, for relative strangers.

We had to reschedule the visit from earlier in the day to 7pm, and then when she arrived she had to sit around for an hour listening to a (really hot) dude explain to me and Anna our parts in a movie that we’re going to do this summer. But it actually all worked out for the best, because when everybody left it was getting dark outside and we went to the back yard to do photos, and they started to come out great.

Click any of these images to see larger.

Beautiful Bodies, “Touch Me”

Her band, the Beautiful Bodies, is really good. I really like “Touch Me” on their MySpace. It’s only a matter of time before this song gets co-opted for an iPod commercial or something. She also sings a bit on some of the new Republic Tigers (who I love) album, who were why she was in town this weekend (they were on Letterman). Their album Keep Color is like Nada Surf and Interpol and Stellastarr had a threewaybaby.

The Republic Tigers, “Buildings and Mountains”

It seems that between Alicia and the Republic Tigers and Ssion and the 20 or so transplanted club kids with more original style than I’ve seen around here in a long time that Kansas City is the New New York.