Cover Story
Art: Has money ruined religion?
Drive down any good stretch of rural highway in America, and your view is peppered with billboards and marquees directing you to “Eat at Joe’s,” “Test Drive a New Acura” or “Trust Jesus.” Along with the selling of cheeseburgers and gasoline, the Word of God is a consistent part of our commercial culture. Photographers Sam…
Christhammer
With song titles like “Christhammer” and “Waverly” (named after the abandoned, haunted Louisville T.B. hospital), Stonecutters serve up darkness-a-plenty with their new release. Along with the morbid lyricism, the group does a stellar job of melding a lot of influences into a cohesive act. I could hear traces of early Sabbath followed by the ragged…
Celebrity Derby
After four years as the editor-in-chief of OK! Weekly, working in New York City and being bothered daily by celebrity shenanigans and A-list attitude (I cared far more about Jennifer Aniston’s dating issues than my own), I was excited to move to Louisville in January. I couldn’t totally abandon my life of star-sucking-up, but I…
Industry Standard: Insider info for those who dine out
So you’re out with friends for a celebratory meal, or perhaps just a regular meal, and — even though the menu’s obviously in English — you’re stymied. Parts of it seem to be Greek to you, and I don’t mean the part that says “hummus.” Hmmm, you think. I wonder what’s in a Bordelaise sauce?…
Panis et circenses
I don’t like crowds. I don’t think anybody does, really. That behavior isn’t natural. Our instinctive, animal nature will put us on edge when we are unsure about our surroundings, and being surrounded by strangers makes people anxious. On the other hand, we are socialized to trust our neighbors, and in certain circumstances we are…
XO
Anyone with an appreciation for old-school, hardcore punk is going to have a hard time disliking XO from LeATHERMOUTH. The band is a side project for Frank Lero, of My Chemical Romance (which stands for everything punk rock isn’t), who steps up as lead vocalist here. XO bites with the aggression of a rabid dog…
Home for the Derby
It had been more than a decade since I lived in Louisville at Derbytime. During my absence, I tried each year to generate interest as the first Saturday in May approached. And while friends were happy to attend my Derby soirees, all too often they made disheartening remarks like, “It’s a little early in the…
Secretly ‘Romanian’
Romanian Names is the new album from John Vanderslice, and it hits the streets May 19. LEO caught up post-rehearsal. LEO: What has kept your working relationship with producer Scott Solter (Spoon, Okkervil River, Two Gallants) going for so long? John Vanderslice: He’s a total genius. Man, he’s a badass. When I think about how…
Inbox — May 6, 2009
Restore Eyesore The Gaulbert Pavilion at Big Rock in Cherokee Park received the Eyesore of the week in the April 22 LEO Weekly. Sadly, this historic building continues to deteriorate due to vandalism and general disrepair. Olmsted Parks Conservancy shares the public’s concern about this historic pavilion. It was built in the early 1900s and…
The Sympathetic Oscillations EP
On The Sympathetic Oscillations EP, Thunders distinguish themselves as a cut above the average garage rock outfit by never limiting themselves to the standard tropes of the genre. The group isn’t shy about showing their influences, but the quality of those influences means this trait works in the band’s favor — a little Joy Division…
Blame it on the alcohol
As I sit here and reflect on the week that was, I feel dazed, hazed and extremely confused. My liver throbs. My body is tattooed in bruises. My lungs expel char. I survived another Derby, but only barely. I’m too old for this shit, yet I dove headfirst into the debauchery again. I suppose the…
B-Sides: Music & Other Ephemera
You know her from such projects as Second Story Man and Minnow, but Carrie Neumeyer is also a teacher at Meyzeek Middle School. On Wednesday, the group of eighth graders in her and fellow teacher Kim Van Stockum’s advanced visual art class show off their drawings, paintings and mixed media pieces. The exhibit runs through…
The In-Betweens
It’s 11:45 p.m. Saturday, May 2. My feet are sore and my belly is full from yet another round of Wick’s Pizza (pepperoni and hamburger — it’s important). The 135th running of the Kentucky Derby is in the books, and I’m remembering the in-betweens. When you work the Derby as a part of a media…
King of the rail
Turning for home in the 135th Kentucky Derby on Saturday, Pioneerof the Nile was just taking the lead when, in our binoculars, we picked up a blur of a horse coming up fast behind. Pink is the color for No. 8, and a quick Googling of our brain for the horse revealed … No Results.…
Divisionals
Brooklyn duo Mouthus are usually grouped alongside noise artists, despite being a guitar/drums duo. That’s because their music, while often abrasive, has its own internal logic that is difficult to understand without seeing them live. It’s hard to grasp that what sounds like 15 airplanes landing at once on top of an elevated platform as…
Together Through Life
In the most relaxed album of his now-decade-plus resurgence to relevance, the world’s greatest living songwriter is having a lot of fun by not writing about anything apocalyptic. A few months ago, he cut a movie-soundtrack song about unrelenting romantic mourning (the fine “Life is Hard”). That little project tapped a deep vein that Bob…
A Ways Away
Louisville native Tara Jane O’Neil’s first album for K Records, A Ways Away, is a gorgeous atmospheric folk jaunt that makes desolation seem desirable. While some of her recent work has adopted a more intimate and traditional folk approach in the vein of Linda Perhacs or Townes Van Zandt, A Ways Away is lush, weird…
A Napoleon in rags
It is difficult to explain what it’s like to actually be there, at the Infield on Derby Day, to someone who’s never been there before. Prior to last Saturday, I hadn’t set so much as one foot onto Churchill Downs property, despite being from these here parts, and all of the stories I heard about…
Stimulating Louisville
In April, Louisville’s unemployment rate reached 10 percent, the highest it’s been since 1985. Union leader Joe Wise was not surprised by the news, saying that dire statistic reflects the growing number of construction workers who remain unemployed after developers halted several local projects due to last year’s credit crunch. In response to the worsening…
Rag Traveler
I have been riding horseback five straight days, eight to 10 hours a day. I have ridden up mountainsides, across mountain valleys, in thick mountain forests and through deep mountain rivers, where my horse was actually swimming. The temperature never rose above 38 degrees and the wind seldom blew less than 25 miles per hour.…
Derby for the rest of us
You should know that by the end of this story everything will be in its right place*. That’s how Derby weekend usually goes: As you return to orbit in the actual world, your body is normal. The bruises heal, and the washing machine will take care of that stain on your chinos. You recoil in…
Bad for business
The story of the demise of City Block — one of downtown Louisville’s pioneering nightlife venues that closed late last month — is a story partly about, ironically, downtown’s economic revitalization. “In 1990, there simply was no market in downtown Louisville for entertainment, and we practically created that,” says Ward Plauche, former co-owner of the…
Going once, going twice
It’s time to pull the plug. I know thinking about it is painful and there are moral arguments to be made, but it’s time to face facts. Prolonging this isn’t helping anyone. We need to let go. Once upon a time General Motors produced 50 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States.…
Sagarmatha
It’s undeniable now. We’re living in a post-emo world. Seasoned Lawrence, Kansas-based The Appleseed Cast, who cut their teeth with Sunny Day Real Estate-inspired rock, have unleashed a post-emo (primarily) instrumental album with Sagarmatha. Like their previous five records, this one is guitar-centric, but rather than being driven by booming downbeats and keyboard blips, on…
Light speed
The Billboard-style profile pic at the top of Young DiBiase’s MySpace page touts him as Kentucky’s No. 1 independent artist, and while that title is debatable, his hustle is not. DiBiase, aka Cory Smith, the CEO of Hooligan Music Group, has a new single, “Rock N Roll,” out now at iTunes, Amazon and other digital…
Radio waves
TV On The Radio drummer Jaleel Bunton’s life has been quite different since he graduated from Atherton High School in 1992. Or maybe not. LEO Weekly caught up with him in advance of the homecoming show at Headliners on Tuesday. LEO: How are you dealing with the success of Dear Science? You’re on the top…
Review: Tiny Simply Thai packs ’em in
Does size matter? Some of the Metro’s tiniest restaurants rank among its most cozy and attractive. From this assertion I do not exclude New Albany’s iconic Little Chef, a 10-seat diner so small that it once wore wheels; or, for that matter, the trendy, crowded, noisy and compact new 732 Social on East Market Street,…
“Wolverine” strays from its X-Men origins
(Starring Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Tim Pocock, Troye Sivan and Tahyna Tozzi. Directed by Gavin Hood. Rated PG-13; 1:47. LEO Report Card: B-) If you’re looking for a slicing, dicing, exploding thrill ride where you can get a glance at Hugh Jackman’s butt as it tumbles down a waterfall, “Wolverine” is the movie for you.…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: S. DARKO 2008; $22.95-$34.95, PG-13 “Donnie Darko” remains one of the most enigmatic and talked-about movies of modern times, with Jake Gyllenhaal playing a teen, slowly losing his sanity due to a tear in the fabric of time — though he doesn’t know that. The studio put out several versions, the…
