Cover Stories
Taxi cab professions
I’m going straight to the findings first: Louisville, take a bow. No really, you’ve earned it. You are by far the weirdest, lovable drunks I’ve encountered in my time on this planet thus far (excluding a few vacation spots). Now, let’s start at the beginning. My mission: Observe the late-night Louisvillian in his natural habitat…
New Falls City catching on with local beer drinkers
This is not your father’s Falls City beer. That’s what bartender Michelle Powell is quick to tell customers who see the trademark Falls City tap at Spring Street Bar & Grill near Clifton. “At first, they laugh when they see we have it,” she says, noting that most people assume it is the fizzy, yellow…
South of Cincinnati
Country music, a rather specific genre thematically, seems to bring together quite an eclectic audience, at least across Kentucky. It used to be men like Hank Williams, who had been taught to bottle up their emotions until they died of alcoholism or nerve problems, could only say how they really felt in a song. Their…
Beertails and dreams
It’s a typical Friday night, and you’re standing at the bar wondering what path to take. If you choose a pint of Bass, you know pretty much how the next few hours will play out — fun, laid-back, not too crazy. Beer will rule the evening hours. But if you’re feeling a little mischief creeping…
Louisville Bar Guide 2010
We’ve scoured the city and left no bar unturned … at least not on purpose. The Louisville bar scene changes more than a hipster’s proclamation of what’s cool. We encountered disconnected numbers of bars we knew to be open. We encountered busy bartenders who slammed the phone down at first mention of our quest for…
The return of Falls City beer
Falls City beer is back. It isn’t quite the same as it always was, but it may be closer than we think. There are reasons for that, and like always, it’s best to start at the beginning. Teddy Roosevelt was living in the White House in 1905 when Falls City began brewing in Louisville. Most…
Tell me it isn’t true
Shortly before he moved to Vail, Colo., with his wife Tracy, 14 or 15 years ago (or was it 10?), my friend Mark G. invited me over for dinner. Among the topics we discussed that night (in fact, the only one I still recall) was a mutual affection for the work of Paul Auster. I…
The leaked arena memo
Confidential memo from the Arena Authority chairman to its board of directors: Folks, I’ve got good news and bad news on the arena. First the good news: Yum! is going to bail us out to the tune of $13.5 million for naming rights. Of course, that’s a drop in the bucket (yeah, you heard me;…
Neither He Who Plants Nor He Who Waters Is Anything
Fresh-faced freak-folk from a local quintet. Turn a casual ear toward it, and you can imagine Laura Viers sitting in at a drum circle that’s just setting up. But the accordion takes hold just when the toy piano’s gone as far as it can, and in likewise fashion, this act frequently pulls off nimble arrangements.…
Cosmogramma
I don’t really buy into the concept of “challenging” music. You like it or you don’t. Of course some things grow on you with time, and others that you instantly loved fade as quickly as a high school crush. Just don’t force yourself to like something if you don’t, to paraphrase Bonnie Raitt. This is…
Locavore Lore: Vetting the validity of violets
The best advice I’ve heard all year — “If you want to improve something, find a way to bring rainbows into it” — was shared by one of my Changemakers students last month. As the same goes for creating a nourishing diet, maybe our current health imbalances are just the effects of a purple deficit.…
B-Sides: Music & Other Ephemera
Louisville Film Society and the Kentucky Center for the Arts will present the world premiere of “Burn To Shine 4: Louisville”? on May 22 at the Bomhard. Directed by Christoph Green and co-produced by Brendan Canty of Fugazi, the series films bands performing in soon-to-be razed houses. Louisville’s chapter was shot in November 2005 in…
Together again
It’s not every day that tech support recognizes songs you wrote 17 years ago. “I was having to call Mac in Portland, Ore.,” Galoots singer and guitarist Shannon Lawson said from Nashville. “I tell them my name, Shannon Lawson, and the guy on the other end asks me, ‘Do you play music?’ I said, ‘Yeah,…
Book: ‘Dear Sound of Footstep’ tip-toes into the heart
Dear Sound of Footstep By Ashley Butler. Sarabande Books; 128 pgs., $15.95. After the protagonist of “The Stranger” learns of his mother’s demise, he guns down an Arab passerby on the beach. When asked the reason, the narrator claims the sun was in his eyes. Paul Auster asserts that women’s voices swathe the human conscience…
Film: Freddy continues to slash teen dreams
We’re all brought up to believe in our dreams — canvases on which we write our own stories, plan our own futures. But what happens when what we believe in becomes something insidious? Teen life is already a minefield long before you introduce a razor-gloved boogeyman. Abuse, drug addiction, delinquency, pregnancy, eating disorders, rage, bullying,…
The strung out ones and worse
It was the spring of 2005. I was getting ready to go into work and help Harold clean out Twice Told Books and move furniture into his new house. I was nursing a drug-sprinkled hangover with a cup of sludgy black coffee and trying to will myself to get off of the couch where I’d…
Theater: Art Sanctuary’s ‘Hedwig’ shines in acting, costumes
Hedwig and the Angry Inch A production by Art Sanctuary at The Alley Theater. Directed by Mike Brooks. Continues through May 22 at The Pointe, 1205 E. Washington St. For tickets or more information, call 713-6178 or visit www.thealleytheater.org. As life goes on and the world grows more cramped, it seems all of us bumbling…
Trance Inducer
Trance Inducer is an aptly appropriate title from local experimental outfit IamIs. Jason Cox and Shawna Dellecave mastermind a gripping collection that seems to slide all over the place while moving in a cohesive direction. There is a feeling of natural, unrefined talent here, like something echoed in early albums by The White Stripes. Shawna’s…
Have One on Me
Releasing a triple album subtly indicates that an artist is trying to make a major statement, and with Have One on Me, Joanna Newsom aims for no less than the scope and gravity of All Things Must Pass. If the album doesn’t quite top that masterpiece, it’s still a stunning listen, weighty and masterful where…
Derby whiplash
Overkill Thursday, April 29 Headliners Music Hall 1386 Lexington Road 584-8088 www.wreckingcrew.com/Ironbound $20-$60; 6:30 p.m. For every dollar New York and New Jersey thrash metal bands earn, a percentage should go direct deposit to Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth and D.D. Verni. In February, the founders of Overkill, along with Derek “The Skull” Tailer, Dave Linsk and…
Circle the Wagons
Darkthrone’s cult fame was built on the raw, lo-fi black metal they pursued for a decade-plus. Circle the Wagons is the band’s 14th full-length, but their fourth since they decided that all that “True Norwegian Black Metal” politicking had grown tired. The duo’s most recent output is a crust punk version of the band, but…
Congratulations
Congratulations might not stay in queue long, lacking bombastic singles (“Kids”), and that’s too bad. It’s listenable in total, unlike Flaming Lips’ Embryonic. Lyrics float obscurely, sometimes needing bells and whistles to cover up their incongruity to each other and with the music. “Siberian Breaks” dials in at 12-plus minutes with no fewer than four…
Inbox — April 28, 2010
Correction A story in last week’s Derby issue incorrectly stated Louisville attorney Tom Conway participated in a landmark legal fight that ended broad form deed mining. LEO Weekly regrets the error. My Neighborhood Some people have said that LEO’s April 14 cover article about Portland is “gritty” and “real,” so I don’t want to make…
Staffpicks
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28 James McMurtry Kroger Fest-A-Ville @ Waterfront Park www.jamesmcmurtry.com Free with Pegasus Pin; 7 p.m. James McMurtry is the kind of singer-songwriter whose life inspires movies like “Walk the Line” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” His astute observations on the human condition influence enigmatic characters like Bad Blake in last year’s Oscar winner…
Get Lucky
What I’d really like to see is Super Saver rocket out of the gate and go the first quarter mile of the Kentucky Derby in 20-seconds flat. He could do it. He’s fast enough, and you get the idea watching him champing at the bit in the mornings that the horse, himself, would like nothing…
Plugged In
Readers are strongly encouraged to call ahead to verify these listings. To get your club, comedian, musical act or karaoke listed, please send e-mail to mherron@leoweekly.com with PLUGGED IN in the subject line. The deadline is NOON THURSDAY the week before the show happens. We do not accept listings via social networking sites. Wed. Apr.…
The Grape Escape: The restaurant ‘ritual’
Does the wine-pouring ritual at a fancy restaurant make you nervous? Well relax — it’s based on common sense, and you don’t really have to do much more than sit and watch. Step by step: After you’ve chosen your wine, the server will bring out the bottle and show you the label. Check the wine…
A grinding halt
At the end of 60 days of policy debates, legislative horse-trading and partisan rancor, the 2010 General Assembly adjourned on April 15 without completing its foremost constitutionally mandated responsibility — crafting a state budget. The root of the impasse — reconciling a House Democrat-backed $2 billion capital spending program with a Senate Republican initiative to…
Sisterworld
For their fifth album, the aggressively experimental Liars seem to have targeted a theme of psychosexual relationships, biological attraction, etc. The opening track, “Scissor,” finds the singer making an attempt to dispose of a woman’s body, but as the music leaps from quiet to loud, he discovers to his horror that she isn’t dead. Later,…
In the Dark
Someone once sang “With the lights out, it’s less dangerous,” but nothing feels less dangerous about being In the Dark with The Whigs. If anything there’s a feeling of edginess and menace that surrounds the entire album. This Athens three-piece basks in the grit that shakes from their special brand of lo-fi Southern rock with…
Art: Horse crazy
Giddy up, folks. It’s that time of year when we can’t seem to get enough of all things Derby. Artists are no exception, so here’s a list of some of the exhibitions and events around town. David Schuster is Louisville born and bred, so it’s interesting he didn’t start painting “the greatest two minutes in…
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Q&A with comedian Paul Strickland
Paul Strickland is one of the most in-demand comics on the circuit today. The Nashville native, who now lives in Louisville, will be doing a rare run of local performances this weekend at Comedy Caravan. His special brand of humor isn’t filled with the usual punch lines or quirky observations — but draws from his…
