Dueling defenses
A key witness in the prosecution of two men accused of murdering a young mother and shooting and wounding her toddler took the stand today, singling out one of the defendants as the gunman. Both Kenneth Williams, 24, and James Quisenberry, 28, face the death penalty in connection with the crime, which unfolded inside a…
S/T
Los Bad Apples are a five-piece Latin hip-hop group from Austin, Texas. The Apples are fronted by singer Anita Benner and emcee Zeale. Benner is a classically trained pianist and the de facto leader of the group. Zeale is a hungry, aggressive emcee, battle-tested at Cincinnati’s annual Scribble Jam. He bounces on these tracks with…
William Fitzsimmons finds a healing place
In case you needed proof that honesty isn’t easy, listen to William Fitzsimmons’s The Sparrow and The Crow. Born to two blind parents in Pittsburgh, the Jacksonville, Ill., songwriter’s album amounts to a 12-song apology to his ex-wife. Built around hushed vocals, accordion, acoustic guitars and earnest melodies, Fitzsimmons is forthright in his explanation of…
Wheel of the Death Cab
Watch the screens and bookshelves closely over the next few years — you might see Nick Harmer’s work. Death Cab For Cutie has helped define Harmer as a musician, but the longtime cabbie’s passions extend far beyond amps — mainly to a work-in-progress detective novel. “It’s funny — I had aspirations when I was in…
Odessa
My generation mostly remembers the Bee Gees as leisure-suit liaisons who regretfully legitimized disco with the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack. There was a Bee Gees before Travolta, but unfortunately there hasn’t been one since. Here, the band sounds more California folk than disco maestros, and it suits them better. The first two discs are redundant…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: THE READER 2008; $29.95, R Kate Winslet won an Oscar for her portrayal of the mysterious older woman who has literature-sex with a 15-year-old German boy in this one. A decade after their secret affair, the now-lawyer finds her on trial as a Nazi war criminal, and he comes to understand…
Foor’s castle
Expect a deluge from Brian Foor over the next year. An alum of Tyrone and currently with Gaj Mustafa Cell, Foor’s first self-titled effort in a series of CD EPs arrived two weeks ago via Louisville Lip Records. “My first reaction was something along the lines of, ‘What in the fuck is that?’ I didn’t…
The Bar Belle
“Hey, have you seen this blog?” my friend started in one day. Usually I just smile and nod her off. The girl is on the Internet more than not. “These girls are writing all about drinking and bars in Louisville. I think they’re trying to take your job!” I quickly shook off the previous night’s…
Hazards of Love
If you thought power ballads were dead and gone, think again. With The Hazards of Love, The Decemberists bring us a power-ballad concept album full of epic songs that tell intermingling stories of love gone wrong. I use the term power ballad because there is no other phrase to describe the kind of songs here.…
B-Sides: Music & Other Ephemera
Dunkenstein Records is releasing a split CD featuring three songs from The Olympia Three and Parade Schedule. The release show is at Derby City Espresso (331 E. Market St., 442-0523) on Friday, April 10, and starts at 7:30 p.m. Visit myspace.com/dunkensteinmusic. Vinyl in the ’Ville Vinyl sales were up in 2008 to the tune of…
Picture me rollin’
It’s a mild Wednesday evening, and as the sun sets upon this half-full parking lot in Louisville’s South End the women begin to arrive in twos and in threes, carrying their gear into the unassuming entrance of Champ’s Manslick Rollerdrome. At first glance, these women appear to be the very students, teachers, graphic designers, bakers,…
The last dance
Because of LEO’s deadline, the NCAA championship game between the U of L and UConn women’s teams was played after this story had to be filed. It’s probably a good thing. This year’s Huskies are the most dominating team in the history of the sport. They have battered the Cardinals twice this season already. A…
A little bit of soap
Nobody loves a good laugh more than me, but let’s not start with an argument. Rather, let us agree that laughing is a generally desirable experience. In support of this premise, we have only to recognize the historically grand tradition of Comedy, which takes up roughly half of the generally accepted entertainment duality (the other…
That Dog
Someone should set up a Louisville P.O. Box for Dr. Dog. With appearances at Lebowski Fest, Forecastle Festival and Wilco at Slugger, this Philadelphia export continues to stroke Louisville tonight at Headliners Music Hall. Dr. Dog’s harmonious methods, lately dug on their newest, Fate, are picking up steam: They play Lollapalooza in August, have sold…
Art: A fairytale in reverse
Happy ending first: Jennifer Brunner is a beautiful, purple-haired pixie in a plaid jacket walking between the tall oaks on U of L’s main campus toward the coffee shop where we are meeting. She’s studying to be a nurse now and is engaged; she radiates with all the tangible victory of a young woman who…
Review: Sake Blue is on a roll — lots of rolls
Not so long ago — well, back in the early ’80s — the only place in town to get sushi was a downtown diner, where a Japanese woman came in on Thursdays to produce a special sushi lunch for a small but ardent corps of cognoscenti. A generation or so later, more than 20 eats…
Classical Music: Tale of two stages
Matt Haimovitz brings his cello to town this week for concerts in two of the most different venues around. On Thursday, Haimovitz will play the Elgar Cello Concerto in two concerts with the Louisville Orchestra in elegant Whitney Hall. On Saturday, he will appear alone on the intimate stage at the Rudyard Kipling. “The concerts…
Inbox — April 8, 2009
Go Big Blue! I’d like to congratulate the University of Kentucky and the Big Blue Nation on the hiring of John Calipari as their new head basketball coach. While the Cat fans didn’t get everything they would have liked in these hard times, Pitino Lite wasn’t bad. Let the games begin. Dale Rhoades, Cox’s Creek,…
Watching over witnesses
Troya Sheckles was sitting on a bench in Shelby Park last month when she was fatally gunned down in broad daylight. Just weeks earlier, the young woman had reluctantly agreed to be a key witness in a double homicide case. She was terrified. For months the 31-year-old had dodged investigators to avoid getting involved, but…
Film: “Medicine for Melancholy” is no cure
(Starring Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins. Directed by Barry Jenkins. R; 1:27. Showing at Village 8 Theatres through Thursday. LEO Report Card: C) What aims to be the African-American answer to the seminal “The Whole Shootin’ Match,” a film that inspired Robert Redford’s founding of the Sundance Film Festival, quickly gives way to cliché.…
Clash of a titan (and a legislator)
John Vincent Calipari is charged with returning the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team to glory. Greg Stumbo’s election as Speaker of the House was supposed to do the same for Democratic representatives in the General Assembly. I’d bet on the first long before I’d lay odds on the second. Those are two very different…
S/T
Wavves is the one-man project of distortion architect Nathan Williams, or as I call him, No Age Jr. No Age is a good reference point for Wavves, as both groups consist of skateboarding SoCal dudes who appreciate noise-damaged pop. Williams’s eponymous debut comes replete with Brian Wilson harmonies, hummable melodies and swells of screaming, treble-saturated…
Truth vs. fiction
The prosecutor presents two photographs of 2-year-old Erica Hughes. The first depicts a healthy child with big brown eyes and a wide grin. The second is a close-up of the girl in a hospital bed, eyes closed, with a bullet hole in her forehead. Sitting at separate defense tables, James Quisenberry, 28, and Kenneth Williams,…
