Cover Story
Loserville 2009
People screw up. That’s as much a part of the human genome as autosomal chromosome pairs. So for the second year, we’re offering our list of the 50 grandest, most brain-bending and spirit-crushing gaffes, foibles and malicious undertakings of 2009, a year that a lot of people would agree to forget. These folks and organizations…
Field Holler
Sporting a Black-Crowes-meets-Asylum-Street-Spankers vibe, The Bad Reeds flash a host of influences on this debut release, most notably licks and riffs that hearken as far back as Zeppelin (as evidenced on “Voodoo Woman”) if John Fogerty had some songwriting credits. Certainly the heavy reverb and meandering arrangements put the band in the same ballpark as…
Some New Invention
I’m not sure what to make of The Genius File. I like it … I like it a lot. But I’m not sure why it is that I got sucked in. Is it the highly charged vocals that sound like the devil spawn of Roger Waters and Morrissey? Is it the sometimes-brooding and sometimes-joyful keyboard…
Building bridges starts with civility
Bridges are built to unite people. How unfortunate to witness the recent trashing of groups that offer counter-arguments to the Ohio River Bridges Project proposal to construct two bridges in our city. The most recent fireworks were ignited when the National Trust for Historic Preservation and River Fields filed suit to halt construction of the…
Jerry’s kids
Hoping to ignite a debate about public safety and to generate more support in west Louisville, mayoral candidate and Metro Councilman Jim King, D-10, held a press conference in the Park DuValle neighborhood to announce a number of policy initiatives aimed at strengthening Metro Police and curbing crime. Joined by community activists and former law…
Charles in charge
A calendar hangs on the wall by the four repair bays at Cecil’s Chevron downtown. Notated prominently — in thick black marker — are the dates and starting times of U of L games. Other matters are in regular ink. Johnny Cecil is a Cardinal fan. He has season tickets. He goes to away games…
Life Through Bombardment
Matthew Cooper’s brain must be an interesting place to visit, if for no other reason than its idyllic landscapes. There’s probably a glacier, cracking and collapsing into an ocean not unlike the one he sees out West, where he’s lived for the last decade. There’s a dense, old-growth forest specializing in fractured sunlight, and the…
Inbox — Dec. 16, 2009
LEO’s Afterlife Regarding the Dec. 9 LEO Weekly: I last endured the indignity of having my car towed in the early 1990s. At least I knew it would be coming back. No such thing can be said of the experience of losing a loved one. Regarding where we go after we die, I don’t know,…
Preview: Daikaiju
As a genre, surf rock fights a low ceiling. Sometime between 1951 and 1956 (histories vary), the first guitar chords rang out with spring reverb, a sound thought to emulate ocean waves, and tack-tack snare hits kept everything at a steady rhythm. Bands like Dick Dale and The Del-Tones didn’t deviate much from the formula.…
Business first
Disposable coffee cups and tiny plastic water bottles litter the massive conference table in the Mayor’s Gallery at Metro Hall, evidence of the 90-minute meeting between Mayor Jerry Abramson and some 20 small-business leaders whose purpose was, essentially, to save the American economy. Specifically, their charge was to figure out how to beat back the…
Ball Droppings: New Year’s Eve 2009 events
The French snack on foie gras as they watch the Eiffel Tower ignite into one giant 1,063-foot-tall sparkler at midnight. The Brits huddle around the London Eye as they await the 12 chimes from Big Ben. The Spanish gaze up at the Casa de Correos as the clock counts down. The Russians drink “dirty water”…
B-Sides: By the numbers
‘1069’ This three-record box set of 45s should document another facet of Louisville’s independent punk-rock lore. The numbers refer to the duplex at 1069 Bardstown Road, where some of the city’s earliest country punks “ate, drank, loved and feuded,” sayeth the liner notes. The duplex, whose close proximity to the former Tewligan’s makes it a…
Art: News Bits
Carlos Gamez de Francisco is the 2009-2010 “Dreammakers” artist-in-residence at the Muhammad Ali Center (www.alicenter.org). New Albany has announced the artists who will begin its Bicentennial Public Art Project (www.nabpublicart.org). The multi-year outdoor exhibition of 20 temporary sculptures will start in the spring of 2010. Works by Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, John King, Brad White, J.…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: (500) DAYS OF SUMMER 2009; $29.95-$39.95, PG-13 Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are radiant in this sort-of throwback to the heady heyday of romantic cinema circa 1930 — but with a modern twist: He falls in love with her, but she doesn’t believe that love exists! An unpredictable roller-coaster ride of…
Hybrid Song Box 4
Louisville native and former Squirrel Bait guitarist David Grubbs has spent the last 20-plus years packing his avant-garde resume with ever-deepening visions for the electric guitar. Released on Grubbs’s own label, Hybrid Song Box 4 is a soundtrack for an installation art project by British artist Angela Bulloch that exhibited last year at the Guggenheim…
Film: Death takes no holiday in ‘The Messenger’
The Messenger (Starring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Jena Malone and Eamonn Walker. Directed by Oren Moverman. Rated R; 1:45. Starts Friday at Village 8 Theatres. LEO Report Card: A-) It’s hard to recall that Woody Harrelson started out as a lanky, clean-scrubbed male ingénue on “Cheers,” and that’s entirely to his credit.…
Bar Belle: My Christmas list
I have a hippie friend who is always sayin’ random crap just to “put it out into the universe.” If you verbalize it, the chances of it coming true increase, or so she says. She also eats dandelions, talks to water and doesn’t own a TV, so I only buy about half of what she’s…
Dumbb Haard
It’s agonizing to listen to an album whose production far exceeds the abilities of the artist named on the cover. The clear star of this album is producer Dr. Gonzo. On all but five of the disc’s 18 tracks, the good doctor continues the excellence found on Scanners, his collaboration with vocalist Nacirema, with the…
Irish Rover’s hearty fare warms a winter night
The leaves on our big, old magnolia tree were rattling eerily, and the skies were a dismal gray. The icy wind cut through my parka as if it were a throwback baseball shirt. The first day of winter may not arrive until Monday morning, but it already feels a lot like winter around here, and…
Plugged In: Dec. 16-22
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 publication. We do not accept listings via social networking sites. •Wed Dec…
You Are All Perceivers
The Mandelbrots are named after an obscure mathematical theory, and their sound is equally complex. At first listen, You Are All Perceivers sounds like a fairly straightforward alt-country collection (with a focus on the country). But on second and third listens, the album begins to reveal itself. The drummer, Gabe Stone, is the secret weapon…
Reflections of an ex man-whore
I usually don’t get into the tabloid stuff, but I’ve got to weigh in on the revelation that Tiger Woods is a man-whore. Wow! I’ll admit it: At first I thought the whole damn thing was funny. Squeaky-clean Tiger stepping out with club hostesses and waitresses, sending freaky text messages, crashing cars at 2:30 in…
Book: Homer sapiens
The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History By John Ortved. Faber and Faber Inc.; 332 pgs., $27. If you watched FOX Television a few Sundays ago, you probably caught the latest from two of the network’s biggest shows: “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy.” The former featured Homer and Marge Simpson going through marital trouble but ultimately reconnecting…
All they need for Christmas
Dear Santa, I thought I’d help with some gift suggestions in case the elves are baffled by what to get this crew. After all, we don’t know what to do with these people either. Gov. Steve Beshear Better taste in lieutenant governors The current LG makes hateful comments behind his back. Judging from what many…
Some kind of happiness
This is my last column for LEO Weekly. As of Jan. 1, News Editor Sarah Kelley will take the reins as I move on to a new job as editor of The City Paper in Nashville. To no one’s surprise, I still have a few things to say. So, as many of you have for…
Art: Fanning the flame
You have to love what you do when getting burned is part of your daily activity. “A handful of times, I’ve been seriously burned,” says flameworker Mark Payton of Payton Flameworks. “It’s always part of it.” He moves among three lit torches, working on one then jumping to another. It is nerve-wracking for spectators but…
