Cover Story
The LEO Quiz
Future historians will probably look back on 2014 and wonder, “Why didn’t we go into something more lucrative, like virtual-reality drone porn?” But then they will regroup, buckle down and study 2014 as a year of great social change. Same-sex couples were legally marrying, stoners were legally vaping and the president was so popular that…
7 Affordable Sparkling Wines, Plus A Quick Guide To Splurging On The Good Stuff
Alas, many of us drink sparkling wines only on special occasions, so the holidays find us staring in wonderment at displays of legendary wines at legendary prices. And we hope that a wise wine merchant will point us to something we’ll love at a price we can afford – in fact plenty of wine merchants…
Precious casualties of a cruel year
First, the bad news: the nation went markedly madder this year. The good news is that we’ve always recovered — even from draconian surges of madness and sadness. We seem to delight in recklessly pushing the limits of risk, then averting the cataclysm just shy of oblivion. Teenagers play chicken. Politicians play brinksmanship. Whatever the…
Inbox – December 23, 2014
LEO Weekly welcomes letters that are brief (350 words max) and thoughtful. ?Ad hominem attacks will be ignored, ?and we need your name and a daytime phone number. Send snail mail to Inbox, ?607 E. Main St., Suite 001, Louisville, Ky. 40202. Fax to 895-9779 or email to leo@leoweekly.com. We may edit for length, grammar…
All in a day’s twerk
I was looking forward to a break this week. I wanted to write something happy and not so focused on current events. I think that sometimes we all need breathing room. Alas, there is none to be found. Local pastor Dr. Kevin Cosby has been in the news this week with controversial statements about black…
Sony is so un-American
Well, Sony is a Japanese company, but that’s not what I mean. Sony recently wimped-out when they were taken hostage by cyber attackers, but that’s not the un-American part. Sony (Sony Pictures Entertainment to be specific) made a painful, yet rational decision to protect itself, its employees and potentially movie-going Americans from a possible terror…
Senator Diane Feinstein: A real progressive hero
Today, I do not have time to grieve for the execution of 121 Pakistani school children by Taliban extremists. Nor, do I have time to empathize with the people of Sydney, Australia, who watched a Muslim fanatic terrorize his captives and cause the death of two innocent people. Unfortunately, I have had no time to…
Staff Picks
Friday, December 26th Andrew Rinehart The New Vintage 2126 S. Preston St., 749-4050 newvintagelouisville.com $7; 8 p.m. Andrew Rinehart has come a long way. Starting out as the lead vocalist in a local hardcore punk band, Rinehart has developed a solo career that couldn’t be any further removed. Equal parts tender and snarky, there is…
Sweet Seashell Dreams
It’s bands like Lady Pyramid that restore my faith in pop music — mainly because the Louisville four-piece steers clear of ideas that have been beaten to death, focusing on their own signature brand, which manages to be both minimalistic and challenging. Really, it’s pop music that you could argue about whether or not it…
Forever Forever
Fast Friends continues their trend of making music that is somehow both radio friendly, but a little rough around the edges, in just the right ways. To my ears, their music is rather unapologetically emo, and that eagerness to lean into their interests is apparent. To be clear, I submit that as a good thing;…
Movement
It’s fitting that the last release by Bad People, re-released on Little Heart Records, is named “Movement,” given the glacial dynamic shifts found therein. The music hearkens back to the early aughts, mid-tempo indie with plenty of angsty emotion — although not necessarily emo — and an emphasis on instrumentation over any sort of vocal…
Live at Temple University
Late-era Coltrane, November 1966, with expanded personnel, stretching OUT. Fellow saxophonist Pharoah Sanders speaks in tongues with Trane, whose wife Alice’s piano is ruminating yet ethereal. Rashied Ali’s drums throb and pulse throughout. In the opening ballad “Naima,” the theme slowly emerges. “Crescent” follows, clear tenor tones escalating to release, then solos from piano, drums,…
Different Days: A conversation with Jason Isbell
When the Drive-By Truckers dropped “Decoration Day” in 2003, it was pretty obvious that Jason Isbell — who was then new to the band, but wrote the title track as well as the song “Outfit” for that album — was holding a hand of cards that doesn’t get dealt very often. Those songs were deep…
A Q&A with Scott Whitehouse
Upon first listening to Jack Holiday and the Westerners, I expected one of two things: the roots music of the WFPK-ilk or straight Nudie Suit country music. I love a good Nudie Suit, but I got neither. Speaking with bandleader Scott Whitehouse, we discussed the band’s evolution, plans and his love of slam poetics. LEO:…
Plugged-In (Dec. 23 – Dec. 30)
WED Dec 24th 8UP: High Sounds with DJ Matt Anthony; 8 p.m. Brasserie Provence: Brian Curella Duo:; 5 p.m. Diamond Pub (St. Matthews): Speaker Acoustic; 10 p.m. Gerstle’s: Kimmet & Doug Jack Fry’s: Ray Johnson, Dave Wilson, Jenna Matttingly; 7 p.m. Magnolia Bar: Groove; 10 p.m. Nowhere Bar: DJ Brios; 11 p.m. Theater Square Marketplace:…
Completely Obsessed: Best of 2014 (pt. 3)
Apologies to D’Angelo. If he had released “Black Messiah” a few weeks earlier, it would have easily been in this list. Such a great record. Just the same, here are my top five records of 2014. 5. Elbow – “The Takeoff and Landing of Everything” There is a sense of comfort I get in an Elbow song. I’m…
b-sides: Shovels & Rope
The first time I saw Shovels & Rope — the husband and wife folk-rock duo based out of Charleston, South Carolina — was in 2012 at the Nelsonville Folk Festival. When I arrived Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent were playing a rollicking set on the porch stage to about 300 people, producing a whirlwind…
LEON: Obama at odds with teens
After the most recent assertion by President Obama that he has been the victim of racism in the past, teens are voicing their frustration. In an interview with People Magazine, Obama said, “There’s no black male my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and…
LEON: LEON acquires copy of St. Peter’s animals list
Heaven Toto — Kept the band of misfits company throughout the journey to Oz and is, ultimately, the one to discover the man behind the curtain. Beethoven — So lovable. Remember when he slobbered all over the dad? That was awesome. Splinter — Sacrificed his life to mentor four mutant turtles, teaching them karate, discipline…
The Taste Bud: Fruitcake – Revisiting the holiday horror
Many decades ago when I was just a boy, I saw a strange, colorful thing that looked like a loaf of magical, wonderful candy. It sat there beckoning on the packed kitchen table at my grandmother’s house. “What’s that?” I asked. “Fruitcake,” one of the grown-ups at the Christmas Eve gathering told me. Cake? Count…
Can you say “Bread and Breakfast” three times fast?
Let’s head over to New Albany and get some bed and break … um … bed and break … DAMMIT! I mean BED AND BREAKFAST! No, BREAD! AND BEKKFAST! DAMMIT AGAIN! Let’s face it. If I was mean enough to mark a place down because its name is hard to say, then this charming little…
Ball Droppings 2015
No matter if your budget is limitless or limited to “free,” whether your wardrobe preference is costume, causal or black tie and whatever your musical taste, there’s a NewYear’sEve party for you. If balloon drops, confetti cannons and champagne toasts aren’t enough, there’s a whole spectrum of entertainment from drag shows to comedy improv to…
Video Tapeworm
Bill here. Dave and I took the wives to see Counting Crows last week, where Dave caught the flu. I contend he caught it sniffing up that redhead in the tubetop. Doesn’t matter. According to him, it’s all just dreadful. What a drama queen. To help, I mixed up some homemade Tamiflu from stuff I…
THEATER: Irreverent parodic fun at The Alley Theater
It’s a long way from Eden to Armageddon. The King James Version of the Bible contains 66 books broken up into 31,102 verses. That’s way too much material to cover in a single night of theater, so Reed Martin, Adam Long and Austin Tichner, of The Reduced Shakespeare Company, did what that company does: they…
FILM/TV: The Ballad of Dave and Bill and Dave
Episode 2: The Shtick Hits The Fans David B. King and Bill Raker have been writing the VideoTapeWorm for LEO for almost two decades, but almost none of the current editorial staff or readers knew anything about them. We set out to solve this mystery by inviting David and Bill to the LEO offices. It…
