Cover Story
#BlackLivesMatter: the new civil rights movement
Growing up in the Highlands, Nate Jones never thought much about racial segregation in Louisville. He knew that the neighborhoods became poorer and predominantly black once you crossed 9th Street into West Louisville, but he never took the time to think about why that was. At Hampshire College, a private liberal arts school in Amherst,…
LEO Playlist 2/23
1) “Birds of a Feather” by Sidewalk Chalk, who will be at Haymarket on Saturday, Feb. 28. 2) “Come With Me Now” by KONGOS, who play Mercury Ballroom on Saturday, Feb. 28. 3) “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” by Meghan Trainor, who will perform at the Louisville Palace on Sunday, March 1. 4) “Man I’m…
Photo Set: Murals, Howell Dawdy, Early Age, Montego, Spettra (Haymarket 2/20/15)
This show was a benefit for ARTxFM’s campaign to raise a broadcast tower. More information can be found at http://www.artxfm.com.
Pop Music Conference to examine Louisville festivals and underground music scene
When academia meets popular culture, magical things happen. It is through the lens of academics that we see the feminist potential of Beyonce and the importance of icons like Sylvester and RuPaul to impart ideas about gay culture and the queer identities of the late disco and post-disco eras. Scholars of popular culture come from…
LEON: Brian Williams gives startling report on escape to solitude
Brian Williams, the suspended NBC Nightly News anchor, has released a startling report about his recent trip to solitude. In a YouTube post uploaded late last week, Williams appears to have produced his own news report using his iPhone. In the report, he details his harrowing escape from all the attention, including some armed locals.…
Staffpicks
Feb. 19-20 Frank X Walker Reading and master class University of Louisville Belknap Campus, 852-6801 louisville.edu/english/creative-writing Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. “instead of writing/his spelling words/he signed a contract/he could barely read/inked a commitment/in big block letters/to the NBA/and NIKE/and SPRITE …another little genius/who will never test out/of a dream/that kills legitimate futures/every night/under…
Balancing both worlds: A talk with David Grubbs
Louisville icon David Grubbs visits his hometown again this Friday for a performance with the fuzzed-out alt-rock of Wussy and the high concept art-hop of 1200, as part of the after party for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, which is happening this weekend on the U of L campus. A veteran…
b-sides: Greensky Bluegrass
Greensky Bluegrass has developed its fanbase the old-fashioned way — one gig at a time. They started in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 2000 playing rock and funk covers on bluegrass instruments, but with time, they’ve carved out their own distinct original material. Their latest album, “If Sorrows Swim,” demonstrates not only musical dexterity, but mature songwriting.…
Be The Change
There are so many songs. So many songs in this world. And every day, thousands more are released. Not just written, but pressed up and put out into the world. It’s bewildering. It never stops. People spend countless amounts of dollars to record their music and then turn around and pay just as much to press it up. If you want…
Plugged In (Feb. 18 – Feb 24)
WED Feb 18th Brasserie Provence: Brian Curella Duo, Joey Thieman; 7 p.m. Diamond Pub (St. Matthews): John Hager; 10 p.m. Gerstle’s: Kimmet & Doug; 9 p.m. Jack Fry’s: Ray Johnson, Dave Wilson, Jenna Mattingly; 7 p.m. Jim Porters: Mixed Bag Wednesday From DJ’s to Country, Rock to Jazz, Comedy to Blues, Rockabilly and everything in…
Paperwolf
A collaboration between Bird Zoo producer TinyForest and Ohio sound wizard Paperwolf, Lofts is a lush and mellow affair that has more than a little hip-hop influence, filtered through the precepts of chillwave or like genres. There is a calming kind of haze that permeates the album, imbuing each track with an ethereal glaze, perfect…
APTSONATMIX
With the release of “APTSONATMIX,” A7A composer JC Denison somehow manages to balance the mechanical minimalism of Steve Reich or Terry Riley with the hyper-maximalism of Flying Lotus or Rustie. While A7A have a clear indebtedness to both, the end result is beholden to neither; Denison forges his own very distinct path that clearly shows…
Big Day Parade
There are few regional analogs to Plastic Bubble, a kind of lo-fi sonic love affair that makes basement recordings sound large, like a modern day Magnetic Fields. The music here is dense, and, at times, a maximalist approach that is a particularly easy listen. There is a lot more going on with “Big Day Parade,”…
Six
There is a lot of screaming going on with this release, which in some ways sets the tone of the album, and in others works against type. The music isn’t always especially angry, or at least the sort of angry that is usually paired with angsty screams — guitars that chime and punchy bass and…
ART: A Fond Farewell at Paul Paletti Gallery
Since life’s major goodbyes are rarely easy, it’s wonderful when you can feel the love. Mary Burks definitely felt it as she walked out the door of the Paul Paletti Gallery for the last time after her two years as the assistant gallery manager. She left the gallery and its viewers with a parting gift,…
BOOK: Taylor’s ‘Marble Orchard’ an Appalachian fable worth picking
The Marble Orchard by Alex Taylor (Ig Publishing; 252 pgs., $16.95) A prologue at a family get-together — but the small family that we’re focused on is held at arm’s length by most everyone else. The 19-year-old son sulks, wanders off, and the looseness of some important connections becomes apparent. Taylor’s novel proper begins by…
THEATER: ‘Eenie Meanie’ catches audience by the jugular
In 1949, James Baldwin published a scathing critique of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” He begins “Everybody’s Protest Novel” (a web search will quickly find the full text) with a relentless literary analysis — then goes on to write about the American protest novel as a genre. Such novels, he writes, rather than a…
COMEDY: Lewis Black brings his rant to the Palace
Lewis Black is mad. Stark raving mad all of the time. At least that’s the Lewis Black we’ve seen on TV for the last two decades. His animated hands, his frustrated yell and raspy irritated voice has led him to being one of the most recognizable faces in comedy … and one of the most…
Video Tapeworm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS CENK BATU: UNDERCOVER AGENT 2012; $39.98; UR Many of America’s longest-running police-procedurals – “CSI”, “Law & Order”, etc. – are actually inspired-by/ripped-off-from even longer-running European franchises, such as Germany’s “Tatort”, which has been spawning terrific TV since 1970. “Cenk Batu” is their latest, the ongoing adventures of a brilliant detective/analyst (emotive…
The pizza caper goes down at Cafe Lou Lou
Who’d like to get in on a caper? I’m not talking about a hilariously wacky criminal plot. Even if it were victimless and presumably foolproof, I’m naturally nervous about activities that could land me behind bars. Nor an ancient Celtic jumping and bounding dance, either. I’ll take my exercise in milder doses, thanks! No, I’m…
Yummy Pollo is what it says it is
Remember Pollo Loco? I remember when it arrived in my hometown of Clarksville, Ind., back in the early to mid-1990s and no one seemed to know how to pronounce it correctly. Nor did they seem to fully understand that “pollo” was Spanish for chicken. So, it was “polo loco” to many, which I guess roughly…
A love letter to Malcolm X
Rightfully, we pause to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. every year. Wrongfully, Malcolm X is still not so well received. Sadly, Brother Malcolm’s birthday often comes and goes without the majority of people realizing it. There is no fanfare in most quarters. No parades, no holiday, no television specials, no proclamations from the mayor ……
Feeding Back
This week, I’m taking time to reflect on one of the more interesting parts of writing for a publication and that is the interaction with people who write me letters. These last couple of weeks I’ve received a few emails that, even in disagreement, make me extraordinarily appreciative. Why? I’m grateful because it means that they heard…
Heroin and heroic storytellers
Long after we knew that the war on drugs was an epic failure, data compiled by the Public Performance Safety Project of the non-partisan Pew Charitable Trusts cited unduly punitive state laws as the reason America incarcerates more citizens longer than any other nation. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, led a crusade for…
African-American History Month
LEO has a proud history of tackling sensitive, uncomfortable issues and none more so than discussing race in Louisville and America. February is Black History month and we don’t just see this as an opportunity to discuss race relations, but as our responsibility to do so — particularly at a time when racial frictions seem…
Inbox – February 18, 2015
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 W. Main St., Suite 001, Louisville, Ky. 40202. Fax to 895-9779 or email to leo@leoweekly.com. We may edit for length, grammar…
