Forecastle Roundup: Day 3
Forecastle 8 Day 3 July 12 2009 Christ, after three days of chronicling my adventures I feel like Doogie Howser, but instead of a teenage doctor I’m a 27-year-old music writer, go figure. The shady afternoon was perfect for a third full day of music. The temperature was just right, and the sun could barely…
Forecastle Roundup: Day 2
Forecastle 8 Day 2 July 11, 2009 The heat was either less notable or simply more tolerable after yesterday. But the crowd grew exponentially overnight. On account of this onslaught, the smooth operating at the door of yesterday was long gone today. There were hippies and patchouli everywhere. But by now, I know to expect…
Forecastle Roundup: Day 1
Forecastle 8 Day 1 July 10, 2009 It was hot. It was gross. It was amazing. By the time the first day of Forecastle ’09 kicked off, the sun was high in the sky, set somewhere between a simmer and a boil. Every face had been smeared in heat; every brow was glossed by a…
Film: Deep inside ‘Bruno’
(Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, Josh Meyers, Robert Huerta and Gilbert Rosales. Directed by Larry Charles. Rated R; 1:22. LEO Report Card: A-) I was transporting The Package in a rented Ford Windstar, moving south on the San Diego freeway. Approaching a border patrol checkpoint, The Package placed a call to his lawyer.…
A new development
Lisa Dettlinger lives in a Victorian-style shotgun house on Lexington Road, the last in a row of similarly sized bungalows that line the north side of the stretch of road connecting Baxter Avenue to Payne Street and, eventually, Grinstead Drive. At the end opposite Dettlinger’s house is a swathe of overgrown post-industrial land surrounded by…
Test tube
“I’m not a savant or anything remotely related …” A preemptive shot is fired across the Internet. At www.ronaldjenkees.com, this greeting is a disclaimer. Defying assumptions that he is a recluse, odd or addled isn’t what defines the artist either — but it’s a good start. Fast becoming a YouTube sensation, Ronald Jenkees, as we…
Bar Belle: Bung holes ’n’ char
While bung holes ’n’ char sounds like a kickass band name, it actually sums up my recent visit to the Brown-Forman Cooperage. That’s right, I didn’t even need Mom’s signature to go on this field trip. The factory where they hand-make the barrels for aging spirits like Woodford Reserve, Jack Daniel’s, Old Fo, Early Times,…
Baby Steps
Hustle Beach is the new album from Chicago’s Baby Teeth, and it’s a mashup with Van Halen circa 1984 keyboards, an iota of kitsch and the quirkiness of Talking Heads. Turns out Abraham Levitan, whose last name could refer to a type of lotion at CVS, is from this burg, so we chat. So, Abraham…
The Death of Black Radio?
From a catatonic response to downloading, to archaic methods of contract negotiation and protection of “intellectual property,” to artificial price gouging of remaining dedicated music buyers, the industry is circling the drain financially and creatively. So someone comes up with a new idea in an 80-year-old industry, a new revenue stream long ignored, a giant…
Backseat alternative
Todd Hansen needed a way to stay involved with music. After years of touring with various bands and having little money on the road, Hansen wanted to provide the assistance to up-and-coming artists he never got. A simple morning walk of the dog last July presented his Eureka! moment: betterthanthevan.com, an online hub to help…
Jerry’s kids
Mayor Jerry Abramson made a two-day trip to Charleston, W. Va. and caught a rare case of foot in mouth disease. During an interview with The Charleston Gazette’s editorial board, the mayor explained why the city of Louisville needed to merge in 2003: “You have the chance to be, to have growth — significant growth…
LEO Music ’Cast
Hailing from Cumberland Valley, Louisville, Laurel and Owsley counties, this group traffics in roots, bluegrass, old-time and generally acoustic genres, and their self-titled record album teems with a sensibility that belies their age. With appearances at Terrapin Hill, Mountain Heritage Literacy Festival and the upcoming Bristol (Tenn.) Rhythm & Roots Festival in September, Curtis, Chris,…
Little plant on the prairie
Inside the Blue River Café, a charming eatery that from the outside looks more like a hardware store, Mark Woods and Cara Beth Jones sit side-by-side in a dimly lit lounge, rummaging through a heap of paperwork. The co-chairs of Concerned Citizens of Crawford County have spent the past three months knocking on doors, gathering…
Inbox — July 15, 2009
The Juggler Regarding Jim Welp’s “Sixty-seven ways to feel alive” column last week: Thanks, LEO, for printing this good-humored, thoughtful reminder that there is a world of experience just waiting to be tapped into. Here’s one I’m adding to the list: Learn to juggle. Wish me luck! Dennis Bell, Lyndon Fake Stereotypes? I laughed out…
Director’s cut
The mixtape phenomenon is hardly new. We all grew up making tapes off the radio, and we spent adolescence agonizing over the combination that would surely woo our crushes. This generation torture themselves with playlists, which don’t quite have the same level of drama for those of us who shoplifted our Maxell cassettes from SupeRX.…
On race, class and the school system
ATLANTA—I did an NPR interview debating Ward Connerly on diversity and civil rights a few years ago. It was interesting. For those of you not familiar with Connerly (shame on you if you’re not), he is the fellow at the heart of California’s “Proposition 209,” which outlawed race- and gender-based preferences in state hiring and…
Book: What would Jane do?
It is a truth universally acknowledged — that a brilliant writer in possession of a large collection of critically acclaimed work must be in want of a dedicated fan base. That being said, Jane Austen would likely be pleased with her devoted followers, who will descend on the Historic Locust Grove this weekend for the…
Get It On
19th Green 1740 Williamsburg Drive Jeffersonville (812) 284-9088 60 West 3939 Shelbyville Road 719-9717 930 Listening Room 930 Mary St., 635-2554 Air Devil’s Inn 2802 Taylorsville Road 454-4092 Angel’s Rock Bar 4328 S. Fourth St. 540-1461 Backstage Café 109 N. Mulberry St. Elizabethtown (270) 234-1686 Bearno’s by the Bridge 131 W. Main St. 584-7437 Bearno’s…
‘Lip’ service
Muhammad Ali’s fists and trash talk were legendary, and as the city has grown to accept its favorite son, musicians have embraced the champ’s colorful monikers. It’s this Technicolor swagger that Chickasaw product Creeze hopes to capture on his forthcoming album, Louisville Lip, due out this fall. “You know back then, Ali was edgy, and…
Pet Sounds
They’re trying to assemble an ensemble by getting cooperation from individualists who won’t settle for the bland and steady. Have you ever seen an avant-garde musician who’s well fed and knows that his upcoming gigs will pay the bills? They’re in it for the love. Ut Gret (rhymes with “toot suite”) is now a sextet,…
Art: Paul Paletti shows off the big guns
Majestic landscapes + Yosemite National Park + photography = Ansel Adams. There is no other photographer who quite adds up. Adams lived on the edges of Yosemite from 1937-47, making a series of iconic images that, to this day, equate him with the best of 20th century landscape photographers. “Clearing Winter Storm” was shot in…
School’s in for summer
The band members grab their instruments like old pros as they take the stage. Bassist Elise Hagan crosses to meet lead guitarist Clare Hagan. They chop at their instruments like they’re competing in a duel. Meanwhile, Emily McConville strums along coolly to the side with her rhythm guitar, and Lizzie Wiseman holds the beat. It’s…
Trigger happy
“This is the only state where a blind person can get a concealed carry license, you know?” So says Bluegrass Indoor Range’s Joe Morelli, a former Navy man, championship marksman and licensed concealed deadly weapon instructor who, while addressing this early-morning class of 11 pupils, pauses and notices we think he’s joking: “No, seriously,” Morelli…
Theater: It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine
(The Necessary Theatre presents Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s “BOOM,” directed by Mike Brooks. Continues July 17-18 and 24-25 at 7:30 p.m. at the Rudyard Kipling. For more information, go to www.tntky.org.) The apocalypse is nigh — so who spends the night? In “BOOM,” playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb asks us to consider some questions, big and…
Paper cuts
Standing outside the back door of the City Café last Thursday afternoon, engulfed by the looming physical edifice of The Courier-Journal (and courier-journal.com), the anxiety was palpable. C-J employees walked to the smoking area in small groups, their minds invariably occupied by another round of workforce reductions playing out this very day. No one lingered.…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: CORALINE 2009; $29.95-$34.95, PG This is classic Neil Gaiman. The British comic-master/fantasy-maven and creator of “Neverworld” has filled this too-good-for-kids childhood nightmare with classic Gaiman heroes and villains (which you can’t tell apart), all brought to life with icky “Nightmare Before Christmas”-like precision. Voiced by Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders,…
Art News
A feasibility study is under way for a new art school to open in Louisville. If it comes to fruition, the Kentucky School of Contemporary Art (KySCA) will be an accredited four-year college. Stay tuned. Art by Louisville native Anne Peabody was selected for the 53rd Venice Biennale, one of the most prestigious contemporary art…
Fast car
Deloreans’ frontman/guitarist Jeremy Perry really digs the crooners of ’50s and ’60s rock and roll. Take one look at the back of The Deloreans’ first album, Love Outrageous, and you’ll understand just how much. With a pink button-down under a solid black suit; a silver, American Bandstand-ish mic; and an earnest, lovelorn expression triggering memories…
End of the parade
After 12 years and thousands of albums sold, The Muckrakers are disbanding. It might be easy to write off their brand of pop-rock as staid, bland and predictable. Then singer-guitarist Rob Carpenter opens a vein. LEO: Why? Rob Carpenter: It sounds cliché, but it was time. I wasn’t having the delusions of grandeur anymore. I…
Book: Louisville outlaw
An old adage warns against judging a book by its cover, but in the case of Kentuckian Brett Eugene Ralph’s debut book of poetry, “Black Sabbatical,” the cover is a direct representation of the writer’s vision. It is stark black with limited text; in between the title and his name, there is a photo by…
Think for yourselves
In a day and age when just about every musician wants a say in which label will be ascribed to them by fans, foes and media, Tennessee-based Those Darlins are content to relinquish that responsibility. “We make the music, and it’s not really our job to figure out what kind it is,” says singer-guitarist and…
Bone machine
While listening to Lazy Bones, the new album from The Mack, I can’t help wondering whether these are solemn tales from the down-and-out or the raving wails of a mad man. “In the same way as you have movies out there that are dark and twisted or whatever, it’s not the real world,” The Mack…
Review: Road trip ramble
“Road trip!” With the possible exception of “smog alert,” no two words say summer better. For the inveterate foodie, no road trip would be complete without stopping to sample roadfood, a concept that the writers Jane and Michael Stern made famous, defining it as “memorable local eateries along the highways and back roads of America.”…
