Cover Story
Straight outta Metro
Filled with longtime supporters, potential successors and Metro government officials, the lobby at the Kentucky Center for the Arts held a crowd of nearly a hundred people who applauded in a low rumble as Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, joined by Gov. Steve Beshear, walked to the lectern. With his wife and son in tow, the…
The Exodus is Here
When Bob Marley and the Wailers entered the studio in late 1976, they had already faced death and come back ready to conquer the world. An assassination attempt in Jamaica had left Marley wounded and his band members scared for their lives. Marley packed up the band from their homeland and migrated to London, where…
Rebirth of a salesman
It was 1985, and a young lawyer named Jerry Abramson had just been elected mayor of Louisville, a city that had lost its edge. Urban renewal and suburban sprawl had decimated downtown, once the beating heart of a booming river town. Abramson needed to figure out what it meant to govern and, ultimately, to rebuild.…
Let’s talk about AIDS, baby
I missed out on my first kiss because of AIDS. It was 1988, I was new in school, and he was a seventh grader. One year older. How much cooler could I get? He asked me out in class — reading or something — and I said yes. My mother pulled a total buzz kill…
Walking on a Dream
Welcome to this generic ’80s-ish clothing store at the mall! Lolz! I know! Isn’t this track, like, hella good? It’s by this band called Empire of the Sun. They’re, like, not from here. They live in, like, New Zealand or something (editor’s note: Australia). Yeah, they’re like Flight of the Conchords, only cosmic (editor’s note:…
Can you dig it?
Beads of sweat gather on 8-year-old John Brown’s brow as he squints against the sun’s glare. Brown looks more like a wise, experienced farmer than a third-grader, standing with one foot rested on the spade of his shovel and sharing gardening tips. “Horse poop makes things grow,” he explains in a serious tone. “It’s called…
Pure? Maybe
What the hell is “twee” supposed to mean, anyway? With such genre nomenclature cluttering the airwaves and reference points, it’s hard to approach a band like New York City’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart with anything other than a clouded lens. They’re not all smooth edges, though, as members Alex Naidus and Kip…
Film: ‘Food, Inc.’ will make you lose your appetite
(Starring Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, Joel Salatin, Richard Lobb and Troy Roush. Directed by Robert Kenner. Rated PG; 1:34. Opens Friday, July 24, at Village 8 Theatres. LEO Report Card: A-) Leave it to a bunch of hardcore investigative journalists to yank down the steadfast veil that separates American consumers and their food industry.…
One giant leap?
In April of 1968, Stanley Kubrick released “2001: A Space Odyssey,” his exquisitely crafted cinematic mix of fantasy, science fiction and extrapolated scientific fact of the day. The film was both a vision of a possible future and conjecture on what such a future might do to the beings who created it. Fifteen months later,…
First Recordings
Charlie Feathers called him the “beginning and end of all music,” but Junior Kimbrough had to begin somewhere: so he did in 1966, with these six tracks, an audition for the Southern soul label Goldwax. He’d been playing his particular and peculiar brand of heavy trance-blues for years, but his first recording session didn’t amount…
My Electric Family
Bachelorette are creepy. Their website is chock full of psychedelic shots that remind you of the “Relax” scene in “Zoolander.” They readily describe their own sound as that of someone who “took too many mushrooms and fell in love with a computer.” Toss My Electric Family into your CD player and let the electronic beeping…
B-Sides: Music & Other Ephemera
Yes it does. Which is why The Rud (422 W. Oak St., 636-1311, therudyardkipling.com) is hosting a bennie on Aug. 1 for The Leukemia/Lymphoma Society’s Kentucky and Southern Indiana Chapter. The Vibrolas, The Tunesmiths, The Noonans, The Wet Towel Band Babies Project, Jamie Duvall, Dwaine Durrett and Margaret Evans are on the bill. Quite a…
Try and Love
Continuing the current explosion of excellent 1970s African music being reissued in the West for the first time, Brooklyn’s Academy Records (a reissue label started by quite possibly the best vinyl store in the country) has reissued Try and Love, the 1973 debut album by Nigeria’s Ofege. Whereas Nigeria’s most well-known superstar, Fela Kuti, might…
Inbox — July 22, 2009
LEO Weekly welcomes letters that are brief (250 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, 640 S. Fourth St., Suite 100, Louisville, Ky. 40202. Fax to 895-9779 or e-mail to leo@leoweekly.com. We may edit for length, grammar…
Review: Breakfast, tapas? Have it your way at North End
Where is it written that eggs must be reserved for breakfast? In my culinary Day Timer, an omelet makes a splendid date for dinner. Scrambled eggs go down well anytime. And bacon! There’s no hour of the day or night when the thought of smoky, salty bacon won’t inspire a hunger pang. On the other…
Comedy: It’s time for May in July
Ralphie May is a raucous, brash and sometimes controversial comedian who shot to fame as runner-up on the first season of “Last Comic Standing.” Hundreds of shows, innumerable miles and three hour-long Comedy Central specials later, Ralphie returns to The Louisville Improv. LEO: How’s the new baby? Ralphie May: He’s 2 weeks old and…
S/T
While The Avett Brothers are selling out theaters nationwide for high-dollar tickets, it would be pretty easy to catch The 23-String Band around the state for less money and just as much fun. Yes, these local boys employ a very similar approach — a thick concoction of bluegrass, Gram Parsons county, cowpunk (particularly on opener…
I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day
I Can Wonder … is a refreshing collection of songs from Julie Doiron that runs the singer/songwriter spectrum. She swings from pixie-esque hippie chick to gritty alt-rock grrrrrrl to mellow folk crooner — in the two-second gap between songs. With Fred Squire and Rick White, Doiron finds a versatile but cohesive sound that runs fluidly…
Innocent when you dream
A few days ago, I had an intensely vivid, violent nightmare. Two slobbering, bloodthirsty lunatics were attacking me. The bigger one was shirtless, muscular and unstoppable. He was growling and laughing as he swatted at me with his razor-sharp claws. The other one was merely egging him on, laughing and convulsing and contorting with glee.…
Essential albums for Laura
Dear friends, I need your help. In just a few short weeks, my daughter Laura Rose will go off to college. I will spare you the syrupy mumblings of a father who is proud of his beautiful, funny, brilliant, wise and kind daughter, and who will desperately miss her presence in our house for the…
Mug Shots: Perfect pair: BBQ & beer
“Grilling, broiling, barbecuing — whatever you want to call it — is an art, not just a matter of building a pyre and throwing on a piece of meat as a sacrifice to the gods of the stomach.” —James Beard I confess to being a novice when it comes to barbecue (henceforth, “BBQ”), other…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: COMBAT SHOCK 1985; $19.95, UR Almost 25 years ago, writer/director/producer/star Buddy Giovinazzo made cult movie history with this simply amazing saga of a Vietnam vet whose life becomes mired in horrible poverty and urban wretchedness. In easily the most shocking finale we ever saw in any movie, this indie juggernaut quite…
Jerry’s Kids
And he’s out: Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson is hitting the campaign trail with Gov. Steve Beshear as his Number Two, which leaves behind a ton of possibilities in Metro government. Most mayoral candidates are going to wait to officially announce, but Louisville businessman Greg Fischer isn’t one of them. The day Abramson made it official,…
