Cover Story
Bloody Business: Making ‘Dracula’ Scary
The lights go down, and Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 2017 production of “Dracula” begins. Thick, almost viscous fog has rolled across the floor. Through the fog, the tip of an obelisk suddenly appears. Just as you register that it’s the sort of obelisk one might find in a graveyard, the headstones appear, and we’re looking…
Our six favorite local songs from October
Pleasure Boys — “Waking Up (From Someone Else’s Dream)” The Pleasure Boys have always made some of the most playfully-adventurous music out there, the sort that defies ready categorization. Are they garage rockers with a flare for the dramatic, psycho-poppers who know when to downshift, or rogue kraut-rock agents getting weird in the bible belt?…
10 things to do under $5 this week in Louisville (10/30)
MONDAY ‘Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America’ Elaine Chao Auditorium in Ekstrom Library, UofL Free | 7-10 p.m. As part of UofL Pride Week, the documentary “Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America” will be screened. The film follows Moises Serrano, an undocumented immigrant who came to America at 18 months old. Serrano also…
LEO Presents: Howell Dawdy, live in studio
For the latest LEO Presents, our video series where we ask local musicians to stop by our studio to play three songs, Howell Dawdy brings his brand of sharp and funny satire. And, he plays a ukulele version of “Boo, I’m a Ghost” right in time for Halloween. Look for a new video every Friday.
A Kentucky bill would target protestors, promote cultural purity
Kentucky is the new legislative laboratory for a bigoted, extremism agenda. Take the latest proposed law. Is it to protect our First Amendment right to protest? No, it would protect drivers who run over protesters with their cars. This is not hyperbole — this is Kentucky. On Tuesday — the same day two Republican U.S.…
5 Things To Do This Weekend in Louisville (10/27)
FRIDAY A CBGB Halloween Zanzabar $10 | 8:30 p.m. The infamous CBGB venue, opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village of New York, was widely regarded as a catalyst for the 1970s New York punk scene. A group of Louisville musicians, including William Benton (Cat Casual), Jonathan Kamer and Billy Bissig (Total…
LEO Podcast #56: Improv Comedy Takeover (Halloween Edition)
Stefan Gearhart, of Damaged Goods Improv, and friends takeover the LEO Podcast for a Halloween-themed show.
Carmen Morales ‘thought comedians were like magical beings’
Carmen Morales describes her childhood growing up in Orlando, Florida, as having been “raised in the middle of an argument.” Today, she is a whiskey-swilling stand-up, who tempers a sarcastic edge with straightforward logic. Morales has been seen on Fox’s “Laughs” and is regularly featured on Sirius XM. She has appeared at Gilda’s LaughFest Comedy…
‘You’ve got red on you…’
Whether it’s the telltale tinge of sickness foretold by scarlet in a handkerchief, or the arterial spray from a silently-slit throat, few things make your heart beat faster than the sight of blood. It drips, it flows and it gurgles in your throat as you choke out your last tortured breath, and nothing makes a…
Howl in the Holler
Halloween is time for all things grotesque and spooky, including what we’re drinking. So, why not create a sinful libation to wow your crew with on this witchy holiday? Rabbit Hole Distilling Brand representative Ryan Easterly has us covered with the “Howl in the Holler,” a twist on a classic cocktail called “The Blinker.” This…
When religious freedom imposes
One of the most contentious cases on the U.S. Supreme Court’s fall docket involves a Colorado baker’s refusal to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. Cases like this and gay marriage and Kentucky’s Kim Davis debacle stir the religious right’s favorite crie de coeur: “What about our religious freedom?” Dan Canon, a civil…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best & Most Absurd
Lube up for Bevin | Thorn Gov. Matt “Oblivous” Bevin sure likes to call people names. We wonder where he learned that? (tRump.) But while he acts like a schoolyard bully, he has not told us how he intends to pay for his pension fix. Certainly, it means cuts to programs he hates — like…
Six musicians talk about their CBGB Halloween cover sets
The infamous CBGB venue, opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village of New York, was widely regarded as a catalyst for the 1970s New York punk scene. A group of Louisville musicians, including William Benton (Cat Casual), Jonathan Kamer and Billy Bissig (Total Void), Jake Philley (Cereal Glyphs), Andrew Sellers (Andrew Rhinehart)…
Three concerts to catch this week
Tom Petty & The Heartbroken Kaiju | Thurs., Oct. 26 A local tribute to the late legend, featuring Andrew Rinehart, Scott Carney, Zach Driscoll and other Louisville musicians. Tom Petty’s impact on songwriting and popular culture is incalculable — his reach was sweeping, his songs were instantly recognizable, and no one’s ever made loneliness and…
A Song For the Dead
The bodies are starting to pile up. Immaculately dressed, if not in reality then in our own perceptions. We like to think of them not in costume, but on another plane, living a life above and beyond our own. Lives spent in dark rooms, friendly, hushed conversations, if not for the bursts of laughter. Someone’s…
Record Review: Watter — “History of the Future”
History of the Future, Watter’s sophomore record, explores well beyond the band’s initial trajectory, adding a wider scope and scale to their compositions. This iteration of Watter, replete with a roster of guest musicians, feels like a natural extension, a modern update on Western music through the lens of instrumental indie. The end result is…
Record Review: Second Story Man — s/t
With their first album in eight years, Second Story Man’s shape-shifting indie rock builds intense walls of fuzzed-out noise, which sharp, ambitious guitar leads and chilly, ethereal vocals cut through. By moving into a sonic territory that’s hazier, stranger and heavier than previous material, Second Story Man, which was formed in 1998, seems to make…
Record Review: Jaxon Lee Swain — “Night Diamonds”
To know the music of Jaxon Lee Swain is to embrace the rowdy side of classic rock, the barn-burning, hook-heavy madness of the Rolling Stones, The Who or Chuck Berry. Such is the vibe that Swain and company create, in a way that seems like it was found in a vault from the ‘60s, the…
Record Review: GRLwood — “2 Fags Demo”
Recently moving from a solo project to a two-piece, adding raucous punk drumming to the loud-quiet, croon-scream, guitar-and-voice attack, GRLwood has a visceral, low-fi style that breathes new life into raw-power garage rock, carrying a pure, unteachable charisma that’s rare and impactful. They are able to do a lot with a little, taking styles you’ve…
The Filson’s first abstract exhibit, a city legend
Abstract art can be a hard sell. Even today, many decades after its arrival in art history, most people still prefer representational art. So, it’s no surprise to learn The Filson Historical Society is just now hosting its first exhibition of abstract paintings. “Understanding the Indescribable: Paintings by G. Caliman Coxe” not only promotes abstraction,…
Lupo sings a fine Italian song of pizza, pasta… more
Whatever might prompt two members of an indie rock band with a 17-year record and three songs on the Billboard 200 to leap from the world of music to the hard work of opening an Italian restaurant that features pizza and pasta? That’s just what vocalist and guitar player Adam Turla and cellist-keyboardist Sarah Balliet…
Stuff you eat when? you can’t eat stuff
I don’t know when the tooth broke, only that I began to feel a strange tightness in my jaw that would later turn to a dull pain when I touched it. A day later, I woke up and my jaw felt stranger than ever. I walked into the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and, beyond…
Ask Minda Honey: How to bow out of a party
In a relationship or life jam? Lemme unstuck your life: AskMindaHoney@leoweekly.com. Minda, My family (white people) have been invited to a Day of the Dead-themed party this year (thrown by other white people). I am struggling between not at all being into the cultural appropriation of this theme and, at the same time, knowing that…
Savage Love: Necking
Q: In a frank exchange early in our courtship, I told my girlfriend that I have no kinks. As a faithful reader of Savage Love, I’m obviously not opposed to kinks — but I’ve never had any inclinations in that direction and am probably a typical hetero vanilla. As a result, I’m damn near clueless…
Being evil is easy when you’re rich AF
I got J-Dilla’s loopy masterpiece Donuts on full blast, and seeing as I own the biggest speakers on the block, the whole neighborhood is hearing “Geek Down” whether they like it or not. For a platter recorded by a man on his death bed, a man who knew he was headed for the void, this…
City’s missed Amazon hook — the West End… and why Bevin will win
Man, I can’t wait for this Amazon head office to open up here. I wonder what the building will look like. An hourly wage-slave chained to a fulfillment cart, I hope. Why not? If Apple can embrace architecture based on ELO album covers, Amazon can embrace architecture based on human bondage. Hard to imagine a…
Amazon’s secret play
[Editor’s Note: This week, LEO was leaked Greater Louisville’s pitch to Amazon. In an article first published on Monday, we offered details, and we asked a local advertising agency pro for their thoughts on the presentation.] There is a big problem with Amazon’s request for proposals for where to build its second headquarters. Amazon demands it…
