Cover Story
Vanishing Act: What’s Missing from Bourbon Labels
The year 1897 was especially important in the annals of bourbon history. Distiller Edmund Taylor, aka Col. E.H. Taylor, Jr., had become concerned about unscrupulous practices of some whiskey wholesalers (known as rectifiers), who diluted the products they bought by the barrel from distillers and then bottled. Among other egregious practices, the rectifiers added illegal…
10 things to do under $5 this week in Louisville (9/12)
MONDAY Stand Up Sobriety Tour Kaiju $5 | 9 p.m. Mondays are depressing as fuck, so let the Stand Up Sobriety Tour cheer you up with a some off-kilter comedy and a few drinking games. The show includes 7 acts from both local and national comedians. But really, the tour is an excuse for these…
5 Things to do this Weekend in Louisville (9/9)
FRIDAY OktoberFest Louisville 2016 (Sept. 9-10) German American Club $5 | 4 p.m. This weekend, you can explore the tastes and sounds of Deutschland without ever leaving the city limits. OktoberFest Louisville will feature plenty of authentic German cuisine (schnitzel, fleischkase, sauerkraut balls, etc.), as well as German dancing and music by Hans Sander and the…
Lincoln’s Bourbon Legacy, or did you know Abe was ?a barkeep?
Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, near the town of Hodgenville, on Feb. 12, 1809. He went on to become the sixteenth President of the United States and the leader of the Union government during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. He died on Good Friday, April 15, 1865 after being shot the previous night…
9 books about bourbon that you should read
We asked bourbon expert and author Susan Reigler for a quick list of books on bourbon to keep you busy while sipping. “Tasting Whiskey: An Insider’s Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World’s Finest Spirits,” by Lew Bryson. Tasting and collecting tips not only for bourbon, but for Scotch, Irish and other international whiskeys.…
Make America Bourbon Again, ?at least this month
It was probably the best thing that former Sen. Jim “Beanball” Bunning, R-Kentucky, ever did. A resolution he sponsored in 2007 deemed September as National Bourbon Heritage Month, following up on Congress’ declaration in 1964 that bourbon is “America’s Native Spirit.” As if we need more reasons to drink it, but here are a few…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst & Best (9/7)
Heroin | Thorn Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. Overdose. That is about how many overdosing heroin addicts landed in area hospital emergency rooms in a single night last week. It is going to take a lot…
Sweet Soul Music: A conversation With St. Paul & The Broken Bones
St. Paul & The Broken Bones have been busy riding the wave of hard–earned success that followed their breakout debut, Half the City, in 2014. An early alliance with the Alabama Shakes, heavy rotation on public radio, high-profile appearances on late-night television in addition to relentless touring — including some key festival slots, as well…
Caveman on their newest record, ‘Otero War’
Before Caveman released their newest record, Otero War — which is a shinier, more hook-heavy version of their normal dream-rock selves — they spent the better part of a year workshopping some of the songs on the stage, trying to piece together the best possible versions. “The song ‘Never Going Back’ was a whole different…
Andrew Bird on why he had to go solo to search for his sound
Before making a name for himself as a solo artist, Bird served a tenure in Charlie Nobody, a punk-ska band that he played with as a teenager, and The Squirrel Nut Zippers — whose second album, Hot, went platinum and launched them from relative obscurity into the national spotlight. “I learned a lot about the…
Ted Tyro: Boba
With Boba, Ted Tyro returns with their brand of AM gold, a kind of lounge version of the Silver Jews, or early Sebadoh, filtered through lo-fi production and bargain-bin instrumentation. Ted Tyro suffers the fantastic problem of being hard to pin down. The vocals are airy and almost have an Aaron Neville quality, sans any…
In Lightning: In Joy
With their first record, In Lightning — an outside-the-box, instrumental jam-band that’s cinematic in nature — veers all over the place. In Joy is a series of layered, atmospheric, orchestral-leaning funk that often times features a prog-rock style guitar zipping around, as well as other strings that drive the mood equally and drums that, throughout…
Grackle: Wintergarden
Multi-instrumentalist/singer/composer Steve Katsikas leads Dark Side of the Wall, an excellent Pink Floyd tribute band. His band, Grackle, though, performs original music, not without some Floyd and early King Crimson influences, but not burdened with them, either. Synthesized orchestral sounds set up the opening track, “Take Every Road.” Distant, echoed voices make for a languorous…
Dane Waters: Radiate the Finite
Dane Waters has had a prolific year. Hot on the heels of Sand In Your Mind — the recent release by the Waters-fronted band softcheque — she returns with a new solo record, Radiate the Infinite, a title that proves revealing with even a cursory listen. It would be disingenuous to suggest that anything could…
Two plays: smart dystopian, and nothing but laughter
More than 20 years ago, New Yorker cartoonist Peter Steiner depicted what has become one of the central privacy conundrums of our time. He drew two dogs sitting in front of a computer terminal over a caption that reads, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” These days, Nigerian email scams seem quaintly old-fashioned…
‘Kentucky by Design,’ great art ?that made America
“Making America Great Again … With Art.” If presidential candidate Donald Trump’s slogan added those last two words, I might pay more attention. This phrase actually was used, to great advantage, during the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Federal Art Project (FAP), part of the Works Progress Administration (later known as the Works Project…
Joe Fernandez: Ask for the ‘Poop Marijuana Box’ joke
The Stand-Up Sobriety Tour showcases some of Chicago’s best up-and-coming stand-up comedians. And “sobriety” might be somewhat of an exaggeration in this case: “We all kind of fit that mold of comedians who don’t take care of themselves and go out half-lit,” comedian Joe Fernandez said of himself and tour-mates Nate Burrows, Tim McClaughlin and…
Brooklyn and the Butcher, an excellent steakhouse meal
The other night, as we rolled across the Sherman Minton Bridge to New Albany for an evening at Brooklyn and the Butcher, it crossed my mind that New Albany is actually a little bit like Brooklyn. New Albany, like Brooklyn, is a city across a river from a larger city and long ignored by its…
Mark your bourbon calendar
As Kentuckians, we know that bourbon heritage runs deep through our veins, our history is steeped intimately within a charred oak barrel centuries ago, and now we’re sitting atop a booming resurgence of bourbon popularity. With our nation’s native spirit in a major upswing, it’s no surprise that bourbon events and specials are soaking the…
Food Literacy Project: inspiring new food relationships
Located at Oxmoor farm, running parallel to I-64, is one of our community’s hidden gems: The Food Literacy Project, a nonprofit, educational partner with the 10-acre Field Day Family Farm, which grows vegetables. The Literacy Project focuses on education and community engagement for families and youths to explore the story behind their food. It is…
Gov. Bevin could get away with vandalising Ali’s grave, legalize drugs
Low-hanging fruit, ain’t he? For once I can guess who you’re talking about. We’ve left our fuck-knuckle governor alone recently, partly because he’s just too easy to take the piss out of, and partly because his behavior is so petulant and petty, he makes Trump look like he has the hide of an orange rhino.…
‘Freedom, cut me loose!’
I’m a spinster. An old maid. I would wear brown if the “Handmaid’s Tale” came to fruition, as my fertility is highly questionable, and I am not a wife. A woman friend told me that with age comes an inevitable decline in sexual currency, something (she said) I have always had in spades. A male…
The ‘Trump International’ experience
Donald Trump’s trip to Mexico sure went well — for the Democrats. He embarrassed himself and the country (and the Mexican president). But international embarrassment seems to be par for the course for Trump. Speaking of par, I recently went on a family trip that quickly became an information-gathering excursion, of sorts, on what the…
Your Voice
on new minimum wage good, but not enough … If changing the minimum wage is such a great idea, why not make it $25/hour? How about $50/hour? Maybe $100/ hour or $200/hour? Nah, let’s make it $1,000/hour. See how stupid that sounds … People are paid what they are worth. If they are making $7.50/hour,…
