Staffpicks
Wednesday, Sept. 17
Ill Bill
Rapper/producer Ill Bill says I shouldn’t be surprised at how he hunts down all manner of killer dramatic backdrops for his new disc The Hour of Reprisal. “I’ll sample a fucking 78-piece orchestra. Or Yanni at the Acropolis … OK, that’s a joke.” Well, no kidding. Most any of this Brooklynite’s best will convince you that he’s for no-bullshit intensity. He’s been behind the mic for more than a dozen years, gradually building his “constituency.” Bill’s now seeing a younger generation of listeners mixing in with those who heard him early and held fast, “because people are always looking for something a little left-field … a little different.”
Does this mean Bill’s flow will be nudging potential voters toward his Agent of Change? “My music is anti-politics,” he says. Though he’s looking forward to what Obama can do for the country, Bill’s a prickly cynic. “In the end, every president’s a puppet.” Whatever’s in store for the next four years, if we’re lucky, Ill Bill gets to collaborate with Bad Brains again, and maybe achieves his next goal: producing metal. —T.E. Lyons
Uncle Pleasant’s
2126 S. Preston St.
634-4147
$15; 8 p.m.
Sept. 18-Oct. 24
‘In the Appalachian Coal Fields’
The U of L Special Collections Gallery is offering something perhaps out of the ordinary for city folk — a study of life in the coal towns of the Appalachian Mountains. If your knowledge of these places is limited to that Loretta Lynn movie, these photos present a new and realistic perspective: with images that are beautiful as well as enlightening about this lifestyle and the poverty that goes with it. Photographer Andrew Stern spent years traveling through Appalachia, capturing everyday lives and the conditions of coal mining. He completed his original project between 1959 and 1963 and returned there this year; the gallery will include many of the old pictures as well as the new.
The opening reception on Thursday will include a panel discussion with Stern himself, along with local photographer and founder of Quadrant Photography, Ted Wathen, Judi Jennings of the Kentucky Foundation for Women and U of L’s Bill Carner. In case you miss it, the gallery will be up until Oct. 24. —Jane Mattingly
Ekstrom Library
2301 S. Third St.
852-6752
Free; 5 p.m.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 19
Big fish
Short on pretense and long on attitude, Minnow’s Thirteen Wrongs is a lean, mean, unabashed throwback to the glory days of ’80s and early ’90s underground rock, with echoes of Hüsker Dü, Superchunk and others informing nearly every song. Much of this has to do with vocalist Rob Pennington, whose raspy bellow instantly recalls Grant Hart and fIREHOSE’s Ed Crawford, but the whole band generates considerable heat throughout, balancing solid melodic chops with snarling guitars and punkish fury.
Familiar, yes, but Minnow push the limits of their vocabulary, and they acquit themselves especially well on the menacing “Irony,” the plaintive “Great Walls” and the lugubrious detour of “Sailors and Elephants.” Nothing about Thirteen Wrongs is particularly groundbreaking, but that’s part of its charm. For fans of this genre, the album fits like an old pair of shoes, but in an age when indie rock is trending toward clipped digital production, wounded sensitivity and outright preciousness, the raw and uncompromising Thirteen Wrongs is fresh.
Minnow celebrates its record release Friday at Cahoots with Frontier(s) and Trophy Wives. —Eric Condon
Cahoots
1047 Bardstown Road
454-6687
$5; 9 p.m.
Sept. 19-20
German-American Club Oktoberfest
Where can you stuff yourself silly with sausages and beer while broadening your own personal culture? Oktoberfest, of course! The Louisville German-American Club pays tribute to the land of liverwurst and pilsners when it hosts its version of Oktoberfest this weekend.
The festivities start at 5 p.m., and in typical Oktoberfest fashion, there will be plenty of authentic German beer, food and live music performed by Gebhard Erler, the Kaelin Band and the Rheingold Band.
“This is a celebration that has been going on for years. We want people to come out and have fun and enjoy the authentic German atmosphere,” says Brent Scout, a German-American Club member and Oktoberfest volunteer. “It is a more German-based Oktoberfest, people will be wearing lederhosen.” —Brittany Tracy
German-American Club
1842 Lincoln Ave.
451-3100
$3; 5 p.m.-midnight
Saturday, Sept. 20
Bark in the Park
On a lovely fall day in our fair city, what could be better than to be outdoors — especially if you’re still without power? On Saturday, you should gather up your dog and head over to Seneca Park for the Fifth Annual Bark in the Park, presented by the Animal Care Society. This event, a fundraiser to benefit Louisville’s only no-kill, nonprofit animal shelter, will “stand out” from past years, according to coordinator Bunny Zeller. Activities for both two-legged and four-legged creatures include face-painting and caricatures, the Flying Hounds and Super Dogs competitions and a 5K Run/1-Mile Walk. Other activities include Pet CPR/first aid training, a K-9 Police Unit demonstration, obedience/training classes and the Halloween Canine Costume and the Canine Idol Talent Contest. There will also be veterinarians from the Pewee Valley Veterinary Center microchipping pets for $30 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Pre-registration for the run/walk is $25, or $30 on the day of the event. —Amy Berg
Seneca Park
HYPERLINK "http://www.animalcaresociety.com" www.animalcaresociety.com
Free; 7 a.m.-3 p.m.
Through Sept. 27
‘Translations/Transitions’ by Mitch Eckert & Deborah Thomas
Mitch Eckert’s day job is teaching photography at U of L. His personal art seemed to take a back seat until now. This is his first exhibition at Zephyr Gallery.
I have to confess, Eckert is the Louisville artist who convinced me, by way of his creativity, of the artfulness of digital photography. He manipulates a mundane piece of equipment, the scanner, to create thoughtful and beautiful still-life images.
Deborah Thomas is sharing the gallery walls with him. Her new acrylic-on-canvas paintings explore depth and color. Nature, especially trees, is the impetus that leads our eyes into her shallow, vertical space.
Their work has the capacity to draw you in off the street. — CONTACT _Con-419CB26F17 c s l Jo Anne Triplett
Zephyr Gallery
610 E. Market St.
585-5646
www.zephyrgallery.org
Through Sept. 28
Suzi Zimmerer & Keith Kleespies
Meet the new neighbors. Suzi Zimmerer and Keith Kleespies moved here two years ago from Santa Fe, N.M., but hadn’t shown their work in town until the Patio Gallery came knocking. Their 28 collages, drawings, paintings and prints are a welcome introduction.
“Suzi and I are both draughtspeople, so everything is rooted in our concern for drawing,” Kleespies says. “The work is figurative and narrative, the styles varying with our intent. The image of the chocolate rabbit from Schimpff’s is a detail of a large oil crayon still life of Suzi’s. The car image is a print I did with Dan and Troy Rutledge of Unique Imaging in Germantown.”
While they are unknown in Louisville, they are not new to the region. Zimmerer has shown in Lexington and Kleespies in Cincinnati, and both were in an exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. —Jo Anne Triplett
Patio Gallery, Jewish Community Center
3600 Dutchmans Lane
238-2739
www.jccoflouisville.org
