Friday and Saturday at Sawyer Point, the inaugural MadLove Music Festival is set to bring the riverfront alive with art installations, a little comedy, a little wrestling (yeah!), several DJs and numerous local and regional live acts from the worlds of Hip Hop, Electronic music and Indie Rock. DJ Sinceer, DJ Deepfro, DJ Sab and DJ Fursur will host and DJ both days on the main stage.

Friday, things kick off at 5 p.m. at the P&G Pavilion stage, where music runs until 11 p.m. Friday night is called an "EDM Dance Rager" and the lineup is focused on Hip Hop and Electronic/Dance artists, including Knolls, Monty C. Benjamin, Cal Scruby, Those Guys, Olu, YZE, Neon Medusa and Manic Focus.

Saturday’s music kicks off at 3 p.m. (gates open at 1 p.m.). MadLove features a great second stage lineup Saturday hosted by DJ Kombat and Jake the Ripper. Performers include great Hip Hop acts The Natives, Joey Mack and Valley High, plus rockers like The Kickaways.

Saturday’s main stage lineup includes everything from live, improv-happy Electronica band Skeetones and Rock favorites The Lions Rampant to AltRock act The Driving Rain and strong Hip Hop up-and-comer Santino Corleon, plus a few Ohio-but-not-Cincy acts, like Cleveland’s acclaimed rapper Chip Tha Ripper, Cleveland Hip Hop/Rock crew iPhonic, very young Columbus Electro/Alt/Pop group Liberty Deep Down and Columbus’ popular “Schizoid Pop” duo Twenty One Pilots, which is signed to Fueled By Ramen (home to Fun., Gym Class Heroes, Cobra Starship and other heavyweights over the years).

Here is the full lineup, plus set times, for the weekend.

Two-day passes for MadLove are available for $20 through cincyticket.com. Tickets for Friday are $15, while Saturday-only tickets are also $20. “Half of all sponsored funds generated” go to the Cincinnati City Pools Fundraiser to help keep more public pools open this summer.

There will also be a few official MadLove afterparties. On Friday, visit either The Drinkery in Over-the-Rhine, where area Rock outfits Black Owls, Jody Stapleton and the Generals and Hello Mayday perform, or Longworth's in Mount Adams, where fest headliners Manic Focus featuring Lisa Lottie join DJ E-Trayn. Both events get rolling around 11:30 p.m.

Saturday's afterparty is at Bogart's in Corryville and features iPhonic, DJ Deepfro, DJ Sinceer, Liberty Deep Down and Skeetones. Music starts at 11:30 p.m. and advanced tickets are available here.

For full details on the MadLove Music Festival, visit www.madlovemusicfestival.com. There is a map of the grounds on the front page.

Anton Newcombe is one of the rare people about whom an old maxim is absolutely true — if he didn’t exist, someone would have to invent him.

Newcombe is a musical shaman, an acid casualty, a shrewd media manipulator and a conductor of immeasurable skill, a sonic conjurer who fearlessly channels eras, styles and influences with the scientific magic of an alchemist. Under the rotating auspices of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Newcombe has dabbled in Psychedelia, acid washed Blues, Garage Rock, fuzzy Shoegaze and various permutations thereof, all with an increasing fascination in widening his focus to cinemascopic proportions.

The last BJM album, 2010’s Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?, added elements of Trance and Techno to the repertoire, but Newcombe’s latest set, Aufheben (an excellent title to highlight Newcombe's creative schizophrenia; in its German translation, the word can mean, depending on context, to either abolish or preserve), largely abandons that contemporary device for a return to his most potent reference points, namely the mid- to late ’60s, when The Rolling Stones experimented on ephemera like “2000 Light Years from Home,” The Doors reimagined Rock with “The End,” Folk ingested mushrooms and harpsichords and sitars roamed the earth.

Newcombe and this year’s BJM model are particularly focused on the middle Eastern bong hits of “Panic in Babylon,” the swirling Psych lollipop of “I Want to Hold Your Other Hand” and the love-and-Haight echo jam of “The Clouds Are Lies.” Newcombe and BJM offer a slight return to the present with the album’s atmospheric closer, the seven minute Psych-meets-Chamber-Dance-Pop smoke ring of “Blue Order/New Monday,” but for the majority of Aufheben, the trip, aurally and physically, is most definitely the thing.

The Mercantile Library welcomes author and garden designer Jon Carloftis to speak as part of its Hearth & Home Lecture series. Carloftis, a Kentucky native, has been featured in magazines and television and has won awards for his landscaping, gardening and writing. He’s a driving force behind the now-popular trend of small space/rooftop gardening. Lit lovers and gardeners alike will enjoy hearing him reflect on his work. The lecture begins at 7 p.m. tonight; admission is $15, $10 for members.

Comedian Shane Mauss kicks off his weekend at Go Bananas tonight. Mauss has appeared on Conan O’Brien (both shows) four times, is a regular on The Bob and Tom Show, has been featured on Comedy Central and travels across the globe performing at international comedy festivals. Tonight’s show features opener Michael Palascak and MC Kelly Collette. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $8, $4 with college or military ID.

Winedog Wine Shoppe and Art Gallery hosts a Last Blast of Spring tonight from 6-9 p.m. Enjoy shop wines from Ralph Taylor, Spanish wines from Edgar Saborit of Cat Wines USA and Babee Bites Catering hors d’oeuvres by Debbie Hook. The shop’s attached gallery, Souleiado will feature artwork by Donna Schwarz and live music from Cheryl Renee. Guests should have already reserved their spots; find out more about Winedog here.

SmartTalk ConnectedConversations closes its speaker series tonight with Andie MacDowell — Acting As A Way Of Life. MacDowell has acted in Groundhog Day, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sex, Lies and Videotape and many other films and television programs. She also works to raise awareness for heart health. And she has amazing hair. Check her out tonight for a lecture and Q&A session at 7:30 p.m. at the Aronoff Center. Tickets are $25-$85; find them here.

Check out more events, art exhibits and theater shows on our To Do page and follow our music blog for nightly shows.

On this date in 2006, Taylor Hicks won that year's American Idol karaoke contest, laying waste to runner-up Katharine McPhee. Soul Patrol!!!

McPhee would bounce back and is currently starring in the hit network TV show Smash. Hicks, of course, went on to superstardom, scoring major hits with songs like … oh, wait. What ever did happen to that guy? Best guess: manager of a suburban Applebee's somewhere?

Post-Idol, Hicks did score a role in the traveling production of Grease and his self-titled album went platinum, but Hicks was dropped from his label in 2008 and hasn't been heard from much since.

Last night, a fella named Phillip Phillips (no lie! that's his name!) won this year's American Idol, beating a lady named Jessica Sanchez. I must confess I've not watch one second of American Idol this year (or the year before, or the year before, etc.), but reading The New York Times story on him from today, it appears Phillips actually can play guitar pretty well and covered songs by Damien Rice and The Box Tops when he was allowed to chose his own material to perform.

Will Philly Phillips be a star, post-Idol? These things are hard to predict (ask Taylor Hicks), but it seems — from my admittedly peripheral view — that Phillips is more David Gray or Dave Matthews than Clay Aiken or Adam Lambert.

Born This Day: Musical movers and shakers sharing a May 24 birthday include creative Jazz saxman Archie Shepp (1937); American music icon Robert Allen Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan (1941); big-voiced and bigger-haired R&B diva Ms. Patti LaBelle (1944); producer and guitarist (with Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon and others) Waddy Wachtel (1947); singer/songwriter and eldest daughter of Johnny Cash's, Rosanne Cash (1955); frontman for Soul/Funk group Cameo ("Word Up"), Larry Blackmon (1956); former keyboardist for Beastie Boys pals Luscious Jackson, Vivian Trimble (1963); bassist for Redd Kross and current member of old-school Punk supergroup OFF!, Steve McDonald (1967); guitarist for rockers The Black Crowes, Rich Robinson (1969); and singer/songwriter and Country artist Mike Reid (1947).

Born in Altoona, Penn., Reid attended Penn State, where he excelled on the football field. The tackle finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting his senior year (1969) and earned a Bachelor's degree in music.

In the 1970 NFL draft, Reid was the Cincinnati Bengals' top first-round selection (seventh overall). Known for his pass-rushing, Reid was a dominant defensive player selected All-Pro at his position in 1972 and 1973 (both years he made the Pro Bowl, as well). In ’74, an injured Reid posted lower numbers and retired at the end of the season as the Bengals all-time leader in sacks with 49. (Remember, the Bengals had only been a team since 1968.)

During the off-season, Reid played piano with orchestras in Utah and Dallas, as well as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. With some help from Larry Gatlin, he was ready to go into music full-time after retiring from professional football. Focused on songwriter, Reid won his first Grammy in 1984 for writing Ronnie Milsap's "Stranger in My House." We would go on to write several songs that hit No. 1 on the Country charts, including "Walk On Faith," the only No. 1 he also performed.

Reid's songs were recorded by the likes of Etta James, Conway Twitty, Willie Nelson, Alabama, George Jones, Wynonna, Lee Greenwood, Kenny Rogers, Shelby Lynne, Shania Twain, Oak Ridge Boys, Collin Raye, Alabama and Tim McGraw over the years. But his "time capsule" tune has to be his 1992 hit with Bonnie Raitt, "I Can't Make You Love Me," his biggest Pop chart success.

Reid is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In honor of his 65th birthday, here's Reid's biggest song sung by himself, followed by a pretty chilling more recent version by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.

Scared yet? Don't be. It just takes some practice. Bike polo is one of the world's up-and-coming sports, already highly popular in India and across Europe. According to the League of Bike Polo, U.S. bike polo was born in Seattle in the '90s, when a group of bike messengers were playing with a ball and some homemade mallets.

“This bike polo court is one the few official bike polo courts in the country,” says Steve Pacella, Cincinnati Recreation Commission superintendent, according to a press release. Several other cities across the U.S., including San Francisco, are scheduled to open official bike polo courts later this year.

Aside from the rise in U.S. cycling culture, its popularity is attributed, in part, to its flexibility — courts can be parking lots, roofs or grassy areas, meaning it's easy for urban-dwellers to find spots to pay.

The new bike polo court is located at the end of Joselin Avenue off Clifton Avenue, near the University of Cincinnati, and will be opened and dedicated today at 3 p.m. Councilman Chris Seelbach will be present to celebrate the court's opening, and the ceremony will also feature a bike polo demonstration for those unfamiliar with the game.

The opening of the bike court comes during Bike Month, a country-wide celebration of all things bike. Click here for a comprehensive list of Cincinnati bike happenings.

"The Republicans who are informally auditioning would each bring different strengths — and drawbacks — to the presidential ticket.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman supported Romney early, has a solid rapport with the candidate and hails from Ohio, a critical battleground state that could decide the election. But he wouldn't necessarily appeal directly to Hispanic or women voters.

(Louisiana Gov. Bobby) Jindal, the Louisiana governor, could help Romney turn out the religious right and would add diversity to the ticket as an Indian-American, but he struggled during a national debut rebutting the 2010 State of the Union address.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell appeals to social conservatives but signed a controversial state law that requires Virginia women to have ultrasounds before having an abortion.

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who's campaigned frequently with Romney, could help with female voters and in her swing state of New Hampshire. But she's from New England, the same region of the country as Romney, while (New Jersey Gov. Chris) Christie, a conservative favorite who can work a crowd, is from New Jersey.

(Florida Sen. Marco) Rubio could bring Florida, always a deciding factor in a general election, and appeal to Hispanics, a fast-growing voting bloc, but he's run into some trouble over a foreclosed home and possible misuse of an official credit card. And Ryan is a serious, leading policy mind with a bright future — and a brand name that's directly tied to a controversial budget that would make major changes to Medicare."

Meanwhile, Romney says Obama doesn't even understand free enterprise.

A Columbus tavern owner has lost his freedom isn't free battle in the Ohio Supreme Court, which yesterday unanimously ruled that the state's smoking ban is constitutional. The owner of Zeno's Victorian Village had racked up thousands of dollars in fines after 10 citations for violating the ban from July 2007 and September 2009. The state has reportedly threatened to seize the bar if the fines are not paid.

Meteorologists say after this weekend's heat wave this spring could be the hottest on record.

The Reds defeated the Atlanta Braves last night on a Todd Frazier walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was the Reds' fifth straight win, and they're currently a half game behind St. Louis for first place in the division.

The Pakistan conviction of the Osama bin Laden doctor who helped the CIA find him is not going over well with the U.S. government. Pakistani authorities sentenced Shakeel Afridi to 33 years in prison for treason, and Afridi was not entitled to representation, though he has a right to appeal. The U.S. has threatened to cut aid to the country, arguing that informants work against al-Qaeda and not Pakistan.

Britain's recession is worse than expected, as the country's economy shrunk by .3 percent during the first quarter.

The SpaceX shuttle passed some tests necessary to move forward with its landing on the International Space Station Friday morning. President Obama called the company's CEO to congratulate him and he answered despite thinking it might be a telemarketer.

John Malkovich is in the latest Apple advertisement for Siri, during which Malkovich gets some life advice. The ads follow those released starring Hollywood actors Zooey Deschanel and Samuel Jackson last month.

Rootsy local musician David Faul is no longer with the wonderfully-named duo project with fellow singer/songwriter Ian Mathieu, Terminal Union (my favorite Cincinnati-centric band name of all time … and there are a lot of good ones). The two artists are discontinuing their project, which had been recording, and pursuing the solo route for a while.

That's bad news in the sense that Faul and Mathieu meshed very well together in duo form. (And that name, just sitting there, wasted!) But it's good news because each artist is really good on their own. (And you can hear some of what they've done together so far here still.)

Mathieu has been impressing people in local venues since his teens. Tomorrow (Thursday) he'll be performing at and hosting the weekly Cincinnati Songwriter Round event at Tone House Music (4040 Hamilton Ave., Northside). Mathieu is filling in for usual host Andyman Hopkins. Music starts at 7 p.m. and it's a B.Y.O.B. kinda night, so bring yer own hooch. Mathieu will be joined "in the round" by singer/songwriters Mark Becknell, Doug Teets and Ben Knight.

Here's a clip of Mathieu performing recently at Plain Folk Cafe shot by the great local music website Cincy Groove.


Faul, oddly enough, is also hosting a songwriter's showcase/open mic/open jam this week. On Sunday, he'll perform at and run the open mic/jam at Plain Folk Cafe, the new Americana/Folk/Bluegrass hotspot in Pleasant Plain, Ohio. The jam is running from noon-4 p.m. and is quickly becoming a popular musicians' destination. Faul writes on his Facebook that the jam is open to all skill levels and those "with a flare for original, folk, acoustic, bluegrass, americana, roots music" should come on out. It's a laid-back affair and you can bring your own instrument or borrow one.

Faul's great original composition "Magnificent Sounds" recently got a bunch of attention when it was posted on the Dylan fan site Expecting Rain, where it drew enough hits to be in the Top 20 of most viewed posts for several days.

Faul says he wrote the song in tribute to two of his musical idols — Jazz great Miles Davis and late, brilliant singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt. He accomplishes this by blending spine-tingling Jazz trumpet licks, performed by fantastic local multi-instrumentalist Michael Mavridoglou, with a more folksy base.

The tune was intended for a Terminal Union album, but for now, it lives on in cyberspace. The track also features Mathieu on guitar, Jared Manker on bass and Brad Kelly on harmony vocals.

About the song, Faul writes on SoundCloud: "With the help of Michael Mavridoglou on trumpet we tried to blend elements of jazz and folk into one song creating a sound beyond genre characterization. I'm blessed to have heard the music of the great jazz masters and folk song-writers. I believe the love of all genres of music is what shapes our musical journey in the most profound and engaging ways."

What a great sentiment. And a great end result. Give it a listen below.

It’s never easy for a band to follow up a hugely successful album, but The Cribs had a doubly tough task after the overwhelming response to 2009’s Ignore the Ignorant, which was the group’s first Top 10 U.K. hit, outselling 11 of the 13 Beatles reissues that were released the same week. At least part of Ignorant’s success was attributable to the presence of former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who joined the Cribs after a chance 2008 meeting with bassist Gary Jarman. Marr’s departure in 2011 returned the Cribs to its original band-of-Jarman-brothers lineup for its fifth album, In the Belly of the Brazen Bull.

In many ways, Brazen Bull hearkens back to the Cribs’ early energy while tapping into the creative evolution that’s been percolating within the trio/quartet over the past decade. The Cribs’ raw conviction is all over the Nirvana-channels-the-Pixies-like ring-and-roar of the album’s first single, “Come On, Be a No-One,” two-and-a-half minutes of barely constrained Punk howl, an ethic that resurfaces on “Anna” and “Chi-Town.” At the same time, the newly reinstated trio displays plenty of Pop maturity on gems like “Jaded Youth” and “Confident Men,” where the Jarmans’ love of all things Cobain is leavened with a healthy respect for The Beatles’ melodic gifts.

The Cribs effectively demonstrate that the ultimate commercial success of In the Belly of the Brazen Bull isn’t nearly as important as the brothers’ ability to translate all of their influences without the taint of compromise.

When Reds pitcher Mike Leake hit his first career home run Monday night off Braves starter Mike Minor at Great American Ballpark, it landed directly in the lap of 20-year-old casual-turned-hardcore fan Caleb Lloyd, who was sitting at the edge of the left field bleachers.

It was also Lloyd's first home run catch, he said later.

When Zach Cozart hit a homer to mark the occasion of the Reds first back-to-back jacks since last season, the ball headed toward the same general vicinity of the first homer, bounced a couple seats away from where Lloyd was sitting and landed directly into his free hand (the other was occupied by his previous homer catch).

The last time that happened was never. I think dude should call Guinness.

(Drew Stubbs followed Cozart's jack with a home run of his own, making it a rare back-to-back-to-back homer hat trick. Sadly, it went to right center field, not directly in Lloyd's pocket.)

The Reds' TV crew invited Lloyd up to the broadcast booth to hang out for a bit. He spoke to the media before last night's game, where he was also named the team's honorary captain and delivered the game card to the ump before the first pitch.

To make the story even more perfect, Lloyd reportedly returned to Leake his first home run ball to keep as a memento and he gave the friend who he said "dragged" him to the game the other ball. What a guy!



That wasn't the first Reds fan's fancy fielding move this year to trump any made on the field (at least for the day). At Yankee Stadium just four days before Monday's miraculous catches, a young Reds fan amongst the savage Yankee masses gracefully swooped a Joey Votto foul ball out of mid air with his glove while his father (also decked out in Reds gear) hoisted him up a good four feet into the air.



The father/son combo was up for ESPN's Web Gem that night, put up against a play at home by Elvis Andrus of the Texas Rangers. The Reds fans won the vote 63 percent to Andrus' 37 percent. (He's probably pissed. I mean, he had to perform his play all by himself!)

The cool surprise ending to this story — according to Jim Day's postgame report on Fox Sports Ohio, the man from the two-person foul-ball catching team was Reds catcher Ryan Hanigan's brother-in-the-law; the kid was the catcher's nephew.

We Are Ohio is already known for leading the charge against the state legislature’s attempts to weaken collective bargaining among public employees with Senate Bill 5 and lower the window of time to vote with House Bill 194 and now Senate Bill 295.

The organization announced it would be backing Ohio Voters First, a group aiming to take down politicized redistricting.

Ohio Voters First is currently trying to get enough signatures to put an amendment on the November ballot that would place redistricting powers in the hands of an independent citizens commission.

Redistricting is a process in which the state legislature redraws district boundaries. Originally, redistricting was meant to be used so states and districts could keep up with shifting populations. It is typically done every 10 years in response to the national census.

However, politicians were quick to hijack the process. In what is known as “gerrymandering,” politicians redraw district boundaries in a way that gives them or their political parties favorable demographics and places in terms of getting elected.

Redistricting cost Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland his congressional seat this year. When Republicans redrew the district map in Ohio in response to the 2010 census, they did so in a way that pit Kucinich against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in a primary battle.

The primary fight was a dream come true for Republicans as two prominent liberals in Congress were forced to fight for their political lives. Kucinich lost by nearly 30 points.

Other states have already undertaken measures to safeguard against gerrymandering. California recently enacted reform that calls on an independent citizen commissions to draw up districts, and voters will be taking advantage of the nonpartisan redistricting for the first time in the June 7 primary. Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho and New Jersey also use independent or bipartisan commissions.