Ric Hordinski’s name on any project or event is the musical version of the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. So it is with Joel Henderson’s release gig at Hordinski’s Monastery studio in Walnut Hills as he introduces his new release, Locked Doors & Pretty Fences.  

Some bands work for years for even the smallest scrap of national attention. For Cincinnati’s Bad Veins, that recognition came just after their second show in 2006 and has hardly abated in the subsequent six years. 
  

When Joan Osborne vaulted into the public consciousness with Relish, her 1995 major label debut, she had already established a loyal fan base that was well aware of her estimable Jazz and Soul skills. With Soul Show in 1991 and the Blue Million Miles EP in 1993, Osborne displayed her smoldering vocal chops and her unerring ability to write to her own strengths as well as inhabit another writer’s...  

The phrase “living legend” gets thrown around a bit too liberally but there’s no better description for Merle Haggard. Far removed from the big-hat twang Pop dominating Country music today, Haggard was among the ’60s artists who helped popularize and transform the genre beyond its regional hillbilly appeal and teeing up its mainstream success. Haggard didn’t play the role of Country bad boy, he lived it.
  

Few Death Metal bands have aroused as much fan passion or public outcry as Cannibal Corpse. Cannibal Corpse has long defended the murder and mayhem in its lyrics as nothing more than graphically gory short stories, fictional exaggerations of real life’s more brutal aspects. The band’s fans clearly understand the distinction and will turn out in droves to feel Cannibal Corpse’s self-described “anger music” in their unspilled entrails.  

Sometimes the universe offers options you might never have otherwise imagined. Post Rock/Prog trio Pharaoh Loosey had already decided on the Mad Frog as the venue to celebrate the release of its debut CD, (h)wak formal, but when they ventured into the Corryville club’s catacombs, they found an ideal gig location.   

Strangely, but perhaps predictably, James Mercer’s recent career moves seem indicative of diva behavior — signing with Columbia, dismissing his longtime bandmates and making The Shins something of a solo venture while exploring outside projects like Broken Bells.   

From the moment Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala left At the Drive-In to form The Mars Volta more than a decade ago, the duo and their co-conspirators have made a conscious effort to challenge even their staunchest fans and completely confound their easily befuddled critics.  

In four short years, Dom Kennedy has gone from Rap dabbler to influential figure in the West Coast Hip Hop scene. In 2008, Kennedy and his film student cousin Jason Madison collaborated on Kennedy’s debut mixtape, 25th Hour, which became an underground sensation. Kennedy’s biggest break yet could be his sophomore studio effort, the upcoming Yellow Album, which he’s described as “more mature and forward thinking.” Dom Kennedy’s Westside love is ready for its global close-up.   

 What would you call a rotating collection of Punk superstars who assemble for an annual acoustic front porch hootenanny that crisscrosses the country to the ecstatic response of thousands of their biggest fans? Chuck Ragan calls it The Revival Tour, while the Phoenix New Times dubbed it “Punk Rock’s answer to the Traveling Wilburys.”