Covington native and legendary bassist on numerous crucial sessions done for Cincinnati’s King Records, Ed Conley, passed away on Jan. 5 at the age of 84. Following the private memorial for family a couple of weeks ago, friends and admirers this Thursday will gather at the Gwen Mooney Funeral Home (inside Spring Grove Cemetery at 4521 Spring Grove Ave.) at 1 p.m. for a public ceremony.  

In an interview last year, frontman Andrew McMahon of Pop Rock band Jack’s Mannequin said the band’s mission was simply to get “people fired up for some new music.” That new music arrived in early October with People and Things, the third album from the group led by the piano-playing vocalist McMahon.   

One of Kry Kids’ live trademarks is a structural complexity that finds everyone but Donaldson moving constantly between instruments and roles. Like a well-choreographed but also intuitive ballet, the switch-ups are planned and practiced but come across graceful and natural enough to not be a momentum killer.  

If you were to place a bet as to what local band will be the next to follow the likes of Bad Veins, Pomegranates and Daniel Martin Moore into the ranks of “nationally acclaimed” Cincinnati area artists, putting your money on Electro/Indie foursome Eat Sugar is a pretty safe wager. One listen to the band’s excellent new EP, It’s Not Our Responsibility!, and you couldn’t be blamed for betting your life savings.   

We always thought that the most interesting and mysterious thing about network TV news anchors was the possibility that they don’t wear pants when they’re on the air. Turns out, newscasters are just regular people (admittedly with super-human hair) and some even have good taste in music.  

If there’s one thing to be absorbed from the music of Priestess, it’s that Heavy Metal still has the power to liberate. While histrionics-heavy Metalcore and cheaply crafted Radio Rock can be found clotting iTunes playlists, Priestess’ sweeping scapes are an excellent diversion.   

Oklahoma has become the next state to name an official Rock song — hallucinogenic art rockers The Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize?” (also, coincidentally, the official song of Mitsubishi). It was officially bestowed that honor earlier in the week.  

But if life as a mother/wife/musician means juggling the demands of home and family with the demands of promoting a tour and new CD comes with an understandable element of chaos, it seems clear that when it comes to the music itself, Williams continues to have things under control.