Music Saturday: This weeks' CityBeat cover stars The Kentucky Struts have reached the end of their yearlong recording/art project, The Year of the Horse. After releasing one track online from the album each month in 2011, as well as showcasing a corresponding, horse-themed piece of art commissioned to accompany the song, the Roots/Country/Rock band will have copies of the full release available at Saturday's release party at Newport's Southgate House. The visual artists featured on the project are a mix of local and national artists, including Joshua Black Wilkins (also an acclaimed singer/songwriter), Rob Warnick, Karen Heyl, Matthew Shleton and Julie Hill. Some proceeds from the release show (featuring openers The Sundresses), as well as profits from prints of the artwork, will be donated to the Kentucky-based horse rescue organization, Speak Up For Horses. Click here and here for more on the project (and to look at some of the amazing art pieces). Below, take a gander at the pre-launch video, which explains the ambitious venture.—-
• It seems like every time beloved Cincy-based Folk/Pop act Over the Rhine presents its annual “Holiday Homecoming Show,” it comes at the end of another triumphant year for the long-running local legends with a dedicated international fanbase. This year is no different — the band is capping off a fantastic 2011 that saw the release of its 21st album (if you count live efforts and other non-standard studio projects), The Long Surrender, recorded with noted musician/producer Joe Henry and featuring a duet with the iconic Lucinda Williams. The album, which came out in February on the band’s own Great Speckled Dog imprint, was very well received by the band’s fanbase and critics alike. Paste magazine, a longtime OTR supporter, recently ranked Surrender No. 38 on its list of the best albums of 2011 (with surely more “Best of 2011” list appearances to come). Tickets for Saturday’s 8 p.m. concert at Taft Theatre — which will feature lots of OTR’s holiday-themed tunes, as well as other fan faves and surprises — are $45.30 (including service charges) and available through Ticketmaster outlets (including ticketmaster.com). Singer/songwriter Lucy Wainwright Roche, daughter of two Folk word giants — Loudon Wainwright III and Suzzy Roche — opens.
Enjoy the excellent OTR music video for their excellent 2008 song "Desperate for Love" below.
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On Saturday in the Southgate House's Parlour, Jason Wells
and his band for algernon present their annual holiday party, which they always do up like those old ’50s/’60s TV Christmas specials, with an endless line of special guests. This year, those guests include Scot Torres of State Song , The Minor Leagues , Ashley Peacock , Shiny & the Spoon , Mike Fair and some fat dude in a red suit and white beard. Save Our Strays will also be there to collect donations and sell handmade pet gifts. Show starts at 9 p.m. and cover is $5. On Monday, also in the Parlour, Indie Rock crew Koala Fires hosts “Goodbye, This Old House,” their final show at the club, featuring guests The Harlequins and Killer Star Effect. Showtime is 9 p.m. Cover charge is $5.Music Sunday:
After hosting his own release party/holiday shindig last week, local guitarist/producer Ric Hordinski is turning his Monastery studio/performance space in Walnut Hills over to local drummer/pianist/teacher/producer Daniel Joseph Dorff
, who will be celebrating his new album, the lovely solo instrumental Living Room . The recording of “improvisations, songs and hymns” is one of the first being issued on the Ol Kentuck Records imprint, founded this year by Northern Kentucky-based Sub Pop recording artist Daniel Martin Moore to release a vast assortment of music that appeals to him. Dorff’s release party concert is Sunday at 6 p.m. Visit www.olkentuck.com and www.danieljosephdorff.com for more on the release and tickets for the show.Here's the track "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name" from Living Room.
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It's been a wild ride for the Christian Metalcore maniacs of The Devil Wears Prada
since forming in Dayton six years ago. The sextet’s 2006 debut, Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord , brought them to the attention of the Christian Metal audience, but the band’s sophomore album, 2007’s Plagues , raised its profile within the secular Metal community. The 2009 release of With Roots Above and Branches Below almost cracked Billboard ’s Top 10 and ultimately led to TDWP being named as 2009’s Band of the Year by Alternative Press . This year saw the release of Dead Throne , TDWP’s most brutal and most successful album to date.Perhaps the most amazing aspect of The Devil Wears Prada’s success during the past six years is the fact that the band has never compromised its core spiritual values to attain commercial acceptance in the Metal scene. In an increasingly disposable world, The Devil Wears Prada has stayed steadfastly true to their Christian beliefs while accruing an ardent fan base that has embraced TDWP’s sound and accepted their message, an impressive feat by any measure. (Read more here.) TDWP plays Sunday at Bogart's in Corryville with
Whitechapel , Enter Shikari and For Today . Showtime is 7 p.m. Tickets are $29.27. Check out the band's clip for "Born to Lose" below.