Apr 26 – May 3, 2017
Olive Rock & Roll: Cincinnati music veteran Brian Olive is about to release his solo album, ‘Living On Top.’ And it might just be the album of the year.
Minimum Gauge: R.I.P. Colonel Bruce Hampton
HOT: Jamming ’til the End If they got to choose, would a passionate musician who’s spent their life on the road want to die onstage, doing what they love most? It’s a theory most have about Colonel Bruce Hampton, but we’ll never really know because the Jam-band-scene icon died at the end of a 70th…
Report: Ohio seventh-worst in the country for safe water violations
Ohio is among the worst states in the country when it comes to water quality measures, a new study suggests. But researchers also touted Cincinnati as an example of ways to improve water quality. Research released today by the Natural Resource Defense Council analyzed data from the Environmental Protection Agency and found that Ohio is…
Critic’s Pick: ‘Baskerville’ at Cincinnati Playhouse
For many fans of literature, the single word “Baskerville” is enough to conjure the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes in his deerstalker cap and meerschaum pipe. The Hound of the Baskervilles, written in 1901 and 1902, remains the best-known story penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who invented Holmes and most of the tropes we identify…
Morning News: Mayoral primary tomorrow; use of force in Hamilton County Justice Center draws scrutiny; Kasich: ‘Eradicate’ North Korean leadership
Good morning all. Here’s some news on this wet and dreary Monday. Cincinnati’s mayoral primary is tomorrow. If you haven’t yet, go check out what candidates Mayor John Cranley, former UC Board Chair Rob Richardson Jr. and Councilwoman Yvette Simpson think about gun violence, transit, affordable housing and other topics of interest in the city,…
The Afghan Whigs announce Cincinnati show at Bogart’s this fall
One of Cincinnati’s all-time greatest musical exports, The Afghan Whigs, are currently gearing up for the release of their eighth full-length studio album, the sublime In Spades, which is set for release this Friday on Sub Pop Records. After the release, the band will play a sold-out show at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem,…
Pool, pizza and beer — little appetite for that combination in Fort Thomas
In a town as antiseptic as Fort Thomas, one question jumps out: Is it fair to expect residents to shoot pool and eat pizza without beer? Providing an answer will fall to a federal judge whose own predilection for quaffing a brew while breaking racks is not readily verifiable. The U.S. District Court in Covington…
LISTEN: Cincinnati Music Releases – April ’17 Playlist
As 2017 glides along, the pace is picking up in terms of the quantity of releases coming out of the Greater Cincinnati music scene. And the quality has not suffered in the slightest, as CityBeat’s April roundup of tracks from new releases that caught our attention attests. This month’s playlist includes a couple of tracks…
Stage Door: Mysteries, Magicians, Mormons and More
At the Cincinnati Playhouse, Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery uses one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s best-known mysteries, The Hound of the Baskervilles, as its starting point. But playwright Ken Ludwig has ramped up the theatricality of the tale by having it told by five actors — one as Holmes, another as Watson and three more…
Target of convicted police officer’s sexual ‘impositioning’ sues officer, police chief, township
Being in a closed room alone with men gives her panic attacks. She is less trusting of police officers. She sees a therapist for post-traumatic stress. All, she says, because of an incident that happened in the spring of 2015. She was a volunteer Police Explorer for the Miami Township Police Department in Clermont County…
Your Weekend To Do List (April 28-30)
FRIDAY 28 ONSTAGE: THE TEMPEST Cincinnati Shakespeare Company has generated theater buzz for the past two years with the announcement and subsequent construction of its new Otto M. Budig Theater at 12th and Elm streets in Over-the-Rhine. Its first play there, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is set for September.But first, it has to say…
Morning News: Democrats endorse for Council, school board; TANK could cut routes; Kasich decries gerrymandering that benefits GOP
Good morning all. Here’s your news today as we inch closer to the weekend. City Democrats have settled on the official slates they’re endorsing for the 2017 Cincinnati City Council and Cincinnati Public School Board elections. This year’s field of candidates has been very crowded — you’ll see some names you probably recognize and won’t…
21st Century Media Clichés
“Populism/populist” — People you disagree with; Trump, Bernie Sanders. Not long ago, bitter, angry populists included Huey Long, Father Coughlin and George Wallace. Optimistic populists were Teddy Roosevelt, “Fighting” Bob La Follette Sr. and Hubert H. Humphrey. Before the rise of Trump and his admiring alt-right models/admirers, I thought of myself as a populist. Last…
A Great Week to Mock Trump
The White House Correspondents’ Association annual awards dinner (9:30 p.m. Saturday, C-SPAN) is a longstanding presidential tradition. The annual event started in 1921 as a typical gala with multi-course dinners, movies and performers. Presidents and vice presidents have been attending since Calvin Coolidge in 1924. Comedians began hosting and roasting the administration during the dinner in…
Local Filmmaker Has Lived ‘The Trap’
It’s not often that a story in a press release strikes such a personal chord, but a recent message sent by Tom Sparough about this Sunday’s local premiere of The Trap — a new film by writer, director and star Joe Prather Campbell — gave me pause. Eleven years ago, Campbell and a group of other…
Four New Concertos by Women Composers
Young composers in Cincinnati and elsewhere are creating exciting new sounds that you can hear by attending a Cincinnati Soundbox concert. Now in its second season, Soundbox is a New Music concert series that presents works by living composers with no boundaries as far as style or genre. Its co-founders and co-artistic directors are Rachel…
Critic’s Pick: ‘Listen for the Light’ at Know Theatre
The opening sentence of playwright Kara Lee Corthron’s website states: “I write weird, dark, sad and often funny plays.” It’s a perfect way to describe Listen for the Light, her world-premiere historical drama being produced at Know Theatre through May 13. Listen for the Light is dark. Know’s description of the play grounds it in “a…
Curtain Closing on Race Street
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company has generated theater buzz for the past two years with the announcement and subsequent construction of its new Otto M. Budig Theater at 12th and Elm streets in Over-the-Rhine. Its first play there, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is set for September. But first, it has to say goodbye to its home…
What’s the Hops: Animals, Alcohol and ‘Star Wars’
The end of April and the beginning of May bring Earth Day, the Kentucky Derby and Star Wars celebrations. Which means if you like animals, the environment, thoroughbred racing and intergalactic battles, there are plenty of beer events for you. Did you know only 30 vaquitas exist in the wild? They’re cute, little porpoises and they…
Ask For Lexi: Queen City Radio is leading a charge against sexual harassment in bars
Bartenders are required to be a jack-of-all-trades. First, they’re culinary mathematicians who mix flavor profiles and textures to highlight (or disguise) the taste of liquor. On quieter nights, bartenders are attentive therapists. On rowdier nights, they can become combination bouncers/pro-wrestlers. Recently, the bartenders at Queen City Radio have added one more skill to their toolbox:…
Sound Advice: The Damned with Bleached and Red Hot Rebellion (April 27)
As far as Punk is concerned, there’s The Damned and then there’s everything after. The band’s list of firsts reads like the genre’s Book of Genesis: the first Punk single, “New Rose,” recently cited by Kerrang! Magazine as the greatest Punk single of all time; the first full-length Punk album, Damned Damned Damned; the first British…
Sound Advice: Christian McBride & Tip City (April 28)
Among the contemporary stars of the current Jazz scene, very few (if any) players have had the kind of prolific and diverse career bassist/composer/arranger Christian McBride has had. Outside of a few living legends from the music’s golden eras and the dean of Jazz, Wynton Marsalis, McBride is practically the king of the genre, a…
Sound Advice: Real Friends (April 30)
The seeds of Real Friends were sown seven years ago when bassist Kyle Fasel became discouraged with the music he was creating and invited guitarist Dave Knox to contribute his ideas to the woodshedding process. The pair began Real Friends with vocalist Dan Lambton and drummer Aaron Schuck and self-released their debut EP, This is…
Tim Goshorn 1954-2017
A true Greater Cincinnati music legend, Tim Goshorn, passed away on April 15. He was 62. A celebrated guitarist and songwriter, the Fort Thomas, Ky. native was a part of a musical family that has left a big imprint on the local music community. The musical lives of Tim and his brothers Larry and Dan…
Hard-touring SoCal rockers Bleached confront the banal ‘women in Rock’ pigeonhole
Led by sisters Jennifer and Jessica Clavin, Bleached is a Rock & Roll band from Southern California with a soft spot for fuzzed-out Punk and Power Pop. The quartet — which currently includes Jennifer on vocals and guitar, Jessica on lead guitar, Micayla Grace on bass and Nick Pillot on drums — dropped its second…
Cincinnati music veteran Brian Olive is about to release his solo album, ‘Living On Top’
Like Mark Twain, the news of Brian Olive’s demise was greatly exaggerated. Well, not Olive exactly, but his highly regarded Northside studio, The Diamonds, and not demised so much as damaged, relocated and reinvented. Or at least well into that process. So maybe not like Mark Twain at all. In any event, as Olive conducts…
The family of a slain man worries a plea deal could reduce charges against his shooter
During the evening hours of May 16, 2016, 23-year-old Earl Jones drove more than 20 minutes from Hamilton to Colerain Township, ostensibly to pick up his son from his ex-girlfriend, 21-year-old Cyerra Prather. According to a police report, he pulled out a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson after a brief argument and shot 19-year-old Kevin…
