Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo capped its 30th anniversary in January by dropping its 13th long-player. At 10 songs, all of which clock in at a relatively brief 3-6 minutes, Fade is YLT’s most concise release in ages, perhaps the result of a switch in producers from longtimer Roger Moutenot to John McEntire (of Tortoise fame). Otherwise, not…
Rosie Flores
Rosie Flores has been gigging since the 1960s. She started with Rock & Roll, was a part of the Big Guitar Honky Tonk scene in L.A. that produced Dwight Yoakam and others and, in the 1980s, Flores threw down some Punk with The Screamin’ Sirens. A decade later, Flores recorded the album Rockabilly Filly, which…
Zero Boys and Gang Green
If you find today’s so-called “Punk Rock” to be a little lacking and miss the pre-Emo days of classic Punk abandon, you’re in for a treat this week as two of the best American Punk acts team up with a pair of Ohio greats — Cincinnati’s SS-20 and Dayton’s Legbone. The Zero Boys formed in…
David Byrne & St. Vincent
An artistic meeting of the minds between David Byrne and Annie Clark is more of a natural one than some might expect. Both are adventurous musicians who employ a playfully surreal streak within their work — Byrne via the well-known Art Pop stylings of Talking Heads and a variety of lesser-known solo projects; Clark via…
Morning News and Stuff
Ohio and Kentucky officials will roll out a plan in September to pay for the Brent Spence Bridge project with tolling — a decision that could lead to opposition from Northern Kentucky officials who have long advised against using tolls to finance the $2.5 billion project. The funding choice comes as little surprise, given the…
ArtSong Music Series Takes It Indoors
EdenSong, the long-running summer concert series presented by the Queen City Balladeers, kicks off this Friday in Eden Park, but not in its usual outdoor spot at the Seasongood Pavilion. For the 2013 series, EdenSong is moving just up the hill and indoors — inside the Cincinnati Art Museum, to be exact. The series —…
Morning News and Stuff
Construction to renovate the former IGA in Clifton's Gaslight district will come to a halt soon, and the future for the building remains uncertain; contractors told the Enquirer they'd finish working on the roof and then pull off the project. Steve Goessling, who purchased the property when it was vacated two years ago, says he…
Morning News and Stuff
Plunderbund Ohio reports that Gov. John Kasich has picked up his first endorsement for a presidential bid from Citizens for Community values president and executive director and self-professed former porn addict Phil Burress, following Kasich's signing of some of the country's most archaic and restrictive anti-abortion provisions in the nation. This week’s news story by…
Summer 2013 Music Calendar
JULY DAVID BYRNE & ST. VINCENT – July 10, Taft Theatre HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD – July 10, Bogart’s SUBLIME WITH ROME & PENNYWISE – July 11, Horseshoe Casino THE MANTRAS – July 11, Stanley’s Pub ANBERLIN – July 11, Taft Theatre ZERO BOYS, GANG GREEN – July 12, Southgate House Revival DAVE MATTHEWS BAND – July…
Dylan’s Stratocaster and Samsung’s Jay-Z Scheme
Going Electric, the Home Game The Fender Stratocaster Bob Dylan used when he notoriously “went electric” for the first time on stage at 1965’s Newport Folk Festival is headed for auction. A family heirloom found almost 50 years ago by a private pilot on his plane, PBS’s History Detectives estimated its worth at $500,000. Dylan…
The Tillers Plow Forward on Fifth LP Release
Folk trio The Tillers, one of the more popular and respected original groups in Greater Cincinnati, will release their new album (the band’s fifth overall) this Friday at Newport’s Southgate House Revival, in the venue’s Sanctuary performance space. Old-timey Nashville, Tenn., unit Woody Pines and North Carolina folklorist/union activist Saro Lynch-Thomason open the show at…
As a Whole
O ver the course of Wilco’s seven previous studio albums, singer/guitarist Jeff Tweedy has been viewed as the musical brains behind the critically acclaimed band. But one thing is immediately apparent while talking to Wilco guitarist Nels Cline: As much as Tweedy is the bandleader and songwriter, other voices are being heard on the group’s…
Deadspin Rips Paul Daugherty over Homer Bailey Take
Reds pitcher Homer Bailey threw the second no-hitter of his career last night and dropped an awesome F-bomb during a postgame TV interview. The comment came in response to a pretty dumb question about whether batting in the sixth inning had something to do with him walking a batter in the seventh, the only baserunner…
Q&A with 311’s Nick Hexum
The band 311 has been bringing an intense combination of Rock and Hip Hop music to audiences for 20 years. The group last released an album in 2011, Universal Pulse, which was 311’s 10th studio offering. They are known for their high-energy, marathon shows, sometimes with set lists reaching over 60 songs. Catch the band…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
Last week was totally gay. In a very good way. Cities across the country celebrated Pride and honored the 44th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village as the Supreme Court struck down Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8. This week’s cover of The New Yorker pays tribute to all that’s happened…
Class: Embroidery 101 with Sewn Studio
The Contemporary Arts Center’s One Night One Craft events, which range from workshops on DIY bookbinding to hairstyling at home, regularly bring experts on a crafting topic together with those who are interested in the idea of learning hands-on skills. This coming week’s topic of embroidery — hosted by the folks from Sewn Studio in…
Sports: The Heart of Vintage Baseball Tournament
Eight teams from around the area will compete in a daylong gentlemanly competition of 1869-style baseball. As Cincinnati is the home of the first fully professional baseball team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, it’s only fitting to honor this sporting tradition. The Norwood Highlanders are hosting the inaugural Heart of Vintage Baseball event, pitting teams…
Event: Intergalactic Bead and Jewelry Show
Remember the good old days when a friendship bracelet meant the world to your BFF? When everything had to be bedazzled and winning Pretty, Pretty Princess was all you needed to have the best day ever? It’s time to bring those days back. Fill your weekend to the brim with billions of beads, Swarovski crystals…
Morning News and Stuff
Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls is calling for a quick police chief search following a bout of local violence during the past few weeks. In a memo to City Manager Milton Dohoney, Qualls argues a police chief replacement is necessary to clamp down on crime, particularly gun and gang-related violence. She asks the city manager to…
Art: Words and Pictures: New Works by Eric Deller, Dale Jackson and Michael Weber
Words and Pictures: New Works by Eric Deller, Dale Jackson and Michael Weber: The title is as simple as Thunder-Sky artist Dale Jackson’s block letters scrawled across 8-by-11 sheets of paper and ceiling tiles. Yet his stream-of-consciousness jottings about airplanes, cars, streets and Motown are pure poetry. The pictures by Eric Deller and Michael Weber…
Event: Christian Moerlein Beer and BBQ Cruise
Nothing says “summer” quite like barbecue and beer. And BB Riverboats has teamed up with Christian Moerlein to bring you a tasty new take on cruises. Sample premium Moerlein ales and learn about the brewery’s history and the principles of Moerlein beer from the Christian Moerlein team. Enjoy your favorite drink with selections from a…
Music: Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s with Matt Pond and Matrimony
This year’s free, every-Friday MidPoint Indie Summer series on Fountain Square largely showcases some of the best of Cincinnati’s independent, original artists, but there are a few shows featuring national acts. This Friday’s event might just be the best “national” show of 2013, headlined by Indianapolis, Indie faves Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s,…
Comedy: Big Jay Oakerson
Fourteen years into stand-up, Big Jay has emerged as one of our foremost storytelling comics. “It’s a kind of a combination of storytelling mixed in with talking to the crowd. I do that a lot,” he says. It’s those crowd interactions that will often spark a story from his vast repertoire. But, of course, storytelling…
Event: Ice Cream Social at the William Howard Taft National Historic Site
Visit Mount Auburn’s William Howard Taft National Historic Site, the Greek Revival home and birthplace of President William Howard Taft, for a day of ice cream and music. Enjoy an old fashioned, family-friendly ice cream social on the lawn while the Pete Wagner Band plays. 1-4 p.m. Free. 2038 Auburn Ave., Mount Auburn, 513-684-3262.
Event: Red, White and Blue Ash
Bring the family and head out to Blue Ash for an evening of food, entertainment and family-friendly activities during the Independence Day Red, White and Blue Ash celebration. Classic Rockers Foreigner will headline the entertainment portion of the evening with a live concert at 8:15 p.m., with opening act Midnight Special. After the show, check…
Event: Fountain Square Fourth of July Bash
Join family, friends and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky residents at Fountain Square for a fireworks show to celebrate Independence Day. Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks will begin at 10 p.m. on the rooftop of Macy’s downtown store. Before the fireworks, drop by the Reggae concert featuring Jah Messengers from 6-10 p.m. to enjoy some free music as part of…
Event: Northside Fourth of July Parade and Carnival
Fire breathers, sword swallowers and original music kick off Northside’s rockin’ celebration of community and independence, The Northside Rock n’ Roll Carnival, at 6 p.m. on Wednesday. The carnival features a beer garden, artists, a bed of nails and more, all leading up to live performances from bands including Vietnam, The Guitars, Apache Dropout, Tweens,…
‘Drunk History’ Staggers to Comedy Central
Funny or Die’s popular web series Drunk History makes the leap to TV with its Comedy Central debut this week (Series Premiere, 10 p.m. Tuesday). For those who haven’t countlessly re-watched Michael Cera portray Alexander Hamilton in the series’ classic first installment, Drunk History records a storyteller/narrator (after certainly, though unofficially, brushing up on a…
Event: LaRosa’s Balloon Glow
You won’t know whether you’ve run off and joined the circus or entered Alice’s Wonderland as dozens of giant hot air balloons glow over Coney Island and fill the night with dazzling colors. Mix and mingle with stilt-walkers and jugglers as the sounds of the Anderson Township Symphony fill the air in the Moonlite Mall…
And Still ‘the Void’ Remains
There is much drama at the heart of biblical relationships, but most modern translations resort to soap melodrama, the absurd and tasteless that has now become commonplace in our reality-based culture. Once upon a time, afternoon television soap operas teased audiences with conflicts and romantic tension between siblings and their spouses or partners. We wanted…
Ohio Highway System Drops in National Rankings
An annual report comparing state-by-state road conditions and cost effectiveness found Ohio dropping from No. 13 to No. 25 over three years, despite improvement throughout the nation as a whole. The 20th “Annual Highway Report” released by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, ranked Ohio No. 11 in fatality rate, No. 19 in urban…
Attorney General Releases Human Trafficking Report
Ohio’s Human Trafficking Commission on June 28 released its first annual Human Trafficking Statistics Report detailing human trafficking investigations conducted by local law enforcement agencies across the state. Ohio’s Safe Harbor Law, also known as House Bill 262, was passed June 27, 2012 to combat Ohio’s human trafficking plague by harshening penalties for traffickers and…
Truckshop Brings Mobile Fashion to the Midwest
Cincinnati is no stranger to mobile vendors, but Ashley Volbrecht’s Truckshop, a newly opened mobile fashion boutique, is the first of its kind in the Midwest. The shop, originally a bread delivery truck, has been transformed into a retail shopper’s paradise, complete with dresses, tops and jewelry at reasonable prices. Volbrecht, a Chicago native and…
Gabrielle Giffords to Appear in Northside 4th of July Parade
Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will appear in Thursday’s Northside 4th of July Parade as part of a nationwide tour supporting responsible gun legislation. Giffords was scheduled to be in town on July 4 as part of a gun-violence prevention tour called The Rights and Responsibilities Tour, and her team reached out to the Northside…
City Council Approves Streetcar Budget Fixes
City Council June 26 approved funding and accountability measures for the Cincinnati streetcar project, allowing the project to move forward. The funding ordinance closes the streetcar project’s $17.4 million budget gap by issuing more debt and pulling funding from various capital projects, including infrastructure improvements around the Horseshoe Casino. The accountability motion will require the…
Bad News Budget
W ith Gov. John Kasich’s signature, Republican state officials on June 30 passed a budget that alters taxes, schools, Medicaid and abortion services in Ohio, putting the state in a controversial and politically charged path for the next two years. For Republican officials, this was their first big opportunity in years to show where they…
Another Round of Cincinnati Theaters — Come and Gone
Drawing on my efforts to cover theater in Cincinnati for a quarter-century (including writing for CityBeat since 1994), two weeks ago I wrote about theaters that came and went during the 1990s. This week, I’m looking at companies that started during the 2000s. Cincinnati Landmark Productions (CLP) is today one of Cincinnati’s most successful theater…
The Lone Ranger
Was anyone yearning for a mondo-budgeted film version of a mediocre TV show from the 1950s in which the central hero’s sidekick was portrayed in a shamefully condescending way? Probably not. Yet Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp, the duo behind The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, team up for an entertaining, if often bloated, revamping…
Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain
It looks like 2013 will usher in the dawn of Kevin Hart as a movie presence (but will he become the next stand-up big screen star?). His motor-mouth assault took out any and everyone who dared to share the frame with him in Tim Story’s Think Like A Man, although, to be fair, he does…
A Tavola Expands, Eli’s at Neons and Other Dining News
One of Over-the-Rhine’s most popular destinations, A Tavola (1220 Vine St.), is opening a second location in Madeira. The new shop, at 7022 Miami Road, will open in December. I think it’s great that the center of the city has so much goodness going on that we can export it to the ’burbs. And if…
Despicable Me 2
While the success of Despicable Me seemed to land at the feet of Steve Carell as the voice of Gru, the ever-bumbling villain with a heart of gold, let’s be honest: Kids and adults alike fell head over heels for Gru’s sidekicks, The Minions, and I’m sure the makers of this sequel (returning directors Pierre…
The Attack
Co-screenwriter (along with Joelle Touma) and director Ziad Doueiri tackles this adaptation of Yasmina Khadra’s novel about an Arab surgeon (Amin Jaafari) living in Tel Aviv who embarks on a perilous journey to learn the truth about his wife in the aftermath of a suicide bombing. With previous efforts (2004’s Lila Says and two episodes…
A Feast of Fests
ARTSONG (July 12-Aug. 2, Cincinnati Art Museum) EdenSong, the free, long-running summer concert series presented by the Queen City Balladeers, moves inside the Cincinnati Art Museum this year. The series — dubbed ArtSong — features an excellent collection of primarily local Americana/Roots music performers. The Friday concerts take place in the museum’s Fath Auditorium and…
20 Feet From Stardom
Walking out of Morgan Neville’s documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, you may come to appreciate the almost existential crisis of those talented professionals gathered around microphones just off to the side behind your favorite lead singers/bands. To be able to sing (and I’m talking about soulful “sanging” here), to meld your voice in perfect harmony…
Worst Week Ever!: June 26-July 2
WEDNESDAY JUNE 26 It’s been an emotional few years for gay people and gay marriage supporters — first California legalized gay marriage, then a bunch of jerks in Utah got it overturned; Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres got married while it was still legal, then de Rossi got mass plastic surgery and made the…
The City As Subject
C incinnati Everyday shows us our city as seen by two very different living artists, both of whom find the place endlessly interesting. Cole Carothers and Courttney Cooper are each instinctive artists. That is to say, each makes art because it’s his natural response to what he sees, but how they see is as individual…
Cincinnati vs. the World 07.03.2013
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s monumental overturn of DOMA, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul suggested allowing same-sex marriage was taking the country one step closer to human-animal marriages. WORLD -2 Elmwood Place’s controversial traffic-enforcement cameras, branded an exploitative “money-grab” technique for collecting around $48,000 in citations, will be shut down, confiscated and those ticketed will be…
Post Pride
Less than a week after the hoopla of Gay Pride, which cannily coincided with the United States Supreme Court’s smack down of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), clearing the way for married, same-sex couples to get federal benefits and to again be married in California, I got to thinking not about pride of any…
Main Bite (Review)
N othing says summer like freshly picked goods from the garden and made-from-scratch meals like (you wish) your mom cooked, served outside on a spacious wrought iron table with a big umbrella and, of course, a nice cold cocktail. The newly opened Main Bite in MainStrasse creates delicious, seasonal fare with crafty culinary cocktails to…
