Brave New Sisterworld
Over the course of its now 10-year existence, Liars has gone from off-the-cuff Art Rock punks to, well, slightly more evolved Art Rock punks. Formed in 2000 by lanky Aussie native Angus Andrew and fellow Los Angeles art-school veteran Aaron Hemphill — the only constants in the band's shifting lineups — Liars rode in on…
Events: Cincinnati World Cinema
The British simply do some things better than Americans (though soccer is no longer one of them). One of those things is the creation of television commercials — or, as the Brits call them, “adverts.” Proof is abundantly clear when viewing The British Television Advertising Awards (BTAA), a smorgasbord of creative, wit-infused commercials that are…
Hooked on Symphonics
Symphonic Pops concerts long ago discovered Rock. The legendary Arthur Fiedler and his Boston Pops Orchestra, for instance, scored a hit single with their timely version of The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1964, the same year as the British Invasion kicked off. But now Rock and Pop musicians and orchestras are…
CPO Gets Around
Over its 33-year history, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra has translated a diverse spectrum of popular music into the Classical idiom, which is hardly surprising since that's its prime directive. Under the masterful, all-encompassing and ever-present baton of Maestro Erich Kunzel, the Pops became renowned for delightfully unexpected programming. Kunzel’s passing last September will continue to…
Comedy: Steve White
“I almost think in jokes,” says comedian Steve White. “Either that or it’s the flip side and very spiritual and majestic. Sometimes it’s both. I look up and see a beautiful dove and it craps on my forehead.” After 24 years of doing stand-up, he explains, your mind starts to work a certain way. “I’m…
Events: Cincy Apparel T-Shirt Market
Nothing to wear? Want to wear your love for Cincinnati on your sleeve? Come down to the Cincy Apparel T-Shirt Market and choose from a wide variety of Porkopolis-themed shirts. You can support local designers, printers, teams, universities and your city in general by purchasing one of these distinctive tees made by Cincinnatians for Cincinnatians.…
Tanya Morgan
It’s been an eventful seven years since Cincinnati MCs Donwill and Ilyas forged an alliance with Brooklyn MC Von Pea to form the renowned Hop Hop group Tanya Morgan. The unit came together in 2003 when Donwill and Von Pea, who had collaborated after meeting on okayplayer.com, decided to record a full-length album together. Ilyas…
Music: Carolina Chocolate Drops
African Americans have a long and prominent profile in the timeline of string band music, but their almost complete absence from contemporary styles like Bluegrass, Country and Folk has done little to support their historical importance to the genres. That absence was at least partially rectified five years ago when multi-instrumentalist Dom Flemons, banjoist/fiddler Rihanna…
Carolina Chocolate Drops
African Americans have a long and prominent profile in the timeline of string band music, but their almost complete absence from contemporary styles like Bluegrass, Country and Folk has done little to support their historical importance to the genres. That absence was at least partially rectified five years ago when multi-instrumentalist Dom Flemons, banjoist/fiddler Rihanna…
Music: Tanya Morgan
It’s been an eventful seven years since Cincinnati MCs Donwill and Ilyas forged an alliance with Brooklyn MC Von Pea to form the renowned Hop Hop group Tanya Morgan. The unit came together in 2003 when Donwill and Von Pea, who had collaborated after meeting on okayplayer.com, decided to record a full-length album together. Tanya…
Comedy: Geoff Tate
“Some of the things I’m talking about on stage are uncomfortable for me to talk about,” says comedian and Cincinnati native Geoff Tate, “but I do that because I think that’s funny.” You gotta give the people what they want, as The Kinks once sang. “I always try to do what I would want to…
Breaking the Code of Silence
Two weeks ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the Vatican, plaintiffs claiming to be sexually abused at the hands of priests and betrayed by the church's effort to keep those crimes quiet earned their biggest court victory to date. In fact, after decades of losses, it felt like the…
Music: Wolf Parade
Wolf Parade’s frenetically charged Expo 86 careens from song to song like a runaway mine car, propelled by a soundtrack that combines the giddy intelligence of Talking Heads and Devo and the raw Indie Rock verve of Trip Shakespeare and Modest Mouse. The band’s third album wasn’t shaped by extreme personal drama, but it was…
Onstage: Blithe Spirit
Although not so many people pay attention to Sir Noel Coward today, he was truly a renaissance man — a playwright, composer, director, actor and singer. During the middle of the 20th century (he died in 1973) he was a “bon vivant,” a public personality whose witty pronouncements entertained people from all walks of life.…
Onstage: Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know?
On a car ride from Chicago to Wisconsin, Feldman began to lay what would become the ground work for his current program, Whad'Ya Know? “I made up something that I thought was rather preposterous: a weekly two-hour show, live audience, live band, taking phone calls and doing it as a quiz as a way to…
Events: Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight
The documentary Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight, which screens 7:30 p.m. Monday at downtown’s Contemporary Arts Center, meanders like a good after-dinner conversation. Which is appropriate, because, in Glaser, it has not just a brilliant designer as a subject but a witty, kindly, philosophical, erudite interview subject whose every utterance is so insightful you…
Art: Nature’s Stain at Aisle Gallery
Aisle Gallery (on the third floor at 424 Findlay St. in the West End, home to Carl Solway Gallery) hosts Nature’s Stain, an exhibition featuring work by Carmel Buckley and Joel Fisher. Buckley’s new drawings extract fragments from early-20th-century fairytale illustrator Harry Clarke. The results are formalist and open-ended — in some places whimsical and…
Music: Sting and The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
Symphonic Pops concerts long ago discovered Rock. The legendary Arthur Fiedler and his Boston Pops Orchestra, for instance, scored a hit single with their timely version of The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1964, the same year as the British Invasion kicked off. But now Rock and Pop musicians and orchestras are…
July 7-13: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY JULY 7There are a lot of things that Ohioans know they should be sorry for — we're kind of the ones who elected George W. Bush a second time and pretty much the reason LeBron James moved to Florida (we made the Cavs lose to the Celtics in the NBA playoffs). The Ohio Historical…
Art: Charley Harper at Phyllis Weston Gallery
Works never previously exhibited by the late Charlie Harper, one of Cincinnati’s favorite artists, go on view at Phyllis Weston Gallery Thursday. Many of the pieces are originals, rather than the prints we usually see of Harper’s work, and subject matter includes much more than just the artist’s familiar birds. “Many of the works are…
Music: MidPoint Indie Summer Featuring You, You’re Awesome
Drop by Fountain Square tonight for another free Midpoint Indie Summer concert. This Friday features You, You’re Awesome supported by Pop Empire, The Flux Capacitors and The Western. All are local and represent different types of Indie music. You, You’re Awesome has a heavy Electronica element, Pop Empire has an ElectroPop feel, The Flux Capacitors…
Events: Bastille Day Celebration
The best way to celebrate a foreign holiday is the American way, so when Bastille Day rolls around there’s only one thing to do (if you live in Cincinnati): Aller Bastille Day fte! That's French for “stop by Downtown Olde Montgomery on Saturday where there will be food and live music as incentive to appreciate…
World Domination/Kitty Cat Extravaganza (Review)
Critic's Pick Nearly a decade after Keith Banner and Bill Ross founded Visionaries & Voices (the well-loved local organization that supports and promotes self-taught artists and individuals with disabilities), a new chapter in the two men’s careers has opened up. Their Thunder-Sky Inc., a gallery and office located at 4573 Hamilton Ave. in Northside, was…
Events: Cin City Burlesque: Seven Deadly Cins
Aristophanes wrote about it in Ancient Greece. The Moulin Rouge perfected it in Paris. Dita von Teese is still keeping it alive. Enticed yet? It's burlesque, the cheeky, theatrical spectacle that mixes parody with sex. That's right, you might see a ta-ta or two, but unlike the pole kittens at Club Venus (no judgment), burlesque…
MidPoint Indie Summer Series Featuring You, You’re Awesome
Drop by Fountain Square Friday night for another free Midpoint Indie Summer Series concert, this week featuring You, You’re Awesome supported by Pop Empire, The Flux Capacitors and The Western. All are local and represent a variety of Indie music. You, You’re Awesome has a heavy Electronica element, Pop Empire has an ElectroPop feel, The…
Music: Liars
Over the course of its now 10-year existence, Liars has gone from off-the-cuff Art Rock punks to, well, slightly more evolved Art Rock punks. Formed in 2000 by lanky Aussie native Angus Andrew and fellow Los Angeles art-school veteran Aaron Hemphill — the only constants in the band's shifting lineups — Liars rode in on…
Wolf Parade
Wolf Parade’s frenetically charged Expo 86 careens from song to song like a runaway mine car, propelled by a soundtrack that combines the giddy intelligence of Talking Heads and Devo and the raw Indie Rock verve of Trip Shakespeare and Modest Mouse. The band’s third album wasn’t shaped by extreme personal drama, but it was…
In the ‘Know’
Before starting his radio career, Michael Feldman — host of the comedy/quiz program Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know? (which airs Saturdays at 3 p.m. on WVXU) — was an English teacher. “When you teach the main thing you do is think about how to get out of it, which you can do,” he says. “I thought…
John 5 from Rob Zombie
We sat down with John 5, the guitarist for Rob Zombie, to talk about how Hee Haw influenced his music and his preference in breasts. John 5 will appear with Rob Zombie on July 21 as part of the Mayhem Fest.
Friday Movie Roundup: The Art House Strikes Back
The worst summer movie season in memory gets a kick in the ass this week with the opening of a pair of small-scale, Sundance-approved art-house gems: the Duplass brothers' Cyrus, an unexpectedly touching, hilariously awkward comedy featuring John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill in an odd love triangle of sorts, and Debra Granik's…
A Thrilling, Memorable Trip to South Africa
The large signs started showing up right outside of Ellis Park as we drove to the USA vs. Slovenia soccer match: "Johannesburg is ready." Sure, these signs were meant to tell foreigners that South Africa had everything in order for the 2010 World Cup. But they also seemed to be a pep-me-up for South Africans,…
Gaslight Anthem: American Slang
Two seminal occurrences in Brian Fallon’s early life were hearing Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run when he was 9 years old and seeing The Afghan Whigs not long after. Although the New Jersey native didn’t quite yet have the tools to channel those two events in a creative fashion, they stayed buried in his psyche…
Pernice Brothers: Goodbye, Killer
Joe Pernice is another one of those exquisitely talented individuals who deserve to be awash in fame and fortune and is more or less a cult artist with a small but fervent following. Pernice began in the early ’90s in a Northampton, Mass., Rock band called The Scuds, which morphed into the Scud Mountain Boys,…
Cowboy Junkies: Renmin Park
The latest Cowboy Junkies album, Renmin Park, is something of a beginning for the Canadian quartet that came to prominence with the release of The Trinity Sessions 22 years ago. The circumstances that led to Renmin Park, and the next three Cowboy Junkies albums for that matter, are an almost perfect storm of creative conceptualism…
Winter’s Bone (Review)
The Sundance Film Festival has always offered a friendly home for naturalistic, rural/small-town-set family dramas with strong suspense/thriller elements; think Ulee’s Gold and last year’s Frozen River. Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone — winner of the Dramatic Film Grand Jury Prize and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at this year’s Sundance — continues that tradition, improving upon…
Cyrus (Review)
F ilm movements, like Lars Von Trier’s Dogme 95, reach critical mass when the aesthetics transcend conventions and document their own reality, one that audiences can embrace. Mumblecore, the low-fi craze that's dominated Sundance, SXSW and other U.S. indie film festivals for the last few years with its casual, hip (some might read “lazy”) camera…
Stonelick State Park Hike
Key At-A-Glance Information Length: 6.7 milesConfiguration: Lollipop and out-and-backDifficulty: Easy-moderateScenery: Woods, wetlands, and lakeExposure: Mostly shadedTraffic: Light-moderateTrail Surface: Soil, exposed rocks and rootsHiking Time: 2.5-3 hoursDriving Distance: 25 minutes northeast of CincinnatiSeason: Year-roundAccess: 6 a.m.-11 p.m.Maps: USGS; Stonelick State Park MapWheelchair Accessible: NoFacilities: Restrooms and waterFor More Information: Stonelick State Park office, (513) 734-4323 or…
Blue Elephant (Review)
W e've all been in that situation when we just can't decide what to eat. Sushi? Thai? Italian? Maybe just a bowl of cereal? In order to accommodate those quandaries, Blue Elephant in Hyde Park offers sushi, Thai and Italian. (Sadly, cereal has not quite hit the culinary scene just yet.) Blue Elephant offers not…
Pictures and Statues (Review)
W ith more than 25 artists, Country Club’s current exhibition Pictures and Statues serves as a massive visual “think tank” that questions the relevance of traditional art methods — the painstaking use of physical materials and handmade objects — in a world where life increasingly is experienced through mass-produced items and virtual communications. The latter…
All Losers Edition
[ LOSER] CHIEF STREICHER: Just when you thought Cincinnati’s police chief couldn’t get more unprofessional, he proves his knack for doing just that. As reported by WCPO’s I-Team, Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. recently reassigned the top three highest-ranking female officers in the department to new positions that involve far less responsibility. Asst. Police Chief Cindy…
Chris Walker, 1968-2010
Local super-bassist Chris Walker passed away July 3 from serious injuries sustained in a 2007 car accident. He was 42. Walker’s stellar musical abilities were showcased all over the Cincinnati music scene for the past few decades. His cool, kind nature and mad bass skills earned him a place in innumerable bands throughout his career,…
Nightmare on York Street
Outside of the words I had prepared, I remember very little of what I said on stage at York Street Cafe in Newport last month. I do remember, after realizing I was totally screwed, saying “I’m totally screwed,” but that’s about it. I thought I more or less knew what I was getting into that…
2010 CEA Theater Nominations Announced
For the 14th consecutive year, the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards are waiting in the wings to remind you of the best in local theater. The nominations are out, with public voting beginning now. See the complete list of nominees here (including Critical Achievement categories), and access the CEA ballot here. I recently wrote that an abundance…
Albert Pyle [Mercantile Library]
The Mercantile Library is turning 175 years old, and Albert Pyle, director for 16 years, has kept her in pristine shape. This downtown gem is a place where members can relax, eat lunch, write the next great American novel and, if in need of inspiration, wander the stacks of books housed on the original library…
Like It or Not, We’re a Nation of Warmongers
P resident Dwight Eisenhower could have chosen any number of pressing topics to talk about to the American people in his farewell address from the Oval Office. There was the ongoing Cold War with the Soviet Union, of course, as well as the beginnings of the manned U.S. space flight program and the construction of…
The Last Airbender (Review)
M. Night Shyamalan appears willing to try anything to turn around his career. Early critical and box-office success came as a result of a couple of suspenseful twist endings to his Hitchcockian musings. But lately that well has run bone dry, so he offers up a somewhat intriguing adaptation of a cartoon series about the…
Back to Bass-ics
Music legend and Cincinnati native Bootsy Collins is a busy man. As most of his fellow Cincinnatians already know, Collins became a music icon as a bassist for James Brown’s band and became an even bigger star as a driving force in Parliament Funkadelic. That would be more than enough fame for a lot of…
From the Bottom Up
L ike most school districts in Ohio, times are especially tough right now for Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS). The district is scrambling to organize a balanced budget for the upcoming academic year, while attempting to avoid cutting as many extracurricular activities and jobs as possible. Due to the recession and declining tax revenues, the state…
Free and Easy for July
Have you heard about this? A Panera in suburban St. Louis is operating as a “Pay what you wish” restaurant. If you can afford to pay the full amount of the check, do; if you can’t, don’t. There’s a word for that. Hmmm, what was it that guy used to say? “From each according to…
iolite (Profile)
H appenstance. Seven years ago, two witty Geminis, Arianne Benick (vocals) and Julia Johanan (keys), met at a party. Soon, they created a women’s group, hit up yoga and, one day, they randomly busted out “Takin It Slow,” now track 5 on the debut EP from Cincinnati band iolite. With a taste of old Blues,…
Elemental Pleasures
D ebra Granik’s Winter’s Bone stands in stark relief to this summer’s more bombastic fare. Taking in its elemental pleasures — in terms of subject matter (familial messiness), scale (intimate) and aesthetic approach (spare) — one feels as though they’re entering a parallel cinematic universe in which the simple inflection of a character’s voice or…
June 30-July 6: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY JUNE 30 In Cincinnati it’s common knowledge that certain types of people get profiled by the police; UC basketball players, for instance, get in trouble for as little as accidentally discharging a gun on campus even if it doesn’t hit anyone. That doesn’t mean local sports types took kindly to recent comments by ESPN…
Prince Down on the Internet, Folks Are Down on Lou Reed and Whitesnake Pays Out
[HOT] Worst Trend Spotter Ever? Prince has been compared to James Brown and Michael Jackson during his legendary career. One legend he’ll never be compared to? Nostradamus. The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Then As An Unpronounceable Symbol and Now Prince Again gave an interview to Britain’s Daily Mirror (which gave away his new album…
2010 CEA Theater Nominees
WINNERS ARE IN RED PUBLICLY VOTED CATEGORIES Local Actress in a Leading Role in a Play Annie Fitzpatrick as Jean in Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati) Sherman Fracher as Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter (Cincinnati Shakespeare Company) Kelly Mengelkoch as Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well (Cincinnati Shakespeare…
Me, The Mob and The Music (Review)
On the basis of his memorable singles of the late 1960s — records like “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Mony Mony” and “Crimson and Clover” — Tommy James still tours today. But in concert, where he mines a nostalgic crowd’s desire to relive the good times associated with those hits, he doesn’t get to tell…
