Worst Week Ever!: March 6-12
WEDNESDAY MARCH 6 Watching TV is usually a huge waste of time, but every now and then a story comes along suggesting that watching the right programs can help save your life. That was the case at Sugarloaf ski resort in Maine, when a 17-year-old skier got lost over the weekend and survived two nights…
Dining News for March
You’ve got to be a special kind of crazy to open a restaurant, right? I’m not talking about buying a McFood franchise — that’s just a calculation based on traffic, overhead and profit margins. I’m sure it takes hard work, but it doesn’t look to me like it involves the kind of Don Quixote spirit…
The Language You Cry In
Playwright Frank Higgins began his writing career as a poet, so he pays careful attention to the way he puts words together. After some time working at poetry, he felt that his best pieces were stories about people. With encouragement from a director, he turned his full attention to playwriting — and hit his stride…
Going Home: Urban Movie Houses
Cincinnati is home to my body and my head. After almost 13 years, I’m grounded here thanks to a strong network of friends and family. But, my heart, well, let’s just say it’s holding out. Home, for my heart, is all about those extra-special intangibles, which in part come down to movie memories. How hard…
That’s What Craigslist Is For
If there’s one thing that Facebook is good for, it’s learning about stuff that’s happening on the Internet. My colleague Mike Breen recently posted a humorous comment along with a story he shared titled, “Mother Tried to Sell Her Kids on Facebook for $4,000.” Mike’s take: “What an idiot! That’s what Craigslist is for!” I…
Play On
The man that hath no music in himself…Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.— The Merchant of Venice, (5.1. 91-3) W illiam Shakespeare’s drama and poetry resonate far beyond the theater. Music plays a vital role in his plays and his works continue to inspire compositions in all genres of music, from song to symphony…
The Hours
My bladder is my alarm clock. It woke me Sunday morning at exactly 9:20 a.m. It was supposed to be 8:20 a.m. I am never ready. I swiveled out and to the edge of my side of the bed and planted my feet on the floor, glancing longingly? Guiltily? Sadly? at my former stepfather’s large…
Quinlivan Pushes Review of Fire Ordinance
On New Year’s Day, a fire broke out in a residential home near the University of Cincinnati that led to the deaths of UC students Chad Kohls and Ellen Garner, and their friends and family say the deaths could have been prevented by a better fire ordinance code. Now, Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan is heeding their…
Cari Clara Returns with ‘Midnight March’
Over the past decade-plus, Cincinnatian Eric Diedrichs has continually made splashes on the local music scene with the Pop/Rock band The Simpletons and his Cari Clara project (a mostly solo venture in the studio, but also a live band). A few years back, Diedrichs moved to Lexington, Ky., but Cari Clara continued, the live version…
Morning News and Stuff
The region’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate shot up in January, with the City of Cincinnati at 8.6 percent, up from 6.7 percent in December; Hamilton County at 7.9 percent, up from 6.2 percent; and Greater Cincinnati at 8 percent, up from 6.4 percent. The rates were still lower than January 2012, when Cincinnati was at…
Animal Collective Concert Cancelled Tonight
Tonight's concert by acclaimed Art Pop band Animal Collective (with guest Dan Deacon) has been cancelled due to an illness in the group. The band was due to perform at Covington's Madison Theater. The Covington show is one of five being rescheduled. The group will return to the Madison on July 18; tickets for the…
Event: WWE SmackDown
For the first time in 2013, the WWE SmackDown is back and is being broadcast live to the ENTIRE WORLD from our lil’ ol’ U.S. Bank Arena. I don’t actually know what SmackDown is — I mean, I can assume what it involves — but people really seem to like it. And apparently we’re going to…
Music: Southgate House Revival Irish Folk Hootenanny
St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Sunday this year, so early revelers are going to somehow have to work their church day around their drinking. After church, a nice, somewhat more rowdy alternative to the usual St. Paddy’s entertainment (i.e. acoustic band playing “Danny Boy” in the corner at an “Irish” pub) can be found…
Event: St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations Downtown
St. Patrick’s’ Day could be one of the most underrated holidays of the year. First of all, you get an excuse to drink as much beer as you want … perfect. Then, you can fake an accent the entire day and no one — I say NO ONE, lad!! — can stop you. And, if…
Event: Hamilton County Parks Murder Mystery Dinner Series
“Who Dunnit?!” Help solve a murder case at a Mystery Dinner Series event. We’ve all fantasized about detective stealth, and this is the place to live out that imagination. An outrageous cast will interact with you to gather clues about a themed mystery and the live performance will be sure to entertain with hilarious adult…
Event: Irish Heritage Center of Cincinnati St. Patrick’s Day Weekend
Ready for two days of green everything? A weekend long St. Patrick’s Day celebration hosted by the Irish Heritage Center of Cincinnati offers fun for the entire family. On Saturday, the doors open at noon with children’s arts and crafts until 5 p.m. Enjoy live Irish music, dancing, Irish food and plenty of green beer…
Art: Charley Harper Exhibition Opening Reception
Few Cincinnati artists are as beloved as Charley Harper, and Cincinnatians continue to celebrate his legacy in everything from coffee mugs to public murals. So the opportunity to view some of his original signed lithographs at Hyde Park’s Mary Ran Gallery Friday will be a chance to appreciate the work of an original American Modernist…
Comedy: Tommy Johnagin
Don’t be shy about your dreams because you never know when your openness will lead you to the next part of your journey. Like many comedians, Tommy Johnagin knew from a young age he wanted to do stand-up comedy. “I, at 8 years old, was watching Letterman,” he recalls. “My mom and my stepdad came…
Onstage: The Trip to Bountiful
Horton Foote wrote award-winning screenplays for To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies. His 1953 teleplay, The Trip to Bountiful, was about a woman trapped in a cramped Houston apartment where she yearns to return to her Gulf Coast hometown. It starred movie legend Lillian Gish as Carrie Watts, a widow who embarks on a…
Event: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Present Dragons!
Oh man! This is going to be so sweet! I cannot wait to see the Kung Fu Kings and Cossacks (yep) attempt to cut each other’s throats while on horseback. Seriously, if I had a show like this to see when I was a wee lad, maybe I wouldn’t have been such a jaded adolescent.…
The Ready Set
The one-man-basement/bedroom-band project has become a contemporary Pop staple of late and one of the sub-genre’s highest profile acts over the past decade has been Jordan Mark Witzigreuter’s energetic Synth Pop contribution, The Ready Set. The Fort Wayne, Ind., native conceived The Ready Set in 2007 and self-released his 2008 debut EP, Syntax and Bright…
Chevelle
When people of a certain age hear the name Chevelle, they typically think of Chevrolet’s high performance sports coupe from the ’70s. Oddly enough, the brothers Loeffler (Pete on lead vocals/guitar, Sam on drums) had the same thought when naming their band in 1995; the Chevelle was their father’s favorite car. After losing their original…
Milo Greene with Kopecky Family Band
Hailing from Los Angeles, Milo Greene has taken to calling itself “Cinematic-Pop.” There’s no reason to disagree. The quintet makes music that is indeed “cinematic.” The members intend for their music to possess a softness to it that makes it perfect for soundtracking movies. They’ve intended that sound from the very beginning, which says a…
The Whigs
There’s nothing particularly fancy or groundbreaking about The Whigs, an Athens, Ga.-bred trio that has dropped four albums of tuneful Garage Pop over the course of its decade of road-tested existence. The Whigs specialize in earnest, guitar-driven nuggets that recall both their hometown’s jangle-laden roots and a variety of old-school heavy-hitters, from Neil Young to…
The Killers Booked at Casino’s “The Shoe”
While the new Horseshoe Casino had a couple of concerts booked for its indoor "Pavilion" by the time the new "adult playground" opened last week (opera boyband Il Divo and comedian Joel McHale), today the casino announced its biggest music event yet. On May 16, chart-topping band The Killers will perform at the venue's "The…
New ‘Enquirer’ Tabloid Out Today
Enquirer reporters and editors should be satisfied with their initial tabloid effort. Today’s inaugural edition — smaller and printed in Columbus — is a curious hybrid. It arrived on time. It feels and looks like a tabloid, but it reads like a familiar Enquirer rather than something exciting and new. That might not be bad.…
Morning News and Stuff
Cincinnati’s plan to lease parking assets to the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority remains on hold as a lawsuit arguing the law should be subject to referendum works through the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. The legal dispute is focused on City Council’s use of the emergency clause, which eliminates a 30-day waiting period…
Parking Plan Remains in Limbo
The plan to lease Cincinnati’s parking assets to the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority remains up in the air today after court rulings kept a court-mandated restraining order in place until at least March 15, when a hearing is scheduled at the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. The hearing on March 15 will establish…
Monthly Salsa Night Starts Tonight
Latin/Salsa supergroup Tropicoso ended its 14-year-plus, every-Monday-night residency at Corryville club The Mad Frog back in January. But fear not Latin music and Salsa dancing lovers. Tonight you can catch the band’s first date of a new residency at the club. (Read more about the Monday night finale here.) Starting this evening, Tropicoso will now…
The Guitars Put It To Tape
Local Rock/Soul/Pop crew The Guitars celebrates its newish release, Higher Action, tonight at Northside’s Mayday with special guests Animal Circles. The recording is actually an expanded version of The Guitars’ phenomenal 2011 EP, High Action, with two bonus cuts — “El Alamein” and a cover of Billy Vera/The Remains’ “Don’t Look Back”— culled from an…
Anna Louise Inn Supporters to Rally at Western & Southern
There will be a giant swarm of purple in front of the Western & Southern headquarters (400 Broadway St.) in Lytle Park beginning at noon today in support of the Anna Louise Inn, which provides shelter to low-income women, to coincide with International Women's Day. The rally is intended to demonstrate both local support for…
Morning News and Stuff
In February, the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent , from 7.9 percent in January, and the nation added 236,000 jobs. Many of the new jobs — about 48,000 — came from construction, while government employment saw a drop even before sequestration, a series of across-the-board federal spending cuts, began on March 1. Economists…
Stage Door: Tick Tock…
Can you hear the clock ticking? That's not just because this weekend marks the "spring forward" to Daylight Savings Time early on Sunday. It's also because several theater productions are just about over: If you want to see them, you only have a few days left. Leveling Up, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's show…
Beardwatch 2013
Watch this week’s episode of Survivor: Caramoan – Fans vs. Favorites, "Kill or Be Killed" here. (Skip to the last minute to check out a preview of next week’s ep, "Persona Non Grata") With Reynold’s alliance down to just him and Eddie, the duo was pretty pissed that Matt’s alliance has turned on them twice.…
Come Hear Your Favorite North Korean Folk Songs at the Library
Under Steve Kemple, music reference librarian in the Popular Library, downtown's Main Library has begun doing some fascinating free programming to highlight the depth of its music collection — and just music in general. It already has an Experimental Music at the Library series, featuring live events such as a band from Oakland (Horaflora) that…
Q&A: Roxanne Qualls
For better or worse, Cincinnati will have to deal with another major election cycle in 2013. With a few hot-button issues already grabbing the public spotlight, a lot could be at stake when voters pull the lever on Nov. 5 — making a proper understanding of the candidates all the more important. Most people get…
Cincinnati Listed as Top Spring Break Destination for Families
According to livability.com, Cincinnati is ranked No. 10 in the list of 2013's "Top 10 Spring Break Destinations for Families: Quick Getaways." Livability chose their top 10 destinations based on the cities that make the most of the short amount of time spring break offers. They used their city database along with Trip Advisor, Expedia and…
Morning News and Stuff
City Council approved a plan to lease the city’s parking assets to the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority, but the plan is now being held up by a judge’s temporary restraining order (TRO). The plan was passed with an emergency clause, which is meant to expedite the plan’s implementation, but it also makes the…
Another Day, Another Matt Distel Announcement
In this week's Big Picture column, there is an item that Matt Distel — long active on the local contemporary art scene and current executive director of Northside's Visionaries + Voices center for artists with disabilities — had been named adjunct curator of contemporary art at Cincinnati Art Museum. Today comes the announcement he will…
Council Approves Parking Plan, Judge Orders Temporary Halt
In a 5-4 vote today, City Council approved a plan to lease Cincinnati’s parking assets to the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority to help balance deficits for the next two fiscal years and fund development projects in Downtown, but the plan is now being held up by a Hamilton County judge's temporary restraining order…
City Manager Presents Deficit Reduction Options
City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. gave a presentation to City Council today that explained how Cincinnati could work to reduce its structural budget deficits. The presentation was presumably in response to Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan, who said Monday that she wanted to see a long-term deficit reduction plan before she could approve the city manager’s proposal…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
In what can best be described as #whitepeopleproblems, Will Smith inadvertently caused a county-wide school lockdown last week in Ambridge, Pa. An area high school was organizing a Fresh Prince of Bel Air themed dance (whatever that means) so, naturally, some students were getting really into it — 19-year-old Travis Clawson even changed his voicemail…
Music: Dan Deacon with Animal Collective
Lots of musicians talk a good game about having the audience “be a part of the show,” but few if any bring the crowd into the concert experience like Electronic/Orchestral Pop mad scientist Dan Deacon. At last summer’s Bunbury Music Festival in Cincinnati, Deacon showed the power (and high entertainment value) of his interactive approach,…
Event: Shamrock Shuffle
Run or walk to support Team Dragonfly! With spring on the horizon, there’s no better time than now to bring your friends, family and coworkers together to make great things happen for Dragonflies: families with children or young adults who have been diagnosed with cancer or blood diseases. The Dragonfly Foundation works to help ease…
West of Memphis
West of Memphis is one of those stories that we would like to believe can’t really be true. A monumental miscarriage of justice leads to three young men (Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, Jr.) being found guilty of killing three young boys in West Memphis, Ark. Heightened sensitivity based on the ages of…
Film: ReelAbilities Cincinnati
ReelAbilities is the largest national film festival dedicated to sharing the lives of people with disabilities. And thanks to the work of local festival co-chairs Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled (LADD) and Visionaries + Voices, Cincinnati was the first city outside of New York to host the film festival. With an aim to promote…
Art: ON! Handcrafted Digital Playgrounds, exhibition opening
If you missed the hubbub about this week’s OFFF Cincinnati (the annual festival celebrating “the close relationship between art, creative thought and digital technology”), the exhibition opening for ON! Handcrafted Digital Playgrounds, curated by the festival’s founder, Hector Ayuso, might be your last chance to see what all the fuss was about. Prior to the…
Oz the Great and Powerful
Sam Raimi (the Spider-Man trilogy) tackles the backstory of the greatest and most powerful wizard this side of Gandalf; that would be Oz (James Franco), who starts off as a small-time magician before landing in an enchanted land in dire need of rescuing. The quest of a good man on the path to greatness seems…
Onstage: Transmigration
Since 2009, the drama program at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music has presented an annual “festival of student-created new works.” If you’re yearning for Cincinnati’s annual Fringe Festival (the 10th annual will be here in June), this is a tasty dose of midwinter creativity to tide you over. Choose between six original 30-minute works created by…
Comedy: Jimmy Dore
Jimmy Dore does a fair amount of political comedy, but after the election and two sequesters, is he worn out on the subject? Not at all. “Things go forward,” he says from his home in suburban Los Angeles. “It’s funny to see how ridiculous the fourth estate is and how horrible the media is.” The…
Events: Cincinnati International Wine Festival
Fermented grapes for three days straight? Count me in! The Cincinnati International Wine Festival has continued to grow in winery participation, events and attendees each year since its founding in 1991. Not only do you get to drink a wide variety of wine at the Grand Tastings and Winery Dinners, your money also goes to…
Art: Tin Foil
Northside’s NVISION is currently showing Tin Foil, a quirky series of collages by Paul F. Tribble, incorporating, yes, tin foil. The tin foil sets off found images (found in second-hand coffee table books) in interesting juxtapositions that reward attention. Tribble’s day job, restoring stained-glass windows, takes him around the country and limits his on-the-road artwork…
Event: Horseshoe Casino
In case you missed it, the Horseshoe Casino opened March 4 … and will stay open for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. For all you gamblers, there are 2,000 slot and video poker machines; 87 game tables; an Asian gaming room (to pay homage to our sister city,…
Dead Man Down
Colin Farrell stands at the crossroads. He’s a good looking actor known for a brand of old-fashioned masculine intensity that doesn’t quite seem to be of or for this modern screen world, but he finds ways to slip into character roles that allow him to breathe real life into otherwise flat frames. But let’s not…
Emperor
This dramatic look at the end of the Pacific efforts of World War II from director Peter Webber (Hannibal Rising) focuses on General Bonner Fellers (Matthew Fox) as he’s charged with deciding the fate of the Japanese emperor — whether or not he should be executed as a war criminal — while attempting to find…
ReelAbilities Celebrates the Art of Ability and Experience
Besides appreciating film as escapist entertainment, we all long to see multi-faceted representations of ourselves. We want to engage with larger than life reflections depicting who we are or who we imagine we could be. So often, though, traditional media fails to give us these kinds of frames of reference. ReelAbilities: Cincinnati Disabilities Film Festival…
Lit: Richard Ford
Richard Ford’s sentences are as seductive as they are simply constructed; his stories as emotionally affecting as they are well executed. The 69-year-old Mississippi native has tackled a number of quintessentially American topics over his 37-year writing career. Ford’s latest novel, Canada, might be set largely in the country north of the border, but its…
Oh, Yes We Got Trouble (with a capital T)
I’m a critic today because I spent time onstage in high school. Last September, I went to a party for the 100th birthday of my drama teacher, a woman who profoundly affected my life by walking into a study hall and recruiting some boys to audition for Our Town. So I was astonished in December…
Stone Temple Fired and Snarky Mass. Holes
Stone Temple FiredAs we were teetering off the fiscal cliff last week, an inexplicably large amount of people were concerned about just one American who lost his job. News that Scott Weiland (who The Huffington Post dared to call “iconic”) had been fired from Stone Temple Pilots got way more play online than it deserved,…
SXSW-Bound: Cincy Bands Headin’ South
Hard to believe, but the annual South By Southwest music showcase/festival/conference in Austin, Texas, kicks off on March 12. As always, the huge event is featuring some artists from the Greater Cincinnati area, including SXSW returnees Buffalo Killers. Two other SXSW-bound local acts are playing kick-off shows this week to help raise some funds for…
So Long, Ye AltWeekly
It feels odd to be saying goodbye when I’m not really going anywhere, but if anyone should be used to it by now, it’s me. I’m leaving CityBeat, but not Cincinnati — you can’t shake me that easily, Queen City. I’ve accepted a full-time position covering the Reds at the Cincinnati Enquirer. I will be…
County Approves Memorial Hall Lease
The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners Feb. 27 unanimously approved a 40-year agreement with the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) that will lease the county-owned Memorial Hall and provide renovations to the 105-year-old building. County officials have long said the building, which is used to host concerts, shows and speaking events, is in dire…
Legally Banned
The road to Sonja Hansen’s home is lined with houses that all look the same. Three left-hand turns off Loveland-Miamiville Road through sidewalk-free suburbia sits the Hansens’ five-bedroom brick house, home of the most infamous lady in Loveland this side of sex-toy merchant Patty Brisben. Last fall, Hansen led Loveland High School in its stage…
Over-the-Rhine Eco Garden Could Be Forced to Relocate
Leaders of a quiet Over-the-Rhine civic garden that harvests produce like peaches, tomatoes, garlic and blackberries to sell at Findlay Market are worried they could be forced to relocate after nearly 15 years. CitiRama, a partnership between the Cincinnati Homebuilders Association and the city of Cincinnati that holds annual or biannual home shows on chosen…
Kids Hear the Darndest Things
Z ak Morgan admits that criticism of his music, the totality of it aimed at the children’s market, has a detrimental effect on his self-esteem. Given the unvarnished honesty of children, the irony of Morgan’s sensitivity juxtaposed with his chosen audience isn’t lost on him. “A kid came up to me last year and said,…
City Council Committee Passes Parking Plan
City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee on March 4 approved a plan to lease Cincinnati’s parking assets to the Port Authority in a 4-3 vote, but part of the plan was separated from the budget, leaving it open to referendum. The plan will require five votes in a final City Council vote scheduled for March…
Curmudgeon Notes 3.6.2013
• The satirical website, The Onion, added kiddie porn to the Academy Awards. It tweeted about the 9-year-old Oscar nominee for Best Actress: “Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a cunt, right? #Oscars2013.” Miss Wallis was nominated for Best Actress in Beasts of the Southern Wild .…
Cincinnati vs. The World 03.06.2013
In what feels like an effort to make life even more glum for the baby gorilla already rejected by its mother at the Texas zoo where it was born, Cincinnati Zoo has dubbed the recently adopted infant “Gladys.” Gladys. CINCINNATI -2 A 13-year-old Kenyan boy devised a simple way to use moving LED lights around…
Bid Frrt-well to “Jon”
It’s time to say goodbye to America’s ski-masked sweetheart, a man only known by his alias, “Jon.” Before you frantically check your DVR, cursing yourself for somehow missing these mysterious episodes, there is no fourth season with our favorite voice-warped reality show star. Instead, Delocated will end with a single, Bourne Identity-esque 30-minute special (12:30…
Bad Budgets Show Bad Leaders
It’s difficult to blame Americans, particularly Cincinnatians, if they’re tired of hearing about government budgets. Budgets are supposed to give elected officials at all levels of government a chance to show off their strengths and agendas, but recent issues have mostly raised questions about whether these people are actually capable of leading to begin with.…
Something Old, Something New
I hope the tabloid Enquirer holds current subscribers and attracts new readers, especially folks who are drawn more to the visual than the verbal. Publisher Margaret Buchanan promises its debut Monday. Trucks will bring it from Columbus, where it’ll be printed on Dispatch presses. Format doesn’t change function: News is a way to deliver readers to…
A Chippy Election Cycle
Social media has helped make the world smaller. Revolutions around the world have used Facebook and Twitter to organize protests and action, and Facebook can also determine the outcome of an election. No, maybe not an “actual” election — but if you’re a snack company and have three new flavors of potato chips you’re wanting…
A Neighborhood of One’s Own
T he neighborhood of Pendleton is not what it once was, and if the newly minted Horseshoe Casino has anything to do with it, nor what it will be in the next few years. Over the past couple of years, most urban Cincinnati news headlines have been dominated by one thing: the glorious, bubbling…
Mo’ (Fake) Money, Mo’ (Real) Problems
This is a story about drugs and denial. LaSalle High School has a drug problem. LaSalle High School is in denial about its drug problem. Anytime its students stupidly decide to trick an armed drug dealer with counterfeit money, all kinds of socioeconomic and chemical problems are in play beyond the pranksterism and tomfoolery of…
Worst Week Ever!: Feb. 27-March 5
WEDNESDAY FEB. 27 A group of surgical residents recently took part in an Italian research study that required them to play video games on the Nintendo Wii for five hours a week for a whole month. Afterward, the residents performed simulated laparoscopic (or keyhole) surgery. Those who had been using the Wii performed a lot…
Morning News and Stuff
City Council will vote today on the controversial plan to lease Cincinnati’s parking assets to the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority. The plan would give up some control over the city’s parking meters and garages to generate revenue to fund downtown development projects and help balance the deficit for the next two years. Before…
The Vagina Dialogues
The vagina: About half of Americans have one and a good deal more Americans than that actually came out of one. In 1919, it — or more specifically, the women connected to it — got the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment; in 1973, it got some say over who controls…
I Have a Gambling Problem: I Don’t Enjoy Playing Poker
Most people think poker is just another bingo-like parlor game that relies on nothing but luck, with sunglasses, hoodies and chip markers serving as nothing more than the signs of morons who think they can best the game in the long run. In many ways this is true. Most people who play poker know more…
Animal Collective with Dan Deacon
The garish, densely layered cover art for Animal Collective’s latest album, Centipede Hz, is just the first sign that the Baltimore-bred Psych Pop crew was intent on shifting creative gears this time out. The anticipated follow-up to 2009’s melody-infested Merriweather Post Pavilion — which topped seemingly every year-ending poll on the planet, including Pazz &…
Sara Watkins
Sara Watkins has had a deceptively long career in music despite her young age. She came onto the scene as a member of the progressive Bluegrass group Nickel Creek, which featured her brother Sean Watkins and budding genius Chris Thile. When Nickel Creek broke up, many fans were saddened. Even though the trio was still…
Ill Poetic
I’m not going to pretend I knew what synesthesia meant before listening to former Cincinnati/current Columbus-based Hip Hop artist Ill Poetic’s latest release, Synesthesia: The Yellow Movement. But after diving into the seven-song EP (and looking up the title on dictionary.com), I discovered that synesthesia is something like a music-induced hallucination where the afflicted see…
Clutch
Just as The Chieftains popularized Celtic Folk, Clutch has been one of the primary groups to bring Stoner Rock and Alt Metal to a broader audience. Over the course of Clutch’s 23-year history, the quartet has recorded 10 studio albums — their latest, Earth Rocker, is slated for a March 19 release — as well…
The Chieftains
There is every other traditional Celtic Folk band on the planet and then there’s The Chieftains. Or maybe that should be the other way around; a good many critics would agree that the Chieftains singlehandedly raised the profile of Irish music on a global basis and paved the way for every band that has subsequently…
