Up-and-coming Cincinnati AltPop trio Public released an Ebola-level catchy new EP, Let’s Make It, on Oct. 7 and this Saturday the band will celebrate with an all-ages show at Rohs Street Café (245 W. McMillan St., Clifton Heights, rohsstreetcafe.com). The show begins at 9 p.m. and also features special guests Harbour and Columbus, Ohio’s Nick D’ & the Believers. Admission is $9 in advance (through cincyticket.com) or $12 at the door and includes a hard copy of Let’s Make It. The band is also offering VIP tickets that include admittance to a private acoustic performance before the show (plus pizza and drinks).
Public, which recently opened dates for Tokyo Police Club and Young the Giant, is also celebrating the start of its support slot on fellow Cincy band Walk the Moon’s upcoming tour (it’s a perfect touring fit, as Public and Walk the Moon share many sonic qualities). Public jumps on the tour at its Columbus, Ohio stop on Oct. 21 and continues the jaunt throughout the South and along the East Coast, closing out its stint on Nov. 5 in Philadelphia.
Let’s Make It is available for streaming and download at publictheband.com. For further info about Public, visit facebook.com/publictheband.
The Sound of the City
A uniquely adventurous recording project will receive a fitting “listening party” this weekend.
The Cincinnati Dronescape project stemmed from an idea forged by Isaac Hand over the summer. He and a friend went around town recording sounds that they felt were “quintessentially Cincinnati.” The found sounds, Hand says, included “the sound of the Western Hills Viaduct, the train yards, the hum of the (University of Cincinnati Medical Center), the Moerlein Brewery” and other location-specific noises.
They then distributed the sounds to musicians, who mixed them into their own unique compositions. The results are featured on the Cincinnati Dronescape album, which, along with Cincinnati Drones (an album featuring the original source-material soundscapes), is available to stream and download via cincinnatidronescape.bandcamp.com (hard copies can also be found in local-music friendly record retailers in the area). The sonic adventurers featured on the album include ADM, umin, Molly Sullivan, Jarrod Welling-Cann, Zijnzijn Zijnzijn and several others.
This Saturday at 7 p.m., the project participants will gather in the West End at the intersection of Gest and Summer streets (near Union Terminal) and play Cincinnati Dronescape from several cars simultaneously. Copies of the CD will also be available for purchase at the listening party event. For more information, visit facebook.com/cincinnatidronescape.
More Local Notes
• The free shows that were part of the popular PNC Summer Music Series on Fountain Square are, obviously, over for the year, but you can still rock out on the Square this month.
The Rocktober on the Square series, featuring happy hour live music performances and adult beverages every Friday this month, kicked off Oct. 3 with local rockers Ohio Knife and Young Colt. The rest of the series, with shows beginning at 5 p.m., also features some of the top original music makers in Cincinnati (as well as a couple of out-of-towners).
This Friday, the series continues with Indianapolis’ We Are Hex and Cincinnati favorites Mad Anthony. The Oct. 17 show features excellent Roots music crew Arlo McKinley and the Lonesome Sound, followed by rockers Wussy, whose profile continues to skyrocket nationally (as evidenced by sold-out shows across the country). AltRock band July for Kings headlines the Oct. 24 Rocktober show, preceded by Lexington, Ky.’s The Fanged Robot. The series closes out with a bang on Halloween, with two of the area’s finest, The Sundresses and Black Owls, performing.
For more info on Rocktober on the Square, visit myfountainsquare.com.
• Mayes Fest 2014, a Bluegrass and Roots music celebration featuring several local favorites, comes to Bellevue Beach Park this Friday and Saturday, along the banks of the Ohio River in Bellevue, Ky. The second annual event includes boat tours and bourbon tastings (at a cost), as well as food booths and other vendors, plus two free stages of live Bluegrass and Americana from Greater Cincinnati and beyond.
On Friday, the music begins at 5 p.m. and the lineup features locals Buffalo Wabs and the Price Hill Hustle, Shiny & the Spoon and Andrew Hibbard, plus Chicago’s Al Scorch and The Henhouse Prowlers and others. Saturday’s lineup (which kicks off at 12:15 p.m.) includes Casey Campbell, Red Cedars, Honey & Houston, Ian & Lynette Mathieu and The Willow Tree Carolers, as well as Wildfire, The Salt Caramels and many more.
For complete info on Mayes Fest, visit mayesfest.com.
CONTACT MIKE BREEN: mbreen@citybeat.com or @
CityBeatMusic
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2014.