• Chicago-born, Dayton, Ohio-based Jazz trumpeter Mario Abney must have a thing for Cincinnati Hip Hop. After recently doing a show in town with guest Napoleon Maddox of local Hip Hop/Jazz mashers IsWhat?!, Abney and his band will return to Cincinnati this Thursday for a 9 p.m. show at The Greenwich, this time featuring Cincy´s djdq, known for his turntable work with Hip Hop collectives Glue and The Animal Crackers. dq will spin before and after the quintet plays and he is also slated to join the group´s rhythm section for a few songs.
• The local Web site cincypunk.org went back online on Jan. 1 after being on forced hiatus following a server crash. The six-year-old site — which offers lively forum discussions, reviews, interviews and show listings, with heavy emphasis on the local scene — has had to start anew, launching a new design and building up fresh content. The dates for this year´s version of the site´s annual “Cincypunk Fest” have also been announced. The fest — which raises money for various local charities (this year´s beneficiary is still being decided) — takes place April 11 and 12 at the Southgate House in Newport and will no doubt feature its usual overflowing array of local bands. Artists interested in participating can send press kits and music to Adam Rosing, 3281 Madonna Drive, Edgewood, KY 41017.
• Pop/Rock band Screaming Mimes (see interview, page 25) is having its Jan. 18 CD release party for the great new album, Tragedy Comic, at the Southgate House filmed with 10 cameras and full audio support and then placed on zstreettv.com, the new media-content site from Cincinnati Bell. So if you go to the show, you can go online and look for yourself later.
And if you can´t make the show … well, now you can. Kinda. Will “virtual concerts” ever replace real ones? Doubtful, at least in the immediate future. But if they do, it´s not all bad. Now, embarrassment-free, you can watch a concert by that little Pop tart you have a secret crush on … but turn the sound down and listen to Led Zeppelin IV instead. For more reasons online concerts are better than real shows, go to blogs.citybeat.com/spill_it.
• Local native Greg Dulli has returned to the label that gave his old band, The Afghan Whigs, its start. Dulli´s side-project, The Gutter Twins, with former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan, will release its debut CD, Saturnalia, March 4 on SubPop Records. The (what else?) dark and ominous song “Idle Hands” has been posted as a free download on the band´s MySpace page, which, in the spot where it says “Sounds Like” says “a bed of hot thistle.” I say, “Sounds like The Twilight Singers with Mark Lanegan,” but in a great way. The Gutter Twins will play the Southgate House Tuesday, March 11. Tickets are available through southgatehouse.com.
• Singer/bassist Ian Thomas is coming back to town, meaning he and his former bandmates in Get Sweaty are getting back together. Known as Make It Nasty for these “back-in-town-gigs,” the band plays Saturday at The Comet for a free show with The Griefs. (myspace.com/letsmakeitnasty)
CONTACT MIKE BREEN: [email protected]
