Yearly Archives: 2012

Lots of Shows This Weekend!

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So we’re gonna tell you about a few things going on in Louisville over the next few days that are worth your attention. First, on Saturday night at Harley’s Main Street Tavern, Michigan’s Child Bite performs with locals Opposable Thumbs and Friends & Relatives. Here’s the flier:

Harley’s is located at 122 W. Main between 1st and 2nd Streets. Music gets underway around 10 PM and costs five bucks.

On Sunday our favorites PARLOUR play at the Chestnut House (714 East Chestnut Street, between Clay and Shelby) with Dischord recording artists Edie Sedgwick, Julie of the Wolves (a new band consisting of members of Venus Trap, Second Story Man, Minnow, The Frequent Sea, and Madame Machine) and Life at Home (Don’t know anything about them, unfortunately). Here’s another flier:

Also on Sunday at RYE (900 E. Market at the corner of Market and Campbell), Bro. Stephen plays with Joan Shelley. Cost for that one is $15, which includes food, and it starts at 7 PM.

Last but not least, on Monday Brooklyn noise merchants VAZ play Cahoot’s with Trophy Wives, Alcohol Party, and Neighbor. We’re seriously considering breaking our no-Cahoot’s rule for this one. Maybe we’ll see you there?

UPDATE: We knew we forgot something! There’s also another show on Sunday at Zanzabar with SOFTCHEQUE, Y/Y, and the Ecstatic Girth Survival Sextet. Or something. Info on the flier:

Rumor has it one band is TROPICAL TRASH-related, who killed it last Tuesday at Harley’s. So there’s that. Enjoy!

THE PHANTOM FAMILY HALO, BALACLAVAS, and ALCOHOL PARTY at ZANZABAR, Tuesday, April 3rd

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Cropped Out and The Other Side of Life are proud to present:

THE PHANTOM FAMILY HALO (Brooklyn-via-Louisville; on Knitting Factory Records)
BALACLAVAS (Houston, Texas; on Dull Knife)
ALCOHOL PARTY (Louisville, Kentucky)

Tuesday, April 3rd
at ZANZABAR
2100 S. Preston
8 PM Doors, $8, 21-and-over


(Photo of The Phantom Family Halo by David S. Rubin)

Since their relocation to Brooklyn, THE PHANTOM FAMILY HALO have announced the release of two records in 2012 on Knitting Factory Records – a “dark” and a “light” album.  When I Fall Out is the first of the releases, issued on February 14, 2012. The second of the albums will be released in the fall of 2012. THE PHANTOM FAMILY HALO has shared stages and/or toured with Slint, The For Carnation, Guru Guru, Hawkwind. Black Angels, Black Mountain, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and Roky Erickson, and are about to commence on a tour with Acid Mothers Temple. Read an interview with THE PHANTOM FAMILY HALO here: http://leoweekly.com/music/phantom-family-halo%E2%80%99s-future-now.

BALACLAVAS are from Houston, Texas where everything is eternally blistered, chemically altered, and forlorn. They are a band in the realest sense — they come on like a gang, play with one mind, hunt in one pack, party and fight together in a flat wild nowhere. Unlike the common livestock being unloaded into music, this is a band of predators. Perpetual outsiders; there will always be a wrong side of the tracks and they’ll always be from it. Ennio Morricone and scratchy noise guitars on storm-dub rhythms like if the heaviest incarnation of 1970s Pink Floyd were a future punk band invested by Jodorowsky to score Dune. You can hear storms approaching and sandworms underfoot. It’s an evil dance they’re bringing.


(Alcohol Party photograph by Bryan Volz)

Conjuring an intense, claustrophobic ‘more is less’ framework where every moment is scarred with pummeling bass, jagged guitar and ADHD drumming, ALCOHOL PARTY is a three-headed noise rock project from Louisville, Kentucky.

Find the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/events/240466442709508.

To join our email list, send an email to hstencil AT gmail DOT com.

THE LADYBIRDS and NATURAL CHILD at ZANZABAR, Saturday March 31st

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(Flier by Mikie Poland.)

Cropped Out and The Other Side of Life are proud to present:

THE LADYBIRDS (Louisville, KY)
NATURAL CHILD (Nashville, TN; on Infinity Cat Recordings)

Saturday, March 31st
at ZANZABAR
2100 S. Preston
9  PM, 21 and over, $6

(Photo of The Ladybirds by Eddie Dant)

THE LADYBIRDS masterfully balance a mean juggling act. The Louisville, KY-based five-piece -Jaxon Swain, Max Balliet, Anthony Fossaluzza, Brett Holsclaw, and Sarah Teeple, articulately summons greasy garage rock and lush Spector pop sans kitsch or tribute act fluff. Their main influences are the years 1954 to 1973, when it was just about fun and swingin’ grooves, not the droll, heavy-handed, over-serious approach to songwriting oft employed in the contemporary American underground. Their 2007 debut, Whiskey & Wine, was well received in the region, and saw the group sharing the stage with the likes of Wanda Jackson, Dex Romweber Duo, Heavy Trash, The Greenhornes, and many more. The Ladybirds’ sophomore album, Shimmy Shimmy Dang, as demonstrated in the title, is truth in advertising. Flavors of surf, rockabilly, doo wop, and dusty retro bubblegum pop all take a front seat. Yet, as Jaxon explains “we’re all punk rockers in the end.” And that’s what separates THE LADYBIRDS from a simple nostalgia offering – modern and original twists on familiar sounds, influence by the genres the band describes as “rock at its most authentic.”

Watch the video for THE LADYBIRDS song “Hum De Dum” (courtesy Everybody’s Hugging): http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=31084096&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

Summer 2009 Wez ate brownies had a vision. He told big black Zack and called Seth 3 times. They started the Nashville-based three piece rock band called NATURAL CHILD. Maybe known as much for their incessant rambling on-stage banter as their unprecedented pure rock sound, NATURAL CHILD are often described as “the greatest rock n’ roll band in the world”, a title which the trio has worked mercilessly hard to gain… and they have the balls to show for it. NATURAL CHILD want to play in Jamaica and want to play at the pyramids. They have a plan that involves Jack White to befriend Keith Richards and be the opening act on Rolling Stones farewell tour, thus having “the greatest rock n’ roll band in the world” torch officially passed on to them. Not Jack White. These guys love to party. And they love to ride in that van. Oh man.

Watch NATURAL CHILD cover “Born to Be Wild” in Louisville here:

Find the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/events/357209240968905.

To join our email list, send an email to hstencil AT gmail DOT com.

UPDATE 3/27/12: Fantastic lady DJs KIM SORISE and BLYTHE SHADBURNE will be spinning lots of tasty cuts in-between bands! Don’t miss it!

WOODEN WAND, JEFFREY LEWIS, and TENDER MERCY at ZANZABAR, Friday March 23rd

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Cropped Out and The Other Side of Life are proud to present:

WOODEN WAND (from Lexington, on Fire Records)
JEFFREY LEWIS (from New York, on Rough Trade Records)
TENDER MERCY (from Louisville, on Dunkenstein Records)

Friday, March 23rd
at ZANZABAR
2100 S. Preston Street
9 PM DOORS, $6, 21 and over

James Jackson Toth has been playing and recording (and releasing) music for over a decade, most notably as leader of the now-defunct New York-based collective Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice. After a solo album in 2007 on Rykodisc, and Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label and the Mad Monk label, he continues under the name WOODEN WAND. Toth is a maverick, good-hearted troubadour whose blend of smoky Americana has been garnering plaudits for the last decade. Unafraid to mix psychedelic workouts with sweet and soulful country, his varied and prolific output has resulted in a wealth of lyrically rich songs; the kind whose lines stick in your head for a lifetime.

Wooden Wand – Winter In Kentucky from fire records on Vimeo.

Born and raised Lower East Sider JEFFREY LEWIS leads a double-life, as both a comic book writer/artist and a musician. In 2001 JEFFREY LEWIS signed to Rough Trade Records (home of The Smiths, The Strokes, Belle & Sebastian, etc) and has since released five albums, in addition to touring the world and performing with Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Devendra Banhart, Black Dice, Thurston Moore, The Fall, The Vaselines, Beth Orton, Frank Black, The Fiery Furnaces, Daniel Johnston, Scout Niblett, The Mountain Goats, The Moldy Peaches, Cornershop, The Cribs, Dr. Dog, Kimya Dawson, Adam Green, Akron/Family, Roky Erickson, Au Revoir Simone, Peter Stampfel, and other luminaries.

TENDER MERCY is the brainchild of singer/songwriter Mark Kramer and can best be described as contemporary minimalism with strong acoustic leanings. Debuting with a track on the infamous Dunkenstein Record’s Doctors Of Dunk Vol. 2, TENDER MERCY began playing around Louisville, opening for the likes of Jamie Barnes, Tamara Dearing, The Deloreans, Ben Traughber, The Parade Schedule, and Nerves Jr. TENDER MERCY is about to release a 6 song EP next month entitled The Road To Good Intention Is Paved With Hell in the spring of 2012. It will be available through Bandcamp.com digitally and physically through Dunkenstein Records.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/events/261920943884959.

To join our email list, send an email to hstencil AT gmail DOT com.

DISTONAL LAUNCH PARTY with PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT, NATIVES, WET HAIR, TROPICAL TRASH at HARLEY’S MAIN STREET TAVERN, Tuesday March 6th

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Cropped Out and The Other Side of Life present:
The Distonal.Com Launch Party with…

PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT (Columbus, OH; on Fat Cat Records)
NATIVES (Louisville, KY; on Rad Tantrum)
WET HAIR (Iowa City, IA; on Night-People/De Stijl)
TROPICAL TRASH (Louisville, KY; on Loin Seepage/Sophomore Lounge)

Tuesday, March 6th
at HARLEY’S MAIN STREET TAVERN
122 W. Main (between 1st and 2nd Streets)
8 PM, $6, 21 and over.

This is the launch party for a new Louisville-based web publication called Distonal (from the creative forces that brought you the recently retired Decibel Tolls). In the words of the head honcho himself, Michael Powell:

Distonal is an online magazine spread across an anchored open source WordPress home and an accompanying Tumblr that will cover… well, whatever I feel like writing about. It’s the opposite of The Decibel Tolls in that regard, and it’s hard to say what will end up there, which excites me. The thread that binds everything, though, will be thoughtful and attitude-laden writing from myself and others (to be announced) that reaches toward broader universal topics, as well as articles that retain a strong commitment to the happenings of my native Louisville. I’ll still be reviewing records and photographing shows, but I may also drop some secret Bloggins curry recipes, March Madness picks, gastropub critiques, absurd manifestos, and my thoughts on the body politic. Distonal promises to be fluid and freeform, while brandishing a distinct voice all the while. It should go live sometime in late February, or early March at the latest. It’ll be a fun ride, and I hope you’ll follow me over there.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/events/169598496483223. And like Distonal on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/distonal.

To join our email list, send an email to hstencil AT gmail DOT com.

Mike Kelley, R.I.P.

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The artist and musician Mike Kelley has died, apparently by his own hand (from Blouin Artinfo):

Artist Mike Kelley has passed away at his home in Los Angeles, having apparently taken his own life. The tragic news was confirmed to BLOUIN ARTINFO by Helene Winer, of New York’s Metro Pictures gallery, a long-time associate of the artist.

“It is totally shocking that someone would decide to do this, someone who has success and renown and options,” said Winer. “It’s extremely sad.” She added that the artist had been depressed.

Kelley was born in 1954 in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. He became involved in the city’s music scene as a teen, and while a student at the University of Michigan, formed the influential proto-punk band Destroy All Monsters with fellow artists Jim Shaw, Niagara, and Cary Loren (a retrospective devoted to Destroy All Monsters was held at L.A.’s Prism gallery last year). Together, the band hatched a style of performance that skirted the edge of performance art.

After graduating college in 1976, he moved to Los Angeles to attend the California Institute of the Arts, studying alongside teachers like John Baldessari and Laurie Anderson. Music continued to be a constant passion: he formed another band, “Poetics,” with fellow CalArts students John Miller and Tony Oursler.

Kelley’s career took off in the early 1990s, with solo shows at the Whitney, LACMA, and other international venues. He and Oursler organized a well-recived installation — a kind of monument to punk — at Documenta X in 1997. In the early 2000s, he began exhibiting with Gagosian Gallery after 20 years with Metro Pictures.

For his 2005 exhibition “Day is Done,” Kelley filled Gagosian with found yearbook photos, video footage, and automated furniture, prompting New York Magazine critic Jerry Saltz to describe the show as an example of “clusterfuck aesthetics.” More conventionally, he was associated with the notion of “abject art,” highlighting the irrational and the repulsive.

Kelley’s work will be included in the upcoming Whitney Biennial. It is the eighth time his work has been included in the biannual exhibition.

Perhaps best known in the music world for his cover of Sonic Youth’s Dirty album, Kelley was also a founding member of Destroy All Monsters and Poetics, and worked with many musicians over the course of his career.

WHIPS/CHAINS, ROYAL BATHS, and GANGLY YOUTH at CHESTNUT HOUSE, Sunday February 19th

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Cropped Out and The Other Side of Life are proud to present:

WHIPS/CHAINS (Louisville, KY; members of Xerxes, Black God, Coliseum)
ROYAL BATHS (Brooklyn, NY; on Kanine Records and Woodsist)
GANGLY YOUTH (Louisville, KY)

Sunday, February 19th
at Chestnut House
714 E. Chestnut Street
7 PM, $5, ALL AGES!

WHIPS/CHAINS is a band from Louisville, Kentucky. WHIPS/CHAINS plays loud, slow, quiet, fast, noisy, precise, angry, sludgy, blasting, down-tuned, punk, hardcore. WHIPS/CHAINS is Will Allard (Xerxes), Ben Sears (Black God), and Ryan Patterson (Black God, Coliseum).

Jeremy Cox and Jigmae Baer started ROYAL BATHS without a plan in mind but soon the foundation for their writing found inspiration from Cox’s interest in the alternate and open tunings of delta blues, their shared fascination in the African rhythm of early Chicago blues, and Baer lyrically attempting to reflect with black humor and little judgment, and the thrills and troubles they stumble through. Recording on whatever cheap four or single-track cassette recorder they could find, they eventually borrowed a Tascam 388 to make their first 7″. Their new album Better Luck Next Life is set to be released by Kanine Records on February 7, 2012. ROYAL BATHS “take cues from Neil Young’s lightning-struck guitar sermons and the Velvet Underground’s creeping paranoia” — PITCHFORK.

GANGLY YOUTH, is a 5 piece band from Louisville, Kentucky. Led by Dan Davis along with Brent Mills, Daniel Tilford, Ashley Urjil-Mills, and Nate Woodard, the band writes jangly, fuzzy, reverb soaked “pop” songs. Pulling from a wide array of influences and a very small amount of technical skill, GANGLY YOUTH applies a shared punk mentality and manages to make songs that are refreshing and new, yet familiar all the same.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/events/196881313742581.

To join our email list, send an email to hstencil AT gmail DOT com.

The Fall, Ersatz G.B. (Cherry Red/MVD)

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My review of the latest record by The Fall was published on LEO Weekly‘s Bluegrass Catastrophe blog today:

It’s tempting to compare vastly different eras of The Fall’s career to one another. After all, The Fall has been a going affair for front man Mark E. Smith for five decades now, with Ersatz G.B. being the latest in a long line of releases. So to make the comparison, the latest, 2012 incarnation of The Fall documented on Ersatz G.B. reminds me most of the relatively accessible mid-1980s version, especially the lineup that recorded the classic album The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall. Musically, the band flirts with a slightly poppier yet hard-edged sound, including an atypical “metal” number, driven by the steady rhythm section of Keiron Melling on drums and David Spurr on bass. What little of Smith’s garbled vocals I can make out involve his usual concerns – he’s been lamenting “the highest British attention to the wrong detail” since 1982’s Hex Enduction Hour.

Buy it here.

Jakob Olausson, Morning & Sunrise (De Stijl)

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My review of Jakob Olausson’s new album, Morning & Sunrise, was published in this week’s LEO Weekly:

From a part of the world where the sunlight is scarce in the wintertime, Swedish singer-songwriter Jakob Olausson delivers an album that, despite its deceptively luminous title, sounds almost as stark as a Scandinavian winter. All of Olausson’s songs on Morning & Sunrise are lyrically direct, sung as if in a relatively one-sided conversation, though musically they meander, with snaking electric guitar leads overlaid upon the foundation of Olausson’s reverb-drenched strummed acoustic. In a way, Morning & Sunrise is reminiscent of Alexander “Skip” Spence’s loner masterpiece Oar, but without Spence’s supposed drug-addled goofiness or his Nashville-produced influence on the music. Aside from the just-slightly-too-ramshackle song “Engraved Invitation,” Morning & Sunrise is a sober and serious affair, like a steaming hot cup of black coffee at the crack of dawn on a cold winter morn.

Buy it from De Stijl here.

200 Years, s/t (Drag City)

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This week’s LEO Weekly contains my review of the new album by 200 Years, the new project by Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Rangda) and Elisa Ambrogio (Magik Markers):

At the conclusion of the Six Organs of Admittance show at Uncle Slayton’s back in August, Ben Chasny was joined onstage by singer Elisa Ambrogio, and the lucky audience was treated to a preview of their new band, 200 Years. The current concern for Ambrogio and Chasny, this self-titled debut on Drag City is superficially akin to Chasny’s Six Organs project as it features primarily acoustic guitars, delicately sweet melodies and the occasional accompaniment by harmonium. But the band is really Ambrogio’s showcase, as her voice dominates the album. However, unlike her usually confrontational work with Magik Markers, the overall aesthetic of 200 Years is one of dreamy, contemplative harmony between her voice and Chasny’s guitar. In songs such as “Partin Wayz” and “West Hartford,” there’s even a welcome sense of nostalgia and sentimentality, which gives 200 Years a sweet edge quite unlike anything previously by either artist.

Buy it from Drag City here.