Tuesday, October 29th
at NACHBAR 969 Charles Street (at the corner of Charles and Krieger)
9 PM, 21-and -over FREE!
JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN III is the definition of the wildman troubador in modern times, and has certainly earned a deserved reputation with his sensibility for original, creative and bizarre recordings with both THE GOLDEN BOYS and his namesake here. The guy has a sense of weird, time-proof stoner genius bottled up “as” rock n roll that is undeniable, and gravity worked its magnetic pull. A mix of the real and the absurd in one man, with an uncanny ability to combine worldly intelligence with humor that “accidentally” hints at the sublime.
Following their studio debut You Win Some, You Loser (Sophomore Lounge, 2010), Chicago’s favorite skateshop pop quartet ANIMAL CITY is back on wax with their follow-up full-length, See You In The Funny Pages. Though two and a half years without a proper record might seem like a healthy hunk of downtime, don’t let the calendar fool you. The boys have been busy. Since first forming their creative kinship nearly 7 years ago, key songwriters Sal Cassato and Dakota Loesch have knocked out a dozen-or-so collections of lo-fi, homegrown, harmonious rock jams ranging in style from stoner/loner acoustic wayfaring to full-on, funked-up and jazzed-out anthems. “I can’t deny the enjoyability that comes with a well-edited, snappy rock band like this… Even as I get older and uglier, I refuse to entirely hate anyone and everyone on the grounds that they are not as bitter as myself; bands like Animal City are chicken soup for the soul.” –Yellow Green Red.
Mikie, Sean, and Jenny of GIVING UP were all snuck out of their 16 year old bedrooms to hang out and cause trouble. Now they sneak out of their respective 20 something year old major midwestern towns to return to Iowa, write songs, goof off, and feel feelings.
Sunday, October 20th
atTHE NEW VINTAGE 2126 S. Preston
8 PM, $5, 21-and-over!
WIRES.UNDER.TENSION is a duo based in The South Bronx. Combining homegrown audio sampling instruments with ferocious beats and adventurous orchestration, WUT‘s angular gymnastics reflect the raw imagery of their home turf. Multi-instrumentalist Christopher Tignor switches dexterously between violin and the rest of the arsenal while Theo Metz extracts brutal truths from the kit. Together WUT is rethinking what instrumental music can be about when musicianship and restless experimentation rule the scene.
Comprised of electronic drums, keyboards, bass, and effected guitar, VISITING NURSE features long time collaborators Jon Hill, Mike Seymour, and Syd Bishop creating music that seems to somehow straddle the gap between the organic and inorganic, a cyborg pastiche of jazz influenced composition, and rigid structures. For fans of Boards of Canada, Clams Casino, and Biosphere.
UPDATE, 10/15:
Due to events beyond our control, we regret to inform you that the WIRES.UNDER.TENSION and VISITING NURSE show scheduled for this Sunday, October 20th at The New Vintage has, sadly, been cancelled.
No word as of yet on a make-up date, but we promise you’ll be the first to know.
It’s kinda crazy how quickly September has flown by — in a flash! Well they say time flies when you’re having fun, but we haven’t even gotten to CROPPED OUT yet! That’s right, the fourth installment of Louisville’s best DIY-n’-weird-stuff weekend is back, taking place mainly at the American Turners Club on River Road, and this year promises to be the best ever. As always, we’ve checked out the schedule (you can too, here: http://croppedoutmusic.com/cropped-out-2013-schedule/), and here’s your “Picks to Click” in bold, with some additional commentary…
FRIDAY, SEPT. 27
5 p.m. — White Reaper (Turners Tavern stage): Louisville’s latest garage rock sensation, catch them before they’re either huge and/or move to Nashville/Memphis/anyplace else.
5:25 — Spelling Bee (Goosebump Galley stage)
5:55 — Tweens (Phreedom Hall stage)
6:20 — Promised Land Sound (Turners Tavern)
6:45 — Tyvek (Turners Tavern): Detroit’s finest stop-on-a-dime-and-give-you-change rock band, in probably their millionth configuration. Who will be in the band this week? Find out!
7:15 — Spray Paint (Phreedom Hall)
7:40 — Salad Influence (Goosebump Galley): Lexington main man Mikey Turner’s side gig, when he’s not rocking in CROSS or making sweet solo tapes.
8:00 — Blues Control (Goosebump Galley): Our pals Lea and Russ, we go way back, and there ain’t nothin’ bad we could ever say about this dynamic duo!
8:35 — Juanita (Phreedom Hall): Long-running Louisville underground mavens, featuring some people that go back to first-wave Louisville punk and the 1069 House scene that spawned Babylon Dance Band, Endtables, and more.
9:00 — Hair Police (Turners Tavern): Lexington “noize dudes” in a rare Louisville performance — probably the first time in a decade!
9:25 — Shit & Shine (Goosebump Galley): One of the highlights of Cropped Out II: The Search for Curley’s Gold, S&S occasionally feature King Coffey of the Butthole Surfers, as well as bunny masks.
9:55 — The Endtables (Phreedom Hall): First-wave Louisville punk! Okay, maybe Southern Indiana. Either way, they rule, and this is the first time they’ve played here in over 35 years!
10:20 — Steve Gunn (Turners Tavern): East Coast guitar-slinger with a killer new album, Time Off, that you should check out pronto!
10:55 — Bill Orcutt & Chris Corsano (Goosebump Galley): Orcutt slayed solo at Cropped Out II, this is his first Louisville trip with drumming octopus and handsome man Chris Corsano. Hide your (fancy) bourbon!
11:40 — Endless Boogie (Phreedom Hall): The last time EB graced Louisville was over two years ago, so it’s safe to say you shouldn’t miss them this time!
2:00 p.m. — Asm A Tik (Turners Tavern): I’ve been dying to see this new Louisville trio, as supposedly they are prog-tastic. Come get progressive, early!
2:25 — Neighbor (Goosebump Galley): One of Louisville’s heaviest current groups, we gotta say, these neighbors are much cooler than one of our neighbors who cut down a tree last year. Boo!
2:55 — Todays Hits (Phreedom Hall)
3:20 — Mote (Turners Tavern)
3:45 — Quail Bones (Goosebump Galley)
4:15 — Connections (Phreedom Hall): New Columbus, Ohio band features members of Times New Viking. Remember them? They were great, so these guys are probably at least half as good, right? Just kiddin’, they are pretty great!
4:40 — Tom Blacklung & the Smokestacks (Turners Tavern)
5:05 — Running (Goosebump Galley)
5:35 — Rinehart (Phreedom Hall)
6:00 — New England Patriots (Turners Tavern)
6:25 — Thee Open Sex (Goosebump Galley)
6:55 — Montag (Phreedom Hall): Rare appearance by this Louisville super-phenom! Must be seen to be believed!
7:20 — SKIMASK (Turners Tavern)
7:45 — Jaye Jayle (Turners Tavern): Mysterious Louisville folk rock funsters, JJ have been awesome every time we’ve seen ’em.
8:15 — Mayo Thompson and the Corky’s Debt Band (Phreedom Hall): YES! Corky’s Debt to His Father is one of our favorite albums of all time, and though we’ve seen Mayo kill it with his main concern, The Red Krayola, we never thought we’d see the day we’d see/hear songs from Corky live. And on our 38th birthday, no less. In our hometown. Thank you, Cropped Out!
8:55 — Kal Marks (Goosebump Galley)
9:20 — Borbetomagus (Goosebump Galley): New York trio (2 saxes, electric guitar) are an acquired taste, but what a taste it is! We’ve been long-time fans, without ever having the chance to see them live, so this is another one-in-a-lifetime experience as they rarely play off the East Coast.
10:00 — Wolf Eyes (Phreedom Hall): Quite possibly the best band Michigan’s produced since the Stooges. Really, I believe that!
10:35 — Human Eye (Turners Tavern): Second-best Michigan band after Wolf Eyes! What is it with Michigan and eyes anyway? The dang place looks like a glove!
11:05 — CAVE (Goosebump Galley): One of the highlights of Cropped Out #1, along with a chaotic drunken Oaks night two years ago, Cave brings some sorta kraut-y dance party for yo’ dome.
11:45 — Matt Sweeney & Bonnie “Prince” Billy (Phreedom Hall): We’ll be honest, we haven’t been a huge Billy fan, but Superwolf, the album these two geniuses recorded over five years ago, was a damn fine moment. Everybody rub your belly!
At midnight Saturday night, our Stop Drink Listen friends will be hosting an after-party with Endless Boogie’s Paul Major, also at Seidenfaden’s (more information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/594751607224434/).
SUNDAY, SEPT. 29
9 p.m. — Freakwater (Phreedom Hall): C’mon, do I really have to tell you anything about Freakwater? Sheesh, I’m tired already.
10:30 — Lambchop (Phreedom Hall)
If that wasn’t enough information for you, you can find out more at www.croppedoutmusic.com. And you can download a really great mix of this year’s artists there! And buy tickets, if you haven’t already. What are you waiting for?
OH YEAH! Cropped Out REALLY starts on Thursday, if you’re so inclined, with the BEER & VOODOO Wild & Woolly/Cropped Out 2013 Pre-Party with Sublime Frequenciesat the Dreamland Film Center! Filmmaker/documentarian/world traveler Hisham Mayet will be presenting two films, Vodoun Gods on the Slave Coast (at 7:30pm) and The Divine River: Ceremonial Pageantry in the Sahel (at 9:00pm). More information is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/504642746296711/.
Whew! Now I gotta go take a nap so I have enough energy for this weekend…
UPDATE, 9/27/2013: THE CORRECT SET TIMES ARE NOW UP! For some reason, we “copied” the scheduled published in the LEO Weekly, which was inaccurate. We regret the error. Always on time, peoples!
Wednesday, October 23rd at GREENHAUS 2227 S. Preston 7 PM, $6
R. KEENAN LAWLER is a guitarist who has collaborated or performed with a wide range of forward-thinking musicians and mavericks including Rhys Chatham, John Butcher, Eliott Sharp, Charalambides, Ignaz Schick/Perlonex, Kaffe Matthews, Burning Star Core, Jason Kahn, Ut Gret, Kevin Drumm, Helena Espvall, Ian Nagoski, Alan Licht, Taksuya Nakatani, Bhob Rainey, Eric Carbonara and Joseph Suchy. TIM BARNES is a percussionist and electronic musician who has played with Jim O’Rourke, Silver Jews, Neil Michael Hagerty and the Howling Hex, The Tower Recordings, The For Carnation, and MV+EE. He also runs the newly-resuscitated Quakebasket label. Recently Lawler and Barnes collaborated as a duo at the Louisville Experimental Festival this past June.
Combining boundless creative imagination with a deep reverence for American folk, blues and country music, MARISA ANDERSON‘s guitar playing is fluid, emotional, dexterous and original. Signal to Noise magazine calls Anderson’s guitar work “Utterly fabulous”, TIme Out London refers to her playing as “Stunning…haunting and evocative”, Pitchfork calls her latest record, ‘Mercury’, ”Brilliant” and Wire Magazine says, “Her sound has strength in restless variety…Anderson’s playing is heartfelt and utterly American, free from grandstanding and steeped in respect for the old tradition.”
Watch MARISA ANDERSON play a song from her set at Mississippi Studios in Portland this past June here:
NEW MOTHER NATURE(Louisville, Kentucky) TOM CARTER (Brooklyn, NY) JONATHAN WOOD & LOWE SUTHERLAND (Louisville, KY; members of OLD BABY and SAPAT) CIAN NUGENT(Dublin, Ireland; on VHF)
Wednesday, September 11th atTHE NEW VINTAGE 2126 S. Preston
8 PM, $6, 21-and-over!
(Photo of New Mother Nature by Tim Furnish.)
NEW MOTHER NATURE is a relatively new band on the Louisville scene, but filled with familiar faces. Members of NEW MOTHERNATURE are current or former members of Old Baby, The Phantom Family Halo, Natural Geographic, and many more. They quickly became one of our favorite Louisville bands, and we think you’ll like ‘em as well. Their sound “is rich with straight-forward melodies… all while maintaining a sense of playful, if cautious experimentation.” — Syd Bishop, LEO Weekly.
(Photo of Tom Carter by Martha Colburn.)
Although best known for his work with iconoclasts Charalambides, which he co-founded with Christina Carter in 1991, TOM CARTER has recently focused on his solo performances and recordings, which have increasingly featured visual components – including collaborations with filmmakers Martha Colburn and Margarida Garcia. Currently, Carter is on a solo US tour with New Zealand’s Gate, and working on two solo LPs for release in 2014. TOM CARTER is also well-known for collaborations with other musicians. Fellow travelers have included Marc Orleans (Sunburned Hand of the Man), Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance), Tom Surgal, Marcia Bassett, Paul Flaherty, Thurston Moore (Chelsea Light Moving), Dredd Foole, Loren Connors, Pip Proud, Jandek, Bardo Pond, Steve Gunn, and Matt Valentine, among many others. Over the past decades, he refined his evolving ideas of tonal immersion (and the quest for the perfect fuzz tone) into a layered sonic toolkit of rough beauty. He now lives in New York City.
JONATHAN WOOD & LOWE SUTHERLAND are known to connoisseurs of Louisville music, primarily for their main musical vehicles Old Baby and Sapat, respectively. They’re taking a dynamic duo detour down a ramshackle dirt road, riding a pink Cadillac into the sunset of a February night. Will they fly off the handle, riding high like Thelma & Louise James Taylor and Dennis Wilson into an expansive western sky? Or will they keep it down-to-earth, dusting up your jacket and filling your lungs with exhaust while they peel out, squealing their tires? There’s only one way to find out, dear listener…
CIAN NUGENT is a guitar player and composer from Dublin, Ireland who combines personal passions, such as suburban/coastal blues, traditional musics, late 1960s & ’70s singer-songwriters, jazz ambitions, 20th century composition and the Takoma school into a deeply personal style. His music boasts an orchestrated and fully instrumented sound that is playful and eerie at the same time. In the past he has toured with people such as Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, Micah Blue Smaldone, Ben Reynolds, Nalle, The Family Elan, George Stavis, Jozef van Wissem, C Joynes, Peter Delaney, Thinguma*jigSaw and James Blackshaw throughout Europe and the United States.
Thursday, August 29th at GREENHAUS 2227 S. Preston 7 PM, $6
DAVID GRUBBS is an associate professor in the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, CUNY, where he also teaches in the MFA programs in Performance and Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) and Creative Writing. He is the author of the forthcoming book Records Ruin the Landscape: John Cage, The Sixties, and Sound Recording (Duke University Press). GRUBBS has released twelve solo albums and appeared on more than 150 commercially released recordings. He is known for his cross disciplinary collaborations with writers such as Susan Howe and Rick Moody, and with visual artists such as Anthony McCall, Angela Bulloch, Cosima von Bonin, and Stephen Prina. His work has been presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, MoMA, the Tate Modern, and the Centre Pompidou. GRUBBS, a Louisville native, was a member of the groups Gastr del Sol, Bastro, and Squirrel Bait, and he has performed with the Red Krayola, Will Oldham, Tony Conrad, Pauline Oliveros, and Loren Connors, among many others. He directs the Blue Chopsticks record label and is a member of ISSUE Project Room’s Board of Directors. Grubbs was a 2005-6 grant recipient from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and was recently featured in Augusto Contento’s documentary film Parallax Sounds.
Comprised of electronic drums, keyboards, bass, and effected guitar, VISITING NURSE features long time collaborators Jon Hill, Mike Seymour, and Syd Bishop creating music that seems to somehow straddle the gap between the organic and inorganic, a cyborg pastiche of jazz influenced composition, and rigid structures. For fans of Boards of Canada, Clams Casino, and Biosphere.
I have to admit, last year’s CROPPED OUT Festival would be difficult for anyone, much less our fearless friends and heroes, to top. Jandek, Eugene Chadbourne (yes, people born after 1970 know who he is), Neil Hamburger, The Ritchie White Orchestra, Merchandise, Papa M, and Wooden Wand were just some of the many, many memorable performances of the weekend (and by memorable, I also mean I won’t ever forget seeing that naked guy from Guerilla Toss, no matter how much I try!). Following up last year’s fest is on a magnitude with winning the NCAA basketball tournament two years in a row…
So it’s even more surprising that not only did our CROPPED OUT pals not blow it this year as the musical equivalent of the first round of the NIT (heh heh), but, to mix sports metaphors, they knocked it OUT OF THE PARK yet again this year! This year’s CROPPED OUT lineup (with picks to click in bold):
Mayo Thompson And The Corky’s Debt Band performing Corky’s Debt To His Father Endless Boogie
Lambchop The Endtables Wolf Eyes Blues Control Shit And Shine Bill Orcutt/Chris Corsano CAVE Connections Montag Hair Police Human Eye
Spray Paint Watery Love Steve Gunn
Cop City Chill Pillars
Running Salad Influence
Rinehart Jaye Jayle
Skimask Juanita Neighbor
Kal Marks Asm A Tik
Tom Blacklung & The Smokestacks Thee Open Sex
Today’s Hits
New England Patriots
Quail Bones
Tweens White Reaper
Spelling Bee
I’ve been assured that plenty more surprises are on the way, so vote early, vote often! Er… buy your tickets now! Here’s the details:
Two-day combo passes (which include Friday and Saturday, but not Sunday’s separate closing party) are on sale now at Astro Black Records and online. There will be a limited amount of combo passes available for the almost inconsequential amount of $35, and once those are gone, you can still purchase them in advance for the very reasonable price of $40. Day-of-show combo passes are $50, so save a few shekels and purchase them now!
The closing party, which will be headlined by Lambchop, will be a more intimate affair, and located off the festival grounds at the incredible and historic Workhouse Ballroom, a semi-secret, pre-Civil War manmade cavern. Referred to locally as “The Cave,” it once served as a debtor’s prison, and is a wonderous place to see a musical performance. Consider it a kind of wind-down from the insanity of the weekend. It’s ticketed separately, so if you want to catch Nashville’s finest, along with a TBD support act, be sure to pick up a ticket.
Cropped Out and The Other Side of Life are proud to present:
INSECT FACTORY(Silver Spring, MD) mAAs (Louisville, KY; duo of Tim Barnes and Connor Bell) PUBLIC SPEAKING(Brooklyn, NY)
Wednesday, July 24th at GREENHAUS 2227 S. Preston 7 PM, $6
INSECT FACTORY is music from Silver Spring, MD musician Jeff Barsky. INSECT FACTORY focuses on texture and mood, building layers of dense sounds that slowly evolve into hypnotic and atmospheric drones. Since the 90’s, Barsky has continuously played in bands and improvisational collectives, and has performed frequently on the east coast of the U.S., and also in Canada, throughout Europe, and Japan. Barsky’s projects have shared the stage with acts as diverse as Richard Pinhas, Nels Cline, Lungfish, and Carla Bozulich, and he has performed at the Suoni Il Per Popolo festival in Montreal, Terrastock ’08 in Louisville, KY, and D.C.’s Sonic Circuits, Queering Sound, and Fringe Festivals. In later 2011, INSECT FACTORY released a split 7″ with RST (New Zealand), and followed it up with the Melodies from a Dead Radio LP (Fabrica/Insectfields) in early 2012. Most recently, INSECT FACTORY appeared alongside Six Organs of Admittance and Charalambides on “For Lee Jackson in Space”, a gargantuan online compilation benefitting ALS Research. “Music that evokes the feel of a plane ride through the clouds and the
surreal world of dreams…INSECT FACTORY‘s music grows with repeated listens.” – The Wire.
mAAs is the duo of Louisville musicians Connor Bell (also of Shedding) and Tim Barnes. Louisville resident and drummer extraordinaire, the list of Tim Barnes‘s collaborators is too long to list here, but it includes Jim O’Rourke, Silver Jews, Neil Michael Hagerty and the Howling Hex, The Tower Recordings, and countless others. Most recently, Tim Barnes played drums with the resurrected lineup of The For Carnation, as well as with MV+EE at Cropped Out in November, 2011. Connor Bell has released several items over the years under the name Shedding, available at Ocio and Hometapes, all of which is meditative and still, eerie and unsettling — yet with a spectacular sense of melody. This performance marks their debut as mAAs, an electronic duo.
PUBLIC SPEAKING is the music of Brooklyn solo artist Jason Anthony Harris. Utilizing found objects, radio, tape recorder, and vocoder, he pores over pedals to loop, warp and augment these sources. He sings on his knees, in a semi-circle of these devices and percussive clutter. The result is a soulful and rhythmically dense experimental music. His performances are highly improvisational, with an emphasis on immediacy and site-specific actions.
Friday, July 19th
atLISA’S OAK STREET LOUNGE 1004 E. Oak Street
9:30 PM, 21-and-over, $5 Please note: Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge accepts CASH ONLY!
(photo of JULIE OF THE WOLVES by Tim Furnish)
JULIE OF THE WOLVES formed in September of 2011 and includes members of Madame Machine, The Frequent Sea, Second Story Man, Venus Trap, Minnow, and The Red Nails. They’re one of the most exciting new bands in Louisville at the moment, and if you haven’t seen them play yet (with other great bands such as Old Baby, Freakwater, Black God, and the Hal Dolls), now’s your chance! This show is also a fundraiser to help them finance their new record!
OPPOSABLE THUMBS is “part party and part sweated garage rock… Every instrument is as key and in your face; none overtake the order of the chaos being preached. It’s stripped down post-punk that has a almost considerable dance to it. Not dance rock; fuck that. This digs into late 70s/early 80s vibes… This band seems to me to be a perfect culmination of a history of Louisville’s crud rock scene rolled together and spit out. The unhinged destruction of convention still exists pounded through a discipline that keeps the songs together and groovy.” — American Gloam.
Watch OPPOSABLE THUMBS‘ video for the song “Hello Babies” off their self-titled debut album here:
Yes. ThatWIRE. The seminal English band that influenced everyone from the Minutemen to My Bloody Valentine, from R.E.M. to Minor Threat. From their 1977 debut album Pink Flagto the band’s most recent album, 2013’s Change Becomes Us, legendary art-combo WIRE have created a unique body of work. Subverting genres, Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Robert Grey and Matthew Simms continue to work on new material, regularly confounding expectations. The Louisville stop on their summer tour will be their only appearance in the region, as well as their first time playing anywhere in Kentucky. If you’re at all a fan of music in the post-punk era, you won’t want to miss this!
NATIVES are a catchy, tough, psychedelic punk band from Louisville, KY. This is their second show with a new, powerful lineup. You can listen to their self-released debut from 2011, Loose Secrets, here: http://ntvs.bandcamp.com/.
The Other Side of Life 