Category Archives: Music This Weekend

WAND, LITTLE GOLD, INOCULIST, STATE CHAMPION at SKULL ALLEY, Saturday, August 21st

Leave a reply

WAND (from Lexington, on Young God Records)
LITTLE GOLD (from NYC, on HeartBreakBeat Records)
INOCULIST (from NYC, on HeartBreakBeat Records)
STATE CHAMPION (from Louisville/Southern Indiana, on Sophomore Lounge Records)

Saturday, August 21st
at SKULL ALLEY
1017 E. Broadway, at the corner of Barrett
8 PM, $6, ALL AGES!

WAND

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 WAND with his new release on Michael Gira’s Young God Records label with Death Seat, due this October . Abandoning the psychedelic wail of WW&VV for a starker, more direct songwriting style, WAND’s most recent tunes are harrowing and hellaciously good. Michael Gira writes that Toth is “a passionate singer and guitar player and inhabits the songs as he performs them with straightforward, unpretentious, and confident gravitas. I’ve been listening to this record over and over for the last several months—we went through dozens of equally compelling songs before choosing the line up of tracks—and the more I listen, the more honored I am to be associated with James Jackson Toth.”

Former Woods songwriter and Meneguar member, Christian DeRoeck is back with the Completely Fucked! 7″, his second release as LITTLE GOLD. Vastly different from the melancholy country of LITTLE GOLD’s debut LP On the Knife (2009), these two songs are brimming with fuzzy guitars, sweet harmonies, and what sounds like youthful exuberance. DeRoeck’s lyrical content is morose as ever, but on this record it comes packed in two and a half-minute pop songs. The most immediate difference is the addition of Brian Markham on bass and Pat Broderick on drums, both of Brooklyn psych-rockers Ancient Sky, and Broderick of beloved DC hardcore outfit Majority Rule. Released in an initial run of 300 on NYC label HeartBreakBeat Records, this record is a taste of what’s to come. Little Gold heads back into the studio this year to record the follow-up to On the Knife.

Watch Little Gold – “Bird’s Eye” – Le Loft Rooftop from DUKE STREET on Vimeo.

Through harmony and intricate musical arrangements, INOCULIST crafts an uncompromising scape of eerie pop, jazz progressions, and the swing of old world rhythm and blues. Started as the home recording project of John Hunter (guitar, vocals) in 2005, INOCULIST is a band constantly in the mode of creation. INOCULIST currently operates as a four-piece with Ashlyn Davis (keys,vocals), Ethan Schmid (drums, banjo), and Marc Merza (bass). Their new album Spells has just been released on HeartBreakBeat Records.

STATE CHAMPION started in 2006 as a moniker for the early acoustic experiments of Ryan Davis. It has since evolved into a rock n’ roll band with a Chevy van and a vinyl record. Having created a sound that is a product of its upbringing, with Sweetheart of the Rodeo on the radio, Bleach idle in the tape deck, and a Smog song stuck in its head, Davis & Co. drive through forty minutes of sincerely howled, sloppily executed, stripped down garage-country on their full-length debut, Stale Champagne (released this year on Sophomore Lounge Records). “The band is an under-the-radar phenomenon in the making, the classic style of quality band that Louisville overlooks… The tone is just right for this type of subtle rock. A bit earnest, a bit funny, a bit smart.” – Joseph Lord, Velocity Weekly.

Check out the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=108166219238444.

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

Two Great Shows This Weekend!

Leave a reply

Louisvillians have the rare treat of two really great shows this weekend. Here’s information on both of them:

CEREBELLUM (from Louisville, on Noise Pollution)
TROPHY WIVES (from Louisville/Illinois, on Noise Pollution)
THE TEETH (from Louisville/Southern Indiana, on Noise Pollution)

Saturday, July 31
at SKULL ALLEY
1017 E. Broadway
8 PM, $6, ALL AGES!

Here’s what Mat Herron wrote about the show in this week’s LEO Weekly:

Cerebellum was only around from 1988-1989, but the work of the band’s members outlasts its breakup.Three-quarters of the band went on to form Crain — guitarists Tim Furnish and Joey Mudd, bassist Jon Cook and drummer Will Chatham. The team of Furnish, Cook and Breck Pipes — an apropos furniture store name if ever there was one — now hold court in Parlour, Mudd fronts Midnite Sons, and guitarist Drew Daniel [Drew didn’t actually play guitar, but sang/banged metal objects —ed.], who designed the cover of Cerebellum’s lone cassette, is one half of Baltimore experimental duo Matmos…

This past spring, Noise Pollution, who has taken up the mantle of curating much of Louisville’s older punk music, re-released Cerebellum’s first tape along with five songs — “Begin,” “Guard,” “Hurt,” “Brighten” and “Crawl Out of the Water” — recorded at Trip Barriger’s Studio K.

The special edition LP came out just in time for the band’s reunion show back in May to raise money for Jason Noble, but their proper release happens July 31 at Skull Alley (1017 E. Broadway, www.skullalley.net). The all ages show is $6. Trophy Wives and The Teeth open.

CEREBELLUM’s performance in May was awesome, don’t miss this one!

Also, Sunday night brings the following show to a new space (in the same building as St. Francis High School):

BEAR IN HEAVEN
SHEDDING
SLOW ANIMAL

Sunday, August 1st
at LAND OF TOMORROW
233 W. Broadway
7:30 PM, $7-10 suggested donation

This show was curated in part by Michael over at the Decibel Tolls, so it’s bound to be great. Don’t miss it!

THE WEB, PHANTOM FAMILY HALO, SOFTCHEQUE at The Vernon Club, Saturday, June 12th

Leave a reply

THE WEB
PHANTOM FAMILY HALO
SOFTCHEQUE

Saturday, June 12th
at The Vernon Club
1575 Story Avenue
9 PM, $6, 18+
“No Dicks”

Details about the show from Noise Pollution:

Completing their slow reemergence from the abyss, enigmatic Louisville legends THE WEB will be releasing their (very, very) long awaited third album, Clydotorous Scrotohendron, on June 12th. The seven song album will be released on LP with letter pressed covers by Dexterity Press. Clydotorous Scrotohendron will also include a free digital download of the album with purchase of the LP.  This will be The Web’s first release in twelve years (and only third show in the same timeframe) and features the core lineup of Andrew Willis, Jason Hayden, Steve Good, Tony Hoyle and Gary Pahler.  The release show will take place at Vernon Club (1575 Story Ave) on Saturday, June 12th and marks The Web’s return to (at least) semi-active status. Opening for The Web will be two other incredible Louisville bands Phantom Family Halo and Softcheque. Doors at 9pm. Cost is $6. 18 and over. As huge fans of The Web for many years, we are thrilled and honored to have them on the label.  Azuza!

UPDATE, 6/9/2010: LEO Weekly ran a short feature by Mat Herron on The Web, including details on the new album, in today’s edition. Check it out here: http://leoweekly.com/music/follow-plant.

JOSEPHINE FOSTER, CATHERINE IRWIN, STATE CHAMPION at SKULL ALLEY, Friday, May 7th

Leave a reply

JOSEPHINE FOSTER (from Colorado, on Fire Records)
CATHERINE IRWIN (from Louisville, member of FREAKWATER)
STATE CHAMPION (from Louisville/Southern Indiana, on Sophomore Lounge Records)

Friday, May 7th
at SKULL ALLEY
1017 E. Broadway
8 PM, ALL AGES!
$8 in advance, $10 day of show
Tickets available at ear X-tacy or online here: http://skullalley.indieticket.com.

Over the course of just a few years, Colorado native JOSEPHINE FOSTER has captivated audiences & critics alike through a magnetic patchwork of recordings ranging from broken spirited balladry as one half of Born Heller, fiery psych rock gestalt with her rock outfit The Supposed to the voice of an outsider folk siren. The one constant is the utterly overwhelming strength and seductive unease of her voice & the bravery of an iconoclastic spirit. “You might call Ms. Foster’s eerie warbling old-fashioned, except that is evokes a scrambled past that exists only in her own vision: mountain songs that never were, spaced-out hybrids that never will be.” —New York Times.

CATHERINE IRWIN has called Louisville, Kentucky home, or at least her home base, all her life. She began performing by playing guitar in punk bands “and not caring a bit about country music,” she says. Still, the seed for her band Freakwater was inside her: “Most of the country music I heard on radio, I hated. But I loved the Carter Family, the way they would approach songs about death and dying or being saved and rejoicing the same way. That kind of music seems to age better. I can’t see myself playing punk anymore, but this kind of music I can see playing the rest of my life” (Chicago Tribune). Her songs are just packed with sapience, despondency, and wry wit, though you don’t have to look past “Louisville Lip” or “Dirty Little Snowman” to see she’s one of America’s greatest living songwriters. Even so, she remains humble, even self-depreciating: “If I had a master plan, it’d be trying to get people used to the idea of frumpy middle-aged losers singing music” (Boston Phoenix). She will be joined at this show by fantastic Louisville guitarist Michael O’Bannon, formerly of Blinders, Antman, and current member of 1069.

STATE CHAMPION started in 2006 as a moniker for the early acoustic experiments of Ryan Davis. It has since evolved into a rock n’ roll band with a Chevy van and a vinyl record. Having created a sound that is a product of its upbringing, with Sweetheart of the Rodeo on the radio, Bleach idle in the tape deck, and a Smog song stuck in its head, Davis & Co. drive through forty minutes of sincerely howled, sloppily executed, stripped down garage-country on their full-length debut, Stale Champagne (released this year on Sophomore Lounge Records). “The band is an under-the-radar phenomenon in the making, the classic style of quality band that Louisville overlooks… The tone is just right for this type of subtle rock. A bit earnest, a bit funny, a bit smart.” – Joseph Lord, Velocity Weekly.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109505479085276

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

STRAIGHT A’s, SIGHTINGS, THE TEETH at SKULL ALLEY, Thursday, May 6th

Leave a reply

UPDATE, 4/22/10: This show will now be the record release show for Straight A’s new album Self Help, which is being released by Louisville’s own Noise Pollution label!

STRAIGHT A’s (from Louisville, on Noise Pollution)
SIGHTINGS (from Brooklyn, New York; on Brah/Jagjaguwar)
THE TEETH (from Louisville/Southern Indiana, on Noise Pollution)

Thursday, May 6th
at SKULL ALLEY
1017 E. Broadway
8 PM, $5, ALL AGES!

Louisville’s STRAIGHT A’s will be on hand to dish out their “aggressive and original pitch-shifted, echo-noise onslaught” (as described by Leo Weekly) while supporting their brand new full length album Self Help. They have also been described by one audience member as Arab on Radar meets In My Head-era Black Flag, which sounds bitchin’ and also very apropos.

Listen to STRAIGHT A’s here: Straight A’s – “The Whole Package”


SIGHTINGS has never presented a particularly welcoming façade and their sui generis music has perhaps been passed over by less discerning listeners over the eleven years of their existence, but throughout this they have created a singular body of work appreciated and touted by the likes of Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Andrew WK. If you’ve missed the boat up until now – [their new album] City of Straw is the ideal venue to experience the band’s mastery of extreme timbres, astounding instrumental prowess and yes, extraordinary song-craft. SIGHTINGS will insist that at their core they are a rock band working within the context of pop song-craft. With a deep reach beyond the spirit of their influence from greats like the Birthday Party, the Dead C. and the Jesus Lizard, City of Straw finds SIGHTINGS working at the peak of their creative powers and is the perfect re-introduction to one of New York’s most accomplished bands. “Name any rock band and chances are you can connect its music back to some formal antecedent — Chuck Berry, the Velvet Underground, the Beatles or even just the blues. Sightings are unburdened by — even outside of — that history. The trio’s lineup is as basic as they come: drummer, bassist, guitarist who sings. It’s just that those elements seem based on some intuitive science that the rest of humanity hasn’t quite gotten hip to yet.” – Mike Wolf, Time Out New York. This show marks the first time SIGHTINGS has played Louisville.

Listen to “Tar and Pine” off SIGHTINGS’ new album City of Straw here: http://www.scjag.com/mp3/jag/tarandpine.mp3.

Formed in 2001, Louisville’s THE TEETH have followed their own peculiar path since.  This path is one strewn with one-off cd-r’s, rusty nail helmets, shaving on stage and shifting lineups (the core of which centered around guitarist Matt Dodds and drummer JR Rector).  The lineup stabilized with the addition of bassist Brad Anderson and vocalist Ben Herning in 2005 and THE TEETH have continued to hone their stripped down, strangely ethereal interpretation of post-punk.  The band has since released a full length album and a seven-inch EP, and are currently writing material for a new album.

Listen to THE TEETH here: The Teeth – “The Rubberliner”

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115740458440229

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

SIBERIA, THOUSAND ARROWS at the SWAN DIVE, Friday, April 2nd

Leave a reply

SIBERIA (from Louisville)
THOUSAND ARROWS (from Bloomington, Indiana)

Friday, April 2nd
at the SWAN DIVE
921 Swan Street (at the corner of Swan and Caldwell)
9 PM, $5, 21-and-over

SIBERIA is not actually from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but is instead a duo from Louisville, Kentucky consisting of Mike Seymour and Syd Bishop. They cite Ennio Morricone, Stars of the Lid, Autechre, and Earth among many influences, yet their sound is uniquely their own. If you like instrumental guitar drone with actual melodies — and I know I do! — don’t miss their first show at the Swan Dive.

THOUSAND ARROWS is the solo project of Peter Schreiner of Bloomington, Indiana. Peter also plays in the Hollows (who played the Swan Dive back in January with Catherine Irwin and Elephant Micah) and Magnolia Electric Co.  This show marks THOUSAND ARROW‘s Louisville debut.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=104610052902693.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

ANTI-EASTER PARTY with RUDE WEIRDO, TALK NORMAL, and NZAMBI at SKULL ALLEY, Sunday, April 4th

Leave a reply

It’s an ANTI-EASTER* PARTY!!!
with
RUDE WEIRDO (from Louisville)
TALK NORMAL (from Brooklyn, New York; on Rare Book Room Records)
NZAMBI (from Louisville, formerly PAX TITANIA)

Sunday, April 4th
at SKULL ALLEY
1017 E. Broadway
8 PM, $5, ALL AGES!

Louisville’s RUDE WEIRDO are a return to classic, three-chord punk. Consisting of Eric Ronay, Dave Bird, Jason Hayden, and Jason Fuller, these veterans of “the scene, man” really throw it down. The first time I saw them (with an almost entirely different lineup, with the exception of bassplayer/singer Ronay), they covered Agent Orange. They’ve released a compact disc on Louisville Lip Records, and hopefully more good things are coming soon.

Sarah Register and Andrya Ambro allied as TALK NORMAL in 2007, after years of friendship, and haven’t stopped moving. Since their lightning-strike first appearance, TALK NORMAL’s sound has stormed upward and outward, referencing few and relating to many, a jarringly songful gale of rhythm and noise supporting pleas and plaints, signal-calls and marching orders. Each show builds on past ones: up-to-the-moment updates of ideas previously stated, new phrasings of old upheavals delivered with increasing focus and joy. Darkness and light; fury, silence, space and sound. Opening for Xiu Xiu in the rest of the U.S. this spring, TALK NORMAL is returning to Louisville for another rare performance!

NZAMBI is the new synth project from Christopher Cprek, who has also released work under the PAX TITANIA moniker. Christopher uses an arsenal of DIY modular synthesizers. His former projects include Darker Florida with Irene Moon, Auk Theatre with Irene Moon, and as a member of Warmer Milks a few years back. NZAMBI’s debut as a project was in October at Zanzabar, with Regression, Spykes, and others.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=391485970850.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

*please note that the “ANTI-EASTER” theme is entirely in jest, thanks.

BLUES CONTROL with SAPAT, SOFTCHEQUE and RAW THUG at Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge, Friday, October 23

1 Reply

It’s flying a little bit under-the-radar, but this Friday Kris Abplanalp aka Kaptain Molasses is bringing another fantastic show to Louisville. Siltbreeze recording artists (and good friends) BLUES CONTROL are returning to Louisville to play Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge (at the corner of Oak and Swan Streets in Germantown) this Friday, October 23rd, with support from our local favorites SAPAT, SOFTCHEQUE, and RAW THUG. Should be a doozy of a good time. I could be wrong, but I think it starts around 10 PM, and costs $5.

Little Wings and Zak Riles (of Grails) at the SWAN DIVE, Sunday September 6

Leave a reply

Jeremy over at the Swan Dive put together a doozy of a show for this Sunday. Here’s what he had to say about it:

LITTLE WINGS is Kyle Fields’ music project. Little Wings songs are quickly becoming modern folk classics. I spoke with him the other day and we had a conversation about Fiest, who is all over iPod commercials, covering one of his songs, “Look at What the Light Did.” Kyle is also an artist, who has picture in galleries all over the globe. I could go on and on about his song writing skills and how good his art is but i”ll spare you the hubbub.

www.myspace.com/littlewings2
www.myspace.com/littlewings3
www.kyledraws.com

Zak Riles is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in the Important/Temporary Residence band Grails. His creative contributions to the group are immeasurable and can be heard clearly on this self-titled debut solo outing. In fact some of the pieces on this solo record have been reinterpreted into Grails favorites. Like his band Grails, Zak Riles’ solo work is an elaborate mansion built of inspiration but with so much strength and originality that it stands firmly on its own. On these rocky shores come crashing waves of Sandy Bull, Mogolar, Deuter, Popol Vuh and the Ventures while Persian breeze drifts by wafting the melodies of Hossein Alizadeh. Essential listening for followers of Important Records who favor the likes of Grails & James Blackshaw.

www.myspace.com/wmzacharyriles

You can also listen to a podcast with Zak Riles at LEO Weekly here: http://bluecat.leoweekly.com/2009/09/02/leo-music-%E2%80%99cast-zak-riles/. And here’s the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=138386594728.

LITTLE WINGS
ZAK RILES (of GRAILS)

Sunday, September 6th
The Swan Dive
921 Swan Street
$5, 9 PM, 21 and over

Sapat, Crazy Dreams Band, Jana Hunter at the SWAN DIVE Friday, August 28

Leave a reply

(photo of CRAZY DREAMS BAND from Baltimore’s City Paper.)

SAPAT
CRAZY DREAMS BAND (Baltimore, Maryland; on Holy Mountain)
JANA HUNTER (Baltimore, Maryland; on Gnomonsong)

Friday, August 28
The Swan Dive
921 Swan Street
9 PM
$5, 21 and over

Spawned from the formidable Louisville, KY collective known as Black Velvet Fuckere, SAPAT resides as the centrifugal force in this Midwestern psychedelic madrigal set in the psychosexual backwaters of the mighty Ohio River. For the entirety of the ’00 decade, members have kept busy collaborating with and/or massaging the egos of various and sundry avant-pontiffs such as Robert Fripp, Magik Markers, Dead Child and Eugene Chadbourne — when not honing the orgone energy of SAPAT.

Grooves that confuse? CRAZY DREAMS BAND is an outfit that presents its guitar free “thug pop” of dirge rather than drone with creeping crooning and brassless horn blasts [note: Crazy Dreams Band will actually have a guitarist in tow at this show —ed.]. Like the best of Giallo films you’ll be as turned on as you are terrified. As tender as Coco Rosie, as brutal as Magik Markers and as cool as Royal Trux “Radio/ Video” vibe. Imagine if Bruce Springsteen and Martin Rev collaborated on songs for Patti Smith or Catherine Ribeiro. Channeled inner voices are expelled as cave anthems into neon text in Linear A while bones poke through the skin atop a witch’s brew of venomous sludge. This is the urban tribal music that survives whatever “end is nigh” theory you choose. They’re jamming this music outside the thunder dome, beneath the planet of the apes and the day after tomorrow. CRAZY DREAMS BAND has released one self-titled album on Holy Mountain, and features members of Lexie Mountain Band, Harrius, Religious Knives, and Mouthus.

A dark pop musician hailing originally from northern Texas, JANA HUNTER has been writing and recording, if not releasing, songs, for the past 16 years. Intensely private, raised in a large, religious family, and an orchestral violinist from an early age, followed melodic obsessions and a gift for striking listener’s as being near-“haunted” (Chas Bowie, The Portland Mercury, 2.9.06), developing a signature sonic topography. These elements caught the rapt attention of critics and the enthusiastic endorsement of many of the day’s most respected musicians upon the 2005 releases of a split LP 12″ with Devendra Banhart and Hunter’s solo debut, “Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom”. She followed with 2007’s “There’s No Home” full-length and and EP bearing the title “Carrion”. Hunter’s newest work (a full-length due out in 2009) is still at times bleak, even grim, but more often rapturous, lush, and resplendent, and a marked refinement of her already considerable melodicism and sensitivity. “Jana Hunter is…making stark and mysterious songs full of a weird will, as if they’re writing themselves.” (Ben Ratliff, New York Times, 4.29, 07)

Check out the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114594818591.