Month: December 2023

HollyDaze

Concert Listings, Music

However you choose to celebrate the holiday season, please don’t spin any of those overplayed seasonal tunes within earshot of me. It’s not just Mariah, it’s also Andy Williams, Bobby Helms, Brenda Lee… basically the same 12-song rotation that’s been shoved down our earholes since November 1st.

There are good Christmas songs (R.I.P. Shane and Kirsty), but you’ll rarely hear them on iHeart/Cumulus radio stations or in the malls.

Thanks, my spleen feels vented now. On with the shows!

Tonight, Ben Levin plays Schwartz’s Point, and then he’s got his big Holiday Blues Revue on Thursday.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy plays a “Wild & Swingin’ Holiday Party” at the Taft Theatre on Wednesday.

On Saturday, it’s a Sophie’s Choice for the stoners:

  • Afroman’s “Merry Spliffmas” is at Annie’s
  • Hyryder (Grateful Dead tribute band) plays the Madison Theater

After those smokin’ Saturday shows, all is calm, all is bright… two adjectives that my school teachers never used to describe me.

Things pick up a bit after the fat guy heads back to the North Pole.

On Friday, December 29th, Sylmar and Bendigo Fletcher play the Woodward, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra trots out their usual holiday tuneage at the Coliseum.

Saturday, December 30th is a very busy night for concerts:

  • Jess Lamb & The Factory (featuring Siri Imani) plays MOTR
  • Rumpke Mountain Boys kick off a two-night stand at Annie’s
  • Root Cellar Extract plays Plain Folk Café in Goshen
  • Tickled Pink (Scott Covrett, Bob Nyswonger and Bam Powell) plays the Pub in Rookwood

On Sunday, December 31st:

  • The Rumpke Mountain Boys ring in the new year at Annie’s
  • Foxy Shazam plays the Foxy Carol Brady
  • Your favorite writer of a semi-coherent, sporadically-published list of Cincinnati-area concerts will celebrate his birthday… by attending the wedding of one of his wife’s co-workers.

Coney Island Baby

Did you hear the news that MEMI is draining the Coney Island Sunlite Pool for good, and building a concert venue in its stead?

Oh goody, a state-of-the-art venue to host those cutting-edge Lynyrd Skynyrd/Kid Rock double bills!

Best Coast, best advice

Bethany Cosentino from the band Best Coast put out a really good solo album this year… and not many people heard it. She talked to Stereogum about her disappointment. Money quote:

I just genuinely think the record I made is really fucking good, and I love it. And again, that’s what matters. I guess maybe at the heart of this message is: If you really love something, do it. Don’t give up. Don’t overthink it. Don’t say, “Well, I should just do the other thing that works already.” No. Do the think you wanna do. Make the thing you wanna make. You know what? If it doesn’t work out, that’s OK.

And the story has a bit of a happy ending, thanks to the dumpster fire that is whatever Twitter is called now.

Album worth a spin

I’m really digging the new release from a UK band called Witching Waves.

Read an interview with the band members here and check out the album below:

Matt & Dave

Cincy meets Indy when Matt Berninger chats with David Letterman.

Hot Ticket Alert

Alvvays plays Bogart’s on Friday, 4/19, and Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew bring the Remain in Light tour to that same venue on Friday, July 26th. (The Bogart’s box office is open Mondays and Fridays from noon-5, and it opens two hours before showtime on the nights of a show — purchase your tickets there to save big on fees.)

Favorites of 2023

Steven Hyden of Uproxx has it right:

Before I share my list, I need to repeat my regular “year-end list” disclaimer. If you already know the drill, feel free to skip ahead.

1) Ranking albums is dumb … We all know this. Art isn’t a competition. I can’t really distinguish between my 13th favorite album and my 15th favorite. This is all talk. None of it really matters.

2) … but it’s kind of fun … Of course it is! Because it’s about sharing music recommendations. And I do mean share — make your own lists and show them to me, especially if you’re the sort inclined to complain about lists. Put yourself out there and let me complain about you, too!

3) … because it’s really about discovering an album or two (or possibly more!) that you might not have known about otherwise. Exactly!

Now, let’s rank!

Steven’s list is here. Other lists:

And this site compiles several “best of” lists into… you guessed it… a list!

If you care to share your 2023 favorites, post them in the comments.

Album Covers of the Week(s)

Slim and Rampal not only know how to rock, they also know how to rock a gorgeous robe!

Merry, Happy, etc.

’tis the season… to ROCK!

Concert Listings, Music

Wow, can you believe it’s December already? I don’t think I’m ready for the “holiday of savings” or the “sale-a-bration” or the “December to Remember” or whatever other slogan some poor junior copywriter has to come up with (until s/he’s replaced by A.I.).

But I AM ready to rock… always. (And Alvvays!)

Let’s take a gander* at the upcoming shows.

*no relation to the Christmas goose… we hope, because if he is, we have some bad news to deliver.

Tonight:

  • Braxton Brewing’s Dark Charge release day features live music from Tracy Walker, Zeb South and Jeremy Short
  • Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real are at Bogart’s
  • Ben Levin 3 plays Wiedemann’s
  • Camp Springs Tavern has an evening with Alex Salcido (of The Harmed Bros.)
  • Ludlow Garage hosts Aja: a Tribute to Steely Dan
  • Ramblin’ Rob’s “Dead to the Core” show at Annie’s is a benefit for WAIF-FM
  • NoahIMean? and Tobotius of Animal Crackers host a turntable workshop at the Music Resource Center (tickets)

On Sunday, Jason’s Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening will be at the Greg Brady (because Greg was a rock god too!).

Want your own Johnny Bravo moment? On Tuesday, you can be a movie star! Jerry King & the Rivertown Ramblers will be playing a FREE show in the Southgate House’s Revival room. And the honky tonkers and rockabilly boppers in the crowd might end up in a movie, because the show is being filmed for an upcoming documentary. (More here.)

The Preservation Hall Brass Band plays a Creole Christmas show at Memorial Hall on Wednesday, and Meshuggah will be rocking the Jan Brady.

Pop (or bluegrass) quiz: “Kentucky Thunder” is:

  1. the street name for off-brand Oxycontin.
  2. Ricky Skaggs’ backing band.

Trick question… it’s both! But only #2 will be playing Memorial Hall (with Ricky) on Thursday.

That same evening, Steel Panther plays Bogart’s and Thunderstruck (“America’s AC/DC”) plays Annie’s.

On Friday:

  • Ben Levin plays Element Eatery
  • Ludlow Garage hosts Christmas with the Celts
  • Carriers play live at Music Resource Center

Next Saturday‘s smorgasbord:

  • Heartless Bastards play the Woodward
  • You can see Pigeons Playing Ping Pong (the band at the Madison Theater, or the YouTube channel from the comfort of your own home)
  • Welshly Arms will be arm’s length away at Madison Live
  • Mike & the Moonpies play Southgate, with Justin Wells and Erin Viancourt
  • LEZ Zeppelin will be in Ludlow Garage

On Thursday, 12/14, you can catch Tab Benoit and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at Taft, or see A John Waters Christmas at Ludlow Garage.

On Friday, 12/15, Over the Rhine kicks off a three-day stand at Memorial Hall. (Sunday 12/17 show is at 4 p.m. for those who want to catch a show, catch the early bird special at Bob Evans, and catch a full night’s rest.)

Other 12/15 shows:

  • Pink Talking Fish (a fusion of Pink Floyd, Talking Heads and Phish) plays the Madison Theater
  • Bone Thugs-n-Harmony plays a hip-hop holiday show at the Ovation
  • Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits hosts an Olde English Christmas at Ludlow. That show might be BYOB:

On Saturday, Dec. 16th:

  • Mike Oberst & Justin Cefalu play Camp Springs Tavern
  • Motherfolk plays “A Very Motherfolk Christmas” at Bogart’s
  • The Atlanta Rhythm Section is so into the Ludlow Garage
  • Woodward Theater hosts a screening of Freakscene: The Story of Dinosaur Jr.

And on Sunday, 12/17, you can jazz up your life by seeing Ben Levin at Schwartz’s Point.

I’ll have a Blue(s) Christmas without you

Speaking o’ young Ben Levin, he’s hosting a great lineup of Blues artists for a good cause on Solstice evening:

I’ll have a Blue Christmas without Shane

R.I.P. Shane MacGowan of The Pogues. Worst teeth, best songs.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before…

Guided By Voices has a new album out. Nowhere To Go But Up is merely their 39th studio album, and only the third of this year.

And guess what? It rocks! Check out the Paste review. I love this line from it:

To be a Guided By Voices fan is to be happy within your place orbiting around a flaming sun that, somehow, still burns as aggressively as it did in the early 1990s.

Pat king, in his Paste review

Geddy Lee Effin’ Rocks!

Geddy wrote a memoir. This CBC interview is well worth watching. Here’s a quick clip where Ged talks about being a part of Canada’s premier power rock trio (suck it, Triumph!):

Album Cover(s) of the Week(s)

Seems like a kids album, right? Guess again, my friend:

If you have an especially keen eye (or too much time on your hands), you might’ve also noticed the song entitled “Marty Feldman Two Step.”

This album seems pretty innocuous too… I was afraid to check out the track list.