Ben Lacy video

One of Lexington's music treasures. Ben Lacy is a machine. A big friendly, gentle, effortless, insanely talented machine.

May 27 - June 3

Wed., May 27:

• If you're feeling particularly ambitious today, you might be enticed to drive to Louisville after work to catch this month's installment of Waterfront Wednesdays, which, from what I can tell, occur the last Wednesday of each month at Waterfront Park. The event is most definitely more than worth the price - which is FREE - with '90s grunge greats the Meat Puppets headlining (if you're not really familiar with them, chances are you know/love their song "Plateau," one of the three Meat Puppets songs Kurt Cobain covered on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged album). The Features (7 p.m.) and Broken Spurs (5 p.m.) open, with Meat Puppets slated for approximately 9 p.m.
• If you'd rather stick around town, tune in to WRFL-Live from 8-10 to hear LATIN HEAT - and then stay tuned for my show from 10-12 :)
  

Thurs., May 28:

• The Johnson Brothers are headlining this weeks Thursday Night Live at Cheapside Park. Beer sales start around 4:30, with music from 5:30 - 7:30 ish. (You may or may not know the Johnson Brothers for their pretty right-on cover sets of entire Beatles albums, etc.)
  
• Body/Love Project - as usual, the Carnegie Center is chock full of awesome summer treats for renowned, up-and-coming and wannabe writers alike: Women writers and actors join together to explore the daunting topic of body image in this candid, intense, and often hilarious show. Contributing writers include: Donna Ison, Bianca Spriggs, Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, Nicole Nash, Sunny Montgomery, Renee Rigdon, Laurie Genet Preston, and many others. Don't miss this unique opportunity to learn what women really think and feel. Made possible by a grant from The Kentucky Foundation for Women. FREE and Open to the Public.
• Afterwards, put on a mask and head over to the Boiler room (behind Pazzo's/Awkward Moose, etc.) to shake that ass with DJ Booty Sweat and Bitch Please at the Masquerade for Ballers
• Get yr funnel cake action on, ride the Gravitron, groove out to The Swells at the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton county fair.
• Also on Thursday: Glasgow indie poppers Camera Obscura will be playing at the Southgate House.
  

Sat., May 30:

• 2nd Annual BOOBALOOZA, a breast cancer awareness benefit at Kitchen Concepts (behind Pieratt's on Richmond Rd.), 1-5 p.m., FREE. The event was started last year by 24-year-old cancer survivor Whitney Praska and friend Niah Soult and aims to spread education (this year's focus will be on "creating a body where cancer cannot live") as well as raise money for the Lexington chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation through donations and an art auction (pieces will be available for sale by Seth Tuska, Jim Embry, Adele White and many other artists). (There's a full article about the event here.)
• Boobalooza after party at Lower 48 feat. pink drink specials, DJs and live music. More info here. $5/$3 if you wear pink, with all proceeds going to Boobalooza.
• Louisville's Pokey LaFarge (one man band in the riverboat soul/old timey blues/folk vein - I've heard great things about this guy) w/ Girlie Girl Burlesque Show (!) at the Green Lantern.
  

Honorable Mentions
Fri., May 29 - Southern Culture on the Skids/Los Straitjackets @ Headliner's (Lou).
Fri., May 29 - Sexual Disaster Quartet @ The Dame (Lex).
Fri., May 29 - Big Maracas @ Brooklyn Pizza (which is apparently now called the Pie Bar) (Lex).
Sat., May 30 - Shemale Fiesta @ Fishtank (Lex).
Sun., May 31 - Jovontaes/Thunders @ Al's Bar (Lex).
Tues., June 2- Constantines/Crystal Antlers/State Song @ Headliner's (Lou).
Wed., June 3 - Royal Bangs w/ I Need Sleep @ Skull Alley (Lou).

B.M.S.R./Tiny Fights recording on Pretty Creatures

Patrick Smith has audio from the Black Moth Super Rainbow/Tiny Fights show available on Pretty Creatures ~ no Bedtime, which is kind of a bummer, but you gotta give PS some cred...especially after checking out his recording apparatus:

this week(end)

I've been without the Interweb at home so this is going to be a brief one. Couple things tonight, t hen CD Central on Monday....after Tuesday's show, Lex seems to be taking a breather before gearing up for another series of don't miss shows, starting in June.

Rest up, go camping or something this weekend, it's gonna be a long and gorgeous one.

By the way, I'll be posting pics soon from Tuesday's fabulous Black Moth Super Rainbow show with Tiny Fights (sadly, I got there at 10 and missed Bedtime). In the meantime, Matt Jordan has some great ones on You Ain't No Picasso, check 'em!

Thurs., 5/21:

• The Big Maracas will be playing at Thursday Night Live until 7:30 or so. Cheapside Park, FREE, and p.s. if you ride your bike you'll get a free drink ticket.
• North of Center is presenting a series of discussions on various prison-related issues. North of Center is the new northside-based magazine that will come out every two weeks - first issue should be available now, though I have yet to see it. Tonight, the prison discussion will be led by Jonathan Hampton, who wrote his master's thesis on Holler to the Hood, a radio program based out of Appalshop in Eastern Ky connecting prisoners to their loved ones through the use of grassroots media.
• DJ NIGHTS at Sidecar - Robert Beatty and Brian Ronk will be spinning the jamz tonight. Should be the shizzle.
  

Mon., 5/25:

• Memorial Day Cook-out at CD Central. This year's band line-up: the Blue Suckers (noon); Goldenrod (1 p.m.); Spooqy Qs (2 p.m.); Allegionaire (3 p.m.). And there'll be weenies and burgers and discounts and stuff.

A little slice of Lexington in the life of Wayne Coyne

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne and his wife Michelle have a big ass fan from Lexington, Ky fan company Big Ass Fans in their Oklahoma City living room. They discuss it in this weird little video that features background music by Lexington's Big Fresh.

May 13 - May 19

As always, feel free to leave your event in a comment if I left it out...

Wed., 5/13:

• Cult Film Series at Al's Bar (brought to you by Seersucker Productions and Bluegrass Film Society)~ Tonight's film is Donald Wolf's Savage Intruder (1969). Lexington director George Maranville will be introducing the film. 7 p.m., FREE
  
• Erik Reece on FRESH AIR ~ Terry Gross will be interviewing the award-winning UK professor and author on-air on NPR tonight. Reece be discussing his new book American Gospel, about his conflicted religious views growing up as the son and grandson of Baptist preachers. (You might have garnered from last week's post about Reece that I think pretty highly of him.) Lexingtonians can tune in at 7 p.m. on 91.3 FM.
• Stay close to the radio to catch Michael Turner (formerly of Warmer Milks, etc.) live on WRFL-Live tonight, b/w 8-10 p.m. (stay tuned afterwards for my radio show, 10-midnight!). 88.1 FM or stream it : http://wrfl.fm
• Rainjunkies/John Pope (of Big Maracas)/ Alana Fugate at The Green Lantern.
  
• The Rosebuds / The Seedy Seeds at The Dame. $6, 21+
  

Thurs., 5/14:

• Bicycle Commuter Breakfast at Third Street Stuff (7:30 a.m.)~visit BikeLexington.com for more information.
  
• Trivial Thursdays with Mick Jeffries will feature "UK Special Collections and Digital Urber-Archivist, photographer, mommie, and photobooth fetishist Deirdre Scaggs." Tune into 88.1 WRFL FM from 7 - 9 a.m.
• Jovontaes, US Band and DJs John the Baptist and Brocktologist @ the Boiler Room. Check out Jovontaes' ever-changing line-up and sound (I believe drummer/vocalist Reid Small described the current state of their sound as being more "chilled out" than usual); up-and-coming hip-hop/party music of US Band; and Lexington's leading party DJs at the city's newest dive. (I checked out the Boiler Room last weekend and it's pretty rad...kinda makes you feel like you're in the Black Lodge, only less Lynch, more punk rock undertones.) 9:30ish.
  

Fri., 5/15:

• Renowned Appalachian poet Frank X. Walker will be the featured guest on Katerina Stoyklova Klemer's Accents Radio Show. WRFL, 88.1 FM, 2 p.m.
  
• RC Pro Am Reunion Tour: So far the only date I know of is this Friday, at Sidecar (next door to Al's on N. Limestone near Sixth St.) The best punk & "I don't give a shit" -inspired rock/whatever band to hit the Lexington scene in recent history. And they haven't even hit the Lexington scene at all in recent history. Weird how that works... Cheap beer, FREE entry, 21+
  
• Drive to Louisville to get your frantic awesome heavy rock on with Big Business (feat. members of the Melvins) at Headliner's.
  

Sat., 5/16:

• Lexington Craft Beer Festival at the Red Mile. Featuring a homebrew contest, over 200 different commercial craft beers from 70 different breweries, and food & live music.
• Peace & Global citizenship Fair @ BCTC campus.
  
• dorkBot @ C.P.R. - People are doing "strange things with electricity" in Lexington ~ they want to tell you about it and you want to hear about it. Feat. an audio/visual installment by Clint Davis; PhonoGraffiti by Jason Corder and more. At C.P.R. (near 6th and Limestone) from 4 p.m. - 6 p.m., Free.
  
• Tiny Fights/ Jovontaes @ Al's. $5, all ages
  

Mon., 5/18:

• SI KAHN @ WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour (Kentucky Theatre) From the WoodSongs newsletter: Aside from being a brilliant songwriter, [Kahn] has worked for over 40 years as a civil rights labor, and community organizer, and musician in the Southern United States. His songs of family, community, work and freedom such as "Aragon Mill" "Gone, Gonna Rise Again" and "Wild Rose of the Mountain" have been recorded by over 100 artists. Si has released 14 albums of his original songs, plus a collection of traditional labor, civil rights, and women's songs, with Pete Seeger and Jane Sapp. His latest CD is "Thanksgiving."

Tues., 5/19:

• Bicycle Commuter Breakfast at Sunrise Bakery (7:30 a.m.)
• Black Moth Super Rainbow w/ Tiny Fights; Bedtime @ Red Mile Round Barn. The lastest installment of absolutely-don't-miss WRFL sponsored shows. BMSR = bubbly, experimental analog electronic psych-pop. Tiny Fights & Bedtime = two of Lex's finest. Scroll back a few entries to see photos of this amazing venue. The show is ALL AGES and only $5...
• Afterwards, as on every Tuesday, DJs Reid Small and Mark Murray will be spinning dance jams at the Fisthank (2 for 1 drinks). 21+, FREE.
  

former skirt-wearing Lex man filing gender stereotyping suit in New Orleans

You may know Jeremy Kerr as "that guy around town who wears a skirt" or maybe "that guy around town who wears the fedora with colored fuzz-puffs around the brim" (more likely the former). Or you may know him as a professor or a friend ... or hell, you may not know him at all...anyway, while I've known OF Jeremy for a while (a friend of mine took and loved his class at UK), and I've always found him to be an fascinating character about town, I've never actually met him – somehow I went through my tenure at Georgetown College, where he was a professor, without ever really crossing paths with him ... which is weird in and of itself ~ it was a small school, and I spent a good portion of my time there with my radar tuned for weirdos/interesting characters (a search, I suppose, I all but abandoned after it yielded such minimal results time and time again.)

Anyway, apparently he no longer lives in KY. And I can't comment too much on why he wears a skirt because I've never actually talked to the guy. But from what I understand, it's a sociological experiment of sort, measuring public reaction and discrimination against gender differences ... according to the article, Jeremy's skirt-wearing is a reaction to an "overall reduction of femininity in society." Pretty genius stuff. To me, it calls into question why we find weird the things we find weird (does that make sense?). The answer usually lies in some meaningless social construct that we've been trained to accept. I'm all for inviting people out of their comfort levels so long as it's done in a non-intrusive, non-offensive manner (and to be offended by a guy in a skirt is just plain stubborn, shallow and close-minded).

As you might expect, Jeremy has caught no shortage of hell for his fancy ~ he eventually sued Georgetown College for discrimination, and he made the Herald-Leader today for filing a civil rights suit against the New Orleans police for gender stereotyping. Check it out ... as is usual these days, I find the reader H-L reactions to the article to be as interesting as the content itself~ if not more so ~ (which doesn't say a whole lot about either, actually). Someone was questioning whether or not this actually constitutes news ... I'm just glad something potentially intellectually stimulating made the paper today.

You can find out a little more about Jeremy on his homepage. If you know anything else about him and his theories, please feel free to comment.

Peter Brotzmann / Eric Revis / Nasheet Waits Trio

Mick Jeffries got some great shots of the Brotzmann/ Eric Revis/ Nasheet Waits trio show on Monday, at the breathtakingly awesome new Lexington venue Red Mile Round Barn. I'm not crazy about free jazz in general, but this show was really visceral and great. Check out some more pics here.

New Erik Reece article in True/Slant

Check out Erik Reece's great article on coal dumping in Appalachia in True/Slant...

If you're not familiar with Reece, he's a major-award-winning UK English professor who has taken up a ginormous passion with the coal mining practices in Appalachia over the past decade or so. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to study with Erik in Robinson Forest in 2003, at the first month-long, intensive Summer Environmental Writing Program (SEWP). The program changed my life in a lot of ways, and Erik, seeing up close and firsthand the effects of mountaintop removal, was moved enough to write about it... like, a lot... (an article for Harper's grew into the book Lost Mountain: A Year in Vanishing Wilderness, which in my opinion really helped give momentum to the growing national media and grassroots attention on the issue).

Erik Reece's newest book, American Gospel: On Family, History and the Kingdom of God, is about his conflicted views on religion. If you're not familiar with him, I reccommend getting acquainted with his work – he's a Lexington gem who is much bigger than this town....

May 5 - May 12

Be sure you check out Bike Lexington's great calendar of events for May and don't forget that Sunday is Mother's Day!

Tues., 5/5: Cinco de Mayo!

• Shemale de Mayo @ Fishtank. Mustache music that claims to "celebrate the glorification of the bastardization of Hispanic culture"...you know....in a satirical sort of way.

Wed., 5/6:

• Warren Byrom (of The Swells) & Friends @ Green Lantern.

Thurs., 5/7:

• Donna Thorndale on Trivial Thursdays (WRFL 88.1 fm or wrfl.fm ~ 7-9 a.m.) ~ Thorndale is WRFL's 2nd General Manager, and a founding member of the station. A career actress living in Los Angeles, CA, she is currently a member of the celebrated Actor's Gang theatre group. In addition, her political satire and cooking persona, Jewell Rae Jeffers has achieved widespread acclaim both IRL and on the internet as the host of "Tastes Like Home," which appears on the influential blog "The Huffington Post." (Jewell Rae is expected to make an appearance on Trivial Thursdays according to host Mick Jeffries.)
• Del the Funky Homosapien @ The Dame. You might know him from his collaboration with the Gorillaz...or through his cousin Ice Cube
• Lollipop Factory @ Green Lantern. "Over the top, rock opera stuff in the vein of Queen, Sparks, Rocky horror." ~ in the words of yr favorite Green Lantern bartender/booking agent Mike Sullivan
• Brian Turner and Will Burchard will be spinning the jamz at the bar formerly known as Cheater's...currently known as Sidecar-formerly-known-as-Cheater's... it's a new Thursday night DJ series curated by Brian Ronk & friends; starts aroun 9:30.
• The Swells @ Thursday Night Live
• Bike Lexington Progressive Dinner: from bikelexington.com: "Join fellow cyclists on a pedal-powered tour of Lexington restaurants. The event will begin with a tour of the KY Ale Brewery and an appetizer featuring their delicious beer cheese. From there we will head to Mia’s for dinner and finally to Natasha’s for dessert and coffee. The progressive will begin at 6pm at the Kentucky Ale Brewery, 401 Cross Street and should conclude by 9pm.There will be an optional early start at 5:30pm at Cheapside Park to celebrate the kick-off of the 2009 Thursday Night Live Season. To register, go to www.active.com and search for “Lexington Progressive Dinner”. Questions may be directed to Shane Tedder at self.propelled@gmail.com"

Fri., 5/8:

• Bike Lexington - Go Car Free All Day! Pledge your intention to kgleason@lfucg.com and you could win a Bike Lexington t-shirt.
• The Swells / The Big Maracas @ Al's Bar
  
• Bedtime/a ghost is dancing/Broadfield Marchers/Genius File @ Derby City Espresso (Louisville)

Sat., 5/9:

• Mayfest: spring festival in and around the Gratz Park area. Make sure you stop by the Kentucky Writer's Showcase (lots of discounted books by Kentuckians, brought to you by Carnegie Center) and the Backyard Bazaar at Third Street Stuff - "local DIY arts and crafts street fair extraordinaire." Buy something for your mom.
• Bedtime/ the ghost is dancing / Idaho, Alaska @ C.P.R.
  
• The Other Brothers @ Green Lantern It's Green Lantern owner Harry’s b-day party...a good time is pretty much guaranteed. P.S. check out this article about Harry in Business Lexington written by my dear colleage and friend Robo Clark.
  

Mon., 5/11:

• George Clinton & P-Funk @ Kentucky Theatre (Lex). The mothership will be landing. Make sure you're there to greet the funkers who get out of it. (Dancing your ass off will ensue.)
  

Tues., 5/12:

• OFFONOFF / Rafael Toral / Trevor Tremaine / C. Spenser Yeh @ Land of Tomorrow (527 W. 3rd St.) Should be an awe-inspiring evening of weirdo jazz/avant rock/noise and whatnot. OFFONOFF features dudes who used to jam with Jim O'Rourke and Thurston Moore. Another great show brought to you by the Outside the Spotlight the Series.
  
• TV on the Radio @ Headliner's (Lou).
• And the Moneynotes/ Orange Opera @ Green Lantern. (Double bill of cool Indie Rock stuff...)

New additions to ATP

All Tomorrow Parties is after my heart....

Newly announced additions to the New York festival (September 11-13) include Deerhunter, Boredoms (performing Boredum 2009 - 9 drummers on stage), Caribou, No Age and Iron & Wine and more.

Put that into a pipe that already includes Animal Collective, Panda Bear, The Jesus Lizard, The Flaming Lips, Autolux, Suicide, the Dirty Three, Black Dice, Dead Meadow, Melvins, David Cross and Atlas Sound and smoke it.