Humana Play Festival in NY Times

Humana Play Festival – Louisville's 33-year-old, internationally renowned annual festival that celebrates new American plays – was reviewed in the New York Times today.

Albeit, it wasn't the most very flattering of reviews. And I'm not entirely sure I completely agree with "Bad press is better than no press" theory.

I didn't see any of the plays myself, but these last couple of paragraphs of the review by critic Charles Isherwood really made me cringe...I haven't 100 % figured out why:

"Superficially the most upbeat and most innocuous entry in the festival, “Wild Blessings: A Celebration of Wendell Berry,” adapted by the Actors Theater artistic director Marc Masterson and Adrien-Alice Hansel from the writings of Mr. Berry, oddly turned out to be one of the most wearying. The mechanics were simple enough: five performers took turns reciting the work of this nature-celebrating Kentucky poet, while photographs of flora and fauna were seen on two large screens behind them.

Rural dwellers may have boundless tolerance for exaltations of the wonders and mysteries of the natural world, but the urban spirit begins to rebel. By the time this well-intentioned but miscalculated show drew to a close, I was more than ready to hop on an environment-trashing jet plane and return to the soulless city, having acquired a pronounced and irrational antipathy to fertile farmland seen on misty mornings and dew-dappled fiddlehead ferns."

More Forecastle bands announced

just in from the folks at Forecastle...

"Zappa Plays Zappa, Umphrey’s McGee, Yonder Mountain String Band, Pretty Lights, The New Mastersounds, The Whigs, Outformation, Kathleen Edwards, and Dead Confederate have been added to the bill, with over 50 bands and DJs to be announced. The new additions follow the previous announcement of Widespread Panic, The Black Crowes, The Black Keys, and The Avett Brothers as the festival headliners.

Tickets go on-sale today at Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com/forecastle), all Ticketmaster locations, charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000, and select, independent record stores. Single-day passes are $40.00 with three-day passes at $100.00. Kick-off party, after-parties, and VIP package options are also available, as well as campground accommodations and on-site hotel rooms overlooking both the Forecastle festival site and the scenic Ohio river.

More information is available at www.ForecastleFest.com."

FYI...

• Zappa plays Zappa = Frank Zappa tribute band led by Frank's oldest son Dweezil
• Pretty Lights = pretty electronica/trip hop stuff ...HEADS UP- you can catch them performing live tonight on World Cafe, Lexington folk can hear it on 91.3

Personally, I'm waiting on that announcement for the rest of the bands to really pique my excitement......if you've seen/know anything about the bands playing, feel free to comment about it....

Dr. John is comin' to town...and more...

>>Troubadour Concert Series just announced that Dr. John will be playing at Lexington's Kentucky Theatre on June 25. Tix on sale on April 11 ($44.50 + tax). For more info, call 859-231-7924 or visit www.troubashow.com.

>>Louisville's Forecastle Fest will be announcing another slew of bands on their bill on Wednesday...stay tuned for those updates, or check forecastle.com

>>If you'd like to sign up for a weekly e-mail update collaboration b/w Blueline and The Lexington Project (aka the industrious Mr. Ross Compton), sign up for The Lexington Project's google group here!

April 6 - April 12

Mon, 4/6 (Tonight) : Ariel Pink w/ Vivian Girls @ Al's Bar. Just go.

Tues, 4/7: Randy Tuesday and the Two Tuesdays @ the Fishtank
Featuring Reid Small and James Swanberg (both of of Jovantaes and RC Pro Am) with the added unabashed mojo of Ben Lally (former guitarist from Sexual Disaster Quartet). Be sure to request "Earth Angel."

Thurs, 4/9 - An Evening with the Mountain Keepers @ University of Kentucky Student Center Ballroom. This event celebrates public writing efforts and grassroots approaches to address "Appalachia's endangered culture and its uneasy relationship with coal." Featuring journalists, poets, speakers, artists and musicians, including Silas House, Erik Reece, Frank X. Walker and many more. Starts at 6 p.m.

Thurs, 4/9 - Sound/Vision Concert @ The Singletary Center Concert Hall. An evening of modern compositions written by Steve Reich, Mark Millets and Brian Ferneyhough, performed by Lexington's own contemporary chamber group, with visual accompaniment from Jason Corder. (In other words, live modern compositions performed alongside kickass weirdo films, all brought to you by local folk.) The event is FREE and starts at 7:30 p.m.

Fri, 4/10 - Attempt; Carl Calm; The Smacks @ Al's Bar. This show is a benefit for upcoming local comic anthology Qahmics?, a project spearheaded by Andrew Crawford . Gotsta cover those pesky printing prices. Hopefully the anthology will feature some of the amazing work of comic and Smacks member J. Todd Dockery, but either way, the show should be awesome.



Sat, 4/11 - These United States w/ Coralee and the Townies @ Al's Bar. A welcome home tour of sorts to many members of These United States, who have been scouring these United States on for the past couple of months, including a stint (or five) at South x Southwest (check out more pix on their site). In fact, they've toured extensively since 2006, and it has paid off (and likely helped land them exposure on NPR's 'All Things Considered' as well as CMJ, The Village Voice, and Washington Post.) These U.S. have recently enlisted bassist bassist Colin Kellong (from Lexington/London/Kalamozoo), formerly of RC Pro Am, the Other Brothers and St. Jude. (The band also features Lexington members Justin Craig and Robbie Cosenza.)

Sun 4/12 - Burning Star Core/ Wasteland Jazz Unit/ Street Gnar @ the Fact House... brutally insane.

very honorable mentions this week. (no complaining there's nothing to do around here allowed):
4/8 - Dr. Dog w/ Cave Singers and Golden Boots @ Headliners (Lou).
4/9 - Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Exit/In (Nashville).
4/9 - Coralee and the Townies @ Green Lantern (Lex).
4/9 - Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey @ Blue Wisp Jazz Club (Cincy).
4/9 - Still Flyin', Goldenrod, Matt Duncan @ Al's Bar
4/10- Other Brothers @ Green Lantern (Lex).
4/10- Mecca 10th Birthday Dance Party/potluck @ Mecca (Lex).
4/10 - Death Cab for Cutie @ The Palace Theatre (Louisville).
4/10-4/11 - Cincy Punk Fest @ Southgate House (Newport).
4/11 - Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Hi-Tone Cafe (Memphis).
4/11 - Idaho, Alaska @ The Dame (Lex).

As always, if I left ya out, be sure and tel me about it...

look forward...BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW

WRFL has confirmed that Pennsylvania's Black Moth Super Rainbow and Lexington's Tiny Fights will be playing a show in Lexington on May 19, at the Red mile Round Barn. (psst, to browse through photos of the Elephant Six Show at this venue, you can search flickr here.) As the name would suggest, the venue is an actual, round barn, part of the Red Mile racing track on Virginia Avenue. Really cool space.

Black Moth Super Rainbow are set to release their fourth full-length album, Eating Us (of which a "deluxe hand-numbered CD version that comes in a hairy sleeve") one week after the Lexington show (May 26). Produced by Dave Friddman (Flaming Lips, MGMT), it will reportedly mark the group's first "modern studio" effort.

BMSR's music has a definite experimental-electro-psych atmosphere (kinda like Air), but apparently they use actual, traditional instruments (by the definition that the Rhodes piano, vocoder, and Mellotron are traditional instrumentations -- i.e., no laptops.

Tiny Fights = awesome new electronic-noise-dance-madness three piece from Lexington.

Epic pairing; this should be one of the coolest shows to come to the area in a while (and there have been a lot lately).