Tagged: forecastle2009

Erin Hill and her Psychedelic Harp w/ The Space Rats CG: Although a New Yorker these days, Erin Hill is originally a Louisville girl and was glad to be back in town with her gang of diverse artists, from JP "Thunderbolt" Patterson originally of seminal NY punk band The Dictators to the gorgeous Meena Cho who Erin met while on tour with Kanye West, and several other incredibly talented artists with side-projects galore. While hip hop wouldn't immediately come to mind with a harpist [...]

Let me rest the confusion now. This is not the up-and-coming and well-loved indie band from Louisville that you've undoubtedly seen and heard around town. I would say that this is a terribly unfortunate thing if Cincinnati/Columbus OH's Paper Airplane were not so damn wonderful. They put out a stellar record called Middlemarch back in '07 and are getting ready to drop their new LP White Elephants on All Hail Records. Along the way, this four-piece has been saddling up with great national bands like [...]

The Ascent Of Everest, hailing from Nashville (hey, not too far from Louisville), are coming up to play this year's Forecastle. They will come to Louisville equipped with their cellos, violins, pianos, guitars, basses, drums, and voices. All those combined make for quite an arrangement of sounds. You might notice an ambient feel at first, but they may soon kick you in the teeth with a controlled flurry of sounds, while still maintaining a melodic tone. To get a feel for them, check out the media player on their very well-desinged website at http://www.ascentofeverest.com / Here is a taste of [...]

Cincinnati's Lion's Rampant will be playing this year's Forecastle Music Festival. The Lion's Rampant sort of played Forecastle last year, as they were just down the street at Third Street Dive and many of the Cincinnati people took a break from Forecastle to catch them there. This time, the "blues infused, garage brewed rock n roll" of Lion's Rampant has found it's way into the official festival. For these guys, think good old fashioned Rock n' Roll and if you like bands like The Black Keys, then you're [...]

Nashville's Elmood Band might well be the next Dave Matthews Band. Or maybe the next Virgina Coalition. Similarly equipped on stage with the sax and all, lyrically less quirky and perhaps a touch less sentimental than the Dave Matthews that I recall from those days when I was regularly listening to him, Elmwood comes off as authentic and genuine, and I can imagine that the jam band-heads of the festival and the average college student of the crowd could easily fall in love to one of their songs. [...]

These United States can't seem to slow down, whether it's pumping out album after album, or whether they're on their relentless tour schedule which has been amongst the most rigorous of any band out there, these kids can't seem to help but play music. Fronted by principal songwriter Jesse Elliot, tUs have been turning heads all over with their folksy indie-roots rock and their incessant touring. According to their website, from Aug 2005 until Dec. 2008, they've played 421 shows, and two albums down and one nearing it's completion. If their songs sound melancholic [...]

You might just be familiar with Cincinnati's Seabird without even knowing it. Hell, you might even be a fan. If you've watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy , Numb3rs , or probably any of those other shows that are on prime-time TV, then you've definitely swooned to their pop gems. Even the much-loved, yet quickly-canned show Pushing Daisies used one of their songs as the theme song. This little bit of licensing has seen them catching national attention and they've definitely capitlaized on the momentum by [...]

Cincinnati's You, You're Awesome will be playing this year's Forecastle Festival. On the heels of releasing their second EP, You're My Superhero , these guys have been building a large local following in the Cincinnati area and are finally coming to visit us in Louisville. Actually, you can get a preview by catching them with Chemic at The Rudyard Kipling on June 11th. Think experimental electro nic rock music, so not that ravey house crap, but instead fun beats and really strange overdubs. Check out the previews below... [...]

Bowling Green's Cage the Elephant are making the festival circuit, having recently played Bamboozle (the festival where No Doubt officially reunited) and Lollapalooza before that. However, just because they're local, don't assume that geography is the reason they made it into this festival. These kids have been terrorizing audiences and making a name for themselves among the major players with Billboard deeming them to have "more commercial potential" than any act they'd seen at SXSW and with Entertainment Weekly saying "like if the Kings of Leon loved Iggy [...]

DJ Three will be performing at this year's Forecastle Festival. DJ Three has made a name for himself by spinning residential at some of the countries hottest clubs including Twilo, Cielo & Love, as well as having performed at Fabric & the Labyrinth festival in Japan. Bringing together vintage acid-house, low-fi and underground electronica, DJ Three manages to put people into entirely different worlds and as with any DJ of his stature, he is a ready-made party to-go. Probably most familiar for his work with [...]

The Mudkids were supposed to kick off Forecastle last year, but to the best of my memory they were unable to go on, so hopefully the waiting will be over this time around. The Mudkids have been around for 10 years now and have opened for Eminem, Wu Tang, KRS One, Royce da 5293, Digital Underground, J5, Pharcyde, Hiero, Souls of Mischief, Atmosphere. Strangely, it's the 2007 release of Rock 'N' Roll (Go Blue), a song written for the Colt's Super Bowl success, that introduced Mudkids to a [...]

Jason Isbell , formerly of The Drive-By Truckers fame, has been spending a LOT of time in Louisville lately it seems, having been to town February 2008 with Will Hoge & Dawn Landes and again this past March. This time around, Jason will doing the festival thing at Forecastle, and should be a great show as always as he can pull material from his latest self-titled album he recently released. Jason Isbell- Dress Blues

Kid Color may well be providing some of the best dance music of the festival. His mixes have me dancing half asleep as I write this. For some people DJs simply don't do it...and if that's you, steer clear, but for the rest of you Girl Talk loving party kids, Kid Color is everything you could hope for, albeit the samples are a little more obscure than the radio-play songs Greg uses, which for me is a step in the right direction. Check out his blog sometime and you might be [...]

Designer Drugs are coming back to Louisville, this time for Forecastle. The Brooklyn-based duo were recently in town for NYE at Fuzion with Jesse Jamz & crew. These kids have been murdering dance floors across the country and making crazy headway with releases on the impossible French Kitsune as well as the closest thing we've got stateside in IHEARTCOMIX. Although I wasn't able to make it to the Fuzion party, I heard these kids killed it and expect them to do the same to the Forescastlers...this is one I'd suggest not [...]

It's no secret that since first hearing the Royal Bangs back in November, Backseat Sandbar has become a huge fan of Royal Bangs and now Forecastle loves them too. The Knoxville-based dance rockers have been showing a lot of love to Louisville having played that initial show and another back in April. I think we can comfortably say it's only a matter of time before they're picked up on a national scale, so let's take this moment to appreciate them while we have [...]

The Hackensaw Boys are going to be playing Forecastle 2009. The Hackensaw Boys don't play bluegrass, they play a Appalachian Bluegrass, which is and entirely different beast unto itself and fuse it with a lilttle punk rock to spice it up. Listening to these guys, you might be able to close your eyes and envision these guys sitting on their front porch with a can of dip, some strings and a jug (or just as easily, a scene from Deliverance). Founded by Tom Peloso who spends most of his time these days [...]

The Detroit Cobras are playing this year's Forecastle. Described as having "Patsy Clines pipes and [a] Courtney Loves attitude", The Detroit Cobras play 60's sounding soul with a garage rock style. Of course there is a reason for that first part...none of their songs are original as they are a cover band. Don't shy away from them for that reason though, because just as Me First & the Gimme Gimmes are exclusively a cover band, The Detroit Cobras take each of these tracks and make it entirely their own. I believe [...]

Atlanta's Gringo Star found a spot at this year's Forecastle 2009. These guys aren't just another garage rock band, but rather they are among the harder working bands playing the festival with a tour schedule they keep constant as well as finding plenty of time to appease some of the more significant publications like Paste, Spin, Daytrotter, etc. If you need extra motivation to watch these guys perform besides their hi-jacked name and strong recommendation from virtually everyone that has heard them play, [...]

Man Man , one of Backseat Sandbar's absolute favorites, will be performing at this year's Forecastle. We caught Man Man at Headliners Music Hall back in March 2008 and at The Dame the October before that. Initially, I was intrigued by Man Man's debut album, but it wasn't until seeing these guys perform live that you can totally appreciate the madness that is Man Man. Perhaps most importantly, you need to prepare yourself for weirdness abounding from all corners as the insanity of the band is reflected from their [...]

The phenominal Bad Veins will be performing at this year's Forecastle Festival. Bad Veins have been making crazy waves since they came together in 2006, including USA Today calling them the best act at CMJ 2007 when they were up against the likes of Bon Iver, St. Vincent & others. Armed with a megaphone, guitars, keys, a telephone microphone, drums and a reel to reel named Irene, Gothamist claims "the two members in this band manage to sound like a full rock orchestra". Bad Veins is probably [...]