Hey all. My new music project (which I've actually been doing for years, but only recently started promoting and all) is a solo project called, you guessed it, The Modern Ache. You can check out some demos right now here: www.myspace.com/modernache

In any case, I am going on a short tour this summer following my CD Release Party (woo!) May 16th at ( Read more... )

It's summer and I've been spending at lot of time at the movies. And because all of you care SO much, I thought I'd let you know what I thought about some of the flicks.

Iron Man - 8 out of 10 Lightning Bolts
Iron Man is, in fact, a kick-ass summer movie. It's an action movie that's not dumb, a super hero movie that's sort of plausible, an American ( Read more... )

Mates of State / Headlights ( Read more... )

Tegan and Sara / An Horse

I think that everyone who grew up as a music fan in Cincinnati in the past 30 years or so has some sort of relationship with Bogart's. Maybe it was where you first saw Sonic Youth, or where your friend's band played the high school band challenge, or where you got elbowed in the head and passed out because it was too hot, ( Read more... )

"What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish. Here's the twist: add (*) beside the ones you liked and would (or did ( Read more... )

Vampire Weekend/ Sam Rosen/  Matthew Shelton

The Gypsy Hut, Northside, Cincinnati February 13, 2008

Vampire Weekend is not one of those bands I would have expected to be darlings of the indie rock scene.  For one, they take great care to cultivate their preppy, just-got-off-a-yacht image.  Not exactly rock and roll.  And then, of course, they ( Read more... )

Oscar season is upon us, which this year seems to mean that everything out right now has a really long name (There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men) or is really depressing (Atonement, etc.).  I have not seen any of those movies.  I did see Sweeney Todd, which I thought was quite awesome, and recently I popped in at the Esquire and checked out ( Read more... )

Last week I made it down to the Fringe Festival. I saw a musical piece or, well, a sound art piece. It was called "Think Fast Go Slow" and consisted of a guy with some guitars, a microphone, a hammer, a windchime, and four Simon games from the '80s. And some sort of tape loop machine, which is probably the most important part for such a thing. ( Read more... )

I finally made it to Findlay Market yesterday to get some much needed groceries. It's a weird concept of a farmer's market, and there wasn't all that much produce, but I got what I needed and didn't have too much of a problem. It definitely wasn't very into conserving resources and not wasting bags, though. No one even asked me before they put ( Read more... )

The retail in the 'Nati seems to be stepping it up these days. There's a "green general store" called Park and Vine opening downtown in Over the Rhine (on Park and Vine, I presume) this weekend. It looks like a hipster/yuppie store, they sell vegan things and like bikes and have art on the walls. I'm all for it, maybe I'll even get down there ( Read more... )