Shake It Records

Gigs and Books

97X, Concert Listings, Music, podcast, woxy.com

I let you down yet again (you should be used to it by now). I’m tardy with my list of gigs so I didn’t get to tell you about the New Pornographers show at Memorial Hall last night. That said, the show was sold out. Besides, I don’t know why people need New Pornographers, the old ones still work just fine.

Tonight, Southgate House is hosting The Nude Party. (It’s a band, get your mind out of the old pornographers gutter.)

OK, let’s focus on the future. The Future of Rock and Roll, that is. Robin James wrote the book about 97X, and thanks to Northside’s Downbound Books and Shake It Records, she’ll be talking about it with a couple of knuckleheads at the Mercantile Library this Thursday. If you’re one of the faithful 200 who registered for this event, you can hear from Robin, get a book signed and enjoy some tasty Great Lakes Brewing Co. beverages courtesy of our ol’ pal Howard Cohen (Cereal Killers… more on them later).

If you can’t attend in person, you can stream the event on Crowdcast here. (Great Lakes Beer not included.)

Tomorrow night, Richard Thompson plays a solo acoustic show at the 20th Century Theater. I’ll be there, of course. Forget about King Charles III, to me, King Richard is the Brit who rules.

KT Tunstall and Martin Sexton are also playing a double bill tomorrow, at Memorial Hall.

On Thursday, if you can’t make the Merc, Memorial Hall is hosting An Evening with the Cowboy Junkies.

Wait, wrong sort of Cowboy Junkie…

Friday night, Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker from the band Wussy are playing at my house. (Apparently they didn’t learn their lesson from the first time I hosted them back in October of 2022 and totally fanboyed out.)

John “Don’t call me Cougar” Mellencamp also kicks off a two-night stand at the Aronoff on Friday. And The Comet hosts BurritoFest 2023 on Friday and Saturday.

The Taft Theatre has some interesting shows lined up:

  • An Evening with Natalie Merchant on Sunday
  • The Wood Brothers with Shovels & Rope on Tuesday, May 16th
  • David Cross on Thursday, May 18th

Roger McGuinn does a “Songs & Stories” gig at Memorial Hall on 5/18.

On Friday, May 19th, Cereal Killers play at MadTree Brewing in Oakley. 7-11 p.m. First beer’s on me.

I won’t be dressed like that… unless you ask nicely.

That same evening, Frank Turner plays Bogart’s and Leo Kottke is at Ludlow Garage.

On Saturday, 5/20, Dopapod is at the Madison Theater, Steve Goodie and Eric Gnezda play a comedy music show in Florence, KY, and Fountain Square hosts the KISS tribute band Strutter.

The Gem City shines

Dayton, Ohio (birthplace of flight… and the Deal sisters) has some really nice freebie shows coming up this summer at the Levitt Pavilion downtown, including Dave Alvin, John Doe, Tab Benoit, Ernie Johnson from Detroit, and Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys. The first gig is The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band on Thursday, June 1st. Check out the full lineup here.

Mailbag

List member Mighty Joe Sampson, a resident of a posh Cincy suburb, wrote:

This longtime subscriber is formally objecting to your slanderous comment about Madeira aka “the friendly town.”

You’re right, Joe. Madeira is very accepting of strangers… as long as they follow the instructions to leave the DoorDash food delivery on the front porch.

Reading Room

Amanda Petrusich profiles The National in The New Yorker.

Sweet Swag

Inhailer Radio has a nice t-shirt to celebrate the 2023 Modern Rock 500, coming to their airwaves May 22-29.

You can order yours here.

Shameless self-promotion

The latest episode of the “97X Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast features the woxy.com crew (Shiv, Mike Taylor, Joe Long, Bryan J and Brian Niesz) talking about their rollercoaster ride on the interwebs from 2004-2010.

Album Cover of the Fortnight

Those wacky Brits… I don’t know how in the heck you can guard a horse when your helmet obstructs 70% of your field of vision and your “chin” strap is well above your chin. But… “tradition!”

Episode 74: Anthony Hartke comes full (vinyl) circle

97X, Music, podcast, woxy.com

Anthony Hartke was really into music even in grade school. He discovered 97X around 6th grade and stuck with the station throughout its existence. (He even tuned in to woxy.com when he was deployed overseas in the Army back in 2005-2006.) When woxy.com sold off vinyl LPs from the original 97X music library, Anthony picked up several albums that still contained an old school “grid” on the cover for 97X DJs to mark the date and time that they played a track. We talk to Anthony about his love for the station, and Dave explains what the heck “ultracore” meant.

Here are the 97X artifact albums that Anthony picked up at Shake It Records in Northside:

Story behind my acquisition: sometime after the terrestrial station went off the air, the station sold off old vinyl since everything was going CD or digital.  Maybe it was to raise funds?  I don’t remember.  Anyway, the sales all went thru Shake It Records.  I was at UC at the time and stopped in and found a milk crate of them in the basement of the store and pulled out a few.  Looking back, I wish I would have bought the entire milk crate!

Anthony Hartke

The albums that 97X DJs played in the studio contained a grid that listed the suggested tracks to play, and spaces for the jocks to write down the date/time that they played a particular tune, to help the station avoid playing the same song or artist too frequently.

At some point, the vinyl grid on the album was replaced by an index card in a old-school “recipe box.” The intent was still the same: to ensure variety instead of repetition.

On the one album, there is a hand-written date of 5/17/1989 … it’s really cool to think that some of the DJs you have had on your podcast would have touched these exact albums back when I was listening to the station as a kid.  And seeing the handwritten notes like “Ultracore” are just awesome.  “That’s Entertainment” by the Jam is a quintessential 97x song in my head; I remember hearing it on the radio as a kid and it was probably from this exact album.

Anthony Hartke

I remember the 2004 shut down vividly and getting really emotional.  No one understood it. No one understood why a 21 year old guy would cry over a radio station.  But it was really like losing a friend…

When WOXY shut down March 23rd, 2010 (9 days after my 27th birthday) I was devastated again. Painful to this day thinking back on it (tearing up thinking about it now), but I’ll be forever grateful to 97X/WOXY for all that it gave me.

Anthony Hartke

Thanks to YOU for listening, Anthony. It was passionate music lovers like you that made our time at 97X/woxy.com so rewarding, and it’s why we do our “Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast.

(Anthony reached out to us via email at 97Xwoxy@gmail.com. We welcome your notes as well.)

This week in Live Music: August 5-11

Concert Listings, Music

Before we get into this week’s live tuneage, let’s dwell for a moment on last week’s live shows. Big shout out to the list members (and friends of list members) who came to the Eric Bachmann house show at my place: Jacqui, Ken, Jeff, Bob, Dan and Martha, Rico, and Rico’s buddies Cody and Louie. What a great gig! And getting a chance to chat with Eric afterward was just as cool… I’m going to begrudgingly forgive Neko Case for her antics last time she played Taft, as Eric (who was in her touring band) gave us the backstory.

Eric Bachmann at Damian’s house

The Cereal Killers performed a stellar (albeit too brief) set in Mt. Adams on Friday. We need to get them a recurring gig – any suggestions for a venue that might be amenable to hosting a killer band that plays great tunes from the late 70s/early 80s indie/college rock pantheon?

Cereal Killers in Mt. Adams… that’s not Eric Bachmann on guitar, it’s his doppelganger Matt Hueneman.

And finally, a shout out to list member Dan “Come to the Trevor Bauer Power Hour” Lewis for checking out the Ben Levin Trio at the Overlook Kitchen + Bar at the Summit Hotel in Madisonville. That hotel feels out of place next to a UDF, but their restaurant/bar patio is a very cool spot to hang out… especially when Ben Levin is playing.

OK, on with the show(s)… Tonight, Max Frost is playing the 20th Century Theater, with Swells as the opener.

On Tuesday, The Regrettes are at Madison Live, Joe Bonamassa is playing Fraze, Knotty G’s are at Stanley’s, the Local Music Showcase at Sawyer Point features Jordan Wilson Coalition and Brother Smith (6:30-10 p.m.) and Tesla (the band, not the car… actually maybe both) is at Rose Music Center.

Jake Speed & the Freddies are this week’s featured band in the Wednesdays in the Woods series at Burnet Woods. The Royal Hounds are playing Southgate’s Revival Room with NP Presley and The Ghost of Jesse Garon.

On Thursday, JJ Grey & Mofro are playing PNC Pavilion with Jonny Lang and Marc Brussard. List members Whit and Barb Gardner will be at that show. Joyce Manor is playing Woodward that evening, with Saves the Day and awakebutstillinbed, the band named after my teenage kids. Jamestown Revival plays Top Cats, and Madison Theater will host the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

This just in: list member/junior correspondent Madeleine Meeks informs our news desk that The Dip will be playing a free show at RiversEdge in Hamilton! Ohio on Thursday evening, and they’ll be playing an intimate gig at Plaid Room Records on Friday night. They are, per Madeleine, “seven young, gorgeous men from Seattle playing jazzy, old timey, classy, sexy tunes”… that blurb sounds a lot better coming from her than from me.

The summer is flying by, and it’s Bellwether Weekend… and Railbird weekend. Bellwether kicks off Friday in Waynesville at the Renaissance Festival grounds, home of giant turkey legs and jousting… and perhaps jousting with giant turkey legs.

The Bellwether schedule is below, headliners include Real Estate and Cake on Friday, and Guided By Voices, Pinback and Beach House on Saturday. I’ll be in attendance both days.

Railbird is Saturday and Sunday at Keeneland in Lexington, KY. Here’s the list of performers:

There are a slew of local shows on Friday as well:

  • JJ Grey/Jonny Lang/Marc Broussard play Rose Music Center
  • Willow Tree Carolers are at Camp Springs Tavern
  • Vesperteen headlines the free show at Fountain Square
  • ghost man on second is playing Lucius Q
  • Wyatt Edmondson is at Stanley’s with Electric Son
  • The Darling Suns, Heavy Hinges and Darity are playing Northside Tavern
  • Ben Levin Trio plays BrewRiver

And there are plenty of gigs on Saturday too:

  • Chuck Cleaver, Lisa Walker and Mark Messerly of Wussy are at MOTR, playing solo stuff as well as collaborating on some Wussy tunes.
  • Santana plays Riverbend with the Doobie Brothers. List members Whit and Barb will be at that gig too… they are cuckoo for concerts this week.
  • Black Flag is playing Riverfront Live. Speaking of Black Flag, this is a cool mini-doc about their artwork.
  • Common is at Madison Theater
  • The Newbees have a 15th anniversary show at Southgate
  • Megan Wren is at Southgate too, in the Revival Room
  • 500 Miles to Memphis headlines the Fountain Square freebie
  • John Butler Trio is at Rose Music Center
  • The Gotobeds (named after me talking to my teenage kids) are playing Northside Yacht Club, with Vacation and Cold Stereo
  • Flying Underground and Maurice Mattei & the Tempers are at Urban Artifact
  • The Generics will be at Fretboard Brewing in Blue Ash.
I’m just phoning it in now.

Sunday is a bit quieter, at least from a volume (of shows) standpoint. Death Valley Girls and Moonwalks are at MOTR, and JP Harris & the Tough Choices are playing Southgate, with Jeremy Pinnell opening the show.

A few other notes: Shake It Records is selling the first deck of Cincinnnati Music Legends trading cards, a very cool idea. Read more in CityBeat.

Wham!

I’m really digging the new album from Bleached called Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough (which is what my kids say to me when I’m reaching for my third slice of cake).

And the latest episode of the 97X podcast features Barb Abney talking about her 25+ year career playing modern rock (97X, the woxy.com, then The Current in Minneapolis, and now KFAI.) All episodes of the “Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast are now available on Spotify, too.

Have a wonderful week!