Nat Tracey-Miller's Profile

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Midpoint Superlatives: The Weekend in Review

By: Nat Tracey-Miller & Zach Moning Best in Show: Bob MouldBob Mould is about to turn 56, but his scorching 40-minute 15-song set blew everyone half that old off the stage. Fronting a power trio rounded out by Jason Narducy (Superchunk/$plit $ingle) and Jon Wurster (Superchunk/The Mountain...

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MPMF Preview: Kamasi Washington

It's not too often that something new sets the jazz world on fire. We're decades removed from the successive Great Leaps Forward of the 1950s and 60s. Grammy winning albums are either by the legends of the old guard, many years beyond their landmark works, or by torchbearers of pre-fusion jazz. But...

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MPMF Preview: The Mountain Goats

The streak that runs through John Darnielle’s 20-plus year run as the songwriter (and sole constant member) of The Mountain Goats is one of humanity, of dignity, of compassion, and of empathy.  Empathy for the would-be outlaw, “frozen with joy” 40 miles from...

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MPMF Preview: Josh Ritter

Even by the standards of his long and successful career, Josh Ritter is having quite the year. He’s toured the globe off of last fall’s eclectic Sermon on the Rocks, his 8th studio album, including a current run of dates with alt-country messiah Jason Isbell, played a high-profile Red...

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MPMF Preview: Bob Mould is a Legend in His Own Time

There are bona fide rock and roll legends and then there are artists at the peak of their live prowess. The sets of that Venn diagram usually don’t overlap too much, but nearly 40 years after he formed seminal St. Paul hardcore outfit Hüsker Dü, Bob Mould is very much in both camps....

Fogerty Brings Peerless Back Catalog to Jack

Creedence Clearwater Revival left behind one of the most iconic discographies in the history of rock and roll, drawing on the blues, swampy creole influences, early rockabilly, and sweet Motown soul to create their own quintessentially American sound. But it’s incredible to realize that the...

Savages Level Taft in Intense Cincinnati Debut

Can we stop comparing Savages to other bands yet? Can we cease dragging every story and review about them through an encyclopedia of post-punk history? Despite plenty of sonic echoes, such discussion merely sells short one of the most ferocious and creative groups working today. Two albums in, the...

  • Interview

Interview: England’s Iconic Culture Club Back in Action

Culture Club exploded onto the world scene in 1983 like nothing pop music had ever seen. They were the very image of diversity and acceptance in the conservative 1980’s of Thatcher and Reagan, interracial, queer, and bold. They sold tens of millions of albums before imploding spectacularly in...

Appetite for Reunion: Guns N’ Roses Slay in Cincinnati Return

It's dubbed the Not In This Lifetime Tour, and for over twenty years, that's certainly what it seemed like. The egos and acrimony that led to the implosion of Guns N’ Roses’ classic lineup in 1993 seemed like an insurmountable barrier while Axl Rose carried the banner for...

Bonnaroo: How a Giant Looks at Fifteen

For a decade and a half now, Bonnaroo has stood alone on the American festival scene. Although other American festivals have higher annual attendance (Lollapalooza regularly breaks 100,000) or pull rarer gets (even entering its tamer years, Coachella still reigns supreme for reunions), only...

Review: Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell is no stranger to the Taft Theatre. He opened for Ryan Adams there not long after the release of Here We Rest, took to the 500-capacity basement Ballroom with his band the 400 Unit, graduated to the big theater with his breakthrough Southeastern, and on Tuesday, in his first Cincinnati...

Bonnaroo 2016: Ten Picks You Might've Missed

This weekend marks the fifteenth annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, the perennial four-day blowout that transforms a 700 acre farm into the sixth largest city in the state of Tennessee. There’s never a lack of options--at any given time, there are as many as ten stages of music going,...