Classic Rock Magazine has nominated Kentucky’s own Black Stone Cherry for their Album of the Year award, respectively for BSC’s album “Folklore and Superstition” released in August 2008 on Roadrunner Records.

To vote, click here.

Click here to read the scuttlebutt September 2008 feature of Black Stone Cherry in Louisville Music News.

Black Stone Cherry returns to Kentucky on Saturday July 18, to perform live at the Little Sturgis Rally, a car and bike race event that also features a growing music lineup of regional rock and country acts. According to the website, LSR has drew more than 19 thousand in 2006, but has taken a hit on attendance by a few thousand in the recent years.

F***ing economy.

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Tim Krekel (October 10, 1950 - June 24, 2009)
RIP to Tim Krekel, a Louisville Music legend…simply stated. He will be forever embedded into the foundation of Louisville’s music history as one of the few musicians who took his talent both nationally and successfully, and never forgot were he came from.

Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)
Mama always said to “keep my mouth shut” if I didn’t have something nice to say. Obviously I’ve been challenged in my day to always abide by that genteel southern edict, but this time I will humor. Michael Jackson, another music legend,  has died. That’s all I got.

Who’s next?

Hopefully nobody. Enough is enough.

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The next release of the scuttlebutt column will not be until September 2009, but will be a cover story in Louisville Music News. To be featured: Louisville’s most promising musical export, Heaven Hill.  They recently cracked the chart’s on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart at #39, with their hit single “Going Down.” It moved slightly up the following week to #38. They’re also in prominent rotation at 93.1 The Fox and making their presence felt in other radio markets. The national industry is starting to take note. A bit of deja vu for their large fan base who saw this coming all along.

Heaven Hill recently filmed their live video shoot for “Going Down” on April 30th at that one bar on Baxter Ave. This one bar is run by a bunch of miserable prick bartenders who hate their jobs. There are several staff members who are civil, but they are few-and-far between and apparently too lazy to get rid the root cause of a persistent problem that has plagued the bulk of the staff over the past few years.  Believe it or not, their actually was a day when this one bar had a very cool staff, but those days and those people are distant memories.

Anyways, Heaven Hill played alongside with Universal recording artist Pop Evil, who experienced an equipment failure that left one member unable to perform.  Nonetheless, Pop Evil delivered an impressive set perhaps a little later then they wanted to. Many of the fans left before they started. So, for those of you who missed or walked on that show, you should make sure you don’t make that same mistake the next time Pop Evil hits Louisville. With a little luck they won’t have any equipment failures and maybe we’ll get to see them at a venue where we are entitled to a friendly bar staff who enjoys their jobs, is polite to their patrons,  and treats people with at least a mild case of respect. When you have holes in the boat, the ship will eventually sink.

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Photo by Mike Diltz

The VillieBillies are exactly as their name implies; musically inspired hillbilly kids who live in our artistically diverse city of Louisville. And these guys are proud of it, too, often lyric-sizing Louisville themes in many of their songs. Formed over eight years ago, the VilleBillies quickly established themselves as one of Louisville’s most popular bands, drawing hundreds of fans to their shows.

In 2006, they inked a record deal with Universal Motown Records and released a self-titled debut album later that year. But in 2008, that deal was in the rearview mirror as the VilleBillies decided they needed to review their entire approach to the music business. They refocused their approach to their sound and incorporated more rock into their songwriting. They refreshed their image, and they realigned the lineup by downsizing the band from 10 members to 7 members.

Also in 2008 the VilleBillies released a new album, From the Belly of the Beast,on their own label Hack Music. The album is rock solid from beginning to end and, yes, the sound has definitely evolved by having more of a rock sound in their instrumentation; but still incorporating their clever use of the English language (also known as rapping) lyrically. The VillieBillies are ready to make a second run at success in the music business.

The VilleBillies current lineup is now: Demi Demaree (vocals), Dustin “Tuck” Tucker (vocals), Derek “Child” Monyhan (vocals), Adam Goff (acoustic guitar and banjo), Justin Reed (electric guitar), Tim Bernauer (grums), and Ron Ping (bass).

In a recent interview, front-man and founding member Demi Demaree explained the split with Universal Motown Records, why recent line-up changes were made, and even some of the band’s youthful foundations.

LMN: What is the bottom line reason that your self-titled debut album with Universal Music did not fair as well nationwide as everyone had anticipated and hoped it would?

DEMAREE: “I think cause it didn’t get put out there, ya know, like, yeah it was supposed to get put out there. They put a lot of money into making the record but weren’t really sure how to market it. Universal split up into Universal Motown and Universal Republic and the two main people that hired us split ways, so it was actually a bad time. Or in the wrong place at the wrong time type of deals. Once Adam put up all this money to make a record and put us on the road, then we got sent to someone else who didn’t wanna have anything to do with us. Therefore, our album didn’t end up in the stores, and it didn’t end up being played on the radio and pushed in all these other markets. So the only way we were even able to reach other people is if we got put on good shows or got to tour for a little while. So everything that we did is basically off the tour we went on. Cause, they just didn’t put it out there, if you didn’t hear about us, then there’s no way that you know what I mean? So, I’d say that’d be the main reason for sure.”

LMN: In terms of the band’s newly changed line-up, what now is different within the band that will immediately be evident to fans; from when you all started, maybe say the release of your self titled debut album, to now?

DEMAREE: “Definitely rockin’, more energy, more like what our live show is and definitely more back to the rock roots; have a little more fun with it, cause there’s not as many, what do they say? “Too many chiefs and not enough Indians” was the problem before (laughs) but, I mean, now it’s just everyone’s having fun with it. Just rockin’ more, I’d say. And a lot of people say you can actually hear what we say LIVE now, cause there’s not four other people talking at the same time (laughs).”

LMN: Tell me about one of those real life brawls that went on.

DEMAREE: “Oh, no, not even. Against each other?”

LMN: A band brawl with some or all of the band members…not necessarily that you all were fighting each other….

DEMAREE: “….Yeah, but that’s what I was telling you about earlier at the Blue Martini, actually. The whole band was there, it was after a show around Derby, or the night before the show. ;Cause that’s the one everybody was in. Well, there was a couple actually, around that time. Yeah, the Blue Martini is like what we always did. That’s when we were going to bars every night and living it up. We were all like twenty-one, twenty-two, or twenty with a “fake.” And, that one, actually I started. It ended up being half the band fighting each other. We actually shut-down Blue Martini that night; and I have scars on the back of my head from it. Well, this is really a better one though…this is not as big of one, but, back when it was Derby, it was actually during Derby night and we were bar hopping from Jillian’s – it was Jillian’s Crown Royal Derby Party – that’s what it was. So this is a good one, this is when Janet Jackson came here and Jermaine Dupree came here and me and Dillan actually both danced. And Justin danced with Nelly Furtado, little Nelly Furtado, you know, the ‘I’m like a bird’… that girl. Back then it was the Crown Royal Party and all the celebrities were there. We got just ripped. It was free Crown Royal all night and we were V.I.P. cause we were like the talk of the town and that kind s**t. Me and Dillan were walking back and we met up with a few of our friends that we had came with. And as we got into a car this guy that had followed us and was apparently from out of town. As we opened up the car door, this old guy pushed one of my buddies out of the way and jumped into the car and demanded that we take him down the street. And we were like ‘we don’t know you, get the f**k out of the car.’ And then he said ‘You hillbilly motherf**kers take me down the street….”

LMN: “He said ‘hillbilly’”?

DEMEAREE: “Yeah he was calling us ‘hillbillies.’ And he thought it was funny because he knew we were the ‘VilliBillies.’ So we showed him hillbilly. My and Dylan started whaling on this dude. And then we pulled him out of the car and threw him on the ground and then we were like ‘what are we doing, what are we doing? Pick him up,’ so we picked up him while we tried to turn it around on him, by asking ‘What the f**k are you doing?’ while he is yelling ‘what the f**k was that for?’ And we were like “Dude you just jumped in our car and we don’t know you and you called us ‘hillibilly motherf**kers’ and s**t. (laughing). That’s enough said.”

LMN: Why are former band members, formerband members?

DEMAREE: “I think basically because BJ and Dylan weren’t happy in their situation anymore. You know? Dylan just had a kid, and he was on the road and stressed out. It wasn’t all fun and games anymore like it used to be, once you’re on a major label. And I think it basically just consumed him, made him sick of it, and just made him want a change in his life. So they just got out of it. You know? And 2B (David Mouser) had just a lot of personal things that he needed to deal with before he could be in a group like that. Basically. I should also say that they to ‘don’t mix business and friends’ and you know, you just don’t want to go into business with your buddies because you don’t turn out being buddies anymore, ’cause then it turns everything into about money, and being on time, you know? All these things that didn’t used to exist when you were just making music for fun. So music turns into a business and then all of the sudden your friends – well – you all ain’t friends like that no more sometimes. And the next thing you know you gotta get away from each other and the business to be friends again. So it’s been kind of a sad turnaround, you know?”

LMN: You guys have played with Method Man and Hank Williams Jr. Tell me what that was like in terms of your own musically diverse background.

DEMAREE: “I think it was really cool because it shows you what we were made of. We were so different because we could play with Hank and we could play with Method Man. But honestly I think that what helped us, hurt us. Because we were so diverse that people just didn’t know what to do with it (speaking of the record label). They were like ‘how do you market these people?’ How does Motown market someone who was playing with Hank Williams? They don’t. They don’t understand it. So they would take Method Man and say they don’t understand that, either. So it kind of helped us and kind of hurt us. Method Man is cool as hell though, and Hank Williams not so much. Unless you’re a girl, though. And we’re not, so (laughing) uh… no. So it was a good thing and a bad thing for us.”

Get all the latest show information, new videos, and the other usual stuff online at VilleBillies.com or myspace.com/VilleBillies.

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Photo by Jason Ashcraft

Two-thousand-five marked a decisive shift in singer/guitar player Rahul Borkar’s (Breckinridge) musical career. His band Breckinridge, an impressive unsigned Louisville-based hard rock band, which achieved radio and Billboard chart success with their hit single “Honesty,” split up.

Borkar was one of the band’s most passionate members and had been writing his own solo material in his spare time. Almost immediately after Breckinridge split, Borkar decided to develop his solo music because he knew he couldn’t play this stuff with Breckinridge due to the style differentiation. Most notably, these were songs that he had to be able to play on his own terms, as a result of his singular musical approach. He wanted these songs to be written and arranged by himself, without the input of others. This alone was impossible to achieve while in Breckinridge.

In Borkar’s own words: “It (the new band) started off as my own solo project while I was in my other band (Breckinridge), but then it became a little more then that. I would record a couple of songs and then … you know … the songs came out pretty awesome!”

So after Breckinridge officially split, Borkar brought his music to life by recruiting childhood friend Praveen Arla (Christiansen) on guitar, and they started playing out as Seven, the first name of Borkar’s solo material. After a few live outings, Seven quickly became the talk of the music scene, as many respected the musical style shift Borkar pulled off. A lot different than Breckinridge, but musically solid nonetheless. After the warm reception, Borkar then added Scott McKenzie (Breckinridge) on drums, Bruce LeFrance (Tantric) on bass, and music scene rookie Brad Compton on guitar, along with him and Arla leading.

During the Fall of 2007, Scott McKenzie would leave the band and be replaced by Joe Yabao (Ashes Eve) on drums and renamed the band to Nova Red.

Stylishly, Nova Red fuses post-grunge and hardcore-emo rock into a singular style. Compton, Arla and Borkar delivers an interesting combination of powerful, yet melodic guitar leads, with a little bit of that distorted Nineties grunge style on the strings. LeFrance’s bass adds a deep rhythm section that often competes with Borkar’s intense and, at times, soulful vocals. Together Nova Red has established themselves as a momentous band in Louisville’s rock music scene, capturing the attention of fans with many different inclinations of rock music.

Nova Red is teamed up with veteran music producer Malcolm Springer (Collective Soul, Matchbox 20) who oversees their recording sessions. Back on October 19, 2007 Nova Red released a six song EP titled No Regrets. The EP includes an extremely well-written, potential hit single, “Kiss Goodnight.” The song’s verses’ are just as hip as the song’s chorus and, like most of their music, has traditional emo subject matter – the loss of something that they are still angst-ridden over. With Nova Red, it’s women. No surprises here.

When asked about how the band came together and under what circumstances (besides the breakup of Breckinridge), LeFrance quickly responded “Because we have all been screwed over by women. That’s it, pretty much. Women don’t love us.”

Laughing, but still somewhat agreeing, Borkar confirmed “Honestly, the band started over a breakup. So the six songs on the EP was written over a breakup. “

Nova Red has a few “potential” hit songs, an obvious emotional base for writing and playing their music, and an experienced producer to tighten their recorded sound. Seemingly, they are poised for musical success, but … they must learn to take their offstage demeanor with their band to a more serious level if they want a career in the music industry. They also must get the hell out of Louisville and go on tour to export their music beyond our city’s limits. The whole Emo scene is mostly rooted by the younger audience, which the Louisville music scene doesn’t really seem to cater to.

Right now, Nova Red is still finishing up on their new full-length album, which requires a drive to Portage, Missouri, Springer’s hometown. The album is due out sometime in the Spring of 2009. That being said, I’m predicting a summer 2009 release. The as yet unnamed album will contain a few of the songs from No Regrets, along with some new stuff, that was – oddly enough – inspired by another breakup. A few of the songs are a bit more heavier and a little metalish like “F**k for Self-esteem.” Nova Red’s fan base won’t be disappointed though. There is also “Burn Me” and “Last Call” that are a few newbies that fans will be keen on too. I’d really like to see what Springer can do with these songs.

Stay up-to-date on the new release by Nova Red, upcoming shows, and the usual stuff on their myspace site: Myspace.com/novared.

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