Desdemona

Categories: In the News , Entertainment , Local Interest , Staff Picks

For the first time ever, Cincinnati is having a three-day outdoor indie music festival, the Shakespearian-monikered Desdemona Festival, June 23-25 at Sawyer Point.  This event has attracted the interest of the local media for its size and for the geographic and musical scope of artists featured. 

I am happy to see that the library owns releases by some of the performers:

• Tone Soul Evolution and Velocity of Sound by Apples In Stereo
• Bulletproof Wallets, The Pretty Toney Album, and Fishscale by Ghostface Killah
• Dying In Stereo and All City by Northern State
• DJ-Kicks and Anniemal by Annie
• Harmonies for the Haunted by Stellastarr*
• Bring It Back by Mates of State
• Believo! and High Society by Enon
• Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone and Bows & Arrows by The Walkmen
• Blueberry Boat by The Fiery Furnaces
• Logic Will Break Your Heart by The Stills
• Stairs and Elevators by Cincinnati’s Heartless Bastards
• Out of the Shadow and Descended Like Vultures by Rogue Wave (my festival fave)

For those unhip to indie (independent) music, here are a few historical print guides that might help: Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad, The Great Alternative & Indie Discography by Martin C. Strong, Spin: 20 Years of Alternative Music: Original Writing on Rock, Hip-hop, Techno, and Beyond, The A to X of Alternative Music by Steve Taylor, The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock, and Milk It!: Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the '90s by Jim DeRogatis. 

For hipsters eager to be at the cutting edge of the current scene, these periodicals come highly recommended by those in the know: Alternative Press, Magnet, New Musical Express, and Spin.   

Rock On (Indie-style)!