Gettin' lucky in Kentucky

As is usually the case when we have free time, my wife and I can never figure out what to do for fun in St. Louis, so we headed out of town to Louisville, KY earlier this month over a free weekend. We've been out there a couple of times before, and I'm not sure exactly why we're always compelled to go back except that it has it's own brand of quirkiness that isn't present in the entire state of Missouri (although Kansas City is really trying hard). This time around, we sampled some of the typical Louisville traditions such as the Hot Brown (a mix of toast, turkey, bacon, Mornay sauce, parmesan cheese, and a slice or two of tomato to confuse you into thinking this might be somewhat healthy) at the Brown Hotel (where Orlando Bloom's character was staying at in Elizabethtown), a version of Derby pie (chocolate chip pecan) at the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen, and a bourbon sampler flight at Bourbons Bistro. This may be the first time I've ever actually sampled multiple kinds of bourbon at the same time, but it was quite a treat, and a good way to distinguish some of the subtleties.


So something you'll find around town is this "Keep Louisville Weird" campaign, which seems to be modeled after the "Keep Austin Weird" movement. However, Austin's movement seems to have been spoiled by some greedy t-shirt company who trademarked the whole "Keep Austin Weird" slogan. This has lead the original creators in Austin to make up a t-shirt like this:

Apparently, other cities with their own bit of quirkiness have adopted this as well, including Santa Cruz, CA and Boulder, CO. As in Austin, though, this has become a more commercialized slogan than the original creators ever envisioned. But anything to promote local businesses never really bothered me.

Not to make you think eating is all we do on trips, let me tell you about one of our favorite "weird" places in Louisville--ear X-tacy, a local music store which is probably on par with Waterloo Records in Austin. Any time we're in Louisville, we make it a point to broaden our usual musical selections here, as they put out numerous listening stations with musicians we wouldn't necessarily know about just listening to the radio. Kathleen Edwards is probably our favorite female musician these days, much thanks to my wife going out on a limb and buying a gem of a debut CD at ear X-tacy a few years ago. If you're not listening to her, you need to be.

This time around we picked up Air Stereo from The Damnwells and Black Holes and Revelations from Muse, two bands I had never really heard about before.

The Damnwells are a bit reminiscent of a more radio-friendly Paul Westerberg or The Replacements. Not a bad CD, but nothing I'm gonna rave too much about. Muse, however, is definitely something to go check out. I'm not even sure how to describe their music, because their sound changes throughout the album. They go from English stadium rock anthems to hard rock heavy metal to complicated electronic synth. It's definitely a complex album that takes some listening to really appreciate. Somehow, I imagine Wander is reading this and thinking, "Yup, I've been listening to them for almost a decade now (or however long this band has been around)."