The fact that Cincinnati, despite its size, feels like a place where everybody knows your name is a really charming quality, but it makes it difficult to interview people.I recently sat down with Stuart MacKenzie from The Lions Rampant in a semi-professional setting (The Comet) to talk about the band's new album.  

If you were to place a bet as to what local band will be the next to follow the likes of Bad Veins, Pomegranates and Daniel Martin Moore into the ranks of “nationally acclaimed” Cincinnati area artists, putting your money on Electro/Indie foursome Eat Sugar is a pretty safe wager. One listen to the band’s excellent new EP, It’s Not Our Responsibility!, and you couldn’t be blamed for betting your life savings.   

Oklahoma has become the next state to name an official Rock song — hallucinogenic art rockers The Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize?” (also, coincidentally, the official song of Mitsubishi). It was officially bestowed that honor earlier in the week.  

I don't think I've ever written anything about Jake Speed without mentioning Woody Guthrie. Call me lazy, but the political Folk pioneer is such an obvious influence on Speed's songs and lyrics it almost seems dishonest not to mention it.  

Why`s kaleidoscopic musical output conjures a host of descriptors, the most accurate of which might be the Oakland-based band's own genre-spliced classification: "Pop-inflected Psychedelic Folk Hop." The brainchild of Cincinnati native/former cLOUDDEAD member Yoni Wolf, Why? started as a one-man bedroom project (2003's Oaklandazulasylum).