Back to School
By far, the most creative thing about Snow Day is its clever integration of the studio logo into the narrative at the very beginning. As a man shovels snow from his driveway, a gigantic snowball falls from the sky and crushes his house. It’s a wonderfully anarchic moment, boding well for things to come, until…
Michael Penn
Michael Penn MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident (Fifty Seven/Epic) Originally a member of the little-known band Doll Congress, Michael Penn, the brother of actors Sean and Chris Penn, silenced the critics who thought he was trying to break into the music business on their coattails when he released his debut album March in…
Guru Smuru
Starring Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel, Holy Smoke marks a return of sorts to previous Campion territory — the filmmaker’s 1989 feature debut Sweetie, a dark comedy about a narcissistic, manipulative, obese teenager and her repressed, phobic sister. All of Campion’s films (The Portrait of a Lady, An Angel at My Table) embody some elements…
Buddy Blue
Buddy Blue Dipsomania (Clarence) Not all interesting or even successful artistic experiments are extended to the next level. Take, for example, the attempts of some rockabilly bands to integrate R&B and jazz influences into their music. The efforts of Bill Haley and His Comets in blending these genres in the mid-’50s was artistically praiseworthy, and…
Bound to Die
Jacqueline Marino can be reached at jacqueline.marino@clevescene.com.
Grasshopper Pie
Grasshopper Pie Gypsy Sky (self-released) Formed five years ago, when drummer John Horvath, bassist Warren Kile, singer-guitarist Greg Lesinski, and singer-guitarist Mike Switzer were students at Bowling Green, Grasshopper Pie is a neo-hippie band that wears its Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers influences a little too proudly on its collective sleeve. The band, which is…
Making Waves
Mike Tobin can be reached at mike.tobin@clevescene.com.
Soundbites
Send local music info and fried funk to jeff.niesel@clevescene.com.
The Edge
Ker-chop! Plain Dealer Metro columnists Joe Dirck and Afi-Odelia E. Scruggs have been given the ax by Editor Doug Clifton. Dirck was given the option of finding something else to do, but opted instead to leave the paper and move to Columbus, where his wife, former PD politics editor Mary Anne Sharkey, works for the…
Art by the Book
Charles Yannopoulos can be reached at charles.yannopoulos@clevescene.com.
The Clown Ascending
After 70 seasons, Beck Center for the Arts still breeds theater with the frightening fertility of a Catholic ladies’ club. This week, the hoppingest theater emporium west of the Cuyahoga is serving up Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor. This sharply observed comic character study is an endearing reverie of the divine spark that…
A Break in the Chains
Elaine T. Cicora can be reached at elaine.cicora@clevescene.com.
Side Dish
Tips are encouraged. Contact Elaine T. Cicora at elaine.cicora@aol.com.
Never Ben Better
Every morning after his tea — “to clear out all the nighttime yuck” — singer-guitarist Ben Harper plays and writes and plays some more. Harper, a fan of the Delta blues legends (Elmore James and Muddy Waters) and their subsequent apostles (Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers), creates music possessing a unique sound despite its…
Sax, No Violence
When it comes to recording, Howie Smith keeps a low profile. The saxophonist and CSU professor has only one recording available — 1991’s Second Door on the Left on Sea Breeze Records. And aside from that fairly straight-ahead venture, you would have to dig deep into recent recordings by the Frank Mantooth Jazz Orchestra or…
Life After Sublime
Just as Lou Dog, the faithful Dalmatian of late Sublime frontman Brad Nowell, traipsed through the band’s high-profile MTV videos, the specter of Sublime’s rise to fame and subsequent untimely demise follows the members of the Long Beach Dub Allstars. For a brief time, Sublime artfully juggled ska, punk, and reggae, generating a monumental self-titled…
Galactic
Galactic with Drums and Tuba Peabody’s DownUnder February 5 If it were possible to measure the buzz on the street regarding the funk/jam band Galactic, the meter was definitely pegged Saturday night at Peabody’s DownUnder. An unusually long line stretched in front of the club prior to the start of Galactic’s set. Packed to the…
Cross-Country Training
One catchy little refrain. That’s all “Banjo” Fred Starner wants the “commercial music industry” to hear, because folk music is here to stay. The image of the hobo — the rail-ridin’ vagabond whose off-the-beaten-path lifestyle embodies the purpose and passion of American folk music — may be a-changin’, but it’s not going away. “Hobos have…
Brian McKnight
Brian McKnight with Eric Benet Allen Theatre February 3 Brian McKnight and Eric Benet both sing R&B and possess wide-ranging voices. But their performances at the Allen Theatre couldn’t have been more different from each other. McKnight, the headliner, was all about putting on a bigger-than-life show, using lots of visuals (video monitors, dancers, costume…
52 Pick Ups
You don’t have to book two tickets to Paris to put some romance into your life. Staying right here in Northeast Ohio is as romantic as anywhere, if you know what to do and where to go. Miriam Carey can offer some ideas. Her new book, Fifty-Two Romantic Outings in Greater Cleveland, has nearly 200…
The Cure
The Cure Bloodflowers (Elektra) Every Cure fan knows the band works best when leader Robert Smith is dismal and morose — none of that “Friday I’m in Love” crap. Disintegration (1987) could be the best breakup album ever made — its fits of sorrow and remorse are drowned out by wailing guitars and desolate lyrics.…
American Psycho
Ewan McGregor. You can’t toss a caber in Scotland these days without toppling a gaggle of blokes who closely resemble him. Yet some magical combination of talent, charm, and shrewd management has thrown wide the gates of choice projects for the young superstar, whose résumé already glows like a career retrospective. How strange it is,…
Cows in the Graveyard
Cows in the Graveyard Grog Shop February 5 The members of the local avant-garde rock band Cows in the Graveyard look and sound as if they’re from three different bands — drummer Will has the spiky hair of a punk rocker, singer-guitarist Alx boasts the dreadlocks you’d expect to see in a jam band, and…
