The Cellar Sessions
Although on the surface a collaboration between indie-folk-punk-grrrl Lois Maffeo and punk drummer Brendan Canty might seem strangely off-center, their relationship goes back so far that the album they recorded together (The Union Themes) actually seems pretty late in coming. “Brendan and I have been friends for many, many years,” she recalls. “I worked with…
Pony Kegs
Like backwash at the bottom of a beer mug, winter’s waning days linger listlessly. Spring’s game of hide-and-seek fails to amuse. Creative remedies for cabin fever pose a daunting challenge — how to shake off winter’s dust when we can’t entirely count on Mother Nature? Here’s a safe bet: Make tracks for Northfield Park and…
Nine Inch Nails
After 10 years on the alternative scene, Trent Reznor has yet to exorcise the demons that helped him define the industrial rock genre. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is that he’s now trapped by the same style that initially put him on the disgruntled youth map. And for an artist whose career…
Re-Boot
Why aren’t there more submarine movies? It seems like a no-brainer formula for success: claustrophobic setting, invisible enemy whose approach must be estimated, inherent threat of both drowning and depth pressure, and from a budgetary standpoint, one key set is really all that’s needed. There’s even a solid track record to draw on: With a…
Slipknot
The Agora Theatre was filled to capacity with tattooed, metal-loving meatheads, a legion of half-naked, Gothic mall girls, and a stageful of identically dressed metal-rappers in evil clown masks from the middle of Iowa. Some would call this a twisted circus; others would call it a Slipknot concert. When Slipknot took the stage, it blurred…
Foul Shots
Love & Basketball is divided into four quarters; thank God there’s no overtime. The directorial debut from writer Gina Prince-Bythewood, who once penned scripts for A Different World and Felicity, is a film built upon transitions so weak and obvious, it’s astonishing the entire thing doesn’t collapse on itself. You want to root for it,…
Neil Young
As one of rock and roll’s elder statesmen, Neil Young has earned a lot of labels, but hack has never been one of them. Sure, he’s eccentric and even a little possessed, but never has he been accused of lacking talent — at least by those who know what they’re talking about. Young has taken…
Terrible Burden
The verdict came with crushing swiftness and finality. After 10 grueling weeks of trial, 76 witnesses, hundreds of exhibits, and a small mountain of evidence, the Sheppard case came down to a single hushed moment in the courtroom of Common Pleas Judge Ronald Suster last week. Just five and a half hours earlier, at 11:30…
Ian Brown
The Stone Roses top the list of bands who showed promise but were never able to capitalize on it or surpass expectations. Filled with guitar hooks and catchy lyrics, their ’60s-influenced eponymous debut is still the archetype for Britpop bands. Stone Roses singer Ian Brown defined rude long before Oasis was being written up in…
Beer Squawk
Jack Curtis started drinking about 45 minutes before work last Saturday night. His co-workers encouraged him. Every 10 minutes, they would pour four ounces of beer into a glass and insist that he drink it. Curtis readily complied, determined not to stop until he reached the legal limit. For the past three years, Curtis, the…
Cypress Hill
Does prolonged pot smoking lead to developmental hindrances? Do numerous bong hits drain the brain of crucial and resourceful cells? Who’s to say? In the case of long-time blunt supporters and veteran hip-hoppers Cypress Hill, it certainly has stunted its creative impulses. Or at least those urges to do something new and original. How else…
Wrapper’s Delight
In the echelon of fashion emergencies, a shorts crisis ranks up there with Don King’s shock ‘do. If the seams don’t meet right, the material bunches up in the wrong places. “It’s that crotch area,” sighs Lorna Santiago, a textile sculptor whose preferred medium is aluminum pop tabs. “I’m making shorts right now. I had…
Hostile Omish
Known for their outlandish, Amish-inspired costumes and boisterous live shows, the Hostile Omish originally intended to make their next release a live record. That way, the visual aspect of their humor would be better represented than it has been on the numerous cassettes and CDs they’ve released over the course of their 13-year career. Instead,…
The Edge
Name game! With her husband now pitching for a respectable midwestern baseball club, Mrs. Chuck Finley has dropped her vivacious stage name, Tawny Kitaen. “I don’t have a definitive proclamation, but yeah, she’s going back to Julie,” confirms Indians spokesman Bob DiBiasio. The feline nom de plume was perfect for starring opposite Tom Hanks in…
John Schmersal
Born in Toledo, Enon singer-guitarist John Schmersal now lives in Brooklyn, New York, but he spent his formative years in Ohio. He eventually ended up in Dayton, where he joined the band Brainiac in 1994, about two years after it had formed. Schmersal, whose parents live in Cleveland, initially spent his summers working here to…
Letters to the Editor
We’re All a Bunch of BabiesI totally enjoyed your recent article “Machiavellian Mayhem” [April 13]. The story and the cartoons on the Willoughby Hills elected officials illustrate the acting out and posturing against ourselves that is an overwhelming mirror of our immaturity. Is our inability to mature the horror of our human condition? “Adult” implies…
Hooked on Gadgets
To some novices, fishing has become so mired in electronic gadgetry that it may as well be a virtual sport. Boats outfitted with thousands of dollars of equipment zip around, leaving a string of strange blips and bleeps in their wakes — and dragging home catch after catch. But to pro anglers, like Gary Gray…
Fatman and slobbin’
A mildly retarded man who works in a grocery store believes he is Batman, the Dark Knight on a mission to free Gotham City from the clutches of The Joker. An actress playing the role of Wonder Woman becomes a spokeswoman, then scapegoat, for the Commie witch-hunters working for the House Un-American Activities Committee. A…
Dark Reality
In the late ’20s, Clevelander Carl Gaertner was the local art scene’s man of steel. He wasn’t a caped crusader who taught criminals the folly of their ways, but an artistic warrior who wanted to demonstrate that a homegrown Cleveland artist painting blast furnaces, smelters, and ore boats in his own backyard could produce work…
Hitting the Mark
The Cleveland Play House’s The Emancipation of Valet de Chambre, personally commissioned and locally produced, reflects glory on all concerned. At times, it’s as exhilarating as a winning day at the races, and at other times, it’s as dark as one of Ingmar Bergman’s plunges into despair. Artistic Director Peter Hackett has been tenderly incubating…
To Market, to Market…
It’s almost like the nursery rhyme. The candlestick maker hasn’t found her way here yet, but not to worry: You’ve still got your butcher (Mazzulo’s Butcher Block & Deli), your baker (The Bread Smith), a shiny Euro Chef cookware shop, and a welcoming wine store to entice you into making a gourmet pit stop at…
Side Dish
J Café Down a Donna Don’t head over to Woodmere’s J Café (28601 Chagrin Boulevard), looking for some of chef/owner Donna Chriszt’s signature cuisine: She’s not there. While it’s common knowledge that Chriszt has been planning to move to a West Side location for some time now, sources say she hasn’t yet settled on a…
Great Britons
Don’t believe the hype. That pretty much goes for anything these days, but it’s especially true when it concerns new British bands. Normally, what sells well on the other side of the Atlantic — Blur, Pulp, Supergrass — doesn’t do squat over here. Oasis and Radiohead are household names in the U.S., but only after…
Risky Business
Saxophonist Tim Berne and bassist Michael Formanek share a fairly long history together. Berne first collaborated with Formanek when he joined the bassist’s Wide Open Spaces Band almost a decade ago. Formanek later returned the favor when he joined Berne’s long-running raucous band Bloodcount. By 1996, the two enjoyed each other’s musical company so much…
