Tainted Conclusions
Mortgage brokers: not always the devil: After reading your very slanted article on the mortgage industry, and on Argent/ Ameriquest and VP Equity in particular [“All the President’s Men,” October 19], I felt compelled to address a few salient details which seem to have been conveniently omitted. It is painfully obvious that you had an…
Rib Tickler
Leaning on the countertop behind his cash register that Saturday night, Jim Malkus looked like the loneliest man in Tremont. Except for our own little party of two, the dining room of the Flying Pig Barbecue Company was as empty as a Cleveland ballot box. It’d been that way the previous Thursday night too, when…
Various Artists
The first two Nuggets boxed sets (released in 1998 and 2001) were gold mines of mostly obscure 1960s garage rock that later influenced ’70s punk. But the goal of this Nuggets update is to unearth the disparate, ’60s-styled misfits of the 1980s. As usual, there are plenty of worthy shoulda-beens (Real Kids, Big Star) and…
Bad Company
DVD — Office Space: Special Edition With Flair: Working for the man has never been funnier. Or more horribly real. The cult classic about a cubicle dweller stuck in his own personal six-foot-by-six-foot square of hell dives into corporate issues and situations Dilbert would never dare touch. DVD extras include deleted scenes and a new…
Sweet Revenge
Inside the Human Furnace’s house, it’s still Halloween; every day is Halloween here. The Ringworm vocalist is in the process of turning his living room into a small-scale movie theater, complete with red velvet walls. Two ivory-colored horned-demon masks stare down from a big-screen television, which is surrounded by violent sci-fi movies. The adjacent room…
Breakestra
The evolution of Breakestra has been an auspicious journey of funk and feeling. Bandleader Miles Tackett made a name for himself in Los Angeles as the leader of the weekly Rootdown party, a hangout for conscious and breakthrough hip-hop/soul/funk mavens. His band started out playing covers of soul classics, eventually writing a solid repertoire of…
Having a Party
It’s one of pop music’s great tragedies that silken-voiced soul singer Sam Cooke, a steadfast civil-rights campaigner and composer of some of the era’s best love songs, died in a seedy motel with three bullets in his chest. To this day, his 1964 death at 33 remains clouded by controversy — the motel manager who…
Rockin’ the Boatzz
Michael di Liberto speaks the way he writes, in a series of digressions. The frontman for Boatzz is fond of antsy songs that never sit still. From pop daydreams to punk nightmares, their repertoire is defined by misdirection; they’ll headfake you constantly, till you don’t know what’s coming next. In conversation, di Liberto can be…
Lightning Bolt
Rhode Island’s Lightning Bolt approached 2003’s Wonderful Rainbow like two ski-masked horsemen of the apocalypse, frenzied metal-punk harriers hell-bent on the merciless ravaging of all available eardrums. Brian Chippendale’s meth-freak drums and Brian Gibson’s amazingly versatile bass were calibrated to reduce listeners’ inhibitions — and brains — to mush. Despite boasting some of the coolest…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, November 3 The artists taking part in Standing Rock Cultural Arts’ third annual Day of the Dead show surely relish this time of year. It’s the one time they can offer up their spooky drawings, paintings, puppets, and sculptures, and not look like a bunch of mopey Morrissey fans. Dig deep, and you’ll even…
Takin’ Out the Trash
Ever wonder what insignificance smells like? Well, wonder no more. Marilyn Manson recently announced that he was developing his own line of perfume. Apparently, the dude is still trying to mask the stench caused by his last record. We hear that Manson has taken the development of his new fragrance very seriously. He has reportedly…
Hatecore Inc.
Upstart Akron metal label Detained Records sees its record rise to 3-0 with Hatecore Inc.’s long-overdue debut, This Pure Hatred. Saddled with a misleadingly negative name, Hatecore — that’s “hate” as in “Hate you self-serving pricks,” not ethnic/racial hatred — may well be cursed. In the two years since he founded the group, former N-Factor…
The Iron Cross-Dresser
For most of his life, Lothar Berfelde pulled off his cross-dressing fetish despite the death threats one might have expected in Communist East Germany. He didn’t care what anyone thought — he even chronicled his gender-bending in the 1993 autobiography I Am My Own Woman: The Outlaw Life of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, Berlin’s Most Distinguished…
Money Where Your Mouth Is
Band: Roadside Zoo (www.roadsidezoomusic.com) Hometown: Ann Arbor, Michigan Sounds like: “Deep-space cow funk with a splash of silky love. They play anything that makes the booty start hoppin’ and the hips start poppin’. Roadside Zoo has a fresh, original blend of old and new, with influences ranging from James Brown and Stevie Wonder to the…
Broadview Collective
There must be a reason this trio of fusioneers hasn’t picked up a bass player. Perhaps guitarists Mike Barna and Jeff Charmek and drummer Paul Stranahan don’t think it’s too likely that there’s another player out there who could easily find his way into their intimate and engaging set-up. Whether each player is strong on…
Grumpy Old Man
THU 11/3 Dick Feagler isn’t a grump. He just plays one on TV, in print, and at public forums. “I’m really a pussycat,” he says. “But I’m a pussycat with a [funny] voice and a curmudgeonly face. Generally speaking, I think I’m getting mellower.” In fact, when it came time to compile four years’ worth…
Sound Advice
Mick Boogie is among Cleveland’s most in-demand DJs and an authority on hip-hop. He shares his thoughts on the records you need to get the party jumpin’. What have you been listening to lately? I’ve been listening to a lot of varied stuff. Little Brother’s The Minstrel Show and Black Rob’s The Rob Report, on…
Vader
It’s pretty easy to argue that Poland is the reigning capital of death metal. The country’s got at least four of the fiercest bands on the planet right now (Vader, Behemoth, Decapitated, and Lost Soul). Three of those groups are currently touring the U.S., two on this very bill. Vader is a death-metal legend, and…
The Judo Way
11/3 – 11/9 Barb Crompton likens the Mid East Judo Club to gym class — one that teaches her son and daughter how to kick much ass. Twice a week, they bow before their opponents, then throw them to the mat and revel modestly in their victory. “It’s taught them respect for other people,” she…
Last Word
“I think it’s a tie between Novallos and Icarus Landing. I know they have the drive and the talent to go all the way.” — Kylee E., Omaha, Nebraska “The ones going through puberty now, because that’s when you humans usually break out.” — Metal Bastard, a robot, Cleveland “ToRne. In just six months, they…
Tony Yayo
In perhaps the best example yet of the G-Unit crew’s marketing genius, the group’s fourth member became a household name with only a couple of big-label cameos to his credit. Tony Yayo was imprisoned on weapons charges while 50 Cent’s posse became stars during the summer of 2003. But it never hurts to have Eminem…
Shop Talk
11/8 – 11/20 You’ve probably always wondered why the man-eating plant in the musical version of Little Shop of Horrors (coming to town Tuesday) is named Audrey II rather than Audrey Jr., its moniker in the original 1960 film. “According to [writer] Howard Ashman, nothing rhymes with ‘junior,'” says Martin Robinson, the puppet designer who…
Better Late Than Never
Everyone wanted to sing along, but not everyone could, so Kanye West gave the Caucasians in the house permission. “C’mon, white people, this is the one time you can say this word,” he said onstage at the Wolstein Center as he rapped the refrain to his hit “Gold Digger.” “I ain’t saying she’s a gold…
Street Dogs
Mike McColgan (left) helped spark the torch of Celtic punk as the original Dropkick Murphys singer. Then the Desert Storm veteran left the band to pursue a lifelong dream and become a firefighter. He formed Street Dogs as a part-time project, and by the time his first tour was over, he’d decided to make music…
Finding Nirvana
SAT 11/5 You’re forgiven if you mistake “Remedy,” the latest airwave-hogging single from South African rockers Seether, for a long-lost Nirvana tune. Even singer Shaun Morgan admits it. “That song bridges the gap between the last album and the new album,” he says. “I was really into Nirvana then, but I think we’re finding our…
More Ubu
Led by Cleveland icon David Thomas, legendary art-rock band Pere Ubu will return to Cleveland’s Beachland Tavern for a rare club show on Sunday, November 6. In the following weeks, the group will record a new album, its 18th, at Painesville’s Suma studios. It’s slated for a September 2006 release on Smog Veil, the Cleveland-friendly…
Freak Orthodox Halloween/Fractured Transmitter Showcase
If Halloween is truly the new Christmas, then here’s the logical next step: The Freak Orthodox party keeps the Halloweentide revelry going by celebrating late. The show, hosted by local radio personality Sweetass Sassafrass from WCSB’s 669 show, will raise proceeds for the Cleveland State radio station and will feature a Fractured Transmitter label showcase.…
The Force Runs Its Course
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Lucasfilm Ltd.) The final installment of the Star Wars saga actually plays better at home: You can watch it, then pop in the original trilogy and chart the evolution of Anakin, and have it all actually make sense. Though it’s still a blue-screen wonderland, with too much…
Killing Time
If Jarhead, director Sam Mendes and writer William Broyles Jr.’s adaptation of Anthony Swofford’s 2003 Gulf War memoir, seems at all familiar — like, say, a DJ’s mash-up of Full Metal Jacket and Three Kings — there’s good reason for it. Swofford, 20 years old during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, writes in his book…
Jem
It’s not surprising to find that Welsh electro-folk starlet Jemma Griffiths got her start in the music industry on the other side of the microphone, working in promotions for a handful of clubs and record labels. On Finally Woken, her likable 2004 debut, 28-year-old Griffiths (who records as Jem) seems to have put her songs…
Our top DVD picks for the week of November 1
American Chopper: Third Season (Columbia/Tristar) Attack Pack (Commando, Predator, and Kiss of the Dragon) (Fox) Bill Maher: I’m Swiss (Image Ent.) The Brady Bunch: Four-Season Pack (Paramount) Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam (Warner Bros.) Disney Princess: A Christmas of Enchantment (Disney) Duran Duran: Live From London (Universal Music) Fame: The Complete First Season (Columbia/Tristar)…
Pluck Off
Chicken Little is a groundbreaking movie in more ways than one. Not only is it Disney’s first in-house all-computer-generated feature, but on select screens, it will be presented in “Disney Digital 3-D,” a brand-new system created with the help of George Lucas’ special-effects company Industrial Light & Magic. It’s revolutionary! It’s state-of-the-art! It’s . .…
Keith Urban
On the surface, there’s a dash of vulgar, culture-clashing fun in the fact that an Australian hunk named Urban is a poster boy for country music’s contemporary suburbanization — it’s like setting a commercial for a tricked-out SUV in an exotic outback and adding a twanging hillbilly soundtrack. Actually, many of Urban’s earliest hits were…
Exquisite Corpse
Pity the videogame zombie. He spends his short afterlife dodging self-righteous heroes hell-bent on peppering him with buckshot, setting him on fire, or blowing him to smithereens with a bazooka. Well, Stubbs is here to even the score. Set in the 1950s, Stubbs the Zombie casts players as the eponymous zombie, a door-to-door salesman who…
Wild, Then Crazy
Does Steve Martin have multiple personality disorder — or is he just brilliantly in tune with some things and wildly out of touch with others? Shopgirl, the movie based on Martin’s novella of the same name, is one of the most schizoid films in recent memory. It opens with crystalline originality, a shimmering comedy with…
Hatebreed
Hatebreed infamously played Cleveland so much in the late ’90s that the band was once nominated for Best Hardcore/Metal Band at another local weekly’s music awards. Frontman Jamey Jasta discovered the city through the first Ringworm LP, went on as a roadie for Integrity, and has continued to send the city shout-outs as host of…
Finding Neverland
“It’s the last party of the year,” yells Tessa, a slender 21-year-old with flowing blond hair, who dances dreamily on the moonlit beach. She twirls her fading glow sticks like helicopter blades, as wild howls echo from deep in the woods. This is Heavy Fest, one of many weekend festivals at Nelson Ledges, a private…
Strange Brew
As one watches Where the Truth Lies, a film noir about a young celebrity journalist’s obsession with a comedy duo from the 1950s, a single question arises again and again: Why? Why have the immense talents of Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth, both of whom are excellent in this movie, been squandered on such a…
Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi co-owns the Philadelphia Soul Arena football team. He’s acted in John Carpenter’s Vampires (“He’s unstoppable . . . unless we stop him!”) and Young Guns II (in the indelible role of “pit inmate who gets shot back into pit”). He’s given speeches at Oxford University (“Passion plus perseverance equals possibility — let…
Broken Trust
The first time the loan salesman knocked on his door late one November night, Mr. Miller wasn’t buying. He didn’t trust the stranger who sat chatting at his kitchen table, trying to sell him a loan. He had been tricked once before, by a builder, and didn’t want to be swindled again. Miller, who declined…
The Face of Terror
One of the strongest — and sure to be controversial — films of the year, The War Within goes places that other films wouldn’t dare go. Thoughtfully written and nicely acted, it follows an Islamic suicide bomber who comes to New York City with a deadly plan. The film in no way endorses the man’s…
Dar Williams
“There are so many singer-songwriter types out there,” thinks the average consumer. “How can I tell which one is right for me?” It can be a daunting prospect, so let Scene help. There are songsters specializing in angst, roots music, politics, idiosyncrasy, and love, sweet love and its attendant capacity for utter misery — but…
Unfinished Business
Francis Guido’s troubles with the developer next door began last winter, when he was in the hospital for knee surgery. Workers for Aberdeen Investments began digging holes for a cluster of new townhouses next to Guido’s Old Brooklyn home. Problem was, they also dug out dirt that held up Guido’s driveway. Then they tore out…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Dark Room — The conventional image we have of playwrights and poets is of lonely souls slaving away in a poorly lit basement. Well, you’ve got the location and the illumination right, but everything else about the Dark Room project is much cheerier. Sponsored by the Cleveland Theater Collective, it’s a once-a-month workshop/cabaret for writers…
Rogue Wave
Never was a record so aptly named as Rogue Wave’s debut, Out of the Shadow. Initially released in 2003 by a Bay Area micro-indie, the LP easily could have become one of those legendary lost gems. Instead, Sub Pop swooped in to the rescue, re-releasing the disc in 2004 and sending the band on tour…
Where’s the Money?
Nothing has gone right at Classic Park, Eastlake’s minor league baseball stadium. When it opened in 2003, then-Mayor Dan DiLiberto said it would cost just $15 million, none of which would come from taxpayers. But DiLiberto apparently earned a doctorate from the Barbara Byrd-Bennett School of Statistics. He neglected to mention that Eastlake could barely…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
Design for the Modern World: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe and America, 1880-1920 — The art museum’s first major arts-and-crafts show in years is notable not only for its enormous size, but for the many far-flung cultures (included are works from Germany, Scandinavia, Scotland, and Hungary) that share space. But what really unites…
Vashti Bunyan
Just Another Diamond Day, the 1970 debut from British folk singer Vashti Bunyan, hibernated for 30 years, gaining a tiny cult following, until its late-’90s re-release. There was no hibernation for Bunyan, however. She was busy living: feeding, gaining, and losing family on Scotland’s Hebridean islands. Her sophomore album may sound cut from the same…
