Out Today: The Hold Steady
The Hold SteadyHeaven Is Whenever(Vagrant) You’ll probably recognize some of the characters on the Hold Steady’s fifth album. But there a few new faces walking around too. The guy who connects with a girl over Hüsker Dü in “We Can Get Together” is an old friend. So is the shifty dude who tells Jesse “I’ll…
What to Do Tonight: All Leather
All Leather … from the waist down, we presume All Leather want to offend you, and they’ll probably succeed. Their first EP, Hung Like a Horse, combined high-pitched electronic shrieks, jagged noise guitar, and primitive drum machines with screamed vocals by the Locust’s Justin Pearson. It also offered titles like “I Don’t Hate Fags, God…
What to Do Tonight: The Glitch Mob
It’s like an old-school Run-DMC video game As the saying goes, there’s power in numbers. California DJ trio the Glitch Mob is clearly hip to the concept. Each member — ediT, Ooah, and Boreta — is capable of rocking it on his own, but together they’re one of the most in-demand collectives in electronic music.…
What to Do Tonight: Algernon
Let the music do the talking In the early ’60s, instrumental rock bands were common — the Ventures and Shadows inspired scores of kids to pick up guitars back in the day. But they fell out of fashion once the British Invasion landed. Flash forward to the early ’90s. Blending aspects of post-punk, prog, jazz,…
What to Do Tonight: Martin Bisi
“What? This thing? Don’t let it bother you” Self-described “cultural antagonist” Martin Bisi has said his new, digital-only EP Son of a Gun is more self-referential than its predecessor, last year’s Sirens of the Apocalypse. “While I was writing the songs, I was kind of flipped out that I was writing mostly about girls,” says…
What to Do Tonight: Jason Castro
Boy George called. He wants his look back Although he finished third on the 2008 season of American Idol, Jason Castro — the impossibly cute, dreadlocked tenor with the aw-shucks demeanor — always seemed like a reluctant star. He gave the distinct impression he never took the show or himself too seriously and didn’t seem…
What to Do Tonight: Jonatha Brooke
“In yo face!” Jonatha Brooke’s career began with the Story, a folk-pop duo she assembled with a college friend in the ’80s. She went out on her own in 1994 with her debut album Plumb and a follow-up, 10 Cent Wings. But after getting dropped by her label, Brooke chose the DIY route, self-releasing records.…
Bluebeard makes its local debut at CMA
Bluebeard, Catherine Breillat’s feminist adaptation of a fairytale, makes its local premiere at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall at 7 tonight and at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 2. Here’s our review of the film. Bluebeard (France, 2009) Catherine Breillat (Romance, Anatomy of Hell) adapts a Charles Perrault fairytale in this film about two…
Reviews of the Cinematheque’s weekend films
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is showing several great films this weekend. Here are our reviews of just a few of them. Creation (Britain, 2009) Decorous, stately and a just a wee bit dull, director Jon Amiel’s (The Singing Detective, Sommersby) lugubrious biopic about Origin of Species author Charles Darwin can’t seem to make…
What to Do Tonight: Joe Bonamassa
Grinding his axe Joe Bonamassa may be guided by traditional blues influences, but the British and American interpretations of those traditions are what really steer his work. His affection for B.B. King (who he opened for when he was 12), Muddy Waters, and Robert Johnson takes a backseat to his devotion to Jimmy Page, Eric…
Were You There? The Apples in Stereo
The Apples in Stereo played the Grog Shop last night. Did you go? Tell us what you thought.
ACLU Challenges Transition Secrecy… Again
This guy hates secrecy. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has filed a lawsuit against Cuyahoga County government transition leaders, saying those leaders have failed to comply with the state’s Sunshine Laws. The open government watchdog contends that the county has wrongly withheld documents about the formation and workings of the transition’s executive committee.…
Alcatraz Is Not an Island makes its local debut at CMA
A documentary about Native Americans who staged a sit-in on Alcatraz in the ’60s, Alcatraz is Not an Island makes its local premiere tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. Here’s our review of the film. Alcatraz Is Not an Island (U.S., 2001) In 1969, a group of Native Americans aspiring…
Win tickets to see Road House
Road House is the featured film of Cleveland Cinema’s Late Shift series and screens at 9 p.m. and midnight, Saturday, May 1 at the Cedar Lee Theatre. It is a 1989 American action film directed by Rowdy Herrington and starring Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliott as bouncers at a seedy roadside bar who protect a…
Ticket Giveaway: Road House at Cedar Lee
Dreamy, even dead. Want to go check out the cult classic Road House showing this Saturday at Cedar Lee? Sure you do. Your cat’s going to think you’re pathetic if you spend one more Saturday night at home. Email freeetickets@clevescene.com with the answer to the following question: In what 2001 film, also a Cleveland Cinemas…
420 on 5/1 in the 216
She has on enough flair. Every year around this time, Laura Kosa-Thomas, a thirtysomething stoner from Lorain, emerges from smoke-filled obscurity to promote the Cleveland Weed March, an annual cannabis fiesta that mirrors similar events in other cities around the world. She calls on Scene to promote her event because, as she puts it, the…
100th Anniversary Game at League Park Was This Weekend
You can file this under: Things I Had No Idea Were Occurring. The 100th anniversary game at League Park was played last weekend by those guys who play baseball by those old rules because it’s fun or something. League Park II hosted its first game on April 21, 1910, and Cleveland Blues Baseball Club is…
Jhonny Peralta is to a Dying Horse as Joe Borowski Was to a Dying Horse
To the glue mill you go, old boy. Jhonny Peralta needs to go away. I know it’s a drum that has been beaten in recent weeks, but his play has truly reached some deplorable and inexcusable levels. It reminds me of something I wrote about Joe Borowski when it was clear the old horse of…
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Seeks Registered Republicans For Long Walks on Beach, Afternoons at Polling Stations
A democrat and republican working a polling station in harmony. The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has gone public with its hunt for that rarest of species: Registered Republicans. Ohio law decrees that no more than two of the required four officials manning each table at a polling place be of the same political persuasion.…
The Towpath’s Trail of Broken Promises Continues — $500,000 Grant Pulled
Not so fast, my friend. Last month we reported on the controversy surrounding the land deal that would establish the Towpath Trail in Cleveland’s industrial Flats (“Who Sold Out the Towpath?” March 10). The story revealed how the project has become overrun by accusations of fraud and conflicts of interest — time-honored traditions symbolic of…
This Just In: Cleveland Concert Announcements
Carrie Underwood: She sings real pretty too CANCELED Serena Ryder/Ryan Star: Saturday, May 8. Star will still perform. Grog Shop. THIS JUST IN Asia (original lineup): Fri., Aug. 13, 8 p.m., $35 ADV/$37 DOS/four-pack of general admission tickets $105 (LiveNation.com). House of Blues. American Bang: Tue., May 25, 9 p.m., Cambridge Room, $5. House of…
Melt’s Grilled Cheese Challenge Lands on “This is Why You’re Fat”
This is why you’re happy to be fat. Already chronicled on a soon-to-air episode of Man vs. Food, already attempted by a Scene staffer, Melt’s monstrous grilled cheese challenge has some more press, landing on everyone’s favorite food-porn meme blog, This is Why You’re Fat. Remember, it’s almost five pounds of cheese, bread, fries and…
Out Today: Hole
HoleNobody’s Daughter(Mercury) The Sex Pistols’ manager, the late Malcolm McLaren, once famously described the band’s pathologically troubled bassist Sid Vicious as “a fabulous disaster.” That description also fits Courtney Love, whose careening and well-documented personal and professional misfortunes have often spiraled into a virtual cyclone of dysfunction over the past decade and a half. Love’s…
Cops Who Thought Dead Woman on I-90 Was a Deer Making Sure Our Cemeteries Are Safe
The hype and drama machine over at 19 Action News reported on the Cleveland police officers who mistook a dead woman’s body for a deer carcass. Tracking the squad car’s GPS, they showed the cops parked at a cemetery for hours before the call came in and for another hour afterwards. The explanation from a…
Plain Dealer’s Daily Circulation Declines 8.14%
This hits too close to home for a funny caption. Daily circulation of papers fell again in the most recent audits. The Plain Dealer, as you would imagine, is not exempt from the whole dying newspaper thing, dropping 8.14% to a circulation of 267,888, 18th most in the country. Across the board, papers averaged an…
Video: Shaq, the High School Years
Follow me on Twitter: @vincethepolack.
Liza Minelli and Scott Fujita, The Duo We’ve All Been Waiting For
There’s really nothing of newsworthy note here, and yet I’m posting about it. Why? Because anytime a press release comes and the featured pairing at an event is Liza Minelli and Scott Fujita, then it amuses me and I have to share it. Fujita, perennial good guy, is being honored by PFLAG. He will do…
Scientific Study: Looking at Chief Wahoo Will Make You Hate Asians
Yes, even if you’ve never had any negative thoughts or feelings about Asians before in your life, looking at Chief Wahoo, the mere existence of Chief Wahoo, can change your opinions of a whole separate ethnicity. That according to a new study in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, which probably confirms that Clevelanders and…
Swag Alert: UNDRCRWN’s LeBron Triple Double Tee
Ice Cube’s famous line, “Messed around and got a triple double,” has never been so appropriately appropriated as with this UNDRCRWN tee. Since it looks like LeBron can nonchalantly throw down a 37-12-10 whenever he feels like it anymore, this might be the best choice of gear for the playoffs. Follow me on Twitter: @vincethepolack.
M.I.A.’s Awesome New Video
M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo. Check out M.I.A.’s video for “Born Free.” Hold on, it’s kinda long. And it gets kinda wild.
Fast Company Magazine Lauds the BioEnterprise Project
That’s one fast logo. Fast Company, which is either a magazine devoted to business or a scripted sitcom starring a Hindu, Muslim, and a Jew who share an apartment in New York, featured Cleveland’s BioEnterprise project in their latest issue. Apparently, it’s fast. Or good business. Or fast business. Actually, the acknowledgment was for Cleveland…
Cleveland Ranked Among Least Wasteful Cities in America (And No. 1 For Hanging Clothes Out to Dry)
We’re number one! We’re number one! If you weren’t already totally over being ranked by Forbes as America’s most miserable city, you should be now, because Cleveland’s just been ranked as one of the country’s least wasteful cities. More important, in the same survey, Cleveland was ranked first for hanging clothes out to dry. Turns…
Hello It’s Me … I’m Hungry
“Can we still be friends … if I ate all of your french fries?” The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is teaming up with Maker’s Mark for Chef Jam 2010: Cleveland Food Rocks, a gorge-yourself-on-lots-of-different-dishes-till-you-puke event happening on June 13. But the big news here isn’t the more than two dozen local…
Group of Party Poopers Coming to Poop On Your Casino-Related Excitement
But, but, but… addictions look so fun! Plenty of folks worry about a litany of societal plagues that casinos can bring to town. Crime, poverty, E. Coli-laced buffets, and mullets are just a few of their grave concerns. Gambling addictions are another. So before the doors open to the shiny new behemoths of temptation and…
Monday Music News Roundup
Justin Bieber, livin’ large Australia gets Bieber fever, and tons of girls end up in the hospital. See, we told you he was evil. Mariah Carey isn’t pregnant. She just looks like she’s about to give birth to twins any second now. We feel kinda bad about this, but he’s still one of our least-favorite…
Ian Petrella, Actor Who Played Randy in A Christmas Story, Playing Randy Again
Don’t forget, it’s dangerous to drink the bleach. A Christmas Story, the annual holiday reminder about gun safety, is a endless fruit basket of weird Cleveland news thanks to the A Christmas Story house in Tremont. For example, the uber fan who paid thousands of dollars at an auction last year for the privilege of…
Slayer and Megadeth Playing Classic Albums in Cleveland
Slayer — because we like ’em better than Megadeth Slayer and Megadeth will play classic albums in their entirety during this summer’s American Carnage tour, which hits the Time-Warner Cable Amphitheater at Tower City on August 18. Slayer will play 1991’s Seasons in the Abyss, their third installment in an unholy trilogy of albums by…
Goosie Gets a Rap
It was bound to happen… a little rap diddy about the goosie phenomenon, with plenty of fans throwing up the gooseneck, including a cop and an employee at a Wendy’s drive-thru. Make sure you stick around to about the 3:00 mark when Austin Carr makes a cameo, apparently laying down some original lyrics for the…
Con Salsa y Sabor + Son de Oberlin = Muy Caliente Music!
Sammy DeLeon will bring some fire to the View tonight Never mind the dipping temperatures this weekend. It’ll be steamy tonight at View Nightclub, when one of the area’s most popular salsa bands joins forces with an ensemble of youthful Oberlin Conservatory students. Sammy DeLeon (whose roots go back to the ’80s with Impacto Nuevo)…
Blog About Cougars Declares Ohio One of Top Five States to Find Cougars
All the Ohio cougars go… OH… IO Ohio’s well acquainted with the scenery behind the woodshed these days. Our schools are in trouble, our politicians inept, our budgets bankrupt, and to top it off, John Stossel hates the West Side Market. There’s little upside to this all, except maybe that our quarterbacks don’t rape anyone.…
Friday Music News Roundup
American Idol “gives back” to charity. Now if it can only give me back the time I wasted listening to Adam Lambert’s album. Green Day play a surprise show. What’s not so surprising is that their Broadway show sounds like it sucks hard. Courtney Love revives her old group’s name but not her old group’s…
Jennifer Brunner and Lee Fisher Aren’t Playing Nice
Grab a ringside seat, this one could get bloody. We asked whether the U.S. Senate Democratic primary between Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher could stay civil, and within minutes they proved that it couldn’t. The campaigns spent last week trading barbs about who is accepting money from bailed out banks;…
Republican Party of Medina County: “Let’s take Betty Sutton out of the House and put her back in the kitchen.”
Cue fake Kevin Eubanks laughter. Tis the season for incendiary and controversial campaign mailer fun. This controversial line comes from one mailed out by the Republican Party of Medina County. Sutton supporters, women across the state, and even the occasional domestically-inclined male had a bit of a problem with the notion a highly successful female…
Sir Mix-A-Lot Likes Big Butterfingers
I suppose if you’re going to sell your song to a candy-bar company, this is the way to do it.
New Pornographers Listening Party at Happy Dog
The new New Pornographers album, Together, comes out on May 4. But you can hear it a few days early at a listening party at the Happy Dog on Thursday. It’s free — so that’s cool. But there’s also going to be giveaways for concert tickets (no Cleveland date, but you can see the band…
Ohio Considered Using Twitter to Announce Executions
Tweet, tweet, you’re dead. RT @StateofOhio Darryl Durr was pronounced dead at 10:36 a.m. He died by lethal injection. Also, Justin Bieber is dreamy!! #teambieber Want to learn when the latest scumbag murderer officially dies by execution in Ohio? Maybe one day you’ll learn about it on Twitter and maybe it will look like the…
Rest Easy, Danny Glover — Hugo Boss Plant To Remain Open
I’d like to think this is how Danny Glover negotiates. Late last night, representatives of Workers United SEIU and Hugo Boss reached an agreement to keep the plant open, saving hundreds from hitting the unemployment line. It’s been a tumultuous couple of months for workers at the Brooklyn plant. Hugo Boss wanted to shutter the…
Integrity Set Release Date Set, New Trailer Online
Integrity’s The Blackest Curse finally has a release date set. Massachusetts-based hardcore label Deathwish Inc. will release the album on May 25. The ten-track LP will be the hardcore heroes’ first full release since 2003’s To Die For. Frontman Dwid assembled the video teaser trailer above, which is set to the ambient track “Invocation of…
Concert Review: Echo and the Bunnymen at House of Blues
Is there an echo in here? What about a bunnyman? One of the few U.K. post-punk bands still kicking around, Echo and the Bunnymen launched their new tour with a performance at Coachella earlier this month and then hit stateside clubs in support of their most recent album, last year’s The Fountain, a moody, atmospheric…
Jimmy Dimora Was Provided With a Hooker on Vegas Bribery Junket (Ew)
Yeah, he’s gotta pay for it, for sure. Ferris Kleem, the owner of Blaze Construction, which has been tied up in the federal corruption investigation in Cuyahoga County since the FBI’s first raid, has long been suspected of providing bribes to Jimmy Dimora, Frank Russo, and others. Turns out he was providing a little more…
Cleveland vs. Wall Street Premiers at Cannes, Doesn’t Include Violent Retributions
We’d go medieval on their asses. Cleveland may one day recover from the foreclosure crisis that has rocked the city, but Cleveland will never get true justice for what the Wall Street douchetards did. JPMorgan and the rest aren’t funneling cash back to the residents that lost their houses, with few exceptions, ain’t none of…
“Ohioans for Concealed Carry” Pretty Sure Ashtabula Will Be Safest County in Ohio Once Everyone’s Armed
Welcome to Ashtabula. Penalty for littering: Gunshot to the arm. In case you’ve been living under a rock or have been in a hospital recuperating from a gunshot wound sustained in Ashtabula: A couple of weeks ago, Ashtabula County Common Please Judge Alfred Mackey made an odd comment: he told residents of Ashtabula that with…
American Werewolves Sign With Warbird
Howl Cleveland hardcore band American Werewolves has signed with Atlanta punk label Warbird Entertainment to release its next two albums. The first, Wanderers Forever, is set for a late-spring release. The disc will be the band’s fourth studio album since 2003. They also released 2008’s They Died Crawling anthology and last year’s Kings of the…
Thursday Music News Roundup
Take care of it. It’s the only one we got A bunch of artists celebrate Earth Day. Don’t worry, they’ll go back to destroying the planet tomorrow with their tour buses, private airplanes, and air-polluting pot binges. No, seriously — American Idol is still on? Kelly Clarkson’s Indonesia concert will go on without cigarette sponsorship.…
Mayor Eileen Patton Bristles at Comments From Fairview Park Residents in Recent Scene Article
A recent Scene article that raised questions about how the city of Fairview Park handled the departure of a major taxpaying business and the arrival of a non-profit, non-tax paying private school has struck a nerve with Mayor Eileen Patton, who went on the political offensive this week. The original report, “Stress Test,” focused on…
New Local Label Premieres Two Albums Tonight
Anafair: down with the big hand Tonight’s show at House of Blues’ Cambridge Room with Cleveland’s Anafair and Cincinnati’s Flight Station heralds the debut of a new Cleveland-based record label, Crushtone. Both bands are releasing EPs on the label at the show. And both CDs — the Flight Station’s Prepare for Impact and Anafair’s Nothing…
Cellbound Picked Up for National Distribution
Local metal sextet Cellbound released its debut album, Fallen Angels of the Sui Caedere, last summer and has been working hard since then to get word out online and with live shows. Now they’ve gotten a little help: Established underground metal label/distributor Century Media has picked up the album for their catalog. The new CD…
Brains! Brains!
On Saturday, a whole bunch of zombies will be coming out in broad daylight for the fifth annual Zombie Walk to benefit Harvest for Hunger. Registration and pre-party start at noon at the 5 O’Clock Lounge in Lakewood. The zombies hit the streets at 3 p.m. The event was launched in 2007 by Cleveland horror-film…
Why Cleveland’s In the National News Today: The Runaway Saw Blade
A new segment in which we highlight the local stories that are grabbing national headlines, usually for the wrong reasons. Today: A construction worker in Lorain was just doing his job, cutting something with a huge saw blade in the middle of a nice looking neighborhood. Problem? Mr. Construction Worker failed to properly attach said…
Reviews of the Cinematheque’s weekend films
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is showing several great movies this weekend. Here are our reviews of just a few of them. The Bicycle Thief (Italy, 1948) Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 neo-realist classic The Bicycle Thief is one of the saddest movies ever made. Be prepared for some Cinema Paradiso/Field of Dreams-sized bawling. (Bring…
Ticket Giveaway: A Soldier’s Tale at the Cleveland Playhouse
Want to go see A Soldier’s Tale (see a description here)? For your chance to win a pair of tickets for either Thursday , April 22 or Friday, April 23 (indicate preference), please send your name, address & phone number to freetickets@clevescene.com, Subject Line FusionFest. Winners within the past 30 days are not eligible. Must…
Where Bone Thugs and the Cavs Intersect
Via Stepien Rules, this fanfunkytastic remake of, “Crossroads.” Favorite line: “We said goodbye to Wally.”
Bruuuce!!! Rock Hall Hosts Another Springsteen Weekend
“I’m the boss. Any questions?” We love us some Springsteen here in Cleveland, don’t we? Clevelanders often take pride in the fact that we were one of the first cities to embrace his music. And we’re the home of one of the greatest Boss bootlegs of all time. So it’s no surprise that the Rock…
How and Why the LeBron Billboard Got Last Minute Approval
After the design was finished, the funds raised, and installation scheduled, Glen Infante got late notice last Friday that the city had denied his request to hang the LeBron banner. Of course, by Saturday it was hung for fans and the national media to see. Why the last minute approval? The obvious answer would be…
Wednesday Music News Roundup
Courtney Love cleans up Courtney Love changes her name to Old Tranny-Looking Train Wreck. American Idol is still on? Kelly Clarkson: making news for playing a concert in Indonesia … which is sponsored by a tobacco company. Smokin’! It’s offcial: Your mom likes Green Day. RIP Guru. Paul McCartney takes his crappy solo albums to…
Fiddy Opens Tour in Cleveland
50 Cent wants you to stop being such a bitch-ass Even though he hasn’t made a good album since 2005’s The Massacre, 50 Cent can still pack mid-size theaters. Or so he’s hoping. Fiddy is launching his 19-date Invitation tour in Cleveland at the Wolstein Center on May 28. 50 Cent’s latest album, last year’s…
Earth Day: Time For Everyone to Talk About the Cuyahoga Catching on Fire
Tomorrow the world will celebrate the 40th annual Earth Day, a time to pull that $5 reusable grocery bag out of the closet for the first time as you drive to the grocery store to buy that milk you forgot, or turn off the TV for an hour and play on your iPhone, at least…
How Did I Never Catch This Inconsistency In The Indians’ Style Before?
I’m born in raised in Cleveland, been a lifelong Indians fan, and worked with Paul Lukas of Uni Watch for over a year on his blog and research for his ESPN columns, and I’d never, ever noticed what one reader pointed out yesterday about a tiny inconsistency between in the Tribe’s style. Jason Whitt has…
Listen to the New Hold Steady Album
New haircuts for everybody! The Hold Steady’s new album, Heaven Is Whenever, doesn’t come for a couple weeks (on May 4). But NPR is streaming the whole thing now. I liked what I heard in concert from the new album. And I like what I’m hearing now. We’ll have a full review of the album…
Tom Bullock Admits To Some Embellished Claims
“My bad, sorta.” Scene recently called out Councilman Tom Bullock for some BS he had on a campaign mailer that cited us as saying stuff we didn’t really say. Specifically, that Nickie Antonio “stands with party bosses in opposing the county government reform effort.” We didn’t say that. Or mention Nickie Antonio at all in…
The Back-up Plan is a predictable romantic comedy
Everyone has a “back-up plan.” For pet shop owner Zoe (Jennifer Lopez), that means having a baby even if she’s not in a relationship. The Back-up Plan begins with a shot of Zoe in stirrups preparing to be artificially inseminated. As chance would have it, she meets the good-looking Stan (Alex O’Loughlin) on her way…
The Losers favors style over substance
The Losers is more or less a variation on The A-Team, also due for a big screen treatment this summer. A super bad-ass special forces team consisting of Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Roque (Idris Elba), Jensen (Chris Evans), Cougar (Oscar Jaenenda) and Pooch (Columbus Short) run afoul of rogue CIA agent Max (Jason Patric) when…
Having Her Cake
If “having” and “eating” could ever occupy the same place at the same time, it would be on the set of a TV cooking show — say at the Bedford-Stuyvesant pad where most episodes of the Independent Film Channel instant-cult series Food Party are filmed. From a diet-conscious standpoint, there’s much to be said for…
CD Review: Natalie Merchant
On her first album in seven years, former 10,000 Maniacs frontwoman Natalie Merchant assembled nearly 130 musicians who delve into all sorts of musical styles, including Cajun, bluegrass, reggae and Celtic folk. Merchant isn’t known for having an eclectic palette, but she proves more than capable of keeping up with Medeski, Martin and Wood, the…
Power Rangers
TOP PICK Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power: Deluxe Edition (Columbia/Legacy) The Stooges’ third album — a blast of pre-punk distorted noise — has been remastered, remixed, and reissued plenty of times since its 1973 debut. But this four-disc box wants to be the final word on the subject with outtakes, alternate versions, a live…
CD Review: V.V. Brown
Insanely catchy, shamelessly but brilliantly derivative, V.V. Brown’s Travelling Like the Light is the sharpest pop recording since Katy Perry captured the charts two years ago with One of the Boys. A young British singer with an uncanny knack for appropriation, Brown kicks off her debut CD with “Quick Fix,” pivots into the hard-rock kissoff…
Bites: Randy Kelley and Linda Syrek — Power Food Couple
The remarkable turnaround at ABC Tavern (1872 W. 25th St., 216.861.3857) is no happy accident. By combining the right space, neighborhood, crew, and menu, husband-and-wife team Randy Kelley and Linda Syrek transformed a sleepy saloon into one of this city’s liveliest joints. Both vets of the service-industry scene, they also earn credit for turning around…
CD Review: Roky Erickson with Okkervil River
Trauma, insanity, and resurrection drive Roky Erickson’s first album in 15 years. It’s a singular, unsettling, and essential one: Rarely is a rock record so steady a guide to the intersection of spirituality and madness. Backed by Austin band Okkervill River and produced by its guitarist Will Sheff, True Love is an alternately sweet and…
Alphabet Scoop
On pace to open five new eateries in just 18 months, Alan Glazen is the most ambitious restaurateur you’ve never heard of. In contrast to chefs like Zack Bruell and Michael Symon, who slowly and deliberately expand their culinary portfolios, Glazen seems bent on opening as many new joints as possible. After unveiling Erie Island…
CD Review: Ozomatli
Latino rock has a long and illustrious history, from Ritchie Valens in the ’50s to War and Santana in the ’70s, and Los Lobos and Alejandro Escovedo in the ’80s. Contemporary pan-genre stylists Ozomatli clearly owe a debt to their forefathers. On Fire Away, their fifth full-length, Ozomatli pay that debt forward with a polyrhythmic…
It’s a Mom’s World
If you only know South Korean director Bong Joon-ho from his 2006 monster movie mash-up The Host, you don’t know Bong. Mother, Bong’s fantastic new psychodrama, is about as far removed from the campy, culty pleasures of that deranged creature feature as you can get. (To put it in American terms, it would be like…
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
According to the BAND’s MySpace page, Good Touch Bad Touch formed after members “decided to drink themselves to death while gathering weekly to cover Pinkerton and The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.” Well, that’s not exactly true. Singer-keyboardist Ryan Wilkins and bassist David Molnar met one night at Melt, the Lakewood grilled-cheese joint…
Mixed Messages
Part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s American Indian film series, 2008’s Older Than America tells the story of Rain (Georgina Lightning), a Native-American woman who suffers horrible nightmares. We see one in the film’s opening sequence, when a tribesman is mysteriously killed. Rain wakes up and steps outside for some fresh air, and eventually…
The Hot Seat
The “Courage Express” is actually just a 19-year-old retired bus from the Licking County School District. With its worn-out odometer and fresh coat of silvery paint, it’s now a road-weary campaigning machine that supporters of Jennifer Brunner bought online for $2,000. In some ways, the Express mirrors Brunner’s run for U.S. Senate: It’s a low-budget,…
Reel Cleveland: Who’s Your Momma Film Festival
There’s a strong film component to the fourth annual Who’s Your Momma? Earth Day festival, taking place in Kent this weekend. At 6 p.m. Thursday, April 22, Catherine Gund’s What’s on Your Plate?, a documentary about two multi-racial kids and the food they eat, screens at the Kent Free Library (312 W. Main St., 330.673.4414).…
Film Capsules
Opening Alcatraz Is Not an Island (U.S., 2001) In 1969, a group of Native Americans aspiring to attain “positive recognition” staged a sit-in at Alcatraz, claiming a provision that allows Native Americans to purchase unused federal property (the island’s prison was shut down at the time). This documentary retraces the events that led up to…
Joy Ride
When Denver’s Apples in Stereo asked Eric Allen to play bass with them in 1995, he accepted in a heartbeat. Joining the Apples wasn’t an opportunity he was going to pass up. At the time, the band had only been together for a few years and was known for its revolving cast of players. Allen…
Still Agitated After All These Years
Cleveland’s UNDERGROUND rock scene of the 1970s has achieved mythological status, earning adulation from people who have probably never set foot in Cleveland. The usual point of entry for those fans — and the scene’s most prominent relic — is Pere Ubu, which founder David Thomas, now based in London, has kept going in various…
Around Hear: The Agora’s Got Some Life
The Agora (5000 Euclid Ave.) comes back to life Monday, April 26. Welsh metal legends Budgie will headline a show in the theater. After the concert, the venue will resume booking regular shows. Owner Henry “Hank” LoConti is still operating the venue, which has a fresh coat of paint. Akron-area resident Steve Neal is now…
Arts District: Cuyahoga Arts and Culture Gets Younger
There’s been a minor changing of the guard at Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. By replacing someone who’s had a long career with a person at the beginning of his, it puts a younger face on the arts funder’s board of trustees. David Bergholz, who retired after 15 years as executive director at the Gund Foundation,…
SOLDIER ON
GroundWorks DanceTheater artistic director David Shimotakahara speaks with pride of the range his dance company can embrace. This weekend they collaborate with the Cleveland Orchestra in A Soldier’s Tale as part of the Cleveland Play House’s FusionFest. Composed by Stravinsky in 1918, A Soldier’s Tale is a spoken-word opera whose original libretto by Swiss writer…
Dead Composers Society
The Composer Is Dead is more than just the title of the Cleveland Orchestra’s family concert this weekend. It’s also the starting point. “Wherever there’s a conductor, you’re sure to find a dead composer,” says the show’s narrator, stating a basic truth about most classical music. “Beethoven — dead! Bach — dead! Brahms — dead!…
Local CD Reviews
Gabe Schray Effective Demonic Experiment (Actual Archives) actualarchives.com Houseguest’s Gabe Schray recorded this heady instrumental album, appropriately titled Effective Demonic Experiment, at Akron’s Authentic Sound Laboratory. It opens with the undulating “A Young, Dynamic Silhouette,” a mellow track that features softly echoing guitar riffs. There’s a spaghetti Western feel to “Beyonderer,” and the woozy “Stranger…
RHINESTONE GLORIES
Cole Porter declared prophetically in 1934 that “anything goes.” Confirming that truth, Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County (at PlayhouseSquare through Sunday) won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It would have been just as logical for the jury to bestow the prize on Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride. They’re both effective yet mechanically rigged…
CD Review: Sweet Apple
There’s nothing particularly original about paying tribute to the better aspects of ’70s hard rock and pop. Nash Kato did it on his solo sojourn away from Urge Overkill, and Cobra Verde frontman John Petkovic does it equally well on Love & Desperation, the debut album by his well-stocked side project, Sweet Apple. The group…
MAKE THAT A DOUBLE
First of all, there’s the magnificent set: row upon row of liquor bottles, interspersed with small lamps and some other household items, on shelves that rise 20 feet high and cover the entire expanse of the Cleveland Play House stage. This inspired creation by scenic designer Robert Mark Morgan provides the perfect dreamscape and/or nightmare…
CD Review: Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard has been releasing albums regularly since his comeback record If I Could Only Fly a decade ago, but most of them aren’t worth hearing. I Am What I Am, the country legend’s most motivated and personal recording in years, features a dozen songs that reflect on a lifetime of memories. The 73-year-old singer…
Randy Lerner: The View From Across the Pond (Will We Ever Love Him That Much?)
Aston Villa, Randy Lerner’s other athletic baby, lost in the finals of the Carling Cup in February against Manchester United, spoiling a chance for Randy to add his first piece of hardware as a pro owner. The Browns, further from that goal, to be sure, now have Holmgren at the helm and a suitcase full…
New Michael Symon TV Show Coming
Pretty soon, he will dominate the world… the yummy, yummy world. Michael Symon, he of Lola, Lolita, Bar Symon, the B-Spot, Iron Chef, and briefly of Dinner Impossible, will be getting a spinoff on the soon-to-launch Cooking Channel. Because he doesn’t have enough to do already and he shan’t rest until there’s a braised pork…
Conan’s Playing Bonnaroo
“Where’s the banana?” I don’t like music festivals. I hate the pushing, the crowding, the seeing bands in broad daylight. But the just-announced Comedy Theatre lineup for this year’s Bonnaroo fest just might be wroth all that crap. No, it’s not because Margaret Cho and Aziz Ansari are playing there (though both are really funny).…
