Gas Pains
Among the many benefits of natural gas deregulation — aside from record high prices — is that no fewer than eight providers now compete for residential service. They are technically known as “competitors,” a word that stems from the Latin phrase “guys who send you confusing and misleading letters in an attempt to get your…
Custody Battle
Joe Simon doesn’t read comic books anymore, and not because he’s an 87-year-old man with far better ways to spend his time. The former and, perhaps, future comics writer and illustrator simply doesn’t get them anymore; he doesn’t know who they’re for, what they’re about, why most of them even exist. Back in his day,…
1,000 Words Beat a Picture
Did a steel processor get the shaft? I wanted to thank you for the great article you did on our view of the steel issue [“See No Evil,” March 22]. I am also impressed by your determination to get things right regarding what we do at Stripmatic and to present my viewpoint accurately. I felt…
Lunch in the Fast Lane
A fine-dining dinner is dandy. But there are days that call for a lunch-hour extravaganza. We’re not talkin’ brown-bagging it here. Instead, when we want to impress an out-of-town cousin, kiss up to a colleague, or simply treat ourselves the way we should be treated, there’s nothing like lunch at a great restaurant. Not only…
Forecast: Cold and Creamy
Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there is no one who doesn’t adore ice-cold treats in August. But the true believers are those who line up at ice cream shops and custard stands in April, paying homage to double dips of goodness on a chilly spring day. A Sunday afternoon field trip, searching…
Gray Matters
If David Gray were a bigger star, he’d have his own Behind the Music special by now. After the three albums he released in the ’90s all bombed, he questioned whether he chose the right career path and entered a deep period of despondency. Finally, he decided to make one last attempt at the music…
Frank Talk
When Charles Thompson, a student at the University of Massachusetts, formed the Pixies in 1986, he was inspired by artists like Hüsker Dü and Iggy Pop — castouts whose music was abrasive, violent, and unpredictable. Thompson christened himself Black Francis, and on the basis of a demo tape and a subsequent EP (1987’s Come On…
No Accident
“I love this place,” says Dion DeSantis, while relaxing one afternoon at the Silver Fox, a strip club in Tremont that he frequents. Ever since he enlisted some of the Silver Fox dancers to perform with Biaxadent, the local metal band he fronts, at a Kid Rock aftershow party at Peabody’s, he’s been a regular…
Nick Holder
Canadian DJ Nick Holder creates a hybrid of house music that blends deep new-jazz flavor and indulges in sophisticated Afro-Latin rhythms and soul tech. Holder has participated in the underground house scene since the early ’90s, performing internationally in cities such as Glasgow and Toronto. His first single, the Latin house track “Da Sambafrique,” placed…
Art of Glass
Ira Glass, the man behind NPR’s weekly radio show This American Life, is accustomed to explaining his cinematic style, which combines interviews with music, fiction, essays, and found sounds to document not just events or people, but humanity. “Most radio stories are organized around ideas, with the reporter putting together quotes that make specific supporting…
Joe Maneri
The two-year series of Eastern European and avant-garde jazz concerts that Walt Mahovlich has been running at Inside comes to a temporary halt this month, as the art gallery will be closing its doors. Mahovlich is looking for a new venue, but this performance — one of the final shows there — portends to be…
Shorts Sighted
When movies were first developed, they drew crowds for their mystique alone: Nobody had seen moving pictures before. It was the same awe Cleveland filmmaker Robert Banks experienced as a child in the early 1970s, watching eight-millimeter films his father had rented from the library. Now 35, Banks is still trying to recapture that essence…
Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs
The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs found the inspiration for their colorful name in the first line of “Search and Destroy,” one of Iggy Pop’s most incendiary Stooges songs (“I’m a street-walkin’ cheetah with a heart full of napalm . . .”). The Cheetahs didn’t take just their name from the Stooges; they use the old Detroit group…
Green Thumbs
If you don’t like Tom Green, there’s no point in going anywhere near Freddy Got Fingered, as it won’t win you over. If you don’t know much about Tom Green, but are curious, you might be well-advised to watch videotapes of his show first and be aware that, as much as it is still possible…
Johnnie Johnson
Stage fright kept Johnnie Johnson in a supporting role for a good part of his career. It wasn’t until his third solo album that Johnson, the man Eric Clapton has called the best blues pianist ever, finally became a vocalist. That was 10 years ago. The jitters are gone, and Johnson, now 76, is finally…
Down Under Par
Which is correct — “more leathery” or “leatherier”? What the heck, let’s try them both: Paul Hogan, who was leathery in Crocodile Dundee and leatherier in Crocodile Dundee II, is more leathery still in the dreary Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles. Leathery or not, the Australian, now around 60, looks at least 10 years younger.…
Alejandro Escovedo
Alejandro Escovedo has been toiling around the rock underground for more than 20 years, first with alt-country forefathers Rank and File, then with roots rockers the True Believers. He’s sort of No Depression’s elder statesman, an Austin resident who gets the nod of approval from both contemporaries and the young ‘uns. And for the past…
The Lost Crusade
There are days, he admits, when he misses it: the letters, the calls, the people stopping him on the street. Sometimes they’d come up to him in restaurants. Sometimes they’d just want to tell him what a jerk he was. “I’d be lying if I told you there wasn’t a certain sense of satisfaction when…
The Butchies
True to their name, the Butchies are queer punk from North Carolina by way of the Pacific Northwest (where the whole movement started anyway). Butch bandleader Kaia Wilson was part of Team Dresch, but something happened in between the time that band, along with Bikini Kill, helped spearhead queercore activism and the Butchies. Thanks to…
After the Flameout
Morris Wheeler’s office abounds with the signatures of a high-tech entrepreneur: A PC, a laptop, and Palm Pilot are within his reach. He takes a call from his wife on a hands-free cell phone. A jacket and tie are thrown across a chair in case of emergency. One more clue: His office suite on Euclid…
Anne Marie von Otter Meets Elvis Costello
This collaboration between the esteemed classical mezzo-soprano and the erstwhile king of new wave might easily have been stilted, but von Otter’s remarkably expressive voice — enhanced on some tunes by Costello — is a perfect vehicle for his literary sensibility. Recorded in the Stockholm studio where ABBA laid down its paradigmatic pop, von Otter…
Musical Chairs
They were a crestfallen band of Parma Heights thespians. All they wanted was to put on a show. But the hand of fate had pitched their dreams in the gutter. Their last, best hope for a chance to shine was a Big Apple boss named Brad Lohrenz. Although Lohrenz was their man, reaching him involved…
Three Miles Out
Pleasing the masses takes work, so you should give the hard-workin’, alt-rockin’ band Three Miles Out due credit. The Akron-based quartet whips up tomorrow’s radio rock today on its self-titled debut, 11 tracks of jangling electric guitars and collegiate barroom anthems. Nationally, these guys clearly idolize Creed’s arena bombast; locally, they envy the sunny, summery…
