Headliner’s News
Even though he doesn’t consider himself a topical comedian, Danny Bevins tries to keep up on current events. “I’ve got to read my news,” says the Florida native. “I can’t watch it on TV, because there’s too much going on. They’ve got the dude talking and then the crawl — I can’t do all that.…
Sound Advice
DJ J-Niice spins hits on 96.5 KISS FM weekday nights. On the weekend, he keeps the dance floor hot at Traffic. What have you been listening to lately? Salsa/merengue, lots of Euro-dance, drum & bass, reggae (the soundtrack to my life), Kanye West, and the Roots. What do you listen to that might surprise your…
Elf Power
After stripping away the sonic eccentricities and discovering a more pop-style Elf Power, Back to the Web returns the band to its usual intricate, playful musical home. The group’s aptitude for creating albums that speak for themselves first and the band second makes each release sound like a distinct era in the band’s ever-evolving course.…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Afrofuturism — How might technology affect race relations and African American culture? It’s an enormous loaded question, but Afrofuturism is thorough and imaginative in its answer. Seventeen artists address the issue in a large and diverse multimedia exhibition from the Obsidian Gallery in Minneapolis. If there’s a unifying theme, it’s that racial advancement won’t…
Twist of Faith
The story at the center of Custody of the Eyes is more complicated than the usual priest-diddles-little-boy routine. Anthony Giardina’s play — which is making its world premiere at the Cleveland Play House — questions faith, humanity, and the line between them. “Everybody is testing somebody,” says director Michael Butler. “Friends test friends, people test…
Money Where Your Mouth Is
Band: Yellow Delicious (yellowdelicious.com; myspace.com/yellowdelicious) Hometown: Cleveland/Elyria Sounds like: “Go to our website and ‘Get Some!'” Fun fact: “Pat’s one degree to Kevin Bacon, Greg likes to go commando when he plays, Mike’s a twin, and Ian’s related to Jim Morrison.” Playing: McCarthy’s Ale House (Avon Lake) Why you should see them: “We’re a high-energy…
Morrissey
The Pied Piper of disaffected youth, conflicted sexuality, and controversy, Morrissey has settled into middle-aged mediocrity. He follows You Are the Quarry, 2004’s above average “comeback,” with an album of lofty sonic ambitions and lyrics; only producer Tony Visconti saves it from becoming a full-blown quagmire. Seemingly well-intended, Ringleader is not well executed. There are…
To Each Theron
Aeon Flux (Paramount) Many things about this surreal sci-fi flick defy explanation, but nothing more so than the mystery of how it got made in the first place. On paper, it’s an archetypal setup for a bomb: a mostly forgotten cartoon, notable for its visual style and incomprehensibility, revived as a live-action vehicle for an…
Dark Shadows
Like Cinema Paradiso, Electric Shadows traces a childhood love of movies to an empty adulthood. Told through a series of flashbacks and set against China’s Cultural Revolution, the film begins with a delivery boy being knocked unconscious by a brick-wielding mute girl. After she is arrested, she hands her victim her house keys and a…
Last Word
“Besides the obvious concerns of security and safety, the clubs that get my repeat buisness are the ones that keep the cover around $5 or less and the drinks even cheaper. (I buy more, get looser, and end up spending everything I brought with me!) A small, sober crowd seems to drag a place down,…
Secret Machines
Self-proclaimed fan David Bowie explored the duality of emotion in “Rebel Rebel” and “Young Americans”; heirs apparent Secret Machines now appropriate that theme for their second full-length. Ten Silver Drops’ eight tracks drip with the New York trio’s trademark psychedelia: trippy, distorted guitar work à la Pink Floyd, bolstered by propelling rhythms and soaring vocals.…
Wild Pitch
Boys are oiling their mitts, men have started playing hooky, and Dick Cheney just one-hopped it like a pussy. Yes, baseball season is in full swing, and our dip-juice cup runneth over. Normally, this is cause for heavy titillation — perhaps a strong lather or a well-intentioned fistfight. But 2006 is no normal year: The…
Creatures Features
The Cleveland Museum of Art and Cleveland Metroparks Zoo are teaming up for an art exhibit during the art museum’s renovation. Animals in Art: Clay Creatures features ceramic pieces by Viktor Schreckengost from the museum’s permanent collection. April 29-Aug. 13
The Weepies
The Weepies is a rather deceptive name for Steve Tannen and Deb Talan’s band. Listening to their music will provoke more smiles than tears. The two don’t wear their hearts — all big and sloppy — on their sleeves, but express their emotions in more subdued ways. Residents of that partly cloudy/partly sunny folk-pop world…
Chittlin’
Chittlin’s White Lies is the latest in a string of solid efforts from Northeast Ohio teens. The 16-year-old Kent singer-songwriter recorded her sophomore LP in her bedroom; her brother, bluegrass phenom David Mayfield, captured her sad, mature voice. Local light heavyweights join the family affair: Roots-blues standout Patrick Sweany duets on “Rockin’ Chair Money,” and…
The week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
DVD — The Tennessee Williams Film Collection: If you know what to look for, the seemingly restrained movie versions of Williams’ steamy plays are fraught with simmering sexual friction. This exemplary eight-disc set features six films: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Sweet Bird of Youth, Baby Doll, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Night…
Country Comfort
Jon Langford left town after his solo show at the Beachland Ballroom a couple weeks ago. But he left behind an exhibit of his artwork, titled Nashville Radio. Now on display at Arts Collinwood Gallery, the paintings pay tribute to old-school country music, which Langford — founder of British post-punk band the Mekons — occasionally…
The Supersuckers
Considering that Eddie Spaghetti began as the Supersuckers’ Svengali by default (the original singer got the boot for the usual reason — i.e., prima donna), he sure as shit has turned his dumb luck into a lifelong mission. If you’d stumbled upon this Seattle band’s early ’90s shotgun spray of amazing singles — all Motörhead…
Science
A display of both deep Christian faith and strong musical skills, Science’s Solid Water is a 16-track trek through religious themes over grimy beats. Though the production and vocal tone sound much like anything from a semidark, modern commercial hip-hop album (think Doom, Mood’s 1997 masterpiece) the atypical lyrical content is devoid of diss tracks,…
Our top DVD picks for the week of April 25.
Casanova (Disney) Dr. Dolittle 3 (Fox) Elevator to the Gallows (Criterion) 50 Greatest Kid Concoctions (Time Life) Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (Sony) The Heirloom (Tartan) Inspector Gadget: 4-Disc Set (Shout Factory) The Intruder (Fox Lorber) Magic (Dark Sky) Match Point (DreamWorks) The Passenger (Sony) The Patriot: Extended Cut (Sony) Shopgirl (Disney) 3 Extremes II…
All That Jazz
With a wave of his baton, Cleveland Pops Orchestra director Carl Topilow will transform Severance Hall into a jazzy speakeasy tonight at Cabaret Nights. Featuring Broadway singers Susan Egan and Sal Viviano, the show includes cabaret-style tunes by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and others. “This is the music I really love,” says Topilow. The idea…
Go! Go! Go!
For a dead guy, Roy Orbison is having a pretty good month. First came The Essential Roy Orbison, a two-CD set that spans his entire career, from his early Sun recordings to the work he did with U2 months before he died. Now the Rock Hall has unveiled an exhibit dedicated to the music legend,…
Bell Orchestre
Prior to playing with the Arcade Fire, multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry and violinist Sarah Neufeld founded Montreal’s Bell Orchestre, a six-piece experimental outfit, in 1999. Its post-rock sound is a complex clamor of finely tuned orchestration that indie-rock loyalists and literati alike should find enchanting. More abstract than its Canadian neighbor Godspeed You Black Emperor!…
Sunset Sip
The picture on the cocktail menu is practically a cliché — a woman’s face, head thrown back, eyes closed, lips slightly parted. Over it, the text reads like the wrap-up to an episode of The Best Sex Ever. “He ordered for me — a Bombay martini, straight up — and smiled. I was a virgin.…
Cramps Their Style
Danish psychobilly band HorrorPops is a lot more fun live than it is on record. That’s not to say there’s a shortage of room-shaking joy to be found on its latest album, Bring It On! The real thrill comes with watching this extravagantly dressed sextet onstage — one of the gals sports an eyepatch, and…
Sizing Up Grady
A multimillion-dollar contract is nice. So is praise from your peers and the fans. But nothing beats your very own bobblehead. At tonight’s game against the Texas Rangers, the Indians fete Grady Sizemore by giving away tiny, noggin-nodding replicas of the centerfielder. “I’m sure it looks nothing like me,” he laughs. Sizemore recently signed a…
Bad Boy Boogie
If you hear Cheri Dennis and Biggie Smalls together on the radio, or you watch her video, you’re hearing the handiwork of Cleveland DJ Mick Boogie; hip-hop stronghold Bad Boy Entertainment has made Boogie’s remix of Dennis’ “I Luv You” — which blends a track from the native Clevelander and an unreleased a capella Biggie…
Secret on the Square
It’s that glorious time of year when flowers bloom and the line at the break-room microwave recedes until next snowfall. Downtown office workers have returned to the sidewalks in search of their next meal, and several accommodating food courts — the Galleria and Old Arcade among them — provide worthy options. But a lesser-known outpost…
Nature Calls
If you’re the type who celebrates the first days of warm weather by practicing frog calls with family and friends, then clear off your schedule! The Cleveland Metroparks’ North Coast Nature Festival has a weekend filled with hikes, lectures, and animal programs. “It’s to celebrate spring,” says Marketing Director Jane Christyson. “It’s about reawakening the…
American Ninja
Down this gloomy stretch of road in North Royalton, where auto-body shops flank both sides of the road like competing fast-food chains, the best fighters in the world train to be killers. The only identifier is a small logo — the sign for an eclipse, framed by cross-hairs — on a gray metal door on…
The Mammals
Here’s another group of hip young folkies with a high UTP — Upset the Purists –index. On the Mammals’ latest, Departure, all references to the title’s significance are superfluous: The get-up-and-dance contemporary bluegrass of the band’s previous efforts are replaced with a gentler folk sound. Electric guitar and keyboards are as prominent as fiddle and…
Fear of Flying
United 93 — which uses the hijacking of one plane on September 11, 2001, to tell the story of what happened to all four aircraft seized that morning — may be the most wrenching, profound, and perfectly made movie nobody wants to see. There is no reason to think that multiplex hordes anxiously await the…
How Low Can You Go?
Reverend Raven has been playing Chicago blues for more than three decades. That’s a long time to be down in the dumps. Fortunately, the rev was born and raised in Chicago, where the blues are a bit more chipper than the rural type. With his three-piece band, the Chain Smoking Altar Boys, Raven storms through…
Moron vs. Thief
Greetings and welcome to the City Club for this historic debate. With me tonight are Attorney General Jim Petro and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, two men vying for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Mr. Blackwell, let’s start with you. How do you plan to reverse the downward spiral of Ohio’s economic fortunes? “Stop the homos…
Amandine
Had Songs:Ohia or Iron & Wine been from Scandinavia, they might have sounded a little like Amandine. The Swedish foursome makes smart indie pop and countrified indie rock that will warm hearts with its wispy acoustic guitars and lilting piano-driven melodies. The band’s debut, This Is Where Our Hearts Collide, issued on Fat Cat late…
Thank Hell for Little Girls
The Darwinian theory that schlocksploitation must tighten its twist of the nuts with each new release will be tested strenuously for years — or at least several weeks — by Hard Candy. A pointedly s(l)ick cross between Oleanna and I Spit on Your Grave, thrown like raw meat to Lions Gate for $4 million at…
Mellow Yellow
Smooth-jazz favorites the Yellowjackets celebrate a quarter-century of taking it nice and easy with a live CD and DVD next month. Twenty Five includes performances of “Revelation” and “RunFerYerLife” from last fall’s European tour. Founding guitarist Robben Ford — who’s played with Miles Davis, George Harrison, and Joni Mitchell — is no longer part of…
Monsters of Misery Court
They’re the subject of more whispered shit talk than any other divorce lawyers in town. Start asking questions about the Stafford brothers, and word whips around the courthouse, from lawyer to bailiff to judge to magistrate, all the way down to court reporters in the basement. But ask lawyers to speak publicly about Joe and…
The Briefs
For the past seven years, the Briefs have been juicing Seattle’s mopey indie-rock ass with a steroid shot of ’77-style punk rock, and the fun’s spreading. The quartet pledges its allegiance to forebears such as the Ramones, the Buzzcocks, the Vibrators, and the Rezillos. The sound’s fast and aggressive but not brutal, snarky but not…
Tumble and Flop
Criticizing an action movie for being empty-headed is like calling out Brokeback Mountain for its lack of car chases. Likewise, when a teen gymnastics movie is derided as formulaic and dumb, one might logically wonder, compared to what? Very well: Stick It sucks, compared to the modestly charming Kirsten Dunst cheerleading movie Bring It On.…
Naked Truth
Fashionistas will get to see the latest leatherwear and lingerie lines at tonight’s Sin City Fetish Fashion Show. “This is going to push the next button,” says party planner Virgil Wilson. More than a dozen models will strut down the catwalk in summer lines by Cleveland designer Shannon Prada and specialty shops like Chain Link…
Point-Counterpoint
A righteous rebuttal: I am writing to respond to Jason Nedley’s misleading and malicious article [“Slave to His Past,” April 5] questioning my capacity to serve as head of the Black Contractors Employers Association. Your readers should understand that the attempted assassination of my character will not thwart my efforts to demand a level playing…
The Books
Even in the extended, open-armed community that is indie rock, the Books don’t fit (and that alone qualifies the group as a critical darling). The drummerless duo of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong (a guitarist from Boston and cellist from Rotterdam) recorded three full-lengths of “found sounds” before they even thought to perform live.…
Letter Perfect
Every year, when ESPN broadcasts the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a tiny flutter of hope rises in anyone who cherishes the life of the mind. Spelling is a sport? Sweet Jesus! For the duration of the competition, the brainy kid who gets his glasses stomped by knuckle-draggers on the playground is something more than a…
No Animals Were Harmed
You can learn how Asian turtles are becoming extinct, while getting tanked on rice wine at tonight’s Sake Sipping. It’s part of a new lecture series in which folks pound back booze while listening to the woes of the animal kingdom. Tonight, a local chef talks about sushi and sake, and a conservationist decries Southeast…
$4 Million Fiasco
With less than a week before the May 2 primary, Summit County voters fear an encore presentation of the 2004 election, when Ohio Secretary of State Uncle Tom Blackwell did his best to suppress the vote. Last fall, Blackwell chose opti-scan voting machines to replace Summit County’s old punch-card system. But the county Board of…
MC Lars
Who was the first well-educated white smartass who realized the comic potential of hip-hop? No one knows for sure, but the prank-filled legacies of the Beastie Boys and the Bloodhound Gang are in good hands with MC Lars, a California native who uses his laptop raps to gleefully piss all over Hot Topic, internet dating,…
Knockoff
We’ve all done it — killed an afternoon drinking in a pleasantly grungy roadhouse somewhere, boozily enjoying the illusion of having fallen off the grid, playing semi-forgotten blues songs on an outdated jukebox, and thinking aloud, See, I should capture this feeling. This should be a movie. Sobered up, we don’t make that movie, but…
Future Tense
Who knew that R2-D2 could teach us a thing or two about race relations? At Afrofuturism, now on display at Spaces, science fiction serves as a launching pad to an exploration of black culture. “It’s about the relationship between time, technology, and culture,” says Marketing Director Rich Sarian. More than 20 artists from across the…
Bach to Basics
Like a picking and grinning Doctor Livingston, Béla Fleck is a musical missionary on a constant journey through undiscovered banjo country — his partners in crime, the Flecktones, riding shotgun. For the last 17 years, this New York City-born banjo prodigy has traveled the world, fusing a traditional bluegrass instrument with every musical genre he…
Bill
Bill has been Cleveland’s premier Metallica tribute since 1987, thrashing through classics like “Hit the Lights,” “The Four Horsemen,” and “Whiplash.” And you can probably talk them into playing “The Memory Remains” — but why would you want to?
Rain Man
The trouble with con artists is that they invariably want to bleed us, their dupes, for as much as possible. But if you remove their greed from the equation, those smooth talkers could provide a valuable service, providing hope by bolstering our “confidence” that things will turn out well. Heck, if we could each have…
Axes to Grind
The stage is set tonight and tomorrow for 42 Northeast Ohio bands to compete in the Battle of Standing Rock Quarterfinals. This week, judges will whittle the field down to 10 groups that will return for the semifinals in three weeks. The resulting five finalists will compete at the May 26 finale. Acts are judged…
Smart Dälek
Whatever happened to hip-hop production? Led by the Bomb Squad, Boogie Down Productions, and Prince Paul in the early ’90s, it used to be a seven-layer cake of samples, sounds, and textures on which the MC was the frosting. Dälek recalls those halcyon days with a tense, tightly wound sound of sputtering, shrieking beats, simmering…
Copperfoot
Ever wondered what hillbilly reggae sounds like? Neither did we. But as it turns out, it’s actually pretty cool. Copperfoot is pioneering the genre — imagine a lost Allman brother who smokes too much, delivering a southern croon over a banjo and a lazy skank. Trust us: It works, and it works well.
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets — It’s exhilarating to find a short show that’s entirely diverting and worthwhile — not to mention free. The title of this George Bernard Shaw piece refers to the 24 sonnets by William Shakespeare purportedly addressed to a “dark lady,” who served as the bard’s muse for a spell.…
Secret Agent
At her stand-up performance at Hilarities tonight, expect comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer to joke about her new gig as a panelist on the Game Show Network’s I’ve Got a Secret. At a recent taping, she recalls, she tried to nail down guest Jerry Springer’s mystery. “I said, ‘You have a secret? What have you got left?'”…
Roots Rebel
By all rights, David Childers should be feted for releasing one of the best roots records of the year: Jailhouse Religion, a veritable rock-history primer that glides expertly between honky-tonk, blues, country, Tex-Mex, bluegrass, and ’80s rock. But if Americana radio and labels can’t be bothered, neither can Childers. “Hell, no, they’re not interested in…
The Streets
After taking garage and two-step to unexpected creative heights on Original Pirate Material, then dropping a mind-blowing concept album about a slacker everyman, fame, fortune, and fuck-ups, Mike Skinner was driven to record his own Hotel California. Or so it might seem, on an album that begins with a coke-wasted Skinner whining, “I don’t want…
Doo-Doo
As Jerry Seinfeld once said, when you name your child “Jeeves,” you’ve seriously limited his future job prospects. The same could be true of a Texas family named Tune, who dubbed their baby boy Thomas. For even as Tommy Tune grew to his full stature of six foot six, his moniker had to steer him…
Buzzing Around
Keke Palmer, star of Akeelah and the Bee, a spelling-bee drama that opens nationwide today, has just challenged us to a game of hangman. Like Akeelah’s title character — an L.A. girl who makes it to the Scripps National Spelling Bee — the 12-year-old Palmer loves competing, especially with words. Within two minutes, a stick…
Redneck Rules
Howdy, gals. Gretchen Wilson here. Back before I was Redneck Woman No. 1, I was livin’ in Pocahontas, Illinois, just tryin’ to pay the bills and find myself a good man. A friend gave me that datin’ guide, The Rules. Well, these here are The Redneck Rules, taken from the words to my songs. Hell…
Riverboat Gamblers
This furious five-piece came kicking out of Denton, Texas, five years ago, as a rock-’em-sock-’em reaction to their burg’s then-burgeoning prog-emo scene (see At the Drive-In). Despite some Fugazi guitar chops similar to their Denton peers, their preference was to rock out like the MC5. Endless touring and label-hopping over three records ensued; then came…
Duck Day Afternoon
There’s imported-film minimalism, and then there’s this: Fernando Eimbcke’s feature debut, Duck Season, a daringly banal comedy of ennui set almost entirely in a middle-class Mexico City flat. Knocking them dead at festivals and at the Mexican Ariel Awards, where it enjoyed a Ben-Hur-like sweep, Eimbcke’s movie could become the couch-potato nation’s anthem film, if…
