Game? What Game?
4/29-5/2 The Black College All-Star Game is more than just jump shots and three-pointers by the country’s top African American university hoopsters. From Sunday brunches to late-night parties, there are nearly 30 gatherings accompanying the inaugural competition. And Kym Whitley can’t wait. The Shaker Heights native — who has a role in the upcoming Barbershop…
The Tide’s Still High
When Deborah Harry sneered, “She’s so dull, come on, rip her to shreds,” on the 1976 album Blondie, the sentiment referred to the song’s hipster-groupie wannabe, who sported “Red eye shadow! Green mascara! Yuck!” Nearly 30 years later, these words seem better suited to describe the way Blondie itself railed against vapid, saccharine pop tarts.…
The Magnetic Fields
69 Love Songs, the Magnetic Fields’ three-disc adventure in pop-music dilettantism, was the point where the antiquated past (jazz, blues, standards, chamber music) crashed into the space-age future (synthpop). Five years after 69, on his band’s seventh disc, MF frontman Stephin Merritt has ditched synthesizers completely — an unfortunate choice, since the organic-sounding i ironically…
Born to Beguile
5/1-5/2 Mark Lyberger won’t be tough to spot at this weekend’s Motorcycle Summit. He’ll be the guy with a checkbook in his hands, shopping for a Honda VTX — a V-twin cruiser with a $12,600 price tag. More than 30 dealers will display 2004 Kawasakis, Yamahas, and Hondas, which are nothing like what Dad used…
Shrunken-Head Boogie
If Scott Aaron Wexton could turn people into zombies, he wouldn’t bother using them for mindless orgies or fire dances in praise of the High Mambo Priestess. No siree. As a spooky, one-man lounge act from California who calls himself the Voodoo Organist, Wexton has more practical applications for the walking dead. “I’d use ’em…
Zeke
If you’ve ever seen Zeke live, you know why its 2002 breakup was bound to be short-lived. These guys are the classic example of “Well, what else are they gonna do?” The remaining three members are proud lifers, neck tattoos and all. It is clearly in them to rock and only rock. But unlike most…
Wise Guy
Retired undercover cop Joseph D. Pistone swears that Johnny Depp (who played him in the 1997 flick Donnie Brasco) has got nothing on him. “I’m better looking,” Pistone laughs. “He’s just got a little more hair than me.” It’s a moment of levity for a guy who risked life and limb when he infiltrated one…
Depeche Mode Overload
Under most circumstances, the notion of six boxed sets — for a grand total of 36 discs, 245 tracks, and a shade under 23 hours of music — dedicated to one band would seem a tad excessive, no? But then again, we’re talking about Depeche Mode. Few groups have been as worshiped as this darkly…
Bluto’s Revenge
Here’s another Cleveland band that can feed its passion with temp jobs and extended bar tabs. But just the fact that they’re still around warrants some props. After all, the meager success they had in the pop-punk world of the mid-’90s certainly didn’t lead to hefty savings accounts. So they’ve stuck with it through thin…
Love Disconnection
THU 4/29 Evan Buckley is a luckless man. He’s polite, not bad-looking, and even possesses a bit of charm. But for reasons unknown, women just don’t dig him. Bonnie Jane Eaver tackles this elusive riddle in her novel, Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That. It’s the tale of an Ohio everyman — a mild-mannered banker by…
A Dirty Shame
Brandon Smith seldom occupied the passenger’s seat. The 25-year-old rhymer, known onstage as Dirty, loved the feel of the wheel, loved to roll. “He was always the driver. You would never see Dirty in anybody’s backseat, ever; you would never see Dirty in anybody’s passenger seat, ever,” recalls MC Brainz, Dirty’s bandmate in the rising…
Breaker
Waaay back in ’83, the book of metal was still being written — Mötley Crüe had just released Shout at the Devil, and nobody had even heard of Metallica. Somewhere between those two, Breaker could have added a chapter, but it stayed in Cleveland, cultivating a loyal following in the Rust Belt and Germany. A…
Slipper-y Moves
4/29-5/2 It’s been told many times onstage, in movies, and on television, but the story of Cinderella never gets old. Maybe because there’s always a little girl somewhere who finds solace in the tale of the mistreated princess-to-be. “I’ve always dreamed of dancing this story,” says Mireille Hassenboehler, star of the Houston Ballet’s production of…
Feelin’ the Lovedrug
Canton’s Lovedrug sold out the Lime Spider three times in the last year and was just cracking the Cleveland market when something bigger happened: The lush, driving-rock quartet has signed to the Militia Group, a California pop-punk label whose roster features the Beautiful Mistake and Copeland, and recently added Cleveland’s Brandtson. “They have really strong…
Teen Spleen
One thing few may mention about Mean Girls is that it could have been unrelentingly terrible. It isn’t — it’s actually pretty fabulous on its own terms — but consider: a rush-job comedy (hastily lensed a few months ago), constructed around a high-concept title with built-in ka-ching. Produced by Lorne Michaels, Saturday Night Live’s genius-madman.…
Challenger
When Dave Laney of Milemarker started bringing “fast punk songs” into practice, the rest of the group thought the material warranted a new band name; hence the birth of Challenger. The group’s first collection of Hüsker Dü-influenced songs, Give People What They Want in Lethal Doses, was released back in February, but a winter automobile-bicycle…
Mean Streak
Thirteen is the Big Lie!” declares Daniel Waters, about midway through a dual interview with him and his brother, Mark. He’s referring to the acclaimed teen drama from 2003, and it’s a fairly cocky assertion. But if you’ve ever been asked by a teen girl, “What’s your damage?” you can thank Daniel, the screenwriter who…
Mastodon
Some bands go for heaviness in pursuit of a stripped-down, doom-crying take on the blues. Others are heavy because they’re too stoned to play fast. But very few acts pursue heaviness as a virtue in itself. Mastodon does. Its purpose is to crush audiences into submission — a common goal in today’s metal scene, but…
Bar Code
Laws of Attraction is the kind of film you might mistake for “cute” or “charming” at first glance. Maybe you’ll open the paper and spot the ad with Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore canoodling, and think to yourself how nice it would be to see James Bond defrosting indie film’s go-to ice queen in a…
Dollar Store
Call it cowpunk. Call it grange. Call it bash-and-twang. Whatever you want to call Dollar Store’s boisterous brand of country rock, you can’t deny the band’s punk-fueled fury and revved-up roadhouse energy. It would be simple to see Dollar Store as merely a merger of frontman Dean Schlabowske’s other bands — he’s the guitarist for…
Missing Links
Pour a couple of Old Fashioneds into the average golf historian, and it won’t be long before he gets misty-eyed over Robert Tyre Jones Jr. Jones not only ruled golf in the 1920s, the fellow will tell you; he also epitomized the gentlemanly ideal of the old Scottish game, transplanted to Atlanta, Georgia. Decked out…
Midtown
Consider Midtown the George Michael of the punk-pop intelligentsia. Dissatisfied with Drive-Thru Records, which released its 2000 debut, Save the World, Lose the Girl, the New Jersey quartet released 2002’s Living Well Is the Best Revenge on MCA, Drive-Thru’s sugar daddy, and then promptly started fighting for label free-agency. After the requisite nasty legal battles,…
Armed and Fabulous
The basement of John Sahady’s Cleveland home is his little piece of heaven: Brooks & Dunn posters. NASCAR paraphernalia. Confederate-flag bandanna signed by fellow service members. Even a pellet-gun shooting range. “Oh yeah, I’m a redneck kinda guy,” says Sahady, bespectacled and round in his motorcycle T-shirt. “I don’t take that to be no insult.”…
Lost in Translation
Those of us who have grown up in the United States may be weary of our country’s claims of freedom and opportunity. Faced with a wobbly quote from our leader attributing terrorism to envy, we might roll our eyes, aware of a reality far darker and more complex. But there are places in the world…
Cannae
If Killswitch Engage’s sound — hardcore muscle defatted by the exacting butcher’s blade of Swedish death metal — is the future of American metalcore, then Killswitch guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz is the genre’s model producer. Besides producing his own unstoppable band, Dutkiewicz has already helped shape Unearth, From Autumn to Ashes, Every Time I Die, All…
Catch Me If You Can
Lee Evans looks up from his hamburger and breaks into a bashful smile, the kind that could sell Gatorade some day. “Yeah, I’m a little nervous,” he says, “because it’s out of my hands.” He’s speaking of the National Football League draft, which on this day is two weeks away. He will soon be living…
Love Hurts
There’s only one thing wrong with relationships: They too often require the participation of others. If it weren’t for that other person hanging about, things would be a lot simpler. Then you could just focus on your own feelings and needs. But this additional individual continually fouls up the works with flights of ego, mewling…
The Figgs
The Figgs are one of those alternative rock leftovers you sorta kinda remember. Well, there are no “sortas” or “kindas” involved when it comes to the band’s die-hard fan base, which thinks of the Figgs as nothing less than the best power-pop combo of the last decade-plus. They have released more than 10 slabs of…
Naked Truth
Naked Truth Fundies are neither religious nor right: Aina Hunter’s article concerning various chain stores and their policies regarding photo finishing [“Nipple-Free Zone,” April 14] didn’t come a minute too soon. I was on my way to Walgreens to process photos I had been asked to take of a friend in a recent Easter passion…
Brain Farts
If you ever want to dazzle family and friends with your depth of thought without actually having to think deeply, try this: Just come up with two abstract nouns and connect them with the word “is.” Then, during a lull in the conversation, get a faraway look in your eye and softly murmur, “Permanence is…
The Hudson Falcons
Mark Linskey for president? Why not? He would certainly bring the voice of the working class to the political landscape — and that’s something sorely lacking, if you believe the messages contained on the three CDs by Linskey’s New Jersey band, the Hudson Falcons. It’s likely that Linskey, the songwriter and frontman, could energize the…
When Talk Isn’t Cheap
The guy at the other end of Virginia Bush’s line was really, really into cross-dressing. The 41-year-old phone-sex operator from Cincinnati breezed easily through dialogues about frilly panties, tight leather mini-skirts, and black bustiers. And the guy seemed into it — Virginia was getting more than the requisite number of Oohs and Oh yeahs out…
On Stage
Agnes of God — The existence of even a single Indians fan would seem to indicate that blind faith in miracles is alive and well in our world. But things become more complex with the spiritual issues of birth, death, parenthood, and the reason for our existence — the weighty matters behind this play by…
50 Foot Wave
50 Foot Wave is the latest project of Throwing Muses frontwoman Kristin Hersh, and it’s almost a Muses reunion. The trio’s bassist is Muses thrummer Bernard Georges, which makes the new band two thirds of the under-recognized alt-rock greats. 50 Foot Wave’s unpolished, self-titled debut LP hums with all the raw energy that last year’s…
Foul Ball
Think the Indians are getting brutalized at Jacobs Field? Listen to the stadium cleaning staff. Workers for AmeriTemps, the labor agency contracted to sweep up after home games, say their bosses not only pay crap, but they’re skimming off the top of said excrement. “When they cash the check, the supervisor says, ‘You owe me…
On View
Aging in America, The Years Ahead — Being old doesn’t necessarily mean living on the fringes of society, as this multimedia show proves. Ed Kashi’s black-and-white photographs demonstrate, for example, that the Marlboro Man has nothing on the 75-year-old cowboys competing at the National Senior Pro Rodeo. A leather-jacketed senior biker chick gives meaning to…
D-12
This is, quite simply, an album to make Eminem defenders hang their heads. He may joke about being “the lead singer in D-12” — the first single, “My Band,” implies that he and his bandmates are really equals, despite what everyone thinks — but D-12 World is ultimately his turd and deserves flushing. The Detroit…
The Cut-Up Kid
Josh Hunt doesn’t let the fact that he’s only 18 stop him from going to the bars. When his favorite comedians are in town, he’s first in line at the club’s doors. “I want to learn from others,” says Hunt, who’s been fine-tuning his stand-up routine on Cleveland’s comedy circuit since he was 14. “But…
Rookie of the Year
Psst — hey, you . . . Wanna own a restaurant? C’mon, there’s nothin’ to it. All you need is Alain Ducasse’s artistry, the promotional savvy of Emeril Lagasse, and Thomas Keller’s deep pockets. Degrees in psychology, business management, and interior design are preferred, but not mandatory, along with five years’ experience as a general…
The Beta Band
Have you seen The Wicker Man and 2001: A Space Odyssey? Judging from the Beta Band’s music, the Scottish quartet surely has absorbed those cult films’ respective pagan-folk and space-trippingly futuristic influences into its sound. The Beta Band’s third album proper (self-produced, but mixed by Nigel Godrich) is its most consistently brilliant work since The…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, April 29 Based on Barbara Ehrenreich’s best-seller, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Cleveland Public Theatre’s stage version serves as both social commentary and personal drama. “It reminds us about these invisible workers,” says artistic director Randy Rollison. Nickel and Dimed (a collaboration with Great Lakes Theater Festival) chronicles Ehrenreich’s two-year…
See Food
Forget about the robins and the lilacs. For North Coast dwellers, the surest sign of spring is the annual Evening in Ohio City, scheduled this year for Saturday, May 15. This is the 11th go-round for the popular event, and its integration of our need to graze with our urge to gaze (at other people’s…
Diana Krall
Rue becomes Diana Krall. So, apparently, does marriage. On her eighth, best, and least jazz-oriented recording, the Canadian singer animates tunes by Mose Allison, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, and Chris Smither with winning inventiveness. She also steps up as co-producer — with longtime mentor Tommy LiPuma — and debuts her recent alliance with Elvis Costello.…
