Clues Blues
Chicago-based author Joe Meno never stays in one place. He’s jumped genres with each of his five books, which include the punk-rock romance Hairstyles of the Damned, the growing-up short-story collection Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir, and the pulp fiction How the Hula Girl Sings. His latest novel, The Boy Detective Fails, poses…
Cintron’s Revenge
Though Nelson Cintron lost his West Side council seat to Joe Santiago in the last election [“The New Guy,” August 2], the battle is just getting started. Cintron is spearheading a drive to recall Santiago, who has been in office just eight months. He’s accusing Santiago of ruining his eight-year legacy, though it wasn’t exactly…
Matt Herbert
You know those producers whose work is so consistently tight and innovative that you say, “This dude could make a banger out of rusty nails and a plastic hose”? Well, the U.K.’s Matthew Herbert actually is that dude, and he may have already mixed that into the sounds of dirty knickers dropping. This cheeky monkey…
It Falls to Pieces
For many who believe the world is a beautiful place, the overpriced paintings of Thomas Kinkade are an abomination. His cozy little cottages, with their gleaming lights shining through a bower of luxuriant trees, are a sugar-frosted parody of reality. Genuine beauty is always a balance between the ideal and the real, not a denial…
Odd Man Out
Buffalo audiences compare native singer-songwriter Tom Stahl to both Billy Joel and Bob Dylan, but the former truck driver defies classification. “I just fall through the cracks,” he laughs. “I don’t fit in anywhere. Folkies don’t want me, and I don’t rock enough for the rockers.” Tonight, Stahl strums his acoustic guitar at a solo…
B Is for Bear
In The Fourth Bear, journalist Goldilocks goes missing and the Three Bears are suspects. There are plenty of unanswered questions: Why do Mr. and Mrs. Bear sleep in separate beds? And why are the bowls of porridge found at the scene of the crime different temperatures — weren’t they all served at the same time?…
The Next Nike
Leaders of the anti-Wal-Mart movement swept through Ohio last week, bringing with them a new and improved version of a long-held thesis: Wal-Mart is the devil. Or at least it’s where the devil buys his cat food. Of course, people have been crusading against America’s largest retailer for years, trying to convince consumers that its…
Reggae Sunsplash
Tower City Amphitheater is certainly not Montego Bay, Jamaica — the original site of reggae’s first world-famous Sunsplash festival — but the traveling version of the concert and carnival might just bring enough wicked island rhythms to convince fans they’re basking in a cool breeze from the Caribbean. England’s reggae radio stars UB40 will headline,…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Beggars in the House of Plenty — This early play from Pulitzer winner John Patrick Shanley purges family demons through a surreal, decade-hopping travelogue of the emotionally abusive landscape of an Irish Catholic clan. While the process of writing this screed-in-dialogue-form may have saved the playwright hundreds of hours on the therapist’s couch, it lumbers…
Rust Proof
Guitarist Al Pitrelli has done time in Megadeth, Asia, and Savatage. For the past decade, he’s shredded a yuletide axe as a member of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Lately, however, Pitrelli has been playing a different tune with O’2L (it’s pronounced O’Toole), a small jazz-fusion group he leads with his wife, keyboardist Jane Mangini. “With TSO,…
Drunk Off My Brass
Nothing fuels the exuberant oompahs of the Canadian Brass like a pre-concert Beer Tasting. Before tonight’s Blossom Festival performance by the esteemed brass ensemble, Blossom Music Center hosts a two-hour sampling of some of the area’s best brews. The separate ticket price for the tasting includes snacks and a commemorative Blossom pub glass. After you’re…
Pop Apostles
“We were sorta struggling along, buckling under; then we came along with Starfish and ‘Under the Milky Way,’ and we had a lot of success in ’88,” Kilbey says, from his home in Sydney on the eve of the group’s monthlong tour of the States. “We were like one of those wrestlers — we’ve got…
Braless Bull-Riding Contest
Beginning at happy hour every Thursday, Tequila Ranch gives you a chance to loosen the constrictive work clothes that hide the real you. Guys, this means ties. Ladies, this means bras. The Ranch’s weekly Braless Bull-Riding Contest has some kind of vague contest aspect to it, but mostly, it’s a great way to get blood…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW A Face in the Crowd — You may not be stunned by this second annual juried display of work by members of Art House’s Supporting Educators and Artists Network (SEAN), but there are some redeeming standouts. Pam Schlichenmayer’s acrylic painting “The King of Times Square” shows a New York City hot-dog vendor standing still…
Art in the Park
At today’s first-ever University Park Art Fair, dozens of regional artists gather in downtown Akron to display and sell their work. Painters, sculptors, and photographers exhibit gallery-worthy pieces, while furniture-, jewelry-, and glass-makers offer more functional items. Craftsmen will also offer various hands-on workshops. Visitors get in on the action too, doodling, scribbling, or adding…
Feel Good, Inc.
At today’s Journey Mind, Body & Soul Expo, visitors can squeegee their auras, mind-meld with their pets, and learn all about the evils of milk. “It’s about teaching people to live in an alternative way, in order to live more fruitful lives,” says organizer Clyde Chafer. There are plenty of vegetarian dishes and juices from…
Pigs on the Wing
With the reverence accorded anything “new” these days, it’s no surprise that credit has been slow in coming to the Pink Floyd tribute group Wish You Were Here. Led by longtime Michael Stanley bassist-singer Eroc Sosinski and Cleveland rock vet Jim Tigue, the octet may be Mushroomhead’s only competition for the title of Cleveland’s biggest…
Sierra Swan
Moaning, caressing her piano, and rolling in melodies, alluring frontwoman Sierra Swan (pictured) sings of wine and other pleasures in “Copper Red, ” the leadoff track from Ladyland, her new Interscope record, which tellingly features a guest appearance by fellow musical maiden Aimee Mann. So dedicated is the chanteuse to vino that she’s teamed up…
Smells Like Victory
Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier (Paramount) It’s all here, more or less: the 1979 theatrical cut of Francis Ford Coppola’s harrowing and still-hypnotic Joseph Conrad-in-Vietnam adaptation, the 49-minutes-longer-but-feels-24-minutes-shorter 2001 Redux edition, Marlon Brando’s entire 17-minute “The Hollow Men” monologue, even more “lost” and deleted scenes (including a spooky-shocking one, in which monkeys control a boat…
Seals of Approval
Toni Gras plans to wax nostalgic at tonight’s ’70s Flashback. She’s hoping headliners Jim and Dan Seals play her favorite Seals & Crofts song, “Hummingbird.” “It always brings tears to my eyes,” says Gras, who ran the Seals & Crofts Fan Club from 1971 to 1981. “I’ve never heard anyone harmonize the way they do.…
The Hole Shebang
It goes by many names, including hillbilly horseshoes and baggo, but around here it’s best known as Cornhole. Now Jim Mullen, the owner of Mullen’s, a Lakewood bar, has assembled an eight-team league to play cornhole in his parking lot every Wednesday for the next month. The rules are simple: Two-person teams try to toss…
Airbag
Cleveland has a history of feverishly embracing things outside the mainstream. Consider that Roxy Music’s first gig in the U.S. was in our fine city. Even in the halcyon punk-alt-indie-rock action of the late ’80s and ’90s, there were still plenty of sold-out gigs from bands that never enjoyed mainstream radio play or spots on…
Lyfe Jennings
Lyfe Jennings is a double rarity in today’s urban-music world. An authentically great concert performer whose recordings tell only half his story, the Toledo native and former convict is also a loverman unafraid to wear his morals, as well as his heart, on his sleeve. The best moments on Jennings’ outstanding sophomore album make both…
The week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe.
DVD — Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier: Both versions of the greatest war movie ever made are gathered for the first time in a two-disc set. While we prefer the longer, 2001 Redux, which includes crucial scenes that further probe the characters’ frayed psyches, hopelessness looms even heavier in the 1979 original. Extras include several…
He Hate Me
At tonight’s Big Boy Comedy Show, J.J. Johnson plans to dis everybody he knows, including his former jailmate, who became a drag queen, and his dad, who walked in when his son was in act of losing his virginity. Even his wife is a target. “When we were first married, I used to get oral…
Winging It
Actor Gary Owen can’t say what he’ll talk about at his upcoming standup gig. “Who knows what’s going to happen between now and then?” he says of his five-night stand at the Improv. “Someone might be on a motorcycle again.” But Owen, who can be seen on the big screen in Little Man), isn’t entirely…
Bicycles Built for Two
The Ditty Bops love the open road, so they’ve turned their current tour into an unplugged version of Easy Rider. The duo arrives in Cleveland as part of a cross-country bicycle tour, an approach to travel appropriate to the group’s vaudevillian stage shows and anachronistic songs. From swerving motorists shouting “Get a car, bitch!” to…
Greg Graffin
Bad Religion singer Greg Graffin gets old-timey on Cold as the Clay, an unplugged sophomore solo LP that mixes original songs with similar Deadwood-era tunes, like the finger-pick murder-hoedown “Little Sadie.” Graffin plays traditional music as convincingly as he handles punk — he’s no Mike Ness. The disc will probably enjoy the same reception as…
Dogs of War
Like a real war, Chromehounds involves long stretches of tedium, occasionally broken up by a few moments of sheer terror. After what feels like weeks of ponderous marching from point A to point B in your titular “Hound” — a walking tank — combat erupts. The fighting is fast and ferocious, and ends quickly. After…
Family Matters
Toni Collette has played sympathetic mothers before. In The Sixth Sense, she stuck behind her son who saw dead people. In About a Boy, she took care of a little boy and Hugh Grant. In Little Miss Sunshine (opening today), Collette portrays her most empathetic onscreen mom: Sheryl Hoover, the matriarch of one messed-up American…
War Chic
In the documentary The Beauty Academy of Kabul, a group of American hairdressers goes to the war-torn Afghanistan capital to set up a salon. The Taliban is no longer around, but oppression lingers as women sign up for hair-cutting and massage classes. Still, no one is deterred by lost mannequins, suspicious looks, or streets populated…
Desert Isle Discs
Singer-guitarist John Petkovic of Cobra Verde offers his essential five. 1. Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street I’d crank this, and topless natives would bring me buckets of water, like in Tarzan movies. Except the buckets would be filled with Jack Daniel’s. 2. The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground “Pale Blue Eyes” would remind me…
White Whale
What hath Arcade Fire wrought? A mere decade ago, a fusion of indie rock with power-pop leanings and more song-oriented ’70s art/prog-rock (as opposed to a bombastic 25-minute tour de force, i.e., Barclay James Harvest instead of Yes) would’ve been unthinkable. But with the successes — artistic and commercial — of the Decemberists and Arcade…
Our top DVD picks for the week of August 15.
Benito (Lions Gate) Cape of Good Hope (New Yorker) Clark Gable Collection, Volume 1 (Fox) Don’t Tell (Lions Gate) The Hard Corps (Sony) Hong Kong Phooey: The Complete Series (Turner) Hoot (New Line) James Stewart: The Signature Collection (Warner Bros.) Land of the Blind (Bauer) Lemming (Strand) L’Enfant (Sony) Machined (Lions Gate) Magilla Gorilla: The…
You Gotta Believe
Nothing unleashes optimism like the start of another Browns season. The team hosts the Detroit Lions tonight in its first preseason home game of the year, and there’s plenty of justification for excitement. Head coach Romeo Crennel begins year two of his reconstruction project with a lot of help: Injured players are healing, positions have…
Tune Up
Singer-songwriter Kelly Joe Phelps looks like a Kid Rock roadie, but sounds like James Taylor. The Oregon troubadour’s new CD, Tunesmith Retrofit, eases down an amiable trail of acoustic guitars and wistful lyrics. Dig beneath the tunes’ deceptively mellow grooves, however, and you’ll spot a cast of characters falling out of love and into hard-luck…
Surviving the Death Sweats
With the parked ice-cream truck, motley Frisbee game, and pop machine filled with cheap beer, the gravel back lot of the Compound practice space on East 63rd resembled a low-rent carnival. It was the second annual Straight Outta Compound music fest. Some of the area’s best bands performed, representing everything from swerving hip-hop (MuAmin Collective)…
The Damnwells
Every love story has a soundtrack. Sometimes the songs are soaked in the sunshine of a day’s new hope, and other times they roam the night, crooning the bittersweet balladry of a broken heart. Simply twist the dial on the Damnwells’ Air Stereo and you can find 13 such fables of romance captured by one…
A Different Beat
Before he formed Nyco, frontman Ted Atkatz was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s principal percussionist. In his new role as singer, songwriter, and keyboardist, Atkatz lays down a heavy modern-rock groove on his band’s debut album, Two. Little of his classical training comes through on these wall-rattling cuts, but there is a formalism to the structure…
Warped Reality
Musicians straggle into the lounge to beat the deadline, offering up trash to be deified at a Warped Tour exhibit at the Rock Hall, tentatively planned for late January. The offerings include Gogol Bordello’s smashed acoustic guitar and the stinky T-shirt of Avenged Sevenfold singer M. Shadows. The punk-rock band Millencolin donates a beer bong…
Bonnie Raitt and Friends
Bonnie Raitt’s voice is raspy but smooth, like a bottle of aged bourbon. She plays a mean slide guitar, moving easily between rock and blues. Yet despite overwhelming critical and fan support, it took nearly 20 years for the music industry to recognize her as it finally did in 1990, bestowing four Grammys on Raitt,…
Rescue Party
A backstage meeting with some rock icons prompted A Farewell Rescue guitarist Johnny Peiffer to title his band’s new CD Never Meet Your Heroes. Although he won’t reveal the group’s name, Peiffer says that the guys were “complete assholes” when he met them after a concert a couple years ago in his native Pennsylvania. “I…
Voodoo at the Crossroads
Akron’s Voodoo has remodeled and reopened as the Crossroads (153 Cuyahoga Falls Avenue, Cuyahoga Falls). An all-new staff and management has been hired, with hopes to make the D-list club a destination by treating bands well. Jon Epstein, bassist for Fast Chester, is overseeing the club. He concedes that the Voodoo cartel isn’t known for…
The Rhythm Syndicate
These grooves are molasses thick and dipped in a heady blues swing. The Rhythm Syndicate blends jazz, blues, and rock, delivering it all with the brisk, enthusiastic energy of a bar band. The horn-fueled quintet tends toward jazz, but lead guitarist Angelo Ciu’s succulent riffs refuse to be overshadowed by the strong swing elements. Highlights…
All the Ladies in the House
Mercury Lounge oozes estrogen tonight at the nine-hour-plus Downtown Girls/Uptown Girls. “Some girls want to go out, but they might only do the first part of the night, because they have to work the next day, or they have something to do early on and want to come out later,” says party planner Jessica George.…
Mutiny in Margaritaville
Coronas fizzing with lime wedges nestle against old-man bellies protruding from Hawaiian shirts. The blond cheerleader and the spiky-haired captain of the football team — now in their 50s — slow dance like lovesick teenagers. Wasted away again in Margaritaville. On Thursday night at Put-in-Bay — a Lakewood bowling alley and bar styled after the…
They Shoot Horses Don’t They
This British Columbia sextet thrives on a loose-limbed, goofy charm. Its debut, Boo Hoo Hoo Boo, sounds like a carnival sideshow manned by Ooompa Loompas with high school band instruments. The musical aesthetic recalls the Danielson Famile — slightly unhinged vocals sliding down bustling pop melodies and catching air over brief snatches of dissonance and…
Tony Jones
Cleveland native Tony Jones’ debut release is demonstrable proof of how far recording has come in the last 15 years. Like Dave Matthews and Matchbox Twenty, . . . So Last Year is so pitch-perfectly rendered and well produced that it could easily occupy a slot in the radio rotation alongside Jones’ inspirations. His gruff…
Really Old-School
At the 15th annual Olmsted Falls Heritage Days, folks celebrate an era when men sported bowler hats, women wore corsets, and the sheriff doubled as the town’s blacksmith. “There’s a lot to do here when you step back in time,” says festival organizer Linda Banks. The fest runs through Sunday at Grand Pacific Junction (on…
The Poison Kids
It’s barely 10 a.m., but James Jackson is already flying. The six-year-old darts from the computer screen to the TV, pounding his fists on the floor, hurling himself into headstands on the couch. With his tight brown curls and gap-toothed grin, James could be a Flintstones kid. The problem is, he drives people crazy. He…
Venom
Along with lace-up leather trousers, the writings of Anton LaVey, and a pack of clove cigarettes, Black Metal — the seminal ’82 sophomore album by U.K. thrash-metal pioneer Venom — should be required issue for would-be satanists. Despite what contemporary Scandinavian church-burners have done under its name, black metal actually gestated near Newcastle in 1982,…
Me’na
Canton singer Me’na survived brain surgery and rediscovered her love of music, working in musical theater before recording her debut, Living My Life. Over an elastic, R&B funk riff on the title track, Me’na sings of her trials and inspirational rebirth. She collaborated with producer Nathaniel Rhodes on 7 of the 12 tracks, mostly soul-…
What’s the Deal?
Already a hit in black clubs in Chicago and Detroit, the Bid Whist card rage barrels into Cleveland tonight. Shanel Gibson is ready to deal a few decks during the weekly Tuesday-night games at her Caribbean-themed downtown lounge, A Better Place. Similar to bridge, bid whist rose to popularity about 100 years ago, when black…
Mike White, The Sequel
The Frank Jackson regime has been in business a mere eight months, but people are already getting a sense of déjà vu. It seems that Jackson is trying to break former Mayor Mike White’s unbeatable record of barricading public information from public view. First, Jackson hid the résumés of applicants for the airport director’s job…
Blues Harp Blowout
Few musical instruments are as closely associated with a single genre as the harmonica is with the blues. The harp’s portability and distinctly vocal character have made it a mainstay from the rural beginnings of the blues to its postwar urban heyday and beyond. Since the early ’90s, veteran Bay Area harper Mark Hummel has…
The Thrill Is Gone
Other than announcing the seasonings as he applied them — “Salt!” “Sesame seeds!” “Soy!” — our lunchtime teppanyaki chef at Beachwood’s Benihana was no entertainer. Maybe he was just having an off day; maybe he was saving his ammo for the dinner crowd. Still, it was sort of a letdown. On those rare occasions when…
The Hills Are Alive
Will Oldham — the mastermind behind the indie-rock band Palace Brothers and various other projects — returns with a new CD under his latest alias, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, next month. Leading up to The Letting Go’s release, Oldham performs at a number of independent record stores across the country, with a local stop tonight. The…
Take Fred Nance
The last time we sent a son of Northeast Ohio to the NFL’s executive ranks, shopping-mall heir Eddie DeBartolo bought the San Francisco 49ers. He naturally hired a Youngstown mob lawyer, Carmen Policy, to be the team’s president. That’s how we do things around here. Fortunately, DeBartolo was surrounded by some of the great minds…
The Radiators
Attend a Radiators show. You’ve never heard anything like it. And you’ll never hear anything like it again. The Radiators don’t do the same show night after night, even on the same tour. It’d be a betrayal of their fans. They can pull this off because with their latest disc, Dreaming Out Loud, they have…
Moody Blue
Calling a restaurant quirky is usually a subtle warning to keep a safe distance. But when we say that Hudson’s new Indigo Luna is quirky, we mean it in the nicest possible way. Sure, owner Francis Hsiao’s rambling menu is more enthusiastic than enlightening. And it doesn’t instill confidence when Hsiao, a Taiwanese native who…
Stayin’ Alive
Tonight, the Boston Pops and vocal group Rockapella will perform Our ’70s Show, featuring music from the era of big hair, leisure suits, and polyester. “We used to do old-timer nights,” says Dennis Alves, artistic planning director for the Pops. “But then we realized that that generation was disappearing.” Tonight’s super-groovy concert appeals to more…
Dueling Commandments
Adultery vs. homicide . . . hmmm: I read your article about the soldier that killed his wife’s boyfriend [“Gone in 50 Seconds,” August 2]. The story was a little one-sided. Here you had a 19-year-old boy trying to play man-and-house with some little tramp. All the while, the woman’s husband is off serving this…
David Lee Roth
Had Van Halen’s pre-Hagar lineup held solid for a few more albums, David Lee Roth might have supplanted Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant as the archetypal rock-and-roll frontman. But, as your first-grade teacher no doubt explained, life isn’t fair. Long story short: Van Halen’s classic lineup split, Roth’s new band took an early lead with 1986’s…
Nowhere Fast
Jason Lethcoe’s book Amazing Adventures From Zoom’s Academy doesn’t particularly wow the reader with its prose, but the concept is solid — basically, Harry Potter with superheroes rather than wizards. The heroine, Summer Jones, is an awkward 13-year-old tomboy with a goofy father named Jasper, who likes to tinker with home appliances till they blow…
Strange Fruits
In Fruits of the Poisonous Tree, Daniel Belardinelli’s paintings look like folk art as imagined by Atreyu. Primitive, almost skeletal figures with bulging eyes stare at each other, while printed dialogue hovers above them. In a typical piece, one character says to another, “You don’t have any balls.” But these biting works do. Mondays-Fridays, 11…
Sam Smashes Record!
Headline: Saving our city: Why it’s so hard Date: August 15, 2006 Topic: Sam goes to all the way to Chautauqua, New York, to discover that — gasp! — when all the guys with money move out to Avon and Orange, that’s not good for the city of Cleveland! Originality: 4/10. In case you’re one…
Chris Mills
Even Chris Mills knows it: 2005’s The Wall to Wall Sessions — recorded over two and a half days during a blizzard with 17 of Chicago’s best session musicians, from Wilco cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm to the Sea and Cake hornman Dave “Max” Crawford — is Mills’ masterpiece. The songs brim with irascible, indefatigable flair, brass,…
Turkish Delight
The strategically crucial Eurasian city now called Istanbul (population: 13 million, and growing by 700,000 a year) has had its share of upheaval over the centuries. It was conquered by Alexander the Great, torched by a vengeful Roman emperor, attacked by armies of the Islamic and Bulgarian empires, sacked by Crusaders, and overwhelmed by the…
