Bubble Boys
At Grid/Orbit’s weekly Foam Party, the club fills a 15-by-50-foot inflatable pit with a wall of suds. Then everybody strips to their skivvies and frolicks on the dancefloor. “People strip down to their underwear,” says manager Bryon Thomas. “It’s pretty amusing because — since they’re covered with suds —you can’t tell if they’re wearing anything…
Wounded Giant
They call it a brown-bag meeting, a rather homespun term for a battlefield. On one side were the altruists, those who became journalists “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” as the saying goes. On the other side was their boss, a man who may have believed the same at one time, but now…
Chris Knight
With his husky drawl, working-man’s poetry, and rugged country-rock sound, Chris Knight’s music draws inevitable comparisons to Steve Earle — but the young Nashville upstart of Guitar Town, as opposed to the post-prison rabble-rouser of Jerusalem. On the heels of a trio of major-label albums that produced a fervent following but not success, Knight moved…
Years of Fire
Throbbing with pure rage and twice as vicious as the demo, Years of Fire’s full-length debut sees original Chimaira guitarist Jason Hager, former Ascension frontman Chris Wood, and lead guitarist Cole Martinez form a new world-class wrecking crew. Visceral Departure obliterates the barriers between metalcore and classic thrash, simultaneously deploying brute riffs and amped-up, squealing…
Here’s Johnny!
Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining looks so much better on the big screen. Whether it’s the indelible image of Jack Nicholson bashing a door with an axe, or the climax set in a labyrinth of snow-smothered hedges, small TV screens simply do not do the film justice. The terrific 1980 thriller (based on a so-so Stephen…
Another Record!
Headline: Where the men make sure every woman is invited to dance Date: August 22, 2006 Topic: Raise the rent and bar the doors, dear reader! Sammy actually stumbled onto a good idea! A group of standup guys called Gentlemen of Ballroom holds an annual dance where they spend the night treating women like queens.…
Kenny Chesney
Even fans of opener Dierks Bentley tend to forget the Phoenix-born country star’s name about 20 seconds before the house lights go down on Kenny Chesney’s headlining set. Before Chesney takes the stage, 10 minutes of promotional video bring the beer-line crowd back to its seats in V-line fashion, fans raising their plastic cups and…
Minor Setback
Despite the presence of the propulsive, hard-hitting rhythms and habitual harmonies we’ve come to associate with popular punk, Minor Setback’s full-length debut is actually straight-up power-pop. The disc collects a dozen songs from the Cleveland quintet’s three-year run on the club circuit, and there’s not a dull track in the batch. It’s probably the only…
Hooking Up
Über party boy Marcus Sims teaches folks how to network at tonight’s Drive Home Happy event. The bimonthly happy-hour series for young professionals is designed to hook up entrepreneurs with job-seekers. Sims’ function is to introduce a person new to a field — say, someone with a budding interest in financing — to a seasoned…
Convention Sweepstakes
Ohio’s Largest Shrinking Newspaper reports that Cleveland is among four cities in the running to host the next Republican National Convention. One of the issues that will be taken into consideration is local attractions. The Plain Dealer lists the Rock Hall, Playhouse Square, the Warehouse District, East Fourth Street, and Cedar Point. But it left…
Dead Giant
After 15 years, three albums, and occasional onstage intra-band melees, Cleveland riff-rock veteran Red Giant has announced an indefinite hiatus. Guitarist Damien Perry cites conflicting professional, artistic, and personal goals. “We wanted different things,” says Perry, 31, who founded the group in high school. “I think I know what we should have been doing. Look…
Freshen Up
Once rare in Cleveland, farmers’ markets have followed the Starbucks growth model in recent years. For freshness and quality, they can’t be beat, and the summer harvest season is the prime time to visit. To help you shop the season’s offerings — sweet corn, melons, tomatoes, and more — here’s a rundown of some of…
Smoke Signals
When British stand-up comic Steve Hirst first moved to the U.S. about a decade ago, he had trouble with the language barrier. “Do you know what we call cigarettes in England? Fags,” says Hirst, who now lives in Dallas. “You don’t call them that over here, do ya? You need to let us know this.…
Kent State’s About-Face
Last spring, after hearings fraught with more protests than the 2000 presidential election, Kent State Judicial Affairs expelled Malik Griffin and Tyrone Wright from the university. Campus officials ruled that Wright had violated his probation when he allegedly told a security guard to “fuck off.” In April, Griffin was accused of maliciously hitting another student…
World Party
Back in 2000, oft-praised and seldom-seen Karl Wallinger had some momentum going again. The former Waterboy’s recent Britpop efforts as World Party just didn’t pop. Then Dumbing Up came along, a fine return to form with just the right amount of rockin’ attitude and political spark. It would have been a fairy-tale homecoming, if not…
Lost and Found
I’ve never been to Peru, but my taste buds have — thanks to Eryka Accordino and her new downtown restaurant, Machu Picchu. That’s the joy of traveling by tabletop: Easy and inexpensive, it’s an opportunity to explore the culture and cuisine of some faraway land without a suitcase and customs check. And settled inside the…
Country Club Prison
Shooters doubles as Alcatraz today for 400 local CEOs who are thrown behind bars for the annual Executive Lock-Up. Each corporate jailbird posts calls to friends to raise bail money (proceeds benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association). They need your help too. If you pitch in the biggest wad of cash, you’ll pocket tickets to the…
VP Equity Takes Another Hit
The last time we caught up with VP Equity, it was being accused of using deceptive sales practices to sell loans to elderly quadriplegic men [“All the President’s Men,” October 19, 2005]. It was a nice gig, but sometimes screwing old people gets tiring, you know? After the story came out, Dennis Faubel of Medina…
Jurassic 5
There may be no more long-standing defenders of old-school hip-hop’s mic-swapping, get-it-done-live tradition than the Jurassic 5, who emerged from Los Angeles’ rap underground in the early ’90s and eventually included not one but two groundbreaking DJs, Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist. With Chemist gone to a solo career, the 5 are still fighting — although…
Piling On
Low, which is to say no, expectations can be a wonderful thing; expect nothing, and maybe you’ll get that little outta-nowhere sumpin’-sumpin’ that turns an otherwise unfulfilling occurrence into a vaguely rewarding experience. It’s not like Invincible boasts the most promising of credentials: a first-time filmmaker (Ericson Core, the cinematographer on the impossible-to-watch Daredevil); a…
Eat to the Beat
Today’s Taste of Legacy Village festival bursts with global flavors. Village eateries dish out some of their most popular dishes: Brio Tuscan Grille serves sauce-drenched pasta, California Pizza Kitchen offers meat- and veggie-packed slices, and Chipotle Mexican Grill has burritos the size of your head. Plus, the Cheesecake Factory is on hand with (what else?)…
Feel the Burn
The three women in Burning Sage blend goth vocals with heavy-metal arrangements. Tonight, however, drummer Sue Balaschak and guitarist Lin Sanders will perform an acoustic set without bassist Lucy Marquez. Still, Marquez plans to be there, dancing onstage to some of the songs from the local group’s latest CD, Unveiled. Balaschak says she relies on…
Missing in Action
By now, most Clevelanders realize that they’ll never know where their $1.5 billion for Cleveland school construction went. In a town accustomed to watching its tax dollars disappear like dollar Molsons at McCarthy’s, this is hardly surprising. What’s worrisome is that the one man who theoretically knew where the money went has now left the…
The Legendary Shack Shakers
Robert Plant called them “fucking great,” inviting the manic quartet to open for him on his forthcoming European tour. And no wonder: The Shack Shakers are among the best live acts on the rock circuit. Irrepressible frontman J.D. Wilkes’ bug-eyed stage presence combines the fervor of a Pentecostal preacher with the ribald rock spirit of…
About a Boi
One of the weakest aspects of popular culture is its narcissistic focus on the present. Without reference to past experience or the messy knowledge of life, modern entertainment often reflects a neurotic teenage mind-set that’s in love with its own ignorant point of view. A quick-fix solution is simply to reach back to yesteryear, and…
Sex and the Country
Yolande Moreau undoubtedly feels a kinship with the actress she plays in When the Sea Rises, a movie she also co-directed. More than 20 years ago, the Belgian comedian wrote and starred in a one-woman comedy titled A Dirty Business of Sex and Crime. In this award-winning Felliniesque film, she plays Irène, the star of…
Get Jiggly With It
If you can keep your eyes off the top-heavy waitresses long enough tonight, you have the chance to score a T-shirt at Hooters’ Margarita Monday Island Party. Manager Rob Berg hosts four contests, starting with a Tub Race, in which customers roll their favorite server in a bathtub from one end of the bar to…
The Many Ways We Suck
As a professional crime/trauma scene cleaner, I felt your “article” [“Death’s Cleaning Lady,” August 2] was very inappropriate and disrespectful. It makes me wonder what you would write if you climbed aboard the helicopter with me and spent a shift responding to motor vehicle accidents and heart attacks. “Old guy still gets off on flying…
Saosin
Southern California’s Saosin (pronounced “Sau-shin”) is the latest great emo hope. The band’s metal-plated 2003 debut EP, Translating the Name — featuring singer Andy Green (Circa Survive), former Slayer drum tech Pat McGrath, and one-time Ashlee Simpson bassist Zach Kennedy — became a grassroots sensation, even as the lineup underwent wholesale changes. Saosin’s initial double-bass…
Free Kicks
When the clueless U.S. men’s soccer team got dumped in the first round of the World Cup in June, American sports fans generally shrugged and went about their business. Aside from its popularity among millions of suburban schoolchildren, what most other earthlings call “the beautiful game” still arouses about the same passion here as Olympic…
Caution: Wet Paint
Any other day, the cops would be all over somebody tagging Ohio City. But today, the spray-painters get a free pass at the fifth annual City Xpressionz Aerosol and Urban Art Festival, a celebration of old-school b-boy culture that includes break-dancing and graffiti competitions. “It’s time to call attention to this and see it as…
Party on the Pavement
A one-block stretch of Clifton Boulevard on the eastern edge of Lakewood overflows with more than 2,000 revelers today for Dancin’ in the Streets. As DJs blast techno, electronic, and house music onto the street, a carnival of beer trucks, dunking booths, tattoo artists, a mechanical bull, and Jello-O wrestling enlivens an adjoining parking lot…
Don’t Pick on Midwives
I felt compelled to respond to your recent “Midwife Crisis” article [June 28]. It distresses me that the only study quoted was the one commissioned by a group not supportive of midwifery. There are numerous studies that show that home birth is as safe as, if not safer than, hospital birth. The most recent study…
Ian Gillan
Belly up to the bar at Gillan’s Inn, and British metal maestro Ian Gillan will pour out 30 years’ worth of finely aged rock-and-roll grog. Since the ’60s, the hard-rock vocalist has led Deep Purple and Black Sabbath with his high-pitched howl, even co-writing “Smoke on the Water.” On Gillan’s Inn, his 2006 solo album,…
There Goes the Neighborhood
A winning tale of sex, real estate, and more or less immaculate conception, Quinceañera, as you might expect from a white-made drama about Latino life in Echo Park, threatens at first blush to be all about a pregnant teenager and a prodigal cholo in the ‘hood. Yet this saucy, rowdy, heartfelt, and terribly sweet movie…
Eat Like an Egyptian
This weekend’s Egyptian Festival really lives up to its name. Shish kebab and spinach pie are served in Nefertiti’s Kitchen, while Cleopatra’s Vegetarian Specials include falafel and mousaka. Top it all off with a visit to Isis’ Pastry Shop, where you can score some baklava and Egyptian cookies. Also, King Tut’s Bazaar features handmade crafts,…
Going Solo, Together
Freebo and Jim Photoglo don’t want you to get the impression that they’re a duo. “We’re both singer-songwriters with our own style of music to share,” says Freebo. Over the past 30 years, both artists have carved out spots within their respective scenes — Freebo as a journeyman bassist and Photoglo as a country songwriter.…
Record-Label Hell
Picture yourself in an ugly divorce, a 12-round brawl during which you’re not allowed to date anyone else and periodically forced to renew your conjugal duties with someone whose company you cannot stand. Welcome to the music industry and record-label purgatory, where the company vaults house potentially brilliant recordings few will ever hear, and cutout…
Roué
The weekly meeting of the Cleveland Cool Guy (and Girl) Club will convene at Pat’s in the Flats, Saturday, August 26, 9 p.m., to revel in the double dose of musical bliss provided by two of the city’s best indie-rock bands: Coffinberry and Roué. Forget all that Pitchfork Media/New York City/Los Angeles new-school tomfoolery: This…
Girl Trouble
By now, for masses of believers in mad Korean pulp, as it has been epitomized by Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy, the blood-on-alabaster-skin montage behind the credits of Park’s new Lady Vengeance portends a familiar dynamic. Exercises in Asian horror such as we haven’t seen before, Park’s films generally take his movie…
Pretty Woman
Country singer Julie Roberts has been hearing jokes about her name resembling that of a certain movie star ever since her album came out two years ago. But she says it doesn’t bother her. “I had a chance to change my name,” says the 27-year-old South Carolina native. “But I’ve been Julie my whole life.…
House of Usher
It should be interesting to see how the Chris Brown and Ne-Yo pairing plays out onstage tonight, especially since they’re basically interchangeable. Both junior R&B stars broke out the past year, and both come from the Usher school of slick grooves and fancy footwork. Ne-Yo scores points for having a less blah moniker, while Brown…
Major League Belter
As frontmen of major American rock bands go, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy is an unlikely guy. A polyglot descendant of international experimental and American folk, punk, and country music, Tweedy can’t really sing. His voice cracks, warbles, and shakes, sometimes missing the key by a mark. Yet opening a recent show with an unreleased Wilco song,…
Luca
Nick Luca’s first two records were heavily influenced by the fertile Wavelab Studio scene in Tucson, where he has worked as sound engineer with such desert-noirists as Calexico, Giant Sand, and Friends of Dean Martinez. But Luca sheds that skin with Sick of Love, emerging with a diverse record of ’80s power pop, hook-happy country…
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…
He Loves the ’80s
Give props to DJ Dwreck for keeping his ’80s alt-rock mixes strictly old-school. The 33-year-old spinmaster even breaks out his old LPs for his weekly gig at the View. “It’s not the ’80s, if it’s not on vinyl,” says Dwreck (aka Derek Carney). “I love the crackle and the pop.” When he took control of…
A Grape Night for Music
The Cleveland Orchestra celebrates classical music at Blossom Music Center tonight with vino. At a pre-show wine-tasting, five different wines (including both whites and reds) get folks in the mood for the orchestra’s tunes. A variety of breads and cheeses will also be served. The vino comes in a commemorative wine glass, which is yours…
Invert That Frown
Dear Thom: You’re probably staggering under weighty preoccupations — Iraq-botch fallout, Israel-Hezbollah imbroglio, Big Brother — but lay off the cryptic sourball imagery, and cheer up already. Even in chaos, diversions and pleasures abound. We hoped you’d relax a bit after Hail to the Thief, but The Eraser’s grim-faced tightropes confirmed our worst fears. Here…
Jen Chapin
UPDATE 8-25-06: JEN CHAPIN APPEARANCE CANCELED, OWING TO ILLNESS. BRIAN VANDER OF THE VERVE WILL APPEAR IN HER STEAD. Understandably, a streak of old-school discipline informs the soulful, elegant tunes of singer-songwriter Jen Chapin, daughter of the legendary Harry Chapin. Her third studio album, Ready, is an elaborate urban take on folk music — a…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
All Women All Art — Woodmere’s Opus Gallery opens its halls once a year to an exhibit featuring local women artists only. The 11th edition of the show includes work by six painters and photographers, at least half of whom make the trip worthwhile. Victoria Dumesh’s digital photography is particularly memorable. Applying modern technology to…
It’s Greek to Us
It’s Greek to Us Stand-up comedian Basile has two routines: One is for English-speaking audiences, the other is for Greeks. The New York native (whose family comes from Greece) says that if he merely performed his English act in Greek, most of the jokes would get lost in translation. “It’s not just cheap dick jokes,…
Unsung Power
“If Nine Inch Nails and Pantera formed a band, it would be us,” says burly Keratoma frontman Chris Simmons between drags of a Newport. “We keep getting nominated for best industrial-gothic band, and we’re not. It’s kind of a niche thing: We don’t fit into a scene or style, and people don’t know what to…
M. Ward
Matt Ward makes modern folk music with an old soul. Like the iconic Delta-blues troubadour, Ward’s front-porch, finger-picking, humming tales about life’s highs and lows have celebrated the simple folk traditions of a man and his guitar across four fantastic full-length albums. Possessing the finger skills of John Fahey and the voice of a chain-smoking…
Get a Clue
Veronica Mars: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros.) Any concept along the lines of “high school hottie solves crimes” is bound to make for watchable TV, but who would have expected this? Equal parts 90210 teen soap, murder mystery, and comedy, Veronica Mars pulls you in with its sharp writing, but even more so with…
Out of This World
Blast Off!, on exhibit at the Children’s Museum, gives kids a chance to see outer space without all the work of becoming an astronaut. The replica Mission Control includes plenty of knobs, while the Space Station accurately replicates life in a tin can. Also, kids can build their own rockets! Aug. 19-Nov. 26
Beast Masters
Akron is home to a prowling Beast, a four-piece prog-metal monster. The up-and-coming group played Square Records’ third anniversary party at the Lime Spider. The smorgasbord of cupcakes, pizza, booze, and great local music acts was enough to draw the Beast out of hiding. Goodbye Ohio set the tone early, performing on the dance floor…
Wooden Wand and the Sky High Band
It’s high time that James Toth’s homiez staged an intervention for the guy. Wouldn’t have to be too crowded — maybe enlist the man’s B.F.F. Tovah Olson and hagiographers Thurston Moore and Byron Coley to kidnap Mssr. Wand from one of those zillion Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice jam sessions. They should take him…
Glacial Profiling
For most people, the words “role-playing game” conjure images of sweaty Dungeons & Dragons-obsessed weirdos, wearing cloaks and screaming “Lightning bolt!” at each other. But even non-RPG players gave the genre a try when Final Fantasy VII debuted back in 1997. The beautiful graphics and heart-tugging story made it an instant classic and helped launched…
Warehouse Party
The third annual Warehouse District Street Festival will close down West Sixth Street for the entire day. The fest takes place over three blocks and features live music, art exhibits, and kids’ activities. There’s also plenty of food to nosh and freestyle motorcycle tricks to gawk at, while two stages pump out tunes by Catwalk…
What Would Jesus Say?
Richard Manning has sinned. This he knows. He knew it as soon as he pressed himself against that woman’s olive skin, as soon as he pushed himself inside and then away from her. By then — by the time the sin had become one of the flesh — it had already wrapped itself tightly around…
Desert Isle Discs
Adam Boose, bassist for indie-pop quartet Brandtson, offers his shipwrecked soundtrack. 1. Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea A surreal, epic freakout, which will no doubt inspire our new religion. We don’t get it either. 2. Depeche Mode, Music for the Masses Both confessional and dance-tastic, this classic record will accompany the…
The Yayhoos
The Yayhoos aren’t typical yahoos. A quartet of roots-rock veterans — guitarist Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (the Del-Lords and Steve Earle’s Dukes), two former Georgia Satellites (frontman Dan Baird and bassist Keith Christopher), and longtime Baird collaborator Terry Anderson — the four started playing together a decade ago. They still enjoy each other’s company, and a…
The week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe.
CD — Pet Sounds: 40th Anniversary: The Beach Boys’ 1966 masterpiece celebrates its standing as the greatest pop album of all time with a spiffy new CD/DVD combo. The DVD includes a making-of doc, recollections by Brian Wilson and others, and three music videos. The album comes in four different mixes, including original mono and…
Last Hurrah With Wahoo
Kids don’t need us reminding them that school starts this week. They’ve been dreading it all month. Today, the Indians hope to make their return a little less sucky and whole lot more awesome by hosting a Kids’ Fun Day. In addition to partying at a Jake that’s a little more child-friendly with giant inflatables…
Suing Suzy
The Girl Scouts see the cookie biz as a chance to give their young charges their first taste of capitalism, allowing them to learn about marketing, management, and how to use one’s womanly charms to take other people’s money. But Dee Jones, director of the Western Reserve Girl Scouts, is pushing the envelope of higher…
Dem Franchize Boyz
It was inevitable that crunk would spawn its own subgenres, so you can pencil in Atlanta’s Dem Franchize Boyz atop the nascent “snap music” movement. The main competition is D4L, who proved less really can be less on the ridiculously minimal hit “Laffy Taffy,” which taints the victory somewhat. But despite the Boyz’ equally nonexistent…
Led Zeppelin: The Origin of the Species
This enticing documentary focuses on Led Zeppelin’s roots. Formed from the Yardbirds (Jimmy Page) and Band of Joy (Robert Plant and John Bonham), the band aimed at becoming a supergroup that would include Who members Keith Moon and John Entwistle, as well as Page and Plant. This plan fell apart, but not before Entwistle (rather…
Our top DVD picks for the week of August 22.
The Apartment (Lions Gate) The Bill Cosby Show: Season One (Shout! Factory) The Blue Light (Pathfinder) Conviction: The Complete Series (Universal) Dances With Wolves: Extended Cut (MGM) Film Geek (First Run) House, M.D.: Season Two (Universal) Invasion: The Complete Series (Warner Bros.) Just My Luck (Fox) The Maid (Tartan) On Native Soil (Lions Gate) Phat…
After the Flood
Lake County residents aren’t going to let the massive flooding put a damper on the annual Painesville Community Days. The usual Kiwanis Park location turned out to be too damaged to serve as the site of today’s fest, so the party moves to Veterans Park this year. All the scheduled events remain on the agenda,…
Busting the Bad Boys
Knowledge is power, ladies: I think the dontdatehimgirl.com website [“Revenge of the Brokenhearted,” August 9] is a great idea, though it’s shameful that the need for it even exists. I was married almost 10 years and spent the last 7 single, and I can tell you, there is a big need for this kind of…
Leap Year
Victory Records is the new Sub Pop, capitalizing on the emo movement and leveraging the passion and perseverance of owner Tony Brummel into sales that far outstrip those of indie competitors. Which, naturally, leads to major-label executives circling Victory bands like vultures. Due to Brummel’s diligent marketing — he’s known to keep promoting albums years…
The Promise Hero
Cleveland’s Promise Hero plays melodic punk that would probably deserve the emo tag if it didn’t rock as well as it does — it’s catchier than hell, without resorting to any of the genre’s generic default moves. Singer-guitarist Bobby Vaughn has high-pitched vocals common to half the bands on the Warped Tour side stages, but…
