Taking Sides
Bigotry is one of the uglier passions we acquire, since it leaves no room for discussion or understanding. Hate based on nationality, religion, or sexual preference is an absolute and, as a result, can feed on itself endlessly. Under the circumstances, it’s always surprising to realize that one of musical theater’s most magical productions, staged…
Black Mountain
Jagjaguwar wants to make damn sure that Black Mountain’s latest is heard by as many people as possible. The imprint released the band’s self-titled debut in January, but plans to launch it again this month — and the extra effort is more than justified. Black Mountain, Stephen McBean’s idiosyncratic Vancouver-based collective, is dark, heavy, and…
Speaker for the Dead
Alana Baranick hasn’t given much thought to what will be written about her on the occasion of her death. If the obituary writer is anything like Baranick, he will mention her love for Star Wars, her mission to visit every U.S. location named Cleveland, and the two sons who survive her — one a “heathen…
Sheer Will
There are plenty of folks who wouldn’t want to touch the often complicated language of Shakespeare with a 10-meter pole. But now and then, a production of one of his works displays so much spirited action and so many irrepressible sight gags that the words cease to be an obstacle. The Ohio Shakespeare Festival staging…
Michael Stanley Superstar: The Unauthorized Biography of the Cuyahoga Messiah: Reunion Tour
Last Call Cleveland has one disclaimer about Michael Stanley Superstar: The Unauthorized Biography of the Cuyahoga Messiah: The comedy troupe performed “no research when writing this play . . . Instead, they relied on hearsay and speculation.” Reunion Tour, the expanded encore version of the show, features fresh, apocryphal misadventures and semi-celebrity cameos — in…
Touched by an Angel
It may be the most famous pinup poster of all time. Farrah Fawcett’s smile is a row of impossibly white teeth so perfectly aligned they look machine-made, her hair a windblown blond tangle that swallows her slender hand. Then there is her nipple: a salacious nub straining against the nylon of her red one-piece. Its…
On Stage
Aïda — Back in 1998, the folks at Disney Theatrical Productions thought it would be dandy to update Giuseppe Verdi’s tale of doomed love and handed it off to rocker Elton John and his librettist, Tim Rice, to conjure their pop-music magic. The result is a bubblegum version that shares little more than three vowels…
Fashion for the Cure 3
With its previous two events, the annual Fashion for the Cure show established itself as one of the city’s premier hot-ticket nights out. The Velvet Dog’s first floor will convert to a runway to let airbrushed-looking models strut, frolic, and pose, showcasing fashions by local designers, including Chain Link Addiction, Diego, and Dru Who?
Justice, Januzzi-Style
Of all the places to get caught driving drunk, you might think Oberlin, home of a liberal college and indie shops galore, would be among the friendliest. Picture a judge in a suit made of hemp, handing out three-day sentences and complimentary Frisbees. But you’ve never met Judge Thomas Januzzi. In Oberlin, drunk drivers are…
On View
NEW Secrets Whispered in the Night — If these paintings truly represent Maria Winiarski’s dreams, she cannot be sleeping well. But their vaguely uneasy atmosphere is also precisely what makes them interesting. This self-taught, resolutely original Lakewood artist here presents a series of exceedingly strange primal images that bear a greater resemblance to hallucinogenic visions…
Pennywise
“Bro Hymn,” from Pennywise’s self-titled full-length 1992 debut, ranks among the most singular songs in punk history. None of the group’s peers could pull off such a staggeringly earnest ode to friendship. Bad Religion is too brainy, Green Day too wimpy, and Rancid too proudly purist. NOFX would spin the title into a joke. Like…
This Means War
Fresh on the heels of their successful Swift Boat smear campaign against John Kerry, Republicans were hoping to score with a sequel in suburban Cincinnati. But seeing as how they’re Ohio Republicans, even a simple smear job was beyond their cognitive abilities. Paul Hackett, a Marine Reserves major who recently returned from Iraq, has garnered…
So Predictable
From a critic’s perspective, Michael and Liz Symon’s new Tremont restaurant — snuggled into the space formerly occupied by their Lola Bistro — is one big bust. After all, it takes at least 1,200 words to fill this damn page, and just how many ways can one write that Lolita is every bit as good…
Aram Danesh and the Super Human Crew
Save for a double album, no record is as easy to review as this sort of multi-genre goulash. You simply make the safe observation that the artist has bitten off more styles than he can chew (but that enough of it works to be a decent listen, etc.). But in this age of mash-ups and…
Gray and White
Scaredy-cats finish last: Just read your cover article on Nate Gray, Mike White, et al [“City for Sale,” July 20]. Thanks for putting this out. You succeeded in getting Doug Clifton and The PD off their scaredy-cat posture and writing about it also. Your article was better and provided more of the feel of the…
Making Tracks
Lisa Cardarelli has a theory about a new kind of music. “Remember those books, the Choose Your Own Adventure books?” the Interfuse singer-bassist asks between sips of whiskey at Akron’s Lime Spider. “We should make a CD that’s a choose-your-own-ending-to-the-song CD. You know, pick track three if you want the angry ending, pick B if…
The Herbaliser
You can mostly attribute the mod ’60s, “Nancy Drew-theme-song” style of the Herbaliser’s latest disc to the group’s recording process. British DJs Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba composed original jazz licks for the album, blending clanky horn parts with elastic bass lines and reverbed electric strings. Then they sliced and diced those grooves in a…
Raising the Dead
Talk to people who worked on the 1981 cult classic The Evil Dead, and you get different opinions regarding the chilly Tennessee location. Actor Bruce Campbell recalls, “Until I worked on another shoot, I didn’t know how much [filming The Evil Dead] sucked. The shooting conditions were abysmal. We were freezing and covered in Karo…
Girl Fight
We love Faith Evans. It has nothing to do with the notes she can’t hit or the skimpy outfits she doesn’t wear. We love Faith because she’s tough, a survivor who has weathered battles that would’ve taken out lesser women (Mariah and L-Boogie, we’re looking your way). Faith, widow of the Notorious B.I.G. by the…
Björk
Heavy breathing. A sultry moan. In the distance, a discordant celesta. No, it’s not an elaborately textured prank call from some hot and bothered musician; it’s “Pearl,” one of 11 tracks composed by Björk for arty beau Matthew Barney’s latest visual tribute to Vaseline, Drawing Restraint 9. Those hoping for a follow-up to last year’s…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, August 4 One of the area’s best summertime outings, the East 185th Street Festival boasts a diverse music lineup that oughta please everyone: oldies for Mom, polka for Grandpa, and plenty of rock and pop for you and your pals. The Collinwood Food Showcase — featuring eats from the neighborhood’s restaurants — tops a…
Back With a Twang
As the founder of the Knitters, John Doe is often credited as one of the inventors of alt-country. Just don’t tell him that. “Hogwash,” says Doe when informed of his status. “No one band can be credited for anything. I mean, even the Beatles were trying to write songs like Gene Vincent.” While often lauded…
Chuck Brown
If Chuck Brown had made nothing but “Bustin’ Loose,” his legacy would still be assured. The leader of DC go-go/funk outfit the Soul Searchers earned his place in the pantheon with the rump-shaking classic, whose hook (“I feel like bustin’ loose”) was recently interpolated into Nelly’s tawdry “Hot in Herre.” Brown’s finest hour showcases everything…
Best of Old Friends
It’s been almost 30 years since Kenny Loggins pulled the plug on Loggins & Messina, the soft-rock duo he inadvertently formed with Jim Messina, which ranks among the 1970s’ most successful teams. “I was ready to go on my own,” Loggins says. “Everything else was just frustrating.” But after performing two recent benefit gigs, Loggins…
Daredevils, Icons, and Elvis
It was the most important song since “Dust in the Wind.” At least, according to Whiskey Daredevils frontman Greg Miller, who said as much while his band launched into the hipster sendup “Ironic Trucker Hat.” The song, about a “tragic fashion mistake,” mocked posing and posturing, and set the mood at this year’s Cleveland Music…
Cactus 12
When Cactus 12 frontman Sam Getz tells listeners he’s the kind of guy who’ll “cry with the blink of an eye” on his band’s debut, it’s a bit misleading. While most of Getz’s pop-rock contemporaries have gotten maudlin, Cactus 12 emotes with backbone. If cheeks are wet, it’s mostly from sweat. Getz’s beefy guitar toughens…
Shaken and Stirred
MON 8/8 Ask Tricia Denison to pick her favorite Monday-night libation at Flo Café’s Martini Madness, and she immediately singles out her chocolate concoction. Among the couple dozen $5 drink specials, the Strawberry Shortcake — strawberry Stoli mixed with Frangelico and pineapple juice — has its fans. But it’s the S’moretini that keeps Denison hopping…
E.T. Comes Home
The Case of E.T. Hooley (“E.T. Hooley” for short) will reunite for the first time in 30 years to play a show Sunday, August 7, at the Savannah (30676 Detroit Road, Westlake). The band only recorded demos, but members of the group went on to play with the James Gang, Hall & Oates, Rod Stewart,…
Kill the Hippies
Admirable though the sentiment may be, Kill the Hippies is not a violently anti-hippie band. “I wanted the most cliché punk-rock band name possible,” says singer-guitarist Matt “Morte” Treehorn, identified in the Kent trio’s press release as its “founding mutant.” “I thought to myself, if the kids on Eight Is Enough ever went to see…
Rad Santa
WED 8/10 Christmas comes every Wednesday night this summer for the Chippewa Lake Water Ski Show Team. During its weekly theme show, Searching for S.C. , a water-skiing Santa Claus and 35 elves go on vacation to Florida. Fourteen different stunts are performed in the show — from a four-tiered human pyramid to an “adagio,”…
Danko Jones
Danko Jones bounded out of Toronto in 1996 as a well-oiled power trio that sweated irony. The eponymous singer had the persona of a stand-up comic with an indie rock band on the side, but when Jones hit the stage, he flaunted a feather boa and sick guitar chops — like a fruity Jimi Hendrix.…
Grape Escape
8/5-8/6 Although Jim Iubelt grew up in Southern California, he dismisses his home state when it comes to making wine. And he points to his fellow winemakers at Vintage Ohio to make his case. This weekend, more than 20 vintners from Northeast Ohio will peddle their wines, which they claim are on par with their…
Gretchen Wilson
If you take music awards at face value, then Kanye West had every right to throw a tantrum when country pinup Gretchen Wilson beat the hip-hop star for the Best New Artist trophy at the American Music Awards earlier this year. Where West oversees the writing and production of all his raps, Wilson’s career has…
Return of the Razzle-Dazzle
8/5-8/6 Brenda Braxton, who plays Velma Kelly in the touring production of Chicago that comes to town this weekend, isn’t worried that the success of the 2002 movie version of the hit musical will keep people away from the theater. “It’s a whole different ballgame,” she says. “There’s no telling what can happen.” Like? “We…
Gwar
Before puke-punk legend G.G. Allin died of a drug overdose in 1993, critics penned disclaimers about his gory, self-mutilation-driven live shows. One pundit wrote, “Unless you’re trying out for a very tough detergent commercial, don’t sit anywhere near the stage.” The same warning holds true for that twisted and theatrical metal band Gwar, although the…
White Trash
And so, once more, the movie house emits the stink of the network rerun, this week offering yet another worthless big-screen take on small-screen detritus. As Hollywood wonders — cries, actually, over spilt spoiled milk — why audiences are staying away from theaters, offering theories ranging from the absence of such phenoms as The Passion…
Smog
Like Santiago, the grizzled fisherman in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Bill Callahan (aka Smog) spends much of his gripping 12th album exploring the notion that “a man can be destroyed, but not defeated.” The songs on A River Ain’t Too Much to Love are mostly spartan, acoustic-folk arrangements colored with bits of…
Home Fires Burning
If you’re trying to navigate the gulf between the absolutist view inside Fortress Bush and the relativist politics of Western Europe, you need go no further than Brothers, a provocative new drama from Denmark. Superficially, it’s an intimate and rather self-contained film, but director Susanne Bier (Open Hearts, The One and Only) asks some big…
Le Tigre
When Kathleen Hanna and her band Le Tigre did the unthinkable and signed with Universal last year, riot grrrls past and present gasped and waited with bated breath to see what would happen when the indie prom queen released a major-label album. What Hanna did was grab the mainstream by the pom-poms and release an…
24-Hour Pouty People
So little time, so much trouble. In the 24-hour period that’s dissected in Heights, the first feature from Chris Terrio (whose background includes Harvard, Cambridge, and USC film school), an aspiring Manhattan photographer named Isabel (Elizabeth Banks) gets cold feet about her upcoming marriage to a dull but pleasant lawyer named Jonathan (James Marsden); a…
Split Lip Rayfield
Does the word “bluegrass” excite you about as much as sipping sarsaparilla with your grandpa? Well, Split Lip Rayfield will burn those preconceptions from your brain. And if you’re a true-blue bluegrass fan, don’t let the Split Lip boys’ tattoos and punk-rock past scare you off. These guys know how to pick, pluck, and harmonize.…
