Life of Bliss
Best friends since they started singing together in a Kentucky church choir more than 20 years ago, Renée Ananda and Aim Me Smiley found themselves on “parallel planes” in Chicago in 1995. Ananda had filed for divorce from her abusive husband; Smiley had broken up with her college theater professor. “We had a merge at…
The Axe Falls
In the early ’90s, when heavy metal desperately needed a Marx brother, it got two of them instead: Pantera’s Vinnie Paul and “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, a pair of randy Texans with Beavis and Butt-head grins and a shared love for making people vomit. As the founders of Pantera — which went from being a hair-metal…
Faint of Heart
Faint of Heart frontman Cleft S. doesn’t care if you’re a fat, ugly bore. He just wants someone to love. Especially after the sardonic, satanic doo-wop of his band’s debut, Kiss and Make-up, released earlier this year, somehow failed to result in long lines of ladies taking a number outside his bedroom door. But Cleft…
Little Victories
SAT 12/18 “We outdrew Hootie!” exclaims Justin Krol, drummer for Milwaukee-based Freshwater Collins, about his band’s southeast tour of NASCAR tracks last summer. “Hootie & the Blowfish were playing on one of the other stages, and we outdrew them by several thousand people. It was a good night for us.” The quartet — a funk-pop…
ClePunk: The Novel
After outing Fredo Corleone and explaining what happened to Sonny’s daughter in The Godfather Returns, ex-Clevelander Mark Winegardner plans to set his next book in Cleveland’s 1970s punk and porn scenes. “They’re both really fascinating,” Winegardner says of the city’s rust-era subcultures. “In Cleveland in the ’70s, you had the feeling that things couldn’t get…
U Sing With the Band
If you’ve been in Cleveland for more than 10 minutes, you’ve probably seen former Warrant guitarist Billy Morris’s self-titled band play. For a limited time only, you can fill Jani Lane’s shoes, taking the stage as frontman for a heavy-metal karaoke session. So have yourself a very metal Christmas.
Get the Dawgs Howlin’
SUN 12/19 No, you’re not seeing things. That really is former Saturday Night Live bandleader and guitarist G.E. Smith playing at every Browns home game this season. Turns out, Smith and team owner Randy Lerner are Long Island neighbors. “Randy needed some adjustment on his guitar, and we ended up spending the afternoon playing on…
Robert Lockwood Jr. and Gene Schwartz
The brain trust at the Beachland has always been especially attuned to the unique musical treasures, both past and present, associated with this town. For proof, we need look no further than the periodic appearances of the long-standing duo of Delta/Chicago-blues icon Robert Lockwood Jr. and the Euclid-bred drag-racer-turned-bass-player, Gene Schwartz. While Lockwood himself has…
’80s Prom Night
The first half of the year was a killer. Hardy Jenns cheated on Amanda. Then Andy Clark almost got suspended from the wrestling team. Then Steff (the kid who looks like James Spader) kept Blane and Andie from getting together. And Spicoli had pizza delivered to Mr. Hand’s class. Then Stacy, Rat, and Damone had…
Before They Are Stars
SAT 12/18 Floyd Swoope had never heard anything like Adrenaline Rush. When the Cleveland-area band auditioned for the Production Stage Classic, its 14-year-old singer rapped in Spanish. “They don’t know what the heck she’s saying,” says Swoope, producer of the American Idol-style talent search. “But people love it.” Since mid-August, Swoope and four other judges…
The Exploited
The Exploited Metal fans may best know the Exploited for writing the worst Slayer song, “Disorder,” a 1993 cover of the U.K. punk icons’ “our-government-is-fucked” anthem. Old-school punks know them best for their proper debut, 1981’s roughshod classic, Punk’s Not Dead. New-school punks with some knowledge of old-school punk may know the band’s “Sex and…
Complex Messiah
12/16-12/17 Robert Porco, the Cleveland Orchestra’s director of choruses, is as in love with Handel’s Messiah as he was when he first conducted it 25 years ago. The famous oratorio only grows more exciting with time, he says: “I’m turned on by it whenever we do it.” Porco leads the orchestra and its 65-member chorus…
Tsunami Bomb
As a Warped Tour staple, Tsunami Bomb provides a refreshing estrogenic oasis from bratty boy-punk outfits and their arid angst. By the end of the band’s sets, fans are often dancing — a rarity at any rock show, let alone one taking place outdoors in 100-degree heat. Granted, many of the people pushing to the…
Sour Lemony
This much can be said for the movie version of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events: Its villain, Count Olaf, just might be Jim Carrey’s finest screen role. A bitter, would-be master thespian who delights in donning ridiculous disguises and adopting funny accents, he doesn’t seem that far removed from what Carrey might be…
Lostprophets
Due at least partly to the fact that Americans find English accents adorable, U.K. alt-metal bands don’t seem nearly as threatening as their American counterparts. For all the band’s screamo fits, Funeral for a Friend is ultimately as non-threatening as Clay Aiken on his Christmas disc, while Wales sextet Lostprophets sound even more Wonder Bread.…
All You Can Eat
In Spanglish, which is less a story than a snapshot of a crumbling marriage populated by sitcom characters, Adam Sandler plays John Clasky, an average man with an above-average life. With his burgeoning double chin always covered in a slight shadow of stubble, he’s a celebrated chef who runs his own fabulously successful restaurant in…
Rockabilly Holiday
Right about the time that Jack Earls should have been basking in acclaim as one of the handful of greats to come from the rock-and-roll wellspring that was Sam Phillips’ Sun Records, he was working on an assembly line at a Chrysler plant in Detroit. Best known for his rollicking single “Slow Down,” cut in…
Gospel Truth
‘Tis the season for familiar and heartwarming holiday melodies. But alas, repeated exposure can cause even Bing Crosby’s intoxicating croon of “White Christmas” to go as flat as unspiked eggnog. That’s why Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity, originally developed in 1961, is such a refreshing change from the music-box regularity of other tuneful entertainments. By putting…
Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes
It appears that Southside Johnny Lyon doesn’t want to go home, even though his native city is undergoing something of a renaissance these days. Asbury Park, New Jersey, has gone from honky-tonk seaside playground to economic doldrums to up-and-coming destination for the trendy, thanks to its being one of the few burgs in the Garden…
Speedwagon This
While few among us would actually sell our souls to the devil, exchanging a brief lifetime of success and fame for an eternity of pain and damnation, we’d all probably like to be given the opportunity. Such is the lure of celebrity. This is precisely the chance fledgling rocker Michael Stanley is offered in the…
Lloyd Banks
Lloyd Banks is garnering the kind of acclaim Jadakiss earned, back in the late ’90s, and for the same reasons: a series of high-profile mixtapes, an alliance with a superstar rap crew (50 Cent’s platinum-certified G-Unit), and a distinct voice, cool and husky, that expresses a surprising elegance. Banks is just as obsessed with hits…
Caution: Faulty Road Work Ahead
Who knows why Ferris Kleem tried to build a railroad embankment out of mud? The only person who knows is Kleem, and he’s not talking. The whole idea was crazy. Kleem’s company, Blaze Building Corporation, won a $21 million contract to build a railroad underpass in Berea. The project called for Kleem to dig a…
On Stage
A Christmas Carol — This beloved ghost tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and his mystical road trip from cheapskate to effusive lover of humanity is a familiar annual production, though here it seems more contemporary than ever: Victorian England’s laissez-faire approach to the indigent and Scrooge’s own take (“Prisons and workhouses should suffice for the idle…
Clay Aiken
Clay Aiken is a picture-perfect example of the adage that “winning isn’t everything.” Since he came in a close second on American Idol’s 2003 finale, the self-described “skinny, redheaded, geeky little dork from the South” has done everything but lose. His debut album, Measure of a Man, sold millions. His squeaky-clean image has inspired an…
Striketown
The e-mail lit up in-boxes across the newsroom. Workers at The Vindicator, a Youngstown newspaper, had gone on strike, and Peter Bhatia, editor of The Oregonian in Portland, wanted to help a brother out. “Our parent company is helping the management in Youngstown continue to publish by supplying workers . . .,” he told his…
On View
NEW In the Spirit of the Season — The Edge Art Gallery presents over 60 artworks by Christian artists from Northeast Ohio in this inaugural juried show. The gallery walls are filled with affordable artworks in chalk pastels, oil paintings, ceramics, glass, photography, prints, and sculpture. Many tend to be realistically rendered, such as Stacy…
Mark Sandman
The main man of Morphine, bassist and singer Mark Sandman (1953-1999), had a lot of music in him. Before the 1990 formation of that unique trio — saxophone, bass, and drums, with no guitars or keys — Sandman anchored the Massachusetts roots-rock outfit Treat Her Right. During and between those gigs, he was apparently a…
Stoll Survivors
Not even a broken arm could keep Cesar from work. A hoodie-clad 24-year-old with a gold filling that frames one tooth, Cesar had been working as a cow pusher at Stoll Farms for only three days when the accident happened. As he herded cattle from the milking parlor back to the barn, a stubborn cow…
Public Holiday
Holiday shopping just isn’t what it used to be, and a quick stroll around downtown Medina’s historic Public Square drives home the point. At least one of our favorite boutiques has folded in past months. A fair evening finds no one but us admiring the tall Christmas tree in the square’s pretty gazebo. And the…
Ashanti
In connection with any Ashanti album, the red herring has always been the vocal ability — or, more precisely, the lack of it –of Murder Inc.’s gal Friday. Okay, so she’s not a great singer. But it’s not like pop music is filled with budding Aretha Franklins these days. Before millions of viewers, Ashlee Simpson…
Guns Don’t Kill People
Chad Baus knows what could have kept Dimebag Darrell alive: More guns. The morning after a kook gunned down the Damageplan guitarist and three others in a Columbus nightclub, Ohioans for Concealed Carry was on the soapbox, decrying the state law barring guns in bars. If each of the 250 people rocking Alrosa Villa had…
Mango’s Tangos East
Our favorite fictitious bon vivant, Johnny “Every time I eat, my mouth sings” Mango, has finally opened the doors of his second world café and bar, in downtown Willoughby (4113 Erie Street, 440-975-8811). For fans of Mango’s intimate (okay, crowded) Ohio City digs, the new 114-seat space may seem pretty cavernous. But don’t be shy:…
The Makers
It seems that the Makers’ habit of bending their image/sound to the trend of the moment (first ’60s frat rock, then ’70s punk, then glam boys) has finally landed them in the pile of generic trash-rock bands clogging up the $3 used bin at Coconuts. On this release, a stopgap until their next record, the…
Give Us the Business
Give Us the Business Local talent gets a piece of the action: Regarding the “Uh Oh in Ohio” piece [November 10]: It was disappointing to read the second Scene piece in a couple of months slamming the Cleveland film industry. Punch said, “Left coasters are eating up the budget, while the local production crew is…
Up From the Ashes
Though Chimaira has sold more than 80,000 copies of its latest LP, toured the world, and regularly graced MTV 2’s Headbanger’s Ball, lead guitarist Rob Arnold still calls rhythm guitarist Matt DeVries “M.F.A.” (“Man From Ascension”) — Ascension being DeVries’ pre-Chimaira band that won’t stay dead. On a recent Thursday afternoon shortly before Chimaira’s nightly…
New York Dolls
From 1971 to 1974, the New York Dolls were the best rock-and-roll band on the planet. They never rose above their cult following, but they planted the seeds of glam and punk, and fanned the flames of guttersnipe art in the grim years of singer-songwriter hegemony. The Dolls were always sloppy, even at their best,…
Change of Hobbit
After three years of hosting marathon readings of The Lord of the Rings books, Gordon Jardy is trying something new this year: a Lord of the Rings DVD Extended Movie Marathon Celebration, happening Saturday at Cleveland State University. That’s right — more than 11 ass-numbing hours of Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy, with stops for food…
Gettin’ Together
Your buddy pops an unknown cassette into your car’s tape deck. Your latest crush burns you a mix CD. One of your co-workers e-mails you some MP3s. Your cool older brother hips you to his vinyl collection. Shootin’ the shit in the mall, the quad, the break room: That’s how we discover new sounds and…
Robert Downey Jr.
Insert drug reference here, ’cause somebody’s snortin’ (shootin’, smokin’) some serious shit: the guy who made it, the company that released it, or the customer who buys it, take your pick — though we’d vote for all three and hide our stash. The vocals strenuously aim for Peter Gabriel’s rasp, but wearily hit Dave Matthews’…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, December 16 Twenty-three-year-old Mieka Pauley comes Starbucks-approved. The Boston-bred singer-songwriter — who’s also a Harvard grad, with a degree in biological anthropology — is featured on the coffee chain’s latest compilation CD of hand-picked unsigned artists. Her deep voice and probing songs (as well as her doe eyes) recall Fiona Apple’s, without all of…
Boxing the Rock
Since the advent of downloading and CD burning, the humble little CD has fallen from the ranks of “Nothing says I love you like . . .” gifts to the mere-stocking-stuffer department. These days, for a gift of music to make a real statement, you have to dig deep into your wallet and pony up…
Who Killed Marilyn?
In trendy rock circles, the concept of grounding a band in a single genre has become obsolete. Everybody juxtaposes radio-friendly crooning and metal riffing. Everybody screams as if they’re ending a bout of constipation and drops in double-bass rolls — even in pop tunes. On a theoretical level, the anti-form movement represents artistic freedom. On…
