Bastards Of Young
Saturday, December 27 Don't let the name fool you. The music of the Heartless Bastards burns with feeling and emotion. The power trio from Austin (via Cincinnati) blasts out blue-collar country rock that pits love and hate in an arena of static-filled guitars, blasting percussion and singer-songwriter Erika Wennerstrom's Janis Joplin-style moans. The band's third…
Black Is Back
It was supposed to be a magic moment. Even though they've announced a pair of reunion shows, Pink Holes bassist Cheese Borger and singer Les Black haven't seen each other in almost three years. Borger and Black were scheduled to meet at Edison's in Tremont for this interview, but Black was a no-show, despite several…
Culture Jamming: Read All About It
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (Barron's) It starts with the 1902 silent short A Trip to the Moon and ends with last year's There Will Be Blood. In between are the greatest films ever made. For every expected entry (look, there's Citizen Kane!), there's a little-known gem like the Greek coming-of-age tale…
Around Hear
While most of the world winds down the year with talk of peace and unity, Schnauzer and WCSB 89.3 FM's late-night freeform/talk program 669 are offering a dose of chaos and mayhem. On Saturday, December 27, the band will host a show at Pat's in the Flat's (2233 W. 3rd St.) to commemorate Krampus, a…
Local Arts News
The Cleveland Orchestra begins another concert stand at Carnegie Hall February 4, performing a different program each of three nights. Highlights include pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard in the New York premiere of George Benjamin's Duet for piano and orchestra, soprano Measha Brueggergosman in Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony No. 7 and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus…
Retirement Plan
There are no rounds of golf for the Father of Latrines. That's what they call Jimmy Carter in Ethiopia, after he taught privy-building to provide sanitation to control trachoma, the world's leading cause of preventable blindness. Most 84-year-olds are retired and taking it easy. Carter's retirement has included winning the Nobel Peace Prize. And the…
Coming Of Age
Director David Fincher bookends The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with two pieces of American history: U.S. troops fighting in World War I and the looming threat of Hurricane Katrina. In between, a timeline of historical and not-so-historical events plays out as one man grows up … or, more accurately, becomes a boy. Starting in…
Jingle Browns
This time of year, fans and players alike begin thinking of the holidays. At least, that's the way it is if you play or root for teams like the Cleveland Browns, for whom the playoffs are plainly absurd. In this vein, here are some Christmas carols you can sing as you wait for the season…
People Who Died
Death took its usual toll this year, and seemingly then some. Genocide, war, terrorist attacks, disease – yikes. But for the purposes of this tribute to influential cultural notables whose deaths deserve a little extra note, it was a terrible harvest. In addition to the loss of A-list names like Paul Newman and Heath Ledger,…
Local Reviews
Fascist Insect Fall of America (self-released) myspace.com/fascistinsect "Progressive crossover thrash" is probably a lame way to describe Cleveland's Fascist Insect, but they don't neatly fall into a specific genre. After two years together, the band has released its second EP, Fall of America. It pumps, pummels and even dances a little bit. The guitars are…
The Globetrotters And Holiday Fare Lead This Week’s Event Picks
Saturday 12.27 HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS In Fred "Curly" Neal's playbook, LeBron James doesn't measure up yet to basketball legends like Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Michael Jordan. But the retired Harlem Globetrotter wouldn't mind if the 23-year-old Cavs phenom signed with his beloved squad, which tangles with its nemesis, the Washington Generals, this afternoon at the…
Thrash the Halls
Chimaira let hometown metal fans pick their own late presents for the band’s 9th annual Chimaira Christmas show. Headbangers voted online to determine the metal heroes’ set, which will feature 18 favorites from the band’s catalog. The poll results are classified, but you can probably expect the power-surge title track from 2007’s Resurrection, which chronicled…
Halftime Report
Damn those literary geniuses. Once their impeccable prose invades our psyche, it's impossible to excise them. So when my editor requested a year-end wrap-up of theater highlights, all I could hear echoing in stereophonic Dickensian sound was "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." I suddenly found myself cast as…
It Was A Wonder-ful Life
Ohio Inspector General Thomas Charles dropped an early Christmas present under our tree Monday: his lengthy final report on the misdeeds of former Attorney General Marc Dann. Merry Christmas, Ohio! If you like your investigative assessments like you like your hot chocolate – steamy-hot, full of sugar and kind of gross – than this one's…
Holiday Music Lead’s This Week’s Arts Picks
OFF THE WALL Bob Peck at AJ Rocco's Saturday, December 27 Imagine if you could break off a piece of the Red Line wall and hang it in your living room. That's not a bad way to think of what Bob Peck is doing in his abstract works on canvas. It's as if you took…
Capsule Reviews Of Current Releases
Australia – Is Baz Luhrmann's sprawling epic Australia a love story? An adventure pic? A war flick? In the grand tradition of old-school Hollywood movies, Luhrmann's $130 million movie is all of these. Set in 1939, on the eve of Australia's involvement in World War II, English aristocrat Sarah Ashley (played with proper stick-up-her-ass form…
The Right Stauffenberg
NEW YORK – When U2 plays "Sunday, Bloody Sunday," Bono often introduces it saying, "There's been a lot of talk about this next song. This song is not a rebel song." Valkyrie director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, Superman Returns, X-Men) and star Tom Cruise recently echoed something approximating that sentiment as they sat in…
Short Takes
American Idols Frost/Nixon takes a backward glance at the Watergate scandal Frost/Nixon comes with an illustrious pedigree, including Ron Howard, one of America's underrated and solidly reliable directors; playwright-screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen) adapting his own stage play; Universal Pictures hoping for that Oscar buzz with a backward glance at Watergate; and thespian Frank Langella…
In This Corner, Weighing 14 Oz…
In a town like Cleveland, where corned beef seems to grow on trees, loyalty to a particular sandwich provider can be fierce. Ask a CB fan for a recommendation and the answer invariably will sound something like this: "Trust me, I have eaten corned beef all over the world, and X is the very best.…
Yes Man
Amusing return to 1990s form for manic funnyman Jim Carrey that should please his fans, after a string of not terribly popular non-comedic roles. As with Carrey’s 1997 film Liar Liar, it’s a simple-to-digest gimmick, as the star plays Carl, a Los Angeles bank-loan officer in a personal and professional slump, shunning commitments to friends…
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Released in 1951, The Day the Earth Stood Still is one of the few science-fiction films from that era that can still play to modern audiences as something other than camp. Sadly, that can’t be said about Scott Derrickson’s remake. The storyline remains familiar: Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) has been sent to earth by a coalition…
Marley and Me
Virtually nothing happens in the first half of this mundane romantic comedy that stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as John and Jennifer Grogan, a happy couple who decide to leave the Midwest behind for the warmer Florida climate. She’s an established journalist, and he has aspirations of becoming a hard news reporter. When John…
Russian Ark (Russia/Germany, 2002)
This film set in St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum condenses 300 years of Russian history into one continuous, 90-minute shot. Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. At 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 31.
Seven Pounds
Seven Pounds reunites actor Will Smith with Gabriele Muccino, the same director who made The Pursuit of Happyness. And like his character in that film, Smith plays Ben Thomas, a guy who’s seemingly always running from one problem to the next. Posing as an IRS agent, Ben visits people in need and makes personal sacrifices…
The Spirit
Hollywood struck gold with adaptations of Frank Miller’s graphic novels Sin City and 300. Miller even got to co-direct Sin City, and with this film based on Will Eisner’s The Spirit, he makes his solo directing debut. It’s a bold, visually stunning movie that’s long on style, but that can’t entirely compensate for a ho-hum…
Kick-starting A Tradition
Dwelling across the religious divide, I've always been addicted to the secular Hollywood yuletide glories that lie on that side of the fence. I grin every time Bing taps that Holiday Inn Christmas ornament with his pipe. I tear up every time Clarence gets his wings and hyperventilate every time Rudolph "with his nose so…
The Surreal World
A curious but not unappealing blend of Eastern European magical realism and a lovable-old-coot Lifetime movie, Love Comes Lately could only have come from the pen of Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer. Based on three of Singer’s short stories (The Briefcase, Alone and Old Love), Lately is framed as a contemporary Yiddish folk tale.…
Short Takes
Jim Carrey returns to- funnyman form- with Yes Man A little more than a decade ago, comedy superstar Jim Carrey mugged his way through a hit fracas called Liar Liar as a slippery attorney suddenly hit by a magic spell that forced him always to tell the truth. Since then, the Carrey fan base (the…
Rivers Cuomo, Common, And Maroon 5 Lead This Week’s New Releases
Rivers Cuomo Alone 2: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (Geffen) Like last year's Alone, this second collection of solo demos by the Weezer frontman works best when Cuomo stays on familiar ground. So the glistening power-pop of "I Was Scared" and "My Brain Is Working Overtime" rock; the plodding "Come to My Pod" and…
Local Reviews
The Dreadful Yawns Take Shape (Exit Stencil) myspace.com/thedreadfulyawns After three records, the Dreadful Yawns have lost a little of their folksy-sounding style and replaced it with some grit and fuzz. The Yawns, who have several multi-instrumentalists in the band, still manage to create simple and catchy tunes on Take Shape. On "Queen and the Jokester,"…
Whiskey Daredevils
No matter who else is in town, the Whiskey Daredevils are always Clevelanders’ best bet for a loose and boozy Friday night. The high-octane country-punks (who rose from the ashes of the beloved Cowslingers) serve up a stiff cocktail of psychobilly tunes about deep-fried chicken, Mickey’s Big Mouths, and a genuine love for everything rock…
Mongol paints a historically hazy but kick-ass picture of everyone’s fave emperor, Genghis Khan
You want a history lesson? Take a class. You want clanging swords, sneering villains, storybook romance, and bloody vengeance? Here’s a brawny old-school epic to make the CGI tumult of 300, Alexander, and Troy look like sissy-boy slap parties. “Do not scorn the weak cub; he may become the brutal tiger,” Mongol’s opening title card…
Going for the Greens
Today’s Bobcat Big Stick Challenge fits the bill for duffers who want to get their money’s worth on an awesome golf course. Courtesy of Ohio University’s Greater Cleveland alumni chapter and following 18 holes on the links and a catered barbecue dinner, you could go home with autographed Browns gear, cornhole kits, and gift certificates…
Intergrity returns with new music, lineup, and tour
Integrity has reunited for a European tour and will soon release a new EP and album, which are the Cleveland band’s first recordings since 2003. For the current trek, the iconic group is opening for Converge, one of hardcore’s biggest groups. “Integrity are one of the most interesting bands of the entire metallic hardcore genre,”…
Discourse Reviews
Thursday (Epitaph) After two albums on Island, New Jersey band Thursday is back on the indie-label circuit. The group fell victim to the cuts at the major label and seized the opportunity to sign with a company that would allow it to more fully explore its political side. Common Existence, the band’s fifth album, retains…
Local Foodie News
Ask any avid, well-traveled Cleveland diner what this city lacks and more than likely the reply will be a French brasserie. In New York, places like Balthazar and Les Halles are perennially packed, thanks to exceedingly appealing menus coupled with a spirited scene. With the opening of L'Albatros (11401 Bellflower Rd., 216.791.7880, albatrosbrasserie.com), that culinary…
Shwayze
The economy is in the toilet. The automobile industry is in turmoil. An unpopular war continues in Iraq. However, rapper Shwayze pays no attention to the top stories. He and his right hand man, DJ Cisco Adler, ignore what's going on. Shwayze raps about what he knows, which is his beloved cannabis ("Lazy Days"), beer…
Sonny Landreth
Guitarist Sonny Landreth is so respected by his peers, he got axe-masters Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler to play on his new album, From the Reach. The Louisiana bluesman ranks as one of the planet’s greatest slide players. His solos sing rather than tear, but he’s quite capable of ripping off a finger-bleeding run every…
Frankie Valli and his Seasons are brought to life in Playhouse Square’s Jersey Boys
If you’re still mourning the loss of Paulie Walnuts, the Bada Bing, and acid-tongued Adriana, you can get a bit of that feeling back — along with a hell of a lot of great music — in Jersey Boys at Playhouse Square Center. This touring production is as tight as Frankie Valli’s falsetto-stretched vocal cords,…
What a Drag
To mark its golden anniversary this year, the Painesville Speedway is letting fans get behind the wheels of their own cars to race each other in its weekly Parking Lot Drags series. For an entry fee, each competitor can race a one-lap preliminary round before the fastest pair of drivers reaches the finals for a…
Heath Ledger Peers Into the Void as Christopher Nolan’s Batman Returns
What a brooding pleasure it is to return to Christopher Nolan’s Gotham City — if “pleasure” is the right word for a movie that gazes so deeply and sometimes despairingly into the souls of restless men. In The Dark Knight, the continuation of Nolan’s superb 2005 reboot of the Batman franchise, Batman Begins, fair Gotham…
Discourse Reviews
Dominick Farinacci Lovers, Tales & Dances (Koch) dominickfarinacci.com As the title of Cleveland native Dominick Farinacci’s U.S. debut suggests, Lovers, Tales & Dances is a highly romantic, moonlit record. It features Farinacci’s clear, forceful trumpet and flugelhorn within a star-studded small group, occasionally backed by lush strings. The record’s first half is strong, beginning with…
The Surreal World
A curious but not unappealing blend of Eastern European magical realism and a lovable-old-coot Lifetime movie, Love Comes Lately could only have come from the pen of Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer. Based on three of Singer's short stories (The Briefcase, Alone and Old Love), Lately is framed as a contemporary Yiddish folk tale.…
Around Hear: Walk With A Zombie
This Moment in Black History headlines a benefit for Zombie Proof Recording Studio Tuesday, December 23, at the Beachland Tavern (15711 Waterloo Rd.). The studio has recorded A-list indie bands, including Roué, Homostupids (also on the night's bill) and Boatzz. "It's a pretty rad place," says TMIBH frontman Chris Kulcsar. "Zombie Proof is an amazing,…
Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren might be a Philly guy, but the progressive art-pop pioneer has always had a rabid fan base in Cleveland. After a much-publicized stint with the New Cars a couple of years ago, Rundgren is set to celebrate his 60th birthday with a return to his celebrated solo career. Technically, House of Blues is…
A spotty storyline undermines the magic of Cain Park’s The Wiz
It’s a good thing that almost everyone who sees The Wiz at Cain Park will arrive fully armed with the story of Dorothy, Toto, and the wicked witch. Because if they didn’t, it would be damn hard to figure out what the hell is happening onstage. This adaptation of the classic The Wizard of Oz…
Riffs & Raffles
Weezer tribute band Weener headlines tonight’s benefit concert after the unexpected February death of its bassist, Mike Curtin. The fund-raiser also spotlights his former band, Downtown Daggers, while organizers raffle off artwork and gift certificates from Addicted Tattoo and Melt. “Mike was a burly, bearded guy with a shaved head, who was one of the…
From Russia, With Love
French director Bertrand Normand, a devotee of the ballet, made the documentary for French television, focusing on female dancers of the Mariinsky (formerly Kirov) Ballet of St. Petersburg. Normand’s view, like that of Mariinsky Theatre director Makhar Vasiev, is that “the ballet is first and foremost the art of the ballerina.” Russia, according to the…
O Holy Crap!
As the Indians cross items off their Christmas wish list and the Browns burn through an economy pack of Bics adding to theirs, fans have a few more days to hammer out the details of their missives to Santa. The question is: What do we want? An NFLShop.com commercial shows a husband cutting his finger…
A White-hot Christmas
One of the region's coolest cover bands, Missile Toe made its debut at Akron's Daily Double on December 26, 1997. A side project featuring members of local post-punk bands like C.D. Truth and Planet Log 3000, Missile Toe began as a lark, specializing in Christmas songs and Johnny Thunders covers. After more than a decade…
Royal Bangs
Knoxville’s Royal Bangs record for Audio Eagle, the local label owned by the Black Keys’ Patrick Carney. Little surprise that the group makes a guitar-fueled racket on its debut, We Breed Champions. But the random noise blasts, kinda-poppy riffs, and free-for-all party jams have a whole lotta soul, considering they’re played by a bunch of…
Blast Works makes blowing stuff up DIY-friendly
The words “user-generated content” usually mean you’re about to encounter one of two things: an irritating Super Bowl commercial made by 16-year-olds, or another dramatic chipmunk. Still, people love this stuff. So it’s no surprise that video-game developers are catering to the YouTube generation with “Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy” — a phenomenal little shooter…
High on the Hog
Even after nearly 20 years, Dave Bundus still fondly reminisces about hopping on his first Harley motorcycle and tooling to the Flats with his buddies. Their mission was to impress the ladies by rolling by the old Beach Club in their leather gear, as if they were a teen version of Hells Angels. “It seems…
A Graphic Artist
Although widely considered to be Japan’s greatest living filmmaker, Nagisa Oshima is unknown to most contemporary North American arthouse habitués. The fact that Oshima has directed only one film — 2000’s surreal gay samurai flick Taboo — in the past 23 years is partially responsible for this. But the lack of quality prints of some…
Plain Dealt
As December arrived, The Plain Dealer failed to live up to its name. For employees who got the axe, their final day was a scene straight out of the movie Office Space, a biting satire that chronicles workplace indignities. After 27 newsroom workers accepted an offer to walk away quietly, another two dozen were not…
A3
A3 — also known as Alabama 3 — is the band that plays the theme from The Sopranos, “Woke Up This Morning.” It’s their sound in a nutshell: blues, country, and a touch of gospel, all over electronic beats, with gruff howling-wolf vocals that sound like they’re from Alabama, though the band’s really British. But,…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations
Anything Goes — One of the hidden dangers in producing such a tried-and-true show as Anything Goes — a show studded generously with iconic Cole Porter tunes and written in part by acclaimed humorist P.G. Wodehouse — is that the company might slack off and allow the material to sell itself. Fortunately, this is unlikely…
Indian Summer
Sports fans may feel like they’re on a field of dreams this afternoon, when the Society for American Baseball Research hosts a roundtable of authors at the Cleveland Public Library’s main branch. The scribes include Tom Swift, who’s written Chief Bender’s Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star. “The organization has a reputation as…
A Pluckin’ Good Time
A string of good luck has surrounded ukulele phenom Jake Shimabukuro ever since he floored Conan O’Brien with his lightning-quick finger work on O’Brien’s late-night talk show last year. For starters, he scored a couple trophies for his 2007 CD, My Life, at Hawaii’s version of the Grammy Awards. Then he dueted with Yo-Yo Ma…
’til Death Do They Part
I don't think I actually became a reporter until I covered the city of Lorain for the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram early in this new millennium of media consolidation. It actually made me hungry – angry, even – for the news. And not a week went by that I didn't wish for the Lorain Morning Journal to…
The Long Blondes
Sometime between 2006’s Someone to Drive You Home and Couples, the Long Blondes glammed up their image. Not that the British quintet ever put substance before style, but frontwoman Kate Jackson and her band of early-’80s-pop fans pile on the new-romantic moves and post-disco grooves on their second album. Occasionally, Jackson recalls another artist who…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions
NEW They Never Saw It Coming — Graffiti is often illusionistic, but there is no illusion in Clevelander Bob Peck’s exhibition. He presents his art, both abstract and representational work, in a smorgasbord of media, alongside biographical musings scribbled on the wall. He even includes a video documenting his work process. This provides viewers with…
Pool Spools
The Cleveland Metroparks system unreels the baseball flick The Sandlot for tonight’s kickoff of its summertime monthly Dive-In Movie Series in Hinckley Township. As the movie starts to roll, parkgoers can eyeball it from rented inner tubes while floating in the park’s pool. “It’s a great way to cool off. Most people have been known…
Around Hear
Destructor bassist Dave Iannicca was murdered New Year’s Eve 1987. Members of his family and band have organized a petition to deny parole to his killer, who was sentenced to life in prison but becomes eligible for release in May. The petition, online at petitiononline.com/iannicca, has more than 2,400 signatures so far. Letters can also…
A Study in Contrasts
“Well, I think obviously I had more say.” This is Dan Auerbach’s assessment of the difference between his new solo album and the music he’s recorded as the singer-guitarist half of the Black Keys. Released February 10, Keep It Hid represents no deliberate move on his part to distance himself from the sound of the…
Such A Lot Of Fools
The death knell for radio broadcasting rang in early 1996. Too bad it took three years for me and many of my fellow ex-newscasters and DJs to hear the beginning of the slow, mournful drone of the funeral march. Not that any of us were blind to the sweeping changes that resulted from the Telecommunications…
Matmos
Matmos’ Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt turn the concept of source material into an invitation to play around. When birdcage vibrations or a surgeon’s clean cuts are chopped and pulsed through Matmos’ digital blender, it sounds like technology working in the real world. On their seventh album of Technicolor electro, Daniel and Schmidt flip over…
El Tropical: Another shady nightclub ignored by Joe Santiago
“Legally, you got my hands tied,” says Reno Ventura, a man with the hairless, doughy enormousness of a carnival pipe-bender. “If I take matters into my own hands, I’m going to jail. If I have to buy a machine gun and take care of this problem for them . . .” He nurses a Pepsi…
Grape Expectations
Nearly 30 vintners from around the country pop the cork on more than 220 varieties of vino at this weekend’s Cleveland Wine Festival. The third annual blowout also pays tribute to the Buckeye State’s best Chablis, Chardonnays, and Cabernets in the “Our Ohio Wine and Food Pavilion.” To help sop up the wine, Stancato’s, Fahrenheit,…
SURVIVING THE SANDSCAPE
Several cutting-edge, anti-establishment theaters jumped on this script when it began making the rounds prior to the November election. BNC here in Cleveland and the Halcyon Theatre in Chicago were the sites for a “rolling world premiere” that began at the Know Theatre in Cincinnati last October. At this stage of its development, Militant Language…
Brent Smith
Jacksonville-based hard rockers Shinedown have gone through numerous lineup changes in its eight years together. Yet singer Brent Smith, who spoke via phone from his Orlando home, maintains the band hasn’t suffered from it, boasting that it’s “the most honest band in existence on earth today.” Just back from its first European headlining tour that…
Strings Attached
In 2004, Plain Dealer music critic Don Rosenberg toured Europe with the Cleveland Orchestra. Among his reports was a story that told Cleveland what music director Franz Welser-Mšst had been saying to the European press. Under the headline "Many Rich Widows," Rosenberg recounted what Welser-Mšst said to the Swiss weekly magazine, Die Weltwoche, including his…
Lil Wayne
Tha Carter III is destined to become a stoner classic, and it should silence any critic who thought Lil Wayne could never make a cohesive album. The raspy-voiced rapper’s vision and self-confidence have improved exponentially since the humorless mishmash of styles on 2005’s Tha Carter II. This is pop-rap to giggle over and marvel at…
Could the port relocation be Cleveland’s next great blunder?
If the thought of 10 Euclid Corridors scares you, perhaps you should take a closer look at Cleveland’s port relocation plan. While freeing up the downtown waterfront sounds dandy, our city planners have proved to have all the foresight of that really cute 8-year-old in the special-ed class. The port relocation is estimated to cost…
Gal Thursday
Tonight’s math is simple at Scalpers: Free drinks plus thirsty chicks equal a packed house. “Our Ladies’ Night is very popular,” says co-owner Frank Pines. “To go away from that would be kinda counter to our interests. In a word, stupid.” That’s why domestic brews and well drinks are on the house for the gals…
The Story of Homeless Violinist Nathaniel Ayers
We’ve been hearing the story of homeless violinist Nathaniel Ayers’ relationship with journalist Steve Lopez since Lopez’s book The Soloist came out almost a year ago. Lopez met Ayers by chance when he heard him playing a beat-up, two-stringed instrument in Los Angeles. Lopez arranged for a musical instrument locker and other services in the…
Are You Ready for the Country?
Nashville has a reputation for turning out crap. And rightfully so: Toby Keith’s good-ol’-boy flag-wavers and Rascal Flatts’ power ballads are enough to drive anyone to drinking. Plus, Music City recently gave Jessica Simpson and Hootie & the Blowfish’s Darius Rucker new careers (and No. 1 albums). But not all country music sucks. And we’re…
Holiday-themed Events Lead This Week’s Picks
Thursday 12.18 CHRISTMAS MUSIC LIGHT SHOW The Ghostly Manor in Sandusky sheds its typically ghoulish image to make merry for the holidays at the second annual Christmas Music Light Show. You can credit a Miller Lite TV spot for inspiring owners Bill and Jayme Criscione to choreograph a 75,000-light display that "dances" to five holiday…
Gavin Rossdale
Back in the day, kids gobbled up Bush lyrics (“Blue asbestos in your veins/I’m your broken fingers,” for example) like they were written by an alt-rock William S. Burroughs. Frontman Gavin Rossdale knew his audience. The high-school dropout once told an interviewer that the square root of 121 was 9, and neither he nor his…
Letters published June 25, 2008
“Endangered Species,” June 11 Barren Bullpen Showboating NBA steals MLB’s black base: I was pleasantly surprised with your article and found it to be fairly well written and researched. I was somewhat confused by some of your statistics, in that you seem to not include black players who are also of Hispanic descent. But that…
Gimme a Break-UpComic guru puts the kibosh on doomed talk show, bad relationships.
San Francisco-born comic Greg Behrendt admits he’s a “bad-decision expert.” Case in point: His ill-fated talk show, which ran for a season in 2006. “I certainly enjoyed it,” says the 44-year-old Behrendt. “At the same time, it was a struggle to do what they said we were going to do, and not turn it into…
right Angular
A three-sided enclosure of narrow, unpainted boards abuts the gallery wall, a DIY sketch in three dimensions. Still stapled to the end of one board, a black-and-white skew number and bar-code tag echoes the overall color scheme of Christian Wulffen’s installation at MOCA Cleveland’s Ginn Gallery. It’s also provocatively informal. The fence itself is propped…
Nightwatch
Hanzel und Gretyl Don’t let the fairy-tale name fool you. Hanzel und Gretyl — the New York -based duo of Vas Kallas and Kaiser Von Loopy — started as a quirky futuristic vision, using a patchwork of samples, drum loops and dirty guitars to promote their tongue-in-cheek theme of “machines good, people bad.” Their 1995…
Cleveland Peeps
The definition of local books can be just about as broad as a reader wants to make it: books written by local people; books published by any of our handful of active presses; books published anywhere, written by anyone who uses the city or region or state or anything that happened here as subject matter;…
Story of the Year
Like Linkin Park, St. Louis’ Story of the Year sidesteps subtlety and drives home each and every point with ear-piercing screams, amp-shredding riffs, and world-in-crisis lyrics. Its third album, The Black Swan, kicks off with “Choose Your Fate,” an anti-Bush larynx-ripper that culminates in a bludgeoning “Liar!” delivered by singer Dan Marsala as if his…
Hip to Be Square
TOP PICK — Square Pegs: The Complete Series (Sony Pictures) Way before she chatted about vibrators and blowjobs on Sex and the City, Sarah Jessica Parker starred in this 1982 TV series about two geeky girls making their way through high-school hell. This three-disc DVD includes all 19 episodes from the cult fave, which features…
Food for Thought
As last year’s winning chef at A Tasteful Affair, Light Bistro owner Matt Mathlage plates up words of wisdom for the four culinary whizzes who’ll compete tonight for the treasured Iron Fork trophy. For starters, “Be as original as possible” with the secret ingredient that must be used in the two dishes they’ll prepare. “This…
TES ONE, Two, Three
Leon Bedore — a.k.a. Tes One — started painting graffiti around Tampa Bay in 1992, and like most illegal painters, he used mostly spray paint. Tis technique has evolved, and these days his works have moved from train tracks and abandoned corners of the Sunshine State into art galleries and, at least while his portrait…
FINE, I’LL DO IT MYSELF
IT ISN’T EASY being on Cleveland City Council if you’re maneuvering outside Council President Martin Sweeney’s tenuous East Side majority. It’s a little like being an elephant in the lion cage or a Democrat in Columbus. For some, it means having to work harder just to have your voice heard, only to be ignored in…
Lots Of Holiday Fare In This Week’s Arts Picks
FIDDLING ABOUT Eileen Ivers fronts the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall Thursday Maybe Irish fiddler Eileen Ivers had no choice but to cross over into other musical genres. Born to immigrant parents, she grew up in New York's diverse Bronx. And as a teen, winning medal after medal performing in traditional style at Irish music…
Wolf Parade
Montreal’s Wolf Parade refuses to release any singles from its second album. That’s really not an industry-shattering decision, since an indie-rock band like Wolf Parade doesn’t actually tear up the Top 40 chart. Still, the open-endedness leaves impressionable bloggers without a single song to praise or dismiss, whatever the case might be. But it turns…
Rotten to the Core
Ask Pop Shop manager Jeff Hulligan about the 90 pieces in his new exhibit, and he’ll point you in the direction of at least 15 painters and paparazzi, whose reps aptly fit the theme behind The Bad Apple Show. “The greatest artists are often kinda disturbed,” he says, with a tongue firmly planted in his…
Class Acts
Grey’s Anatomy star James Pickens Jr. and Deliver Us From Eva actress Kym Whitley return to their Cleveland roots today to help install the third class of inductees of the Karamu House Hall of Fame.The homecoming starts this morning with the pair fielding questions about their Tinseltown careers at a free workshop, “Inside the Performer’s…
GARDENS VARIETY
Grey Gardens is a hothouse musical extravaganza inspired by a 1975 film documentary of the same name. It chronicles the Whatever-Happened-to-Baby-Jane relationship of Jackie Kennedy’s aunt, Edith Bouvier, and Bouvier’s daughter “Little Edie.” If flamboyant purveyors of musical theater weren’t eternally obsessed with massive, self-loving female gargoyles (see Hello, Dolly!), and if it weren’t for…
Cover Story
Given the state of the economy, it didn’t make sense to put on an extravagant Music Awards this year. So for this, Scene’s 10th annual Music Awards, we took over Sunday night’s Inner Sanctum — 92.3 FM’s local music show — to announce the Music Awards winners. Inner Sanctum host Pat the Producer, Live Nation’s…
David’s Redhaired What?
Until now, it's been mostly guy stuff by playwrights like Sam Shepard, Tracy Letts, Neil LaBute and Adam Rapp – kick-ass, provocative and highly theatrical plays designed to shake you up. With David's Redhaired Death now playing in its Cleveland space, the Bang and the Clatter Theatre Company makes a sharp turn toward the poetic,…
Coffin Brothers
On the Coffin Brothers’ debut EP, frontman Trevor Moment — who’s also a member of American Werewolves — channels doo-wop king Dion and jettisons the considerable subtlety of his other group. The Werewolves’ mix of hardcore and ’50s pop is much the same as in Moment’s new band, but faster — like they’re trying to…
Straight Shooters
Foosball tournaments have become a way of life during the last three years at John McNeill’s Manja nightclub in Lakewood. National-level players are even trekking from as far as the Canton area for a battle of the boards three times a week, on two new “tornado tables” — with Thursdays reserved just for beginners. “Some…
Years of record-company abuse can’t stop 16Volt from making industrial-size noise
After nearly two decades of making music, Eric Powell wants more. The mercurial mastermind behind 16Volt has recorded five albums since 1992, but he still feels he has lots left to say. “I have something to prove,” he says. Last year’s FullBlackHabit is no nostalgic throwback. It’s a surging statement of purpose from Powell, who…
F.E.A.R. Factor
TOP PICK F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros. Interactive) Ambiance is everything in this spooky videogame shooter (for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) about a girl with deadly psychic skills. Watch out for the vengeful poltergeists lurking in the abandoned subways, hospitals and labs. And be sure to take advantage of the special power…
Car Talk
Last month marked our 16th year of marriage. It is an in-between anniversary of sorts, setting no real benchmark, but surely worthy of recognition. Sweet Sixteen? Perhaps, although there will be no elaborate party, no frosted cake. Instead, I will illuminate the event by musing over the portion of the relationship between man and wife…
Capsule Reviews Of Current Releases
Australia – Is Baz Luhrmann's sprawling epic Australia a love story? An adventure pic? A war flick? In the grand tradition of old-school Hollywood movies, Luhrmann's $130 million movie is all of these. Set in 1939, on the eve of Australia's involvement in World War II, English aristocrat Sarah Ashley (played with proper stick-up-her-ass form…
Daniel Eli Weiss
In his day job as the Promise Hero’s guitarist, Daniel Eli Weiss plays Saves the Day-style pop-punk. On his solo debut, he sounds like Elliott Smith. In fact, casual Smith fans may even mistake “Never Woulda Guessed” and “Don’t Invite the Devil” for songs actually penned by the late singer-songwriter. But Weiss is so good…
Celluloid Hero
The original 1948 version of Superman flashes on the screen tonight to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Clark Kent’s creation by native Clevelanders Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The 15-part black-and-white serial will be played in all its 244-minute glory, unlike its initial screenings, when it was played in spurts before feature flicks. The 35-millimeter…
The latest batch of music DVDs includes Mr. Ashlee Simpson, three-fourths of the Beatles, and puking girls
In an effort to stabilize itself by any means necessary, the music industry releases almost as many music DVDs as CDs each week. They’re often no more than poorly shot concerts or compilations of videos; sometimes they’re hastily assembled documentaries. And most of the time, they totally suck. Here’s a look at some notable music-DVD…
Dining Bites
Grotto Wine Bar isn’t the only new neighbor at Shaker Square. In early January, Darna Fine Moroccan Cuisine (13114 Shaker Sq., 216.862.2910) opened in the spot long occupied by Luchita’s. The restaurant is owned and operated by Said Ouaddaadaa, the man behind both Bodega (1854 Coventry Rd., 216.932.3060) and Uptowne Grille (11312 Euclid Ave., 216.229.9711).…
Get Out!
Thursday, December 11 MIKE DIESEL D.C.-born comedian Mike Diesel distinctly remembers the first time he ever told a joke onstage. You would too if Bill Cosby plucked you from the audience when you were 7 because your shoestrings didn't match. "My parents disappeared under their seats," laughs Diesel, who'll recount the incident during a five-show…
Suicidal Tendencies
Like any veteran actor, Will Smith knows it's never good to give away a movie's ending. So when discussing his new film Seven Pounds a couple of weeks ago before a roundtable of reporters at Cleveland's InterContinental Hotel, he avoided saying anything that would explain what eventually happens to Ben Thomas, the distraught character he…
Eef Barzelay
“The girls just want a sweet melody,” sings Eef Barzelay in “The Girls Don’t Care,” a meaty Latin-tinged highlight from the former Clem Snide frontman’s second solo album, Lose Big. Barzelay is one of alt-country’s most underrated satirists. On his band’s last album, he chided killers who read Salinger, pedophiles doing “their best rendition of…
Smart new chefs add spice at Zócalo, Muse
Economic woes aside, Cleveland’s restaurant scene continues to sizzle, and a recent influx of savvy chefs has only raised the temp. At East Fourth Street’s Zócalo Mexican Grill & Tequilería, the addition of consultant and celebrity chef Aarón Sánchez should be a huge boost for this previously lukewarm eatery. Clevelanders will remember Sánchez as one…
He’s a Brainiac
The genius underneath the disheveled hair gets a little respect as the Great Lakes Science Center continues its Einstein exhibit through the Labor Day weekend. The collection covers every aspect of the scientist’s research, from his theory of relativity to magnetism, all chronicled in personal letters that were sometimes written during turbulent times. “It’s actually…
A record company unearths African music’s forgotten past
In the early 1970s, Nigeria was ready for its close-up. The African nation had just prevented its eastern province from seceding and was experiencing a boom in its oil industry. Life was good, the people were ready to party, and across the country, bands sprang up to provide locals with a soundtrack. Thirty years later,…
SMALL PLATES, BIG AMBITIONS
Until fairly recently, the term “wine bar” was reserved for establishments that placed drink in higher regard than food. Visitors to these casual haunts expected to find a great selection of wines by the glass and bottle. What they didn’t demand was first-rate food. Historically, folks went to a wine bar for sips and nibbles,…
Around Hear: Test Test
You might not know his name, but if you’re a classic rock fan, you’ve probably listened to Joe Vitale’s work every day since the ’70s. Vitale, a Canton-based drummer, recounts his 40-year career in a new book, Backstage Pass. The unusually low-key rock memoir — as told to wife Susie Vitale — presents the human…
Go Green
Green just may be the new black, at least when it comes to Cleveland dining. For every French, Italian or Vietnamese restaurant that opens, there seems to be double that amount of Irish pubs. Given the ever-expanding crop of Celtic saloons, one can be forgiven for confusing Cuyahoga County with County Cork. It's not difficult…
Sybris
Sybris formed in Chicago five years ago as a showcase for Angela Mullenhour’s raw, punk-inspired vocals, which are laid on top of a barrage of sounds that borrow from a variety of loud and noisy influences. This is clearly not your average indie-rock garage band. The quartet is open to all kinds of musical experimentation,…
With its secret boys club and bloody good fun, Wanted has all of the fight with none of the guilt
Of the summer’s many revenge-of-the-nerd fulfillment fantasies — from The Incredible Hulk all the way down the megaplex food chain to The Foot Fist Way — Wanted stands the best chance of dislodging Fight Club from fanboys’ Facebook pages. It has the same dizzying flipbook style, the same kicky ultraviolence, the same undeniable appeal of…
Brooms that go Vroom
A midsummer chill might crawl down your spine as witches, psychics, and metaphysicists flag down the spirits at today’s Paranormal Expo in Painesville. Take the mysterious death of a woman shortly after her wedding in the pub and restaurant where the fest is being held. “The staff say people have heard voices calling their names…
Jigsaw Group Takes Over Peabody’s
After less than a year in the game, the business interest behind Parma’s Jigsaw Saloon & Stage and Lakewood’s Hi-Fi Concert Club has broken into the big leagues. July 1, the newly formed Jigsaw Entertainment Group will take control of Peabody’s. With a combined capacity around 750, the downtown Peabody’s complex is the city’s biggest…
Discourse Reviews
Black Lips (Vice) The amazing thing about nearly every Black Lips recording is the almost defiant way the band refuses to play the same kind of song consecutively. Utilizing an almost haphazard method of sequencing and pacing, Black Lips albums are like no-fi demos made by a dozen different bands for a themeless mix tape.…
Culture Jamming: Now Hear This!
Cheap Trick Budokan!: 30th Anniversary Edition (Epic/Legacy) One of the greatest live albums of all time celebrates its 30th year with a four-disc (three CDs, one DVD) set that gathers the complete 19-song concert and another show recorded at the Tokyo venue a couple of days later. But the real reason to invest in this…
The Fuzzy Stones
It was a little more than a year ago when I first met up with Ant Man Bee (Bradley Robinson) and Fuzzy Logic (Michael "Bruzzie" Nassif), the two masterminds behind the local cartoon-character-based rock band the Fuzzy Stones. At that time, the guys, who frequent the Nauti Mermaid – a Warehouse District joint known for…
Don Dixon
Fans of ’80s college rock and liner-note geeks the world over know Don Dixon’s name. He’s produced Marshall Crenshaw, Matthew Sweet, the Smithereens, and countless other power poppers. Most famously, he co-helmed R.E.M.’s classic debut Murmur with fellow cult figure Mitch Easter. Dixon also makes his own music. On albums like Romeo at Juilliard and…
Bricco delivers solid food and sloppy service on Playhouse Square
Somewhere behind Bricco’s curtains lies a good restaurant. Sadly, though, sketchy service and the occasional culinary miscue obscured the sightlines during a couple of recent visits. That’s particularly regrettable, considering the life this project has breathed into the moribund area around Playhouse Square. Settled in long-vacant space inside the Hanna Building, almost directly across the…
Kick Your Ash
Phestur axeman Adam Hines turns 39 today. To mark the occasion, the Northfield quartet drops its fourth CD, Finé Pompeii, with a release party in the Flats — ushering in a “Green Day-ish” sound the band has continued to develop since its founding in 1999. “Phestur was full-on punk. But slowly, we’ve evolved over the…
Outgoing Food Critic Riffs on Some Favorites
Editor’s note: The recent merger of Free Times and Scene sent this paper’s award-winning food critic, Elaine Cicora, searching for something new to do. She’s already found it: She started recently at Crop Bistro, where she’ll help Steve and Jackie Schimoler spread the word about their clever downtown restaurant. To tide you over, we bring…
Discourse Reviews
Grandmaster Flash (Strut) While most of rap’s early stars have faded from the spotlight, Grandmaster Flash is still doing his thing. Of course, it’s easy to be skeptical — at this point, no one’s going to argue his skills, but is he still able to make relevant music? With The Bridge, the legendary DJ answers…
Local Art News
Stephen Eva, who's mostly known as musical director and conductor of the private Hermit Club Symphony Orchestra, has announced a new musical venture, the Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra. He's aiming for concerts in a relaxed atmosphere, featuring guest artists, singers and multimedia presentations. Eva's sister, Priscilla Eva, will serve as concertmaster. She's known around town…
The Jagermeister Tour Leads This Week’s Concert Picks
J…germeister Tour at House of Blues on Saturday, December 20 You know Hinder, the headliners of this year's J…germeister Tour. Or at least you've heard Hinder on the radio. Probably a lot. You've maybe even seen their picture. They're that band from Oklahoma that wants to be Motley CrŸe and had a girl with prominent,…
