Bomb-alie
A Very Long Engagement, the new film by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (most famously of Amélie), will have its fans. There’s no denying its beauty, an onslaught of gorgeous tableaux, painstakingly arranged and shot through filters to exclude colors that don’t suit (i.e., anything other than sepia or charcoal). There’s Audrey Tautou, with her Hepburn…
Various Artists
As a self-described introduction to the music of Junior Kimbrough, this tribute album fails spectacularly: These versions of his songs are so radically and haphazardly interpreted that they give only the faintest clue to what set Kimbrough apart from other venerated bluesmen. And yet almost every eclectic cut here is a winner, from the grits-and-honey-smeared…
The 2004 Art Modell Awards
In the storied tradition of Ohio degeneracy, few years measure up to 2004. The past 12 months have seen a former mayor pass out naked in someone’s driveway, a House speaker resign amid a corruption scandal, and another mayor convicted of bribery — only to be replaced by a woman who once whacked her boyfriend.…
On Stage
Black Nativity — Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity, originally developed in 1961, is a refreshing change from the music-box regularity of other tuneful entertainments. By putting gospel songs and singers in the spotlight to show off the expressive improvisations and foot-stomping energy this idiom provides, Hughes created a rich theatrical platform that can be embellished by…
Quantic
One of the most improbable developments in underground dance music this year has been the continuing relevance of the broken-beat genre, hastily named to commemorate the lethal dance beats European producers have made by plundering, chopping, and flipping Afro-Cuban polyrhythms. Its standard bearers have issued several great singles (Jazzanova’s “renumber” of Ian Pooley’s “What’s Your…
Open and Shut
Jeff Garcia’s knee is busted, and so are his spirits. But nothing’s working less than his mouth. He hides from reporters after practice, squirting away like he’s being chased by Ray Lewis. He watches his team get buried from the sidelines, then tries to evade the blitz of beat writers. But he can’t, so instead…
On View
NEW Rapid Stasis: Time and Space on Cleveland’s Transit Lines — Three photographers — Samara Peddle, Greg Ruffing, and Marie Ho — jumped on Cleveland buses and trains, and started snapping black-and-white pictures. The result is gritty urban landscapes and striking portraits of people. Some are inspired compositions, such as Peddle’s photo of a man,…
Various Artists
In the 1950s, lady singers were staid and conservative, not prone to appearing onstage wearing provocative fringed dresses, red lipstick, and glittery earrings, belting out sexy country and rockabilly numbers, as Wanda Jackson did. A true original, Jackson was paired on her first tours with Elvis, and the two briefly dated. Wanda had some pretty…
The Music Man
The Music Man Same scriptures, different reading: While living in Kent in the early ’70s, I often took note of a sign for “Glenn Schwartz and the All Saved Freak Band.” I wondered what was up. Many years later, the winds of Christianity began to blow. I remembered the weird sign. I thought I understood.…
Ponte Well Taken
I hadn’t been inside Ponte Vecchio more than 30 seconds before I knew my cover was blown. Then again, even with all the usual subterfuge, it was to be expected. Restaurateur Marco Rossi is one of the best hosts in the biz — gracious, charming, and completely tuned into his clientele — and it probably…
Adam Green
Adam Green was half of the Moldy Peaches, an anti-folk duo (Kimya Dawson was his female counterpart) known for its singsong melodies and scatological humor. Now, as a solo artist, Green has taken a quantum leap with Friends of Mine. Its lush melodies are instantly memorable, supported by a string section that wouldn’t sound out…
Night Scrawler
By the summer of 1976, Euclid cops were treating the Masked Cartoonist as some kind of urban legend. For more than two years, they tried unsuccessfully to nail the teen artist before he could uncap his markers and plaster fire hydrants, utility boxes, and sides of buildings with his rock-and-roll imagery. Then Rick Ray’s luck…
Food Fight
Talented chef Michael Herschman (Mojo, Bossa Nova) is back in the labor pool, after resigning earlier this month from his four-month gig at Lockkeepers (8001 Rockside Road, in Valley View). According to Herschman, job security was the issue prompting the change: He claims that the upscale restaurant has had financial problems, resulting in unpaid purveyors…
Various Artists
Despite its French name, film noir is one of America’s great original art forms. With its contrasted black-and-white images telling very gray moral tales, noir has filtered into the American consciousness as few genres have. While the stories and shades of noir have been copied endlessly, the music to dark crime films hasn’t been properly…
Bribe Club
The first rule of Bribe Club: Do not talk about Bribe Club. The second rule of Bribe Club: Do not hold press conferences about Bribe Club. Some Texans caught up in the interstate Nate Gray scandal don’t seem to understand these basic rules. For those of you yet to be bribed by Gray, here’s the…
Levert’s New Love
File this quote from Gerald Levert under truths you once held to be self-evident: “I still like women.” As anyone who’s ever started a quiet storm with a Levert platter knows, the heir apparent to Barry White, really, really likes women. Yet the leading R&B loveman feels compelled to reassure those taken aback by his…
Level-C
You may have glimpsed Level-C for a second on MTV’s Battle for Ozzfest, where the bawdy young female headbangers mugged for the camera but failed to make the cut at the show’s tryouts. It’s not likely to be the last time you see this promising bunch. On this five-song demo, the only thing that outsizes…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, December 23 Although Lake Metroparks’ Woodland Halle Days is open till January 9, it’s really meant to be seen before Christmas. After all, the exhibit, now in its 10th year, features a recreation of the Winter Wonderland display from the old Halle’s department store — a local holiday tradition! For a sense of its…
Boy Meets World
When Pete Wentz answered his cell phone in Los Angeles on a recent afternoon, the Fall Out Boy bassist-lyricist was absolutely giddy. Not from the sunny SoCal weather — or the fact that his band is in the midst of recording its major-label debut for Island and has already secured a spot on the main…
Nightbreed
Though mortality and fear are universal themes, most people don’t regularly ponder death, suffering, and obliteration; they let artists do it for them, which creates work for people like Nightbreed frontman Ray Terry. Burdened with conflicting — though not incompatible — agnostic and romantic world views, he tells tales of broken characters who lose their…
Mean Feats
Martin Scorsese has perched atop the World’s Greatest Directors list ever since 1973’s Mean Streets. Shockingly, he’s never won an Academy Award, despite four nominations. But this could finally be Scorsese’s year. The Aviator (which opens Christmas Day) is his most stylistically conservative film. But it’s also the one that might finally net him a…
Avast, Ye Pirates
Let’s say that for the past year, you’ve diligently bought MP3s legitimately, from sites like iTunes and the relaunched Napster. “I’m getting cool music and paying the artists,” you think. “Everything’s perfectly legal. John Ashcroft and Lars Ulrich would be proud.” Then you buy your thousandth song — say, the Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get…
Athletic Supporter
12/28 – 12/31 Of all John Caponera’s routines, it’s his impersonation of Chicago sportscaster Harry Caray that people talk about. “I feel funny doing it, because he’s been dead for five years,” says the funnyman. So his repertoire has expanded — “from my wife not understanding my enthusiasm for sports to the reason Iraq and…
Rookie Roundup ’05
As the folks behind the laser disc, The Chevy Chase Show, and Tim Couch can all attest, potential doesn’t count for much. And so each year around this time, when we forecast which young Cleveland bands will make the greatest impact in the next 12 months, we routinely meet with mixed results. Roué, Lovedrug, and…
Downwardly Mobile
12/23 – 3/15 Holidays got you down? Ready to smack somebody — anybody — upside the head? Brandywine Ski Resort offers some stress-busting downtime with several skiing and snowboarding options. And if most of your days are occupied by running from this store to that in search of one of those dancing Elmos, there’s always…
Going Corporate
Despite being on indefinite hiatus, the moody rock band Switched has become the latest from the area to sign to the Los Angeles-based Corporate Punishment Records, the independent label that internationally distributes local acts Rikets and Shenoah. Thom Haezart, the Clevelander who managed Chimaira during its rise from obscurity to success, founded the label after…
Hoop Scoop
SUN 12/26 Funky little jam band Catwalkblue just scored the biggest gig of its three-year career, and the compromises that come with it pose little concern: “They’ve asked us to do some Doors or Rolling Stones covers,” shrugs bassist Matt Miller about the local quintet’s pregame shows at 11 Cavaliers home games this season. “But…
Twine
Ordinarily, when band members relocate to opposite coasts, it spells the end of their group. But normalcy seldom applies to Twine, the locally born avant-garde electronic-music duo of Chad Mossholder and Greg Malcolm, who have carried on despite separately departing Cleveland in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Mossholder eventually settled in San Diego, Malcolm in Baltimore…
That’s-a Funny!
12/28 – 1/2 If you saw comedian Tammy Pescatelli on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, it’s easy to understand why she feels she’s being typecast. “Yes, I am Sicilian, but that’s not my whole act,” she insists. “I asked [producers], Why did you edit it like that? They said, ‘We want to make you the funny…
Roué
It’s another X-Mas at the Grog, and the men of Roué have two Christmas wishes: “We want a van,” says singer-guitarist Justin Coulter. “And we want to get our record done. We’ve been working on it since July, and we just want to get it finished.” The record in question is slated for a January…
Flying High
The parade of real-life figures strolling into the googolplex has been endless this year: Look, there’s Jamie Foxx as musical Mount Rushmore Ray Charles, Johnny Depp as Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, Kevin Spacey as forgotten teeny-popper Bobby Darin, Liam Neeson as sexologist Alfred Kinsey, Kevin Kline as composer Cole Porter, Gael García Bernal as…
Tyrese
If Tyrese is dismissed as the stereotypical model-turned-musician, he can hardly cry foul. The slick-domed Los Angeles singer has rarely kept his shirt on since his eponymous 1998 debut (he was sporting a wife-beater on the cover of that one), and there’s undoubtedly a contingent of fans who’ve purchased his subsequent two releases solely for…
Focking Wonderful
When your movie gets riotous laughter out of endless utterances of the word “Focker,” it doesn’t have to try very hard. So it’s no surprise that much of Meet the Fockers, the inevitable sequel to the 2000 hit Meet the Parents, barely breaks a sweat. When in doubt, after all, just have someone refer to…
Detroit Cobras
The snake charmer who got the Detroit Cobras out touring again had better get cracking on their record label’s ass. This Detroit-based (duh) garage-soul combo started 10 years ago, dishing out two fine albums and an often transcendent live show that hit like a Swizzle-Stick-mix of ’60s R&B and a ’50s sock hop. By the…
Sea of Loathe
The critic who takes notes during The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou will ultimately fill a notepad only with scribbled details: “All the crewmen wear red stocking caps with their tuxedos,” “some names of Zissou’s movies: The Battling Eels of Antibes, Shadow Creatures of the Lurisia Archipelago, Island Cats!,” “One crewman does nothing more than…
Experimental Night
The artists at Johnny La Rock’s monthly Experimental Nights don’t experiment with music — they weaponize it, improvising and adapting like true guerrillas. This month’s show features live techno from Sonic Disturbance, on-the-fly hip-hop and electronica from La Rock and Mush Mouth, and the incomparable work of Subroc, who makes music using old video-game consoles.…
Phantom Menace
By all accounts, the only living creatures who’ve never taken in a stage production of The Phantom of the Opera are Osama bin Laden and Uncle Elmer’s deaf hound dog, Bart — which means that everyone else on the planet has an opinion about how Joel Schumacher’s zillion-dollar movie version of the enduring Andrew Lloyd…
Soul Night Christmas Party
When they’re not rubbing elbows with Usher or slamming out original funk, the varsity-squad players of the 17th Floor recreate hip-hop classics as you’ve never heard them before. The band plays favorites from BDP, Public Enemy, and Tupac. And with a show that makes the audience part of the performance, they’ll leave you saying, “Last…
