Ooh la la!
Behold a tale of true love (between a boy and a bicycle), of tireless courage (from a bitty grandmother with a clubfoot), and of a very shocking new definition of sexy (three wizened matriarchs who ravenously slurp down frogs). This is The Triplets of Belleville, an animated extravaganza of Gallic wit and soul that delivers…
Stereophonics
Lately, it seems that British adoration of American music has gone completely unrequited. We ship boatloads of unknown “the” bands across the pond, and they’re showered with critical acclaim and fanatic audiences; but the poor Brits don’t have it so easy. Even the successes of their big-ticket acts break up on our rocky shores. You…
He Didn’t Play Nice
Only in books and movies are legal matters fraught with drama. In the real world, the law is numbingly dry. Bold assertions are rare. Sarcasm, open animosity, even exclamation points are unheard of. That’s why attorney Mark Gardner stood out. On January 27, 2000, his client, Matthew Cirino, drove his Ford Explorer through a red…
Witness to the Persecution
The artists of Material Witness certainly have issues. From racism to politically motivated violence, from self-awareness to mortality, no difficult theme escapes the capable hands of the six international artists featured in the new show at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Color, sound, and texture are employed to ascribe meaning to life, death, and the…
Norah Jones
Norah Jones’s sophomore effort is better than Come Away With Me, her gazillion-selling 2002 debut. But like that crossover smash, Feels Like Home also suffers from excessive mid-tempo pacing and is hard to categorize. Jones seems to be edging here toward rhythm ‘n’ blues, her natural setting; there are tunes that imply it beautifully. Where…
Showtime!
“You’re Gonna Love Me” — from Dreamgirls, an ’80s musical about Diana Ross and the Supremes — is an anthem that demands the singer abandon self-consciousness, pull off her wig, and raise a holy noise into the rafters, serving notice to the nonbelievers: You’re gonna love me. The song lends itself to a breast-heaving, down-on-one-knee,…
Cabin Fever
Nigger. Kike. Wop. Gook. Honky. The vile names for the racial and ethnic categories into which we shove others are virtually inexhaustible. Some people have always used their powers of observation to demean and denigrate those with a different skin hue or a non-“standard” shape of nose or eyes or lips. And in this country,…
Poison the Well
“It’s always something,” Poison the Well guitarist Derek Miller says with a laugh through his dying cell phone from a tour stop in the Midwest. “Every time we release a record, it’s always, ‘What the fuck happened?'” Such is life for the world’s most beloved and hated hardcore band. If you listen only to the…
Bob Taft’s Hidden Desires
Announcer: We interrupt this program for an emergency message from the governor. We now go live to Columbus. [Scene: Bob Taft is seated at his desk in the governor’s office, looking very solemn — though he may be experiencing digestive problems.] My fellow Ohioans. As you know, a grave threat faces our great state. There…
Dreams Creamed
It seems that we’re all just one dream away from a happy life: one job, one relationship, one Super Lotto ticket. Alone among the species, a human being is able to foresee her own demise, as well as to conjure the possibility of positive outcomes. John Steinbeck had this in mind when he wrote his…
Courtney Love
In an infamous live performance, ill-fated Sex Pistol Sid Vicious muttered and stumbled his way through an off-key version of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” The same aura of unraveling permeates Courtney Love’s solo debut. Gone are Love’s glossy vocals from Celebrity Skin or the snarling anguish marking Live Through This; pitch-shaky screeches that err on…
Absconding on a Budget
The labor movement hasn’t been the same since its leaders misplaced their ability to steal properly. Take the case of Allan Spates, former president of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Local 5-1250. In December, he was indicted for allegedly stealing dues and abusing the local’s debit card to the tune of $30,000. But…
The Hard Sell
It was only a few days ago that Shane Carruth, software engineer-turned-filmmaker, was ready to walk away from the money on the table and keep his movie–78 minutes’ worth of cheapo celluloid that had, in a Utah instant, become as valuable as strands of gold. He had stopped answering his cell phone, stopped checking e-mails.…
Incubus
The title of A Crow Left of the Murder identifies Incubus as both outsiders and survivors. When the Class of ’97 was in full bloom, Incubus brought the art to rap-rock before the movement’s scales tipped from funk to metal. And when their contemporaries were desperately retooling their acts on long-overdue, expensive letdowns, Incubus’s chiseled…
Expose the Jerks
Expose the Jerks They give used-car dealers a bad name: Scene should be rewarded for having the courage to finally tell the truth about Avi Stern and Dennis Dunagan [“The Lemon Merchant,” January 21]. Way to go, Aina Hunter and everyone at Scene, for exposing of these jerks to the public. Now hopefully the FBI,…
Change Reaction
Observers of the city’s dining scene can’t help but wonder what’s in store for Tremont’s swank 806 Wine and Martini Bar. In the past few weeks, co-owner Tony Prusak has stepped down as managing partner; majority owner Tom Leneghan has taken over 806’s day-to-day operations; and, depending on whom you ask, award-winning mixologist Jody Manning…
Pitch Black
The hold Roc-A-Fella has had on the hip-hop industry in general and New York in particular is long and remarkable. But this is allegedly the post-Jigga era, where Jay-Z languishes in retirement and lesser MCs like Cam’ron and Memphis Bleek try to hold the fort. Certainly, Jigga’s return is a foregone conclusion — but while…
Hail to the Drag Queen
Cleveland theater’s been aching for a dose of Vitamin E. That diagnosis comes courtesy of Edna Everage, the lavender-coiffed socialite with the diamond-studded eyeglasses. “I’m the secret enzyme that brings laughter and happiness,” says Edna, the alter ego of Australian comedian Barry Humphries. According to the fictional Royal British Society of Theatrical Statistics, A Night…
Phunk’d
If a certain smugness creeps into your Akron pals’ voices when they talk about their downtown’s nightlife, cut ’em some slack. Back in the ’70s, after all, the industrially chic space that now houses Bricco was a dingy sheltered workshop. And across the street, the ultra-contemporary Fuel — a newly opened wine, martini, and tapas…
Fantomas
Fantomas has committed commercial suicide by releasing a single 75-minute track for its third album. But oh, what a track it is. Writing about this disc is like trying to review a madman’s dream — rewarding, but very strenuous. Fantomas (vocalist Mike Patton, guitarist Buzz Osborne, bassist Trevor Dunn, and drummer Dave Lombardo) scores what…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, February 12 The Cleveland Zoological Society is gearing up for Valentine’s Day with Animal Attractions, its annual spotlight on wildlife sexuality. Learn all about birth control in captivity (hint: God would not approve) and how to tell the difference between boy and girl baboons. Zoo staff will explain how animals get busy, and food…
Down With Love
Standing in front of American Greetings with a clipboard and a curled lip, Cleft S. is having a Hallmark moment from hell. “Look at this! Look at all these hearts!” the frontman for the doo-wop troupe Faint of Heart fumes in front of the Tower City card shop on a recent Wednesday afternoon. “You’re going…
Madman Mundt
Madman Mundt is as sundry as it is severe. Guitarist Scott Stearns played with Integrity precursor Die Hard. Bassist John Benedict drummed with improv-noise artists Weeds From a Perfect Garden. Scott Benedict briefly drummed with Pere Ubu. They know their way around punk and metal, and the band’s self-titled debut is a distillation of tried-and-true…
Talk About the Passion
Most writers have to die, go mad, or both in order to become the focus of a Hollywood movie. Susan Orlean is alive, quite sane, and the catalyst for the dreamlike chain of events in Adaptation, Spike Jonze’s 2002 mega-meta film about screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s futile attempts to turn Orlean’s 1998 knotty bestseller The Orchid…
Rufus, Naturally
Rufus Wainwright is in many ways a musical anachronism, a striking pop star in an alternate universe where gentlemen in powdered wigs still court dainty maidens against a background of quivering string quartets. The warm, classical piano driving his 1998 self-titled debut and the elegiac, Broadway-style folk of 2001’s Poses had about as much in…
Darling Waste
If Cleveland didn’t already have its trademark emo band, it’s sure got one now. Just as Kate Voegele is our official Michelle Branch dead-ringer, Darling Waste is our answer to Dashboard Confessional. Darling Waste is a bit more electrified and lushly arranged than Dashboard, but songwriter Lance Williams, who is Darling Waste to all intents…
Heavy Mental
2/13-3/12 Artist Nick De Pirro can thank President Bush for the showpiece of his latest exhibit. “I’d been telling people that I will make another big sculpture when the next country is invaded,” De Pirro explains. Foreign policy and cable news indeed shape Solids, Part 2, which opens Friday at the Sculpture Center, but it’s…
Sonic Bullets
Biochemists have traced grumpiness in human beings to a single gene. Provided you don’t have it, sound is probably mostly enjoyable for you. Unlike sensations such as odor, distasteful sounds are relatively easy to avoid or counteract in modern times; thanks to headphones, portable audio devices, white-noise machines, and earplugs, you can drown out just…
Bush to Block
MON 2/16 If you’re aware that Georges H.W. and W. Bush aren’t the first father-son combo to serve as heads of state, you’re in pretty good shape for a gripping game of Presidential Squares. The contest is based on Hollywood Squares, but with former U.S. Presidents and First Ladies filling in the spaces usually occupied…
No-Dough Shows
Concertgoing has become so expensive that it’s forcing more and more music fans to make some difficult decisions regarding their finances. Do you see Metallica or bail Grandpa out of jail? Splurge on Dave Matthews ducats or finally spring for your child’s leg braces? Thankfully, we live in a city where there’s no shortage of…
Rolling Thunder
2/13-2/14 Blue Thunder, Tony Farrell’s big-ass truck, is capable of reaching speeds of up to 70 miles an hour — and sailing 25 feet in the air to clear 14 cars parked side by side. Not even LeBron’s Hummer can do that. The 9,000-pound Ford F-150 Super-Duty with 66-inch-high tires is part of this weekend’s…
Toe Jams
Local dance-music promoter Headrush Music has launched Toes in the Sand Recordings, a label whose monthly 12-inch singles by international figures will target DJs and dance enthusiasts. “We felt like a lot of the dance music was getting stagnant,” says Headrush co-founder David Christopher, who spins in regional clubs as DJ Deviant. “It was losing…
Love, Cleveland Style
2/12-2/13 In Cleveland Couples: 40 Inspiring Stories of Love & Commitment, Kathy Dawson reveals the secret of a successful relationship: “Valuable things are forgotten” over time, she says. “Share and talk about your experiences with each other.” Her book, a series of marriage profiles, is a valentine to local couples who’ve been through good times…
The Gathering
There are basically two ways to ignore trends: You can dig yourself a rut and move in (see the Ramones, Motörhead, or High on Fire), or you can relentlessly pursue your own brand of perfection, never mind what anybody else is doing (see Opeth, Meshuggah, or the Gathering). The Gathering started out as a metal…
Porno for Punks
THU 2/12 Burlesque, that bawdy branch of theater that united comedians, dancers, and strippers during the Eisenhower era, is alive and revealing at the SuicideGirls show, which rolls into the Beachland Thursday. It’s a parade of gals with names like Siren, Snow, Violet, Tegan, Brandy, and Stormy — all of whom know what to do…
Steve Forbert
If ’70s rock journalists threw Steve Forbert onto the “next Dylan” pile along with Springsteen and Prine and Elliott Murphy and Willie Nile, they should now be granted clemency. There was, of course, some reason. Forbert, like Dylan, left the hinterlands for New York City, guitar in hand, harmonica hanging from his neck, and a…
Rites of Spring
It is so very nice when a movie completely outstrips the expectations conjured by its trailer, as is the case with The Dreamers. On first impression, this tale of three passionate youths caught up in the late-’60s Parisian countercultural revolution looked downright trite. Never mind that esteemed veteran director Bernardo Bertolucci was in charge –…
Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins’s press notes call him a Renaissance man — and why not? A bandleader and champion screamer, he fronted Black Flag, one of the greatest Los Angeles punk bands of all time, and later the Rollins Band. He’s an actor (most recently seen in Bad Boys II) and the former scary host of the…
Adam ‘n’ Heave
With 50 First Dates, it seems as though Adam Sandler is trying to compile a Greatest Hits film, cobbling together the stuff that worked in his previous films in the hopes that it’ll play even better all in one go. There’s the falsetto comedy-song bit from every episode of Saturday Night Live, an angry-golfer bit…
The Bloody Hollies
If you’re still sulking from the Buddy Holly Rock Hall tribute/wake a few weeks ago, check into the Beachland Ballroom for the Bloody Hollies. The Buffalo band is yet another in the long line of the Sympathy for the Record Industry garage-punk players. If there’s a problem with that label’s slew of tasty rock noise,…
