On View
NEW Misha Kligman: Icons for the Nonbelievers — Whether he sells one or every picture on display, 2001 Cleveland State graduate Misha Kligman should count his first solo exhibition a success. His oil paintings are derived by stripping fashion magazine covers of their ink and overlaying them with entirely different colors; the results are shadowy…
Tuey Connell
In the grand tradition of singing bandleaders like Chet Baker and Nat King Cole, guitarist Tuey Connell brings an understated sensuality to his six-string work and lush baritone vocals — and in his hands, even the banjo takes on a warm tone. His trio plays a mix of blues, jazz, roots, and swing that goes…
A Secret Worth Sharing
I wish I could say that Anatolia Café is my little secret, and that I am only divulging it now, seven months post-opening, from the goodness of my heart. But that would be a lie. In truth, if there is anyone in Northeast Ohio who hasn’t yet visited this charming little Turkish restaurant, it must…
Mogwai
At Mogwai shows, sound waves visibly distort the air, like summer heat warping the horizon. Even if fans cranked the volume on a perfectly produced recording of one of the band’s sets while clamping high-end headphones to their ears, they could not come close to duplicating the experience. Recognizing that a standard live record wouldn’t…
Novel Surprise
“There’s a restaurant in here?” whined an incredulous dinner companion as he was dragged through the magazine racks at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lyndhurst’s Legacy Village. “I’ve been in here 10 times, and I never knew there was a restaurant in here!” That, according to staffers at Bistro Joseph-Beth, is the problem in a nutshell. “People…
Geto Boys
On their first album together in almost a decade, the three original Geto Boys promise, in typically pugnacious fashion, to “send the whole world a fuck-you note.” The question is whether the world they’ve rejoined gives a fuck itself. As much sense as it makes for Houston’s most hardcore rappers to rejoin forces — would…
Lewd Awakening
Tommy Lee’s first tattoo was of Mighty Mouse, a small, gaudy rendering of the pocket-sized superhero bursting through a bass drum with sticks in his hands. Back in his early twenties, Lee identified with the cartoon underdog because he was one himself: With scrawny ostrich legs set against a pile of puffed-up hair, the long,…
Tori Amos
Tori Amos perfected her ability to combine creative risks with emotional introspection on early discs like 1996’s Boys for Pele, which struck a welcome balance between modern flash and old-fashioned sentimentality. But on Amos’s recent experimental albums, listeners felt curiously removed from the flame-haired faerie queen, largely because their characters weren’t very compelling (2001’s covers…
Mama’s Got a Brand-New Bag
The Dap-Kings and their label, Daptone Records, are dead serious about their funk. So it seems fitting that they’re headquartered in a genuine urban ghetto: the Bushwick section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. (To give an indication of just how bad-ass that ‘hood is, note that Geto Boy Bushwick Bill actually hailed…
General Patton vs. the X-ecutioners
Twenty-three tracks in 46 minutes — this collaboration-by-mail gets right to the point. Mike Patton sent DJ squad the X-ecutioners some albums to play with, they sent sound files back, he twiddled ’em around and released the results on his own label. DJ albums, like Patton solo discs, tend to be masturbatory affairs. This project,…
Kick-Ass Queens
2/17- 2/23 In Texas a few years back, Gregg Micochero stripped to his gym trunks to find out the hype behind Kardio Kickboxing. It didn’t take long to feel the pain in his abs, stomach, and thighs. “I said, ‘Yeah, this kicks butt,” recalls Micochero, owner of Martial Arts America. “The next day, you go…
Reflection Eternal
The insular, cliquish world of hip-hop journalists is all atwitter about Village Voice scribe Greg Tate’s recent rant bemoaning the transformation of the hip-hop of his youth. In response, various talking heads, observers, fans, and cultural commentators have tried to answer the age-old question raised once again by Tate’s rambling essay: “Is hip-hop dead?” The…
Brazilian Girls
It’s probably not overstating the case to say Brazilian Girls are giving us a taste of what pop music is going to sound like by the middle of the 21st century. The group drops cabaret, dub, samba, folk, and more onto tracks that never sound forced or self-conscious. The sounds this band hears in its…
Fries With That Shake?
FRI 2/18 Of all the things happening right now in singer-songwriter Toothpick’s life — a tour, industry murmurs, and the release of his debut CD, Time Travellin’ Couch — it’s a past connection that’s responsible for a great deal of his present success. Toothpick’s pal Morgan Spurlock, the guerrilla filmmaker who took on McDonald’s in…
Steel Pulse
Steel Pulse erupted onto the international reggae scene in 1978 with the poignantly anti-racist anthem “Ku Klux Klan” and the militant Handsworth Revolution LP, which featured stark and bleak songs woven around seriously rootsy arrangements and subtle pop harmonies. Led by lead singer/songwriter/guitarist David Hinds, the Birmingham, Alabama group has always focused on the well-crafted…
This New Dawn/Pilots and Passengers
In 2005, anybody can afford to make a record. But you can’t buy ideas. Cleveland’s This New Dawn and Pilots and Passengers are short on ideas, but they can proficiently imitate the same three songs endlessly regurgitated by every other screamo and faux hardcore band. This New Dawn plays by-the-numbers hard emo with an occasional…
Male Call
2/18-2/20 Layna Chianakas has spent all of her time on area theater stages dressed as a man. In Cleveland Opera’s production of Faust, being performed this weekend, the new mom from California once again suits up in men’s clothing. “My voice type is mezzo-soprano,” she explains. “And we tend to sing a lot of trouser…
Dancin’ in the Moonlight
A nationally syndicated six-hour radio show began broadcasting from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on February 12. Seven days a week, Moonlight Groove Highway combines vintage rock, artist interviews, music news, and informed commentary about songs you haven’t heard twice a day for the last 27 years. “I think people are demanding more…
Bone Brothers
Pity the innovators forgotten by the music industry. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony pioneered the sing-song Midwest Swing that Nelly and others took straight to the bank. The imitators haven’t even left the vaults yet, and Layzie and Bizzy Bone are plotting a comeback from indieland. It’s hardly surprising that their Bone Brothers debut begins in pissed-off fashion…
Still the One
At first (and second and maybe even third) glance, it’s all so familiar: Keanu Reeves shrouded in a black trench coat that flaps behind him like a superhero’s wings, moving between netherworlds and a real world used as a battleground, breeding ground, and playground for higher beings amused and appalled by the doings of mortals.…
Mommy and Daddy
This New York duo are romantically involved and play sassy dance-punk with drum machines, keyboards, and fuzzed-out bass. This is about as thought-provoking today as sporting oversized flannel and greasy bangs was a decade ago. Luckily, Mommy and Daddy aren’t about thinking. On Fighting Style Killer Panda, a new six-track EP that’s also the first…
Shark Tales
Ann Hawkins-Moore thought the new Dodge Durango looked like a metal house on tires, but she wanted one anyway. It had three rows of seats, enough to carry all her friends to the beauty parlor, the nail shop, and Kaufmann’s. “All my friends drive little cars,” says Hawkins-Moore, 53. “I hate riding in little cars.…
Pooch Kicks
It’s hard to know what to expect from Wayne Wang. The Hong Kong-raised director has made one gorgeous mood movie (Chinese Box) and two intelligent literary adaptations (Smoke and Anywhere but Here); he was also responsible, in his early days, for the overwrought sobfest Joy Luck Club. Then, in 2002, he brought us Maid in…
Greg Allman & Friends
Other than his brief stint in the ’70s as Cher’s main squeeze, Gregg Allman’s notoriety outside the outfit that bears his family name has been through his parallel solo career. This, in turn, is further subdivided into two entities: the Gregg Allman Band and a second, seemingly more casual “& Friends” lineup. It’s this latter…
Embracing Wild Thing
Just one drink, the pretty woman pleads. She is working hopelessly to persuade Anderson Varejao to have a cocktail with her and her friends. It’s a cool Saturday night, a few minutes after a Cavaliers win over the Orlando Magic. Brasa Grill, the warm and sleek Brazilian steakhouse on West Ninth Street, is still crowded…
Searching for Shylock
When was the last time you lost yourself in a Shakespeare film? It’s a testament to the success of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the sharp and brooding new version directed by Michael Radford (Il Postino), that we leave the theater without concern for the production. Instead, the response is to the play, and…
Big Head Todd & the Monsters
It’s pretty incredible that Big Head Todd and the Monsters are still around, considering that they emerged during the same H.O.R.D.E. era that gave the jam-rock world the Spin Doctors. But since their early-’90s heyday, they’ve become a reliable, sturdy three-piece, the kind of dependable live band that doesn’t warrant constant sellouts but rather the…
Family Values
Not only does Karen Arshinkoff, wife of Summit County Republican Party Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, have to deal with her husband’s nocturnal prowling for young men; now she has to pick up his fines. Last week Mrs. A, not Mr., was fined $2,900 by a Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court magistrate for the big-ass Bush-Cheney campaign sign…
Misdirected
Bad Education, the new film by the flamboyant Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, opens on a man sitting at a table, poring over the tabloids for stories of interest. When he finds something he likes, he reads it to his lover: Isn’t this an arresting image? Could we generate drama from this? The apartment is quintessential…
The Perceptionists
At a time when political hip-hop too often suggests being shouted down by the neighborhood vagrant/conspiracy nut, the Perceptionists’ debut has potential bipartisan appeal. On Black Dialogue, Boston’s most celebrated current MC, Mr. Lif (in tandem with Akrobatik and DJ Fakts One), leads the new trio through a series of verses that don’t skimp on…
A Punk-Ass’s Early Years
The old “seemed like an alright kid”: I’ve known Patrick Geiger since junior high, and he always seemed like an alright kid [“Concrete Walls,” February 2]. Little did we know that he would grow up to be a punk-ass bitch. This is the same kid who used to be so crazy about D&D games. I…
Anatomy of a Sumbitch
Mark Brian Smith and Tony Montana’s fascinating documentary Overnight is a kind of instructional video about how to fail in show biz. Actually, that’s put too gently. It’s really about willful self-immolation, about letting raw ego and crazy delusion run amok, about driving friends and family into storms of rage. It’s about getting your name…
The Pink Spiders
Like Cheap Trick with less gloss and more edge, the Pink Spiders blast onstage full-throttle — whether they’re playing a backyard BBQ or a coffeehouse full of teenagers looking to alleviate the boredom of a Friday night in the sticks. In fact, the trio appeared at both places in Cleveland last summer — and are…
Monsters Mashed
Jim Koehler and Chris Bergeron grew up a few miles from each other north of Detroit, but the 38-year-old drag racers didn’t meet till they raced in the mud 20 years ago. Today, the guys think of themselves as best buddies and fierce foes on the United States Hot Rod Association’s Monster Jam circuit. “We…
It’s Got a Way
How cool would it be to have a personal soundtrack of your own life, with a handful of musicians and a composer ready to convert any twist or turn of your existence into a song. Well, that’s what Billy Joel has been doing for himself for the past few decades, enshrining moments of his personal…
Graham Colton Band
The Graham Colton Band is ready for its close-up. Just listen to “Don’t Give Up on Me,” the opener for their debut album, Drive, slick as a waterslide with its sing-along chorus and digitally tweaked vocals. It’s like it was born on MTV2. In recent years, Colton and Co. have been hoofing it on the…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, February 17 There are so many brilliant things about Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb that we don’t know where to begin. There’s its screwy premise: A deranged U.S. Army general believes Communists are contaminating his “precious bodily fluids” and thus launches a nuclear attack on the…
Booty Call
We are all familiar with the history of Africans captured in their native land and taken in chains to distant shores as slaves and chattel. But it’s less well known that there were a few who actually signed on for the trip. One of them was Saartjie Baartman, a young woman with humongous buttocks who…
Antony & the Johnsons
As the story goes, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson were tooling around New York one day when they came across a CD with a cover that was weird enough to make them buy it. When they took it home to play it, they were blown away. The self-titled CD was by Antony & the Johnsons,…
Get Experienced
Chris Stamey doesn’t consider his latest CD a solo album. A Question of Temperature is credited to the Chris Stamey Experience — a moniker that evokes Jimi Hendrix’s power trio as well as a journey outside the 50-year-old singer-songwriter’s usual realm. Fittingly, the record features covers of hippie-era protest songs and originals in a similar…
On Stage
Johnnie Taylor Is Gone — Insult comedians often say they kid because they care, and the same holds true for the rest of us — we joke with our friends simply because we like them and it would be too cloying to do anything else. This world premiere at Karamu is built on that same…
Chicken & Beer
Dayton turntablist Ruckus Roboticus has launched instrumental hip-hop salvos, created background music for Nickelodeon, and mashed up new music over classics from Zeppelin and Kraftwerk. But never mind him — in addition to the DJ, the B-Side has all-you-can-eat fried chicken and beer while it lasts this Sunday.
His Big Fat “Italian Wedding”
2/17-2/18 For someone who claims not to be an insult comic, Pat Cooper sure does shout a lot. “I was Howard Stern before Howard Stern was Howard Stern!” bellows Cooper, ranked by Comedy Central last year as the No. 69 stand-up comedian of all time. “I’ll yell at people and let them know what I’m…
