Skin has its local premiere at CMA
A film about a young black woman born to white South African parents, Skin has its local premiere tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. It shows again at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, March 7. Here’s our review of the film. Skin (Britain/South Africa, 2008) Based on the true story of a…
What to Do Tonight: Attack Attack!
Don’t confuse Columbus metalcore quintet Attack Attack! with the U.K. punk-pop band that boasts an additional exclamation point (Attack! Attack!) and a somewhat less-derivative sound. The local version explores synth-addled screamo, balancing the off-kilter trill and bleep of keyboards against thudding breakdowns. The band’s 2008 debut, Someday Came Suddenly, revisits several tracks from the har-har-titled…
The Hand of Fatima has its local premiere at CMA
A documentary about rock critic Robert Palmer, The Hand of Fatima has its local premiere at 7 tonight at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. Here’s our review of the film. The Hand of Fatima (U.S., 2009) Rock scribe Robert Palmer covered music for Rolling Stone and The New York Times and wrote Deep…
What to Do Tonight: New Found Glory
Ready to mumble Florida pop-punks New Found Glory were pop-punk before anyone decided to lazily name the genre. A dozen years into their career, they still come off like a bunch of pouty teens on their most recent album, Not Without a Fight. And singer Jordan Pundik still can’t catch a break with girls: They…
What to Do Tonight: Eclectica
Eclectica is a funky, groove-heavy trio featuring Bela Fleck and the Flecktones drummer Roy “Futureman” Wooten, Tracy Silverman (hailed by BBC as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin”) and Nashville bassist Steve Forrest. True to their moniker, they blend a variety of musical genres in their electric — and somewhat warped — music.…
What to Do Tonight: The Wonder Years
Philadelphia brings a few things to mind: cheese steak, the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin and, maybe most importantly, Rocky Balboa. The image of Sylvester Stallone climbing the steps of Philadelphia’s art museum, while “Gonna Fly Now” blares in the background, will always be linked to the City of Brotherly Love. What does the Italian Stallion…
What to Do Tonight: Wussy
The musical partnership between Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker has grown stronger over the three terrific albums their band Wussy has released. Their most recent, an eponymously titled record that came out last year, stands as their most complete album. It’s the apex of Cleaver and Walker’s individual formidable songwriting talents, which have been culled…
Make Johnny Cash’s Birthday Black Friday
Happy birthday, Johnny Tomorrow would have been Johnny Cash’s 78th birthday. To commemorate, Eric “DJ Porkchop” Taylor will spin Cash-related music all night at 5 O’Clock Lounge. Doors open at 9 p.m., and there’s no cover. Plus, the first 50 fans get pins that say “Johnny is a friend of mine.” Cash’s final studio album,…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Scissormen
This is the part of C-Notes where we yield the soapbox to an artist who has a way better rap than we do. This week, Tennessee wildman Ted Drozdowski — the Scissormen’s frontman. —D.X. FerrisBand: Scissormen Website: scissormen.com Hometown: Nashville Sounds Like: “John Lee Hooker back from the grave, plugged into a Marshall on 10…
Reviews of the Cinematheque’s weekend films
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is showing several great movies this weekend. Here are our reviews of just a few of them. Brighton Rock (Britain, 1947) Adapted from a Graham Greene novel, this 1947 British gangster film was quite a shocker in its day (Mutilated bodies! Gangland warfare! Double-crossing snitches!). It’s still a solid…
What to Do Tonight: So Cow
Go see this band so they can buy a table Thirty years ago, the underground pop scene was a refuge for those equally unenthused about the blandness of Top 40 and the bloated angst of punk. It was pop music taken back to its essential elements but thematically updated. To alleviate any confusion, the Irish…
What to Do Tonight: Ani DiFranco
Smug because her chair is awesome If there’s a poster child for running a successful career by doing whatever you damn well please — independent of the music industry’s repressive machinations — it’s most assuredly Ani DiFranco. From the start, the Buffalo native has resolutely rejected any proscribed pattern along her singular musical path, which…
Harmony and Me screens tonight at CMA
A film about a sad sack who can’t seem to get over an ex-girlfriend, Harmony and Me makes its local debut tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. Here’s our review of the movie. Harmony and Me (U.S., 2009) Harmony (Justin Rise) is a real loser who works a dead-end job…
A STATELY PLEASURE DOME, FOR FREE
As one critic observes in this PBS documentary, “It’s so weird that there’s nothing gay about the Broadway show Xanadu, but it feels like the gayest show I’ve ever seen on Broadway.” Sexuality aside, the show has a sense of camp that manages to simultaneously celebrate and lampoon the state of broadway theatre and pop…
20,562 Snuggies Can’t Be Wrong
From the Press Release: Cleveland, Ohio, February 23, 2010 – On Friday, March 5, 2010, the Cleveland Cavaliers and KeyBank are asking fans attending the Cavaliers vs. Detroit Pistons game to get to their seats early to help break the Guinness World Record for the “largest gathering of people wearing fleece blankets.” Fans attending the…
Charts! Offensive/Defensive Efficiency
(Via Piston Powered) Follow me on Twitter: @vincethepolack.
Tuesday Music News Roundup
J.Lo: alleged music career hits a bump Jennifer Lopez leaves her record company. Wait a second. Jennifer Lopez still had a record deal? Abbey Road will stay the way it is. That’s a relief for the hundreds of douchebags who take their pictures like the Beatles’ famous album cover there every year. Johnny Cash: still…
Yeah, the Band Name Thing
Those of you who’ve never indulged an urge to rocker-up and join a band cannot possibly know what a trying pain in the ass it can sometimes be to come up with a really great name. Unless the group’s working dynamic is one of a clear leader and side players, you have to account for…
Rock Hall Announces Induction List
The Stooges: Better late than never The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced the list of artists who’ll be inducting the class of ’10 into its venue on March 15. And it’s the kind of list we expect from the Rock Hall: safe, kinda blah, but ultimately the right choices for a backslapping event…
This Just In: Concert Announcements
Beach House, showing off the first part of their moniker CANCELED Charlie Murphy: Thu., Feb. 25-Sun. Feb. 28. Pickwick & Frolic/Hilarities East 4th. THIS JUST INAfter Midnight Project: Sun., March 21, 7 p.m., $10/+$2 under-21 surcharge at door. Musica. Beach House: Thu., June 17. Beachland. Bear Hands: Mon., March 29, 8 p.m., $8/+$2 under-21 surcharge…
Out Today: Johnny Cash
Johnny CashAmerican VI: Ain’t No Grave(American/Lost Highway) You could make the case that Johnny Cash’s American series, which began so strongly in 1994 with American Recordings, had diminishing returns as the Man in Black’s health deteriorated. But despite Cash’s shaky vocal performances, all the albums have a power that belies the singer’s health and age.…
What to Do Tonight: Ani DiFranco
Smug because her chair is awesome If there’s a poster child for running a successful career by doing whatever you damn well please — independent of the music industry’s repressive machinations — it’s most assuredly Ani DiFranco. From the start, the Buffalo native has resolutely rejected any proscribed pattern along her singular musical path, which…
Swag Alert: Whiteness Tee
GV Art and Design have taken the “Witness” campaign to a whole new level. If you’re not familiar with GV, Greg and George do just about every kind of design you can think of, including logo designs for pro teams and those magnificent Etch-a-Sketch portraits that you shake your head at, and they also happen…
More LeBron Stat Analysis: Too Many Jumpers, Period
Last week, I took a look at the number of three-pointers that LeBron has attempted this year. CliffsNotes version: Too many. He’s 5th in the league in most 3’s attempted and 77th in % made. Also, he’s LeBron, and getting to the paint is kind of what he does best. Today, Kelly Dwyer expounded on…
Daryl McDaniels (DMC of Run-Fame) Raps About LeBron
Follow me on Twitter: @vincethepolack.
Kid Cudi Makes Snoop’s Stinky Album Better
Kid Cudi helps out a friend in need (who probably has some weed) Cleveland-born rapper Kid Cudi shares billing with Snoop Dogg on “That Tree,” a song from Snoop’s upcoming More Malice. Malice N Wonderland, which came out during the holiday rush, was pretty much ignored by music fans. The retooled and expanded More Malice,…
Olympics? Free Song? It’s a Devo Kinda Day
Are we not free? Following Devo’s performance at the Olympics later today, the Akron natives will be treating fans to a free download of a new song. “Fresh” will be available on the band’s website for 24 hours. So get it while you can. In related news, Devo are also setting up some sorta study,…
Oberlin College’s Sight Lines series makes its debut
An experimental filmmaker from New York, Jennifer Reeves hand-painted her most recent film, 2008’s When it was Blue, a 16mm nature film about the world’s various ecosystems that includes footage from around the globe. A veteran filmmaker who started making movies 20 years ago, Reeves teaches film part-time at Bard College’s Milton Avery School of…
Tangentially Related: ‘Parma State of Mind’ Video
Ingenious take on Jay-Z’s song from Chad Zumock, Alan Cox, and others at WMMS.
FREE ZERBINETTA
Zerbinetta is a girl who takes life as it comes. If one lover doesn’t work out, as far as she’s concerned, you can just find another. Here’s Natalie Dessay singing her famous aria from Richard Strauss’ Ariadne Auf Naxos, a 2004 production in Paris. Scene has free pairs of tickets for the Cleveland Institute of…
Friday Ticket Giveaway 2: Blu & Exile
For your chance to win a pair of tickets to see Blu & Exile at Oberlin College’s Dionysus Club on March 5, send an e-mail to freetickets@clevescene.com with the subject “Blu + Exile.” First, you gotta answer a question: What was the name of their 2007 album? Please provide your name, address, phone and age.…
OBAMA LEAVES OHIO OUT IN THE COLD
From ABC News: “Later today, the President will announce administration plans to allocate $1.5 billion of TARP money toward funding state Housing Finance Authorities (HFAs) in the five states hardest hit by the housing crisis. … HFAs in California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan will have access to new money. The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing…
Help Devo Sell Out
Devo will perform live on NBC on Monday at a Winter Olympics Games victory ceremony. The Akron icons will play old favorites and material from their upcoming album, their first studio effort in nearly 20 years. (Warner Bros., the band’s longtime label, will release it sometime this year.) Drummer Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails, Guns…
Metal Weekend Will Leave Your Ass Hurting
Lick the Blade, suck the handle, whatever John Carroll University’s non-commercial, nonprofit radio station WJCU-88.7 FM is in the middle of its annual fundraising drive, which runs through Sunday night. (You can call 216.397.4438 or go to the website anytime to make a pledge.) Fans of heavy metal can call in from 6:30-9:30 tonight to…
Does LeBron Take Too Many 3’s? — An Analysis
While it’s certainly hard to quibble with a performance like the historic 43-13-15 line that James put up against the Nuggets last night— and yes, historic, as in triple-double numbers reached for the first time since Pistol Pete and Oscar Robertson — the 118-116 loss to Denver presents a perfect case study for one of…
SENATE RACE LOSES ONE LONGSHOT, GAINS TWO
Democrats have heard a lot from Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner who both announced early last year their intention to vie in the May 4 primary for a shot at Republican Rob Portman for the U.S. Senate seat George Voinovich is vacating. (Portman’s opponent, car dealer Tom Ganley, dropped out…
BAT BOY AND DONKEY BOY
The Great Lakes Theatre Festival is going all bestial this Spring with a couple of shows featuring man-beast creatures: You’ve got your Shakespearean donkey, queering relations in the fairy world of Midsummer Night’s Dream, and you’ve got your tabloid headline grabbing tale of Bat Boy: The Musical with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and…
CERTAINTIES: DEATH AND LIES ABOUT TAXES
A few weeks ago, the Chillicothe Gazette published an op-ed from the Tax Foundation, the (think tank behind the annual Tax Freedom Day stunt, railing against Ohio’s supposedly growth-stifling tax system: Ohio taxpayers have one of the highest state and local tax burdens in the nation and one of the worst tax climates for business.…
What to Do This Weekend: Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise
Surprise! Robert Bradley’s life sounds like a movie. Alabama-born and blind since birth, Bradley was busking in the early ’90s outside the open window of White Room, the Detroit studio of pop-punk visionaries Second Self. Brothers Andrew and Michael Nehra heard Bradley’s music drifting in from the street and invited him in — an invitation…
‘CONFIDENCE, NICE SMILE, HUGE HOOTERS’: MORE LUST SURVEY RESPONSES
Michael Sawyer (sawyerimages.com) As promised, more responses from the Lust Survey: What attracts you to someone first? Theirs eyes and lips are the first. Second is the body type. Smile, bra size, derrier size and hair color. All in one fell swoop. Pretty hair and sexy lips. Of course all the other stuff is important,…
What to Do This Weekend: The Andalusians
Indie happy Since it launched in 1980, Dischord Records has been home to notable post-punk bands like Fugazi, Jawbox and Shudder to Think. While the label doesn’t have the panache it did, say, 10 years ago, that’s no reason to dismiss its latest signing, Washington D.C.’s the Andalusians. Fronted by Basla Andolsun (Beauty Pilll, Del…
What to Do Tonight: People Under the Stairs
“Yo, I’m on top of the stairs now” Using mixers, mics, drum machines and a little B-boy magic, People Under the Stairs’ Thes One and Double K summon the sounds of hip-hop’s golden age: Rakim, the Fat Boys, Poor Righteous Teachers, A Tribe Called Quest. “Basically, we try to make history every night onstage,” says…
Guilt and redemption intertwined in Shutter Island
With Shutter Island, director Martin Scorcese has made a spectacular return to the suspense-thriller genre he last tackled with 1991’s Cape Fear. Both films veer close to horror territory at times, but while Cape Fear traded in more visceral shocks, Shutter Island is psychological and atmospheric. Scorcese’s usual themes of guilt and redemption lend weight…
“Edmund Fitzgerald” Singer Not Dead
Gordon Lightfoot is not dead. Canada.com com reported the he Cannuck singer-songwriter wrote had died, and news of his alleged demise spread like wildfire via the Twitter machines. Lightfoot wrote 1976’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” an epic ballad about a real-life 1975 shipwreck on Lake Superior, which claimed the lives of 29 sailors,…
We Wuz Punked
Apparently Gordon Lightfoot ain’t dead. It’s just one of those rumors going around. A “hoax” they call it. Oh, well. Doesn’t affect us either way, actually, since we thought Lightfoot died years ago anyway.
Singer-Songwriter Gordon Lightfoot Dies
Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian singer-songwriter who scored a bunch of soft-rock hits in the ’70s (including one that mentions Cleveland), died last night. He was 71. There aren’t too many details on his death, but you can read about Lightfoot and his legacy here. Lightfoot had one No. 1 single in the U.S., 1974’s “Sundown.”…
GANLEY SWITCHING RACES, STICKING TO BS
Reports are surfacing that car dealer Tom Ganley, who was challenging Rob Portman in the Republican primary to be the U.S. Senate candidate, has bailed on that race and will instead challenge second-term Congresswoman Betty Sutton in Ohio’s 13th district, which sprawls from Lorain to Akron. Ganley is wealthy and has a boatload of money…
ACLU: ABOUT THOSE COMMITTEES …
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio isn’t done whipping Cuyahoga County transition leaders into shape. The ACLU last week helped to pry open Cuyahoga County meetings that aimed to shape the county’s new government in secrecy. The ACLU has now asked transition leader Jim McCafferty, and the county commissioners who appointed him to oversee…
ARE YOU MISERABLE? WE’RE NOT MISERABLE.
Forbes magazine has ranked Cleveland its Most Miserable City, above (or below) Detroit, Chicago, and New York City. The New York City-based magazine formulated a Misery Measure that factors in nine elements that contribute to a bad reputation and day-to-day aggravation. “Cleveland secured the position thanks to its high unemployment, high taxes, lousy weather, corruption…
Reviews of This Week’s Top 10 Albums
Sade: soldier girl These short reviews of this week’s Top 10 Billboard albums are based on the first thing that popped into my head as I listened to 30-second snippets from the albums’ most popular song on iTunes. 1. Sade — Soldier of LoveThis marching army seems surprisingly peaceful. Kinda sexy too. 2. Lady Antebellum…
What to Do Tonight: Snoop Dogg
It’s Snoop, bitches! He’ll never be a music icon or savvy businessman on par with someone like Jay-Z, but Snoop Dogg has certainly taken to the role of hip-hop elder statesman. With worldwide album sales topping 30 million, Snoop has permeated pop culture on many levels since coming out of Long Beach, California, in 1992.…
O’NEILL RETURNS FOR REMATCH VS. LATOURETTE
Geauga county lawyer/nurse/former appeals court judge Bill O’Neill announced rceently that he’s coming back to take another shot at Congressman Steve LaTourette (R-14). About two dozen supporters gathered at the terminus of the RTA Blue Line Rapid at Van Aken and Warrensville roads in Shaker Heights to shiver and cheer through a speech which O’Neill…
Glass Harp to Play Two Shows
Glass Harp will reunite for two shows on March 27 and March 28 at Youngstown’s Family Recital Hall. The Saturday set starts at 8 p.m.; Sunday’s begins at 3 p.m. Tickets are $25 and selling fast. Original frontman Phil Keaggy, a renowned lead guitarist, will reconvene the classic lineup with bassist Dan Pecchio and drummer…
Hall-Free Oates to Play Kent Concert Hall
He can go for that. Yes can do Whoa-oh, here he comes: Hall and Oates’ mustachioed half, John Oates, will play the Kent Stage on March 18. Expect certified Daryl Hall and John Oates classics like “Maneater,” “Sara Smile” and “She’s Gone,” without Hall’s pesky vocals cluttering the mix. Oates will also play songs from…
HOLD YOUR BETS: CASINO OPENING NOT IMMINENT
Rock Ventures, the company that owns the Cavaliers, runs the Quicken Loans Arena, and will operate the Cleveland casino made possible by the state constitutional amendment it wrote and promoted, is considering opening a temporary casino, possibly in the old Higbee’s building. And that’s all there is to report right now about one of the…
Local Guys Wrote New Santana Single
There’s a new video for “Angel Love (Come for Me),” the first single from the new and expanded edition of Santana’s 1999 smash comeback, Supernatural. As detailed in Scene a couple weeks ago, the song was originally written by Cleveland music veterans Mark Avsec and Alan Greene. It was later given a new set of…
2/24: So Cow at the Beachland
Thirty years ago, the underground pop scene was a refuge for those equally unenthused about the blandness of Top 40 and the overblown angst of punk. It was pop music taken back to its essential elements but thematically updated. To alleviate any confusion, the Irish band So Cow wasn’t a part of that particular movement…
2/23-24: Ani DiFranco at Kent Stage and in Oberlin
If there’s a poster child for running a successful career by doing whatever you damn well please — independent of the music industry’s repressive machinations — it’s most assuredly Ani DiFranco. From the start, the Buffalo native has resolutely rejected any proscribed pattern along her singular musical path, which has fearlessly included signature guerilla folk…
2/23: Cold Cave at Grog Shop
Cold Cave are like a dance party for depressed cyborgs desperately looking for connections in their retro-futurist dystopia. With their blend of bleak industrial soundscapes, post-punk angularity, noise cacophony, pop mannerisms and an array of synthy kitsch that runs the gamut from staccato blips to fuzzy synesthesia wash, Cold Cave manage to make music that…
2/22: Lisa Dennison at Ohio Theatre
Lisa Dennison is the chairman of the North and South American branch of Sotheby’s auction house. So when she talks about “Building an Art Collection for Satisfaction and Gain” today, it’s natural to think her emphasis might be on the latter, since the job of an auction house is to persuade collectors to put their…
2/21: Peking Acrobats at PlayhouseSquare
If you blended athletic gymnastics, Cirque de Soleil’s graceful physical wizardry and traditional heart-stopping circus stunts, you might come up with something like the Peking Acrobats. Or maybe not. The ensemble adds traditional folk artistry and live music to come up with something that’s as grounded in Chinese culture as it is in making people…
2/20: Just Beyond the Stars at Breen Center
Peter Pan had a strong run in the ’50s, starting the decade with Leonard Bernstein’s Broadway adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play and running through Walt Disney’s 1953 animated film. Mary Martin’s Tony- and Emmy-winning performance as the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up defined the character for generations. More than 40 years later, George Stiles…
2/20: Andrew Borowiec’s Ohio Photographs at Akron Art Museum
On one hand, Andrew Borowiec’s photos show what human enterprise has done to the landscape. On the other hand, they portray the living environment we have created, and often imitated, for ourselves. Older photos revel in the ravages of industry: smoke billowing from chimneys, stark steel beams crossing gray skies, rutted dirt roads cutting through…
2/20: Robert Bradley at the Beachland
Robert Bradley’s life sounds like a movie. Alabama-born and blind since birth, Bradley was busking in the early ’90s outside the open window of White Room, the Detroit studio of pop-punk visionaries Second Self. Brothers Andrew and Michael Nehra heard Bradley’s music drifting in from the street and invited him in — an invitation he…
2/20: The Andalusions at Happy Dog
Since it launched in 1980, Dischord Records has been home to notable post-punk bands like Fugazi, Jawbox and Shudder to Think. While the label doesn’t have the panache it did, say, 10 years ago, that’s no reason to dismiss its latest signing, Washington D.C.’s Andalusians. Fronted by Basla Andolsun (Beauty Pill, Del Cielo), the band…
2/19: Third Fridays at 78th Street Studios
Horizons 5 by Tarrance Corbin The galleries of 78th Street Studios are stepping up the pace a bit: After a year of hosting quarterly open-house events that amalgamate an entire art walk’s worth of shows into a single building, they’ve decided that four times a year isn’t enough. Starting this month, the studios will open…
2/19: People Under the Stairs at Grog Shop
Using mixers, mics, drum machines and a little B-boy magic, People Under the Stairs’ Thes One and Double K summon the sounds of hip-hop’s golden age: Rakim, the Fat Boys, Poor Righteous Teachers, A Tribe Called Quest. “Basically, we try to make history every night onstage,” says Thes One. “For all the people who didn’t…
2/19: Joe Deninzon Trio at Nighttown
Joe Deninzon is soaked to the bone in music. He had a strong presence in Cleveland’s rock scene in the ’90s, playing guitar and bass and singing with various area groups — he even played violin for Michael Stanley — before moving to New York in 1997 to earn a master’s degree in jazz at…
2/18: Snoop Dogg at House of Blues
He’ll never be a music icon or savvy businessman on par with someone like Jay-Z, but Snoop Dogg has certainly taken to the role of hip-hop elder statesman. With worldwide album sales topping 30 million, Snoop has permeated pop culture on many levels since coming out of Long Beach in 1992. The fact that he’s…
2/18-20: Cleveland Orchestra
It’s all Wagner and — except for the “Wesendonck Songs” featuring soloist Measha Brueggergosman — it’s all overtures and preludes to operas on the Cleveland Orchestra’s program this weekend. But Wagner’s monumental Ring Cycle is nowhere in sight. Franz Welser-Möst will lead performances of Lohengrin’s Act I and Act III preludes, the overture to Rienzi,…
2/18: Dawes at Beachland Ballroom
There’s no mistaking the influence in Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith’s voice: That’s the Band’s Richard Manuel aching through the 11 songs on the Los Angeles band’s debut album, North Hills. There are several other classic reference points here too; pick any other artist working within the folk/rock/country idiom during the late ’60s and early ’70s,…
2/17: Dr. Sketchy’s Drink and Draw at Beachland
Johnny Blazes doesn’t like categories. The Boston-based performer got his start at Oberlin College, where he founded the O Circus, which became a 95-person production before evolving into a smaller, darker and sexier cabaret-style show that played Cleveland, New York, Washington, D.C. and Boston. These days, Johnny Blazes is a one-person festival of fucked-up identity…
GOVERNMENT-WATCHER FANTASY: SIX IN PUBLIC
After last week’s hubbub about secret meetings by the Cuyahoga County transition team, the first open forum on Issue 6-mandated government restructuring takes place tonight: a “public engagement” session at Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Public Affairs. Transition leader Jim McCafferty will be asking for ideas on how to keep people involved during the…
REDEMPTION SONGS
Arcana is defined as specialized knowledge that’s mysterious or inscrutable to the average person. The same might be said of Arkana, a Cleveland metal quartet attempting to shed its anonymity. Though by no means unknown — particularly to fans of local bands like Cellbound, Konipshunphit and Scalera — Arkana labored in various lineups for a…
BASE INSTINCTS
The honeymoon might be over between Tea Party followers and Ohio Republicans. Although the Cincinnati Tea Party has long said it’s a nonpartisan group, its largest rallies and protests have featured a predominantly GOP slant. Speakers and attendees at the events have included former Congressman Steve Chabot — who’s seeking a return to Ohio’s 1st…
RED, WHITE AND TWO
Two local dance innovators return to the stage this weekend with new works that mix movement with set and costume designs integral to their performances. Dancer/choreographers Lisa K. Lock and Michael Medcalf share a double bill with visually striking pieces at Cleveland Public Theatre’s Big [BOX] series. Lock’s Concentric Cycles examines the role of fate…
GET ON ‘BOARD
The new “Pay Josh Cribbs” billboard presents an opportunity to talk about timing and populism. And since we’re here for the kids, and education is the bedrock of a fulfilled life, we’re not going to let this opportunity for a lesson go by the wayside. Let’s hop into the Wayback Machine to start the discussion.…
Eye Candy
In a conversation transcribed online at irhine.com (a nonprofit Cincinnati community website), the late Tarrence Corbin talks about obsessively setting up still-life compositions for his students at the University of Cincinnati. Comparing these to his tightly packed, often large-scale acrylic-on-canvas paintings, he says, “These are literally like my vision of things in a toy box.”…
The Denzel Principle
In post-civil rights America, it seems like everyone wanted black men to be Martin Luther King Jr. Not the womanizing, chain-smoking party boy he was in real life, but the nonviolent, well-spoken vessel for change. The messianic Martin is a legacy far too luminous to contend with. He is worshipped by whites and blacks alike,…
GETTING REALLY HIGH
David Bamberger says he’s checked around. He’s been saying it for half a year without anyone having corrected him. So the director of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Opera Theater is pretty confident in his statement that Richard Strauss’ 1916 opera Ariadne Auf Naxos has never been performed in its entirety in Cleveland. Until this…
Nighty Night
In the opening scene of Unmade Beds, 20-year-old bisexual Axl (Fernando Tielve) wakes up next to a girl he doesn’t recognize, wondering if he slept with her the night before. It’s a typical morning for the kid from Madrid who’s trying to find himself in London. That’s half of the movie’s story. The other part…
Around Hear: Good Touch Bad Touch Live Touch
Good Touch Bad Touch will appear on WRUW 91.1 FM’s Live From Cleveland on Thursday, February 18, from 10-11 p.m. The Lakewood indie-pop quartet will play live and talk about its music. They will perform new material and songs from their upcoming self-titled debut, produced by the group and mixed by bassist Dave Molnar at…
Short Takes: The Parent Trap
Happy Tears *** There’s a scene in Happy Tears in which Jackson (Christian Camargo), an art dealer who is going insane, cuts himself, and the spurting blood decorates the canvas of an abstract painting. The scene is a metaphor for the movie, which was written and directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein, son of famed pop artist…
Arts District: convergence-continuum Marches On
Marching to the beat of its own drum, convergence-continuum opens its season in the spring and runs through year’s end, instead of following just about every other performing-arts organization’s calendar season. But who cares when they do it, as long as artistic director Clyde Simon keeps on doing interesting stuff? The new season opens March…
Film Capsules
Opening Harmony and Me (U.S., 2009) Harmony (Justin Rise) is a real loser who works a dead-end job and can’t seem to get over the fact that his girlfriend Jessica (Kristen Tucker) has dumped his sorry ass. But while (500) Days of Summer took a clichéd storyline and applied a twist, Harmony and Me stumbles…
Mob Deep
TOP PICK GoodFellas 20th Anniversary (Warner) One of the greatest mob movies of all time celebrates its 20th anniversary with a Blu-ray book version that includes tons of cool extras, like a feature-length Golden Age of the Gangster Film documentary. Martin Scorsese’s wiseguy epic is the centerpiece, with great performances by Robert De Niro, Ray…
Reel Cleveland: Found Footage Festival
For the past five years, Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher have assembled an odd assortment of video clips into a touring show called the Found Footage Festival. This year, they’re bringing it to the Beachland Ballroom (15711 Waterloo Rd., 216.383.1124, beachlandballroom.com) at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, February 21. Highlights include a collection of strange Saturday-morning cartoons,…
THE MEAT GENERATION
How is it that so many seemingly normal people just can’t stand meatloaf when it’s so goddamn good? I mean, it’s basically a comprehensively integrated hamburger, and who doesn’t like hamburger? In asking around for this article, I became concerned for future generations, since it seemed that the hatred was inversely related to age. Reactions…
Local CD Reviews
The Royaltons (self-released) myspace.com/theroyaltons “I won’t always be around/I’m not always in this town,” sneers guitarist Dale Delong on “Evil Eye,” one of the best tunes on this band’s fine debut. Much like the Kings of Leon or the Arctic Monkeys, these guys have a tempered swagger that distinguishes them from the alt-rock fray. With…
CD Review: Peter Gabriel
Throughout Peter Gabriel’s long career — first as the camouflaged frontman and creative catalyst for Genesis, and then in his often groundbreaking solo work — he’s been one of rock’s most original artists. Whether penning elaborately plotted and executed suites and rock operas (“The Return of the Giant Hogweed,” “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”)…
Spies and Lies
No quill pens are brandished in The Last Station, the overripe, if sumptuously entertaining, new biopic about Russian literary lion Leo Tolstoy. Yet the spirit of Hollywood’s Golden Age casts its rosy shadow. Set in 1910, the movie depicts the domestic battle royale waged between Leo (a divinely plummy Christopher Plummer) and his wife Sofya…
CD Review: Fear Factory
In 1995, L.A.’s Fear Factory released Demanufacture, one of the top industrial-metal albums of its day. Over the next 15 years, the band achieved modest financial success, released four albums of varying consistency (read: glitter-laced effluvium) and engaged in tabloid-worthy infighting and pseudo-breakups. Mechanize finds Fear Factory back in top form. Founding guitarist Dino Cazares…
CD Review: Tindersticks
Tindersticks mounted one of 2008’s most unexpected comebacks. Stuart Staples reconvened about half of the original band for The Hungry Saw, the band’s first release of new material in five years. It was a welcome return, as The Hungry Saw presented a sort of Tindersticks mach II, a far leaner version of the band (probably…
CD Review: The Watson Twins
On their debut EP, Southern Manners, Leigh and Chandra Watson filtered their Kentucky roots and early country exposure through an affinity for Joni Mitchell, Natalie Merchant and the Cowboy Junkies. Almost simultaneously, the Watsons backed Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis on her debut solo album, the Laura-Nyro-meets-Tammy-Wynette country soul of Rabbit Fur Coat. But the…
CD Review: Josh Turner
From the time he burst onto the scene with 2003’s openly spiritual hit single “Long Black Train,” Josh Turner established himself as one of country music’s more easily identifiable voices. His rumbling baritone set to traditional-leaning arrangements was distinctive. And his songs are uniformly catchy and slick enough to share chart space with Taylor Swift. Haywire,…
Manifest Intensity
When Atreyu began writing songs for their fifth album, they weren’t thinking specifically in terms of their earlier work for Victory Records (2002’s Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses, 2004’s The Curse, 2006’s A Death-Grip on Yesterday) or their major-label debut for Hollywood (2007’s Lead Sails Paper Anchor). They were just energized by the prospect of…
Piano Man
On Monday and Thursday nights, singer-pianist Harry Bacharach can be found in the lush environs of Ohio City’s Velvet Tango Room, offering the audience a mix of pop standards, contemporary pop tunes, his own compositions and smart-aleck humor to go with their fancy cocktails. You can expect a somewhat different sort of show when Bacharach…
“We Are the World 25”: Not Nearly as Great as the Original
I know it’s for a good cause, so I don’t want to come down on it too hard, but that new “We Are the World” really blows. Not that USA for Africa’s original 1985 version wasn’t without its cheese (Kenny Rogers and Al Jarreau were there, remember?), but Josh Groban? Celine Dion? Justin freakin’ Bieber?…
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO GLOBOCORP …
Let’s take a moment and exaggerate, a little, the possible effects of unlimited corporate involvement in U.S.-style democracy. We could have the war industry buying presidents and launching us into illegal wars. We could have the bottled-water industry buying senators and pushing for weakened water standards so that our rivers, streams and even tap water…
