Felix Da Housecat
Discerning music fans must’ve had their fill of ’80s mania by now. Multinationals have been suckering pop consumers into buying their bastard version of an ’80s revival from the moment that flannel, Seattle, and surly dispositions officially went second generation. A vaultful of packaged nostalgia to reissue makes for easy profit. Unfortunately, like most other…
Radio’s for Ladies
Real music is at the record store: “Foul Play” [Soundbites, January 3] really caught my eye. I love music, but I’m not a radio fan. My source for music comes from magazines and record stores. I spend hours talking to record store owners and customers. It’s how I learned about Transition, Insane Clown Posse, and…
Harlem Revisited
When the Jazz Age was born at the height of Prohibition, Harlem hopped. Between 1912 and 1934, during the Harlem Renaissance, African American poets wrote in syncopation about struggles in the South. Dancers writhed on soot-stained sidewalks to celebrate freedom. And singers sang the blues in smoke-filled ballrooms. “Harlem was a promise of a better…
Vipers Tangle
Like a determined kid brother angling for a good spot in the family portrait, James Mango has gotten his Charenton Theater Company into the Playhouse Square picture between Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding and the traveling shows that fill the gilded Euclid Avenue theaters. Located on the second floor of the Bulkley Building, the new Studio…
Loads of Bull
“You don’t ever think about the danger. Whenever you do, it’s time to get out,” says rodeo clown Keith Isley. He’s talking about facing down a 1,800-pound bull, something he’s done almost nightly for 30 years. “Their horns scare me, but their feet terrify me. If you get hit with a horn, it’s gonna hurt.…
Flunk You
“Pray for us.” So ends a note Judd Apatow sent out last week to television critics who have been supportive of his series Undeclared, among the few half-hour comedies to debut last fall with any modicum of acclaim and expectation. Set at a northern California university and populated by awkward freshmen trying to find themselves…
Damned Amusing
Those possessing a vampire’s keen senses may see through the Goth grunge of The Queen of the Damned to a deeper ideological conflict lurking beneath. On one side, there’s novelist Anne Rice, sweepingly sensuous and profoundly humorless, who welcomed the cannibalization of her second and third bloodsucker books to create this distant cinematic sequel to…
Politics of the Plate
Love Chilean sea bass? Then don’t eat it. That was one of the messages members of the Marine Fish Conservation Network, an advocacy group dedicated to preserving the ocean’s bounty, brought to town earlier this month. Along with fishermen Michael Brooks (Alaska) and Paul Parker (Massachusetts), the conservationists were here to educate restaurateurs, chefs, purveyors,…
Tasty Danish
To call a movie the most accessible Dogme 95 film ever made is not merely damning with faint praise. It also threatens to alienate the two segments of the population that might consider going to see such a film in the first place: fans of the back-to-basics, no-frills-of-any-kind Danish filmmaking doctrine (who will bristle at…
Maxi-ed Out
The ambiance is urbane. The portions are large. And co-owner Gilbert Brenot, with his silver hair and resonant French accent, cuts a dashing figure in his crisp chef’s whites. Presumably, this is enough for the diners who crowd into this tiny bistro night after night. Because when it comes to the food, Maxi’s leaves us…
Caught in the Web
It started in August, with two men in a chat room asking for children to molest. To Roche Girard, a beefy 26-year-old father with spiked hair and a sparse goatee, the words stuck out like a neon sign. The idea of someone molesting his three-year-old boy was horrible, Girard says, but the thought that someone…
Shining Son
On first impression, pretty much everything about 28-year-old singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright has a regal air — his musical bloodline, his wise-old-soul artistry, his bored-but-focused conversational tone, even his model good looks. Ask him how he wants to be remembered, and he’ll smoothly answer, “As a great beauty — in every sense of the word!” Of…
Sweet Life at the Trough
The pitched battle over nuclear waste intensified as the Cold War waned in the 1980s, and Chris Trepal wanted to enlist on Earth’s side. After listening to a Greenpeace activist on Donahue one day back in 1985, she dialed up the Northeast Ohio Sierra Club. Soon, the mother of two was waist-deep in the cause:…
Building a Mystery
Akron isn’t quite as callused as Cleveland; nor is its downtown as girdled by homely industrial sprawl. But there’s a reason Alcoholics Anonymous started there. The same Rust Belt restlessness that has long driven many of Cleveland’s finest acts is palpable in this town. The difference is, that discontent has often spurred Cleveland bands to…
The Marshall File
There’s a simple rule of thumb when sorting through court cases: the fatter the file, the weirder the case. It’s an important reminder for anyone ambitious enough to wade through file No. 349190, otherwise known as State of Ohio vs. Charles L. Marshall. Four boxes worth of motions, briefs, and transcripts sit in the basement…
Youth Is Served
It should have been sponsored by Kool-Aid. Or perhaps Nesquik. Though the second annual Cleveland Music Fest was presented by Pabst Blue Ribbon, half the bands and many of the fans in attendance sure as hell weren’t old enough to drink the stuff. Granted, there were plenty of veteran acts on hand, but most of…
Cowtown Rocks
A guy meets a Cleveland lawyer, they get to talking, and the guy tells the lawyer he’s originally from Columbus. “Sorry about your luck,” the Clevelander responds, as if the guy were raised in a mud hut in Uganda with no cable. Cleveland has always looked down on Cowtown — in part because looking down…
Slaughter and the Dogs
Morrissey, New Order, and the Stone Roses all claimed to be inspired by Slaughter and the Dogs. It never fails — bands flaunt influences harder and cooler than themselves. It’s a tradition once comically illustrated by Bauhaus T-shirts showing up in a New Kids on the Block video. Slaughter and the Dogs are, in fact,…
Matt Pond PA
Many years ago, Matt Pond was making a big noise with the punkish Mel’s Rockpile, and after finding that association creatively stifling and unsatisfying, he relocated from his idyllic New Hampshire surroundings to the grittier confines of Philadelphia. This culture clash has defined Pond’s subsequent creative output. Since his 1998 debut, Deer Apartments, Pond has…
Carl Cox
Someone should take a poll of international DJs and figure out just how many of them credit their parents’ record collections with igniting their interest in the vinyl arts. We can’t even begin to count how many times we’ve heard the near-stock answer, and Carl Cox is no exception. But that’s about where the similarities…
Nas
There is a never-ending debate over who’s the best rapper of all time. The arguments always change, but the names somehow remain constant. Rakim, ‘Pac, Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nasir Jones — a.k.a. Nas — are consistently considered rap’s lyrical upper class. Of these five MCs, though, Nas is probably your safest bet as a winner…
The Bottle Rockets
If there were an Americana Hall of Fame, Texas-bred Doug Sahm would be there — if not as a performer, at least as an early influence. Sir Doug, as he was known to his fans, was one of the first artists brought up on country, Western swing, and blues to become a rock and roller,…
Rinocerose
After all the critical accolades and underground hype that this French duo picked up with their first album, Installation Sonore, they must figure they’re in line to become the next Daft Punk. We’ll admit to thinking that Installation — a record that tossed some jangly, fin-like riffs of guitar amid a stream of gleeful French…
Norse Law
Eric the Red couldn’t be happy about the narrow-minded violence of the musicians carrying on in his name. After all, the storied raids by Red and his Viking brethren were as much about scoring chicks as wreaking havoc. But centuries after the Vikings have faded into history, what acts pay tribute to the Nords? Long-haired…
