Black Mass Appeal
“It’s not like we hate everyone,” clarifies Silenoz, guitarist for Norwegian black-metal marauders Dimmu Borgir. “We hate those who deserve the fucking hate.” But for most black-metal bands, that is everyone. Easily the most misanthropic form of music ever to rear its ugly, corpse-painted mug, black metal is a genre born of confrontation and antipathy,…
The Path to Peace
If you run into the Reverend Elizabeth Howell at the Winds of Change Center, she may suggest that you take a hike. Don’t be offended. It’s just an invitation to go on a meditative walk along the stone-lined paths of the facility’s labyrinth. Walking the labyrinth may be popular among today’s crystal-pyramid and patchouli-incense crowd,…
Battle Tested
DJs can never get comfortable. Like a speed skater whose record-setting time is broken in the next heat, a turntablist can throw down the slickest, most innovative trick he knows, only to see the next DJ get up on the decks and perform the same trick, add his or her own twist, and take the…
Gigantic Titanic
Even if you don’t feel like the king of the world after walking through Titanic: The Exhibition at the Great Lakes Science Center, it at least spares you the sight of Leonardo DiCaprio making goo-goo eyes at Kate Winslet. And the sheer scope of it — more than 250 artifacts from the famed sunken ship,…
A Sucka Is Born
Almost as bizarre as a rapper dressed as a leprechaun is where said rapper found his pot of gold. Lil’ Flip, a Houston-born freestyle phenomenon who clothes himself in green imp garb on the cover of his self-titled debut, inexplicably became one of the most heavily played artists on Cleveland urban radio last year. Thanks…
Hell on Earth
If We Were Soldiers smells at all familiar, perhaps you’re confusing it with the stink emanating from a nearby theater screening Black Hawk Down. After all, on their shiny blood-drenched surfaces, they’re damned near the same movie: Both are based on books that recount true-life battles that claimed the lives of American soldiers; both offer…
Sanchez
Sanchez released his first record in 1987, just as reggae’s digital age was taking over the last remnants of acoustic instrumentation. Blessed with a smooth voice and a range that could put some opera singers to shame, Sanchez became a dancehall sensation. While a majority of his contemporaries have been relegated to obscurity, Sanchez remarkably…
Asking for It
To comprehend Todd Solondz’s full range of themes, merely picture a sledgehammer with the word “neuroses” written on it swinging toward your skull. Were it not for his innate understanding of suburban agony, which totally eclipses such obvious fare as American Beauty, Solondz would be swiftly dismissed, but the Newark native knows how to claim…
The Waco Brothers
As Madonna taught us, slappin’ on a cowboy hat doesn’t make you a cowboy any more than donning a cape makes you Liberace. You explain that to the Waco Brothers, a whole passel of Chicago boys who favor snappy Stetsons and standard bellyachin’ jukebox pop dressed up in fiddles ‘n’ pedal steel ‘n’ twangy gee-tars…
Forty Dazed
For an industry notorious for its test screenings, focus groups, and obsession with what will play best in the heartland, the movie business occasionally and spectacularly drops the ball with respect to its mainstream entertainment. Last year, someone decided what the public most wanted to see was America’s Sweethearts, a film that parodied press junkets…
Cathie Ryan
It’s quite possible that the finest singer of Irish folk music isn’t Irish by nationality. Cathie Ryan was born in Detroit, to Irish immigrant parents steeped in music and folklore. Her father’s mother was a champion fiddler and singer, and her mother’s father was a seanchai (folklorist). She was singing at the Detroit Gaelic League…
Cavs Anonymous
Even in Gund Arena, even in January, with the Cavaliers possessing one of the coldest tickets in town, there’s something like a buzz 45 minutes before game time. Fans trickling in hear a new-age jazz riff spilling out from speakers and the first beckoning of beer vendors. TV broadcasters pattycake foundation on their faces, while…
John Scofield
John Scofield thinks he may have recorded the blend of funk and fusion he’s always aimed for. Uberjam, the new, ultramodern disc by the John Scofield Quartet, even includes a rap on “I Brake 4 Monster Booty.” It cooks from the jump, thanks to Scofield’s sexy, angular guitar, his white-hot rapport with rhythm guitarist/ sampler…
The Defiant One
A pair of sheriff’s deputies stood behind the defense table in Judge David Matia’s courtroom. Though the defendant was seated and handcuffed, one officer wasn’t taking chances. The deputy planted one foot in front of the other and braced his knees, like a first baseman holding a runner to the bag. Behind his back he…
Cannibal Corpse
Cannibal Corpse’s eighth album generally holds to established patterns. The band grinds out mechanistic riffs while George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher belches and grunts lyrics that the bassist and drummer handed him to “sing.” This latest batch of songs isn’t really any different from the last seven, but those with an ear toward picking out minuscule variations…
A Death So Young
Jessica Hardaway remembers the colors: his grayish-blue skin, the red splotches on his neck, the purple tint of his lips, the light blue eyes hidden by the black of his pupils. “When I saw they were completely dilated, I knew he was gone.” Hardaway tried to save 10-year-old Kevin Vliet anyway. CPR raised a faint…
Dawn Robinson
The four women who made up En Vogue, the most influential female vocal group of the 1990s, may have taken turns singing lead, but it was clear from the outset that Dawn Robinson had the strongest pipes. In 1997, the Oakland-based vocalist was the first to leave. After an unhappy relationship with Raphael Saadiq and…
Bad Blood & Basketball
The Cleveland State women’s basketball team was once as chummy as a slumber party. They broke even last year with a 14-14 record, and if few players were bound for WNBA glory, at least they had fun. This year’s media guide shows a team that knew how to laugh: Next to their stats, players answered…
Princess Superstar
It’s a difficult task for a woman to gain respect in the male-dominated world of hip-hop. But if that woman happens to be white? It’s damn near impossible. L.A. singer Tairrie B, now of goth-punkers My Ruin, may be the only white female to gain props in the MC game — and then only because…
Shorty’s Long Story
Quick-draw artist William “Shorty” Young can twirl a pistol with the finest of gunslingers, but he can’t quite work the same magic with his life story. It’s not that his 67 years lack luster. A former Hollywood bit actor with recurring roles in The Beverly Hillbillies and Gunsmoke, Shorty has fallen gracefully off a horse…
The Distillers
For destitute, bumming-change-in-front-of-McDonald’s punk, look no further than the Distillers. The outfit boasts the magnificent, mouthful-of-marbles gutter punk accent of Brody, wife of Rancid’s Tim Armstrong. Born in Australia, Brody had a rough childhood and was booted out of two all-girl Catholic schools before making her way to L.A. Improving on its fine self-titled debut,…
God Made Martians Too
The danger of public barometers: Your defense of teaching intelligent design misses the point [“God, Man of Science,” January 31]. Science isn’t democratic; it’s elitist. Ideas aren’t treated equally — only the ideas that pass in peer-reviewed journals survive. If and when intelligent design becomes recognized as a valid scientific alternative to evolution, then it…
Michael Jantz
Michael Jantz is a West Side troubadour whose songs effortlessly conjure youthful promise and pain. His 11-track debut, beautifully produced by Jantz and Chris Keffer at Magnetic North, signals the arrival of a man who works hard to create appropriately diverse settings for his personal, idiosyncratic narratives. Besides his aptitude for lyrics, Jantz has an…
Subtle Force
Library art is a little like elevator music: bland, nothing too rad or gross, and certainly nothing sexy. It’s there to furnish ambiance and calm the patron/public. At first glance, that’s true of the Cleveland Public Library murals. But Ora Coltman’s recently restored 1933-’34 mural “Dominance of the City,” now on the third floor of…
Small Screen, Big Step
Just last week, the makers of a film called Pendulum gathered in a brand-new Dallas movie theater to screen their picture. The event was a fund-raiser for both the Susan J. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s Race for the Cure and the trust fund for the children of Pendulum co-star Alissa Alban, who died last year…
Aroma Domain
If olfaction is the queen of the senses, the fresh, herbaceous cuisine of Vietnam is fit for royalty. And if fragrance is the key to the subconscious, Tay Do is a portal to another world. Which, come to think of it, is a good thing, since in this world, owner Loc Nguyen’s little shoebox of…
Back in Touch
Ohio City’s Touch Supper Club (2710 Lorain Avenue, 216-631-5200) has a new owner and a new menu. Jeff Allison purchased the dinner-and-dancing spot last fall and is orchestrating a grand reopening celebration for early March. Allison, whose background is in restaurant, club, and hotel management, has hired former Mercury Lounge chef Brad Mitchell to head…
