Goosing The Duck
Keith A. Joseph can be reached at keith.joseph@clevescene.com.
Seventh Heaven
Elaine T. Cicora can be reached at elaine.cicora@clevescene.com.
Side Dish
Tips are appreciated. Contact Elaine T. Cicora at elaine.cicora@clevescene.com.
Hair Bands and Heritage
“We don’t want to be labeled a political band. We don’t want to be labeled an Armenian band. We don’t want to be labeled any type of band. We’re a band that can do anything.” So proclaims System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian. Of course, it’s hard for the band to not be recognized…
The Way He Likes It
It’s a slow but not particularly quiet Thursday night at the Boarding House. At the front of the University Circle joint, five or six patrons line the bar, laughing and shouting over each other. Up the stairs and just around the corner, guitarist Bob Ferrazza and bassist Peter Dominguez have set up for their weekly…
The Angolan Shuffle
Some dancers are inspired by the graceful moves of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Others are enticed by the bumping and grinding of Dirty Dancing’s Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. But for Julio Leitao, it was watching his mother perform the powerful tribal dances of his ancestors while growing up in Angola. “In my childhood,…
The Sound of Art Damaged Music
One look at the paper trail associated with Jad Fair’s quarter-century of musical mayhem known as Half Japanese, not to mention its numerous branches, and it becomes clear that any comprehensive accounting of this timeline is going to require a Salt Lake City genealogist. Fair has worked with some of the biggest names in music…
Good to Be Bat
Creatures of the night make easy scapegoats. Take bats, for example. These evil little critters are renowned for bleeding people dry, spreading rabies, and getting caught in the hair of unsuspecting damsels — all completely fair accusations, right? “You’re free to have whatever opinion you want, but at least have your opinion based on facts,”…
20 Miles
20 Miles with Bob Log III Grog Shop January 26 20 Miles, a band that features two brothers — drummer Donovan Bauer and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion guitarist Judah Bauer — made an inauspicious debut in 1996 with the aptly titled Ragged Backyard Classics. Three 45s stuffed into one slip case, the seven-inch releases were…
From Titipu, With Love
The evening of March 14, 1885, was an auspicious one in the annals of musical theater. Less than four years had passed since the opening of London’s Savoy Theatre, built specifically for the productions of librettist William Schwenk Gilbert and composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan. The partners’ first six works had catapulted them to great success,…
Dave Douglas’s Charms of the Night Sky Quartet
Dave Douglas’s Charms of the Night Sky Quartet Wexner Center Performance Space, Columbus January 28 Now may be Dave Douglas’s moment in the sun, and the trumpeter is making the most of it. Looking forward to two impending releases on a major record label (RCA/Victor) and currently leading and maintaining six bands, the prolific Douglas…
Dull Knife
Director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson’s 1996 Scream was something of a breath of fresh air — a little of the slasher film’s familiar old holy shit! mixed in with self-aware glances and not-so-sly asides. It offered nothing new — indeed, Scream often felt like a sequel to something — but it felt impudent…
Bernard Butler
Bernard Butler Friends & Lovers (Creation/Columbia) On his debut album, 1998’s People Move On, erstwhile London Suede guitarist Bernard Butler created an ethereal, contemplative one-man show of gadgetry and gimmickry. He embraced the Britpop of his former band while adding a bit of self-indulgent singer-songwriter material to the mix. In other words, it was pretty…
Baltimore Bugaloo
Although he couldn’t have known it at the time, growing up in Baltimore during the 1950s would prove to be filmmaker Barry Levinson’s smartest career move. First in Diner, then in Tin Men, Avalon, and now Liberty Heights, he has drawn on the specific time, place, and culture of his youth and transformed it into…
Various Artists
Various Artists Fire and Skill: The Songs of the Jam (Epic) There is an inherent problem with every tribute album — however successfully the compilers and artists conduct themselves in the service of the tributee — and that problem is context. In the rush to lionize an artist (and often for no more noble a…
The Man Who Would Be Killed
Director Chen Kaige is best known in the U.S. for Farewell My Concubine, the most successful Chinese production ever released here. As many pointed out at the time, this Oscar-nominated 1993 epic of modern Chinese history may have been wholly Chinese in both content and viewpoint, but it was still, in broad terms, a serious…
Peggy Stern
Peggy Stern Actual Size (Koch) In addition to a fertile imagination, precise technique, and subtlety, Peggy Stern possesses an unusual frame of reference, which is one of the reasons for her original delivery. A pianist, composer, and arranger, Stern draws on Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, classical (Brahms, Ravel), and R&B influences, plus the playing of Bill Evans…
Profit Pioneer
Frank Kuznik can be reached at frank.kuznik@clevescene.com.
No Brass
No Brass The Crowning of the Sun (self-released) Progressive rock came and went some 20 years ago, but someone forgot to tell No Brass. This six-man outfit from Brecksville, which includes guitarist Steve Ronyak, guitarist Dave Zuppert, guitarist Dirk Garman, bassist Erol Somer, bassist Dave Kovacs, and singer-drummer Mike Kovacs, formed over three years ago…
Burn Baby, Burn
Mike Tobin can be reached at mike.tobin@clevescene.com.
Soundbites
Send local music info and bottles of Jim Beam to jeff.niesel@clevescene.com.
Girl Talk
Laura Putre can be reached at laura.putre@clevescene.com.
The Edge
Family man! Sam Reese Sheppard arrived in court Monday accompanied by relatives from both sides of his family, the first time the Sheppard and Reese bloodlines have stood united in the courtroom. “We’re here to represent Marilyn and support Sam,” said Marilyn’s cousin, Melissa Reese Weigle. Two other cousins were in tow, along with aunt…
Stoking the Flames
Charles Yannopoulos can be reached at charles.yannopoulos@clevescene.com.
