Dino-Mite
FRI 1/16 At Friday’s Dino Stomp, kids get to dress as their favorite prehistoric creatures, make lots of noise, and basically raise hell for a few hours. “Seeing the children’s thirst for dinosaur knowledge is half the fun,” says Brenda Verherst, the program’s conductor. “Kids come in their favorite dinosaur costumes, PJs, and T-shirts, quick…
Ronnie Baker Brooks
From the sound of things, there was no generation gap in Lonnie Brooks’s household. When his son, also Ronnie, began dosing his blues guitar with big tastes of high-energy rock and R&B, it was just an update of an old family recipe. Brooks the elder began mixing these styles in the late ’50s on regional…
The Rubdown
WED 1/21 Steve Cintroni had no plans to coop himself up in his Lakewood apartment one balmy night last month. So he and his new boyfriend checked out Movie & Massage Night at the downtown gay club Grid/Orbit. “I know it sounds weird,” he says, “but with the free popcorn they were advertising, I thought,…
Evan Dando
At some point, Evan Dando disappeared. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when it occurred; it was more of a fade than a moment of spontaneous disintegration. But by the second half of the ’90s — after a series of minor successes as the frontman for Boston alt-rock darlings the Lemonheads and his own ascension to…
Squall in the Family
1/16-2/8 Director Russ Borski scored a real coup when he cast Raised in Captivity, Nicky Silver’s comedy about twins who reunite at their mother’s funeral. He found a pair of acting sibs — Tyson and Tyler Postma — to play the dysfunctional mourners in the production, which makes its Ohio premiere Friday at Dobama Theatre.…
Nathaniel Mayer
The retro-rock excavation of the last few years has resulted in more than just a couple of nice Nuggets boxed sets. Whole careers have been revived. Long-forgotten, way-out ’60s soul shouters Andre Williams, Gino Washington, Solomon Burke, and Ike Turner are all back in action. That’s super, because these cats prepared the canvas that everyone…
American Girl
Not a lot of people know this, but our word “actress” is derived from the Greek phrase strumpetos luckyos, meaning “prostitute who somehow landed an agent.” This etymological root remains largely unappreciated because it is entirely fake, fabricated for the present purpose of irritating a lot of people. You see, if your ire is sufficiently…
The Mammals
The Mammals cannot be written off as just another “next generation of bluegrass/traditional” band. No, this trio, which gets plenty of help from friends and relatives, offers more than merely the ability to rip it up instrumentally on such chestnuts as “Way Down the Old Plank Road” or “John Brown’s Dream.” Folk with attitude? Sure.…
Hard Ride
Okay, so there’s this terrible joke some dork told me: A mouse is drowning in quicksand, and an elephant happens by and says, “Here, grab hold of my large penis and I’ll pull you out!” The mouse, puzzled but desperate, agrees, and is saved. Time passes, until the mouse happens upon the elephant, who is…
Dizzee Rascal
From the credible to the laughable, there’s been no shortage of applicants eager to claim Tupac Shakur’s crown over the past seven years. It could be, however, that everyone has been looking in the wrong country; in many ways, 18-year-old East Londoner Dizzee Rascal makes the best case yet as the sensitive thug most likely…
Poetry Man
Last August, Neal Chandler, Cleveland State’s Creative Writing Program coordinator, got himself fired — primarily for lying on his résumé. On two separate applications for the coveted Fulbright Fellowships, he called himself an “associate professor.” But since Chandler’s doctorate is in German, he was only a “lecturer” — not a true member of the English…
Pet Sounds
You know how sometimes you’ll be watching a musical, and you’re getting into the story and characters, when suddenly they have to interrupt everything for a really annoying song that seems to stop the plot dead in its tracks? Imagine the opposite of that experience, and you’re close to Teacher’s Pet, a Disney musical cartoon…
The Church
Because the Church has had few mainstream hits in America — the rainy-day mysticism of “Under the Milky Way” was its only Top 40 bow — people often overlook the sterling quality of the Aussie group’s career. Evolving from spry, wet-behind-the-ears janglers on the 1981 debut, Of Skins and Heart, to lush craftsmen of drifting…
Big Tent, Tiny Ideas
Knute Larson, the senior pastor at the Chapel, projects an image more Rotarian than evangelist. In television commercials, the easygoing Larson proffers an invitation to know Jesus Christ as though he were promoting a retirement village or a liberal-arts college. No fire, brimstone, or shiny suits. Larson’s neighborly approach works. The nondenominational Chapel was already…
Gag Reflex
One of Gary Larson’s iconic cartoons, captioned “When clowns go bad,” pictured two menacing, street-tough circus jesters ready to smash cream pies into the face of an unsuspecting citizen about to come around the corner. Now that’s funny. Much less amusing, however, is the moment “When clowns go serious.” This happens when comedians or comedy…
Various Artists
When the Beastie Boys proclaimed, “This one goes out to my man the Groove Merchant/Comin’ through with the beats that I’ve been searchin’,” on 1992’s Check Your Head, they solidified the San Francisco record store’s rightful place in hip-hop history. In the spirit of Groove Merchant and its excellent selection of soul, jazz, disco, Latin,…
Thanks a Lot, George
Governor Bob Taft must be feeling pretty low these days. His prescription-drug plan was delayed, then upstaged by another design. His promise not to raise the sales tax without a vote by the masses vanished when legislators wouldn’t go for his budget-balancing tariffs on booze and smokes. A university study suggested that his Ohio Reads…
Hit the Wall
We’ve all been there: talking with folks around the coffeemaker at work when a topic comes up — politics, dating, hot-air ballooning, you name it — and we think of a devastatingly funny comment. Trouble is, we usually get this inspiration anywhere from a couple of hours to a day or two later, when we…
Various Artists
The Century Family (Century Media, Nuclear Blast, and Olympic Recordings) is pretty much the premier metal outlet in the country right now. They dominate in sheer number of bands, and the quality of their recent releases has frequently been astonishing. This double-CD set sprawls the full range of Century Family. Disc one is solid, featuring…
Take Our Money — Please.
The killing tapers off in the winter. When it’s cold and there’s snow on the ground, Jennifer Turner gets to drive around the city in her Plymouth minivan looking for animals to save, not exterminate. Turner is a humane officer for the Cleveland Animal Protective League. She’s driving down Gilmore Avenue in west Cleveland when…
Salt of the Earth
In its mind’s eye, Cleveland will always be a workingman’s town — a wholesome, 1950s sort of place, where children play stickball in the street, Dad totes a lunchbox to the mill, and Mom spends her day in the kitchen, grilling kielbasa or frying up a mess of walleye. Not to get all psychoanalytical on…
Brian Eno
On Brian Eno’s latest, the 55-year-old composer and theorist finds himself into deep gongs and deep thought. To illustrate, January 07003 is Eno’s synthetic-bell accompaniment to a clock designed to operate for 10,000 years. While playing with his calculator one day, Brian set out to compute the number of days in 10,000 years. Using just…
The Martyr Returns
Deposed Lakewood Mayor Madeline Cain continues to see additional evidence of her greatness in the November election that turned her out of office after eight years. Cain supported the use of eminent domain for development of the West End, which voters rejected. In championing the project, she poor-mouthed the city and seemed imperious. Her decision…
Dough Nuts
The winter wind comes howling up the St. Clair Avenue hill from the Flats like a pack of coke-crazed bachelorettes, so if we suggest that you take the short walk from the Warehouse District to West 10th Street, you have every right to expect that we have a damned good reason. And indeed we do,…
2skinnydorks & the Family
This debut from the Cleveland pop-rock duo 2skinnydorks is all about good vibes and better weed, coming with lithe acoustic funk and a disposition sunny enough to require shades. Full of tie-dyed platitudes — “Whatever makes you free, just be” — and bright instrumentation, Spread Love fits comfortably within the Dave Matthews school of Rock…
Letters to the Editor
Score One for Dan They skipped the vote and missed the boat: Where were all these people on voting day when “Big Dan” [DiLiberto] ran for reelection [“City on the Brink,” December 17]? The ballfield was one of the biggest campaign issues. It was evident that no matter how half-assed the stadium plan was, Dan…
Bugging Out
The latest disc from the artcore-antagonist members of the Locust is only 21 minutes long, but it seems to last a week when it’s playing. Each of its 23 tracks is a blur of grindcore drumming, jagged guitar roar, bass that’s practically subsonic, and the band’s special secret ingredient — screeching, farting analog synths. The…
Rue
This self-titled LP from Akron sludge factory Rue has a song called “Stonersaurus,” which pretty much says it all. The tune starts with samples narrating: “The group’s founders inflicted an even more punishing toll on themselves . . . smoked pot, hash, opium, psychedelics, LSD, magic mushrooms.” Meanwhile, the “Fuck you and what you think”…
Extreme Sci-Fi
Perhaps only the most diligent sci-fi geek would show up in the middle of the night for a film whose title is under wraps. But two such mystery movies — one at 12:30 a.m. Saturday, the next at 3:30 p.m. that afternoon — are only a pair of the highlights at Case Western Reserve Film…
This Old House
Derrick Carter is about as close to being a house-music lifer as one can be. Laying down tracks since the mid-’80s, he’s that rare entity who gets equal props for his ability to move crowds and his prowess behind the boards, where he’s one of the world’s most highly demanded producers. Carter’s production style and…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, January 15 There are some similarities between the two painters featured in Worlds Apart: Gloria Plevin and Phyllis Seltzer, on display at the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve.”There’s real attention to the world we live in,” offers Plevin. “We both have that.” But their distinctions are more pronounced: Plevin favors snowy landscapes, Seltzer…
The Beat Goes On
Chimaira has parted ways with drummer Andy Herrick and quickly replaced him with Richard “Ricky” Evensand, formerly of Soilwork, the band’s recent tourmate. “It was a big blow for us,” says guitarist Rob Arnold over Herrick’s decision to leave. “It was definitely disappointing, but we can’t hold it against him. We saw him slipping away…
Golden Rules
Urinetown: The Musical is probably the worst-titled production ever to hit Broadway. It’s most certainly the nastiest-named show ever to win multiple Tony Awards. “It knows the title sucks and the premise is absurd,” admits Tom Hewitt, who plays Officer Lockstock in the touring production that opens at the Palace Theatre on Tuesday. “It lets…
Rags to Ramones
C.J. Gunn is not one for pink tights. The Parma-born musician with the asphalt-colored wardrobe gave himself his first tattoo at age 12, a colorful mess of blurry symbols that runs up his right calf. He grew up listening to Mötley Crüe and W.A.S.P., in the days before their mascara took precedence over their metal.…
Girl, Irritated
TUE 1/20 Meg Cabot hates the Human Resources Department, that universal bastion of surliness. “They’re supposed to be good with people,” she says. Her new book, Boy Meets Girl, is set in that division, and its protagonist battles daily with grumpy employees. “I worked in an office,” Cabot says, offering a morsel of autobiographical info.…
Last Band Standing
In a rap-rock world that spews more than its share of suspect rhetoric — it’s been a while since Fred Durst actually delivered a beatdown — Linkin Park is more candid than calculating. It’s fitting, then, that the sextet is the genre’s last thriving band, having put out one of the top-selling albums of 2003,…
Cheat Seats
TUE 1/20 Gone are the days of free company tickets to see the Cavaliers in action. But even if you can’t afford primo seats to Tuesday’s game against the Seattle Supersonics, you can be close to the action at any of Gateway’s now-burgeoning bars. Here are some of the best viewing options: Screen Team: Phil…
Anti-Flag
The last decade of Anti-Flag’s existence has been a constant crusade for truth in politics, solidarity in punk, and intellectual enlightenment aimed at inspiring people to think about the world around them. On the Pittsburgh band’s latest disc, The Terror State, punchy choruses, speedballing tempos, and greased-up riffs serve as the sonic counterpart to biting…
