What to Do Tonight: The Entrance Band
California psych-rockers the Entrance Band’s pedigree doesn’t quite fit the mold of most sun- and pot-stoked groups. Frontman Guy Blakeslee (a Baltimore transplant who spent a chunk of his musical career in Chicago) recorded a handful of solo albums as Entrance, and bassist Paz Lenchantin was in A Perfect Circle and Billy Corgan’s short-lived Zwan.…
What to Do Tonight: Motion City Soundtrack
Since releasing their debut album, I Am the Movie, in 2003, Motion City Soundtrack have perfected their brand of self-deprecating pop-rock. With each subsequent record — 2005’s Commit This to Memory, 2007’s Even If It Kills Me and the new My Dinosaur Life — the group’s sound has become more polished, a bit pop-heavy and…
DRILL BABY DRILL: THE MOVIE
Natural gas drilling is booming in Ohio, but some residents of other states farther west — the heartland, as industry-worshipping conservatives often call it — are suffering worse. The documentary Split Estate examines the way drillers run roughshod over farmers and ranchers who don’t own the rights to what’s beneath their land. Split Estate screens…
Rock Hall Extends Springsteen Exhibit
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s Bruce Springsteen exhibit, From Asbury Park to the Promised Land, has been extended through the end of the year. That means you have 11 more months to check out all the Boss action happening at the Rock Hall, like handwritten lyrics, the clothes he wore on…
Drive-By Truckers Return With New Album, Tour and Free Music
One of the ’00s’ most durable bands, Drive-By Truckers, aren’t slowing down in the new decade. The band has a new album, The Big To-Do, coming out on March 16. Not so surprisingly (since they’ve spent about 90 percent of the past decade on the road), the Truckers also have a new tour lined up…
This Just In: Concert Announcements
Daughtry, telepathically making you like his shitty music. NEW DATEErnie Krivda Detroit Connection: Mon., Feb. 8, 7 p.m., $20. Nighttown. THIS JUST IN Ryan Andrews Requiem, featuring John Knific and Christine Vienna: Tue., Feb. 23, $15. Nighttown. The Ataris: Fri., Feb. 26, 7 p.m., $10 ADV/$12 DOS. Rockstar Cleveland. Bang Tango/Priscilla: Mon., March 8, 7…
Out Today: Beach House
Beach HouseTeen Dream(Sub Pop) Teen Dream is sure to induce hazy infatuations in both teens and adults. Victoria Legrand’s seductive moans are dreamlike, enhanced by steaming-hot organ and Alex Scally’s intricately laced guitar. “Real Love” and “Zebra” recall the antique, autumnal feeling of Beach House’s self-titled 2006 debut. Think gypsy royalty and thick, velvety thrones.…
What to Do Tonight: Frode Gjerstad Trio
Playing extreme music is difficult to begin with; it’s even harder when you’re playing it alone. Saxophonist Frode Gjerstad was born in 1948 in Norway and was one of the nation’s first musicians to fully embrace the unbound sound of free jazz. Inspired by the gruff, passionate tone of Clevelander Albert Ayler, Gjerstad had trouble…
What to Do Tonight: D. Rider
Seeing that guitarist Todd Rittmann of long-running Chicago freaks U.S. Maple is a member of D. Rider, it may not come as a surprise that the band fits snuggly under the “avant-garde” heading. What is surprising is that on Mother of Curses, D. Rider aren’t afraid to embrace at least some of the songwriting standards…
New Homage Swag: 10-Cent Beer, Columbus Horizon
We’re not going to see any commemorative gear remembering 10-Cent Beer Night from the Indians or anything that could be remotely considered official MLB gear. Thankfully, Homage Clothing knows people want this shit. They’ve also got a great Columbus Horizon shirt. What are the Horizon? The Columbus Horizon is a defunct basketball team from Columbus,…
RONAYNE JUMPS INTO WRONG RACE
Apparently no one told Chris Ronayne that he was supposed to run for the new county executive post, not a council seat:
They Care a Lot
Chuck Mosley cares. A lot. Radio 92.3 WKRK will throw a benefit concert for Haiti on February 6 at the Factory (1385 East 36th St). Seven of the biggest names in Northeast Ohio music will perform. Program director Dominic “Nard” Nardella says he had the idea for a benefit while watching graphic news footage featuring…
Another Tremendous Delonte West Video
So, this video is from last year, but a) I’d never seen it before today, and b) It’s a rule: Any time you find a dynamite video of Delonte West doing something awesome you must post it. (Yes, it’s not KFC freestyle, but really, what is?) Background: Video comes from a Cavs practice when the…
Monday Ticket Giveaway: Daedelus
We have two pairs of tickets to Daedelus’ February 17 concert at the Grog Shop. For a chance at winning a pair, send your name, phone number and e-mail address to freetickets@clevescene.com. We’ll pick a random winner at noon on Tuesday, February 16.
Browns Owner Randy Lerner Close to a Championship
Well, in the Carling Cup, anyway. Aston Villa advanced over Blackburn on 7-4 aggregate for their first trip to Wembley for a Cup final since 1996. They’ll find out their opponent this Wednesday after Manchester United and Manchester City finish up the final leg of their semifinal. The final is set for February 28. Manager…
Shok Paris Headline Suicide-Prevention Benefit
Auburn Records band Shok Paris will headline a concert on Friday at the Breakfast Club to benefit the Help Hotline Crisis suicide prevention center. JJ Grim, Shades of Remembrance and Electrojector will also play. All of the $5 cover will go to the Help Hotline. Breakfast Club owner Billy Morris donated the venue and will…
LeBron and Drake Hosting Celebrifabulous Party All-Star Weekend
For as little as $75 for the privilege of hanging out with the common masses, or as much as $1800 for 8-person bottle service and VIP access, anyone in the Dallas area during NBA All-Star weekend can attend the shindig being thrown by LeBron and Drake on February 12. Check out AllStarPartyDallas.com for all the…
J. Mascis and Cobra Verde Form New Band
Sweet Apple, a new collaboration between J. Mascis and a couple of members of Cobra Verde, will release their debut album in April. The band includes Dinosaur Jr’s Mascis, Cobra Verde’s Tim Parnin and John Petkovic, and Dave Sweetapple, who plays bass in another of Mascis’ side projects, Witch. Sweet Apple got together in December,…
What To Do on a Monday Night?
It’s Monday. We’re not happy about it either. Click here to see Scene’s list of Monday-night club events, from Cleveland to Akron, from rock clubs to gay and lesbian bars. —D.X. Ferris
What to Do Tonight: Between the Buried and Me
Slogging through the mass of metalcore bands out there to find a few worthy of your time can be an unrewarding task. So start with Between the Buried and Me. Nearly 10 years and five albums in, these guys are still at the forefront of an often redundant and stagnant genre. The main reason: their…
A Q & A with Surrogates director Jonathan Mostow
Much like the Terminator films, the sci-fi thriller Surrogates imagines a futuristic world taken over by machines. In fact, humans have become addicted to letting their surrogates do everything for them, whether it’s having sex or going to work. But when things begin to go haywire (as they always do in these kinds of flicks),…
A Q&A with The Boys are Back producer Greg Brenman
Based on journalist Simon Carr’s memoir, The Boys are Back didn’t break any records during its limited theatrical run last year. But it deserved better. Clive Owen gives a great performance as Joe Warr, a guy who finds himself thrust into parenting mode after his wife suddenly dies. Unable to discipline his two sons, he…
What to Do Tonight: Richie Havens
The 40th anniversary celebration of Woodstock last year brought a new audience to the music that was made during those three days in New York. Richie Havens — whose opening performance at the festival made him a star — is one of the survivors of the era. He just turned 69 and continues to regularly…
What to Do Tonight: Bill Burke
Erie-based Bill Burke isn’t your usual guitar player. For starters, he does his thing on an eight-string touch guitar, which is played like a piano, with the left hand hitting the bass notes as the right picks at the treble strings. Although he’s mostly known as a jazz artist, Burke draws much inspiration from progressive…
Want Some Free CLEpunk MP3s?
Want a buttload of awesome old CLEpunk mp3s? Former Offbeats honcho Tom “Tommy Hawk” Miller has posted, on his blog, the astonishing 1982 compilation This Tape Sucks. As a time capsule of the Cleveland/Akron punk scene of the early ’80s, Sucks is easily the equal of the far better-known They Pelted Us With Rocks and…
Even angel-on-angel action can’t redeem Legion
Legion starts with a bang as Michael (Paul Bettany) drops from the sky and proceeds to cut off his wings and pick up whatever ammunitions he can. The film quickly takes a detour to a small diner (appropriately named Paradise Falls) in the middle of the Mojave Desert where a yuppie couple (Jon Tenney and…
NEW EXPO CENTER GREETED BY ANGRY TEAMSTERS
With the opening today of the new Great Lakes Expo Center in Euclid, word comes that the facility is being picketed by representatives from Teamsters Union Local 407. It’s asking patrons to boycott the 67th Annual Cleveland Home & Garden Show which christens the facility, and it plans to picket the show throughout its run,…
‘TELL THE VEGANS TO GIVE IT A REST’
Chef Parker Bosley responds to our review of Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer: Do we really need another book dealing with meat production? No. Anyone who has interest or curiosity regarding meat production can educate and inform himself quite easily. Industrial agriculture, agri-industries and their mouthpiece, the Farm Bureau, are a kind of evil…
Black History Month at the Rock Hall
Architects of Philly Soul Gamble & Huff: big songs, big lapels. Every year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum joins the national celebration of Black History Month by devoting the entire month — February — to a different aspect of black music. This year, it’s focusing on Philly soul — the slick,…
THIS IS WHY EVERYONE HATES BANKS
Bankers and mortgage lenders — do you want to know why the vast majority of Americans would vote to bring back public floggings specifically for you? Here’s a good example. WCPN’s report on hearings in Columbus on whether banks should help pay for counseling for those facing foreclosure included this illuminating gem from Michael Adelman…
Martina McBride/Trace Adkins Tix on Sale Tomorrow
Martina McBride and Trace Adkins’ Shine All Night tour plays CSU’s Wolstein Center on February 26. Both country stars will play full-length sets, with Sarah Buxton opening. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Seats are $30 and $65 via Ticketmaster. —D.X. Ferris
Daughtry Tickets Now on Sale
Tickets are on sale now for Daughtry’s April 1 concert at CSU’s Wolstein Center. Doors 7:30 p.m.; tickets $29.50 and $39.50 via Ticketmaster. Lifehouse and Cavo open. —D.X. Ferris
Snoop Dogg Coming to House of Blues
Hey, sha-nizzles, Snoop Dogg will play House of Blues on February 18. Tickets are $35, or $105 for a four pack. Snoop’s latest album, Malice N Wonderland, is a total bust. But he’ll probably perform some songs you like. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. here. —Michael Gallucci
What to Do This Weekend: Simeon Soul Charger
Akron’s Simeon Soul Charger are in twin-attack mode. When the band’s not recording its Rust Belt-style of atmospheric arena rock in the studio (they’re working on a new EP right now to be released this spring), the five-piece is throwing bizarrely awesome concerts backed by performance artists, choirs and pizza parties. You can get a…
What to Do Tonight: Retribution Gospel Choir
Alan Sparhawk has spent more than 15 years fronting slow-core progenitors Low with his wife and partner in otherworldly beautiful vocal harmony Mimi Parker. Even though Low have loosened up their sound a bit over their past few releases, it’s easy to see them as a sort of musical dam. Their seemingly innate ability to…
Bobby Womack Nails New Gorillaz Song
Clevelander, recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and R&B legend Bobby Womack is part of Gorillaz’s new single, “Stylo.” Womack and Mos Def receive star billing on the song, which is from the cartoon/studio group’s Plastic Beach album, which comes out on March 8. Womack kills it, by the way. Dude still has…
No Gabriel at Genesis’ Rock Hall Induction, But Plenty of Collins
Peter Gabriel tells Rolling Stone that he’s not going to get onstage with his former bandmates when Genesis are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15. That’s sad news for longtime fans who were hoping to hear the flower-wearing Gabriel belt out “The Musical Box” or “The Lamb Lies Down…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Dr. E
Here’s the part of C-Notes where we let a band tell you why you need to see them this week, because we’re busy posting handmade Team Coco artwork on eBay. This time, it’s Dr. E, a homegrown soul singer and full-time academic. —D.X. Ferris Artist: Dr. E Website: giveusfreerecords.com Hometown: Cleveland & Columbus Sounds Lke:…
Cle-loving Irish band the Prodigals in mourning
Gregory Greene Sad news from Gregory Grene, frontman for Celt-rockers The Prodigals: To let you know: the band will be on hiatus for the next few weeks. My twin brother, an extraordinary, funny, brilliant, charming and deeply kind man was working with the United Nations in Haiti when the quake struck. He, along with many…
Thursday Music News Roundup
Madonna will do her part in aiding Haiti. A bunch of talented people — and Julia Roberts — come out for Haiti telethon. Dead? Doesn’t matter. Michael Jackson will still be at the Grammys this year. Lady Gaga: back from exhaustion. One of the coolest rock ‘n’ roll summits of all time is going to…
Spector Rock Hall Appearance Is Filled
Looks like you won’t be her baby, after all. Remember that Ronnie Spector Q&A at the Rock Hall we told you about earlier? Well, it’s sold out. Looks like you’re gonna have to stay home and listen to Back to Mono intead.
Second Coolest Guy in the Hold Steady Quits
The second coolest guy in the Hold Steady has quit the band. You can read all about Franz Nicolay’s departure on his website. The band’s keyboard player quit the band in September and played his last gig with them around Thanksgiving. He says he “dotted the t’s and crossed the i’s this week.” There’s no…
Ronnie Spector Q&A at Rock Hall Tonight
To prep you for tomorrow night’s concert at the Beachland, original rocker girl Ronnie Spector will appear at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tonight for a long-form interview and Q&A session. The event kicks off at 7 p.m. at the Rock Hall’s Foster Theater. Admission is free. To attend, e-mail edu@rockhall.org or call…
HEAVY METTLE
Classic Metal Show co-host Chris Akin is leaving the program (primarily aired online) to focus on a new, Internet-based political-talk show, podcast and website. The news and views won’t be new ground for him. He’s woven politics into the show over the years, jagging Ministry’s Al Jourgensen, badgering S.O.D.’s Billy Milano and matching wits with…
OUTSOURCING JOURNALISM — TO RESIDENTS
A new initiative will train Akron citizens to produce original journalism for ohio.com, the online home of Akron’s Beacon Journal. Formerly based in Akron, Florida’s John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded $350,000 to the Akron Community Foundation for the project. (It awarded similar grants to 23 other communities with connections to the…
Your Excessively and Unnecessarily Vulgar Cleveland Browns Rap Song of the Day
Very NSFW if you don’t work anywhere that would be cool with a rap song that uses the word Fuck every 2.6 seconds.
WE’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER YARD
A Mantua Family has built the Northeast Ohio’s tallest snowwoman. Next year, they plan to set a world record. On January 16, the Zolgus family — led by Ryan Zolgus, his brother, father and two sisters — started building a 13-foot snowman. A photographer arrived to take a picture and asked Zolgus if he planned…
Kate Voegele Muses on Muse
Homegrown singer/part-time TV actress Kate Voegele has a new iTunes-exclusive EP, Live Sessions. It’s full of acoustic takes of songs from her latest album, 2009’s A Fine Mess, which had sold around 100,000 copies last time we checked. She also covers Muse’s “Starlight,” which has been popping up in her live sets. Voegele explained the…
Dink Never Dies
It’s not a reunion, but four of five members of Dink will get back together on Saturday at Musica. In the ’90s, the Kent-based electronic-rock also-rans had a major-label deal with Capitol and scored a minor hit with “Green Mind,” which plays like a musical mashup of Nine Inch Nails, Filter and EMF. The show…
ALL GULL BREAKING LOOSE
If you work downtown and park outside, you’ve probably spent the past month wiping seagull poop off your car. It’s not just you. The National Audubon Society’s Annual Christmas Bird Count reports a sharp and dramatic rise in the gull population over the past three years. It’s led to thousands of gulls flying over downtown…
1/27: Motion City Soundtrack at HOB
Since releasing their debut album, I Am the Movie, in 2003, Motion City Soundtrack have perfected their brand of self-deprecating pop-rock. With each subsequent record — 2005’s Commit This to Memory, 2007’s Even If It Kills Me and the new My Dinosaur Life — the group’s sound has become more polished, a bit pop-heavy and…
1/27: Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra
Cleveland Institute of Music student Michael Bratt’s doctorate in music composition requires a dissertation in the form of an orchestral score. The CIM Orchestra performs the result, “Unconscious Intelligence,” tonight. The 10-minute piece for string orchestra, percussion, harp and piano includes 10 to 20 different string parts playing at any given time — a compilation…
1/26: Frode Gjerstad Trio at Beachland
Playing extreme music is difficult to begin with; it’s even harder when you’re playing it alone. Saxophonist Frode Gjerstad was born in 1948 in Norway and was one of the nation’s first musicians to fully embrace the unbound sound of free jazz. Inspired by the gruff, passionate tone of Clevelander Albert Ayler, Gjerstad had trouble…
1/26: D. Rider at Now That’s Class
Seeing that guitarist Todd Rittmann of long-running Chicago freaks U.S. Maple is a member of D. Rider, it may not come as a surprise that the band fits snuggly under the “avant-garde” heading. What is surprising is that on Mother of Curses, D. Rider aren’t afraid to embrace at least some of the songwriting standards…
1/25: Jasper String Quartet in Rocky River
The Jasper String Quartet formed in 2003, when violist Sam Quintal, cellist Rachel Henderson Freivogel, and violinists J Freivogel and Sae Niwa were students at Oberlin Conservatory. They’re now quartet in residence at the graduate program of the Yale School of Music after winning a handful of chamber-music competitions in 2008 and 2009 and building…
1/25: Between the Buried and Me at Peabody’s
Slogging through the mass of metalcore bands out there to find a few worthy of your time can be an unrewarding task. So start with Between the Buried and Me. Nearly 10 years and six albums in, these guys are still at the forefront of an often redundant and stagnant genre. The main reason: their…
1/24: Richie Havens at Kent Stage
The hype surrounding 40th-anniversary of Woodstock last year brought a new audience to the music made during those three days in upstate New York. Richie Havens — whose legendary three-hour performance opened the festival — just turned 69 and continues to regularly perform, record and support activist causes. Havens still relishes his Woodstock association, even…
1/23: Western Reserve Historical Society Benefit
These are tough times for many Northeast Ohioans. So the Western Reserve Historical Society, which exists to give perspective on the bad times and the good, has chosen a more affluent era as the theme for its first annual Somewhere in Time fundraiser. Each year it will honor another decade; it starts tonight with the…
1/23: Bill Burke at The Wincester
Erie-based Bill Burke isn’t your usual guitar player. For starters, he does his thing on an eight-string guitar, which is played like a piano, with the left hand hitting the bass notes as the right picks at the treble strings. Although he’s mostly known as a jazz artist, Burke draws inspiration from progressive rock musicians…
1/22: Ron White at PlayhouseSquare
The rebellious and ornery Ron White isn’t going out with his funny pals on the current Blue Collar Comedy tour. It’s not that White, a clever, straight-shooter of a stand-up, has anything against Blue Collar king Jeff Foxworthy. White will be the first to tell you Foxworthy changed his life. A decade ago, White worked…
1/22: Retribution Gospel Choir at Grog Shop
Alan Sparhawk has spent more than 15 years fronting slowcore progenitors Low with his wife and partner in otherworldly vocal harmony, Mimi Parker. Even though Low have loosened up their sound a bit over their past few releases, it’s easy to see them as a sort of musical dam. Their seemingly innate ability to keep…
1/22: Fragmentation: Seed, Spore and Poplyp at Rupnik Gallery
If an artist tells you he uses “found objects” in his work, it usually means he discovered some unusual things and the resulting piece will show off the items. For Jonah Jacobs, “found objects” means raw materials. “Generally, I use waste materials and household items to create organic-looking structures,” he says. “In one large piece,…
1/22: Donna Brazile at CWRU
That Barack Obama sits in the White House is partly thanks to Donna Brazile. As chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute, she was tasked with beating back efforts by certain Republicans to undermine fair elections — like what happened in 2000 in Florida and 2004 in Ohio (hey there, Ken Blackwell!). The…
WAKE-UP CALL
Everybody looked tired in the foyer at Severance Hall Tuesday as musicians and management of the Cleveland Orchestra held a joint press conference to announce an end to the musicians strike, and at least the key details of a new contract. Executive director Gary Hanson looked like he’d been running on just a couple of…
1/22: Boldfigures opens at Wall Eye Gallery
Dante Rodriguez says he prefers organizing art exhibits by themes. But for the new Boldfigures at Wall Eye Gallery, he started with artists. After inviting people whose work he likes, Rodriguez looked for what they had in common. He discovered that all of them included treatments of the human figure — in political commentary, expression…
1/22-31: Cleveland Home & Garden Show
Devotees of the 67-year-old Cleveland Home & Garden Show may be a little confused about the changes in the event that previously took place at the IX Center starting the second week in February. Now, due to rising costs, the promoters have moved the event to a new facility — the Great Lakes Expo Center…
1/21-23: RemodelOhio Show at IX Center
There isn’t a whole lot to do in Cleveland during the winter if you don’t like skiing or shoveling your driveway. But it is a perfect time to make home-renovation plans for the spring and summer months. Still, who likes thinking about these things? Thankfully, there will be plenty of designers and home-improvement professionals at…
1/21: Poetry Back in the Woods at Shaker library
In his 2007 book Broken Hallelujahs, Case Western Reserve University poetry professor Sean Thomas Dougherty examines his place in the world. He takes a trip to Budapest to walk the streets his great-grandmother walked, and makes allusions to cultural icons of the 20th century, including Jackson Pollock and Biggie Smalls. In 2008’s To See the…
BLED TO DEATH: SOME CASES ARE EVEN WORSE
This week’s cover story, “Bled to Death,” details the demise of PIE Insurance, which was liquidated by the state, perhaps unnecessarily. The biggest — arguably only — beneficiaries were the lawyers and other professionals who wracked up staggering numbers of billable hours on the autopsy. Unfortunately, such incredible costs and time commitments involved in the…
THE PROBLEM 100
Inside Business Magazine, a sister publication of Cleveland Magazine, has published its “Power 100,” a list of the allegedly most influential 100 Northeast Ohioans, in its January/February issue, compiled by senior editor Erick Trickey. The list may indeed be an accurate reflection of who wields power in Northeast Ohio, but if so, it’s an unhopeful…
SHERIFF’S OFFICE POKING AROUND IN GARFIELD HEIGHTS
A spokesman for the Cuyahoga County sheriff’s office confirmed Tuesday that deputies have opened a criminal investigation at Garfield Heights City Hall. Spokesperson John O’Brien declined to detail the nature of the investigation, but sources tell Scene that the probe revolves around a man who was on the city’s payroll until late last year. There…
Arts District: Bobgan and the Box
Cleveland Public Theatre artistic director Raymond Bobgan has been a strong advocate for the “public” part of the company, making CPT stages available for artists to develop new work in the Big [BOX] and Little Box series. This week, he gets involved in a Big [BOX] production for the first time, facilitating a production by…
Around Hear: Band Aid With Doc Rock
Cleveland-based Internet broadcaster MSC Radio Network (streaming live at morningshowcentral.com) has a new talk show for musicians. Dubbed Band Aid With Doc Rock, it airs Tuesdays at 9:05-11 p.m. Entrepreneur Christopher Axelrod takes questions and gives advice for bands who want to learn how to book bigger shows. MSC general manager Chris Vaughn says the…
Fond of Yonkers
Neil Simon’s once infallible reputation as the Gandhi of commercial Broadway comedy rests on a perilous precipice. Back in the days when Sonny and Cher ruled the airwaves, every Simon play or film was anticipated as a major event to be heralded on the cover of Time magazine. His Odd Couple was our most ubiquitous…
Playing With Fire
Charles Wince’s tightly executed oil-on-canvas works seem to flicker. The effect — in works like his searing two-panel composition “Terminal Apocalypse” — comes from expressive, at times downright psychedelic, color combinations and the fact that the Columbus-based artist often uses a field of pointy, zig-zagging flame-like shapes to energize his depictions. Long ago categorized as…
A Guy Thing
TOP PICK Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side (Twentieth Century Fox) Family Guy’s second Star Wars spoof is just as funny as 2007’s Blue Harvest. The hour-long DVD (which will air on Fox in the spring) retells The Empire Strikes Back from the perspective of Peter (as Han Solo), Chris (Luke Skywalker) and Brian…
FRIEND OF FEAST?
Thanks to journalists like Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), buried somewhere deep in Americans’ meat-loving unconscious is the vague knowledge that the ground beef grabbed from the supermarket has undergone a strenuous process of plumping, pounding, chopping and compressing — often not in that exact order — before arriving at its final package as a…
CD Review: Eels
Mark Oliver Everett started as something of a Beck imitator, so it’s fitting that he’s gotten around to making his Sea Change. This is the Eels’ frontman’s big breakup album, and for a guy who has made several fine concept-lite records, the stakes are high. But Everett’s frequency in releasing records doesn’t do the quality…
CD Review: RJD2
Producer RJD2 has fallen off the radar since 2002’s fantastic Deadringer. And while his fourth album, The Colossus, may not exactly pick up where Deadringer left off — there’s more emphasis on funk and soul than in the past — it suggests how RJD2 got into the whole hip-hop producer thing in the first place.…
CD Review: Editors
If Orwell were to designate a soundtrack to the dystopian society he created in 1984, it would probably sound a lot like In This Light and on This Evening. Editors’ singer and lyricist, Tom Smith, growls about broken love, drunken violence and lack of God on a record where “the filthy city is so close…
Sonic Reducers
A few years ago, local underground venue Black Eye hosted numerous impromptu late-night jam sessions and afterparties. On any given night, you could find a motley assortment of local and touring musicians hanging out after hours. One evening eight years ago, guitarist Buddy Akita, bassist Mike Damico and singer-keyboardist Chris Kulcsar were playing as a…
CD Review: T-Model Ford
If the biggest blues names from Chess Records’ heydey had hopped a Greyhound, hightailed it out of Chicago and returned to the South, their records might have sounded a lot like those T-Model Ford has turned in the past decade or so. To drive the point home, the ornery eightysomething Mississippi singer-guitarist and raconteur regularly…
Local CD Reviews
NICHOLAS MEGALIS Pagan Pecan (self-released) zandard.com Nicholas Megalis keeps getting better … and weirder. On this five-song EP (which is available as a free download), the 20-year-old singer-songwriter mines some familiar territory — T. Rex-style stomp-n-roll, avant-rock rambles — and stretches out into some truly mind-fucking areas. He distorts his voice on most of the…
CD Review: Cold War Kids
Behave Yourself is the 12th release (counting sundry live EPs) from the Cold War Kids since their 2005 debut. This five-track EP was recorded between sessions for the band’s sophomore album, Loyalty to Loyalty. It begins with the straight-ahead Southern soul stomp of “Audience.” “Coffee Spoon” contains a wonderfully wandering guitar line, while “Santa Ana…
Girl from the Ghetto
Ronnie Spector was the iconic ’60s rock ‘n’ roll bad girl, famous for teased hair, heavy eyeliner and her poignant “whoa-oh-oh.” As lead singer of the Ronettes, the era’s quintessential girl group, her distinctive voice carried hits like “Be My Baby,” “Baby I Love You” and “(Walking) in the Rain.” Those days are long gone,…
CD Review: Surfer Blood
While their classmates were racking up debt at the college bookstore, the guys in Surfer Blood put their scholarship money to use buying musical equipment. The four were University of Florida freshmen when they wrote and recorded Astro Coast in their dorm room. The results are as fresh and vibrant as their band name, a…
Pole Position
A lot of death metal is interchangeable — and that’s coming from a fan of the genre. But there’s no mistaking Behemoth. The Polish trio spent the last dozen years, roughly since 1999’s Satanica and 2000’s Thelema.6, trying to engulf the world in the sonic equivalent of a firestorm. Drummer Zbigniew Robert Prominski, a.k.a. “Inferno,”…
Film Capsules
Opening Act of God (Canada/Britain/France, 2009) This artistic documentary looks at a variety of people who have been struck by lightning and gives them a forum to discuss the experience. The film includes numerous shots of lightning-filled skies, but director Jennifer Baichwal (Manufactured Landscapes) doesn’t entirely overlook the human dimension. She interviews a poor Mexican…
Bled to Death
On December 10, 1997, the day the Ohio Department of Insurance raided the offices of the PIE Mutual Insurance Company with U.S. Marshals and took control of the company, it became clear to Tom McManamon that the state was out to destroy them. McManamon was an insurance agent who worked under a subsidiary of PIE.…
Snob Story
“His concepts are OK, but I hate all of his work.” That’s the deadly assessment of a persnickety music critic after attending avant-garde composer Adrian Jacobs’ (Adam Goldberg) latest concert in director/writer Jonathan Parker’s amusingly titled (Untitled). Rather than be chastened or bummed out by that review, Adrian barrels full steam ahead. Who cares whether…
DISHONORABLE DISCHARGE
FirstEnergy’s Lake Shore power plant, located at 6800 South Marginal Drive (just west of East 72nd Street), operates only when demand for electricity peaks, like during a heat wave. But while its output may be sporadic, the waste it discharges into Lake Erie — particularly mercury — is an ever-present danger, say environmental activists. “The issue…
Reel Cleveland: That First Hot Lather
Two years ago, Trish Sgro, owner of the business-consulting firm International by Design, and Tom Loveman, an indie film and music-video producer, formed Hot Lather Productions hoping it would turn into a locally based powerhouse development company. While that hasn’t happened yet, Hot Lather will launch its first webisode at the end of this month…
FAMILY AFFAIR
There’s a documentary quality about choreographer Dianne McIntyre’s new work, Just Yesterday, commissioned by GroundWorks Dancetheater. At a December preview performance at the City Dance Studios, McIntyre told the small group of guests about her process: She had interviewed members of the company, asking them about stories they remembered from their childhood. From there, she…
Medicine Man
If you are casting the role of a genius scientist, Harrison Ford probably isn’t the first name that comes to mind. Unless, that is, you are Harrison Ford, executive producer of Extraordinary Measures. Ford optioned the book The Cure, a gripping account by Wall Street Journal reporter Geeta Anand about businessman John Crowley’s efforts to…
