Love Letters
U.S. Postal Service workers who think they have it tough should probably get a look at Huo Jianqi’s Postmen in the Mountains. In this deceptively simple and surprisingly moving film set in the early 1980s, a weary Chinese mailman, his wide-eyed 24-year-old son, and their faithful, knowing dog take three days to complete a grueling…
Big-Ass Party
Peabody’s Big-Ass Party is a night of whoop-it-up-like-a-rock-star gratuitous revelry (as opposed to a Big Ass Party, which would mean “big party in celebration and pursuit of butt”). In addition to live-band karaoke, tunes will be provided by Disengage singer Jason Byers (pictured) and Touch’s DJ Jeff, who will spin all rock, all night. And,…
The Last Picture Show
The man in black leaned out the helicopter’s open door, steadied his bazooka, and carefully took aim at the Detroit-Superior Bridge. To drivers crossing the span, the helicopter looked no more threatening than a news chopper, though somewhat closer to the ground. Most were just focused on getting to the other side. That’s when the…
The L Words
All of us lie — usually with no consequences. From the polite quasi-compliment (“Gee, that new nostril piercing is really different”) to the career-building suck-up (“Your idea is freaking brilliant, boss!”), deception is the verbal Astroglide that lubricates our social contacts with each other. But harmless fictions can lead to nasty and damaging falsehoods that…
Ani DiFranco
As the object of a growing post-feminist/ humanist cult, singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco has been good for at least one album every year since 1990 — though she hasn’t been good for a good album since 1997’s double-live Living in Clip. Her 15th LP, Knuckle Down, is nearly identical to last year’s Educated Guess, an unplugged…
Perv Tourism
It appears that a handful of pedophiles rang in the New Year by rendezvousing in Ohio. Over a nine-day period this month, the feds snatched up six men who either traveled to Ohio to engage in sex with minors or simply snuggled up at home with some child porn. Indiana’s William Griffin took a road…
Tale of the Tape
When you get to your 20th or 30th high-school reunion, you inevitably find that a former cheerleader has acquired sofa butt, the bushy-haired class president sports a pathetic combover, and the weird kid who ate his boogers in science class now owns Connecticut. But at 10 years out, not enough time has passed to witness…
Martini Night
At Boulevard Blue, choosing a cocktail isn’t such a chore. “I hate those big martini lists,” says Andy Himmel, owner of the Shaker Heights jazz club. “They take forever to read, and they’re just the same ones you see everywhere else.” Boulevard Blue’s menu boasts a dozen fresh variations on the cosmopolitan favorite, including the…
Invest in VCRs
Will Voegele stands on the 42nd floor of Terminal Tower, a procession of photos and architectural drawings flashing on the screen behind him. The regional director of Forest City is making his case for a new convention center along the Cuyahoga River. In an NPR-smooth voice, he talks of “skin costs,” “connectivity,” and “constructability.” Here…
On Stage
The Honky Tonk Angels — Dinner theater, unfortunately, has come to mean an ill-conceived meal followed by a half-baked stage performance. For many years, the fine folks at Carousel have been trying to defy that conventional wisdom, blending these two elements to the delight of loyal followers. And they’re at it again with this rather…
Erasure
Except for New York City’s performance-art aficionados Fischerspooner and the Scissor Sisters, most of today’s dance-pop acts lack the ability to inspire the unbridled hedonism that often ends with drunken make-out sessions at closing time. Things were different, however, in the ’80s for bands like Erasure. The U.K. duo’s Technicolor discotheque anthems, such as “Oh…
Blame Game
Blame Game But try walking in her moccasins: I just read your story “Medicated to Death” by Jared Klaus [January 12], and I am outraged that the doctors are so money-hungry that they would keep on giving Tom more Adderall, even though he was going through a month’s supply in a week’s time. I don’t…
On View
NEW Psychological Expressionism: The Art of Sid Rheuban — A Cleveland native and retired bond salesman, octogenarian Sid Rheuban has been painting for less than 15 years, yet his work is at a master’s level. The title of this large retrospective is right on the money: The emotional lives of the figures he paints –…
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull doesn’t care about the upbeat. Her specialty is weariness, her approach guarded, her artistry surely and painfully earned. On her first album in nearly three years, she allies herself with fellow songsmiths P.J. Harvey and Nick Cave, who contribute marvelous work. So does Blur frontman Damon Albarn, whose “Last Song” is among the…
. . . And Ya Don’t Stop
There are plenty of reasons why old-school hip-hop is better than the new stuff. It’s more fun (is there anything more playful than wikka-wikka record scratches?). It’s more revolutionary (Grandmaster Flash’s strolls through urban war fields are more incendiary than Lil Jon’s rhymes about pussy). And it’s more historically significant (T.I. will never matter as…
Cowboy Stylin’
The world is full of delicious surprises. Who’d have guessed that Lake Erie wineries would one day produce a fine Riesling? Or that Slavic Village church ladies would still be handcrafting plump pierogies well into the 21st century? Still, nothing quite prepared us for the most recent culinary shocker: In the heart of tony Bainbridge…
High on Fire
When Lemmy finally surrenders to age and hangs it up, High on Fire will slip right into Motörhead’s niche as the loudest, the hardest, and the heaviest. On Blessed Black Wings, the band’s third full-length, the Bay Area power trio has really come into its own as one of the most punishing metal bands on…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, January 27 Don’t hate Carter Oosterhouse because he’s Trading Spaces’ hunky handyman. Hate him because he’s capable of making a really cool armoire with just some wood and a few basic tools. “My brothers are both carpenters,” says Oosterhouse, who’s appearing Saturday at the Professional Home Improvement Show, which begins today. “Growing up, it…
Shakeup in Chinatown
The Tin Fu Café (3400 St. Clair Avenue) is getting a cross-cultural makeover that could bring a little Warehouse District sizzle to sleepy Chinatown. Cleveland club owner, pirate-radio vet, and popular DJ Jerry Szoka is the force behind the project, which includes plans to broaden the menu to feature American and Asian-fusion fare, and to…
Merle Haggard
The post-Norah Jones phenomenon of standards albums from singers who don’t usually sing them has yielded the occasional alternate-universe proposition: Cyndi Lauper doing “La Vie en Rose”? Hey, middle-aged mothers just wanna have fun, too. Country vet Merle Haggard isn’t the least likely artist to rip through the Great American Songbook. But on Unforgettable, Hag’s…
Give Him Props
As often as his rented rig has rolled into Playhouse Square, Scott Thompson can call Cleveland his second home. His parents met at Case Western Reserve University, where his dad studied aeronautical engineering and Mom was there “to meet guys.” His aunt is former Plain Dealer columnist Fran Murphy. And his 90-year-old grandmother, an uncle,…
Guided by Voices
This ain’t a story about psychics. So says ? — and that’s his legal name, the symbol itself, way before Prince — way before everything, really. The eccentric frontman of ? and the Mysterians didn’t just give the world the greatest garage-rock song, “96 Tears.” No, according to ?, he was born on Mars, long…
Aftershok
For the uninitiated, classic metal can be best understood as a cross between Monster Garage and the Weather Channel. All albums are required to include at least one tune about thunder, lightning, and tires squealing on asphalt. Throw in a cow bell and a singer who wails like his nuts are in a vise, and…
Hog Heaven
1/28-1/30 After spending a few minutes talking to you about your likes and dislikes, Nick Nichols — Mr. Motorcycle to his friends — can hook you up with the bike of your dreams. Just like one of those highfalutin dating services. “I can tell by your mannerisms and body language what you’re looking for,” explains…
No More Slowcore
“This sounds very rock and roll, but I’m out sitting next to the pool at the Best Western on Sunset Boulevard,” says Alan Sparhawk, singer-guitarist for Minnesota’s Low, who’s in L.A. with his band to shoot a music video for its new album, The Great Destroyer. “This is not what we do every day. It’s…
Whitechapel
With all due respect to one hell of a debut, it’d just be silly to discuss Whitechapel’s Under a Grey Sky without comparing it to the seminal electro acts that are responsible for the Cleveland trio’s sound. Where the no-wave revivalist Interpol sounded a little like Joy Division, and the gothier Kittens for Christian channeled…
Walking the Talk
1/27-1/30 Things are going well for D.L. Hughley. “I can’t complain,” he laughs. Though no one would blame him if he did. The veteran comic recently lost the derby to replace Craig Kilborn as host of CBS’s Late Late Show. But he’s already rebounded and has a deal in place to develop a talk show…
Operation Casting Call
Queensrÿche’s recorded output has disappointed fans for 10 years — arguably longer. Live, the group’s greatest-hits fodder has still sounded strong, but selections from Q2K (lame, as the title suggests) and 2003’s Tribe (a suck-saturated snoozer) diluted the setlists. Mercifully, none of this matters anymore, because the Seattle-based prog-metal outfit’s current concerts include an expansive…
Woosteria!
They were still in their pajamas, still standing in their fungus-fighting flip-flops, when the girls of Bornhuetter Hall first noticed the words scrawled outside their doors. Slut, Fuck the hippie bullshit, Vote Goldwater, and other slurs were emblazoned on the walls and doors of the College of Wooster’s brand-new dormitory. Two roommates — one Jewish,…
Business for Dummies
FRI 1/28 The last time we saw Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, he was running his internet company into the ground. And it was all captured on film for the celebrated documentary Startup.com. Tuzman is back with a hefty book-and-CD package called The Entrepreneur’s Success Kit, in which, ironically, he gives advice to budding executives on how…
Simon’s a Punk
Last year, the impossible happened: A performer with even less musical aptitude than the Exploited somehow became a household name. This was notable for several reasons. First off, scientists, musicologists, and pretty much anyone with a functioning cochlea were baffled as to how any organism with opposable thumbs could be even more musically deficient than…
On Point
FRI 1/28 For Verb Ballets’ premiere at Playhouse Square on Friday, Hernando Cortez followed his instincts in picking “exciting, athletic, and sensual” works to retool for the New Classics Collection. The cornerstone of the three-piece program is Carl Orff’s musical cantata “Carmina Burana,” a collection of songs and poems from 13th-century Bavaria. “[It] has always…
Akron Gets AMPed
Akron has a new concert club, and it’s a monster. In the heart of downtown Akron’s entertainment district, AMP — short for A Music Place — plans to open Thursday, January 27, with a show featuring Youngstown’s Cherry Monroe, followed the next night by Mushroomhead’s first Akron appearance since 2003. “This is Akron’s answer to…
Extended Sentence
The grim little green-walled apartment where Walter finds himself after his release has the look of a jail cell — with one apparent alleviation. What seems to be the only window in the place faces a school playground across the street. When Walter looks outside, he often sees kids running and jumping; he hears their…
Dead to Fall
At this stage of the game, when you hear that a band plays metalcore, all you can tell for sure is that it will have a name like Malevolent Chaos Hour When We Die. Chicago’s Dead to Fall doesn’t deserve the vague tag; it’s a straight-up metal band, brought to us by Victory Records, a…
A Few Dollars Left
Clint Eastwood began digging into the third act of his career — the one that reveals the mature, deep-thinking artist . . . with a little jazz piano on the side — a dozen years ago, with the discomfiting anti-Western Unforgiven. Since then, he’s hardly come up for air or given himself a break. Last…
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown
There are common threads running through all categories of roots music. And there’s no better way to appreciate these overlapping arcs of Americana than to catch an artist who pretty much knows them all. In a category by himself is Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, octogenarian guitarist, fiddler, and walking survey course. Born in Orange, Texas, Gate…
Don’t Go It Alone
Some people think they’re a new art form; others see them as adolescent time-killers. Whatever they are, video games don’t make good models for feature films (mostly because their interactive essence is lost), and their clumsy transfer to the big screen continues to invite all kinds of speculation — not much of it complimentary. Is…
Leon Russell
During the early ’70s, while the previous decade’s rock underground was morphing into the “progressive” radio format, the guitar was challenged as the movement’s instrument of preference for the first time. Rising stars were now found sitting at the piano. The least likely of them, on the surface at least, was Leon Russell. Hardly a…
The Anton Newcombe Massacre
“I’m not for sale. I’m fucking love. I give it away.” So says Anton Newcombe, the raging megalomaniac who heads the Brian Jonestown Massacre, an underground rock band determined to take over the world. First he hurls the words at the audience. Then he informs the crowd that they bought tickets, so he’ll give them…
Seven Witches
“We are metal, we never fuckin’ change,” announced Seven Witches frontman James Rivera at last summer’s Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles Six Pack Weekend. “We may get gray hair, but we never fuckin’ change.” Few bands are more unflinching in their refusal to turn their calendars past 1985 than this power-metal quartet. With such iron-obsessed…
