Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar’s back to his numerical tricks on his new album, Ten 13 (that’s his birthday, in case you’re wondering just what the hell is up with the goofy title). He’s treading familiar territory rock and roll-wise, as well, turning the amps to 11 and unleashing hell on the new millennium, which, unsurprisingly, seems to…
Go With the Snow
With pastoral slopes, serene cross-country skiing terrain, and a perfect-for-skating lake, Virginia Kendall Park is a popular playground for outdoors enthusiasts. As such, it fulfills the vision that park developers had for the area 65 years ago. Unlike other projects of the Civilian Conservation Corps, this one was not geared toward tree-planting and the prevention…
Scrawl
Paired down from a trio to a duo, the Columbus-based band Scrawl has kept a low profile ever since the release of 1998’s Nature Film. Dropped by Elektra Records shortly after Nature Film, the group has gone back to the indie circuit on which it started some 15 years ago. Founding members singer-guitarist Marcy Mays…
Fire Dance
Weekend time-travelers with a taste for romance typically gravitate toward some work of fiction to sate their historic sweet tooth: a swashbuckling pirate novel, or a TV series about rich people who drink champagne toasts and talk to teddy bears in between fox hunts on distant parts of the estate. Those who settle for fiction,…
Immortal Lee County Killers
Chet Weise and Doug Sherrard force listeners to imagine an unimaginable world. A world where Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper hold the Stooges in the highest possible esteem. A world where Lux Interior and Bun E. Carlos put together a lo-fi touring homage to Southern Culture on the Skids. A world where G.G. Allin never…
American High
The War on Drugs has become this generation’s Vietnam, the unwinnable conflict that will, in the end, destroy the innocent and reward the guilty. That, in a coke vial, is the premise of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, a film that gives flesh and face to bloodless government statistics and statements seldom reported in the media. Traffic…
Pete Selvaggio
Believe it or not, the jazz accordion has been on the rise in the last couple of years. Don’t expect it to eclipse the saxophone in popularity anytime soon, but thanks to the efforts of players such as Dino Saluzzi in Europe and Guy Klucevsek in New York, the old world instrument has a relatively…
The Age Of Innocence
An 11-year-old boy sits on a stool in his living room, hands still plump with baby fat resting easily on his lap. He answers some questions softly and some not at all. One question, at this point, may be unanswerable. Why did you set the fire? There are plenty of words in the boy’s sixth-grade…
Various Artists
This five-CD set, meant as a companion volume to Ken Burns’s 10-segment series documenting the history of jazz, is fine as far as compilations go. But like the PBS series, it doesn’t go far enough, barely touching on new developments in the music over the last 40 years. The first four volumes in the five-disc…
Tired Out
The lot next to Terry Cuccarese’s small factory on St. Clair Avenue is irresistible to one breed of elusive criminal: the scrap tire dumper. When Cuccarese came to work one Monday morning in July, he found hundreds of old tires dumped near his building. By lunchtime, a second pile had appeared. “I was aggravated, to…
Blue States
Nothing Changes Under the Sun, the full-length debut from Blue States (DJ Andy Dragazis), features a hypnotic mixture of cinematic strings, Hammond organ, flute, guitar, and subtle hip-hop beats. Blue States parades Dragazis’s ambient downtempo abilities like those of fellow European producer Kid Loco, but his palate is slightly more eclectic. He mingles musical styles…
New Yet Unimproved
Students are supposed to bring the fruit, but it was Stephanie Gooch, the teacher, who emptied a sack of lemons in her science classroom. In September, when she bought the lemons at the West Side Market, Gooch taught at Cleveland Alternative Learning Academy, a two-year-old charter school. Her classroom had nary a Bunsen burner nor…
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Kurt Rosenwinkel’s second album is as compositionally daring as The Enemies of Energy, his more pop-flavored debut that came out last year. But The Next Step’s voicings are more orthodox, effectively putting this remarkable guitarist within the straight-ahead jazz field. The Philadelphia native likes unorthodox tunings and unpredictable meters, and writes tunes that begin predictably,…
Sequining the Naked
Some people campaign for world peace, others try to end hunger. Moral firebrand Ken Beacon just wants to put pasties on the nipples of Ashtabula’s nude dancers. A small task, speaking in square inches of fabric. But who can really measure the distance between nothing and something? A union ironworker and former Jesus hippie, Beacon,…
The Mook
Mooks are the legion of fans who follow Limp Bizkit and other rap-metal outfits. They’re a scary bunch of guys who wear their baseball caps backwards and grope (and sometimes rape) women who crowd-surf. The Mook has nothing to do with them. Instead, the Mook is a band of “good Cleveland folks,” as their press…
The Tired Gun
“You’re right! I quit!” Until this moment–this shrill outburst that comes out of nowhere and startles both interviewer and subject–Marisa Tomei had been speaking in hushed tones, like someone making funeral arrangements. Every so often, she would punctuate her sentences with giggles–some nervous, some delirious–but suddenly, she is laughing uncontrollably like someone so amused with…
The Edge
When we last left Triangle Development, its officers were being indicted for accepting 200 Large in down payments on homes they never finished. The company responded by filing suit, alleging it was forced to pay $800,000 in kickbacks to various groups and people in the Hough neighborhood to secure the deal. Now, Triangle has embarked…
Rounding Up the Posse
Come to think of it, the office could use some redecorating: You have got to be out of your goddamn mind [Soundbites, December 7]! Didn’t you hear what some Juggalos did to a radio station in St. Louis after they dissed ICP? They broke into the station and trashed the fuckin’ place. I’m not saying…
The Cooks Have Knives
Dim and smoky, Tremont’s Hi & Dry In has always been a prime spot for people-watching, and a recent Saturday night found it true to form. A solemn-looking fellow with a tangled mane and thick glasses sat huddled at the bar, sipping cola and devouring pages of music theory. On his right snuggled a well-groomed…
Classes That Cook
Sure, the weather outside is frightful. That’s why it feels so good to hide away in a toasty kitchen this time of year, surrounding yourself with the sights, sounds, and aromas of great cooking. Happily, winter schedules for the region’s two top cooking schools — The Loretta Paganini School of Cooking (8613 Mayfield Road, Chesterland)…
Giant Steps
It would be hard not to know that Ken Burns is about to unveil his third documentary. The topic is jazz, and the primary vehicle is a 19-hour TV show that’s being hyped through various outlets. Ken Burns’s Jazz: A History of American Music is not only a PBS docu-thon, it’s a $60, five-CD set…
Early Elvis
Get the whole picture: View the complete comic HERE (128k GIF).
Pot and Pans
Sitting at the bar of the Hi & Dry one late afternoon, Chuck Mosley has some decisions to make. How many oysters should he order? What’s on the menu that needs to be changed? Is there enough meatloaf to last the week? As the executive chef at the Tremont eatery, it’s his responsibility to keep…
