Evolution No. 5
Born in Chicago, Jurassic 5 rapper Chali 2na moved to Southern California when he was 15 and spent his youth like any other kid who grew up in the modest neighborhoods. An accomplished graffiti artist, the lanky rapper played basketball with his homeboys — all of whom did a little rapping on the side –…
Knight Moves
The Great Lakes Medieval Faire is open 10 a.m.- 7 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday through August 6. See “Events” for details.
Los Straitjackets
With the long-awaited, long-overdue demise of Kiss, Los Straitjackets have become the veteran force among rock stars who prefer to perform in disguise. Since forming in 1994, the instrumental guitar quartet has toured the world as a faceless entity, decked out in the most gorgeous Mexican wrestling masks that money can buy. For anyone unfamiliar…
Time Warp Again
Richard O’Brien will attend The Rocky Horror Show on Friday, July 14, at 8 p.m. at the Beck Center, 17801 Detroit Avenue. General admission is $15; call 216-521-2540. The show runs through August 13.
The Tragically Hip
Up in Canada, natives the Tragically Hip are huge. We’re talking Britney Spears/Eminem/’N Sync kinda huge. The Hip sells tons of records, wins walls full of awards, and is more respected than fellow Canucks k.d. lang and Sarah McLachlan. Here in the States, the quintet is lucky to break into rock radio (which it has…
Zzzzzz-Men
In Bryan Singer’s last movie, 1998’s Apt Pupil, Ian McKellen portrayed a Nazi war criminal hiding out in the suburbs, passing himself off as an ordinary old man crouching behind drawn blinds. In Singer’s new movie, X-Men, McKellen plays Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, the son of Jews who were murdered at Auschwitz. In the film’s first…
Third Eye Blind
Singer Stephan Jenkins may be the most arrogant white guy making records today. The Third Eye Blind frontman consistently proclaims his band’s musical integrity and his own punk cred, all the while dating leggy actresses and generally acting like a jackass. He conceitedly struts through Third Eye Blind videos, posing unremittingly. And he believes his…
Wheeler-Dealer
Before we see anything in Croupier, the new film from director Mike Hodges and screenwriter Paul Mayersberg, we hear the grainy whir of the ball spinning around the rim of a roulette wheel. When the image of the wheel appears, the sound drops out, to be replaced by the affectless voice-over of the protagonist, Jack…
The Mike Farley Band
The Mike Farley Band performs on July 14 at the Odeon.
Sermon on the Mt.
A small band of ministers is seeking a way to revive Mt. Sinai Hospital, pulling off what could only be described as a miracle. For 98 years, Mt. Sinai provided medical services to the residents of some of Cleveland’s poorest neighborhoods, including Glenville and Hough. In February, Primary Health Systems Inc. filed for bankruptcy and…
The John Doe Thing
John Doe hasn’t completely shed his past. No matter how rootsy or burly he makes his records, the erstwhile X frontman is followed around by remnants of his former band. Whether it’s enlisting familiar-sounding female backing singers to do the job once filled by Exene Cervenka or occasionally letting his punk susceptibility show, Doe carries…
Drag Queens
Drag racing is one of the few sports in which women and men can professionally kick each other’s non-gender-segregated asses. But women rarely cross over to the dude domain, and when they do, it’s usually through an “in” with a guy. Since the 1950s, there’s consistently been a handful of female drag racers, observes John…
Johnny Cash
Cash’s first number-one album, Johnny Cash at San Quentin, was a groundbreaking release. It featured a number of debuts, including Shel Silverstein’s novelty classic “A Boy Named Sue,” as well as Cash’s own “San Quentin,” which he performed twice by popular demand. He also hauled out one of his best jailhouse odes (“Starkville City Jail”)…
Unforgiven
The paintings gaze down from the upper reaches of St. Vitus Church on Cleveland’s East Side, framed by red marble pillars, gilded arches, and stained-glass windows celebrating centuries-old saints. In the portraits, Sister Dorothy Kazel smiles slightly, a nun’s habit over her sandy blond hair, while Jean Donovan is dressed in black. Mother Teresa is…
Rashied Ali
Drummer Rashied Ali gained attention in the John Coltrane band as part of a drum duo that included the great Elvin Jones. When Jones left, Ali remained, and he and Coltrane collaborated on 1967’s Interstellar Space. Among Jones’s major contributions was that, unlike previous drummers, he implied rather than explicitly stated the beat in the…
Patti Beef
One day before announcing he would personally handle the case against accused cop killer Quisi Bryan, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William D. Mason was queasy from gratuitous self-promotion: Mason made the a.m. rounds to three July 4 parades, jockeying with scores of Northeast Ohio politicos — namely county commissioners Tim McCormack and Jimmy Dimora — for…
Hanin Elias
A member of the noisy Berlin quartet Atari Teenage Riot, Hanin Elias proves to have an agenda of her own on her first solo record, In Flames. She’s released the 17-track album on her new, for-women-only label Fatal, which she started as the result of her frustrations with what she has called the “hardcore boy…
Win, Lose, or Draw
Bryan Singer did not read comic books as a young boy, because he couldn’t read them. As a kid, he was slightly dyslexic and, therefore, unable to follow the dialogue as it bubbled across panels and pages; quite simply, Singer says now, comic books confused him, so the Jersey boy turned on the television and…
Diego Cortez
The shadowy Stuzzicadenti (Italian for “toothpicks”) is an intellectually stimulating, intermittently winning collaboration between no-wave primogenitor Diego Cortez and sampler/rapper/conceptualist DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid. Augmented by other downtown New York envelope pushers such as Arto Lindsay, Ben Neill (on “mutantrumpet”), cornetist Butch Morris, and soundscaper Ryuichi Sakamoto, Stuzzicadenti traverses many aural landscapes in its…
Fannie Gets a Spanking
And maybe a Lewis Lane of her own: In the choice of quotes, profiles, and anecdotes included in the text, the author of “Hough Huff” [Laura Putre, June 29] must have realized the story-within-the-story was far greater than any inconsequential proposal to change the name of an unimportant side street. This is a near-perfect illustration…
Jason Moran
Amid smokestacks, steel girders, and great blocks of red and manuscript-paper yellow, pianist Jason Moran glowers like a Marxist superhero on the cover of his latest CD, Facing Left. At the end of his outstretched arm, his finger points out straight, as if to indicate that his music is destined to either revolutionize your speakers…
Outmatched
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ride a bicycle with octagonal wheels? Probably not. But Chicago artist Timothy Brower has. His modified bicycle is part of an ambitious new exhibit at Spaces called Endgame: Artists Confront the Machine. No one is going to win the Tour de France with any of…
Steve Von Till
Heavy music is seldom associated with acoustic guitars and sparse piano, but on the solo debut by Neurosis vocalist and guitarist Steve Von Till, instruments and song styles typically dominated by simpering two-dimensional coffeehouse crooners are craftily enlisted to create an album of sonic depth and complex musical contradictions. In Neurosis’s 13-year existence — a…
A Ducky Duc
As 14-year-olds queue up to partake in the addictive wizardry of Harry Potter, a lesser-known but equally endearing phenomenon takes place in the rustic environs of Wooster. Merry octogenarians are heading to the College of Wooster’s Freedlander Theater to genuflect to an equally addictive form of enchantment known as operetta, which has become almost as…
Meal of the Century
Dining out has long ceased to be all about food. Nowadays, an expensive spread in a high-class setting is apt to be as much about art, entertainment, and showmanship as it is about what’s on the plate. This relatively new set of demands gives management plenty to worry about, of course, and in the final…
Psych 101
A band that, at one time, kinda meant something to an edgier audience, the Psychedelic Furs have wound up as the opening act on the bill with dated, never-were-contemporaries such as the Go-Go’s and the B-52’s. How did the Psychedelic Furs arrive at such a trivial billing? “It is something of a ‘nostalgia’ package, isn’t…
Soundbites
Rumors have been circulating for months, but it’s finally official: On July 14, Peabody’s DownUnder will be no more. The club, located on the East Bank of the Flats, will be changing its name to Earth. While Earth will still host some live acts, it will primarily feature a mix of dance and pop music…
