Arch Enemy, with Nile, Hate Eternal, and Origin
There’re gimmicks, and then there are really good gimmicks. It’s safe to place Arch Enemy’s initial point of interest in the latter category. They’re a metal band from Sweden that plays a style called “melodic death,” which means that the guitarists play identifiable, hummable riffs in the grand metal tradition, while their vocalist favors the…
Quiet Crisis Averted
The State of Ohio skirted economic collapse yesterday by keeping a street vendor from acting on his threat to move to Erie. Chester Stans, who operates a hot dog stand on Euclid Avenue, agreed to an incentive package worth $400,000 in exchange for his promise to stay in Cleveland. Officials say the handouts were necessary…
The Anger Management Tour, with Eminem, Papa Roach, and others
The story goes that the union of rap and rock was forestalled in the mid-’80s by the rise of black nationalism, especially as manifested by Public Enemy. But it was also forestalled by the dearth of good ideas after Rick Rubin introduced Run-D.M.C. to Aerosmith and the Beastie Boys to a competent studio guitarist. And…
Dodging the Neon
In the nation’s more cosmopolitan cities, car thieves have yuppified tastes. The most commonly stolen car in Boston and New York is the Toyota Camry. In San Francisco, it’s the Honda Civic; in Philadelphia, the Honda Accord. In Cleveland, a city where high fashion has yet to be diplomatically recognized, thieves prefer — get this…
The Promise Ring, with Jimmy Eat World and Recover
Perceived by purists as poster children for everything wrong with punk rock today, the members of the Promise Ring have been blamed for conceiving the sassy, teenybopper pillow fight that emo has devolved into. “Playing music doesn’t have to have these huge social repercussions,” says Promise Ring guitarist Jason Gnewikow. “We’re just doing this thing…
HIV Negative
In a drawing lifted from a ’50s-era first-aid manual, a businessman in a white shirt and dress slacks performs the Heimlich maneuver on another, similarly dressed man. On second thought, though, maybe that’s not what they’re doing. They could be longtime lovers locked in an odd embrace. They could have cut short their three-martini lunch…
Fear Factory
Fear Factory’s first album was the best thing the band’s ever done, and the fact it’s emerging only now is a shame. Blending metal and electronica is an idea that still has potential, but few bands have ever executed it successfully. Even Fear Factory’s returns diminished with each album; by the time the band was…
Sex All Around Us
Rape culture hurts men and women alike: I wanted to respond to the mention of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center in the article “Rocky River Burning” [June 19]. I was one of the presenters of the gender-sensitivity training we provided for the Rocky River Fire Department in July of 2001. What we spoke about were…
Various Artists
This spirited compilation of children’s songs, by everyone from Alejandro Escovedo to Freakwater, was an inevitable step for Bloodshot Records. After all, kids’ music has long been a province of roots music, and for over a decade, Bloodshot has prospered by puncturing the piety of the roots-music scene. So it makes sense that the label…
Pigskin Pleasures
Around Northeast Ohio, football is as sacred as any other Sunday ritual. So you can imagine the high holiness of the days leading up to August 3, when the latest class is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. Despite the 11 days of festivals, cook-offs, parades, competitions, and concerts, the faithful…
Elvis
Although Elvis sightings continue to be reported by the tabloids, little notice was given to the Presley CDs that quietly vanished from the BMG catalog in recent months. The conglomerate has been making the King’s music scarce in anticipation of a six-month campaign to cash in on the 25th anniversary of his demise with a…
Beat Masters
Japanese drummers in loincloths and headbands never received their due from Deadheads. Former Dead drummer Mickey Hart righted this wrong by producing, writing, and performing on the percussion troupe Kodo’s Mondo Head. The album was an “opportunity for us to work in the studio with an incredibly talented group of artists from myriad musical backgrounds,…
Various Artists
Paris house label Crydamoure is run by Guy-Manuel de Homem Christo, when he’s not busy making discoveries with his main group, Daft Punk. As you’d probably and rightfully expect, Crydamoure Presents “Waves” — a 25-track mixed compilation of label highlights — isn’t as thrilling as Daft Punk: There’s a reason this is seen by the…
Powers Off
Not much has changed in the 11 years since Mike Myers used the first Wayne’s World movies as a personal launchpad, tipping his James Bond-spoofing Austin Powers hand only when he was strong enough box office to reap the rewards of his licensed characters. Now those spy-movie send-ups — the major ones played by Myers…
D-Daws / Iyan Anomolie
From soda-spraying clowns, who rap the way Russell Jones enunciates, to conscious cats keeping Rawkus relevant, the most distinguishing characteristic of Midwestern hip-hop might be its breadth. This is certainly reflected in Cleveland, where the rap underground is as disparate as it is deep, equally divided between pimps and poets. Representing the pimps is D-Daws.…
Short Buss
If there’s any truth to reincarnation, the spirit of Napoleon may walk among us today. It’s not unreasonable to conjecture that he has taken up residence in Bill Gates or Joel Silver, but — perhaps more likely — the little conqueror with the big hat has fragmented and landed in the bodies of countless sorority…
Near-Death of a Mailman
At 8:45 a.m. on a typical Tuesday, Post Office Station B-C on East 55th Street is alive with chatter. Letter carriers listen to radios and crack jokes while they sort mail for the day’s deliveries. For obvious reasons, September 11 was anything but typical. As word circulated that an airplane had slammed into the World…
Sans Sea Bass
There’s Dover sole, Arctic char, and red snapper, but one thing you’ll not find on Ben Fambrough’s summer seafood menu is Chilean sea bass. The chef du cuisine at downtown’s Sans Souci (24 Public Square in the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, 216-696-5600) says he stopped serving the endangered fish years ago while working in a French…
Color It Pleasant
The multilevel dining room at Picasso is pretty as a picture, with sky-blue ceilings, rustic woodwork, and a fieldstone fireplace. Reproductions of its famous namesake’s works hang from the walls of this East Side restaurant, while Spanish guitar music fills the air. White tablecloths and pale green napkins top roomy, well-spaced tables, and blue votives…
Pop Goes the Culture
Audiences love to relive the past, especially when it involves reconnecting with the music of their youth. In a happy coincidence, two shows woven from old pop standards are giving scores of Clevelanders the chance to do just that. Mamma Mia!, a mega-hit musical concocted from the works of the ’70s Swedish rock group ABBA,…
Warped Sensibility
There’s no band more socially relevant on tour at this exact moment than Bad Religion — six SoCal dudes with loud guitars, thesaurus-warping lyrics, and enough political malcontent to stun one of Howard Zinn’s yaks — even if the same can’t be said of the bill the band comes to town with. “There’s good and…
Perfect Truth
On the cover of his first solo record, Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections, Thomas “Cee-Lo” Callaway — flanked by a church-style pipe organ and wearing a psychedelic top hat — looks a little like a diabolical Buddha, or maybe a shaman, putting on a funhouse magic show. Light reflects off his open hand, which…
Riot at the Rock Hall
It began with tongue wags and devil horns. It ended with goading Brits and a debauched dance floor. In between, there was plenty more impertinence toward legends and livers alike. “The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, James Taylor . . . ah, fuck ’em,” Cobra Verde frontman John Petkovic gibed as he surveyed his surroundings at…
Alejandro Escovedo.
Of all major living singer-songwriters, perhaps only Richard Thompson is at home in as many styles and formats as alt-country forebear Alejandro Escovedo, whose solo career began with a sudden death: His longtime wife, Bobbi, whom he’d recently divorced, killed herself in 1991. The records he produced in her shadow were some of the most…
