Dead Weight
During a traffic stop in Collinwood last year, Stephon Keith Moore tried to run over Cleveland policeman Martin Rudin. Rudin and his partner, Daniel Jopek, opened fire, killing the man. For the next eight months, they were paid a total of $61,068 to hang out in the police gym instead of working their normal shifts.…
Hammer of the Gods
In November there will arrive on newsstands a music magazine edited by Alan Light, who left Spin to embark on his endeavor of publishing a journal devoted to that long-ignored audience: the over-30 CD-buyer, the old fart for whom “new music” is a mystery left to be fathomed by The Kids, or at least those…
Vanity Press
Who’s your daddy? It’s a question that doesn’t throw an honest person into a dither. But after sitting through two issues of the Free Times — and page after page after page of bug-eyed attack on our organization — I had to laugh. If you can’t trust these guys to tell the truth about their…
Shaken, Not Stirred
File this one under “Life’s Little Twists”: A veteran chef-owner wants to increase booze sales at her restaurant, so she rechristens it in honor of a popular mixed drink, features more than 125 variations of said cocktail in her dinner menu, and then discovers it’s her bar, not her kitchen, that garners the bulk of…
Letters to the Editor
The media is paid to shill: The primary beneficiaries of campaign contributions are the news media, whose profit margins often depend upon the volume of the political ads they carry [“Loan Shark Attack,” May 14]. Unless elections are government-financed or the media give candidates free ads, that is the stark reality of our democracy. Contributors,…
West Side Scoops
Just in time for your summer slurping pleasure, two of the region’s best purveyors of cool ‘n’ creamy treats are launching new West Side locations. No doubt custard lovers will be beating a path to the soon-to-open Rosati’s Frozen Custard outpost, at 17615 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood (near Beck Center), for heaping helpings of fabulously…
Cash Kitty
Garfield, that lethargic, lasagna-loving orange feline, first appeared in the comics 25 years ago. He’s celebrating with a new book, In Dog Years I’d Be Dead: Garfield at 25, creator Jim Davis’s behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of his beloved character over the years. “We all eat, we all sleep,” Davis says. “And, let’s face…
Fresh Graves
“We just did what we did. We had fun,” says Rocket From the Tombs guitarist Cheetah Chrome. Quite a terse summation for a group whose importance to underground rock has expanded exponentially through the years. Like that of many a lost band, excavated and spit-shined over time, Rocket’s story is 90 percent myth and 10…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, June 5 Its title — Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro Collection of American Photography — is a bit on the clunky side, but the Cleveland Museum of Art’s exhibit of 22 pics from 1850 to 1911 is filled with clutter-free images from our country’s past. “It shows the importance of photography in the developing…
Loath to Love
“So, are you going to fuck us over then?” Such is Coldplay singer Chris Martin’s greeting, proffered with a warm smile and a clasp of the arm. Before assurances can be offered, he’s sashayed into his Los Angeles hotel room, where clothes spew out of a suitcase and over the floor. “I mean, it’s probably…
The Haunted
The Haunted has gotten a ton of respect from the metal underground. Part of that’s due to their lineage, of course — members of the band did time in such well-respected acts as Witchery and At the Gates. But a large part is due to the visceral power of the group’s three albums: The Haunted,…
Full Mental Jackets
Michael Ochs is the brother of the late folksinger Phil Ochs and owner of the world’s largest music photo archive. Now he also dabbles as a curator: For The Greatest Album Covers That Never Were, a new exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ochs asked nearly 100 artists and musicians to construct…
Flying High Again
It was 40 years ago this month that Chris Dreja, a 16-year-old kid from southeast England, started a band with four other young lovers of American blues and R&B. The job lasted five years and two months, before three members of the quartet — Dreja included — got tired and packed it in. But what…
Bitch and Animal
Though not the first musicians to wield the word “pussy” as a politically charged feminist weapon, Bitch and Animal are perhaps the first and only ones to inject it with playful humor and infectious rhythm. Like a punk-fem They Might Be Giants, the unconventional duo bops through perky odes to anatomically correct self-empowerment, such as…
A Homo Walks Into a Bar . . .
MON 6/9 Bryan Lee Emler impersonates so many characters, he’s starting to feel like Sybil. “Except I’m prettier,” quips the gay comedian, who will headline the Laugh Out Proud competition of gay comics at the Improv on Monday. The winner of an audience vote at the end of the night earns a spot in the…
Mean Streetz
Ricky Streetz only seems to smile when he’s rhyming. Hardened from nearly a decade in prison, the Cleveland MC wears the no-nonsense scowl of an outlaw drill sergeant, his eyes gleaming like bayonets. And it’s not just for show: Shortly after his 2002 release, Streetz was shot nine times and spent seven days in a…
Dropkick Murphys
They aren’t soccer hooligans, they’re hockey freaks. Most of their recorded bagpipes aren’t the sweet-sounding Irish type, but the creaky Scottish torture device most familiar to us Yanks. And the Celtic lilt of the band’s two singers is a put-on. So despite the clover-brandishing Irishness of the Dropkick Murphys, they’re as American as pizza and…
Hey Ladies!
6/5 – 6/8 For the first time in its history, the National Women’s Music Festival will spotlight an all-lesbian drag-king company — H.I.S. Kings (pictured). The shift in programming accompanies a shift in locale for the four-day fest, which takes place this weekend at Kent State University after nearly 29 years on campuses in Illinois…
Back for More
Break out the bondage pants and Bengay: A rash of seminal punk bands are reuniting for summer tours, including X, the Fall, GBH, and local legends Rocket From the Tombs. Not to be outdone, storied shit-kickers the Pagans, one of the most ill-tempered bands this town has ever birthed, will re-form for a performance at…
Radiohead
The first sound audible on Radiohead’s sixth LP is the crackle of guitarist Jonny Greenwood plugging in his instrument. A welcome hum ensues — one that was largely absent from the band’s last two albums, which formed a beautiful but amorphous pastiche of malformed beats and sputtering gadgetry. Hail to the Thief is similarly infatuated…
Pops for Tots
SAT 6/7 Cleveland Pops Orchestra conductor Carl Topilow thinks kids should get to know classical music as early as possible. “In our society, the best learners are listeners,” he says. “It’s all part of focusing and concentrating.” Topilow will be at the Borders in Beachwood on Saturday, presenting a musical version of Aesop’s Fables. “You…
Sound Tribe Sector 9
While some bands rock for a cause, and many rock just because, Sound Tribe is among a select handful that rock for healing — though healing what, exactly, is uncertain. Sound Tribe Sector 9 isn’t in the biz to achieve world domination; rather, the five-piece has formed a sort of musical commune, with a new-age/Zen…
Eels
Forever dogged by comparisons to Beck, with whom he shares a vocal style; an appetite for eclectic, winking folk-pop; and an uncanny ability to dodge the novelty-act label, Eels’ Mark Oliver Everett boasts at least a few fans who think the comparisons should go in the other direction. Those people are wrong. With the exception…
Where the Bisons Roam
6/5 – 6/10 Fans of Jacobs Field will love Buffalo’s Dunn Tire Park. The 15-year-old Bisons stadium kicked off a wave of modern ballpark designs that rejected the multisport concrete bowls of the ’60s and ’70s and instead took their cues from the quirky downtown parks of the past. Here’s what to watch for: History:…
Jonathan Richman
The crucial boundary between appreciation and stalking was observed a few years ago at a pub in San Francisco. Jonathan Richman, about to walk onstage, was addressed by a young man: “Can I shake your hand?” Richman obliged, then slapped the respectful fan on the back encouragingly. But unbeknownst to Richman, a woman at the…
Dave Gahan
Remember when Depeche Mode was the king of concise synth-rock, safe for wedding receptions in the suburbs (“Personal Jesus”) and in gothic batcaves (“Strangelove”)? Apparently, neither does Dave Gahan, whose first solo record after 22 years as Depeche Mode’s vocalist seduces listeners with meandering minimalism. His chilly rushes of electronica, barely-there beats, and stern strings…
Indie Jones?
6/5 – 6/11 What if the Secaucus Seven had met 3 years after college instead of 10? That’s pretty much the question asked by Seven and a Match, one of the final two independent films screening as part of the Centrum’s Film Forward series. Six college pals (plus one’s new squeeze) spend a weekend at…
Deep Dish
Nasdaq is not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about dance music, but Sharam Tayebi — partner with Ali Shirazinia in the Iranian-born, Washington, D.C.-based DJ duo Deep Dish — recently told DJ magazine of his ambition to list their record label, Yoshitoshi, on the stock exchange. Was he kidding? “Nope,…
C.D. Truth
Finally, here’s a punkish band that understands that “pop” doesn’t have to mean “candy-assed.” The Akron power trio C.D. Truth has been playing the regional circuit since 1989, but it hasn’t been prolific: Its last disc was 1998’s well-received Seedy LP. The band’s new album, Chemically Dependent, boasts 13 tracks that arrive tightly rehearsed and…
2 the Extreme
Whenever the stars of the adolescent street-racing fantasy 2 Fast 2 Furious were feeling balky or temperamental on the set, as movie stars are wont to do, the cure was probably easy — an oil change and a tune-up. John Singleton’s adrenaline-spiked sequel to the surprise summer hit of 2001, The Fast and the Furious,…
Jimmy Thackery & the Drivers
If you notice a few headbangers among the blues crowd at Wilbert’s when Jimmy Thackery comes to town, don’t be too surprised. The power and prowess displayed in a typical Thackery set attracts guitar fans of all persuasions. A few players are fortunate to get a grip on one style; the 50-year-old, D.C.-bred Thackery is…
Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
This 22-track collection is a blast. Not every track works: Marianne Faithfull’s honky-tonk rendition of Dylan’s God-fearing “You Got to Serve Somebody” is a mite wrongheaded, and Huey of the Fun Lovin’ Criminals is out of his league on “Fly Me to the Moon.” But most of the cuts rock hard, and Holland, who came…
Speakin’ Spell
If you’re reading this paper, chances are that you’re more literate than the average American. If you’re reading the film reviews, it’s also likely that you’ve become familiar with words such as “bravura” and “eponymous” — which seem to exist only in the vocabularies of professional movie assessors. But what if you were confronted with…
The Rapture
With the “House of Jealous Lovers” 12-inch hysteria only now beginning to ebb, hipster America’s well-traveled lips are firmly planted on the Rapture’s bum. The experience is hardly unpleasant. We first caught the Rapture in early 2000, on what turned out to be a knockout Before They Were Cool bill, supporting Hot Snakes and Burning…
Franklyn
On Franklyn’s website (www.killfranklyn.com), guitarist Vilmar claims that his main source of inspiration is countless hours spent at the dentist. Fittingly, the Canton band’s latest EP is a showcase of cantankerous root-canal rock, a thrash-hardcore hybrid that intermingles skillful playing with lots of grunts and grimaces. Frontman Grandpa employs an agitated bark that’s tempered with…
Spanish Fly-on-the-Wall
French putz Xavier (Romain Duris) is depressed. The poor guy lives in Paris, has Amélie’s Audrey Tautou as a girlfriend, eats gourmet vegan dinners prepared for him by his free-spirited mother, and is being set up for a graduate degree in economics by a friend of his father’s. “I don’t know why the world became…
Crude Operators
Nadia Ponsones massaged the doctor’s toes, one by one, waiting for him to fall asleep. When he finally dozed off, around 1 a.m. on April 15, she called for the cab driver who had picked up her luggage earlier in the evening. Ponsones told the driver not to pull in the driveway. She didn’t want…
The Total Package
In ancient Ireland, an overgrown baby chomps a finger off the hand of an ugly giant. At the Guggenheim museum, sculptor Richard Serra flings melted Vaseline onto black metal slabs. And in a room of the Chrysler Building, a paraplegic beauty slices potato wedges with a device attached to the sole of her stiletto-heeled prosthesis.…
What’s Taft Hiding?
State Senator Marc Dann of suburban Youngstown has taken up the cause of public records. Although he’s married to a Youngstown State journalism professor, he’s not looking for points with the missus. He’s pissed at Governor Taft. In January, Dann asked the administration for all documents pertaining to a budget shortfall in fiscal year 2003.…
Hi Yo, Silvers!
If you’ve ever seen daredevil Evel Knievel roar off the end of a motorcycle ramp and hurtle through the air toward the other side, you know all about the risk-reward ratio. Should he stick the landing, cheering will ensue; but if he wipes out, the audience will fall deadly silent. It’s pretty much the same…
