What to Do Tonight: Magik Markers
This noisy Connecticut duo sounds a bit like a roughed-up Sonic Youth on its latest album, Balf Quarry. Peter Nolan and Elisa Ambrogio turn up their distortion pedals on “Don’t Talk in Your Sleep” and the moody “State Numbers.” With a discography that goes back to 2002, when they began self-releasing a slew of extemporaneous…
What to Do Tonight: Experience Hendrix
Billy Cox first met Jimi Hendrix when they were both stationed in the Army. “I played a little bass, and we did some jamming,” recalls Cox. “We were grinning from ear to ear, [so] we formed a group and started booking gigs.” Hendrix was discharged a week before Cox and wound up in Nashville. “He…
Out Today: Goldfrapp
GoldfrappHead First(Mute) The most frivolous song on Goldfrapp’s fifth album also happens to be its best. Coincidence? “Rocket” blasts off with an irresistible hook, pillow-soft vocals by frontwoman Alison Goldfrapp and delightfully kooky lyrics (“I got a rocket/You’re going on it/You’re never coming back”). It’s positively ABBA-esque. The rest of Head First dives in with…
What to Do Tonight: Soulfly
Former Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera’s once-reviled, now-underrated Soulfly are about to release their seventh album, Omen. The record sounds closer in spirit to the Cavalera Conspiracy’s punky, primitivist thrash (Cavalera’s project with his brother Igor) than to Soulfly’s polyrhythmic and occasionally progressive early material. Omen features guest appearances by Dillinger Escape Plan singer Greg Puciato…
What to Do This Weekend: David Gray
Babble on Singer-songwriter David Gray has loosened up a bit since his breakthrough hit “Babylon” a decade ago. Back then, he was bursting with something to say, spitting out words while his voice tried to keep up with the calliope of sounds around him. On last year’s Draw the Line, the U.K. singer settles into…
What to Do Tonight: Andre Williams
A few years back, ’60s R&B singer Andre Williams would play Pat’s in the Flats and tear it up with whatever hot rock band was backing him. Since then, he’s played the Beachland (15711 Waterloo Rd., 216.383.1124, beachlandballroom.com), where he’s put on a couple of great shows. For tonight’s gig, Williams will be in the…
Diary of a Wimpy Kid will appeal to fans of the book
“This is a journal, not a diary,” says scrawny, undersized Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) at the start of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, an adaptation of Jeff Kinney’s popular illustrated novel series. As it turns out, that’s the least of his problems. As Greg starts middle school, he becomes obsessed with being liked and is…
What to Do Tonight: RJD2
After 2002’s Dead Ringer, producer RJD2 fell off the radar. His latest album, The Colossus, doesn’t exactly pick up where Dead Ringer left off — there’s more emphasis on funk and soul — it suggests why RJD2 got into hip-hop in the first place. RJD2’s music has always been cinematic in scope. Instrumentals like the…
Reviews of the Cinematheque’s weekend films
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is showing several great movies this weekend. Here are reviews of just a couple of them. A Boy and His Dog (U.S.A., 1975) This 1975 post-apocalyptic fable was a midnight-movie hit back in the day, when stoned teens and young twentysomethings would fill theaters to catch director L.Q. Jones’…
Jim Finn screens several of his films tonight at Oberlin
Championed by the likes of Canadian experimental filmmaker Guy Maddin, St. Louis-born Jim Finn has been called “A Marxist Christopher Guest.” And that’s a compliment. Currently a teacher at Boston’s Emerson College, Finn will be on hand to introduce several of his films, which screen tonight at 8 at Oberlin College’s Hallock Auditorium (122 Elm…
What to Do Tonight: P.O.S.
Last year, Minneapolis rapper P.O.S. released his third album, Never Better, a dark record that addresses many Americans’ frustrations. On the jarring opener, “Let It Rattle,” the MC asks, “Do you really think a president can represent you?” At a time when many people are overflowing with hope, P.O.S. is honest with his apprehension. “I’m…
Four Seasons Lodge has its local premier at CMA
A documentary about a group of Holocaust survivors who sought each other out after they ended up in the United States, Four Seasons Lodge makes its local premiere tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. It also shows at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, March 21. Here is our review of the film.…
All Roads Lead to the Q — Even From Livenation.com
Does it really matter who’s selling you a ticket? You’re still gonna be paying too much to see Pearl Jam Concert-promotion monolith Live Nation announced yesterday a new batch of shows it’s promoting at the Q Arena this spring, including Pearl Jam and Maxwell. Tickets, the press releases said, will be available via LiveNation.com. If…
Boom Goes V
WNWV’s name change doesn’t mean you’ll hear less Norah Jones CBS Radio forced a name change of Lorain radio station 107.3 FM WNWV, which is now known as V107.3. The locally owned station rebooted with an Adult Album Alternative format in December with the nickname Boom! Vice president and general manager Lonnie Gronek says he…
So, Yeah, Playing Ball at the Q Is Kinda Cool
The first thing you do is walk over to the announcers table and stare out into the seats. First, the lower bowl, then up at Loudville. Then you look down at the white residue of chalk on the black surface. You imagine a crowd of 20,562 strong, all eyes on you. You pour some imaginary…
Is That Chalk or Bird Poop? The LeBron Banner Gets a Much Needed Shower
Code Green. After Cleveland’s Design Review Committee scuttled a proposed new of 10-story LeBron banner across from the Q, Cleveland has opted to wash the old banner while the city waits on a possible redesign to be submitted by Nike. Window washers were spraying it clean Tuesday morning, hopefully giving bystanders the chance to see…
Dracula’s Daughters vs. the Space Brains makes its premiere at CIFF
Last year, L.A.-based filmmaker and make-up artist Frank Ippolito came into town to hustle up recruits to attend the screening of his two shorts, Teller 1 and Teller 2, which showed at the Cleveland International Film Festival. This year, the Cleveland native is at is again, this time to promote Dracula’s Daughters vs. the Space…
This Just In: Cleveland Concert Announcements
Maxwell: babymaking music at the Q This week, we have something for everybody: Maxell, Maiden, Moody Blues and more, including Pearl Jam, the Houston Person-Pamela Luss Quintet and Kris Kristoffernson. Oh yeah, the Youngstown Elton John show is sold out. —D.X. Ferris SOLD OUT:Elton John: Sat., May 1, 8 p.m. Covelli Centre (Youngstown). THIS JUST…
Concert Review: Dillinger Escape Plan at the Grog Shop
Ever since the decline of Arcane in ’97, The Dillinger Escape Plan have been known for their legendary live shows, leaving a trail of destroyed equipment in their wake. Last night was no exception. Out supporting the soon-to-be-released Option Paralysis, DEP truly revisited their mathcore roots at the Grog. Their only surviving original member, lead…
Cowkids From Hell
Cincinnati-area music instructor Aaron O’Keefe teaches kids to play rock tunes from the blues to Michael Jackson. But — like most of the Cleveland underground — he’s a big fan of Phil Anselmo. O’Keefe recently posted a clip of pre-pubescent kids jamming Down’s stoner-rock nugget “Ghosts Along the Mississippi.” All due respect, that ain’t nothing…
What to Do Tonight: Toubab Krewe
If you were to chance upon Toubab Krewe’s intoxicating West African instrumental music without knowing anything about them, there are two facts about the quintet that can’t be conveyed by its captivating sound. First, the group has been together for only five years and released two excellent albums in that time (its eponymous 2005 debut…
Napoleon Dynamite Lives (And He’s a Bobcat)
I see a guy busting a move with no dance partner and I’m immediately thinking of Napoleon Dynamite (watch the clip, you know you want to). I suppose this is true for people my age (at least the cool ones), whereas an older generation might have thought of John Travolta or Patrick Swayze. Granted, Napoleon’s…
A Little Ode to Wild Thing and Things I Want to Know About Rebounds
All rebounds aren’t created equal. There’s the offensive rebound that leads to a basket, which is better than a rebound that simply creates another possession without a score. There’s the immediate putback rebound from close range, which is better than a rebound that leads to a jumper. There’s the rebound that you get when no…
Trailer for NBA Jam on Wii
(Hat tip to First Cuts.)
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Trap House Rave
This is the part of C-Notes where we shut up and let a band explain why you need them, for reasons that may or may not include fair access and the fact that we’re camping out to get a good spot at the Map Room for St. Pat’s day. This week: white-dood rap crew Trap…
Let’s Go Bowling!
A highlight of Lottery League season is bowling night, halfway through the League’s 10-week lifespan, wherein Leaguers and their guests are given the run of Mahall’s 20 Lanes (where else, right?) for a Saturday evening. As with all League events, this one was raucous, drinky and memorable (memorable, that is, in inverse proportion to its…
Photo Show: We Were Promised Jetpacks
Crystal Pirri reviewed Scottish indie rockers We Were Promised Jetpacks’ show at the Grog Shop Friday night. She didn’t get a jetpack. Neither did Mark A. Pirri, who shot these photos.
Going Gaga in Cleveland
Like I needed more reason to go gaga for Lady Gaga. Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour is coming to the Q on July 14. No word when tickets are going on sale yet, but you can be sure we’ll let you know. —Michael Gallucci (follow me on Twitter @mgallucci)
Concert Review: We Were Promised Jetpacks
Praying for jetpacks Anyone hoping to hear the Scottish brogue of indie rockers We Were Promised Jetpacks at the Grog Shop on Friday didn’t leave the show disappointed. Even though frontman Adam Thompson spoke only four sentences during the band’s short set, the packed audience didn’t mind. Thompson — whose Glasgow accent was evident on…
LAKE ERIE UFO EXPLAINED
Prepare ye the way of Maitreya: I heard the story on MSNBC about the unusual “UFO” that has been appearing regularly over Lake Erie for the past 10 days. I do not know exactly what that particular “UFO” actually is. However, it “may” be the “star” that is heralding Maitreya’s Presence among us. Maitreya holds…
What to Do Tonight: White Mice
Here’s an experiment you can try at home: Scratch your favorite Black Flag vinyl to hell and put it on the record player, run a magnet over a pirated Gerogerigegege cassette and pop it in the tape player, and then take an X-Acto knife to a recent album by the Prodigy and pop it in…
POLITICS 101: AVOID DISPROVING YOUR OWN CLAIMS
Steve Christopher wants to take on Mike DeWine in the Republican primary for state attorney general. He claims that he filed petitions with 2,750 signatures at the Secretary of State’s office and somehow, before they could be conveyed to the county boards to be validated, that office lost some 2,000 signatures — counting only 788,…
What to Do Tonight: Debbie Davis
“We’ll be bringing a different show this time,” says Connecticut-bred guitarist, who’s getting ready for a four-month tour in support of her first instrumental album, Holdin’ Court. Like Bonnie Raitt, Davies is one of the few female guitarists to make it in the blues realm. “We have a lot more [women playing] than when I…
MORE SENATE RACE FOLLIES
The Ohio U.S. Senate race on the Democratic side gets more bizarre by the day. For a year, the only primary candidates were Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. Then, at the filing deadline in mid-February, two more candidates materialized out of thin air: Charlena Renee Bradley of Lyndhurst and Traci…
TIX FOR OBAMA VISIT AVAILABLE SUNDAY
President Obama will visit Strongsville’s Walter F. Ehrnfelt Recreation and Senior Center Monday, March 15. The stop is part of an East Coast/Midwest swing to push for health care reform. Medina’s Natoma Canfield was invited to speak at the event, but she was undergoing medical tests this week. In December, Canfield made national news when…
Guitar-Strumming Commie Coming to Town Sunday
Mann meets inspiration Right now isn’t exactly the heydey of the topical folk song, a genre that’s seemed passé since the ’60s. But New York’s George Mann is a diehard, evoking that old tradition of using songs, accompanied by an acoustic guitar, to convey messages about social justice and political subjects. Mann, who’s also a…
‘THIS DOES NOT MAKE ME A SLUT’: MORE LUST SURVEY REPLIES
sawyerimages.com Still more results from the Lust Survey. See also “Semen Should Never Come Out of Your Nose” and “Confidence, Nice Smile, Huge Hooters.” What do you know now that you wish you’d known earlier? How many sluts are out there. Not to go fuck random people you like. OMG I have fucked well over…
My Dad Is Dead’s Mark Edwards Plays Show Tonight
My Dad Is Dead … but he left me this garage Clevelander Mark Edwards, who has been performing as My Dad Is Dad for more than 25 years, relocated to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, many years ago. But he still returns to Cleveland every once in a while to play a show. He was last…
Reminder: Rock Hall Inductions Are Monday (Yawn)
Like us, the Stooges’ Iggy Pop is thrilled about the Rock Hall inductions The 25th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions take place Monday night and, as usual, the event is at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria. It’s unlikely that this particular class — in which non-performing inductees outnumber a rather lusterless class of performers…
Coming Soon: Iron Maiden/Dream Theater and REO Speedwagon/Pat Benatar
They haven’t been officially, officially announced yet, but the bands’ websites have given tour dates for two big shows: According to Dream Theater’s website, Iron Maiden and Dream Theater will play Blossom Thursday, July 15. And REO Speedwagon’s publicist says the REO Speedwagon-Pat Benatar tour will stop at Time Warner Cable Amphitheater at Tower City…
ABJ STRIKE AVERTED
After protracted negotiations and a recent authorization for a strike vote, the Akron Beacon Journal’s union employees have struck a three-year labor agreement. The newspaper had called for cuts that would effectively decrease members’ wages by 25 to 30 percent, including a 16.75 reduction in base pay. The new agreement amounts to a 10 percent…
This Just In: Piping Hot Cleveland Concert Announcements
Pearl Jam: They’re still alive Need something to talk about this weekend? How about 16 new, updated, and/or tentative cool concerts coming to town, from small standouts to big stars. —D.X. Ferris Annuals/Most Serene Republic/Gregory & the Hawk: Thu., May 6, 10 p.m., $10. Grog Shop. Bane/Alpha Omega/Above This Fire/Homewrecker/Heads Held High/Toon Squad. Sun., Apr.…
Morning Coffee Video: Lady Gaga
This is exactly why I love Lady Gaga. —Michael Gallucci (follow me on Twitter @mgallucci)
Tom Petty Pre-Sale Tix Available Monday
“The waiting IS the hardest part” Tickets for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers/Drive-By Truckers July 20 concert at Blossom Music Center go on sale Monday. You can get them now via a joint promotion by Akron radio station 91.3 the Summit and Live Nation. The special runs from 10 a.m. today through 10 p.m. Sunday.…
DON’T QUOTE ME, I’M DEAD
Plain Dealer reporters have been credited with amazing accomplishments in the past decade, from exposing the former Cuyahoga County sheriff to freeing a Perry County man jailed on a questionable charge. Last Sunday, reporter Joan Mazzolini topped those feats when she used her J-school skills to quote the dead. Mazzolini showed off her wizardry in…
What to Do Tonight: We Were Promised Jetpacks
According to Derek Taylor, the Beatles’ publicist, “Being born in Scotland carries with it certain responsibilities.” Perhaps that’s why so many distinctive bands come from there — Big Country, Belle & Sebastian and, most recently, We Were Promised Jetpacks. In their own respective manners, they tangle melancholy and jubilation, thoughtful brooding and boisterousness. We Were…
She’s Out of My League isn’t your typical nerd-meets-girl rom com
She’s Out of My League deceptively begins as your typical nerd-meets-girl romantic comedy. When Kirk (Jay Baruchel), an airport security official (essentially one step above a mall cop), initially meets Molly (Alice Eve), a beautiful blonde girl that his friends describe as a “hard 10,” he thinks he has no chance with her. After all,…
The Green Zone takes too many liberties to be believable
Recently, some Iraq war veterans voiced complaints over the level of accuracy in Katherine Bigelow’s Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker. You can only imagine their response to The Green Zone, which takes even more liberties. Most likely, they’ll be too busy howling with laughter to mount a protest any time soon. The idea of U.S.…
Diane Ross Coming to Cleveland in May
Dream girl, probably daydreaming It’s been a busy day for Cleveland concert announcements. We got one more for you. Diana Ross is coming to the State Theatre on May 28 with her “More Today Than Yesterday” tour. This is pretty big news, since the singer rarely tours these days, and there are only 17 dates…
3/24: Diane Rehm at EJ Thomas Hall
Diane Rehm is one of NPR’s beloved signature personalities. Like many women of her generation, the 73-year-old Rehm began her career late, as a volunteer at public-radio station WAMU-FM in her hometown of Washington D.C. when she was pushing 40. She’s made up for lost time. She’s been a radio host since 1979 and, since…
3/24: Magik Markers at Now That’s Class
This noisy Connecticut duo sounds a bit like a roughed-up Sonic Youth on its latest album, Balf Quarry. Peter Nolan and Elisa Ambrogio turn up their distortion pedals on “Don’t Talk in Your Sleep” and the moody “State Numbers.” With a discography that goes back to 2002, when they began self-releasing a slew of extemporaneous…
3/24: Yiddishe Cup at Maltz Museum
Bert Stratton and Alan Douglass are part of the local klezmer/pop/comedy ensemble Yiddishe Cup, which has performed at music festivals, synagogues and private events for more than two decades. At 7 tonight, Stratton and Douglass will offer a snapshot of what they do in a program called Driving Mr. Klezmer at the Maltz Museum of…
3/22: Congresswoman Barbara Lee at Case
California Congresswoman Barbara Lee is the current chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. She’s also a past co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. A single mother and former Black Panthers sympathizer, she, like many former radicals, began to work within the system — serving in the California legislature — without giving up her idealism and…
Bone Thugs N Harmony Prep New Album and Tour
Bone Thugs N Harmony – Rebirth – Official VIdeoBone Thugs N Harmony | MySpace Music Videos Cleveland rappers Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have a new album coming out next month. Uni5: The World’s Enemy will be out on April 27, but the group has a tour starting a month before that. The tour kicks off on March 24 in…
3/21: Spooky Train Ride at CVNP
Over the next few months, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park will offer some of the most beautiful scenery you can find in the area. The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad — which makes passenger trips through the park from Independence on the north and to Akron on the south — has already started running this season.…
3/21: Buzzard Sunday
Avid buzzard trackers, led by “Official Buzzard Spotter” Bob Hinkle of the Cleveland Metroparks, have been keeping watch for the annual return of the big scavenger birds — also known as turkey vultures — to Hinckley (they usually start arriving around March 15). Since the late ’50s, this has become a local milestone, capped by…
3/21: David Gray at State Theatre
Singer-songwriter David Gray has loosened up a bit since his breakthrough hit “Babylon” a decade ago. Back then, he was bursting with something to say, spitting out words while his voice tried to keep up with the calliope of sounds around him. On last year’s Draw the Line, the U.K. singer settles into a weary…
What Restraining Order?
Zooey D and some guy Legal question for all the readers out there who know this stuff: Let’s say, hypothetically of course, someone got a restraining order to stay away from a certain actress who starred in Elf. Let’s say (hypothetically again) that the restraining order was issued hundreds of miles away — like, say,…
3/21: Emanuela Friscioni at Tri-C Jazz benefit
The Tri-C Jazz Studies program offers high-school students a great deal: Not only do they simultaneously finish high school and earn college credit, but graduates are guaranteed admission to the Berklee College of Music, home of one of the nation’s top jazz programs. Pianist Emanuela Friscioni has the same vision for Tri-C’s less-developed Classical Music…
3/20: Barrence Whitfield at Beachland
Boston-based singer Barrence Whitfield was born Barry White, but he sounds little like the late R&B singer he shares a name with. White was known for his seductive bedroom crooning, while the raucous Whitfield is all about whipping up hormones with his performances. Something of a regional legend (he’s won seven Boston Music Awards), Whitfield…
3/20: Natalie Stovall at Brothers Lounge
Twentysomething country singer Natalie Stovall admits she’s a “Silly Kid” in one of her songs. That’s a fitting summation. Stovall has a powerhouse voice, but her childish material (“Silly Kid” is punctuated with a series of annoying “nah, nah, nahs”) makes Taylor Swift sound all grown-up. Stovall peppers her MySpace site with many trivial biographical…
3/20: Jimi Izrael at Mac’s Backs
Authors often urge readers to not merely settle. In The Denzel Principle, Shaker Heights native Jimi Izrael claims that when standards are set so high by impossible Hollywood ideals, choosing a partner who doesn’t measure up isn’t really settling. It’s reality. Izrael positions Denzel Washington as the ideal man, especially in the eyes of his…
3/19: Andre Williams at Beachland
A few years back, ’60s R&B singer Andre Williams would play Pat’s in the Flats and tear it up with whatever hot rock band was backing him. Since then, he’s played the Beachland (15711 Waterloo Rd., 216.383.1124), where he’s put on a couple of great shows. For tonight’s gig, Williams will be in the Tavern,…
3/19: Soulfly at Peabody’s
Former Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera’s once-reviled, now-underrated Soulfly are about to release their seventh album, Omen. The record sounds closer in spirit to the punky, primitivist thrash of the Cavalera Conspiracy (Cavalera’s project with his brother Igor) than to Soulfly’s polyrhythmic and occasionally progressive early material. Omen features guest appearances by Dillinger Escape Plan singer…
3/19: Kimberly Akimbo opens at Liminis Theatre
In David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2001 play Kimberly Akimbo, the title character has a disease that causes her to age four-and-a-half times faster than normal. At 16, she looks and feels like a senior citizen. Fretting about her first kiss has nothing to do with adolescent impatience and everything to do with mortality. Plus, how does a…
3/19: Cleveland Cabaret Project opens
Singer-choreographer Lora Workman and music director Charles Eversole return this weekend with a new run of their Cleveland Cabaret Project. They’ve lined up a cast of local musical-theater vets for the debut of two 50-minute shows: (This Could Be) The Heart of Something stars Workman and Paul Hoffman performing songs by Steve Lawrence and Eydie…
3/18: RJD2 at Grog Shop
After 2002’s Dead Ringer, producer RJD2 fell off the radar. His latest album, The Colossus, doesn’t exactly pick up where Dead Ringer left off — there’s more emphasis on funk and soul — it suggests why RJD2 got into hip-hop in the first place. RJD2’s music has always been cinematic in scope. Instrumentals like the…
3/18 & 20: Cleveland Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy’s relationship with Russia is complicated. The Soviet system nourished the child prodigy’s piano talent, right up through his graduation from the Moscow Conservatory and a victory at the Tchaikovsky Competition, the country’s most prestigious musical contest. But despite his relative stardom, and some time spent as a reluctant and unproductive KGB informer, Ashkenazy…
Cash Kent Stage Show Canceled
The man in purple The Cash Sings Cash show featuring Johnny Cash’s brother, Tommy Cash, that was scheduled for the Kent Stage tomorrow night as been canceled. Technically, it’s postponed. But the venue doesn’t have a new date yet. —D.X. Ferris
Giant Eagle Has Cavs Fever
(Hat tip to CavFanatic.com) Follow me on Twitter: @vincethepolack.
Pearl Jam Playing Cleveland May 9
Eddie Vedder takes it easy Your favorite band and Conan O’Brien may not be playing Cleveland anytime soon. But Pearl Jam are coming to town. They’re playing Quicken Loans Arena on May 9. Band of Horses are opening the show. (In cool sidebar news, our very own Black Keys will be opening Pearl Jam’s big-ass…
KUCINICH CAN’T EVEN COMPROMISE WITH HIMSELF
Monday night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Congressman Dennis Kucinich said that he would be willing to be the deciding vote to sink health-care reform. Video below. This was news to those who heard him speak on the issue the night before at the annual Cuyahoga County Democrats’ dinner. There, in front of Congresswomen Marcia…
Early Candidate for Giveaway of the Year
The Lake County Captains set the bar pretty high last year when it comes to promotions. They had nickel beer night, which was obviously a rousing success, and took home a prestigious “Veeckie” award for best minor league promotion for their “Salute to Cleveland Sports History Night,” when they reenacted (and rewrote) infamous moments in…
Scene Helps You Score Cheap Dillinger Escape Plan Tickets
The beard throws off his equilibrium We got a cool deal if you want to check out the Dillinger Escape Plan at the Grog Shop on Monday. Tickets are $18. But if you call the Grog Shop (at 216.321.5588) and use the super-secret promo code “SCENE,” you’ll get a ticket for only $10. Cool deal,…
BIKE LANE HAS FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Add one more elected official to the list of those expressing support for a bike and pedestrian lane on the new Innerbelt Bridge. Governor Ted Strickland’s press secretary Amanda Wurst says that last Friday in conversation with ODOT director Jolene Molitoris, staffers for Strickland expressed his support for including the lane in plans for the…
PLACE YOUR BETS: WILL CASION HELP OR HURT DOWNTOWN?
The Cleveland Coalition held its debut event Friday evening at the City Club of Club. A packed house of people of all ages showed up to hear four panelists talk about the potential impact of the new casino on Cleveland, and how to make that impact positive rather than negative. Panelists included architect Christopher Diehl,…
The Indians Are Enjoying Their Success While They Can
While almost every projection available to mankind has the Indians turning in a dismal 2010 campaign, the Tribe’s not worrying about the future right now. Yes, they may finish near the basement of the AL, but today — TODAY! — your Cleveland Indians stand undefeated in meaningless spring training games. The above photo is from…
ALL DRIED UP
Apollo’s Fire is resorting to Plan B this week: The ensemble’s season finale was slated to include acclaimed pianist Sergei Babayan’s period instrument debut on a historic Blüthner piano. But the same winter weather that makes peiple’s skin dry up had the same effect on the piano. So he’ll be using a Steinway, instead. The…
ROCKING THE CLASSICS: VIVALDI
It was a week ago that Google marked Vivaldi’s birthday with a seasonally colored, violin-enhanced version of their logo, and although I’m a week late with marking the same birthday, I just came across this: I have to say I’ve heard a multitude of violinists play this with more fluency and fury, but of all…
Twilight devotees will find Remember Me too grim
Terrible things happen to people in Remember Me, a romantic drama starring Twilight teen-throb Robert Pattinson and Lost’s Emilie de Ravin. A mother is gunned down in the New York subway in front of her young daughter. A marriage falls apart after a son’s suicide. A young woman’s father slaps her, splitting her lip. But…
What to Do Tonight: Bowerbirds
It’s easy to imagine the Bowerbirds’ Phil Moore and Beth Tacular as a humble Amish couple. Their aching folk is austere, archaic and bucolic; their songs are consumed with the natural world and our faltering ability to forge a sustainable relationship with it. A sweet innocence envelops Moore’s cracking tenor as it glides over his…
What to Do Tonight: Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore
Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore are a couple of interesting cats. Multi-instrumentalist Sollee was the youngest member of the Sparrow Quartet, an all-star acoustic folk band headlined by banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck and singer Abigail Washburn. Sollee is a walk-it-like-he-talks-it environmentalist, once riding his Xtracycle from his native Kentucky to the Bonnaroo festival in…
Apparel of the Day: Converse’s Music Collection
Just add feet Usually we hate corporate tie-ins that try to find a link between, say, shoes and revolutionary music (cough, Nike’s Beatles commercial, cough). But Converse’s Chuck Taylor All-Star sneakers have been a part of rock ‘n’ roll culture even before the Ramones paired them with leather jackets. So we’re not gonna hate too…
Will Casino’s Design Hurt or Help Downtown?
(As plans progress for Cleveland’s casino, we’ll try to keep you updated on all the dealings, since anything having to do with Dan Gilbert’s new printing press should be interesting to Cavs fans. Here’s a piece from this week’s Scene by Anastasia Pantsios.) The Cleveland Coalition held its debut event Friday evening at the City…
Derek Anderson Lands on the “Dead to Me” List
You all know by now what Derek Anderson said in his email to the News Herald about Browns fans. Here it is, just in case you missed it: “The fans are ruthless and don’t deserve a winner,” Anderson wrote Tuesday in a terse e-mail when asked for a reaction to being released. “I will never…
Listen to New Drive-By Truckers
One of our favorite bands, the Drive-By Truckers, are streaming their awesome new album on AOL Spinner. The Big To-Do comes out next Tuesday, but you should check it out now. Seriously. —Michael Gallucci (follow me on Twitter @mgallucci)
Meet the Band: Daniel Martin Moore and Ben Sollee
“Now what?” Guest blogger Danielle Sills from No Mistake in Mixtape is getting ready for tomorrow’s Daniel Martin Moore and Ben Sollee concert at the Beachland Tavern by talking to Moore. Here’s her Q&A with the singer-songwriter. Sub Pop sent me an album by Daniel Martin Moore and Ben Sollee about a month ago. It’s…
CD Review: Gorillaz
When Gorillaz debut more than 10 years ago, they seemed to be nothing more than a whimsical side project for Blur’s Damon Albarn, who surrounded himself with a cast of “virtual musicians” (Albarn and the group are represented by cartoons). While the project continues to be anything but organic, the albums are carefully crafted and…
ROCK AND ROLL NEVER FORGETS
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum has been a work in progress since its 1995 opening. The Hall of Fame itself, where the inductees are enshrined, was moved to a different location and completely reconceived after negative feedback from visitors. The promised education component with Cuyahoga Community College, the conduit for the…
CD Review: Jimi Hendrix
No way could a “new” Hendrix album have the impact of the three studio records he made when he was alive, but Valleys of Neptune comes close. The opening salvo in another Hendrix revival program, the album collects a gang of choice late Experience tracks, along with several featuring Billy Cox, the bassist in Band…
Who Sold Out the Towpath?
No public undertaking in Cleveland provokes the same righteous enthusiasm as the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail. The 101-mile recreational pathway — which, when complete, will connect Cleveland’s lake shore to Central Ohio — is a key feature of one of the most ambitious park projects in state history. The trail stirs the hopes…
CD Review: The Besnard Lakes
Married couple Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek are the mainstays of Montreal band the Besnard Lakes. They operate a studio that’s hosted Stars, the Dears and Wolf Parade. It’s given them plenty of opportunity to explore the nuances of their own records, but all the studio time is too much of a good thing. Like…
CD Review: Aloha
Starting with 2006’s Some Echoes, Aloha began to temper their former soft post-rock in favor of a poppier approach. That record was a jarring departure for the band’s fan base, which had become accustomed to the jazzy tones of its earliest work. Echoes retained some progressive flavor, but the more song-centric side of the band…
CD Review: Frightened Rabbit
Frightened Rabbit began seven years ago as singer-guitarist Scott Hutchison’s solo project but expanded into full-band status with Hutchison’s drumming brother Grant and bassist-guitarist Bill Kennedy. The Scottish trio’s first two albums — 2006’s Sing the Greys and 2008’s The Midnight Organ Fight — featured energetic and atmospheric pop melodicism and lyrical honesty. On The…
Around Hear: Greg Stiles Benefit
Friends and students of Greg Stiles will play a benefit for his family on Thursday, March 11, at the Beachland Ballroom (15711 Waterloo Rd.). Stiles, who owned Heights Guitars in Cleveland Heights and sang for the Crooked River Fire Brigade, passed away suddenly in February, just weeks after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He…
THE GRACE OF GODS
Like the music of the baroque period, baroque dance fell out of fashion as composers and choreographers pushed their art forward in the 19th century. Unlike the music, however, the dance form didn’t enjoy a resurgence in popularity. “What we know as baroque dance was very much intertwined with court etiquette,” says dancer/choreographer Carlos Fittante.…
CD Review: Liars
Look no further than Sisterworld’s opening track, “Scissor,” to hear Liars’ influences. The ethereal beginning may echo Liars’ 2006 masterwork, Drum’s Not Dead, but the vocals sound like TV on the Radio. But just as you’re growing comfortable with the meandering synth line, the band shifts course again on “No Barrier Fun,” with the angular…
MASTER OF PUPPETS
Joe Goode didn’t always like puppets. “I was a puppet-phobe,” he admits. But he changed his mind after working with master puppeteer Basil Twist. The title character of Goode’s latest dance-theater piece, Wonderboy, is an intricately articulated, three-foot-tall puppet, a Westernized version of the Japanese bunraku tradition. Wonderboy makes its Cleveland debut when Tri-C presents…
Film Capsules
Opening Four Seasons Lodge (U.S., 2008) Andrew Jacobs’ feel-good documentary about a group of Holocaust survivors who gather each year in the Catskills at a resort called Four Seasons Lodge profiles the survivors and the bond that keeps them together. A mixture of new interviews and footage from earlier reunions that took place after the…
Arts District: Asterisks Cubed
Dana Depew has been setting up scavenged windows, doors and other fragments of old architecture to divide the basement of Asterisk Gallery (2393 Professor Ave., 330.304.8528) into cubicles. That’s partly, he says, to create the feel of peering into the many little rooms and partly to isolate the dozens of TVs that will play out…
Snake Eyes
Hue Rhodes, writer and director of St. John of Las Vegas, was a software engineer who quit his job to attend film school in New York. Conspicuously older than his 22-year-old classmates, Rhodes worked with extra determination, writing his screenplay in coffee shops around the city. He handed the script to everyone who would take…
DISCO DO-OVER
Xanadu Through March 14 Palace Theatre 1615 Euclid Ave. 216.241.6000 Tickets:$10-$65 playhousesquare.com Xanadu is not the first roller-skating musical to grace PlayhouseSquare. Those nostalgic for vaudevillian skunks will recall the lingering odor of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express. Happily, the current tenant, unabashedly goofy and winning, has the effect of a giant air freshener. Perhaps…
Reel Cleveland: Hellweek DVD
After a few distribution delays, Eddie Lengyel’s low-budget horror movie Hellweek is finally out on DVD. Former Clevelander Lengyel shot the film in Northeast Ohio, using downtown Cleveland locations and the University of Akron and Kent State University campuses. While the acting is rather shaky, the production values in the 107-minute movie are pretty strong.…
THE LOVE DOCTOR
It’s a good thing that American Idol’s snarky Simon Cowell wasn’t around in pre-Victorian England. His reputed engagement to his show’s makeup gal would have been severely frowned upon. You see, in plays such as Jane Austen’s Emma, now at the Cleveland Play House, it’s a no-no to marry too far above or below your…
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
If you can make it through the sluggish, pedantic first half of Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith’s Oscar-nominated documentary, The Most Dangerous Man in the World: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers provides a useful historical footnote, especially for those too young to have known the turbulent ’60s firsthand. As such, Dangerous Man demands to…
Re-Gifting
What is Good is Given Back, at Zygote Press, is a quietly intense show that meditates on the art of printmaking. It also includes works that aren’t exactly prints, bringing leverage to bear on the questions that the medium raises about image and substance, and the illusory, multiple nature of identity. Noel Reifel is one…
The Blues Brothers
Mississippi folk legend Cat-Iron once recorded a song called “Jimmy Bell” — a ballad about a shady preacher who comes to town to save souls for money. He’s a firebrand in the pulpit, popular with the sisters and packing his bags for something bigger down the road. Robert Kidney is not unlike the cool and…
Bites: Dim and Den Sum
Jeremy Esterly is so confident that Clevelanders are hungry for something new he’s willing to wager his prime post at Fire Food and Drink. Chef de cuisine of that Shaker Square restaurant since 2006, Esterly soon will swap the relatively cushy confines of a commercial kitchen for an aging Chevy step van. Billed as a…
Swede Emotion
Power metal doesn’t seem to grab U.S. listeners. Maybe it’s because American metal fans think of themselves as badasses unwilling to be seen smiling as they head bang. Or maybe because of an aversion to keyboard solos and upper-register vocals, bands like Helloween or Sonata Arctica never quite graduate to Ozzfest-headliner status. The ceiling seems…
Hail to the Chief
TOP PICK Halo Legends (Warner) This Blu-ray gathers all eight episodes of the anime series, which was originally broadcast on the official Halo website. The two-part “Origins” fills in the gaps for newbies, but later stories — like “The Package,” which features the videogame’s star, Master Chief — bring the action. It should satisfy Halo…
Local CD Reviews
Matthew Skitzki Skitzki (self-released) matthewskitzki.com Playing mostly with a jazz trio, pianist Matthew Skitzki offers genteel diversity on his self-titled debut. “Sigoly Blues” rides a meditative groove, with Skitzky backed by bassist Roger Hines and drummer Elijah Vazquez. You can hear Skitzki’s influences — from romantic pianists like Chopin to masterful trio pianists like Vince…
A COOL MILL
There was a forgivable amount of anxiety percolating through Hudson during the build-out of Rosewood Grill. Set inside the historic Turner’s Mill complex, locals understandably were concerned about modifications being foisted upon one of the town’s most beloved fixtures. After all, how do you tastefully marry a 160-year-old gristmill with a brand spanking new 5,000-square-foot…
A Vocal Power
It’s taken a couple decades, but Ted Leo has finally made his “Absolute Beginners.” It took Paul Weller only five years to come up with that ’81 Jam single that signaled his full embrace of R&B and soul. Now, on The Brutalist Bricks, longtime Jam fan Leo has dipped his own toes into soul’s slink…
CD Review: Broken Bells
For all the critical hosannas and fans the Shins have racked up over the years, they’re not much fun. They’re not so musically adventurous either. Which makes Shins frontman James Mercer’s role in Broken Bells all the more surprising. As the voice on top of the audacious beats supplied by Brian Burton (better known as Danger…
Plenty of Good Seats Still Available
Do you hear it? Do you hear the buzz humming around town about the Cleveland Indians? It’s inescapable. Does Jake Westbrook even have a right arm anymore? How do you even spell Grudzielanek? Wonder where Grady buys his coffee mugs? You can’t hope to cure Wahoo Fever right now — only contain it. Opening Day…
