NASA sends Ohio State bow tie into space, because what else would they have to do?
If we really want to screw with the Russians, we’d send Tucker Carlson into space and then forget about him for, like, 70 years. NASA, the proud space-exploration arm of the government, can notch another hole into its heat resistant belt. Thanks to cutting-edge research and multi-billion dollar financing, America can now brag that we…
See Marlo Stanfield — ahem, The Wire’s Jamie Hector — at Silk nightclub on Friday
‘Hoppers.’ ‘Murder police.’ ‘Hamsterdam.’ ‘Stringer Bell.’ If these words don’t instantly bring to mind the apparently-even-more-fucked-up-than-Cleveland city of Baltimore, then you haven’t watched The Wire — and you might as well stop reading here (and keep up the vigil for the Scrubs blog item that will never come). …
Superdelegate Joyce Beatty feeling pressure from Mom, Slick Willy
Joyce Beatty (D-Her Mommy’s Bosom) Life as a superdelegate isn’t easy these days. For the Democratic decision-makers whose vote may determine the 2008 Presidential nominee, the pressure is mounting. Balancing the whims of constituents and fellow policy-makers (and trying not to piss off the future leader of the free world) is tough enough. But, as…
Quaker Steak & Lube pressured into renaming “Suicide” sauce, but “Lube Burger” is somehow just fine
Quaker Steak & Lube brags that it’s “America’s #1 motorsports-themed family restaurant.” Despite their name, they don’t sell steak. And no, perverts, they don’t sell lube. But they do sell “Lube Burgers.” So it’s safe to say that these franchises — the majority of which are in Pennsylvania and Ohio — do not often serve…
Brothers Lounge is back, and bluesier than ever
The dust has started to settle since Friday night’s fab grand opening of Brothers Lounge. And you can tell by the look on co-owners Chris Riemenschneider’s and Roger Rich’s faces that the multimillion-dollar, ceiling-to-floor makeover of what was once Cleveland’s most venerable blues hotspot was worth the three-year wait. …
This Just In: Concert announcements from Soulja Boy, Raven Symone, and 38 others
Raven Symone’s Pajama Party is chief among this week’s 40 concert announcements – a welcome alternative if all that High School Musical business is too edgy for you. If club shows are more your speed, get ready for big gigs from Soulja Boy (above), Estelle, Dub Traffik Control, Spank Rock’s Devilin & Darko, and tributes…
At KeKe Confections, veteran chef Keoko Turner proves sweet on Cleveland
A favorite former Cleveland chef recently popped back up on our radar: Keoko Turner, who returned to his hometown last fall after a three-year stint as a restaurant consultant in Atlanta and along the East Coast. Prior to his departure, the Culinary Institute of America grad had worked downtown at Vivo and the former Alexandria’s…
Reader: Progressive story was misinformed hyperbole
Lisa Rab’s article on Progressive was typical misinformed hyperbole normally found within the pages of Scene. Lisa begins by discussing how employees were let go, alluding that their salaries were instead spent on naming rights for Progressive Field. She failed to mention that this amount is paid from an advertising budget and not an operating…
A rare manuscript collector sees his treasures auctioned away
For almost 20 years, Akron native Bruce Ferrini was one of the world’s most important dealers in rare books and manuscripts. His collection included everything from the Gospel of Judas and the Dead Sea Scrolls to Leonardo da Vinci’s code encrypted journals and the personal correspondence of George Washington. But last week, the massive collection…
Rover’s Morning Glory moving to WMMS
Rover’s Morning Glory has found a new home on WMMS 100.7, where it will begin airing in the 6 a.m.–11 a.m. slot come April 1. “As I hinted in haiku on RoverRadio.com (while under a gag order from our former employer), we’ve found new friends in the Cleveland market,” Rover said in a press release.…
LeBron James: Male fashion icon
We know this is supposed to be a picture of LeBron. But who would you rather look at? A big, sweaty guy? Or a supermodel dressed up like a bird from the zoo? In April, LeBron James will grace the cover of Vogue, becoming only the third man in the magazine’s 116 year history to…
Travis Hafner, man of the people
Last year, the once prolific Pronk became an enigma wrapped in a sucktastic season wrapped in millions and millions of dollars. Many questions emerged. Mainly: What the hell happened? Hafner murdered the ball in 2006, to the tune of a league leading OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of 1.098. So why did his 2007 stat…
Cleveland Film Fest trailer becomes a hit in its own right
While sitting on your increasingly sore tush for the last 10 days at the Cleveland International Film Festival, you undoubtedly noticed the oh-so-catchy song that accompanies the trailer for the fest. Played before every movie — 130 features, plus 160 shorts — the trailer has become a hit in its own right. Created by the…
Paranoid Park: the Film Fest (and Cedar Lee) flick that somehow makes teen skaters interesting
Teenage skaters, especially mildly depressed ones who listen to Elliot Smith all day, aren’t the most expressive of creatures. They rock shaggy haircuts, and have permanently slouched postures and overly-chill demeanors, sometimes enhanced by THC. It’s an easy group to dismiss. But in Paranoid Park, which screened at the Cleveland Film Fest last weekend and…
To commemorate St. Paddy’s Day, Cleveland Police set up DUI checkpoint
Just sleep where you land, friends. We at C-Notes do not advocate drinking and driving, especially on St. Paddy’s day, when every rank amateur from Brunswick to Beachwood descends on downtown to make merry the Irish way, and proceeds to swerve their SUV toward home. And most essentially, under no circumstances do we advocate drinking…
Kevin Pollak, the Matrix, and plenty of beer top our Picks of the Week
Every Monday, Scene calendar editor Cris Glaser provides a random but reliable sampling of things to do in the week ahead. For more options, log onto entertainment.clevescene.com. And check back Friday for C-Notes’ Picks of the Week. Monday: Luck would have it that Cleveland will be awash in green beer after today’s Saint Patrick’s Day…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: The Choke in Lakewood, Akron
Money Where Your Mouth Is: In which the Scene Music Department lets a band do its own talking and explain why you really oughta see them. The Choke recently visited Cleveland for the first time, and as good as the show was, we think the band earned the right to plead its case directly to…
Hello, Cleveland: The Week’s Concert Calendar
Forty hot picks to choose from this week. Out of many St. Pat’s Day shows, the Prodigals’ free show at House of Blues is the one to not miss. Other highlights include Everytime I Die, the post-hardcore band that’ll rock your sox off. David Allan Coe turns the Saddle Ridge into outlaw country. Superstar DJ…
Corned Beef and Flan? Lelolai serves it right
When it comes to ethnic eats, this town really is a melting pot. And with its combo of Middle Eastern, Mexican, Cambodian, Italian, and Puerto Rican restaurants, the small section of Ohio City, around the West Side Market, just might be the ladle that stirs the pot. Doubt it? Consider today’s St. Paddy’s Day special…
SXSW: A garden of sweaty, happy hipsters
Saturday’s daylong Garden Party at the French Legation Museum was a perfect cap to South by Southwest’s four days of music – an eight-hour mix of indie-rock legends (Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore) and buzzed-about hipsters (Okkervil River, Kimya Dawson). Granted, the first three hours were filled with bands I’d never heard…
SXSW: Merge Records, as indie-licious as ever
Indie darlings and pro-noun obsessives M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel. Merge Records is home to some of the planet’s hippest indie-rockers. Arcade Fire, Spoon, and Guided by Voices’ Robert Pollard all record for the label. So Friday night’s Merge Records showcase at the Parish was a six-hour marathon of a half-dozen of the company’s artists,…
SXSW: Attacking, releasing with the Black Keys
The Black Keys couldn’t have picked a better place to play their Friday-afternoon South by Southwest concert than at La Zona Rosa. The Akron duo’s bluesy garage-rock filled the cavernous club, which sorta looks like a giant garage. The 45-minute show, part of Scene’s and Village Voice Media’s day party, mixed old material and songs…
Saving Damon Jones’ mohawk: A fight worth fighting
As a general rule, if it’s a bad haircut, Cleveland’s gonna dig it. Cleveland sports are no exception, with a litany of beautiful/awful hairdo’s in its history. See: Pollard, Scot; Free, World B.; Varejao, Anderson, and so on. Hell, I think we all get a little excited to see the haphazard changes in Eric Wedge’s…
Picks of the Weekend: Keep running, man. There’s beer in your future
Every Friday, Scene calendar editor Cris Glaser provides a random but reliable sampling of things to do this weekend. For more options, log onto entertainment.clevescene.com. And check back Monday for C-Notes’ Picks of the Week. Friday: Here’s your chance to think Irish and protest the war all at once. Ireland’s Black 47 thrashes at the…
Buy the girl a beer: Kate Voegele is growing up right before South by Southwest’s eyes
The last time Bay Village singer-songwriter Kate Voegele played South by Southwest, she wasn’t old enough to drink. But this time, as she told her audience at Thursday night’s Thirsty Nickel showcase, the 21-year-old was taking in everything SXSW has to offer. We can only presume she was talking about the music and not all…
Saigon adds speed and spice to East 4th
Saigon (2061 East 4th Street, Cleveland. 216-344-2020), the new Vietnamese place in downtown’s emerging East 4th District, has only been open three weeks. But it’s already attracted a devoted following. The bright, cozy restaurant has an Oriental flair, complemented by woven bamboo mats and real, wooden chopsticks — none of those toothpick-like-disposable silverware is served…
Last night at the Cleveland Film Fest: Finally, a story about Venezuela without Hugo Chavez!
The blurb about Postcards from Leningrad said that it was a “highly stylized film of life on the run.” That about nailed it. The movie, set in Venezuela during the mid-1960s, follows the lives of guerilla warriors (read: college students who read a Cliff’s Notes version of Marx) and their families as they fought for…
Hello, Cleveland: The Weekend Concert Calendar
Yellowcard heads up this weekend’s list of shows, with a special acoustic performance. Other hot picks include all-girl rock quintet Antigone Rising, Celtic firebrands Black 47, the 70s Soul Jam (featuring the Stylistics, the Manhattans, the Delfonics, the Emotions, and Enchantment), and stoner-rawk heavyweights Fu Manchu. Read on for the full schedule. — D.X. Ferris
Keep Jorge Julio in the Minors: day one of the movement
Jorge Julio: Whatever happens, don’t believe the hype. Jorge Julio is one of those guys who’s made a career out of the modern dearth of big-league pitching. In the last three years, he’s been on five teams, and thoroughly disgusted them all. Now he’s in Winter Haven, Florida, fighting for a roster spot on the…
St. Patrick’s Day spots with food worth putting down your beer for
It doesn’t look like the long-awaited Stone Mad, Pete Leneghan’s hand-crafted pub on W. 65th, will open in time for St. Paddy’s Day. But no need to cry in your green beer: Here’s a fistful of other spots where you can get Irish on Monday without going hungry: P.J. McIntyre’s Irish Pub (17119 Lorain Ave.,…
With the sky falling, Progressive Insurance cuts back on … Styrofoam cups?
Peter B. Lewis: “Has anyone seen a bong? It’s about thiiiiis big, and has a skull sticker on it.” In this week’s Scene, we chronicle the recent troubles at Progressive Insurance. Thanks to layoffs, management changes, and a tumbling stock price, the Mayfield company, once viewed as a favorite place to work, is now the…
Overheard at SXSW …
At Stubb’s last night, some dude who looked like he was about 70, during slow-moving stoner-rock band Dead Confederate’s showcase: “These fuckers are putting me to sleep!” Well said, sir. Well said. — Michael Gallucci
At South by Southwest, nothing says alt-country like booze and beards at the New West day party
There was an odd dearth of bearded people on the streets of Austin Thursday afternoon. Turns out, they were all at one of SXSW’s best day parties, hosted by New West Records, home to such alt-country acts as Drive-By Truckers and the Old 97’s (as well as former Kinks frontman Ray Davies). There may be…
Reader: Progressive is “young” because it whacks all the veterans
An anonymous reader responds to “Empire Regressed,” the recent Scene story about the troubles of Progressive Insurance. Great article! A few years back, after nearly 20 years of working at Progressive and each year receiving outstanding performance evaluations, they decided to let me go, “because they wanted a different perspective.” Progressive touts itself as a…
Practice being Irish by getting hammered in Parma. Huh?
Give it up for the Parma Tavern with its happy-hour lesson today on how to be Irish just in time for Saint Patrick’s Day on Monday. Between 2 and 7 p.m., the club is training its not-so-Gaelic patrons how to be certified lushes during its Saint Practice Day party. As part of its lesson plan,…
R.E.M. at SXSW: A lapsed fan’s notes
It’s fitting that R.E.M. played South by the Southwest 2008’s first big show, last night at the venerable Stubb’s. After all, the veteran group pretty much invented indie-rock in the early ‘80s, back when it was called “college rock.” Along with Husker Du, the Replacements, the Minutemen, Black Flag, and a handful of other bands,…
Plan of attack for St. Pat’s
If pummeling your liver with green beer and corn beef doesn’t sound interesting enough for St. Patty’s Day, you probably aren’t from Cleveland and under the age of 45. But that’s alright. We’ve got you covered. Check out Scene’s entertainment listings to learn about the city’s best St. Patrick’s celebrations. St. Paddy’s Day is on…
Feagler: They just don’t stump like they used to. And speaking of stumps …
Today’s topic: Campaigning these days has really gotten out of hand … I was sitting at the coffee shop with the guys, and we all agreed: Campaigning for President these days is the work of the Devil himself. You don’t believe me? What happened after the skirt and the negro stopped by town for that…
Restaurant of the Weekend: Ponte Vecchio
Ponte Vecchio — the setting is perfect for an out-of-town visitor this weekend. And the food keeps up. Let’s raise a toast this weekend to the out-of-town visitor: Without her, we might have forgotten about the stunning view at Ponte Vecchio (2100 Superior Viaduct), the uniquely situated ristorante on the stub of the old Superior…
In the wake of the 2008 Rock Hall inductions, thoughts on bringing them to Cleveland
More than 250 people turned out to the Rock Hall this week for the simulcast of the inductions from the Waldorf in New York. The ceremony itself was serviceable, although not quite as enjoyable as past inductions. The Ventures, the Dave Clark Five, Leonard Cohen, Madonna, and John Mellencamp were enshrined this year. The highlights…
Comedy Corner: Katt Williams leads the week in Cleveland comedy
Don’t miss Katt Williams’ “Pimpin’ Pimpin’” Tour tonight at the Wolstein Center. And click “more” for a rundown (with video!) of the weekend’s best stand-up shows, led by Jeff Garlin of Your Enthusiam fame. – D.X. Ferris
Poll shows evangelicals voted with Dems in Ohio. Same poll later found smoking crack in alley
In a head-scratching recent poll, Zogby International, the polling company know for its flubbing of the New Hampshire primaries, found that 43 percent of white, evangelical Christians voted with the Dems in the recent Ohio primary, a notion that is really f-ing with our minds. …
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Pussyfoot Girls
The Scene Music Department lets the Pussyfoot Girls explain why you should come get with ‘em and their rowdy friends this weekend. We’d do it, but when we get around ‘em, we get all nervous and tongue-tied. Click the video to see what you missed if you didn’t make the last show. — D.X. Ferris
Criminal records be damned, Ward 6 council candidates take shots at Cleveland Clinic
Tuesday night’s candidates’ forum in Ward 6 didn’t dissolve into a debate over Council President Martin Sweeney’s political future, as some had hoped. But the gathering at Antioch Baptist Church on Cedar Road did illuminate some serious discontent in the neighborhood, which includes Fairfax, University Circle, and Little Italy. After 12 years of Pat Britt,…
O’Brien Factor: Kevin wonders, If Global Warming’s real, why did I spend the weekend shoveling?
We read Kevin O’Brien so you don’t have to. Column: For global warming worry-warts, an inconvenient cold spell Topic: O’Brien’s old standard: if global warming is real, why is my windshield iced over? Kevin’s Sanity Level Today: 19 percent What Your Head Would Feel Like if You Read it Yourself: You’ve strayed into Apache territory,…
Cavs guard Eric Snow out 4-6 weeks with arthritis. No, seriously.
Fifty-seven-year-old point guard Eric Snow is the latest victim of the injury bug that has been continually biting the Cavs this season. The Cavs said yesterday that Snow will be out 4-6 weeks with “arthritic-related symptoms in his left knee,” which could have just as easily been listed as out 4-6 weeks with “being really…
Swing State: The Film Fest doc that’s got Lt. Governor Lee Fisher shirtless, and so much more
Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher takes it off in ‘Swing State.’ In the years after he lost a bid to become governor in 1998, Ohio Lt. Governor Lee Fisher was itching to get back into politics. So when Ted Strickland asked Fisher to be his running mate in 2006 election, Fisher agreed, quitting his cushy non-profit…
Dear Public Radio: We love your stuff and really want it to keep going. But what’s with the Pledge Drive?
We love you, Diane Rehm. Your show, too. But mostly just you. Dear Public Radio, You do things no other media can do. Every show is insightful, demanding, and intelligent. You help the world multi-task. Why just last month, with a mere ten minutes of listening in the car on the way to quaff pitches…
Wednesdays at Twist, it’s all fun and gameshows
Don’t have anywhere to go after you’ve seen the first of the 12 American Idol finalists get axed off the show tonight? Check out lounge singer-turned-stage-show impresario Gerry “Big Daddy” Keating as he channels ’70s TV emcee Gene Rayburn for his monthly game-show competition at Twist. This time, he’s hosting the spirited, 90-minute Match Game,…
Lola’s Michael Symon teams up with Voodoo Monkey Tattoos for food-inspired T-shirts
Attention, all you needle-adverse foodies: Are you tired of secretly drooling over Iron Chef Michael Symon’s ever-growing gallery of eats-related tats, all the time knowing you’ll never have the nerve to take the plunge yourself? Two words: Lola t-shirts. Cleveland’s nationally known culinarian is going into the t-shirt biz – five “fierce” styles each featuring…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Junior Revolution
The Scene Music Department are MIA; they’ve been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day since shortly after New Year’s. So to provide exposition regarding the imminent performance by Ohio’s own Junior Revolution, we’re turning directly to the band, which features local cats who’ve taken to running with a Cincinnati crowd. Read on for show details and a…
Ready or not, South by Southwest, here we (and our Killer Death Flu) come
Could I have gotten the Killer Death Flu at a worse time? I’m flying down to Austin today for five days of music, beer, and hob-nobbing — assuming the hob-nobbing includes copious beer and music — at the annual South by Southwest festival, from where I’ll be blogging here over the next few days. I’m…
She & Him
“She” is indie-movie cutie Zooey Deschanel, who played Will Ferrell’s love interest in Elf. “Him” is indie-rock auteur M. Ward. But Volume One isn’t another one of those records by a Hollywood ego-tripper who fancies herself a singer. In fact, it’s a very charming exploration and evocation of pre-Sgt. Pepper pop, stirred by Deschanel’s winsome…
Yellowcard lives the dream and cliché, before sobering up
Climbing to the top can be a bitch. But it’s got nothing on actually being there. It’s an entertainment-biz cliché by now, as any issue of Star magazine will tell you: Fame breeds problems. And it’s one that not even the violin-loving pop-punks in Yellowcard could avoid. The Florida quintet broke big on 2003’s Ocean…
Caddy Corner
Can’t tell the difference between a spark plug and a piston? Worry no more. Experts at the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum will teach you how its 200-car collection runs, as part of the six-week Automobile as a Lifestyle program. You’ll learn the mechanics of each car, from an 1897 Panhard et Levassor roadster to Bobby Rahal’s…
Digitalism
Thanks to noise-loving electronic groups like Justice, everyone from blogging hipsters to indie-rock nerds is dancing like it’s 1996 again. Look for German duo Digitalism to be one of 2008’s chief contributions to the revival. Jens Moelle and Ismail Tüfekçi have been around since 2004, remixing cuts for the Cure, Depeche Mode, and even the…
West Side Stories
Until a few weeks ago, West Side movie buffs thought they were getting the shaft, when it came to theaters rerunning classic films. Not anymore, with Regal Cinemas’ Flashback on Features every Wednesday on its Middleburg Heights screens.Since the series began last month, the theater has shown fan faves like Moulin Rouge and American Pie.…
Cowtown Boogie-man
Sean Carney has taken his bluesy rhythms across the country from the Columbus base that his self-titled band calls home. He won the Albert King Best Guitarist Award at last year’s International Blues Challenge in Memphis, and he’s played gigs ranging from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to San Francisco’s Biscuits & Blues…
Take Action Tour
The Take Action Tour features a weird blend of loud mall-punk and grassroots charity. The bands on this year’s bill range from the tattooed and metallic (Every Time I Die) to the recently major-label-signed and suddenly much-less-artsy-than-on-their-two-indie-albums (From First to Last). Also on tap are post-hardcore band the Bled, Christian metalcore kids August Burns Red…
Tequila at Sunrise
You are so last week if you haven’t kept up with the Cronies nightspot in Lakewood. For starters, the owners are going to change the bar’s name in April to Eddy’s & Iggy’s, in honor of Saint Ignatius and St. Edward high schools. And another thing: The club is now Fiesta Central every Tuesday night,…
ADD-ing it Up
Columbus’ Pale Imitations Improv Troupe of comedians makes it a point to cut most of its sketches short at the one-minute mark. Take its signature “Attention Deficit Playhouse,” which the five-member cast will introduce in its first-ever Cleveland show tonight, as part of the weekly Pub Laughs Comedy Night by Cleveland’s Torque . . .…
Mike Doughty’s Band
In the ’90s, singer-guitarist Mike Doughty fronted Soul Coughing, an N.Y.C. ensemble that inventively combined jazz, hip-hop, indie-rock, and quasi-beat-poetry lyricism. He did a whole bunch of heroin too. Then he got clean, quit Soul Coughing, and pursued a solo singer-songwriter career, happily nurturing his inner Dave Matthews. In fact, he’s become a pal, collaborator,…
Invitation to the Dan
Now a SoCal sunbird, Bath native Dan Grueter comes home a few times a year to either perform his stand-up comedy routine or occasionally sit through friends’ marriage ceremonies. Sometimes, he wishes he wouldn’t put up with the latter. “Have you ever been to a shitty wedding? This one I went to was so bad…
Cleveland restaurants churn out chocolate for the Great Lakes Science Center’s Chocolate: The Exhibition
A Hershey’s Kiss sounds dull as dirt compared to what some locally owned restaurants will have in store for guests on Thursday, March 27, at the Great Lakes Science Center. Nearly a dozen members of Cleveland Independents will be on hand to prove that Chocolate Dreams Do Come True — assuming your nighttime reveries revolve…
Sugar Blue
It usually takes artists several records before anyone pays attention. Sugar Blue needed only one song. Granted, it’s not even his, but it is his harmonica lick that propels the Rolling Stones’ 1978 hit “Miss You.” While that cut served as a fitting introduction to the Harlem-bred Blue — who was born James Whiting —…
Tap o’ the Morning
Like any reputable Irish pub, Pug Mahones is an early bird on St. Paddy’s Day. At 8 a.m., the club will start pouring Irish Car Bombs and $1 mugs of its Frank’s Irish Red microbrew, with a free breakfast of eggs, sausage, hash browns, and soda-bread toast. “It’s a tradition that I cook breakfast every…
The tiny kitchen at little Touch Supper Club, in Ohio City, is turning out big flavors
When we last caught up with Jeff Fisher in late 2007, the chef was still feeling high from his recent stint at Chicago’s Charlie Trotter’s, the Lincoln Park boîte that holds a perennial space on the short list of America’s best restaurants. The weeklong stage both tired him and delighted him. More important, it inspired…
Dave Cousins
Punks have long railed against “progressive rock.” Ever since Johnny Rotten cracked his first sneer, kids with bad skin and even worse teeth decried prog’s excessive pomp and lame circumstance. They weren’t too crazy about the 45-minute keyboard solos and songs about Stonehenge-dwelling dwarfs either. But the baby got thrown out with the bathwater: The…
The Pipes Are Calling
Pride of Erin pub owner John Campbell leads this afternoon’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade as the grand marshal of the 141st edition of the high-stepping tribute to the Irish. The parade route starts at the staging area on the corner of Superior Avenue and East 18th Street. More than 10,000 marchers in bagpipe bands, precision…
Decked Out
“Singled Out,” March 5 Clevelanders cool to hipster fashion: Quick thing to know, which you almost got right: Clevelanders love music, but most of them refuse to advertise their specific proclivities by way of fashion. Sure, you can spot a throwback punk or greaser a mile away, but just because we can’t fit into our…
ASG
This North Carolina quartet’s initials stand for Amplification of Self Gratification. We really don’t know what that means. But we do know that ASG plays fuzzy and kaleidoscope-hued stoner rock on its latest album, Win Us Over, which combines mind-blowing guitar solos, steamrolling riffs, and hazy snatches of melody. And because they’re southern guys, ASG…
Wild World of Sports
You can’t really pimp yourself as an outdoorsman until you’ve skinned a deer in public. That’s exactly what’s going to happen onstage today at the I-X Center’s Cleveland Sport, Travel, & Outdoor Show. “If you want to go deer-hunting, but you don’t know how to do that, we’re going to show you,” says Chris Fassnacht,…
Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney returns fire after Chrissie Hynde rips Akron
Last week, Punch relayed how the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde was taking potshots at her hometown of Akron. “I’m ashamed to be from a place where there’s not one vegetarian restaurant in the whole town,” the London resident told Vegetarian Times in an interview about her new Akron restaurant, VegiTerranean. “I’m surprised it took 30 years…
Jeff Black
Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jeff Black takes an old-fashioned approach to his craft. Like the young Bruce Springsteen, Black writes about characters who are looking for some sort of salvation in friends, family, and the road. There’s rarely deliverance at the end of the highway. Huge piano fills fuel many of Black’s songs, but harmonica, guitar, and…
Wheels on Reels
Nearly 400 one-of-a-kind hot rods, tuners, race cars, and motorcycles populate the I-X Center this weekend for the 41st annual Autorama. But the handful of wheels that have made their marks on American cinematic history should steal the spotlight — from the futuristic VW Beetle in Woody Allen’s Sleeper and the 1985 DeLorean in Back…
St. Martin de Porres defies the chronic failure of inner-city education
On a freezing February morning, Richard Clark, president of St. Martin de Porres High School, hustles toward the brick building at East 61st and Lausche. A woman standing at a bus stop pulls him aside. She lives nearby and has heard from the older kids that all St. Martin students are college-bound — a rare…
Pounding Headache
You’ll know in the first few minutes exactly what Patapon has going for it. There’s the goofy premise, which casts you as the tribal god Patapon, lord of a band of creatures called, imaginatively enough, Patapons — little savages that are basically eyeballs with arms and legs. Then there’s the visual style: Most of the…
Jump in the Sac
The Pussyfoot Girls’ monthly “jump” goes Irish-with-a-twist tonight with a St. Paddy’s Day Massacre-themed romp. The group of four PBR-swilling burlesque dancers has turned Sachsenheim Hall into a raucous roundup of bands, contests, costumes, dancing, and drinking. “We wanted to do something to liven up the scene,” says dancer Queen LaTata about the ongoing party…
Elvis Costello’s greatest album tops this week’s pop-culture picks
TOP PICK — Elvis Costello: This Year’s Model — Deluxe Edition (Hip-O/UME) Costello’s best album celebrates its 30th anniversary with a two-CD set that tags on a bunch of B-sides, demos, and live cuts. This is the third time that the album has been reissued, so fans probably have most of this stuff by now.…
Stereovox
The Akron-based Stereovox’s full-length debut isn’t exactly groundbreaking — it recalls ’90s alt-pop acts like Dishwalla and Vertical Horizon — but it certainly is well written. Singer Michael Muratore strikes a perfect balance with the rest of the group’s upbeat and melodic playing. “Love” and “Standing By” are ridiculously catchy, but the title track cops…
Three the Hard Way
No Country for Old Men (Paramount) “A horror comedy chase” is how a grinning Tommy Lee Jones describes No Country for Old Men in the making-of — meanwhile, his fellow actors add to the list such adjectives as “a very primitive ride,” “a rabbit chase through Texas,” and “a very powerful story about violence.” Or,…
Plug Into Austin’s Power
If you still don’t think Austin Charanghat is Cleveland’s busiest bluesman, check out tonight’s CD-release party for his latest disc, Murder of a Blues Singer. With his band, Walkin’ Cane, Charanghat will jam on the record’s tastiest tunes, like “Devil’s Backbone,” “Georgia Moon,” and the title track. As he puts it, he either plays or…
How Progressive insurance lost what made it progressive
Chris Lantzy’s 16-year career ended in a hotel room in Newton, Iowa. The call came as he was road-tripping from Colorado with his five sons, headed to Mom’s house in Cleveland for Thanksgiving. His wife was back in Colorado, pregnant with their seventh child and unable to make the trek. Lantzy could afford a big…
Vietnam Werewolf
Vietnam Werewolf: terrible band name (intentionally so), but a really good band. And it’s a perfect fit for anyone still bummed about Amps II Eleven breaking up, since it flies the Cleveland flag just as proudly. Musically, the group teeters between old-school punk and hardcore. Raging toward abandon from the get-go, the power-trio lineup that…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week:
. . . And Justice for All: Special Edition (Sony) Appleseed Ex Machina (Warner Bros.) August Rush (Warner Bros.) Bee Movie (DreamWorks) Black Widow (Fox) Dan in Real Life (Buena Vista) Def Comedy Jam: D.L. Hughley (HBO) Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes Volume 3 (Fox) Hitman (Fox) Housewife, 49 (Acorn) Lil’ Bush: Resident of the…
Boo Who?
Men may be skeptical when their ladies drag them to ghost-hunting parties. But give them some cool paranormal-tracking gadgets — especially ones with flashing red and green lights — and they’ll be ready to hunt down spirits at Dinner & a Ghost in Canal Fulton. “The guys like it because it has a little bit…
With help from you, evil prepsters go torturing in the remake of Funny Games
“You must admit you brought this on yourself,” reads the movie’s poster. It’s a judgment aimed not only at newcomers to the party, but anyone deviant enough to know what they’re in for and show up anyway. At first glance, Funny Games, a remake of Michael Haneke’s 1997 Austrian film of the same title, sounds…
The Whigs
Like R.E.M., the Whigs call Athens, Georgia, home. And like R.E.M., they’re southerners who really don’t make much of their southernism. Sure, there are signs they grew up below the Mason-Dixon Line: frontman Parker Gispert’s occasional drawl, gutbucket riffs, and epic songs, which sound like they have about 150 years of history behind them. But…
Musicians band together to fight pay-to-play
Cleveland rockers are uniting in Musicians’ Local 00, an informal alliance of groups opposed to the pay-to-play practices that make most local shows an unpredictable, overcrowded clusterfuck. In the pay-to-play economic model, promoters regularly load concerts up with more than a dozen local opening bands. Most openers are obligated to sell tickets. Often, the number…
Running for the Green
Why wait until Monday to start your St. Patrick’s Day partying, when you can join thousands of revelers decked out in their best Irish running gear for today’s St. Malachi Run in the Flats? “The race is a traditional kickoff for the St. Patrick’s celebration, so you’ll see a lot of people in shamrocks, green…
Horton Hears a Who!, with help from Jim Carrey and CGI, sends Seuss’ message loud and clear
In the latest Seuss adaptation, Horton Hears a Who!, you’ll find chaos theory in action: An errant nut bumps a speck of dust from a flower’s pistil and into the air, until it finally nestles on a clover near Horton (Jim Carrey). The innocent elephant learns that the town of Whoville resides within the curious…
Gary Louris
Jayhawks and Golden Smog alum Gary Louris has a knack for crafting heartbreaking yet inspiring pop songs. At his best — in ‘hawks tunes like “Save It for a Rainy Day,” “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” and “It’s Up to You” — Louris’ songs are so beautiful, they make you want to cry. While…
St. Patrick’s Weekend
Here’s the thing with St. Paddy’s Day: It’s a great time, and it’s the busiest bar day of the year, and it’s the very occasion to get hardcore with your merriment. But it’s also popular with the amateurs. Don’t surround yourself with junior-varsity party people. Spend the whole weekend at the Garage Bar, where the…
Patriot Act
Black 47 frontman Larry Kirwan remembers March 17, 2003, all too well. Not only were the Irish punk-rockers celebrating St. Paddy’s Day in New York, they were in the middle of a set in a club when U.S. troops invaded Iraq. “We immediately came out against the war,” says Kirwan. “At a time when 80…
In Doubt, at the Cleveland Play House, there’s little question about a priest’s priestliness
Will you be alive to see tomorrow’s sunrise? Chances are, you feel pretty certain you will, but there’s always that sliver of doubt. This wrenching tension, the feeling that nothing is a given, is a prime element of the human condition and is explored in Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley, now at the…
Jeffrey Lewis
The dozen tracks on N.Y.C. hipster Lewis’ fourth album have nothing do with insensitive comments about your mom. Rather, Crass was a late-’70s punk group from England that was way more committed than any of its peers to bringing down Parliament and everything else the British political system had to offer. So 12 Crass Songs…
Austin “Walkin’ Cane” Charanghat CD-release parties
When your blues résumé runs as long as Austin “Walkin’ Cane” Charanghat’s, one party isn’t enough to introduce your new record to the world. So he’s throwing two. The veteran has newly struck out on his own after dissolving the Walkin’ Cane Band. But worry not: On Murder of a Blues Singer, he’s still refining…
Holy Moses!
Alenka Banco remembers her husband’s reaction the first time she bought a piece of Reverend Albert Wagner’s artwork. As they examined Joseph and Mary swooning over baby Jesus, they noticed the paneling the piece was painted on had a bullet hole in it. “The reverend was so poor that he would paint on anything he…
The (not quite) forbidden romance of The Fantasticks is snared at Ensemble Theatre
Few shows have ever captured the dueling forces of innocent love and a hard-knock life as magically as The Fantasticks, the little musical that kicked box-office butt for 42 years off Broadway. You may be able to find a slightly more professional production than the one now being mounted by the Ensemble Theatre at the…
Tift Merritt
What is it about introspective female singer-songwriters that’s so appealing to the folks who are in charge of choosing music for Grey’s Anatomy? Merritt’s third album was inspired by months of playing solo piano gigs in Paris. And while Another Country doesn’t exactly push aside Merritt’s dusty Americana, she’s now sharing Starbucks space with Ingrid…
Boozing through St. Patrick’s Day with Bono, Van, and the Pogues
St. Patrick’s Day is all about celebrating the Irish. And getting really, really drunk. So we’ve combined the best of these two wonderful worlds in a 12-hour listening/drinking session that’ll get you through the holiday. Some of the albums on this totally Irish soundtrack run more than an hour; some run less. But just load…
Odd Couple
Gargoyles dancing in black tights to New Age music is not all that weird in the Lock-Coleman household. After all, the husband-and-wife team behind DanceWorks 2008’s multimedia piece Fear of Falling experiments with funky costumes, music, and video for the production. “Her work excites me,” says Larry Coleman, the photog who shot and edited the…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Charlene Liu: Recent Paintings — It’s difficult to tell by looking, but Charlene Liu’s works on paper are an amalgamation of drawing, painting, and printmaking. She uses a process called “chin colle,” which involves attaching two pieces of paper together through the pressure of the printing press. Highly detailed and fantastical, Liu’s depictions of…
Kevin Ayers
It’s been 15 years since Ayers’ last CD, but he remains tack-sharp — well, as sharp as you’d expect from a guy who consumed a ton of drugs back in the day. As co-founder of ’60s psych-rockers the Soft Machine, Ayers was the charming voice of curiosity and observation within the band. He eventually settled…
Summery pop bands brave Cleveland’s harsh weather and reputation
Detroit, Seattle, and Nashville all have signature sounds. But in Cleveland, it’s always been more about attitude — a gritty industrial disposition that’s informed the work of everyone from the James Gang to Pere Ubu to Mushroomhead. There’s rarely anything pretty or pristine about it. The exceptions to the rule — like the power-popping Outsiders…
Spanish Spooks
Juan Antonio Bayona’s suspenseful The Orphanage is the kind of flick where mere whispers can make a viewer break out in goose bumps. Nominated for 14 Goya Awards — Spain’s counterpart to the Oscars — the ghost yarn leaves the scariest parts to the imagination. The story revolves around Laura, who returns to the orphanage…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
The Break Up Notebook: The Lesbian Musical — Thirtysomething Helen is the dumpee, left alone in her Los Angeles bedroom, wearing the dress of her departed lover of two-plus years. She is soon joined by a predictable support network consisting of her gay co-worker Bob and a butch-femme couple, Monica and Joanie, who are on…
