Little Dickens
MON 3/15 Their French translation is a bit off-kilter, but so is everything else about the cast of Oliver Twisted and their new comedy, Les Musical. Every Monday, the seven Second City Cleveland alumni perform a 90-minute improvised sketch that begins with the troupe scurrying around the Hilarities theater, hitting up audience members for their…
Paul Thorn
It isn’t every day that you hear of a thoughtful and humorous singer-songwriter who once stepped into a boxing ring to fight former middleweight champion Roberto Duran. Paul Thorn did it, in April of 1988, losing to Duran on a sixth-round TKO. But lest the lanky native of Tupelo, Mississippi, turn into a stumblebum, Thorn…
Cultural Ventriloquism
In a world where reality shows rule the TV roost and contestants are rewarded for lying and sabotaging their peers, the idea of discussing intellectual honesty may seem to some as quaintly passé as learning the intricacies of the minuet. But for others, such concepts still exert a fascination. And in his unfortunately titled work…
Hometown Headlocks
SUN 3/21 If you’re among those who think that the WWE’s bimonthly stops at the Gund aren’t frequent enough, Cleveland All Pro Wrestling has your ticket. The monthly homegrown hoedown comes complete with bruising body slams, widow-making moves, and crippling crossfaces. “I’ve been doing this for 12 years, and I’m going to keep on doing…
The Daughters
Though it’s the smallest state, Rhode Island makes the biggest noise. After roasting synapses with the conniption-fit-core of Lightning Bolt and Arab on Radar, Providence is adding another entry in ADD grind: the Daughters, who raise the bar for screaming-bastard noise, then proceed to whack you in the kneecaps with it. The band’s debut, Canada…
Belly Clubbing
SUN 3/21 Miles Copeland knows talent when he sees it. After all, he helped guide the Police to multi-platinum glory. His latest venture, the Bellydance Superstars, is a troupe of American girls who practice the ancient art of swinging veils and shimmying midsections. And it all came to him by accident: He was managing an…
Brant Bjork and the Bros.
Brant Bjork, former/sometime drummer for Kyuss and Fu Manchu, is a walking totem of seemingly effortless rock cool. His three solo albums are packed with concise riffage and slightly loopy lyrics. On those discs, he plays everything as Prince would, if Prince were a pothead who limited himself to two-chord tributes to ’70s skate culture…
Everybody Dance Now
3/19-3/20 Reviving the Flats isn’t gonna be easy. But throwing a two-day electronic-music fest is a good start. Funky Charms 5 features more than 100 DJs on 13 stages, all designed to generate lots of foot traffic. “We are giving Cleveland a no-holds-barred block party that will put the East Bank back on the map,”…
The Lazy Cowgirls
If it is true that sheer burning perseverance eventually brings financial success, then the Lazy Cowgirls are a damp cloth tossed on that assumption. Singer/ founder Pat Todd started out slapping skins for local new-wave outfits in Indiana, back in the Carter years, before pulling a switcheroo by moving to trendy L.A. and taking up…
Bitch on Wheels
Ever since Judy Garland traipsed down the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz, damn near every kid has awakened in the night, sweat-soaked and trembling, from visions of either the flying monkeys or the nasty Miss Almira Gulch, who morphs into the Wicked Witch of the West. Thanks to performer Margaret Hamilton’s diabolical…
“Weird Al” Yankovic
Novelty records spoofing trends have always been part of the pop-music canon — Sesame Street Disco, anyone? — but only “Weird Al” Yankovic exposes the absurdity inherent in the Top 40 while at the same time sharing the large-scale success of those artists he parodies. Perhaps Yankovic’s fame is due to the fact that his…
On Stage
Amy’s View — Love may conquer all, but eventually we’re forced to face the reality that love, however genuine, is just one more mutable illusion leading us to our personal endgame. This idea is addressed in David Hare’s richly textured Amy’s View, presented with sublime professionalism by Dobama. Spanning 16 years, the show brings us…
The Push Stars
It’s only fitting that when Push Stars frontman Chris Trapper decided to leave his Buffalo hometown, Boston would be his destination. “I think there is a Boston sound,” Trapper says. “I think maybe pop music here is seen as more of a cool thing than it is anyplace else, because when bands like the Lemonheads…
On View
Anticipating Our Reunion Via Blood Clot, Vanity, and Splooge — The final show at Dead Horse Gallery features works by three area professors, who pose questions about hidden desires, death, and the value of material objects in ways that may leave some viewers scratching their heads. Robert Thurmer’s Vanity throws self-importance out the window with…
Usher
(Arista) “I know this is somethin’ I gotta do,” whispers Usher, “but that don’t mean I want to.” He’s talking about ending a relationship, but the sentiment could as easily apply to the many confessions laced throughout his fifth album. After four outings of polite, romantic soul, the pressure has grown on the 25-year-old crooner…
Community Centered
Restaurateur Beth Christie and her staffers blow through John Christie’s Tavern like a force of nature, greeting newcomers, fussing over regulars, and generally making visitors feel like members of one big, extended family. Not that guests at this vintage East Side watering hole and restaurant seem to need much encouragement to mingle. A wildly diverse…
Bob Dylan
(Legacy) Bob Dylan was making the transition from folkie minstrel to cultural force when he recorded this 17-song concert. His voice is heard shifting from Guthrie-style rasp to his own, more inscrutable sound, and his attitude hasn’t yet hardened into enigma. There’s rapport with the audience, sympathy for his flubbed verses, and that self-conscious irony…
Renaissance Man
Local diners may not yet snap to attention at the sound of Ben Fambrough’s name, but they ought to: The personable young chef of Sans Souci, in downtown’s Renaissance Cleveland Hotel (24 Public Square), is one of the best in town. With an engineer’s precision and a poet’s heart, he creates an ever-changing roster of…
The Vines
(Capitol) The Vines know how to make a memorable impression — their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gig a few summers ago featured lead mumbler Craig Nicholls sprawled onstage singing OutKast’s “Ms. Jackson” as if he were about to faint under the weight of its apologies. Unfortunately, the Aussie quartet’s predilection for messy karaoke…
Rags to Rip-offs?
Parishioners at Berea Baptist Church knew something was wrong when they saw the line of cement trucks rumbling down the block. Church leaders had asked Ferris Kleem to build them a parking lot. It seemed a natural choice. His company, Blaze Construction, was the largest contractor in town, and Kleem was a buddy of Ronald…
From Slots to Celts
Not too long ago, world-class fiddler Alana Musselman was sitting on the floor of a converted cowshed at the Cleveland Irish Festival. She had just finished a demonstration with her band, Tap the Bow, and was lighting a cigarette when a reporter came up and asked to interview her. He was doing a story about…
Gift of Gab
(Quannum) On Fourth Dimensional Rocketships Going Up, Blackalicious rapper Gift of Gab floats through his own inner galaxy, paying homage to past pop glories in the hope of ascending into the future. Seattle producers Jake One and Vitamin D lace him up with beats that are supple and funky, bumping along with an early ’80s…
Defending Campbell
Imagine that you’ve just taken over as manager of a dying store. Its sales and reputation have been declining for 40 years. The last manager, a dime-store tyrant whose Napoleon complex should be a Smithsonian display, had a gift for grabbing all the credit while selling out underlings with all the blame. The best workers…
The Truth About Liars
Liars guitarist Aaron Hemphill has a bone to pick. No, not with Spin, which called the band’s second record, They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, “unlistenable.” And not with the folks who have walked out of the band’s recent shows — them he’s got no problem with. It’s just that people have been getting the…
50 Foot Wave
(Throwing Music) Last year, Kristin Hersh released two lackluster albums — a flat Throwing Muses reunion disc and Grotto, a solo LP quiet enough to ignore — instead of a single great one. Entirely removed from her solo career’s unplugged elegance, 50 Foot Wave’s self-titled debut EP is everything that the Muses’ relapse should have…
Blues on the Loose
Blues on the Loose Copping an attitude starts at the top: Wow! Read Aina Hunter’s article [“Blue Mob,” February 25], and I am floored by how detailed and poignant it was. I am a retired suburban police officer of 25 years and am now an attorney. I’m still surprised by the level of trickery and…
Devil in the Details
There once was a musical genre that slew all others. Birthed in the bombed-out industrial wasteland of central England, the creature was manly, with a furry chest and devil-horns. This hellion, garbed in studded leather and silver pentagrams, produced the most unholy sort of racket, terrifying parents while thrilling their young halflings, who would sneak…
Drumplay
(www.drumplay.com) Up until now, Drumplay’s loose-limbed percussive thrush has been as organic as the conch shells the group likes to play. But on Dayshine to Stars-End, the group begins to subtly experiment with electronics and tape manipulation, adding still more breadth to its panoramic sound. This is world music in Cinemascope. Dayshine is eccentric and…
Kenny Does Ohio
Republicans have been treading carefully around the jobs issue ever since President Bush’s economic adviser sang the praises of outsourcing. (Can he be tried for treason?) But Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell didn’t get the memo. He plans to hire New York PR firm Burson-Marsteller to handle his $15 million gubernatorial — er, public…
Herd the News?
Ben Vendetta grew up an avowed Anglophile, weaned on the music of the Jesus & Mary Chain, Ride, and the Stone Roses. He channeled his passion into the fanzine Vendetta, the shoegazer bible he edited from his home in Los Angeles, where he was also a PR rep for the indie label Orange Sky. But…
Fast Mattress
(www.fastmattresssucks.com) If Black Sabbath mastermind Tony Iommi put his shoulder-length hair up in a big beehive hairdo, traded his guitar for a keyboard, and swapped Ozzy for the B-52s’ Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, the resulting band would probably sound a lot like Cleveland’s Fast Mattress. And yes, “Iron Man” would still rip. Fast Mattress…
Double Scotch
Charlie Reid is pretty sure he knows where the burst of inspiration came from that drives Born Innocent, the new album by the Proclaimers, the folk-rock band he leads with his twin brother, Craig. “Things have been stored up for a while,” he laughs. The seven-year break between albums that led to 2001’s Persevere was…
See the Music
From the 1970s through the early ’90s, Marty Himmel ran the Boarding House, one of Cleveland’s premier jazz clubs. Now his son, Andy, is continuing the tradition, partnering with his father to present Boulevard Blue, an intimate new jazz club and restaurant near Shaker Square. “It’s a nice alternative to what you’re seeing in Cleveland,”…
Forget Me Not
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which a man has recollections of a soured relationship erased from his brain, may be the most romantic movie in recent memory, if you will pardon the unforgivable pun. Written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, it’s about many things — how we’re doomed to repeat…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, March 18 It may be America’s favorite pastime, but baseball is religion in Japan. Tonight, William W. Kelly, a professor of Japanese studies at Yale University, talks about “Baseball in Japan: Sport, Society, and Culture. ” He’ll hit all the expected topics: the sport’s impact on the media, its educational value, and the defection…
Andy Caldwell
Just three weeks after San Francisco house kingpin Jay-J Hernandez brought his soulful sounds to town, Andy Caldwell, another of the Bay Area’s favorite sons, will light up the decks at Wish this Friday. Caldwell, like Hernandez, has built his reputation as both a DJ and a producer, pumping out his own brand of deep…
Heart of Gold
It’s “full disclosure” time. Let it be confessed here that I have never been a religious Neil Young fan. Always liked him okay, always appreciated his adventurous spirit, never bought his albums. However, since I’ve also never met a Canadian I didn’t like (apart from Mike Myers), it’s great to be afforded a renewed opportunity…
Oddjobs
Besides a vision, the only thing a first-time filmmaker needs to make a movie is passion. And maybe a little cash. Cleveland native David Sampliner had all three when he and co-director Tim Nackashi set out three years ago to create Dirty Work, a documentary showing at the 28th Cleveland International Film Festival this week.…
Kid Rock
Kid Rock Over the course of the early and mid-’90s, rapper Kid Rock got himself a backup band, and enlisted a midget for good measure. He wowed Detroit audiences with a Fellini-style stage show, complete with explosions, strippers, and ponies. At that time, the new music he’d been fleshing out — rap metal — had…
Breast in Show
Oh dear. Angelina Jolie’s made another bad film. Is it too soon to give up on her yet? There’s no denying that Angelina’s sexy as hell. The tattoos, the knife collection, the exhibitionist streak, the bisexual vibe she gives off . . . totally hot, no question. Given her work with the U.N. and wild…
