What to Do Tonight: The Black Lips
Sweet ‘stache! Atlanta noisemakers the Black Lips love to fuck things up: your mind, their instruments, the way they bridge about a half-dozen genres without really nailing one. On last year’s 200 Million Thousand — their best record and the only one that comes close to playing by traditional music-making rules — the Lips take…
Reel Injun makes its local premiere at CMA
A documentary about the way in which Native Americans have been portrayed in the movies, Reel Injun makes its local premiere tonight at 5:15 and 7 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. Here’s our review of the film. Reel Injun (Canada, 2009) “The only thing more pathetic than Indians on TV is…
What to Do Tonight: Passion Pit and Mayer Hawthorne
Passion Pit, hangin’ around Like Barry Gibb, Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos often works his girlie falsetto to ethereal heights. On Manners, the band’s debut album from last year, Angelakos bathes in an indie-disco shower that saturates his songs in some of the giddiest grooves produced this millennium. You can’t listen to Manners without breaking out…
How to Train Your Dragon makes for a good matinee
At a time when 3-D/CGI ‘toons are not only ubiquitous but virtually inescapable (Monsters Vs. Aliens, Battle for Terra, Up, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, ad nauseam), How to Train Your Dragon, the latest release from DreamWorks’ animation house is actually pretty decent Saturday matinee fare. Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois -…
Reviews of the Cinematheque’s weekend films
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is showing several great movies this weekend. Here are our reviews of just a few of them. House (Japan, 1977) This Japanese horror movie was made more than 30 years ago, and while it’s now become a cult classic, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s film doesn’t hold up. Even by B-movie standards,…
Wednesday Ticket Giveaway: Girls
The boys are Girls We have a pair of tickets to see Girls at Oberlin College’s Dionysus Club on April 7. Want a pair? Send an e-mail to freetickets@clevescene.com with the subject “Girls.” Just send us your name, address, phone and age. No purchase necessary. Must be 21+ years of age. Winners within the past…
Q&A: Trans-Siberian Orchestra
TSO’s Paul O’Neill with the stuff he makes his music with Trans-Siberian Orchestra founder Paul O’Neill has had a busy morning. “We stayed up all night doing interviews last night and then woke up early,” he says, not sounding the least bit groggy. “After some Egg McMuffins with sausage and hash browns, we’re ready to…
Hot Tub Time Machine: The title says it all
There are those who will laugh at a good projectile vomit gag, and then there are those who do not believe there is such a thing as a good projectile vomit gag. Which side of that divide you fall on should be a fair indicator of whether or not you’ll enjoy Hot Tub Time Machine,…
PD ARREST PROTEST ABORTED
Plain Dealer union members were prepared to protest at the Cuyahoga County Courthouse last week if Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold made good on her threat to arrest PD reporter Gabriel Baird for not immediately divulging the source of leaked documents from the case of alleged serial killer Anthony Sowell. Before Judge…
Ultrasound Is Closing Today — Go Get Your Cheap Metal
Willoughby record store Ultrasound is about to close. In fact, today is its final day. Says owner Gary Pfleuger, “There is still a ton of stuff left, and it’s all hugely discounted! We’re talking 50 percent off or more! Cash only, I should be here till around 5 p.m.” The store has more metal and…
Swag Alert: Another Z Tee
From Homage Clothing. Go forth and purchase. Follow me on Twitter: @vincethepolack.
NIN Book Coming Soon, But Not That Soon
Earlier yesterday morning, Amazon sent an e-mail declaring the on-again-off-again book about Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine would finally arrive on April 1. The publisher, Continuum Books, confirms it now has a manuscript, but says it won’t be released until August or September. The book is part of the 33 1/3 series, a collection…
Peter Max Paints the Big Shaqaelangelo
These portraits by Peter Max, the famous artist known mainly for those Statue of Liberty designs, were done for the art show curated by Shaq, currently on view in the NYC. Prints available for between $199 and $250. Follow me on Twitter: @vincethepolack.
Yay! There’s a New Gaslight Anthem Song
A much, much, much better band than Stone Temple Pilots is also streaming a new song today. One of my favorite bands, the Gaslight Anthem, is streaming “American Slang” on its MySpace page. The group’s new album — also called American Slang — is coming out on June 15. The Gaslight Anthem’s last album, 2008’s…
This Just In: Cleveland Concert Announcements
Paramore is what you get at TWC Amphitheater Alcest/Velnias: Sun., April 25. Beachland. Apocalyptica: Thu., May 27, 7 p.m., $18 ADV/four-pack of general admission tickets $52 (LiveNation.com). House of Blues. Atlas Sound: Thu., April 29, 10 p.m., $10. Dionysus, Oberlin College. Bill Charlap Trio: Tue., May 4, 7 p.m., $30. Nighttown. Born Ruffians/Young Rival: Thu.,…
Experience Hendrix Sold Out
Jimi won’t actually be at the concert tonight Tonight’s Experience Hendrix show in Akron is sold out. Here’s what you’re missing. And, yeah, the new compilation of unreleased Hendrix material, Valleys of Neptune, really is all that; it’s as good as posthumous collections get. —D.X. Ferris
Tweet Stone Temple Pilots, Hear Their New Song
Stone Temple Pilots are using Twitter to give fans a chance to hear their new single, while simultaneously drumming up a little free promotion for their new album. All you have to do is go to the band’s website, tweet the song (don’t worry, they’ll hold your hand through the whole process) and “Between the…
A Q&A with The Elephant in the Living Room director Michael Webber
An Ohio native, director Michael Webber first worked in television as a commercial director. He later served as writer, director, producer and visual effects supervisor on hundreds of television and motion picture projects and spent several of those years producing feature film projects for the bigwigs at Twentieth Century Fox and Lionsgate. But in 2008…
Tuesday Ticket Giveaway: Xiu Xiu
Somebody doesn’t like cherry Kool-Aid We have a pair of tickets to see Xiu Xiu at Oberlin College’s Dionysus Club on April 5. Want a pair? Send an e-mail to freetickets@clevescene.com with the subject “Xiu Xiu.” Just send us your name, address, phone and age. No purchase necessary. Must be 21+ years of age. Winners…
Out Today: Mose Allison
Mose AllisonThe Way of the World(Anti-) Mose Allison’s first album in 12 years stretches the sardonic singer’s palette, introduces daughter Amy Allison in her blowsy, questionably pitched “This New Situation,” and highlights his brawny, barrelhouse-based piano. At 82, Allison still sounds as witty and sly as he did in the ’50s and ’60s, when he…
Out Today: She & Him
She & HimVolume Two(Merge) Zooey Deschanel’s vocal style is timeless, saccharine-sweet and devoid of that whiney crap you get with almost every female pop star today (Miley, we’re talking to you). Pair the Hollywood starlet with M. Ward, one of the most talented songwriters and producers around, and you have She & Him. The combination…
Mayor holds press conference to announce Scenarios contest winner
Mayor Frank Jackson held a press conference this afternoon in his Red Room to announce that 15-year-old Angileece Williams, a sophomore at Saint Martin de Porres High School, is the winner of the Scenarios USA “What’s The REAL DEAL about Masculinity” Writing Contest. Each year, this national non-profit organization selects three communities to host a…
The Future of Business LeBron
The LeBron news of the day is the seemingly imminent renewal of his contract with Nike. Brian Windhorst reported this morning that James appears close to reupping with The Swoosh, though no numbers are available right now. His original $100 million deal expires in a few months. This comes on the heels of LeBron’s new…
Swag Alert: It’s Z Week
Today or tomorrow, Zydrunas Ilgauskas will once again sign his name to a contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers and we can all rejoice. If all goes well, Z will be in uniform for the Cavs next game, March 24, but more importantly, it will be next Sunday, March 28, when Z will play his first…
Kid Cudi on HBO Recap
This week on HBO’s How to Make It in America, Domingo — played by Cleveland’s Scott “Kid” Mescudi, as he’s billed — went to his boys’ party and told the Shitbrick dude from American Pie he didn’t look “too Jewy” (Shitbrick asked him and introduced the term “Jewy” to the conversation). It was a sterling…
Morning-Coffee Video
A couple weeks ago, some dude sitting at a piano was on Chatroulette singing songs about everyone who popped up onscreen. He sounded a little like Ben Folds. He was also pretty damn funny — just like Folds. But it wasn’t Folds. On Saturday night, Folds paid tribute to the Chatroulette guy with a five-minute…
SXSW Day 3 & 4: Wuss Heaven
Photos by Lauren Martin Thurston Moore Sonic Youth’s most-of-the-time frontman Moore, Thursty as I like to call him, climbs on the Red 7 stage carrying a 12-string guitar, exactly on time. “All right, let’s get started,” he says, and he’s only played a few full measures before it’s completely apparent he doesn’t really need anything…
SXSW Day 3, Pt. 1: A whiner’s premature eulogy
As I type this on Saturday afternoon, SXSW 2010 has not only been pronounced dead, it’s being gutted and embalmed. I sit in the Austin Convention Center watching maintenance men collapse the booths and soundstages, ripping the concert posters off the pillars. Defeated-looking musicians stomp through, rolling their instruments away, passing out a few more…
Jennifer Aniston’s good-girl charm is on full display in The Bounty Hunter
She hasn’t starred in a good movie since, oh, 2002’s The Good Girl . So why is Jennifer Aniston Hollywood’s second highest-paid actress (just behind romantic rival Angelina Jolie)? You might ponder this during the dull spots in her latest, The Bounty Hunter. I think it’s because despite her Architectural Digest house and compulsively sculpted…
Band You Should See: The Big Pink
Just a reminder that the Big Pink arel playing the Grog Shop Tuesday night. You should go see them. They’re pretty good. You can also read my interview with them here. —Michael Gallucci (follow me on Twitter @mgallucci)
What to Do This Weekend: Barrence Whitfield
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…
What to Do This Weekend: Natalie Stovall
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…
Friday Giveaway: Les Paul Guitar
Just add shred. In honor of Joe Bonamassa’s concert at the Ohio Theatre on April 29, we’re giving away a Gibson Epiphone Les Paul Special II Model Guitar. Send your name, phone number and e-mail address to freetickets@clevescene.com. Be sure to put “Joe Bonamassa’s Guitar” in the subject line. We’ll pick a random winner at…
Sausage Pilot
One of the real joys of Lottery League is when players nobody would ever have thought to put together without the intervention of the almighty hopper turn out to be an excellent band. There were more than a few of those last time — Stimulus Package, Free Moments and Hapsburg Lip leap to mind most…
Video of the Week: Hot Chip
We’re moving things around at the Scene offices today, so we’ll be doing a lot of heavy lifting and very little writing. We recommend you watch above video for Hot Chip’s “I Feel Better” about a dozen times to keep you busy in our absence. It’s our favorite video of the week. —Michael Gallucci (follow…
NEIL PATRICK HARRIS IS ATTACKING THE CITY!
Last year, L.A.-based filmmaker and make-up artist Frank Ippolito came to 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…
SXSW Day 2: Old-Timers Night
Ray Davies On one hand, I feel like it sort of betrays everything South by Southwest is supposed to represent for me to spend my first night here watching Ray Davies and Roky Erickson— two pretty safely established acts, I’d say, who probably aren’t in need of discovery or extra exposure, or much of anything…
Repo Men is a stereotypically violent sci-fi action film
No, Repo Men isn’t a sequel to the cult ’80s film Repo Man. Both films feature protagonists who work in the collections business, but in this film artificial organs get repossessed. Jude Law and Forest Whitaker play a pair of repo men who are especially ruthless and especially good at their jobs. But when Remy…
CORRIGAN ATTACKS KUCINICH FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING
Why is Dennis Kucinich likely to get re-elected in a cakewalk? Exhibit A: A new press release from Republican primary candidate Peter J. Corrigan (not the Democratic common-pleas judge of the same name), who is running to take on Kucinich in November for the 10th district congressional seat. While Corrigan rails against Kucinich’s change of…
NANCY MEETS MERYL
A local actress is staging a thematic sequel of sorts to Julie & Julia, the movie that dramatized the true story of a young writer learning to cook by making every item in Julia Child’s cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Willoughby’s Nancy Telzerow has launched a similar yearlong project, “A to Z with…
THE MOST VALUABLE MUD IN CLEVELAND
The Towpath Trail/Cleveland Flats land deal at the center of a recent controversy (“Who Sold Out the Towpath?”, March 10) has yet to be finalized, as a state agency scrutinizes appraisals commissioned for the property exchange. The Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit land-conservation group, has worked out a $4.8 million purchase of two…
CORPORATE FRONT GROUP TARGETS BOCCIERI OVER HEALTHCARE
Wednesday’s Plain Dealer featured a large ad on page 9 urging Congressman John Boccieri — a fence-sitter on health care — to vote no on the pending reform bill. The not-quite-full-page ad has a picture of Boccieri atop photos of President Obama and Nancy Pelosi (the latter seemingly chosen for its snarling expression) under a…
Kid Cudi on HBO Recap
“No, really. Have you heard my album?” Kid Cudi on HBO Recap is a weekly summary of HBO’s new dramedy How to Make It in America, focusing exclusively on the supporting character Domingo Brown, some nebulous dude with a hot girlfriend. He’s played by Cleveland-bred rapper/actor Chris “Kid” Mescudi. Cudi wasn’t on the show this…
Big Show Tix Now On Sale
Tickets to the Lottery League Big Show on April 10th are now on sale through Ticketweb. And since you’re online anyway, have you become a fan of the League on Facebook yet? Seems to me if you’re even following this blog, you’d be sufficiently interested in getting the League’s updates, and that’s the best way.…
Bandcamp vs. MySpace — Your Thoughts?
Yeah, we know: MySpace is soooo 2005. And Facebook is where all the cool kids go to social mediate. But MySpace is still a reliable source where every band in the world has music you can hear … if you want to wait seven minutes for some over-designed web graphics to load, on a website…
Alex Chilton Dies
To casual and oldies music listeners, Alex Chilton was the gravelly voiced 16-year-old who sang the No.1 hit “The Letter” in the ’60s. But to dedicated music fans — the ones who build their lives going to concerts, collecting records and making lists of the Best Songs About Riding Shotgun During a Road Trip —…
CD Review: Graham Parker
Graham Parker and Bruce Springsteen emerged roughly at the same time, and both drew on the same inspirations (Van Morrison, ’60s soul/rhythm & blues, lean rock ‘n’ roll). Critics raved about both, but the Boss got the airplay and Parker didn’t. Imaginary Television is Parker’s 20th album, and while it’s no major departure from his…
CD Review: Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday are like a crash course in the past few years of indie rock. The fuzzy pop trio’s debut album fearlessly samples from recent torchbearers like Girls and Jay Reatard. And it works. “Girls FM”‘s low-fi surf rock verse gives way to a glittery, sugar-sweet chorus that could be Candy Land’s new national anthem.…
CD Review: Gary Allan
“I don’t know why I love women that love to do me wrong,” croons Gary Allan on the opening track to his eighth studio album. “Maybe I just get off on the pain,” concedes the California-bred country singer. More Drive-By Truckers than Toby Keith, the song is a great anti-anthem carried by its confessional tone.…
CD Review: Beth Thornley
Pretty fly for a white chick, Los Angeles-based singer-pianist Beth Thornley shows lasting power on this follow-up to 2006’s My Glass Eye. Sounding like a funkier Suzanne Vega or Aimee Mann, Thornley has a distinctive voice with a lot of range. The title track is a snappy kiss-off that fluctuates between hard-hitting raps and soaring…
CD Review: Pavement
Recently reunited indie slacker rockers Pavement were an album-oriented act in an era dominated by singles. But this 23-song compilation does the band’s oeuvre justice. Heavy on songs from 1994’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain — arguably the band’s best album and a record that defined the period — Quarantine the Past compiles the highlights from…
Film Capsules
Opening The Bounty Hunter Reviewed at clevescene.com. A Boy and His Dog (U.S., 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’ vision of a world without rules. Set in the year 2024, A Boy and His…
Around Hear: Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival
Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival are opening Puscifer’s East Coast tour, including the show Sunday, March 21, at the Lorain Palace Theatre (617 Broadway Ave.). Puscifer mastermind Maynard James Keenan — a Ravenna native who also fronts Tool and A Perfect Circle — is a fan of the group. He invited them to open three high-profile,…
A Reel Reputation
Last year, the Cleveland International Film Festival received more than 1,200 submissions before settling on the 143 features and 170 shorts that screened at the festival. This year, more than 1,700 films were submitted, and festival organizers had to whittle things down to the 153 features and 152 shorts that will be shown during a…
Arts District: Orchestras Overseas
A couple of Cleveland orchestras recently announced international tours for November. Apollo’s Fire will visit Europe for the first time. Using their airfare efficiently, they kick things off with a November 21 concert as part of New York City’s Music Before 1800 series. After that, they have dates in Zaragoza and Bilbao, Spain; Tilburg and…
Reel Cleveland: Happy Dog Goes AV
About a year ago, writer-director Jon Mancinetti, a Columbus College of Art and Design graduate, moved back to Cleveland to further his filmmaking career. With his brother Jeff, a Cleveland Institute of Art grad, he made Never Escape, a sci-fi film about a young man trying to find redemption in a post-apocalyptic world. That movie…
Fasten Your Seat Belt
Ask a pedophile why he does what he does, and he will often throw the responsibility onto the victim, claiming that the child was provocative or wanted it. These protestations are always a steaming crock. But in How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel, that kind of clarity is hard to come by. And…
Back to Back in Black
Scott Mattocks admits that when Bonfire, the local AC/DC tribute band he fronts, started 10 years ago, it wasn’t very good. “We kind of got lucky because there weren’t any AC/DC tribute bands around, which was nice,” he says. “AC/DC put out Stiff Upper Lip in 2000, and WMMS was doing a big release party…
TEENS & QUEENS
While savoring the endless felicities of Dobama Theatre’s production of Speech & Debate, we could intuit as an extra little gift the ghostly satisfaction of the theater’s founders, Don and Marilyn Bianchi. Such a freshly served-up slice of thought-provoking theatrical ambrosia is the very raison d’etre for this Cleveland institution. Stephen Karam’s 2006 charmer about…
Beautiful Noise
Yes, the Big Pink are fans of the Band, whose 1968 debut album they share a name with. The indie-rock duo’s Robbie Furze, especially, is a fan: His parents named him after the Band’s chief songwriter, Robbie Robertson.</p. But the Big Pink are also fans of penises. And vaginas. And sex. And the flashing hot images their moniker conjure.…
Animal Planet
Paul Sydorenko and his cat Cha-Cha were born around the same time in the mid 1970s, growing up together in rural Wadsworth. The white feline used up his allotment of lives around the time his human sidekick went on to study marine biology at Ohio University. But in the past few years, he’s been granted…
Local CD Review: Shot of Bliss
The Big Sweet myspace.com/thebigsweet While other teens use their first bands to work out girl troubles (plus maybe a dash of pre-voting-age political angst) with three-chord guitar bashing or emo-licious yelping, these 15-year-old boys from Canton and Cleveland jump right into their early-20s indie-rock stage for their sturdy, accomplished debut. The reference point here is…
Getting in Toon
TOP PICK Miyazaki Special Editions (Walt Disney) Ponyo leads the release of four Hayao Miyazaki movies receiving double-disc “Special Edition” DVD sets. All of these animated films (including Castle in the Sky and Kiki’s Delivery Service) are a joy to watch, but 1988’s My Neighbor Totoro — about a tubby forest creature who befriends two…
PERFORMANCE BASED
Maynard James Keenan is at it again. The iconic singer who drew attention fronting Tool and A Perfect Circle has spent the past year showcasing his side project Puscifer in theaters rather than typical rock venues. Similar to Tool, who have received as much attention for their imaginative videos as for their progressive hard rock,…
RESPECT THE COCKTAIL
Walk into any upscale lounge these days and peruse the drink menu. Where there was once a solid roster of drinks with names like “Manhattan,” you’ll instead likely find a “martini menu” filled with some of the most abhorrent drink concoctions since Prohibition — or 12th grade. You might find a “key-lime pie martini” rimmed…
HI, FINANCE!
It’s an unlikely team: Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, a deft campaigner and driver of a formidable political machine, and a collection of grassroots political activists intent on lessening the influence of money — and people like Mason — on elections. This group convenes for the first time this week to discuss ways to reform…
CD Review: The White Stripes
A companion piece to a new documentary about the White Stripes’ 2007 Canadian tour, this 16-song live album captures the sound and fury the Detroit duo puts forth onstage. The set begins with a vigorous wail of bagpipes as singer-guitarist Jack White and drummer Meg White launch into “Let’s Shake Hands,” “Black Math” and “Little…
The Ass is Wrong
“Comedy,” Sid Caesar once said, “has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end.” Or you can put a bland suit and dorky glasses on it, and shave its head into an old-school gym teacher’s buzz cut. That was Drew Carey’s shtick, and it was brilliant.…
CD Review: The Whigs
It’s not easy living up to hype, and the Whigs got plenty early on. After the Georgia trio self-recorded and independently released its 2005 debut, Give ‘Em All a Big Fat Lip, it was called one of the best unsigned bands in America. They then snagged high-profile opening slots for Kings of Leon and Drive-By…
CD Review: Dropkick Murphys
Every March in their hometown of Boston, Irish-American blue-collar punks Dropkick Murphys play several nights of sold-out, St. Patrick’s-Day-season concerts. This CD/DVD documents their 2009 shows. Emphasizing the group’s most recent albums, the set is totally different from the tracks on the band’s first St. Patty’s-in-Boston live release from 2002. Because so much of the…
