Not Missing the Hits
Formed over two decades ago, the Mekons have established a rabid following, pursued whatever music they pleased with no regard for prevailing trends, consistently changed the face of music with ideas and execution that took years for anyone else to follow, and had absolutely more fun on tour than just about any other band in…
Saints and Winners
At Our Lady of the Angels Church, on Rocky River Drive in Cleveland, a machine percolates numbered ping-pong balls that pop up a pipe for the caller to pluck and read. Bingo is the intersection of a children’s song and a game of chance, and gambling is its name-o. But church bingo has nothing to…
Free-Form Folk
For its “New Century in Jazz” March issue, JazzTimes interviewed Wynton Marsalis and John Zorn — two jazz icons from either end of the improvisational spectrum — on the same subject: the future of jazz. When asked for their thoughts, both musicians made a few statements that might raise a few eyebrows. But against expectations,…
Mayberry Gone Haywire
In the closing years of the 20th century, lowbrow white America finally learned to enjoy an ironic laugh at itself, led by Hollywood’s cheerful mockery of the culturally challenged working class. Outside the system, John Waters had this stuff pegged from the get-go, but the American grotesqueries of the original, John Hughes-penned National Lampoon’s Vacation…
Livewire
Powerman 5000 Static-X Dope Chevelle Agora February 26 Powerman 5000 is known for its outrageous, hard-rocking shows, and its appearance at the Agora as the headliner of a tour dubbed “Rockets and Robots 2000” lived up to that reputation. In the spirit of Rob Zombie, yellow-haired PM5K frontman Spider One belted out the lyrics to…
All the Rage
Somebody needs to place a wake-up call to America. Lewis Black — like the angry side of ivory-tickling Mark Russell — has taken that responsibility upon himself and will place the call to Cleveland this weekend at the Improv. “A lot of things bother me,” he admits, understating his weekly vein-popping rants on Comedy Central’s…
Livewire
The Bacon Brothers Odeon February 25 Take away the name recognition that actor Kevin Bacon brings to the Bacon Brothers — a band he fronts with his brother Michael — and you’ve got a standard-issue rock act that would be lucky to fill venues one-quarter the size of the Odeon and is hard-pressed to get…
Dog on a Leash
Willie Morris’s autobiographical novel, My Dog Skip, is a nearly perfect piece of bedtime reading for kids and their parents. Each chapter is virtually a self-contained anecdote, the descriptions of World War II-era Mississippi are lush and dreamlike, and the escapades of the central canine character, depicted as smarter, faster, and plain all-around better than…
Playback
Bone Thugs N Harmony BTNHResurrection (Ruthless) Much in the same way that rock bands that reunite are seldom as good the second time around, rap groups that put out comeback albums have a hard time recapturing their initial magic. The Geto Boys reunited for The Resurrection in 1996, but no one cared. Public Enemy got…
Pie in the Sky
The first thought you have while watching The Next Best Thing is “Was Madonna always this bad an actress?” It’s a question that soon fades from consciousness, to be replaced by “Was Rupert Everett always this bad an actor?” and “Was John Schlesinger always this bad a director?” Since the answers to the last two…
Playback
Air The Virgin Suicides Soundtrack (Astralwerks) It comes as little surprise that the French retro-electro duo Air would fill out the time between albums with a soundtrack. Its mood-enhancing ambiance drips into set-placing grooves so smoothly that its magnum opus, Moon Safari, is practically a soundtrack itself — maybe to some out-of-time foreign flick, maybe…
Anywhere but There
The heroines of Gavin O’Connor’s offbeat road movie Tumbleweeds are a struggling single mother named Mary Jo Walker (Janet McTeer) and her feisty 12-year-old daughter Ava (Kimberly J. Brown), who set out together from a back hollow in West Virginia to make a new life — or something like one — in sunny San Diego.…
Playback
Mindless Self Indulgence Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy (Elektra) Thanks to the pioneering spirit of the Insane Clown Posse, Marilyn Manson, and Tommy Lee, shock rock these days generates about as much interest as a burning crucifix dipped in urine with Alice Cooper strangling sheep in the background. Which is to say, no one…
Trial By Fire
This is where you go when Clarence Darrow haunts your soul, or at the very least, rattles your head: room 121 in a three-story Kleenex box of a building on Carnegie Avenue. And this is what you see when you get there: a sign on the door, “U.S. Constitution honored here,” surrounded by full-color renderings…
Playback
Cat 5 Cat 5 (self-released) Cat 5 isn’t shy about advertising the good looks of its multitalented female singer. The press notes that accompany its debut release describe Nicole Torrado as “powerful and sexy,” and point to her extensive background in acting, choreography, and dancing — she also used to sing with the band Groovology.…
Clip Job
Not exactly your Sam Sheppard trial scene: It’s 10 a.m. in the courtroom of Common Pleas Judge Ann Mannen, and a handful of people are quietly waiting for lawyers and the judge to emerge from her chambers. No photographers, curious crowds, or camera crews hover outside. But there is a genuine urgency here, and forceful…
Soundbites
A recent transplant from Dallas, the Rev. Ivan Stang, a proud proponent of the subversive Church of the Subgenius, will be making his first performance in Cleveland since moving here last September. Stang, whose show combines elements of televangelist preaching with rock music, has been collaborating with keyboardist Chas Smith of Cobra Verde for nearly…
A Story of Stuff
People who drop off the face of the earth tend to travel light. Whether sucked up by the cosmos or gunned down by an underground drug cartel, they don’t bring their golf clubs or patio umbrellas along for the ride. So there’s a lot of stuff left in the lurch, and a lot of stuff-wranglers…
The Edge
Shut up! Not to be outdone by state Republicans who kept John McCain from speaking at a recent fund-raiser, local Democrats are putting the censorship squeeze on their ward leaders. In a letter from Chairman Jimmy Dimora, party minions were asked to allow only officially endorsed candidates to speak at ward club meetings. Letting the…
Letters to the Editor
Loving Our Well-Toned SmartassRead your article [“Fat City,” by Laura Putre, February 24] a couple of days ago and really laughed. Felt my own blubber jiggle ever so slightly when I laughed — and ordered a salad. I just moved here from Los Angeles a few months ago, and I really am astounded by the…
In the Beginning
The notion that one of art’s chief functions is to resemble life would not have surprised the ancient Sumerians. Many of the objects they crafted 4,500 years ago included banquet scenes and images of musicians, servants, and chariots. What is striking for a modern audience is their intensely spiritualized idea of life. We might say,…
A Theatrical Sausage
August Wilson is the American Wagner, weaving an epic tapestry out of his own special verbal music and weltschmerz. He charts arduous journeys through the American black experience. He does not ladle out easy civic lessons about Rosa Parks on the bus. He isn’t interested in just one raisin in the sun; he’s too busy…
Parris Is Burning
Don’t expect cold shoulders, icy stares, or frigid responses from the staff at the Fulton Bar & Grill. Instead, with Executive Chef Steve Parris stoking the fires, this little Ohio City restaurant and watering hole is hot, hot, hot. The heat wave begins in the artful first-floor bar, with its fire-engine-red ceiling, flickering candles, and…
Don’t Miss the Boat
They may not be able to swim over to your table anymore, but the tasty treats at the new sushi bar at Eugene’s Restaurant (28260 Miles Road, Solon; 440-349-1480) do the next best thing: They sail to your seat on a little wooden boat! GM Dennis Em says he picked up the “sushi on a…
