The Wedding Zinger
Cell phones and silk saris, dot-coms and arranged marriages — Monsoon Wedding, the latest film from Indian-born director Mira Nair captures the heady mix of old and new, rich and poor, traditional and modern that defines contemporary India. A sort of Father of the Bride set in New Delhi, Monsoon Wedding covers the four days…
Plaid
Long before they grew to embody the warm and generally accessible side of WARP Records’ U.K. techno revolution — first as two-thirds of Black Dog Productions, then as Plaid — Ed Handley and Andy Turner were teenage hip-hop heads, running with break-dance crews in the east English town of Ipswich, spending their allowances on imported…
Wet Dreamer
Every couple of years, it seems, we’re obliged to get at least one documentary that provides the revelation that porn stars just aren’t happy people. So now we know John Holmes was a drug addict and a criminal, Annabel Chong cuts herself, and Stacy Valentine will submit to every surgical procedure known to man in…
Beres Hammond
Despite a career that spans nearly 30 years, Beres Hammond truly hit his stride only in the past decade. Sure, he chalked up a handful of hits in his native Jamaica throughout the ’70s and ’80s, both as the lead singer for Zap Pow and as a soloist. But it wasn’t until reggae’s dancehall era…
Roller Blade
The original Blade isn’t as impressive now as it seemed at the time; its hugely positive reception among the comic book crowd may have been due to it simply not sucking. It came out before The Matrix brought Hong Kong-style wires and trench coats to the world’s attention, and also before The Phantom Menace’s impressive…
Various Artists
They actually made Blade II? Get the hell outta here! And take the soundtrack with you. A rap/electronic hybrid that pairs Mos Def with Massive Attack, Mystikal with Moby, Busta Rhymes and Silkk the Shocker with the Dub Pistols, etc., Blade II is a collaboration in the weakest sense of the word, fusing a throwaway…
Kids in the Dark
It was late Friday night when Cynthia Lightner heard the voices outside. The kids in the dark were fighting, as they had so many times before. Lightner barely noticed anymore. For years, the same group of boys caused problems in the tangle of streets off Ashbury Avenue in Glenville, fighting, making noise, vandalizing. Once, Lightner…
The Blasters
The Blasters, the pioneering roots-rock band from blue-collar Downey, California, were part of the early ’80s L.A. punkabilly scene that also spawned Los Lobos, X, the Germs, and others. Led by brothers Phil and Dave Alvin and famous for their incendiary live shows, the Blasters recorded just three studio albums and one live EP for…
The Man Who Sued Too Much
The legacy of Ivan Sawchyn provides unwanted decoration in Peter Hull’s office. A half-dozen faded blue accordion folders, bursting with all manner of legal documents, line a shelf in the law director’s space in Middleburg Heights City Hall. When Hull sits at his desk, the folders loom at eye level, a reminder of his old…
Racebannon
Calling Racebannon abrasive is like saying piranhas like to tickle bloody flesh. The Indiana collective aggressively corrodes the face of grindcore, metal, and punk, turning voices and instruments into sharp objects that gut rock from the inside out. Frontman Mike Anderson vacillates between a feral growl and shaky, man-about-to-lose-his-shit breakdowns. The music egging Anderson on…
Goliath, Meet David
By the time Cindy Dougherty arrived in Cleveland, she was an expert in delivering bad news. Twice in the two months leading up to February, she flew from her St. Louis office to faraway cities. Twice she faced unsuspecting staffs. Twice she announced she was closing their nursing homes. They were all out of work.…
Cletus Black Revue
The Cletus Black Revue has made what might be the best live album ever to come out of a studio in the Cleveland area. An oxymoron, you say? Oh yeah. Still, Not Too Blues sure has the feel of a live recording, with little overdubbing to re-create that onstage atmosphere. Black, one of Northeast Ohio’s…
The Day Old Sparky Died
Ron Young lost a friend: The article “The Good, the Bad & the Irritating” [February 14] by David W. Martin made for enjoyable reading, though I was more than a little dismayed upon reading about Republican state Representative Ron Young from my hometown of Painesville. While I’m supportive of Young’s pro-life legislation that would have…
NOFX/Rancid
If Rancid is punk’s conscience, NOFX is its libido. The former sings of union-busting and genocide in Rwanda; the latter touches mainly on beer bongs and porn, dropping such feminist-baiting lines as “Catherine [MacKinnon] should get busy porkin’ that dolt Andrea Dworkin/I think they both need a good, hard fuck.” Consequently, a pairing of the…
Soul on Ice
Invite a black guy to a hockey game, and you’ll get hit with 100 volts of antipathy and distrust, as if you’ve invited him to a Klan rally. Even golf and tennis, once the province of guys with sweaters tied around their necks, have been embraced under the realm of Tiger and the Williams sisters.…
A Trio of Classics
There are many aspects to the word “classic,” and here are three works to prove it. The first, an example of classic kitsch, is Aida, now energizing Playhouse Square with the flashy verve of a disco diva. This musical is remotely based on the plot of the Verdi opera, but it has been totally transformed…
Hungry for More
Nestled on a wooded lot on Akron’s Merriman Road, right between the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad tracks and the historic Towpath Trail, sits Jim Conis Bar & Grille. The cozy spot was once home to the popular Beau’s Tavern, which relocated to more spacious digs in nearby Fairlawn a little more than a year ago. First-time…
Grub-Scrubbing Flubs
The lights are low, the wine is mellow, and the food looks great. You bring a forkful of mashed potatoes to your lips, or a bit of crêpe, or perhaps a soupçon of salsa on a chip. You smile. You start to chew. You yelp. Nothing ruins a restaurant meal faster than finding a little…
Clan Rally
The Wu is back. The Wu wishes it didn’t have to remind you. The Wu does, though, and the Wu will. Protect ya neck, kids: The Wu-Tang Clan — a nine-man hip-hop hydra head from the slums of Staten Island — is vying to rule a rap landscape it once dominated. Let us hark back…
Bang to Hype
Dan Bryk, a frumpy Canuck who refuses to give his age but looks to be in his 20s, sits on an outdoor patio behind his Yamaha keyboard and sings his ass off. This isn’t such an easy task — the dude’s heavy, literally. It’s 9 p.m. on a Thursday night in Austin, and the club…
Parlor Games
There was a time when tattoos meant greenish words crudely etched onto forearms or biceps, paeans to Mom that were the product of heavy drinking and extended tours of duty. These days, it’s Mom who’s sporting tattoos. Thanks to a 1990s fashion wave that just won’t go away, tattoos are everywhere. Their ubiquity has even…
Electronic Surge
It made sense for State of Being to be practicing in a basement, surrounded by bare drywall and a velvet Elvis. After all, where else would a synth-heavy darkwave group be in this town but underground? “Cleveland is so much of a rock city. If you’re a punk band, there’s a lot more places for…
Blood on the Trolley
You could spend Sunday afternoon checking out fossils at the Museum of Natural History. Or you could learn all about the wonderful world of polymers at the Great Lakes Science Center. Or you could take a four-and-a-half-hour trolley tour of local sites where a bunch of folks died. John Stark Bellamy II, author of three…
Death Cab for Cutie
It’s taken Seattle’s Death Cab for Cutie only three years to claim its seat alongside Superchunk as an industry leader in the “diary rock” market. In that intimate niche, delicate vocals pack a surprisingly powerful punch, and electric guitars embellish the proffered secrets with tightly wound, chiming precision. Death Cab’s latest, The Photo Album, is…
Ouch!
One of the fun things about the media is that many people who work in it lie almost constantly, creating a social minefield that keeps everybody hoppin’. For instance, take the big studios (please). Sometimes we call them up and say, “Hiya, we noticed that you have a major motion picture coming out in a…
Coal Chamber
After originating “spooky core” — an angry blend of metal, mascara, and melodrama — Coal Chamber became so good at it, it scared away much of its audience. Though the L.A. ensemble hit gold with its eponymous 1997 debut (which was originally slammed by critics for borrowing Korn’s distinctive downtuned rumble), Coal Chamber suffered a…
