Color Her World
Maria Bertrán insisted on visiting the French countryside last summer before creating her contributions to Selections From Artists Represented. “The light on the lane, on the water, or in the fields can only be captured by feeling the landscape and its secrets,” she says. “I aspire to capture the spirit of the people through their…
Pink Mountaintops
Pink Mountaintops’ lo-fi psychedelia debut was in-your-face sexual angst and exhibitionism stuffed into one panting release after another, as subtle as a lap-dance or, for that matter, the name Vancouver fixture Stephen McBean chose for this project (he’s also the leader of stoner-rock fave Black Mountain). On Axis of Evol, the subject matter has gone…
Now You See Them
Breasts: A Documentary (First Run) Honest, compassionate, and funny, this documentary is remarkable for the bravery of its participants, who bare their breasts as they speak about them. The film delivers 22 women of all shapes, sizes, ages, races, and orientations — all of whom have interesting, surprising things to say about their life with…
7th Signing
All five members of the Streetsboro metal band 7th Plague are juniors in high school, and before they even begin to think about finding a prom date, they have more pressing business to attend to: writing and recording their full-length debut for Metal Blade, the California label with a roster that includes Unearth and Six…
What’s Opera, Doc?
At tonight’s Doc Opera, students from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine take the stage for a musical revue. The 21st annual gathering features singing, dancing, and joke-telling by folks who could be removing one of your kidneys a couple years from now. Laugh now, because there won’t be anything funny about the $3,000…
Deadstring Brothers
Take a bouquet of “Dead Flowers,” pour in some “Cripple Creek” and add a few grams of “Sin City,” and you’ll have the recipe for the Deadstring Brothers’ brand of twangy roots rock. Gram Parsons’ presence is felt in the opening tune, “Sacred Hearts,” an intoxicating example of boozy country rock. The Band’s influence shows…
Sonic Bust
As celebrity career paths go, Sonic the Hedgehog has been tiptoeing dangerously close to Baldwin Brothers territory lately. Last year brought the embarrassing Shadow the Hedgehog, a dark title in which Sonic’s brooding alter ego wielded a gun, earning it the unflattering nickname “Grand Theft Hedgehog.” Still, at first blush, Sonic Riders, a new racing…
The Minus 5
Contrary to the cliché, all work and no play does not make Scott McCaughey a dull boy. Besides figuratively driving the magic bus that is the Minus 5, McCaughey has his original gig as frontman for the dead-but-not-buried Young Fresh Fellows and an auxiliary position with the comparably zombiesque Tuatara, as well as years of…
Death Becomes Him
In The Book Thief, Markus Zusak tells the story of a little girl dodging Death in 1939 Germany. Yes, Death. The Grim Reaper is not only a main character, but also the narrator of his new book. “Death is everywhere during war,” says Zusak. “When I first started writing, he was sinister. He enjoyed his…
Terje Rypdal
Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal has long been on the cutting edge of jazz, playing with American innovator George Russell in the ’60s and as a distinguished stylist in the distinctively uncommercial sector of European fusion from the ’70s through the ’90s. Often yesterday’s avant-garde becomes the new orthodoxy, but Vossabrygg proves that Rypdal is not…
Our top DVD picks for the week of March 21
The Adventures of Brer Rabbit (Universal) Batman Beyond: The Complete First Season (Warner Bros.) The Billy Wilder DVD Collection (Paramount) Bukowski: Born Into This (Magnolia) The Busby Berkeley Collection (Warner Bros.) Capote (Sony) Chicken Little (Buena Vista) Crackheads Gone Wild (Xtreme Films) Dear Wendy (Fox Lorber) Derailed (Weinstein Co.) Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story…
Charlotte Martin
That round-faced, barefoot lass with the long, corkscrew hair and the pouty lower lip, sitting at the piano and pounding a mournful tune full of personal, poignant lyrics, is not Tori Amos. It’s Charlotte Martin — or at least it was Martin, once upon a time. “That was me long ago,” Martin insists. Three years…
Mo’ Mooney
Onstage, Paul Mooney makes even the most brazen comedians look timid. In September, he pissed off Diana Ross’ daughter at the BET Comedy Awards to the point that she got up and left the audience in the middle of his annual Nigga Wake-Up Award, which had turned into a full-on assault of Mama Ross’ recent…
From First to Last
On its debut disc, Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Body Count, California’s From First to Last combined screamo energy with electronic noise, spazzy art-funk, and occasional lapses into acoustic balladry. The result was one of the few albums of post-hardcore shrieking still worth returning to three years later. That is, it would be…
The week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
CD — Merle Haggard reissues: Ten of the country legend’s albums from the ’60s and ’70s have been remastered and gathered on five CDs brimming with bonus tracks. Everyone from Ford Truck fan Toby Keith to sex-tape star Kid Rock counts Hag as an influence, and it’s easy to hear why: No one can keep…
The Itals
With buoyant three-part harmonies and a classic bent, the Itals are well-appointed keepers of classic Jamaican roots flame. Since its earliest singles –fuming Rastafarian devotionals like “Time Will Tell” and “Don’t Wake the Lion” — the group has always preferred the lilt of rock to the thump of dancehall, and frontman Keith Porter (the only…
Cabaret Gone Wild!
The producers of Cabaret Sampler are slapping a disclaimer on the show when it opens a four-weekend run tonight: Don’t bring the kids — unless you want them to hear six performers singing about lousy love lives and anonymous gay sex. There’s Eileen Burns, “terminally unlucky in love,” who’ll croon a “cabaret personals ad” about…
Hawthorne Heights
Two weeks ago these screamo dudes from Dayton landed at No. 3 on Billboard’s tally of the week’s best-selling albums. That’s big news for a band like Hawthorne Heights, which records for an independent label and commands an enormous internet fan base, composed largely of kids who probably download most of their music from file-sharing…
Guinea Pig Gang
On a Thursday morning in February, Nikolai Sopko rushes through the halls of University Hospitals. He’s a short, boyish 25-year-old with the body of a former varsity wrestler. He’s 15 minutes late for an appointment at the skin-studies center. “Fifth floor!” Sopko calls out as he enters the crowded elevator. When the doors open, Sopko…
God Forbid
The members of God Forbid have a little of the drill instructor about them. They ameliorate the bully factor, though, by mustering some of the most anthemic riffs and choruses in metalcore, injecting their music with megadoses of classic thrash without ever succumbing to necrophiliac retro impulses. Their most recent album, IV: Constitution of Treason…
Lord of the Sing
When the Yarnell Youth Theatre Company’s production of The Hobbit: A Musical opens at the Fine Arts Association tonight, expect to see a breezier take on J.R.R.Tolkien’s fantasy classic. Also be prepared for a lot more singing. The action unfolds pretty much as it does in the book, but characters stop every few minutes to…
Ultralord
The disc is titled We Hate You and Hope You Die, and Ultralord pulverizes eardrums like it means it, deploying an arsenal of furious stoner riffs and lyrics like “I wouldn’t piss in your mouth if your teeth were on fire.” With players from Fistula, King Travolta, and numerous other Akron-Cleveland death-and-gloom bands, what could…
Gone Bettin’
The lights of Canada flicker across the icy falls, but here, on the American side, empty walkways meander past empty storefronts. The sidewalks in downtown’s “entertainment district” — a smattering of bars that makes the Flats look like South Beach — are barren. Picture Youngstown with wedding chapels and some mist, and you’re here: Niagara…
Taylor Hollingsworth
On 1974’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” Lynyrd Skynyrd claimed that a southern man don’t need Neil Young around anyhow. Not to disparage Florida’s southern-fried-rock archetypes, but plenty of southern men have needed them some Neil Young — and the Birmingham, Alabama trio led by Taylor Hollingsworth is among them. This boy’s garage (rock) is padded with…
Large and in Charge
Large and in Charge This blues purist leads a new band through some old songs. Robert Lockwood Jr. may be king of the Cleveland blues, but his court has included some of the area’s best sidemen. For almost 20 years, guitar player Cleveland Fats supported Lockwood onstage. “I’ve learned a lot about everything from Robert,”…
Broke by Monday
Broke by Monday’s impressive self-titled debut contains a healthy mix of reggae, jangly guitar pieces, power ballads, and straight-up rock tunes. The band even tops the whole thing off with a fast-paced, punk-like finale for good measure. The vocals often carry the tracks, sounding like James Hetfield might if he were a talented singer and…
Herding Sheep
Angela Irizarry fits the profile. She’s a young stay-at-home mom. Before she had her son 10 months ago, she worked a dead-end job in a lawyer’s office. Her periwinkle eyes, fanned by batting eyelashes, lead a full face that smiles by default. She would trust anybody who gave her permission. Back in December, Irizarry sold…
Peelander-Z
Peelander-Z often subtitles its handle with “Japanese action-comic punk band,” a hyperactive phrase barely contained by the quotes that surround it. The trio perform in colorfully outlandish costumes — looking like Power Ranger jesters, or Dr. Seuss’ Thing One and Thing Two multiplied by three — and they regularly upend their staccato, punk-like chant-alongs for…
Letter Perfect
On their new CD, Future Women, Chicago’s the M’s make a fuzzy, glamtastic racket that recalls T. Rex before Marc Boland, fueled by coke, crashed and burned. They toss just about everything into the music: handclaps, humming guitars, and a singer who sounds like he’s always up for a good shag. You might have heard…
Court of Appeal
Only a few blocks separate Karam “Karl” Abounader’s comfy eatery from the chic salons anchoring the intersection of West Sixth and St. Clair in the Warehouse District. But in terms of ambiance and style, light-years might be a better measure. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If high-priced hotspots like XO, Johnny’s, and Blue…
Sympathy for the Devil
Just to clarify, only Republicans and the Catholic Church are allowed to give free passes to child rapists. That was the message delivered last week, when GOP leaders attacked Franklin County Judge John Connor, who sentenced Andrew Selva to probation for raping little boys over a three-year period. Governor Bob Taft called for the judge’s…
Sean Paul
After Bob Marley’s death in 1981, Jamaican artists struggled for the next two decades to gain a foothold in America. And other than the brief success of Shabba Ranks and Ini Kamoze’s 1995 No. 1 “Here Comes the Hotstepper,” there was little to show for the effort. But throughout that period, dancehall and hip-hop artists…
Computer Chic
Jason Forrest is a balls-out rocker. He arms himself with drums, guitars, and massive power chords, all draped in a glorious wall of noise. It’s just that Forrest performs it all by himself on his computer. “Laptop shows usually suck,” he says. “But I interact with the audience and freak out like Iggy Pop. It’s…
Heat’s Still On
Rocco Whalen, chef-owner at Tremont’s Fahrenheit, is still smarting from his recent breakup with former girlfriend and business partner Kelly Repas. “The moral is, things happen,” says Whalen. “You just try to make them as amicable as possible, and then you move on.” True to form, the humble Whalen prefers to turn the conversation to…
Screw Thy Neighbor
No good deed goes unpunished: I’m responding to the First Punch item “Got Bullshit?” [March 8] about Millersburg farmer Arlie Stutzman, who lost his dairy license for selling “milk directly” after an undercover agent from the Ohio Department of Agriculture brought his own “unmarked container,” asked to buy a gallon of milk, and “insisted on…
David Murray Quartet
Jazz has pace-setters and avant-gardists, both cheered and derided, yet many mellow with age while there’s still fire down below. Tenor saxophonist David Murray is one such hepcat. Born in 1955, Murray cut his teeth in the West Coast and N.Y.C. “out” jazz scenes, and by the ’80s became established as the firebrand saxophonist in…
Plau Us a Song, Piano Man
Play Us a Song, Piano Man Lang Lang lives up to his name. Lang Lang’s parents nailed it when they named him 23 years ago. In Chinese, his unique handle means “brilliant man,” and today, Lang is among the world’s most luminous classical pianists. As evidence, consider the fact that he’s giving a solo recital…
It’s a Crime
Given Inside Man’s bullpen (director Spike Lee, stars Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster), moment in political history, and advertising, you could be forgiven for anticipating some kind of socially relevant, perhaps even politically volatile dramatic smash-up — something with teeth, ambition, a functioning cerebrum, and a lusty relationship with reality. But those hopes may belong…
Just Say Wynn
“More distortion pedal, less chorus.” Steve Wynn is describing his preferences in the British shoegazer bands that followed in his Velvet Underground-inspired footsteps after the breakup of his seminal ’80s L.A. band, Dream Syndicate. He might just as well be describing his own maverick ways since going solo in the early ’90s. Like his hero…
AIW Presents This Is Now
You know how live music is always a little better at a club show, where it’s right in your face? And how you really just have to see hockey live, from the good seats, to really get it? Now add some blood and sweat to the equation, and there you have the appeal of small-venue…
No Anchovies, Please
A gooey slice of pizza inspired the theme behind today’s opening of Spicy, Plain, Cheesy & Loaded. The 40-piece exhibit features the Canton Museum of Art’s ceramics collection — from “plain” pieces, which are simple in style and shape, to “spicy” creations that blaze with hot reds and oranges. “Pizza starts with a basic ingredient…
Thugs & Kisses
A gritty portrait of ghetto life in contemporary South Africa, Tsotsi packs an unexpected emotional wallop. Gavin Hood’s film tells a story of violence and redemption that’s even more remarkable when you consider that neither of the lead performers has ever acted in a movie before. It’s little wonder that Tsotsi won the Oscar for…
Hollywood Babylon
Actor Jared Leto (Requiem for a Dream, Fight Club) has been fasting for four days. Except for water, fresh lemon juice, and cayenne pepper, he expects to consume nothing anytime soon. This isn’t one of those trendy Los Angeles diets, though; he’s burning off the staggering 62 pounds he packed on to play John Lennon’s…
Super Diamond
So Pulp Fiction’s on cable a while back. And the part where Mrs. Mia Wallace is dancing to Urge Overkill’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” gave us a hankering for the original Neil Diamond version. And you know what? It’s pretty good too. In fact, like a gateway drug, it led us to Diamond’s…
Life in the Fastlane
Bill Bellamy just wrapped production on his latest film, Neverwas. Making the movie was an intimidating experience for the comedian, whose co-stars included Academy Award winners Jessica Lange and William Hurt, as well as The Lord of the Rings’ Ian McKellen. “I was working with Gandalf! My man’s a wizard!” Bellamy laughs. Since launching his…
Dust to Dust
John Fante’s novel Ask the Dust, published in 1939 and all but forgotten till its 1980 reissue with a Charles Bukowski foreword, is very much a work of thinly veiled autobiography; only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. Its protagonist, a struggling writer named Arturo Bandini, was born to immigrant parents in…
Joyish Gloom
“Britain’s answer to Interpol, faster and harder” is the short description of Birmingham’s Editors, currently touring the U.S. spreading news of The Back Room, their debut LP. And that’s an adequate snapshot, with one clarification: Singer-guitarist Tom Smith may sound as much like Interpol’s Paul Banks as Banks does the late Ian Curtis of Joy…
Work It, Jane!
Cleveland Cinematheque’s All-Request Weekend — now in its second weekend! — features all five of Matthew Barney’s popular Cremaster movies, focusing on the visual artist’s installations. They’re long, artsy, and kinda confusing (for the record, a cremaster is a genital muscle). More to our tastes is tonight’s screening of Barbarella, the campy 1968 sci-fi flick…
Barely There
The reactions human beings display as they watch others reveal their bodies are amazing to behold. CBS is fined over half a million dollars for broadcasting a female nipple for one second, while Howard Stern is paid handsomely to have topless strippers lick Dream Whip off each other’s breasts on cable TV. Do we sense…
I Loathe the ’80s!
About 10 years ago, we were close enough to the ’80s that acid-washed jeans still made us dry heave. Zubaz, Reaganism, crack cocaine — the ’80s were to the 20th century what Joe Charboneau was to Indians: a total fucking letdown. But around the turn of the century, nostalgia overwhelmed good taste. Now we seem…
Louder Than a Bomb
Yvonne Bynoe will offer some pretty tough words for black leaders tonight when she talks about “The New Black Woman” with Kent State University political science professor Bakari Kitwana. In 2004, Bynoe published Stand & Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership, and Hip-Hop Culture, which connects rap music to political leadership. In it, she argues that black…
Thick Skin
A new book about a movie-obsessed killer keeps the body count high. Richard Montanari’s new thriller, The Skin Gods, is all about a serial killer who recreates grisly murderous scenes from movies like Psycho and Fatal Attraction. It’s a page-turner designed to keep you up at night, not to win a highfalutin’ book award. “It’s…
Bird Flew
Nothing can be more tedious than a play about drug-addicted down-and-outers who apply whatever energy they have to the process of ruminating about their seedy existence. Sure, their dead-end lives are probably valid, but it’s just too easy for a playwright to wax profound when manipulating characters who have nothing better to do all day…
Sound Advice
WMMS Mornings hosts Hunter, Sean, and Cristi (left to right) are the front line of Cleveland rock radio’s most storied station. What have you been listening to lately? Sean: I downloaded some Johnny Cash after watching Walk the Line. Cristi: The new Eagles of Death Metal, “Death by Sexy,” is pretty brilliant. I’m also anxious…
Hot! Hot! Hot!
Starting tonight, single firefighters from 11 departments will dispense beer at the Rock Bottom Brewery’s Firefighting Guest Bartenders nights. It leads up to a bachelor auction on April 13, when gals can bid on 40 firemen, including one in-demand hunk from Brooklyn. “He’s a good-looking guy in great shape,” says organizer Mike Mochan. “The total…
Feeling Nebraska
Singer-songwriter Brent Kirby blames the dissolution of Mavis, his Nashville-based rock band, and subsequent move to Cleveland in 2001 on the usual “artistic differences.” “We broke up as soon as things were getting off the ground,” he says. “That particular dream died, and I knew inside [that] to improve as a songwriter I needed new…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Before It Hits Home — In its effort to probe the impact of HIV on the black community, Karamu has produced a play that has its heart in the right place, but few other vital organs correctly positioned. Written by Cheryl L. West in the early ’90s and expressing many of the reasonable fears and…
Money Where Your Mouth Is
Band: Robbing Mary (www.robbingmary.com) Hometown: Cleveland Sounds like: “Son Volt meets Uncle Tupelo meets Cake meets Whiskeytown.” Fun fact: “One of our guitarists once got punched by a drunk hooker who had mistaken him for a pizza delivery boy who she was pissed at for some reason.” Playing: Thursday, March 23, at the Grog Shop…
Hollywood Babble On
Anyone who drops by Tina Brugnoletti’s Birthday Party tonight will get to hear some Hollywood stories from the 32-year-old bartender — like the six months in 2000 she worked as comedian Kathy Griffin’s personal assistant. “I spent a lot of time picking up her dry cleaning or wardrobe or lunch,” says Brugnoletti, who took the…
Pop Art
Beatriz Monteavaro’s drawings grab bits and pieces of inspiration from the world around her. Dracula star Bela Lugosi, prickly painter Pablo Picasso, and ’80s glam rocker Adam Ant all find their way into her work, now on display at Shaheen Modern and Contemporary Art. The Miami artist employs a sharp crosshatching style that gives her…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Mythology — In a considerable deviation from his family-friendly art portraiture, Cleveland photographer Herb Ascherman Jr. presents a tongue-in-cheek series of austere black-and-white nudes, depicting Greek gods and goddesses as ordinary, modern-day humans. But divine bodies, these ain’t — Ascherman’s models were rounded up with the help of an ad placed in Scene –…
Last Word
“UltraSound Music on Vine Street in Eastlake. They are awesome people, they always make you feel at home, and they have really cool stuff in there.” — Kellie Baker, Eastlake “iTunes is there simply for the convenience. Square Records (Akron) has a great selection and some hard-to-find tracks. Time Traveler (Akron/Cuyahoga Falls) also has some…
