Out Today: Keane
KeaneNight Train(Cherrytree/Interscope) On this eight-song EP, British trio Keane move even further away from the Radiohead/Coldplay comparisons that have chased them since their 2004 debut. They still make pretty piano-based pop with massive hooks and a spacious theatrical flair, but Night Train (which was recorded on the run at various studios during the band’s last…
Out Today: Merle Haggard
Merle HaggardI Am What I Am(Vanguard) Haggard has been releasing albums regularly since his comeback record If I Could Only Fly a decade ago, but most of them aren’t worth hearing. I Am What I Am, the country legend’s most motivated and personal recording in years, features a dozen songs that reflect on a lifetime…
What to Do Tonight: K’Naan
Makes Akon look like a total pussy Somalian rapper K’Naan’s backstory is way rougher than most stateside MCs’ inflated bios. He barely got out of his war-torn African homeland when he was in his teens. Now in his early 30s and living in Toronto, K’Naan looks back on a lifetime of sacrifices, hardships and violence…
What to Do Tonight: The Hold Steady
We miss the guy with the ‘stache While it seems like every other indie-rock band worth a shit these days left Cleveland off their tour itinerary, the Hold Steady continually go out of their way to make us feel special. They kicked off the tour in support of their last album — 2008’s Stay Positive…
Out Today: MGMT
MGMTCongratulations(Columbia) MGMT became the toast of the hipster elite two years ago with a mix of sonic bombast and psychedelic shenanigans. Oracular Spectacular swirled its ingredients into a frothy blend of electronic-kissed indie-pop until it came out sounding like a galaxy-hopping version of the Flaming Lips. On its second album, the Brooklyn-based duo gets headier,…
What to Do Tonight: Miranda Lambert
Hot but crazy Texas-bred bad-ass Miranda Lambert hunts her dinner, doesn’t look a lot like other country stars, and refuses to tone down her attitude or twang. On her terrific third album Revolution, she explores the divide between the left and the right, the blue and the red, and the pretty and the ugly. Ever…
What to Do Tonight: Major Lazer
Holding up the wall Hipster-approved DJs Diplo and Switch are behind Major Lazer, a side project that pairs mostly anonymous dancehall artists with the duo’s bizarro beats. On last year’s debut album, Guns Don’t Kill People … Lazers Do, Major Lazer Auto-Tune a baby, bury vocals under tons of blips and beeps, and throw a…
What to Do Tonight: Japandroids
“Bass drums are for pussies” Canadian noise-rockers Japandroids make quite a racket on their 2009 debut album, Post-Nothing, coming off like No Age with a sense of melody. You’d think the whole guitarist-and-drummer-make-really-loud-music thing would be played out by now, but these scruffy hipsters manage to wring a lot of intriguing sounds out of their…
Pre-Show Q&A: Julian Casablancas
Stroke him, stroke him On his first solo album, last year’s Phrazes for the Young, Strokes singer Julian Casablancas continues to explore the retro-leaning and brisk indie-rock that made his band stars almost a decade ago. Casablancas sings with a bit more clarity on the synth-heavy album than he does on the Strokes’ three records.…
What to Do Tonight: Daughtry
Being a douchebag makes his head hurt You gotta wonder what makes Chris Daughtry sing with such anguish on Leave This Town. Did a girl break his heart? Did his grandma die? Did his dog run off and leave him for another scowling, baldheaded American Idol alum? Whatever it is, Daughtry shreds both his heart…
The 50th Anniversary of the Trade of Rocky Colavito
It’s really a testament to Frank Lane’s botched transactions that he’s still among the most vilified of GM’s to ever work in Cleveland. 50 years ago this month, Rocky Colavito was shipped, unceremoniously, out of town for Harvey Kuehn. Who? Right. Of course, if you’ve read Terry Pluto’s wonderful tome on the trade and Indians…
Tuesday Giveaway: Runaways and Joan Jett CDs
Excited about The Runaways, the new movie about the real-life ’70s jailbait rockers starring Kristen Stewart (as the totally bad-ass Joan Jett) and Dakota Fanning (as the kinda bad-ass Cherie Currie)? It opens on April 9, but right now we’re giving away six CDs: three copies each of the Runaways soundtrack and Joan Jett and…
This Just In: Cleveland Concert Announcements
Sarah McLachlan is bringing back Lilith Fair. Huzzah! This week, we have 54 new shows, including the returns of Lilith Fair and Phish, and that band from Old School. CANCELED: Apocalyptica: Thu., May 27, 7 p.m., House of Blues. Fanfarlo/Lawrence Arabia/Robert Francis: Thu., April 8, Grog Shop. THIS JUST IN:Big D & the Kids’ Table/Tropidelic:…
Out Today: Meth, Ghost & Rae
Meth, Ghost & RaeWu Massacre(Def Jam) The Wu-Tang Clan web can get so tangled it’s hard to distinguish the U-Gods from the Inspectah Decks. All you really need to know about Wu Massacre is that the Wu’s three greatest living rappers — Method Man, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon — are the top-billed stars. Deck, Cappadonna…
Out Today: Usher
UsherRaymond v Raymond(LaFace/Jive) You can take the title of Usher Raymond’s sixth album a couple of ways. The 31-year-old R&B singer divorced his wife in November after a tumultuous two-year marriage. The hitmaker also fights two sides of himself on Raymond v Raymond: the carefree clubbing loverboy and the resentful divorced father. Fun Usher ultimately…
RONAYNE TURNS ARGUMENT INTO CAMPAIGN VIDEO
For a first-time candidate, Chris Ronayne sure knows how to turn a political opponent’s gaffe into campaign fodder. Ronayne, president of University Circle, Inc., is running for a seat on the new Cuyahoga County council. On March 24, Cleveland Councilwoman Dona Brady — wife of Dan Brady, Ronayne’s chief rival for the Ward 7 county…
For the Love of Lonnie
Courtesy of Dan Mendlik, Cleveland Indians I wrote this for the old-school paper version of Scene that’s coming out tomorrow (hit those newsstands, kids!). Figured I’d throw it up here as well. Prospect is a dirty word around these parts. It’s the one-word analog of the popular pessimistic wait until next year refrain. It’s the…
VOINOVICH FEIGNS SHOCK AT RIGHTWING EXTREMISM
Senator Voinovich wants you to know that he does not approve of politically motivated violence: The national debate on health care has been at times frustrating, heated and tense. While I am absolutely opposed to what the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats have done — on both the policy and process — I cannot condone…
Kassaba’s Greg Slawson and Candice Lee Return
Slawson and Lee get Creative Some may remember pianist Greg Slawson from the band Kassaba he and his wife (and fellow Cleveland Institute of Music grad) Candice Lee led from 2002 through 2008. Playing a distinctive blend of jazz, classical and world music, the quartet released two CDs, Zones and Dark Eye. Slawson and Lee…
Paramore’s Hayley Williams Goes Gaga
One of our favorite ladies here at C-Notes, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, covers another one of our favorite ladies, Lady Gaga, in the above clip. Williams posted the video — a minute-and-a-half piano version of the most excellent “Bad Romance” — on Twitter over the weekend, calling herself Lady Haha. —Michael Gallucci (follow me on Twitter…
We All Need Heroes… Delonte’s a Good Choice
I’m genuinely surprised someone didn’t do this sooner. Delonte’s smooth freestyling at KFC was just begging for viral imitators, but no one stepped up to pay tribute to the raspberry iced tea and Chipotle laden original until now. I know these kids — who are all of, what?, 12? — lacked the production value, the…
Quinn Sands Releases New CD
A girl and her guitar Euclid-based singer-songwriter Quinn Sands celebrates the release of her first CD, Driving Through the Rain, at the Barking Spider Tavern on Wednesday. She’ll play at 10 p.m. Sands, who describes her Americana-style sound as “Lucinda Williams meets Christine McVie and they hang out with Carole King,” has a confident, mature…
Concert Review: John Zorn at Cleveland Museum of Art
In the Zorn Somewhat of a renaissance man, saxophonist and composer John Zorn is always reinventing himself, making it somewhat hard to pigeonhole his musical modus operandi. Back in the mid-‘90s, he formed the group Masada with trumpeter Dave Douglas, bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Joey Barron, and saw the group as a way to…
Concert Review: Tegan and Sara at Lakewood Civic Auditorium
One of ’em is Tegan, the other is Sara The Lakewood Civic Auditorium is a high-school auditorium, albeit a grand one. This setting wasn’t lost on Tegan and Sara, who told a packed audience last night that they were helping the Canadian indie-pop twins live out a perverse high-school fantasy for adoration and acceptance. Tegan…
What to Do Tonight: Past Lives
The first wave of post-Blood Brothers releases was a bit disappointing. Each one played more like a watered-down take on the band’s signature sound rather than something new. With Tapestry of Webs, Past Lives finally step out of their former band’s shadow. The quartet plays with stripped-down and eerie dynamics throughout the record: Guitar tones…
What to Do Tonight: Wishbone Ash
Four decades ago, Wishbone Ash were one of the vital secondary lights of the British prog-rock scene. Although bands like King Crimson, Yes and Traffic were attracting more of the media spotlight, Wishbone Ash were netting tons of FM radio airplay with a string of largely excellent albums in the ’70s (like their eponymous 1970…
A Psychic, Castrovince, and PECOTA — An Admittedly Unorthodox Cleveland Indians Preview
Courtesy of the Cleveland Memory Project [Dear Reader: Go ahead and insert your own obligatory “Hope springs eternal” reference here, then join me in the next paragraph. Just say the phrase to yourself. If you do so out loud, however, beware of coworkers or strangers nearby who might think you’re a crazy and possibly dangerous…
What to Do Tonight: Erik Norlander’s Galactic Collective
As keyboardist for a latter-day version of ’80s prog-pop group Asia — or more specifically, Asia Featuring John Payne, a spin-off from the ever-devolving band — Erik Norlander is no stranger to nostalgia. So it’s appropriate that for the first-ever live show he’s playing with his new band, Galactic Collective, Norlander has recruited the decidedly…
What to Do Tonight: Cowboy Junkies
It’s been more than 20 years since U.S. audiences were introduced to Cowboy Junkies’ hushed folk-rock. Formed in Toronto in the mid ’80s by the Timmins siblings (guitarist Michael, drummer Peter and singer Margo) and their bass-playing friend Alan Anton, the Junkies self-released their 1986 debut, Whites Off Earth Now! The buzz surrounding the band’s…
Dust Off Your Bong — Phish Are Coming to Town
“Woo! Phish! Somewhere in there!” That Phish show you probably heard about a week ago has finally been confirmed. Live Nation officially announced today that the reunited jam band will play Blossom Music Center on June 12. After a five-year hiatus, Phish returned last year with a new album, Joy (another blah studio effort), and…
Apparently Manhattan Has No Problem With the “Prepare for Combat” LeBron Billboard
This is the same design that Nike wanted to install in Cleveland where the Witness billboard now hangs. Cleveland, of course, had a problem with it — it didn’t feature the Cavs or Cleveland at all and apparently portrayed black men in a violent way. New York, suitor A for LeBron’s services next year, doesn’t…
Friday Music News Roundup
Beyonce: “If I were a boy, I wouldn’t have to deal with these pregnancy rumors.” Beyonce isn’t pregnant. Jay-Z put a thing on it. Remembering rock photographer Jim Marshall. Tim McGraw chimes in on Sandra Bullock’s marriage problems. Because we were all dying to hear what Tim McGraw has to fucking say about it. Not…
The Melt Grilled Cheese Challenge: I Lived to Tell About It… Sort Of
Because competitive eating is a sport, and because Fish, the proprietor of Melt, has one of the best collections of nostalgic and vintage Cleveland sports signage around town, I think it’s only appropriate to include this dispatch from Scene salesman Adam Toporowski in this space. GURGLE, GURGLE GURGLE. The cheese begins to bubble in my…
The Melt Grilled Cheese Challenge: I Lived to Tell About It… Sort Of
GURGLE, GURGLE GURGLE. The cheese begins to bubble in my stomach as I struggle to chew. Another sip of water. GURGLE GURGLE GURGLE. I can’t go on any longer. More water. Where’s the water?! To most people, eating is a way to sustain existence. At Melt it’s a challenge, and that’s just to finish one…
Allah Punk Conspiracy
There’s a reason punk rock’s been called the urban or post-industrial blues. The ideas that energize punk — questioning authority/dogma, rebelling against social mores, thinking/dressing for yourself and not to fit into a crowd — are ones that resonate across all social and geopolitical borders. Like the blues, they speak to a state of alienation…
The Newdicals
OK, I’m really not entirely sure what I walked into here. On Wednesday night, I was permitted access to this year’s Big Show headliners the Newdicals. This is generally a fun-loving bunch of people, every single one of them genuinely a credit to this music scene, not just for their music, but for their general…
‘I HAVE A PUPPY IN MY VAN’: THE FINAL LUST SURVEY POST
OK, this is it, we promise: the final post regarding the Lust Survey (see also this, this and this). And we saved the … best? OK, most creative and/or disturbing … for last. Unfortunately this person did not provide a name. How often do you think about sex? What’s the role of sexual fantasy in…
What to Do Tonight and Tomorrow: Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Trans-Siberian Orchestra played one of their first shows at the Palace Theatre more than a decade ago. Founder Paul O’Neill says it’s a surreal experience to return to the PlayhouseSquare stage for the group’s first non-holiday tour. Based on their 2000 album Beethoven’s Last Night, the show will scale back the massive production that usually…
What to Do Tonight: Country Joe McDonald
Hippie-era Berkeley native Country Joe McDonald is best remembered for his “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag” and its infamous “fuck” cheer from the Woodstock movie. But McDonald has had a long career, with more than 30 albums as a solo artist and as leader of Country Joe and the Fish. McDonald has…
Titus Andronicus: A Closer Look at 2010’s Best Album
I’m a sucker for concept albums. Especially concept albums that lose their way about halfway in or sidetrack all the way round till it ends up where it’s supposed to be. That’s the key: You can lose your way, but get back home. That’s all I ask. (Thanks, Tommy and The Wall for playing fair.…
SAVE THE BEES
When health and environmental advocates meet in Cleveland next month to discuss the impact of pesticides on people, food crops and the environment, one focus of conversation will be the gradual disappearance of honeybees throughout the United States. On Thursday, the PD carried an Associated Press story indicating that that many more honeybees died this…
What To Do When It’s Hard to Find a 1970’s Indians Throwback Jersey For a Reasonable Price…
Jeremy Hills works in sales here at Scene. He also loves baseball. More than that, he loves jerseys. Here’s a little tale he has to tell… Anyone who has a thing for throwback baseball jerseys probably knows what I’ve gone through over the years. They are either too expensive or just not available on the…
Fan Waxes Chest To Keep LeBron In Cleveland… Surely Free Agency Talk Can Be Put to Bed Now
Check out the rest of this maniac’s stylings over at InLeBronWeTrust.com. It’s just one of the 23 different things he plans to do over the next month to show how badly he wants LeBron to stay in Cleveland. Also on the list: Watch a 23-hour marathon of Kazaam, shave LeBron’s face into his hair, get…
TRENT REZNOR’S FROM WHERE?
On Monday, Amazon.com announced that the on-again-off-again book about Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine would arrive 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 of volumes about or inspired…
PORTRAIT BY THE ARTIST OF A YOUNG MAYOR
Cleveland City Hall still doesn’t have a portrait of former mayor Dennis Kucinich, as Plain Dealer political columnist Mark Naymik pointed out earlier this month. In response to the news, Cleveland Heights native Yotam Zohar sent Kucinich a letter, offering to take over the commission, free of charge, from Akron artist Matthew Hunt, who’s had…
What to Do Tonight: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
In 2008, this long-named Oregon singer-songwriter started a buzz with his self-titled debut album — a glorified demo that combined the R&B atmospherics of TV on the Radio with Elliott Smith’s low-fi basement folk. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson arrived on the scene showcasing a knack for creating unsettling urban elegies that fused deeply personal guitar…
Swag Alert: Z Tee, The Winner
Of course. Leave it to I Love the Hype to come up with the best Z tee. Personally, I loved bearded Z the best.
The Cavs & Analytics & Stuff
The Cavs’ analytics guy is Dan Rosenbaum, an economics professor from UNC Greensboro. You won’t read much about Rosenbaum, both because the Cavs don’t really elaborate on their use of advanced analytics and because Dan doesn’t do interviews — not for background, not on basketball, not on what he likes to eat for breakfast. I’ve…
A Few Lingering Thoughts and Clarifications on Business LeBron
On an otherwise uneventful afternoon while we all wait for the Cavs to finally get back to the action, there are a few things I wanted to clarify regarding this piece. A couple people have said it’s crazy to think that LeBron wouldn’t make more in New York than he does in Cleveland. The gist…
CAMPAIGN MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason’s campaign finance reform panel has picked up a new member — Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Chair Jeff Hastings. At its inaugural meeting last Thursday, the group also discussed adding a few more members for the sake of racial diversity (former Cleveland law director Subodh Chandra was mentioned as a…
Protractor Ted
Not gonna lie to y’all, I was very excited to see what Protractor Ted were getting on about. The band includes a lifer drummer, a completely madcap singer and two astounding guitarists who hail from very different schools — that last bit is what had my interest redlined. So here’s the lineup rundown: Protractor Ted…
TRUE LIFE: I’M A TEENAGED SCREENWRITER
Mayor Frank Jackson held a press conference on March 22 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 nonprofit organization selects three communities to host…
CIFF DOC EXAMINES OWNING ANIMALS THAT CAN KILL YOU
Ohio native 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 films for the bigwigs at Twentieth Century Fox and Lionsgate. But in 2008, after a friend loaned him…
3/30: Passion Pit/Mayer Hawthorne at HOB
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 a smile. Since the…
3/30: George Bilgere at Mac’s Backs
George Bilgere’s new book, The White Museum, continues in the same vein that earned him fans in Garrison Keillor (who’s read his poems on NPR) and former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins (who awarded The Good Kiss the Akron University Poetry Prize in 2001). Bilgere’s hallmark is capturing moments of domesticity and progress through middle…
3/29: Wishbone Ash at the Wincester
Four decades ago, Wishbone Ash were one of the vital secondary lights of the British prog-rock scene. Although bands like King Crimson, Yes and Traffic were attracting more of the media spotlight, Wishbone Ash were netting tons of FM radio airplay with a string of largely excellent albums in the ’70s (like their eponymous 1970…
3/29: Past Lives at Now That’s Class
The first wave of post-Blood Brothers releases was a bit disappointing. Each one played more like a watered-down take on the band’s signature sound rather than something new. With Tapestry of Webs, Past Lives finally step out of their former band’s shadow. The quartet plays with stripped-down and eerie dynamics throughout the record: Guitar tones…
3/27: Erik Norlander’s Galactic Collective at Shore Centre
As keyboardist for a latter-day version of ’80s prog-pop group Asia — or more specifically, Asia Featuring John Payne, a spin-off from the ever-devolving band — Erik Norlander is no stranger to nostalgia. So it’s appropriate that for the first-ever live show he’s playing with his new band, Galactic Collective, Norlander has recruited the decidedly…
3/27-28 & 4/3: Easter Bunny sightings
With Easter just a week away, the Easter Bunny will be busy this weekend, greeting kids around the area. The Cleveland Metropark Zoo (3900 Wildlife Way, 216.661.6500) offers Breakfast With the Easter Bunny in its rainforest March 27, March 28 and on April 3. A breakfast buffet is served from 8:30-9:30 a.m., followed by face-painting,…
3/27: Cowboy Junkies at PlayhouseSquare
It’s been more than 20 years since U.S. audiences were introduced to Cowboy Junkies’ hushed folk-rock. Formed in Toronto in the mid ’80s by the Timmins siblings (guitarist Michael, drummer Peter and singer Margo) and their bass-playing friend Alan Anton, the Junkies self-released their 1986 debut, Whites Off Earth Now! The buzz surrounding the band’s…
3/27: Cleveland Pops Orchestra
While competitive gymnasts focus on technical brilliance, gymnasts who end up in the circus create routines that make you “ooh” and “aah.” Elena Tsarkova is part of the latter group. The Russian gymnast flows from pose to pose, balancing her hands on two stools, contorting her body and making it ripple in sensual time with…
3/26: John Zorn and New Masada Sextet at Art Museum
Hard to believe that over the course of his 35-year career, avant-garde jazz icon John Zorn has never played Cleveland. Tonight’s show at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s newly renovated Gartner Auditorium (11150 East Blvd., 216.421.7350) will mark his first Northeast Ohio appearance. While Zorn’s material is all over the musical map, he plans to…
3/26: Stuart Warner at Visible Voice Books
It’s not your average book signing, where you buy a book, stand in line and get an autograph while briefly telling the author how much you like his/her work. Instead, Visible Voice Books (1023 Kenilworth Ave., 216.961.0084) has snagged local writer/editor/journalism teacher Stuart Warner — the man Connie Schultz has credited with helping shape her…
3/26: Putnam County Spelling Bee opens at Beck
Competitive spelling contests are loaded with equal shares of comedy and drama. That’s at the soul of the musical The Putnam County Spelling Bee. With music and lyrics by William Finn and a book by Rachel Sheinkin, the play gives spellers, their parents and the moderators an outlet for their personalities — like overachiever Marcy…
3/26 & 27: Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Trans-Siberian Orchestra played one of their first shows at the Palace Theatre more than a decade ago. Founder Paul O’Neill says it’s a surreal experience to return to the PlayhouseSquare stage for the group’s first non-holiday tour. Based on their 2000 album Beethoven’s Last Night, the show will scale back the massive production that usually…
3/26: Country Joe McDonald at the Wincester
Hippie-era Berkeley native Country Joe McDonald is best remembered for his “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag” and its infamous “fuck” cheer from the Woodstock movie. But McDonald has had a long career, with more than 30 albums as a solo artist and as leader of Country Joe and the Fish. McDonald has…
3/26: I-X Indoor Amusement Park opens
The transformation of the I-X Center into a sort of mini Cedar Point, dubbed the I-X Indoor Amusement Park, has become one of the area’s traditional signs of spring. The building’s permanent giant Ferris wheel is joined by a host of other rides (including a Kidzville section with 25 tot-sized thrills), stage shows and special…
3/26: Eclipse: The War Between Pac and Big at Karamu
Eclipse: The War Between Pac and Big, playwright Michael Oatman’s play about the rap wars between West Coaster Tupac Shakur and East Coaster Biggie Smalls, has gathered intensity on its way to Karamu’s main stage. Read for the first time as part of Cleveland Playhouse’s Fusion Festival, it was semi-staged a year ago as part…
3/25: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson at Musica
In 2008, this long-named Oregon singer-songwriter started a buzz with his self-titled debut album — a glorified demo that combined the R&B atmospherics of TV on the Radio with Elliott Smith’s low-fi basement folk. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson arrived on the scene showcasing a knack for creating unsettling urban elegies that fused deeply personal guitar…
3/24 & 25: Kyle Grooms at Hilarities
Growing up in New Jersey, Kyle Grooms knew he would end up in the arts someday. As a teen, he expressed himself as a graffiti artist and then studied graphic arts at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, eventually landing a gig as art director for a Hispanic TV network in Miami. “I had a…
Honor of the badgeless: SXSW 2010
“I’m with the band photographer.” This statement alone may be your golden ticket to SXSW ecstasy. This is how one of San Antonio Current’s freelancers, Will Lee, got into some of the biggest shows without a badge over the weekend. So next year, pack up your fancy camera – or handcuff yourself to your friend…
(SXSW) In front of the music: rock show posters
We all know SXSW is the mecca of music. But what gets you to the show? Usually a visual. Flatstock is a rock poster show featuring original graphic art from more than 80 of the most popular working poster artists today. It’s the mecca of visuals as far as music is concerned. In its 24th…
Goosey Takes Flight (And Everyone’s Trying to Be Like ‘Bron)
Well, and Jamario too, but LeBron’s getting the credit. Bob Finnan explored the ever-spreading fad of the “goosey” last week, the origins, evolution, and meaning of the Cavs’ three-pointer celebration. The Washington Huskies are one of the teams to adopt the gesture, and they’re not settling for just the goose. They’ve lined up an array…
Batter Up!
TOP PICK Major League Baseball 2K10 (2K Sports) Just in time for baseball season, this annual videogame favorite (for pretty much every console out there) improves on last year’s buggy outing by stepping up pitching and batting features. Best is the new My Player mode, where you build a rookie from the locker room all…
Local CD Reviews
Jackson Rohm (self-released) Acoustic Sessions jacksonrohm.com “I’m such a baby when I don’t get my way,” croons Jackson Rohm in “One More Fourth of July” on his sixth full-length CD. The guy has a soft side that he’s not afraid to show, but that’s no reason to hate him. Rohm does the singer-songwriter thing really…
Bites: Menu6
Diners will follow their favorite chefs around town like doting pups, regardless in which kitchen they happen to hang their toques. That’s good news to guys like Michael Herschman, who seem to put down roots as deep as tumbleweeds. It’s no shocker to report that Herschman “gets around,” but wherever he manages to land, you…
Twins Peak
Flying in the face of the “telepathic twins” stereotype, Tegan and Sara Quin have always been independent, easily distinguishable songwriters who complement and clash with one another in equal doses. It wasn’t until they started work on their sixth studio album — last year’s Sainthood — that the sisters tried to co-write some songs for…
BRUELL INVENTIONS
If Cleveland is one of the most miserable cities in America, you’d be hard pressed to find evidence at Chinato. On a brisk Monday at noon in early March — the day, week and month all notorious for dim sales — the snazzy trattoria is aglow with mirthful souls. Wine glasses tinkle; ebullient chatter bubbles…
CD Review: Goldfrapp
The most frivolous song on Goldfrapp’s fifth album also happens to be the best. Coincidence? “Rocket” blasts off with an irresistible hook, pillow-soft vocals by frontwoman Alison Goldfrapp and delightfully kooky lyrics (“I got a rocket/You’re going on it/You’re never coming back”). It’s positively ABBA-esque. The rest of Head First dives in with equal playfulness.…
CD Review: She & Him
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 is as winning this…
CD Review: Bettie Serveert
Bettie Serveert recently re-established their relevance with the placement of a pair of nearly two decade-old tracks (“Palomine” and “Leg”) on TV’s Cold Case. With the release of their first album in four years. The giddily effervescent Pharmacy of Love’s fist-pumping dynamics and indie-pop classicism are quite surprising: Bands aren’t supposed to sound this vital…
CD Review: Serena Maneesh
No 2: Abyss in B Minor comes nearly four years after Serena Maneesh’s debut won them opening slots for the Dandy Warhols, Oasis and Nine Inch Nails. The Norwegian quartet was able to play with such a diverse group of acts because it’s fairly distinctive. They’re as comfortable cranking out sludgy, feedback-drenched epics as they…
CD Review: Mose Allison
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 produced classics like “Parchman Farm,” “Your…
CD Review: Bright Eyes/Neva Dinova
This reissue of the 2004 EP that paired Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and Neva Dinova’s Jake Bellows doesn’t sound the least bit dated. That’s a credit to Oberst and Bellows’ songwriting skills — and the fact that they’ve added four new tunes to the mix. “Rollerskating,” one of the new tracks, marries muffled vocals with…
Film Capsules
Opening Chloe Based on Anne Fontaine’s superb 2004 French drama, Canadian maverick Atom Egoyan’s (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica</i.) latest provocation has such an irresistible premise — a middle-aged woman hires a beautiful call girl to seduce her husband whom she suspects of infidelity — that you wish he’d left well enough alone. The cast (Julianne…
Case Sensitive Music
http://www.casesensitivemusic.com/
THE CURE IS WORSE
In the eyes of local activist Barry Zucker, the pesticides readily available at your local big-box retailer are a silent killer. Zucker, along with other health and environmental advocates, points to studies linking chemicals used in pesticides to birth defects, autism, several types of cancer, asthma, ADHD and Parkinson’s disease. Experts say children are particularly…
Still the Promised Land
Out west in gigantic, thriving Chicago, there’s a debate underway between a journalist and an IT consultant over whether regionalism can help the hollowing-out cities of the Rust Belt. Chicago is the Great Lakes exception. Social thinkers there look west and see the empty Great Plains states that lost their economic mojo a generation ago,…
COCKTAIL HOUR
There was a time when pianist Thomas Lauderdale was considering running for mayor of his beloved city, Portland, Oregon. It was the early ’90s, and he was just out of college and active in progressive politics. He was going to lots of fundraisers and tolerating the generally bad music that accompanies those affairs. Then he…
Nothing Man
Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller), the central character in writer-director Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg, has issues. He’s the kind of guy who can’t let things go. When a cup of Starbucks coffee isn’t to his liking, he writes a letter to the corporate offices to let them know about it. His philosophy is that “life is wasted…
Around Hear: Mr. Gnome Tastes Like…
Mr. Gnome has a new EP, Tastes Like Magic, available as a seven-inch single and download. The two songs are leftovers from the Heave Yr Skeleton sessions. “They just didn’t seem to fit on the album,” says singer Nicole Barille. “One is extremely poppy, and the other is probably the heaviest song we’ve ever written…
Happy Hardcore
Call it the curse of the promo photo. Every time Heads Held High took a group picture, within weeks a member dropped out. So late last year, as the Cleveland hardcore group readied its fifth release, the guys took a new publicity shot that wasn’t meant to last. They went to Wal-Mart and snapped a…
AGING AT WARP SPEED
Now that the health-care reform bill has passed Congress, beware the stampede of tea baggers running for the hills to escape Obama’s looming “death panels.” Of course, the fear of one’s own impending mortality can focus the mind for good or ill, and that thought is front and center in Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay-Abaire,…
Reel Cleveland: American Indian Film Series Coming to CMA
To coincide with its current exhibit Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection, the Cleveland Museum of Art (11150 East Blvd., 216.4221.7350, clemusart.org/film) will host Seeing Red: An American Indian Film Series. Locally based educator Marie Toledo, of the Jemez Pueblo tribe, will conduct discussions after several of the screenings. The series starts with…
Matters of Taste
It would be no great surprise to find a retail showroom like the Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery tucked away on a chic block in London, New York or Chicago. But the Lesko enterprise, operated by Kenneth and his son Ross, waits for customers at the end of a corridor in a rambling brick structure that…
Devil’s Music
In their 11 years together, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have accumulated enough time on the road, in the studio and elsewhere that they could write a sizable book. Singer Peter Hayes maintains a quiet modesty about the band’s experiences and longevity at a time of overnight sensations. “Gosh, I’m not sure how to answer that…
