Holy Artifacts!
Cradle of Christianity: Treasures From the Holy Land, opening today at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, features more than 150 artifacts stretching back to the fourth century. “People don’t always connect these pieces to reality,” says David Mevorah, curator of Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine archaeology at the Israel Museum, which put together the exhibit.…
The Path Well-Traveled
Critics of this century’s garage- and blues-rock revivals like to remind everyone that it’s all been done before, that the line between homage and rip-off is now as porous as the Mexican border. True, folks aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel here; they’re merely adding their own flourishes to the original blueprints. But we’ve been having…
Crazy Karaoke With Amanda
All the hype about Crazy Karaoke with Amanda — a popular sing-along night billed as “over 35,000 not-so-ordinary songs yo’ mama don’t got” — is justified. On our visit, the night kicked off as a college guy in a worn hoodie ripped through “20th Century Boy,” followed by a provocative rendition of Fiona Apple’s “Criminal”…
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…
Treading Water
As many as 100 canoers and kayakers travel from as far as France compete this morning for gold, silver, and bronze medals in the 38th annual Vermilion River Race. But if the water level is low, the competition could be moved upstream, closer to Lake Erie, where the level is normally a couple of feet…
Royal Pain
Puccini’s Turandot was the legendary composer’s only attempt at an opera based on myth. A reworking of a Chinese fable, Turandot allowed Puccini to play with sounds and styles. Cleveland Opera’s production, which opens tonight, features lavish sets, international stars, and a princess with one hell of an attitude. The story’s royal protagonist quizzes potential…
Shack Attack
Part Pentecostal tent revival, part theater of the absurd, part circus sideshow — Nashville’s Legendary Shack*Shakers are a greasy, southern-fried combo of gonzo blues, punk, gospel, and rockabilly, led by their irrepressible frontman, Colonel J.D. Wilkes (pictured, center). One of the most animated performers in rock, Wilkes could be speaking in tongues when he sings,…
The Pretenders
Chrissie Hynde’s mesmerizing androgyny shines through on this astutely chosen four-CD, one-DVD boxed set. Besides the hits that made her and her mutable band of British boys a hard-rock household word, Pirate Radio features 15 previously unreleased tracks, including a super-punky demo of “Precious,” a rough original, “Tequila” (which suggests that the Pretenders are due…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Speaking Volumes — Oh, the stories Lauren Herzak-Bauman’s creations would tell, if only they could talk. The Tremont artist takes an ingenious approach to the notions of memory and the passing of time, creating blocklike books out of clay and stacking them in larger installations, often intermingling clay books with real ones. One of…
Love Is in the Air
The gay guys in the North Coast Men’s Chorus take a look at love from all sorts of angles in their tribute to springtime passion, S’Wonderfool. Today’s two-hour concert includes standards and oldies like “I Only Have Eyes for You” and “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” It’ll also spotlight a medley of pop songs…
I’ll See Your Nothing and Raise You Nothing!
Like the idea of playing poker, but aren’t too keen on losing tons of cash? Then the Fox and Hound in Mayfield Heights has a game for you. Its twice-weekly Texas Hold ‘Em Tournaments involve no money. Prizes include free games of pool and food from the bar. “We just want to keep people from…
No Biggie?!
All hail “Love Rollercoaster,” a sweet slice of funk brought to us by the Ohio Players. There is not enough funk in this world. So we welcome every bite of funk that has been fed to us and every band that cooks it. Oh, Ohio Players, the sins that have been committed in your name!…
Essex Green
The best thing about Essex Green? It’s always summer on its records, and you’re 15 and in love for the first time all over again. Cannibal Sea, the third full-length from the Brooklyn trio of Sasha Bell, Chris Ziter, and Jeff Baron, is wall-to-wall angelic harmonies, jangling guitars, bubbling synths, and bewitching melodies. Some songs…
Spray-On Soul
Somewhere between the time DJ Kool Herc got the party started in the 1970s and LL Cool J’s star turn on MTV Unplugged in 1991, hip-hop went mainstream. First it conquered the ‘burbs. Then it went global. Before long, kids in Tokyo were rapping. Along the way, hip-hop also muscled in on videogames, influencing everything…
Men Without Hats Alert!
Jim Perchinske relives the days of early MTV at tonight’s All-Request Video Night. The Islander’s house DJ recently installed a computerized sound system that’s loaded with 5,000 videos from the ’70s and ’80s. The clips are broadcast on six televisions, including a six-by-eight-foot widescreen TV. The most requested videos are the Commodores’ “Brick House” and…
Center Stage
Jason Sage’s concert tonight marks a homecoming of sorts for the Florida transplant. A graduate of Hudson’s Western Reserve High School, the 23-year-old singer-songwriter stops in Cleveland to perform songs from his debut CD, Leaving Myself Behind, and reminisce about his school days. “I remember driving through Peninsula with my dad on Sunday afternoons,” he…
Sound Advice
Anthony Attalla is a resident DJ at Cloud 9. He also spins electronic dance music at other venues across Canada and the Midwest. What have you been listening to lately? I’ve actually been listening to a lot of tribal house and some minimal techno. As for the techno, I don’t usually listen to straight minimal,…
The Rogers Sisters
The Rogers Sisters are keeping their music as simple as their name (they’re really sisters and really named Rogers). Sure, they’ve added some flute and feedback, and they’ve further layered their sound, but it remains raw and raucous, vibrating with soul through ’60s garage and art rock. Miyuki Furtado (not a sister) cuts The Invisible…
Kid Stuff for Parents
Wonder Showzen: Season One (MTV) On the surface, the way this MTV2 puppetfest explores adult concepts through a kiddie-show format seems fresh as a Nantucket limerick. But Wonder Showzen’s execution is so bold and frankly hilarious that it feels wholly new. Whether it’s exploring diversity with a forbidden homosexual love between an Arab numeral and…
Down Under
Rejoice! The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s Australian Adventure reopens today! In addition to all the live animals — including koalas, wallabies, and emus — the vast play area features an interactive ranch house with lifelike animatronic animals and hands-on displays. Also on board: a 55-foot baobab tree that kids can climb if they wanna play koala.…
Trance Fever
Comedian and hypnotist Flip Orley has problems finding audience volunteers to help him out onstage. “There’s a lot of concern and fear,” he says. “You need to build some credibility with them.” As well as trust. Which is why Orley won’t make participants “bark like a dog, squeal like a pig, or take their clothes…
Money Where Your Mouth Is
Band: The Stone Pony Band, featuring the Northcoast Horns (www.stoneponyband.com) Hometown: “I’ve got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack, but this town is our town.” Sounds like: “Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny rumbled in an alley with Michael Stanley and Bob Seger, and the Chicago horn section won.” Fun fact: “One night on a…
Ghostface
With Method Man and the RZA lost in film, the GZA and Raekwon lost in action, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard lost in drugs, madness, and eventually death, Ghostface Killah became the Wu-Tang Clan’s most visible member just by continuing to show up. In fact, he’s done more than that; despite carping from fans about his…
The week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
CD — Pirate Radio: This five-disc box (four CDs, one DVD) features almost 30 years’ worth of Pretenders songs and performances. Because the band — formed by Akron’s Chrissie Hynde in London, just as punk hit — has gone through various personnel changes over the years, later material can be spotty. But the first two…
Teen Titan
Teen pop isn’t dead; it just took a short vacation. During its hiatus, it got more serious about its aspirations. No longer content with TRL appearances and chart-showing, today’s teen popsters have world domination in sight. Blame Kelly Clarkson. “I want to play big arenas,” says 16-year-old Katelyn Tarver. “And I want to do some…
Splendor in the Grass
On his latest album, Grass, singer-songwriter Keller Williams applies his twisted spin to yet another genre project. This time, he gives bluegrass arrangements to a set of original and surprisingly adaptable cover songs. It’s no revelation that the pair of Grateful Dead covers — “Loser” and “Dupree’s Diamond Blues” — adjust quite well to Williams’…
Last Word
“Heaven and Hell. So, exactly where was Ronnie James Dio at the Hall of Fame bash? A total injustice!” — Ron Emig, Parma Heights “Without question, the correct answer here is Mob Rules. This album produced one of the top five Sabbath tunes of all time, ‘Sign of the Southern Cross.'” — Chris Akin, The…
The Duke Spirit
Don’t let the members of this London five-piece fool you: Claiming not to care whether people think you’re cool is almost always the same thing as caring about it. And despite their protestations, the Duke Spirit bandmates are cool: They play dark, churning retro-rock, full of fuzzy guitars and driving drums — the modern-day equivalent…
Our top DVD picks for the week of March 28
The Andy Milonakis Show: The Complete First Season (MTV) Another Public Enemy (Tartan) A Boy Named Charlie Brown (Paramount) Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King (Sony) Doctor Who: The Beginning Collection (BBC Warner) Don’t Deliver Us From Evil (Mondo Macabre) Godzilla: The Series (Sony) Hot Wheels (Warner Bros.) I Love Your Work (ThinkFilm) The Keeper (Showtime)…
Gun Club
This weekend’s Cleveland Grays Militaria Show features many items that have been used to kill and maim over the years. But don’t go there hoping to stock your personal arsenal, says Mike Marcellino, director of the Cleveland Grays Armory Museum, which hosts the event. “This is not a gun show,” he says. But it is…
Soundtrack of Our Lives
The past nine months have been good to Motion City Soundtrack. The Minneapolis power punks’ second album, Commit This to Memory, became a buzzworthy hit that’s kept them on the road since the disc’s release last June. The quintet, which headlined both the Van’s Warped Tour and MTV’s Campus Invasion last year, is now swinging…
Daily Double, Take Two
After stints as an espresso bar and gentlemen’s club, Akron’s Daily Double (370 Orleans Avenue) has returned, with a schedule full of local bands. “I want to get newer bands into Akron,” says Billy Ludwig, whose Sygyl Productions books the club and Annabell’s, one of Akron’s best no-frills rock bars. “I’d like to grab the…
Doug McKean
Lately, Doug McKean has played guitar with Rosavelt, the Whiskeyhounds, and Tim Easton, between gigs with the Boys From County Hell. He was singer-bassist of ’90s punkers GC5. Now, on a solo debut full of wistful barroom rock and roll, singer-guitarist McKean is joined by Rosavelt frontman Chris Allen, Cleveland bluesman Austin “Walkin’ Cane” Charanghat,…
Expect PMS Jokes
Any show that calls itself Hormonal Imbalance is likely to end up being the theater equivalent of a chick flick. Add the fact that the production is staged by a quartet of women who call themselves Four Bitchin’ Babes, and all men who plan to attend might as well check their penises at the door.…
Electric 6
Electric 6 has been able to amass ridiculous amounts of praise in England, where the band is seen as an unabashedly snarky, party-centered Queen update. Originally a scruffier, low-rent Roxy Music when it was the Wildbunch, it has since gone more cock-rockin’ parody. On its latest, Señor Smoke (Metropolis) — its first release in three…
The Black Diamonds
Still in high school, the Black Diamonds play the kind of incredibly catchy stoner rock that their dads probably got wasted to in the ’70s. Teenagers or not, the Perry quartet is ready for rock college, and its current two-song demo — both raunchy tracks are available at MySpace.com/blkdmds — should qualify as their first…
Royally Screwed
In John Carroll University’s exhibit Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend, Carole Levin tries to set the record straight about the Virgin Queen’s sex life. It wasn’t as it was portrayed in the 1998 movie Elizabeth, in which the monarch jumped into bed with Robert Dudley while her ladies-in-waiting watched. “First, she’d never do it in…
Jucifer
The guitarist grimace has been well documented. Photographers the world over have captured that pursed expression so often seen on the faces of guitarists, as if they’re experiencing orgasm through a vise grip. Drummers, though, have not gotten their due since the 1978 death of Keith Moon. However, since Jucifer formed in 1995, the Athens,…
A New World
Shawarma, baba, and tabbouleh: Once exotic, today these Middle Eastern mainstays are as familiar as chicken strips, burgers, and baked beans. Perhaps the Food Network deserves a nod for the development of our increasingly worldly palate, but for many of us, most of the credit goes to Fady Chamoun, founder of the ever-growing chain of…
Dream Team
Dream a Little Dream: The Nearly True Story of the Mamas & the Papas will, hopefully, put to rest the urban legend about how Mama Cass Elliot died. The hefty member of the ’60s chart-toppers did not choke to death on a ham sandwich. Rather, her massive size contributed to a heart attack that killed…
Art Brut
South London quintet Art Brut is like the first drink you decide is “your drink,” even before your actual drinking age arrives. So you decide, as a sophisticated adult of 19, that your drink is gin and tonic. You are unaware that gin and tonic is actually a fine choice masquerading as one that’s immature…
Heat Wave
After looking over the lengthy lineup of judges for next week’s Chili Cook-Off, it’s hard to believe there’s anyone left in town to do the actual cooking. But personal chef Brian Doyle (World’s Fare Culinary Services) promises that he and his buds have rounded up nearly 30 cooks — including pros like Michael Clotworthy (Flying…
Lost in Translation
In The Intruder, director Claire Denis seems more concerned with putting visual poetry onscreen than with telling a coherent story. The result is a beautifully elegiac tale about a 68-year-old man — an outdoorsman whom no one (including his neighbors and son) really likes — who leaves his cabin in France in search of a…
Mr. Big
The sound of the Hermit Club piano was melancholy, its notes shimmering above the drinks like summer rain. Nearly 50 men, mostly middle-aged, crowded the bar to listen. They were touched by the moment and the melodies, played by a man in financial ruin and destined for federal prison. Most, in some way, had marveled…
Municipal Waste
How much do you love your old copies of D.R.I.’s Dealing With It and Crossover, Cryptic Slaughter’s Convicted and Money Talks, or Suicidal Tendencies’ debut and Join the Army? Not as much as drummer Dave Witte loves his — that’s a safe bet. The master of arty grindcore with such outfits as Melt-Banana, Discordance Axis,…
Slugfest
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of a B-movie renaissance. For years now, the politics of the multiplex have forced films to be either big-budget, Burger King-cup blockbusters or tiny “indie” projects about college-educated Caucasians with emotional problems (and viewed by college-educated Caucasians with emotional problems). But between these slices of fluffy…
There’s Something About Mary
The Cleveland Art Theatre lends a feminine perspective to the life and death of Jesus at tonight’s opening of the gospel drama O Mary, Don’t You Weep. The all-female cast portrays the six Marys of the New Testament: Mary, mother of Jesus; Mary, mother of John Mark; Mary of Galilee; Mary of Bethany; Mary, wife…
Kill the Radio
David Binkley sits at his desk at the WCRS studios in Akron, trying his best to describe how one reads the Sunday comics over the radio. “Very carefully,” he jokes. The 45-year-old can’t quite explain how he describes Crankshaft to 6,500 blind listeners every Sunday afternoon, though he’s been doing it since 1979. Binkley is…
Tinsley Ellis
Once, while portraying the host of a music mockumentary, Monty Python’s Eric Idle quipped that “the blues is a black music played mostly by whites.” As time marches on, the kernel of truth in the joke grows more obvious. The blues these days rides more and more on the shoulders of the rock music it…
Ch-Ch-Check It Out
So far, the Beastie Boys’ concert film Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! has screened in only a handful of places: at the Sundance and South by Southwest film festivals and, last week, at multiplexes across the country during one-time-only whoop-dee-doo screenings in conjunction with Big Screen Concerts. The latter is a relatively new effort to…
Frequent Fliers
Washington D.C. metal band Darkest Hour once went to Sweden to record an album with esteemed death-metal producer Fredrik Nordström. You gotta admire that kinda commitment. The band made its latest album, Undoing Rain, in Canada, but the brutal one-two punch of shredding guitars and throat-tearing vocals returned intact. Thu., March 30, 7:30 p.m.
Bribery Warehouse
Nate Gray and three other men were at a Beachwood restaurant. The conversation was as damning as it gets. A front man for a Chicago wireless company had approached Gray about buying his way into the Cleveland school district. If Gray could deliver a $9.7 million contract, the man was prepared to kick back $780,000.…
The Gris Gris
The Gris Gris will take you on a trip with frenzied horn buildups and mind-bending meltdowns, favoring chantlike singing and mystical melodies and instrumentation without the overly self-indulgent virtuosity of the psych-rock of yore. The band flavors its sound with shades of garage rock, folk, and free jazz. Though the rhythm section can lose the…
Will in the Way
From the stars of Elf, here’s a new drama about depression and family baggage! Might not want to bring the kids to this one, lest they wonder why Buddy the Elf’s girlfriend is drowning a kitten and deliberately slamming her fingers in cabinet drawers. On the other hand, the two movies do have some things…
Busy as a Bee
In 2002, Sue Monk Kidd was in a hotel room, watching Jeopardy, when she realized how huge her book, The Secret Life of Bees, had become. A contestant chose “Women Writers” for $600. The question: “Sue Monk Kidd’s debut novel is about this insect.” “I sat blinking,” she says. “It finally got through to me,…
Breaking Tradition
It’s usually the woman who bears the bruises of domestic violence — hence battered woman’s syndrome. Yet one Akron homestead has taken a refreshingly woman’s-lib approach to wife-beating. Last month, 26-year-old Deanna Bartee pleaded guilty to felonious domestic violence after she stabbed boyfriend Gary Cook with a steak knife. When police were dispatched to the…
Sir Mix-A-Lot
As the saying goes, if you’re going to be remembered as a one-hit wonder, you’d better make it one to remember. Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” certainly qualifies. The Seattle rapper’s ode to big butts was the second-best-selling single of 1992 and won a Grammy, but the phrase — and, to some extent, the debate…
Blood Business
In his 1961 farewell address, President Eisenhower warned Americans that an insidious new force was taking hold in the country. He called it the “military-industrial complex.” Born of necessity during the Second World War, this once-valuable conjunction of the military, the federal government, and the armaments industry was suddenly taking on a life of its…
Grape Escape
Tremont’s Prosperity Social Club feels like a bar from the 1930s. Its art deco style and the oldies on the jukebox pay homage to the good ol’ days. And on Mondays, it offers pre-inflation prices by slashing $5 from the cost of every bottle on its extensive — and very modern — wine list. Owner…
NASA’s Guinea Pig
Down for the count: A friend of mine pointed out the article “Guinea Pig Gang” [March 22] and told me that I beat them all. I’m currently participating in the NASA-sponsored bed-rest study, and so far I haven’t been out of bed in five and a half weeks. (The entire study runs 12 weeks.) I…
Eisley
Let’s face it: You hear the phrase “Fresh-faced, home-schooled, God-fearing, sibling popsters from small-town America,” and you think Hanson or maybe the Osmonds, and then you giggle, shudder, and quickly move on, right? The Texas-bred band Eisley, which comprises five youthful members of the DuPree family (who took their moniker from the spaceport in Star…
Glitz on the Fritz
The contradictions found in our daily conversation often provide unexpected pleasures, once we recognize them for what they are. But while such laughable oxymorons as “corporate ethics” and “open secret” reveal their opposing elements readily enough, others aren’t quite so amusing — especially when they’re enmeshed in a theatrical production that asks a hefty admission…
Horsing Around
A few centuries ago, the Lipizzaner stallion was the Sherman tank of its time. The white horse’s large build and powerful center of gravity made it the favored mode of transportation for great warriors and royalty. But these days, instead of riding into battle, the graceful beasts are trained to dance to classical music. “It’s…
Show Us Your Music!
Revelers spill out of the bars, over the curb, and into the crowded, blocked-off street. An enveloping roar emanates from every direction. Glazed eyes, unsteady legs, and a general crush of humanity intrude on all sides. This is Austin’s South by Southwest Music Conference, a musical Mardi Gras with barbecue instead of boobs. Now in…
The Birthday Massacre
If you’re a goth-industrial fan, the question is not why you need to be at the Phantasy this night, but how you could possibly miss it. Toronto’s rocking Birthday Massacre headlines the live-band portion of the evening, fronted by female vocalist Chibi, who works an angel/succubus duality like few others. Diehard rivetheads can stay for…
It’s a Joke
Anyone who has made the trek through college is aware of the phenomenon known as the sophomore slump. Coming fast on the heels of exciting freshman discoveries (So that’s how much butterscotch schnapps I have to drink to blow chunks!), the second season is often a period of developmental confusion for bleary-eyed scholars. Alas, this…
