Ladies First
At today’s Women’s Circles: Creativity in Community program, author Jean Shinoda Bolen will talk about how evil guys are and how it’s only a matter of time before they blow us all to hell. “There are some good men out there,” she clarifies. Still, in her latest book, Urgent Message From Mother: Gather the Women,…
Violent Femmes
In 1983 both Bono and Violent Femmes frontman Gordon Gano publicly pondered the dilemma of life as a horny Christian from the musical pulpit. Now, nearly a quarter-century later, Bono wrestles with arena shows, Grammy Awards, the World Bank, and life as a lustful Christ figure (though not necessarily in that order), even as Gano…
Oh, Grow Up
A star who turned into a black hole somewhere between the release of, oh, The Wedding Planner and Sahara (or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Two for the Money — really, where to draw the line), Matthew McConaughey is better known of late for shooting tequila with Oprah and runnin’ around…
Viral Marketing
Did you know that more than 75 percent of HIV patients diagnosed in December in Cuyahoga County were black? The news certainly stunned Michelle Jackson, the organizer of this weekend’s Black HIV Awareness Expo. “I thought it was a gay-white-male, IV-drug-user thing,” says Jackson. “For somebody who’s well read and educated, I wasn’t aware of…
Shark Hunters
On a frigid Saturday morning, 42 East Siders pile into a Rent-A-Bus, armed with a megaphone, fliers, and 2,000 rubber sharks. The bus fills with the anticipation of the hunt. They’re stalking what they believe is the Great White Loan Shark — Countrywide Financial. It’s the fourth-largest lender in Cleveland and one of the largest…
Lee Rocker
Any aspiring rockabilly musician who’s straddled a bass fiddle onstage in the last 20 years owes Lee Rocker, big time. As one-third of premier retro-rockers the Stray Cats, Rocker reintroduced the “bull bass” to the pop music universe. Armed with a love of rockabilly and blues — and some early classical music training, courtesy of…
Look Away
Anyone who remembers the 1977 Wes Craven film The Hills Have Eyes remembers it because a) they had a memorable fuck-or-puke night at the neighborhood drive-in, b) Michael Berryman’s uniquely hairless mug, which glared from the video-store horror sections for decades and still represents a moldy teenage sense memory, sucked them into a rental, or…
Sea Worthy
After hearing a few tunes by Great Big Sea, you suspect the band comes from a place where they spear giant squids for a living. Most of the songs on its new album, The Hard and the Easy, are about mermaids, pirates, and even cod liver oil. So it’s little surprise that the rockers —…
Whores & Queens
The first shot was fired in 2003. Jim Petro had just been elected attorney general. He was looking for enemies — loosely defined as anyone who didn’t give him money. He found them in the badlands of Akron. Nefarious patent attorneys were being paid to protect the University of Akron’s scientific achievements. Useful work, to…
The Subways
Remember Godzilla? Not the original Japanese classic, but the hyper-publicized, disastrously overbudgeted 1998 American version? If so (and who could really shake the memory of that godawful Puff Daddy/ Jimmy Page collaboration that the film spawned), you understand the risks of a hype machine in overdrive. It’s the same force that made Karen O ubiquitous…
Free for All
If you plan to see The Libertine, an artful and brooding period piece about a scandalously debauched earl of the English Restoration, a few words of advice before you leave: Take a peek at the sun. Drink in some fresh air. Consider bidding goodbye to most of the color palette (red, yellow, blue, purple), and…
Body and Soul
On her debut album, A Change Is Gonna Come, Leela James bridges four decades’ worth of R&B. The Los Angeles singer works a Tina Turner-like rasp until it’s a smooth, polished gem. But she’s no throwback, despite the shortage of hip-hop beats on Change. James enlists producers like Kanye West, Raphael Saadiq, and Wyclef Jean…
Always Open
The journeyman is coming! Thank God. They’ve been huddled like this for minutes, minutes that seem like hours, ever since the game ended. They have deadlines, all of them: the stone-faced beat writers, the rosy-cheeked sportscasters, the cheery-voiced radio guys. They have copy to file, updates to phone in, B-roll to edit. It’s past 10…
Cowboy Mouth
Like Chicago-style pizza or the beer that made Milwaukee famous, music has always been a big export of New Orleans. While all three have been over-commodified into products bearing only the faintest resemblance to their inspiration, Louisiana natives Cowboy Mouth waste little time worrying about what’s been watered down; they’re too busy raising the roof.…
Shandy Everybody Wants
It should be too early in the year to expect a good movie, let alone a great one; anything released prior to the Oscars is bound to be forgotten by spring. Yet here it is, the first — dare we use the term that’s been all but stripped of meaning by journalistic hacks — masterpiece…
Straight Outta Tri-C
The original title of N*W*C*, the Race Play, which is being performed this weekend at the Ohio Theatre, was too hot for theater marquees. So, Nigger, Wetback, Chink was abbreviated to its current form. But the production itself is still a pull-no-punches look at race relations in the United States. “It can make you laugh,…
To Catch a Perv
Nobody’s pregnant, and no suburban cheerleaders or tennis coaches are involved. But still, Angel Montanez wonders: Isn’t anyone interested in catching the creep who violated his little girl? Montanez’ daughter was a sophomore at Cleveland’s Rhodes High when her 33-year-old art teacher, Michael Gonzalez, started taking her home for afternoon romps, according to police [“Head…
Ferret Music’s Under the Gun Tour
Let’s be frank. The problem with metalcore is that it all sounds the same. Enter Zao’s hotly anticipated Fear Is What Keeps Us Here, its upcoming sophomore effort for Ferret Music. Details are scarce, but the band is debuting two songs on this tour. And here’s the kicker: The album was recorded with Steve Albini,…
Seven‘s Deadly Sins
Plenty of stage musicals focus on the sweeter aspects of romance, delving into women’s favorite fantasy of being wooed and plied with flowers and tender love songs, and culminating in a delicate blending of two souls. So there’s probably room for at least one show based on a somewhat more blunt courting process: See woman,…
Southern Comfort
Since being named “America’s Best Songwriter” by Time in 2002, Lucinda Williams has become a national treasure, a ragged poet of southern nostalgia and regret. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, 1998’s rumination on childhood and passion, ranks as one of Americana’s all-time great albums. Williams’ latest CD, Live @ the Fillmore, sums up the…
Don’t Diss Our Town
Cleveland, love it or leave it: Keep Ron Rajecki and fire Elaine Cicora. Why? Because Mr. Rajecki knows the truth [“Dear Cleveland,” March 1]. I know about the people who wish that Cleveland were like New York or Chicago. However, the people who are supposed to be our city’s biggest champions — the members of…
Revolting Cocks
Equal parts thrash-metal aggression, jarring electronics, and punk-rock histrionics, the Revolting Cocks are the brainchild of Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen. After 13 years of inactivity, Jourgensen drags listeners back into RevCo’s world, and it sounds like a wobbly, punch-drunk version of Ministry’s no-nonsense shock-trooper style. Cocked takes off out of the gate with “Fire Engine,”…
Free, Fun & Frisky
One would think it difficult to be fully engaged, entertained, and intellectually stimulated in 30 minutes or less. Movies, concerts, and museum visits take longer, and even the funniest sitcoms ultimately feel a bit thin and insubstantial. Since we don’t expect much from that brief a period, we fritter away countless 30-minute chunks of our…
Terrorism, Italian Style
In the political drama Good Morning, Night, young Communist anarchists kidnap a government official, argue politics with him, then put him on trial. The film is based on events from 1978, when the Red Brigade stashed Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in a hidden room of a member’s house, from which Moro wrote letters while…
Last Year’s Story
“I honestly never thought they were going to be big,” admits David “Cornbread” Brown, host of a weekly St. Louis radio show. “Then I went to that last show that they did as Big Blue Monkey, and it was freaking amazing. The place was absolutely packed, the kids were so into it, and I was…
Honkeytonk Damnation
Honkeytonk Damnation plays old-school rockabilly, emphasis on billy. In songs like “Loaded Gun,” the whiskey-bent boys sing about cheatin’ hearts and the drunk lovers they leave behind. So how do you know they’re the real thing and not just cowpoke-wannabe fashionistas? One, if you’re trying to look cool, there’re easier ways to do it than…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Coming to America — Spend an afternoon with Comedy Central, and you’ll notice that plenty of the comedians freely traffic in f-bombs and scatological references. This is a comedic style called “working blue,” a phrase originated around the turn of the 20th century, when vaudeville performers were given blue envelopes that warned against using salacious…
Rim Shots
The University of Akron Zips and Kent State Golden Flashes are the top seeds heading into today’s opening round of Men’s MAC Madness. But even with their matching records in the Mid-American Conference, they’ll face stiff competition from the third-seed Red Hawks from Miami University of Ohio. The 12-team field will be thinned by the…
Friendly Fire
On the eve of an extensive tour of Europe and North America, as well as the release of his group’s eighth studio album, In Flames’ Daniel Svensson is out for a quiet walk with his three-month-old daughter. With a two-year-old at home too, Svensson, the intense and intimidating man who pummels the drum kit for…
Arctic Monkeys
U.K. music scribes have always been addicted to hype, but the genuflection over the British quartet is a bit too breathless, even by their standards. The chart-topping Arctic Monkeys couldn’t live up to the praise heaped on them if they were fronted by Jesus and Mohammed. (Please, no cartoons!) So it’s hardly shocking that their…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Dioramafantasauramania — The dioramas created by the three artists in this quirky, bountifully creative show are a far cry from grade school. Christopher Duffy’s miniaturist masterpiece “If It Happens, I’d Be Pretty Okay With It as Long as I Got to See It” depicts a cyclone destroying a Wal-Mart — reproduced entirely with construction…
Career in the Toilet
Stand-up comic and actor John Witherspoon doesn’t like movie sets. He spends a lot of time just sitting around, he says. Lately, though, Witherspoon (who played Ice Cube’s bathroom-polluting dad in the Friday movies) has been jotting down notes for a book he’s writing about his early years at Los Angeles’ fabled Comedy Store. And…
Out of the Closet
There are two options for the writer who takes on the daunting task of profiling Skeletons and the Girl-Faced Boys: Make several trips to the thesaurus and heap on arcane musical references to describe the band’s sound, or just hang up the hyphens and simply call this enigmatic collective of Oberlin grads a bunch of…
Stephin Merritt
Stephin Merritt has come out of the closet: Of course! You’re a theatrical composer! It must have been so hard passing as a pop singer all those years. The leader of Magnetic Fields and sundry other indie broods slides into musical theater so easily, you have to wonder how he was ever mistaken for a…
This Dogg’s Got Bite
The Tenants (Sony) Fifteen seconds into the video for “Nuthin but a G Thang,” it was obvious that Snoop Dogg had charisma to spare. More than a decade later, with his performance as ’70s-era radical author Willie Spearmint, it’s official: The man can act. Snoop’s shambling, searing performance is just one reason The Tenants ends…
Purim Party
Today is Purim, a holy day that marks the rescue of the Jews in ancient Persia from annihilation. And the Maltz Museum is celebrating with Family Day: Purim Pandemonium; folks will wear goofy costumes, make masks, and play with groggers (those wrist-twirling, headache-inducing noisemakers that contribute to New Year’s Eve festivities). There’s also a little…
Double the Pleasure
Fittingly, the Double is loaded with contradictions. The Brooklyn group, which sounds very British, makes a lot of racket with guitars, feedback, and sputtering keys on its latest album, Loose in the Air. But singer David Greenhill soars above it all with a pleasant tenor that often glides into a sweeping falsetto. You don’t know…
Oh Boy!
When Cam’Ron started sporting his purple chinchilla coat, we agreed that the man responsible for 2002’s Come Home With Me was allowed to wear whatever drag-queen costume he wanted. Shit, the dude responsible for “Hey, Ma” and “Oh, Boy” could have worn nothing but pasties and a Maxi Pad, and we’d have creamed ourselves. But…
Juvenile
You thought Kanye West’s post-Katrina thoughts came outta left field? If you read New Orleans rapper Juvenile’s allegations that the military deliberately flooded his hometown’s poorest wards after the hurricane, you’re forgiven for figuring his seventh album is one long conspiracy theory. In fairness, the former Hot Boy and Cash Money figurehead — who “lost…
Ghouls on the Go
Ask gamers of a certain age about Resident Evil, and a vivid memory springs to mind: They’re inching down a long, quiet hallway. Suddenly, a zombie dog crashes through a window. A ghostly howl. Insatiable jaws. Mommy, can you tuck me in tonight? The original Resident Evil pretty much single-handedly invented the genre of survival…
Lords of the Strings
To Armin Kelly, Guitar Weekend 2006 is about more than musicians strumming classical works by Bach, Piazzola, and Albeniz. “In those blissful moments of musical magic, we are reminded most of our shared humanity,” says Kelly, who founded the annual workshop in 2000. This weekend includes performances by Raphaella Smits tonight, Manuel Barrueco tomorrow, and…
Break out the Bouzouki!
It’s never too early to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. But with the drinking man’s favorite holiday a mere three days away, we’re doubly excited about Gráda’s performance tonight. The Irish band’s second album, The Landing Step, is filled with traditional Celtic instruments (bodhrán, fiddle, and tin whistle, among them) and sounds. Bonus points for having…
Sound Advice
James Sliman broke into the entertainment business as the Dead Boys’ tour manager. He has spent the last 25 years as a publicist, working with clients from AC/DC to Bette Midler. He recently left Cleveland’s Rust Records to form James Sliman Media Relations. What have you been listening to lately? I’m not very impressed with…
Javier
When the thugs took over R&B, most old-fashioned fans simply averted their eyes and closed their ears. But today there’s a whole new generation of urban gentlemen turning back the clock to a time when the quest for respect inspired classic songs instead of drive-bys. For starters, there’s Detroit singer Kem’s subtle balladry, Musiq’s innocent…
Our top DVD picks for the week of March 7.
The Best of the Best of The Electric Company (Shout Factory) Breaking News (Palm) Buster Keaton: 65th-Anniversary Collection (Sony) The Californians (Hart Sharp) Curse Death & Spirit (Asia Vision) The Easter Bunny Is Comin’ to Town (Warner Bros.) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros.) The House on Telegraph Hill (Fox) Jarhead (MCA)…
Purim Party
Today is Purim, a holy day that marks the rescue of the Jews in ancient Persia from annihilation. And the Maltz Museum is celebrating with Family Day: Purim Pandemonium; folks will wear goofy costumes, make masks, and play with groggers (those wrist-twirling, headache-inducing noisemakers that contribute to New Year’s Eve festivities). There’s also a little…
Sky High
On its debut album, Paradigm in Entropy, Bleed the Sky makes its philosophy quite clear. If the bone-rattling and brain-blasting metal of the CD’s 10 songs leave any doubt, the tracks’ titles spell it out: Bleed the Sky is one angry band, torn between disgusted doom-saying and an inclination to annihilate anyone who disagrees with…
Money Where Your Mouth Is
Band: Alex Bevan (www.alexbevan.com) Hometown: “Grew up in East Cleveland, lives in Madison Township now.” Sounds like: “Alex Bevan.” Fun fact: “I am able to leap to tall conclusions in a single bound.” Playing: Wilbert’s, Sunday, March 12 Why you need to see him: “CD-release party and nostalgia night. And all the usual reasons.” –…
The dB’s
Though deceptively humble at first glance, the third album from North Carolina’s dB’s remains one of the finest records of the 1980s. In spots, it sounds too much like the ’80s — the Supertramp-style keyboards on “Lonely Is (as Lonely Does)” do not evoke pleasant nostalgia — but opener “Love Is for Lovers” is the…
Here are the week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
TV — The Sopranos: Our favorite TV show of all time returns for its sixth and final season at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO. The ramifications of last year’s fallout (yeah, it’s been so long, we kinda forgot what happened too) hit Tony as he contemplates the fractured relationship between the inflamed mob families. Things…
Talkin’ Turkey
Alex Vedrinski can imitate just about any animal he hears. Geese, squirrels, bears — you name it, Vedrinski knows their calls and can copy them without a hitch. He has an array of trophies at his Streetsboro home to prove it. Most were awarded for his turkey calling. Vedrinski is lauded as one of the…
Hill Street Booze
Since the beginning of last month, Christy Cichra’s cell phone has been ringing 24-7 with callers asking about her boozy Olympic-style Team Tubing Club. “When I created this, I got 30 calls from friends who said, ‘What are you thinking, girl?'” she laughs. “And more people just found me through other friends, and they asked…
Last Word
“Iyan Anomolie, Tut, and myself, with Heiku doing the production. ” — Siege, Edotkom “Rob Williams and Norm Tischler on sax. Conrad Aukerman on trombone. Dave Hershey on trumpet. My bass player, Fred Tobey, and my keyboard player, Greg Hurd. Drums, Ike Wiley. Frank ‘Silk’ Smith, Jason Green, and Pete Cavano on guitars. Becky Boyd,…
First Offense
Like most Akron punks, the members of First Offense have made major indoor sports of drinking, fighting, and identifying with their underheralded hometown. The crusty quartet is so committed to the underdog theme that the odds-and-ends collection Rock ‘n Roll Bad Guys starts with the theme from Rocky. For the tattooed street dogs, upending society…
Mr. Black Goes to Washington
Lewis Black has the U.S. Government to thank for his short work weeks these days. “I don’t even have to write anything anymore,” he laughs. “All I have to do is print the headlines.” As one of the country’s sharpest, shrewdest, and most politically astute comedians, Black finds an endless supply of material in the…
Hips, Hips Hooray!
Don’t go to tonight’s Bellydance Superstars performance at Playhouse Square with your mind in the gutter, says Miles Copeland, who created the troupe. Rather, think of the exotically clad, salaciously gyrating women onstage as an ensemble like Riverdance, bringing a little taste of ethnic culture to America’s heartland. “It’s sort of sexy, but it’s wholesome,”…
Never Mind the Rock Hall
Pound for pound, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s 2006 inductees might be the coolest class in the institution’s 21-year history. The induction ceremony might not be so stellar. Less than a week before the 21st annual inductions, no information is available about the presenters and performances for the ceremonies, which will…
Island Breeze
As if Ohio City didn’t already offer a smorgasbord of culinary options — with Puerto Rican, Middle Eastern, Greek, and Irish spots rubbing shoulders with crêperies, sushi shops, and wine bars — along comes James “Kimo” Javier to toss a little Hawaiian BBQ on the table too. Javier, chef-owner of Kimo’s Sushi Shop (1885 Fulton…
Little Big Horn
For a 14-year-old sax player, Elizabeth Mis of Bay Village isn’t shy about e-mailing her idols to see whether she can duet with them. That’s how she ended up next to jazz guitarist Peter Smith at his 2004 concert at Pickwick & Frolic. “But I hadn’t told him I was 13,” says Mis. “I said,…
From Gangsta to Gospel
Hip-hop producer Aaron “AJ” Stone is banking on tonight’s XXX Affair to rejuvenate Cleveland’s rap and R&B scene. The event features performers on his Against the Grain label, such as Remixx, which will perform tracks from its new CD, 360. “My artists lead by example,” says Stone, “from hardcore gangsta hip-hop to R&B to neo-soul.”…
Dinah Cancer’s 45 Grave
Maybe you missed this trailblazing L.A. goth-rock-punk-metal outfit when the stylistic mishmash first reared its head, but 25 years later there’s another chance. Well, sort of. As Dinah Cancer is the sole remaining member, she’s preceded the original 45 Grave name with her own. That guarantees her trademark screeching vocals and spooky stage presence; her…
Blazer
On Blazer’s The Last Wave, brothers Raymond and Jason Glenn set out to capture the sounds of their ’80s childhoods. They could not have hit their target more dead-on. All the standard post-punk elements are present: new-wave synthesizer patches, straightforward drum programming, reverberating guitars, and swooning, slightly depressing vocals. Not only would the album have…
Lords of the Strongs
To Armin Kelly, Guitar Weekend 2006 is about more than musicians strumming classical works by Bach, Piazzola, and Albeniz. “In those blissful moments of musical magic, we are reminded most of our shared humanity,” says Kelly, who founded the annual workshop in 2000. This weekend includes performances Manuel Barrueco tonight, and Jason Vieaux on tomorrow.…
One Louder
Cleveland Orchestra assistant principal bassist Kevin Switalski always looks forward to Beethoven’s Third Symphony, the “Eroica.” Specifically, he awaits the vivid passage in which the cellos and basses unleash their boldest musical attack, portraying what he imagines as “the sky opening [with] the wrath of God.” Switalski’s doubly excited for this weekend’s performance of the…
Ten Years After
Among the pantheon of guitar gods that ruled the late ’60s rock universe, Alvin Lee was one of the flashiest. Fronting British blues foursome Ten Years After, Lee displayed lightning-fast fingers. His signature fleet, fluid lines, which adorned many an extended solo stretch, suggested more than a momentary flirtation with jazz and distinguished him among…
Sizzle for Sale
If the notion of dinner in downtown Akron leaves you shaking in your Choos, your palate pummeled by dark recollections of paprikash, sauerkraut balls, and kidney-bean salad consumed amid a crowd of brawny tire-makers, take heart: There’s a smart new player in town by the name of Crave. And if its youthful ambiance, artful decor,…
