Invasion of the Body Slammers
It wasn’t the hundred screaming teenagers in the backyard that made Josh Piscura’s mom mad. Nor was it her sons whacking each other with folding chairs and jumping off the garage roof. No, it was when they set the neighbor kid on fire. “That was it,” recalls Jackie Piscura. “I said, ‘You guys are crazy.…
Sigur Ros
Iceland, a land of flowing lava, glacial drifts, complete darkness, and continuous light, is a mystical country of beauty and ferocity — not to mention extremes. So why should its music be any different? Home to acts such as Gus Gus, the Sugarcubes, and Bjork, Iceland has an affinity for creating music that’s unconventional –…
Bone Shrugs ‘n’ Nudity
Borrowing heavily from Freemasonry and other robes-and-skeleton fetish groups, Skull and Bones is a 169-year-old Yale fellowship that makes other secret societies look like the BMV. When they join, Bonesmen (and women) crawl into coffins and confess their traumas, shames, and sexual histories. The confessionals, supposedly, keep Bones’ secrets the privilege of a privileged few.…
Mushroomhead
Even those who worship Mushroomhead must admit that XX, the band’s long-awaited national debut, enters the fray with two strikes against it. Strike one: Regardless of how attractively packaged or slickly produced XX might be, Mushroomhead remains a “you gotta see ’em live” sort of affair. Strike two: You’ve heard most of these tunes before.…
The Product
Heath Ledger, wearing the scowl of the anxious and uneasy, is having trouble standing still. He most certainly would rather be anywhere but here: killing time in a TV studio, waiting to be interviewed during a live afternoon newscast. Waiting to promote his new movie. Waiting to assume the guise of pitchman and product. The…
The People vs. 911
Dispatcher responds to a January emergency While I’m sure that Cleveland police department dispatchers were a little perturbed at being so harshly criticized in your article [“9-1-1 to Nowhere,” January 25], I can certainly understand your position. But what you need to know is that they, too, are citizens of Cleveland due to the residency…
Thoroughly Modern Peter
In that great analyst’s office in the hereafter, Dr. Freud must be stroking his beard with satisfaction. The Great Lakes Theater Festival’s interpretation of Peter Pan offers a bizarre modernized goosing of J.M. Barrie’s beloved narcissist in green tights, who as a baby ran away to be with the fairies and spent his life trying…
An Inner Sanctum
Passing through the massive carved doors into Giovanni’s is like finding sanctuary. Blessed relief from the burdens of the 21st century waits here, couched among the velvet draperies, tasseled pillows, and burnished woodwork. Within this dimly lit cocoon, there is no thumping house music to remind you of the relentless pace of modern life; instead,…
Burgeoning Burritos
The eats in Solon’s Uptown Center shopping plaza keep getting better. Now, besides sushi and natural foods, hungry shoppers can fill up on refreshing Mexican munchables at the recently opened La Casita (6025 Kruse Drive, 440-349-7777), a casual 150-seat dining room brought to you by restaurateur Mike Greenberg of Qué Tal? fame. The well-groomed spot,…
Rainer Shines
Not many bands use words like “anathema.” Hell, most bands probably don’t even know what anathema means. That’s not the case with the kids in Rainer Maria, who drop the word in the song “Artificial Light,” the first track on their third album, A Better Version of Me. Taking its name from 19th-century Austrian poet…
Adam’s Bombs
Adam Goren and Harold Martin Tillmann have been touring the country together for the past three months, driving from city to city in an SUV owned by Goren’s mother. They’ve been playing supper clubs, steak houses, and campus co-ops, and sleeping on college dorm floors. To Goren, it’s not so much a tour as a…
Taylor Made
Cleveland playwright Fred Taylor is standing in the middle of Starbucks, imitating Yul Brynner imitating a horse. “I always wanted to do the Yul Brynner thing,” says the 36-year-old Taylor, who points out that, while other actors studied actors, Brynner studied animal behavior. “He’s one of my favorite actors.” Taylor’s plays — 15 so far…
Casper
The U.K. has seen many mutations in DJ production style. Its latest anomaly — two-step — is the catchy, danceable hybrid that uses the electric undercurrent of drum ‘n’ bass and the soulful craftiness of R&B (think Destiny’s Child mixed by Roni Size). And it has found an American ally in Chicago’s Casper (Julian Carow).…
Going With the Grain
While mass-market furniture manufacturers churn out end tables and curio cabinets by the dozens every hour, fine furniture maker Craig Vandall Stevens can spend months on one piece. He has nothing against machines, but he’s concerned with the quality of his work. “I have machines that do specific things very well,” says Stevens, whose work…
All About Bono
Bono (Paul Hewson) has said that, on its current tour, which included a May 3 stop at Gund Arena, U2 is applying for the job as the greatest rock group in the world. Not even the Rolling Stones and the Beatles had the gall to decree themselves the greatest — they let others heap on…
A Hard Day’s Knight
Let us first in olden verse this critic’s cynical curse disperse: The greet unwashede consummethe crappe, Fro Jerrye Springgere to ganggsta rappe; Bothe yonge and olde, ’tis sore pitee, Doth foule thir hertes with drede teevee, Thus slye produceres, with bisynesse cunning, Devysde a shew to pyne come running Consummeres of actione and classik rok,…
Tortoise
After his other band, the Sea and Cake, finished its tour with a show at the Beachland last fall, Tortoise’s John McEntire immediately returned to his Chicago studio to work on a recording with loungy retro-futurists Stereolab. It was a typical end to a typically busy year for McEntire, a former Oberlin College student whose…
Down and Dirty
Chopper, the first feature from Australian video director Andrew Dominik, is a strong, effective, but often stomach-churning portrait of notorious Aussie criminal Mark “Chopper” Read. It can be characterized as “sensational” — in both the positive and negative senses of the word. According to the filmmakers, Chopper Read is a legend down under — a…
Collective Soul
We’re assuming Blender, the title of Collective Soul’s fifth album, refers to the mixture of styles swirling around the center of it. Where else can one find quasi-funky dance tracks, hard rock escapades, a cover of Morphine’s “You Speak My Language,” and a duet with Elton John? Certainly not on the new Ginuwine record, that’s…
Sins of the Fathers
As ill-titled a movie as you’re likely to discover this year, Henry Bromell’s Panic would deliver itself unto us with much more honesty were it called something appropriate, like Torpor or A-List Clock-Punchers Unite! It’s a middling film, and while there’s no reason to pick on this fledgling feature with undue harshness, there’s also no…
Buckcherry
Falling somewhere between a slightly less agitated, punk-fed version of early Aerosmith and a worn-out comic book copy of Mötley Crüe, Buckcherry continues to stake a claim to its supposed rock and roll lineage on its second release, Time Bomb. Josh Todd fronts this eternally touring gutter-rock combo with an undying hypersexualized energy that purportedly…
The Jesus Pyramid
College agrees with Chris Hook, a Case Western sophomore with an earnest face and a feathery mop of brown hair. He’s a conscientious student, double-majoring in political science and psychology. He’s also a residence hall adviser and Spanish Club president. On this afternoon, Hook is drinking coffee at the University Circle Arabica. A year and…
Hi-Tek
When rapper Talib Kweli rolled through Cincinnati a few years back, he met Hi-Tek, a producer who was a member of the rap group Mood. They collaborated on Mood’s full-length debut, 1997’s Doom, and have been tight ever since. Kweli enlisted Hi-Tek for both Black Star’s album and his own record, last year’s acclaimed Reflection…
Sprawl of the Wild
This 529-acre expanse in western Lorain is nothing special, as nature goes. Once farmland, the field is still neat, with rusted tractor parts more common than wildflowers. The site may not be paradise, but it is significant: It’s one of the last open spaces left in Lorain. A squinting trespasser might conjure up images of…
The Lies
Prevaricators are clever people. Not simply contrary for the sake of controversy, artistic liars acknowledge truth, but distort it by using deliberate words and gestures that could be as convincingly real and honest as facts. True to their name, the Lies transform the detached irony and icy compositions of post-punk into anthems imbued with utter…
