Sad, Sad Stories from the Smoke-Free Bar Scene
Nearly three weeks after Ohio enacted its smoke-free law at nightclubs and bars, nicotine addicts at one gay Cleveland bar are still fuming like freshly lit cigarettes over the Case of the No-Show Pot Patrol. The Hawk (11217 Detroit Ave., 216-521-5443) dutifully opened its new, $7,000 outdoor-smoking lounge on May 3. At least 15 smokers…
A bad landlord takes a beating
Yesterday morning, Judge Patrick Carroll’s Lakewood courtroom was like a scene out of The Super. Only instead of Joe Pesci in the hot seat, it was Lakewood landlord Richard Naumann. Naumann owns four apartment buildings in the suburb, including Northview Apartments on Lake Avenue. Since before March, his tenants have been living without heat, hot…
Life in the city… and buck naked yoga
While hard-core runners were tackling the Cleveland Marathon on Sunday, I was busy jogging around my Ohio City neighborhood. It’s only a couple of miles, but I consider this endeavor much more challenging, because you never know when someone might steal your wallet or try to have sex with you. On this run, I learned…
School commission does its job; Gerald Henley freaks
Cleveland’s Bond Accountability Commission is charged with monitoring how the district spends your money on its $1.5 billion schools construction project. Recently, panel administrator Jim Darr broke the news that the district will likely have to eliminate at least 30 schools from the program —and that it still needs millions of dollars more to finish…
This Just In… Concert Announcements
This week, 33 smokin’ shows to report, from American Dog to Ze Renato Trio. Plus Counting Crows, Live, and Collective Soul on one bill at your favorite minor league ballpark. And Sanjaya! American Dog: Sat., June 16, 8 p.m. Hi-Fi Concert Club. American Idol Live: Scheduled to appear: Melinda Doolittle, Gina Glocksen, LaKisha Jones, Sanjaya…
The skinny on the Pinheads, a new Ramones tribute
Long-running ClePunks the Subtones are on hold, but most of the band are in a new project, the Pinheads, a Ramones tribute. Guitarist C.J. Gunn discussed the former and the latter. On the Subtones: “Subtones have not been confirmed for anything for a long time. We had tried to make some shows happen, but nothing…
Alesci’s Downtown: Always a smart bet for lunch
Those brown-bagged lunches may suffice for winter, but when the sun finally comes out, it’s time to hit the streets in search of midday sustenance. Always high among our recommendations for working stiffs: Alesci’s Downtown (828 Huron Rd., 216-348-8600), an unpretentious Italian eatery offering speedy, cafeteria-style service along with low prices, friendly staffers, and a…
Morrissey Show Review: Brit icon still has it
Morrissey didn’t rock the house at the Playhouse Square’s State Theatre Thursday night, but that’s a mere technicality. When you’ve got stage presence just oozing out of your gray-tinged sideburns — as the onetime king of mope-rock still does — you don’t need to rock the house. And by Morrissey standards, he really did kinda…
Free joy rides — on bikes you could never afford
It’s not often that you get to tear through mud and rocks on someone else’s $4,000 piece of finely-tuned machinery. So don’t miss your chance at the Giant Mountain Bike Demo Day on Saturday, June 2nd. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Reagan Park in Medina, you’ll have the opportunity to test out Giant…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: The Difficult
In Which the Scene Music Staffers Stop Debating the Relative Authenticity of Avril Lavinge and Let a Band Speak for Itself Band: The Diffficult Hometown: Akron Sounds like: “Vintage postpunk/indie pop. What Wire might have sounded like if they were trying to sound like the Kinks, yet never actually had listened to the Kinks nor…
Clark, the Canadian Hockey Goalie
We draw your attention to Clark, the Canadian Hockey Goalie, just because we thought it was funny.
Mikey G’s Entertainment Picks of the Week
This week’s top arts and entertainment picks around town, from the guy who’s paid to pick them: Monday: !!! – which we are contractually obligated to tell you is pronounced “chk-chk-chk” – are one of the few retro-dance-punk groups actually worth the hype. While nothing on their new album, Myth Takes, approaches the brilliance of…
Yet another crackdown on commercial fishing
For several Lake Erie commercial fishermen, this year could be their last one on the lake. State senators passed a bill last week that would allow the director of the Ohio Division of Wildlife to deny the fishermen the right to renew their licenses next year if they’ve ever been convicted of a fishing felony.…
Misadventures in mass transit, courtesy of the RTA
When Chris Allen’s car broke down on May 16, he didn’t curse his misfortune. He simply decided to go green. Armed with an RTA map and his bike, Allen decided to take advantage of our city’s often neglected public transportation system. It would be one of the biggest mistakes of his life. While Allen says…
Carl Monday is back, Tom Meyer goes to WKYC, and the planets realign
Carl Monday is back! Sort of. Cleveland’s Investigative Reporter has been off the airwaves since February, when he ditched WKYC for Action 19 because their hidden-camera footage is way grainier. Unfortunately, a non-compete clause in Carl’s contract forbids him from showing up on your TV set until October. But recently, Action News started airing news…
The invasion of the American Idol contestants
Soon, America will be listening to nothing but American Idol contestants – and not just the winners. This year, Northeast Ohio has already seen appearances by Daughtry, the macho modern-rock asshole who finished fourth in season five, as well as the winner of that season, Taylor Hicks, who’s super-classy but d-u-l-l. Now it’s Bo Bice’s…
Columbus judge rules against smoking in private clubs
Today a Franklin County judge ruled that smoking in private clubs is officially banned. Judge David Cain’s decision comes after restaurant and bar owners associations griped that places with special exemptions, like VFW halls, would strip them of their smoking clientele. Cain ruled that the whole purpose of the statewide smoking ban was to protect…
Cleveland Institute of Music bans Scene
Thanks to our sometimes devilish reporting, there’s now one less place to pick up Scene: The news rack inside the Cleveland Institute of Music. After we published “Sour Notes,” which contained allegations that the school covered up sexual harassment, officials decided students should no longer be subject to such revelations. Nothing personal. It’s just that…
Prom Night at the Beachland
If your prom sucked, here’s your chance to make it up. Or at least have a different kind of date night. Saturday, May 18, the Beachland Ballroom (15711 Waterloo Ave., 216-383-1124) hosts the Prom of Ages. The semi-formal bash will feature live prom-appropriate music by Cobra Verde, Afternoon Naps, and JJ Magazine. “We’re playing songs…
A benefit feast for Amelia
Small in number, big of heart, Cleveland’s culinary elite are once again banding together to help one of their own: Lockkeepers’ executive chef Ky-wai Wong, whose 2-year-old daughter Amelia – one of a set of triplets — was recently diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy. “Three or four of us had gotten together originally, with the…
Scalpers say it’s a buyer’s market for tonight’s Cavs game
If you want to go to tonight’s Nets-Cavs Game 5, but don’t think you can get a fairly priced ticket, think again. “I’m selling tickets at face value,” Scalper Mike, a veteran of the Ontario Street ticket bazaar, told me this afternoon. “Unbenounced to fans, despite all the hoopla about the team, people in the…
A gay response to death of Jerry Falwell, translated
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, issued this statement yesterday in response to the death of the Reverend Jerry Falwell. For your convenience, we’ve added footnotes to translate his message: “The death of a family member or friend is always a sad occasion (1) and we express our condolences…
A moment with the good Rev. R.A. Vernon
A few weeks ago, we introduced you to Pastor R.A. Vernon, founder of a highly successful mega-church in Warrensville Heights (“God’s Disneyland”). To learn more about Vernon, check out this clip of him preaching at a Midnight Rumble, his annual event to attract men to the church. – Lisa Rab
New problem in Cleveland: We need to be angrier on the road
Woo-hoo! We made another list! AutoVantage just released its “In the Driver’s Seat Road Rage Survey,” and Cleveland checks in at No. 19 on the tally of the nation’s most rude drivers. While it’s not a bad showing, we were nonetheless beat by drivers in Sacramento – where they don’t own cars; they just levitate…
The spirit of OK Go comes to the Ingenuity Festival
Not everyone’s sick of that OK Go video (see above). Apparently, the folks at MorrisonDance still get a kick out of watching four nerdy guys move from treadmill to treadmill while a forgettable slice of power pop plays in the background. The local dance troupe is looking for treadmills to use at this year’s Ingenuity…
Spuds Return
The Spudmonsters will play a one-off reunion Saturday, May 19 at Peabody’s (2083 East 21st Street). The show will be the crossover veterans’ first performance in nearly nine years. “I never wanted to do a reunion, but it seemed like any time I went out, someone from the scene — they would ask when we…
The Dave Sterner Quintet
The Dave Sterner Quintet’s debut is neither flashy nor risky, but it is confident and well executed. The group works originals with moderate pleasure, lending adequate heart to a ballad titled “That’s All,” while framing the disc’s most entertaining track, Duke Ellington’s jaunty “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” with a nifty conversation between Sterner, an…
Blank Generation
If the title and sentiment of Porcupine Tree’s new CD Fear of a Blank Planet seem a tad cynical, they merely reflect frontman Steve Wilson’s current state of mind. “Technology is affecting the younger generation,” he says. “We live vicariously through gadgets. We have iPods and 500 channels of TV. We have drugs for bipolar…
Slavic Soul Party
Kick up your heels, and dance a whirligig, as if Michael Flatley quantum leaped to turn-of-the-century Serbia. Slavic Soul Party is partially inspired by Balkan brass, a style of music with origins in the military brass bands of the Ottoman Empire. Like 19th-century Gypsies hip to downtown jazz, this gallivanting nine-piece doesn’t need electricity to…
Spring Fling
Spring’s bounty should start piling up on our plates any minute now — a seasonal reality that always makes me appreciate our region’s food-related wealth. Here’s a rundown of what I’ve been digging (and dreading) of late. I love . . . buying locally grown produce at the North Union Farmers’ Market . . .…
Comfortably Young
Children from the Paul Green School of Rock Music perform Pink Floyd’s The Wall this weekend. Fifteen students from the Rocky River branch of the famous Philadelphia school will recreate the 1979 opus at a pair of shows at the Phantasy. And Westlake sixth-grader Max Foster says he’s ready to channel his inner Roger Waters…
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy and the Altamont Boys
Even if you’ve heard it before, “Paralyzed,” the Legendary Stardust Cowboy’s 1968 hit, will smash your head with rubber-mallet insanity. With its whoopin’ ‘n’ hollerin’, guitar abuse, and manic drumming, you might dismiss the tune as gratuitous noise, but then the bugle solo ties it all together — and pushes it off a cliff. In…
Crazy Kitchen
We’re not sure why chef Richard Cicic is so darn madd. Barely in his thirties, he’s already racked up enough professional achievements to make most chefs a little jolly, including a formal education at the Pennsylvania Institute of Culinary Arts, a stint at Little Italy’s Baricelli Inn, and a chance to don the top toque…
In the Mood
Milwaukee singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey injects his latest CD, The Knuckleball Suite, with a moody mix of folk, rock, and free-roaming guitar fills. Mulvey honed his skills while busking on the streets of Dublin, Ireland — surprising, since his husky voice often dips to a whisper. At times, you almost strain to hear it. But Knuckleball’s…
André Rieu
André Rieu is shaping up to be the next bombastic star of pop classical — the John Tesh for the new millennium, if you will. Rieu’s 1667 Stradivarius leads the Johann Strauss Orchestra, an outfit from the Netherlands whose mission is to make classical waltzes accessible to everyone. This goal will be achieved via untrammeled…
Ogreload
Coming out of Shrek the Third, I asked the two smart preteen girls I had in tow what they had liked about the picture. Projectile vomiting and multiple farts, they said promptly — best Shrek ever. Ordinarily, I’m not big on poop and flatulence, but in this instance I sympathized — there’s not much else…
Biff Riff
You may remember Tom Wilson as jackass Biff Tannen from the Back to the Future movies. But these days, the actor and comedian spends a great deal of time strumming a guitar and telling stories onstage. “It’s an autobiographical act, so I don’t go way out on tangents,” he says. It’s also a familiar routine…
Mice Parade
Mice Parade is an anagram for Adam Pierce, the former Swirlies drummer and post-rock virtuoso who launched the solo project about a decade ago. These days, however, Mice Parade typically features guest appearances from a wide range of fellow world-groove aficionados. On the outfit’s new self-titled disc, both Lætitia Sadier of Stereolab and Mùm’s Kristin…
Memory Loss
In the superbly tacit chamber piece Away From Her, intolerable pressure is brought to bear on the 44-year marriage of a college professor and his homemaker spouse after she is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Grant Andersson (played by veteran Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent) and his wife, Fiona (an artfully wrinkled and radiant Julie Christie), have…
God Squad
Don’t think things are any easier for Christian rockers Flyleaf just because Jesus is on their side, says guitarist Sameer Bhattacharya. They’ve got it just as tough as all the heathens out there. “Being Christian isn’t the end of a journey,” he says. “It’s hard sometimes. We deal with the same things as anyone. We…
Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon/ Snowden/The Features Maybe Kings of Leon was inspired by the Strokes 2006 album First Impressions of Earth, which saw the band transform into post-Smash Mouth surf-rock weirdos. Not only was KoL once tagged the “southern Strokes,” but the Nashville quartet’s latest, Because of the Times, like Impressions, accentuates the most eccentric aspects…
Booze Cruise
In the annals of show business, there has probably been only one performer whose presence could be communicated by two words on a marquee that said, simply, “He’s Here.” And that was exactly how Caesars Palace in Las Vegas announced the arrival of Frank Sinatra for an appearance in 1968. Eight years earlier, Frank had…
Roots Rock
A trio of environmentally friendly rockers comes to town today with musical instruments and shovels in tow. The Green Light Tour features Leslie Sanazaro (from St. Louis), Nashville’s Jen Woodhouse, and Todd Sapio (from Austin), who are on a month-long mission to plant trees in 22 U.S. cities. They’ll also perform original tunes about global…
Our top DVD picks for the week of May 15:
Army of Shadows: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) Arthur & the Invisibles (Genius) Bill/Bill on His Own (Brentwood) Bunny Whipped (Think) Caddyshack: 20th Anniversary (Warner Bros.) Chasing Liberty (Warner Bros.) Curse of the Zodiac (Lionsgate) The Dead Girl (First Look) Denzel Washington: Spotlight Collection (Universal) ER: The Complete Seventh Season (Warner Bros.) Flash Gordon Conquers the…
? & the Mysterians
“We are the American rock and roll band of the world, because we’re for real,” states Question Mark, with all the modesty of a true star. A handful of Mexican American kids rocking out in Saginaw, Michigan, ? & the Mysterians was founded in 1962. “96 Tears,” their sassy hit from ’66, is an oldies…
Head Games
It’s a fact that the best statements we will ever utter and the finest conversations we will ever experience will always be the ones that happen between our ears. Whether we’re “talking” to real or fictional people in our imaginations, we always seem to come up with a crisply delivered mot juste at the perfect…
Ready to Pummel
Cleveland’s Absolute Intense Wrestling celebrates its second anniversary at tonight’s Absolution 2. Legendary grappler and WWE commentator Jerry “The King” Lawler battles former ECW Champion Steve “King of Old School” Corino in the main event. It’s the first time the two icons have met in the ring. “It’s surprising,” says AI Wrestling co-owner Nick Brashear.…
Here are the week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
DVD — Screaming Masterpiece: This documentary about Iceland’s fertile music scene loads up on live clips of Björk and Sigur Rós — the two artists you should know. But there’s plenty of other cool, spacey, and just plain weird groups. Fascinating clips from a 25-year-old movie about the nation’s punk scene capture cool rage (and…
Tapes ‘n Tapes
One of 2006’s biggest Pitchfork-inspired success stories, Tapes ‘n Tapes is a quirky act from Minneapolis whose chunky, off-kilter rhythms and jangling angularity suggest indie-rock heroes like the Pixies, Modest Mouse, and Pavement. But for all the bands it brings to mind, Tapes ‘n Tapes really doesn’t sound quite like anyone else. Last year’s debut,…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Chevalier, Maurice & Me — The term “boulevardier,” describing an elegant man-about-town, has fallen out of use — probably thanks to the lack of such men as much as to the paucity of appropriate boulevards. But there are two such gentlemen now at Kalliope Stage in the singular person of Tony Sandler. Born in Belgium,…
Psycho Party
Nekromantix frontman Kim Nekroman insists he’s not any angrier on his band’s new album, Life Is a Grave & I Dig It! But now that the Dane has lived in the U.S. for four years, he’s able to articulate his thoughts more clearly. “It’s more transparent now,” he says. “I have a better insider knowledge…
The Edge of Reason
Ramani Pilla arrived at the police station that bitter December night prepared. She was, after all, a statistics professor. Numbers and data were her life. So she brought a lawyer. And pictures of the evidence. Every detail of her story in place. Last summer, she arrived home from a conference at Stanford to discover that…
Unsane
Of the many noise-rock acts to emerge from the East Village underground in the early ’90s, none matched the corrosive vitriol and muscular fury of Unsane, a band infamous for its graphic crime-scene-photo cover art. Mixing the dissonance of Sonic Youth and Swans with an aggressive hardcore attack, guitarist and vocalist Chris Spencer and the…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Tell Me Something I Don¹t Know — Anthropomorphism, the practice of ascribing human traits to inanimate objects, is the name of the game in this quirky but profoundly astute series of photos by Chicago-based conceptual artist Joel Ross. The objects in this case are bland cookie-cutter homes in a suburb of St. Louis. Ross…
It’s All Green to Us
Greek cinema features some of the wildest stories, characters, and scenes you’ll ever see on the big screen. This weekend’s Cleveland Hellenic Film Festival gives viewers a chance to check out six contemporary comedies and dramas from the country that gave us Yanni. Topping the list is Loafing and Camouflage — Sirens in the Aegean,…
Policing Mount Pleasant
The feds are cracking down on Cleveland Councilman Zack Reed, who violated a long-standing city ordinance — not to mention tradition — by having a decent idea. Reed represents Mount Pleasant, where 15-year-old Arthur Buford tried to rob a man on his porch last month and ended up dead. Weirdly enough, Reed doesn’t think gun-wielding…
Benefit for Tim Hanculak
It might be the club show of the year. It will definitely be a good time for a good cause. Pink Floyd tribute Wish You Were Here regularly sells out the biggest clubs in town, and they’ll play Time Warner Cable Amphitheater at Tower City later this summer. But for one night only, they’ll play…
More Shriek Than Shrek
Pan’s Labyrinth (New Line) Guillermo Del Toro has made a career of mixing slam-bang special effects (Hellboy, Blade II) with creepy atmospheres (Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone). But with Pan’s Labyrinth, he’s used his entire palette for what will likely be remembered as his masterpiece. Mixing Franco’s Spain with fairy tales, Labyrinth is brutal, bloody, and…
Local Flavor
At tonight’s A Tasteful Affair, more than 20 local restaurants dish up their most delectable cuisine. Look for tempting eats from Gypsy Beans, West Park Station, and Don’s Lighthouse. Aladdin’s, Via Van Aken, and Loco Leprechaun also check in with specialties. Budweiser, Jacob’s Creek, and Pepsi help wash it all down. The first-ever Iron Fork…
Sex, Lies, a Priest, & Elaine Presser
Strangers often popped into St. Jude’s Catholic Church looking for handouts. Whatever their excuse, Father Tom Carolan never questioned their needs. In the 15 years he’d presided over the Warrensville Heights parish, the 75-year-old priest had developed a reputation for being a gentle, generous man. Parishioners say he was the best pastor in St. Jude’s…
Trumystic
Now that the sun’s been out on two consecutive weekends, spring is officially here, and it’s time to get dubby with it. Save the Sublime for the jukebox at the bar, and get some authentic reggae from Trumystic, an eight-piece dub-rock combo. Frontwoman Kirsty Rock gives its spacey grooves an extra-sensual kick that’ll send you…
Balls of Fury
If you’re looking for a laugh, find a kid raised on Grand Theft Auto and introduce him to Pac-Man for the first time. As he stares at you blankly, explain the addictive joy of eating dots and the simplistic genius of the neon-blue maze. When he sneers, “That’s it? It’s the same level over and…
Animated Comic
Get a good look at comedian Greg Morton when he comes to town tonight. It may be the last time you’ll see him for a while. The former animator (who worked on M.C. Hammer’s Hammerman cartoon in the early ’90s) is hard at work on a new animated series. He has a lot of material…
Damning Diles
Athletic director pink-slips a role model: I am a parent who knows Coach Harris from a summer camp he and some staff put together every year for hundreds of children, for which he never asked any money. Everyone complains about troubled youth. Here is a guy running a summer camp — a positive experience for…
Ne-Yo
For those too young to understand the goal of Ne-Yo’s sophomore album, the head of his label decided to make the point explicit. But when Jay-Z insists that on “Crazy,” Ne-Yo is a “young Michael [Jackson],” it sparks an interesting debate: Not only did no one seize Jacko’s pop throne after he abdicated it in…
The Deep End
Thee More Shallows frontman Dee Kesler spends a good deal of time working out his studio obsessions on his trio’s third album, Book of Bad Breaks. Songs like “The Dutch Fist” and “Night at the Knight School” combine buzzing guitars, oblique lyrics, and stop-start rhythms — sorta like a less art-damaged Pavement or Modest Mouse,…
Out on a Limb
Stan Hywet invites visitors to scale the trees on its 70-acre property and explore its new Treemendous Treehouses. The museum commissioned 11 local architectural firms to build elaborately designed tree houses that pay tribute to birds, fish, and other natural sights. Folks can also purchase raffle tickets for a November drawing, in which a $2,200…
Getting Over Emo
There is no better way to dismiss a rock band than by labeling it “emo.” This has worked for the past six or seven years, with few exceptions. But when those few exceptions do occur, music dorks scramble to come up with new ways to acknowledge these groups as “real bands” instead of, you know,…
Wilco
Since 1995, Jeff Tweedy has structured and restructured Wilco to match his rock and roll ideal. First came A.M. , leftover dust on the boot heel of Uncle Tupelo, the pioneering alt-country band he co-founded with perpetual mope Jay Farrar at the end of the ’80s. On 1996’s Being There, a two-disc set, Tweedy surveyed…
Rock Stars
Stones, pebbles, gems . . . The 39th annual Cleveland Area Gem and Mineral Show will celebrate whatever you dig about the loose formations of our planet at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds this weekend. More than 25 vendors from across the country will unload rocks, jewelry, and other mineral-related ornaments. You can probably talk sellers…
Latin Mass
Morrissey, England’s most dapper downer, isn’t quite as depressed as he used to be. In fact, these days the ex-Smiths vocalist almost seems to be enjoying what he does. Nevertheless, on the verge of his May 17th appearance at the State Theatre, Morrissey is still as press-shy as ever and just can’t be bothered to…
Panda Bear
If Person Pitch had come from anybody else, the influences listed in the booklet would read like a big fuck you to critics like me, who reduce music to its antecedents. But this is Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) we’re dealing with — a gentle musician who possesses the singular ability to sound utterly unique…
Book Her
Cleveland native Renee Stahl makes a homecoming appearance at Barnes & Noble this afternoon. The singer-songwriter just released her second album, hopeful.romantic, and the bookstore chain is the only place you can find it for the next six months. Like Starbucks, Barnes & Noble is branching out: Stahl’s CD is the first exclusive release in…
Funky Chaos
!!! is often thrown in with other post-millennial dance-punk acts from New York, but that’s only half accurate — kinda like anything that comes out of Tony Snow’s mouth. The band not only predates the Big Apple’s post-punk revival, but originally hailed from Sacramento, California. The eight-piece collective — which comes off like a cult…
Jefferson Airplane
More than the Grateful Dead, San Francisco’s Jefferson Airplane defined the summer of love’s hippie ethos: lysergic lyrics (“White Rabbit”), an anti-authoritarian us-versus-them attitude, and sonic eclecticism (rock, folk, jazz, blues, and world music). Sweeping Up captures all this, with the original Airplane at the peak of its powers. Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen rips one mind-warp…
Jammin’ in Their Jammies
More than 100 black gay guys are expected to party in their PJs at tonight’s first-ever Male Pajama Jam and Bachelor Auction. The sleepless slumber party benefits Black, Gay and Proud Week, which will take place in August. Tonight’s bash mirrors a similar party for lesbians that was held last month, when nearly $2,000 was…
Over the Next Hill
Ever since indie tastemakers like Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom started reviving vintage British folk-rock, their fans have been soaking it up. But 20 bucks says there won’t be more than two of these hipsters attending Fairport Convention’s May 18th gig at the Winchester — just a bunch of old heads celebrating the band’s 40th…
PKS
Formerly known as Planet Killswitch, PKS is far from new frontiers — but it’s also far from bad. Recorded by Bill Korecky (Mushroomhead, Integrity), the band’s second full-length, The Darkening Season, plants the group’s flag in some well-explored turf, then rules it with an iron fist — as well as the occasional machine-gun blast from…
Seeing Stars
The Cleveland City Stars take on the New Hampshire Phantoms at tonight’s home opener, ending a two-year soccer drought in the area. As one of three new United Soccer Leagues franchises, the team picks up where the Cleveland Force left off in 2005. “We’re getting used to playing with each other together for the first…
