Easy Riders
Sure, Segways look a little goofy. OK, they look very goofy. But for people who just don’t want to go through the agonizing and energy-draining effort of walking, there’s no a better way to navigate city streets or park trails. Segway of Cleveland offers a pair of tours this summer — one downtown and one…
Struck a Nerve
A flurry of Luries: Oops! Lisa Rab slams a reputable builder [“Building the Ghetto of the Future,” May 10], but forgot to investigate 98 percent of the story. There is no excuse for such incompetence, even in an unsophisticated paper. I called Lisa Rab to ask how many customers she talked to while researching her…
U.S. Bombs
In the chorus of the U.S. Bombs’ newest single, “We Are the Problem,” Duane Peters somewhat melodically barks, “We’re no solution, we are the problem,” sounding convinced as never before. He’s right too; the problem with today’s punk-rock scene is personified by rehashed SoCal songwriting such as this. After years of touring and recording, the…
Sounds of Summer
Whatever your favorite summertime activity — rollerblading, the beach, or taking a long drive with the windows down — a good soundtrack makes it better. But though carefree summer days seem inseparable from the year’s hits, most albums come out in the spring — paving the way for summer touring — or in the fall,…
Strike Up the Band
Rob Morrow jokes that he’ll be issuing plenty of BWI — Bowling While Intoxicated — tickets at tonight’s Rock & Bowl outing at his bar, Put-in-Bay. Every Thursday for the past couple of months, customers have been taking Morrow up on his three-games-for-$5 deal on the 12 lanes in the back of the bar. Local…
An Honest Man
Sometimes you travel half the world in search of a truth that resides right in your chest. If there’s a lesson simmering beneath Flogging Molly’s mandolin trill, fiddle-fueled jigs, and punk-inspired guitar, it’s that the truth will set you free. Singer-guitarist Dave King was plucked from dead-end circumstances. As an 18-year-old kid in Dublin, he…
Beautiful Thursdays
Think everyone in Dem Franchize Boys’ “Lean Wit’ It, Rock Wit’ It” video looks like they’re having a good time? Try it live Thursday nights at Cloud 9 Ultra Lounge, where there’s much leanin’ and rockin’ to be had. The League’s Mick Boogie and Terry Urban spin up-to-the-minute hip-hop, mixing in old-school classics, New South,…
Get Inside!
Summer is the season of high expectations and profound disappointments. That suntan looks more like sunburn, your beer stays ice-cold till the moment it’s opened, and fat guys are the only ones hanging by the pool in bikini briefs. So it goes with summer movies: Sequels to beloved faves have all the flavor of week-old…
Cheese Cake
Sporting an ill-fitting toupee, pianist Ari Friedman becomes alter ego Harry Bacharach tonight at the Barking Spider. His repertoire of cover songs includes tunes by everyone from Duke Ellington to Carole King. “I’m stuck in the ’70s — when people played instruments without using distortion to build their sound,” he says. “They didn’t scream into…
Bring the Noise (Back)
If they ever again shoot into space a capsule containing artifacts designed to represent life on Earth to other worlds, they’ll have to make room on board for all 12 volumes of Hip-Hop Essentials. It’s hard to imagine a better way to explain hip-hop to an alien culture. Covering the years between 1979, when “Rapper’s…
Memorial Day Weekend Party
Akron’s most audacious gay bar is now its biggest. The Interbelt has added a giant patio bar just in time for its four-day Memorial Weekend Bash and 18th-anniversary party. In addition to an ongoing cookout, a steady parade of entertainment, and music by Skotty K and Mike Lowry, ’80s star Tiffany will appear at Saturday’s…
This Time, It’s Personal
If the Iliad were brand-new — if it were one of this summer’s beach-reading blockbusters — it wouldn’t be a swashbuckling saga of sieges, slave girls, and slaughter. Those things might be in there, sure, but just as adornments to the main bit, which would be Homer yakking about how it feels to be Ionian.…
The Sound of Music
Old Time Relijun isn’t a band that lends itself to pat descriptions. Even Arrington De Dionyso, the leader of the Olympia, Washington noisemakers, has a difficult time describing the sound. “There are so many ways of putting it,” he says, before taking a long pause. “We make music that manages to perform a kind of…
The Roof Is on Fire
The revolution will not be televised. It will be streamed, podcast, and portable. The Recording Industry Association of America is bitching again this spring over the news of last year’s sales numbers. For the fifth year of the last six, CD sales were down. The RIAA probably wanted to bust up some more dorms and…
Psychic Ills
Call it attack of the drones. Skyscraping walls of shoegazing sound are being constantly re-erected, lulling listeners into blissful comas caked in druggy pop sediment. In this new class of Spacemen you have the Black Angels and the Warlocks, who attempt to revise the salvation found in Jesus and Mary Chain’s orchestral feedback. Alternately, there’s…
Sweating It Out
Summer’s here. Don’t just sit there, do something! As in something physical and outdoorsy. Something that doesn’t involve a TV, a recliner, or fluorescent lighting. We are a lazy, flabby nation, and global warming makes spending summer near an air conditioner more tempting than ever. But Cleveland boasts plenty of ways to fight couch-potato tendencies.…
The Shred Zome
Nighttown regulars, prepare to be knocked out of your comfort zone tonight with the Alex Skolnick Trio. Skolnick, one of Trans-Siberia Orchestra’s shred-happy guitarists, grew up on Kiss and Van Halen records. “I wasn’t a big jazz fan,” he says. “That all changed when I saw Miles Davis on television with one of his electric…
Rock School
The guitar is an instrument. You play it. Occasionally, you might smash it when the show’s over. But if you swing it around too casually, bad things are bound to happen. Famed indie producer J. Robbins (Jimmy Eat World, Against Me!) discovered that the hard way while playing lead guitar with the seminal D.C. hardcore…
Various Artists
For many, Randy Newman reigns as the sardonic voice of Southern California, a Hollywood icon with multitudinous Oscar nominations for songs like “I Love to See You Smile” (Parenthood) and “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” (Toy Story). Those with longer memories might pair Newman with that vehicular celebration of the left coast, “I Love…
Drink in the Season
Some think of summer as the call of the wild, a time when the great outdoors beckons couch zombies out of hibernation. Move away from the TV, comb your hair, and indulge in a good meal and frosty beverage at your favorite alfresco destination. Isn’t drinking a bottle of wine much more relaxing when you’re…
Batter Up!
Take us out the ballgame — there’s no better way to kick off summer than with our favorite pastime. The Cleveland Indians take on the Chicago White Sox at 1:05 today at Jacobs Field (2401 Ontario Street; tickets are $7 to $60 — call 216-420-4200). In addition to watching the Tribe play the world champs,…
Attachment Issues
The two guys who make up the lo-fi indie-rock band Metal Hearts are barely out of their teens. On Socialize, their debut album, the Baltimore-based pals are joined by a temporary drummer (he’s on the road with them now). The album’s lazy beats and mumbled vocals fit the pair’s youthful detachment. They’re opening tonight for…
In da Mix
Twists of fury rocked the DJ booth, with featured artist DJ Skribble at Modä, April 27. Getting the crowd jumping was DJ EV, spinning hot hip-hop and R&B, skipping between today’s hot tracks to throwback hits. EV threw out sure party-starters, from Montel Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It” to a few Nelly favorites.…
Bobby Previte
Anyone who still believes that “artistic” jazz is a pastime of a snobbish cultural elite that excludes Joe and Jane Bagodonuts ought to listen to the latest opus from drummer-composer Bobby Previte. The Coalition of the Willing finds Previte liberating the “fusion” concept from easy-listening banality; he presents a potent intermingling of jazz improvisation, biting…
Feasts and Fests
Ah, summer! That time of the year when wanderlust is strongest and most seductive, when leaves are green and the sun is high; when days are longer, and nights are warm and lazy. How will you spend the season? Maybe you could head to a favorite vacation destination and get away from it all. Load…
Karma Police
“Gateway to the Spiritual Path” is just like Buddhism for Dummies, but instead of reading about the road to enlightenment, you can learn how to walk it at this weekly workshop. Today’s gathering is the first in a four-part series of classes that introduce folks to Buddhist theory, focusing on compassion, wisdom, and understanding. “Many…
Hooked
The flawed, broken characters in the film Little Fish meander through their lives with limited motivation and even less ambition. From the start, you know they’ll eventually converge, giving them the incentive they need to just do something. Cate Blanchett plays a recovering heroin addict who, despite staying clean, hangs out with the worst possible…
Desert Isle Discs
When he isn’t tending bar at the Garage in Ohio City, Jason Byers fronts the throb-and-crunch brutality of Kent-spawned Disengage, which injects punk grime into its muscular alt-metal. 1. David Bowie, Diamond Dogs. “Diamond Dogs was my favorite record when I was a three-year-old child, and it continues to be to this day. The opening…
Michael Leviton
Many fey indie boys have a deep-down longing to write the next Great American Torch Song, but who’s dreaming of it while rocking a ukulele? Only Michael Leviton. A native Californian, Leviton fled to Brooklyn, but never ditched his childhood dreams of crafting a soundtrack to a fuzzy image of soft waves hitting sandy shores…
Still the Word
It’s understandable that most guys don’t spend much time talking about their hair. Unlike women, who generally have a lifetime of coiffures to choose from, the average man has only a few years to explore hairstyling options before he finds himself artfully constructing a comb-over in front of the bathroom mirror. But for those with…
Open Windows
The Sculpture Center looks back on a decade and a half of developing artists with Into View: Celebrating 15 Years of Window to Sculpture, which gathers work by more than 30 sculptors who have exhibited their work in the Window series. Thursdays, Fridays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturdays, 12-4 p.m. Starts: May 25. Continues through June…
Saucy!
Berea’s National Rib Cook-Off is one of the area’s best alternatives to the big barbecue bash happening at Tower City Amphitheater this weekend (see Friday). Slathered with food, games, and live music, it’s also one of the area’s top values. For kids, there’s a children’s activity area, with a rock-climbing wall, a huge slide, and…
The Beat Goes On
It’s probably best described as a spirited cross between junk-in-the-trunk funk and a gospel revival. Dictated more by percolating rhythms and throbbing groove than melody or guitar riffs, “afrobeat” is a world-music gumbo created by the late cultural rebel Fela Kuti. Like Bob Marley, Fela’s music is rich with ideas of revolution and social justice,…
Julie Roberts
“Men and mascara always run,” sings South Carolina-born Julie Roberts on the title track of this follow-up to her superb 2004 self-titled debut. One doubts that this 27-year-old stunner has endured many such problems, but she delivers the tune’s hard-earned pearl of wisdom with a tone rich, resonant, and resolute enough to convince you otherwise.…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Midnight Martini Show — There is a strange attraction in Frank Sinatra’s loosely organized Rat Pack and their infamous, loopily disorganized Las Vegas shows that ran for a few golden years back in the 1960s. Frank, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. mixed pop songs, corny jokes, and Johnnie Walker into an irreverent, hip evening…
Pitch Perfect
As long as people in the U.S. support Irish music, Pitch the Peat plans to take full advantage of it. “It’s all over the place,” says fiddler Nikki Custy. “I’m sure part of it has to do with how Riverdance brought it to the forefront. There are Irish festivals even in Alaska.” Custy (who attended…
Band on the Run
When Chris Allen and Doug McKeon aren’t paying tribute to the Pogues in the Boys From the County Hell, they’re making some extra cash with Walkin’ Cane’s Austin Charanghat in the $100 Trio. The rockers have become a twice-a-month staple at the Harp. If one of the guys can’t make a show, Tom Prebish from…
Code DSBP
New Mexico’s DSBP Records has signed a one-album deal with Encoder, the new electro project from former UV programmer Pat “Bruno” Berdysz and Ted “DJ Cable” Carter, a goth-industrial scene fixture who managed UV and helped establish the Chamber as the city’s darkwave destination hang. “We signed Encoder because they have an addictive sound with…
Rainy Day Saints
Rainy Day Saints frontman Dave Swanson did time in mythologized Ohio bands Death of Samantha, Guided by Voices, and Cobra Verde. On the Saints’ stunning sophomore LP, Diamond Star Highway, he’s well on the way to establishing his own local legacy. Swanson originally conceived RDS as a solo vehicle, tackling all the instrumental duties on…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW The Birth of Genius — Unique among the many displays nationwide celebrating the 100th birthday of legendary designer Viktor Schreckengost, this exhibition unveils rare sketches and design concepts from 1924 to ’29, when Schreckengost was a student at the Cleveland Institute of Art (where he would eventually become the youngest faculty member in school…
Rock and Roll All Night
The W.T. Feaster Band’s frontman believes in rockin’ till the sun comes up. “I’m one of those guys that once I get onstage, I hate to get off,” says Travis Feaster. “The only way I’ll get off is if people want me to stop.” The Indianapolis trio plays a funky blues-rock mix that includes both…
Cry Uncle
Author Monica Wood was as surprised as anyone by how Any Bitter Thing turned out. The novel (just released in paperback) tells the tale of an orphan raised by her uncle, a Catholic priest. After he’s falsely accused of molesting her, he drops dead from a heart attack. Two decades later, after nearly dying in…
Peter Case
Music genres are ghettoized for long stretches, and it seems none more so than folk. So while Peter Case has been making wonderful rootsy pop as a solo artist for two decades, he’s received only a fraction of his due. Of course, Case scored big almost out of the box with the Nerves, helping write…
Ghostface, Mick Boogie, and Tapemasters Inc.
The Broiled Salmon Mixtape isn’t a damn-I-shoulda-bought-this-instead revelation, like Mick Boogie’s other current mixtape promoting Mobb Deep’s wretched Blood Money. But that’s no reason not to pick up this fine addendum to Fishscale, Ghostface’s recent return to whacked-out form. Hosted by Tony Starks himself, the Broiled Salmon Mixtape has something for the Wu Tang faithful…
Your Show of Shows
Boston Legal: Season One (Fox) David E. Kelley’s latest legal drama is nothing more than a TV show about TV shows; hence the casting of Captain Kirk and Murphy Brown, with guest shots by Diane Chambers, Golden Girl Rose Nylund, and Alex Keaton. It’s like a Nick at Night mash-up, with the laugh track muted,…
Rib Sage
Al “Bubba” Baker, former defensive end with the Browns, compares his homemade barbecue sauce to the gridiron. “It’s a lot like football,” he says. “You have to bring your A game every time.” Baker’s Bubba’s-Q Bar-B-Q will be one of 11 grilling teams competing at this weekend’s Great American Rib Cook-Off and Music Festival. The…
Come Sail Away
Styx was always theatrical. What’s Paradise Theater, if not a modern pop opera? And “Mr. Roboto” is clearly stage-ready tragedy about rebellious Japanese robots! The band (with three original members, but no Dennis DeYoung on vox) will be backed by the Cleveland Contemporary Youth Orchestra tonight. Thu., May 25, 8 p.m.
Jonathan Edwards
The year is 1971. The United States is entrenched in a costly, unpopular war. President Nixon is a mere caricature of himself, having recklessly blown his political capital. He’s rapidly losing traction after a second-term “mandate,” and the war isn’t improving. Sound familiar? If so, odds are that the name of singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards does…
The New Old World
Popular restaurants, like cruise ships, can’t be turned around on a dime. Adopting a new course, no matter how desirable, takes foresight, conviction, and plenty of time. For proof, check in on Dominic and Carmen Cerino, third-generation chef-owners at Carrie Cerino’s Ristorante, the rambling North Royalton institution founded by their grandmother in 1963. Buying the…
Next Big Things
Yet another Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has come and gone, and this one was the biggest yet. Exhibitors know all too well that a strong showing at E3 — an event heavily covered by both industry and mainstream press — can turn a great product into a blockbuster and a lackluster one into a laughingstock.…
Whole Lotta Covers
Zoso frontman Matt Jernigan channels Robert Plant tonight at the band’s Led Zeppelin tribute show, which opens the Rockin’ on the River summer concert series. Jernigan founded the California quartet in 1995 — 15 years after the original band’s break-up following the death of drummer John Bonham. Zoso deftly re-creates Zep’s act, right down to…
Rachael Yamagata
Warming up Ryan Adams’ fans at a Cleveland show last year, Rachael Yamagata dealt with no fewer than three hecklers — one of whom she accused of being reason enough for her to give up on men altogether. Then she turned the crowd on him. Despite the interruptions, she nailed every one of the jazzy,…
Cooking Out
Meal-assembly businesses have long been popular on the West Coast, where preparing food is viewed as a hindrance to more pressing pursuits, such as sleeping with agents and cosmetic surgery. But in the past two years, Cleveland has seen a proliferation of similar operations, including Super Suppers (Avon, Medina, and Strongsville), Cooking Thyme (Westlake), My…
Our top DVD picks for the week of May 23.
Africa Screams (Image) April’s Shower (Liberation) Back Door to Hell (Fox) Bloodrayne (Uwe Boll Productions) The Closer: The Complete First Season (Warner Bros.) Deadwood: The Complete Second Season (HBO) The Devil’s Miner (First Run) The Dirty Dozen: Two-Disc Special Edition (Warner Bros.) The 4400: The Complete Second Season (Paramount) Game 6 (Hart Sharp) The Goebbels…
Fat Kids’ Revenge
If you hang out at the same bar as local punk trio Fat Kids on Cupcakes, chances are pretty good that the guys will write a song about you. Just ask the patrons of Avon Lake’s Tailgaters, who are the subjects of the song “Juiceboxes and Jerky.” “One guy would always get into fights without…
Trial and Error
Spectators filled the courtroom’s wooden benches, thirsting for blood like Cubans at a cockfight. They had come to see Judge Timothy McGinty take the witness stand. The sheer number of defense lawyers in attendance made it clear that this was a hostile audience. McGinty had spent the previous 24 years as a tenacious prosecutor and…
Clumsy Lovers
Please don’t confuse the Clumsy Lovers with the Barenaked Ladies. Yes, both bands hail from the Great White North, boast slightly salacious names, and love to joke around. But the Lovers ground their clever, catchy music in country and bluegrass roots; for them, the fiddle and banjo are just as important as a guitar and…
Lucky X III
When kids of all ages discuss comic books and superheroes, there is inevitably one question that comes up time and again: If that one guy and that other guy had a fight, who would win? Comics companies occasionally indulge these debates with special issues pitting Thing against Hulk or Wolverine versus Spider-Man, but the results…
The week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
CD — Johnny Cash: Personal File: This fascinating two-disc set includes 49 never-released songs recorded in the ’70s and ’80s by the country legend. The era wasn’t exactly Cash’s most triumphant period; in fact, many of his albums from this time were uninspired and maudlin. But this collection (taken from hours of spare, intimate home…
Best Feet Forward
The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team will be heading to the World Cup next month ranked number four — its highest showing ever. “At the end of the day, I don’t think the Czech Republic, Italy, or Ghana really care what we’re ranked,” says defender Jimmy Conrad, with a laugh. Before heading to Germany for…
Quiet, Please
When Scene first approached me to write a reader representative column, I was writing a highly influential column by the same name for The Plain Dealer. Due to my renowned journalistic sensibilities, rival media organizations commonly bid for my services. The name “Ted Diadiun,” after all, adds a certain giguere to a newspaper. Yet Scene’s…
Bury Your Dead
On Bury Your Dead’s most recent studio album, 2004’s Cover Your Tracks, every song bore the name of a Tom Cruise movie, suggesting that the group will somehow incorporate the title or slinky theme song of Mission Impossible III into the set. Like Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt, frontman Mat Bruso completes his objectives, even when…
Roiled Water
If some religious extremists in India had gotten their way, the gorgeous fury of Deepa Mehta’s Water never would have reached the screen. As it is, these self-appointed censors shut down the production for years by staging demonstrations, torching Mehta’s sets, and threatening her life. Eventually, the filmmaker moved her long-delayed project to locations in…
Hey, Good-Lookin’
The matchmakers behind Single in the City hope the salad of grilled portobello and crab on tonight’s menu will attract more men to their monthly series of cooking classes for singles. At March’s foodfest, only two guys showed up to slice and dice alongside 14 single gals. “The men definitely walked out with a few…
Missing: $1.5 Billion
Five years ago, Cleveland school officials were desperate for your money. East High’s gym roof had collapsed, a sign that the apocalypse was imminent. Without repairs, the walls of the city’s aging schools would literally crumble onto unsuspecting children. Or so it seemed. Luckily, the state was offering half a billion dollars in reconstruction funds.…
McKendree Spring
Marty Slutsky got his memory jarred by a tape of a show at the old Capital Theater in Port Chester, New York. “I got really fired up when I heard it,” Slutsky says from his Nashville home. “I phoned Fran [McKendree] and Mike [Dreyfuss], and told them we had to get together and do this…
Biblical Contortions
If you’re craving an antidote to the sanctity of repressed gay cowboys, you could do worse than Adam & Steve. This good-natured comedy from writer-director Craig Chester uses gently sly wit to poke fun at neurotic gay singles, coming of age in the 1980s and dating in the era of recovery. It also features Parker…
Out of Africa
Stand-up comedian Godfrey was born in Nebraska, but his parents are Nigerian. When he tells strangers that he’s of African descent, “They don’t believe me,” he says, “because I have clothes on. They’re like, ‘Where are your flies and your belly?'” Even friends are baffled by his Nigerian American status. “They say, ‘We thought you…
Deal or No Deal?
Could the Beacon Journal soon become the Akron Plain Dealer? High-level sources aren’t saying, but an article in the Beacon reported that bigwigs from both papers, as well as from Plain Dealer parent-company Advance Publications, met last week behind closed doors. California-based McClatchy Co. bought the Akron paper’s parent company, Knight Ridder Inc., in March,…
The Walkmen
While the Walkmen probably should be considered their own entity, it’s hard not to relate them to the superior Jonathan Fire*Eater, which broke up in 1998. With three Fire*Eater members, including those responsible for much of that band’s sound — guitarist Paul Maroon and keyboard player Walter Martin — the Walkmen often exhibit definite echoes…
Live Ammunition
Summer is traditionally when musicians emerge from hibernation and take their music to the streets. The sweltering season also signals the beginning of signature multi-act tours. Although Ozzfest has again given Cleveland the finger — preferring the inhabitants of Columbus to our hair-swinging metalheads — a couple of seriously shredding lineups will pass through the…
