6/28: American Holistic Medical Association Day
Joseph Beth Booksellers (Legacy Village, Lyndhurst, 216.691.7000) hosts AHMA Day on June 28. The mission of the AHMA is to help transform health care through the integration of all aspects of wellbeing: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, environmental and social. AHMA staff will be on hand throughout the day to answer questions, provide information and offer…
6/20: Parents of Murdered Children poker run
The Second Annual Kirsten Prescott Memorial Poker Run will take place on June 20, Check in is between 10 a.m. and noon at Scoundrels (826 Front St., Berea). The ride will be approximately 100 miles and will end with food, prizes for best and worst hand and raffles. All proceeds benefit the Cleveland chapter of…
6/20: Tremont Trek Home Tour
While the homes are certainly a treat to inspect, it’s the food within that attracts most to the Tremont Trek Home Tour. This year’s lookie-loo to-do runs from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 20. The popular event, which benefits Tremont West Development, includes the home tour plus pre- and post-trek bashes. This year’s…
6/13: Artie Lange book signing
Actor and Howard Stern Show co-conspirator Artie Lange will sign copies of his book Too Fat Too Fish at Barnes & Noble, 28801 Chagrin Blvd., Beachwood, on June 13, starting at 2 p.m. Here’s Lange talking about the book with Letterman in March:
6/12: Carol Leifer book signing
Veteran TV comedy writer Carol Leifer signs copies of her new book, When You Lie About Your Age, the Terrorists Win: Reflections on Looking in the Mirror, on June 12, 7 p.m., at Joseph-Beth Booksellers (24519 Cedar Rd., Lyndhurst, 216-912-1985). Liefer discusses the book with Letterman:
6/9: Isis at the Grog Shop
Often labeled avant-metal, this Los Angeles fivesome really does defy definitions. Following 2006’s In the Absence of Truth, the band’s fifth album, Wavering Radiant, perpetuates Isis’ exploratory sonic landscapes, many of them instrumental. Guitarist Aaron Turner’s voice is brought in as a mere accent, sometimes offering hoarse screams and melodic vocal lines. The seven-minute “20…
6/9: Friends With Benefits improv jam
You’ve got a few options if you attend Friends With Benefits’ improv jams. Co-founders Kimberly Pride and Deena Nyer Mendlowitz started the comedy troupe last year, pegging each of their shows to a fundraiser (they helped send Shaw High School’s marching band to the Beijing Olympics and they’ve aided victims of Hurricane Olga, for starters).…
6/7: Strung Out at the Agora
Veteran punks Strung Out have recorded seven albums and toured the world more than a dozen times over the years. Stories of their drunken performances and run-ins with the police abound. Their basement punk blends with melodic metal and a dash of hardcore and traditional rock for a singular mix that tackles political and gritty…
6/7: Cemeteries in Pictures
It’s hard to go wrong pointing a camera in a cemetery. Death rubs shoulders with blossoming trees as the sun shines through them. Plus, all those dignified monuments fill the place with various moods, lines and textures. So when Ohio Cemetery Alliance prez Vicki Vigil was looking for a way to draw more people to…
6/6: Viva Voce at Musica
Viva Voce’s career can now be cleaved into two distinct halves. The Portland duo — married couple Kevin and Anita Robinson — spent their early years perfecting amiable pop with a distinct psychedelic edge, populating Lovers, Lead the Way and The Heat Can Melt Your Brain with uptempo but intricate numbers that showed off a…
6/6: Dave Brubeck at PlayhouseSquare
This year marks the 50th anniversary of pianist Dave Brubeck’s most famous album, Time Out, which includes the jazz classic “Take Five.” This performance, along with Brubeck’s authorship of the often-covered standard “In Your Own Sweet Way,” makes him one of the most highly regarded white musicians in jazz history. Despite a recent viral infection…
Theater of War has its local premiere tonight at CMA
For the past month, the Cleveland Museum of Art has hosted a program called “Friday Night First Runs.” It features local premieres of movies that have previously bypassed Cleveland during their theatrical runs. Tonight at 7, it’s offering a screening of 2008’s Theater of War, a film about a theatrical production of a Brecht play…
6/6: Art in the Village
As Cleveland neighborhoods look to arts festivals as a revitalization strategy to attract people, culture and spending money, Legacy Village wants a piece of the action too. But instead of a homespun, locally flavored fest, the shopping center hired national promoters, who promise “an eclectic mix of the nation’s most talented artists” collectively displaying “over…
6/7: Dog Days at the Cleveland Botanical Garden
Has your dog been the perfect little angel lately? She hasn’t ripped your newspaper in weeks, and she’s even stopped pestering the cat! Are you looking for a special way to reward her? Take her to the Cleveland Botanical Garden (11030 East Blvd., 216.721.1600) from noon-5p.m. on Sundays this summer starting today for the Garden’s…
6/6: Object Lesson at CSU Art Gallery
Artist Joan Deveney, better known around town as Joan of Art, has been assembling bits of broken household items and other fractured pieces into ceremonial — even sacred — works for years. Appropriating things like shattered glass, mirrors and china raises all kinds of questions about art itself, like: Do they represent broken things? Or…
6/6: Japanther at Now That’s Class
Given the underground success of noise-pop-punk outfits like No Age, Wavves and Times New Viking, the dudes in Japanther must be kicking themselves for striking a few years before the iron was hot. The duo of drummer-singer Ian Vanek and bassist-singer-keyboardist Matt Reilly have been doling out static-sugar fuzzbombs — relentless bursts of snarl-tone that…
6/6: De-Lightful, De-Lovely, Dee Hoty!
Dee Hoty grew up in Lakewood and discovered musical theater in high school. After studying at Otterbein College, she began her professional career at the Cleveland Play House in 1975 as a member of the repertory company and moved to New York two years later, when she was 25. Since then, she’s been hard at…
Reviews of three new films opening at the Cedar Lee
While most moviegoers will undoubtedly go see Will Ferrell ham it up in the Land of the Lost remake that opens this weekend, the Cedar Lee is adding three new films, including the terrific Cleveland International Film Festival hit Rudo y Cursi . Here are capsule reviews of the movies opening at the Cedar Lee…
6/6: Terry Anderson & the Olympic Ass-Kickin Team at the Beachland
These straight-up rock ’n’ rollers throw a nonstop party that’s loud and filled with double entendres. Their songs are as sweet as the maple syrup on an All-Star Special at Waffle House after a night of drinking Thunderbird. The group is on a series of “long weekend” mini-tours in support of its new album, National…
6/5: There Goes the Neighborhood at MOCA
While journalists have been steadily reporting the bleak reality of cities in decline, artists have responded to their environment by holding up a carnival mirror to the landscape, twisting and blurring and mixing the physical with the imaginary, the real with the surreal, and turning it all into something new. MOCA Cleveland’s Megan Lykins Reich…
6/5: Hot Air Balloon Rally
Debonné Vineyards (7743 Doty Rd., Madison, 440.466.3485) is a bucolic rural setting at any time. But imagine that countryside filled with brilliantly colored hot-air balloons. This weekend’s 27th annual Hot Air Balloon Rally offers just such a sight. Come out this evening and see the lighted balloons hovering beyond the outdoor patio, where you can…
MORE PAIN DEALT AT THE PD
In April, Plain Dealer management requested its three labor unions to trim a total of $5 million in payroll or face layoffs. The editorial union and two of five Teamster units voted to accept the concessions. On Monday, a PD source says, the paper cut positions and shifts from units whose members rejected the voluntary…
6/6: Plan 9 From Outer Space at Cedar Lee
“You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!” A rare screening of the reputed worst movie ever made (immortalized in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood). June 6, 9:30 p.m. and midnight at the Cedar Lee Theater, 2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights. Bring a homemade UFO for the “Best Worst Flying Saucer Contest.” Winner gets a $25 Cleveland…
6/5: Marcia Ball at the Beachland
The odds were probably against Marcia Ball doing anything else. Raised on the Texas-Louisiana border in a music-friendly household, Ball’s encounter with the sounds of Professor Longhair, Irma Thomas and countless other R&B, Cajun, Creole, Tex-Mex and soul strains was a fairly safe bet. That she would fashion her own persona from these sources and…
Rescue Party Tour stops at the Cedar Lee
When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, Tom McPhee had just sold a business and was prepping for a Super Bowl function he was promoting. After hearing Mayor Ray Nagin’s plea for help, he loaded up his Honda Element with provisions and tools, and headed to New Orleans to help. He ended up at…
6/4: Justin Townes Earle at Kent Stage
There’s no running from the legacy of his names, but Justin Townes Earle’s first two albums suggest that he may yet measure up to father Steve Earle’s and namesake troubadour Townes Van Zandt’s heritages. Like his dad, he’s infused rock ethos into country-rock, though Justin favors more traditional (the honky-tonk “Poor Fool”) and Bakersfield (hooker-ode…
THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART
Cleveland sports fans wear the accumulated disappointment of 144 straight championship-less years right on their sleeves. Outsiders just know it’s been a long friggin’ time since Cleveland won anything, but we rattle off the years without thinking — ’64, ’48, never — like some depressing play called at the line of scrimmage. It’s our identity.…
Morning-Coffee Debate: Tori Amos
A regular feature where two of our writers briefly talk about a single subject over their morning cup of coffee. Today, Michael Gallucci and D.X. Ferris discuss Tori Amos. Feel free to join in. Gallucci: Do you know why Tori Amos makes concept albums? So people have something to say about her albums. Her new…
6/6-8: Little Italy Art Walk
Warm up for the Feast of the assumption at the Little Italy Art Walk — three days of food, art and music in one of Cleveland’s most vibrant neighborhoods.
IDLE CHATTER
The Ohio Highway Patrol just began installing 5-watt solar panels in the back windows of the 1,150 Crown Vic cruisers that regularly piss you off in every corner of the state. And get this: The panels, which cost just $36.99 each, will pretty much pay for themselves in a year and then usher in an…
6/3 & 6/6: Stravinsky and the Ballets Russes
The famed Ballets Russes — which caused quite a sensation 100 years ago because of its collaborations with visual artists, composers and dancers — is long gone. But the Kirov Ballet recreated some of that old magic by revisiting the Russes’ work with Igor Stravinsky in three one-act performances that feature the composer’s music —…
6/3: Appleseed Cast at the Grog Shop
When Appleseed Cast released the two-volume Low Level Owl in 2001, the project marked a significant step forward for the group. By combining interweaving guitar lines and grandiosity with post-rock dynamics and studio experimentation, the Kansas-based band crafted a gorgeous, career-defining work. Appleseed Cast have since struggled to recapture that depth and beauty. On their…
6/4-6: Tony Deyo at Bogey’s
Tony Deyo got a late start in comedy. He grew up in rural Virginia, received a bachelor’s degree in music education and then studied classical performance at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He played with a couple of symphonies before ditching the drums and giving standup a try. “I loved standup for as long…
Should You Spend $350 on Neil Young’s New Box Set?
You can read all about Neil Young’s new massive box set, Archives Vol. 1: 1963-1972, in next week’s Scene. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak of the review. Neil YoungArchives Vol. 1: 1963-1972(Reprise) Nearly two decades in the making, the first volume of Young’s massive Archives series (this one clocking in at 10 discs!)…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: This Is Antarctica
C-Notes music writers let a band speak for itself, out of respect or apathy. In this case, it’s respect. This Is Antarctica is a dope new metalgaze (read: hypnotic, slow and heavy) project featuring Jeff Shirilla, formerly of Cle-metal crushers Abdullah. —D.X. Ferris Band: This Is Antarctica Website: myspace.com/thisisantarctica Hometown: Akron Sounds Like: Monolithic pop…
Concert Review: Jessica Lea Mayfield at Musica, 5/29
On her latest album, With Blasphemy So Heartfelt, 19-year-old Kent singer-songwriter Jessica Lea Mayfield’s haunting vocals and lyrics give a glimpse into the world of a young artist who’s wise beyond her years. At Friday night’s show at Musica in Akron, Mayfield — along with her brother David Mayfield (of Cadillac Sky) on bass, Anne…
Well, At Least Cleveland Sports Blogs Don’t Have to Change Their Names Yet
Cleveland sports fans wear the accumulated disappointment of 144 straight championship-less years right on the sleeve. Outsiders just know it’s been a long friggin’ time since Cleveland won anything, but we rattle off the years without thinking — ’64, ’48, Never — like some depressing play call at the line of scrimmage. It’s our identity.…
Just out on DVD, Revolutionary Road and Defiance deserve a second look
When Defiance and Revolutionary Road made their respective theatrical runs late last year, they under-performed at the box office and didn’t garner the kind of award nominations their studios probably anticipated. Even by art house film standards, net grosses in the 20 million dollar range aren’t much. So it’s fitting, then, that both arrive on…
Sizzurp-Sipping Rapper Bun B Coming to Town
Bun B, the still-alive half of rap duo UGK, is coming to town on Friday to perform with Gel, a UGK protégé and Cleveland native. Gel made some noise a few years back with “Shoulder Work.” A few months ago, he released the UGK Records’ First Midwest Solo Artist mixtape, which included rhymes by the…
Record Review: Dave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band’s new album, Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King, comes out today. The review will run in next week’s Scene. But you can read it now. Dave Matthews BandBig Whiskey & the GrooGrux King(RCA) For a band that harnesses so much energy onstage, the Dave Matthews Band studio experience has been exceedingly bland…
Live Nation Selling Tickets Without Service Fees
Thinking about buying tickets for an upcoming Live Nation show? Then buy ’em tomorrow. The concert giant has declared June 3 “No Service Fee Wednesdays.” Not sure why it’s plural, since the offer’s only good for one day, but it’s a pretty good deal, especially if you like classic rock in an outside venue. Starting…
Yankees Shut Out of Ritz Carlton in Cleveland
You might have seen this item in Friday’s Hot Clicks over at SI, but it’s worth revisiting for those who missed it. The Yankees, like most teams, stay at the Ritz Carlton downtown when visiting Cleveland. For this trip, they couldn’t. From the LoHud Yankees blog: “But the Yankees, who have a large traveling party,…
Heartwarming Story For Baseball Fans
Short story but worth the read. A small town outside of Dayton was going to cancel youth baseball because of the calamitous economic climate — about 70% of the jobs in Greensfield, OH, are in the auto industry and will probably be gone by October. The story made national news and people from all over…
Some Indians Home Games in June to Mark on the Calendar
No, not based on opponents. That would be silly. Based on the promotional schedule of course. Three big ones are on tap for June. First, watch Major League on the gigantic scoreboard on June 13 after the game against the Cardinals. That also happens to be Shin-Soo Choo bobblehead day. Second, Rick Vaughn bobblehead night…
Foose Video Shoot: The Spudmonster’s Return
Spudmonsters frontman Don Foose returns to action this weekend with two video shoots for his new band, Foose. The hardcore group will play a set of harder-than-nails new tunes and old favorites at the Pirate’s Cove on Sunday from 4 to 7 p.m. The day before, if you can find them, the band will shoot…
Some Patriotic Perspective on the Odds of Lebron Leaving, Courtesy of Jack Bauer
Now that the Cavs are out of the playoffs you’re going to read a whole lot of articles hypothesizing whether the failed championship chase of 2009 means that LeBron is more or less likely to leave in the great free agent rush of 2010. Brace yourself for an even larger rush once the finals are…
Eminem Tastes Bruno’s Ass … On Purpose?
By now, you’ve probably seen the clip of Eminem getting an assful of Sacha Baron Cohen at last night’s MTV Movie Awards (if you haven’t, it’s above — enjoy). The big question is: Did he know it was coming? Probably. After a five-year absence, Em just released a new album, Relapse. He’s been doing tons…
WHY ARE WE NOT ALREADY DOING THIS?
Mother Jones reports on one architect’s fascinating vision for a greener and more economically stable future: Okay, quick: Which portion of the US economy consumes the most energy? Nope. It’s not transportation. Not manufacturing either. The correct answer is the building sector, which guzzles about three-quarters of the nation’s electricity and half of our overall…
Documentary about organic food coming to CMA
To put the documentary Food Fight into proper perspective, the Cleveland Museum of Art (11150 East Blvd., 216.421.7350. clemusart.org) has enlisted local food writer Michael Ruhlman (pictured) to introduce the movie. The Clevelander has written several books about food and helped Lola chef Michael Symon pen a cookbook. He’s also a friend of travel writer…
“Future events such as these will affect us in the future”
“You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!” The Cedar Lee Theater, (2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights) offers a rare screening of the reputed worst movie ever made (immortalized in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood) on June 6, 9:30 p.m. and midnight.
Another club bites it
The Akron club formerly known as Ron’s Crossroads, the Voodoo, Bar Fly, the Fly, the Crossroads, and Temple Tavern is now an empty lot. Through the 1990s, it was a Rubber City stronghold for metal bands. Sometimes called “the house that Ripper built,” Ron’s Crossroads was a home base to local bands like Spawn and…
ANOTHER CLUB BITES IT
The club formerly known as Ron’s Crossroads is gone. And this time, it’s not coming back. The building that housed the North Akron club and the former Grooveyard studio was demolished last week, ending the once-proud venue’s years of obscurity. With a capacity around 300, it was once a significant outpost for metal bands. In…
Video: Cartoon LeBron Carries Everyone on his Back (While Sounding Creepy)
Hat tip to Spencer Hall over at the Sporting Blog. Um. I’ll let him explain his thoughts on this very short video. I broke two bones in my back last week and was given a generous dose of prescription painkillers to use. I like to think they haven’t affected me, but when you’re busting out…
Dust Off Those Old Shoe Boxes and Play Along
If you’re like me, you have oodles of old baseball/football/basketball cards around the house — some in binders, some in shoe boxes, some in those nifty little cardboard boxes you got from the card collector shop. And if you’re like me, once every two years or so you’ll stumble upon them and spend a couple…
Brothers Lounge battle update: We have a winner
After six weeks of competition, Brothers Lounge’s weekly battle of the bands came to a conclusion last night as semi-finalist winners the League of Proper Musicians squared off against the Josh Krajcik Band. After A-list judge Pat the Producer, the host of 92.3 FM’s local music show Inner Sanctum, fell ill, I was enlisted as…
Brian Windhorst Finally Gets a Normal Sized Microphone
One of the surprising subplots to the media’s coverage of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Cavs and Magic has been the enormous microphone used by Brian Windhorst and Mary Schmitt Boyer in the postgame video wrap-ups appearing over at Cleveland.com. Cursed Cleveland noticed it and provided perhaps the best analysis: Lost in all the…
Mike Polk’s Tribe to Inside the NBA on TNT
The Inside the NBA on TNT guys (Ernie and Kenny and Charles and Reggie) got the Mike Polk treatment and take it in good stride. Apparently TNT asked Polk to make the video and he obliged, riding on Ernie (he looks like your creepy uncle), Charles (he’s from Alabama and won more pie eating championships…
GET SOME INK, YOU’LL THANK US LATER
Internationally renowned tattoo artist Cecil Porter is at 252 Tattoo’s Cleveland studio (11721 Bellaire Rd.) studio for two-week visit. The wielder of needles is known for morbid portrait work, so if you’re looking for a detailed tribute to Gollum, Leatherface, or just a plain old scowling Clint Eastwood, he’s your man. Porter’s also an ace…
THE “HASTILY MADE” PHENOMENON CONTINUES
Positively Cleveland’s Hastily Made Tourism Video Contest wrapped up this afternoon as the winners were announced at the Positively Cleveland offices. The five judges, including Plain Dealer columnist Mike McIntyre, Cleveland International Film Festival’s Marcie Goodman, Cleveland Film Commission’s Ivan Schwarz, Cleveland Plus Marketing Alliance’s Rick Batyko and Mike Polk, creator of the video that…
6/6: Dave Brubeck Quartet
At the Allen Theatre, 8 p.m., with guest Kurt Elling. For tickets call 216-241-6000 or 866-546-1353, or visit tricpresents.com.
Hastily Made Tourism Video winners announced
Positively Cleveland’s Hastily Made Tourism Video Contest wrapped up this afternoon as the winners were announced at the Positively Cleveland offices. The five judges, including Plain Dealer columnist Mike McIntyre, Cleveland International Film Festival’s Marcie Goodman, Cleveland Film Commission’s Ivan Schwarz, Cleveland Plus Marketing Alliance’s Rick Batyko and Mike Polk, creator of the original, comedic…
THAT HUGH HEWITT?
Right-wing commentator (and Warren native) Hugh Hewitt has some advice for fellow travellers who think they can or should detail the nomination of Judge Sotomayor for the Supreme Court: Cryptic references to her temperament by retired clerks eager to be “in the mix” are the worst sort of gossip-dressed-up-as-journalism, and simply lower expectations which she…
It’s Punny!
Blink-182’s reunion works on so many levels. First of all, all those 13-year-old boys who were too young to see them during their last tour (five whole years ago, which is like 25 if you’re a 13-year-old boy) can now see the Mark, Tom and Travis Show in person. The reunion (which will yield a…
This Is a Shakedown Release CD, Invite Some Cool Pals
This Is a Shakedown release their Love Kills CD at the Beachland Ballroom tonight. And if hot live electro-rock isn’t good enough to get you there, you should still show up … and get there early. Terry Urban — the Cleveland DJ extraordinaire who spent the last year in New York City planning world domination…
Destroy, Dominate and Remix the Chimaira Video
Finally, you have a chance chance to Rick-Roll Mark Hunter: Chimaira is seeking AV-savvy fans to remix their new video for “Destroy and Dominate,” the first single from The Infection album. Fans can download the video stem files here and edit their own version. The new versions can be uploaded to the band’s YouTube channel.…
Four new films opening at the Cedar Lee this weekend
This weekend, Pixar’s new film Up will undoubtedly clean up at the box office. It deserves every penny it gets as it’s a love story/adventure film that’s yet another fine offering from the animation company. The Cedar Lee, though, opens four new films, all of which are acclaimed. Capsules follow. Brothers Bloom A couple of…
Return of the Beachland’s Blog
The Beachland Ballroom and Tavern’s blog is up and running again. Cobra Verde’s Ed Sotelo is the blogmaster over there. Today’s post is all about tomorrow night’s noise-rock show featuring New York combo Red Dawn II, Seattle’s Beautiful Mothers, Akron’s the Guile and Cleveland’s Self Destruct Button (which includes Scene’s Ron Kretsch on various noise-making…
How Much Are Your Favorite Cleveland Artists Selling?
This week’s cover story about Kate Voegele identified her as “the best-selling locally spawned artist” of recent vintage, based on sales of 2008’s Don’t Look Away LP, her full-length debut. It should have identified her as the best-selling solo artist. She’s moved close to 300,000 albums to date. The Black Keys have sold 671,000 records,…
Kate Voegele Scores Her First Top 10 Album
Kate Voegele, one of our favorite local singer-songwriters and this week’s cover girl, has scored her first Top 10 album. A Fine Mess, which came out last week, debuts at No. 10 on this week’s Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. The Bay Village native’s last album, 2007’s Don’t Look Away, reached No. 27. The Top…
Robin Stone Preps New CD, Despite Crappy Year
Robin Stone, one of Cleveland’s most dynamic performers and winner of this year’s Scene Music Award for Best Vocalist, has had some tough times recently — although you might not have guessed it given the level of activity she’s maintained. Throat problems that began last year led to an endless stream of tests and treatments…
KATE VOEGELE VS. BLACK KEYS VS. NIN VS. METAL DOODZ
This week’s cover story about Kate Voegele identified her as “the best-selling locally spawned artist” of recent vintage, based on sales of 2008’s Don’t Look Away LP, her full-length debut. It should have identified her as the best-selling solo artist. She’s moved close to 300,000 albums to date. The Black Keys have sold 671,000 records,…
If We Had Sponsors, This is Where You’d Hear All About Them
This blog is taking a spontaneous midweek break. We’ll be back here Friday morning with all the Cleveland nonsense you can handle.
I Am Cleveland… Believe in Cleveland
One of our Classifieds guys, Joe Strailey, likes to put keyboard to screen every once in awhile and try writing. After I tell him that’s a good way to destroy a monitor, he puts pen to paper, and I transcribe his words here. These were his thoughts after the devastating loss to the Orlando Magic…
SURE YOU’RE PISSED, BUT WHAT ARE YOU PREPARED TO DO ABOUT IT?
Are you just generally pissed off about everything and think we’ve got to get back to the way it was done in the ’60s — getting out in the streets and making fiery speeches? Then the Bail Out People Movement might be just the thing for you. Founded this spring in New York and headquartered…
5-31: Tragically Hip at HOB
There’s probably no bigger “big in Canada” band than the Tragically Hip. Over the past 25 years, they’ve racked up more than a dozen Juno Awards (Canada’s equivalent to the Grammys). They were also inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. The remarkably unchanged quintet remains guided by charismatic frontman Gordon Downie, whose passionate…
Sam Raimi returns to his roots with Drag Me to Hell
With the “torture porn” trend having taken onscreen brutality and unpleasantness about as far as it can go short of actual snuff, the time is right for a horror movie that’s more funhouse than charnel house. And who better to make that film than Sam Raimi, the director who cut his teeth on the Evil…
Rare baseball films show tonight at CMA
For the past six years, Dave Filipi, film and video curator at Columbus’ Wexner Center for the Arts, has presented a program of archival baseball footage at the Cleveland Museum of Art (11150 East Blvd., 216.421.7350, clevelandart.org/film). This year’s program, Dave Filipi Presents Rare Films From the Baseball Hall of Fame, comes to the museum…
Wednesday Ticket Giveaway
We got five pairs of tickets to Rise Against’s concert at Time Warner Cable Amphitheater at Tower City on June 15. All you have to do is send your name, phone number and e-mail address to freetickets@clevescene.com. We’ll be picking a random winner at noon on Wednesday, June 10.
The Busiest Man in Local Metal Joins Another Band
Akron’s Tim “Ripper” Owens may appear to be the busiest man in Northeast Ohio metal, but apparently he just doesn’t have enough to keep him busy. Never mind that he joined guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen’s band in time to record last year’s Perpetual Flame. Never mind that he has his own band, Beyond Fear. Never mind…
These Just In: More Concert Announcements
We have five new shows at House of Blues. Cleveland’s own Kid Cudi headlines in July, with Asher “I Love College” Roth opening. Then Clutch and Baroness will rock the place down in August. Augustana/Red Wanting Blue: Wed., July 1. 7 p.m., $16 ADV/four-pack general admission tickets $48 (LiveNation.com). House of Blues. In the Cambridge…
Concert Review: Gomez at House of Blues, 5/26
Gomez make great background music. At last night’s concert at House of Blues, couples flirted, girls texted and circles of friends formed with their backs to the stage. Gomez have racked up a solid catalog of music over the past decade (including their most recent album, A New Tide). But as live performers, the British…
Stranger Still
Miniaturist, minimalist, even the occasional miserabilist, Avatar of Cool Jim Jarmusch has been a love-him-or-run-screaming-in-the-opposite-direction proposition since his 1984 critical/commercial breakthrough, Stranger Than Paradise. Jarmusch’s arty, self-conscious doodlings have been hailed as nirvana by audiences reeling from Hollywood’s standard ADD notion of entertainment, and equated to drying paint by those unwilling to board Jarmusch’s hipster…
ALL-CITY DREAMS
“My back started hurting this morning when I thought about 10 years,” says Tony Sias, director of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District All-City Musical, speaking of the program’s 10th anniversary. “Ten years makes a brother start to feel old!” To mark the milestone for the program, which was launched to fill a void left by…
CD Review: Jarvis Crocker
Jarvis Cocker’s greatest challenge at the beginning of the new millennium is making people forget he was the poster child for Britpop at the end of the old one. Cocker’s accomplishments with Pulp in the ’90s thrust him uncomfortably into the limelight (not to mention tabloid copy), so he’s spent the last seven years of…
Wax Works
It’s hard not to reach out and run a fingertip across Susan Squires’ seductive, mysterious encaustic-on-panel paintings. Geometric forms are scored into a ground of clear or milky wax, revealing lambent passages applied with oil sticks. Colors and shapes seem to float toward the eye, rising through dark fathoms (one work is composed of nine…
Reel Cleveland: Michael Ruhlman Introduces “Food Fight”
To put the documentary Food Fight into proper perspective, the Cleveland Museum of Art (11150 East Blvd., 216.421.7350. clemusart.org) has enlisted local food writer Michael Ruhlman to introduce the movie. Ruhlman has written several books about food and helped Lola chef Michael Symon pen a cookbook. He’s also a friend of travel writer and TV…
Bites: Taste of the Heights
There are few better events than Five Star Sensation, a benefit for University Hospitals Ireland Cancer Center. The biennial event, headlined by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, assembles 35 great chefs and 40 world-class wineries for a matchless night of eating and drinking. In addition to Puck, participating chefs include Gordon Hamersley (Hamersley’s Bistro, Boston), Shawn…
CD Review: Cam’ron
Cam’ron has spent most of the three years since his last album beefing with hip-hop heavyweights like Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Jim Jones. That may explain why Crime Pays sounds so dated. Since he’s pretty much excluded from rap’s elite clubhouse these days, maybe he didn’t get the memo that gangsta themes, sex rhymes, painfully…
Mirror, Miroir …
TOP PICK Arcade Fire: Miroir Noir (Merge) Arcade Fire’s concert DVD is pretty much what you’d expect from a band that includes about 43 members who play instruments most of us can’t pronounce. The 70-minute film is an artsy look at the group’s last tour. Interspersed between song snippets are performances on street corners, in…
CD Review: Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses
Ryan Bingham’s colorful path to his new album, Roadhouse Sun, includes leaving a broken New Mexico home at 14 for the competitive bull-riding circuit, learning to play guitar from a neighbor in a mariachi band at 17, writing universally personal songs, scoring a weekly gig at a Texas roadhouse and self-releasing a succession of no-fi/no-money…
HEALTH ON WHEELS
In 1981, Cleveland launched an ambitious and innovative project to provide health care to those who needed it most, by taking the services to them. The program’s “office” was a 33-foot converted medical van, not unlike a Winnebago. John Booher, a physician’s assistant, piloted the mobile office from its home base at the Shaker Medical…
CD Review: Khanata
Khanate is the sort of band that elicits visceral more than aural responses. The quartet’s previous albums have been listener-challeng-ing records packed with last-breath shrieks, abrasive low end, constant feedback and the sort of dissonance that raises hairs and conjures images of car crashes. The band’s swan song, the four-song Clean Hands Go Foul, is…
THE DEBATE IS OVER
I never expected to find the region’s best pizza in Highland Heights. But that was before I met Anthony Pilla. “I am not a chef,” says the enthusiastic 21-year-old. “I am a pizzaioli. I don’t cook the appetizers. I don’t make the soup. My sole dedication is making pizza.” Pilla’s domain is Crostatas, an attractive…
CD Review: Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women
As the leader of the Blasters from 1979-1986, and then as a respected solo artist, Dave Alvin has been performing what’s now called “Americana” music for decades, long before it had even a name. Not one to get stuck in a rut, Alvin debuts a new band on Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women, a…
All Grown Up
Has any studio had a run as successful and as glorious as Pixar’s? Certainly not during most of our lifetimes. Starting with 1995’s Toy Story and running through the past two summers’ instant classics, Ratatouille and WALL-E, Pixar’s filmography reads like a list of modern masterpieces: Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles. Even the…
CD Review: Eminem’s New Disc
It’s been five years since Eminem’s last album. In hip-hop terms, we might as well be talking about an entire generation. There are certainly parts of Relapse, his sixth CD, where it seems like he was in a coma for the past half-decade. That may not be too far from the truth, since the record’s…
CD Review: Phoenix
Legend has it that a phoenix is reborn from its ashes after its body is engulfed in flames. Yet Phoenix, a four-man band from France, never crashed and burned. Their latest album shows that they have a seemingly endless supply of complex pop tunes that sound as alive and vivid as ever. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix…
Raw Power
This Is a Shakedown is chomping at the bit to get out and show the world what they can do. You can sense it as the four members of the Cleveland-based band gather in the showcase room at Ante Up Audio, the studio where they recorded their debut album Love Kills. Their gear and full…
Local CD Reviews
The House Popes (self-released) myspace.com/thehousepopes Geography, the second album by Akron’s House Popes, has a little bit of everything — from saxophone to social commentary — and sounds like a living-room friends-and-family jam. Vintage post-punk and new wave breeze through the party. “Can’t Go Back” interpolates R.E.M., and “The Way You Looked at Me,” with…
STRANGER THAN FICTION
Lance Allred was active for 17 games with the Cavs during the 2007-2008 season. He actually appeared in only three of those games, logging a total of 10:05 played while going 1-4 from the floor, 1-2 at the free throw line, and grabbing one rebound. So you can be forgiven for not knowing who he…
Soundcheck: “Hot Lixx Hulahan”
Craig “Hot Lixx Hulahan” Billmeier won last year’s International Air Guitar competition by dethroning two-time reigning champ Ochi “Dainoji” Yosuke, marking the first time an American had won the contest in four years. This year, he automatically qualifies for nationals, so he’s touring as the emcee of the U.S. Air Guitar competition, which arrives in…
Up and Away
Kate’s Day Singer-actress Kate Voegele has a lot going on. But right now, she’s happiest about her cheeseburger. This month, the 22-year-old is barnstorming two countries in preparation for the imminent release of her major-label debut, A Fine Mess. Its first single just premiered on One Tree Hill, the TV show that’s featuring her for…
Roots Rockers
For three decades, Carlos Jones has filled his sails with the warm breeze and good vibrations of Cleveland reggae. Cruising across the country with Ohio bands like I-Tal and First Light, he’s become local nobility with his incessant tour schedule and many mansions of reggae-fusion music. At the age of 50, he’s married to a…
Around Hear: Rain in the Forecast
A three-band CD release party for Expecting Rain, Mike St. Jude and the Valentines, and St. Francis Arms takes place at 9 p.m. Saturday, May 30, at the Beachland Ballroom (15711 Waterloo Rd.). Expecting Rain has two albums of lush, orchestrated pop, Irish Twin and In Love. The rough-edged Mike St. Jude and the Valentines’…
CD Review: The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase offered a truly frightening sound when they emerged in the late ’90s. The rhythm section hit like shoulders to steel doors, while dissonant, jazzy guitar lines screamed out in harsh, violent blurts and samples of knives being sharpened met toy-piano melodies that added horror-movie atmosphere. But it’s singer John Congleton’s crazed vocals…
Arts News: Cut to Pieces, Not Cut Yet
Cleveland Public Theatre has extended Cut to Pieces, a one-woman show starring Chris Seibert and directed by Raymond Bobgan. Reviewing the production for Scene, Christine Howey wrote: “By taking the age-old trope of several people convened at a spooky mansion and twisting virtually everything thereafter, Bobgan and Seibert come up with a bounty of inspired…
Capsule Reviews of Current Releases (5-27-09)
Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet (Switzerland, 2005) The subject of Angry Monk is so compelling, he transcends the unimaginative, off-the-rack style of this documentary. Tibet’s Gendun Choephel (1903-1951) was a brilliant and intellectually curious youth who enrolled at a lamasery in Lhasa at a period when Tibetan society was stagnant and conservative, ignoring the outside…
You’ve never seen graffiti like this
This video is like a flippie book. Thanks to my friend Jason, for showing it to me. You’ve seen flippie books, and probably even made them yourself. You draw and re-draw a picture dozens, maybe hundreds, or even thousands of times. You flip through the pages, and your stick figure seems to run and then…
New Music Festival Debuts at Cain Park
Three local independent entrepreneurs have joined forces to present the first annual Big Cool Cats Music Festival, taking place at Cain Park’s Evans Amphitheatre ifrom noon to 11 p.m. on Saturday, June 20. The event is the brainchild of Steve Presser (owner of the Big Fun toy and novelty store on Coventry Road) and Denis…
