TV Set
BFD Blues Band singer Monica Robins finds it amusing and sorta flattering that fans recognize her from her television gig — even if they do get it wrong sometimes. “They’ll say, ‘You look like that reporter on TV. Don’t you work at Channel 5?'” Um, no. Robins is the health reporter for WKYC-TV 3, and…
Pop Rocks
The Pop Shop Gallery and Studio celebrates its first anniversary tonight with the unveiling of Pop-O-Matic, an exhibit featuring more than 20 artists, many of whom contributed to the Shop’s first show. Paintings, sculptures, and ultraviolet light abound. Saturdays, 2-6 p.m.; Mondays-Fridays, 4-8 p.m. Starts: June 3. Continues through July 15
Breaking Laces
Something of an enigma, the fine tunesmiths of this Brooklyn trio are capable of writing catchy songs in a variety of genres, from indie and power pop to folky, confessional rock. That said, their ballads pale in comparison to their skill with a little rhythmic shuffle and subtly plied hook. Their latest, Lemonade, is a…
Staind
You have to wonder whether Staind frontman Aaron Lewis watched the recent ouster of bald-domed American Idol rocker Chris Daughtry with joy or regret. On the one hand, Daughtry’s success on the show has demonstrated that the mainstream has room for nü-metal bellowers alongside R&B divas and wedding-singer soul men — good news for a…
Rising Sun
Setting Sun’s second album, Math and Magic, sounds as if it was recorded in a bedroom with an old-fashioned drum machine and primitive tape machines. Yet, there’s a ragtag, lo-fi charm to Gary Levitt’s one-man band, which cribs as much from tuneful singer-songwriters as it does from the ’80s Amerindie scene. Live, Levitt turns Setting…
Splish Splash
Although people living in southern Asia may disagree, tidal waves can be fun. At least, that’s what the folks behind Geauga Lake’s new $5 million investment Tidal Wave Bay hope. The amusement park’s latest attraction (part of its Wildwater Kingdom) tosses visitors into a 30,000-square-foot pool filled with nearly 400,000 gallons of water. The pool…
Bernie Worrell & His Woo Warriors
While not an original architect of da Funk, keyboard wizard Bernie Worrell is down as an indispensable member of the construction crew. As a wee lad, he performed with symphony orchestras, composing a piano concerto at the ripe age of eight. But — here’s where it all changed — young Bernie listened to the radio…
The Felix Culpa
Illinois’ the Felix Culpa deals in edgy guitars, erratic beats, fractured non-harmonies, and raw-nerve screaming that stops well short of screamo. And the band also dabbles in the LST (Long Song Titles) genre, as in “The First One to the Scene of an Accident Always Gets Blood on Their Pants.” Of late, the post-hardcore buzz…
Wet and Wild
Organizers of today’s Great Canoe Race advise participants to eat their Wheaties before they tangle with the raging Tuscarawas River. “You’re going to need a breakfast of champions, because some of these courses are long,” says Wayne Maddy. “When you’re racing, you don’t stop paddling.” The 20 races range from short sprints to an eight-mile…
Friends and Family Plan
When Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason received a complaint accusing two Republican mayors of hiring relatives at a sewage-treatment plant, he was quick to act. Last November, Mason announced an investigation of Westlake Mayor Dennis Clough and Rocky River Mayor William Knoble for possible nepotism. In April, Mayor Knoble pleaded guilty to hiring his son…
Maceo Parker
Around the time the commercial fortunes of James Brown began to slide in the mid-’70s, the founding father of old-school funk lost one of his band’s key players: Maceo Parker packed up his sax and headed for the future. Along with trombonist-arranger Fred Wesley, Parker hooked up with funk’s next major architect, Parliament/Funkadelic’s George Clinton.…
Mindy McQ
Seems like every time we check — and we check whenever we can — Mindy McQ develops a little more soul. She claims she grew up on a farm in Ohio, but apparently she spent way more time listening to Sade and Aretha Franklin records than she did baling hay. Visit her at myspace.com/mindymcq, or…
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
High-school math teachers, rejoice! The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland has a new exhibit made especially for you. The Persistence of Geometry (opening today) focuses on the visual impact of shapes and lines through the ages — from ancient expressions to the latest industrial designs. “The idea is to take a universal theme and to…
Boss on a Hot Seat
Summit County Executive James McCarthy sits in Bricco’s bar, waving a Winston as he wisecracks about the prospect of getting kicked out of office. Since 2001, he’s been the most powerful man in the county, directing a billion-dollar budget. But in February, he hired Christine Congrove as the new director of animal control. The 23-year-old…
Duwayne Burnside Band
It’s in the soil as well as the blood: Duwayne Burnside will always be from the hill country of Mississippi. Channeling the spirit of his daddy, R.L. Burnside, as well as neighbors Mississippi Fred McDowell and Junior Kimbrough, Burnside delivers a signature ramshackle rattle. When he plays the slide-guitar-fueled style endemic to the region (which…
Angels & Airwaves
First, let’s get one thing clear — if you abbreviate, it’s AVA. Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 (on indefinite hiatus) realized after he named his new band that AAA just had too many automobile connotations for a dude totally into planes and UFOs. So he inverted the middle A and it magically became a V, spelling…
Fever for the Flavor
Aaron Rapljenovic hates it when people tell him that his stage costume looks like a short stack of Pringles. “It’s the worst analogy to use,” says the performance artist. At today’s Street Beats show with Zoe and Hope Schultz, a bare-chested Rapljenovic will wear his multitiered skirt while performing butoh, a slow-motion dance that originated…
Race Riot
A debate last week on the Ohio Senate floor almost ignited a race riot. It began as a discussion about a bill to declare September 22 Emancipation Day to commemorate Abraham Lincoln’s freeing of the slaves. But Senator Ray Miller (D-Columbus), a black-history expert, questioned the wisdom of honoring Lincoln. He argued that Honest Abe…
New Town Drunks
Like a musical Bonnie and Clyde, the New Town Drunks are a rambling wreck of inspired innuendo and quick-draw melodies speeding toward a cliff, highballs in hand, laughing all the way. Led by red-haired siren Diane Koistinen, the Chapel Hill, North Carolina quartet plays spunky country-inflected rock, penning humorous odes to banality — from the…
The Vibration
“No shoegazers here!” swoons Vibration singer Ann Fitzgerald, on “Muscle Memory,” the lead-off tune from this Brooklyn band’s debut. Well, there might be a few boot-staring palookas in their audience, as most of Amarilla is raw, sauntering guitar churn and rolling drums, calling to mind moody early ’90s mashers like Scrawl, Slant Six, or Sleater-Kinney…
Making an Impression
Mad TV’s Frank Caliendo was planning a career in broadcast journalism, but “didn’t want to make $6 an hour,” so he pursued comedy. These days, he splits his time between Fox’s weekly sketch show and the network’s NFL Sunday, where he talks football. At first, Caliendo’s impersonations bombed onstage. “I couldn’t make anybody laugh,” he…
True Victims Don’t Lie
When a rape is not a rape: I don’t know the child accused, but I do know that if you don’t have the evidence to prove your case and the victims waited this long to accuse one person, I smell a fish [“Hush,” May 17]. I am the mother of a daughter who was raped,…
Thai Score
“Okay, class, who can tell me about Mint Café, that charming little Thai spot on Coventry? How about you, sir? Yes, you with the chopsticks up your nose.” I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the collegian in question. If I’m right, he and his buds were at the table next to ours on a recent Saturday…
The Little Killers
As the saying has it, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Usually, that’s a bad thing, but for N.Y.C.’s Little Killers and their sophomore disc, A Real Good One, it’s terrific. Since the immortal Sonics in the ’60s, the Stooges in the ’70s, the Milkshakes in the ’80s, and more recently…
The Artifacts of War
The Artifacts of War The Massillon Museum’s latest exhibit, 1861-1865, recalls that special time in our nation’s past when brother slaughtered brother on U.S. soil. Tons of artifacts from the Civil War are on display, including photographs, manuscripts, and military equipment. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays, 2-5 p.m. Starts: June 1. Continues through Aug. 6
Loud Tape Buzz
No self-respecting young musician these days dreams of being “On the Cover of Rolling Stone.” Indeed, Dr. Hook’s famous tune needs an internet makeover, because the torch has passed to blogs and ‘zines — which, in the case of Pitchfork, can change your career overnight. Ask Josh Grier, a data analyst for a health-benefits company…
Baloney
We must have been out of the room when Ohio staked its reputation on fried bologna sandwiches. Either that, or Chicago Tribune correspondent Tim Jones is just full of it. “Ohio is not Silicon Valley,” Jones perceptively noted in a recent Tribune article, filed from the Ohio heartland. “It’s more like Sodium Valley, which has…
Cracker
Greenland is a wistful journey into David Lowery’s past, with ports of call both literal — Northern California, the British Isles, Morocco — and figurative. It’s Cracker’s strongest offering since its early ’90s high point, Kerosene Hat, and at times recalls the exotic aura of Camper Van Beethoven’s 1989 masterpiece, Key Lime Pie. “Something You…
Shear Noise
Dominic Moscatello, one of the singers in Mower, has 12-inch blades of brightly colored hair jutting from his skull. The other singer, Brian Sheerin, is bald and sports a devilish goatee. Different coifs notwithstanding, the music on Not for You, the new CD from the San Diego hardcore band, is quite consistent. The quartet sticks…
Back Door Coup
Five years ago, Boots Riley and the Coup members released an album that spread their names across America — though few of those talking about the disc had heard a note of the radical hip-hop within. That’s because the image that was to have been on the front of Party Music — Riley and DJ…
Vince Charming
You know how, in most romantic comedies, the best friends are nearly always more interesting than the actual leads we’re supposed to care about? The Break-Up doesn’t play that game. Vince Vaughn is the focus and the primary source of entertainment, which is all the more impressive when you consider that the supporting cast this…
The Stills
A theme: “It’s nice to see you moving on/I know it’s hard to carry on.” That’s the Stills’ frontman David Hamelin on “In the Beginning,” the opening cut from his Montreal band’s sophomore outing, Without Feathers. His is a strident tone, offering encouragement above a traveling-song snare trot and infectious B-3 organ fills, singing about…
Express Yourself
Accessible Expressions, the new exhibit in Gallery C at Cleveland State University, is all about overcoming obstacles. Suffering from macular degeneration, hearing loss, and learning disabilities, more than 15 local artists — ages 5 to 85 — contribute paintings, sculpture, and photography. “It’s totally inspiring,” says gallery director Robert Thurmer. “These people have tremendous capability.”…
Tweedy Cutlet
Once upon a time, guys like Bob Dylan and Gram Parsons blended the earthy honesty of country with the electric dynamics of rock. In the process, they created a genre that has (with few exceptions) stood the test of time. The ’90s saw a revival, led by Uncle Tupelo. When Tupelo disbanded, thanks undoubtedly to…
Deep-Sixed
There was a time when people moaned whenever Hollywood would remake — and thus suck the life out of — a classic movie. These days, Hollywood just sucks the life out of movies that weren’t that great in the first place. Ah, progress. Well, June 6, 2006, is upon us, which means it’s time to…
B.E. Mann
Bring Back the Days is the 18th album from reggae titan B.E. Mann, and the extent of his output isn’t quite as impressive as the fact that he finds the time to make the discs, what with playing nearly every instrument on this album and doing an endless series of shows that have cultivated his…
Dance Floor Cocktail
It’s taken DJ Graph six years of spinning progressive, electro, and deep-tech tracks to figure out how to keep an audience on the dance floor. It’s all about mixing up the playlist. “I don’t want anyone hearing a 4/4 beat or just straight-up techno for an hour and a half,” says Graph, aka James Cox.…
Sound Advice
Derrick Green played with Cleveland hardcore legend Outface before replacing Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera. The veteran metal band is earning raves for its new album, Dante XXI. What have you been listening to lately? Keelhaul, Raised Fist, Danko Jones, John Coltrane, Jurassic 5, Kyuss, Mother Love Bone, Scream. How did you connect with Sepultura? I…
Belgian Waffling
Amid brutal competition from A History of Violence, Caché (Hidden), and Last Days, the top prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival went to L’Enfant (The Child), a Belgian drama about a 20-year-old hustler who sells his infant son like a bag of weed. The makers of this provocative movie, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, have…
View From Everest
View From Everest validates the theory put forth in the commercial for the Monster Ballad compilation: Every bad boy has his soft side. Its members boast local hard-rock pedigrees (guitarist Jimmy Maler was a member of Spoyld; singer Chad Armstrong played guitar in the Zachary Walker Band), but Contagious emphasizes radio-friendly love songs. The EP…
Traffic Jam
Squealing tires and honking horns won’t distract Hal Walker at his Street Beats performance during rush hour today. The one-man band plans to simply play along with the automotive racket. “I’m hoping to set an atmosphere of music that goes along with traffic,” he says. “I won’t invite the noise, but I’ll try to accompany…
Sound/Stage
SOUND Ringworm, “No More Heroes” (www.myspace.com/ringworm13) A love letter to when thrash and hardcore cross-pollinated in the same sweat-soaked mosh pits, Ringworm combines martial drum fills to rival Bad Brains’ speed and intensity, with thundering guitar breakdowns that owe an obvious debt to Slayer. The song seems to accelerates as it nears the finish; the…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Grease — When Grease first opened on Broadway in 1972, everyone had a pretty fresh memory of the hoods in their own schools a decade or so earlier, who were incessantly combing their lubed locks and readjusting their upturned collars, when they weren’t filching hubcaps. But the further we get from that era, the more…
Wilde Style
In A Man of No Importance, making its Cleveland premiere at the Beck Center tonight, a bus driver with a passion for the works of Oscar Wilde daydreams of staging Salome, with his passengers as the cast. The musical (featuring Irish folk tunes) is a funny and touching portrait of a man dealing with career,…
Bonnaroo or Bust!
A topless woman masturbating, hand in her shorts, as a crowd looks on. A sea of empties and discarded clothing. The omnipresent hiss of nearby nitrous containers. Welcome to the Bonnaroo Music Festival. If you can snort, shoot, drink, or smoke it, someone out here has it, and often they’re fucked up enough to share…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Into View — For 15 years, the Sculpture Center has elevated Ohio artists to greater prominence through its “Window to Sculpture” series. This exhibition of recent work by program alumni is a frank perusal of the high and low points. While the show succeeds in its intent to demonstrate the continued viability and potential…
Night Beat
Director Licia Colombi promises many things at tonight’s world premiere of Ensemble Theatre’s Nocturne. The show is a mix of live music and an original play — a captivating tale of an unsuccessful sax player’s jealousy-fueled marriage and a mystic jazz legend who straightens out the man’s relationship with his wife. But we’re most excited…
Last Word
“In tha club, with a fine breezy beside me” — KC of NBC Posse, Akron “Monday mornings on my living room couch, with my good friends Regis Philbin, Kelly Ripa, and Paul Masson. Coming in a close second has got to be up in the Modä, Saturday night about 1 a.m.” — KingDOM of ODOT,…
Jesus Wept
If the creepy, self-flagellating albino monk in The Da Vinci Code really wanted to suffer, he’d drop his flesh-shredding cat-o’-nine-tails, pick up a controller, and play The Da Vinci Code videogame. It’s that bad. Now it can be told: The Da Vinci Code game is one of the crappiest, crap-lousy crap attacks of all time.…
Code Blue
Stand-up comic Chris Porter was touring the country a few years ago when he had an epiphany. “I was drinking amaretto out of a girl’s vagina when I thought to myself that this was as good as it was ever going to get, living in Kansas City,” he says. “I didn’t even really want to…
B-A-N-A-N-A-S!
King Kong. The Arctic Monkeys. Ape Escape 3. Primates are in, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History gets into the swing of things with Discovering Chimpanzees: The Remarkable World of Jane Goodall. The 6,000-square foot exhibition takes visitors straight to Tanzania’s Gombe National Park, the heart of Goodall’s monkey business. “When you walk into…
Vader
Metal’s innate theatricality is never more present than when it’s time to choose a name. Kataklysm, Vader, and Destruction will all descend upon Cleveland this week, arm-in-hairy-tattooed-arm (well, probably not literally) for one of the better death-metal bills of the year. But why only one “tion” band on the tour? Time was, you couldn’t have…
Dreams of Syndication
Will & Grace: Series Finale (Lions Gate) The way this got hustled to shelves, mere days after Will Truman and Grace Adler said their mushy farewells, you’d think this were some classic adios — another M*A*S*H or Cheers wrap-up. Alas, it was just another Very Special Episode of a show that ran its course around…
Money Talks (and So Do the Dead)
Some people at the monthly Goddess Elite Psychic Fair ask about romance, careers, and health. But the one nagging question on nearly everybody’s mind is about money. “They’ll ask, ‘Am I going to have enough cash to pay the rent this month?'” says co-owner Pat Sievert. “It’s not, ‘Give me the lottery numbers.’ It’s more…
Stand by Your Man
Set in a small French village in the 1930s, Gilles’ Wife examines the gap between selfish desire and absolute devotion. Elisa is an adoring mother of two kids (with a third on the way) and a loyal wife: Not only does she cook and serve her husband’s meals, she even butters his bread. She suspects…
Yes to Nonesuch
Akron’s internationally acclaimed blues-rock duo the Black Keys have split with longtime label Fat Possum Records and signed a two-album deal with N.Y.C.’s Nonesuch Records. The Warner Brothers subsidiary has a prestigious roster that includes Wilco, Joni Mitchell, and k.d. lang. “We talked to a bunch of labels,” says drummer Patrick Carney. “And we never…
The week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
DVD — Career Bed/Sex by Advertisement: These sexploitation flicks from the late ’60s and early ’70s feature plenty of T&A and taboo topics, but the highlight is the campy dialogue (“You are a sewer!”). In the first movie, a shirt-averse stage mom helps her daughter sleep her way to the top. The latter film offers…
Metal Madness
Los Angeles’ Silent Civilian roars through its debut album, Rebirth of the Temple, like a band determined to get somewhere fast. The group bulldozes through everything: structure, melody, harmony. Our favorite outburst shows up right before a searing guitar solo, when singer Jonny Santos (who used to front the brutally hard Spineshank) screams, “One, two…
Old School
Viktor Schreckengost’s wide body of work includes everything from functional bicycles and lawn chairs to decorative pottery and paintings. More than 100 places across the country are celebrating the artist’s 100th birthday this year (yes, he’s still alive, living in Cleveland Heights) with the Viktor Schreckengost National Centennial Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s…
Southern Culture on the Skids
With lighthearted paeans to road-kill dinners (“Carve That Possum”), southern convenience stores (“Fried Chicken and Gasoline”), big hair (“Liquored Up and Lacquered Down”), and other objects of trailer-park/white-trash parody (one album’s entitled Plastic Seat Sweat), Southern Culture on the Skids could at first be mistaken for a parody band like the Dead Milkmen. But dig…
Our top DVD picks for the week of May 30.
The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 2 (Warner Bros.) A Fine Romance (Tango) Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (Dark Sky) Freedomland (Sony) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Fox) Hercules/Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules (Image) John Wayne: An American Icon Movie Collection (Universal) The Kids in the Hall: Complete Season 4 (A&E) Lifespan (Mondo Macabre) The Lon…
