On Stage
The Cult — Raymond Bobgan’s new experience (one hesitates to call it a play) is akin to being stuck in a room with five distressingly earnest people who keep launching pseudo-meaningful bon mots like intellectual confetti. Despite energetic and often engaging actors, and highly disciplined direction by Bobgan, the show’s 75 minutes easily feel twice…
DJ Hive
It might be hard for recent DJ Hive converts to imagine, but the California jock hasn’t always been into drum & bass. As a high school kid in Washington, D.C., he played guitar in a hardcore punk band. After moving to Los Angeles in the early ’90s, he jumped to hip-hop, intrigued by the possibility…
On View
Aging in America, The Years Ahead — Being old doesn’t necessarily mean living on the fringes of society, as this multimedia show proves. Ed Kashi’s black-and-white photographs demonstrate, for example, that the Marlboro Man has nothing on the 75-year-old cowboys competing at the National Senior Pro Rodeo. A leather-jacketed senior biker chick gives meaning to…
Electric Six
It’s easy for struggling rockers to get their knickers in a twist over the success of the Electric Six. Most bands slave away for years at pointless Tuesday-night gigs, with fast-food earnings blown on unheard recordings. Then there are lucky ducks like this Detroit bunch. Starting back in 1998 as the Wild Bunch, they were…
Thai’d and True
The big man was all shook up. “Get your butts down here!” he fairly shouted into his cell phone. “I’m in Hudson, at Pad Thai, and they’re not busy! We’d better take advantage of it, pronto!” Besides making us wonder if Phone Guy had never heard of reservations, that little exchange serves to point up…
Sister Machine Gun
A cursory scan of what’s moving in industrial-rock circles demands some simple questions: Where did the rock go? Since when did shoddy, self-help-pamphlet fodder, sung off-key to soft synth, qualify as industrial? While much of the genre is currently engaged with turning the once-challenging style into melodrama, Chris Randall and Sister Machine Gun quietly stayed…
Just Desserts
Local food fans took it hard when chef Todd Stein left downtown’s Vivo to become chef de cuisine at mk, Michael Kornick’s three-star dining room in Stein’s hometown of Chicago. (Stein’s longtime sous chef, David Connolly, has since taken over as Vivo’s top toque.) But for every yin, there is a yang, and the compensatory…
Vital Remains
Sometimes critics screw up. Our initial assessment of Vital Remains’ 2003 album Dechristianize called it “solid death metal” and pretty much left it at that. In the months that followed, though, the disc wormed its way into our heads, wouldn’t leave, and wound up in our top 10 for the year. Dechristianize is a grower;…
Yawn Darts
Has anyone ever painted “Tortoise” on his jacket or gotten a Tortoise tattoo? Probably not. Tortoise doesn’t inspire such demonstrative behavior. Rather, its music is like a stylish end table; it adds a subtle finishing touch to a room. It’s an accouterment to an intelligently decorous lifestyle that prizes functionality over frills, thoughtfulness over passion,…
Clinic
For a brief moment in 2002, a British rock band landed in America that deserved every knob-slobbering syllable of praise it would receive. Yes, Clinic is all that and a bag of fish ‘n’ chips. Taking the stage in surgeon’s drag initially earned the Liverpool quartet novelty-gimmick points, but it’s the way they doctored seminal…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, May 6 Jeri Mills swears she can treat animals with Reiki, that New Age-y form of healing by touching. “I’ve used it on dogs, cats, and horses,” she says. Her new book, Tapestry of Healing: Where Reiki and Medicine Intertwine, offers a balance between traditional Western medicine and a more spiritually inclined remedy. But…
L.A. Story
As anyone who has ever read John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath knows, California is more than just the state that’s always threatening to fall into the Pacific Ocean in the event of an earthquake. It’s also a state of mind, representing the promise of riches, fame, and happiness — a place whose surf fantasies…
Chris Robinson & the New Earth Mud
In the early ’90s, as frontman for the Black Crowes, Chris Robinson was simultaneously a modern rock star and a throwback to an earlier era. His devotion to the ’70s was visible in his hairy face, his stick-thin physique, and his penchant for tie-dyes; the music didn’t lie either, with Stones-meets-Faces faves like “Remedy” and…
Monster, Inc.
Twelve years ago, filmmaker Nick Broomfield made a documentary about convicted murderer Aileen Wuornos. The movie, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, painted unflattering portraits of the mother, lawyer, and police who pocketed cash in the wake of Wuornos’s arrest. On the heels of Monster, which netted Charlize Theron an Academy Award earlier…
Remaking the Band
The bulging floodgates of the ’80s indie-rock reunion racket have finally burst open, with the biggest wave yet poised to hit the shore: the Pixies. But even die-hard fans seem uncertain whether the experience will leave them invigorated or just soaked. While seemingly no more important in their mid-’80s heyday than, say, Dinosaur Jr., the…
Enon
The Ohio connection is undeniable: Enon is a city near Dayton; Dayton is the city where indie star Brainiac took root. Brainiac met an untimely demise, but its guitarist John Schmersal moved on to New York City. Goodbye, Ohio; hello, Enon — a band of slippery lineup and shifting-synth soundscapes. On its latest release, Hocus…
Need for Speed
SUN 5/9 When Alan Marcosson straps on a pair of inline skates, he’s faster than most competitors half his age. At 53, the Clevelander is a favorite to win the May Daze Inline Skate Relay, because he’s one of the nation’s top skaters in his age group. And that’s a fact Marcosson not-so-modestly throws into…
The Con Is On
“Pony up some cash — something hefty, like a retirement fund or the kids’ college savings — and get in on the sweetest deal around. Your investment is fully insured, and annual, quarterly, perhaps even monthly returns in double and triple digits are guaranteed! How, you ask? Through the wonders of high-yield financial instruments, purchased…
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn’s seen a lot in her 70 years. An impoverished Kentucky childhood under the custody of a coal-minin’ papa. Country-music stardom resulting from a series of proto-feminist anthems. An Oscar-winning movie based on her tough-and-tangled life. Marriage to a guy named Doolittle. But she’s never seen nothin’ like Jack White, the White Stripes frontman…
So’s Your Mom
5/6-5/9 Growing up, comedian Wendy Liebman swore that her mother was an amateur ventriloquist. “For 10 years, I thought the dog was telling me to kill my father,” she says. “But I got my brother to do it.” That’s Liebman’s brand of Mother’s Day humor, the kind she’s become well versed in since marrying for…
Burning Down the House
Bruce Williams isn’t eager to talk. He’s seen whites respond with skepticism and weariness to the frequent cries of discrimination that have long dogged the Cleveland Fire Department. His inclination is to shut up. But in the face of persistent questions, Williams’s anger will eventually get the best of him. That’s when the stories begin.…
David Cross
With the title of his new album, stand-up performer David Cross has a point. Abortion, Gulf War II, and Family Circus aren’t inherently funny, but he successfully mines them for big laughs. The balding, bespectacled Cross has been in the spotlight recently as the neurotic psychologist-cum-actor Tobias Funke on Fox’s brilliant sitcom Arrested Development. He…
Genius at Work
SAT 5/8 Comedian Cathryn Michon advises readers to take her new book, The Grrl Genius Guide to Sex (With Other People), as a how-to manual. Men, she says, will find particular value in it. “I’m here to help [guys],” she explains. “If a woman in your life reads this book, you will never again have…
Executive Privilege
Imagine two guys mowing their lawns. One’s a CEO. The other’s a teenage skate punk. Suddenly, both their mowers explode, and both get their arms blown off. (Okay, so we’re struggling for a good example here, but just play along.) In court, they discover that the manufacturer knew its mowers were prone to impromptu fireworks,…
The Division of Laura Lee
When Division of Laura Lee released Black City in 2002, its punky swagger often conjured the Hives but lacked the dynamic songwriting and strong identity of their well-dressed Swedish compatriots. Das Not Compute, DOLL’s second full-length, erases City’s shortcomings by focusing on dark grooves and ooky-spooky keyboards that are as sinister as they are irresistible.…
He Feels for You
SAT 5/8 In India, Shafaatullah Khan is something of a music god. On his latest work — a three-disc series titled The Rhythms of Nature — Khan performs a first: He accompanies himself on sitar and surbahar, while keeping beat on the tabla. “This is what I am adding new to the dynasty and what…
Injustice for Some
Injustice for Some Rap is only the beginning: As dreadful a story as “Innocence Lost” [April 14] is, it is a way of life for my entire race. Too many black males are victims of the same system every day. It’s not news. It’s accepted, with the assumption that the innocent will filter out, unchanged,…
Various Artists
Like most tribute albums, Power of Soul is more compelling on paper than in practice. As an attempt to showcase the R&B side of Jimi Hendrix’s considerable legacy, it’s certainly laudable; the fact that the work of this musical titan, like that of so many blues legends, appeals almost exclusively to white audiences these days…
Monster Smash
“We must keep the atmosphere electrified!” announces creepy Igor; he’s referring to an abominable experiment in Van Helsing, but he could be appraising the entirety of this enormous event movie. Breathless cutting, nonstop special effects, and a pummeling soundtrack camouflage very silly plotting and mediocre-to-sappy dialogue — and yet the thrash-and-burn technique flies. This beast…
Star Struck
Meghan Crawford seems surprised that she enjoyed her job. When she graduated from Kent State, she traveled the worn path to New York City, hoping to find stardom — or at least a paycheck — as an actress. It didn’t work out. So she returned to Cleveland and got a job at Starbucks. Schlepping coffee…
Machine Head
Machine Head’s last disc, Supercharger, was a big comeback from the wackness that was The Burning Red. Now Through the Ashes of Empires, its fifth studio album, ups the ante again. Other, younger bands are plenty heavy, but Machine Head is simply crushing. Through the Ashes is a reunion record for vocalist Robb Flynn; the…
City Limits
That sound you hear is millions of teen and preteen girls, stampeding to movie theaters this weekend to catch sisters Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen in their first feature film since 1995’s It Takes Two. The Olsen twins began their acting careers at the age of nine months when they were cast in Full House, one…
Cleveland Frocks
Donald Shingler boasts that the Cleveland Fashion Show 2004 will be the biggest couture congregation anywhere between New York and Los Angeles. But after assembling the runway rundown for the past three years, he’s noticed that Cleveland’s “generally more conservative than other cities.” So his goal is to shake things up, Cleveland-style. On Saturday, homegrown…
Starberry
Like the cereal its name suggests, Starberry is so sugar-coated, it’s gritty. Pat and Jennifer Casa are a husband-wife team, but they aren’t much like the White Stripes. They’re sweet where the Stripes have soured, peppy where the Stripes have the blues, orange and black where the Stripes are red and white. Like their self-titled…
Fear Factors
When a pleasant Italian comedy titled Mediterraneo won the 1992 Academy Award for best foreign-language film, a lot of observant American moviegoers scratched their heads. Gabriele Salvatores’s fairy tale of Italian soldiers happily stranded on a gorgeous Greek island during World War II was an outright charmer, but it certainly didn’t signal the second coming…
Bathed in Mystery
In terms of sheer humiliation, getting outsmarted by Britney Spears ranks right up there with high school yearbook pictures, premature orgasms, and Yanni fandom. And so we feel the kind of shame traditionally associated with the purchase of midget porn as we take in Britney’s controversial new video for “Everything,” the TRL chart-topper where she…
The Colin John Band
The Colin John Band certainly didn’t need to recruit a heavy hitter like Michael Hill to make a terrific blues album. The Akron trio proved it could do it alone with 2002’s Groove Yard Devils, with John’s ferocious guitar wrangling and soulful vocals leading the way. But who can complain? Hill, a New Yorker who…
Labor Intensive
Almost everyone in the so-called middle class and above has worked at a menial job at some point — waiting tables in college or working at Kmart during summer break. And after they move on to other, more remunerative pursuits, those fortunate folk have the luxury of thinking back on their brutal employment experiences with…
Out of Touch
The Ohio City dance club Touch, a popular stop for dance music of all kinds, has closed its doors after nearly four years. “It was always considered a great underground club,” says DJ misterbradleyp, who spun there regularly. “It was always good for dance music and dancing. It was known as a non-meat market. It…
Blues Clues
It’s hard to name any working people, let alone entertainers, who have mounted successful career comebacks at the frequently dirt-napping age of 82. Yet that is what blues legend Alberta Hunter did, performing at the Greenwich Village nightspot the Cookery, and she actually kept it going for seven additional years. That remarkable renaissance alone would…
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown
It’s right out of the movies: Texas nightclub, 1947, Blues star Aaron “T-Bone” Walker onstage. T-Bone falls ill and drops his guitar in the middle of a number. From out of the crowd a young cat takes to the stage, picks up T-Bone’s ax, and jumps into a boogie number that brings the house down.…
