Spry Hard
FRI 11/12 Appropriately, guitarslinger Tinsley Ellis is playing tougher on his latest album, The Hard Way. “It’s pretty close to southern rock,” laughs the 47-year-old Atlantan. “It’s guitar-driven blues rock. And if it’s not blues, hopefully, it comes out sounding soulful.” The southern-fried blues-rocker — who is inspired by the British version of the music,…
Sounds Like a Plan
Ryan Weitzel has big ideas and a small dilemma. Sitting in the near West Side home base of Exit Stencil Recordings, the label he runs with founder Brandon Stevens, Weitzel is talking about his plans for a collective of Cleveland artists and musicians to help bolster the local scene. All it needs is a name.…
Various Artists
In the age of Interpol, a comprehensive overview of the rock made between new wave and grunge is as timely as can be. Although Left of the Dial, a four-CD boxed set, doesn’t pin down each influence or solve every mystery, it provides an effective summary of an interesting period, when art frequently fought commerce…
Well Trained
Most articles written about The Polar Express have focused on its groundbreaking technology, which takes the process used to create Gollum in The Lord of the Rings one step further. Much as Andy Serkis’s performance was digitally mapped and reproduced via CGI, so too is Tom Hanks’s computer-generated here as a bald train conductor who…
In the House
House of Blues Cleveland, slated to open November 19 with a performance by Cheap Trick, recently offered a sneak peek at its Euclid Avenue venue. Despite the lingering construction projects, the place already gleams. The club, the newest in a nationwide chain of concert halls, greets guests with an ornate main lobby lined with a…
John McGrail
Of all the anti-Bush records in recent months, John McGrail’s Songs for Troubled Times is likely to be the most musically ambitious and lyrically heavy-handed. McGrail pulls no punches and has much to say, but he isn’t going to let you get away without doing some thinking of your own; this is protest music that…
Thong Thing
The witless inanity of After the Sunset is so numbing that the sole reason for any living creature to sit through it — man, woman, or household pet — is to marvel at the speed and variety of actress Salma Hayek’s costume changes. After an opening sequence in Los Angeles, this failed jewel-caper comedy takes…
Umphrey’s McGee
For its Halloween show this year, the South Bend, Indiana sextet Umphrey’s McGee continued what’s become a fright-night jam-band tradition: the costume show. But they didn’t go the dead-rock-star route, as labelmates String Cheese Incident did a few years ago. Instead, they one-upped them. The theme: celebrity criminals. The costumes: Pee-wee Herman, Courtney Love, Pete…
Mike Hudson
Anyone who had the privilege of seeing the Pagans in their 1970s and ’80s heyday can recall the pathos unleashed by frontman Mike Hudson. After the band’s decline and his brother’s untimely death, Hudson moved to New York City, where he vigorously pursued his passions for making music, writing, and boozing. There, he found ample…
Sour Grapes
When was the last time you saw Paul Giamatti? And when the film ended, did you realize how much you would miss him? It was just last year that Giamatti played the hilariously beleaguered Harvey Pekar in American Splendor, a role that he occupied with slumped, hangdog perfection. Yet as soon as Giamatti appears onscreen…
Laibach
For two decades now, Laibach has been creating propulsive music as a sardonic response to the turmoil in its Slovenian homeland. On WAT, the band’s first release in seven years, the fearless foursome evokes memories of a once-bleak landscape, this time with almost effortless electronic purity. It’s political techno-rock. The opener, “B Mashina,” sounds off…
Green Achers
Those familiar with the films of David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls) are likely to have one big question about his latest feature, Undertow: Is there more of a story this time? The answer is . . . sort of. Green, who favors meandering, meditative portraits and is often compared to Terrence…
Animal Collective
Sung Tongs, the latest album by New York’s Animal Collective, is a step toward accessibility by the busy, constantly side-projecting art-noise experimentalists. A lush fantasia of strummed and picked acoustic guitars, layered Pet Sounds vocal harmonies, and tin-can percussion (held together with a woozy production job sympathetic to stoners wearing headphones), the disc is a…
Lucky John
It was 10 a.m. on a Tuesday morning last December. Patrick McGown thought he’d skip work to run a quick errand. He headed to the corner of Johnston and Black streets on Akron’s weathered East Side, where he picked up Samantha Miskewicz, a 23-year-old addict and veteran of four previous prostitution busts. They drove to…
The Edge of Treason
A week after having seen Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, I find that no memory of it remains, except for some scribblings in my notepad; such is the slight nature of this woeful, forgettable sequel. Squandering the goodwill that lingers from the original, now a beloved relic among the singletons and smug marrieds for…
The Wailers
No one could have predicted the enormous worldwide influence the Wailers were to have when the young Bob Marley began singing as a teenager in the early ’60s. From the rough streets of Kingston’s infamous Trench Town ghetto, where the Wailers got their start, to selling millions of records and packing theaters the world over,…
Better Dead Than Red
In the months leading up to last week’s national election, Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell did all he could to suppress the vote and ensure chaos. At one point, he even decreed that registrations must be submitted on 80-pound paper, lest Ohio be accused of having poor taste in pulp products. Blackwell even got…
Picture Imperfect
Outside Tinseltown, not everyone may be aware of the Hollywood Forever cemetery, which specializes in memorializing lives by means of a process the franchise owners call “LifeStories.” The century-old former Hollywood Memorial Park, retooled for the new millennium, presents carefully edited video montages of the lives of celebrities (from Rudolph Valentino to Dee Dee Ramone)…
The Weakerthans
One of music’s most fascinating relationships is the slippery link between punk and twang — the way so many tattooed tough guys secretly record whiskey-soaked westerns in their bedrooms, when no one else is around. Blame it somewhat on the influence of Johnny Cash, a stone-cold badass who could cause even the surliest mohawks to…
Uh-Oh in Ohio
Maybe they’re mad about the whole presidential-election thing. Whatever the case, some Hollywood types are in town, and they’re treating Clevelanders like rubes. Shaker Heights High recently had to renege on an agreement allowing the producers of The Oh in Ohio, a new movie starring Danny DeVito and Parker Posey, to shoot in its science…
Marvelous and Mediocre
In its short but stellar existence on the Cleveland theater scene, Tremont’s Convergence-Continuum company has forged a reputation for presenting quirky, thought-provoking, and satisfyingly oblique works that other groups wouldn’t dare touch. Of course, when you’re working on that particular ledge, it’s always easy to slip off. In their current production of two one-acts –…
Ian McLagan
If the Rolling Stones inspired the Faces, the Faces ravaged the same gritty, grimy rock-and-roll turf with more good-time abandon. Whether or not it was because Jagger and company had more of a bad-boy image to tow around, the Faces’ fare always restated rock’s primary purpose of bashing-good fun. The band’s lack of weightiness made…
Go Home, Bruce
The old man at the podium didn’t shout or sloganeer. His was the voice of reason, steady and prosecutorial as he lit up President Bush for his incompetence in Iraq. Until this moment, the estimated 50,000 people overflowing from Mall C had witnessed the Parade of the Shrill. Mayor Jane Campbell screeched mechanically, sounding like…
Stretch to Fit
Just as it’s good to stretch after a long sleep, it’s often a fine idea to extend one’s theatrical intake and loosen up some of that calcified brain matter. New World Performance Laboratory, led by co-artistic directors James Slowiak and Jairo Cuesta, presents aggressively different works that certainly fill that bill, and two of them…
Riddlin’ Kids
They used to earn tips delivering pizzas in Austin, but now the four members of Riddlin’ Kids are knocking on the front door of the music industry. The Texas punks’ 2002 major-label debut, Hurry Up and Wait, featured a peppy mall-core mini-hit about heartache (“I Feel Fine”) and a light-speed cover (R.E.M.’s “It’s the End…
All Ralph, All the Time
All Ralph, All the Time Now it can be told: Thank you for covering Ralph Nader’s press conference [First Punch, “Nader = nada,” November 3]. As a friend of Nader’s since 1979, when he fought to save Muny Light, I can now reveal that your caption “GOP Stooge” exposes all Nader is about. Only Scene…
On Stage
Ragtime, the Musical — It’s easy to forget what a remarkable social invention the United States really is. No other country has ever brought together such widely disparate ethnic and religious groups, in such large numbers, to live relatively peacefully on the same turf. At least, that was the concept. E.L. Doctorow captured the innocence…
D.O.A.
Hardcore forerunners D.O.A. are exactly where they were 20 years ago: playing clubs to small crowds, releasing records, and railing on the Republican in the White House. For their new disc, Live Free or Die, the Canadian pundits even rerecorded their anti-Reagan anthem, “Fucked Up Ronnie” (as in “You’re fucked up, Ronnie”), as “Fucked Up…
Outgrasp, Outbray
Ric Flair is guilty of many things, but false modesty is not one of them. The white-haired former college-football standout, who switched to wrestling 32 years ago, ranks himself among the greatest — not just in wrestling, but in all entertainment. There are only three genuine legends: “The first being Frank Sinatra. The second being…
On View
NEW Inanimate: Observations, Lectures, and Labor — Each of the dozen objects in this heavily conceptual solo show points clearly to Cincinnati-based sculptor Paul Kochanowski’s reverence for work. It’s not so much the pieces themselves that are on display as it is the painstaking effort behind them. A broken milk crate only looks like plastic…
Solid State Tour
Before shows, mewithoutYou goes dumpster-diving for flowers, which the band uses to decorate the stage, delicately setting it for a scene of manic collisions and general chaos. Screaming his way from punk to post-rock, singer Aaron Weiss creates an enraptured rapport with his crowd, then leaves the place wrecked and littered — all through the…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, November 11 Jeff Dunham is a comic. He’s also a ventriloquist. He recently released Excess Baggage, a CD in which some of his wooden pals — and Hollywood Squares co-stars — do their best Ashlee Simpson impressions. Dunham deftly moves from character to character without missing a beat. At least, we think he does.…
Love at Last
Face it, sweetheart. When it comes to fabulous dishes, these taste buds have been around the block a time or two. From Avon Lake to Painesville, we’ve forked ’em and left ’em, always on the prowl for the Next Best Thing. But after a recent romp through the menu at Downtown 140, our heart is…
Stella
Stella formed from the ashes of The State, the comedy troupe that once seemed poised to become the American Kids in the Hall or Monty Python. The trio was the creative force behind the cult comedy Wet Hot American Summer, and its touring show features its best sketches. Visit www.stellacomedy.com for a taste of comedy…
Playing With Food
Pack up the junior chefs, because Brown is in town this weekend as part of Food Network’s Great Big Food Show, a gastronomic blowout featuring appearances by the channel’s stars (including Rachael Ray, Mario Batali, and Marc Summers), educational seminars, cooking demonstrations, vendors, and the Food Network Kitchens Stage. The 42-year-old Brown began his career…
Corporate Punishment
One year old and ready to kick some butt, the Cleveland Originals have a lot on their plate this month, and they are hoping you want a taste of it. Created last November to protect and promote the region’s independent-dining scene, the Originals’ membership ranges from cozy neighborhood taverns to swank downtown salons. But while…
Pearl Jam
As grunge exploded out of Seattle and into malls and fraternity parties, it was hailed as a revolutionary new form of rock. In retrospect, it’s more like album rock energized by varying degrees of punk. Kurt Cobain liked Zeppelin, but wanted to be Black Flag. Pearl Jam liked Black Flag, but wanted to be Neil…
Gross Out
FRI 11/12 Terry Gross realizes that her on-air battle of wits with Gene Simmons (assuming one considers the blood-spewing member of Kiss to be armed for such a battle) will become her defining moment. “My tombstone [is going to read:] Asked About Codpiece,” sighs the host of National Public Radio’s Fresh Air. (Quoth Simmons during…
Back With a Bite
After a Skinny Puppy concert this summer, electronic keyboarder cEvin Key was greeted by an enthralled female fan, joyous at having just seen Key’s reunited band perform after a 10-year absence. Smiling, she offered Key a gift. Into the palm of his hand she placed a baggie filled with an unidentified substance. “What’s this?” Key…
Sum 41
If Sum 41 sounds hardened on its fourth album, there’s good reason: The title refers to the name of a United Nations volunteer who helped the Canadian punk pranksters dodge bullets and explosions in the Congo, where the group was on a charity mission in 2003. The members of the band haven’t totally lost their…
Hockey Lite
11/12-11/14 It didn’t matter that Sheila Knill couldn’t ice-skate. If she could swing a broom and bat around a hollow ball, she could hold her own in the Greater Cleveland Broomball League. “I’d never heard of it either,” admits Knill, now the league’s president, 11 years after she joined the club. “I said, ‘I can’t…
Fan the Flames
A week and a half after the Arcade Fire’s triumphant appearance at New York’s CMJ Music Marathon — a four-day stint that included packed shows, a flattering profile in The New York Times, and reported major-label interest — the band’s Win Butler and Régine Chassagne are way the hell up in Bar Harbor, Maine, hiding…
Ja Rule
Ja Rule’s last outing, 2003’s before-Christmas quickie Blood in My Eye, was so terrible that he deserves credit for simply showing up a year later — even more for realizing that the album’s raw, mixtape-style format did his pedestrian rhymes a grave disservice. Reloaded with plentiful pop hooks, high-profile guests (R. Kelly, Jadakiss), and the…
True Blue
SAT 11/13 “I’m not saying there aren’t bad cops out there,” says John Tidyman, author of Cleveland Cops: The Real Stories They Tell Each Other, a collection of tales recounted by 70 local boys in blue. “I know there are. But every one of these cops has a heart.” The book — a five-year project…
Oral Cex
“It was such a weird, surreal thing when emo became a commodity.” So says Rjyan Kidwell. For anyone familiar with the IDM-cum-menacing-glitch-hop of his more notable alias Cex, this reflection might be surprising. But not on second thought. The 22-year-old Baltimore native’s inner conflict embodies emo. Roasting under the summer sun in Chicago, his temporary…
Napalm Death
After years as Earache Records’ flagship act, Napalm Death has been label-hopping recently. They put out two quality albums on Spitfire and are now issuing this covers compilation on Century Media. Most of the selections here will be obscure to all but the most devoted old-school thrashers. Cult acts like Master, Die Kreuzen, and Discharge…
