What to Do This Weekend: LMFAO
Are Los Angeles electro jokesters LMFAO real-life douchebags or do they just play douchebags on record? Hard to say, but we’re gonna guess they fall somewhere in between. The DJ/rapping team of Redfoo and Sky Blu first made waves with the single “I’m in Miami Bitch,” a celebration of perpetual spring-break living. “Drink all day,…
LIGHTS OUT AT BLOSSOM
Blossom will not host its Holiday Lighting Festival this year. Who pulled the plug on the Christmas lights? Live Nation says Hoosiers called Humbug; an Indiana company says Live Nation cut the cord. Since 2006, the Cuyahoga Falls concert facility has opened during the holiday months for a scenic two-mile drive past 300 light-outline displays…
What to Do Tonight: Brett Dennen
Like many of his contemporaries, singer-songwriter Brett Dennen uses television as the new radio. Songs from his first two albums — an eponymous 2004 debut and 2006’s So Much More — showed up in episodes of The Unit, Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy. Dennen’s opening gigs for John Mayer, Colbie Caillat and Guster further raised his…
MAXWELL OUT AT ’MMS
Afternoon drive DJ Maxwell and WMMS have parted ways. Benjamin “Maxwell” Bornstein has hosted the shift since 2004. His contract was set to expire in 2010, but relations turned sour over the past year. The Clear Channel station placed Maxwell on probation in April, after the DJ’s prank announcement that Metallica would play a show…
What to Do Tonight: Lovedrug
Like their name infers, Lovedrug’s atmospheric music floats and fizzes like a smoky narcotic elixir. The Canton quartet stocks a recipe of potent indie-pop that’s as rich, theatrical and addictive as ear candy. It’s something you might mix with the likes of the Wild Beasts, Muse or Queen — homegrown from the roots of demised…
OHIO GUY JOINS THE MEDIA ELITE
Ohio native Kevin Huffman is the winner of the Washington Post’s America’s Next Great Pundit Contest. An exec with Teach for America who now lives in D.C., Huffman hails from Bexley, outside Columbus.
11/28: Genghis Con at Beachland
The Beachland Ballroom (15711 Waterloo Rd.) will host the first Genghis Con, a different kind of comics convention, Saturday, November 28. The locally organized event will welcome independent and small-press cartoonists, zinesters and artists from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles, in addition to some big names in Cleveland cartooning. Organizer John G says you should skip…
WE’RE THANKFUL FOR COMICS
The Beachland Ballroom (15711 Waterloo Rd.) will host the first Genghis Con, a different kind of comics convention, Saturday, November 28. The locally organized event will welcome independent and small-press cartoonists, zinesters and artists from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles, in addition to some big names in Cleveland cartooning. Organizer John G says you should skip…
12/2: Throwdown at Peabody’s
When Throwdown launched a dozen years ago in California, they were the definition of straight-edge hardcore. Since that time, the original quintet has pared down to a quartet, lost almost as many members as Guns N’ Roses (there are no original guys in the band these days) and steered in a decidedly more metal direction.…
12/2: Mark Stuart & Bastard Sons at Town Fryer
There are bastards, and there are Bastards. It’s something that Mark Stuart knows all too well. For years, he led the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash. They shortened their name recently, but the music isn’t that much different — it’s still hard country more rooted in a roadhouse than Music Row. Stuart sounds invigorated after…
12/1: Chuck Prophet at the Beachland
Chuck Prophet has always been so far ahead of sonic trends he can barely see them in his rearview mirror. From the visionary country-rock architecture of Green on Red in the ’80s to his wide-ranging solo career, Prophet has been creatively restless, reinventing himself like a rootsy David Bowie and applying his own stamp to…
11/30: Ensiferum at Peabody’s
The best band on a tour that hits Peabody’s tonight probably won’t even perform. Hypocrisy, a long-running Swedish death-metal band led by legendary producer Peter Tägtgren, has been forced to sit idle because its frontman can’t enter the U.S., though his bandmates are already here. It’s a shame, because Hypocrisy’s catalog is solid, and touring…
11/29: Nitzer Ebb at Peabody’s
Although the origins of industrial rock can and will continue to be argued ad nauseam, few avid listeners discount the impact of Nitzer Ebb. Often mistaken for Germans because of their name and the sound they make, the British duo helped design a sonic archetype within the genre based on relentless, rigid rhythms and venomous,…
11/29: Melt-Banana at Grog Shop
Is it a double entendre? A culinary disaster? Maybe it’s the nickname of a military weapon or STD? The only thing we know for sure is that Melt-Banana is a warning. The simple sugars of punk music become toxic, intoxicating vapors when freebased on a sheet-metal spoon. Singer Yasuko Onuki, the founder of the Tokyo…
11/29: Cleveland Pops Orchestra at PlayhouseSquare
Cleveland Pops’ Holidays in Toyland contains an entire seasonal package wrapped into one program. There’s an orchestra, a choir of men’s voices from Baldwin-Wallace College, some holiday-movie clips, an appearance by Santa and even a good cause. Conductor Carl Topilow chose songs from movie classics like Miracle on 34th Street, The Nightmare Before Christmas and…
11/29: Children’s Giftmaking Workshop
The Children’s Museum of Cleveland (10730 Euclid Ave., 216.791.7114) is doing its part to help move children beyond the mindsets of consumerism and disposability with workshops on homemade holiday gifts, where they’ll craft papier-mâché bowls and picture frames out of recycled materials. From 12:30-1:30 p.m., kids ages four and older can make and decorate a…
11/28: Winterfest at Public Square
Some might debate whether we’re heading into the “most wonderful time of the year,” as the old Andy Williams holiday chestnut maintains. But Cleveland’s Winterfest celebration at Public Square will attempt to jumpstart some seasonal spirit with a series of all-day activities that culminate from 6-7:10 p.m. with a tree-lighting, a concert featuring guitarist Neil…
11/28: LMFAO at HOB
Are Los Angeles electro jokesters LMFAO real-life douchebags or do they just play douchebags on record? Hard to say, but we’re gonna guess they fall somewhere in between. The DJ/rapping team of Redfoo and Sky Blu first made waves with the single “I’m in Miami Bitch,” a celebration of perpetual spring-break living. “Drink all day,…
11/28: El Ten Eleven at Beachland
El Ten Eleven take every overdone concept they represent — guitarist-drummer duos, instrumental dance music, effects-driven electronica, post-prog math-rock — and kick them in the ass. Guitarist Kristian Dunn plays a double-neck guitar/bass, funneling his already otherworldly riffs through a bank of effects pedals to create an unnervingly complex and compelling wall of sound, while…
11/27: The Santaland Diaries opens at CPT
Every year, audiences return to The Santaland Diaries — just like little kids line up every Christmas to see Santa at the mall. Director B.D. Bethune and actor Doug Kusak reprise their roles in Cleveland Public Theatre’s production of David Sedaris’ holiday staple. Kusak plays Crumpet, a 33-year-old Macy’s elf who sports “green velvet knickers,…
11/27: Larchmere Holiday Stroll
One of Cleveland’s most festive shopping streets, Larchmere Boulevard just north of Shaker Square, becomes even livelier this weekend, when it hosts the annual Holiday Stroll. From 10 a.m.-8 p.m. today and tomorrow, the street’s shops, bars and restaurants will be bursting with lights, music, treats and, of course, sales. This year, the stroll will…
11/27: Ekoostik Hookah at Beachland
It might seem odd that an Ohio-based jam band would repeatedly be invited to perform in reggae-obsessed Jamaica. But after hearing Ekoostik Hookah’s psychedelic improv music, you’ll immediately get it. After all, the sound they make is a perfect complement to the inexpensive ganja you might sample during a visit to the small Caribbean nation.…
11/27: Cleveland Orchestra with Jonathan Biss
Twenty-nine-year-old pianist Jonathan Biss is eight years older than Mozart was when he wrote the Jeunehomme (“Young Man”) Concerto. But that doesn’t matter, since the piece was originally written for a young woman — Victoire Jenamy, a famous dancer and friend of the young composer, who was a pretty good pianist. Biss performs the piece…
11/27: A Christmas Story opens at Cleveland Play House
Fifth-grader Joey Stefanko is A Christmas Story veteran, having already played little brother Randy and Flick (the kid who gets his tongue stuck to a flagpole) in previous Cleveland Play House productions. This year he returns in the starring role of Ralphie, the kid with a hankering for a Red Ryder BB Gun. Stefanko isn’t…
11/27-28: First Light at Grog Shop
Back in the 1980s, First Light was one of the nation’s first renegade reggae bands. The Cleveland ensemble fused funky island rhythms with genres like rock and jazz, and they toured North America extensively, spreading the gospel of reggae with big songs, bright torches and good vibes. It’s been 25 years since First Light formed…
11/26: Thanksgiving at the Zoo
If mom (or dad) is threatening to go on strike and not make Thanksgiving dinner with the kids underfoot and whining, how about taking them to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo (3900 Wildlife Way, 216.661.6500) to work up an appetite? Not only is the zoo during open regular hours (10 a.m.-5 p.m.), it’s free today, with…
WHAT A FRIEND THEY HAVE IN JESUS
Cleveland City Council leans on Jesus for guidance, but a watchdog group says that’s not fair to the countless other deities waiting to pitch in some cosmic love at city meetings. The council’s practice of inviting Christian pastors to open meetings with prayer is unconstitutional, says Washington D.C.-based Americans United for the Separation of Church…
Brown Out: Like the Team, Browns Rules Kicks it All over the Field
A review of “Browns Rules” — now playing at Cleveland Public Theatre. By Christine Howey Stunned disbelief. That was my reaction, with thousands of other Clevelanders’, after Brian Sipe threw “Red Right 88,” the interception that lost the 1981 playoff game in the final minute. Stunned disbelief is also my reaction to Browns Rules, the…
This Just In: Concert Announcements
Auburn Records 25th Anniversary Concert: Destructor/Breaker/Shok Paris/Manimals/Wretch/HATE/Alternate Reality/Chemikill/Attaxe/Foose: new lineup. Destructor performing Maximum Destruction in its entirety. Free admission., Sat., Dec. 12, 4 p.m., Ballroom. Beachland. Behemoth/Shining/Septic Flesh: Wed., Jan. 27, 7 p.m., $16 ADV/$19 DOS. Peabody’s. Bilal: Mon., Dec. 14, 7 p.m., $15 ADV/$18 DOS. Peabody’s. Alex Bevan: Sat., Jan. 16, 8 p.m. The…
WASSERMAN WAS ONE PROBLEM, PORT LEFT WITH PLENTY MORE
The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority’s grand $500 million scheme to relocate the port to East 55th Street continues to take on water and looks like it could be sinking for good. Port board chairmen Steven Williams says that port leaders have doubts about the relocation project after the messy split with now-former port CEO Adam…
Ninja Assassin lacks a strong personality
Ninja Assassin is a movie about guys in black pajamas who hide in the shadows with swords and razor-sharp metal stars waiting to kill people. Such films were at the peak of their popularity in the ’80s, and while they were seldom good, at least they were usually good, violent fun. Sho Kosugi starred in…
HOW CAN YOU TELL WHEN A REPUBLICAN IS LYING?
His lips are moving. The Democratic Party breaks down the many, many, many lies about healthcare reform. Ohio’s John Boehner makes an appearance, of course.
BRAIN DEAD IN OHIO
“This is not rocket science.” Palin supporters in Columbus struggle to explain what she stands for and why they find her positions that they can’t explain so inspiring.
Cleveland Sports Fan Art — Interesting and Scary
Deadspin had a little photo gallery post on Sunday on sports art floating around DeviantArt. Barry Petchesky’s summary: “There’s a popular game going around the Internet, in which you search your favorite team on DeviantArt, the premier fan-created art site. Some results are pathetic, some are decent, but most are sanity-threatening.” So, naturally, I had…
A Short List of Things I Learned in Ann Arbor
I spent the weekend in Ann Arbor for the Ohio State vs. Michigan game. There was no overarching narrative, so instead of a “real story” my thoughts are simply presented below in numbered/list form — sorta like Terry Pluto’s columns these days, but with more sex toys. 1. Buckeye fans sometimes like to wear buckeye…
Adam Lambert: Screechy Queen
Did you see Adam Lambert’s American Music Awards performance last night? Probably not live, since no one really watches that lame awards show. But you may have heard that the gay American Idol alum shocked — shocked! — Middle America with a performance that included simulated oral sex (the man-on-man kind) and a make-out session…
What to Do Tonight: Nellie McKay
It wouldn’t be out of character for singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, now touring in support of the recently released Normal as Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day, to follow up with a musical homage to Frank Zappa. Such is her musical range — from the pretty to the profane, from traditional pop to progressive theatricality.…
What to Do Tonight: Black Cobra
Whenever a drums-and-guitar duo takes the stage, you’re naturally forgiving if the sound doesn’t quite pack the punch of more populated groups. But save your pity for another band: Bay Area sludge warriors Black Cobra don’t need it. They’re going to rock your face off and leave you wishing you’d brought earplugs, safety glasses and…
What to Do Tonight: Negative Approach
Back in the early ’80s, when hardcore punk was in its formative stage, bands like Minor Threat and Bad Brains represented the East Coast, while Black Flag and the Germs ruled the West. What most people forget is that the Midwest had its own vibrant scene led by Detroit’s Negative Approach. Taking the scuzzy, blaring…
What to Do Tonight: Hill Country Revue
When the North Mississippi Allstars’ Cody Dickinson formed Hill Country Revue a few years ago, he claimed it wasn’t the end of the Allstars. Whether or not that’s the case, he’s treated Hill Country Revue as a serious side project ever since the band came together in 2004 after a Bonnaroo jam session. Earlier this…
How to Tell LeBron He Can’t Dribble or Shoot
LeBron James’ work ethic is unquestionable. He’s a gym rat. That much is well documented. He takes Chris Jent on his worldwide junkets, always finds time to hit the gym to work on his game for a couple of hours, and despite his heavy off-the-court schedule, is in absolutely incredible shape. Each year he seems…
Swag Alert: LeBron Skullcandy Headphones
Holiday season is rolling around and Skullcandy has that perfect gift for the music lover and Cavs fan in your life: LeBron James headphones. As you know, when Lebron is bumping his iPod, he frequently wears his Yankees headphones. Maybe someone should pick up a pair of these for the King. $49.95.
Thursday Music News Roundup
Thanks, Bob. You now fucked up Christmas for me. Chris Brown embarks on Fan Appreciation Tour. You better be there, bitch, if you know what’s good for you. Janet says she knew brother Michael had a thing for little boys, altered his physical appearance until he looked like a wax statue and was generally batshit…
Photo Show: Rob Zombie at the Akron Civic, 11/10
C-Notes photographer Johnny Angell traveled south Tuesday night for a little hellbilly action in Akron, where Rob Zombie played the Akron Civic Theater. Here’s what he saw.
Twilight sequel is better than its predecessor
Ten minutes into The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Bella (Kristen Stewart) is celebrating her 18th birthday at the home of 109-year-old boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattison) and his sparkly vampire family. While opening a present, she gets a paper cut and almost winds up being the cake at her own party when one of the bloodsuckers…
MOVING MOUNTAINS WITH BULLDOZERS, NOT FAITH
Cincinnati CityBeat looks at mountaintop removal, a quick but devastating method of mining coal: Picking his way through the mountain laurel near his Appalachian home, McKinley Sumner explains that all he ever wanted was a peaceful life on his family’s land where he was born and raised. … The oak forest around him is thick…
Why Aerosmith Should Just Call It a Day
Anyone else tired of all this Aerosmith he-said-she-said shit as I am? First, singer Steven Tyler twirled his old ass off a stage and injured himself, which led to the band canceling the rest of its summer tour. This came on top of several other band members’ injuries over the past few months (most classic:…
Reviews of the Cinematheque’s weekend films
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is showing several great movies this weekend. Here are our reviews of just a couple of them. Big Fan (U.S., 2009) Don’t worry if you don’t know whether to laugh at or pity Paul Aufiero, the New York Giants fanatic at the center of director Robert Siegel’s occasionally funny…
What to Do Tonight: Luca Mundaca
It seems like Brazil has no shortage of new musical talent. The country that brought us luminaries like Caetano Veloso, Joao Gilberto and Seu Jorge now gives us Sao Paulo-raised singer-songwriter Luca Mundaca, who relocated to the U.S. and was discovered by music fans here after one of her songs landed on 2004’s Brazilian Lounge…
What to Do Tonight: Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers
Stephen Kellogg’s musical history stretches back to the early ’90s, when the Massachusetts native released solo and group albums as a teen. But it’s his role as frontman of the Sixers that finally got him noticed. Since their 2004 debut, Bulletproof Heart (and everything after), they’ve netted comparisons to the Band, Bruce Springsteen and Neil…
Because Shaq Doesn’t Already Do Enough, Now He’s Curating an Art Exhibit
Shaq is a basketball player, rapper, actor, reality show star, sometimes police officer, and a social media maven. Now, he’s taking an interest in art. A few months ago Shaq tweeted that he was working with Peter Max (he of the colorful Statue of Liberty paintings, among others) on something. Now we know why. FLAG…
BREWER NOT GOING QUIETLY
Running a town like East Cleveland can be like walking a minefield, and outgoing mayor Eric Brewer says he’s willing to help his successor, Gary Norton, navigate the treacherous territory. Brewer sent Norton a letter after Election Day, saying he wants the passage of power to go smoothly. Brewer arranged for Norton to meet with…
A Little History of Brownie the Elf
[I wrote this back in December 2006 for Uni Watch. It was actually my first piece as Uni Watch Intern, so naturally I chose a topic near and dear to my heart: Brownie the Elf. It’s been almost three years since it ran and I’m sure there are plenty of people who never read the…
MMPI BLAMES MEDMART BAIT AND SWITCH ON CITY
The deal to bring a Medical Mart to Cleveland continues to get more troubling and confusing after the Chicago-based developer reneged on a plan to incorporate the city’s Public Auditorium into its project. Officials from Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. say the company scrapped plans to incorporate Public Auditorium into its grand scheme for a complex…
11/25: Lovedrug at Musica
Like their name infers, Lovedrug’s atmospheric music floats and fizzes like a smoky, narcotic elixir. The Canton quartet stocks a recipe of potent indie-pop that’s as rich, theatrical and addictive as ear candy. It’s something you might mix with the likes of Muse or Queen. Led by frontman Michael Shepard, Lovedrug have released three albums.…
11/25: Brett Dennen at House of Blues
Like many of his contemporaries, singer-songwriter Brett Dennen uses television as the new radio. Songs from his first two albums — an eponymous 2004 debut and 2006’s So Much More — showed up in episodes of The Unit, Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy. Dennen’s opening gigs for John Mayer, Colbie Caillat and Guster further raised his…
11/23: Nellie McKay at Nighttown
It wouldn’t be out of character for singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, now touring in support of the recently released Normal as Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day, to follow up with a musical homage to Frank Zappa. Such is her musical range — from the pretty to the profane, from traditional pop to progressive theatricality.…
11/23: Black Cobra at the Grog Shop
Whenever a drums-and-guitar duo takes the stage, you’re naturally forgiving if the sound doesn’t quite pack the punch of more populated groups. But save your pity for another band: Bay Area sludge warriors Black Cobra don’t need it. They’re going to rock your face off and leave you wishing you’d brought earplugs, safety glasses and…
11/21-ongoing: Outdoor Skating Rinks
When I was a kid, my favorite Christmas cards were those that showed a frozen pond teeming with skaters — the little girls sporting hand muffs and matching fur hats implied a romantic era far from the rutted patches at our local city park where the hockey boys tried to knock down the girls practicing…
11/20: New shows at William Busta Gallery
Douglas Sanderson’s man-sized geometric paintings are a funhouse for the eyes. The interwoven matrices of visually dissonant color are jarring, despite their symmetry and balance. Patterns resemble lace or chicken wire in colors that will burn into your memory if you stare at them long enough (try closing your eyes or looking away after looking…
11/20: New shows at SPACES Gallery
SPACES Gallery continues to explore its place in the regional art world and become a venue that’s hooked on concepts. The main galleries offer some new projects today. One is a newspaper called Art Work by the Chicago-based Temporary Services collective, which includes artists Brett Bloom, Salem Collo-Julin and Marc Fischer. They’ll put together the…
A Sporting Chance
The Blind Side belongs to a category sometimes called “white-man’s burden” movies like Dangerous Minds or The Soloist, in which benevolent whites heroically rescue underprivileged black people. Accordingly, there are moments in this movie, based on the life of Baltimore Ravens rookie tackle Michael Oher, that are cringingly uncomfortable, as when Sandra Bullock — as…
YOU GOTTA REMEMBER
When the Browns lost 31-3 to the Green Bay Packers a few weeks ago, Eric Schmiedl and the cast of his vaudeville-style production Browns Rules were in the Muni lot, performing songs from the show. “That game was atrocious,” says Schmiedl. “And people knew it was going to be bad. But they went with joy…
Reel Cleveland: Cleveland Grindhouse Film Festival
Taking place from 4-9 p.m. Saturday, November 21, at the Grog Shop (2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., 216.321.5588, grogshop.gs), the first annual Cleveland Grindhouse Film Festival has finally taken shape. “We have had so many great film submissions it was hard deciding what to show,” says organizer Brenna Lee Roth, a one-time Clevelander who’s now an…
Coming and Going
A wry physicist once said, “Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.” That’s true — unless everything is happening all at once, and it’s only our overwhelmed minds that perceive it in small hourly and daily chunks. Time is made even more intriguing in Tom Jacboson’s play Ouroboros, now at convergence-continuum. While…
Short Takes: No. I Fan
Don’t worry if you don’t know whether to laugh at or pity Paul Aufiero, the New York Giants fanatic at the center of director Robert Siegel’s occasionally funny and sometimes moving film. That’s the way Big Fan wants it. Played by comedian Patton Oswalt (in a role that’s far from comic), Paul — a 36-year-old,…
Bites: Turner’s Mill
“If people walk in expecting to find Inn at Turner’s Mill again, they’ll be disappointed,” says George Schindler of Hospitality Restaurants. “If people walk in thinking this will be Blue Point, they will be disappointed. Our hope is to create a really rocking neighborhood place that feels like something out of Sonoma Valley that’s been…
HOW CLEVELAND’S 2ND HALF LIVES
2nd Half is both a brand-new band and one of the Cleveland music scene’s veteran groups. The band was started by singer-guitarist Ed Gandolf and drummer Drew Scalero back in the mid-’90s; by the time the group released ita first album, Now It’s Real, in 2003, they were the only members. In 2006, Gandolf and…
ARE YOU BEING VERVED?
You couldn’t blame folks for thinking chef Tom Szoradi was a little nuts when he decided to open a restaurant in a former auto-parts store on the edge of downtown. Barely squeaking inside Gateway District borders, Juniper Grille was not high on critics’ lists of likely success stories. But succeed it did, lasting seven good…
Rocker Mom
“There is something to be said for bands that seem really hard to get to, with a mystique,” says voluptuous, heavily tattooed frontwoman Maria Brink. “But with the really hard album sales nowadays, that can only be taken so far, I think, because I don’t think people give a shit anymore. Buying that CD isn’t…
Dino-mite!
TOP PICK Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Twentieth Century Fox) The third movie in the hit CGI series about a trio of prehistoric buddies finally gets around to the real stars of the Jurassic period: dinosaurs! It looks great on Blu-ray, especially the wide-open vista scenes. But the real fun is picking out…
Local Music Reviews
Tin Huey (Smog Veil) Tinhuey.com Tin Huey was the most musically proficient band in the storied ’70s Akron music scene. Like Devo, they snagged a major-label deal but broke up shortly after the 1979 release of their only album. Tagged prog, they drank from the same jazz-influenced well as Zappa or, much later, Primus. Like…
CD Review: 50 Cent
For-the-ladies jams are few and far between on Before I Self Destruct, 50 Cent’s fourth album. As a cavalcade of pre-release mixtapes suggested, Destruct is an unabashedly militant for-the-streets disc; this is 50 in druglord/CEO mode, issuing orders and Black Card-holder’s brags in an increasingly gravel-pit bark over alternately sumptuous and head-ringing (if not quite…
A Question of Faith
Nashville is a city stocked with professional songwriters. Some populate Music Row, plugging their tunes to country-music royalty like Tim McGraw or Martina McBride. Others go the independent route, playing their songs in local venues like the Basement and the Family Wash. A few are able to exist in both worlds. Radney Foster is one…
CD Review: John Mayer
John Mayer has enjoyed the best of all possible musical worlds since debuting with 2001’s Room for Squares. His early success as a sensitive singer-songwriter led to platinum sales and Grammy wins, but the Berklee-schooled guitarist soon tired of the pop treadmill and began dabbling in hip-hop and jazz, and eventually assembled the John Mayer…
Soundcheck: Wammo
For a decade and a half, the Asylum Street Spankers have worked a musical corner where anything is possible. Cue up one of their nine albums, and you’ll hear odes to drinking, marijuana and sex, a kids’ song, a ’30s standard or a Christmas tune. Stylistically, the Austin collective — whose membership has included close…
CD Review: Norah Jones
The sounds you hear on Norah Jones’ fourth album would scare the hell out of all but the most adventurous characters who populated her multi-platinum debut. For starters, producer Jacquire King’s résumé includes outré records by Tom Waits and Modest Mouse. Jones co-wrote songs with Ryan Adams and Okkervil River’s Will Sheff. And her band…
Enhanced Interrogation: Mark Tiborsky and Ray Valenti
This billboard, on I-480, between the State and Ridge exits, was paid for the Northeast Ohio Coalition of Reason (NEO CoR), which brings together “freethinkers” of various stripes. To find out more, we contacted Mark Tiborsky and Ray Valenti, the Northeast Ohio and Akron/Canton coordinators, respectively. Your website [neocor.org] uses different terms for NEO CoR…
SUNK
For more than two years, the members of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority were true believers in Adam Wasserman, the CEO and president they’d lured here. He thrilled them with promises to raise a billion dollars to build a new 200-acre port facility, and in the process revitalize downtown with a new lakefront plan and…
Hardcore Krishna
Don Foose takes the stage at Cleveland’s Agora Theater, sporting a graying buzzcut that makes him look like a punk-rock drill sergeant. It’s the first real show by his new group, Foose, and it’s a big one. The hardcore band has the top supporting slot on Mushroomhead’s annual Halloween concert, one of the biggest local…
Around Hear: Reinvention of Hi-Fi Club
Lakewood’s Hi-Fi Club (11729 Detroit Ave.) is reinventing itself as Breakfast Club Cleveland. The new name is partially a nod to the Breakfast Club, a cover band featuring new partner Dave Brooks and Hi-Fi owner Billy Morris, whose hair-metal résumé includes a stint with Warrant and hired-gun work with Quiet Riot. It also indicates a…
DOH! A DEER!
“It seems that I’ve actually stumbled back into relevance,” says choreographer Doug Elkins, talking about his dance production Fräulein Maria, a deconstruction of The Sound of Music. Elkins put himself through college, paying off student loans as a breakdancer before founding the Doug Elkins Dance Company and earning critical acclaim in the ’90s. But all…
Earth, Wind and Fire
When he built an anagama kiln (a sloping tubular chamber for firing clay with wood) in 1968, the 31-year-old ceramicist Yasuhisa Kohyama was a relative unknown. It was the first such kiln to be constructed since Japan’s medieval period and a highly unusual attempt by a modern artist to recreate the rough aesthetic of Japan’s…
CD Review: Paul McCartney
The Beatles’ live performances were never well represented on record during their lifespan. But Paul McCartney has gone out of his way to rectify that by recreating as much of the Beatles catalog as possible in his live sets. His latest concert album, Good Night New York City, may stand as the Cute One’s best…
Arts District: No Exit
“It’s always this way with composers,” says Timothy Beyer. “You start with the idea of a group to get your music played — and played the way you want — and then it becomes a bigger idea.” His bigger idea is No Exit, a new Cleveland-based ensemble dedicated to contemporary music. It formed last summer,…
A MOTHERLOAD OF INSPIRATION
Don’t let the Oprah and Tyler Perry imprimatur scare you off. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire confounds expectations (prejudices?) at every turn. A remarkably accomplished sophomore outing by director Lee Daniels, whose previous film (the risible Shadowboxer, starring Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. as stepmother-and-son professional killers/lovers) was barely released three…
ELEGANCE AND CARNALITY
“Jazz is a combination of extreme elegance and sophistication with extreme carnality,” says Cleveland Jazz Orchestra’s incoming artistic director Sean Jones. “It’s like America. We have those extremes.” Cleveland audiences will hear how that translates into repertoire and musical energy as Jones takes leadership of a band he played in as a 20-year-old trumpeter from…
