What to Do Tonight: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
I’m growing wary of all the bands performing albums in their entirety onstage these days. Does anyone really need to hear all of Dr. Feelgood live? Of course, I’d love to see Van Morrison do Astral Weeks or the Pixies play all of Doolittle. It all comes down to how “classic” the classic album is.…
Out Today: Wale
WaleAttention: Deficit(Allido/Interscope) Rapper Wale hit the buzz jackpot with last year’s terrific Mixtape About Nothing, 70-plus minutes of rhymes and samples based on Seinfeld. On his official debut, the 25-year-old Washington, D.C. native pairs up with some A-list guests (Pharrell, Lady Gaga), raps a lot about things that bring him down and comes off like…
Akron Art Museum shows “Prayers for Peace”
The Akron Art Museum (One South High, 330.376.9185, akronartmuseum.org) is currently showing “Prayers for Peace,” an animated video that New York-by-way-of-Medina visual artist Dustin Grella created to honor his brother Devin, killed in the conflict in Iraq. Grella, who got his undergraduate degree from the University of Akron Myers School of Art, took footage from…
11/9: The Cult at HOB
Ian Astbury is back where he belongs. After an ill-advised move to the Doors, in which the British singer channeled Jim Morrison, the goth-rock hero is once again fronting the Cult — one of the more powerful and dramatic bands of the ’80s, delivering anthemic songs like “She Sells Sanctuary” and “Fire Woman.” Astbury has…
Departures returns to CMA
Oscar winner Departures returns to the Cleveland Museum of Art for showings tonight at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Here is our review of the film. Departures (Japan, 2008) The surprise winner of this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Yojiro Takita’s tale of yuppie redemption, is a lot better than expected.…
The documentary Fuel is good food for thought
Equal parts conspiracy theory exposé and personal narrative, Josh Tickell’s Fuel, a documentary about the energy crisis is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it starts out with a compelling story about how Tickell gravitated toward learning more about self-sufficiency after his family moved from Australia to Louisiana and he saw the pollution and…
What to Do Tonight: Jill Sobule
Way before Katy Perry puckered up, Jill Sobule kissed a girl. And she liked it. Even though the singer-songwriter disappeared from the pop-culture radar after her 1995 novelty hit, she’s been making records steadily ever since. But it hasn’t been easy. Her latest album, California Years, which she self-released earlier this year, was entirely funded…
Wednesday Ticket Giveaway: Rusted Root
We got four Scene Fantasy Seats tickets to Rusted Root’s concert at House of Blues on December 30. Want ’em? All you have to do is send your name, phone number and e-mail address to freetickets@clevescene.com. We’ll pick a random winner at noon on December 23.
Reviews of the Cinematheque’s weekend films
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is showing several great movies this weekend. Here are reviews of just two of them. The Cove (U.S., 2009) Even as nakedly manipulative as it is, The Cove ought to be a wake-up call about man’s inhumanity to non-man, specifically porpoises (called “dolphins” throughout). Protag Ric O’Barryworked on the,…
Photo Show: Roger Daltrey at House of Blues, 11/3
Aaron Mendelsohn saw Roger Daltrey at House of Blues last night. The Who legend didn’t sound so hot (we figure he was fighting a cold), but he looked fabulous.
Film within a film technique falters in The Fourth Kind
An Alaskan psychiatrist (Milla Jovovich) finds herself in the midst of an outbreak of alien abductions after the murder of her husband. Forget worrying about whether or not and how much of The Fourth Kind is true, as the film dubiously claims. This movie’s biggest problem is that it’s like a hyperactive child, unable to…
What to Do Tonight: Daughtry
You gotta wonder what makes Chris Daughtry sing with such anguish on Leave This Town. Did a girl break his heart? Did his grandma die? Did his dog run off and leave him for scowling, baldheaded American Idol alum? Whatever it is, Daughtry shreds both his heart and larynx to bring you his pain on…
Concert Review: Roger Daltrey at House of Blues, 11/3
Roger Daltrey’s solo tour crash-landed at House of Blues last night. For almost an hour and 45 minutes the Who frontman struggled through his set, obviously fighting a cold or laryngitis that ultimately led to the night’s demise. It was a shame too, because Daltrey looked much younger than his 65 years and was in…
What to Do Tonight: Derek Phillips Manufactory
Derrek Phillips, the former drummer for jammy jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter, lends his prodigious talent to Manufactory, a new group that includes guitarist Adam Agati and keyboardist Paul Horton. The whole project exists on the fringes of what’s considered jazz. “Awe,” the opening track on their new album Offering, begins with a grinding guitar riff…
DON GIOVANNI TICKETS
I’ve got a pair of free tickets to give away to Opera Cleveland’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. But before I do that, I can’t help but note that when it comes to sexual apetite, the world of rap has nothing on Don Giovanni. It’s just a matter of musical style that separates Mozart’s most…
11/11: CIM New Music at MOCA
Our art critic, Douglas Max Utter, called the rhythm and richly varied tone of Julian Stanczak’s 50-panel piece “Parade of Reds” (on view at MOCA Cleveland) “visual music.” The gallery will pulse with actual music tonight, when the Cleveland Institute of Music’s New Music Ensemble performs a concert of contemporary works to complement MOCA’s fall…
11/11: Art Brut at Oberlin
On Art Brut Vs. Satan, their third album of smartass Brit-rock, Art Brut once again riff on things that rock their world. This time around, it includes alcoholism, breakfast cereal, public transportation and the Replacements. Frontman Eddie Argos still sounds like he’s choking back chuckles beneath his thick accent, but the rest of the band…
11/10: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
We’re growing wary of all the bands performing albums in their entirety onstage these days. Does anyone really need to hear all of Dr. Feelgood live? Of course, we would love to see Van Morrison do Astral Weeks or the Pixies play all of Doolittle. It all comes down to how “classic” the classic album…
11/8: TC’s Promise Benefit
Julie and Chris Ilcin’s son, Therlow “TC” Cash, died shortly after childbirth because of intraventricular hemorrhage last year. In order to honor their son and help other children, the Ilcins established TC’s Promise, a nonprofit that will award an annual scholarship to the Lincoln Electric Welding School to one Northeast Ohio foster child coming out…
11/8: Wayne Hancock at Town Fryer
In 1995, an overwhelming majority of Nashville was working toward turning every male country artist into a cowboy-hat-wearing mannequin with an electric guitar slung low on his mechanically swiveling hip. As country morphed into arena rock with pedal steel for effect, Wayne “the Train” Hancock released his debut album, Thunderstorms and Neon Signs, and dragged…
11/7: Screw Factory Artists Open House
Thanks to ample space and a welcoming atmosphere, the community of artists at the Templar Industrial Park (which they refer to as the Screw Factory) has grown to include dozens of people — from established fine artists like Phyllis Kohring Fannin to younger artists like Christine Mason. Some focus on craft (knitter Shannon Okey) or…
11/7: Scott Morgan & the Irrationals at Beachland
When blue-eyed soul singer Scott Morgan and his band the Rationals emerged from the Ann Arbor scene in the late ’60s, their manager, Jeep Holland, was determined to get them on the radio, even though Detroit stations ignored his requests. Holland decided to make them a regional success instead. As a result, the band visited…
11/7: Mirror of the Arts: For Closure
“My work is dark, not because I am depressed or angry,” writes local photographer Donald Black. “[It’s] out of respect for the struggle that remains in me. My work helps give a voice to the black culture in all its darkness and its beauty, even if the influence struggles to reflect this same beauty.” His…
11/7: Freedy Johnston at the Beachland
Freedy Johnston has had a stellar roots-pop sensibility as a musician and a Dust Bowl writer’s eye for detail from the very start. When he had to sell some of his family’s Kansas property to continue his musical dream in the early ’90s, he wrote a song about it and made it the very first…
11/7: Gingerbread House Family Workshop
One of the highlights of the annual Winter Show (taking place November 21-January 3) at the Cleveland Botanical Garden (11030 East Blvd., 216.721.1600) is its display of exquisite gingerbread houses. Many are created by professionals, but others are made by regular folks like you who’ve submitted entries for consideration. If you’re not an old hand…
11/6: Mosquito-B at Happy Dog Saloon
Mosquito-B frontman Dan Louis stopped in town earlier this year on a way to a show in Nashville to drum up some interest in his band. The Quebec City native didn’t play here, but he loved Cleveland so much, he vowed to come back with his band for a gig. They just released Raid, a…
11/6: Clare and the Reasons at Beachland
The Muldaur family name might not be as prominent in musical circles as Wainwright, but it definitely boasts strong bloodlines. Patriarch Geoff Muldaur is a folk and blues man whose career stretches back to the influential Boston folk scene of the ’60s. He married Maria D’Amato, who, as Maria Muldaur, scored a hit with “Midnight…
11/6: Skeletonwitch at Peabody’s
Athens, Ohio-based Skeletonwitch is one of America’s best up-and-coming metal bands. They mix thrash-, death- and black-metal into an unholy swirling dust storm of savage riffs, relentless drumming and vocals, which shift back and forth between guttural death rumbles and higher-pitched shrieks/growls. Those vocals are actually the group’s weak point on record. Their new album,…
11/6: 17 Swedish Designers at CIA
IKEA has been synonymous as a source of Scandinavian home designs for decades. Clean lines and unpretentious functionality mark the store’s bookshelves, chairs and tables, typically available in white or other neutral colors that are devoid of affectation or nostalgia. The Cleveland Institute of Art gives a much more profound and nuanced look at design…
11/6: Mug Shots and Millionaires at Rupnik Gallery
John Ryan’s brightly colored criticisms of pop culture have taken on consumerism, the adulation of sports heroes and the commodification of everything from sex to gasoline. He’s painted on windowpanes, cabinet doors and even some conventional surfaces. In his new show, Mug Shots and Millionaires, Ryan takes a more technically ambitious and controlled approach, shifting…
11/5: Jill Sobule at the Beachland
Way before Katy Perry puckered up, Jill Sobule kissed a girl. And she liked it. Even though the singer-songwriter disappeared from the pop-culture radar after her 1995 novelty hit, she’s been making records steadily ever since. But it hasn’t been easy. Her latest album, California Years, which she self-released earlier this year, was entirely funded…
11/5: Helen Money at Front Room Gallery
As far as string players go, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone as cutting-edge as former Verbow cellist Alison Chesley, who plays under the moniker Helen Money. Her credentials include recordings with bands like Anthrax, Plague Bringer and Russian Circles. She’s booked to play the Asymmetry Fest in Poland next year with heavy-hitting headliners Electric…
11/5: Open Up and Say Ha!
Don Mitri is one of the godfathers of Cleveland’s ensemble-comedy scene. For the inaugural Cleveland Comedy Festival last year, he organized a showcase of area improv and sketch-comedy talent. He’s doing it again with a program called Open Up and Say Ha! at 8 tonight at the Powerhouse Pub (2000 Sycamore St.). “The goal is…
11/5: Guster at HOB
It’s been 18 years since the three guys who formed Guster met during freshman orientation at Tufts University. From their indie beginnings as a two-acoustic-guitar-and-bongos folk-pop outfit to their major-label signing to the addition of multi-instrumentalist Joe Pisapia as a permanent member in 2003, Guster have cultivated an almost personal relationship with their fan base.…
11/5: For Better at Actors Summit
If it took place 300 years ago, Cleveland Heights playwright Eric Coble’s farcical For Better would call for lots of door-slamming. If it took place 20 years ago, there would be telephones slamming down. But this topical story unfolds in the age of cell phones, e-mails and text messages, so instead of old stage gestures,…
It Was Bound to Happen — Craigslist Ad for Browns GM
(See original here.) (Via @bobmcdonald.)
TEA-BAG INSURGENCY IN OHIO? OH PLEASE OH PLEASE
Could John Kasich have been looking over his right shoulder when he called for hot air support from Sean Hannity? Politico reports: [Conservative] activists predict a wave that could roll from California to Kentucky to New Hampshire and that could leave even some GOP incumbents — Utah Sen. Bob Bennett is one — facing unexpectedly…
(If You’re Wondering If You Should Buy This) I Want You To
I thought they’d just put on a sweater if they got cold. —Michael Gallucci
Tuesday Music News Roundup
At least she’s not fucking up his car this time. Dave Grohl echoes what we’ve been saying for the past 10 years. This Is It director says he’s happy for Michael Jackson. Then he was sad when someone informed him that Jackson is dead. Lady Gaga: still dressing like a bisexual alien from the planet…
Free Music From Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures — the new supergroup featuring Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones — are giving away free music. Head on over to iTunes and download the track “Mind Eraser, No Chaser” for free. Pretty sweet deal. If you want to hear more from the group, another song — “New Fang” —…
For the Hell of It: Grady Sizemore’s Halloween Costume
(Via The Dirty)
Introducing the Protest to the Protest
By now you know all about the protest two Browns fans have planned for the Monday Night Football game against the Baltimore Ravens. The plan is to have fans be absent from their seats for the kickoff to show just how upset Clevelanders are with the team. Now, we have a protest to the protest.…
THINK HE TOLD THE COP TO BLOW HIM?
Oxford Press reports on a Halloween incident soon to be an item in News of the Weird: A 20-year-old Cincinnati man dressed as a Breathalyzer test found himself blowing into one when Oxford police picked him up on suspicion of drunk driving Halloween night. … Oxford police arrested James P. Miller after allegedly finding him…
Out Today: Say Anything
Say AnythingSay Anything(J) For six years, Say Anything have attracted a devoted legion of fans with frontman Max Bemis’ uber personal songwriting. As a bipolar Jewish kid from Los Angeles who struggled with drugs and spent time in a mental hospital, Bemis is the ultimate tortured artist. His lyrics about heartbreak, sex, religion and mental…
Tuesday Ticket Giveaway: Matisyahu
We got four Scene Fantasy Seats tickets to Matisyahu’s concert at House of Blues on December 4. Want ’em? All you have to do is send your name, phone number and e-mail address to freetickets@clevescene.com. We’ll pick a random winner at noon on November 25.
Depressing Browns Day Video 2: 1995 Final Home Game Pre-Game Show
If you’ve never watched it before, it’s worth viewing at least once.
Evangelion makes its local premiere tomorrow at CMA
A huge hit when it came out in Japan two years ago, Evangelion 1.0 screens tomorrow night at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. Here is our review of the movie. Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone (Japan, 2007) Like some kind of anime rendition of Transformers, Evangelion 1.0 is a big,…
See Ya, George
Here’s the lone video on YouTube of George Kokinis from his introductory press conference. As far as I remember, the only time Browns fans really heard from or saw the former Browns GM.
This Just In: Concert Announcements
This week, we have 23 new shows, including a couple for St. Pat’s season — Papa Roach and Halestorm — and Gil Mantera’s New Year’s show at the Grog. —D.X Ferris CANCELED Digable Planets. Tue. Nov. 3 at Beachland. Wed, Nov. 4 show at Kent Stage is still scheduled. Johnny Hi-Fi: Sun., Nov. 15, House…
A Very Carrey Christmas
Using the same performance capture animation technique employed for 2004’s Polar Express and 2007’s Beowulf, Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol is another family friendly holiday feature from the veteran director known for Back to the Future and Forrest Gump. Zemeckis doesn’t mess with the Charles Dickens’ book much, quoting directly from it in the opening…
eBay Item of the Day: Browns Croakies
Even though the next Browns affair is a Monday nighter, which means the sun will long be gone from the sky before kickoff, plenty of fans might still feel the need to wear sunglasses to the game. More comfortable than a bag over the head. Problem is how you get them to stay on your…
Digable Planets: Cleveland’s Canceled, Kent’s Not
Tomorrow night’s Digable Planets show at the Beachland has been canceled. The jazzy hip-hop group is best known for 1993’s “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat).” But the Planets’ show Wednesday at the Kent Stage is still on and is now being billed as their “only Northeast Ohio show.” Doors are 8 p.m. Tickets are…
Pearl Jam Whip It
Pearl Jam dressed as Devo for their Halloween show in Philadelphia Saturday night. Click here for various-quality videos of the grunge gods covering “Whip It.” Rolling Stone has close-up pics. Check ’em out here. Now what’s it gonna take to get Alice in Chains to mount up as the Dead Boys? —D.X. Ferris
Free Music Monday: Black Keys Meet Wu
Black Keys hip-hop side project Blakroc has posted a new track, “Stay off the F*ckin’ Flowers,” featuring Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon. Click here to listen. The same page has the track as a downloadable MP3 file. The album is slated for release on November 27 — Black Friday, they’re calling it. —D.X. Ferris
Being In Court > Watching the Browns
I slept through the entire second half of the Browns game. That was better than watching. You know what else was better than watching? From a story about all the people arrested on Halloween around Kent: Of the 105 people whose cases were processed, only 35 had been in custody. All defendants were released after…
Danzig Days: Biscuits Un-Dead
</param> Apparently, the story about former Danzig drummer Chuck Biscuits being dead is an elaborate hoax. Read more here. Does that, technically, make him un-dead? Check out the above clip for the Misfits’ ultimate autumn anthem, “Halloween.” And remember: Samhain ain’t over. —D.X. Ferris
Concert Review: Matthew Perryman Jones/Ingrid Michaelson
I’m so tired of hearing about singer-songwriters’ petty little romance problems. I can’t bear another note of simple guitar strumming. And I hate, hate, hate getting stuck behind mushy couples making out all over the place. It’s pretty much the least cool way to spend a Saturday night. But there are always exceptions. And if…
What to Do Tonight: The Sounds
There’s something about Swedish new wave that, somewhat predictably, comes off as kinda frigid. It goes all the way back to Abba’s frosty pop take on the genre and stretches to the Sounds’ chilly nostalgic glances in 2009. The Sounds’ third album, Crossing the Rubicon, is filled with cool skittering synths and cascading keys —…
David Huff Loves Free Golf, Earning Tips Cleaning Clubs
Even though David Huff signed a $900,000 bonus with the Indians upon getting drafted, and even though he pitched in the majors for the Tribe from May through the end of the season last year, earning a nice major league salary, it seems as if he’s still concerned about money. See, while the stars get…
11/5-7: Richard Lewis at Hilarities
Stand-up comic Richard Lewis is now best known for his recurring role on Curb Your Enthusiasm, the HBO comedy on which he plays himself, a good friend of cantankerous star Larry David. But Lewis has been doing stand-up for years and has had small roles in a variety of TV shows and movies. Like Woody…
11/3: Christopher Buckley at Playhouse Square
Christopher Buckley — son of the late conservative intellectual William F. — endorsed Barack Obama last year and had a falling out with National Review as a result. “I am a small-government conservative who clings tenaciously and old-fashionedly to the idea that one ought to have balanced budgets,” he wrote on his Daily Beast blog.…
11/3: Frank Del Pizzo at Hilarities
Frank Del Pizzo used to crack jokes when he was a mechanic. If customers asked a stupid question, he would follow with a stupid answer. He joked around so often, they wondered if he was there to fix their car or make them laugh. After working 10 years in a New Jersey garage, Del Pizzo…
11/4: Daughtry at Covelli Centre
You gotta wonder what makes Chris Daughtry sing with such anguish on Leave This Town. Did a girl break his heart? Did his grandma die? Did his dog run off and leave him for another scowling baldheaded American Idol alum? Whatever it is, Daughtry shreds both his heart and larynx to bring you his pain…
11/4: Derrek Phillips Manufactory at Nighttown
Derrek Phillips, the former drummer for jammy jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter, lends his prodigious talent to Manufactory, a new group that includes guitarist Adam Agati and keyboardist Paul Horton. The whole project exists on the fringes of what’s considered jazz. “In Awe,” the opening track on their new album Offering, begins with a grinding guitar…
11/4: Shaolin Warriors
If you mix Chinese Buddhism with Cirque de Soleil’s theatricality and Bruce Lee’s strength and agility, you’ll probably end up with something like China’s Shaolin Warriors. Their fully choreographed and highly theatrical production offers a rare view into the Shaolin Monastery, the place made famous in the old Kung Fu TV show. The Warriors’ performance…
Cataloging the LeBron Stay/Leave Websites
While nothing in this world is going to be able to keep pace with the number of stories that have been and will be written regarding rumors of LeBron’s free agency decision in July 2010, the only thing that has a chance to come close is the number of sites imploring LeBron to stay or…
C-Notes Is on Vacation
C-Notes is taking a little vacation for the next few days. We’re actually gonna be working on our totally awesome Halloween costume (hint: You like sexy? You like Star Wars? You like costumes that make you ask, “What the fuck is that?” Then, you’re gonna love what we’re going as this year), so we really…
Swag Alert: Two New LeBron Tees
Another day, another couple new LeBron t-shirts for your wardrobe. Glen Infante posted the one on the left on his Twitter feed last night. While it’s not available at I Love the Hype yet, it should be soon. Nice take on the late 80’s throwback uni’s the Cavs will be wearing this season, combining the…
What to Do This Weekend: Dysrhythmia
Given the almost institutional level of ADHD afflicting most music listeners these days, it takes a bold band to cater to that scattered attention span. Philly’s Dysrhythmia fold emo-core, prog-jazz and thrashing metal into an instrumental miasma that delivers its message on a purely musical level. Dysrhythmia’s three members — guitarist Kevin Hufnagel, bassist Colin…
What to Do This Weekend: Atticus Tour 2009
Here’s a Halloween tip: Don some black eyeliner, yank out a hair straightener and act like the bands on the annual Atticus Tour are good. It’s shocking that Finch are still around: Their screamy, gritty music wasn’t particularly fresh or interesting when their debut album came out in 2002. Drop Dead Gorgeous, a post-hardcore band…
MORE OPPOSITION TO ISSUE 2
The Ohio Environmental Council is urging a no vote on Issue 2: The OEC, an environmental conservation organization, is engaging on Issue 2 because of the threat to air and water quality that come from common industrial agriculture practices that pack livestock and poultry into confined spaces. These high-density practices are sometimes associated with: unhealthy…
COLUMBUS GETS TOUGH WITH FREE-LOADING KIDS
From a report on early education spending from the Pew Center on the States: “Despite facing historic budget shortfalls, the majority of states have elected once again to invest in evidence-based, proven pre-kindergarten programs. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia chose to increase or hold steady their pre-k funding for fiscal year 2010.” Guess…
WCSB Hosts Free Halloween Concert
You want to be really scared on Halloween? What’s scarier than a bunch of college-radio DJs and their fans? OK, not really — but still, the “first annual” Halloween Masquerade Ball being thrown by Cleveland State radio station WCSB 89.23 FM at Cleveland Public Theater at 9 p.m. Saturday sounds like a lot of fun…
Black Keys Playing Benefit Show Thanksgiving Weekend
The Black Keys will be playing a benefit show the day after Thanksgiving at their hometown’s best music club, Musica. Even though the Akron duo have been doing their separate things for most of 2009 — singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach released a solo album at the beginning of the year, and drummer Patrick Carney started Drummer…
Danzig Days: Thrash Thursday, Chuck Biscuits RIP
The Misfits’ controversial swan song, 1982’s Earth A.D./Wolfsblood mini-LP, was a seminal moment in the convergence of hardcore and metal. It’s popular — except with Misfits fans and the people who made it. The Misfits recorded the album while the band was collapsing. The group tracked the songs after a gig one night, blitzing through…
Checking in With the Scalpers Upon the Start of Basketball Season
I make no claims on being an expert on the culture and economics of the secondary sporting ticket market, but I imagined that scalpers around the Forest City were pretty excited about the start of the Cavs season. I mean, they endured a Tribe campaign that most likely rendered selling a ticket in the second…
Little Kids Love Songs About Heroin, Right?
A copy of Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of Guns N’ Roses just landed on my desk. And yes, “Mr. Brownstone” — a song about how cool heroin is — is on there. What the fuck are these people thinking? The Rockabye Baby series turns familiar pop and rock tunes into kid-friendly lullabies. It’s supposed to…
Bruce Feeds the Hungry
If you’re heading to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Q on Tuesday, bring a can of peas or some extra money. The Boss is partnering with the Cleveland Food Bank to collect donations before his show at Quicken Loans Arena next week. You can help out a couple different ways:…
Lots of People Sat in Front of Their Computers on Sunday
Approximately 10 million people sat in front of their computers Sunday night and watched U2’s live-streaming concert on YouTube. Actually, as Variety reports, at least a million of those views came in the days after the concert, when the show was available for replay on YouTube. Still, that’s a pretty impressive number — the largest…
11/2: The Sounds at HOB
There’s something about Swedish new wave that, somewhat predictably, comes off as kinda frigid. It goes all the way back to Abba’s frosty pop take on the genre and stretches to the Sounds’ chilly nostalgic glances in 2009. The Sounds’ third album, Crossing the Rubicon, is filled with cool skittering synths and cascading keys —…
10/31: Dysrhythmia at Now That’s Class
Given the almost institutional level of ADHD afflicting most music listeners these days, it takes a bold band to cater to that scattered attention span. Philly’s Dysrhythmia fold emo-core, prog-jazz and thrashing metal into an instrumental miasma that delivers its message on a purely musical level. Dysrhythmia’s three members — guitarist Kevin Hufnagel, bassist Colin…
10/31: Atticus Tour 2009 at Peabody’s
Here’s a Halloween tip: Don some black eyeliner, yank out a hair straightener and act like the bands on the annual Atticus Tour are good. It’s shocking that Finch are still around: Their screamy, gritty music wasn’t particularly fresh or interesting when their debut album came out in 2002. Drop Dead, Gorgeous, a post-hardcore band…
10/30: Yellowman at Karamu
Playwright Dael Orlandersmith grew up in New York but found inspiration for her 2002 Pulitzer-nominated play Yellowman in childhood visits to South Carolina. The play deals with “intra-racism,” a level of discrimination rooted in mixed-race offspring caused by slave owners impregnating their slaves. Orlandersmith encountered that type of racism in the Gullah community of coastal…
Dan Gilbert Annoying People With Incessant Issue 3 Propaganda at Q?
As I’ve mentioned before here, you can’t go to an event at the Q without being inundated with “Vote Yes on Issue 3” messages. Videos are on the scoreboard, ads are plastered everywhere, Issue 3 employees and volunteers are ubiquitous, and the owner himself, Mr. Dan Gilbert, will not let you enjoy one moment of…
10/30: Cleveland Pops at Severance Hall
“It’s a very inexact science,” says Cleveland Pops conductor Carl Topilow about how he chooses which of his colorful clarinets he’ll play at a concert. Topilow was on tour in Munich in 1998 and spotted a music store with red and green clarinets in the window. They soon became a signature part of his Pops…
10/30: ACLU President Susan Herman
Just like they’re demonizing Acorn now, the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) was once right-wingers’ main target. Remember the elder George Bush describing Michael Dukakis in 1988 as a “card-carrying member of the ACLU,” implying he was some kind of pinko radical? Yet there are few missions more thoroughly patriotic and American than the ACLU’s:…
10/29: Teenage Bottlerocket at Beachland
Laramie, Wyoming, may not be a punk hotbed, but Teenage Bottlerocket play loud, fast and anthemic enough to make you think that the sleepy town could be harboring a musical secret or two. The band goes back nearly a decade, when twin brothers Ray and Brandon Carlisle played in a punk group called the Homeless…
10/29: Lotus at HOB
What genre do these serial music-fest performers fall into? Simply calling Lotus an instrumental jam band doesn’t work — even though the group keeps its structure tight while leaving plenty of room for improvisation. It’s not merely an electronic band either, especially with the members’ strong jazz-funk leanings. Whether or not they fall squarely into…
What to Do Tonight: Teenage Bottlerocket
Laramie, Wyoming, may not be a punk hotbed, but Teenage Bottlerocket play loud, fast and anthemic enough to make you think that the sleepy town could be harboring a musical secret or two. The band goes back nearly a decade, when twin brothers Ray and Brandon Carlisle played in a punk band called the Homeless…
What to Do Tonight: Lotus
What genre do these serial music-fest performers fall into? Simply calling Lotus an instrumental jam-band doesn’t work — even though the group keeps its music structure tight while leaving plenty of room for improvisation. It’s not merely an electronic band either, especially once you notice the members’ strong jazz-funk leanings. Whether or not they fall…
10/29-11/1: Franklin Stein’s Project at CSU
It’s a short and sweet run, and timed just right: Cleveland State University’s Factory Theatre reworks Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for Halloween, complete with allusions to famous retellings of the gothic tale. Franklin Stein’s Project is set in Geneva County High School, where a student, Franklin Stein, seeks revenge for years of ridicule with a horrific…
10/29: Apollo’s Fire
Soprano Nell Snaidas, whose specialty is Italian and Spanish baroque music, has stretched far beyond that period. She translated Alicia Keys’ “Superwoman” into Italian so Keys could sing it with Kathleen Battle at last year’s American Music Awards. She also appeared on Broadway in Hair and can be heard in Mel Brooks’ The Producers movie…
10/29: The Skull & Skeleton in Art
Skull and skeleton motifs crop up constantly in art — from ancient Roman paintings and 17th-century Dutch still lifes to the contemporary photography of Joel-Peter Witkin and Mexican folk art to the melodramatic outpourings of depressed art-school students. The symbolism is always the same: an omen of mortality. But artists frequently use skeletons and skulls…
Danzig Days: Wicked Wednesday
For this Fiend’s money, the first Danzig record is one of the best rock records of all time. Period. It sounds a little like Elvis fronting AC/DC. Rick Rubin produced it, but the bone-dry sound owed much to co-engineer Steve Ett and the analog sound board at Chung King studios — a combination that gave…
NEW ISSUE: SLIGHT CHANGE OF PLANS
At the bottom of the table of contents in this week’s print edition, we promised an online-only feature about Mayor Frank Jackson. Well, we’ve changed our minds. That piece is now being held for the November 4 edition. Sorry for the inconvenience. Complaints can be lodged with this guy. — Frank Lewis
SECRETS OF CARTOONING REVEALED!
Drawn, a cartooning and illustration blog, heaps love on Canton native and longtime Scene and Free Times contributor Matt Bors: As a fan of cartooning as an art form, what I appreciate most about Matt is his critical eye and vocalness about the state of editorial cartooning. In the same way that Jon Stewart’s The…
Tenafly Viper Test Launch Saturday
Tenafly Viper — the stalled Mushroomhead Southern rock/metal side project featuring frontman Waylon, drummer Skinny, Chimaria bassist Jim LaMarca and Autumn Offering guitarist Tommy Church — will play a short set at Mushroomhead’s Halloween concert at the Agora Theater. It will be the band’s only live appearance for some time. Tenafly recorded a full album…
LINGERING IN A GHOST WORLD
Black-and-white portraits, whether drawn, painted or photographed, bring to mind the fugitive quality of human identity, as if the luster of self-awareness, pressed into space day after day, had faded. Such monochromes seem to reproach the extravagance of a world spent in color as they soberly weigh the contradictions of presence and distance. Most of…
Reel Cleveland: Revenge of the Freakishly Short Animation Festival
Put on by the same people who produce the Akron Film Festival, Revenge of the Freakishly Short Animation Festival returns for the second year to the Akron Art Museum (1 S. High, Akron, 330.376.9185, akronartmuseum.org) for screenings at 7 p.m. Thursday, October 29, and 2 p.m. Saturday, October 31. One of the highlights is the…
MTV: MUSIC, TAL’S VISION
Violinist Jennifer Koh sometimes closes her eyes while performing, depending on what she’s playing. But she doesn’t “see” the music in the darkness behind her eyelids. This week, her sound will have a visual incarnation as she performs with a video by filmmaker Tal Rosner. Koh, an Oberlin College Conservatory of Music alumna (class of…
Senses Working Overtime
So your band has been around for seven years, releasing three albums and an EP. But your genre — screamo/post-hardcore — is one that attracts teenagers and young people, with little to offer older listeners — musically or lyrically. So there’s no way to “graduate” to mainstream rock-radio airplay, and you’re constantly struggling to hold…
KEEPING SECRETS
There’s a twist at the end Opera Cleveland’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, but the stage-management crew isn’t spilling the beans. Not that I was digging when I was talking with stage manager Kathleen Edwards and her team: assistants Katy Reeves (a freelancer from Texas) and Erin McCardle (who freelances for Cleveland professional theater companies)…
ALL IN
In the weeks before Ohio votes on whether to allow casino gambling in four major cities, Cavs majority owner Dan Gilbert is making his pro-gaming stump presentation all over Northeast Ohio. Two weeks before Election Day, he spoke in the Warehouse District, part of the downtown Cleveland area that stands to reap the benefits —…
Arts District: New Things at New Dobama
In its new home across from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library, Dobama Theatre continues to be a place to try out new things. The November edition of its First Mondays reading series is noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First, there’s the play — Jean Cummins’ Pray for the Missing Girls, Part I: Someone…
Scary Movies
TOP PICK Drag Me to Hell (Universal) Spider-Man director Sam Raimi’s return to horror is one of the year’s scariest movies. After an old lady puts a curse on a young loan officer, all hell breaks loose. Literally. The Blu-ray disc ups the frights. So does the unrated director’s cut, which adds a few creepy…
CD Review: Wolfmother
The album title is a tip-off that these Australian rockers are still living in the past. There’s nothing even remotely new-millennium about Cosmic Egg. From the scuzzy guitar riffs to Andrew Stockdale’s shrieking howls, Wolfmother’s second album is a devoted regeneration of the stomping ’70s van-rock of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Songs like “California…
CD Review: Tegan and Sara
Being one of alt-rock’s most consistent machines is sort of a double-edged sword. Canadian twins Tegan and Sara have never made a truly great album, but their best moments suggest acute focus could be just around the corner. “Call It Off,” “Speak Slow,” “Like O, Like H,” and the White Stripes-covered “Walking With a Ghost,”…
CD Review: Bob Dylan
Anything Bob Dylan puts on record is worth a listen. Yet his new holiday offering, Christmas in the Heart (with all artist royalties benefiting Feeding America), is more of a curiosity than a grand work of art. Still, when not croaking out spiritual fare like Leonard Cohen drunk in a midnight choir (even the Prince…
CD Review: The Swell Season
\ Possibly the best music movie of 2007, Once transformed Frames frontman Glen Hansard and little-known Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová into a power duo capable of capturing the purest kind of raw emotion. After winning the Oscar for Best Original Song for their striking duet “Falling Slowly,” they had some high expectations to…
CD Review: Rosie Flores and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Though clocking in at less than 38 minutes, rockabilly queen Rosie Flores’ latest album is packed with retro-country attitude. She kicks things off with a swingin’, swayin’ rendition of Memphis Minnie’s “Chauffeur,” which has never sounded better. There’s tons of hiccupy Brenda Lee sass on rockers like “This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin'” and “This Cat’s…
CD Review: Chuck Prophet
Chuck Prophet has always been so far ahead of sonic trends that 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…
Emotional Rescue
Matthew Perryman Jones grew up immersed in the music of the ’80s Athens, Georgia scene, when R.E.M. reigned supreme and underground college music pervaded the culture. “It wasn’t your mainstream kind of pop music,” he says. “I just loved that it had a lot of raw feeling to it and wasn’t so bubblegum and slick.…
CD Review: Florence and the Machine
Florence Welch jumps around so much on her debut album, it’s hard to nail her down. That’s probably the point, as the restless 22-year-old Brit skips from artsy wails to indie-rock scorchers to torch-song come-ons. But there is one consistent throughout: Florence is a tough broad. Whether she’s declaring “A kick in the teeth is…
Give Us Your County and No One Gets Hurt
The political orgy known as Cuyahoga County reform — Issues 5 and 6 — finally climaxes November 3. It’s a fight for control and power. Labor-backed Democrats want to keep the tight grip they’ve historically held on elected county posts. They face challenges from rogue Democrats, millionaire Republicans, do-good reformers and businesses interests, who all…
IN A PIG’S EYE
“Things are seldom what they seem, skim milk masquerades as cream …” — from Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore Earlier this year, two large farm pigs came to Geauga Humane Society’s Rescue Village, where I work as the executive director. Minnie and Cricket already had star credentials, having been featured in the HBO documentary Death…
WE’RE HERE TO HELP
Issue 1 YES Among the many shortcomings of those leaders who brag about supporting the troops is a tendency to forget those men and women once they’vereturned home. Issue 1 would help to fill the gap between rhetoric and reality by renewing the state’s tradition of paying bonuses to veterans of the wars — in…
The Force of Fellini
Along with Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini (1920-1993) was one of two superstar directors to emerge from the international scene in the 1950s. Like Bergman, Italian maestro Fellini became a household name in North America. In fact, for a certain generation of American cinephiles, Fellini and Bergman were the alpha and omega of art-house cinema. That…
ISSUE 6’S BAIT & SWITCH
Proponents of Issue 6 have told Cuyahoga County voters that their reform plan is like Summit County’s 1979 charter reform. The Plain Dealer in July said its reform was “akin” to Issue 6. That’s just not so. Summit County enacted a moderate form of charter government, driven by a broad coalition of citizen, political, labor…
Won’t Get Schooled Again
Three years ago, Hot Rails frontman Ken Janssen started working at the Beachland Ballroom and wanted to come up with “new and exciting ways” to put on a show. So he sent out an e-mail blast to see who would play a Halloween concert. He got so many responses that he started a Beachland tradition.…
Around Hear: 16th Annual Mushroomhead Halloween
Mushroomhead will celebrate their 16th annual Halloween show with their first live DVD shoot. On Saturday, October 31, Cleveland’s masked metal kings will stage their most elaborate Halloween concert to date, incorporating props from previous years, at the Agora Theater (5000 Euclid Ave.). “Take the last five Halloween shows, and throw ’em all together —…
Design for Living
MOVIES HAVE ALWAYS been a rich source of fashion inspiration, but movies about fashion usually don’t wear well. They tend toward the fanciful (Funny Face) or the farcical (The Devil Wears Prada, Sex and the City), assailing the eyes with ridiculous getups posing as haute couture. Unlike fashion movies that emphasize spectacle, Coco Before Chanel,…
