Bloom Town
9/7-10/3 Although Michael Bloom, the Cleveland Play House’s new artistic director, didn’t choose the season’s inaugural production — the world premiere of Ken Ludwig’s Leading Ladies, opening Tuesday — he says it’s a fitting intro to his tenure. “It’s a valentine to the theater and a salute to actors,” he explains. “It’s a good way…
Buddy Guy
On his last two records, 2001’s Sweet Tea and now Blues Singer, Buddy Guy has been retrofitted in an attempt to find a new (read: younger) audience. This isn’t really a bad move. On Sweet Tea, Guy explains through his guitar that modern rock music could not exist without his supreme blues improvisations. Guy’s playing…
Reese’s Piece
In Victorian England, 40,000 novels were published every year. Of the few that have endured, perhaps none is more worthy of a film adaptation than Vanity Fair, if for no other reason than this: It’s a chore to read. Clocking in at 850 pages, with frequent excursions into unrelated subjects or expendable characters (William Thackeray,…
Vote for Change: Local Bands
There have been plenty of anti-Bush, get-out-the-vote concerts and benefits this year, though most seem to be coming from the heart, rather than the head. The star-studded Vote for Change and Punkvoter tours ostensibly back John Kerry, though both are booked into several venues associated with Clear Channel — a major Bush-campaign contributor — thereby…
Banzai Beat
Say hello to a pop cinema masterpiece. This new Japanese import opens with a massive thud not unlike Godzilla’s footfall, and its cinematic legacy stretches back almost as far. It’s got crafty samurai action, hilarious bits of business, insightful observations into the human condition, and geysers of kitschy computer-generated blood. Oh yes, and utterly thrilling…
Norah Jones
They’re all waiting for her — the soccer moms who find her soothing, the Pottery Barn bohos who think her appealing, the elitist jazzbos who wonder whether she isn’t just Roberta Flack with a pedigree, and everyone else for whom Norah Jones proves that talent can still trump all else. Now she reaps the benefits…
Live, Baby, Live
Some of the people who helped bring you such dank, morose amusements as The Crow, Dark City, and The Matrix have a new movie to offer. Like The Matrix, it features a dork who flies through the air. As in Dark City, we witness the protagonist’s world radically changing shape around him. And like The…
The Mats/Morgan Band
It takes a special kind of musician to spend time on a funky instrumental that reeks of ’70s retro and name it “Chicken.” The Mats/Morgan Band features those kinds of musicians. Built around a core of drummer Morgan Ågren and blind singer-keyboardist Mats Öberg, the Swedish group plays a mutated, pop-irradiated form of jazz so…
On the Rocks
There is a strange attraction toward Frank Sinatra’s loosely organized Rat Pack and their infamous, loopily disorganized Las Vegas shows that ran for a few golden years back in the 1960s. Frank, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. were the headliners, mixing pop songs, corny jokes, and many bottles of Johnnie Walker into an irreverent,…
Jack Johnson
For Jack Johnson, it’s all about riding the wave. The former pro surfer decided to go into music after his friends convinced him to record the songs he’d play at beach campfires. First, he penned a tune for G. Love & Special Sauce (“Rodeo Clowns”); then, he laid down tracks for 2001’s Brushfire Fairytales. The…
Bill Clinton, Rock Star
For the life of her, Action News reporter Lynna Lai cannot light a goddamn lighter. She keeps pressing her thumb down hard on the metal lever — playing it like a joystick — as her finger grows raw with the effort. It’s nearing 9:30 Monday night, and behind Lai sit a few dozen of Bill…
Hotel Hell
Most of us enjoy conning ourselves into thinking that, as we grow from adolescence into adulthood, we gain security by owning more and more valuable things: a car, a house, all of Usher’s CDs. Even President Bush recently deemed the idea of an “ownership society” a splendid goal for all of us. It’s a damn…
Björk
Whether you consider her a peddler of pretentious twaddle or an endless fount of pure Icelandic genius, you have to give Björk credit for eschewing safe options. No other platinum-selling diva has had the guts to forge paths as idiosyncratic as those followed by this charismatic singer over the past 11 years. On her sixth…
Blood Brothers
. . . Owen and Martin, his shadow, began coming to the Redwood often. They would sit and talk to Phil. Phil began feeding them small tidbits of things that he wanted them to think he was into. That way, perhaps, they’d trust him enough to let him onto something that he could use against…
On Stage
Oliver Twisted — It has been claimed that there’s a gene in some people’s DNA spiral that compels them to seek out risky, potentially harmful activities, such as rock-climbing, deep-sea diving, and parking at expired meters in Cleveland Heights. True to their risk-adoring genes, the seven-member group titled Oliver Twisted (made up of former members…
Jill Scott
One of the significant accomplishments of ’90s neosoul was the space it carved out for a new generation of sensitive-yet-sensible sisters; their take-no-mess attitudes, poetic platitudes, and positive affirmations were set to warm, upscale R&B appropriate for the bookstore or the bedroom. As India.Arie proved, such artists are always one misstep away from becoming Oprah…
Ralph’s Folly
Workers who may find themselves stripped of overtime under new federal legislation will have a local politician to thank: Congressman Ralph Regula (R-Navarre). The legislation would make a few low-income salaried workers eligible for overtime, but employers would be allowed to exempt anyone considered to be holding a “position of responsibility” who makes more than…
On View
OPENING Matthew Robinson — These small, understated, and tasteful compositions of black line on white paper appear to be created on a computer and printed, with a photograph as the source material. The line traces the shapes of absent shadows and variations of tone; its nervous energy is amplified by the appearance of the human…
Ben Folds
The long-awaited third EP in piano-man Ben Folds’s mini-album trilogy — available only online at www.attackedbyplastic.com or by download — is a polarizing disc. Those unable to stomach his ivory-tickled smirk and ’70s rock impersonations will find Super D a painful listen. The somber introspection of “Kalamazoo” contains such lines as “How many of me…
The Last Refuge
Cliff, a reed of a man with a high-mileage look and a smile that says he enjoyed every minute building it, lets his stogie linger in the ashtray. He manages the Union Club Tavern, not to be confused with the upscale Union Club on Euclid, where politicians, executives, and other lowlifes congregate. This is the…
Sweet Sorrow
It was one thing to watch as the big-box stores put the screws to the mom-and-pop hardware stores, pharmacies, and gift shops, but now it’s getting personal. Draeger’s Candy and Ice Cream — as far as we know, the East Side’s only remaining old-fashioned ice-cream parlor and chocolate shop — is closing in late December,…
Anita Baker
One of the great voices of the ’80s and early ’90s, Anita Baker returns after a 10-year absence to join labelmates Norah Jones, Van Morrison, and Al Green. All are proponents of classy, retro soul music, and all now work for Blue Note, a label once identified exclusively with jazz and particularly bop — but…
Already There
Grieving mother shares her story: In response to the statement “Mom should be son’s cellmate” made by Dennis Sweeney [Letters, July 28]: I am Timothy Holt’s mother. After reading the letters in Scene last month, I decided to respond to the letter from Dennis Sweeney and to those of you who think that you know…
Cooking With Greece
Quirky, creative, and full of panache, OPA! on 25th is one more little oasis of hipitude in an Ohio City neighborhood that exudes culinary character. Anchored by the West Side Market, the restaurants, cafés, and pubs along this stretch of West 25th Street offer an international array of dining destinations that range from Puerto Rican…
Various Artists
To most of us, Johnny Paycheck was the guy who sang “Take This Job and Shove It.” While it’s true that his monster-hit version of David Allan Coe’s classic smashed the boundaries of country music to enter the American lexicon, Paycheck was also one of the most nuanced singers and songwriters in an era when…
Pols’ Pots
We smell a fix. Lyndhurst mayor Joseph Cicero is one of 10 local officials competing in Sunday’s Mayors’ Dessert Cup Challenge, part of Taste of Cleveland. But he admits he used to work for the Cleveland Food Bank, which picks up leftovers from . . . Taste of Cleveland. Hmmm. “I don’t even know any…
Get Wrecked
Kyle Gass is a funny guy. And he plays a mean guitar, ripping Pete Townshend-style windmills on his acoustic six-string. He’s half of the comedic folk-metal duo Tenacious D, the self-declared “Greatest Band in History.” And when the (again, self-nominated) heir to Ronnie James Dio’s rock throne isn’t ruling the earth, he’s one sixth of…
Bonk
Akron’s Bonk does the angst-ridden, rhythmically inclined nü-rock thing, like a Linkin Park stripped of overt hip-hop influences, unafraid to drop the F-Bomb, and deeply infected with the screamo virus. Disc opener “Channel 58” is Bonk in high schizophrenic mode, going multi-polar like they’ve been off their meds for a week. The song begins all…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, September 2 As fair season winds down, let’s give it up for the Great Geauga County Fair, one of the area’s finest Labor Day celebrations. In addition to the usual rides, games, and food, the fair is jam-packed with daily events — chainsaw carving, frog-jumping contests, a firefighters’ water battle, a pony-pulling contest, the…
Out of Africa
Blitz was 10 years old when Public Enemy came to Ghana. It was the first major hip-hop show in his native country, and the future MC was as impressionable as wet cement. “I never got to go to the show — I was very little. But I just remember seeing their logo,” the 22-year-old rhymer…
Harry
Folk music is a genre opposed to pomp, which is why it tends to eschew the epic. But Harry, a singer-songwriter from Chagrin Falls, embraces the elaborate on his debut, Something to Outlast Me, with seven-minute acoustic ruminations and instrumental flights of fancy normally reserved for Dream Theater LPs. “I do not want to alter…
Dawg Days
It’s been a running joke among Christian Davenport’s buddies: As soon as Tim Couch came to town in 1999 to quarterback the Cleveland Browns, the ribbing started. “Someone got drunk one night and started calling us ‘cushion cousins,'” sighs Davenport, a 34-year-old restaurant cook from Westlake. “Davenport. Couch. Get it?” But after posting a dismal…
Shorties
EPs can serve several functions. They can be a cost-effective means for new artists to market themselves, a way to keep impatient fans happy between full-length albums, a chance for established artists to get weird and experimental without much risk, or incentive to clear old tunes out of the vaults and make a few extra…
American Graffiti
SAT 9/4 “People always complain that hip-hop is dead, but it’s right here downtown,” announces Iyan Anomolie, the MC who’ll be hosting the third-annual City Xpressionz Aerosol and Urban Art Festival at Market Square on Saturday. Detroit’s Athletic Mic League headlines the event, which features a spray-can graffiti competition, live performances, and b-boy and b-girl…
Studio-AWOL
For music aficionados, summer in Cleveland is defined largely by three activities: trying to keep your pierogi down while REO Speedwagon, Rick Springfield, or some other fossil with feathered hair fends off retirement for another year at the Rib Cook Off; draining your child’s college fund on a round of beer at Blossom; and breaking…
High Times
9/3-9/6 Turbulence is part of the ride at the Cleveland National Air Show, which celebrates 40 years of high-flyin’ fare this weekend with air tricks and grounded displays. Real-life military activity usually generates interest in airborne technology, says spokesman J.P. Krainz. “People want to know what the U.S. is flying overseas.” Attractions include the U.S.…
Hard Labor
Tired of playing Cleveland’s quiet little sister, the southern suburbs are getting in on the music-festival business. Over Labor Day weekend, five Akron and Kent clubs will host 120 bands in The Labor Incident. “We have a really great music scene here, and there are very few cool clubs to play,” says Kim Diamond, one…
The Greatest ‘Mo’s on Earth
9/3-9/5 At Circuit Circus, Adam Collyer couldn’t care less if he sees daring young men on a flying trapeze . . . unless they’re go-go boys swinging above Interbelt’s dance floor. For its Labor Day weekend party, the gay club starts its farewell to summer on Friday with The Arrival, featuring resident DJ Denny P,…
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
Back in 1979, while the new-wave assault on the pop world was in full force, a surprise package arrived from the realm of roots music. The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ debut LP, Girls Go Wild, generated an excitement among many blues fans on a par with that brought on by the first couple of Paul Butterfield albums…
