A Night at West Sixth’s Tequila Ranch: “Come on Boobies!”
A skilled bull operator could make these women’s tops magically disappear. Wanna see some boobs? Then come on down to Tequila Ranch (1229 W 6th St., 216-566-8226), where the mechanical bull ride delivers approximately 2.5 breast-popping-out incidents per evening. I had no idea of this unique phenomenon until a drinking companion suggested we try it…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Harptallica, the Harp Metallica Tribute. (Yes, we’re serious)
Because Harptallica is, beyond debate, the finest all-female harp tribute to Metallica we’ve ever seen, the Scene Music Department is letting both members play a little game we call Money Where Your Mouth Is — in which we let you find out why you should spend Wednesday night with a group straight from the harpists’…
This Just In: A cowboy named Urban, Stiff Little Fingers, and more!
Keith Urban makes suburban women drool November 9 at the Q. Sixty-three new shows this week, from the buzz-band punks of Against Me! to hair-metal survivors of XYZ. Halloween shows from Mushroomhead and Dr. Chud’s X-Ward make the list, as does the sophisticated, arty indie rock of Portugal the Man. And don’t forget an arena…
In Pepper Pike, Tannour Middle Eastern Gives Way to Joe’s Foodie Tavern
Chef Kurt Steeber (Ballantine, Great Lakes Brewing Company) has joined with veteran restaurant resurrectionist Clyde Mart (Gaylin’s Tavern, Vito’s Italian Grill) to launch an upscale tavern in Pepper Pike. Scheduled to open in October, Joe Foodie’s Tavern will replace the former Tannour Middle Eastern Cuisine (30519 Pinetree Rd.), on Pepper Pike’s Lander Circle. Hard to…
For his Lighthouse’s Anniversary, Don Dishes Up a Real Deal
Venerable Cleveland seafood and steak stop Don’s Lighthouse is marking its 35th anniversary through the end of September with a couple of pretty good deals. For one, diners can hook a four-course dinner – including a choice of appetizer, soup or salad, entrée, and dessert, from a special anniversary menu – for a mere $35.…
Blogger Maps Out Every Strip Club (And they say bloggers aren’t journalists)
They don’t look like this at the Akron club we’ve been to. Thank god for political blogs, right? I mean, how else would we discover what the candidates really stood for, what the issues are really about, and which Ohio city has the most pay-to-play boobies per capita! Yup, that’s right: thanks to a self-described…
Mike G’s Picks: Movies and music to get you through the week
Blaqk Audio plays the Agora tonight. This week’s top arts and entertainment picks around town, from the guy who’s paid to pick them: Monday: AFI has always been emo’s most goth-obsessed group. So it’s no surprise that Blaqk Audio — a new side project featuring AFI’s singer Davey Havok and guitarist Jade Puget — smears…
Reader: Billy Morris Still Sucks!
In the original article [“Billy Morris Sucks,” First Punch, August 29], Morris stated that it was a California company that was responsible for the “Cleveland Idol” prizes, then in his rebuttal he states it was Kim Diamond. Well which was it? Sounds like he’s putting the blame on anyone but himself. If nothing else, it…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Torrio
The Scene Music Department is officially busy trying to do the math on its weekend bar tab, and since our TI-85 calculator isn’t working, it’s taking longer than expected. Sp rather than rave about rapper Torrio, we figured it’d be easier to let the dude speak for himself: Musican: Torrio Web: www.myspace.com/torrio Hometown: Cleveland Sounds…
American Family Association : New Lows in Astroturf Campaigns
Last week, upstanding citizens from Parma to Independence pelted Punch with outrage over the latest TV commercial for the Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr. Patty Melt. The sandwich is served on round rye bread – ie. “flat buns” – which is apparently of bold innovation in fast food. So Hardee’s commercial stars a blond high school teacher (picture…
Man Who Scammed Old R&B Bands will Finally Pay Up
The last time Scene caught up with Larry Marshak, the New York agent was busy defrauding old R&B artists out of their rightful names [“The Great Pretenders,” November 1, 2006]. For the last three decades, Marshak has been promoting tours involving counterfeit versions of The Coasters, The Drifters, The Platters, and The Marvalettes. While one…
Environmentally Conscious Golf Course is Named after Major Polluter
In 2003, the Metroparks spent $4 million to acquire land in Brookside and Washington Reservation. But rather than convert the land into canal-side trails or carve out baseball diamonds, officials decided to turn the 70-acre Washington Park land, located in Newburg Heights, into a public golf course. Financially speaking, it wasn’t the best bet. Records…
Ohio takes home Prestigious Toilet Award
For the second year in a row, the title of “America’s Best Restroom” has plopped on a Buckeye State john. The winner? Jungle Jim’s, a food market near Cincinnati, just long enough to hold it on the drive from last year’s number one, Wendell’s Restaurant in Westerville, a sphincterific suburb of Columbus. Jim’s was one…
Breaking News: The Jerry Springer Show is fake!
To the three Northeast Ohioans who are convinced that the knock-down dragouts on the Jerry Springer Show are authentic, tuck this upcoming segment into your “what-was-I-thinking?” file. On Monday, two well-worn drag queens from Cleveland flew to the show’s Chicago studios to bitch-slap each other in an episode that will air in about three weeks.…
Really Depressing Mail of the Week: A note from a White Hat student
The following note — submitted as a comment to “Education at its Worst,” Amy Rankin’s fierce cover story on White Hat Management’s Ohio Distance & Electronic Learning Academy — is from a student at Rankin’s former school. Hello. I am an OHDELA high school student. I would like to tell you what my normal school…
Akron Mayor Holds On. But What’s Next?
Surprise, surprise: Akron Mayor for Life Don Plusquellic won Tuesday’s primary, ensuring that he can add yet another term to his already 20-year reign. As if everyone and their black lab couldn’t have predicted that one. What is interesting, however, is that Plusquellic didn’t win by much. He got away with only 53 percent of…
Mike G.’s Weekend Picks: Grab your bong! Pink Floyd’s on the big screen!
Arteyu plays the House of Blues Sunday. This weekend’s top arts and entertainment picks around town, from the guy who’s paid to pick them: Friday: David & Layla sounds like a really bad idea for a TV show that’ll make it through three episodes before it gets canned to make room for Two and a…
Marc Dann Wants to Shutter Two Charter Schools. What About White Hat?
David Brennan. Occupation: thief. The Plain Dealer reports today that Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has sued to close two Dayton charter schools. The PD writes: In separate lawsuits filed in a Montgomery County court, Dann wants to snatch the nonprofit status of New Choices Community School and Colin Powell Leadership Academy – both within…
Carl Monday Cuts Out the Middle Man. Take That Crazy Driver!
When a woman plowed her pickup truck into the Justice Center parking garage on Wednesday, causing severe damage to the building, she figured she could make a clean getaway. There were no cops on the street, only an unarmed county worker manning the gate to the garage. This was no surprise in Cleveland, where approximately…
Pop-Punk Paradise: Sum 41 and Yellowcard at House of Blues Cleveland
Canadian pop-punk darlings Sum 41 play the House of Blues Saturday night. Sum 41 and Yellowcard headline the House of Blues (308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-BLUE) Saturday, September 15. The show represents some of the best and worst pop-punk has to offer. Florida’s Yellowcard could learn a thing or 20 from Canada’s Sum 41, among the…
Flat Iron Café Reopens Today: Let the whiskey flow like … whiskey!
Less than two weeks after a Labor Day fire stemmed the steady flow of Guinness, Bass, and Jameson at the Flat Iron Café, Cleveland’s oldest Irish bar is expected to resume a full schedule of operations at 11 a.m. today, including its popular free shuttle service to Indians home games. “I thank the professionalism and…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Teenage Prayers
The Teenage Prayers “Good Voodoo” Add to My Profile | More Videos Scene’s music writers are still dumbstruck from the MTV’s VMA awards, so they’ll just let the Teenage Prayers tell you why you should see them. Band: The Teenage Prayers Web: www.teenageprayers.com, myspace.com/theteenageprayers Hometown: “The band was born in New York City, but we…
Sexual Harassment Story: Is the Plain Dealer Growing Some Balls?
Don’t look now, but a team of scientists hired by C-Notes has made a shocking discovery: The Plain Dealer may be growing some balls. The evidence arrived this week in the form of a piece by columnist Phillip Morris. On Tuesday, he questioned the leadership of City Council President Martin Sweeney, who tried to pay…
Oh, the Irony: hated divorce lawyer Stafford files for divorce
Joe Stafford, one half of Cleveland’s reviled brother-brother divorce-lawyer team, is getting a view from the other side. According to decree filed in Trumbull County this summer, Stafford and his wife have ended their marriage of 17 years. This means Stafford is on the market, ladies. So if you’re into smug, money-sucking lawyers who once…
Why is Kucinich Getting Paid when He Never Shows for Work?
Kucinich needs to tell me and the rest of us in the 10th District that he will not run again for Congress, because he’s gone beyond being an embarassment. Since he went to Congress, the only person he has represented is himself. His recent publicity stunts of visiting Syria, supporting Ahmadinejad in Iran and refusing…
Gay Bashing in Education Debate?
After reading the online comments from the “Education at its Worst” story, I felt the need to make you aware of some comments. An individual by the name of Kathy Castillo made some demeaning comments about other individuals… including gay bashing a school leader. I respectfully ask that the comments be removed from the page…
Frank Jackson, ally sweep sexual harassment under the rug. How unoriginal, boys!
If you’ve been following the Plain Dealer’s stories about the sexual harassment allegations against City Council President Martin Sweeney, you may be getting a sickeningly familiar feeling in your stomach. Here’s the scenario: Accomplished, well-liked woman working for city government accuses powerful man (who happens to be an ally of Mayor Frank Jackson) of sexual…
After the VMAs, Coming to Terms with Britney’s Downfall, One Day at a Time
Like most of America, we haven’t gotten much done since Britney Spears’ performance on MTV’s Video Music Awards show Sunday night. We’ve pretty much spent the past 50 or so hours scouring web sites for any drop of info about when and why things went so wrong for her (we pinpoint the downfall right around…
New(ish) Music Wednesday: Mo’ Um-ber-ella, this time by Marie Digby
Summer’s gone, but the music heads at Scene still love us some “Umbrella,” the transcendent R&B jam of the year. Budding diva Rihanna made it a hit, and pop songstress Mandy Moore toned down the beat but brought out the song in it. Now it’s been given a similar workover by Marie Digby. Digby’s made…
Frye Traded; Anderson Named Starter; Quinn Promoted; Dorsey Re-signed. Somewhere, Jeff Garcia Chuckles
Sayonara, Chaz. At least the fishing’s good up there. Last year, the Browns were Charlie Frye’s team. He didn’t have Kellen Winslow’s military pretensions or launch a jackass website like Braylon Edwards. But the guy could take a sack – 71 times in 19 games, to be precise – and after every flattening, the Willard…
Sum 41
Playing hopped-up emo, Yellowcard scammed its way into a major-label deal by deploying the most bullshit gimmick in the shady history of the music industry: Sean Mackin’s violin. Hell, the Tri-Lambs’ climactic fiddle jam in Revenge of the Nerds was more punk. Shame on you if you’ve purchased, downloaded, or sung along to music by…
Pretender’s Return
Pretenders mainwoman Chrissie Hynde, one of Rubber City’s greatest rock exports, returns home this week to invest in Akron’s past and future. She’ll host the opening of her new upscale vegetarian coffeehouse-restaurant, VegiTerranean (21 Furnace Street). Hynde will preside over a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 15 at 4 p.m. Later that night, she’ll headline a…
Back in Blaqk
AFI has always been emo’s most goth-obsessed group. So it’s no surprise that Blaqk Audio — a new side project featuring AFI’s singer Davey Havok and guitarist Jade Puget — smears on the eyeliner, plugs in the synths, and rocks like it’s 1983. The band’s debut album, CexCells, cops new-wave riffs (think Depeche Mode), baritone-voiced…
Videocam of the Dead
Diary of the Dead offers another way to say “I love zombies.” Late at night, alone in the woods, a group of film students at work on a no-budget horror film called The Death of Death are interrupted by — the death of death. Reports of animated corpses feeding on human flesh come over the…
The Teenage Prayers
Indie-blues-rawk combo the Teenage Prayers traded Ohio for New York City, where a chance meeting led Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Solomon Burke to invite them onstage to play with him. They made a good impression, and he invited them to the West Coast, where they recorded their upcoming LP with Dream Syndicate frontman…
Mystery of Two
Like so many indie bands these days, Mystery of Two’s chief inspiration is post-punk and British DIY. But unlike Interpol and the Rapture, the Cleveland trio primarily takes its cues from Ludus and the Desperate Bicycles, not Joy Division and Gang of Four. As you can probably guess, this is a pleasant surprise. Please, America…
Show Girl
The Daily Show’s co-creator Lizz Winstead didn’t plan on staying away from stand-up for so long. But writing and producing the award-winning TV program (which she oversaw during host Craig Kilborn’s tenure) sucked up most of her time. “I had to sacrifice something,” she says. She left The Daily Show around the time Jon Stewart…
Hanson
Ten years it’s been since Hanson’s “Mmmbop” ruled the airwaves, though it was probably echoing around in your head until last week. Now in their mid-20s, the three brothers Hanson are industry veterans, and they’ve parlayed that one-hit smash into some soulful pop that’s more timeless, but not drastically different — the new “Something Going…
The Ryan Humbert Band
Ryan Humbert is a singer-songwriter from Akron who’s found old-time religion in gospel and soulful rock. Recorded at Akron’s Musica, the One Night Only: Acoustic Live CD-DVD finds Humbert hosting a rollicking, unplugged revival surrounded by a choir and four-piece band. The evening begins with Pentecostal spirituals like “Mission Temple Fireworks Stand,” but as the…
Anchor Men
On its new album, Lead Sails Paper Anchor, Atreyu channels a couple of decades’ worth of metal overload. Fret-smokin’ guitar riffs, larynx-shredding vocal acrobatics, and big, cheesy horns fill the CD, which finally comes close to replicating the intensity the SoCal band delivers onstage. The record’s first single, “Becoming the Bull,” is featured on the…
Okkervil River
Forget Andrew Bird and Sufjan Stevens — Okkervil River’s Will Sheff is a much stronger songwriter. With 2005’s critically lauded Black Sheep Boy and its subsequent appendix, Sheff and company broke into music-geek consciousness and set the, uh, stage for the band’s latest full-length, The Stage Names. Okkervil River doesn’t waste any time getting started.…
Sauce of the South
Not everything sizzles at Henry’s at the Barn, a pretty restaurant, bar, and outdoor dining room in Avon. But when chef-owner Paul Jagielski gets his mojo all cranked up — mainly in the form of snazzy sauces — the flavors of South Carolina’s Low Country blast forth like bolts of lightening. Open since November in…
Civil Action
Today’s Battle on the Ohio-Erie Canal pits 500 Union soldiers against 300 Confederates at the bottom of a dried-up, 47-acre lake in Zoar. No, you’re not having a ’shroom-induced flashback to a past life. It’s just a Civil War re-enactment featuring a few good men . . . and women? “They actually dressed as males…
Joe Henry
You wouldn’t think someone married to Madonna’s sister would have something against writing pop ditties, but that seems to be the case with Joe Henry. (Other than “Don’t Tell Me,” the hit single he wrote for Madge’s 2000 album, Music, that is.) Bouncing between genres as varied as alt-country and jazz — not to mention…
Hunger is History
Few outings seem more worthy than packing up the family and heading to a museum — until the whining, fussing, and boredom kick in. So smart museum operators anticipate the fatigue and install cozy cafés (or, increasingly, even upscale restaurants). Offering an assortment of tasty, nutritious, and well-priced edibles not only enhances the museum experience,…
Art on the Go
This weekend’s Greater Cleveland Art & Gallery Festival is all about hooking up people with all the art happening around the city this weekend. The second-annual event includes plenty of works at the Galleria, but you’ll want to hop on Lolly the Trolley to take full advantage of the fest, says spokeswoman Vicky Poole. “We…
Group Doueh
Guitar Music From the Western Sahara is one of Sublime Frequencies’ first releases to spotlight the recordings of a single artist. And Group Doueh deserves the global attention. Since the late ’80s, Group Doueh has maintained a presence throughout Morocco and Mauritania, performing on television and radio, as well as playing weddings and religious festivals.…
Jodie Foster, Superhero
In The Brave One, Jodie Foster plays New York talk-radio DJ Erica Bain, who survives a vicious Central Park mugging and becomes an urban crusader devoted to cleaning up the city — with a Glock instead of a broom. The premise certainly seems contrived: Erica Bain isn’t any DJ, but the host of a show…
Break Out the Bubbly
Put-in-Bay revelers can’t wait another three-and-a-half months to ring in 2008. So they’ll count down to midnight at tonight’s New Year’s Eve at the Bay bash. “The main tourist season is in the thick of the summer,” says musical comedian Ray Fogg, who’ll perform. “When you get to September, some of the businesses have closed…
Young Marble Giants
Despite punk culture’s we’re-not-like-everybody-else posturing, much of its music was rather conventional. But there were a handful of combos working with truly radical ideas, including Suicide, Pere Ubu, the Pop Group, and the U.K.’s Young Marble Giants, active between the years 1978 and ’80. Consisting of brothers Stuart and Philip Moxham (guitar, organ, bass, drum…
Selectively Memorable
Nostalgia is like the dry cleaner of the mind: All kinds of memories enter all the time, but over time, human lust for nostalgia focuses the mind on the ice-cream cones Dad bought, not the times he passed out drunk on the La-Z-Boy. Memories are thus very unreliable things — a point pounded home in…
Chalk This Way`
Colorful shapes and fantastic creatures spring from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s sidewalks at this weekend’s Chalk Festival. The 18th-annual outing of the area favorite looks way back for inspiration. “It takes a 16th-century Italian tradition into the modern world,” says spokesman Josh Taylor. “Beggars would do drawings of sculptures and paintings.” We doubt Cleveland’s…
Kanye West
Kanye is the most exciting man in rap music. That’s because he puts out quality albums. Forget the artless 50 Cent and ditch Akon — Kanye tries much, much harder than both of them. Graduation, which has 13 bangers and zero skits, reflects the man’s tireless work ethic. Having united backpackers and clubbers with his…
Mist Opportunity
When you take in a Las Vegas casino show, you expect to be confronted with glitzified, overproduced versions of familiar entertainments — like Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular, which adds to Lloyd Webber’s already grandiose creation a $4.5 million chandelier and more backstage light-board computers than a NASA command center. But it’s a surprise to…
All That Jazz
Because of some sort of legal issue, the Beck Center skirts around the subject of Reflections (Peggy Sings Leiber and Stoller). But it’s obvious that the musical — which makes its world premiere this weekend — is a tribute to Peggy Lee, one of the finest white female jazz singers to ever wrap her voice…
The City That Never Works
Odell and Roseann Jones live on Marvin Avenue, just two blocks from the Second District police station. Since vandalism and break-ins in their Clark-Fulton neighborhood are as common as weekly garbage pickup, they always felt safer with the men in blue near. Alas, that changed two weeks ago, when they experienced a quintessentially Cleveland moment.…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Pentimenti — Art can divide, but it can unify too. So it’s easy to see why one-time Clevelanders Misha and Amy Kligman, the artists featured in this intelligently conceived exhibit, are married. While stylistically they’re as individual as two painters can be, their work seems nonetheless bonded by theme. Amy powerfully distills painful memories…
The “Science” Guy
Thomas Dolby says he gets lonely onstage from time to time. The electronic-music whiz — who scored big during MTV’s nascent days with “She Blinded Me With Science” — has spent the past several years playing one-man shows. “But I’ve yet to become institutionalized for talking to myself,” he laughs. On his latest tour, the…
I Brave West Sixth
The Blind Pig. West Sixth. Tuesday night. The stench of danger fills the air. A fleshy man next to me wolfs down two mountainous plates of wings, intently clicking away at his laptop. To the uninitiated, he might be a chair salesman from Toledo, reporting another day of meager orders to the home office as…
Legs to Spare
The Graduate: 40th Anniversary Edition (MGM) Fifteen years after its last home-video commemorative edition (extras from which appear here), The Graduate once more gets the bonus-laden makeover — and if ever a movie deserved its kudos, it’s Mike Nichols’ masterwork. That said, the movie is its own bonus; not since its release has an American…
Act Naturally
Tonight’s Theater District Block Party and Tour transforms the area surrounding Star Plaza and East 14th Street into “a small city filled with energy,” says Playhouse Square rep Jacqueline York. The eighth-annual bash includes lots of games and food as well as wine and martini bars. It’s quite a change from the neighborhood’s usual highbrow…
George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic
Had he retired 25 years ago, 67-year-old George Clinton would still be considered one of the most singular figures in modern music history. He is more than the man behind dance-floor anthems like “Flash Light” and “Atomic Dog,” more than one of the most sampled artists ever, more than a guy whose colorful, sci-fi-inspired garb…
The Killing Fields
The news came on Mother’s Day in the form of a detective at Marsha Carter’s front door. Her 23-year-old son, Michael — her lone hope for grandchildren — had been beaten, shot three times, and left to die in a parking lot. The night before, Michael left their Bedford Heights home to meet friends at…
Atlas Drowned
Typically, first-person shooters are a lot like virtual shooting galleries: Great fun, yes, but not exactly thought-provoking. So it’s nice when an FPS comes along that’s trying to be something more — and even better when it actually succeeds. Sometimes you know it in the first few minutes. Take Half-Life: Unlike every FPS before it,…
Poker in the Rear
Watch out for the lady on your right at tonight’s Rolling on the River casino event; we hear she plays a mean hand of blackjack. Michelle Wohlfeiler, special-events director of the Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland (which hosts), plans to bring her dad for a little card action too. “He’s good at poker,” she says.…
Om/Daniel Higgs
Fans of mind-bubbling throb should bring their earplugs, lest these visceral experimentalists mash your brain into creamed corn. San Francisco’s Om mines a sludgy thump concussive enough to stun small animals at 50 feet. The whirlpool of low-end comes courtesy of Al Cisneros, whose ominous basslines put a twist on the typical duo template, and…
Raspberry Jams
No Idol praise for these power poppers: I just read that drivel you wrote about the Raspberries [“Why the Hype?,” August 15]. It’s no wonder the Cleveland music scene is nowhere to be found, with idiots like you giving utterly useless comments. Did you catch any of the shows they did? I believe they were…
Proof Positive
TOP PICK — Death Proof (Genius Products/Weinstein Company) Quentin Tarantino’s half of the Grindhouse saga comes to DVD in an extended and unrated cut that piles on the blood and the babes. After psycho stuntman Kurt Russell orchestrates a limb-severing, life-ending accident involving four Austin girls, he resurfaces in Tennessee, where a group of potential…
Dream Weaver
Man of La Mancha’s protagonist definitely has a few screws loose. But his ballad-filled battles with windmills, mule drivers, and mirrors provide rich dramatic action in the popular musical, which opens at the Cleveland Play House tonight. The story centers on Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, which is recounted by a madman awaiting trial during…
The O’Jays
If you want to thank someone for the hits that put the O’Jays into the Rock Hall — ’70s soul standards like “Back Stabbers” and “Love Train” — you can first thank the grandmother of Walter Williams Sr. Without her, Williams probably would have worked at Canton’s Republic Steel alongside his father instead of signing…
Urban Mutation
Indie rap’s high-water mark occurred several years ago, back in 2001 and ’02, around the time Aesop Rock released his seminal debut, Labor Days. The scene was bursting with great music: Sage Francis released Personal Journals. Atmosphere dropped God Loves Ugly. Talib Kweli followed the terrific Reflections Eternal with the masterful Quality. And, of course,…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week:
Andre Rieu: Live in New York (Denon) Away From Her (Lionsgate) Bones: Season Two (Fox) Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (HBO) Casper Meets Wendy: Family Fun Edition (Fox) Charmed: The Final Season (Paramount) DOA: Dead or Alive (Weinstein) Ever Again (Starz) Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes — Volume Two (Fox) The Fly Collection (Fox)…
Art Attack!
This month’s outing of the Tremont Art Walk is the first time in its 14-year history that it coincides with Sparx in the City’s annual Gallery Hop tour of Cleveland art spots. It should prove a boon for both local artists and fans. “With this kind of an influx, we’re really pulling our best pieces…
Leon Redbone
Leon Redbone is a cross between a Southern gent, Bing Crosby, and Groucho Marx. For him, music began to go downhill in the ’30s. In essence, he is the Michigan J. Frog of the old Warner Bros. cartoon, hopping out of his time capsule to do a vaudevillian song and dance. Crooning pre-Depression jazz, blues,…
Risky Business
Circle has been stalking the edges of Finland’s rock scene since 1991. But the group doesn’t compare itself to better-known Finnish rock bands like HIM, Lordi, and Finntroll. “The difference is that we regard ourselves as amateurs and draw influence from avant-garde and experimental music,” explains bassist and group leader Jussi Lehtisalo. “In Finland, we…
Greetings from Toronto …
It’s pretty much a toss-up which I love more: gorging on cinema or getting up at noon. And so, on the first day of the Toronto International Film Festival, in lieu of contemplating Bela Tarr’s The Man From London, I lingered in my pajamas anticipating The Breakfast From Room Service. Duly fortified, it was time…
Moore Things Change
Ian Moore’s career started with a bang. Not long after the blues-rocker released his self-titled debut album in 1993, he found himself onstage opening for ZZ Top and the Rolling Stones. The buzz has since subsided, but the Austin-based singer-songwriter still makes solid records. His latest, To Be Loved, is his most wide-ranging — dabbling…
Denny Laine & the Cryers
Denny Laine enjoyed a decade-long run as Paul McCartney’s sidekick in Wings before the band fell apart on the eve of its 1980 world tour. That’s when Macca was busted for ganja. Apparently, he was holding a half-pound of “good stuff.” But Laine’s rock roots run deep. During the first wave of the British Invasion,…
Filthy Lucre
In 1977, the Sex Pistols were named “Young Businessmen of the Year” by Investors Review. The honor belonged as much to the group’s manager, Malcolm McLaren, for his role in the high jinks that helped the Pistols get tossed off two labels (while keeping their advances). McLaren was one of the first industry figures to…
Reality, According to Cronenberg
In the first few minutes of Eastern Promises, the striking new thriller from David Cronenberg, a throat is sliced, a uterus hemorrhages, and a newborn baby, slimy and palpitating, emerges from the womb of its dead mother. None of which comes as much of a surprise from the maker of A History of Violence —…
Blue Mooney
Chappelle’s Show vet Paul Mooney returns to Cleveland this weekend, and things have changed since the last time he was in town. For one thing, Michael Richards’ infamous onstage n-word rant a few months ago prompted Mooney — who created and portrayed Chappelle’s popular Negrodamus character — to omit the epithet from his repertoire. “[Richards]…
Queensrÿche
Put your umlauts in order: Longtime metal monster Queensrÿche is out treading the boards while enjoying its highest profile in years. 2007 will see the release of three titles by the Seattle stalwarts. First came the Mindcrime at the Moore DVD, a hometown performance (including onstage actors) of the band’s cult concept albums, Operation Mindcrime…
Metal Guru
With a frizzy gray mane and a 27-year-old tee from Sabbath’s Dio years, Bill Peters has to bleed pure heavy metal. If I jabbed a fork into this dude’s chest, I’d probably hit copper ribs, iron lungs, and a huge heart made of cobalt. Of course, disemboweling Bill Peters is unthinkable. We’ve only known each…
Growing Up
If you want to see the Dropkick Murphys in concert, you have two weeks to do so. Then you’ll have to wait a whole month before Boston’s best Celtic punks resume the tour in support of their latest CD, The Meanest of Times — because the dedicated baseball fans don’t do October. It all stems…
The Man Show
Photographer Larry Coleman makes his local debut in Mostly Men, an exhibit now on view at Studio 11. The 30-piece collection features pics of 10 men — culled from local dance troupes — clad only in black bikini briefs and draped in fishnets. It’s to show off the feminine side of their masculinity, says Coleman.…
