Smock Hop
Susie Frazier Mueller is Mother Nature’s devoted daughter. A self-described “green artist,” she scours parched deserts, dark forests, and sandy beaches for rocks, leaves, and seashells to blend into her artwork. When she was growing up in the heart of Denver, nature meant the mountains encircling the city. But in 1992, Frazier Mueller packed up…
Band of Brothers
“Indeed, some of my most pleasurable moments on a tour occur in the struggle to secure a working payphone on a rainy night with only 10 minutes until the bus will finally and irrevocably leave my ass behind somewhere in Missouri. For it is of this stuff — an essence distilled of anxiety, exhaustion, and…
Cherry Monroe
Cherry Monroe plays the kind of pretty-boy pop rock that would typically draw the wrath of overserious music critics and the devotion of young gals with canopies over their beds. The Youngstown quintet has already been acclaimed in Seventeen magazine, and if you listen closely to the band’s latest, you can hear 1,000 teen girls…
Smoke Signals
9/17-10/2 Ensemble Theatre opens its 26th season this weekend with the Latin-spiced, Pulitzer-winning Anna in the Tropics. Artistic director Lucia Colombi says its appeal is twofold: It’s a smart, sexy story, and “The Latino population in Greater Cleveland is very culturally underserved with live-theater performance,” she says. “This is a unique offering.” Nilo Cruz’s prize-winning…
As Nasty as They Wanna Be
Need a quick and easy way to tell if you’re a total a-hole? Go check your record collection for any Moistboyz LPs. If you come across one of the band’s four discs, congratulations! You’re officially a dick. A side project of Ween’s Mickey Melchiondo (aka Dean Ween), the Moistboyz are a pointedly offensive mock rock…
Bigga Black
It’s not too late for one more summer jam, so let Bigga Black’s “Reminiscin’ (While I’m Spliffin’)” ease your transition into fall. The track bounces with a low-budget beat that works better than most expensive ones. The sticky track tells the rhymer’s story, from his days as a wasted youth on Cleveland streets to his…
Saturday Afternoon Lights
SAT 9/17 Richard Basil and Donald Hill-Eley will have one thing in common when the two coaches square off at Saturday’s Ohio Classic: Their football teams sucked last year. And with two games each under their belts, they’re winless this season. But the annual game at Browns Stadium will give one of the two black-college…
Got Your Numbers
15 60 75, aka the Numbers Band, will celebrate its 35th anniversary with a special concert Saturday, September 17, at the Kent Stage (175 East Main Street, Kent). For the show, the band’s current lineup will be joined by past members and friends, including Outlaws guitarist Freddie Salem, longtime Numbers guitarist Michael Stacey, and Anton…
Know It All
SAT 9/17 Michael Feldman isn’t the smartest man on the planet. “I just sound like I know what I’m talking about,” laughs the host of NPR’s Whad’Ya Know?, which comes to Playhouse Square on Saturday for a live broadcast. On the surface, Whad’Ya Know?, now in its 20th year, appears to be a radio quiz…
ReBirth Brass Band
For 22 years, the ReBirth Brass Band has been one of New Orleans’ musical treasures. As teenagers, its members began playing for tips on Jackson Square and Bourbon Street, before they became the band of choice for Social Aid & Pleasure Club parades. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band was ReBirth’s main inspiration, but through the…
Rock Me, Amadeus
9/16-10/21 The Amadeus script that Gordon Reinhart memorized in college 20 years ago reads nothing like the one he’s using to direct the Great Lakes Theater Festival’s latest offering. The production — which rotates shows on the same stage with As You Like It for the next six weeks — takes place in 18th-century Vienna,…
Minus the Bear
It’s just two days after the release of Minus the Bear’s latest album, Menos el Oso — Spanish for Minus the Bear — and the flame wars are in full blaze at the Seattle quintet’s website. A poke around the message boards finds plenty of the usual fan fawning, but also a handful of dissenters…
The Scene’s top DVD picks for the week of September 14.
After Sex (New Yorker Video) Ben-Hur: Four-Disc Collector’s Edition (Warner Bros.) Candlemass: The Curse of Candlemass (Navarre) Carlito’s Way: Ultimate Edition (Universal) Escaflowne: The Movie — Ultimate Edition (Bandai Entertainment) Everybody Loves Raymond: The Complete Fourth Season (HBO Home Video) Fever Pitch (20th Century Fox) Happily Ever After (Kino International) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the…
Good Shot
The first two films Andrew Niccol wrote and directed, 1997’s Gattaca and 2002’s S1m0ne, were hollow, sterile sci-fi masquerading as earnest satire: The former told of a near-future in which parents could genetically engineer perfect children; the latter proffered an actress who became the most famous and beloved movie star in Hollywood, though she existed…
Bloody Hollies
Despite the fact that a year after graduation, they look as if they have yet to ditch their Catholic school uniforms, Buffalo’s Bloody Hollies at least sound older. The band’s 2004 debut came on like a rabid wolverine, reducing “AC/DC or Ramones” debates to an apples-and-oranges thing. Most of the band’s latest, If Footmen Tire…
What Else Is New?
After Sex (New Yorker Video) Ben-Hur: Four-Disc Collector’s Edition (Warner Bros.) Candlemass: The Curse of Candlemass (Navarre) Carlito’s Way: Ultimate Edition (Universal) Escaflowne: The Movie — Ultimate Edition (Bandai Entertainment) Everybody Loves Raymond: The Complete Fourth Season (HBO Home Video) Fever Pitch (20th Century Fox) Happily Ever After (Kino International) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the…
Death Warmed Over
If you’re a character in a movie and the rain is coming down so heavily that you cannot see out of your car’s windshield, for the love of God, don’t drive! Truck drivers will assume that honking their horns provides ample warning before plowing into you and knocking you into a coma — or maybe…
Acid Mothers Temple
One song. Fifty-two minutes. Five Japanese dudes. A pagoda full of dope. Acid Mothers Temple’s latest, Ioa Chant, a tribute to the late Pierre Moerlen of Gong, makes sense: Guitarist Kawabata Makoto not only played on Gong’s Acid Motherhood, but he doses this disc with the same cartoonish, hallucinogenic prog. As a eulogy, it’s kind…
New releases available this week
Da Ali G Show: Da Compleet Second Seazon (HBO Home Video) Sacha Baron Cohen’s inching closer to Tom Green territory; come this time next year, his HBO show is likely to be on the pop-culture junk pile. Which isn’t to say this double-disc set doesn’t hold up — it’s just wearing thin, as evidenced by…
Southern Discomfort
Like hundreds of creative southerners before them, Phil Morrison and Angus MacLachlan have Thomas Wolfe in their bones. The media notes for Morrison’s first feature, Junebug, don’t mention Wolfe, and the 37-year-old NYU Film School graduate makes a point of distinguishing between literary inspiration and what he, like Paul Schrader, calls “transcendental” film style. Nonetheless,…
Lucero
There’s a darkness on the edge of Lucero’s town. The foursome comes from Memphis, which feels a million miles away from the golden smile of Nashville — at least, in light of a defiantly titled new album, Nobody’s Darlings. On the disc, Lucero works solidly in the Uncle Tupelo tradition, dancing around the nexus of…
Shooting Salah
On June 28, the city of Baghdad awoke to a deceitful calm. The bulbul bird’s song replaced the drone of morning prayer as men crowded into cafés to sip Turkish coffee, the sun hanging hot behind a shroud of smog and swirling sand. In the eastern part of the city, the Mohammad Al-Kasiem highway buzzed…
A Tale of Two Bastards
Toward the end of Saraband, the uneven new film from legendary director Ingmar Bergman, a character sits down with his daughter, a taut girl who is obviously in emotional distress. “I have the feeling that some sort of discussion is coming on,” he says. Indeed it is — as it has been for the previous…
Krokus
Krokus vocalist Marc Storace ranks among the hairiest guys in music history. Not only did he once sport a frizzy ‘fro that gave his head the circumference of a monster-truck tire, but he also boasts full-body fur coverage, exposed in numerous open-chest outfits, making him the original Grizzly Man. Because of its memorably hirsute frontman,…
Slacking for Justice
When the Securities and Exchange Commission criticized Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro for blowing off its warning that the state was paying inflated brokerage fees on its investments, he defended himself by claiming a staffer conducted a “thorough review of investment information.” But last week, a public-records request forced Petro to reveal his definition of…
Fossil Fools
Just as shellfish have unique effects on every digestive system, each person has his own response to dark comedies about fractured families made up of determinedly zany individuals. These theatrical exercises have been the rage for years, but it’s incumbent upon a contemporary playwright to contribute something more than a gift for conjuring combinations of…
End of Summer Luau
Management at Liquid can’t promise that we won’t have any more 85-degree days after the Third Annual End of Summer Luau, but it’s always a little cooler by the lake. The luau’s festivities include live reggae from Carlos Jones and the PLUS Band and an end-of-season barbecue with chicken, shrimp, and — if you’re in…
Sex Thief
Renee clutches a creased black-and-white mug shot in the dim light of a suburban diner. The 43-year-old strokes her strawberry-blond ponytail as she surveys the scrawny Vietnamese man in the photo. She nods recognition at his deer-in-the-headlights eyes, flared nostrils, and pursed lips. “He looks just the same,” she says. “But I look pretty much…
On Stage
Dark Room — The conventional image we have of playwrights and poets is of lonely souls slaving away in a poorly lit basement. Well, you’ve got the location and the illumination right, but everything else about the Dark Room project is much cheerier. Sponsored by the Cleveland Theater Collective, it’s a once-a-month workshop/cabaret for writers…
Hardcore Homecoming
The late, great ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) took professional wrestling to new, adrenalized heights as its grapplers endured unprecedented punishment in a parade of wrasslin’s three B’s: blood, broken tables, and barbed wire. Hardcore Homecoming isn’t exactly an ECW reunion, but that’s a mere technicality when the night’s roster features E-C-Dub greats, including Sabu, Raven,…
Judging Triozzi
It’s the drinking hour, 2 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon, but Robert Triozzi doesn’t want a shot. You eye him suspiciously; he’s obviously not your normal judge. We’re at the Union Club, the manly joint at 26th and St. Clair, not to be confused with the daintier place of the same name, where you usually…
On View
NEW Beautiful Dreamer — Romanticism is alive and well in the contemporary art featured in this huge exhibition. Filled with the sensual, mysterious, and playful — along with plenty of artsy mumbo-jumbo — Beautiful Dreamer demonstrates that intellectual trends haven’t quashed imagination and emotion. Jonathan Feldschuh may be the biggest daydreamer of the bunch. His…
North Mississippi Allstars
For 2003’s Polaris, hill-country boogie monsters the North Mississippi Allstars tried modern rock, but the results weren’t nearly as satisfying as the trio’s hypnotic hoodoo jams, their sonic signature. Now it’s back-to-roots time, with a little help from their friends. Lucinda Williams and North Mississippi singer-guitarist Luther Dickinson exchange tangy vocal lines on the chugging…
Great Scots!
BOOK: Belle and Sebastian: Just a Modern Rock Story: Scottish writer Paul Whitelaw’s bio of the twee Glasgow cult band offers a definitive portrait of the mysterious, media-shy indie popsters. Discover why the moody kids on The OC and Gilmore Girls are so enamored. MOVIE: Just Like Heaven: Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo elevate this…
The Well-Seasoned Bistro
Sooner or later, all but the most superficial suitors come to realize that potential paramours exist in at least a few different flavors. And while the stunning hunk with the brilliant smile may hog the attention, his quiet, spotlight-shunning cousin can be a wellspring of sweet surprises. Sometimes it’s like that with restaurants too. There…
Sigur Rós
Scandinavian orchestral-rock group Sigur Rós should be one of the most reviled acts on the pop landscape: Its songs typically last eight minutes, it titles albums with symbols, singer Jon Thor Birgisson makes up his own words, and, last but certainly not least, it’s a Scandinavian orchestral-rock group. Yet nobody else making records today sounds…
Not Fair to Working Girls
Not Fair to Working Girls Hookers are up-front about screwing you: I liked the article [“Little Brown Man,” September 7]. It gave me hope that maybe a decent person will someday be in a leadership position in state government. My one objection is to comparing our state leaders to prostitutes. As a state employee for…
Island Getaway
Just when the proliferation of “quick-serve” pit stops had convinced us that elegance has been expunged from the midday meal, along comes Isola Bella, a “beautiful island” of fanciful indulgences, nestled since April inside the Atrium Shops at Eton: Chagrin Boulevard (28699 Chagrin Boulevard, Woodmere, 216-464-7500). One part exclusive boutique (carrying one-of-a-kind jewelry, handbags, glassware,…
Eliza Gilkyson
Although Eliza Gilkyson has been making music for more than three decades, she’s really blossomed in the past five years. On her last several albums, she’s created from a rich palette of American roots music, balancing barbed social commentary with poignant personal examination. Last year’s Land of Milk and Honey earned a Grammy nod, and…
Success and the City
Talking to Candace Bushnell on the phone is like hearing from an old friend. After all, we spent six years watching Sarah Jessica Parker play a thinly veiled version of the author on HBO’s Sex and the City. We’re not sure which came first — Bushnell’s lilting vocal mannerisms or Emmy-winner Parker’s eerily similar cadences.…
Round of Applause
Remember when “indie” meant something? When indie was more than a fashion statement or a pose struck by ‘tween pop stars ready to shuck a bubblegum image? Cast your mind back to 1989: A couple of Stockton, California kids named Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg hole up in a studio and, for $800, lay down…
Paul McCartney
Like McCartney, his 1970 solo record, Paul McCartney’s first studio album in nearly four years is largely self-created — except for being produced by Nigel Godrich, who has polished the likes of Radiohead, Travis, and Beck. Counter to its title, Chaos and Creation is casual and comforting, and goes down smooth, with echoes of “Blackbird”…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, September 15 Scott H. Biram howls, yodels, and shrieks like a madman on his latest album, The Dirty Old One Man Band. He’s a rough, rowdy, and proud hillbilly — a singer-songwriter who prefers his blues and country music spiked with a shot of late-night fervor. He’s also a tough guy. A couple years…
Scared Straight
Alkaline Trio’s latest album, Crimson, sounds crystalline, from its minor-key piano introduction to its nuanced closing ballad. The band’s recent live sets have exhibited unprecedented energy, its newly animated stage presence punctuating the pop-punk hooks. To some longtime listeners, who have weathered cloudy recordings and spotty shows, these are welcome developments, as if an amiable…
Coheed and Cambria
There’s good reason for article after article to describe Coheed and Cambria as “the emo Rush.” With 2003’s In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, the New York quartet straddled two divergent demographics to strike gold, drawing big crowds at the Warped Tour and attracting increasing numbers of classic-rock fans to its headlining shows. Whether…
