Tews Company
9/23-9/24 Jim Tews will skewer just about any person, place, or thing for a laugh at the 10-comedian Stand-Up Showcase this weekend. From the 1985 Plymouth Reliant he drives to the Army recruiters who constantly call, nothing is immune. Except politics. “I have my opinions, but I think there’s so much other stuff people relate…
Herbie Hancock
Possibilities is not a jazz album. Herbie Hancock, one of America’s finest jazz pianists, took pains to concoct a diverse, modern pop album with world-music overtones and jazz undertones. Forgoing “piecemeal” recording (e.g., Sinatra’s Duets discs), Hancock went around the globe for live collaborations with each of this album’s many guest stars, using only his…
New releases available this week
Desperate Housewives: The Complete First Season (Buena Vista) ABC’s juggernaut drama is made up mostly of elements that have trickled down from HBO: black humor, self-awareness, the radical notion that women over 30 can arouse the national libido. The bonus deleted scenes don’t add much to the story, and behind-the-scenes features on costume design and…
Retro Fits
It would take a critic more churlish than this one to sneer and bare chickenlike talons at Roll Bounce, a formulaic crowd-pleaser that hits familiar marks, but does so well enough that it’s hard to fault anyone involved. The retro-’70s vibe seems kind of obvious, and the irritating Mike Epps, who expends a lot of…
Tut
Cleveland MC Tut has some words of wisdom for those who purchase his new CD. “My advice to U is hop on my sack right now cuz my dik is standin room only already,” Tut brags in the liner notes to The Sound, a gritty five-song EP that begins to justify his boasts. Possessing a…
Scene‘s top DVD picks for the week of September 20.
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (Buena Vista) Anthrax Anthrology: No Hit Wonders (Sanctuary) The Batman: Season 1, Volume 2 (Warner Bros.) Battlestar Galactica: Season One (Universal) Born Into Brothels (ThinkFilm) Brothers (Universal) Cowards Bend the Knee (Zeitgeist) Divan (Zeitgeist) It’s All Gone Pete Tong (Columbia/Tristar) James Dean: Forever Young (Warner Bros.) The…
Love in Gloom
By conservative estimate, Tim Burton stands to rake in half a billion dollars at the box office this year, thanks to a childlike chocolate maker in mauve rubber gloves and, now, to a lively dead girl with marriage on her mind and the timid schlub who falls under her spell. As inventive as it is…
Girth
Like many a Pantera fan, Girth singer Dan Potter wants to let you know that he too is broken. But where many heshers are permanently hobbled by their fixation on the Cowboys From Hell — and a lot of them do go on to make pretty good records — Potter steps it up and fixes…
Cupid’s Headhunter
They stare out from the fingerprint-smudged pages of hefty binders — hundreds of Orthodox Jewish girls, all single, their eyes pleading, hopeful, needy. A 21-year-old Yeshiva student, the oldest of nine children, worries that she’ll wind up an old maid. A 24-year-old office worker tries not to panic, even though she still hasn’t found a…
Crash Landing
Flightplan, starring Jodie Foster as a mother who’s lost either her daughter or her mind during a flight from Berlin to New York, is a wonderful movie for about an hour — a moving, gripping rumination on loss, grief, and sanity. It works primarily because of its star, whose delicate, fragile face fills the wide…
Back in Touch
Touch Nightclub has reopened, with new proprietors. The popular Ohio City club, renowned for its laid-back vibe, diverse crowd, and underground dance music, closed in 2003. “Since Touch closed, there’s been a major void in the city’s nightlife,” says Touch promoter Jude Goergen, aka DJ Jugoe. “If people want to dance, they have to go…
Forgive and Forget?
Kelly Edwards could be a model for reformed felons. The single mother is a machine operator at Interlake Stamping and studies medical-lab technology at Tri-C. Her goal is to someday become a crime-scene investigator and earn enough to send her six-year-old son to private school. In the meantime, she pays $500 a month for a…
Art of Rebellion
A rich family returns to its nice home after a vacation, but something isn’t quite right. The place has been . . . burgled? No, not quite. The stereo that’s missing — it’s in the fridge. The chairs have been stacked into a tower. And there’s a note attached: “Your days of plenty are numbered.”…
The Proclaimers
Contrary to the VH1 version of history, Scottish twins Craig and Charlie Reid are not some offbeat one-hit wonders. While their singles haven’t caught on the way their breakout hit, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” did, every one of their six Proclaimers albums contains tracks just as catchy and literate. Their latest, the elegantly produced…
Thrill in the ‘Ville
Everything is quiet now. An assistant coach has closed the heavy locker-room door. The stadium’s cluttered, happy soundtrack has been sucked away, replaced by the soft settling of kneepads on the cement floor. These boys, they don’t like the quiet. They like boom-box bass lines banging off rusty lockers. The thwack of helmet meeting helmet,…
Better Mood
Cineastes swooned over Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai’s 2000 film In the Mood for Love, a slow-as-molasses melodrama about two tediously formal people whose spouses are having an affair with one another. Thrown together by circumstances, they find themselves falling in love but, determined not to emulate their cheating partners, decide to keep the…
New Salem Witch Hunters 20th-Anniversary Show
If you weren’t around to witness the New Salem Witch Hunters’ early days, you might find it tough to gauge the band’s import beyond the good-time rock-and-roll you’ll get at the band’s upcoming 20th-anniversary show. But back in 1986, the Witch Hunters were more than Cleveland’s entry into the then-burgeoning 1960s garage-rock revival — the…
Victims Calling
While we’d prefer that Scene not induce vomiting, it’s hard to blame Anna. After reading last week’s cover story on Hy Doan [“Sex Thief,” September 14], who’s wiggled out of six rape cases over the past 25 years, she promptly lost her supper. Anna, it seems, is yet another victim. “I had no idea that…
Note Perfect
If your mortal enemy were in the same profession as you, chances are you’d wish him every failure imaginable, so that you could wallow in all his attendant misery. The Germans call it schadenfreude, and this kind of malicious gloating can certainly have its piquant moments of pleasure. But Peter Shaffer, author of Amadeus, now…
Four Tet
Four Tet’s Everything Ecstatic is the latest entry in the annals of kitchen-sink electronica, an ever-expanding genre that cuts and pastes together bits of ’60s psych, jazz fusion, hip-hop, folk, and all points in between. Devoid of normal song structure or the usual sonic reference points, Ecstatic recalls the cluttered mosaics of abstract expressionism. From…
Oh, Baby, Baby
BOOK: Britney’s Baby Book — This “unauthorized and untrue” souvenir from Britney Spears’ pregnancy — speckled with cigarette butts and Cheese Nips — chronicles the erstwhile pop princess’ route to delivery last week. On board: a baby shower at Applebee’s. CD: The Craft — Positive-thought hip-hop duo Blackalicious’ first album in three years blends some…
Capital Pee
What sort of thought process is required to see a regional disaster and immediately begin computing the dollars that can be wrenched from the public coffers? In the gulf states, Halliburton and other corporate profiteers of various stripes are leaning on legislators to get their hands on the $200 billion that will be spent in…
Beck
Once upon a time, the greatest rock-and-rollers seemed capable of returning to their trademark styles as to a fountain of youth — which is exactly what Johnny Cash did when he performed a folk-to-rockabilly set in a small club at the South by Southwest music festival in 1994, introducing his American Recordings rebirth to the…
Not Funny
Not Funny Somebody misplaced the PC meter again: Terms like “Uncle Tom” and “token Negro” used to describe Secretary of State Ken Blackwell are not only offensive, but reveal the ignorance of the so-called “loyal opposition” and its media allies, i.e., Scene [First Punch, September 7]. Voter fraud? Prove it! I’m sure if it could…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Anna in the Tropics — Nilo Cruz’s play, about workers in a Florida cigar factory, circa 1929, has much to recommend it, including a Pulitzer Prize. But this production by Ensemble Theatre is too loosely performed to capture the essential magic in the script. The central conceit is that the plant’s illiterate cigar-rollers are made…
Anthrax
When Anthrax released 2003’s We’ve Come for You All, its first new studio album in five years, metalheads were justifiably pleased. It was the band’s strongest disc since its first with vocalist John Bush, 1993’s Sound of White Noise. Since then, though, Anthrax has morphed into a weird, time-warped version of itself, issuing two live…
Foxy Lady
Growing up, Martha Southgate was forbidden to watch movies like Superfly and Coffy. “And I’m still not a fan of blaxploitation films,” says the 44-year-old writer. “I think they’re really amazing historical documents, but I don’t love them like Quentin Tarantino does.” Odd, then, that Southgate’s second novel, Third Girl From the Left, revolves around…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Drawn to Cleveland — More than a tribute to a generous museum patron or to the city, this group exhibition feels like a reunion. Fourteen nationally recognized artists are represented here through various works on paper. Each is connected to Cleveland, and many have shown at MOCA previously, but beyond that common experience, they’ve…
The Willowz
Lots of bands have gotten their big break by having their music used in films. But seeing the Willowz live, it’s obvious that — regardless of the group’s inclusion on the soundtrack to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — the quartet doesn’t need visions of Kirsten Dunst in her underwear to be compelling. Formed…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, September 22 Severance Hall celebrates its 75th birthday this year, and house band the Cleveland Orchestra has several special events lined up over the next eight months (including a super-huge gala concert in June). This weekend’s season opener finds conductor Franz Welser-Möst behind the podium for a program filled with Brahms (“Academic Festival” Overture),…
Old World, New Look
“Do you think you have to be Italian to get this?” my companion wondered aloud as we set about demolishing an ample antipasto platter at downtown’s Vivo one recent evening. One paisano to another, her question called for a pithy response. But alas — bread in one hand, a curl of parmesan in the other,…
iPod Night
You’ve been to open-mic night, you’ve done the karaoke thing, and you even gave open turntables a try. Still itching to be a DJ? Now you can move the crowd — or give it a try, at least — at iPod Night. The length of time each new mixmaster gets will depend on the number…
The Dead Can Dance
As Lar Lubovitch pieced together the dance moves for “Recordare,” the veteran choreographer threw in every high kick and suspended leap in his arsenal. But he’ll still fidget in his seat when the José Limón Dance Company premieres the work at Playhouse Square this weekend. It’s not that he thinks the dancers can’t pull off…
Roma on the Cheap
Hungry, short on cash, and sick and tired of hanging around the shanty? In olden times, that scenario called for an impromptu dinner visit with the parental units; these days, Mom and Dad are more likely to be spending your inheritance on greens fees and one-armed bandits than roasting a pig in case you drop…
Eric Wilson CD-release party, at Spitboxers Reloaded
After 20 years in the game as a producer and rhymer, Eric Wilson makes his solo debut with The Warm Up. Formerly of the gangsta-oriented Bar-Nun group in the late ’90s, Wilson has matured, more recently producing cuts for Midwest Mafia and Jay-Kool. His first disc charts his steps toward a more conscious style, relates…
Naked Truth
SUN 9/25 Rich Merritt didn’t merely come out of the closet. The former fundamentalist and Marine officer announced his homosexuality in The New York Times. Oh yeah, he also did some gay porn. It’s all detailed in his memoir, Secrets of a Gay Marine Porn Star. Because of his strict religious upbringing, Merritt “wasn’t allowed…
New-School Hollywood
Famed producer Rick Rubin, the man responsible for signing the now über-successful System of a Down, recently told the L.A. Times that guitarist-songwriter-vocalist-mastermind Daron Malakian is “a true artist.” Malakian, said Rubin, “doesn’t really live in the world. He lives in a bubble, and the bubble is filled with music. All he does is listen…
The Polysics
The Polysics’ sound becomes obvious with one glance at the pictures in the liner notes of the band’s latest, a compilation of previous singles and LP tracks. Four youths stand fascist-stiff in front of DayGlo backgrounds, staring into the unknown future, clothed in nuclear-blast protective goggles and matching industrial jumpsuits. The synthesizers practically blare before…
Chairmen of the Boards
SAT 9/24 Dozens of skateboarders will grind, carve, and ollie for cash prizes on Saturday at the second annual Evolution Skate Contest in Hudson. “Kids get something out of the simplicity of the sport, the creativity of it,” says Laura Torchia, co-owner of Evolution Skate Park in Canton. “On a skateboard, you can goof off…
Back in Black
The tired, thirtysomething punk-rocker believed his musical career was over. After chasing his dreams for so many years, he was finally ready to give up — maybe even get a real job. Then everything changed. “When I joined Interpol, I was past 30 already,” says drummer Sam Fogarino, the New York City band’s oldest member…
Against Me!
Against Me! albums contain enough shouted slogans, passionately strummed acoustic guitars, and prominent populist elements to stock an all-day political rally. Like such marathon affairs, its records are alternately inspiring and tedious. Singer Tom Gabel’s strident calls to arms will mobilize the sort of listeners who believe that broadcasting their beliefs on their bumpers is…
Livin’ la Vida Loca
FRI 9/23 When Carmelita Peñana migrated from Mexico to Cleveland two decades ago, she promised herself that she would teach her homeland’s traditions to her children. Now teenagers, her three daughters will get a refresher course at La Gran Fiesta. “I don’t want my kids to forget their ancestry,” says Peñana. “I pray they’ll tell…
King of Gnarz
T.Raumschmiere’s new album, Blitzkrieg Pop, is rockin’ shuffletechno from the new king of gnarz. It’s sputterin’ electropunk from the undisputed sultan of crunchambient. It’s shriekin’ industrialfright from the knight errant of doomstomp. These statements go quite a way toward describing what Berlin-based producer-malcontent T. Raumschmiere (born Marco Haas) does for a living. Not that they…
Supergrass
Once an irresistibly goofy Britpop trio with ungainly muttonchop sideburns, Supergrass has reached a point of maturity where it finally seems more interested in studying the menu than in making goo-goo eyes at the waitress. On their fifth full-length, Oxford’s retro-groovers have outgrown monosyllabic teen anthems to embrace the emotional complexities of middle age: disappointment,…
A comprehensive listing of Halloween events, happenings, and activities.
Bloodview Haunted House, 6477 Mill Rd., Broadview Heights, 440-526-9148, www.bloodview.com The Broadview Heights Lions Club and the Legion of Terror are celebrating the 25th anniversary of Bloodview Haunted House, which scares you for a good cause. Bloodview is open September 23-24, September 30-October 1, October 7-9, October 13-16, October 20-23, and October 26-31. Hours are…
White Flight
It was nearly an hour before Jack White tilted his cap back and revealed his deep brown eyes for the first time. The White Stripes frontman was hard to read last Wednesday night at the State Theatre. He hid beneath the brim of his black bolero hat, dropping the blinds over his pale features as…
Blackalicious
When last seen as a duo in 2002, Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab had just dropped Blazing Arrow, one of the most accomplished hip-hop albums in recent memory. An ambitious and humane collection, filled with eclectic samples, sensitive live instrumentation, and interesting guests (Ben Harper, Gil Scott-Heron), it was just the sort of thing…
