Cleveland's roster of dense, bludgeoning bands is lengthy and studded with memorable entries. Metallic post-punk quartet All Dinosaurs has been carrying on that tradition for the past three years, releasing its first full-length album, Paranoid Ingenious, last year. Maintaining the momentum, it's dropping its second, Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior, this Saturday with a 9 p.m. show at the Beachland Tavern. That event also marks the release of a collaborative project, the second issue of the comic book Lake Erie Monster by prominent music poster artists John G and Jake Kelly.
While the four band members have amassed some stellar credentials over the past decade — guitarist Dave Gibian plays in Boatzz; and guitarist Bo was in the Vacancies, who were signed to Joan Jett's Blackheart Records — Gibian says they're finally coming into their own.
"With the Vacancies and Boatzz, those bands were established by the time we played with them," says Gibian. "Bo and I knew each other for 12 years. With this band, we decided to get together and make the music we wanted to make. We were going to find the right pieces personally and musically, the kind of people we wanted to be creative with and spend incredible amount of time with."
He says that this record, which they snarkily but not entirely inaccurately refer to as an "epic rock & roll masterpiece," finally embodies what All Dinosaurs wanted to be. Recorded this past spring, it's a snapshot of what the band is right now.
"Our first record was a fun record, but it was made by a band still discovering their identity," says Gibian. "Some of the songs were written before there even was a band. We wrote this record as a band, all contributing creative ideas. This time we were able to write around each other's styles."
Gibian also credits Noah Buchanan, who engineered, mixed, and mastered the project at his Lakewood-based Brainchild recording studio.
"We worked so well together," he says. "We felt like Noah knew what we were going for. The fit was perfect."
Out of the Cellar, Into the Loft
Ten years ago, Justin Markert and Rick Fike, then in their early 20s, opened the Cellar Door Coffeeshop in Madison. They started booking bands and soon had quite a little scene going. That led to the 2007 launch of Cellar Door Records, which now has three CD compilations and four other releases in its catalog.
Fike took a job in Massachusetts and moved on. But Markert recently moved into Asiatown's Loftworks Building (1667 East 40th St.), where he's opening a performance space, gallery, local music record shop, and offices. He's opening to the public at 7 p.m. this Friday. The $10 admission includes a copy of Cellar Door's latest compilation CD, which features music by 15 area artists. After that, the space, with room for 125, will be open for special events.
"We're not going to go crazy," says Markert. "There are already a million great things going on in the city. We'll do one show a month where you can see a band in big warehouse loft with a nice aesthetic and cool lights.
"I like the idea of presenting music in the forefront and not as reason to sell beer."
