Just when you think LA-based band The Melvins cannot create a new twist to their power metal punk sound, it births The Bride Screamed Murder. The new release, which hits the streets June 1, is the band’s 18th studio release (the eighth from Mike Patton’s Ipecac Records). To promote the new release, The Melvins hit the road the same day as a part of its 27-city tour which stops at The Grog Shop June 23. Singer/guitarist Buzz, with his trademark frizzy graying afro (think Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons), describes the latest release as having “the musical sensibilities of Captain...
Patrick Carney does not take the success of The Black Keys lightly. On the surface, it appears that everything the 30-year-old drummer and his band mate, singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach, touch turns to gold. The Akron twosome, which has put Rubber City back on the musical map, has a do-it-yourself, blue-collar work ethic and they have become a true rock success story. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, the two have overcome music’s seamy business side. It is an industry which mass produces cookie-cutter bands and carefully markets them, where form is more important than conte...
There appears to be a movement afoot of many acts from the ‘80s new wave scene attempting to revive their careers. However, Echo and the Bunnymen is not one of them. The Liverpool-natives never went away. This past Thursday, the band led by enigmatic, emotive lead singer Ian McCullough, the Bunnymen hit Cleveland’s House of Blues and rocked the house with a 90-minute, 18-song sampling of songs from its storied catalog. Gone is the mysterious presence of dry ice and McCullough’s pointed quaff, but in its place was an Echo and the Bunnymen stripped down, playing through darken...
Being a Cirque du Soleil newbie has more pluses than minuses. I had never witnessed the live acrobatic, body-bending, twisting, high-flying artistry of the world-famous touring Canadian theatric troupe live before, I was curious. After all, I had only seen them like many on television. Are all the productions that awe-inspiring and eye-popping as they are on the screen? Yes. That was what I determined after witnessing the opening night at Cleveland’s Wolstein Center last week of Cirque’s Alegria spectacular. For Cirque, the show is old hat. Alegria, which means joy or jubil...
One-time purveyors of the ‘80s new wave gloom and doom set, Echo and the Bunnymen have always ceased to be just another band content with living in the past. They write about it and perform it with a new verve. Everything old is new again, in a sense. The Liverpool lads who began nearly 33 years ago, have been center stage in the world of alternative music and then have disappeared without a whimper. Whatever the case may be, they are slowly working their way back to the middle. And that middle includes embarking on a 14-city US tour to promote their eleventh studio album Fountain,...
The road to the NBA Finals for the Cleveland Cavaliers is firmly in the hands of ….Lebron James. Ok, so it was not a hard one to figure out. However, over the course of the past week, in an effort to save the Cavs star from potential injury, Mike Brown has decided to error on the side of caution, and the team going James-less, despite good efforts, lost to Chicago, Atlanta and in its regular season finale, fan appreciation day, to Orlando. Wise decision or not, only the outcome of the Cavs playoff run will tell. A season-ending injury to Toronto’s Chris Bosh during the Cavs' 1...
The year was 1978 and the Akron music scene was as burnt out as an old set of Goodyear radials. The sound of the time was album-oriented rock (AOR). Guitars were being dropped and Akron had few venues for new bands, let alone have a want for a new sound. Or so we thought. Downtown Akron was, at best, a place where the in-crowd dare not tread once the sun went down. It was dire, desolate and in bad shape. Then, like a punk phoenix rising out of the ashes of this deteriorated, once booming industrial Midwest tire town, it came. The band that would breathe a raw, punk breath, y...
The critically-acclaimed Cirque du Soleil touring production of Alegría is coming to northeast Ohio next month for eight awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, performances. Cleveland’s Wolstein Center will host the acrobatic, synchronized, death-defying and artistic magical performance of this one-of-a-kind touring institution, which has already been marveled at by more than 10 million people worldwide since the show debuted in 1994. Alegria, which is Spanish for joy and jubilation, features an international cast of 55 performers and musicians from 15 countries and showcases breathtaking a...
Young and old were smiling when Irish Punk band Flogging Molly came to town at the Cleveland House of Blues, March 5. Though St. Patrick’s Day is still a few weeks away this crowd was ready to get down with their inner shamrock. The LA seven-piece hit the stage before a sold-out crowd. The throngs responded by dancing and singing along to tunes of their favorite Celtic Punk sons and daughter, who were in town on the final leg of their Green 17 American tour. An Irish sea of fans replete in black and green t-shirts, caps on their heads and Guinness in their hands cheered and chant...
NOW: Henry Rollins turned 49 in February … but the only sign that he is edging closer to the half-century mark is his graying short-cropped head. While many original punk performers have either died, failed at comebacks or become parodies of themselves, the former lead singer from seminal hard core punk band Black Flag is still on his game. He is still as sharp as a knife and he could still kick most people’s asses. But these days he wouldn’t do that, unless seriously provoked. Therein lies the difference. “As a younger person, there’s so much emotional sturm und dra...
