Category Archives: Cleveland

Unreleased Bill Fox song soundtracks Occupy Wall Street

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Last year, at a rare in-store performance at Lost Weekend Records, Cleveland’s Bill Fox played a tune called “Men Who are Guilty of Crimes.” I don’t know when he wrote it, but it felt particularly timely last summer, given that the cleanup of the BP oil spill was ongoing and the song implored Congress to “put the blame on BP.”

Ex-Clevelander Michael Nigro realized the song’s 2011 potential as the anthem for the Occupy Wall Street movement and tracked down a recording of the unreleased tune to soundtrack an OWS video montage called “Faces, Signs and Sentiments at Occupy Wall Street.” Check it out, above. (HT: I Rock Cleveland.)

Bill Fox was slated to play the Megacity Music Marathon last month at Woodlands Tavern but couldn’t make it. Fortunately, he’s coming back to town Nov. 5 for a show at Cafe Bourbon St., along with two acoustic sets from Jim McKeivier and Marcy Mays (doors at 9pm, $6).

“Men Who Are Guilty of Crimes” lyrics: Continue reading

MP3: Ray Jr. “Sloppy” RMX (Feat. Machine Gun Kelly & Krayzie Bone)

MP3: Ray Jr. ft. Machine Gun Kelly and Krayzie Bone – Sloppy Rmx (Dirty)

Cleveland’s Ray Jr. adds Bad Boy’s MGK and Bone Thug’s Krayzie Bone to his Ohio Club hit Sloppy. This is like a Cleveland “Flava in Your Ear” or something.

Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star Fall Tour Dates 2011

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If you were like me and missed Rock the Bells this year then this next announcement will make you really happy.

Guerilla Union and House of Blues have partnered to send Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star on a Rock the Bells tour where they rock their 1998 ground-breaking self-titled debut album.

If you live in Ohio then be stoked on the Cleveland and Cinci dates.

BLACK STAR Tour Dates
09.21 Detroit, MI – St Andrews
09.22 Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
09.23 Chicago, IL – House of Blues
09.27 Miami Beach, FL – Fillmore
09.28 Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
10.05 New York, NY – Irving Plaza
10.06 Los Angeles, CA – House of Blues
10.29 Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
11.03 Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
11.04 Charlotte, NC – Fillmore
11.05 Cincinnati, OH – Bogart’s
11.11 Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room

Ohio Film + Music Fest Oct. 6-9 in Columbus: Heartless Bastards, RJD2, New Bomb Turks, Blueprint, Cloud Nothings, more

The Ohio Film + Music Festival is a brand-new “curated, 4-day film and music event, exhibiting Ohio native directors, bands and musicians,” and the first round of confirmations alone is reason enough to get excited. So far the inaugural lineup looks like this:

Bands:
Heartless Bastards
RJD2
Blueprint
New Bomb Turks
Main St. Gospel
Cloud Nothings
R. Ring (feat. Kelley Deal)
Buffalo Killers
Eye

Films:
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar + Julia Reichert)
True Nature (Patrick Steele)
Stranger than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)
4,192: The Crowning of the Hit King (Terry Lukemire)
45365 (Ross Bros)
Deadbeat At Dawn (Jim Van Bebber)
North Dixie Drive (Eric Mahoney)
Double-Stop (Roger + Gerald Sindell)
Outside In (Todd Volkmer)

Eric Mahoney and Mr. Scott Johnson promise additional lineup announcements, ticket info and more details soon. Keep up with OFMF on Facebook and Twitter.

Interview/Review: Efterklang

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I traveled to Cleveland this past Thursday to catch Danish band Efterklang at the Beachland Tavern. This was my third time seeing them, but my first outside of a festival setting. Though I’ve seen them in Austin and Wales, this Cleveland show took the cake. I can honestly say there was no where else I would have rather been after being treated like I was that night.

Though the room was just over half full and the Tavern is the smaller of the two Beachland venues, these guys may as well have been playing to thousands in their homeland. There was no pretentiousness, not a stitch of awkwardness, just an overwhelming sense of appreciation from the musicians and the crowd. Singer Casper Clausen and bassist Rasmus Stolberg animated the stage throughout the entire set and seemed to never tire of smiling. While they somehow fit seven people (and their equipment) on stage, the richness of the music made it sound like a dozen more were behind them. There is such a difference in seeing a band that truly loves playing music for people and one that does nothing to connect with their audience. (The crowd was even asked to start up a spontaneous “Happy Birthday” for Rasmus half way through the set.)

Efterklang is the real deal. They’re technical, they’re melodic… There’s something for everyone. I was able to sit down with Casper after the show and pick his brain a bit.

You began your own label (Rumraket) in 2000 and released your music from it in the beginning. Is this something you felt you had to do or is it how you wanted to go about distributing your music?
We just really liked the feeling of doing everything. We recorded it and then were able to put this Rumraket label on it and it made us feel good to know we had done it all.
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Video: The Mice (live in Cleveland, 1988)

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Recorded on June 4, 1988 at Mather Courtyard on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio, power-pop legends THE MICE perform two songs that began their appearance on the WRUW radio series LIVE FROM CLEVELAND.

Live MP3s: Bill Fox at the Treehouse

Bill Fox at the Treehouse, Columbus OH, 7-24-10
Bill Fox at the Treehouse, Columbus OH 7-24-10

MP3: Bill Fox – Lonesome Pine (live)
MP3: Bill Fox – Song of a Drunken Nightingale (live)
MP3: Bill Fox – Dixie Darling (live)

For Columbus folks who missed out on the Bill Fox show at the Treehouse last Saturday, or if you were there and just want to relive, it, the technologically talented Scott Johnson managed to record a few songs from the set. Enjoy.

In other Fox news… a pdf of that legend-furthering Believer piece by Joe Hagan can now be downloaded at Hagan’s website here. Fox had previously requested it not be on the Internet. In the piece, you’ll see Hagan reference an archive of a radio show with Fox. I dug around and found it here. It’s a gem. On a 1998 episode of KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic hosted by Nic Harcourt, you can hear Fox play a few untitled and/or unreleased songs (like “Ode to Charlie Rose”), “Pastures of Plenty” by Woody Guthrie, “My Baby Crying” off Transit Byzantium and “Junked Lot Serenade” off Shelter from the Smoke.

Ohio Graffiti Not in Ohio + MP3s of Huey, Lil Wayne, Jayz, Rick Ross, Paul Wall, Raekwon, Jay Electronica,Yelawolf

MP3:Huey f Lil Wayne Another Planet
MP3:Rick Ross – Free Mason (Feat. Jay-Z & John Legend)
MP3:Paul Wall-Live It (Ft Raekwon Jay Electronica Yelawolf)

Ohio Graffiti writers in Oakland, Asia, Erie Pa + More.
Rick Ross and Jayz address Freemason rumors. I’m way into Rick Ross’ verse. Shit he was already a prison guard, and took his name from the drug kingpen that sold crack unknowlingly for the CIA to help fund the contras.
Why not be a free mason?
Jay-z uses the song to call people that thought he was an operative of Satan morons.

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MP3:Fly Union ft Chip the Ripper-“Tell Her”


MP3:Fly Union Tell Her (feat. Chip Tha Ripper)

Ohio all-star on the come up cut. Columbus’ Fly dot U teams up with Thieveland weedsmoker Chip the Ripper. Their advice to you? When talking to a young lady:tell her what she wants to hear.
This song advocating presenting an ideal image of yourself is off Fly Union’s Value Pack 5.
Other songs on Value Pack 5
-“We Out” which the hook boasts that “they make ladies say ho, and the hoes say owww” and they don’t give a shit if hardlegs like their music. Jerraeu also realistically flips Project Pat with Snoop .”She don’t want to be saved. Good cause I’m no hero. You don’t love me.You love my potential”
-“Go Dumb” is about having sex while weeded
-“Tonight” Is a song about determination to be successful and reps Columbus pretty hard. Aside from that The quotable on this one is “My pockets are eco-friendly. Go Green.”
-“Winter Summer”- Has a salsa summer vibe. You know, having a buzz looking for a breezy.

Download: Fly Union’s Value Pack 5

Overlooked in Ohio: Vol 5 (Prisonshake)

Editor’s note: “Overlooked in Ohio” is a feature in which we ask an Ohio-based artist/music enthusiast to tell us about a band or bands from the state of Ohio (past or present) that deserve some love. Our fifth installment comes courtesy of Eric Davidson — New Bomb Turks singer, rock scribe and now real-deal author. His new book We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001 is out now. He’ll read from it in Columbus at the Wexner Center on July 9, the night before the Turks take the stage with the Gibson Bros (featured in the book) at the Parking Lot Blowout. (Full Davidson bio at bottom.)

MP3: Prisonshake – It’s A Ron Kinda World (1991, from 7″ on Estrus; original lineup)

MP3: Prisonshake – Irene (1993, from The Roaring Third)

Now I dig that this section of the Donewaiting landscape is meant to extol the virtues of a criminally forgotten Ohio-based band. So to quickly hit that aim, Prisonshake were great, and you should find their records. I just spent two years of my life digging up info on and extolling the virtues of something like 80-90 “forgotten” bands for my just-released first book, We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001. Though it’s a hefty tome (350+ pages), there was still TONS of stuff that I had to cut out, and that sadly included a section featuring Prisonshake, but more pointedly Prisonshake and Scat Records leader, Robert Griffin (above).

In the late 1980s, I saw Griffin sling his guitar with Prisonshake a few times before walking into my Parmatown Mall coffee shop job one day and finding him hired as my manager. This ruled, as over the course of a summer, Griffin proceeded to school me on Ethiopian blends and the Easter Monkeys. With two mixtapes (that I still have) and numerous conversations, I got a grad class in Cleveland ugh-rock history. Prisonshake created some of the better records in Clevo underground rock history, which is definitely saying something. But Griffin also went on to release loads of cool records through his label Scat, including introducing the world to Guided By Voices. As such, here’s a portion of my book that got cut (well, a wee little made it into the tome), with Griffin giving a feral dog’s eye view of Cleveland, OH gutter rock, circa late 1970s-90s:
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