Most Popular
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An ancient Apollo statue landed in Cleveland and touched off an international outcry
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Joe Cimperman hopes to tear down his former hero, Dennis Kucinich
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Beat Down
Cleveland teachers swap stories of school violence.
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Everybody Hates Mike
The peril of coaching an icon.
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Secret Valentines Notes from C-Town Celebs
Our I-Team uncovered the private love letters of Cleveland's biggest names. You'll be shocked by what we discovered.
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$100 Bounty on That Kid (19)
Copley-Fairlawn finds a way to keep the impostors out.
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At Indie-Rock Singles Night in Cleveland, an event for hipsters lacks one key ingredient: Hipsters (15)
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Dennis Kucinich’s brave talk about working and fighting — from the safety of the officer’s tent (10)
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Beat Down (3)
Cleveland teachers swap stories of school violence.
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An ancient Apollo statue landed in Cleveland and touched off an international outcry (3)
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Crazy Talk
Miranda Lambert is a lot like any other girl with a soft spot for guns and setting exes on fire.
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The Bravery's New World
New-wave revivalists discover the power of three-chord guitar rock.
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Beer, BBQ, industry schmoozing: Rounding up SXSW 2008’s local delegates
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Keep on Truckin'
Jason Isbell finds life after the Drive-By Truckers.
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It took them 10 years, but the Sadies finally craft a country-rock classic
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In Cleveland's Ward 6, a race for a new councilman might decide Martin Sweeney’s future
03:40PM 03/10/08 -
No pressure Cleveland State Vikings, but the fate of Cleveland is in your hands against Butler
01:53PM 03/10/08 -
Kalliope Stage, in Cleveland Heights, dies, but hopes to soon rise from the grave
01:28PM 03/10/08 -
Hello, Cleveland: The Week’s Concert Calendar
01:12PM 03/10/08 -
Carl Monday’s back, and he’s not better than ever, which makes us sad
08:14AM 03/10/08
What we are writing about
- Black Sabbath
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Recent Articles By Justin F. Farrar
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It took them 10 years, but the Sadies finally craft a country-rock classic
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Blossom Toes
We Are Ever So Clean/If Only for a Moment (Sunbeam)
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Weener
Saturday, December 22, at the Jigsaw, Parma.
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The Howling Hex
XI (Drag City)
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Flying Burrito Bros.
Gram Parsons Archives Volume One: The Flying Burrito Bros. Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 (Amoeba)
National Features
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Houston Press
"It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"
For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.
By Chris Vogel -
SF Weekly
The Candidate
Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
By Matt Smith -
The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.
By Nadia Pflaum -
Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
Over the past 20 years Scotland has treated us to some of the very best power pop and indie jangle known to man. The Pastels, Vaselines, and Teenage Fanclub all hail from the land of kilts and haggis. You can add the Pearlfishers to that list. Since 1989, singer-songwriter David Scott and his ever-rotating backing band have crafted five albums full of Beach Boys-inspired twee. In the process, Scott's songcraft has evolved from lo-fi interpretation of classic '60s pop to basically the real thing. That's quite a development in an era when most pop composers who dream of being Brian Wilson — from the Shins' James Mercer to Kurt Heasley of the Lilys — can't shake the lingering curse of punk: amateurish songwriting and ham-fisted musicianship.
On the ornate Up With the Larks, Scott outdoes his anachronistic self. With production help from Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake, he peels away 40 years of pop history, picking up where Wilson and Van Dyke Parks left off. Both "With You on My Mind" and "The Umbrellas of Shibuya" are rays of California sunshine warming the inner corridors of Tin Pan Alley. Still, all the oboes, strings, airy harmonies, and delicately tickled ivories can get a bit too precious. "Fighting Fire With Flowers" and "Blue Riders on the Range" sound like straight-up inspirational music from alt-Christian dork Michael W. Smith. Then again, Brian Wilson thought he was writing teenage symphonies to God.
