Spinal Tap

"CB4" doesn't have a nice thing to say about anybody, which is what's good about it.Billed as rap's "Spinal Tap," it lacks the sophisticated humor or form of that masterpiece and all too frequently runs out of ideas into long bland stretches. But it's very, very funny when it's on, and it boasts energy to burn.Borrowing from "Spinal Tap" the device of the mock documentary, it chronicles the rise, fall and rise again of the rap group CB4, off the mean streets of Locash, Calif. These are "gangsta" rappers at their scariest: In the heavy overcoats that -- guard their bulk, their demeanor mean and sullen, their rhymes blunt and penetrating, they grind out the gangster's code of domination, dope and dumdum bullets.

The members of Spinal Tap will be onstage Tuesday night at the Lyric. But Spinal Tap won't. Harry Shearer wants to be sure fans understand the difference. "It's not a Spinal Tap tour," says Shearer, who played bass for the band that began life as a mockumentary send-up of the heavy-metal lifestyle, but then became famous both for its sense of humor (let's hope all the fans were in on the joke) and its grinding, guitar-heavy sound. "This is more of a songwriter's tour. We're doing the music that people know, and largely that we've written."

"Fear of a Black Hat," opening today at the Charles, is a kind of rap "This is Spinal Tap!" Yes, I know that "CB4" was supposed to be a rap "This Is Spinal Tap!" Well, neither film is, but "Fear of a Black Hat" comes a lot closer.Written and directed and starring Rusty Cundieff, who has worked with Spike Lee and wrote "House Party II" for Kid n' Play, it's a vividly conceived mock documentary which follows a not terribly good rap group called N.W.H. through good times (a No. 1 hit) and bad (breakup)

Former Smiths bassist Andy Rourke will be in town Wednesday, DJing at Mosaic in Power Plant Live for a charity event. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Susan Cohan Kasdas Colon Cancer Foundation. What can people expect you to play? I play a lot of indie classics like the Pixies, Iggy Pop, some Manchester music. ... It's classic tunes really, you have Rolling Stones, Beatles songs. ... Whatever tickles my fancy, really. Do people expect you to play Smiths songs? I don't know if people expect it, but people tend to request it a lot. I don't see any harm in playing that stuff.

The problem the mythical band Spinal Tap created for itself with its near-perfect 1984 movie documentary, "This Is Spinal Tap," was pleasant, but real: What could it do for an encore?That problem surfaced again this year when band members Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) went on the road for a Spinal Tap 25th anniversary tour.The satiric brilliance of the 1984 documentary, in which the veteran comedians scorched the entire landscape of rock 'n' roll, dissipated when they basically just played mock-heavy metal songs.

The members of Spinal Tap will be onstage Tuesday night at the Lyric. But Spinal Tap won't. Harry Shearer wants to be sure fans understand the difference. "It's not a Spinal Tap tour," says Shearer, who played bass for the band that began life as a mockumentary send-up of the heavy-metal lifestyle, but then became famous both for its sense of humor (let's hope all the fans were in on the joke) and its grinding, guitar-heavy sound. "This is more of a songwriter's tour. We're doing the music that people know, and largely that we've written."

It's life imitating art imitating life imitating art . . . ad nauseam.Consider: The 1984 film "This Is Spinal Tap" introduced us to a gracelessly aging British heavy metal band -- with a propensity ,, for hiring drummers who die by spontaneous combustion -- that disintegrated before our eyes. It was purely and clearly fictional, a wickedly funny and admirably accurate music business lampoon penned by director Rob Reiner and actors Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer.Eight years later, the band Spinal Tap has re-emerged and seems to be playing for keeps.

An Elkton couple has filed a malpractice suit against Harford Memorial Hospital and two staff doctors there, claiming that a nine-hour delay in properly diagnosing their daughter's illness caused her to suffer seizures that resulted in permanent brain damage and related medical problems.The civil suit, filed in Harford Circuit Court Thursday, claims that Lauren Hollenbaugh, the daughter of David and Jacklyn Hollenbaugh, displayed meningitis symptoms when she was taken to the hospital in 1988 and should have promptly received a diagnostic lumbar puncture test, known as a spinal tap.The suit claims that Drs. Jorge H. Ordonez Smith and Marianne F. Fridberg delayed ordering the test for approximately nine hours, which allegedly caused the child to incur brain damage, recurring seizures, peripheral sight loss, developmental and intellectual regression and related brain and heart damage.

Over the years, hip-hop culture, a multibillion-dollar monster these days, has given us revolutionary, ground-splitting music. Its movies, on the other hand, have never been that great. (Remember Run-DMC's Tougher Than Leather from 1988? Didn't think so.) The latest hip-hop flick to hit theaters, albeit in limited release, is the Damon Dash-directed Death of a Dynasty, a mostly humorless satirical look behind Roc-a-Fella Records, the empire Dash built with iconic rap star Jay-Z. The movie disjointedly follows Dave Katz (Ebon Moss-Bachrach)

In its 150-year history, the town of Blaine, Mo., has managed precisely two accomplishments. First, Blaine became the "Stool Capital of the World." Second, Blaine was the first site on Earth to be visited by a UFO, an event that led to a community potluck dinner aboard a space ship.Blainites do not regard these happenings ironically but with reverence. Their faces convey the uncritical blankness of Dr. Seuss characters. Blainites are not exactly well-endowed in the intellect department.And that makes them easy pickings for Christopher Guest, one of the creators of the brilliant 1983 "rockumentary" "This Is Spinal Tap," who now turns his satiric camera onto phlegmatic Blaine.

Over the years, hip-hop culture, a multibillion-dollar monster these days, has given us revolutionary, ground-splitting music. Its movies, on the other hand, have never been that great. (Remember Run-DMC's Tougher Than Leather from 1988? Didn't think so.) The latest hip-hop flick to hit theaters, albeit in limited release, is the Damon Dash-directed Death of a Dynasty, a mostly humorless satirical look behind Roc-a-Fella Records, the empire Dash built with iconic rap star Jay-Z. The movie disjointedly follows Dave Katz (Ebon Moss-Bachrach)

HOLLYWOOD - Since the dawn of time, music has been written to stir, to celebrate, to make its performer seem potent or wise. One way or the other, it's meant to be good. But for a handful of musicians and songwriters during the past three decades, many of them working in film, the task has been to create something awful, even ridiculous. From the forced psychedelic poetry of the Rutles, an affectionate Beatles parody that animated a 1978 mock documentary, to the flamboyant bombast of Spinal Tap, a fake heavy-metal band that powered a 1984 film, to the soulless tunes of the white-blues band Blues Hammer in 2001's Ghost World, this is music designed to be banal instead of imaginative, hackneyed instead of fresh.

SEATTLE - Four actors sit around a table at the Four Seasons one afternoon, without a script in sight. But that's nothing new for director/actor Christopher Guest and actors Fred Willard, Harry Shearer and John Michael Higgins - they're accustomed to working without a script, on Guest's hilarious mockumentaries Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and the new A Mighty Wind, all of which were improvised for the cameras. Not that there's nothing on paper. "The script looks like a script," explains Higgins (the exuberant shih tzu handler from Best in Show)

At the end of "Still Crazy," Strange Fruit is about to crash and burn. The Fruit -- the fictitious '70s supergroup whose comeback attempt is the film's focus -- are on stage at a big festival, hoping to prove they still have it, when the lead singer (Bill Nighy) freaks out midway through the first number, and the performance shudders to a halt.For a moment, we're sure the band is finished. Then the keyboardist (Stephen Rea) plays a few chords, and the bassist (Jimmy Nail) steps to the microphone to sing "The Flame Still Burns."

Not since the rockumentary "This is Spinal Tap" have the life and times of a rock band been better documented than in "Still Crazy." The difference between the two movies, of course, is that Strange Fruit, the 1970s erstwhile super-group in "Still Crazy," is fictional, while Spinal Tap is a real band. Right?Actually, Spinal Tap and Strange Fruit would make a perfect fictional double-bill in the stadium tour of your dreams -- assuming your dreams run toward sweet, if slightly pretentious, poseurs whose idea of rock and roll runs to power chords, overwrought gestures and excruciatingly long, operatic yelps.

In its 150-year history, the town of Blaine, Mo., has managed precisely two accomplishments. First, Blaine became the "Stool Capital of the World." Second, Blaine was the first site on Earth to be visited by a UFO, an event that led to a community potluck dinner aboard a space ship.Blainites do not regard these happenings ironically but with reverence. Their faces convey the uncritical blankness of Dr. Seuss characters. Blainites are not exactly well-endowed in the intellect department.And that makes them easy pickings for Christopher Guest, one of the creators of the brilliant 1983 "rockumentary" "This Is Spinal Tap," who now turns his satiric camera onto phlegmatic Blaine.

HOLLYWOOD - Since the dawn of time, music has been written to stir, to celebrate, to make its performer seem potent or wise. One way or the other, it's meant to be good. But for a handful of musicians and songwriters during the past three decades, many of them working in film, the task has been to create something awful, even ridiculous. From the forced psychedelic poetry of the Rutles, an affectionate Beatles parody that animated a 1978 mock documentary, to the flamboyant bombast of Spinal Tap, a fake heavy-metal band that powered a 1984 film, to the soulless tunes of the white-blues band Blues Hammer in 2001's Ghost World, this is music designed to be banal instead of imaginative, hackneyed instead of fresh.

EMOTIONAL VIOLENCECameo (Reprise 26734)Despite a propensity for deep grooves, Cameo's output has always been a bit on the shallow side, offering little more than sex talk and catch phrases. That isn't the case with "Emotional Violence," however. Although the album's rhythmic content is as rich as ever, from the throbbing, guitar-fueled funk of "Raw But Tasty" to the pumping, rap-spiked pulse of "Kid Don't Believe It," there's more to these songs than a good beat -- there's also usually a message.

"Fear of a Black Hat," opening today at the Charles, is a kind of rap "This is Spinal Tap!" Yes, I know that "CB4" was supposed to be a rap "This Is Spinal Tap!" Well, neither film is, but "Fear of a Black Hat" comes a lot closer.Written and directed and starring Rusty Cundieff, who has worked with Spike Lee and wrote "House Party II" for Kid n' Play, it's a vividly conceived mock documentary which follows a not terribly good rap group called N.W.H. through good times (a No. 1 hit) and bad (breakup)

An Elkton couple has filed a malpractice suit against Harford Memorial Hospital and two staff doctors there, claiming that a nine-hour delay in properly diagnosing their daughter's illness caused her to suffer seizures that resulted in permanent brain damage and related medical problems.The civil suit, filed in Harford Circuit Court Thursday, claims that Lauren Hollenbaugh, the daughter of David and Jacklyn Hollenbaugh, displayed meningitis symptoms when she was taken to the hospital in 1988 and should have promptly received a diagnostic lumbar puncture test, known as a spinal tap.The suit claims that Drs. Jorge H. Ordonez Smith and Marianne F. Fridberg delayed ordering the test for approximately nine hours, which allegedly caused the child to incur brain damage, recurring seizures, peripheral sight loss, developmental and intellectual regression and related brain and heart damage.