High notes

This week, a book-signing in Ann Arbor marks the return of one-time local music critic and Metro Times writer Bill Brown. (Full disclosure: The author and Brown became friends in the late 1990s in New York.) Though Brown hasn't written for MT in 27 years, his new book, You Should've Heard Just What I Seen, collects writing that appeared in several local papers, and should be of interest to local music fans across the sonic spectrum.

After dropping out of college in 1980, Brown had hoped to become "the new Lester Bangs," and after numerous rejections from The New York Times and the Village Voice (he got close with the Voice, at least; Robert Christgau sent him a "Not bad"), he gravitated to Ann Arbor with vague hopes of finishing school at the University of Michigan. But he also found himself at the crossroads of many different kinds of music passing through that college town. After enrolling at U-M, getting involved with WCBN-FM and sampling the local musical offerings, Brown pestered the Ann Arbor News to let him write a weekly column about music. Which they did.

With his weekly gig, Brown let forth a surprisingly informed stream of opinions on music, both local and national, backing up his views with pretty strong research that must have required some work in pre-Internet days. And the thousands of words he's compiled in What I Seen really highlight the eclectic music hitting Michigan's main college town. Though lots of music writers mostly cover what they love, Brown's coverage sprawled all over, betraying a catholic taste in music. In reviews and columns, he wrote about Prince, Ozzy Osbourne, Haircut 100, the Misfits, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, S.S. Decontrol, Earl Klugh, Ultravox, Jodie Foster's Army, Lords of the New Church and Toshiko Akiyoshi, to name a few national acts — as well as local luminaries the Urbations, the State, Marcus Belgrave, Destroy All Monsters, Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band, the Necros, the Electrifying Mojo and more.

Speaking from his apartment in Cincinnati's Clifton neighborhood, Brown recalls the variety of music Ann Arbor hosted in the 1980s, but also remembers the tension that existed between various local scenes, where "forms of music were isolated and sort of opposed to each other." By way of example, he refers to his piece on a JFA show, describing the mixed reactions to the surf-thrash combo. "The hardcore people would thrash around to the hardcore sounds, but then stay off the floor when the band did its surf tunes: As if there were something ideologically impure about surf music, even though it was being played by a hardcore band."

In fact, Brown's penchant for spotting contradictions and poking musical self-righteousness in the eye is what makes his criticism — as in the sense of actually criticizing something — so full of life and energy. Perhaps it's what also did him in as a local critic in the end.

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