BTW…
Was (Not Was) (at the Majestic) and the Muggs (at the Magic Bag) aren’t the only local legends to be playing tomorrow night (May 9th)…. Our pal Scott Morgan will be playing with his band Powertrane at the Elbow Room (6 S. Washington, Ypsilanti); cover is a mere five bucks for a bill that also…
LOFTY ROCK
Loft Studios in Saline has been home to some of Detroit’s most popular bands during its 20 year existence. Established by the Patalan brothers, Tim and Andy, in 1988, the team transformed a century-and-a-half old barn on their family property into a rock-friendly recording studio. Sponge, Taproot and the Fags are just a few of…
KWAME MEETS R…!
This also got lost last night, due to our friendly hacker (gee, I wonder if the mayor’s office had anything to do with it? We kid; we kid…) — so in case you missed Jon Stewart’s take on the text messaging scandal on his “Rustbelt Fuckfest” the other night, well, watch it below. Say what…
DEATH OF A DETROIT MANTRA-ROCK KING
We were saddened to hear of the death of local musician Bob Sterner. His friend and former bandmate, MT’s Hobey Echlin, remembers him below. Bob Sterner, 1964-2008 Bob Sterner, theatrical frontman and singer for late ‘80s Detroit mantra-rockers Spahn Ranch, has died. He was 44. The charismatic Sterner first came on the Detroit scene as…
THE ANN ARBOR MUSIC SCENE! ON YOUTUBE!
Well, some jackass hacked the site last night, so we lost all of yesterday’s posts. But what the hell. Put ’em back up… Our friend Brandon (who appears in it)sent us this groovy little video yesterday spotlighting the thriving Ann Arbor “folk-rock”-pop scene, featuring a few bands you may have read about in the MT…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Burns faster than a line of hillbilly cyrstal meth!
Night and Day
WEDNESDAY • 7 THE KILLS MINIMALISM NEVER SOUNDED SO SEXY Hoarse vocals and hammering percussion, with a backdrop of gorgeous people going at it? Hot. The Kills’ gritty, “let me grind on your face” sound was well-placed last month — their song, “Sour Cherry,” was featured in now-infamous eyebrow- and pulse-raising “OMFG” ads for the…
Growing up onstage
It’s a sunny Sunday afternoon in April. About two dozen young people between the ages of 12 and 18 are gathered in the gymnasium at the University Preparatory Academy in Detroit. They’re dressed in casual clothes, T-shirts and sweats, as if lined up for a game of dodgeball in a phys ed class. Suddenly two…
Fashion police?
Cops fear zipping up can lead to sticking up.
On with the show
There are eight million stories in the naked city, and in Detroit at least half of the great ones would involve this region’s rich musical history and legacy. But no Detroit musical tale is more inspiring than the story of the Muggs. Detroit music fans already know them from their incredible live performances, delivering what…
Madonna vs. Mariah … or all about diva!
Every pica of propaganda about Madonna’s new album, Hard Candy, like the guilty-as-charged next passage, reminds you that, come August, our former national outrage turns 50. Yow. That’s past the age where Sinatra stopped counting on “It Was a Very Good Year.” Past the age Anne Archer ceased getting “the other woman” roles and started…
Art Detroit wow
Why do I have this unsettling feeling that what I’ll lay eyes on this weekend will slam me down and blow me away. In a couple days, I’ll be barraged by the moving image. I’ll soak in a shadow play (the oldest storytelling device and the first “moving image,” on cave walls), an experimental horror…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
Couch Trip
The Best of the Price is Right Freemantle Media Cramming 50 years of the longest-running game show onto four DVDs is impossible. Freemantle Media didn’t even try. They didn’t even attempt compiling the 26 best Price is Right shows, such as the infamous telecast where the poor housewife summoned to “come on down” was in…
Bound for trouble
Accidents will happen — consider the risks.
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
Dow and dirty
A key EPA administrator is out; environmentalists are up in arms.
Letters to the Editor
Good vibes I just wanted to comment on Bill Holdship’s recent article in the Metro Times about Cetan Clawson (“Are you experienced?” April 30). You were very spot on. I used to play in a band in the Detroit area years ago with Al Bolda, who Cetan mentioned. Al and Cetan played together for a…
Getting jacked, again
Why those green energy bills are a sham.
Do the twist
The mayor’s contradictions and evasions.
Water fight
Truth commission holds hearings in Highland Park.
On the Download
Ear-popping songs from the Motor City fringes.
Smart kid lit
It’s a dog’s life — an allegorical dog’s life for our times.
Motor City Cribs
Country comforts: Why emcee/producer 14KT gives up the gold.
Lyrics Born
Later that Day…, the 2003 solo debut of Bay Area rapper Tom Shimura (a.k.a. Lyrics Born), was a modest, funny, funky backpacker album about searching for a sense of place in a predominantly African-American art form when you don’t fit the demo (LB was born in Tokyo, grew up in Northern California, and is half-Japanese,…
Crystal Castles
Toronto duo Crystal Castles is known (in hipster dance circles, at least) for its high-energy, Gameboy-fueled music, best displayed in “Alice Practice” and the very similar-sounding “Love and Caring,” which feature glitchy, bent-instrument beats with shouted, muffled lyrics and hollow electronic bass hits. The artists’ live show revolves around this shtick, focusing on frenetic lead…
Heavy metal
Director Jon Favreau has every rivet in place; with a fine script, solid production design and a winning cast that delivers the goods and never gets lost in the spectacle. Leading the way is the inspired choice of Robert Downey Jr. as millionaire playboy-hero Tony Stark, he’s the prefect actor to play a man caught…
American Scream
There’s a lot o love about PJ Olsson. A guy from the very tippy-top of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula heads to Hollywood with a guitar case full of great songs and a beatbox full of even better production ideas. He then takes the music business by quiet storm, getting his infinitely likable songs (featuring plenty of…
The Life Before Her Eyes
Bouncing between two timelines, The Life Before Her Eyes labors mightily to interlock imagery and narratives set 15 years apart as emotionally damaged Diana (Uma Thurman), on the anniversary of her high school’s worst tragedy, relives the fateful weeks beforehand for her 17-year-old self (Evan Rachel Wood) and best friend Maureen (Eva Amurri). What starts…
Made of Honor
Can a prick be a romantic comedy hero? Even with his woo-meter on high (and often into the shrill range), star Patrick Dempsey can’t redeem the preening selfishness of his confirmed bachelor in this charmless reworking of My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997). Dempsey’s man-child Tom belongs to a particular breed of romantic antihero, forced out…
Devotion
With so many indie bands delving deep into dub’s back pages for tropes to plunder in the name of experimentalism, it’s great that a band can pull out reverb less for abstract reasons and more because it’s the simplest and most effective way to evoke water. Soaked in this world of echo, Victoria Legrand and…
Market values
Downtown Detroit (finally) gets a high-end grocer (with a café).
