City Slang: Weekly music review roundup
Remember – if you send it, it will get reviewed. That’s the City Slang promise. It doesn’t matter what genre the music is – as long as it has a Metro Detroit connection, it’ll get in. Preferably, we’d like to concentrate on new releases but, while we’re getting warmed up here, feel free to send…
Detroit’s EM: Day One
A crowd of about 100 people gathered in front of the Spirit of Detroit statue on Monday morning to protest emergency financial manager Kevyn Orr’s first day on the job. At a press conference inside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, Orr touted the need for cooperation. “I want to offer a sincere olive branch…
City Slang: Thollem Electric at Trinosophes
On March 29, Thollem Electric will perform at Joel Petersen’s Trinosophes. They say, “Our good friend Thollem returns with a rare electric performance of Fender Rhodes and analog effects. Best known as an improvising pianist with amazing conservatory chops, this project would seem to be informed by the recent work he’s been doing outside of…
City Slang: Detroit X Detroit
On April 20, 16 bands will gather at the third annual Detroit By Detroit show at the Magic Stick to performs sets of material by other Detroit bands or artists. According to a statement, “Participating bands were given the opportunity to cover any Detroit artist that is either currently active in the Detroit area, or…
Sigur Ros on Monday (Ritual Howls next month)
Awesome bands from around the country do remember to stop through our town! I know it once was (or continues to be) quasi-popular consensus that touring bands from hipper national hubs like Chicago, or Austin or Portland or Montreal or …Iceland… will skim by Detroit for various reasons. Well, in case you missed it, Thrill Jockey’s post-rock…
Label spotlight: Flesh Wave (New Timmy Vulgar tape of rarities)
Flesh Wave, still a somewhat newer DIY label, has been steadily propping the louder, more vociferous rock outfits around town over the last year or so. It’s just scored garage-punk godfather Timmy “Vulgar” Lampinen, to its growing roster. (Info on upcoming releases? Surf the Flesh Wave). Mike Prezzato heads the cassette-centric operation. His take on the…
Preserves: Nine Mile Sessions (March 28th) (Folk music food drive for Gleaners)
Preservationists of the Post-Everything Generation – young turk-type garage-sprung folk-singers Brandon Frye and Kyle McBee are keeping their dream alive: The Dead Letter Office cassette/CD label that showcases local songwriters whose works risked breezing off into the ether like dandelion seeds. Their 2nd proper compilation of performances provides the fertile ground for these seeds to…
City Slang: ICP asks Where’s God?
ICP dropped the new video for the single “Where’s God?” on Friday. The video can be seen here. It’s a pretty intense affair. Let us know what you think. Click here to join the City Slang Turntable community!!! Follow @City_Slang
Film Review: On the Road
On the Road | B Jack Kerouac’s rambling, poetic, salacious and spiritual semi-autobiographic opus has always been on the short list of great American novels that have been generally considered to be “unfilmable.” It took a half-century, but someone has finally attempted to capture all the passion, soul and madness that has made On the…
Film Review: The Croods
The Croods| B- For a movie that advocates taking more chances (a message that, come to think of it, Michigan could take to heart) the script for Dreamworks’ The Croods sure does turn a deaf ear to its own advice. Caught somewhere between Brave and The Flinstones, writer-directors Kirk De Micco and Chris…
Call issued to resist Detroit’s EM
The backlash is beginning to take shape. That there would be organized opposition to an emergency manager taking control of Detroit is something that could have been expected. What remains to be seen now is how many people will participate in the nonviolent civil disobedience actions the Rev. Jesse Jackson and others on Friday said…
Film Review: Olympus Has Fallen
OlympusHas Fallen| D Imagine if you will the simplest pitch session in Hollywood history: “Well, it’s Die Hard, but in the White House.” Sold. In fact, the concept proved so irresistible to execs that a near identical, star-laden D.C.-under-siege movie, White House Down from mega budget schlockmeister Roland Emmerich (Independence Day), will invade multiplexes in…
City Slang: The Brothers Groove to perform at fundraiser
Local funksters the Brothers Groove will perform at a fundraiser on March 29 as the Music Foundation will present its fourth show in its ongoing LIVE at The Detroit School of Rock and Pop Music series. According to a statement, “The Brothers Groove will perform at the 1109 S. Washington Ave. location in Royal Oak.…
Wall Street, foreclosures and Detroit
The Eclectablog site, which features progressive news and commentary, has an excellent piece linking the issues of bank wrongdoing involving foreclosures and how Wall Street is making out like a bandit because of Detroit’s financial crisis – which, at least in part, is directly linked to the foreclosure crisis. The Eclectablog story starts by drawing…
Tilted Axes Detroit brings it home
Last week, we wrote about Tilted Axes Detroit, the brainchild of Detroit native Patrick Grant, a New York-based guitarist and composer who has worked with some of the biggest names in avant-garde music. This week, he pulled off a homecoming of sorts , a way to honor the city that he feels has bestowed upon…
City Slang: The Hounds Below warm up Ash
The last time I saw Ash, it was at the Reading Festival in the UK in 2007. Already by that point, the Northern Irish band that Hounds Below man Jason Stollsteimer describes as “Britain’s Weezer” were no longer the festival headliners that they were for a brief moment in the early 2000’s, but they were…
Best of Detroit 2013
Our favorite new annual event, hands down, is the Marche de le Nain Rouge, an annual event centering on the mythical character known as the Nain Rouge, or Red Dwarf. Officially, the march is held to chase the little guy out of the city, since he’s seen as a harbinger of doom who presages the…
False prophets
“Pray for my family,” Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick told reporters upon leaving the federal courthouse last week after her son, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, was found guilty on multiple counts of racketeering, extortion, mail fraud and tax evasion charges. His cohort, contractor Bobby Ferguson, was also found guilty of racketeering and extortion; and his father,…
Film Review: Gatekeepers
Gatekeepers| B+ “We wanted security and got more terrorism. They wanted a state and got more settlements.” —Ami Ayalon, Head of Shin Bet (1996-2000) In our buck-passing, “no comment” culture, it’s almost impossible to imagine former American security officials — say, the directors of Homeland Security or the NSA — offering up the…
Film Review: Spring Breakers
Spring Breakers| C+ There is a long and colorful tradition of teen crime-spree films, loaded with guns, wild music, booze and always ample helpings of sex — all designed to generate maximum controversy and to shock the living crap out of the establishment stiffs. From Britain’s “Angry Young Men” in the early ’60s to later…
A poet speaks about her work, Detroit and how ‘Detroiters are not spoiled’
Detroit poet Francine J. Harris (usually rendered francine j. harris in her books) had her first book of poems, allegiance, published last year by Wayne State University Press’ Made in Michigan Writers Series, was recently short-listed as a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a sort of Rookie of the Year distinction that aims…
The chameleon-like sounds of Duende finally gel — into a mystery
The further out this band spreads itself, the more centralized it becomes. It may sound very strange to you, but then Duende’s guitarist Joel McCune says that it’s kind of the whole point. That’s the only conclusion he can draw after the rush of a eureka moments this local quartet experienced in the studio recently,…
Gerbils? Again?
Dear readers: I’m off this week. To tide all of your hot, kinky or sore asses over, here’s a column I wrote 15 years ago. Some newer readers might’ve missed this column when it originally appeared — some of you who were still in grade school, diapers, or amniotic sacs back in 1998 — so…
Julian Paaige creates punk poetry in motion
When you see Julian Paaige (and yes, he uses two A’s in his surname, no typo) on a stage, standing alone as he usually is, there’s something stark, mildly sinister and yet very appealing about the performance. Like Mancunian punk-poet John Cooper Clarke, though coming from a completely different angle, Paaige seems upset but he…
Sheefy McFly and Lord Scrummage -Smoking Triangles- Self Release
Acid-funk sprinkled onto soulful R&B gets slapped atop a gritty but groovy aesthetic for this local album, sandwiched together thanks in part to rapper Sheefy McFly and singer-keyboardist-producer Alex Lauer. Lauer plays with art-pop collective Lord Scrummage while Mcfly (aka Tashif Turner) regularly reels often raunchy but earnest raps under his solo moniker or for…
Duende- Murder Doesn’t Hide the Truth- Bellyache Records
Detroit’s Duende have proven to be effective musical chameleons. There’s no proper way to pin them down — torch songs, ghost story folk ballads and trashy strutting punk rattles — which is kinda the point. Their perennial adaptability is best exemplified through their years of hosting a live series at the Loving Touch in Ferndale.…
Letters to the Editor
Timely pursuit Professor Lessenberry wrote a fine, timely essay about Detroit’s greatest 19th century mayor, Hazen S. Pingree (“The story of Detroit’s socialist mayor,” Feb. 27). Is it not fascinating how a businessman turned politician, eventually governor, raises a phalanx of opposition from the capital-heavy interests? Maybe he knew all too well how they think.…
Nutritional Value – Reader’s Choice
Best New Restaurant (open less than 2 years) Best Restaurant for Desserts Vinsetta Garage 27799 Woodward Ave., Berkley 248-548-7711; vinsettagarage.com No question about it: Vinsetta Garage was the runaway success of the last year. Not only did it open to universally positive reviews, it was so mobbed for months that diners sometimes faced a two-hour…
Spend the Night – Staff Picks
Best Rock Club Magic Stick 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit 313-833-9700; www.majesticdetroit.com Predictable, maybe, but there are still few better places to watch a rock show in metro Detroit than the Magic Stick. When the place is packed and the crowd is moving, you can practically feel the concern from the people at the Garden Bowl…
Nutritional Value – Staff Picks
Best Makeover Santorini Estiatorio 501 Monroe St., Detroit 313-962-9366; santorinidetroit.com Pan-global fusion joint Mosaic closed its doors for three months of remodeling to reopen as Santorini Estiatorio. It’s the first new Greek restaurant in Greektown in a long time, and it makes a wonderful addition. The new look is rustic island, and the stylish blown…
Facing emergency management
I wasn’t in the auditorium last week when Gov. Rick Snyder announced he had definitely decided to step in, and he had chosen Kevyn Orr to be Detroit’s emergency manager. Instead, I was hundreds of miles away in Traverse City, having lunch with the one governor in modern times who really did care about Detroit:…
Public Square – Reader’s Choice
Best Person to Run for Mayor of Detroit Mike Duggan The former key cog in boss Ed McNamara’s Wayne County political machine, a one-time county prosecutor, and the guy who engineered a deal that sold the nonprofit Detroit Medical Center, Mike Duggan has already been anointed the city’s next savior by the mainstream media. But…
Public Square – Staff Picks
Best Place To Turn if Facing Foreclosure or Eviction Detroit Eviction Defense detroitevictiondefense.org Here’s the thing about Detroit Eviction Defense: They get the fact that neither the court nor the banks (especially the banks) can be counted on when it comes to helping people avoid foreclosure or eviction. Some members of this coalition — self-described…
Real Deal – Reader’s Choice
Best Indie Men’s Clothing in Wayne County Showtime Clothing 5708 Woodward Ave., Detroit 313-875-9280; showtimedetroit.com For nearly 25 years, this Midtown staple and perennial winner has supplied threads to Detroit’s musicians, performers, entertainers and the scenesters who follow in their wake. But it’s not all leather and lace — although there’s plenty of that, the…
Spend the Night – Reader’s Choice
Best Bar for Under 30s The Loving Touch 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-546-3644 It has been a huge year for the Loving Touch, that room next to the WAB that used to be a seedy massage place, happy endings guaranteed. The place has grown into one of the most happening rooms on the music scene…
Real Deal – Staff Picks
Best T-Shirt Shop Goods Detroit 15 E. Kirby St., No. 108, Detroit 313-703-7754; goodsdetroit.com Remember when every mall in America had a print-your-own-T-shirt shop? Remember how much fun it was to take in your favorite kitty-cat illustration and have someone put it on a shirt that you could proudly wear for your elementary school class…
James Linck -Fortress of Solitude EP -Five Three Dial Tone Records
Many solo albums inevitably get stereotyped as diaries put to song, but hear James Linck out! This debut diary, which is a montage of styles (with multiple producers and a rap-cameo), sails slickly through dreamy trip-hop fogs and chilled-out hip-hop lullabies; and proves to be a decent sample of the local scene’s latest take on…
Best of Detroit 2013
Our favorite new annual event, hands down, is the Marche de le Nain Rouge, an annual event centering on the mythical character known as the Nain Rouge, or Red Dwarf. Officially, the march is held to chase the little guy out of the city, since he’s seen as a harbinger of doom who presages the…
Film Review: Admission
Admission | B- Tina Fey wears many crowns: Best-selling author, sitcom mogul, awards show host, working mom icon, Internet meme generator and comedy glass ceiling shatterer. Sadly, a title that has so far eluded her is movie superstar. She’s had successes (Mean Girls), but mostly Fey’s film work has failed to capitalize on…
Double vision
As best as we can tell, there are two ways of looking at what happened last week when an emergency financial manager was appointed to take control of Detroit city government. For many — and we do mean many — the reaction was, essentially, “At last!” A city deep in debt and wracked by dysfunction…
Film Review: Like Someone in Love
Like Someone in Love | C+ Since being exiled from his home, Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami has moved away from his simple yet insightful examinations of Iranian family and culture into a career in nondescript world cinema. It’s a surprising and somewhat disappointing shift for an artist whose short list of indigenous work inspired several…
City Slang: The Strange at the Lager House
Frenetic garage rockers the Strange play the Lager House this Friday, March 22. The band, featuring Erik Nordin, James Simonson, Brett Lucas, and Brent McKay, will be ably supported by St. Cecelia and Nick Fugedi. According to the Lager website, “Deftly treading a line between high-flying art-rock and classic rock’s more organic, pastoral environs, the…
