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 back catalog material too. Send CDs, vinyl, cassettes, demos and 8-tracks to Brett Callwood, City Slang, Metro Times, 733, St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 46226. Email MP3s and streaming links to [email protected].
Computer Perfection’s Merry Microbes EP (self-released) features former members of PAS/CAL masking some delicious pop music under a ton of barbed wire electronica noise. The result is a beautiful mess that, while not always easy listening, is always worth a little bit of effort. Interestingly enough, side B ends where side A begins, so the whole thing is this great loop. Also, the band is continuing to aid the resurgence of the cassette tape with this release. Wahay.
Is there anything more fun than receiving new music from Bootsey X? Probably not. Boots sent us four new songs this week and, though he’s going solo here and therefore is minus his Lovemasters, there’s much to enjoy. “Still Alive” is a bluesy instrumental and a huge, welcome statement after his recent battles with a brain tumor. Pick of the bunch, though, is “Lone Sugarbabe”, which sounds like Lou Reed singing a Kim Fowley-penned tune. Detroit music is so much more fun with Bootsey in it.
Party Stomper and Metro Times writer Michael Hurtt has another project, Michael Hurtt and his Haunted Hearts, and their new I Wonder if you Wonder (Motor City Special) 45 is spectacular. No digital technology was employed in the making of this single, so it sounds beautifully earthy and authentic. The two tunes are great too. Both the title track and the magnificently titled “Hamtramck Baby” (featuring the line “take me back to Hamtramck, it’s where I long to be”) are the sort of rockabilly that you wish you’d been around for the first time.
The Boxing Lesson has taken the unusual step of releasing a double-45. The band is based in Austin, Texas, but this incredible new single is out via the Detroit-based New Fortune Records. It’s beautifully too – kinda indie prog with a ton of Moog (they have a song called “Darker Side of the Moog”), and sweet female vocals. Totally unique, and compulsive listening.
