By Doug Coombe
Published: 11/11/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
Technically, Black Milk's home is in Wixom. But if you factor out sleep, the prolific hip-hop producer and emcee practically lives in Tommy Hoffman's Studio 1 in Livonia. About a stone's throw from the roar of I-96, tucked in a nondescript cinderblock industrial park, Milk's beat lab strikes a perfe...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 10/28/2009
Lately Detroit appears to be on the verge of becoming Nashville North. To add to our impressive soul, rock, jazz, hip hop, blues, techno and noise scenes, there's now a honky-tonk and outlaw-tinged country music scene drawing inspiration from the hard-working blue-collar towns in our midst. Downrive...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 10/14/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
Driving past Guilty Simpson's cute little Dearborn Heights bungalow with flower pinwheels in the front lawn, the last thing you would guess is that its resident is about ready to take Detroit hip hop to a new level. But barely a year after the release of his classic debut LP Ode to the Ghetto, Byron...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 10/7/2009
If you were looking to set up a recording studio — one where a chunk of culture-changing Detroit music would be created — you probably wouldn't choose the former Feltus Poultry site downtown behind the Fillmore. The live room at producer Jim Diamond's Ghetto Recorders is a spacious, co...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 9/23/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
Will Sessions is one of Detroit's best new bands. Since its debut last Halloween, it has recorded with Slum Village and neo-soul phenom Mayer Hawthorne, and re-created hip-hop tracks and live samples as a roots-inspired big band with Black Milk, Phat Kat and Guilty Simpson. If you like your hip hop ...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 9/9/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
Bobby Emmett is your basic pop-obsessed jazz musician who earns a living playing country music. His debut solo album, Learning Love, drops soon. (And it's one the best Detroit records this year, though it sounds straight outta of '74.) Most of you know Emmett as the former Hammond B3 organ player f...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 9/2/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
For all that talk of Detroit "garage rock" bands, I have never seen a Detroit band that actually practiced in a garage. Pas/Cal comes the closest for having recorded much of its brilliant pop (and very un-garage) music in vocalist Casimer's former garage. But as far as truly rocking the ga...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 8/19/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
Much like Andrew "Party Hard" W.K., Detroit geeks Johnny Headband mix metal, dance and an unabashed sense of frolic in a highly choreographed and aerobic workout on stage — with no hipster sense of sarcasm or irony about it. And much like Andrew W.K., Johnny Headband leaves a physica...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 8/5/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
In part inspired by their Osborn High School classmate Esham, who started releasing records at age 13, and by mixtapes from New York’s underground — handed to them by DJ Kevo — Thyme and Mudd took to the mics. Consisting of Mudd, Thyme, Proof (who hosted the Shop’s open mics) and J Dil...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 7/29/2009
A lot of great artists have a bit of the mad scientist within. They do ridiculous and amazing things that most people wouldn't consider trying — just because they can. New Boston metal artist and motorcycle and hot rod customizer Len Puch is a perfect example of this. We all get crazy and ins...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 7/22/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
You know you're "Up North" when instead of guiding you to your destination, your GPS sends you down a two-track road in a national forest, and, when you call your host for directions, you discover there's no phone service, but maybe beer. Welcome to the not-so-old days! Insane Clown Po...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 7/15/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden, Interior decorating
Three things are immediately clear in author Michael Zadoorian's basement lounge: He loves pop-culture schmaltz and ephemera, his sense of humor rattles, and his thrift-store skills kill. His basement's filled with skillfully placed tiki mugs, Michigan artifacts, taxidermy (a jackalope even!), woode...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 7/8/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden, Interior decorating
Visiting Mike Emmett's Ypsilanti tattoo parlor in Depot Town is like stepping back into a few different eras of classic Americana. Depot Town's architecture harks back to the 1800s and all the little towns that sprang up in Michigan along the Detroit-Chicago rail corridor; the interior that Emmett d...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 7/1/2009
Petite and charming 18-year-old dynamo and Pennsylvania Amish country transplant Kate "Hayley Jane" Nickerson doesn't seem at all like she's from Detroit. Yet she definitely belongs here. Not many other cities can let you delve into so many forms of expression on a shoestring budget. The ...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 6/24/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden, Interior decorating
There's nothing much on the outside of Felton and Ida Williams' modest Ecorse home to distinguish it from other look-alikes on the block. But what does set it apart, no doubt, is the treasure trove of gospel recordings stored in his basement. Inside, the tastefully decorated house is a veritable met...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 6/17/2009
Back in 2002, Motor City emcee and producer Ohkang ran into a whole lot of trouble getting the carburetor in his classic 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Brougham fixed. He went to seven different mechanics and nobody could fix it. That's when his musical co-conspirator Blackreign recommended his n...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 6/10/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
Ann Arbor used to be a town in the country — but not anymore. But out on Jackson Road, on the town's far west side, you'll find a little reminder of the A2 that once was. There, tucked in the woods is Backseat Productions, Jim Roll's recording studio for the last two years, in a building that ...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 6/3/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
The online bio of Detroit hip-hop artists Stoopz and Breeze is implausible. Bob Stoopz, the duo's producer, was "raised by wild German shepherds on the streets of Farmington Hills [and] had to learn how to play the keytar at a young age to make ends meet." Drew Breeze, the duo's emcee, was...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 5/27/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden, Interior decorating
The Go was arguably the first Detroit band in the lamentably coined "garage rock" scene to bust out of the Detroit dive-bar circuit and go national when its Sub Pop debut, Watcha' Doin, dropped a decade ago. Truth be told, the Go's mystic mix of reverb-dripping pop and psychedelia springs ...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 5/20/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden, Interior decorating
Those who've known Scott Allen as the manic keyboardist in Thunderbirds Are Now! might be shocked. See, in Thunderbirds, Scott's high-energy, injury-defying (well, sometimes) stunts were perfect visual foil to TAN's Brainiac-inspired assault. So you might not expect that singer Scott loathes th...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 5/13/2009
Types: Music
Those who've known Scott Allen as the manic keyboardist in Thunderbirds Are Now! might be shocked. See, in Thunderbirds, Scott's high-energy, injury-defying (well, sometimes) stunts were perfect visual foil to TAN's Brainiac-inspired assault. So you might not expect that singer Scott loathes th...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 5/6/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
Of all the people who've taken a Chrysler buyout lately, hip-hop beatmaker and producer Cream of Beats (real name: Zachary Cephas) has got to be one of the biggest buyout success stories. See, this guy Beats took a buyout a little more than a year ago, after driving a Hi-Lo at Chrysler's Jeffer...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 4/29/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden, Interior decorating
Karen Neal (that's Queen Bee to you) has an ace résumé. She has played and recorded with Jello Biafra (whom she once dated) in Lard, with Warren Defever in the Dirt Eaters and His Name is Alive, with Mike Hard in the God Bullies, and fronted the legendary all-chick punk band Inside O...[MORE]
By Doug Coombe
Published: 4/22/2009
Types: Culture, House & garden
After noise musician and artist Chris Pottinger moved to Royal Oak a little more than a year ago, he had problems with solicitors. When he got home from work one day, looking forward to recording some basement jams or working on illustrations, a stream of Jehovah's Witnesses, lawn care salesman ...[MORE]
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