Iggy Guests On Praxis Track: Listen Here
Furies (feat. Iggy Pop) by MethodofDefiance Praxis is the lovechild of master producer of the weird and wild Bill Laswell. Along with a slew of others, Laswell has worked with the Stooges, Herbie Hancock, Brian Eno & David Byrne, and Funkadelic. Across their dozen or so albums, the core of Laswell’s avant-garde Praxis has been…
The Fighter
The Fighter GRADE: B The story supposedly goes: When Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) beat out Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) in 2005 for the Best Acting Oscar, Ledger was heard to remark, "I thought it was for the best acting, not the most acting." As bitchy as the comment may have been, it was the first…
White Material
White Material GRADE: B- White Material is a stunning, harrowing and utterly compelling cinematic experience that leaves the viewer with a lingering and profound sense of pointlessness as the credits roll. The story of a once-proud French colonial family’s slow but steady undoing in an unnamed, merciless, war-torn African country, the film is as mesmerizing…
Tron: Legacy
Tron: Legacy GRADE: C Hey, Disney, here’s an idea: If you’re going to spend $170 million on a special effects-laden holiday tent pole movie intended to beget sequels and an animated series, you might want to throw a few extra bucks at the screenplay and, you know, hire writers who can actually tell a coherent…
How Do You Know
How Do You Know GRADE: C+ Nobody tells James L. Brooks what to do anymore, which is the blessing and curse of massive success. With a shelf full of popular hits and glowing press clippings ranging from Broadcast News to boob-tube classics like Mary Tyler Moore, Taxi and The Simpsons, Brooks has earned the benefit…
Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear GRADE: D+ There are two types of people likely to read a review of Yogi Bear, compliant parents curious what sort of mess they’re getting themselves into, and sadists who revel in reading about a film critic’s personal agony. To the latter let me say, I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction, and anyway…
Burn on: Deal ties city to incinerator for 11 years
The Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority board in a meeting Thursday obligated the city of Detroit to keep sending trash to the controversial waste-burning facility for the next 11 years. In return, the facility’s new owners and operators, along with Detroit Edison, agreed to turn over to the city $28 million in escrow funds that…
Wonder Twin: You must see the Copper Thieves!
Detroit’s Copper Thieves are ready to move you with the kind of melodic, smart, guitar rock one can usually only hear when tuning the radio 94.7 WCSX and playing an Archers of Loaf record at the same time. If you’ve been in the mood for some totally unpretentious, turn-it-up-to-11 anthemic ditties, their new record II…
Notte steals the show
Chrysler announcing an $850 million investment in its Sterling Heights plants is certainly major news, as is the addition of a second shift creating 900 jobs. But numbers induce a sort of stupor when an audience hears them. Numbers need a metaphorical context. Which brings us to Sterling Heights Mayor Richard Notte, maestro of metaphor.…
Something borrowed
Today, savvy diners know that authentic Chinese food is an exotic delight showcased in better restaurants. Thanks to more than a generation of new immigration from the East, Americans can sample cuisines from all over China, such as dim sum or chicken feet, and may look back upon the relatively simpler delights of chop suey…
The hard sell
Days like these are long and tough. Mr. Bow Tie stands by the curb along West Seven Mile at Greenfield, wearing bright red pants, a red vest and a crisp white shirt. And, of course, a bow tie. You can’t miss him because he shouts at passing traffic through a megaphone. Or he dances on…
When Matty wins, we all lose.
When supporters of the proposed Detroit River International Crossing gathered for a press conference in downtown Detroit this past April, a startling array of often discordant voices were singing in sweet-sounding harmony. There were Democrats and Republicans. There were a number of trade unionists as well as business interests ranging from the local Chamber of…
Pot on the left and right
Could medical marijuana be the issue that brings us all together? I’m not talking about everybody sitting in a circle, passing a joint around and swaying back and forth to Michael Franti tunes — although that wouldn’t hurt anything either. I’m talking bipartisan politics. Something almost all politicians talk about but toss into the trash…
Jenny take a ride
Flashback to a cold New Year’s Day in Lansing two decades ago, where newly elected Gov. John Engler has just been sworn in after winning the upset of the century. Old George Romney, a trailblazing governor from the 1960s, sweeps up, grasps his hand, and offers two words of advice: "Be bold." Many people would…
Letters to the Editor
Picture perfect I just wanted to thank you for your article on Bill Rauhauser (Dec. 8), and for the number of pages that you devoted to his photography. Bill is a Detroit treasure who has influenced thousands of us for the better through his teaching, and his example. He still sets the bar high for…
Future burn
We were a little taken aback Sunday when we read Mitch Albom spewing moral indignation in the Freep over the dreaded prospect of expiring Bush-era tax breaks for those making more than $250,000 a year. So, now it’s our turn to spew. First, there’s the fact that he used the ever-repeated case study of the…
Hot-glue-gunnin’ love
Last Saturday, the Wonder Twins headed to AJ’s Music Cafe for Winter Fling … a Craft Thing, a just-in-time-for-the-holidays collection of crafty wares and DIY goodness for the buying. While pawing through hand-stamped greeting cards and upcycled lace jewelry, they pondered the six degrees of Kevin Bacon-like connection between Detroit’s craft and music scenes. Laura:…
Stone American Style
As you read this, all over the country and indeed the world, there are people working in dirty kitchens, sweating over hot grills, flipping hash browns and burgers. Perhaps you work such a job yourself. Ty Stone did, at Molly Malone’s Irish Pub in Los Angeles. Except that, for Stone, the story didn’t end as…
Feats of clay
Q: I am a 33-year-old married male who has a WAM — wet and messy — fetish. I’m into mud and clay. I have played with various substances in the bathroom by myself over the years. It always ends with me masturbating myself into oblivion, wishing there were someone with me so we could sensuously…
Broadcast news
I first met Andre Braugher many years ago in a hotel lobby in Santa Monica. We were both in California for a television network convention, and, as there weren’t many gentlemen of color at the lobby bar (or in Santa Monica, for that matter), we couldn’t help but spy each other. At the time, Braugher…
Love and Other Drugs
Love and Other Drugs GRADE: C Is it possible to make a maudlin satire? That’s the uncomfortable question posed by Love and Other Drugs, a hyperactive romantic comedy set in the overhyped world of ’90s prescription drug sales, a film that twitches and creaks due to a manic-depressive tendency buried deep in its genetic code.…
Michael Heatley & Frank Hopkinson – The Girl in the Song
Michael Heatley & Frank Hopkinson – The Girl in the Song Chicago Review Press, $15, 144 pp. Two rock writers serve up a slim, well-illustrated volume detailing 50 pop songs of the rock era — some obvious, some incomprehensible — inspired by (and usually lusting after) specific women. Each colorful section illuminates the muse’s life…
Healing powers
RAW Café 4160 Woodward Ave., Detroit 313-778-9774 I promised myself not to use such words as "virtuous" or "sinful" when writing about the RAW Café; there’s too much of that already, with chocolate, steak and whipped cream playing the role that avarice, pride and cruelty used to play in our moral reckonings. I’m quite willing…
Spun
FRIGHT FROM THE BINS The Lennon Sisters Today! (1968) While the world busies itself this month with more buried Lennon treasures, here’s a long-player where truly "woman is the nigger of the world"! In 1960, sister Dianne quietly "left" the group because she got married and Lawrence Welk thought viewers wouldn’t tolerate a Lennon Sister…
Growing pains
LaDarrel Johnson walks along the dirty curb on Chene near East Jefferson, playing his sax. His cheeks swell like a kid blowing bubbles, and he starts, stops, thinks and begins again. The guy’s on a lunch break from his day gig at Staples office supplies, just up Jefferson. He’s not playing today to release stress…
Dean Fertita – Hello=Fire
Dean Fertita – Hello=Fire Schnitzel The off-the-cuff nature of Detroit-weaned Dean Fertita’s solo debut under the Hello=Fire moniker, recorded in fits and starts over 18 months, works in its favor; he’s obviously having the time of his life, particularly on far-out excursions like the lumbering come-on "I Wanna Like You." To him, studio time is…
In-Clined plane
If you’d followed Nels Cline pre-Wilco, you had no fear that joining one of the top acts in rock a few years back was going to be a stifling sell-out. Wilco, one assumed, really wanted him for his wild musical soul, and no doubt he’d to some extent keep up his affiliations with artists and…
Mitch flinch
We were a little taken aback Sunday when we read Mitch Albom spewing moral indignation in the Freep over the dreaded prospect of expiring Bush-era tax breaks for those making more than $250,000 a year. So, now it’s our turn to spew. First, there’s the fact that he used the ever-repeated case study of the…
Food Stuff
Slows gets faster — Anybody who has dropped in to Slows Bar-B-Q for one of their famous slow-cooked barbecue dishes knows it can be hard to find a table. Or a seat at the bar. Or even a place to stand, sometimes! Well, things may soon change with the opening this week of Slows to…
Motor City Five
Kelly Jean Caldwell Kelly Jean’s wild-child folk wants to be sung and swayed to. We’ll do just that, and find comfort on a wintry Detroit night, at her 7-inch vinyl release show this Saturday. First, five questions: Metro Times: What’s a musical influence we’d never hear in your songs? Kelly Jean Caldwell: Metal. Hair metal…
Don Was on iTunes and the death of liner notes
Got an e-mail the other day from my old friend, Steve Jordan – one of the greatest drummers on Earth … he’s played with everyone from Keith Richards to Sonny Rollins and produced a slew of artists like John Mayer, Solomon Burke and Buddy Guy. Steve asked, “How can NARAS [the National Academy of Recording…
Alice Cooper gets into the Rock and Roll of Fame. Lift a toast!
And I laugh to myself at the men and the ladies/ Who never conceived of us billion dollar babies It’s true, the Alice Cooper group got into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. It’s about stinkin’ time. We’ve bitched around here for years about the band not getting in. Even bitched with Alice about the…
