Cover Story
Immortal beloveds
Illustrations by Andrew Spear This article is a joint project of Metro Times and Orlando Weekly. Special thanks to our contributors Ashley Belanger, Matt Gorney, W. Kim Heron, Michael Jackman, Billy Manes, Erin Sullivan, Aimee Vitek and Jessica Bryce Young. And extra special thanks to Andrew Spear for his illustrations, including the cover portrait…
City Slang: DMA submissions NOW
Phase I, the submission phase of Detroit Music Award voting, is open now, until January 21. In addition, while only registered DMA voters (music industry insiders and musicians) can participate in Phase II onwards, ANYONE can submit bands during this first phase. Now, we know that this is an event that inspires both apathy and…
D’Orchestra (1.26.13)
It was about nine months ago when local music mingling song scribbler Jesse Shepherd Bates sat down at a piano, plodding and plotting his next band, with perennial collaborator Erik Roosen providing softly rumbled plucks from a bassfiddle. The once, former, current, and maybe, again, future-member of the Satin Peaches seems to start something new…
City Slang: Behind the Eight Ball
MotorCityBlog and Most People Are DJs will host a fundraising event on February 8 at the Jazz Café in Detroit called Behind the Eight Ball. On the bill are the Phantom Shakers, Mexican Knives, the Luckouts, Almost Free, and SPACE BAND. They say, “For 8 years MOTORCITYBLOG and Most People Are DJs have been documenting…
City Slang: Vote for Boldy James on MTV
We were as surprised as anyone to discover that MTV still has anything to do with music, but apparently the channel does still dabble. For example, you can vote for local rapper Boldy James to appear on MTV James with his “For the Birds” video. Just visit the MTV website, watch the vid (because it’s…
One Blowout to the Next
This band, House Phone, was on the cover of the Metro Times not even 11-months ago. It was the preview issue for that year’s (15th) Blowout in Hamtramck. That band’s broken up now… Some of its members, including its lead singer/lyricist, (and, notably, its bassist) are continuing on with this new project, which performed last…
City Slang: Battlecross to tour (again)
Apparently, Detroit metal-heads Battlecross don’t know when to stop. 2013 sees them embarking on the “Another Year, Another Tour” tour. In Flames headlines, with Demon Hunter and All Shall Perish also on the bill. Of most interest to us is the Flint date at the Machine Shop on February 26. However, the tour takes in…
Pewter Cub: If You Can Hold Your Breath
Music journalists used to like tagging this stuff as “shoegaze” or “dream-pop,” maybe. Whatever could, hopefully, connote to you, dear reader, a sense of: sweet but dark, chilly but alluring, dark and moody but tight and twirling. This local trio’s tunes strike beguiling balance: rhythmically-rousing up against an atmospheric swoon of teased distortion, melodious vocals…
City Slang: Stop Domestic Violence benefit
Causes don’t really get any better than this one. On Saturday, Simon’s After Dark in Allen Park will host a benefit show and raffle to raise money for victims of domestic abuse. Bands on the bill include Jibs Brown, Ratzass, Busby’s Death Chair, the “D” Sides and Mary Jane’s Pride. According to the Facebook event…
City Slang: Decibilt men take a VOYAG3
Nope, there’s no typo in the title. According to a press release we received nice and early in the New Year, Steve Greene, Aaron Greene and Greg Mastin have a new musical project called VOYAG3R, pronounced Voyager 3. Yup, as awkward band names go, that one’s a doozy. However, the music sounds intriguing. They say,…
Six things in 2013
The past year has been an amazing one for those seeking to" legalize it," as reggae artist Peter Tosh’s musical anthem once called out. Colorado and Washington state voters legalized marijuana in the November elections. Connecticut and Massachusetts became the 17th and 18th states to say yes to medical marijuana. Politicians in the South American…
Short & Snappy
More than a thousand people showed up for a recent Savage Love Live event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It goes without saying that the students at UW submitted more questions than I could answer in 90 minutes. As promised, Madison, here are some bonus answers to questions that I didn’t get to during our…
Doctor trips
Oliver Sacks is one of the great scientific writers of our time. The author of neurological case studies like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings (which was also made into a film starring Robin Williams), Sacks turns the brain’s glitches into high literature. He recently published Hallucinations (Knopf), which, in…
Perfect 10s
It’s that time of year again. It’s the moment when we pick our favorite music of 2012. Don’t be so cynical! It’s more than just a lazy, year-end exercise to pad out a paper over the holidays! It’s an opportunity to look back through our notebooks and iPods and see what grabbed us this year…
Critical review
Promised Land | B The Best 1) Silver Linings Playbook A perfect romantic comedy cleverly embedded in a dysfunctional family drama, somehow managing to subvert both genres while delivering sheer moviegoing bliss. 2) The Master Paul Thomas Anderson’s incredibly vivid exploration of the hidden desires, depravity, faith, trauma and ambition of the "Greatest Generation,"…
What will happen to Detroit?
Nobody knows what this year will bring, but one thing is certain: Detroit can no longer go on the way it has. That’s not opinion, but cold fact. City officials admit Detroit is burning through cash at a terrifying rate. Soon, Motown will face either an emergency manager (likely), a new, tougher consent agreement (less…
Winter blues
On Jan. 4-5, the first weekend of 2013 and just days after the New Year’s celebrations, the Magic Bag in Ferndale will host the AntiFreeze Blues Festival, an event that celebrates everything from traditional blues to blues rock, and all that lies between. The first AntiFreeze took place back in January of ’97, with Sugar…
French twist
Rodin 15 E. Kirby St., Midtown 313-285-9218 Handicap accessible Small plates: $8-$18 Open 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and Sunday brunch will begin at the end of January. Clever, to name a French-inspired restaurant after the sculptor whose most famous work sits just a few feet away, in front of the DIA. Perhaps…
Food Stuff
A wish list for 2013 When it came to food, 2012 was a pretty good year. We saw the pop-up phenomenon start to blossom. We saw rallies promoting food trucks, which continue to make inroads around town. We saw a bunch of inventive new restaurants open, not just in the suburbs but many of…
Promised Land
Promised Land | B Because it’s a bold-faced liberal polemic in the guise of a popcorn picture, many of my highfalutin critical brethren have turned up their noses at Promised Land, despite the fact that its ecological message must resonate deep in their Sunday New York Times-reading, Sumatran free-trade coffee-swilling souls. There is nothing the…
Roots of a rampage
Heart-wrenching photos of innocent children and grieving adults have dominated the news since the Newtown massacre, as bewildered bystanders across the country ask what could have motivated such a horrific crime. We hardly recognize the country we have become as incidents of this kind — doubly frightening for their randomness — shatter ordinary lives in…
City Slang: Happy New Year
From all at the Metro Times and City Slang, we wish all of our readers a Happy New Year. 2012 produced some amazing live shows, albums and singles from local musicians, and we are sure that 2013 will produce even more. That’s the way it’s always been in this town. No resting on past glories.…
The Best Worst Year
Look. Listen, I implore you… I’ll only have your attention for the next 47 seconds at best and that’s why it’s been the worst year but it’s also been the best year because you already endorse my satire for endemically-shredded attention spans. You already know. You know how fucked it all is, how…
