Cover Story
King Speaks
When the Michigan Legislature rammed through Right to Work legislation in a lame-duck session late last year, and Gov. Rick Snyder quickly signed the bill into law, labor unions in general and the United Auto Workers in particular were put on the defensive. Pushing Prop. 2, a failed measure that sought to enshrine the right…
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…
Review: Stand Up Guys
Stand Up Guys B- With its hackneyed gags, schmaltzy sentiment and overly familiar plotting, this slow-paced stroll down fading memory lane has absolutely no business being as thoroughly enjoyable as it turns out to be. Credit, of course, is due to a crew of old pros, both of whom turn in warm, funny and surprisingly…
City Slang: Sue Rynski talks Iggy and more
For those unfamiliar, there’s a wonderful photographer based in Paris called Sue Rynski who spent much of the ‘70s and ‘80s snapping shots and hanging out with Detroit’s punk and art rock elite. Rynski has posted a new blog here where she talked about her many and varied adventures. “The essence of rock and roll…
City Slang: ICP Jump Around
ICP has paid tribute to Boston-Irish rappers House of Pain with a new “Jump Around” video. However, the video (which can be seen here) appears to have been muted due to a copyright issue. They say, “Insane Clown Posse and Psychopathic Records proudly announce the release of the music video to “Jump Around.” Packed with…
City Slang: Erotic Poetry and Music Fest this month
The 26th Erotic Poetry and Music Festival takes place at the Corktown Tavern in Detroit on February 23 from 9 p.m. They say, “The festival is an “eclectic celebration of the erotic arts!” It features provocative poetry, dirty spoken word, erotic art, music and dance performances by some of the city’s top performers. It promises…
Review: Warm Bodies
Warm Bodies C+ The inarticulate teen: Is there a more tried-and-true rom-com protagonist? John Hughes made much of his career on the appeal of such characters, and so, in this age of zombie-inflected dramas, it makes sense that Hollywood would see the walking dead as an apt metaphor for the reticence of today’s youth. The…
Don’t Forget: Sonic Lullaby (Tonight)
Fine upstanding musicians making fluid, detached music, ohm-drones in the Berkley Front, extreme ambient swells of tones and rhythmic trundles, a j-o-l-t- that slowly sets on… We’ve got hip-hop showcases and even psyche-rock festivals, we’ve got DJ-nights and we’ve got indie-rockers doing benefit shows together; we’ve even got the Blues Fest. But what about the locals…
City Slang: Juggalo Day, wait, Weekend?
Legions of rabid ICP fans will be delighted to hear that this year, Juggalo Day is being extended into Juggalo Weekend on February 16 and 17. Yep, that’s a whole weekend of Faygo guzzling, make-up and kooky laughs. They say, “Originally planned as a one-day salute to the family unity that binds Juggalos all over…
“Right to Work” goes to court
The ACLU has just issued a press release announcing a court challenge to Michigan’s recently enacted “Right to Work” law. In out interview with UAW president Bob King that’s in this week’s paper, he provided a heads up that a legal challenge was in the works, but didn’t indicate that the ACLU would be involved.…
City Slang: The Stooges get ready to die
The follow up to the Stooges’ 2007 The Weirdness album will be called Ready to Die. It’ll be the first to feature James Williamson on guitar since Raw Power, and the first Stooges album ever to not feature sadly deceased guitarist (and Raw Power bassist) Ronnie Asheton. Williamson has produced the album, Mike Watt plays…
Cray Crays – Beehieve E.P. Beehive Recording Co.
What’s withthe Cray Crays? This quartet hasn’t even marked its first full year together, yet this digital EP is already the group’s second proper release. I mean, these guys only got together last spring, and, just like their songs, show no signs of slowing down. They don’t just play fast — they are fast. For…
Sundance 2013 It’s all about who you don’t know
The thing no one tells youabout the Sundance Film Festival is that it’s all about the shuttles. Seriously. Park City is a town of roughly 7,500 people and — for one week each January — Sundance draws 50,000 film fans, industry insiders, press reps, and Hollywood wannabes, who descend on the cozy mountain town and…
Review: HANSEL & GRETEL
Hansel & Gretel D Are you’re the typeof moviegoer who has been clamoring to see an R-rated IMAX 3-D feature about two beloved children’s fable characters morphed into foul-mouthed, bloodthirsty ass-kickers who deploy a brand of ruthless vengeance with a vigor that would shock the Inglourious Basterds team? If so, I have a follow-up question:…
Review: Amour
Amour A- In MichaelHaneke’s Amour, Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are an affectionate elderly French couple enjoying their twilight years in comfort. Then Anne is struck by a series of strokes, and her husband must take care of her; feeding her, helping her go to the bathroom, supporting her as a suicidal depression…
Smoky treats
Parks Old-Style Bar-B-Q7444 Beaubien St., Detroit; 313-873-7444; parksoldstylebar-b-q.com; Tucked away from East Grand Boulevard on the edge of New Center and the old North End, Parks Old-Style stands between Custer and Horton streets, on the east side of Beaubien. It was built, from the ground up, in 1963-1964 and has stood the test of time.…
Stealing the presidency
Republicans tried as hard as they could to win last fall’s presidential election. They poured hundreds of millions of dollars into it, got the most photogenic candidate they could, distorted the record and smeared the president behind the scenes. They even kept George W. Bush out of sight and out of mind for the entire…
Yo La Tengo -Fade (Matador)
How do you keep your sound fresh after more than 20 years as a band? Yo La Tengo’s answer is simple: Don’t think too hard. Fade, their 14th studio album, is an amalgamation of elements from all of the quieter work in the seminal indie group’s catalogue. The effortless acoustic sway of Fade, while nuanced…
Addicted to love?
Q: I’ve been a fan of your Savage Lovecast for a long time, but I had to write after hearing Marty Klein’s awesome talk about the fallacy of “sex addiction.” I am 27, and for most of my adult life, I have suffered from complete sexual dysfunction with partners. I was ashamed and thought I…
Lord Scrummage-Triangle or Die Self-released
This somewhat slippery art-pop collective seems to be getting serious in 2013. Lord Scrummage often hosted (or at least served as the central attraction of) a series of word-of-mouth floating concerts and psychedelic-music happenings via their transient tenancies at various local loft spaces over the last five years. This crisply produced, confident and crazy-sounding full-length…
Fighting the other terror
Though entirely composed, Shoshana Hebshi seemed just a bit nervous as she faced a clutch of reporters gathered for a news conference at the Michigan ACLU headquarters in Detroit last week. It’s understandable that someone unused to staring into microphones and television cameras might be a little tense — especially when, as she claims, you…
Don’t be dazed
Michigan medicalmarijuana activists have a new film promoting their cause. Blazed and Confused: The War Against the Michigan Medical Marihuana Actis a one-hour documentary that examines how things are not working so well for some folks in the medical marijuana system. It was made by local filmmaker Jen Whalen. Whalen has worked on other films,…
Diggin’ that Duggan
Two weeks ago, in the federal racketeering trial featuring former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his father Bernard Kilpatrick, and contractor Bobby Ferguson, a familiar name popped up during a secretly recorded conversation involving papa Kilpatrick and James R. Rosendall, a prosecution witness who served 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to bribery. The interchange,…
Letters to the Editor
Road outrage I read with disgust the plan to have the city of Detroit potentially reallocate its gasoline and weight tax monies for the proposed I-94 expansion (“A highway runs through it,” Jan. 16). Detroit already has horrific roads. I can’t even travel to Cliff Bell’s without getting a flat tire while leaving the exit…
Funky groovester
There’s an irony,or perhaps a simple contradiction, in the fact that the word “nadir” refers to the lowest point reached by a celestial body, and yet the man who bears that name (pronounced NAY-deer) is an incredibly positive, upbeat and enthusiastic soul. On the day of our interview, which takes place at MTtowers, Nadir bounds…
Packed house
The Sardine Room 340 S. Main St., Plymouth 734-416-0261 thesardineroom.com Handicap accessible Small plates and snacks: $3-$14 Large plates: $12-$21 The Sardine Room opens Monday through Saturday at 4 p.m. and closes at approximately 9 or 9:30 p.m. Monday-Tuesday, 10 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, and 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Sunday brunch is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.…
Food Stuff
New in town —The historic Maccabees building on the Wayne State campus boasts a “new” American restaurant, Maccabees at Midtown, that serves lean Angus steak burgers, bountiful mixed green salads and homemade potato pancake sandwiches. And to wash down the variety of gastronomic delights, the restaurant has a full bar with an assortment of domestic…
City Slang: Battlecross back in the studio
Local power metal titans Battlecross, signed to Metal Blade Records, are going into the studio next month to record the follow-up to the 2011 debut Pursuit of Honor. According to a press release, “Battlecross will look to Mark Lewis and crew at Audiohammer Studios in Florida to record their follow up to 2011/2012’s breakout album,…
