Cover Story
Reviewing Blaine Pardoe’s Murder in Battle Creek
On a bitterly cold January morning in 1963, in Battle Creek, a woman named Daisy Zick was brutally murdered in her suburban home. 50 years later, the killer has never been found and the mystery remains unsolved. In all likelihood, the killer has passed away; the main suspects in the case certainly have. Yet for…
Autumn Wolf – Primal Passion (9/25 -with Ancient Language)
Alex Kaye is Autumn Wolf – an electronica artist who recently released his first full length Primal Passion. If you can’t tell by the blog updates about the music collective that he’s been facilitating for a year (Dangerfox Recordings), or by the predominance of his name in the credits on the back of Primal Passion (art work, lyrics,…
City Slang: Kerrytown rocks
OK, guess who was late to his own party. I’m a man who abhors tardiness, and yet on Sunday afternoon I suffered from the most wretched of brain farts. Convinced the music panel, “From Motown to Iggy Pop,” which I was scheduled to moderate, began at 1 p.m., I showed up at 12:15 only to…
Jagwar Ma
Jagwar Ma Howlin Mom+Pop It seems lately that it’d be more shocking if a new buzz band wasn’t danceable. That’s no dig against current blog darlings Jagwar Ma, who sleekly deal out aerobic beats to rollick their grinning blend of acoustic and synthetic elements. Throw out genres or influences, most bands are all…
Dallyin’
Dally In The Alley, like an incense-steamed icy-hot pad, provides this uncannily blended vibe, a kinetic chill… There’s a reason so many artists and bands wake up today wanting to write love letters to the annual community culture festival via their status-updates or giddy tweets. There are a slew of other theories/causes we could explore…
No One Knows Summer (Oh, It Just Had To End)
I’m not sure I know what my “song of the Summer” was… Or what this Summer’s worth of music came to mean, in the end… I can’t help coming back to a song that sounds so negative. But it sounds so soothing. It sounds like giving up but it gives me confused relief, but relief just the…
TIFF MOVIE REVIEWS: DAY TWO
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON B+ For Americans unfamiliar with the films of Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda (After Life, Still Walking), his latest film, LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON is a perfect entry point. Not because it’s his best work. It isn’t. But because this patient and astute filmmaker takes a Hollywood-style premise and fills it with…
Peter Hook (of Joy Division) brings The Light to Ferndale
Peter Hook’s New Joy Division Book Performing the Magic Bag in Ferndale with new group The Light Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures hooks you right away with that game-changing bass groove, kicking off its first track. Nervy but brash, herky-jerky but still skimming along, that unmistakable bass belonged to Peter Hook, just one component of the…
Toronto International FIlm Festival ’13 Diary: Day 1
Each year that I come to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), I adjust a few things and alter a few habits in a constant effort to “get better” at being a festivalgoer. This year I took the train so I could begin the festival well-rested and not have to deal with Toronto parking, I…
TIFF MOVIE REVIEWS: DAY ONE
BORGMAN B- Nothing like kicking the festival off with a droll Danish home-invasion flick. Woo-hoo, good times. To be honest, even that description doesn’t adequately describe Alex van Warmerdam’s creepy, quirky kinda -sorta thriller. Like an ironic take on Michael Haneke’s FUNNY GAMES, Borgman is the titular satan-like leader of a macabre band of misfits…
What is THAT? – Oddities from the MT mailbox
Here’s the deal. Every day here at the Metro Times, our mail delivery includes CDs, books and all sorts of other promotional items. A lot of it we can use and review – local-interest music, DVDs, etc. But we also get a lot of weird and whacky items that just kinda build up. So that’s…
New Robocop trailer available to view now
The trailer for the Robocop remake, due for theatrical release in 2014, is available to view now. See it here. First impressions? There are a few good shots of Detroit in the trailer. We know that the film was partially shot here (as well as all over Ontario), so we can expect to see more…
Who’s Bad in Ferndale?
On Friday, September 13, North Carolina’s premier Michael Jackson tribute band, Who’s Bad, will play the Magic Bag in Ferndale. As you can see from the pic, it’s an odd and eclectic bunch. They look like a Vegas act, backed by Justin Timberlake’s entourage. But, by all accounts, they sound authentic. If nothing else, it…
Terri Orbuch, Detroit’s ‘Love Doctor,’ Makes First Bid for National TV Series Sunday on Channel 56
“The Love Doctor®” is making a house call this weekend – to your house, she hopes, through the magic of television. Terri Orbuch, Ph.D., “The Love Doctor” Terri Orbuch, Ph.D., the Oakland University professor of sociology who has emerged as one of the nation’s most in-demand relationship experts, is hosting her first TV special, Secrets…
25 Bloody Years: Midnight Madness at the Toronto Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness Celebrates a Quarter Century of Gore, Gun-fu, Ass Cheeks, and Indie Spirit. Though it’s technically a part of the cineaste juggernaut that is the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF), the Midnight Madness program has always marched to its own drum (a violent, profane drum) and attracted its own audience…
City Slang: Louder Than Hell
Many, many words have been written on the subject of heavy metal music. Not necessarily the bands, but the label. As with any other genre tag, most of which are nonsensical to begin with, people seem determined to pin down the ultimate definition of what metal is. The movie that came out a few years…
12th Man Report: Michigan-Notre Dame Week
This week, one of the best weeks in every college football season, started off with Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly saying that Michigan wasn’t a traditional historic Notre Dame rival. This was obviously ridiculous — it’s literally one the NCAA’s longest standing football rivalries dating all the way back to 1887. But instead of talking…
Local Natives -9.20.13- Royal Oak Music Theatre (w/Wild Nothing)
This L.A. based indie-rock outfit endeared themselves to me when they covered a deep-ish cut from the Talking Heads’ catalog, nestling a nifty re-imagining of “Warning Sign” deep into their considerably acclaimed debut Gorilla Manor. The dust they effectively kicked up with that melody sweetened, rhythmically skittered, jangle-pop power-shake of an album turned a good number of…
City Slang: D Allie and Cold English with album and show
Local hip-hop guru D Allie has a new band called Cold English, and that band has a self-titled EP out now. The EP can be heard here, and tracks include “Fuck About a Dollar,” “This Shit Right Here,” “Choose You,” “You & I,” and “Feelin’ Good.” Cold English plays the Magic Bag on Friday, September…
City Slang: New ICP video
The Insane Clown Posse has dropped a new video for the song “The Mighty Death Pop!” According to Psychopathic, “Prepare for impact! Insane Clown Posse presents the music video to the title track of their Billboard Top 10 album The Mighty Death Pop! Set against a wince-inducing montage of some of the best “fail” footage…
For The Greater-Dally-Good (Sept 7)
Dally in the Alley… It couldn’t come at a better time. Happily hemmed by the side streets of Hancock and Forrest, 2nd and 3rd street, it radiates a certain magic once you enter it; it’s a realm onto itself, a release-valve-vortex for all daily stresses, from the unnerving daily news reports of amplified tensions and…
City Slang: Art and Apples
The 48th Art & Apples Festival takes place on September 6-8 at Rochester Park. Festival Director, Laura Bates looks forward to the event saying, “This year, the Art & Apples Festival received a higher number of artist applications and with that, has attracted an immense amount of artistic talent. Those who attend the festival each…
Are You A Counter-Elite?
Caterwauled in a throat-curdling, high-ranged shout-speak-spew, the Counter-Elites aren’t so much trying to piss you off with their minute-long tantrums of slightly melodious bass-bulged, drum-pulverizing declarations – they’re actually trying to get you to consider why you might feel, deep down, so pissed off by a range of issues – from corrupt politicians, to overreaching…
Cold English – Album Release Show – Friday in Ferndale
Cold English Self Release Blending (and balancing) funk, R&B, soul and hip-hop, Cold English sound cool, confident and unabashedly enthusiastic as they run a ambitious gamut of genres on their new record. The local quintet make that easygoing verve, waved atop warm guitars, stirring keys and shimmied rhythms, pretty infectious – with each jam…
Rebellion in the Kitchen
Thousands of fast-food workers in 60 cities from coast to coast walked off their jobs at the end of August in an escalating nationwide protest. Strikers are seeking raises to $15 an hour, paid sick leave and the right to unionize America’s second-biggest employer, the restaurant industry, which is predicting its 2013 profits will “reach…
Astounding Hypocrisy
Here’s something so awful that even a hardened old cynic like me had a hard time believing it, at least for a nanosecond. You know all those Republicans in the state Senate who fought hard against extending Medicaid benefits to the working poor? Turns out they aren’t completely without compassion: Every one of them voted…
When the Rubber Leaves the Road
I’ve been paying attention to a pile of several tires on the corner of Norfolk off Livernois in my Greenacres neighborhood. When a pile like this shows up in what is considered an upscale area of the city, I wonder what’s going on elsewhere. Illegally dumped tires seem to be everywhere in Detroit. “The tires…
Guerrilla Volunteerism
Along a stretch of Grand River Avenue between Warren and Rosa Parks is a collection of public art created by more than 85 artists. This group of artists and their artwork are a part of the Grand River Creative Corridor (GRCC), a nonprofit organization and neighborhood revitalization project. In 2010, Derek Weaver joined Ric Geyer…
Film Review: Hell Baby
Hell Baby | C+ As comic writers, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant are responsible for both Comedy Central’s hysterically scattershot Reno 911 (which they acted in as well) and the banal A Night at the Museum. So, to expect the comic horror Hell Baby to amount to anything more inspired than a raunchy, stoner…
Dally Cat
When singer-songwriter Laura Finlay arrives at the Metro Times office for her interview, she’s sweaty and breathing slightly heavily; she’s just cycled here from Hamtramck in the summer heat on a bike that she purchased last week. The exercise only generates more energy though — Finlay’s eyes are wide and enthusiastic. She has a firm…
Jefferson House
Jefferson House 2 Jefferson Ave., Detroit 313-965-0200 Handicap accessible Entrées: $19-$32 Open 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 6:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday If ever a hotel deserved to have a good restaurant, the Pontchartrain Crowne Plaza does, with its long history and its river views (from the rooms, not the restaurant, alas). And if ever a restaurant…
We Love His Glove
As the MLB’s regular season winds down, the typical who-will-win-what-award debates have started. For example, the Cabrera vs. Mike Trout argument for MVP is probably the most hotly debated topic in baseball right now. A lesser-known debate that has surfaced, though, is whether Tigers shortstop Jose Iglesias could, or should, win A.L. Rookie of the…
Quickies
Q: Settle this for us, Dan? Which is the bigger ask: a one-time, once-in-a-lifetime threesome or regular (and pretty damn elaborate) bondage sessions? —Ruling On Private Enquiry Required A: Let me guess: Your partner is into bondage, ROPER, and you’re not. But you’ve been doing the hard work of tying him, her or some-other-point-along-the-gender-spectrum up…
Food Stuff
FOOD THOUGHT Real Simple Easy, Delicious Home Cooking: 250 Recipes for Every Season and Occasion By Real Simple magazine Oxmoor House, $16.95, 368 pp. When dinnertime rolls around (again), do you sometimes wish you could disappear? Here’s a better idea: Grab this book from the editors of Real Simple for easy, delicious dinner solutions. THE…
MC FIVE
Chris Stein is a founding member of New York new wave punks Blondie, alongside the inimitable Debbie Harry. Stein plays guitar, and he and Harry wrote many of the Blondie classics together, including “Heart of Glass,” “Picture This,” “Rapture” and “Dreaming.” On Thursday, Sept. 12, Blondie plays the Royal Oak Music Theatre with L.A. punks…
Feedback
Dear Editor: re: “Postscript Thoughts”; [Stir it Up, Aug. 21-27, 2013] Larry Gabriel’s chest thumping about how 50 percent of Detroiters are illiterate being wrong because 17 percent of them figured out how to spell “Duggan” is ridiculous. It shows that even the “literate” may have questionable reasoning and critical thinking skills. Merri Busch Madison…
12th Man Report: Castellanos called up
It was a long awaited arrival. After months of hearing about how outfielder Nick Castellanos had been tearing up everything from Single-A Lakeland to Triple-A Toledo, the 21-year-old prospect finally got the call. And as he stepped to the plate, pinch hitting for Don Kelly, in the seventh inning of the Tigers’ loss to Cleveland…
City Slang: Weekly music review roundup
Send CDs, vinyl, cassettes, demos and 8-tracks to Brett Callwood, Metro Times, 733 St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 46226. Email MP3s and streaming links to [email protected]. Laura Rain and the Caesars’ Electrified (LRC) sees the soul singer on a mission to bring rootsy, gritty R&B back to Detroit, or at least to keep it here. This…
City Slang: A day at the fests
Despite the fact that the good Lord decided to throw an ocean on Detroit during the dark hours of Friday night, the sun is shining on Saturday morning and all of the signs are pointing to a beautiful Labor Day weekend. This writer also wanted to spend the whole time with his son (22-month-old Dylan),…
