Party Pit – manning up with The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady 10/27/06 Magic Stick There was a film crew walking around in the Magic Stick, just two scruffy kids with a camera and a boom mic, asking the locals for their thoughts on the The Hold Steady for what will certainly be a Boys and Girls in America tour documentary. But the locals…
A punk rocker; also a Cadillac buyer.
In 2002, when Cadillac lifted Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” for use in its “Break Through” ad campaign, there was a brief uproar over the co-opting of classic rock to sell cars. Or whatever. It was really the last time there was any argument over music licensing in ads – the climate in the music…
Making the Scene.
MOCAD Gala Opening Afterparty 10/26/06 Maybe it isn’t finished yet, but MOCAD’s Woodward Avenue facade still isn’t distinctive enough. I nearly drove right by the museum last night, and I’m one of the people who knows where it is. Luckily the battalion of red-coated valets deployed outside the facility’s Garfield Avenue entrance made MOCAD’s grand…
The ‘Terrible’ is silent.
INDIE MUSIC SHOWCASE ft. The Terrible Twos 10/26/06 7 p.m. Record Time 262 W. Nine Mile Ferndale 248-336-TIME Terrible Twos make a manic, just-slightly-contained racket, a similar sort of thing to what we’ve been hearing from other local cats like the Frustrations or even Lee Marvin Computer Arm. (Though it’s not quite as manic as…
Snoozing with Ellis.
It’s another dispatch from Charles L. Latimer, Metro Times’ jazz scribe.–Johnny Loftus Ellis Marsalis 10/20/06 Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center Ellis Marsalis kicked off the 2006-20007 LaSalle Bank Paradise Jazz Series with a performance last Friday night at Orchestra Hall. Verdict: It was snooze. I didn’t expect Marsalis to swing; the…
Hear a song blow again and again
Today is Sirius Radio’s Internet free day. Just like the cable companies used to do in the early 1990s, you can listen to the system’s programming under a trial system, then decide whether or not you want to subscribe in the future. Naturally it’s Howard Stern’s visage that’s leading Sirius’ branding for this stunt; Stern’s…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Nineteenth-century English poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote a series of sensual sonnets inspired by his relationship with his wife Elizabeth. Before he could publish them, Elizabeth died. He was so distraught he placed the only copy of his manuscript in the grave with her. Years later, though, he decided the love…
Don’t try this at home
Q: I’m working with Wikipedia, where we’re currently debating the “donkey punch.” It may not be real, but Wikipedia has articles on perpetual motion, sewer alligators and creationism — so why not donkey-punching? The difference, though, is that the donkey punch (fucking someone in the ass and then punching them hard in the back of…
You want scary?
It’s Halloween time in the city formerly known as the Motor Capital of the World. Long-shadow days made for all saints and all souls, for devils and angels, for dolling up and getting down with the year’s strangest set of post-industrial parties. There are enough soirees planned to keep you in costume, dancing and looking…
The kindler, gentler Satanist
It’s been a long day for Mike Grace. After a hectic training session at Shore Mortgage in Birmingham, where he’s learning to be a loan officer, he stops by the KFC next door for a bite to eat with his wife. He’s dressed in an olive, freshly pressed button-down shirt and subtly patterned tie, and…
Greens come knocking
What happens when the political fringe and the mainstream of public opinion begin to merge? The answer to that question is “nothing,” at least as long as the mainstream remains unaware of the message those on the margins are attempting to deliver. It’s an issue playing out this election season as the far-lefties in Michigan’s…
Night and Day
Thursday • 26 Negative Approach Appreciation Night MUSIC/FILM A few years ago local skate-punk band Violent Ramp claimed there could be no real hardcore without Ronald Reagan. But as the curtain rises on yet another era of blue-collar woe, we find hardcore punk making a resurgence. Appropriately, Corktown Tavern now hosts a Thursday Punk Night…
What they aren’t talking about
Normally I go out to breakfast one weekend morning to the same middle-class place, where I talk to my two favorite waitresses (no, they don’t call themselves servers at this place) about what’s been going on in their lives. Every time I do, I can’t help but think that most of the people running for…
Ooh, ooh Juggalos!
Insane Clown Posse’s powers of myth-making and merchandising are so legendary, it’s a wonder Psychopathic ringleaders Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope haven’t yet followed Kiss fully down the brand-saturation path and issued an ICP casket. Picture it: a solemn, flame-covered vessel to ferry fallen Juggalos to a Faygo-soaked afterlife free of haters and hatchets…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
Bloody beasts
Two by two they boarded Noah’s ark eons ago. Now, one by one, the cruel fates that have decimated the shipbuilder’s precious living cargo are laid bare by Scott Hocking and his posse of artist-collaborators in Animals. Noah’s heroic rescue of the animal kingdom seems to have come to naught, as envisioned in this tour…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Look what your brother did to the MB92! Street To Nowhere — Charmingly Awkward (Capitol) :: Elton John meets Trent Reznor. Don’t shoot me, I’ll do it myself. Daughters — Hell Songs (Hydra Head) :: Which song I should play first? "Boner X-Ray" or "Crotch Buffet"? Xiu Xiu — The Air Force (5RC) :: Try…
Head Cheese
Los Angeles quartet Los Abandoned puts the pop sense of Weezer and Fountains of Wayne through a bilingual, Los Angeles melting-pot wringer and the result resembles Mexican Rock en Español faves Café Tacuba covering the the Rentals. With their new full-length Mix Tape out on Vapor, Los Abandoned are making their debut visit to Detroit.…
The Bard in our backyard
With three complete Shakespeare productions, 75 actors and 140 lectures, readings, roundtables and demonstrations in just three weeks, the residency of England’s Royal Shakespeare Company in Ann Arbor is, arguably, the largest theatrical venture to take place in southeastern Michigan. This year’s 21 performances will draw about 25,000 spectators from the United States and foreign…
The eleven Satanic rules of the Earth
1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked. 2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them. 3. When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there. 4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and…
The nine Satanic sins
1. Stupidity — The top of the list for Satanic Sins. The Cardinal Sin of Satanism. It’s too bad that stupidity isn’t painful. Ignorance is one thing, but our society thrives increasingly on stupidity. It depends on people going along with whatever they are told. The media promotes a cultivated stupidity as a posture that…
Meet your friendly neighborhood Satanists
Name: Daniel DeVill Age: 27 Occupation: Lead singer of rock/metal band The Living Dead Location: Toledo, Ohio My first time with Satan: How did Daniel become involved in Satanism? "It wasn’t rock music, it was growing up in a Christian community." ( Daniel first read The Satanic Bible at age 12. When his parents —…
Motor City Cribs
Phat Kat shows off his roost at the Leland.
Sweet & surreal
Seen through the windows of Robert Kidd Gallery, Lisa Clague’s Creatures in Clay seem innocent enough. Her animals might easily be seen spinning to music in the nursery of a pampered child, and her nude female figures are starkly elegant mannequins with just a bit of froufrou in the tutus. But upon closer inspection, whether…
The heat goes on
Competitive griller Billy Bones’ choice tips.
Art Bar
American Life in Poetry by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006 Many poems celebrate the joys of having children. Michigan poet Jeff Vande Zande reminds us that adults make mistakes, even with children they love, and that parenting is about fear as well as joy. Clean Her small body shines with water and light. Giggling,…
Tool this, kids
Isis has been leading the charge of the so-called “hipster metal” movement for a while now, along with groups like SunnO))) and Mastodon. But if there’s a mainstream metal band that fits with Isis’ sound, Tool is it. Both groups employ sprawling, spacey atmospheres; both drop into straightforward, trad-metal pummeling to accent those moody concoctions;…
Holy Golden Age!
One true great American art form is comic books. The genre burst from the darkness of the Great Depression with unbridled enthusiasm and creativity. It imagined wild universes of action and adventure, good and evil, far beyond on the ordinary domain of everyday life. Not surprisingly, the arrival of Superman in 1938 unleashed a tidal…
Slimming the Amway
Amway’s involvement in Dr. Phil diet drink case.
Still Dickin’ around
DeVos linked to boycott of Ford Motor.
Here
Like the late, great J Dilla, Dutch beatmaker Nicolay is a big fan of neo-soul R&B as it relates to hip hop. But unlike Dilla, Nicolay isn’t so much an experimentalist as he is a classicist, favoring languid, rounded beats and melodic sing-along choruses. The result is an album of gorgeously clean R&B beats over…
Letters to the Editor
Shocking development So your Reader’s Picks categories included the best of every sports team except the Detroit Shock, a team with two WNBA championships, and the only place a Shock player showed up was under “Best ass on a local pro athlete.” I am deeply disappointed. I really expected more from a newspaper that employs…
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
Braggtown
Of the Marsalis siblings, Branford has always been the most musically adventurous. This recklessness can be favorable, like on his collaborations with Sting, or 1992’s blues-tinged I Heard You Twice the First Time. But there have been flops too. Buckshot La Fonque, his wacky hip-hop and jazz hybrid, was dreadful. Fortunately Marsalis has been on…
Old World discovery
Charming little Italian restaurant with authentic Italian cuisine. Portions are big enough for two. In two cozy rooms, with bare wooden tables and thick cloth napkins and walls full of family photographs and wine and oil bottles, Cariera’s turns out a familiar array of old-fashioned classics. As befits a restaurant with few pretensions, most patrons…
Post-War
On the second track of M. Ward’s Post-War, the songwriter — backed by an orchestra of drums, pianos and girl backup singers, and a whole goddamn nu-folk thundercloud — pledges, "I’ll be true to you, oh, yeah. You know I will." In context of the tune it’s a lover’s promise, but given the singer’s career…
Dr. T’s oddity
In 1953, Dr. Seuss was recruited by the grandiose, heart-on-his-sleeve producer Stanley Kramer to concoct an Alice in Wonderland-like fantasy that would also serve as a vaguely anti-fascist screed. The result: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, certainly the only kids’ movie in which boys run around wearing beanie caps with hands on top, adults…
The Queen
Set in the midst of Princess Diana’s tragic death, this film scrutinizes the dealings of the royals and then-newbie Prime Minister Tony Blair. It’s neither a touchy-feely walk down memory lane nor is it a scathing condemnation. Director Stephen Frears’ successful and unapologetic re-enactment of the events of 1997 is instead a compelling narrative about…
Little Children
Directed by Todd Field and based on Tom Perrotta’s novel, the film wavers between the menacing and the satirical, but never loses its grip on you. Little Children follows a quiet, bedroom community where gossipy hens shuttle toddlers to the playground and swap notes on parenting and sex. The moms’ carefully ordered world is only…
Flags of Our Fathers
With a galaxy of A-list Hollywood talent backstage and virtually no celebrities on screen, Flags is Clint Eastwood’s take on the cynical, provocative backstory to the most iconic image of WWII, the raising of the American flag on the sacred Japanese island of Iwo Jima. By the time of the bloody takeover of Japan’s “Sulphur…
The Prestige
The tragic saga of dueling magicians in turn-of-the-century London, The Prestige is based on the acclaimed British novel by Christopher Priest and directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins). Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) sits on death row, accused of the murder of his rival, Rupert “The Great Danton” Angier (Hugh Jackman). Poring over…
Marie Antoinette
Those who hoped that Coppola would follow up Lost in Translation by shaking up the dusty old genre of the period picture will be disappointed: Despite the modern music, this is a fairly conventional film. If you’re charitable — that is, if you fantasize about being invited to the most fantastic tea party ever —…
Believe
This Christopher Guest-style sendup of the world of multilevel marketing is not a hardnosed exposé, but a breezy mockumentary. The film follows a number of characters in a dreadfully humdrum Midwestern town that’s been staggered by the recent closing of the local steel mill. With a sudden lack of real employment, the townsfolk find themselves…
The Nightmare Before Christmas – 3D
Though only a modest box-office success when it was first released in 1993, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas has enjoyed a huge cult following in the last decade. When Disney re-released the film in 2000 for I-Max audiences, a flood of movie tie-ins hit the market and the deluge hasn’t stopped since. Hoping to…
