One-man Psychobilly act and short-lived network reality show elimiDate contestant Scotty Karate is the only Detroit rocker to have earned the distinction of having a beer made in is honor. A couple years ago, Karate hooked up with Michigan’s Dark Horse Brewing company, which created the Scotty Karate seasonal (fall and winter) Scotch Ale.
Karate was part of Chelsea’s frenetic and freaky Plumbobs, who released the mind-altered Welcome to Our Place on Goober and the Peas’ Detroit Municipal Recordings label in 1995. Karate also fronts a trio called Scotch Bonnet, whose new album Year of the Tranny will hit in January on Pontiac label Loco Gnosis.
Scotty had been splitting time between New York, Chicago and San Antonio, Texas, for a few years, but returned to Ann Arbor in 2005. Last August, Karate moved to his modestly priced digs in Wyandotte with his super-chick girlfriend Elizabeth Lesner and their four cats (she works at a veterinary hospital). With his 1930s apartment just a stones-throw from the Detroit River, the couple falls to sleep each night to the downriver lullaby of boat horns and train sounds. "The ships are romantic and bring out my Huck Finn," Karate says, "like I could hit Canada with my slingshot from here."
Go to metrotimes.com for a slideshow of Scotty Karate’s crib.