Cover Story
Domination station
BDSM is in the headlines of late thanks to E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, an out-of-nowhere hit book. Book One is No. 1 on Amazon’s top-sellers as of last Friday, with Books Two and Three holding the No. 6 spot and the No. 7 spot, respectively. The New York Times has covered the…
City Slang: Savage Grace added to DMA bill
Following the recent news that Suzi Quatro will be unable to perform at the Detroit Music Awards on April 27 as planned, ‘60s Grande Ballroom rockers Savage Grace have been added to the bill. According to the press release, “More than 40 years after singer Al Jaquez co-founded the hard-hitting Detroit rock band Savage Grace,…
Record Store Day: Twenty Twelve (inch)
One of my favorite things is visiting a local record store. The dusty feel of undiscovered vinyl leaves you coming back and back again for that one record you’d wished you picked up. Record Store Day was created in 2007, based on the celebration of your local mom & pop vinyl store. Every year, bunches…
Tarnished Gold – The First Sparks of Summer
I am musing over the mystic chords of memory… Collecting myself on a soggy, silvery morning. Too early for a Saturday, trying to situate myself, leafing through glossy magazines that call Kanye West some Ameican Mozart for the 21st century, tabbing through blog sites telling me about everything that I’m missing at this year’s sanctimonious…
Occupy your mind!
Following up an a similar event held last December, an Occupy Detroit teach-in will be held at Wayne State University. Thursday, April 19. The event kicks off with a 12:30 p.m. screening of the doc Inside Job. Afterward, University of Michigan philosopher and economist Frank Thompson will lead a discussion of subjects examined in the…
Tim Allen Is the Comeback Comedian, TV Guide Readers Say
Tim Allen must think Thomas Wolfe was full of crap. In a television sense, Allen is proving you can go home again – home to the network where you scored your greatest career success nearly two decades ago, back to the tried-and-true sitcom format, a return to the millions of viewers who loved you in a…
City Slang: The Gathering is back, plus Alice news
Tickets to the 13th annual Gathering of the Juggalos, curated by ICP, are on sale now and can be purchased at the official website. According to a statement, “The music festival, curated by Insane Clown Posse and Psychopathic Records, will take place August 8th-12th in Cave-In-Rock, Illinois at The Hatchet Landings (AKA Hog Rock), and…
City Slang: Cactus back at the Bag
Reunited ‘70s hard rockers Cactus, featuring stellar local guitarist Jimmy McCarty as well as Carmine Appice, plays the Magic Bag in Ferndale on May 5. Support comes from the Muggs. According to the press release, “Cactus’ 1970 self-titled debut — referred to by McCarty as “the methedrine album” — turns the blues up to 11…
Record Store Daze (Found Sound)
Just what I need in my life, another Record Store! (No, really, I probably need it.) Record Store Day is looming. It’s often a personal victory if I’m able to restrain myself from dropping dollar amounts surpassing triple digits – because then, really, I’d admit I have a problem… But there are all kinds of exciting…
City Slang: Janiva Magness rocks the Bag
You don’t have to listen to blues singer Janiva Magness for long before knowing, really knowing, that she has suffered through more than her fair share of pain and heartbreak in her life. As she sings about “never wanting to hurt a man so bad”, twisting knives and so forth, it’s also apparent that she…
The Three Stooges
The Three Stooges C For once, a modern revival of a screen classic gets it right, as the new version of The Three Stooges is just as blissfully moronic as the originals. Long a staple of low-rent UHF stations and hackneyed punch lines about the taste differences between men and women, the dependable old Stooges…
City Slang: Battlecross to play with Cattle Decapitation at Harpos, Kem goes Gold
Local Metal Blade Records artists Battlecross will play Harpos in Detroit on April 25. Cattle Decapitation will headline, and the bill is rounded off by Origin, Decrepit Birth and Aborted. BATTLECROSS’s Metal Blade debut, Pursuit of Honor, was released August 2nd, 2011 and within months they landed in the #1 position of Sirius XM’s the…
Bully
Bully B The challenge with writing a review of an activist or social issue documentary, particularly when the topic is as important and timely as childhood bullying, is that you have to balance the message and intention of the film against the effectiveness and artistry of its filmmaking. On the first count, Lee Hirsch’s Bully…
Summer Pledge find more with less, stay healthy, stay focused!
Dustin says, “I feel like Vessels is where we’re gonna be for a long time…We’ve finally pin-pointed the sound we’re looking for–this, this hybrid of all our weird brains combined.” Over the last few years, Woodbridge-based The Summer Pledge were known for their throwback-emo aesthetic shrouded in dense, buzzy layers of guitar; synthesizers swirled in their…
City Slang: Ed Sanders and Rodriguez at Wayne State University
Legendary poet and founding member of the Fugs Ed Sanders will be performing at Wayne State University tonight (Wednesday, April 11), with Rodriguez The show is free, and it will be hosted by local poet M.L. Leibler. This event will mark a rare Detroit appearance by Sanders, who will be performing at the Welcome Center…
Will it work?
Nobody really knows. By the narrowest of margins — one vote — Detroit’s City Council voted last week not to commit political suicide. They opted instead to approve a "consent agreement" under which the state and city agree to work together to make the radical economic changes needed. Switch one vote the other way, and…
Eastern accents
$=$5-$10; $$=$10-$25; $$$=$25-$50; $$$$=$50+ Café Sushi 1933 W. Maple Rd., Troy; 248-280-1831; cafesushitroy.com; $$$: When you walk into Café Sushi you are greeted by a sleek sushi bar topped with black tile. The focus is for those who want to try Japanese food but are scared away by raw fish — no daring is required…
Detroit’s turning point?
When the Detroit Charter Commission convened a couple of years ago, they considered whether we should be in a strong mayor system or a weak mayor system. They considered how much power City Council members would have under the district system that Detroiters voted for. If they’d looked at the city’s screwed-up finances, they might…
Intended for pleasure
Q: My fiance and I have been together for six years. We’re both 27. About a year ago, he admitted to me that he is bi — which I was surprised about. I told him that I was bi-curious. We have had talks about meeting with other couples. I am very insecure. I have been…
Monsters of Rock
Part of what makes the Motor City so livable is that pretty much any musical style can be found on many stages all over metropolitan Detroit. However, until Writhing found its way onto our desks with its "Indomitable" EP recently, we had found it extremely difficult to find a bona fide death metal combo in…
Footnote
Footnote B Think the world of corporate competition can get nasty? Try academic infighting. For some reason, the smaller the stakes are, the nastier the conflict becomes. Add in an unhealthy dose of father-son rivalry and you’ve got the makings of a particularly toxic brew. Or so goes the premise of 2011 Oscar-nominated Footnote, from…
Food Stuff
Timmy’s tacos As we’ve noted before, Timmy Vulgar, frontman of Detroit’s own cosmic space punk band, Timmy’s Organism, also makes a mean taco — he uses real corn tortillas brimming with tasty beef, white onions, fresh lime and cilantro, and very limited cheese. Vulgar’s band and his authentic, award-winning tacos will be at the Loving…
Unterzakhn
Unterzakhn by Leela Corman Schocken Books, $24.95, 208 pp. The eponymous "underthings" in Leela Corman’s new graphic novel Unterzakhn (the word is Yiddish) could refer to any number of things. It could be the main characters, twin girls living in New York’s Lower East Side in the early 20th century, who seem to get lost…
Campaign ad nauseam
If you have watched any television at all lately, you no doubt have seen the "Nine Dollar Gas" commercial attacking President Barack Obama for his energy policies. The $3.2 million ad campaign — being aired in Michigan and seven other so-called "battleground" states expected to be key in the November presidential election — is funded…
Crank
Georg Breinschmid FIRE Capitol 4 Stars Riffing: Precisely executed, smart-ass anarchic jazz with roots in bop and classical. Reference points: Like his former bandmates in the Vienna Art Orchestra, bassist Breinschmid makes the case that the unfettered comic spirit of Spike Jones, Raymond Scott, and Slim and Slam is stronger in Europe than stateside, though…
Motor City 5
For a stretch in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Charles Lloyd was one of the handful of big-selling crossover jazz artists, playing the rock palaces before Miles Davis arrived at them with Bitches Brew. Lloyd retired from the scene, returned, withdrew a number of times before his final comeback era began in 1986 in…
M. Ward – A Wasteland Companion (Merge)
Unlike most semi-rustic singer-songwriters, M. Ward has always seemed comfortable in his own skin, if not on stage. From Transfiguration of Vincent to Hold Time, he adorned his seductive melodies and splendidly atmospheric guitar work with an affable nonchalance. You could forgive him for sliding into benign prettiness, because it was something he was great…
City of Bohane
City of Bohane by Kevin Barry Graywolf Press, $25, hardcover, 288 pp. At first crack, reading Kevin Barry’s City of Bohane is like listening to the ramblings of a charismatic drunk. The tale begins without preamble, in visceral, colloquial language heavily peppered with obscure Irish slang. If one bothered to pause and Google every unfamiliar…
Mercury rising
Mercury Burger & Bar 2163 Michigan Ave., Detroit mercuryburgerbar.com 313-964-5000 Burgers and sandwiches mostly: $6-$8; dogs: $4-$5 Handicap accessible Open 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday, until midnight Thursdays and 1 a.m. Friday-Saturday. Are there enough burger joints in the world? Will Americans ever get enough of ground cow? Apparently not, which is why Dave Steinke was…
Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance
Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance B- My ignorance about ballet is so boundless, I’d have bought just about anything I was told in Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, a film that’s not shy about heaping buckets of praise on its subject. This bone-dry documentary works fiercely to exalt and explain the profound, groundbreaking influence of…
Foxy Shazam – The Church of Rock and Roll (I.R.S. Records)
There was only one Queen. With only so many albums recorded before singer Freddie Mercury’s death, fans have wanted more Queen for almost 20 years. Foxy Shazam is the Queen of my generation; an American band from Cincinnati, Ohio who charted on the Billboard 200 with "Unstoppable," the first single from their eponymous third album.…
Cabin in the Woods
Cabin in the Woods B+ Every so often, a movie comes along that is so self-consciously fanboy-oriented, so relentlessly meta, that if you have an ounce of geekiness in your bones you’re going to seriously dig it. In this case, it’s A Cabin in the Woods, a sarcastic nerdy spectacle from Drew Goddard (Cloverfield’s writer)…
Letters to the Editor
Black and white I am brokenhearted and dismayed that white Americans (and even some black Americans) are totally missing the bigger picture in the Trayvon Martin killing. When government institutions show such a blatant disregard for the lives of black people, it is institutionalized racism. Most black people know that the Trayvon Martin killing is…
Is the deal with the state a good one?
Will it work? By Jack Lessenberry Nobody really knows. By the narrowest of margins — one vote — Detroit’s City Council voted last week not to commit political suicide. They opted instead to approve a "consent agreement" under which the state and city agree to work together to make the radical economic changes needed. Switch…
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…
