Cover Story
Consent and dissent
There are lots of daunting numbers swirling around Detroit’s financial crisis, but none of them is more devastating than this one: 237,493. That figure represents the decline in the city’s population between 2000 and 2010. Let that sink in for a moment. At the start of this new century, Detroit had more than 950,000 residents.…
For The Hell Of It
What’s punk, anymore? Garage? Scuzz-pop? What are all these faceless voices blathering-on about on their blogs… These descriptor tags… space-slop… and what-have-you. Their ability for registoring any sense of identity or distinction has been worn-away, over-usage of copy/paste, ctrl+V, ctrl+V!! … Psychedelic-noise…wait, what now? But, hey…what’s a Fest, anymore? The new species, the next mutation,…
City Slang: Johnny Headband’s album out now
Detroit trio Johnny Headband has just released its Who Cooks For You album. It can be downloaded and streamed here, while the video for the single “And Then Again” can be viewed here. According to a statement, “Detroit based trio Johnny Headband are back at it again, this time with their new full-length, “Who Cooks…
City Slang: Crud celebrates Stinko de Mayo
Vinnie Dombroski’s industrial metallers Crud a Stinko de Mayo show on Friday, May 4 at the Ritz in Warren. According to a statement, “This ‘muy caliente” party includes live music by denizen electro rockers Crud, primal stoners White Shag, full throttle rockers 60 Second Crush, femme fronted metal grinders Mound Road Engine and guy-lined glam-heads…
City Slang: Record Store Day at Street Corner
I hope that everybody celebrated Record Store Day in style at your nearest store, picking up some bargains and showing support to an industry that really needs it. My nearest is Street Corner Music in Oak Park, and I spent a few bucks diving into its awesome dollar bin. Post a comment if you got…
Two Tone Mambo
We start at Lenin’s mummy; Tom starts wondering whether it’s going to continue laying inside the Kremlin and I wonder whether his body got the traditional Egyptian mummification processes, -the whole brains-hooked-out-through-the-nostrils-thing. This spins Tom off on one of his occasional rants against Ancient Aliens on the History Channel. Do we have a Math Channel,…
City Slang: Zeds Dead added to Movement
Dubstep stars Zeds Dead have been announced as the final headlining act for the 2012 Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit, performing on the Red Bull Music Academy Stage on Sunday May 27. Full performance times can be viewed here. “The festival lineup this year is a dynamic mix of legendary performers, Detroit icons and…
Romney and the Nugent: ‘How cool is that?!”
When Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen correctly pointed out last week that Ann Romney wasn’t exactly well qualified to be bolstering Mitt’s approval rating among women by speaking to the economic struggles they face, reaction from the Romney campaign was swift and the right-wing echo chamber went wild. All because Rosen said Ann Romney had “never…
MT takes 9 honors in area SPJ competition
Metro Times took seven awards, two of them for first place, plus two honorable mentions in the annual awards competition of the Detroit Chapter Society of Professional Journalists announced Wednesday night. The awards were in the Class A print competition for daily papers of 100,000 circulation or more plus magazines and alternative-style weeklies of 50,000…
City Slang: Psychopathic signs Big Hutch
Psychopathic Records has announced the signing of former Above the Law rapper Big Hutch. He will take on the persona Cold 187, and his first album for the label will be called The One Solution. According to the press release, “The One Solution is going to be a fully themed, concept album where hip hop…
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee B- When the images are this compelling, this gorgeously framed, it’s easy to forget what kind of audience Disney had in mind with Chimpanzee — but only if you’re deaf or bring an iPod to provide your own soundtrack. Otherwise you’re stuck with Tim Allen’s mocking, cutesy-pie narration and Disney’s unrelenting anthropomorphization of wildlife.…
The Lucky One
The Lucky One C- When you strap on the feedbag at your local faux Italian dining big box, you’re not paying for authenticity but for ample portions of warm, sloppy comfort, unfettered by the complexity of real pancetta or imported pecorino Romano cheese. The same thing applies when you take your seat for the seventh…
The Island President
The Island President B+ Woe is the world of the stubborn pragmatist. Mohamed Nasheed is the now-former president of the Maldives (he was recently forced to leave office at gunpoint by the military). In 2008, the grassroots activist and journalist was his country’s first democratically elected leader, ousting a corrupt dictator and championing the environmental…
Lambchop is a band. A band that you should go see on Monday.
Nashville’s Lambchop have been making amazing, weird, beautiful country-tinged compositions since forever (well, more like the early 90’s) and they’re making a rare Detroit-area appearance on Monday night at the Ark in Ann Arbor. There are a million reasons you should go – not the least of which being Lambchop is one of the most…
Everyone I Know
Ten months ago, 18 bands crammed into the Lager House, setting up and playing in front of a handful of cameras to film an ambitious, epic concert-documentary, somewhat in homage to — and as a Next-Generation update to — the cult classic new wave-capturing film URGH! A Music War – You can read a re-cap…
City Slang: Delisi and Doop
On Tuesday evening, City Slang joined Ann Delisi for her Listening Party at the Majestic Cafe in Detroit. As ever, a good time was had by all. As we sat and assessed new music from local and national artists, Brent Mckay of the Strange wandered the gathered crowd to ask for their opinions. In many…
Stand and deliver!
Eighteen months ago, when Running With Panthers frontman Drew Podsgorski went to bed, the last thing he expected was to wake up with no feeling on one whole side of his body. But that’s what happened. The relatively clean living, late-20s dude had a stroke that altered his life forever. Some backstory: Podgorski made a…
Pianist Mike Jellick blows back from Chicago
Six years ago, jazz pianist Mike Jellick was in a rut — musically and professionally. As jazz vocalist Jesse Palter’s pianist and musical director, he’d helped create her well-received debut disc Beginning to See the Light, a collection of Jellick’s arrangements of standards. He also stood out on bassist Brain Enderle’s debut Triosphere. But Jellick…
Latin insurgency
It’s no longer unusual for mainstream figures to come out in support of legalizing marijuana or against the War on Drugs. Just last month, conservative evangelist Pat Robertson called for an end to marijuana prohibition. Last year, the Global Commission on Drug Policy and the NAACP called for an end to the drug war. Even…
Anal preventive
Q: I’m gay and a junior in high school, and I’ve had a boyfriend for a year. (He’s one year older than me, Dan, so relax!) We are out to our parents and everyone is supportive. We are not bullied or suicidal or using drugs. But we are frustrated! We had sex education in our…
Different strokes
It’s dark as the movie begins. You sit in your seat and take in the bright light of the screen, the vivid sounds, the action that unfolds before you. And when you’re ready, you pull down your pants and stroke yourself. This is how movie watching goes at Mini Book Shoppe on Gratiot north of…
McCarthyism gone wild
Last week something happened so unbelievably vile it shocked even me. Allen West, a Florida congressman, told a town hall meeting: "I believe there is about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party [in Congress] who are members of the Communist Party." Ungrammatical, but a smear nevertheless. Not even the demagogue Joe McCarthy ever…
Fresh perspectives
On Fourth Street in Royal Oak sits the Cacao Tree, a diminutive diner that serves up a diet of raw and vegan foods. Amber Poupore, the owner, a former carnivore herself, now dedicates her energies to enlightening as many folks as she can about the benefits of eating raw, unprocessed foods. Poupore — an 11-year…
Letters to the Editor
POST MORTEM We had a number of interesting posts on our website this week. In response to Larry Gabriel’s Stir It Up column, "Detroit’s turning point?"(April 11), nobsartist posted: I like it when the "fair and just" have to make decisions based on policies that are obviously corrupt. When Gov. Snyder applies his bogus and…
Monument to hubris falls
News Hits crawled out of bed way earlier than usual Saturday morning to go catch what the post-modernists would call the de-construction of billionaire Matty Moroun’s massive vehicle ramp to nowhere (RTN). Built without anyone’s permission, the ramp — which would have led to the new bridge Moroun and his Detroit International Bridge Co. want…
Occupy this space
For those of you who thought the Occupy Detroit movement wandered into nonexistence once campers left Grand Circus Park last November, News Hits is here to tell you just how wrong you are. The occupiers have been holding regular general assemblies (more than 50 so far), and just last Saturday threw an ox roast as…
Jack White – Blunderbuss (Third Man/Columbia)
Jack White has been so busy over the past decade — releasing albums with the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather, and producing everyone from ex-wife Karen Elson to Loretta Lynn to, um, Insane Clown Posse — it’s hard to believe that he’s just now getting around to his first solo album. And…
Oddball energy
Singer Chris Butterfield says he spoke too soon when his band Pink Lightning called its 2011 debut EP First Rodeo, implying, with a roll of weary eyes, that only with their new full-length album, Happy to Be Here, do he and his bandmates feel "seasoned." He admits he’s probably "the more obsessive one …" of…
Cynic’s New Year – Horse Feathers (Kill Rock Stars)
There’s value in a band that plugs away at its chosen niche without the constant drive for reinvention; blogosphere be damned, fine songs well sung show ambition aplenty and are a perfect measure of the creative restlessness that Justin Ringle shows with Horse Feathers. The only major change to the group’s dark, tattered and immersive…
Canvassing The Hood
Lyric 2012 What: Group show curated by local star artist Glenn Barr. Where: 323 East Gallery, 323 E. Fourth St., Royal Oak; 248-246-9544; 323east.com. When: Opening reception 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 21; displays through May 16. For the second incarnation of his music-themed group exhibition, Lyric, prominent underground artist…
Disarm the Settlers Vol. 2
This review asks many of you to hear a pair of songs you’ve probably heard four million times. It’s likely you won’t recognize them at first, but you will wonder what these songs say about total disassembly and revision. Earthy-ambio, techno-pop team Phantasmagoria wades into the murky "Heart-Shaped Box" and turns it into slow-dance techno,…
Jason Mraz – Love Is a Four-Letter Word (Atlantic)
Jason Mraz is like that one dude in the bunch of bros who isn’t a total dickhead. While his buddies get a little too loud and obnoxious, Mraz is in the corner sipping his beer and smiling sheepishly, avoiding the stares of offended bystanders. It’s exactly those qualities that make him such a likable but…
Spiritualized – Sweet Heart, Sweet Light (Fat Possum)
Jason Pierce’s blissful new offering provides two major talking points: First, "pop" is the official term for the sheen of these typically melodic, repetitive rampages and dirges. Second, Pierce found himself at death’s door again (degenerative liver disease, following a bout with severe pneumonia in 2005) while applying that sheen, which lends the disorganized, sometimes…
Food Stuff
Green light for Green Dot? Last week, we dropped in for lunch at the Green Dot Stables, an old-fashioned bar for horse-racing fans now revamped by Jacques Driscoll. It’s only open for lunch right now (11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday), and there’s no booze yet, but the menu is inventive and approachable, featuring salads, soups, desserts…
Regional, baby
Where there are musicians and artists who’ve hit it hard, there are untold others who never got their just due. And so many of the latter hail from these parts because, well, we’re badass, always have been. Take Flint native Regional (pronounced like "Reginald") Garland. The soul singer-songwriter tried like hell to make it in…
Meat and drink
The Wurst Bar 705 W. Cross St., Ypsilanti 734-485-6720 wurstbarypsi.com Handicap accessible Prices: $5-$10 Open 11 a.m.-2 a.m. daily Sausage and beer — it’s an epic pairing on par with milk and cookies, football and Sunday afternoons, and Kwame Kilpatrick and poorly executed political cover-ups. Cheap, filling, delicious — what’s not to love? Imagine…
Rollins, Shorter and big ideas in Jazz Fest 2012
As the first Detroit jazz artist to head-up the Detroit International Jazz Festival, Chris Collins unveiled his vision for the festival in the annual preview luncheon, bringing together civic dignitaries (even Detroit Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis left the City Hall crisis center to deliver a few words), business folks, arts and music community leaders, the…
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…
Honey Locust – Legendary Creatures – Johnny Headband
Good Morning… and…WHAT a morning… (even though it’s afternoon by the time you’re reading this…) It’s still morning back when I started the draft. Sipping coffee with headphones on… I’m listening to a song called “Insomnia,” by the Legendary Creatures – a song that characteristically embodies the way I personally imagine the world of LC-sounds-and-songs to be… -that of…
Happy To Be Here – 4.28.12
Pink Lightning – Happy To Be Here – Supino Pizzeria Records Proper title for a proper debut – dig in? The opening song shoulders you right into it, abruptly, bracing, you feel like you’ve fallen into the middle of something already in progress as the vocals, a mad quaver to their squawk,…
