Fez
If you like a little bit of bone in your machine, then you might want to try on Fez. With the fervor of a possessed carny barker, this unconventional outfit kicks up the sawdust on the darker side of the carnival midway. Old-time organ and theremin provide plenty of atmosphere.
Motor mods
Midnight in Hamtown’s boiler room of glam and glory….
Immigrant Suns
Now here’s a band who proves that Michigan music is world class. The Immigrant Suns inhabit a borderless musical world that streches from Africa to the avant-garde, from Eastern Europe to East Dearborn. Bring dancing shoes from the culture of your choice, because a Suns show sports more dance floor activity than a tarantella outbreak…
Magic, music memories
It was a slam, jam, alakazam, magic Music Awards program at the State Theatre on Friday night….
The Luddites
An 11-piece band; harmonica, congas, lots of voices, and a sassy horn section. The Luddite sound is warm, Bohemian, and a big cabaret of sweaty, sexy fun!
Planting ideas
I’m standing in dirt up to my knees, with mud smeared across my forehead and an earthworm wriggling down the cuff of my glove. My back aches, and there are bits of grass sticking out of my hair. "Hey, freak girl!" shouts the Lizard of Fun from the front door. "Whatcha doing? Re-enacting a scene…
Howling Diablos
An ever-evolving Detroit groove-rock institution, the Diablos flirt with bar rock, funk, rhythm and blues and hip hop to find their very own musical planet for us all to explore.
In one ear
1999 DETROIT MUSIC AWARDS WINNERS Congratulations to all of the nominees honored in this year’s Detroit Music Awards, held last Friday at the State Theatre. And the winners of this year’s Detroit Music Awards are: National Outstanding National Album: Kid Rock, Devil Without A Cause Outstanding National Single: Kid Rock, "I Am The Bullgod" Rock/Pop…
Lost and Found
Probably eager to get out of period costumes (Anna Karenina, Firelight, Braveheart) and in need of a holiday, Sophie Marceau (Lila) decided to star opposite David Spade (Dylan) in Lost and Found, a little film about a little dog, an irresistible French cellist and the malnourished guy next door. Naturally, since the dog is of…
Death to the NRA
"I hope we don’t try to use this as an excuse to go and to take away guns." – Dan Quayle, on the massacre. Don’t worry, Dan ol’ man. They won’t succeed. Everybody knows the Colorado school massacre had nothing to do with guns. Or that any cash-flush cretin can buy any instrument of death…
eXistenZ
Welcome to intellectual science fiction, where a parallel universe isn’t the usual, special effects-created alien landscape, but is comprised of an even more exotic and murky terrain: the untapped recesses of the human mind. In Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos), Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar follows the handsome, callow César (Eduardo Noriega) as his privileged…
Netropolis
My fiancée Audrey is addicted to eBay, the popular online auction site. It started off innocently enough: Five minutes on the Net every day searching for copies of the starburst-patterned drinking glasses I’d inherited from my grandmother. It was my fault. I’d broken a couple of the glasses. The local garage sales were coming up…
Pushing Tin
Add Pushing Tin to the list of films that should never be shown on airplanes. The air traffic controllers at the center of this movie are so uniformly high-strung and off-kilter that the idea of putting your life in their grasp is downright terrifying. But even though director Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco) and screenwriters Glen…
pitch’d
WORLDWIDER Carl Craig’s Planet E Records is the little label that could as far as Detroit techno is concerned. Besides being home to such acclaimed releases as Recloose’s So This Is The Dining Room and Paperclip People’s "For My Peepz,” Planet E has a new ringer in its midst. Jason Hogan’s new Peter and the…
The Mirror
A school in Tehran ends its day by disgorging a noisy stream of young girls who, shepherded by a few of their teachers, rush across the busy thoroughfare which runs just aside the school’s gates. The camera follows their crossing before moving on to a leisurely 360-degree pan of the intersection, observing the chaotic clog…
Food stuff
MEGA-BITES ONLINE As advanced as computers have become, they still can’t cook for us. But there are still plenty of ways computers can assist in the daily task of hunting and gathering for our nutritional needs. One company, NCR, has built a prototype model of a microwave oven with a computer in the door –…
Tweaked and Tweaked Again
Is Rhino actually K-Tel Records for the next millennium? Who can say? The label’s collection of classic car songs is shticky enough, that’s for certain. Still, Rhino’s definitive musical aesthetics are prone toward considering recorded pop culture as collectible archives rather than just disposable trash. There should be no surprise, then, that this four-disc behemoth…
Chaos in the court
We all know darn well that the average American doesn’t mind a few minutes of fame by being on TV. But getting caught unawares without the chance to powder ’n’ perform like the real celebs – well, that sort of takes all the fun out of it. Think of one of those drunk baby sitter…
King Duke
This 24-disc collection should have been titled Everything You Want To Know About Duke Ellington But Were Afraid To Ask. While the greatest bandleader-composer the world has ever seen released countless albums for a number of record labels, Duke’s special relationship with RCA endured — albeit sporadically — for nearly a half century. Capturing Ellington…
Ice dreams
Ten-year-old Margaux Whitney has been figure skating since she was 3. The many medals she has won hang on her bedroom walls along with photos of Olympic skaters, including her favorite, Oksana Baiul. A fourth-grader at Detroit’s Bates Academy, Margaux skates six days a week. She also plays the violin, sings with a youth choir…
Porters
These reformed ska-punks (the band features former members of Aks Mamma and the Parka Kings) have discovered that soul music can save your very soul. Don’t be afraid to dance when the horny horns, the big, driving R&B beat and the chop-chop guitar chops beckon you to the hardwood floor.
All that buzz
I have never overheard anyone having sex. My friends have, but I myself have never been subjected to the moans, sighs and squeaking springs that suggest some couple in the next room has just moved 7 inches closer to God. This lack of evidence doesn’t prevent me from being nervous about being overheard myself. You’d…
Imperial Swing Orchestra
The 10-piece (that’s a five-piece horn section, mister!) Imperial Swing Orchestra will make your dancing feet giddy and fingers start to poppin’! This is no mere retrofitted rockabilly or ironic posture of a fashion statement. The Imperial Swing Orchestra has a reverence for rollicking big band-era dance floor fillers, sultry torch intimacies and smoldering pre-rock…
A hero remembered
To celebrate the recent reissue of Detroit: I Do Mind Dying — A Study in Urban Rebellion (South End Press, 1999), by Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin, I appeared on two panels with Dan where we were asked about labor activism of the ’60s and ’70s. In particular, the questioners at these New York events…
Cloud Car
These Royal Oak indie pop kids have more hooks than a tackle box. Add to it the band’s ability to add a sort of ethereal glow to pop-rock’s earthiness and you and Cloud Car have the makings of an evening of happily humming and clapping along.
Radical prescription
In years past, doctors scoffed at washing their hands before surgery, prescribed vaginal douches for birth control, and made stomach ulcers synonymous with stress. Today, minor cuts get a scrubbing, contraception is a science, and antibiotics are used to treat gastric ulcers. A Birmingham physician, Dr. A. Martin Lerner, wants to bring a similar revolution…
Soul Clique
Soul Clique is the creation of a trio of Detroit musicians and a DJ who carry a pedigree worth noting just before you get completely lost in their ethereal, funky, slowburn grooveworld. Soul Clique is Enemy Squad and P-Funk touring band member Duminie DePorres, Aretha Franklin touring bassist Joseph Hayden and DJ James “The Blackman”…
Deep space woodsmen
The Northwoods Improvisers bring the sounds of the world to jazz….
School on edge
With the issue of school violence again capturing the nation’s attention, parents of Arab-American students are raising concerns about racial tensions and violence at a Detroit high school. In a statement released last week, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee issued a statement regarding recent conflicts at Chadsey High School on the city’s west side. "ADC is…
100 Years of Lunacy
An 11-piece band; harmonica, congas, lots of voices, and a sassy horn section. The Luddite sound is warm, Bohemian, and a big cabaret of sweaty, sexy fun!
The Duke meets the Duke
On the occassion of Duke Ellington’s birthday, we present the 100th anniversary “inner -view” that should have been…. “inner-view” that should have been.…
Humbug again
Environmentalists are preparing for another big showdown in their save-the-wetlands saga at Humbug Marsh. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have planned a joint public hearing May 5 on whether Made In Detroit Inc. should receive state and federal permits to build 340 upscale homes and a golf…
Atomic Fireballs
If ever a name suited a band, this is it: These cats are hot. Their music recaptures the jubilant mood and the irresistable rhythms of pre-Elvis swing and jump (think of Satchmo, Gene Krupa, Cab Calloway), with a generous mix of ska, reggae, and who knows what all. Frontman John Bunkley has energy to burn,…
Downward mobility
A decade ago, Underworld discovered dance music. Some career move….
Hight court returns case
When the Michigan Supreme Court reversed course last week and sent a controversial case back to the lower court, even proponents of the decision were surprised. The case involves Jackson County landlords John and Terry Hoffius, who refused to rent to unmarried couples. The Hoffiuses claimed they were adhering to their Christian beliefs and were…
