City Slang: Esham’s Death of an Indie Label
Detroit hip-hop dude Esham is behind a new five-part web series / shockumentary called Death of an Indie Label which outlines Esham’s career in the music business and the struggles facing his record label after his brother and CEO was diagnosed with schizophrenia after a 10+ year stint in prison. City Slang has seen it,…
City Slang Reads: Mainlines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste
Are there any music journalists in history that have inspired, offended and passed into mythology in the same way that Lester Bangs has? I doubt it. The man helped make music journalism a respected art form, and for that I am personally eternally grateful. To call him the Bukowski of his profession is simplifying things…
City Slang: Dick Wagner show postponed for surgery
Dick Wagner of Frost, the Bossmen, Alice Cooper and Lou Reed among many other bands and projects, has had to postpone his Magic Bag concert, originally scheduled for September 9, in order to go in for surgery to relieve swelling on his brain. The show is now scheduled for November 11. Wagner, who suffered a…
City Slang: New Alice Cooper tracks to be previewed on his radio show
Welcome 2 My Nightmare, Alice Cooper’s sequel to ‘75’s Welcome to My Nightmare, is scheduled for release on September 13 this year but Coop is going to play a few songs on the Nights With Alice Cooper radio show on Friday. According to the press release, “On this special W2MN premiere edition of Nights with…
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian C With every other bit of scrap salvaged from the ’80s cultural slagheap, barbarian movies were bound to get another box-office shot at glory; in these confusing, ambiguous and contentious times, it’s tempting to be seduced by a brawny hero with a blunt caveman mantra: "I live, I love, I slay. I…
Fright Night
Fright Night C- Seen the poster? Pretty uninspiring, huh? It shows Colin Farrell looking down on Anton Yelchin, who’s carrying an ax. So, what does that have to do with vampires? Not a whole hell of a lot. But it’s a sign of how tonally clueless this ’80 s horror hit remake is. Disposable, joyless…
No way
One Day C- Beautifully composed twaddle about well-to-do-twits, One Day is an experiment in romantic comedy deconstruction that accidentally discovers anti-chemistry. The normally enchanting Anne Hathaway tries hard to be frumpy and attempts an accent that cantilevers between posh and Liverpudlian, but is intended to be Scottish. She’s paired with Jim Sturgess, the forgettably handsome…
Vanishing point
Senna B The fastest sport in the world, Formula One, still trails so far behind in the American sports landscape that you’ll be forgiven if you’ve forgotten the name Ayrton Senna. One of the greatest racers in history, the Brazilian-born driver was a three-time world champion, a bold, uncompromising daredevil, and a bit of a…
City Slang: Third Man Records at MI-Fest
Jack White’s Third Man Records will invade MI Fest when The Raconteurs headline the first-annual event on September 17, 2011, in Brooklyn, Mich. Third Man Stage performers include Nashville rock pioneers JEFF The Brotherhood, Detroit hip hop artist and producer Black Milk, PUJOL, the Black Belles and The Thornbills. That’s a fairly even split between…
Going Local
Complete Streets in Detroit detroitcompletestreets.org The idea of complete streets is to make roadways safe for all users — pedestrians, bicyclists and public transit riders, especially. The Compete Streets coalition — a partnership of the City of Detroit Health and Wellness Department, the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance and the Michigan Complete Streets Coalition —…
City Slang: “Bedtime Stories” revisited
It’s hard to believe that Madonna’s Bedtime Stories is a full 17 years old but yep, it came out in 1994. She had successfully shocked the world (even more than she had previously) with the Erotica album that came before this one and, despite the provocative title, she definitely toned things down here. However, she…
The importance of being Hansen
Having dinner with Hansen Clarke, the freshman congressman from the east side of Detroit, is somewhat of a unique experience. For one thing, you have to keep reminding him to eat. Clarke is so boyishly enthusiastic about what he is doing, and filled with so many ideas, that he forgets about the food in front…
The Guard
The Guard Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh. Starring Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong and Katarina Cas. Running time: 96 minutes. Not rated. B+ Like bacon, Brendan Gleeson makes everything taste better. Which isn’t to say first-timer John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard doesn’t have plenty going for it. Rudely funny, confidently…
Food Stuff
Start your innards! — Competitive eaters, it’s time to get in shape. Downtown Detroit’s American Coney Island has announced it will host a coney dog-eating challenge less than a month from now. There will be two classes of competition, for individuals and teams of six. Winners will consume the most coney dogs — that means…
Delray foray
News Hits was surprised to see Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel "Matty" Moroun has some new allies in his effort to keep a publicly funded span from being built downriver: the Rev. Malik Shabazz and his New Black Panther Party. Shabazz and a handful of his associates showed up at a Delray community center at midday…
Kanye West, Jay-Z, the Throne – Watch the Throne (Def Jam)
This hotly anticipated collaboration mostly sidesteps both the grandiosity of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Jay-Z’s showboating and slick 2009 disappointment The Blueprint 3. Advance single "Otis" has a Treacherous Three starkness, irreverent verses cascading over an audacious "Try a Little Tenderness" sample. "Niggas in Paris" and the skittering "That’s My Bitch"…
Too much too soon
Too much too soon It ain’t rocket science for the dudes of 455 "We’d like to start by thanking the Metro Times for finally putting us on the cover," says Rocket 455 guitarist Marco Delicato, with more than a hint of a smile on his face. He’s half joking, but he’s also definitely half serious.…
Justice for All
Standing on her front porch, Bettie Simmons can plainly point out why an environmental justice movement is so necessary. "Look, I just cleaned this last week," the 71-year-old says as she points to the black dust that collects in clumps on window frames of her southwest Detroit home. "It didn’t use to be like that…
Sister act
I went to Craigslist to look at the kinky shit people are into. And I found a picture of my sister. Her eyes are blurred out, but one pic is of her nude and one is of her giving head, and there’s a tattoo that’s unique to her and clearly visible. I’m 99 percent sure…
Making a splash
Fountain Bistro Campus Martius, Detroit 313-237-7778 Entrées $12-$18; sandwiches $7-$9 Handicap accessible I’m so glad the owners of Fountain Bistro haven’t adopted the latest nomenclature of the architecture world, where a fountain is called a "water feature." Wonder if the designers of water features talk about the changing patterns of water play as the fountain’s…
The Association – And Then … Along Comes the Association!
And Then … Along Comes the Association’s liner notes boasting that the group "can play bluer blues than the Rolling Stones, harder hard rock than the Raiders and put more folk into folk music than the Kingston Trio." They forgot to mention that they outnumber the Dave Clark Five while they’re at it. There’s no…
Team Fortress 2
Valve Corporation PC First, TF2 is now the golden boy of PC shooters. And this has been brought to the PC gaming world’s attention: If you have downloaded the Steam platform onto your PC, you have access to play TF2 completely free. That’s right, Team Fortress 2 is now absolutely gratis to play, (again for…
Jim Ford – Harlan County (Light in the Attic)
After unsung badass Jim Ford was finally tracked down after years of obscurity, referenced only among geekish music collectors and in L.A. barstool conversations involving old Wrecking Crew dudes, he was a graybeard living in a Northern California trailer. The collective wonderment toward his sole LP, 1969’s Harlan County, cannot be measured, but Ford died…
Free Obama now
I was browsing the stacks at my local public library when I heard a hissing sound. I looked around at the people sitting at tables reading. There in a back corner I saw Mulenga Harangua waving his arm from behind a gigantic book that obscured most of his body. I went over and took a…
Juicy Lucy
Let’s talk today about two icons — undisputed titans of television — and the contrasting ways they’re being remembered. About a week ago, had she still been around to blow out all those candles, Lucille Ball would have celebrated her 100th birthday. Lucy: America’s redhead, once hailed, derisively, as "Queen of the B-Movies." We love…
Letters to the Editor
letters Told in detail Re: Megan O’Neil’s article "Field of Dreams" (Aug. 10), it was absolutely wonderful. After reading the article, I was so amazed at what Mr. Woods could do with his talent and how his imagination drove him to perfection and purity with his work. I am truly impressed by his talent. Furthermore…
One more blow
When we read last week that the state had sent out notices alerting some 13,000 families receiving welfare that they could be losing their cash assistance come Oct. 1, the first thing we did was contact Maureen Taylor to get her assessment of the news. Currently the state chair of the nonprofit Michigan Welfare Rights…
News galore
Let me start with a small correction: Eapen Thampy, executive director of Americans for Forfeiture Reform in Kansas City, is not an attorney, and I meant no offense when I misidentified him as a barrister in my last column. Now, on to the news. Joe Cain of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, another valuable informant…
The Horrors – Skying (XL)
Despite their gloomy name, England’s the Horrors aren’t black-sporting goths with "Ian Curtis" tattooed on their chests. In fact, they’re probably not even sure what kind of band they are these days. On their third album they switch gears (again), this time heading into ’80s synth-pop territory for a turn at vintage post-punk. Singer Faris…
Jeff Bridges – Jeff Bridges (Blue Note/EMI)
The seeds for the debut album by Jeff Bridges were planted two years ago, when the Oscar winner played a down-and-out country singer in Crazy Heart. On this record’s 10 songs, he sings the same sort of ragged Americana that gave his grizzled movie character a second chance. He even enlisted Crazy Heart’s musical collaborator…
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…
