Pot luck melody
With the occasional exception of guys like Kanye West, artists shouldn’t hype themselves. There’s a certain amount of self-deprecating humor that must play into it, otherwise you risk looking like a complete self-fellating windbag. And not everyone can poke fun of themselves. Self-promotion isn’t easy and only works if you are either naive, or funny.…
Crowd pleaser
Sometimes movies tweak you at the end. The hero dies, or loses his true love to a prick with high hair. The camera ascends like a soul or windblown tear, and all of a sudden you’re fiending for a happy ending. Reality can buzz off — this is Hollywood, so the finale had better feel…
Cynicism and sacrificial lambs
I recently chatted with the Rev. Keith Butler, the man Michigan Republican Party leaders have chosen to be beaten by U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow next year. They would deny they expect him to lose, naturally. But they do. If they thought Stabenow could be taken out, congressmen like Mike Rogers of Brighton, or perhaps Candice…
First It Boils, Then It Spills
They’re more rock than Queens of the Stone Age and more roll than the White Stripes. So, think of Columbus, Ohio’s the Evil Queens as a collaborative manipulation of rock ’n’ roll’s past and near-present — but in a good way. Singer Jacob Sundermeyer draws comparisons to a throatier, less pretentious Dave Grohl. His rumbling…
Board games
More than 70 years ago, on a Sunday afternoon in Detroit, a small group of elegant women in hats, heels, starched dresses and pressed white gloves sat in the dining room of a gorgeous Indian Village home to talk about what they could do to support Detroit artists. It was a time before the city…
Destroy the Warming Sun!
Well, it worked in the early ’90s. Back then bands like Man or Astro-Man? and Six Finger Satellite regularly devolved Devo and Dick Dale into mucky noise-rock art projects and surf guitar send-ups wired to Art Bell’s brain. It got old quick, but it was fun for a while. Fortunately the masked locals in The…
Led ladies
Even if you were never a fan of Led Zeppelin, there’s no denying the foursome’s raw sex appeal. Tight pants, curious bulges, molar-rattlin’ riffs and endless airplay for “Stairway to Heaven” made Zeppelin one of the most important bands of all time until the death of drummer John Bonham ended the original group in 1980.…
George Is On
The Washington, D.C. progressive house duo Deep Dish are out to prove that dance music can live beyond the DJ booth with George Is On, their first artist album since 1994’s Junk Science. GIO features a house version of Fleetwood Mac’s "Dreams"— sung by Ms. Stevie Nicks herself — as well as guest vocalist Richard…
Pitch a fit
Camp Casey protesters take to Grand Circus Park.
Weird Tales of the Ramones
At their peak, the Ramones were about gestalt. Four guys united under leather pumping out simple, declarative anthems in a wall of sound all under three minutes. Their first four albums are punk’s main primer and essential. They made 14 studio albums, however, and are now being anthologized for the fourth time. The vaults having…
Miles and Miles
When you see Miles Davis’ iconic mug on the cover of a recent issue of The Fader, you’re reminded that, of all the greats in the modern jazz pantheon, the Prince of Darkness now casts the longest shadow. Young artists from John Mayer to DJ Premier are anxious to offer their homages. From his days…
Get on the bus
Bus travelers prod Ford to develop more efficient cars.
A grisly tale well told
Hyperactive bear advocate Timothy Treadwell is the tragic hero of Grizzly Man, a movie made mostly of his video diaries from five of his 13 summers spent living among grizzlies in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Reserve — living, that is, until the bears ate him alive. Director-narrator Werner Herzog neither condemns Treadwell as a…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Minnesota radio station KNUJ came up with a unique proposal for how the governor and top legislators could deal with their intractable conflict: They would have a wrestling match in a large vat filled with sauerkraut. I think you should adopt this idea for your own use, Arie — though I…
Ohio player
Bragging bagman claimed he could fix Detroit contracts.
Junebug
Another indie movie that takes a trip to dysfunction junction, depicting a family on the brink of collapse, set in the South — but don’t call the cliché police just yet. A city dweller brings his new chic wife back home to rural North Carolina to meet his family. The filmmakers are careful not to…
Raiders of the lost estate
Like some strange suburban convoy, minivans and pickup trucks begin to clog the streets of an upscale Bloomfield Hills neighborhood before 8 a.m. on a Thursday. A sedan or SUV would seem out of place; these vehicles have been chosen for maximum cargo capacity, not status. Coffee, muffins and cigarettes in hand, the buyers eventually…
Club dead
At 1300 Cass Ave. in Detroit sits the former Lindell A.C., a place that has certainly seen far better days than this. Back in 1999, the Detroit News wrote: “It started out as the Lindell Bar in the old downtown Lindell Hotel, then moved to its current location in 1963. It was nicknamed the Lindell…
Red Eye
A spunky career girl (Rachel McAdams) meets a smooth-as-butter charmer (Cillian Murphy) at the check-in for an overnight flight to Miami. But once seated, it’s clear the charmer’s intentions are insidious. Director Wes Craven deftly handles the tricky tennis match of captive vs. tormentor, which works beautifully in the claustrophobic confines of the coach section,…
Media Blackout
Welcome to the pro-logo, digitally watermarked, registered-trademark, global-conglomerate, slave-labor-sweatshop-manufactured and genetically modified edition of MB45! • The Daughtermelons™ — Rindhouse (Seed Spitter) :: What a great name for an all girl rock ’n’ roll band! Unfortunately they don’t exist because I thought up the name myself. But when Kim Fowley steals it, just remember that…
Going, going, not
Alden Towers are snatched from the auction block.
Supercross
If you’re looking to spend 90 minutes with guys named "Trip" and "Rowdy," or if, like them, you like to "live life on the edge," or if you just drink a lot of Mountain Dew, you might be the target audience for this wish-fulfillment extreme sports flick. Otherwise, this dirt bike saga on speed is…
Radio fever
It’s August in Detroit, and things are about where they usually are. The Lions are finishing up training camp, the Tigers are fighting for .500, and the three-digit heat index is a certified bear. Musically, windows are down, systems are up, and everyone’s jamming to … Doug FM? WTF? Around the corner from Labor Day,…
Art Bar
Not so noble — It’s heartbreaking, really. John Massey Rhind’s “Victory and Progress,” 20-feet-tall bronze statuary (c. 1892-1902) from the Wayne County Building on Randolph Street at Cadillac Square, is lying somewhere in pieces in a warehouse on Michigan Avenue. The twin statues — each featuring a horse-drawn chariot led by men and accompanied by…
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Like so many others, this sex farce offers a litany of crude humor and foul language that would make the proverbial sailor blush; however, it’s softened by the endearing sweetness of the title character. Nerdy Andy would rather cuddle up to his pristine action figure collection than a real live woman — until his coworkers…
American Life in Poetry
How many of us, alone at a grave or coming upon the site of some remembered event, find ourselves speaking to a friend or loved one who has died? In this poem by Karin Gottshall, the speaker addresses someone’s ashes as she casts them from a bridge. I like the way the ashes take on…
Night and Day
Wednesday • 24 Birdgang MUSIC Writing a description of birdgang is a lot like writing a beer commercial. To wit: birdgang is smooth, refreshing and completely lacking in pretension. They are made up of three of Detroit’s most understated yet fabulous musicians (Charlie Koltak, Jeff Schwarz and Zach Roberts) and, quite frankly, a show from…
Valiant
Pigeons and bloody wars that resulted in the loss of some 55 million lives don’t make a good fit for a kiddie flick — especially one billed as light, animated fare "from the producer of Shrek and Shrek 2." Valiant details how homing pigeons apparently saved our tails in World War II. The cast is…
Backslash
Pump it up — It’s the hot-button issue for many metro Detroiters — what the fuck is up with gas prices? Far and wide you can hear locals scream in agony and fury at the pump, as prices continue to insidiously creep closer to the once-unfathomable $3-a-gallon mark. Fortunately, at detroitgasprices.com you can scavenge for…
Proactive
Frog wild — The group Friends of the Rouge River is holding a field trip Saturday, Aug. 27, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event will be held at the Novi Wetland Mitigation Bank, which is located at the northeast corner of West Park Drive and West Road. The program is designed to provide…
Bang-bang
To be a drummer is to live in a world where the most interesting objects ask to be struck, slapped, plucked, pummeled, bashed, brushed or otherwise engaged. It’s to live in world where clang and clatter are wonderful things, the ultimate reassurance that a world where things collide can be a beautiful one. And if…
Marching again with Farrakhan
A decade after the Million Man March comes the Millions More Movement, scheduled for this October, commemorating the 10th anniversary of what may have been the largest march on Washington in history. Ten years after the Million Man March, it’s hard to see how much better off black people are as a result — or…
Letters to the Editor
Complete control Thanks for your column “Down With Sex!” (Metro Times, Aug. 17). The American hysteria about sex is indicative of the small-town puritanism that has taken over this country. These repressive, controlling types want to control our bodies, brains, bedrooms and even deaths. I recently stumbled across the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech…
Pop life
He stunk up a room but lit up a stage. Jackie Curtis was a drifting tramp, a dirty, drugged-out drag queen who straddled men, women and worlds, doubling as a high-maintenance performer, poet and playwright. Well-known as one of Andy Warhol’s most loyal cross-dressing babies at the Factory, Curtis had a private life bigger than…
Second base
Unlike its former theater-style downtown location, Second City’s new digs are in a strip mall, upstairs from an Andiamo restaurant. Let’s be honest, the move from Detroit to Novi has knocked the comedy club down a few notches on the “urban cred” scale. (It’s not just us, even the new show riffs on Novi.) To…
Comics
This Modern World Red Meat Comix
Wanting no other
The title of Jack Gilbert’s fourth full-length collection of poems could also serve as Gilbert’s core and recurrent poetic motto. The promise of heaven is a proposal that Gilbert, like a cocky boxer, thumbs his nose at. Though it is true that we live in a world where “Sorrow [is] everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies/are…
Framing an audience
On a warm Thursday evening in early August, a smartly yet casually dressed party of 40 sips wine and nibbles on hors d’oeuvres at Revolution gallery in Ferndale. However, this isn’t the usual gathering of jaded culturati dressed in black. It’s an “art happening” put on by Emerge, a company that’s trying to bring a…
Head Cheese
Born in the aftermath of a failed romance to a Montreal woman, Of Montreal is the vehicle for Athens, Ga., native Kevin Barnes’ unclenched sense of melody and lyrical flights of fancy. The band emerged from the Elephant 6 collective (Apples in Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control) in the late ’90s and is the most enduring…
Going down
When it comes to Detroit’s budget, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his administration have their line and they’re sticking to it. “A budget is based on certain assumptions,” Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams told reporters during a news conference last week. “We continue to be positive.” The problem is that professed optimism stands in the face of…
A northern odyssey
The menu doesn’t pretend to be the world’s most authentic — you can order a hamburger or a slab of ribs, wing dings or chicken tenders — but it does include some unusual dishes, such as baby octopus in a wine sauce. Reganato, loin of lamb baked in wine, olive oil and oregano, is another…
