Cover Stories
Detroit Jazz Fest’s artist-in-residence Stanley Clarke on Miles Davis, the power of art, and more
Whether you know it or not, you’ve heard Stanley Clarke’s music. Jazz fans are intimately familiar with the man; he’s one of the most revered electric and acoustic bassists in the genre, present at the dawn of jazz fusion and one of the relatively few players to have crossed over into mainstream success. But in…
Detroit musicians and fans share their must-see Jazz Fest acts
Labor Day weekend heralds many things, but one of the very best is our hometown Jazz Fest, now in its 40th year of presenting a wide-ranging, yet carefully curated selection of the greatest the genre has to offer. Legends and young lions converge among several stages in Hart Plaza and Campus Martius for four days…
Detroit Month of Design reminds us why the Motor City is the only UNESCO-designated City of Design in the nation
In 2015, Detroit earned a “City of Design” designation from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, recognizing the region for its contributions to art and design — a distinction shared with cities around the globe like Mexico City, Saint-Étienne, Helsinki, Istanbul, Budapest, Singapore, and Beijing, among others. For Detroit’s design community, it was…
Macy Gray brings her R&B, jazz-inflected pop to Detroit Jazz Fest
“I love that song. People always ask me if I get sick of it, but I don’t,” says Macy Gray. She is speaking, of course, about her 1999 hit, “I Try.” According to her, no one was more shocked about that song’s success than she was. “When we’re on tour, as soon as I sing…
Let’s hope Lil Wayne doesn’t bail on co-headlining tour with Blink-182 before metro Detroit performance
What’s our age again? It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since the delightfully foul-mouthed boys of Blink-182 had us questioning our age and inspired us to dry hump to a song about suicide, but here we are — still laughing about the band’s 2001 album title, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. The…
The badasses of Les Filles de Illighadad will push the limits of traditional Tuareg music at Detroit’s Trinosophes
Said to be the first Tuareg woman to professionally play guitar, Fatou Seidi Ghali began secretly learning the instrument after her brother brought a guitar home from Libya. Ghali told The Guardian that her father disapproved, suggesting if she pursued music, who would watch over the cows? Well, the cows are probably fine and, if…
Detroit’s Deluxx Fluxx hosts a perfectly curated evening of electronica via Shigeto, Black Noi$e, and Pablo R. Ruiz
Producer, beatmaker, and local luminary Zach Saginaw, who records as Shigeto, is also a storyteller. He’s explored his heritage via his sophomore record, Lineage, and through a pair of transportive and tender EPs, Shigeto turned his focus to his grandmother’s experiences in a U.S. internment camp. The Ann Arbor native and Ghostly International artist marries…
Get weird with Torus Eyes, Primer, and the Imaginatron at Trixie’s in Hamtramck
There’s a new-ish synth duo in town: Torus Eyes. Consisting of R. Solomon and Gwendolyn Dot, both of whom are multi-instrumentalists, vocalists, and academically trained in music, Torus Eyes is preparing to release its debut 4-song EP, Pythia, which is dedicated to our inner goddesses and sounds every bit like a call to a higher…
No guitar, no problem — guitarless French Method join VVISIONSS and Johnny Ill for UFO Factory show in Detroit
French Method makes music out of drummer Ben Luckett’s basement. Comprised of married duo Eddie and Nicole Baranek, Luckett, and Dale Wilson on sax, the band has no guitarist, which is both weird and cool. This summer they released three guitarless singles, “Glue,” “Ghost,” and “Are You Alone?” all of which call to mind Belle…
Underappreciated local luminaries, the Volebeats, to perform at Detroit’s Outer Limits Lounge with the Scrappers
Detroit’s root revivalists the Volebeats have a Myspace page — and it’s loaded with music because the friggin’ Volebeats assembled in 1988 and have made a lot of music, spanning classic rock-tinged tender country to cinematic surf rock. That said, it’s not hard to believe that their sophomore record, 1994’s Up North, could have inspired the…
Redford Theatre to screen Detroit-made thriller ‘It Follows’ with special guests
An independent horror film that serves as an allegory about STDs set in Detroit? What the shit?! OK — so the 2015 David Robert Mitchell thriller It Follows is a bit more complicated than that, but not really. Jay, the film’s antagonist is a 19-year-old girl who is plagued by freaky visions and an unshakable…
Detroit’s largest community festival, Dally in the Alley, returns for 42nd year
From 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Cass Corridor will once again be transformed into a celebration of art, music, and one very busy alley. For 42 years, Dally in the Alley has withstood Cass Corridor’s ever-changing landscape to maintain its reign as Detroit’s largest community festival — and it’s free. The volunteer-operated, family-friendly event will…
Artist and paper-plucker Neha Vedpathak explores connectivity with solo Detroit exhibition
The creation of art can, at times, be rather tedious. But nothing appears to be as time-consuming as the art of “plucking,” the technique invented by India-born, Detroit-based artist Neha Vedpathak. The process consists of handmade Japanese paper and a pushpin, which Vedpathak then uses to separate individual paper fibers to create what looks like…
Ferndale outfit Siamese will bring the broody dark-wave energy to Detroit’s Sanctuary
Last year found Ferndale dark-wave outfit Siamese dropping their debut record, Host, which sounds like what would happen if ’80s new wavers Berlin went on a date with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Movement. Led by vocalist Johanna Champagne, Siamese’s calling card is urgency and the prospect of a looming, unseeable fear,…
Detroit Youth Choir keeps on winning, will perform halftime show at Lions home opener
The Detroit Youth Choir is having a moment. After moving actor Terry Crews to tears and receiving a Golden Buzzer during a performance on America’s Got Talent in June — which advanced them to the quarterfinals — the DYC is carrying that momentum forward. On Monday, the announcement hit that the youth choir would perform…
Here are the winners of the 2019 High Times Detroit Cannabis Cup
High Times magazine returned to Detroit with its long-running Cannabis Cup event last month, bringing thousands of people through the Russell Industrial Center over the course of two days on Aug. 17 and Aug. 18 to try some of the best cannabis and cannabis products in the state. Here are the winners: Indica Flower 1st…
UAW authorizes strike backed with overwhelming worker support as union enters GM contract negotiations
Nearly 96 percent of UAW workers at the Big Three automakers have voted to authorize a strike, giving the embattled union a bargaining chip in its upcoming contract negations with General Motors. The strike vote happened last week, with 96.4% approval from workers at GM, 95.98% at Ford, and 96% at Fiat Chrysler. The UAW released the…
Detroit’s Black voters want Democrats to try harder
Disgust of President Donald Trump alone will not get Black voters from Michigan out to the polls, a new Los Angeles Times report details. The piece profiles several Black voters in Michigan who chose not to vote in 2016, as well as their mindsets going into the upcoming 2020 presidential election. In 2016, many Black…
Kid Rock, please go away after your 4-show run at DTE Energy Music Theatre
Kid Rock claims to be many things. One minute he’s a rock ’n’ roll Jesus, another he’s a cowboy, an American badass, a proud redneck, and a theatrical contender for a seat in the U.S. Senate. But what he really is — a right-wing apologist, former champion of the Confederate flag, sexist, transphobic shit-talker who,…
Bills aim to deliver justice in Flint water crisis before clock runs out
Time is running out to charge public officials for their roles in the Flint water crisis. Two lawmakers from Flint are hoping to give prosecutors more time by extending the statute of limitations for criminal misconduct cases involving public officials. Sen. Jim Ananich and Rep. Sheldon Neeley each introduced a bill to increase the statute…
Meek Mill, Future, YG, and DJ Mustard brought their Legendary Nights tour to the DTE Energy Music Theatre
Meek Mill, Future, YG, and DJ Mustard brought their Legendary Nights tour to the DTE Energy Music Theatre Sunday night. It was the fourth stop for the 24 city tour that runs through early October. YG and Mustard took the stage first and preformed hits “Who Do You Love?”, “Go Loko,” “My Nigga,” “Thotiana,” and…
Calling all Olga’s freaks — you can submit your own Olga recipe to be featured on 2020 menus
Look — if you had one shot or one opportunity to make the perfect Olga in one moment, would you capture it? Or just let it slip? Well, the moment is here and now. The “Create Your Own Olga” contest invites creative Olga’s fanatics to concoct their own recipe for the famous Olga sandwich to…
Possible vaping-related illness investigated in Michigan and 22 other states
Health officials across the country are investigating a spate of mysterious lung illnesses, searching for a possible link between e-cigarettes and lung infections in more than 200 cases across 23 states, including Michigan. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is investigating six cases of lung infections in people between the ages of 19…
Detroit school district provides sanctuary status for immigrants
Detroit Public Schools Community District has decided not to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal agencies to encroach on its property without a search warrant. The district has also chosen to refrain from collecting information about the immigration statuses of its students. These formal protections were put in place last week as part…
Up to 150,000 Michigan residents could lose food assistance under Trump proposal
As many as 150,000 impoverished Michigan residents could lose food assistance and free school lunches under a proposal by President Trump’s administration. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to reduce the number of people who are eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Currently, people who are receiving federal and state assistance are automatically…
AG Nessel threatens legal action over at-home rape kits
Attorney General Dana Nessel is threatening to take legal action against a startup company in Brooklyn that offers at-home rape kits. Marketed as the “first at-home kit for commercial use,” the MeToo Kit claims to “provide the necessary time-sensitive evidence required in a court of law to identify a sexual predator’s involvement with sexual assault.”…
Attention, millennial boyfriends — Tool is coming to Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena
Good news for millennial boyfriends, like mine — Tool announced the details of a highly anticipated North American tour. The news is paired with the release of Tool’s first album in 13 years, Fear Inoculum, and just one month after the band offered its entire catalog on streaming services. ‘Twas the summer of Tool. “Tool…
Petition launched to save Yemeni mural in Hamtramck threatened by construction project
A vibrant mural celebrating Hamtramck’s Yemeni culture is at risk of being erased. The Hamtramck Review reports that the mural, originally commissioned by OneHamtramck at a cost of more than $20,000 and painted by artist Dasic Fernandez, is in jeopardy because Ali Al-Zuebairi, who owns the next-door lot, plans to construct a two-story retail and apartment building there. A resolution…
Old Miami to host night of hip-hop, including Detroit’s Valid and Ellie Sandiego
For over a decade, Detroit-Serb emcee Valid has been making under-the-radar, feel-good hip-hop. Valid’s journey comes to a head on this year’s DJ Head-produced LP, Mihajlo, which details growing up as the child of immigrants, the nasty pay-to-play truth of the record industry, and just feeling straight-up grateful. Joining Valid to rep Detroit on a…
Sasha Obama set to attend University of Michigan on Tuesday
Sasha Obama, daughter of former President Barack Obama, is set to begin classes at the University of Michigan next Tuesday. Dorm move-in is slated for Wednesday through Friday this week, though students spotted the younger Obama on campus the day before most freshman and their families began descending on the streets of Ann Arbor. Multiple…
Gov. Whitmer says she’s ‘not married’ to fuel tax increase
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s campaign promise to “fix the damn roads” has hinged on an unpopular, languishing proposal to increase the fuel tax by 45 cents per gallon. But Whitmer indicated Wednesday she’s open to other solutions to raise the $2.5 billion that is required to make adequate road repairs. “I’m not married to a 45-cent…
Trump trails top 2020 Democratic contenders in Michigan, new poll shows
A new Michigan poll shows President Trump trailing the top four 2020 Democratic contenders in a key battleground state that Trump narrowly won in 2016. In the EPIC-MRA survey, conducted from Aug. 17 to Aug. 21, Vice President Joe Biden carried a 51 percent to 41 percent lead in a hypothetical match-up. Sen. Elizabeth Warren…
Ferndale’s Gage Cannabis Co. postpones opening until mid-September
Cannabis connoisseurs excited to check out the offerings at a new “high-end” marijuana store coming to Ferndale are going to have to wait a little longer. According to an email sent to the Gage Cannabis Co.’s mailing list, the store’s opening date has been pushed back from the end of August to the weekend of…
Federal agents raid home of UAW president as part of ongoing corruption probe
UAW, Gay Jones, bribery, FBI, IRS, raid
Karl’s puts modern nostalgia on full display as the Siren Hotel’s new diner-style eatery
The finishing touches are being applied to the Siren Hotel’s newest addition — and it’s also the latest establishment with celebrated Detroit chef, Lady of the House’s Kate Williams, at the helm. Karl’s, which is located on the second floor of the Siren Hotel within the Wurlitzer Building in downtown Detroit, will open its doors…
Michigan lawmakers debate requiring warning labels on marijuana products
Marijuana businesses could soon be required to include warning labels on their products to caution about cannabis’ potential dangers to pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. The state House of Representatives is expected to soon take up the issue after the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved the legislation 11-2. Under one of the bills, the label…
The number of Flint’s students with special needs has increased by 56% since the water crisis, according to report
As the new school year starts, Flint’s public schools face a daunting challenge. According to a new report published by Education Week on Monday, this year at least 1 in 5 students in Flint’s public schools are eligible for special education. That’s a 56 percent increase from the year before the Flint water crisis started, which…
Royal Oak cop who harassed Black man in viral video has resigned
A Royal Oak cop who interrogated a Black man and demanded his identification after a white woman complained that he looked at her suspiciously has resigned. Before stepping down, Rookie Officer Michael Pilcher was ordered to get remedial training after an Aug. 14 video of the interaction went viral and prompted widespread condemnation of the…
Savage Love: I love men, but the way they treat me in bed has me ready to become a ‘man-hating feminist’
I’m a straight woman and have been sexually active for about six years. I’m in my mid-20s now and about ready to become a “man-hating feminist.” I feel like I can figure out what a guy wants in bed pretty easily. I cannot remember a single time when I’ve had sex with a guy that…
Horoscopes (Aug. 28-Sept. 3)
ARIES: March 21 – April 20 You’ve got a few crosses to bear. If nothing has prepared you for this, it’s because no one tells us what life is all about. Depending on your karmic situation, these challenges are showing up in your health, in your earning capacity, or they are manifesting in your close…
Construction puts a squeeze on businesses along Detroit’s historic Avenue of Fashion
Last Thursday, a group gathered at the intersection of Livernois Avenue and Seven Mile Road along Detroit’s historic Avenue of Fashion, where a road construction project that began in May has reduced the thoroughfare to just one lane in each direction for more than a mile, and completely eliminated roadside parking. With traffic backed up…
Momo Cha serves up charming Nepalese dumplings in Detroit Shipping Co.
Since I visited the Detroit Shipping Co. food hall late last year, it’s quintupled its visitors. (“Food hall” is the new polite term for “food court.”) Folks are drawn to the chance to try two bars, four different ethnic restaurants — Mexican, Thai, Caribbean, and now Nepalese — and a sand volleyball court out back.…
Why the members of Bars of Gold are geeked to open for Wayne Kramer’s MC50
Bars of Gold achieve an intensified harmony. But it goes deeper than the band’s music — which is itself gracefully volatile and dissonantly acrobatic in structure, volume, and tempo. Nevertheless — there’s a harmony. But much of the band’s harmony is more of the familial kind, the bond that, if you forgive the cliché, can…
Sold Only As Curio offers a little bit of everything — and then some
The three founding members of the Detroit-based septet Sold Only As Curio reference nearly a dozen different genres or traditional styles from around the world within the first five minutes of our interview. Gregory Mulkern is on electric banjo, Bianka Black is on violin, and Nate Brokaw Jackson is on seven-string electric guitar. They met…
Few Americans have been more destructive than David Koch
The maxim that we’re not to speak ill of the dead is more often than not good advice, though it’s complicated by the death of men like David Koch, the oilman and right-wing financier who died last week at the age of 79. There’s a ghoulish quality to gloating about the demise of one’s ideological…
Cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids? Marijuana sophistication will soon move into wine snob territory
Marijuana is indeed a many splendored thing. While humans have been using the stuff effectively for some 6,000 years, we’ve only known about the active ingredients — cannabinoids — since 1940, when CBD was isolated. THC wasn’t discovered until 1964 during a drive to figure out what it is in marijuana that gets you high.…
‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’ is a feel-good treat
Occasionally a movie comes along that challenges your preconceptions and forces even a grizzled, jaundiced film critic to check his skepticism at the door. The Peanut Butter Falcon, a swooning, feelgood fable about friendship and innocence is just such a movie, one that with its very concept invites deep cynicism, then gradually, through the force…
