CAN DETROIT BE SAVED??
The Hollywood homies were out in full force again in Detroit, this time for the I Crime show at 313.Jacs (aka Jacoby’s) this past Saturday night, August 9th. Several songs into the band’s set, Drew Barrymore — in town to direct Whip It! (see last week’s post below) — approached the stage to ask lead…
YOUNG LORD
Renowned recording engineer John Agnello — not to be confused with Mafioso kingpin spawn John Gotti Agnello and currently on “hipster” radars for working with the Hold Steady on their most recent recorded effort — is back in the studio working with Detroit/Ann Arbor’s own Andrew WK on his next full-length release, tentatively titled Young…
KWAME DA LOVE SWAMI…
…Can’t control his salami…. Check it out by clicking here.
KUDOS TO AMP FIDDLER…
Amp Fiddler ’s musical roots of course go very deep in this city, from playing keyboards with P Funk to teaching J. Dilla how to use the MPC and way beyond. Congratulations are due to the master musician for being selected by a committee of five leading music biz professionals to receive the Heineken Independent…
ADVICE ON PROTECTING BAND GEAR
In light of the recent Stooges rip-off (see below), a longtime friend of mine who’s a music attorney and manager in a nearby Midwest state (where he’s handled some high profile groups) posted the following story and advice for bands regarding rip-offs on a music business forum I sometimes visit. Since the story not only…
WOLF’S EYE IN FRENCH SONIC YOUTH EXHIBIT
Those underground mainstreamers in Sonic Youth are the subject of an art exhibit in Paris, France at the LIFE gallery (which calls itself “the International Space for Emerging Arts”) that runs through September 17th. The band members themselves served as curators on the comprehensive project that focuses on the numerous and varied artistic elements that…
“Meyers and Hall” is not a law firm!
In the world of Detroit’s Metro Times, two men standout for their film reviews: Jeff Meyers and Corey Hall. When they are not found in dark places – alleys, basements and theaters – these two fountains of film facts are dragged out into the light. Cleaned up a bit, Meyers and Hall are placed in…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
Couch Trip
The Skull Legend Films Back in the day, Saturday TV programming was a reward for us kids. After soaking up countless, badly animated Hanna-Barbera cartoons, metro Detroit kiddies (and many adults) were treated to Sir Graves Ghastly. Locally produced, this children’s show was hosted by a friendly vampire whose grave-digging bud would unearth a scary…
Freedom, finally
The Detroit News and the Free Press both have stories in Wednesday’s papers about Gov. Granholm’s commutation of Kylleen Hargrave-Thomas, a Wixom woman sentenced to life in prison for the 1991 murder of boyfriend Manuel Joe Bernal. Of the two stories, the News’ does a better job of explaining why Hargrave-Thomas deserved to be set…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
This is Jeffrey M-M-Morgan’s Media B-B-Blackout #183! Mel Tillis — Me and Pepper, Your Body Is an Outlaw, Southern Rain (Collectors’ Choice) :: Wherein we have three timely reissues of Mel’s 1979-1980 albums for Elektra. The first is a competent enough but slightly pop-skewed effort that’s for completists only. The second, recorded with his band…
India ink
Zilka Joseph lives, works and studies here in Michigan, but her poetry tells the story of a woman who exists in two different places. Born in Bombay and raised in Calcutta, Joseph has been in this country since 1997. In a physical sense, moving here meant leaving everything behind. In her poems, she shows that…
Sleepless in Detroit
Thanks to their work with such notable local bands as the Godbullies, Queen Bee and Thrall, Mike Hard and Karen Neal are well-known in the Detroit rock ‘n’ roll community. They Never Sleep is their latest joint venture, and the band, completed by guitarist David Livingstone and drummer Adam Berg, is finally starting to create…
Their Laos, our gain
This simple but attractive storefront in the Value Center Shopping Center seats about 50 in its bright, freshly painted dining space minimally decorated with Laotian art and artifacts. Most of the dishes on Wan’s extensive menu are of Thai origin, but there are a handful of Laotian specialties on their extensive menu. Be warned, Sabidee’s…
Bachelor party
Tommy Habeeb calls it “dramatic relationship television.” Anyone who has seen his work on the syndicated series Cheaters (he’s the tall, wavy-haired gent in the ill-fitting black leather jacket) might find some other adjectives to describe the reality genre. Whatever it’s called, definitions can’t explain the most glaring question regarding Habeeb’s latest television effort, STAG:…
The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Hoping to revive the franchise with a change of scenery, the story moves from Egypt to China. It’s 1946, and Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and wife Evelyn (Maria Bello, stepping in for Rachel Weisz) have retired from adventuring to live as peaceable British aristocrats. Enter the British government and a mission to return an ancient…
On the Download
Before disco-damaged “Dance Commander” days of the Electric Six — when the Wildbunch were still a wild bunch of high-octane surrealists — the band’s sound was damn-near defined by the fuzzed-out roar of guitarist Joe Frezza’s (aka Mojo Frezzato) arena-toned riffage. Well, that sound is back at the forefront of his new outfit, Octopus. To…
Pineapple Express
Seth Rogen fans’ bubble had to burst eventually. Pineapple begins with loads of quality giggles, then in a predictably stoner-like manner, meanders and drifts into bizarre tangents until the buzz is gone. Rogen stars as Dale Denton, an amiably shiftless process server who’s not really bothered by the vaguely shady nature of his line of…
Trouble ahead
Should I kibosh my gay cousin’s hetero wedding?
Frozen music
Part nihilistic essay, part Antarctic travelogue, Werner Herzog once again indulges in his pet obsessions: the savage indifference of nature and the men who seek to live under its extreme conditions. At first, he seems an odd choice for the Discovery Channel, but it soon becomes clear that, even in full-on cynic mode, Herzog can’t…
Invincibility
A pretty, tatted blond waitress slings drinks for a trio seated at a back table at Northern Lights Lounge in Detroit. A DJ — Dez from Slum Village — has Dwele cooking the woofers and a line of relaxed folks sit hunchbacked on stools along the bar while some guy’s comfortably couch-slouched watching big-screen sports…
Brick Lane
What Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) thinks of as home is the rural Bangladesh village that lives in her memory as eternally verdant and vibrantly alive. But the freedom Nazneen feels comes to an abrupt end at 17, with an arranged marriage to an older, “educated” man in England. Now 33, she’s spent half her life in…
Are we this dumb?
If the campaign comes down to the economy and the future, McCain is dead.
Bottle Shock
The nascent California viniculture tapped by Bottle Shock hadn’t yet bubbled into the public consciousness in 1976. The idea that American wines could rival French vins was considered absurd until the blind taste test organized by British enthusiast Steven Spurrier. It initiated a seismic shift in the global wine market when two California vineyards ended…
Night and Day
THURSDAY • 7 MILLIONAIRES INTERNET GINCH OR SENSATIONS? This trio of foul-mouthed teenaged chicks from L.A. may not have a record deal, but thanks to MySpace, they have legions of fans dancing to their mindless electro-pop in bedrooms across the county. But the repetitive beats are just the background for facilely shocking lyrics that address…
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
While this sequel to 2005’s film tries mightily to recapture the chemistry of the original, the intervening three years have seen major changes for the characters, and the actresses who embody them. Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls), America Ferrara (Ugly Betty), Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) and Amber Tamblyn (Joan of Arcadia) have all headlined successful television…
Survivors
In popular culture, perhaps no historical event gets as uniform a treatment as the Holocaust. From big-budget film to off-Broadway play, concentration camp stories carefully trace the grim outlines of Nazi brutality: the imprisoning, enslaving and butchering of mostly hapless prisoners. In these narratives, the bad guys click their heels and the good guys wear…
Young guns
Ok, let’s get this out of the way at the very beginning: The Displays are very, very young. Maybe not quite Shane Muldoon young, but at around 15 or 16 years old per member, they’re still upstarts in the rock ‘n’ roll world. Do a Google search for the band and you’ll see words like…
‘I read the news today, oh boy …’
Whither newspapering?
Edward Murphy
Ann Arbor’s Charlie Slick has developed a live show reputation locally that’s now bordering on “legendary.” Glitter … bubbles … lights … chaos … and, most importantly, dancing. Those are the elements one will find at a CS show, where Slick’s maniacal energy has been known to get even the most introverted hipster shaking it…
Letters to the Editor
Meatless meals Thank you for your excellent article about how our meat-centric diet is contributing to global warming (“Meat of the matter,” Metro Times, July 30). We can easily afford to eat fewer animal products. After all, there isn’t exactly an epidemic of people with protein deficiencies. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find even…
Code of Violence
The latest album from Detroit’s Nocturnal Fear, a trio of thrashing cacophony, features a cover depicting a gas-masked soldier viciously jamming a knife through some unlucky Arab patron, as shambled, smoke-trodden buildings adorn the background. Shit! But then its Code of Violence title would suggest this kind of typical thrash metal imagery. If only the…
Wheels of justice
Detroit City Council puts brakes on bike licensing push; cyclists celebrate.
Where’s Michigan?
State’s women prisoners give birth in shackles.
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
