City Slang: Electric Six gets mean with holiday classic
The Electric Six has recorded a cover of the Dr. Seuss classic “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch live for the A.V. Club’s A.V. Undercover series. According to the press release, “The video was posted to overwhelming acclaim and the attention warmed the band’s itty, bitty heart. And what happened, then? Well, in their hometown…
City Slang: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. announce January tour
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. continues with the quest to take over the U.S. with a national tour in January, many of the dates with indie band Fitz & the Tantrums. According to the press release, “Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. will kick off the new year on the West Coast, touring with Fitz and the Tantrums…
City Slang: Kid Rock feeding Detroit
Kid Rock has announced that he has purchased 1,200 $25 Meijer gift cards that he plans to distribute throughout the city of Detroit as a Christmas present to people in need in his hometown. It’s easy to be cynical when celebrities do something charitable and then announce it loud and proud, but 1,200 people and/or…
Young Adult
Young Adult B- While we all grow old, it’s not clear how many of us ever really grow up. Whether it’s social functions, the work place, or Congress, sometimes it seems like American adults never really leave behind the social hierarchies of high school, forever repeating or reacting to their teenage selves. This couldn’t…
City Slang: Jennifer Westwood revs up for CD release
This Saturday, country/Americana-ish singer/songwriter Jennifer Westwood will be performing at her CD release party at Biker Bob’s between 1 and 3 p.m. The venue is located at 14100 Telegraph Rd., Taylor. According to Biker Bob’s newsletter, it is an “all ages, live performance at Biker Bob’s! Refreshments, Santa Photo ops, and a portion of the…
Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows
Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows Directed by Guy Ritchie. Written by Michele and Kieran Mulroney. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Jared Harris, Stephen Fry and Rachel McAdams. Running time: 128 minutes. Rated PG-13. B I’ll say one thing, when you hire Guy Ritchie as your director you get your money’s…
Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol
Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol B+ Pure popcorn movie-making, and all the better on 70mm IMAX, MI-4 may be the best entertainment dollar of the series, filled with slick invention, eye-popping action, dizzying stunts, and just enough personality to rise above its shrewdly calculated rollercoaster thrills. Tom Cruise attracted the talented director Brad Bird…
Phantasmagoria’s Year In Review; new album in 2012
Phantasmagoria have graduated, in a sense. It’s coming up, sorta soon here, on a whole year since Metro Times dialed up the buzz on this local duo by giving them the cover page for their expansive Blowout cover. And, it feels like it’s been a whole year (almost, in calendar days) that they’ve been steadily…
Happy Birthday Ted Nugent
There’s no way that one of the true kings of Detroit rock’n’roll should go unnoticed on his 63rd birthday. Ted Nugent has done more than his fair share to make sure that music lovers around the globe know that Michigan and Detroit in particular is a rock haven. Of course Ted has his controversial moments,…
City Slang: Woodman gets festive
Eclectic folky-blues rockers Woodman will be hosting a Christmas show this coming Tuesday, December 20, at the Loving Touch in Ferndale. Main man Frank Woodman is a much-loved figure on the scene, and a force of nature. The dude is freakin’ everywhere. Anyway, of this show he said, “We have written and recorded a single…
City Slang: “Too Much Ain’t Enough” revisited
When Seduce appeared in the rockumentary movie The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years and said that they were the “best band in Detroit”, they weren’t kidding. This was the late ‘80s, when hardcore punk was all but done with and the world’s eyes were on the dumb, vacuous fun being produced…
Danny Brown Tops SPIN’s Rap List Then Releases “Monopoly” Video on Rolling Stone
It’s been a strong seven days for Detroit rapper Danny Brown. Late last week, SPIN Magazine came out with their list of the Top 50 Albums of 2011 and Brown’s XXX record clocked in at number six. That’s well ahead of Fleet Foxes’ stunning Helplessness Blues, Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne and Lady…
Beyond Kid Rock, in a solo space
When I was initially pitched this story, I was presented with the idea of a guitarist pulling himself out of the shadow of Kid Rock. That is, of course, no easy task. Like him or not, Kid Rock is an immense personality and Kenny Olson was a member of the Twisted Brown Trucker Band for…
Leaving her behind
Q: I’m a man who recently started seeing a wonderful woman. Like me, she’s divorced. While my ex-wife left me for another man, my girlfriend’s ex-husband was controlling and abusive. Our relationship is the opposite — emotionally, psychologically and sexually. Here’s the thing: His abusive behavior is my kink — spanking. In all my past…
Gingrich flip-flops on pot
Newt Gingrich is flying high in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination. So what does the erstwhile speaker of the House have to say about marijuana? As Gingrich seems to have an opinion about everything, it’s not hard to find his pontifications on pot. Just a few weeks ago, he said that medical marijuana…
Don’t call it punk
"Songwriting has to come from a moment, a feeling, like, one second," Johnny Ill snaps his fingers, "There, that’s where it comes from." There’s a shot of vodka in front of Ill, next to a half-finished piece of toast topped with Nutella spread. Not that that image will be his next song, but, given…
Detroit Music: The Ultimate sightseer’s guide
It seemed like a crazy idea when we started — crazier as we went along. Sort through the musical history of this swinging-rocking-funking-thrashing city and come up with, say, 100 key sites that have made Detroit what it is, spanning decades and genres, spanning the region from the river north, and from east to west,…
Ask the right questions
Ask the right questions As I write these words, members of a group called Michigan Forward are battling to collect enough signatures to get a statewide vote next year on the emergency manager law. If they succeed in getting it on the ballot, the law will be suspended till after the Nov. 6 election. Meanwhile,…
Exotic comforts
Korea Palace 34744 Dequindre, Sterling Heights 586-978-0500 Handicap accessible Prices: $9-$25 Occasionally, stereotypes ring true — like kimchi being served with Korean breakfasts, lunches and dinners. The spicy fermented cabbage dish is a staple of the cuisine, so it was an inviting, welcome sign that the kimchi at Sterling Heights’ Korea Palace was as…
The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby
The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby B This compelling investigation into the very private world of former CIA director William Colby is obtuse and information-dense, and the toothsome title isn’t the only barrier to entry; the subject himself was an impenetrable fortress of a man, someone who…
They paved paradise
An absolute place of music legend and African-American culture, Hastings Street once stretched north from the Detroit River to East Grand Boulevard, basically where I-75 runs today. After Detroit’s Jewish immigrant population left this area, Hastings became a thriving artery of African-American business and entertainment. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the street catered to…
Rock ‘n’ roll high schools
High School: There is no more magical time than these four years, when lifelong musical tastes and styles are formed, when young minds are open to exchanging ideas, and when, if the conditions are right, rebellious energy, unwitting originality and youthful drive combine with teenage drama and emerge as scene-making music. Fueled by the jazz,…
Detroit Music: The Ultimate sightseer’s guide
It seemed like a crazy idea when we started — crazier as we went along. Sort through the musical history of this swinging-rocking-funking-thrashing city and come up with, say, 100 key sites that have made Detroit what it is, spanning decades and genres, spanning the region from the river north, and from east to west,…
Letters to the Editor
The greatest misconception Please allow me to set the record straight. Your fine publication was kind enough to review my recent book, Children of the Greatest Generation: An Emotional History ("Strait off the presses," Nov. 23). But your reviewer’s characterization of me as a "ranting" "archetypal conservative" missed the mark by 180 degrees. Directly after the…
Shame
Shame Directed by Steve McQueen. Written by McQueen and Abi Morgan. Starring Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale and Nicole Beharie. Runnig time: 99 minutes. Rated NC-17. B- There’s a razor-thin line between depicting boredom and inducing it, and the intensely self-conscious and sleekly austere drama Shame comes perilously close to crossing that…
Food Stuff
Fresh pies and more for the eyes Since last week, Grosse Pointe has a new pizzeria. It’s called Green Zone Pizza, and it should have wide appeal, given its emphasis on organic and local ingredients, it’s gluten-free options and its casual atmosphere. What’s more, it has one of the city’s prized liquor licenses, which means…
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…
Russell Simmons Buys ‘All-American Muslim’ Ad Time Abandoned by Lowe’s
Big news bombshells keep exploding fast and furious around All-American Muslim, the controversial first-season TLC reality series filmed in Dearborn. In the latest salvo, in the aftermath of Lowe’s pulling its commercials from the show under pressure from an ultraconservative Christian group, hip-hop megamogul Russell Simmons says he has bought all the remaining ad space…
