Cover Story
Bruce Campbell – the man, the myth, the chin
What is it about Bruce Campbell that makes him such a compelling actor? When he makes an appearance in a movie or TV show, it’s impossible to turn away and yet — let’s be absolutely fair and clear — when the lists of the great actors in history are made, Campbell isn’t going to be…
City Slang: RIP Bobby Rogers
Bobby Rogers of the Miracles died at 6.30 a.m. on Sunday at the age of 73. MAA News released a statement that read, “Rogers joined the pre-Miracles group The Matadors in the 1957. The group auditioned for Jackie Wilson and was turned down. But, Berry Gordy who was a songwriter for Wilson (“Lonely Tear Drops”)…
City Slang: Luke Winslow-King prepares album
Cadillac man Luke Winslow-King will release his new album, his first for Bloodshot Records, on April 23. This is what we know: “29-year-old Luke Winslow-King is a guitarist, singer, composer, and lyricist known for his slide guitar work, and interest in pre-war blues and traditional jazz. Winslow-King’s work consists of an eclectic mix, taking in…
City Slang: Legz Diamond album set to drop
Legz Diamond, signed to ICP’s Psychopathic Records, will release his debut album for the label, 9 Pistolas, on March 19. According to a statement, “This is a concept album about an old school gangster’s rise to power…and the consequences of his life of crime. The entire album was produced by Insane Clown Posse. Legz has…
Film Review: 21 and Over
21 and OverC Bros will be bros in this bawdy college comedy, which sticks to the curriculum while sending a crew of eager young horndogs out on the town for a wild night of unruly and all too familiar yuks; though, fittingly, like any good all campus rager, you will be unable to recall…
Film Review: Jack the Giant Slayer
Jack the Giant SlayerC It’s clear from the unconvincing trailers that New Line’s marketing wing is as stymied as I am about what audience Jack the Giant Slayer was made for. Too simple-minded and bloodless for older, action-hungry audiences and too belligerent for young children, this mediocre fantasy adventure seems aimed at a rather…
Film Review: The Sweeney
The SweeneyB- Ray Winstone is a hard-ass character actor who’s been kicking around the fringes of Hollywood for more than a decade, playing the kind of brooding, dead-eyed thugs that make lesser men piss their pants. He was Nicholson’s right-hand man in The Departed and voiced Beowulf in Robert Zemekis’ animated actioner. In The Sweeney,…
Detroit financial crisis: Takeover fight looms
The clock is ticking. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder today officially declared that Detroit is experiencing a financial emergency, setting the stage for appointment of an emergency financial manager. The governor said he has someone in mind for the job, but won’t yet say who the likely person is. But the path from here to there…
City Slang: Trinosophes opens its doors
Trinosophes, the new club what experimental/world music pioneer and champion Joel Petersen, will see its grand opening on Saturday, March 9. That first show will feature the Matthew Shipp Trio, Space Band, Isles of ESP, James Baljo, Skeeter, Shelton’s Spectrum 2 and hopefully Noah from Duly’s Coney Island; DJs Brad Hales, Scott Zacharias and The…
Free help fighting foreclosures
Detroit Eviction Defense — a coalition of a network of homeowners, union members, faith-based activists and community advocates — and the Detroit Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild will be holding a free legal clinic on Saturday, Mach 2, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Central United Methodist Church, 23 E. Adams St. in…
City Slang: A Band Called Death
A film called A Band Called Death, chronicling the weird and wonderful story of the punk band Death, will be screened at SXSW. According to the press release, “The film chronicles rebirth and rise to cult stardom of early-’70s African-American “proto-punk” trio Death, following a new generation’s discovery of a virtually unheard demo tape more…
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…
Letters to the Editor
No magic wands In “The Sorrow and the City” (Feb. 20) Jack Lessenberry makes a strange assertion that “at some point, the city, like General Motors, will be released from higher government control, to start over without debts,” except “GM and Chrysler [will have] products to sell.” I disagree with all those assumptions. The government…
Pewter Cub- If You Can Hold Your Breath- Bellyache Records
Kinda awkward when you get invited to play the Blowout just a week after you’ve broken up. Thankfully, Pewter Cub’s frontman guitarist and frontwoman bassist-singer forged ahead with their experimental pop style. At first they went far into left field with a punky-techno thing involving a shoddy drum machine, which was jettisoned when the group…
Film Review: Koch
Koch | B+ With his breezy, avuncular style and faux-humble “How am I doin’?” catchphrase, the late Ed Koch was a masterful old-school politician with a grandiose personality nearly as large as the soaring skyscrapers of New York City, a town that he ran for a decade, but loomed over for much longer. This entertaining…
Queer goggles
Q: I am writing about a friend. By all appearances, he is straight. However, on more than one occasion, he has gotten drunk and tried to hook up with a transvestite or a person who could have been one. In one instance, he went to a club and was approached by a really masculine-seeming girl…
Wild Belle- Isles- Columbia
All bets are off once that saxophone comes in, blurting its brassy funk under the smoky vocal coo of Natalie (Belle) Bergman. Recorded out west in Benton Harbor, the Bergmans (Elliot mans the keys and guitar) sound so cool and confident on their debut that it feels more like a third or even fourth album.…
Campbell’s kids
I was in the Army from ’89 to ’91. I was stationed in Germany, and we didn’t really have a lot of options for TV or movies at our barracks. We had Star Wars, Top Gun and the two Evil Dead movies. We watched Ash beat up demons more than we watched Goose bang his…
Food Stuff
What’s popping — We dropped in at MOCAD last week for a meal from a pop-up restaurant called Detroit Vegan Soul. Amid quiet conversation, we enjoyed some pretty darn good vegan food, including smoky collard greens, creamy mac ’n’ cheese, sliced yams, corn muffins and barbecue tofu. We bring it up because the Vegan Soul…
Isn’t it romantic?
Amadeus Cafe & Patisserie 122 E. Washington St., Ann Arbor; 734-665-8767; $$$: Amadeus is a unique restaurant designed after the Old World cafés of Vienna. A variety of traditional dishes from Central Europe are offered, as well as desserts and a unique list of wines and beers. Enjoy candlelit dinners and live classical music on…
Unlocking a movement
There are certain statistics that should make people gasp with horror and seethe with outrage. Here is one of those numbers: 716. Why that figure in particular? Because it represents the number of people per 100,000 who are behind bars in the United States. To even begin to understand the full, tragic significance of what…
The Deep Smooth Character of The Whiskey Charmers
Years ago, this writer thought it would be funny to set up fake dating profiles with descriptions ripped from coffee shop menus. “A rich Ethiopian with a distinct aftertaste,” one would read. “A nutty Brazilian,” said another. The Whiskey Charmers, an indie-folky band led by the bubbly Carrie Shepard, took that idea to another level…
The story of Detroit’s socialist mayor
Once, a long, long time ago, there was a mayor of Detroit who got it right. He figured out what was wrong — mainly government corruption and corporate greed. More importantly, he figured out how to fix it. He had no political experience. He was a little fat man with a pale face, scraggly beard…
What about the patients?
When it comes to medical cannabis, there is a lot of attention paid to legal issues: Is it legal? Who can have it? Where can you have it? How much can you have? Can you buy it? Can you sell it? What’s legal? What’s not? There’s a reason for this uncertainty: Cops keep busting people,…
Silent Lions- The Parliaments- Self-released
Ever hear of the Toledo War between Michigan and Ohio in the 1830s? Unlike those pioneering days, perhaps in the 2010s we can peacefully coax some Buckeyes to the Detroit fold. Crafty drummer Matt Klein can sound altogether sharp and spastic, and singer Dean Tartaglia (who tours and blows a mean sax regularly with Detroit…
City Slang: Happy Birthday Mitch Ryder
We would like to wish a warm and happy 68th birthday to the one and only Mitch Ryder today. To celebrate the occasion, have another look at our piece on the great man from last year, here. Back then, Ryder said of his new album, “At my age, you can’t pretend to be something you’re…
After The SnowRush (2.28.13 – Forget Records at the Berkley Front
Another sonic summit of psychedelic/experimentally-minded music makers gathers upstairs in the Berkley Front on Thursday, swelling together their sweet harmonies only to provocatively drown them out with fuzzed-out fenders and forage their own kind of heady dream-pop – Right! Who needs that finally-released-My-Bloody-Valentine album, types like the laid-back-yet-intense post-apocalyptic bohemians embodying the Axis Mundi Collective…
Mudgie’s
Mudgie’s 1300 Porter St., Detroit 313-961-2000 mudgiesdeli.com Handicap accessible Sandwiches: $8.25-$10.50 Open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; delivery 11 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays. You’ve never seen a happier restaurateur than Greg Mudge, now that he has a liquor license, since Jan. 31. And a happy Mudge makes for a pampered clientele. Has there…
