Wise blood
Sixteen Horsepower lives to chase the Holy Ghost another day….
Art of finance
Financial news for the Detroit Institute of Arts has been unusually positive as of late. An unprecedented donation totaling $50 million from three local philanthropists in April and the likelihood of a $35 million grant from the state last month were welcome news. But if a recent assessment of the museum’s financial situation is correct,…
A house divided
Barb Ingalls leads a dual life. Since being called back to her job as a printer at Detroit Newspapers after going out on strike nearly four years ago, she is once again the dutiful employee, showing up on time, performing her job, drawing a paycheck. But when away from work, the battle with what she…
Future perfect
In Dan Sicko’s new book, techno’s tale finds new light in a brief history of music’s future past….
Peace and decay
Am I the only one who feels a certain peace and serenity in the presence of the city’s decaying buildings? It’s not unlike the feeling I have when driving through the mountains or careening along the Pacific Ocean. It’s that of a simple, meditating calm brought out or produced by the energy that is nature…
Six-string pirates
One year after its closing, the On Line Guitar Archive fights to keep the music public….
Workable solutions
From beneath the rustling pile of press releases, newspaper clippings, pages torn from books, and magazine articles swirling around my office the Lizard of Fun emerges. "So this is where you’ve been hiding," it says to me, surveying the mess. "Funny, it’s like your house, only tidier." "Naaah," I say. "If it was my house,…
In one ear
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE! Think of a virtual city. A city with no traffic jams impeding immediate transport from one scene of action to another. A city where music is all that matters. A city where music fans, thirsty for the juice of a music community ripe with talent, can get quenched. A city where…
ARRIVING FROM TAKE OFFS
Is remixing a point of departure from a song’s original form or just a wardrobe change? For Morsel, it’s neither. Made up of some of the most adept local experimenters in sound and mood, the band – with a little help from its friends – turns these 10 tracks into something that feels brand-new. If…
Wake me when it starts
Well, I know you are still winding down from the Fourth of July celebrations of our victory in Kosovo. Marie Donigan, a city councilmember in Royal Oak, reports she is leading her town’s efforts to erect its own Yugoslav victory pylon on Washington at Woodward, which is altogether fitting and proper. Other communities are sure…
Pitch’d
"Go Deep" Closing Party This Saturday Yep, you read it right. Just one short month after afterhours club Better Days reopened in Woodward Village and Saturday night’s outstanding beatdown house sweatfest "Go Deep" party resumed, promoter Korie Enyard is taking the party elsewhere. While insiders say lack of focus on the part of Better Days’…
Marshland mess
Made In Detroit Inc. officials have alluded to support they’ve received in Gibraltar and Trenton, communities along the lower Detroit River where they plan to build 340 luxury homes and a golf course. However, at a recent public hearing in Gibraltar, Made In Detroit officials heard the heated words of residents still fighting the developer’s…
Summer of Sam
Spike Lee’s latest joint is one of his most ambitious efforts so far, a film which bites off a great deal more than it manages to chew – though when it does chew, it chews with vigor. Lee established himself as an accomplished and original stylist with his third feature, Do the Right Thing (1989),…
You call this clean?
One of the state’s biggest polluters has been presented with a Clean Corporate Citizen award by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) at a time when ozone pollution levels are climbing to new highs in Northern Michigan. The Wisconsin Electric Company’s Presque Isle Power Plant in Marquette was granted the CCC award, despite the…
Wild Wild West
It’s Back to the Future in Wild Wild West as Monsieur Jules Verne, tired from his 80 Days Around the World, stops to catch his breath somewhere between West Virginia and Washington, D.C., tormented – for the first time – by the putrid thought that maybe “bigger” and “larger-than-life” do not always amount to “better.”…
Food stuff
NUMEROUS NIBBLES Had a blast at the Comerica TasteFest but still hungering for more gourmet tidbits? Head over to Windsor for the Windsor/Detroit Tunnel Festival Epicure. Dubbed a "celebration of regional food, wine and music," the weekend-long event features treats from 28 food and beverage exhibitors, including the Walkerville Brewing Company, four Ontario wineries and…
Shiloh 2: Shiloh Season
In an era of dumbed-down cinema, films made for kids often suffer the worst fate, as formula stories are made even more mind-numbingly simplistic, or insidiously moronic characters – Barney, anyone? – are given free rein. Shiloh 2: Shiloh Season comes as a breath of fresh air, and not just because of its rural West…
Empire of fun
ABC led off its Saturday newscast during the Memorial Day weekend with a telling item. After praising how much Americans like the romance of getting away, the segment switched tone and offered a downbeat survey of how clogged the highways were and how long the lines were at airports. "Suckers," the segment screamed, "but at…
Hot wheels and dirty tricks
There are a lot of careers out there – sports marketing, cryptozoology, talk show host – that just were never thrown out to us in high school on career day. One of them was Roller Derby queen. If it had been, I might have thrown away my cigarettes and my copy of Kafka’s Greatest Hits…
The thrill of the chill
I can barely hear the Lizard of Fun over the dull roar of two window fans, three floor fans and the motor of the wide-open refrigerator. "What?" I shout, wiping sweat from my ears. "I thought you said something." "I did," yells the Lizard. "I said it’s freaking hot." "Thanks for the weather report," I…
Beyond waffle fries
There is a difference between a sports bar and a restaurant. Champps falls in between. For a sports bar, Champps offers an extensive menu that goes way beyond burgers and waffle fries.
Run Lola Run
One of the arguments currently espoused by film reviewers is that MTV, with its rapid, non sequitur editing style, has ruined the movies, turning them into fast-paced visual jumbles for an audience which can no longer tolerate anything less than constant stimulation. German writer-director Tom Tykwer’s exhilarating Run Lola Run utterly disproves this theory. Tykwer…
Do Look Back
Retro is as retro does and the Brian Jonestown Massacre ain’t nothing if it’s not retro. On their ninth (count ’em) CD, the Jonestown boys conjure up visions of Beggars Banquet-era Rolling Stones and a few other artists from those outrageously swinging ’60s. Emphasizing acoustic slide guitars, blaring harmonica, group handclaps and even some shakin’…
Aye Aye Aye, Cap’n
Now that Don Van Vliet’s abandonment of music in favor of his career as a painter appears to be permanent, what are we finally to make of his alter ego, Captain Beefheart? Is he the avant-rock deity so dutifully worshipped by hipsters and other modernistes? Or was he, to use Ray Davies’ blunt assessment, “the…
Aye Aye Aye, Cap’n
Now that Don Van Vliet’s abandonment of music in favor of his career as a painter appears to be permanent, what are we finally to make of his alter ego, Captain Beefheart? Is he the avant-rock deity so dutifully worshipped by hipsters and other modernistes? Or was he, to use Ray Davies’ blunt assessment, “the…
Post Rock Jr.
Chicago’s Joan of Arc has come a long way from the emo-punk days of its members’ former band, Cap’n Jazz. While other past Cap’n Jazz-ers continue to mine teen emotions in the Promise Ring, Tim Kinsella and the rest of JOA seem bent on joining the inner circle of Chicago’s post-rock elite. Joan of Arc…
Blowing Warm
The liner notes to this disc refer to it as a "jam session," a phrase that brings to mind quickly cobbled head arrangements followed by marathon soloing, which is pretty much the opposite of what we have here. True, improvisation’s the thing on this set and the original compositions have that "hum at your own…
Electro-Degenerate
German-born, New York-based producer Can Oral has dabbled in as many electronic genres as he’s burned through monikers. Electro, ambient, acid, trip hop and more have all run through his varied discography – all neatly divided by different names on various label imprints and through his own Temple Records. But for now, he seems to…
World American
The recent Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival featuring the inventive music of Ned Rorem underscored the fact that there’s plenty of worthwhile American contemporary music out there that’s simply not played enough. Like Rorem, Lou Harrison has eschewed serial music in favor of tonal music. But these composers are far from reactionaries; their music is…
Mirrors
Drummer Joe Chambers made a name for himself during the ’60s by laying down the rhythmic landscape for such jazz musicians as Freddie Hubbard and Bobby Hutcherson. As a mainstay on the jazz scene, Chambers has only put out two albums under his own name. This small output doesn’t adequately capture the breadth of his…
Headphone-Friendly
Like Insane Clown Posse, Basement Jaxx’ greatest asset is that they are artists-as-fans. And like the Clowns with horror rap, the Jaxx’ take on their chosen genre – in this case, house music – is unashamedly white and middle-class, replete with pop referencing, spring-break goodtime jams and the occasional effective breaking from the ranks into…
Reissued Beginnings
It’s now safe to shelve your copies of Music in Sea Minor, Abba Zaba, Dropout Boogie, That’s Original and The Beefheart File, as the "New Buddha" has now provided a defining moment for the Beefheart albums Safe As Milk and Mirror Man. With decent sound and design, these new, bonus track-laden reissues are the last…
