Cover Story
Stone Fever!
Ty Stone is standing out in the alley behind Molly Malone’s Irish Pub on Fairfax near Wilshire in Los Angeles. He’s taking a break from his gig flipping burgers, smoking a cigarette. He thinks about how difficult this whole city is on songwriters, on guitarists, on musicians, on the heartbroken. You don’t stand a chance.…
Dead Fish Eyes
Two of Detroit’s more eclectic rap outfits, the duo behind Passalacqua, and the erudite/esoteric Emcee -Doc Waffles got together to let off some steam and spit back against the near-narcosis bug-eye stares they see dotting the faces of various rat race bustlers, cafe cruisers or back-of-the-venue posture punks. Watch: Passalacqua – “Dead Fish Eyes” (w/Doc…
SXSW 2012 Day 3: Dispatch from Austin
The Hounds Below, officially the main project of The Von Bondies’ Jason Stollsteimer, stayed busy with multiple shows scheduled each day of SXSW. Even though they’ve been whittled down to a typical rock four-piece from a band that has seen many larger incarnations over the past couple years, the Hounds Below somehow now boast a…
“Have to have a voice…” – DUDE: Tony Muggs’ new album
Tony Muggs calls himself the most lucky son of a bitch alive only minutes after admitting that he’s well aware he may not have a long time to live. The Muggs’ bassist, known properly as Tony DeNardo, recently released his first proper solo album Kid Gloves under the moniker -DUDE, a splendorous neo-psychedelic pop memoir…
City Slang: Jack White announces hometown gig
Two blogs today for you lucky people. Jack White has announced he that will play the Scottish Rite Theatre at the Masonic Temple in Detroit on Thursday, May 24. The show will be all-ages with doors at 6:30 and tickets starting at a fairly steep $45. Support comes from out-of-towners the Alabama Shakes. Tickets go…
City Slang: For the benefit of Scott Morgan
There will be a benefit at 1477 Grill (the venue formerly known as Mario’s) in Troy on April 14 for Rationals, Sonic’s Rendezvous Band and Powertrane singer and guitarist Scott Morgan. The organizers have put a stellar bill together for Morgan, one of Detroit rock n’ roll’s true gems. Morgan is suffering from severe liver…
City Slang: Odds and ends
Marshall Crenshaw will be hosting an hour-long salute to the early years of WABX on his radio show the Bottomless Pit on April 7 at 10 p.m., on wfuv.org. WABX in the late ‘60s and 70’s is of course considered a golden era for Detroit radio, featuring such characters at Jerry Lubin, Dave Dixon, Jerry…
City Slang: Full Movement bill announced
The full lineup for this year’s Movement Festival, taking place on May 26-28 at Hart Plaza, has now been announced. To see the full bill, click HERE. For further information, visit the Movement website right here. Now we can start getting excited. Click here to join the City Slang Turntable community!!! Follow @City_Slang
SXSW 2012 Day 2: Dispatch from Austin
Some notes on seeing Fiona Apple in a church: music, an already sacred enough phenomenon, is made even more sacred-seeming in the church setting, which paradoxically makes the whole thing a tad sacrilegious. For example, a polite applause followed each song, followed by a solemn silence, which Apple sheepishly filled with anecdotes like using a…
City Slang: Human Nature brings Motown down under
Human Nature, the Australian male singing group who cover Motown songs and have topped the charts in their native land, are kicking off their U.S. tour in the home of their favorite music at the Fisher Theatre on March 24. The band has a new album out called The Motown Record, which follows the PBS…
Undefeated
Undefeated B- There’s a certain kind of underdog sports movie, Undefeated among them, that inspires grown men to blink away tears with a gruff "there’s something in my eye" excuse (Confession: I squeezed out a few myself). And if it bears some similarities to the trite and treacly 2009 Sandra Bullock hit, The Blind Side,…
21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street B- The original 21 Jump Street was not a milestone of television history; it was a silly, flashy show filled with attractive young actors, one of whom (Johnny Depp) went on to major stardom. The premise, about cops posing undercover as high school kids was basically a rehash of the Mod Squad,…
Being Flynn
Being Flynn C+ There’s little doubt that writer-director Paul Weitz’s intentions are both earnest and artistic. After a trio of father-son dramas — About a Boy, In Good Company and now Being Flynn — he clearly has an attraction to the damaged intricacies of family dynamics. His latest film is an adaptation of Nick Flynn’s…
Jeff, Who Lives at Home
Jeff, Who Lives at Home B With each and every film they make, Jay and Mark Duplass (Humpday, Cyrus) get closer and closer to creating a conventional Hollywood comedy. And yet, despite the increasingly light tone and contrived plotting of their work, they still manage to maintain the lo-fi, spontaneous, straight-faced sincerity that made their…
SXSW 2012 Day 1: Dispatch from Austin
The annual South By Southwest festival draws musicians and music fans from all over to the Live Musical Capital of the World- that’s Austin, TX- and once again Detroit was well-represented. Detroit-related festivities kicked-off in earnest at a FADER-sponsored party with a much-hyped performance by rapper Danny Brown, taking to the stage (ironically? …Reverently?) to…
Listening In: The Morning After / Bottles & Bones
You almost wanna tell these kids to slow down… I’m wary not to wear out the cliched descriptor of a “road-trip-record,” but this one deserves consideration in said-category simply because its foot is planted firmly on the rhythmic/riffage accelerator for the first eight of its 10 tracks. But Morning After distinguishes itself from being any ol’…
City Slang: “Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends” revisited
George Clinton’s third solo album, Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends was released by Capitol in ‘85 and it received a whole shit-load of critical acclaim, despite not being as successful at Computer Games with its “Atomic Dog”. Despite being credited to Clinton alone, plenty of the old Parliament-Funkadelic alumni show up here, including…
We Need to Talk About Kevin
We Need to Talk About Kevin C Want to end the debate over contraception? Force audiences to sit through We Need to Talk About Kevin, the new film by Scottish director Lynn Ramsey (Morvern Callar). Saturated in a collage of reds, sporting inappropriately placed pop tunes, and reveling in its hollow nihilistic subject matter, this…
Friends With Kids
Friends With Kids B- Given its supporting cast (Maya Rudolph, Chris O’Dowd, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig) it would be easy to mistake Friends With Kids for Bridesmaids 2. And the truth is, the latest from writer-director-star Jennifer Westfeldt (indie hit 2001’s Kissing Jessica Stein) would be improved with someone like Wiig in the lead role,…
We Need to Talk About Kevin
We Need to Talk About Kevin C Want to end the debate over contraception? Force audiences to sit through We Need to Talk About Kevin, the new film by Scottish director Lynn Ramsey (Morvern Callar). Saturated in a collage of reds, sporting inappropriately placed pop tunes, and reveling in its hollow nihilistic subject matter, this…
Megatron millions!
*Cues "Today Was A Good Day"*… As the music plays in the background, I just sit and think about how great of a day Ice Cube had in South Central in ’93. Woke up to a swine-less breakfast, didn’t get harassed by the cops, played hoops with his friends (whom he’d previously gotten a triple-double…
Metro Times Best Of Detroit 2012
As you may have heard, we’re returning to Motor City Casino again for our not-to-be-missed Best Of Detroit Party on Friday, April 27. “How do I get an invite?” You ask. Simple. Fill out a ballot in our Best Of Detroit poll. We’ll pick five ballots at random for five pairs of tickets. And we’ll…
Could It Be Magic? The Wonder Twins do Barry Manilow
This past Friday, the Wonder Twins spent the evening at the Fox Theatre with their mom and the man who writes the motherf**kin’ songs. Here’s their first-hand account from the Mani-rave. Laura:I think we should first and foremost let our fine readers know that we did not go to this show for ironic reasons.…
City Slang: More Movement acts announced
58 more artists have been added to the bill for the Movement Electronic Music Festival, brining the total number now performing to 111. The event takes place in Detroit on May 26-28 and weekend tickets cost $75 through March 23, increasing to $80 at midnight on March 24. The organizers have roped in Resident Advisor’s…
How corrupt is Detroit?
Last week the federal government announced that it would stop sending a $50 million annual grant to the Detroit Human Services Department due to nepotism, reckless spending and corruption. In another case, the U.S. Justice Department records allege that contractor and Kwame Kilpatrick pal Bobby Ferguson obtained $58.5 million through extortion and other illegal means…
Shooter Jennings – Family Man (Entertainment One)
At first it’s a bit surprising to hear that Shooter Jennings refers to his fifth album as his most personal. After all, the son of the late outlaw-country legend Waylon Jennings prides himself on being another splintered branch on the family tree (just to show he means business, he even titled his debut LP Put…
Big Brother and the Holding Company Featuring Janis Joplin – Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 (Columbia/Legacy)
Before Janis Joplin joined Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1966, they were a sloppy and barely competent boogie-blues band dabbling in hippie aesthetics. Not much changed once Joplin was on board, except they had a powerhouse singer who packed more charisma than the four other guys combined. This 70-minute live set from their…
Down with unicorns
The Irish Rovers The Unicorn (1968) Why do we as a people detest unicorns so goddamned much? Because unicorns are happy and poop rainbows? Because their horn-through-the-head reminds of our worst hangovers? Because as mythical creatures they are as useless as Aquaman except for hanging laundry and maybe ruining a perfectly good beach ball? My…
Corey Harris breaks his lyrics down
With a high-falutin’ MacArthur genius grant backing up his down-home folk wisdom, Corey Harris is an eclectic Rasta-blues scholar for our time. The former schoolteacher and street musician recently commented on five of his favorite lyrics from his nine-LP career. 1 From "Frankie Doris" on the LP Downhome Sophisticate: I gonna take my taxes/buy…
Pupils – Not Another Boring Bone Avenue (Forget/Axis Mundi)
Riled-up never sounded so groovy. Call it agitgroove, or whatever hep blogoids prefer; though this Detroit quartet (made up of players from Legendary Creatures, Marco Polio and Red China) may sound like they’re in a sort of a pinball punk mode for eight out of this EP’s 12 tumbling minutes, their musical chemistry keeps a…
Free Art Friday’s scavenger hunt
Free Art Friday What: A scavenger hunt for free art concealed throughout the city. Where: Somewhere in Detroit; see facebook.com/FAFDET for the clues. When: Every Friday. Engaging the community at large with the arts presents distinct challenges. Detroit has seen an uptick in events that seek to break barriers between the arts scene and the…
Cross-dressing for God
Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine Eric Weiner Twelve Publishers, $26, 368 pp. Eric Weiner has spent much of his life striving for objectivity. The former correspondent for NPR and The New York Times has reported from more than 30 countries, on everything from the tobacco industry to the bubonic plague. But in…
Letters to the Editor
Rush: Pig or prig? Re: Jack Lessenberry’s item "The unmaking of a pig" (March 7), I’m glad that people are talking about what Rush Limbaugh said about that young woman. It was one of the few shows I actually heard for myself as it aired. He did have a point when he asked why cancer…
7 inches of pleasure
Dark Red "Tara" Beehive Recording Company The principals — guitar, drums, vocals and an impressive deck of pedals (particularly delay) — create a poignant, head-swimming ambience ("She’s Laughing At Me"). Dark Red’s dazzle is subtle (here, at least; the band’s a feedback firestorm on stage), the beats stay steady, adding shakers on "Tara," while the…
Get yout Irish up!
Ashley’s 338 S. State St., Ann Arbor; 734-996-9191; ashleys.com: March 17 starts early at Ashley’s multi-tap in Ann Arbor — some St. Patrick’s purists are said to leave the pub at 2 a.m. closing the night before and line right up again to wait for it to open at 6:30 in the morning. But with…
Food Stuff
Pie on 3/14 Everything goes with pie — especially rock ‘n’ roll. Just ask Rodney "Ramblin’ Pie Man" Henry, owner of Dangerously Delicious Pies. Henry started the business a decade ago, while touring with his band the Glenmont Popes, as a side business to help keep him out playing music. And the pies are really…
Labor strikes back?
I know the one thing we did right Was the day we started to fight Keep your eyes on the prize Hold on. —Civil rights movement song For more than a year, unions and working people have taken a pounding, ever since Rick Snyder became governor and Republican right-wing ideologues captured the Legislature. A…
One-Eyed Betty’s a hit in Ferndale
One-Eyed Betty’s Beer Bar & Kitchen 175 W. Troy St., Ferndale 248-808-6633 Handicap accessible Salads, sandwiches, entrées: $8-$16 The kitchen is open till 1:30 a.m. every morning. Hours are 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, with breakfast and lunch menus those days. Judging from the response,…
Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself (Mom and Pop Music)
Long after the novelty of his violin and whistling virtuosity has faded, we were left with the concept of Andrew Bird as a mildly off-kilter singer-songwriter — and occasionally, as on 2009’s Noble Beast, a great one. His latest record, however, will do little to dispel the charges of those that find his output increasingly…
Citizens vs. Citizens United
The backlash to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling two years ago continues to mount. Recently, this rag reported on the nascent effort to amend the U.S. Constitution to say that money isn’t speech and corporations aren’t people. Last week a group of Michigan good-government activists announced plans to try to amend the state…
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…
State announces fast-track for Gateway project
Following last week’s decision by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Prentis Edwards to have the Michigan Department of Transportation complete the Detroit International Bridge Company’s share of the long-litigated Gateway Project, MDOT is announcing that it will take a streamlined approach intended to finish the job as quickly as possible. As we reported last week,…
Rush to misjudgment
Until last week, News Hits had been content to let others rail about Rush Limbaugh’s disgraceful three-day attack on Georgetown law school student Sandra Fluke. The reaction has been widespread and intense to Limbaugh calling Fluke a "slut” and "prostitute” simply because she advocated having all employer health insurance plans — including those of religiously…
