Mar 28 – Apr 3, 2001

Mar 28 - Apr 3, 2001 / Vol. 21 / No. 24

Cuddle punk

Spoon is almost as well known for its record label troubles as it is for its music. Since 1996, the Austin, Texas-based rockers have bounced from indie giant Matador Records to Elektra to Merge to the tiny Saddle Creek label. Just after 1998’s A Series of Sneaks hit the shelves, Elektra dropped them (despite promising…

Christian Hoard

Double dose

The Dave Brubeck Quartet has always exemplified the class and vivacity of jazz. Formal yet innovative, nice yet sassy, Brubeck’s brand of jazz is a sensuous contradiction. Brubeck has been a dog chasing his own tail in recent years; he is so prolific, his output is so constant, he is barely able to keep up…

Joshua Gross

A piece in the puzzle

We are witnessing the evolution of the click and the cut. Many watched in horror as be-decked and be-laptopped entities such as Oval, Autechre and Pan Sonic stripped away any peripheral attractions that so characterized the ’80s and early ’90s, but perhaps at this point they can rest assured that it was done in the…

Liz Copeland

More of the same

It’s hard to believe that we who embrace McDonald’s, TV spin-offs and the Gap could have a problem with cloning. Liz explains how human clones will actually benefit society.

Metro Times editorial staff

Alberta Adams

She’s been belting out the blues for almost 60 years now…and Alberta Adams shows no signs of slowin’ down. She’s got an earthy, world-weary voice which hints of a past filled with hound-dog men and hard-luck stories. Despite all that, her powerful yet ladylike stage presence lets you know she may have seen it all,…

Karen Fisher

Free Will Astrology

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Don’t use an ax to embroider.” —Malay proverb. “Our fears always outnumber our dangers.” —Latin saying. “A stumble may prevent a fall.” —English epigram. April Fool! All that stock wisdom gleaned from the past might be helpful at other times, Aries, but at an unprecedented and unpredictable moment such as this,…

Metro Times editorial staff

TV love and vacant space

Surviving a party with “Survivor” style (with a few of the survivors themselves) … Starbucks doubles its operations in Detroit … The real-life urban legend surrounding Harry Houdini’s final performance … & more.

Metro Times editorial staff

Oyster wonderland

The latest outpost of Tom’s Oyster Bar, located right in downtown Detroit, right across from the RenCen (hear that, restaurateurs?), and always crowded (they said it couldn’t be done), is a worthy addition to the ever-expanding chain. Noisy and cheerful at lunchtime and after work, Tom’s gives a very convincing impression of a well-preserved 19th…

Elissa Karg

Under-age and under cover

Robert Rodriguez (writer, director, editor, producer and all-around creative dynamo) uses a deceptively simple set-up as a jumping-off point in this clever, high-speed romp through a fantasyland jam-packed with exciting people, places and things too often missing in films for children.

Serena Donadoni

Don’t touch that dial

Q: I am interested in a local news reporter. I know that she is available and I would really like to get to know her. I dropped off a special Valentine’s Day bag to the studio for her which included different types of candy to make sure that there were at least a few things…

Metro Times editorial staff

Rebels With a Cause

This documentary about the slow progress of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS, founded in 1961), from idealism to frustration and disillusionment, is a partisan, one-sided presentation. Still, it’s a compelling story and should be seen, if only for the lessons it offers future disturbers of the status quo.

Richard C. Walls

Solas

Solas

means “alone,” and Spanish director Benito Zambrano’s low-keyed, character-driven film is about loneliness and the difficulty people have in making basic connections. But it’s also nudged along by unnecessary sentimentality.

Richard C. Walls

The Brothers

Refusing to Exhale

could be the title of this film, according to director Gary Hardwick (Trippin’ ). But unlike the mahogany heroines of Waiting to Exhale, the bourgeois brothers ain’t even holding their breath for love. And though it touches on some deep issues, its characters and plot have many a thin patch.

James Keith La Croix

Heartbreakers

Director David Mirkin tries to spice up this lackluster film with a bouncy sound track and gorgeous locales, but any wit is drowned by the tag-team burlesque of Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Ray Liotta and Jason Lee add a gust of warmth to a film which underestimates men and women both.

Serena Donadoni

Future shock?

The mess in California sparks doubts about Michigan’s energy future. There’s a potential for power shortages, rate increases and environmental setbacks.

Curt Guyette

Egging himself on

So, it’s come to this: A wildly celebrated young author whose self-conscious, off-center style has won over both jaded critics and mush-minded memoir lovers is talking about keeping “a low profile” and “letting the work speak for itself.” A master of satire — and a leader of its media-skewering sect — wants to go hide…

Michael Anft

Power on

The Michigan Public Services Commission points out key distinctions between our state’s deregulation and California’s.

Curt Guyette

Herb salad

Full of quirky narratives, mellow semijagged riffs and an overall bucolic vibe, Olu Dara’s Neighborhoods seems like a slice of life from his Natchez, Miss., roots filtered through New York’s East Village — sort of Taj Mahal meets Blood Ulmer. At times it’s a little African, especially in the lyrics which seem like children’s parable.…

Larry Gabriel

Letters to the Editor

Facts wrong? Jack Lessenberry’s amusing commentary regarding Royal Oak’s upcoming May 15 vote on a discriminatory, so-called "gay rights" ordinance ("Human rights and Royal Oak," MT, Feb. 28-March 6) included at least one misstatement of fact that Jack knows to be false — that being his inaccurate characterization of Christian bookstores as "nonprofit" or "religious"…

Metro Times editorial staff

Making the bland

The only thing that’s really surprising when you connect the Monkees to their banal offspring, O-Town (see also “Making the Band”) is that it took 35 years for ABC/Disney to perfect the marketing synergy that NBC (which aired the original Monkees episode) began. After all, the Monkees presaged the whole prefab-four phenomenon when, in 1966,…

Chris Handyside

Daily news blues

The Detroit News and Free Press are dead as a universal information source. They had to work hard to destroy a product so thoroughly.

Jack Lessenberry

Something borrowed, something blue

Long before crossing over into the world of Jon Spencer hipsters via 1996’s A Ass Pocket of Whiskey collaboration, R.L. Burnside was a bluesman plain and simple, not a Blues Explosion man. Except for such experiments as Ass Pocket, and the “dance album” Come On In, simple Delta and juke-joint blues are where Burnside comfortably…

Mariah Cherem

Recent

See all

Gift this article