Cover Story
Metro Times Blowout
It’s like short-term déjà vu. Last week was Blowout! This week is Blowout! Feeling a bit of whiplash? Never fear. We have the lowdown on some of the hottest bands that will play Blowout’s inaugural second week, from the Bobby Electric to John Nelson & the New Girlfriends. And our full schedule details every one…
City Slang: Weekly music review roundup
Send CDs, vinyl, cassettes, demos and 8-tracks to Brett Callwood, Metro Times, 733 St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 46226. Email MP3s and streaming links to bcallwood@metrotimes.com. Black Jake & the Carnies have a new EP out entitled Watching Waiting, and it appears as if the crabgrass band from Ypsilanti has dropped some of the punk and…
Blowout Weekend two recap
Guest blog by Esther Rubyan Give it up for weekend two of Metro Times Blowout 16! The second weekend of Blowout was yet again a great success, closing out North America’s largest local music festival with a bang! Located in the heart of downtown Ferndale, Blowout showcased another set of amazing acts—with a highlight focus…
City Slang: Concert of Colors lineup revealed
The lineup for this year’s Concert of Colors and, as is so often the case, Don Was’ Detroit All-Star Revue has got the city’s tongues a-wagging. The two surviving members of the MC5, Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson will play together, joined by Mosaic Youth Theatre Singers, Ty Stone, Howlin’ Diablos, Rev. Robert Jones, the…
Flowout
Detroit Party Marching Band — Photo by: Kelly Bennett I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did. I also wish I could’ve gotten out more. But it’s done now. You’ll have to tell me about that one bar and that one band and how it sounded. And all that. For now, it’s…
City Slang: Blowout Day 6 – 13 bands in four hours
Blowout is over for another year and, while you can be sure that the strong opinions will continue to rain in (please keep them coming, btw), we’re just happy that, at the end of the day, 600-ish bands were able to play the festival, with the vast majority of them playing well. It’s after 2am…
Game of Thrones Power Rankings (Season 3, Week 5)
Game of Thrones Power Rankings Episode 3:05 – Kissed By Fire Last week’s rankings As Cersei famously said back in the first season, “In the game of thrones, you win or you die.” With that spirit in mind, here’s your weekly look at who’s winning and who got served. Winning! 1. The…
Acting the goat at Blowout
Guest blog by Gerard Smith of Bill Grogan’s Goat I got to the Friday night installment of The Metro Times Blowout late last night, after taking my lovely Mrs. out for Mexican dinner, then falling into a food coma for an hour or so when I dropped her off at home. I still managed to…
Rock Library
So far so good. Two nights of Blow-ing-Out the Library. Last night we (The Ferndale Library – as a venue, and as an entity of volunteer bartenders and staff members, myself included as it is, full disclosure, my “day-job”) were privileged with a pleasing line up. We had three proficient indie-rocking pop provocateurs with band…
City Slang: Shagged out at Blowout Day 5
Phantom Cats had so many trippy light effects beamed around the library, it felt like we were inside a lava lamp. Very distracting, but I could still hear the singer’s wooing and warbling. It was like if Poly Styrene of X-Ray Specs was trying to sing like Kate Bush. I didn’t not like it, I…
Don’t be scared of Ferndale Blowout
Four days have passed since the conclusion of the Hamtramck portion of Blowout, and the very first day of the festival in Ferndale is here. Let’s not mince words here – this is a bit of an experiment, but it’s a very necessary one. The Blowout had to change to survive, and this is what…
Blowout and bullocks: Thoughts on Live Music
What, go to Blowout? Or just go to a live-music-thing, in general? I would go because I want to very nearly have my forehead smacked with a guitar neck. It’s that physiological reaction, the hurk and jerk where you duck your head or collide, recoil, rollick off of a swarm of perfect strangers. The sound…
Film Review: Iron Man 3
Iron Man 3 | B Has Robert Downey Jr. had enough? Called to duty as Tony Stark four times in five years (2015’s The Avengers 2 will make number five), the charismatic star seems a bit weary of the role. It’s not that Downey can’t toss off a terrifically timed wisecrack or twist even…
City Slang: DSO presents the Planets
Detroit Symphony Orchestra guest conductor John Storgårds will lead them through Holst’s The Planets on Friday, May 3 and Saturday, May 4, featuring Women of the MSU Chorale and State Singers. The program will also include Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 featuring pianist, Rafal Blechacz and the DSO premiere of Ligeti’s Lontano. They say, “The…
Remain The Anonymous
Listen: The Anonymous – “Smash For Funkers” – Interview – Kwesi / Goldzilla There’s this rapper and producer loudly hiding out amidst the gentrified/shabby post-hipster culture klatches of Woodbridge. Photo: Gretchen Gruenberg “Does that make me a bass-head ‘cuz I’m turning up the Dolby ?” Goldzilla raps, “ in the middle of the burbs, at 7:30…
Carolyn Striho is Spicy
DON’T MAKE THE mistake of typecasting Carolyn Striho. At first glance she appears to be one of the many female singer-songwriters this city is blessed with. Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll discover that Striho, a former member of the punk band Cube and the experimental Detroit Energy Asylum, can both pack a punch…
Keep Manhattan?
I read with interest the April 24 article “Grow-town” and I had to laugh to myself. Can you imagine how far we’ve fallen from being the “Arsenal of Democracy” and the “Automobile Capital of the World” to Detroit becoming the ”Green Acres” or “Archer-Daniels-Midland” of Michigan for urban farming. I realize, in the scheme of…
Chasing Ghosts
THE GHOSTS ARE not yet dead, or so says Patrick Davy. That is despite the folk-rock singer-songwriter’s main performing and recording troupe, bassist Adam Padden and drummer Will Shattuck, both joined the busy touring act the Hounds Below (led by rocker Jason Stollsteimer, former frontman of the Von Bondies.) In three years, Patrick Davy &…
Snyder’s Skunky Smell
THREE YEARS AGO, while stumping on the campaign trail, Rick Snyder made a promise to the people of this state: “Michigan’s citizens are tired of the divisive political culture in Lansing,” the self-proclaimed “one tough nerd” declared. “Midnight deals, closed-doors meetings, lobbyists and special interest influence have stood in the way of long-term solutions. “As…
The Three Faces of John
John Nelson knows he has to get to the point, otherwise he risks losing his audience — any audience: the stiff-shouldered, fidgety bar crowd or the students he instructs in his art class. Nelson gets it because, if you’re not engaging enough, play too many songs or lecture for too long, neither assembly — scholarly…
She’s Pulled Up Stakes
Q: I am a 23-year-old straight male. My ex-girlfriend and I started dating in high school when we were both 17, and continued dating until I broke up with her the summer after our freshman year in college because things felt too serious. We continued to have sex, but I blocked out all my feelings…
Locked in a Full Nelson
The Beggars are a blast. That, according to their athletic sparkplug of a lead singer Steven Tuthill, is the watchword. He can’t put it any other way, repeating variations on the phrase at least three or four times: “It’s been a blast.” Ten years running and Detroit’s principal party-rock band is still going strong. Tuthill,…
Don’t Run Again, Mayor Bing
DAVE BING IS a good and decent man who, four years ago, restored integrity to the office of mayor of Detroit. Nobody, not even his own worst enemy, has ever alleged that he’s stolen a dime. There has never been the faintest whiff of personal scandal around him. There are those, like me, who have…
Detroit’s Cheesecake Bistro
Detroit’s Cheesecake Bistro 1045 Brush St., Detroit 313-962-4061 detroitscheesecakebistro.com Handicap accessible Entrées: $16-$59 Brunch buffet: $25 Open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Open for brunch only 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. Conversation during brunch at Detroit Cheesecake Bistro: Friend (approvingly): “Well, it’s definitely one step above…
Food Stuff
Beer is better outdoors — Bill’s Beer Garden, an alcoholic outgrowth of the Mark’s Carts all-mobile food court, officially opens for the season Thursday, May 2. It has quickly become a favorite outdoor drinking destination. It developed an enthusiastic following during its two 2013 pre-season weekends as well as its successful 2012 inaugural mini-season. Revelers…
Blowin’ Up Again
VENUE: COMO’S (UPSTAIRS) 12:50 a.m. > Phantasmagoria The Internet calls this indie-electronica. But with bongos bumping up against synths and sequencers, it’s like some kind of outer-space tribal dance party, launched from the planet of post-techno and off into the stratosphere of hip-hop mingling, laptop-looping dance-pop. Midnight > The Salt & the Sea…
Jumping Off the Cliff
Grand Rapids, hometown of the fast-rising folk-rock troupe the Crane Wives, might be in the same state as Detroit, but the 160 miles separating the cities makes it difficult for bands to bridge the divide. As a result, an alt-indie scene has developed in Grand Rapids that very much has a life of its own.…
Why Bill Schuette Hates Patient Rights
SINCE BILL SCHUETTE was elected Michigan attorney general in 2010, he has fought tooth and nail against all but the strictest interpretation of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, and aided municipalities in finding ways to thwart and circumvent provisions of the law. Actually, his efforts started even earlier, as he led the forces fighting against…
The Bobby Electric are Charged for Blowout
MATHIAS ADUKE AND the Bobby Electric have been waiting to play Blowout since the band formed in 2010. This year, Aduke is playing twice. By the time you read this, he will have already performed during the Hamtramck portion of the festival with All the Wild Children. In Ferndale, he’ll be playing with the Bobby…
City Slang: Trinosophes this week
There is some fascinating, eclectic music going on at Trinosophes this week. On Friday, May 3, Josephine Foster performs. They say, “As an adolescent Josephine Foster worked as a funeral and wedding singer, and aspired to become an opera singer. After her studies she began to record demos of her own songs, resulting in the…
