Cover Story
Penrose Rising
Seven years after moving to Detroit’s Penrose neighborhood, Jonathan Hubbard’s memory of that first night remains vivid. Arriving at the age of 11 with his mother, Carolyn Campbell, and his two younger siblings, Hubbard had come from a much nicer area on the city’s west side. Looking around his new neighborhood for the first time,…
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. The Rogue Satellites has a new album, Other Angels, a record which perfectly showcases the band’s evolution from electronica-tinged pop rock, Pixies-esque love monkeys to challenging, experimental, impossible to pin…
Lt.Bad
Plllllaaa-NET- Rock! Bangin’ jams for the dim discotheques of 1981 – Get out the broken down cardboard boxes and limber up – This local duo is resurrecting breakdance for you, grab a plate and fill up on some B-boy goodies. Metallic vocode-heavy sound fx’s splashing over nifty, buzzing bass grooves, thrumming with quintessential post-disco decadence and…
Epic: “Episode VII: Random 2013 Memories”
Too often I find myself listening to whatever’s next – the newest of the new. The hour-glass view of just what’s bubbling this week, a symptom of what Ypsi-area pop outfit Saturday Looks Good To Me penned as “…the ever-present new times condition.” It’s either whatever’s newest or its some junkfood-ish afternoon snack of some old favorite from five…
Other Angels -by Rogue Satellites (6.1.13)
June 1 Rogue Satellites release Other Angels – available on vinyl & free digital download, featuring a video documentation of local duo’s collaboration with installation artist Alice Schneid Performing that night at the Old Miami with Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor and The Philter. This duo pull off sarcastic satires of hipsterdom with such panache, they drop f*bombs…
City Slang: Bill Grogan’s Goat at Magic Bag
Celtic rockers Bill Grogan’s Goat will play the Magic Bag in Ferndale on Saturday, June 8. They say, “Joining us will be Stone Clover and I Love Lightning Bugs. Come on out for the show! Doors at 8 pm, $10 at the door, or in advance. Click here to join the City Slang Turntable community!!!…
City Slang: Black Dahlia Murder streams track with Revolver
The Black Dahlia Murder is streaming a track with the help of Revolver magazine. The track is called “Rape in Hatred by Vines of Thorn”, and it can be heard here. The song is an ode to Evil Dead, of which BDM’s Trevor Strnad said, “I remember the first time I saw Evil Dead it…
City Slang: Best of Detroit celebrates
Friday night saw the Metro Times take over the Soundboard venue at the Motor City Casino as we celebrated the Best Of issue. It was a bit of a “world’s collide” event too – with CEOs rubbing shoulders with rockers, high-ranking execs with DJs and all manner of reprobates. Thanks to the open bar and…
Film Review: Star Trek into Darkness
Star Trek into Darkness| Grade B+ The intrepid crew of the Starship Enterprise has been making the impossible look easy for nearly 50 years now, and the resilient franchise itself has had multiple miraculous comebacks from calamity, but not even mighty warp engines can manage to go forward and back simultaneously. Though epically entertaining,…
City Slang: Students to perform at Power of Dreams concert
On Sunday, May 19, 150 Detroit students will perform on stage at Orchestra Hall in the Honda Power of Dreams String Music Project, a program presented by Honda and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. “Most of the children involved in this project would otherwise never have had the opportunity to even touch an instrument, let alone…
Hospital Garden
This is as good ‘a time as any to blog about Hospital Garden. As expected, they have a new album out. Why else would an ostensible culture upstart like me be blogging about a band? But these Chicago lo-fi/noise noodlers, these refiners of quintessential fuzz-rock, are Detroit friendlies… They’re practically cousins with our Destroy This Place. They’ve split…
City Slang: Meatman launch Kickstarter campaign
Veteran hardcore punks the Meatmen have launched a Kickstarter campaign, which can be seen here. Frontman Tesco Vee released a statement saying, “That’s right, I’ve been entertaining your sorry asses for over 30 years, and now it’s time for YOU to become a part of Meat History! After 18 years, we embark on our first…
Old and New Masters’ Anthology Series ECM Records
The European jazz label ECM is treating fans to a sumptuous feast of deluxe edition box sets containing some of its most significant music from the 1970s and ’80s. Included are extensive liner notes, rare photos and previously unreleased material. ECM (Editions of Contemporary Music) has maintained a consistent musical aesthetic, reflecting the singular vision…
Food Stuff
No small beer — Did you know that this May 13-20 is designated as American Craft Beer Week? It kicks off Wednesday, with a Craft Beer Expo at Canterbury Village 6-9 p.m. Wednesday, May 15 at Canterbury Village (2369 Joslyn Ct., Lake Orion). The event will feature 17 breweries — including six from Michigan —…
They Don’t Care What You Think
If you want to understand the Republicans who now control our state government, remember this: They don’t care what you want; they have contempt for what you think; and they most emphatically don’t care about you. Even scarier, they aren’t especially worried about winning your votes. That’s because they don’t have to be. Want proof?…
Ann Arbor Didn’t Go to Pot
If Michigan has a “city upon a hill,” a beaming locale that is a showplace for the state, a place where the economy seems to roll along with hardly a glitch, a place “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average,” to borrow the…
Stealth Stardom: Michael Shannon
Michael Shannon is everywhere — and yet most folks can’t put a name to the face. There’s a good reason for that. Shannon is one of those Hollywood actors who is so skilled at assuming new and different screen personas that it’s hard to pin down his “type.” He’s tall, imposing at times, and expertly…
Short takes
Q: I have a mentally disabled cousin who I haven’t figured out how to help. He’s lived for more than 40 years in the same nursing home in a small, conservative town. His mental age is about 8, there are other mental-illness issues, and he has some physical problems. He is now in his late…
Last of the Bebop Legends
It was 45 minutes before their set was to start when the four members of the Charles Boles Quartet began warming up in the musicians’ lounge at the Dirty Dog Jazz Café on a recent Tuesday evening. Ron English, his guitar slung over his shoulder, goes over the set list. He plans to opens with…
The Orr-acle speaks!
Reading through the report Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr submitted to Gov. Rick Snyder on Monday, we here at the Hits began feeling even more dejected and pessimistic than usual. Given that we’re almost always in a doom-and-gloom mode, that’s saying something. In the legally mandated report submitted 45 days after taking control of Detroit,…
Blood and Vonneguts
THERE’S A LINE in Kurt Vonnegut’s classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five that reads, “He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next.” Members of the Vonneguts (whose name bears a striking resemblance to that of a certain…
Bella Piatti
Bella Piatti 167 Townsend St., Birmingham 248-494-7110 bellapiattirestaurant.com Handicap accessible Entrées: $19-$38 Pasta: $16-$24 Other reviewers have gone ga-ga over the decor and atmosphere, but I’d have to say it’s the food that stands out at Bella Piatti. Tables are close together and noise levels are high, though not so high you have to…
Precision, Precision
Precision, Precision In response to Jack Lessenberry’s column about Michigan state Sen. Jase Bolger (“Why Brooks Patterson was Right,” May 8, 2013, Vol. No. 33, Issue No. 30), reader Alan Feldman emailed: I totally agree with Jack Lessenberry except that Bolger is more like Stalin because we live in a communist state. The…
Hipster Art House Lays Stakes in Eastern Market
When Royal Oak’s 323East Gallery closed its doors last year, fans were left wondering where to get their lowbrow art fix next. The tiny art space had become the new home for kitschy and cool ever since Detroit’s CPOP closed its doors in 2009. Thankfully, the gallery now has a spiritual successor as part of…
City Slang: Cobras at the Stick
The Detroit Cobras will play the Magic Stick on Saturday, June 1 in support of the Tied & True album on Bloodshot Records (which is weird, because that album came out in 2007, but that’s what the label is saying). According to a press release, “When we come into this world, some of us get…
Bye-bye Bingo
After four years in office, Dave Bing has announced that he won’t be seeking a second term as mayor of Detroit. Promising to bring stability and integrity to the job in the wake of Kwame Kilpatrick’s felonious reign, he avoided scandal but also failed to right the city’s finances and prevent the appointment of an…
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. Joe Hertler & the Rainbow Seekers’ Recorded Live in Stereo at the Russell Industrial Center was exactly that. It’s all given away in the title. So what we have here…
