Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I almost always urge you to see the glass as half-full, not half-empty. But this week I’m more cautious. Why? Because you may soon be pressured to buy into overly optimistic fantasies. Even people you trust may encourage you to place inflated faith in shaky promises. So ask lots of probing…
Italian paradise
A few months ago, a friend told me about a place called Vincenzo’s, a produce market on Garfield, south of Canal (quite a journey for city dwellers at about 18 1/2 Mile). After hearing of the store’s regales, I headed out the following morning. As I drove back and forth on Garfield, it soon became…
Senses working overtime
Attempting to define Tamion 12 Inch, the mercurial noise-pop trio from Detroit, is proving to be difficult. Band members Sam Consiglio (C. Samuel, analog electronics, guitar), Michael Kearns (K. Michael, bass and electronic percussion) and Kerry Biernott (B. Kerry, vocals) know what they are not, sure enough. Not Electroclash, not direct descendants of either the…
Movement Highs
Legowelt Question: What happens when you put Chicago Acid, revolutionary Detroit Techno and Italian disco influences into the hands of a Dutch lunatic, who describes himself as an “international music mercenary fighting against media retardism”? Answer: no doubt some very, very sick shit that nearly defies categorization. Legowelt (real name Danny Wolfers) also adds a…
A century of sound
A Century of Sound – The Poster – (Acrobat Reader Required) Impossible. Quixotic. A complete and utter waste of time. These were the immediate dismissals offered up by some of our peers when we announced our project: a chronological visual representation of the past century of Detroit’s popular music. Maybe they were right. After all,…
In the flesh again
It’s been 12 years since Detroit’s most elusive and hugely influential techno squad, Underground Resistance (UR), last surfaced for a live appearance in Detroit. You’d think their upcoming show, Timeline Live, was a comeback attempt or reunion. Or perhaps a promotion for a greatest hits CD. But no news isn’t bad news with this ever-evolving…
After-party Olympics
Every Memorial Day weekend in Detroit for the past four years, a marathon takes place. But unlike, say, the Boston Marathon, the Detroit Marathon is extremely blissful and unhealthy. It starts on the Friday night before the electronic music fest — although the truly hardcore and/or jobless start on Thursday — and carries on into…
Crapper’s delight
It seems as though anything can pass as art these days. So when I get an invitation to attend an exhibit in the portable potty behind the University of Michigan’s Art and Architecture Building, I figure, “Why not?” Not only does the e-mail promise toilet-paper masterpieces, but the event is also to be catered with…
N&D Center
27 THU • MUSIC Charlie Hunter Trio — Yet another one of the “Young Lions of the Jazz World,” jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter’s funk/rock/reggae stylings are really somethin’. On his most recent album, Friends Seen and Unseen, Hunter’s unique 8-string guitar style is matched only by the sweet percussion skills of Derek Phillips and the…
City too generous? So sue ’em!
A memo from Detroit Auditor General Joe Harris to the City Council sounds the alarm: The current fiscal year (which ends June 30) could see the city surpass the record $47 million it paid to settle legal claims during fiscal 1999-2000. Metro Times reported on the city’s turbocharged ATM of settlement nearly two years ago…
A foot above the rest
Muffy Kroha’s infectious, bubbling laugh crackles through her cell phone as she zips through the aisles of Target — excuse me, Tar-shay. Kroha confesses she’s there to buy computer supplies for her shiny new iMac, “but of course I found some really cool clothes too — I can’t go anywhere without buying clothes.” Not surprising,…
More blubber blabber
Q: You hate-spewing, body-image-fascism-promoting ASSHOLE. I’m a large woman. I read your two incredibly offensive columns about “girl love handles” and the supposed “health risks” of obesity. How dare you oppress women, large and small, with your judgments! Maybe if you enjoyed putting something in your mouth every once in a while that wasn’t cock,…
Le poseur and a werewolf uprising
Once upon a time, a man had an idea. He planted the idea in Pontiac, but it didn’t take. He planted it in Detroit, but it didn’t take. Now Museum of New Art curator Jef Bourgeau has planted MONA back in Pontiac, but this time it’s fortified, surrounded by a litter of art galleries that…
Getting out of this mess
I thought that Johnson was the devil, I thought we couldn’t do no worse, Now the White House stands, in Disneyland This country must be under a curse. —Phil Ochs, “Ten Cents a Coup,” 1970 Nobody is talking about this, but there have to be thousands of people who once attacked Richard Nixon and…
Enchanted evening
It’s 7:45 p.m. outside the Baldwin Theatre in downtown Royal Oak. Children, couples and senior citizens congregate for a moment to enjoy the twilight sky. It is a beautiful May evening; humidity lingers from a recent thunderstorm and the smell of freshly mowed grass and aftershave perfumes the air. A lone smoker stands politely distant…
Master of time — stilled
NEW YORK — Even before you enter the jazz section of Tower Records in lower Manhattan, the thunder of Elvin Jones commands the staircase. Listening to a Jones drum solo, the staff and patrons appear transfixed. “That’s one of my favorite solos,” salesman Carl Jefferson tells his colleague Duane Eubanks, as Jones rages with Trane…
Hump day
Not only did Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David A. Groner acquit a Detroit man of fourth degree criminal sexual conduct after he basically admitted he had molested a co-worker, he also blamed the alleged victim for the abuse. Here’s what went down, according to a transcript of Groner’s ruling and a Melvindale police report…
Factoids of fate
Fascinating yet deeply depressing facts, brought to you by that bastion of reason and rectitude, Mother Jones magazine: The U.S. government is going into the red at the rate of $991,000 per minute. The IRS Web site is maintained by a company incorporated in Bermuda. Since 2001, corporate tax collections have fallen by $11 billion.…
Bye-bye
The Abandoned Structure Squad caught this building on the corner of Schoolcraft and Stout in the midst of the demolition process. John J. George, President of Blight Busters (www.blightbusters.org), a nonprofit organization, and his crew of about 20 volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints saw that the structure was Bobcatted to…
Letters to the Editor
Sounding off on Echo Re: “Out of their triage” (Metro Times, May 19), I am a medic with the Detroit Fire Department. I hope your story opens eyes and maybe shames our administration into doing what they need to do. It seems that common sense, duty to our citizens and the task of making real…
(Un)conscious Party?
How do you get a theater full of screaming teens to, first, get interested in politics and, next, shut up long enough to hear advice from some of their favorite hip-hop stars? Ask Russell Simmons. He’s going from city to city giving it a damned good, if flawed, try. Bizzy Bone, co-founding member of rap…
A century of sound archive
Brian Smith & Nate Cavalieri May 26, 2004 A century of sound Tracing a city’s musical genealogy. John Sinclair June 9, 2004 Reprise A world tour rekindles that old MC5 energy — and controversy. Brian Smith June 16, 2004 Same as the old Boss Female gangsta trailblazer determined to re-emerge. Jim Gallert with Lars Bjorn…
D12 World
D12 is now more than just Em’s road dawgs — they’re a collection of emcees that have established themselves as a lyrically endowed bunch able to hold their own. But what does that mean? This hip-hop wrecking crew is arguably the most popular thing to roll out of D-town since the Ford Mustang, sure, but…
New Cubanismo
Café Habana offers excellent, reasonably priced Cuban cuisine in a fun, funky-chic setting, along with Latin music and a full bar, in downtown Royal Oak’s ever-expanding restaurant hub. The Caribbean nation’s food is simple, with Spanish and Central American influences, but substantial. Grilled meats dominate platos principales, enhanced by fresh and spicy marinades and sauces.
It’s Like Magic In Reverse
How a band that’s smart enough to have such a great name can also be dumb enough to have such a lousy album title is beyond me. Have we really slunk so slow in the creativity department that today’s pop bands have to resort to naming their records after inverted lyrics from old Queen songs…
Neruda
Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd In What Language? Pi Anyone who thinks that lyrics and poetry are interchangeable hasn’t spent enough time reading the former aloud or trying to sing the latter. Clipped of their melodies, good and great lyrics can be as ungainly as grounded birds. And poems often have their own internal musics…
Blue Note Revisited
Whoever invented the remix should’ve gotten a patent, because it’s become the most overused strategy in stretching out a catalog’s longevity. Hence, Blue Note Revisited is a remixed compilation of some of the label’s most notable tunes. From the outset, taking legendary old-school jazz songs and reinventing them sounds about as promising as a Kenny…
Penance Soirée
STRIKE ONE: Today’s catch is an album with the portentously grand name of Penance Soirée by a band with the equally portentously grand name of the Icarus Line. The tendril-trailing cover, in keeping with the best goth-gore tradition, is in the usual harsh and disturbing flash-flood crime-scene style that’s favored by so many of today’s…
Minus the multiplex
Summer is approaching, and Royal Oak will be hopping with people and screaming with motorcycles. What better respite from the insanity than to take a stroll into a quiet movie theater at the stroke of midnight for some classic fare. You’ll leave feeling better than if you were leaving a bar, and in this time…
Sex Positions
If you’re looking for the real filth and fury at the end of that dark alley you constantly see in your worst nightmares, then never mind the bollocks because the Sex Positions sure as hell don’t; they just love wading into the big muddy and sloshing around, knee deep in the dead. However, there is…
Life of Brian
The fact that author Anthony Burgess once said that this was the most accurate depiction of Jewish life under the Romans shouldn’t obscure the fact that it’s arguably funniest depiction of anyone’s life under the Romans, not to mention an exceedingly silly film for the ages. The story of a contemporary of Jesus and an…
Shrek 2
When you don’t find some of the gags here funny – say, the destruction of a Starbucks – wait about 30 seconds for another to come along. But this sequel is more than the sum of its punch lines. It’s a gentle satire on our celebrity-worshipping society that uses the powers of computer animation to…
The Agronomist
The life and apparent assassination of Jean Dominique, like the history of his native Haiti, is a twisting and complicated tale. As told by director Jonathan Demme, activist and radio broadcaster Dominigue’s life encompasses revolution and exile, art and destruction, governments and riots, love that lasts a lifetime – not to mentioned the intertwined histories…
Taking hip hop to task
The graffiti and b-boy used to be you. The music motivates you but the cash corrupts you. The chicks seduce you. The kids look up to you. The cars and jewelry make them envy you. The tats and clothes define you. Hollywood and corporate sponsorship have sucked you in. You are hip hop. And this…
Rumours
A reissue like this — remastered and expanded to two discs, no less — provides the opportunity to reassess a work that, due to the passage of time and endless critical navel-gazing, is so iconic that its very title has become cultural shorthand. All the more unfortunate, then, that reviewers thus far have seemed hamstrung…
