Cover Story
Blackout
On the cover of the most recent book produced by Project Censored is a photo of protesting college students in California getting pepper sprayed by a cop. The shot is framed in such a way that much of the focus is on the spectators holding their cell phone cameras up to capture images of the…
Ghostly Reissues Resuscitation; Adult.’s back
Adult. – Resuscitation Reissue (2xLP) – Ghostly International This Detroit-based multifaceted art-duo’s dark transfixing deconstructions collected here on this turn-of-the-century singles compilation “turned heads” with more of a quick, kink-inducing snap of the neck; a new kind of edginess for electro-music that would come to influence much of the rhythm-riled computer-pop classes to come. Their…
City Slang: After Dark Amusement Park prepares to rock Lager
The After Dark Amusement Park will play the Lager House in Detroit on Friday, November 23, the day after Thanksgiving. Joining the indie rock supergroup on the bill will be one man band Man Inc.. Between the three of them, the members of the band have previously played with Charm Farm, Brownsville Station, Katie Grace,…
City Slang: Amy Gore Thanksgiving Eve show
Amy Gore & Her Valentines will play a show this coming Wednesday, November 21, Thanksgiving Eve, at the Magic Bag in Ferndale. The bill is completed by Class Three Overbite, the High Strung and Almost Free. They say, “Amy Gore and her Valentines have pure Detroit pedigrees in spades – their musical backgrounds give them…
City Slang: Whitey Morgan at the Lager House
Local outlaw country demi-legends Whitey Morgan & the 78’s will play PJ’s Lager House on Saturday, November 24. They say, “Since the release of their first album Honky Tonks and Cheap Motels, Whitey and the band have revived a forgotten genre with a fierce dedication and determination. They’ve toured the country spreading their sound and…
Compromising positions
How are Republican’s taking defeat? Let’s rephrase that. Aside from the more than 860,000 whiners who have signed secession petitions since Barack Obama was re-elected president, how is the rest of the Republican Party accepting the results of Election Day? Well, we have the defeated GOP standard bearer, Mitt Romney, whining to contributors that he…
City Slang: Love is implied for Stewart Francke
Local singer/songwriter Stewart Francke has a new album, Love Implied out digitally on December 4 through Burnside/IODA, with the physical version out on CD and vinyl January 15 2013. Francke says, “No superstar guests this time, but I think it’s my most consistent record to date from song 1-15, with all the songs thematically linked…
A Late Quartet
A Late Quartet | B- Who says chamber music is only for effete snobs? Just about everybody really, and those impressions won’t be altered after seeing this valiant attempt at a highbrow-middlebrow fusion, which throws quality actors into a soapy spin cycle and waits for the results. Christopher Walken, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener and…
British Television Advertising Awards
British Television Advertising Awards | B First socialized medicine, classic rock ‘n’ roll, and Oscar-winning actors. Now television advertising. Must the English best us in everything? Watching 90 minutes of British commercials reveals two things about our former colonial masters: 1) they express far more artistry and innovation in their advertising than we do, and…
Twilight: Breaking Dawn — Part 2
Twilight: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 | C- For about 15 minutes, near the end of Twilight — Breaking Dawn — Part 2, I found myself thinking, "I can’t believe it, they’re finally going to introduce some real peril, some honest to goodness dramatic stakes." After all, when you see prominent supporting characters and sneering…
Lincoln
Lincoln | B+ There’s a perfect final shot in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, in which the celebrated 16th president stands silhouetted in the doorway of the White House, late to join his wife at Ford’s Theatre. The image is gorgeously composed and emotionally stirring, hailing the quiet but dogged humanity of "Honest Abe" yet tinged with…
A Royal Affair
A Royal Affair | B An idealistic and charismatic doctor. A mad king. A neglected queen. Can you see where this is going? What makes director and co-writer Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair historically intriguing — aside from its incredible costumes and sets — is that this 18th century love triangle ushered in ultra-conservative Denmark’s…
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel | B If you’re looking for a better example of the cult of personality, it’s hard to compete with 20th century fashion maven Diana Vreeland (1903-1989). From her 20-plus years as the fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar to nearly a decade as the managing editor of Vogue to…
The Flat
The Flat | B The late Gerda Tuchler’s Tel-Aviv apartment is laden with a long lifetime of knick-knacks and ephemera, all the ordinary tea cups, porcelain figurines and glassware that are the trademark of elderly ladies everywhere. One closet contains a vast assortment of fancy opera gloves. Parts of her large surviving clan shuffle through…
City Slang: Ro Spit’s American Dream
Pontiac rapper Ro Spit and District 81 Clothing have teamed up to bring you, “The American Dream” Pack. According to a statement, “Ro Spit has provided the ‘Audio’ soundtrack to the ‘Visual’ fashion release. Each song correlates to a T-Shirt/Crewneck/Hoody that the clothing line is dropping. Be on the lookout for the holiday season from…
MOLA1 – ‘boom’
Boom. Like the dude’s voice. Low, resonant, a melodic, growling hum to it – Deeply sonorous rumble…like the steadfast fierce fizzling of an idling car engine ready to rev the fuck up outta here if things get heavy but not quite yet – steady…the driver waits – and this EP’s the reflective, earnest elucidation upon…
JP’s Campaign Celebration in the HP
The Party Platform features a summit of Detroit’s wiry young turk type rapping class bringing their post-oughts oddball-ish sweetly-acerbic and genre-jostling rhyme spills into an Irish Pup of all places -ostensibly to toast the end of the painful campaign season- and more visibly the prop the release of a new single by party head JP…
City Slang: Sponge unplugged
Local alt-rock titans Sponge will perform an intimate acoustic show on Saturday November 24, 2012 at the Detroit Pub in Clinton Township. According to a statement, “Prior to taking the stage, Sponge will judge a festive air guitar contest where fans will compete to win an electric guitar signed by the band. No advance registration…
Talking Head
How Music Works David Byrne McSweeney’s, $32, 352 pp., hardcover How Music Works David Byrne McSweeney’s, $32, 352 pp., hardcover David Byrne has always been something of a musical visionary, from his days in the Talking Heads up to his recent collaboration with singer-songwriter St. Vincent. His new book, How Music Works, proves that he…
Downriver delights
Angelina’s Mexican 8425 Allen Rd., Allen Park; 313-216-7181; angelinasfreshmex.com; $: Warm service, colorful dishes, generous cheese-to-tortilla ratio, and a lunch menu with prices hovering around $5 per meal make this authentic eatery a prime location in the constellation of metro Detroit’s Mexican restaurants. Auburn Café 3520 W. Jefferson Ave., Ecorse; 313-381-8133; facebook.com/AuburnCafe: $$: Brick…
Matty’s money pit
As the election results arrived last week, few outcomes gave the malcontents here at the Hits more satisfaction than Manuel "Matty" Moroun’s Proposal 6 had been thoroughly rejected by voters. We don’t care whether that rejection was the result of confusion caused by a surplus of ballot measures and a mass of conflicting advertising that…
Justices for sale
When it comes to special interests spending big money in an attempt to influence the outcome of elections, nothing is more disturbing than what just occurred in the Michigan Supreme Court race. Thanks to Rich Robinson, director of the nonprofit Michigan Campaign Finance Network, we have at least some clue about how much so-called "dark…
Pot is a winner
Can you get a contact high from election results? It does seem possible with the euphoria among activists over last week’s votes on cannabis issues. "It clearly gives massive momentum to the anti-prohibition movement," says Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "It again challenges the federal…
Surf and turf
The Philter plays the New Dodge Lounge with Memory Blank and Monsoons on Friday, November 16. 8850 Joseph Campau, Hamtramck. 313-874-5963. Why would a group of twentysomethings based in the city of Detroit play surf music? There are very few waves in the Detroit River, even while we were feeling the relatively gentle edge of…
…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead – Lost Songs (Superball Music)
Man, we needed this. After a decade spent slowly slipping into prog-rock absurdity (for reference, their last record featured a steam-punk fox with a laser gun on its cover), Austin’s Trail of Dead is back to rocking the fuck out. Described by leader Conrad as a reaction to "the apathy to real world events that…
Food Stuff
More Detroit shopping For years, commentators have bemoaned Detroit’s lack of chain groceries. Those of us in the know, however, have realized that just because the city lacks a Kroger’s doesn’t mean there aren’t great places to shop for food, such as Eastern Market, or such stores as Honeybee la Colmena or Joe Randazzo’s Produce…
What it all meant
From the day he took office, millions of people were out to ruin him. The haters, the racists, the birthers. "I want him to fail," Rush Limbaugh proclaimed before he took office. The GOP leadership was on the same page. They indicated they’d do anything they could to make that happen. President Barack Obama came…
Alejandro Jodorowsky – El Topo (OST) (Real Gone Music)
If you have never seen the epic cult classic El Topo, stop reading and correct this immediately. Go ahead, I’ll wait. … Finished? OK. Welcome back. Do you feel like you’ve dropped a tab of fun stuff, traveled through a handful of sinister allegorical dimensions and no longer know your purpose in this world? Good.…
Fresh start
Brooklyn Street Local 1266 Michigan Ave., Detroit 313-262-6547 brooklynstreetlocal.com Handicap accessible Breakfast, soups and sandwiches: $6-$11 Open 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, closed Mondays. Although many are skeptical of Detroit’s supposed comeback, optimists can point to a recent jump in young entrepreneurs coming into the city to start businesses. There’s plenty…
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Psychedelic Pill (Reprise)
Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s second collaborative release of 2012 finds an angry, regretful, and lamenting Young. Opener "Drifting Back" clocks in at just shy of a half hour and wields a heavy hand of free-form songwriting, social commentary and personal demons. It is as much a rebellion against society’s casual dismissal of art as…
Bassnectar – Freestyle (EP) (Amorphous Music)
Following on April’s generally interesting LPVava Voom, Bassnectar’s scattershot EP of also-rans exemplifies unintelligent dance music. Whatever your disposition, the music known as dubstep is unique and here to stay, and Lorin Ashton — the DJ behind Bassnectar — has admirably collaborated with a wide range of musicians, from rappers to punk rockers, who add…
Gary Clark Jr. – Blak and Blu (Warner Bros.)
Austin-based Gary Clark Jr.’s first major full-length album came preceded by a lot of hype. "Saviour of the Blues," "Gold Corndog" winner (given by Spin magazine for playing in more major North American festivals than anyone) and, according to Rolling Stone, "Best Young Gun." With The Bright Lights EP in 2011 he introduced himself as…
Dial 81 – Luminous Stasis (M1-Sessions)
Dial 81 is staying busy this autumn. After the experimental composer of ambient techno and progressive hip-hop scored evocative instrumental pieces for this summer’s vivid Detropia documentary (pieces he’s proven able to perform live, recently), he then released a single with his more pop-leaning side project: Dark Wave. Now, with Luminous Stasis, Dial 81 (aka…
Joy in the morning
Q: Reading you over the years has absolutely changed my mind on gay marriage. I wanted to let you know that. I also live in Maryland, and, as you know, we voted last week to allow same-sex couples to legally marry. I was excited that I got to vote for marriage equality in my home…
Election reflections
The well-funded campaign to sow concern about messing with our state Constitution apparently had the desired effect. All five proposed amendments that made it before voters went down in flames on Election Day, by nearly identical margins. In general, 60 percent of the state’s voters decided to pencil in "no" on their ballots when it…
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…
