Quelle Chris Likes To Be Blunt
If there’s one thing that many of us who follow Detroit music can learn about branding from Quelle Chris, it’s that well-produced low budget music videos work. The Detroit native has created a handful of videos this year to promote his music and new album, Shotgun and Sleek Rifle, which comes out tomorrow, and it’s…
About-face: Cops say no mass arrests for Occupy Detroit Monday night
A letter hand-delivered to lawyers working with the Occupy Detroit movement Saturday warned that the Detroit Police Department was ready to move in and start making arrests in Grand Circus Park if campers were still there after their permit expired at 11:59 p.m. Monday night. That appears to have changed. With representatives of the movement…
City Slang: Kem warms up Detroit
Man, has Kem ever been busy lately? Following the news that he is to star in the movie Sparkle, he has announced that he is the new spokesman for the Heat and Warmth charity. Kem doesn’t hide the fact that he’s a deeply religious man, and it’s refreshing to see that he is publicly using…
City Slang: Battlecross prepares for metal mega-tour
Local metal-heads Battlecross have put a video on Youtube, where they talk about their recent CMJ appearance and their upcoming tour. The video can be seen here. According to a statement from the band’s label, Metal Blade Records, “Battlecross will be hitting the road in November alongside Rose Funeral, Diamond Plate in support of hardcore…
City Slang: Dick Wagner rolls back the years at the Bag
This week’s City Slang column star, the mighty Dick Wagner, lived up to his billing and put on a tremendous show at the Magic Bag in Ferndale last night. He might be advancing in years, he might not be able to move around the stage too much, but his recent recovery from a series of…
City Slang: T-Baby gets the Beavis & Butthead treatment
The return of Beavis & Butthead could easily have been completely underwhelming. They are, after all, iconic images of the ‘90s. But thanks to some beautifully satirical, biting writing, the first couple of episodes have been a breath of fresh air. MTV might not play too much music nowadays, but the duo have fun commenting…
Fresh Footage of Elzhi in Europe
Detroit emcee Elzhi is currently slaying shows in Europe country by country. All of the reviews and feedback that I can find online about the tour are positive and it seems El is really ascending into his prime. Fellow Detroiter (although he calls L.A. home now) DJ HouseShoes is currently on tour with Elzhi and…
Jack and Jill
Jack and Jill D Based on recent output, Adam Sandler is as funny as your 11-year-old nephew making arm-fart noises at the dinner table — but you wouldn’t pay that obnoxious brat $20 million a picture, would you? Yet Sandler’s dire reign of box office terrorism continues unabated; this is actually the second Sandler-driven…
Like Crazy
Like Crazy A- Love, romantic love, should be the most common and vital of human emotions, yet no one seems to truly understand the slightest damn thing about how it works. The universe of complexities that happens between two people is so hard to get right, too often the movies don’t even bother, spoon-feeding…
Three Rappers, Two Punk Rockers, And Two Genre-Hopping Producers = One Weird, Wild, Poppy Soul Jam
Seems like a lot to crowd into just three-and-a-half minutes, but Ypsi-based producer BUFFAY was able to tie together three respective eight bar rapped contributions from Detroit MC’s Mister/Blaksmith (a.k.a. Passalacqua) and Ben Miles, while splicing in the stabs of roaring guitars from Ypsi-based punk duo Jehovah’s Witness Protection Program’s recent single, “Well Song” to…
Occupy Detroit has decisions to make; city wants them gone
With the permit allowing Occupy Detroit to maintain a camp at Grand Circus Park set to expire Nov. 14, the group has a decision to make. Do they stay or do they go? And if they go, where will they relocate to? Those questions will be discussed at a “general assembly” scheduled for noon Saturday,…
City Slang: Five bands to be thankful for
With Thanksgiving fast approaching, a show has been announced for Thanksgiving Eve, Wednesday Nov 23, taking place at PJ’s Lager House in Detroit (one of the city’s best venues, without a doubt). Cover is just $6 and there are a full five bands on the bill. The line up is superb. Jeecy & the Jungle…
J. Edgar
J. Edgar C- Look, Clint Eastwood is a talented guy, but there’s been an impatient, half-realized aspect to his recent work that suggests a filmmaker on artistic autopilot. Or maybe the guy is just tired. Changeling, Invictus, Hereafter and even Gran Torino (which was saved by Clint’s spirited performance), have all been shapeless, lumbering…
City Slang: “Tied Down” revisited
Hardcore heroes Negative Approach hold a very special place in my heart. Anybody that read my Metro Times cover story on frontman John Brannon may recall that I saw NA for the first time at an All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in England, on a bill with the Stooges, DKT/MC5 and local noise band Wolf Eyes.…
Ro Spit “Put This On My Life” Video Ft. Jwan
Ro Spit, who is easily Pontiac’s flashiest rapper of all time, is back again with a brand new video off his stellar release, The Glass Ceiling Project. It’s not surprising that the Burn Rubber co-owner turned to director Gerard Victor for the visuals considering the two have worked together for quite awhile. The video is…
Black geeks and all-American Muslims
The Tigers didn’t make it to the Series (and the Cardinals won it all again, dagnab it!), but you still can see positive images of Metro Detroit on national TV this fall, especially representatives from our two most prominent ethnic groups. Take Sunday, for example. If your only exposure to African-Americans was on television through…
More of Moroun’s lies in bridge battle
Contrary to what you might think, I have friends whose politics are different from mine. Last week, I got an angry and indignant letter from a longtime woman friend, now a rising star in the corporate world. She is Republican to her very core. For many years, she worked for GOP causes and campaigns, and…
Dick Wagner gets de-Frosted
Dick Wagner is playing the Magic Bag in Ferndale this weekend. The guitarist and songwriter of Bossmen, Frost, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed and shitloads more was supposed to be playing the show back in August, but he slipped and banged his head, and had to have brain surgery. That incident was just another chapter in…
Florence + the Machine – Ceremonials (Universal Republic)
When Florence Welch unleashed her debut album Lungs a couple of years ago, there was some, but not a lot of, indication that she might be on to something with her witchy-woman howls and indie-torch-goth mash-ups. There were fewer suggestions, however, that she would make an album as tremendous as Ceremonials. Florence + the Machine…
Who’s the criminal? Occupy Detroit protesters ask
The first arrests associated with the Occupy Detroit protest occurred last week at a taping of Detroit Public Television’s Leaders on Leadership program, which featured an interview with the chief executive officer of the New York Stock Exchange Euronext. Joe McGuire and Susie Reed, both 25, were arrested Nov. 2 on misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges…
Found in contempt, Matty strikes back
Just when you think the owners of the Ambassador Bridge couldn’t possibly sink any deeper, wallowing as they do in the nether regions of that pit of slime known as the Detroit International Bridge Company, they outdo themselves by delivering a blow that’s not only dirty but dumb. We’re talking about the statement issued by…
Atlas Sound – Parallax (4AD)
All the noise Bradford Cox makes with Deerhunter must be getting to him. On his third solo album as Atlas Sound, Cox mellows out a bit, letting waves of dreamlike sounds rush over him as he sinks into his digital cavern. Acoustic guitars nudge against moaning synths, gently galloping percussion glides over muffled feedback, and…
Food Stuff
Fresh start The Hudson Café fills the vacancy left by the Detroit Breakfast House, which folded earlier this year. This brunch boutique, driven by classically trained French chef Tom Teknos, closely resembles the Breakfast House in design, with bright colors dominating the ambience, but with a much larger selection of breakfast favorites. From "Red Velvet…
Curry and more
Mazza Indian Cuisine 3354 W. 12 Mile Rd., Berkley 248-543-6299 Handicap accessible Entrées $9.95-$13.95 I tend to be uncritical when it comes to Indian food; I like it all. So I’m not happy to report that last year’s entry on the Berkley scene is disappointing. Co-owner Razur Rahman, a pharmacist, is the son of the…
Pot, polls & politics
Larry Gabriel’s Higher Ground column that alternates with this one continues to inspire, like the episode in last week’s now-annual Pot Issue that revealed the pro-legalization position arrived at by former Detroit Police Chief Dr. Isaiah "Ike" McKinnon after a lifetime in law enforcement. To read that McKinnon was first moved to change his outlook…
Who is Detroitblogger John?
Our columnist Detroitblogger John, whose real name is John Carlisle, is the author of a new book called 313: Life in the Motor City, which is available in stores now. Although we know they are the same person, we’ve asked Carlisle, who himself is an editor at C&G Newspapers, to interview his alter ego Detroitblogger…
Our back pages
Antica Pizzeria Fellini 415 S. Washington Ave., Royal Oak; 248-547-2751: Fellini’s seating centers around its massive wood-burning oven, where pies are cooked to perfection. Among the best is the Fiocco ($15), a rich pie slathered in cream, fresh mozzarella and Romano cheese, dotted with ham and potato crocchè. Each pizza is made with fresh ingredients…
Letters to the Editor
Expert testimony In Higher Ground (Nov. 2), former Detroit Police Chief Ike McKinnon says, "I can’t think of anybody who has died from marijuana." I also can’t think of a case where somebody died from an overdose of LSD. The problem with marijuana, and LSD for that matter, is its effect on thinking and behavior.…
Smug, not stupid
Q: I’m an evangelical Christian in a country where that is not a political statement. My husband and I have been married five years. We have great sex several times a week despite having two kids under age 2. We get along so well that even a couple of my atheist friends have admitted they…
Treme and the sounds of revival
In 2004, I crashed on my cousin Frank’s couch for a week at his home on St. Philip Street in New Orleans. This was a year before Hurricane Katrina, and gentrification was taking root in the neighborhood. Contractors were busy converting duplex "shotgun" houses into single homes, in most cases converting the two three-room flats…
Revenge of the Electric Car
Revenge of the Electric Car B Yes, even documentaries can earn sequels, especially if they are as prescient and attention-grabbing as 2006’s Who Killed the Electric Car? — a film that generated much more chatter and headlines than it did box office receipts. That earlier film played a bit like a corporate crime procedural;…
Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor want to psych you out
Two songs into the set, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor singer and guitarist Sean Morrow queries the quaint, intimate crowd at PJ’s Lager House: "How many people were at the Last Supper?" After a few chuckles a voice in the back shouts, "Twelve!" "That’s more people than who showed up here tonight," Morrow chuckles. The…
Occupying Democracy
"It’s coming from the feel That this ain’t exactly real, Or it’s real, but it ain’t exactly there … Democracy is coming to the U.S.A." —Leonard Cohen, Democracy To the U.S.A.? No, Cohen’s got it all wrong. As our leaders loudly preach, democracy is something that we export to the rest of the world…
Sting at the Fox: Fans remember 25 years of lyrics
Considering who he is, Sting doesn’t take up much space on stage. He strums his bass guitar with elbows pulled tightly in, shoulders hiked up slightly toward his ears, knees pressing in together. He doesn’t pace back and forth — in fact, he moves only to allow other members of his band to take center…
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…
“Demonic Islam,” dominionism and Friday’s rally in Detroit
Update: At noon on Wednesday, Nov. 9, a number of local faith leaders will gather at Grand Circus Park for a press conference countering Friday’s “The Call: Detroit” rally. According to a press release from the group, the speakers are to “announce an alternative event for people of faith to pray for Detroit in an…
Occupy Detroit responds to Jack Lessenberry
Here is an e-mail that arrived last night, responding to a recent column by Metro Times columnist Jack Lessenberry about the Occupy movement. —MJ ——————————— November 8, 2011 To Mr. Lessenberry and the editors of Metro Times: In your recent column (“Unpleasant Truths,” Metro Times, Nov. 2-8, 2011) you served up several criticisms of the…
