Cover Story
Going rogue
Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson stands there, trying to deny the undeniable. She has just suffered what should be an embarrassing defeat in U.S. District Court. After a daylong hearing last Friday, Judge Paul Borman immediately issues an order for Johnson and the state elections officials she oversees to remove a controversial question from…
The Sights Tour Diary Entry No. 34: Crossing The Big Spit
The European tour began for me with a departure from Detroit to Heathrow Airport in London. For the others, it began earlier with them driving to New York City and then flying to Heathrow. A lot of thoughts were moving around my head — it’s been seven years since The Sights played over here and…
“Autumn Statues” -by Electric Lion Soundwave Experiment
You’ll need headphones for this, (the big ol’ 70’s styled ear-envelopers) since this is music you’ll wanna go swimming through – an ambient psychedelic wanting to waft in, wash-over and wave-away the listener. Like some stellar explosion of cosmic dust in slow-motion, distortion-dazzle deluge, swell-rock, a slow/loud kind of peacefulness. (Out Nov 6. More info:…
City Slang: Detroit School of Rock and Pop with fall events
The Detroit School of Rock and Pop Music in Royal Oak has some exciting programs to warm up budding musos through the fall. All school members can get involved in the studio circle, for example. “We’ve totally redesigned our Studio class into our new “club” format! Each week our Studio “Circles” meets on Mondays to…
The Sights Tour Diary Entry No. 33: Everybody’s Connected (So, Can We Stay at Your Place?)
Ah August, 2012! A time bereft of political advertising and Valverde melt-downs (well, fewer of both). These were the giddy days that saw The Sights hurtling back from The West Coast and into the bosom of the Motor City. Today, The Sights are destroying audiences in Germany and, to get you caught up, we present…
City Slang: Trinosophes shows
Local muso Joel Petersen is now hosting shows at a new space, Trinosophes. On Thursday, October 18, we get the William Hooker Duo with Home of Easy Credit. Apparently, “Drummer William Hooker began his career performing with main-stream acts like The Isley Brothers and Dionne Warwick, but by the early 70’s, he graduated to the…
Ty Segall – ‘Twins’ – Peace & Fuzz
Young Mr. Segall is considerably interested in distortion, turned on in a musically-manic way by the caustic collision between guitar pick-up and amplifier. Fuzzy, roar/purr-feedback, man. His swirling melodies strike a sunny psychedelia vibe, affecting an almost-handclappable bubblegump strut-pop at points, but yet it’s haunted throughout by this heavy haze of distortion and wobbly echo-effects, pushing the…
The Sights Tour Diary Entry No. 32: Be Present
When we last heard from our intrepid band, they were wrapping up their second 2012 swing to the West Coast in support of Tenacious D. In the interim, The Sights had a triumphant homecoming, Shades became incapacitated, Jerry Sprinter was sold to pay for bagels and a few blog posts were stranded along the way.…
Flying Lotus – Monday at the Majestic
There will be no quiet… How can there be? Such a thrum of chaotic beat-bursts and mad-stirred digi-drones cascading together… Until any kind of self-deluded sense of quiet, of peace, can come, indeed, Until The Quiet Comes… Couldn’t we use a bit more quiet? Flying Lotus blooms into subtler shades on his new album (which…
City Slang: Psychopathic prepare to unleash Cold 187um
ICP’s Psychopathic Records is set for a double-great October. As well as the new album from Twiztid, Abominationz, there will be a new record from Cold 187um called The Only Solution. A statement describes Cold 187um as, “the Psychopathic Assassin, a new artist with a first time release titled The Only Solution. Although a rookie…
Crime and the City Solution: A (Re)Introduction -10.19.12 w/American Mars – D.I.A.
This road is our road…all will be explained… From Syndey to Melbourne, London to Berlin… and now on to Detroit, these outsiders to the post-punk party through the early-mid 80’s and not quite moody-chic enough for any of those new-wave groovers, Crime and the City Solution sees resurgence in this century’s second decade. This is…
Weekend Hit List
Friday 12th Mustard Plug It seems insane that Grand Rapids’ Mustard Plug has been serving up its skanky ska-punk since 1991, but that is indeed the case. The band has gone through members like a starving man goes through flapjacks… [READ MORE] Jason Adasiewicz Sun Rooms Trio We caught Jason Adasiewicz at MOCAD last year (as…
City Slang: Louder Than Love on Mackinaw Island
Louder Than Love, the movie celebrating the Grande Ballroom and Detroit rock ’n’ roll in the 1960’s, will be screened on Mackinaw Island this fall, so if you fancy a trip up there, this might be a good time. Tony D’Annunzio’s film screens on Mackinac Island, 8pm, Saturday, October 20th at Mission Point Resort Theatre.…
Argo
Argo| A- Ben Affleck sure loves movies from the 1970s. Right from Argo’s opening moments, which feature Warner Brothers’ now-discarded Saul Bass logo, it’s clear that the actor-turned-director has a passion for what films used to be and how they were made. From its ominous, crackerjack pacing to a sharply observed second-act Hollywood satire to…
Seven Psychopaths
Seven Psychopaths| B How meta can you get? Martin McDonagh is determined to find out in his demented, pulp riff on Tarantino-style faux gangster-noir. Threading together profanity-laced dialogue and splashes of bloody carnage with a plot that twists Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author and Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation into a blood-soaked narrative…
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…
City Slang: Detroit loves Adam Ant
Adam Ant plays the Crofoot in Pontiac tonight. Fucking YES. We can’t hide out excitement for this one. Adam Ant rarely tours and this show was postponed once (originally scheduled for earlier in the year). He has been in and out of treatment for mental health issues, but he’s finally back and clips on Youtube…
The Well Digger’s Daughter
The Well Digger’s Daughter| B- Gorgeously shot, old fashioned in its storytelling, and sentimental as hell, French film star Daniel Auteuil’s directorial debut is an unabashed throwback to the tidy, populist melodramas of yesteryear. With the film set in Provence on the eve of World War I, Auteuil plays Pascal, a humble, well-digging widower and…
American Hardcore Series: Monster Mash-Up
It was more than six years ago and I can’t quite believe that as I type it… I was shouldered by a man stutter-step-undulating across the floor of the Knights of Columbus Lounge, Blowout 2006, his face obscured by a spherical, full-headed Eyeball-mask. And there was Child Bite – on the floor/stage, like three human lightning rods,…
City Slang: Sponge on Chasing Mavericks soundtrack
Detroit rockers Sponge have managed to place the classic “Plowed” hit on the soundtrack to the forthcoming Chasing Mavericks starring Gerard Butler and Eisabeth Shue. To celebrate, Vin and the boys are hosting a “Chasing Mavericks’ Road Trip” to Sponge’s show at Hollywood Casino, Toledo, Ohio on Thursday, October 25. Riders will travel by motor…
Canvassing The Hood
What: A new season at College for Creative Studies Center Galleries featuring "Local Color: Detroit Portraits by Matthew Hanna" and "For the Love of Painting: Selections from The Dicke Collection." Where: Center Galleries, 301 Frederick Douglass St., Detroit; 313-664-7800. When: Through Oct.20. About a decade ago, Matthew Hanna, who’s a sculptor by trade and…
Pampered proteins
Detroit Prime 32769 Northwestern Hwy., Farmington Hills 248-737-9600 www.mattprenticeculinaryexperience.com Handicap accessible Most entrées: $14-$28 Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday, 5-11 p.m. Saturday and 5-9 p.m. Sunday. Iconic restaurateur Matt Prentice gives three reasons for centering his new Detroit Prime around cheaper cuts of beef like hanger and flatiron. It hadn’t been…
Tough stuff
In 2008, the Detroit Film Critics Society selected Martin McDonagh as its breakthrough artist of the year. After more than a decade of celebrated stageplays, including The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cripple of Inishmaan and The Pillowman, the Irish playwright made the leap to the big screen with his inky black comedy In Bruges.…
Letters to the Editor
Ride on Re: "On the bus" (News Hits, Aug. 3), for those seeking evidence of the oversold "American exceptionalism," look no further than the picture of people holding signs in front of a school bus-looking conveyance. In no other industrialized country, certainly not the G-8, would such a citizen lobbying for better public transit be…
Food Stuff
It’s in the bag Bagger Dave’s started out as a full-service burger restaurant in Berkeley in 2008. Since its humble beginnings, Bagger Dave’s has expanded to 10 Michigan locations, including three opening this month in Shelby Township, Bloomfield Hills and Holland. The restaurant uses local food, working with more than 30 area vendors to create…
Autumn outings
As fall comes around and we find relief from the record heat of this year’s summer, Michiganders flock to cider mills and orchards to guzzle cider, pick their own apples and devour luscious, greasy cinnamon donuts. Unfortunately, this year is different. The lovely early spring (that most of us naively enjoyed) paired with an April…
Déjà vu in Detroit
"I thought you stopped drinking." I knew that high, whiny voice. I turned and there was Mulenga Harangua dressed in a sharp suit and holding his own plastic cup of wine. We’d both showed up for a reception at a local nonprofit. "I did stop drinking," I replied, "but I’m holding onto this so that…
Ministers of Rock
Most musicians can, perhaps reluctantly, tell you horror stories about their days in high school bands — the sort of in-development indie troupe or submetal group that parents pretend sounds good for the sake of their child’s self-esteem, when in reality the music makes them want to fill their ears with cement. It’s all very…
Double classic
Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care by Marty Makary, M.D. Bloomsbury Press, $26, 256 pp. One night, when Dr. Marty Makary was an intern covering the overnight shift at D.C. General Hospital, 12 trauma cases arrived in quick succession. Makary called his senior surgeon for help. The boss…
Her choice
Q: I recently discovered that my boyfriend of seven months and I have opposing viewpoints on the whole "life begins at conception" issue. He’s not a crazy zealot, but he is strongly against abortion. And while he won’t go so far as to say abortion should be banned, he does believe in the whole "personhood"…
The lost election
You may not have realized this, but there is actually an election for the U.S. Senate in Michigan this year. Well, sort of an election. But really not much of one. The GOP candidate either seems to be sleepwalking, or to have decided that he really doesn’t want to be a senator after all. This…
Drive-by Spins
Mumford & Sons Babel (Glassnote) When Mumford & Sons quietly released their debut album three years ago, nobody could have guessed that an acoustic folk group from London would go on to sell 2 million records in the United States, play a Grammy set with Bob Dylan, and become one of the most popular bands…
You can bet on it
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — But Some Don’t by Nate Silver Penguin Press, $27.95; 544 pp., hardcover In the 2001 comedy Rat Race, John Cleese plays Donald Sinclair, a wager-obsessed billionaire who never misses an opportunity to place or take a bet. In the film, his mania is played…
Walking Beat – Nighttime Sky (self-released)
This band started out of a restart. Breakups always bring the best material — and that goes for Steven McCauley musically moving past his freshly felled Scarlet Oaks project. Reaching back to the roots of pop-rock — that strut-inducing "walking beat" and the Southern-dipped sun-soaked jangle where early rock axed into the statelier folk fields…
