Cover Story
Sloshed 2012
Every year, we take a look at the state of local drinking with the Slöshed Issue. This time around, we wanted to show some of the ways local watering holes have adapted to recent trends, including family-friendly pubs, the craft beer craze, a yen for sohpisticated cocktails and fresh ingredients, or just a desire to…
Friday – Creepy Cheapy 5 (at the Crofoot, Pontiac)
A special kind of spirit and half-satiric/half-nostalgic whimsy strikes through Detroit’s delegation of musicians each Halloween. They get possessed. In terms of performer-enthusiasm, packed-line-ups and this almost-baffling all-in-participatory fervor, the only other time of year that could rival Halloween would be the bustle of the Blowout. Rock n roll’s much like a zombie… Call it dead,…
Liberal Arts
Liberal Arts| B For some, the idea of returning to college life — when conversations bubbled up with unexpected ferocity, friendships were easily forged, arguments about books or music could go on for hours, and adult responsibility was but an abstract point on the distant horizon — is a romantic fantasy fueled by happy memories…
City Slang: Horse Cave Trio celebrates 10 years at Callahans
Detroit rockabilly band the Horse Cave Trio will play at Callahan’s Music Hall on Friday, November 2, to celebrate their ten years together. The Horse Cave Trio formed late in 2002 with a vision to create roots music with a Detroit edge – a straight ahead, high energy roots rock trio that would perform and…
The Sights Tour Diary Entry No. 37: Mouth Bag
We just crossed into Italy without any trouble– seems like a good time for a blog. The Dusseldorf gig was great, the biggest crowd of the tour in a giant arena called the Mitsubishi Electric Halle. We got the crowd clapping along on “Fool,” which is no easy task with a Tenacious D crowd. Before…
City Slang: Danny Says
A Kickstarter campaign is underway to get a documentary, Danny Says, made about journalist and author Danny Fields. Fields may not be a Detroit guy, but over the years this champion of underground music has helped expose the world to many Detroit bands. Let’s not forget, while working for Elektra, it was fields who recommended…
City Slang: A night with Katie Grace
Katie Grace, Detroit’s best bad girl and all-round outlaw lass, is playing the Park Bar in Detroit on Friday, November 9. It will likely be a cold fall night in Detroit. Sure, you could curl up in bed with a good book or a few shows you DVR’d, but shy be dull? Rather, have a…
The Sights Tour Diary Entry No. 36: Follow the Slutty Brick Road
I’ve just finished lunch/dinner and am backstage in Dusseldorf, Germany. All the German gigs are sold out, and this is the biggest crowd of the tour, I think it is 7,300. Yesterday was a day off in Hamburg, and boy did we make use of it. After Ben and I jogged through Hammer Park we…
City Slang: The Detroit Tigers – Our American League Champions
Man, how good did that feel? I mean, we didn’t just beat the big-spending, big-ego Yankees, we swept them. We literally handed them their asses and made them say thank you. Yankee fans will point to the fact that Jeter got injured early in the series, that they were the victim of a bad call,…
Alex Cross
Alex Cross| D Tyler Perry and James Patterson have built vast fortunes by crafting commercial products that can be charitably called "undemanding" of their respective audiences — but when these two titans of schlock join forces, the result is even more stunningly awful than we might have imagined. Crime novelist Patterson has become the king…
Middle of Nowhere
Middle of Nowhere| B- With its too-slow pace and carefully etched characters, writer-director Ava DuVernay’s second feature looks and feels very much like a Sundance movie, but without the obvious social agenda and righteous sense of politics. Nevertheless, this intimate and carefully observant indie will most likely struggle to find its audience, having neither the…
City Slang: Madonna sued by Russian homophobes
According to the Huffington Post, pop queen and Detroit native Madonna is being sued for $10 million by Russian anti-gay groups. Apparently, during a recent concert Madge caused “moral damage suffered by St. Petersburg residents.” Awwwww, bless their little souls. So what did she do that seems to have corrupted St. Petersburg? She told the…
JSBX – 10.19.12 – Magic Stick
C’mon Detroit, ‘cuz the blues is still #1, now! Damage! Damage! Damage! -Jon Spencer, “Damage” Slather in sanctimonious spazz-screeds, no I will not hold-back, yes I am still rattled from the live show these three men performed in Pontiac just about two years ago, rattled, folks… Those thunder-claps are right over your head, right on top of you,…
City Slang: Ghostly news
Ann Arbor-based label Ghostly International has announced that it will be releasing a split EP featuring HTRK and Tropic of Cancer, part of the Part-Time Punks Sessions. According to a press release, “Comparable to a fly-on-a-wall Peel Sessions, the critically acclaimed Part Time Punks radio show is the sound of the LA underground, run by…
Labor pains and gains
If you think that things are getting tougher for working people, well, you won’t hear any arguments from those of us here at the Hits. The decline of America’s middle class has been pretty well documented. But, as history tells us, the struggle is nothing new. Which is why we want to call your attention…
The non-campaign for Proposal M
Maybe anti-Proposal M forces were out this past weekend campaigning. Maybe they’re crashing the phones on radio talk shows this week. Maybe, with less than three weeks before the election, they got loudspeakers and made their voices heard. Well, that’s what Lawrence Kenyatta, co-chair of the advocacy committee at the Partnership for a Drug Free…
Crazy for crafts
One Eyed Betty’s Beer Bar and Kitchen 175 W. Troy Ave., Ferndale 248-808-6633 oneeyedbettys.com Open 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-2 a.m. Saturday-Sunday. One Eyed Betty’s hasn’t even been open a year, but Ferndale residents have not been shy about showing the town’s signature craft beer bar some love. With more than 44 different craft…
Herbal essences
Silence lingers in the old shop the way it would inside a library, as if to say that here too, years of accumulated wisdom are stored and revered. The old wood shelves on the walls are lined with hundreds of glass jars filled with colorful powders and mysterious leaves, like containers of magic potions. Some…
Western exposure
Imperial 22828 Woodward Ave., Ferndale 248-850-8060 Open 11 a.m.- 2 a.m. daily Probably known more for their L.A. street-style tacos than their drinking game, Ferndale’s Imperial is worth a visit this beer season. In keeping with their authentic Baja California influences, you’ll find an ample selection of Mexican beer (at least a dozen different cervezas)…
From the divine to the dives
Arbor Brewing Company Pub & Eatery 114 E. Washington St., Ann Arbor; 734-213-1393; arborbrewing.com/pub: Sure, there are seasonal beer tasting events ($25 gets you a buffet ticket and a selection of 25-35 samples) and beers made for your taste buds (Sacred Cow IPA pairs nicely with the fried chicken). But more than a mere beer-geek…
Dinosaur Jr. – I Bet on Sky (Jagjaguwar)
Dinosaur Jr., the would-be arena rockers who fit better under freeway service drives making soundtracks for skateboarders’ rail-grinds, has steadily re-stomped its sludgy noise-pop back into post-millennial life these past few years, Sky being the third post-reunion album for the notable ’90s seminal "indie" rockers. Maybe they’re maturing. Every other track is tastefully warmed by…
Let ’em in
Renshaw Lounge 210 E. 14 Mile Rd., Clawson; 248-616-3016 renshawlounge.com Open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Saturday (kitchen at 11 a.m.), noon-2 a.m. Sunday. We’re looking for this infamous Clawson dive, and I am the only one in the car who’s never been there before. I ask my friend in the back seat, Michael Pelot, where it…
Home (state) brew
Something wonderful has happened with Michigan beer. A gradual loosening of brewing laws has caused the craft beer industry to take off throughout the state. In just a few decades, we’ve seen more than 80 brewpubs and microbreweries sprout up, with more opening all the time. And, instead of competing against one another, Michigan’s craft…
Fatal narrative
A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald Errol Morris Penguin Press, $29.95, 544 pp., hardcover In 1970, the family of Jeffrey MacDonald, a Green Beret and successful military doctor, was brutally murdered. MacDonald, who had several stab wounds, said that a band of acid-crazed hippies had invaded the house. Prosecutors, however, soon began…
Ty Segall – Twins (Drag City)
Ty Segall must be really turned on feedback. We’d bet that most fans of those old psyche-pop Nuggets comps will find a kindred spirit in this singer-songwriter, whose swirling melodies smack of sunny psychedelia, and would be clap-along bubblegum at points if not for a heavy haze of distortion and echo-effects. Segall’s voice provides the…
Into the past
The Oakland Art Novelty Company 201 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale 248-291-5295 For a few years now, metro Detroit has seen coastal cocktail culture slowly creeping in from the coasts. From the East Coast comes an emphasis on classic recipes and exclusive, almost candlelit interiors; from the West Coast, it’s more an emphasis on fresh…
Letters to the Editor
//test to see if stripped Going to helmet Nice photo of Alex Wojcik on his bike ("Tapping the brakes" Sept. 19). He will continue to look good if he always remembers to wear a bike helmet on all rides! —Sharon K. Wieland, Ann Arbor Jack slapped I’m confused. In his current column ("Those…
Bye-bye time for Brooks?
Forty years ago, Oakland County voters elected L. Brooks Patterson their new prosecutor. He was brash, swaggering and highly quotable. The year before, he had latched on to an anti-busing activist named Irene McCabe, and rode her to prominence. Though he would soon drop her cause like a used gum wrapper, Brooks realized bashing Detroit…
Pure essence
Valentine Vodka 161 Vester St., Ferndale 248-629-9951 valentinevodka.com Open 4:30-11 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 4:30 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday-Saturday. When we last checked in with Rifino Valentine two years ago, he was building out his distillery and tasting room, tucked away on a side street in a former pool table manufacturing facility. The 5,000-square-foot building was getting a…
More than booze
Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Company 3965 Woodward Ave., Detroit 313-831-9627 • greatlakescoffee.com Open 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday, closed Sundays. Open for about three months, Detroit’s Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Company isn’t your usual coffee shop. In addition to roasting and selling fair-trade, organic and direct-trade coffee, the joint has a full liquor…
Damn you, Dan!
Q: I’m pro-choice. The anti-choice position — particularly the dumb contention that "personhood" begins when sperm hits egg — is illogical and unappealing. It’s not the most unappealing quality I can think of in a partner, though — that would probably be dishonesty. Your advice last week to the young woman who discovered that her…
Team spirit
Tap inside MGM Grand Detroit, 1777 Third St., Detroit 877-888-2121 mgmgranddetroit.com/tap When it was time to open a new tavern inside downtown’s MGM Grand Detroit casino, general manager Steve Zanella said a lot of concepts were being thrown around. "One of our first designs, believe it or not, was contemporary — and it just didn’t…
Sinister
Sinister| C- Why are horror movie characters so averse to overhead lighting? In Sinister, Ethan Hawke’s freaked-out family man spends much of his time creeping around the house in the middle of the night, chasing after unseen invaders with little but the dim glow of his cell phone light and the occasional flicker of a…
Food Stuff
Beer, beer, beer — Of course, we’re naturally looking forward to the Fourth Annual Detroit Fall Beer Festival in Eastern Market next week. But did you know that the two-day beer bust is the culmination of Detroit Beer Week? Starting Oct. 18, there is a full schedule of beer-centered events taking over metro Detroit, from…
The smoke clouding Prop. 3
Always eager to escape from the office whenever possible, News Hits jumped at an invitation from the Sierra Club’s Brad van Guilder to join him and a few others for a sightseeing tour last week of the area around the River Rouge Power Plant. Although there was plenty of sunshine, low temps and a stiff…
Drive-by Spins
Bettye LaVette Thankful N’ Thoughtful Anti- On her fourth album since her rediscovery and rebirth seven years ago, the 66-year-old soul singer returns to familiar territory after the slight detour of 2010’s Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook. She covers contemporaries (Bob Dylan), new kids (the Black Keys) and artists who couldn’t be further removed…
Continental upside
Gastronomy 1 Town Square, Southfield, 248-864-4410 theepicureangroup.com/gastronomy.html Handicap accessible Lunch: $10-$20 • Dinner: $20-$60 Open for lunch 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; bar open 11 a.m.-4 p.m., 5-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday, with bar menu available 2:30-4:30 p.m.; open for dinner 5-10 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and 5-10:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. The phrase "from scratch" generally implies a casual, down-home, rustic…
Two-man band
The Fuzz plays Saturday, Oct. 20, at the New Dodge Lounge, 8850 Joseph Campau, Hamtramck; 313-874-5963; with Amateur Anthropologist. Seeing as the Fuzz is a garage rock duo from Detroit, the White Stripes comparisons are going to be inevitable — so let’s get that out of the way at the very beginning. To be…
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…
The Sights Tour Diary Entry No. 35: I’ll trade a ”y” for a ”z” for 200, Alex
We woke up to the sound of a million Germans screaming, or at least it sounded like it. But no, it was 7:07am, and the sweet sounds of the fire alarm were heard blasting through the hotel building. We were in Munich, and it is the morning of the first show of the tour. I…
