THE WONDER TWINS DO…NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK?
The Wonder Twins have a confession to make: During a dark and confusing period that spanned sixth and seventh grade, D’Anne and Laura were huge New Kids On The Block fans. If a piece of NKOTB merchandise existed, we owned it probably in multiples: T-shirts; buttons both large and small; magazines; books; sheets; posters; dolls;…
WEEKEND FUN….AND THE NAME GAME REVISITED…
Two shows this weekend we wanted to mention (and then onto the Name Game dept): Spitting Nickels have a CD release party this weekend for their new Jim Diamond-produced EP, 5 The Hard Way. The EP features final contributions from the group’s late rhythm guitarist Tom Furtaw, who sadly passed away last summer onstage when…
THE FONZ & ANDY OF MAYBERRY ENDORSE OBAMA…
They really do! See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die
BLANCHE’S MILLER CONNECTS WITH JOHNNY CASH…AGAIN!
Dan John Miller of Blanche serves as music composer on the new documentary film, Johnny Cash’s America, which debuts on The Biography Channel tomorrow night, October 23rd, at 9 p.m. The film was screened nationwide in select cities last week and will be released as a CD/DVD next Tuesday October 28th via Sony/Legacy. Miller produced…
A FEW MUSICAL TIDBITS…
The new video for the Mason Proper single, “Lock & Key,” from their new Olly Oxen Free album premieres tomorrow night (Oct. 23rd) on MTV2 Subterranean at 1 a.m. Speaking of Ann Arbor bands, Tally Hall have just unveiled episode number three of Tally Halls’ Internet Show, an online reality program written, directed and produced…
‘This man is still the bomb’
Alto saxophonist Larry Smith lounges on a secondhand green leather sofa in his 15th floor apartment off Jefferson Avenue. He’s looking out at the picturesque view of Lake St. Clair. Atop the glass coffee table is a half-empty pack of cigarettes, a soup bowl nearly filled with ashes and butts, three boxes of reeds, a…
Saturday still looks fine
Nothing’s been said about an official hiatus. But since last year’s release of the career-defining LP, Fill Up the Room, Saturday Looks Good to Me has significantly quieted down. Band mainstays Fred Thomas and Scott Sellwood have been spending their time cultivating solo musical projects via new 7-inch discs. Sellwood’s Drunken Barn Dance finds the…
On the Download
When you’re not bound by the laws of “physics” or “reality,” you can do things like, oh, say, invent a teleportation device, fly so fast in space that you reverse the earth’s rotation and thus time … or, more ground-level, create a three-sided single. Thanks to the joys of the Internets, I’ll now present this…
Service with a smile
There are simple things in life that many of us take for granted, things that aren’t as common for those in poverty, like dental care.George Rodgers knows that firsthand. He owns a place called Customized Dental Laboratory on Mack Avenue near Joseph Campau, a little box of cinderblocks and bricks over on the east side.…
Rock ‘n’ roll rebirth
Washing glasses behind the bar of the Lager House on Michigan Avenue in Corktown, P.J. Ryder says, “In Detroit, we want to see things change but at the same time, we want them to stay the same.” A born-and-bred Detroiter, Ryder has been familiar with this particular school of thought all his life. But he…
Get loose
Pop culture has long been prepared for a black commander-in-chief
Marsalis does Brazil
Brother Branford hits town with the Philharmonia Brasileira
Betrayal of our fathers
McCain sinks low in his quest to win at any cost
Motor City Cribs
Matt Jones’ Ypsi digs
Couch Trip
The Mindscape of Alan Moore Disinformation In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, the creator of the Watchmen comic book, Alan Moore, said this of the flick getting made from his work: “I will be spitting venom all over it for months to come.” If that sounds like the disgruntled bitching of a…
Obama’s moment
It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Metro Times that we would endorse Democratic Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for president over Sen. John McCain of Arizona. However, if you are tempted to view our support of Obama as knee-jerk progressive dogma, consider this: At least 25 newspapers that endorsed George Bush in…
Like motor oil for chocolate
A white person once asked comedian-activist Dick Gregory why African-Americans could use the “N” word among themselves with little fear of reprisal, while a Caucasian can’t whisper it without igniting outrage. “Well,” Gregory replied, “maybe we say it a little sweeter than y’all do.” If that explanation holds true today, then Comedy Central’s Chocolate News,…
‘She’ is the landscape
The photo collage of two naked bodies embracing tenderly in a nest-like thicket has a bizarre unearthliness. The salmon-egg pink field of color encompassing the bodies suggests a surreal, sci-fi B-movie poster. Unfortunately, the image was used on the cover of the Art Gallery of Windsor’s 2008 Fall Guide for photographer Michele Tarailo’s retrospective Ebb…
Night and Day
WEDNESDAY • 22 DIPLO DANCE BEATS & PIZZA One could argue till doomsday over the degree to which the Philadelphia-based producer-DJ shaped M.I.A’s sound, but there’s no mistaking his clout in the underground worlds of indie hip hop and dance. Diplo’s mixes and live sets showcase a fusion of sounds, from Miami bass and dancehall…
Zen suds
The cool ambience, smoke-free environment and wi-fi suggest attract a laid-back, eclectic crowd to the airy high-ceilinged space, with wooden tables and couches scattered about, dominated by a horseshoe-shaped fieldstone bar. The open “kitchen” at one end of the bar is so tiny that it precludes elaborate culinary preparations. The generously proportioned starters that average…
Oakland County throwdown
Oakland County has bowling alleys where Joe Six Pack rolls, mansions on the waterfront where the wealthy live and play, and plenty of middle-class neighborhoods where white- and blue-collar alike worry about their house payments and job security. Among its 61 cities and townships, it has plenty of strip-mall sprawl but also cozy downtowns with…
Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down
London’s Noah & the Whale play music that goes by several vague classifications: anti-folk, folk-pop, twee-rock, and, that most useless of descriptions, indie. Put plainly, the band’s debut album, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, will be manna from heaven for people waiting for the next Sufjan Stevens or Decemberists record. Led by precocious 21-year-old…
Pay to play
More answers for generous readers
Acid Tongue
This is where Jenny Lewis finally exploits her fame. The critically beloved singer-guitarist from Rilo Kiley isn’t as famous as Death Cab for Cutie or Conor Oberst — but chances are you’ve got at least one friend who thinks she’s hot. If this sounds a bit exploitative, well, the formerly awkward alt-country singer of six…
Letters to the Editor
Bankrupt tactics One of the people in your story about foreclosures (“Foreclosure fight,” Oct. 15) has already lost her home. A moratorium on foreclosures won’t help her. Everything proposed in Washington, D.C., and Lansing (including a moratorium) relates to helping those who are still in their homes. No one is suggesting anything to help those…
Beat around the Bush
By any yardstick, our soon-to-leave-office leader has been an unmitigated disaster. How then does Stone neglect to include his Air National Guard years (or all of Vietnam, for that matter), the 2000 election fight, the 9/11 attacks, the failures during hurricane Katrina, the 2004 election, or even Terry Schiavo’s right-to-die battle? Amazingly, Stone misses the…
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies
Sex Drive
Fresh-faced Josh Zuckerman is Ian, the sweetly hapless virginal teen who makes what appears to be a love connection online and conspires to “borrow” his jerky older brother’s cherry ’69 GTO Judge and head to Knoxville for some nookie. His efforts are goaded by hyper-cocky pal Lance, played with breakout chutzpah by newcomer Clark Duke.…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
What Just Happened
Based on producer Art Linson’s insider memoir, “What Just Happened” features one of Robert De Niro’s more interesting recent turns, playing a high-powered but slowly sinking producer Ben, a guy overwhelmed by diva directors, petulant actors, heartless corporate masters, tasteless foreign financiers and an ex-wife who can’t forgive him his excesses in the light of…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Remember what Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout #194 said! Rock Scully — 40th Anniversary Summer of Love Oral Archive (MVD Audio/Beanbag) :: A one-hour excursion into all things aurally acidic. If you weren’t around to experience the substance-soaked ’60s, then this is one heck of a primo primer — and if you were, it’ll fill in…
The Secret Life of Bees
On the eve of her 14th birthday, Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning) is watching President Lyndon Johnson on television with her family’s housekeeper Rosaleen Daise (Jennifer Hudson) as he announces the signing of the Civil Rights Act. For that moment, it feels like institutionalized oppression might be lifted overnight, but that euphoria will be short-lived. As…
LOVE SONGS FOR MICHIGAN…OR THE WONDER TWINS DO THE MATES OF STATE THING…
On Sunday evening, the Wonder Twins — D’Anne and Laura Witkowski — headed to the Magic Stick to catch the show by San Francisco’s the Mates of State. It was a night of singing drummers, boisterous indie kids, adhesive residue, and cute loud sounds . D’Anne: So, Laura, you’re a major Mates of State hater.…
