Cover Story
Halloween 2012
Unmasking Halloween Is America’s second holiday a commercialized travesty, or still a chance to subvert the status quo? Sweet skulls Day of the Dead’s lively backstory Theatre Bizarre presents: The Summoning A spell of dark, deep satisfaction at Masonic Temple spectacular Get yourself spooked A select list of haunts, mazes, costumed events and more
Cloud Atlas
Cloud Atlas| C+ One thing’s for certain: Cloud Atlas doesn’t lack ambition. Or bad makeup. Threading together six disparate storylines set in six different time periods with an A-list cast juggling multiple roles, producer-directors Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola Run; Perfume), Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix movies) have concocted a cinematic experience that’s as…
City Slang: Hit Society to hit the clubs
Local indie pop rockers the Hit Society are set to enter the studio with Dave Feeny (Tempermill) and Ray Goodman (SRC/Mitch Ryder) with shows on November 3, December 4 and December 15 at the Lager House, and November 15 at the Garden Bowl. According to a statement, “Hit Society started writing music 2 years ago…
The Sights Tour Diary Entry No. 40: Stoned
This morning began with a stop at a lasting memory of my first U.K. tour, the restaurant known as Little Thief. Actually, it’s called Little Chef, but back in ’03 it was dubbed ‘the thief’ because of its high prices. Well it seems the thief has cleaned up its act, and the club sandwich wasn’t…
City Slang: The Sights rock London
OK, as I am English, I still have friends in the old country, and the Sights just played there opening for Tenacious D, I thought it’d be fun to have one of my buddies review the show. Chris “Metal Ed” Mann (pictured left) was my “gig partner” while in London, and he’s been here to…
The Sights Tour Diary Entry No. 39: Brighton Rock
With BBC 4 Radio as my soundtrack, I am in the front seat of Lester with Ben at my right, driving to Holyhead, Wales. A few days ago we left Europe’s mainland and took the Eurotunnel, flying underneath the English Channel. The hotels in the mainland can be quite interesting. Kyle discovered a weird quirk…
City Slang: Black Dahlia Murder to support Dethklok
Nationally-adored Detroit metal band the Black Dahlia Murder will open up for Dethklok, the fake band from Adult Swim’s animated show Metalocalypse all across the United States alongside Machine Head and All That Remains. The Dethklok North American tour kicks off on October 30 in Norfolk, VA and wraps up in Atlanta, GA on December…
Cloud Atlas: It’s big! It’s bold! It’s bungled! It’s a C+.
One thing’s for certain: Cloud Atlas doesn’t lack ambition. Or bad makeup. Threading together six disparate storylines set in six different time periods with an A-list cast juggling multiple roles, producer-directors Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola Run; Perfume), Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix movies) have concocted a cinematic experience that’s as lavish, intricate, and…
City Slang: The Night After the Day of the Dead
Static Records is apparently determined to stretch the Halloween festivities out; the label is hosting a Night After the Day of the Dead show on Friday, November 2 at the Corktown Tavern. On the bill is the Luckouts, Screamray, and Sons of Strippers. Let’s face it – many of us don’t need an excuse to…
Rifftrax Live! Birdemic: Shock and Terror. Kevin Murphy battles the worst movies ever made.
Kevin Murphy of Rifftrax, talks about Birdemic: Shock and Terror Live! Kevin Murphy just might know more about what constitutes a truly awful movie than anyone else alive. Beginning as a founding staffer on the cult classic series Mystery Science Theater 3000, and continuing that seminal show’s legacy today with the similar Rifftrax project, Murphy…
Duerr Discretion Advised – “Sirens” set to stun – on Halloween
Late start to the morning… -the Internet’s already way-ahead of me… If you’ve read anything by me, you’ve already read enough rants on the two rappers referenced -really only in authorship of said-song (“Sirens”) featured in the music video “trailer” streaming below. Rapraprap, LacquaLacquaLacqua, you know how it goes…those guys who got the Kresge, those…
City Slang: Electric Fire Babies’ Thriller
The Electric Fire Babies is releasing a single for Halloween called “Thriller”. According to the band, the song is inspired by the Michael Jackson classic, but it is from the point of view of a zombie. Interesting. You can hear the song here. Click here to join the City Slang Turntable community!!! Follow @City_Slang
The Sights Tour Diary Entry No. 38: Tools of Rock
My heart is racing as we just got on the Eurotunnel with seconds to spare. We almost missed our train taking us from France into the U.K., but alas, we made it. I thought I’d use this adrenaline rush to write. After our four German gigs we got in Lester and began our journey to…
Tens of thousands of dollars for 150 words? Knight Foundation wants Detroit art ideas.
How often can you score tens of thousands of dollars — or more — with just 150 words? Put on your thinking caps, Detroit artists. This week the Knight Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting communities through art and journalism, announced a grant of more than $19 million to the arts in Detroit. The first…
Theatre Bizarre presents: The Summoning
This past Saturday night, at the Masonic Temple, the freaks of Halloween crawled out of their coves, fully dressed for another Theatre Bizarre Halloween extravaganza! This year, "The Summoning," was Detroit’s biggest, raunchiest, craziest and most spectacular Halloween party that had everyone who attended under a spell of dark and deep satisfaction. As you walked…
Get yourself spooked
Alchalant’s Halloween Party. With ROP, Alchalant and the Astro Zombies. Phoenix Cafe, 24918 John R, Hazel Park, 248-667-8817. (10/27, 8 p.m.) Annual Halloween Bash with AREA ’51. Live Blues, Rock, Originals. Cadieux Cafe, 4300 Cadieux Rd., Detroit, 313-882-8560. At the door. (10/27, 9 p.m.) Black Horror Film Festival and Costume Party. Come dressed as your…
Playing the 47s
Playing the dozens is a traditional African-American game in which the participants try to cleverly insult each other. The game generally ends when one insult is so good that the opponent is either left speechless or any rejoinder is so lame by comparison he may as well keep his mouth shut … or when one…
‘My 14-year-old is looking at porn!’
Q: What the hell do I say to my straight 14-year-old son about porn? Should I say anything? My sister tells me that all the research shows my son has been looking at porn for three years already. Am I too late? —Distressed Anxious Dad A: According to the Today show and the Boston…
Labor pains revisited
During a panel discussion last week about the book The Broken Table, which provides a detailed examination of the Detroit newspaper strike, there came a moment when Barb Ingalls had to stop and compose herself. A member of the typographical union, Ingalls’ struggle to keep her emotions in check revealed just how deep the wounds…
Their ’70s show
On Thursday, Oct. 25, the Red Stone Souls play Callahan’s Bar and Grille, 2105 S. Boulevard, Auburn Hills; 248-858-9508; wsg Soleil Moon. What is it about the 1970s that has such a hold on so many young musicians of today? We blame Cameron Crowe and Almost Famous although, to be fair, a lot of great…
Misty Lyn & the Big Beautiful – False Honey
Ypsi singer-songwriter Misty Lyn’s ruminative rock-janglers and toe-tappers are like bonfires in the darkest wood. There’s a low but resolute rumble in her voice, almost lullaby-like at points, though she can belt it out cathartically at others. The artist’s creative confidence resonates throughout the songs, which mark a formative moment for her, not just as…
Electric Lion – Sound Wave Experiment (Fade In/Navdo)
Drifting, swirling, swooning … this local quintet is resurrecting trippier aspects of psych-rock, a more blissful, cerebral thing than merely sounding "druggy." It’s droney and a bit dark, unlike the dreamy, disorienting, psychedelia of yore. Resonant slathers of reverb, tinny clatters of cymbals and heart-thumping kicks … warm wheezing of synths and organs and the…
Sweet skulls
Imperial’s food, music and art festivities run Thusday-Friday, Nov. 1-2, at the Imperial, 22828 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; facebook.com/imperialwoodward. Artists hand-painting papier-mâché skulls will include Niagara, Glenn Barr, Mark Dancey, Audrey Pongracz, Johnny "Bee" Badanjek, Jerry Vile, Mark Arminski, Kill Taupe, SLAW and Jeremy E. Hansen; 19 mini-skulls are being donated by tattoo artists from Signature…
Criminal injustice
Among other highlights of the labor history conference at WSU last week was a keynote presentation given by Heather Ann Thompson, an associate professor of history at Philadelphia’s Temple University. A Detroit native, Thompson authored 2001’s Whose Detroit: Politics, Labor and Race in a Modern American City, which focuses "in detail on the struggles of…
Ballpark scores
"I love it when a plan comes together." Well, maybe this is not how we or anyone in the Detroit Tigers organization envisioned the road to the World Series, but they have achieved that goal nonetheless. Underachievers for much of 2012, the Tigers were three games out of first place in the weakest division in…
Food Stuff
Barring the unforeseen When we list a bunch of places, we tell you people that no list could be complete! Same went with our list of watering holes in the Slöshed issue. But still we get calls. Well, we’re passionate about bars too, so we won’t blame you all that much. In this case, Rick…
Upper crusts 1
$=$5-$10; $$=$10-$25; $$$=$25-$50; $$$$=$50+ Antica Pizzeria Fellini 415 S. Washington Ave., Royal Oak; 248-547-2751; $$: Other pizzerias in town feature Neapolitan-style pizzas and wood-burning ovens, Fellini claims to be the only one recognized by the Associazione Verarace Pizza Napoletana, and Fellini’s oven is imported from Europe and designed to cook items quickly at temperatures…
Hero for our planet
They laughed at Stan Ovshinsky years ago, all the professional scientists did, when they bothered to pay attention to him at all. They had doctorates from places like Yale and Harvard. He was a high school dropout from Akron who worked in a machine shop, the son of an immigrant scrap-metal dealer. Later, after he…
Unmasking Halloween
Among American holidays, Halloween is really the outlier. Holidays from Yom Kippur to Christmas to Ramadan grow from the traditions of major religions; Halloween is a pagan holiday in the loosest disguise. Even secular holidays like Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July are anchored by home and family; Halloween sends children out to knock on…
Drive-by Spins
Jeff Lynne Long Wave Frontiers Records There aren’t really any surprises on this, Electric Light Orchestra leader and vocalist Jeff Lynne’s second solo studio album. A collection of covers, it commences with "She," an old British pop tune that Lynne makes sound like an ELO track. And the same goes for the Rodgers and…
Japanese meets halal
Xushi Ko Hibachi Grille and Sushi Bar 16351-C118 Ford Rd., Dearborn 313-982-1730 Bathroom handicap inaccessible Most hibachi entrées: $16-$20 Most rolls: $5-$12 Open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5:30 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday. The existence of a halal Japanese restaurant is…
City Slang: Timmy’s Organism set to tour
Timmy’s Organism, featuring Clone Defects/Human Eye main man Timmy Vulgar is set to tour through the first half of November. Dates so far announced are: Nov 1 – Detroit, MI – Jumbo’s Bar Nov 3 – Toronto, ON – Silver Dollar Nov 4 – Hamilton, ON – Casbah Nov 5 – Ottawa, ON – Domnion…
Debating the debate: Facts and whoppers
I went on Charlie Langton’s radio talk show this morning to discuss Monday’s presidential debate, with the affable Langton serving as moderator as Henry Payne and I debated the outcome of the debate. Payne, an editorial cartoonist at The Detroit News and editor of an online publication called The Michigan View, carried the conservative flag…
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…
