Reality TV Stars Headline Arab American Comedy Night at AANM Nov. 3
All American Muslim, the new eight-part TLC reality series taped on location in and around Dearborn, doesn’t premiere until Sunday, Nov. 13. But you can get a live sneak peek of sorts this week. Billy Amen and Nader Aoude, sketch comedians whose lives are featured in the series, are part of the bill for a…
Creepy Cheapy Halloween Party Returns to The Crofoot
The Crofoot’s annual Halloween Party – Creepy Cheapy Halloween Treat IV – is one of the most talked about Halloween parties in the area, and this year’s presale tickets sold more than any other local show the venue has ever hosted. If you were one of many waiting in line for over an hour Friday…
Eddie Logix – and Music’s Great Escape
Logix just likes Lykke Li… It’s no big deal or anything, the local DJ/producer just happens to harbor a casual admiration for the Swedish electronica/soul songstress’s beats (and lyrics). It’s led the industrious engineer to begin work on an EP inspired by those Scandanavian beats, snipped, sampled and scratched together atop which some of his clients…
City Slang: Muggs to play CJAM benefit
Detroit rockers the Muggs will play the Cadieux Cafe on Saturday, November 5, a beefit for CJAM. According to a statement, “The world’s ugliest band, the Muggs, will be joined by Jarrod Wolny (of Grayling), Donald “Doop” Dupree (of Doop & The Inside Outlaws), Class Three Overbite and special guests for a rockin’ evening of…
City Slang: This Halloween, there be Witches
This Monday, on Halloween night itself, Smalls in Hamtramck will host a rare show by the Witches, featuring Detroit rock ’n’ roll mainstay Troy Gregory. Also on the bill is Outrageous Cherry. According to Cherry mainmain Matt Smith (who played bass for the Witches back in the Gold Dollar days) the Witches are promoting the…
City Slang: Kem announces Mack & Third event
The man that’s keeping some Detroit at Motown Records, Grammy-nominated Kem, announced that major accomplishments were made with this year’s Mack & Third event that was held at Detroit’s Cass Park on Sunday, August 28, 2011 at a post-event reception last night for sponsors and partner/recipient organizations. According to a statement, “KEM presented each of…
Moroun meets his match: Protesters block bridge
The Southwest Detroit folks who have long railed against billionaire Manuel ‘Matty’ Moroun’s endless capability to stop the Gateway Project for a new bridge from moving forward turned the tables and stopped something themselves. For 40 minutes the Ambassador Bridge’s truck ramp leading on to Fort Street was halted after more than 150 protesters created…
City Slang: Alice Cooper launches phone app
Alice Cooper, Detroit’s king of creepy cool and all that is dark and scary, is launching a Welcome 2 My Nightmare iPhone app. BWA-HAHAHAHA Nothing says Halloween like a big old corporate endorsement, right? To be fair though, it could be pretty cool. According to the press release, “Alice Cooper launches his one-of-a-kind app that…
Damned – Chuck Palahniuk
Damned Chuck Palahniuk Doubleday,$24.95, 249 pp. Hell, despite what Sartre said about it being "other people," is usually depicted as a lonely place, either the cascading trauma of lost relations in Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart or the clammy cochlea of torture tunnels in those too-loud Pinhead movies inspired by his quiet novella. Isolation…
Puss in Boots
Puss in Boots B- Having rightly surmised that they had wrung all the possible joy out of the Shrek series, the always-a-bridesmaid team at DreamWorks animation did the only logical thing; they spun a side character off. Not just a spinoff, but also a prequel to boot (sigh). Puss merrily weaves the backstory of…
Take Shelter
Take Shelter A Though it is inevitable that such heavy-hitters as Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Ryan Gosling will dominate this year’s Oscar horse race, it would be a terrible shame if Michael Shannon (and Jessica Chastain, for that matter) were overlooked for their performances in Jeff Nichols’ beautiful and insinuating Take Shelter. Both…
Freep’s owner, Gannett, slammed in NYT media column
The New York Times media columnist David Carr takes aim at Gannett, owner of the Detroit Free Press, USA Today and scores of other newspaper. Key graf: … Craig A. Dubow resigned as Gannett’s chief executive. His short six-year tenure was, by most accounts, a disaster. Gannett’s stock price declined to about $10 a…
City Slang: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. to release second part of EP series
Local-area awesome poppy, funky rock duo Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. are to release the second in the My Love is Easy EP series, titled My Love is Easy: Remixes Pt. 2, on November 15. The EP will feature remixes by Memory Tapes, Tiger & Woods and Pictureplane, among others. The tracks are obviously pulled from…
In Time
In Time C In Time presents an unspecified future where time is money: You want a latte? That’ll be four minutes off your life. Want that sports car? Six months. People in this dystopia stop physically aging at 25; your wife, your mother and your girlfriend all look like classmates. Yet this comes at…
The Rum Diary
The Rum Diary B Booze-soaked, chain-smoking, cynical and degenerate reporters went extinct with the typewriter, yet on the big screen their legend lives on ad infinitum, and none looms larger than that of Hunter S. Thompson. The brilliant and difficult father of "gonzo" journalism has a devoted cult, and should continue to have a…
Blackthorn
Blackthorn C+ A terrifically vinegary performance by Sam Shepard and jaw-dropping images of Bolivia just aren’t enough to make this elegiac tale of an aging Butch Cassidy any less unnecessary. But you can’t blame a guy for trying. Spanish director Mateo Gil has clearly studied the genre, emulating Sergio Leone’s brooding anti-heroes and sweeping…
Anonymous
Anonymous Directed by Roland Emmerich. Written by John Orloff. Starring Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, David Thewlis, Xavier Samuel, Sebastian Armesto and Rafe Spall. Running time: 130 minutes. Rated PG-13. B Anyone who looks to Hollywood for a history lesson is a fool. The movie industry is built on drama and storytelling —…
City Slang: “All Thrills…” revisited
In the grand scheme of things, the Capitol Cities’ All Thrills isn’t that old and probably not particularly forgotten by those that cared, released, as it was, in 2004. But I don’t care. This is a fantastic album that was only heard by a fraction of the people that should have heard it. Think back…
Danny Brown – Brown Eyes
The homie Danny Brown’s got another banger here. You’ll love the quirk ‘n’ jerk delivery of "Brown Eyes." He’s on tour right now, blazing the stage for Das Racist. Occupy your ear lobes. Download the track here
Recommended recent spins: Twin Sister; St. Vincent
Twin Sister In Heaven (Domino) Forgoing the throwback tendencies that tend to hamper a lot of dreampop, the splendid debut from this sprightly Long Island quintet shows little interest in the ethereal beauty of clear antecedents like Cocteau Twins and Lush. This instead is a thrillingly direct collection of robust hooks, underlined by the occasional…
Fall into the season
What do we mean by "seasonal dining"? Well, this time of year, it means instead of leaner cuts of meat grilled for an instant, we can dig into heartier, fattier cuts that are cooked long and slow. We trade the lighter breasts of chicken for a crackling cut of duck. And not only do we…
Bass and blood lines
It isn’t uncommon for Detroit musicians to refer to their hometown in reverential terms. In fact, it’s practically compulsory. Anything else and one will likely fall victim to the kind of backlash that Jack White received. Still, Ralphe Armstrong stands out from the crowd when feverishly talking about his love for the D. The imposing…
Mayer Hawthorne – How Do You Do (Universal Republic Records)
When Ann Arbor native Andrew Cohen first introduced himself to the world as Mayer Hawthorne two years ago, soul music novices were enthralled but many music purists cocked their eyebrows. Exactly who did this 30-year-old DJ-turned-singer think he was sneaking out Motown-esque ballads without any previous singing experience and capturing the world’s attention in the…
Krivda on Pekar
Cleveland tenor saxophonist Ernie Krivda’s latest disc is Blues for Pekar, a dedication to late Cleveland comic book auteur Harvey Pekar, who passed away last year. As followers of Pekar’s comics — and folks who saw Paul Giamatti play Pekar in the film adaptation of Pekar’s American Splendor — know, Pekar was a first-rank jazz…
Joy in the morning
Morning Glory Coffee and Pastries 85 Kercheval Ave., Grosse Pointe Farms 313-647-0298 Handicap accessible Sandwiches: $7 Breakfasts: $6 Morning Glory undertook to be a coffee shop with a difference — a liquor license. Owner Gretchen Valade — also proprietor of the Dirty Dog Jazz Café four doors down — promised dinner wines and java-with-a-shot, such…
The Decemberists – Long Live the King (Capitol)
This six-song EP of leftovers from The King Is Dead sessions adds nearly another half hour to the Decemberists’ most successful and accessible album. And like the full-length, which came out earlier this year, the tracks on Long Live the King play around with more traditional song structures and styles than those found on the…
Letters to the Editor
Poor voting record Mr. Saunders’s cogent letter (Letters to the Editor, "Not for long," Oct. 19) about Republicans’ attitude toward the lower classes and unemployed (Politics and Prejudices, "To hell with the poor," Sep. 28) fails on one material point. The poor vote poorly. Political scientists have mulled over this question with differing conclusions but…
Aiming at John Conyers
The first time John Conyers was elected to Congress, Bert Johnson’s parents weren’t even teenagers. The last time Conyers had a serious challenger, Johnson was a kid doing hard time in prison. But that was 1994 and this is now, and Bert Johnson is a different man, a serious and thoughtful state senator who says…
Hymn for the dude
On Mick Ronson With Ronno, a lot of people pitched Ronno ideas — he’d go in for a session and he’d help out to change one or two musical things. On one or two occasions these songs became hits. And he never got paid. But he knew he did it. The guy who didn’t credit…
Valley of the doll
It’s a nippy night and the Majestic Café is full of life. Allied Media is throwing a bowling extravaganza a few doors down at the Garden Bowl in anticipation of their annual music conference set for the next day at MOCAD. They’re also hosting an open mic for high school-aged poets in the café, and,…
Raise high the Cup
The first Michigan Medical Cannabis Cup came to Detroit earlier this month, in time for the harvest season, and handed out first, second and third place cups to an impressive list of local producers of buds and medibles. The two-day expo, held at Bert’s Warehouse Theatre in the Eastern Market, brought out a steady stream…
Matty vs. the 99 percent
For many critics of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the issue is framed as one of resentment. In this narrow characterization of the protests that have sprung up in cities across America in recent weeks, malcontents are angered simply by the continued concentration of wealth at the top of the system. The way we see…
Brush with fate
There’s not an empty chair inside the barbershop this afternoon. Whole families are here at the lively InZone Barber and Beauty Salon on Gratiot, just north of Eastern Market — men in the chairs, women under the hair dryers or at the nail tables, and children on the plush couches in the middle of the…
Love Crime
Love Crime C+ It’s been a while since a good, juicy cat fight has hit the big screen. Which is why I had high hopes for Alain Corneau’s psychological thriller Love Crime. Ludivine Sagnier and Kristin Scott Thomas square off in this French import about naked ambition and back-stabbing (figuratively and literally) office politics.…
Tom Waits – Bad as Me (Anti)
From the steampunk-sax honk that opens "Chicago," Tom Waits’ first album in seven years comes on like a locomotive heading straight into no-man’s noir territory. Waits even yells, "All aboard!" like a caffeine-fueled conductor leading passengers to their one-way destinations. In other words, it’s business as usual for the boozy, bloozy singer-songwriter on his 17th…
Food Stuff
More peppers Good news for lovers of Chipotle Mexican Grill in Southfield. They’ll be opening a second Southfield location this week. Starting Oct. 27, it’s to occupy 28644 Telegraph Rd.; 248-415-4301; open 10 a.m.-10 p.m. daily; Smash hit Speaking of new restaurants, West Bloomfield will soon get metro Detroit’s first Smashburger, featuring the chain’s juicy…
Ballad of Ian
Ian Hunter has always been rock’s greatest bullshit detector. As the leading light behind the legendary Mott the Hoople, he reminded us of Chuck Berry during Strawberry Alarm Clock times, predicted the rise of punk during the height of glam, and told us, "It’s all a game, a grown-up game," when we were in danger…
Bobby Sherman(1969)
No teen idol ever cared more about his fans than Bobby Sherman, and his marketing team was in lockstep with this notion. Why else would the gatefold sleeve of his Here Comes Bobby album open to a life-sized poster of Bobby if you were three feet tall? Or why would his With Love, Bobby album…
FBI’s targeting practice
Citing documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU alleged last week that the FBI is unconstitutionally targeting specific religious, racial and ethnic groups for broad-based investigations. It is a story with a strong local angle. "Without any evidence of actual wrongdoing and based on a generalized and entirely unsubstantiated threat assertion, the…
Takes a licking
Q: My boyfriend and I are in college and doing the long-distance thing until June 2013. Over the years, he’s granted me increasing amounts of freedom to be intimate with women — I’m female, and date women while we’re apart — but I still don’t have full autonomy. It’s much better than it used to…
You don’t think that’s scary?
Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and wonder who’s handling the big thinking at NBC. The network that gave us The Playboy Club — for three weeks, at least, before canceling the show after realizing that the people most likely to watch it are at strip clubs — is launching a primetime creature…
Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 B- Just when you thought that we’ve explored every nook, cranny and walk-in closet of the chaotic, exhilarating cultural upheavals of mid-20th century America, there comes a fascinating scrapbook of odds and ends delivered from the unlikeliest of places: Sweden. Yes, though Gil Scott-Heron sang that the revolution would not…
Finding the Way
For a guy who’s been arrested 67 times (and never convicted once, he points out), Martin Sheen is probably the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. Looking a decade younger than his 71 years, the man who was born Ramon Estevez and his son Emilio (also showing no sign of his 49 years) are on a…
Heavy lifting
One thing is clear after reading the eye-glazing proposed charter revision for the City of Detroit — we’re rolling in sevens. In 2009, Detroit voters approved Proposal D, which mandates that City Council members be elected in a hybrid system of seven districts and two at-large seats. One result of that is that in the…
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…
New Mick Bassett album available
Mick Bassett has had a new record available for about a month, and while he appears on Here Lies The Lion That Lied In Your Bed without his backing band The Marthas, it does mark his first full-length record. The songs are stripped-down compared with the band’s typical trombone-laden fare, but feature a dynamic mix…
Tone & Niche declare: Everything Is Good
Tone wasn’t used to this royal treatment – …waking up to the summer’s sun and the robust smell of organic coffee inside a colonial mansion with an in-ground swimming pool, strolling into the studio and being asked by a professional sound engineer what he wanted to play today – the Vox…
