Cover Story
Release the hounds
The Hounds Below play the Loving Touch on Oct. 6 with the Hand Grenades, Passalacqua (DJ set) and Phantasmagoria (DJ set), 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-546-3644. The problem that the Hounds Below have faced since the band’s birth a couple of years ago is not an uncommon one for a group containing musicians of a…
Tom’s Satanic Kazoo (OR Strange Splendid Sounds for the Season)
Tom sips his coffee, tall, black, no cream. It’s mid October and he’s already got his Halloween costume picked out: Prince. And he’ll be attempting both “Kiss” and “Raspberry Beret” on stage at the Crofoot). I don’t have my costume picked out yet but we’re both musing on the ceremonial nostalgika of brisk/beatific/melancholic autumn aesthetics.…
City Slang: The Marvelettes nominated for Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame
Apologies for being a little late with this nugget, but Inkster’s Motown legends the Marvelettes are among the nominations to be inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, along with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Deep Purple, Heart, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Albert King, Kraftwerk, The Meters, Randy Newman, N.W.A., Procol…
City Slang: Kid Rock to appear with Paul Ryan
Kid Rock has announced that he will appear at a rally near Detroit and announce Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan on stage. Kid Rock nailed his Republican colors to the mast a long time ago, so the fact that he is endorsing this vile little creature is really no surprise. Everyone’s entitled to their own…
Third Man Records Announces 14th Vault Package
Third Man Records’ has announced the contents of their 14th Vault package. The package contains a 2LP set of Jack White’s show at the Third Man 3rd anniversary party, a 7″ of Jack White demo’s (Freedom At 21, Love Interruption, and Hypocritical Kiss, respectively) and a photo book compiling behind the scenes pictures of the…
City Slang: Twiztid to release Abominationz
Psychopathic Records’ horror-rap duo Twiztid are preparing to release their new album, Abominationz on October 22. According to Psychopathic, “The horror-core rap group went deep within their morbid imaginations to conjure up the dark visions that shaped the nefarious and loathsome themes of the new album. The definition of “abomination” is, simply, “hate”, and Twiztid…
Eclectic Sounds: Cabin 44+Duende+Mister
Boss Radio… The culmination of a capricious jump-up-on-stage rap contributed by emcee Mister to a 2010 summer festival set performed by Duende – finally put down to tape and fully realizing an endearing statement upon the new, further-coagulating energy… the rampant energy / rampant camaraderie / rampant eclecticism -of music (and musicians) in this “scene…unsurpassed.”…
Weekend Hit List
Friday 5th Pepper Adams Tribute Gerry Mulligan had those matinee-idol looks, and he made the deep notes of the baritone saxophone seem to float on a cloud of cool. He was a star and a marquee bandleader. Pepper Adams had a standard… [READ MORE] Two Man Gentlemen Band Some wag said these fellows had cemented a…
City Slang: International Festival in Southfield
All weekend, the City of Southfield, in partnership with the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit, is hosting the International Festival Friday, October 5 – Sunday, October 7 in the Southfield Pavilion, 26000 Evergreen Road. They say, “The International Festival is a fun, affordable and enriching event for the entire family. The festival will offer international…
Frankenweenie
Frankenweenie| B Charming but slight, Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie may not have much depth or ambition, but it has enough heart to win over most audiences. After all, how can you go wrong with a boy and his dead dog? Burton returns to his roots with a full-length version of his ghoulishly funny 1984 short film.…
We tried our Presidential Debate Drinking Game and … then things got blurry
Presidential Debate Drinking Game: Your Very Own Political Shitshow! Last night, at the presidential debate, President Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney spent nearly 25 of the first 15 minutes hashing out the variations in their respective policies. By the middle of the second segment, it was apparent that points had been exhausted, facts were…
Detroit Music
College students… Mid-terms are coming up soon! Take a lesson from the President’s performance last night and be (better) prepared! Politics aside… Here’s a chance to blow-off-some-steam -post-debates: Here’s a Motown-propping funk-rock anthem from Chain & the Gang – the latest gospel-yeh-yeh-punk project by provocateur/frontman Ian Svenonius (-performing tonight, in Ferndale, at the Loving Touch,…
City Slang: Big ‘80s Flashback Halloween Bash
On Friday, October 26, Static Records will present the Big ‘80s Flashback Halloween Bash at the Corktown Tavern in Detroit. Static says, “The Big ’80s Bash started as a jam session of bands playing songs from the era in their own style. It has now turned into a tribute party you won’t want to miss!…
Butter
Butter| C Why Harvey Weinstein kept this wannabe political satire on the shelf for so long is a mystery. Butter debuted at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival to mixed reviews and is only now coming up for air. Unfortunately, for the film (but thankfully for the rest of us) we’ve pretty much entered the…
Walking Beat’s “Nighttime Sky” Release Show (w/High Strung, Dark Red)
This band started out of a re-start. Break-ups 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…
Clowns to the Left, Jokers to the Right (Music as Debate-decompression)
How’s one to focus? Azealia Banks is dancing around on a building top with a cowboy hat but part of me can’t wait to hear the streaming single from Woods and then there’s that banjo-bursting howl-hoot Mumford & Sons album that all the magazines keep reminding me to memorize and there’s a ton of local release shows coming up, but…really,…
City Slang: New Amy Gore and Her Valentines video
We at City Slang make no apologies for the fact that we love everything that Amy Gore puts her name to. Following that great tradition, watch this awesome new video for “Fine Without You” from Amy Gore & Her Valentines. Enjoy. Click here to join the City Slang Turntable community!!! Follow @City_Slang
Food Stuff
Popping up again For the last two weeks, we’ve covered pop-up restaurants and meal clubs, the grandest of which has been Chartreuse, which focuses on raw, vegan meals prepared by the talented Corinne Rice. The events usually take place in unusual settings, such as a recent dinner at Rhiza Farms in Highland Park. October’s monthly…
Spicy and spiffy
Phulkari Punjabi Kitchen 27707 Dequindre Rd. Madison Heights 248-541-3562 phulkarikitchen.com Handicap accessible Snacks & small plates: $3-$6 Entrées: $8-$10 Open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday; closed Mondays. Friends often used to point to a down-at-the-heels strip mall on Dequindre just north of 11 Mile and say "You know,…
Those ballot props
Here’s what would happen if every voter went to the polls next month, got in the booth and earnestly studied the ballot proposals. People would be still standing in line on Thanksgiving Day. One measure of the screwed-up insanity of politics in Michigan is that we’ve slapped six complex proposals on the November ballot, plus…
On the bus
As the sun was rising last Thursday, a small group of transit activists piled into a converted school bus at Northland Mall and headed off to Lansing, hoping that 24 will turn out to be their lucky number. Among those on board was Detroit resident Cindy Reese, 64, who recalled a conversation she had with…
Devils and details
When it comes to politics, the commies here at News Hits usually hold positions that are the polar opposite of anti-tax crusader Bill McMaster, chairman of Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation. McMaster helped spearhead the successful drive to pass the Headlee Amendment, the tax limitation measure approved by a majority of Michigan voters way back in…
Hotel Transylvania
Hotel Transylvania| C+ You think your teenager is sulky? Try raising a vampire child whose puberty lasts several decades. That’s the dilemma faced by Adam Sandler’s overprotective, hovering daddy Dracula in Hotel Transylvania, a breezy, cheesy, fun but not wholly original animated romp. Essentially a spiffed-up modern tribute to the creaky old ’60s Rankin-Bass puppet…
Inside out
Poor Migo. Like so many elderly Detroiters, Migo finds himself the last of the old neighborhood residents on a block most everyone else bailed from as it collapsed, leaving him isolated among the thieves, drug fiends and the desperately poor who moved in as the homes emptied out. They way he tells it, his rickety…
Pitch Perfect
Pitch Perfect| B- The prospect of hearing chipper college freshmen belt out a cappella versions of Bruno Mars songs for 90-odd minutes sounded very much like my personal eighth circle of hell. So, it was a rather pleasant surprise that Pitch Perfect turned out to be an agreeable, funny and occasionally rather snarky romp through…
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Perks of Being a Wallflower| B+ One sure sign of creeping middle age is when wistful coming-of-age nostalgia pieces are being written by your generation, set in hazy, bygone days that seem all too familiar to you. I was reared on a steady diet of teen movies adoringly set in the poodle skirt and…
Canvassing The Hood
Dlectricity What: An after-dark light and art exhibition. When: From 7 p.m. to midnight Oct. 5, from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Oct. 6. Where: Midtown Detroit. This Friday and Saturday night, Midtown will be transformed into a glowing exhibition of light and art by the new Dlectricity festival. The festival will…
Activists vs. bureaucrats
Medical marijuana laws generally get bureaucratic pushback from administrators, politicians and law enforcement unhappy with the changes made by citizens’ initiatives. Michigan medical marijuana activists claim that is the case with the Michigan Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), which oversees the Michigan Medical Marihuana program (MMMP). LARA has definitely been remiss in processing…
Quick shots
Last week, I appeared at a "Savage Love Live" event at Radford University in Radford, Virginia. Questions are submitted on index cards at SLL events, which allows questioners to remain anonymous and forces them to be succinct. The crowd at Radford was large and inquisitive. The students submitted more questions than I could possibly hope…
Love is strange
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz Riverhead, $26.95, 224 pp. Has love ever been examined quite like this? The ugly. The pretty. The sexual. Maternal love. Sibling love. They’re explored in Junot Díaz’s third book, This Is How You Lose Her. It comes in at little more than 200 brisk pages…
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…
