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 back catalog material too. Send CDs, vinyl, cassettes, demos and 8-tracks to Brett Callwood, City Slang, Metro Times, 733, St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 46226. Email MP3s and streaming links to [email protected].
Dirty Channel’s Just Enough (self-released) is the Eastpointe band’s first studio recording, and it’s not at all bad. Not great and certainly not spectacular, but far from bad. The band is comprised of competent musicians who probably play well-received sets in their local drinking establishment. They certainly seem to be having fun with their contemporary-tinged hard rock. There’s just nothing here that will give a newcomer a boner. Keep going though.
Far better is Dune Buggy Attack Battalion’s Ypsidelica (Deep Red). The album is produced by Jim Diamond, and it shows in the fuzzy glory of the thing. The band members have names like Jet Jaguar and Del Demoni, which is a great start. The album art is terrible but in that haphazard fun way, and the songs are all fantastic slices of slacker punk. Love it.
A Lady Never Tells feature the talents of MT’s own Laura Witkowski, which is worrying because if I hate the self-titled EP, I’m effectively about to upset a colleague. I’d have to be honest though so here goes. Thank fuck, the duo (also including Sunil Sawani) is awesome. Sugary sweet pop ditties with caustic lyrics. I particularly love the line “You shower me with half-priced gifts”. HA! How to piss off the missus 101.
Gotta say, the most enjoyable thing I heard this week is the self-titled EP from death metal band Writhing, mainly because it’s been so long since I listened to death metal. Hearing Writhing immediately took me back to college, when a 17-year-old me was passing around tapes of bands with names like Cannibal Corpse, Entombed, Deicide, Morbid Angel and Obituary. Shit, everything about this EP is perfect, from the rapid-fire drums, inhuman vocals and killer riffs and solos to the spiky heart thing on the cover art and the font used for the name. I literally can’t wait to see these guys live. There aren’t enough bands doing this stuff anymore.
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