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].
Until his untimely death in 2006 and well beyond, J Dilla was one of the most respected hip-hop producers and artists in Detroit. This new Rebirth of Detroit (Ruff Draft/Yancey) album compiles tracks he worked on with artists as diverse as Amp Fiddler, Esham and Guilty Simpson, hence the perfectly apt album title. The whole album is spectacular; inventive, hard and razor sharp. Look out for a City Slang feature on J Dilla soon.
Hot Club of Detroit has a new album called Junction on the Mack Avenue label, and it’s a goody. French vocalist Cyrille Aimée, a guest on this record, adds a welcome new direction, elements of accessibility and sensuality, to the awesome, suave jazz that the band already creates. These guys are cool, super-cool in the “Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction sense. You just want to get lost in the sax and dive into the beats. Even a jazz novice like myself can soak this up.
Infinity People is a project featuring, among others, Dion Fischer of the Go, Warren Defever and Aran Ruth. The band is also the subject of a City Slang column this week so learn more from that. Suffice to say, the new In Love With the Light (UFO Factory/Burger/Cass/X!/Italy/Life Like) double album is an acid-rock, epic, psychedelic experience, full of big riffs and religious references. There’s much to enjoy, from the cover artwork to the crazy messages on the inside of the gatefold and, of course, the music itself.
Kommie Kilpatrick has a new EP coming out called Nature Sounds (Gold Tapes) and, if there was a Beach Boys reference intended in that title, the influence stops at the verbage because the two tracks they sent us, “I Need Dinner” and “Brain Rot”, have nothing in common with “Wouldn’t it be Nice” and “God Only Knows”. Hard and fast, obnoxious punk rock that sound exactly how obnoxious punk should sound. Hella fun.
Infinity Hour, despite the similar name and geography, have very little in common with Dion Fischer’s Infinity People. Rather, these teens play riff-heavy hard alt-rock that sound more than ready to hit mainstream rock radio and excite kids up and down the country. The band just opened for Buckcherry at the Stars & Stripes fest and probably made a heap of friends in the process. The Stars of Mine EP is bouncy, sweet fun. Nothing in the way of rugged attitude, but that might come with time. For now, they’re having fun and kicking some teen ass in the process.
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