May Days - Woodruffs + Park Bar

Celtics, Pagans, Unions workers and Communisists, Anarchists and Anglo-Saxons.... -across the world -across religious sects, cultures or countries... everyone and anyone celebrates May 1st for myriad reasons through myriad rituals.

Many of them, however, involve music and dancing!

Fittingly, Detroit's veritable master-of-elaborate-celebrations, the Loco Gnosis Collective, will be hosting it's own May Days Celebration - alligning with the rising Ghost Family Collective - forging two nights (at two different venues, in two different towns) featuring more-than-20-bands and including installations from artists of various visual mediums.

"May Day is a worker's holiday," said Loco Gnosis chieftain, Jeff Howitt (also of Duende). "Also, it's the anarchists holiday. Loco almost goes into community service by spotlighting those who have worked with us to create and contribute their sense of experience. But, though, not 'accomplishment,' it would be closer to their 'reason for doing it in the first place.'"

Commendably, LC - paired with the Ypsi-based Ghost Family Collective (JWPP+Sharky & the Habit+Err...) have managed to top previoius LC festivals, in terms of size and scope.

“This really is the purest of the Loco shows," Howitt said, "by openly combining visual arts, poetry and music within its framework. Somewhere, fashion and performance split. So did content from the words. Everyone has photoshop and can DIY but what about actual art? --things recovered from the mystery? It's more tribal and archaic and hard to classify. This is one way of giving back and reminding ourselves we have split from one another in the arts and communities we live in; so it's not just entertainment and a drawing of a soup can. This is how we take our temperature and sweat it out a little bit."

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It'll be subtly momentous (subtle in subtext, if not presentation), as this is acknowledging the rise of the 'new class' of bands, from Phantom Cats, to Macrame Tiger, to Illy Mack...and giving proper nods to other performers and creative minds by shining spotlights on visual artists and performers. As artist/photographer Lisa Marie Krug once exclaimed to me: we need more intermingling of mediums! Music - to Artists - to Poets - and beyond.

The May Days event is also tacitly representing a quasi-torch-passing from Loco Gnosis to Ghost Family, as the former transitions to working more in distribution (less so the grind of record label work) and the latter starts to realize its own vitality and potential.

4/29 Night 1 - at Woodruff's in Ypsi: reception that begins at 6:00 p.m each night. Artists: - Lisa Marie Krug, - Emily Whitehead, - Tracey Tilley, - Lauren Montgomery, - Kim Hoxworth, - Juicy Jacapo, - James Hittinger, - Brandon Robinson, - Jen Clare Gawaran, - Chad Stocker, - Steve Gamburd, - Kelly Kaatz & Angelica Perez, - Lisa Posywak & Jaye Allen Thomas, - Kayleigh Rose, - Dave La Fave, - Cre Fuller and more.....

There will also be music by Teenage Love during the reception. $5 at the door. No cover before 8:00 p.m. Buffet food provided........ -

8:00 Nomeus / 8:40 Err... / 9:20 Pink Lightning / 10:00 Sharky and the Habit / 10:40 Lawless Carver / 11:20 Man at Arms / 12:00 Jehovah's Witness Protection Program / 12:40 Beggars

4/30 Night 2 - at Park Bar in Detroit

Featured Artists:

Lisa Marie Krug, Emily Whitehead, Tracey Tilley, Lauren Montgomery, Kim Hoxworth, Juicy Jacapo, James Hittinger, Brandon Robinson, Jen Clare Gawaran, Chad Stocker, Steve Gamburd, Kelly Kaatz & Angelica Perez, Lisa Posywak & Jaye Allen Thomas, Kayleigh Rose, Dave La Fave, Cre Fuller and more.. $10 at the door. No cover before 8:00 p.m. Buffet food provided.

Featured Bands:

John Sinclair –with Elliot Levin / The Oscillating Fan Club / The Questions / Marco Polio & the New Vaccines / Illy Mack / Duende! / Oblisk / Dutch Pink / Electric Fire Babies/ Macrame Tiger / Rogue Satellites / Mister / The Beekeepers / Tomb Laser / Phantom Cats / Alan Sowinski -