Jim Roll: The Continuing Adventures of the Butterfly Kid

For the last decade or more, Jim Roll's been to the side, behind the scenes. He's always at the edge of the spotlight, the dude at the boards mixing and remixing, producing the works of several of the most prominent players and bands on the Michigan scene. 

It's never been about him. 

But, really, he's like the cog of a grand wheel... each spoke a band or an album. 

That's part of what makes The Continuing Adventures of the Butterfly Kid so special. Another part would be how long we've waited for this... There's contributions from Frontier Ruckus' Matthew Milia, Great Lakes Myth Society's Jamie Monger, along with Carol Gray from Misty Lyn & The Big Beautiful... Hey, Misty Lyn, herself, is on here too. There's also Ryan Howard and Scott DeRoche, who perform with Roll in Drunken Barn Dance. These cameos are from singers, songwriters and musicians who know, first hand, about Roll's talent, a talent that's just as big as the dude's heart. We could go on... How he puts a lot of heart into his work and all that...but you probably want to hear some music...

The sound is inevitably colorful - a venn diagram of sensibilities gravitating twangy pop, experimental rock and a lo-fi Americana-strut into its decorous atmosphere. Why do I want to name-drop Yo La Tengo, or something similar? There's a pure pop sound in there, something almost college-rock-ish, but curtained with hazy synths and skewed with those spacey guitar vibratos. 

If I could pick a winner - it'd be "For You." Mid-tempo, sure; not so much a ballad, yeah. But beautiful. Those cellos under twangy guitars, a haunting mystique aching to soundtrack some starry-sky lit night-drive down the endless two-lane route toward restful rumination. It's exemplary of his careful balance of a considerable amount of instrumental elements. 

Roll exhibits an outstanding range in his voice... not so much in register, but in inflection. He can go into a weathered, wise, crooner and then revert back to the youthful yowl of an exuberant, 20-something skater psyched-for-life. He's waving around that baritone register for most of his delivery - fitting since he's best suited behind a bass guitar. 

Anyway...

Give it a listen.

It's about time it came out.

And, this time... it's about Jim! 

Detroit-by-Detroit IV

Feb 22 - - Magic Stick - - 
8pm doors. ALL AGES. $5 donation for 21+ and $7 donation for 20 and under. Proceeds go to a special scholarship at the School of Rock  

Pride Obscures

To where are we headed? What's our motivation? Why do we want to go there and what's so good about it, what happens when we arrive? How will we know when we're there? Should we ever stop? Pride can fuck with us. Pride can fuck us over. Anxiety dictates our wardrobe and self-esteem dictates our diet, but what about a grasp of the situation, a grasp of any situation: perspective. A place for everything and everything in it's place. Store it all into the cupboards of perspective. The perspective cupboard. Keep it all there, nice and neat and in complete disarray - because order is futile, success is subjective, embrace dishevelment and see the beauty that no one else seems to notice; hear the melody that is too often drowned out by white noise and close your eyes tight to envision a new world if this one's too fogged out by the polluting fluorescent radiance of a clustered cities shopping centers. Dust is elegant and voices crack and you'll never say it just how you want to say it, right at that moment. So smile, at least. Consider the astonishing vastness of reality. But, also, just keep perspective - embrace whimsy, laugh easy and remember to drink lots of water. Stretching might not hurt, also. Long rant short: don't give a fuck what anyone thinks of what you do...think only of what you want to do next.

Magic is something that science just hasn't explained yet
-Ryan Cox, The Good Things

Achievement is its own reward, pride obscures it.
-Major Briggs, Twin Peaks

Tunde Olaniran - Brown Boy (Remix EP)

Taking a listen, specifically, to Jon Zott's remix as he explores/re-mixes/re-imagines the new single from Tunde Olaniran: "Black Boy" (Released this month on Michigan-label Quite Scientific)

That one could reinterpret Tunde's works in a multitude of ways speaks to the multitude of styles surging through the artist's essence - Even more fitting that a song lyrically defying conceptions of identity and evading quantification be sliced up and respooled four different ways.

Zott's got a cool take. There's some early 80's synth-pop and an eerie bubbling of krautrock shuffling through Zott's grooving remix - shifting the pitch of Tunde's voice to lower registers to match the dark bass and woozily slithering effects, atop a tight, marching beat that could easily start a dance party, paring back the more caustic, tribal-techno pound of the original for a smoother slide.
the works of Tunde speaks to the inherent multitudes

These guys

More info

Prelude to a Berserker

"...I'm pretty sure it will be totally insane in there..."

"...over time I've collected ideas from various fests that I've attended and/or performed at. Local and national, big and small. Eventually it seemed like something I could pull off..."


Shawn Knight is getting ready to helm his first Music Fest.
Berserker.
The singer/guitarist/keyboardist of Detroit's own preeminent metal-inspired, groove-tempered, noise-rock-maximalists curated four days of live music, hosted by the W.A.B./Loving Touch complex. 

"I'm imagining these 3 stages as a mini Majestic/Magic Stick/Garden Bowl. The venue size is proportionate to the types of bands that I wanted."

In terms of the size of the venue, the spreading of stages, he's kept things considerably small - or more so, manageable. The acts invited to play though... In terms of style, volume (and in most of the cases, performance) are nary small nor manageable. 

Wolf EyesMacabreRingworm(Yes, Child Bite, too)Terrible TwosOld GodsGolden TorsoOozing Woundmany...many...more

"I guess, over time," said Knight, "I've collected ideas from various fests that I've attended or I've performed-at, be they local, national, big or small. Eventually it seemed like something I could pull off.

BERSERKER! Feb. 5-8th 2014. All ages, 50 bands, advance passes only $20. Tickets available at the WAB, UHF, Found Sound, and Stormy Records.

"I'm hoping to fill the gap left...about 10 years ago...by Michiganfest" says Knight. "That being, a collection of national and local underground bands within the punk and metal genres (and sub-genres)."

Asked of the inevitable/unfortunate misconceptions of -or aversions towards a live music event prominently featuring acts of an "avant-garde" nature..... Knight says:
"It's definitely not for everyone. For fans of the genres that are represented, it's not a hard sell. But, for others...it's cheap enough cover for them to take a chance on."

I'd recommend it... If my word as a blogger's worth anything: Live a little! When's the last time you went berserk? Certifiably berserk? Berzerkers have teeth, man. They are inherently exciting, savage and bracing biters, man. It is, if nothing else, an engaging format of music...

Knight said he's not going for the local-only angle, for this event, mostly because there's enough of those happening already. "I wanted to make something a bit bigger. Child Bite tours a lot, so I've met a bunch of great bands that way. I also wanted to have regional headliners that would get people excited (Old Gods, Wolf Eyes...) Obviously lots of the performing bands are from the Detroit area and I'me excited to celebrate the local scene, too."

More from Knight, as he reviews the line-up....
"Oozing Wound is a great new thrash band on Thrill Jockey records. Sean Clancy (Child Bite bassist) turned me on to them, and I'm excited to have them on board. Young Widows are buddies of Child Bite; we generally book their Detroit shows for them. This will be a one-off performance for them, and I believe they will be playing new tunes off of their upcoming full length."

"I haven't played extreme-metal since high school," says Knight (who is also an outstanding graphic artist and CCS graduate). "But, I do still listen to that stuff and I'm excited to have it well represented at this fest."

There will be ten bands consolidated into the Loving Touch on the Fest's final day (the result of a "scheduling snafu"). "This is the day Ringworm plays, as well as Beast in the Field and Child Bite," Knight points out. "So, I'm pretty sure it will be totally insane in there. I can't imagine a more appropriate climax."

More info

Wild Things: Ingenious Sub-genius

I wanted to find an image or a video that could succinctly communicate the uninhibited, unleashed hyper-evolved weirdness celebrated by the Detroit Subgenius Thing next week...

This might work...

Barefoot in the windpipe-coughed wilderness of Detroit, using your stringed scepter and ceremonial drum to do an acid-rain dance... Caveman Woodman & Bam Bam Moss - pure and raw and raw and pure - a Hulk-like flex focused into three-chord glory and stripped-kit kickers. 

But then there's the Amino Acids and there's Carjack. Behind their masks are minds keen on the inherent energy and imagination required to render a properly baffling rock-show - be it surf-punk from Saturn or spaced-out-garage-boogie from Pluto - 

While The Disinformants and All The Wild Children hold down the psychedelic-soul side of things, shredded into a metallic salad of varying grades of avant-garde indie-rock flavors.

Downtown Brown, for crying out loud!

There's a time and a place for "Johnny B. Goode" and all that poppy Beatles stuff, there's a time and a place for catchy "Born To Run" ballads...
But it is not this time.

This show is a reminder:
Rock should be...can be...and needs to be...
Weird.
Wild.
Almost frightening.
Dynamic.
Daring.
Strange.
Loud.
Loud.
Fast.
Weird.
...........But not savage.... Not regressive... Not primitive...
Just pure.
And weird.
And loud.

FEB 1ST    SMALL'S     9PM 



CARJACK - Theme 2013 (Music Video) from Mike Rozman on Vimeo.

Hip In Detroit's 2-Year Bash: #MusicTalk with The Ill Itches

Tunde Olaniran / The HandGrenades / Rebel Spies / Autumn Wolf
and The Ill Itches -with Ancient Language DJ-ing between

Saturday, Feb 1st 





That's two years and counting, now, for hip in detroit ~ the hip hub of local love (and lots of Michigan music news).

That's one year and counting, now, for a band on the bill for that blog's "birthday concert" - that being The Ill Itches. The group essentially debuted at last year's Metro Times Blowout (May, 2013), having gestated with wayward focus and cranked-up amplifiers within the cacophonous confines of a basement - displaying, at their youngest stages of 9-10 months ago - proclivities toward rickety, rambunctious garage rock.

Guitarist Joshua Woodcock has been playing for music most of still-yet-young life. He's even spent considerable time living in Japan, performing music and enmeshing himself into that unique scene. But over the last two years, he went from performing in Hit Society, to, most recently, The Ill Itches (with Stephen Schmidt on vocals/guitar, Matt Mruzek on bass/vocals and Matt Livengood on drums).

Woodcock: "We just went in and said: 'Let's play loud...'"

So, it had a howl, as all punk should, but it wasn't a honed howl: its voice cracked, it shoulder-checked you as a sign of affection, it went from 0-60 from song-one. That made quite a first impression. But now the band's had time to evolve, their voluminous, raucous style, has found a synchronicity. The drums have gotten space to shimmy, the bass is given a few breaks to show some funky licks... the guitars, with those strutting hooks, and the vocals, with their curdling creaks and saliva-screamed taunts - are still as attitudinal as ever. But still...synchronicity... loud, fast (delicately dissonant) synchronicity.



And now, after a sold-out performance a couple weeks ago at the Loving Touch (and a year in which they spearheaded a live compilation titled Pathetic Sounds of Detroit, the group is looking forward with renewed confidence.


How'd Year-One go?

"We've been pretty true to what we set out to do - which was really letting everyone's own personalities mesh into whatever song we were making. We've had a lot of great people help us out along the way. The people that understood what we were doing and helped us go out and play our music in front of people are really the force behind what we do...


This hip in detroit party is ticked up near the levels (big occasion, big line up, big celebration) of some other local festivals - like last months Secret Friends Fest. Fests can be an opportunity to have a scene-check-up... To contemplate what we've got going on around here, as a music community...

"This scene's definitely more diverse than others I've seen, personally. It's a huge mix of people who've gotten past the all eyes on Detroit-phase. Everyone is doing whatever music they feel like, not caring who's watching. There's so many good musicians in Detroit and everyone's always at other people's shows to check them out and just to get into what they're listening to. It's definitely a town where you get a fast-crash-course into what you're doing right and wrong. New bands can pop out of  nowhere and surprise you - like YUM at the Secret Friends Fest as a good example."

"Hip In Detroit has a ton of awesome bands and those girls are at the shows all the time and I think they really put together a diverse line up to showcase Detroit music."


Thoughts on Hip In Detroit, then, as you've followed-them and they've followed-you (and subsequently followed almost every other around town, here...) They've established themselves as a notably positive hub of support for the scene...

"They're great. They work so hard to support this scene and they're at shows all the time. If they can't make one, you'll get messages later apologizing and asking how it went. They've helped out a lot of local bands."

"Everyone at shows, that I see, are musical in some respect. The people in this town really know their stuff. Everyone in the community definitely seems really connected to what's going on and proactive in keeping it moving forward. So we're looking forward to supporting the people that have really supported us over the last year."


The Ill Itches have a 7" coming out soon, while they continue to write and record new material.

For samples of the other bands on this bill
Tunde OlaniranAutumn WolfThe HandGrenadesRebel Spies 

Listening to: Mogwai - Rave Tapes

Yes, Mogwai's new album is dark.

But it also wants you to question: "what do you choose...(?)"

There's an entire song that pays tribute to the "subliminal messages" of certain rock recordings - given ode with a spooky spoken word performance over droning organs swelling into a banshee prayer shimmer and a metallic shuffle of guitars.

Set aside that the question above is suggestive of the very real influence of Satan upon the musical arts.

That's part of Rave Tapes MO - it's the soundtrack of a sinister entity encouraging (challenging?) you into a staring contest. The music isn't abrasive, it isn't impenetrable, it's not spazzy speed-punk mosh tempos and it's not ear-murdering, throat-saw death metal... But it's eerie.

It's groovy and eerie. And some of it is actually quite enticing. But it's dark. It's a question of whether you choose to reach for a light switch, or stay locked into their grooves.



It's all about shading. Digging into the serrated, murky forests of Rave Tapes means that with each successive track, another subtle canopy, a fog of synths or a particulate-swirling gale of buzzy bass, a reverberating-flock of guitars fluttering together like a murder of crows, riffing as the black wings beat, blocking out the light as you churn, churn, churn, sawing synthesizers and plodding bass, riffing guitar....deeper into the forest, as each song builds it becomes more and more layered, you're not descending and you, yourself, are not becoming possessed in anyway, it's just that you're being enveloped by the musical elements. The comforting sunshine (those ostensibly glimmering/comforting sunrays of pop, or indie-rock, or vocal-based, melodic rock reverent of the major-keys...) is being blocked out by a gnarlier sound, a darker sound....

But it never drones on... No, it never drones and it never drowns you... It just allows you to sort wander ever-forwards with it... Until you find a new kind of light inside their darkness.

Then you know you've been listening to long... But, then, that was your choice.

Beekeepers: Methodical Chaos

Patrick's got some demons. I don't know if these are bad demons or good demons - but I know that the music he makes is certainly good - even if it sounds wholly weird, inconsistent, freaky or insistently sardonic --to your ears. Your ears are just weird in their own way - just as my ears are weird - but my ears, damn it, respond to the certain weirdness of the music made by Patrick's band: The Beekeepers.

Jan 24th --- ---- New Dodge Lounge --- --- 
PINK LIGHTNING - K9 SNIFFIES - ABSOLUTELY NOT (CHICAGO) - BEEKEEPERS

Patrick Robinson (just one bass-wielding component of this outfit) struggles with his demons and what they tell him about his music. "...The Beekeepers don't seem to fit in, which I find strange."

"We aren't that weird..."




Early rock n' roll, doo-wop, acid-jazz, post-bop, tin-pan alley, psychedelic noise-rock... My receptors flare up whenever I hear a Beekeepers song... "It's all too much..." as George Harrison once sang, "...for me to take...," as the group's songs blaze along like a montage of styles, flavors from idealized "era's" or moods from half-forgotten film soundtracks, noises from the nightmares you tuck away into the cordoned-off carnival of your childhood-memory museum. Like haunted honey, like a blackhole-sun, even! 



"I consider our songs to have a formal structure," says Robinson, who writes and performs with Patrick McGlew, Pete Steffey, Jeff Else, Jeremy Franchi and Brandon Robinson. "It's true that we have always liked to fuck-around, musically. However, in a live setting, we prefer to give the audience discrete packets of music. (It's) a little chaos here and there, but there is a method."

Beekeepers strength, their charm, is their caprice. To have one song go from a punk-tempo'ed rock vibe into a whirling waltz... "Our sound is not the result of conscious intentions." No surprise.

"We have our own unique angles, but we are also unafraid to subdue ourselves to the will of the collective spirit."

Now we're talking! Maybe it's less caprice, and more something intangible, something supernatural within the songs that weirds-people-out in good ways or bad.... Good demons...bad demons... melodic demons nonetheless!


Robinson is his own worst-judge, he admits. "I love talking to other musicians, to revel in the joy of music and to commiserate about the biz. For bands that want to maintain artistic integrity these days, the prospect of making money is grim..." Which, our point being, it can be either discouraging or encouraging for an eclectic, or weird--band - Because you truly can be as weird as you want! But then....to what end? Maddening! But empowering! But, also, maddening!

The Beekeepers have finished up a new album that will be "very different" from last winter's release. "McGlew, our former frontman, recently left the group and moved to Finland to see what there is to see.... He is still our biggest fan. And, the new album will be full of desperation...and...madness."



Up next, the Beekeepers will release a single on local X! Records (spring) and the aforementioned album comes out in the autumn.

Sooner, rather than later: Expect a proper CD Release show celebrating their 2010 debut... (a disc that never got its proper moment to shine).

NEXT SHOW
Jan 24th --- ---- New Dodge Lounge --- ---
PINK LIGHTNING - K9 SNIFFIES - ABSOLUTELY NOT (CHICAGO) - BEEKEEPERS

Hollow & Akimbo: Sharp fluidity

I sent a letter to Hollow & Akimbo. 

You haven't met them yet?



They're an Ann Arbor area trio that blend exuberant synthesizers over buzzy bass lines, muscled post-punk rhythms and whipping guitars under these affable-to-agitated lyrics that go from mid-high indie croon into creaky soulful falsettos, turning on a danceable dime. (This edgy, erratic and aerodynamic delivery, vocally, actually inspired that skeletal-sounding "akimbo" part of their name.)

One part rock, one part darkly atmospheric electronica, one part weirdly soulful synth-pop... And then, I don't know what the other 25% could be... In fact, it's really only just becoming to be...

The band formed less than a year ago. Local listeners will recognize Jon Visger's voice (as well as his abstract ideas on how to approach pop-song construction) from his comparable work with Mason Proper. Brian Konicek contributed his exceptional guitar talents to that band...but now the pair are making music together as Hollow & Akimbo. Mike Higgins, meanwhile, our percussionist, fostered a creative collaboration as the talented sidemen for Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr (a.k.a. Daniel Zott and Josh Epstein).

Sidemen no longer - the trio released their debut E.P. last month (Pseudoscience).
And next week they'll have a 5-song singles package (with remixes) of their latest song, "Singularity," (streaming above).

But tomorrow - January 17th - they perform at Woodruff's in Ypsilanti (36 Cross St.) with The Cold Wave and El Dee  

If anything, I'd say that Hollow & Akimbo sound like the results of an experiment where the musical mad scientists decided they weren't going to prevaricate over how far they'd explore one genre, vibe, mood, sound or instrument... Fuck synth-rock - it's always too much one thing or the other and often failing to realize all its potential or employ all of its feasible aural reactions. Most of their first batch of songs don't hold back from any grandiosity -when it comes to synth-effects, or dynamic guitars, or keep-keep-keep-going drum clasps, or those eerie atmospheric screeches splashing across the bridge (did I just hear a whale singing?) ...wait, there's Jon's voice again...as teased up and breathless as the hyper-techno beat...with no turning back...

So anyway... I wrote them a letter.

And they decided to each take turns writing a sentence of response...

So this, really, is the comprehensive response (encompassing Higgins/Konicek/Visger)

In what ways did this band get you out of some of your comfort zones - and what, instrumentally and in approach, has distinguished this from your past projects? 
"This band has always been about exploration within the boundaries that come along with playing traditional instruments, but...informed by the strengths of electronic-styles of arrangement. How can we make each element distinct and interesting...on its own, while still serving the whole?

"We've been working on this batch of songs for a while behind closed doors. We'd made music together for a long time before this and we were finding that we suddenly had a clearer sense than ever about what we wanted to focus on..."

That clarity of musical vision in view, what did you wind up going for? 
"Musical notations of beautiful fluidity juxtaposed with sharpness, primitive yet somehow simultaneously sophisticated percussion and...a certain airiness that everything becomes engulfed in...

Hollow...airiness. I picture arms "akimbo" with your elbows out, yet, they're framing a "hollow' viscera of a body... That looks or sounds morbid. 
"We don't think of it as morbid, but otherwise you're not far off the mark on the imagery. The "hollow" side of the equation represents the ghostly, ethereal air that envelops everything, and the general wispy lightness of (Visger)'s voice. It's also represented in the lyrics in the more introspective, lost-in-your-own head kind of disconnection from reality....having trouble connecting with other people and the world. "Akimbo" speaks to the more rigid, skeletal frame of the rhythms, drums and more jagged guitar elements."

How'd the first show go and how has the live approach improved, evolved -or what do you hope to do next? 
"All first shows are nerve-wracking, no matter how prepared or disciplined you think you may be. No catastrophes, though. It was at Mittenfest, a festival, so a soundcheck wasn't realistic. But, we channeled our nervousness into positive energy and the crowd was feeding it back to us. We have the philosophy that a live show should always be more exciting than the recorded versions of the songs; not necessarily cleaner or tighter. The studio allows a thousand chances to get a moment right, the show only allows one, you really have to be living in that moment and communicate it to the audience.

The songs sound, from the studio, to be pretty meticulously crafted... that still translates live?
"We designed the songs to have sections where we can open up and improvise a bit live, without breaking the song or getting noodly. It makes it more fun for us. It especially manifests on the drum side, we're lucky that (Higgins) intuitively makes those moments really special.

So after a few months developing it...what's this band's...eh, identity, aura, vibe...what's it come to represent for you...
"...one distilled subset of our musical interests. We aren't trying to make it encompass all the different things we would like to create in our lives. It's very pure in that sense. We just want to have a great time making great sounds, and are perfectly comfortable potentially being a rare bird. We're fortunate to have Quite Scientific Records, who completely gets that and sees it as a strength instead of a weakness..."



Hollow & Akimbo, that much more energized by the recent addition of Higggins, have new music coming out soon, as we mentioned. But, they're already working on the next batch of songs. The letter they'd sent signed off:
"...we just want to create, create, create..."

More info: http://www.hollowandakimbo.com/