One Night in Detroit: X! Fest; Garden Bowl; Lager House; Corktown

(..."I Want You" to join the Deep Cutz Team)











This weekend is one long, ravenous, howling full moon of musical hysteria...to make it to all of the exceptional line ups going on all over the city last nite and tonight, one needed to conjure the hurried, hot-blooded endurance usually reserved for Blowout adventures.

We started at the X! Fest, featuring the roster of local label X! Records as well as some exceptional tripped out psyche-punk touring bands (which, by the way, is going on tonight also, starting around 10pm at the Bohemian National Home, with The Terrible Twos headlining.)
(pictured, Heroes and Villains / The Mahonies)
































Then, we swung over to the Garden Bowl for The Displays record release party, for their LP, "Ain't Gonna Put Us Down." (pictured, Woodman / Smashed Windows)




































Then we tried to make it over to the Lager House in time to see The Birddogs - having just missed them - we arrived just in time for the inspiring, unabashedly psychedelicized, quasi-cult-ish Friends of Dennis Wilson to take the stage.
















jj






















The next destination was just down the street - at the Corktown Tavern, where the hope was to catch Deastro (and his now not-so-new full band.) But the line up got shifted around, so our witching-hour arrival time proved to be too late, (especially for the Friendly Foes, who went on first out of four.) We still caught an inspiring set from Manna and Quail, and Millions of Brazilians closed out the night.









































































(photos by Mike Milo)

What glorious madness....

Tonight:
X! Fest at the Bohemian
Hentchmen at the Park Bar
Javelins at the Belmont
Electric Lions at Simons (Allen Park)
The Questions at the Stone House (?)

Report: Pinkeye and John Sinclair, recording session at the CAID

"Rock n Roll'll never die, man...'cuz it's like a zombie..."


Last night, the multifarious, motley collective called Pinkeye, a 10, sometimes 20-member band who specialize in a calamatous group expression of jazz, world, indie-and classic rock and any other kind of un-classifiable breed of various melodic noise interpretations...conducted an in-venue recording session at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit.


Guest players included Dutch Pink's Dustin Leslie and the Questions' Drew Bardo - but they were slightly outshined by the indomitable and luminous John Sinclair - a poet, an activist, a former manager of the iconic proto-punk rockers the MC5, the founder of the White Panther Party and a noted enthusiast for marijuana usage. The, in my eyes, living legend, performed written and improvised poetry over the celebratory storm of Pinkeye's jazz and rock raucousness.


The quote above, is, incredibly, one of the first things he said to me after I met him...comparing rock n roll to a zombie, indeed - it's been a while since I felt so inspired...when you consider a zombie's main attributes...

...relentless, ugly, always hungry and pretty much invincible.

Beautiful.








































He went on to say, about the gathering of local musicians that, "...this thrills me half to death." Noting that these passionate souls are here pouring their hearts out on saxophones, guitars, keyboards, drums, bongos, sitars, pounding, yelling, stomping...regardless that there's no market demand for musical expression so vehemently avant-garde and so dizzyingly beyond comprehension...regardless - they are here. To play. To be together.

Check out Pinkeye's myspace for news of when this recording will be released...

And stay tuned to Deep Cutz


Thanks for reading.

X! Fest - Bohemian National Home

The vitality of punk music and the punk philosophy cannot be emphasized enough - it is, in a sense, protest music - sensing man's inner anger and exorcising it in musical expression: it is more forthwith than pop music, cutting out the cheese; it is tougher than metal, cutting out the camp; as profound as classic rock and proto-garage styles, but free from nostalgia...a wholly separate ravenous beast here to exude society's pains and perils and air out the maddening self-destructive drollness of everyday life in this shambled, bedraggled joke of a dreamless nation.

This summer, we've had a cordial festival (Detour), a psychedelic festival (Fiberglass Freakout), an all-over-the-map festival (Blue Moon In June) and a cordially corporate festival (CityFest.) We're in need for a bit of a therapeutic shake-up of psychologically and slightly-physically damaging proportions: And so, Detroit-based X! Records arrives just in time for the wavy and wild dog-days of Summer to bring us X! Fest, at the Bohemian National Home, Friday (doors, 8pm) and Saturday (barbeque at 6pm). You can read about the legend of X! and it's founder, (Frustrations drummer) Scott Dunkerly, here.

Or, take Scott Boyer's word for it: "X! has documented some of the most uncompromising, abrasive, hilarious,haunting, and exciting sounds to emerge from the 'alternative' music scenein the last few years, garnering international critical acclaim in theprocess. Scott Dunkerley has put together a back catalogue that recordcollectors drool over..."

The festival's line up includes many local punk/alternative and indie acts, ranging from scuzzed-out deconstruction-ists to more technical, genre-splicing experimentalism, as well as some sturdy national bands of similar flavors:

FRIDAY (July 25th)

Doors at 8pm, bands begin SHORTLY AFTER
TYVEK
FRUSTRATIONS
SIC ALPS (San Francisco, CA)
PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT (Columbus, OH)
THE MAHONIES
HEROES & VILLAINS

SATURDAY (July 26th)
Saturday Barbecue in the Bohemian parking lot begins at 6pm! Hot dogs and
other eats will be cheap. Music starts PROMPTLY at 8pm.

TERRIBLE TWOS
GUINEA WORMS (Columbus, OH)
FONTANA
NECROPOLIS (Columbus, OH)
DRUID PERFUME (featuring 3 guys from the PIRANHAS + 2 other rad dudes)
TIMMY V LAMP (of HUMAN EYE)
THTX
BEEKEEPERS

This is all going on at the BOHEMIAN NATIONAL HOME (3009 Tillman St.) in
DETROIT, MI, USA. $8 per night. E-mail info@x-recs.com if you have any
additional questions.

Silverghost - 7" + 8 / 4 Magic Stick

Silverghost 7"

This local goth-tinged indie-pop duo recalls histrionic new-wave and odd-angled post-punk that slurs and sways, shakes and grooves - check them out, 8 / 4 at the Magic Stick, or click here, to listen...

Javelins 7-26

Local trio Javelins (interview here) are releasing a debut full-length, Heavy Meadows (review here)...and they'll be joined by the minimalist harmony-heavy electro-pop duo Nouns from Chicago; as well as Ypsilanties majestic and melodic keys-guitar-and-drums trio, Lightning Love.

The show is Saturday, 7-26, at the Belmont, in Hamtramck.

Check out the poster from Pontiac's artist collective Silent Giants:

We Always Have The Rhythm Here

Tilly and the Wall

(photos by Jaimie Warren)

When I called Tilly and the Wall, the Nebraska quintet were stuck in the frantic circus of changing a flat tire in the whirl of honking horns, office buildings and a roiling Phoenix, AZ-heat, as they were checking out of a hotel. Just moving onto the next show; such is the tour life, driving all day so you can work at night, on the stage, flanked by glowing grins of 20-somethings, blithe and carefree, stomping and dancing to one of the more unique indie-pop/dance-folk acts around, which, as is always harped on, inventively features tap dancer (and singer) Jamie Pressnall as their main source of percussion.

It’s a lively year for the spry and fiery five, (with White on keyboards, Derek Pressnall on guitar, Neely Jenkins on vocals, bass and Kiana Alarid on vocals, bass); they released their third album O in June and a digital EP back in March, featuring the liberating trounce of bouncy 90’s dance club glory, “Beat Control.” They’ll also be touring the rest of the year, and continuing their beautiful relationship with their intrepid Team Love label (started by their fellow Nebraskan and friend, Connor Oberst of Bright Eyes.)

The sound is a crashing wave of thick triple harmonies over pounding and clanking footwork percussion, brazen brass, synthesized augmentations and high flying, gritty guitar lines, in flavors as varying as hyper French gypsy jazz to urban mariachi cruiser love songs, illuminating tremendous arms-raised invigoration with subtle dance sensibilities and sugary pop hooks cloaking an often biting commentary. Indeed, I note to singer Alarid that the whimsical naivety of their first 2 releases seems to have been a bit darkened by some of O’s diatribes:

“I don’t know exactly why. We all write separately, so I guess it’s just personal experiences everybody’s had. I don’t personally think anything we’ve ever done has been naïve, in a sense, I think it’s more that we’re hopeful people, that we are all aware the shit can hit the fan, but that everything will be okay, ya know, I mean, it has to be, there’s no other choice…”

Indeed, but 06’s Bottoms of Barrels sang of “Let(ting) Us Be Free” while this sings of tides changing, and kids all learning when the bridges are burning.

“We never preconceive anything; we never have, so I don’t think that whimsical quality was planned, and I don’t think this (for example, the last lyric of O being, “fuck you…”) wasn’t planned.”

The smooth sinewy synths and arresting rhythms of Beat Control, which features the thesis ‘There is nothing stopping you / There is nothing stopping me /So let that beat control your body, baby,’ Alarid explained “The lyrics are purposely sort of vapid, because I wanted, literally, for the beat to control that song. So when I wrote that, I was thinking this song is not about thinking too hard, let’s just get together and forget everything else. It’s sort of extremely simple and also kinda literal; ‘don’t worry about it, let the beat control you right now.’ Right now, that’s all we want to do.”

Alarid, whose always been in bands, but never really sang or wrote, said that Tillification brought on much self discovery, for her and her band mates, and self confidence, particularly, is only rising: “We’re at the point now where we’ve changed so much, but that’s all since we’re growing up.”

8 / 5 Magic Stick, with Charlie Slick

The Displays - Ain't Gonna Put Us Down

The Displays – Ain't Gonna Put Us Down

Highly versed in the school of classic Detroit rock and the city's latter-day garage glory, bassist/singer Andrew Hecker, with drummer Josh Cohen (and help on-record from Sights guitarist/singer Eddie Baranek and the board skills of Jim Diamond) has formed a fast, high-flying parcel of hard-hitting swinging grit, wavy guitar hooks delivered in that golden gut-punch-feedback style with insuppressibly swing-able rhythms and a surprisingly soulful, confident gravely howl coming from Hecker's 16-year-old frame.

The scope is ambitious, drawing as much from mid-60's spilled-out-spastic garage to 70's blues to 90's classic rock revival; the whirled rollickin swagger never slows down, complimented with Baranek's characteristic devastating solos. A commendable debut full-length -

and you can check out the CD Release show, for free, at the Garden Bowl with Smashed Windows and Woodman. More info here.

And, you can preview some tracks here

Don Was (Detroit Revue)...and, Deep Cutz Update (thanks for reading!)

There he was, slightly hunched with his idyllic smile and characteristic brimmed hat and sunglasses adorning his untamed black dreadlocks, raising his fist in the air with Mick Collins to his left and Mitch Ryder to his right and declaring, matter-of-factly, undeniably, “Detroit Rules.”

A musical icon for Detroit music over the last 40 years, Don Was, was invited to bring the flavorful vanguard of his Web site / recording project, My Damn Channel, to the stage of the Fisher Music Center’s orchestra hall, last night, to help close out the Concert of Colors.

It was simply a magical, blessed night, with an overwhelming revue of the brimming talent of the town, both old and new – with musicians from Was (Not Was) working back-up for many of the performers – featuring The Muldoons, Mick Collins, The Ramrods, The Detroit Cobras, Black Bottom Collective, Mitch Ryder, John Sinclair, The Sisters Lucas and many more!

The ever-getting-taller Muldoons boys teased by bookend-ing their rendition of Chubby Bunny with snippets of Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive; Mick Collins performed solo with Was (Not Was) backing him up, as did the Sisters Lucas. Mich Ryder closed out the night with an unconventional and endearing cover of “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?”

With great energy in the room, the assembled artisans of past and present made it clear that this cities luminously pulsating talent is something to be celebrated. That Don Was, Ryder and Sinclair are still here must say something about the eccentric transfixing energy of the city and it’s noodling, esoteric troubadours. Next time, let’s make it a 4 hour affair – invite Kim Fowley, The Go, The Up, maybe Alice Cooper?

I wish I had photos, but they were strict about cameras going in…
In the meantime, you can look forward to more mostly-Detroit-centric postings here at Deep Cutz – coming up soon: an intriguing interview with Josh from the Silent Years about time, the world, black holes and strong coffee…that, and a Javelins album review, a Prussia album review (hopefully a Prussia interview) and…probably Tilly and the Wall.

Stay tuned

And thanks so much for reading!!

The Displays (7/25) Garden Bowl

(photo by: Dough Coombe)







Check out some of the new songs from local trio, The Displays, here: the band (Andrew Hecker-bass/vocals, Josh Cohen-drums, Ben Van Camp-guitar/vocals) has been working their asses off on their upcoming first full-length CD, "Ain't Gonna Put Us Down" with some help from Jim Diamond and Eddie Baranek. The CD Release show is next Friday, 7/25, in the Garden Bowl, with the Smashed Windows and Woodman.

Bon Iver - the Deep Cutz Interview

(Uncut version)
(photos by: Chelsea Sanders)


"A lot of people try to get out of depressive moods really quickly and I think over the years I've learned to just let them happen, so I could examine why they're happening..."
-Justin Vernon, Bon Iver

This, My Excavation: Bon Iver

-J.Milo

This is the sound of devastation, of ravaged reality, of a man hanging on by a thread; Justin Vernon's haunting falsetto, with its watery eyed butterflies in the stomach and cathedral conjuring sanctity, can stop time.

Couple that with the solemn imagery often tied to his album's mythologized backstory painting a dizzied man's retreat to a cabin in the woods of northwest Wisconsin (near his hometown Eau Claire) to "hibernate" after the break-up of an indie/folk group he played in called DeYarmond Edison, suddenly you hear the wisp of pine trees swaying, of lost birds calling out, of creeks piddling down over moss covered logs, and here, like some solemn eye of this natural storm, is the sound of a man crumbling from the inside and combining it so powerfully and perfectly with the golden, grieving jangle of his acoustic guitar. Towards the end of 2007, Vernon released the 9 songs he had written during his solitude and titled the project, Bon Iver (bohn-ee-var, purposely misspelled French for "Good Writer.")

"I wasn't aware of what was going on," said Vernon. "Everything was very foggy. I was very, very sad about the band breaking up even though I had everything to do with it..."

Making matters worse, while the band was breaking up near the end of 06, Vernon was laid out in a hospital for 3 months in Raleigh NC with a liver infection and mono. Soon after he was out, he packed up and headed for the cabin. "I was very scared; 51% of me was: I have to do this if I have any shred of self confidence left in me, but 49% of me was really aching…I was retreating to nature, I felt good about that, but I had gotten there and the first thing that hit me was, to start a fire. I think that having to be the first thing I had to do, get a fire going and chop wood so I could stay warm that night, was enough distraction for me not to worry about why I was there. A lot of people try to get out of depressive moods really quickly and I think over the years, I've learned to just let them happen so I could examine why they're happening."

Three days of quiet, secluded examination turned into three weeks. "Before I even started working on music I just sort of sat, maybe chopped wood, maybe take a nap, maybe drink a beer, maybe take a walk. It was really non-eventful, it was really non-romantic in the sense that I wasn't sitting in the middle of the woods meditating. It was more modern and less romantic. It was like cutting a string, but it took 3 weeks to do it."

Since self-releasing his debut For Emma, Forever Ago (and then re-releasing through Jagjaguwar records in January 08) he's found a captive audience through the indie circuits with the delicate wavering intensities of songs like "Skinny Love" or "Flume."

He is currently working on a 4-song 12" for Jagjaguwar.

"It's bizarre," he says, looking back 2 years, "how it just kinda happened in one…breath."

Bon Iver plays the Crofoot, on 7 / 21

some more of the Un-Cutz Interview:

Milo/DC: How's the year been, what are you working on next?

Justin Vernon: The year has been...I can't really measure this year...but I've been working on some stuff. I've had some stuff that I'd worked on before [For Emma, Forever Ago], just these four songs that sort of really...four really weird songs, I think me and [current label] Jagjaguwar are gonna put it out in November-ish...maybe.

DC: So, your band breaking up is often painted as this primordial genesis, this fateful off-setting moment for you...

JV: I'm the first one to take a lot of the dramatic effect from this whole story that's been attached to the record, and offset it! But, it really did feel like a genesis, that's actually the best word I can think of...I love that whole metaphor of 'primordial genesis,' I like that word, I wasn't aware of what was going on, everything was foggy.

DC: In your writing, out there in that cabin, were you providing perspectives from the same narrator?

JV: It's not exactly the same narrator. The narrators are all the same kind of person, they're not the same person - but...everybody has the same feelings, the same guilts and the same shadowy confessions of their life, certain songs, lyrically, go back and forth between characters, sometimes it's like when we're singing-it's like I'm singing to myself via somebody else; a unique kind of way to attack guilt, through the anger of somebody that cares about me and I cared about them...

DC: Any contemporary influences you can point to?

JV: Well, I don't know, what's contemporary to you...

DC: Well, you'll be playing with the Bowerbirds here...

JV: Oh my god! Good point......before i got really sick in NC, i was living at this house with this girl in Raleigh, and I saw the Bowerbirds play. I'd never heard them before, so i saw them play at an art gallery...and I went home that night and I literally for the first time in my life sat in this room...and thought I think I need to quit music...that's the only time that's ever happened to me. I've been inspired by a show but usually you walk away from a show that you love feeling inspired...to make music - but seeing Phil play those songs with Beth and Mark, I was just like...I think that I've missed my opportunity, I spent too many years being this emotive non hard working songwriter that I've just become this joke to myself

...this is really cool that I'm talking about this because I've neglected to talk bout this part of the story cuz this is the way-prelude, but man i was like I have to quit, I can't even take myself seriously because that was so...good, it was so overwhelming, so I'm lucky enough to have become friends with them.

He surmises later, after reflecting on the album, the cabin and the tours: "I'm really happy, I'm in my hometown for the summer, it's quiet and I get to enjoy it. I can continue to tour and to make music...it's bizarre how it just kinda happened in one......breath."

Check out: www.myspace.com/boniver; and for Bowerbirds: www.myspace.com/bowerbirds

X! Fest

more info at: www.myspace.com/xrecordsdetroit

then for even more info, you can go here and scroll to the bottom to read Eric Allen's write up. But I'm sure there will be even more Cutz rambling about this next week.