Early November is a strange time, cuz it seems like there might not be too much going on: – the pagan party of Halloween is past, the gluttony gulp of Thanksgiving is still a ways down the road and most of us aren’t even thinking about what we’re getting our girlfriends, however imaginary, for Christmas.
As the trees lose their leaves and the skies become a carousel – introduce yourself, if you haven’t yet, to the formidable electro pop of Computer Perfection, a blend of synth/orchestral baroque-pop twisted and fuzzed by the meditative daze of shoegaze and space-rock.
To celebrate the release of this Ferndale-based quintet’s debut LP (We Wish You Well On Your Way To Hell), they’ve invited space-rock set indie-rock group, Javelins (pictured), who blend some disarmingly beautiful melodies into hard-driving post-punk rhythms - on 11/14 - at the Northern Lights Lounge; rounding out that bill are the wonderkids from Prussia, who forge their love of Motown, reggae, West African folk and experimental art-rock into a dizzying rhythm-heavy display.
Later on, closer to T.Giving, see what all the blog-buzz and DMA-recognition is all about, when the Jesus Chainsaw Massacre perform at Friday night’s Phonotropic (at the Crofoot in Pontiac), on 11/20 (myspace.com/thejesuschainsawmassacre) - with goLab!, Carjack, and Marco Polio & The New Vaccines.
...starting tomorrow (11/9) morning...you can download your first (of four) free Carjack EPs - here
Yes, that's right - this month marks the 4 year anniversary of Carjack's fateful crash landing near a Taco Bell on 8-mile - from whence he emerged with his army of robots, a Gibson SG and a Danelectric slung around each shoulder and a drum machine strapped to his back like a proton-pack.
The space-punk-rock electro circus sermons of singer/songwriter Lo-Fi Bri that have been barrell-rolling their way across just about every possible perform-able stage in the city for the last four years, were only the evolved version of lo-fi indie/punk fuzz-pop ballads recorded in bedrooms and basements through the mid-to-late 90's.
Though I'd hate to indulge the old indie-blog cliche of conjuring Bob Pollard or Lou Barlow as adjectives in industriousness - Lo-Fi Bri has hundreds of cassettes, minidics, micro-cassettes and a hard-drive filled with "songs, ideas & experiments."
Thus, Carjack is offering free songs (old, new and rare homeade recordings) for the first time on high quality DRM-free MP3's, download-able for the public at his new site starting Monday - November 9th through November 30th....
You get the rare pre-Carjack stuff, but also bonus tracks, weirdered stuff, new stuff and unreleased tracks from original hand-made physical copies.
So head to the site every Monday morning for FOUR forth-coming EPs (and kill some time with some classic arcade games!)
And, in the meantime, if you'd like to take in some of the songs you're downloading - join Carjack on the 20th (11/20) at the Crofoot - where he'll join Marco Polio & The New Vaccines and The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre in an informal Detroit No-Wave Revue - with special guests (from Toledo) - goLab!
Here's a bit of Photo Recon from a recent Marco Polio / JCM performance at the Belmont.
meaghansrun.net Meaghan's running in Vegas to cure Chron's and Colitis - and she needs your help - and if you give it to her - she'll provide you with great live music! The local arts/music supporter (and School of Rock associate) is raising money for her marathon in Vegas - and provides a strong line up from a wide arc of different genres -
Plenty to do this weekend... I mean, in a perceivably less productive manner than cleaning your house or raking leaves - you could go out to plenty of bars, Pontiac or Corktown included, to see some bands.
But in terms of seeing some considerably freakier live interpretations that would be hard to find elsewhere - try the sandwich of Jesus and Chainsaw Massacreand Marco Polio & The New Vaccines - at the Belmont Friday - (the latter of the two will reprise their Halloween Yeah Yeah Yeah's set).
or at the Crofoot later on - 11/20, with Carjackand goLab! (look for some forthcoming releases from the former)
There's a birthday bash for Ferndale's hip, glossy, bashfully-named pool hall, The Loving Touch - that simultaneously provides relief to Tara Lennon - a friend to TLT and strong local supporter, who met with a real bad bike wipe-out on her way home from volunteering at September's DIY Street Fair - leaving her with needed reconstruction work and no insurance.
So, as we gather to celebrate one full year at the Loving Touch, we can also help out a friend. While you're there, shooting pool, downing porters or hanging out in "the forest," you can check out five local bands - including DJs Erno The Inferno, Joe Vargas, and Reverend Robert David.
The line up includes DC favs like Blase Splee (who've had a solid year with the release of their LP and a strong showing at Dally) and Macrame Tiger (up-and-comin indie-rockers with a taste for theatrical entertaining/intriguing live shows) - along with Manolete, The A Gang and Bahamut.
Now, locally, on all these blogs, or weeklies or what-have-you, we often run feeds of various upcoming shows - mostly live concerts, mostly local bands.
This upcoming show - Science Rocks- is, firstly, spearheaded by, yes, a blogger - of sorts, (but, properly, a true music writer, thus a DC fav) - Laura Witkowski, who you can read in print, often, in Metro Times, or over here - and, secondly, unlike 99.4% of the live concerts these blogs point all of us too - this one (11/19) can be educational!
Now, seen through the eyes of your 8-year-old self, the Science Center is a field-trip type place where your young naive self learns about electricity and kinetics and gravity and revels in the glee of hands-on experiments. But in a grown-up world of apocalyptic economies where the service industry has used it's fat ominous ass to squash out the growth of young people entering careers in science and engineering, one would see the furthering of Science education as beyond-integral!
Also performing are the punk-tinged indie-pop trio New Grenada; the darkly-grooved indie-rock quartet I, Crime; and the deceptively "cute" pop/rock trio Lightning Love
You don't have to have kids-to-bring, bring the kid-in-yourself You don't have to be a science-nerd - just consider it sating the hipster music lover side of yourself
Though if you do know some kids who would dig it - I don't know, your own offspring or some lil' cousins or what-have-you, then give them some education - in Science and in music - 11/19 - at the Detroit Science Center
And if you are a science nerd - then what are you waiting for?
Now we are in the depths of autumn - it is cold outside and we are marveling at the natural beauty, austere in its steady dwindling to the oncoming hush of winter's blanket - thus, I am momentarily done with the racket and the rabble of rock n roll music - bring me banjos and mandolins and tri-cone guiars, give me warm throaty harmonies, give me jangly strums and percussion-less energy driven solely by the human heart.
Give me beautiful folk and Americana - give me Lac La Belle.
Well, not the small and forgotten patch near the northernmost tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but the thus-re-christened acoustic trio known heretofore (through 09) as Jennie and the Sure Shots.
The group, featuring Jennie Knaggs (singer/guitarist of I, Crime), Joel Peterson (of Scavendger Quartet and former booker at Bohemian National Home) and Nick Schillace (of Indoor Park and Odu Afrobeat) is releasing their debut disc - and they want you to come share in the celebration. Not that it'll be a red-checkered collar shirt affair with big hoop skirts, curtseys and swinging partners and all that hootenany jazz - but it might come close to it at some points - but mix in an undeniable penchant for rock, and her operatic voice unabashedly toeing the yoddling line - and you've got yourself a more unique, wonderfully autumnal night of music.
Actually, 2 nights of music:
Friday, November 6th at MOCAD (for the city kitties) 4454 Woodward Ave Detroit, MI 48201 with The Sugarcoats 8pm All Ages $ 6.00
Saturday, November 7th at The Yes Farm (for the country bumpkins) 3410 Farnsworth, Detroit 48211 Two sets! starts at 10:30pm By Donation
Verta-Ray and DC explore the common ground of punk and rockabilly
Admittedly, when you're rolling and reveling in the "blues/rockabilly-tinged art-rock scene," it probably won't be long before you connect with like-minds.
Matt Verta-Ray reflects on the gravitating pull of stylistic commonalities – the same pull that brought him to fellow punky-blues-deconstructionist Jon Spencer, mixing and flowing together in the gutters of New York, thanks to the city’s niche-like layout of hamlet scenes.
Just as Detroiters of a few years back often regale the close-knit neighborhood-y vibe of the garage rock scene, it would prove to not be such an unfeasible step for Verta-Ray and Spencer (who, in late 2004, formed a Sun Studios-style inspired grime-dipped rock group called Heavy Trash) to wind up also bonding and collaborating with Detroit’s own two renowned garage rockers, Mick Collins and Dan Kroha (of the recently reunited Gories) through various projects, over the years.
On 11/12 - Heavy Trash brings the Detroit-revering duo back to the area, with a show at the Crofoot, with the city’s own gothic Americana punk-lovin’ quartet Duende. Side show interludes will be performed by Satori Circus and Chatal Dixon and the evening will be hosted by Steve Barman of the Steve Barman show. Kroha will be on-hand to provide some DJ-ing for his long-time friends.
Heavy Trash is the melding of a two talents caught between punk and rockabilly:
Take Spencer, the rustbelt-born/NY-mutated/punk-loving avant-garde rocker who came about in DC with the noisy raw calamity of Pussy Galoreand later into the intricate postmodern soul-punk with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion– and Verta-Ray, the often modest, wildly talented guitarist who came from Canada where he was raised on a steady diet of traditional folk and seminal southern blues, who developed through indie-rockers Madder Roseand then the raucous art-punk-recalling rock of Speedball Baby. The two met and bonded through the 90’s while Blues Explosion and Speedball Baby toured together.
Eventually, both bands met with downtimes and the two, who would bump into each other constantly in this “really crummy area of town,” finally got the chance to make something.
“Since I have my own recording studio,” said Verta-Ray, referencing his NY-Hed studio, “it wasn’t a big formal leap to hit a button and turn on the tape machine and start recording. It happened extremely organically.” Their self-titled debut, in early 2005 was “supposed to be this experimental studio album we hadn’t planned to tour on, but, some tours came up and things took off on their own. It was sort of one of those non-career—careers.”
Last month, they released their third proper LP Midnight Soul Serenade, a “more stripped down and, I think, raw” affair. As opposed to Going Way Out (in 07), which was “more ensemble” – Midnight goes for the “smaller, but more intense” sound. The band toured modestly throughout the year, with numerous two weeks stints, consistently returning to the studio to record handfuls of songs. “Usually a band will tour, then play the record, and then, ‘oh – we should record a new one’ and they have to change modes entirely. It seems kind of an odd way to be an artist, to start and stop. We thought, why don’t we just keep recording the whole time (on tour)?”
It was in that same room where most of Midnight was laid down, where Duende recorded their own recently-released LP Remnant of a Remnant, during which Verta-Ray was able to bond with the band.
With Heavy Trash, the duo initially wanted to follow a strict Charlie Feathers-inspired rockabilly – riding slap-back bass and letting the guitars lead the way under syrupy, shimmying doo-wop vocals. In fact, it may be the vortex where both men are at their least stylistically-contrarian modes – and at times feels like heartening love letters to the classics for which they both share a love. It is, admittedly, and also inevitably, alight with their edgy signatures, if its Spencer’s wild wiggly yelp or Verta-Ray’s lightning-burnt guitar stabs – but it’s all very much toe-tapping, hard gut-punching roots rock, with that slick-black hair and rolled up blue-denim shake up balladry.
And it’s all spiced very nicely by their individual upbringing. There’s a moment during a recent interview with a Brazil based MTV affiliate where they rattle off their formative influences. Verta-Ray speaks of his mother’s eclectic record collection, her injections of folk and rockabilly into his young ears and his early exposure to Robert Johnson and Bo Diddley. Meanwhile, Spencer’s first references are The Gun Club and The Cramps, two 70’s/80’s bands who no doubt “had the same records my mother had” yet regurgitated them through a punk filter.
“Jon would probably list Black Flag as an influence and I couldn’t even imagine being influenced by them, so there’s definitely things where our tastes don’t overlap.” He reflects on the middle-ground where he and Spencer meet: how does one raised on pure rockabilly synch with one identifying more with psychobilly? “I got all these kinds of roots rock n roll influences that were less… diluted.”
Being two years older than Spencer, Verta-Ray briefly ponders if that small elder window is enough to explain their nuanced taste differential (essentially two sides of the same tradition); sort of half-sure that it might, he rationalizes that, “In the punk era, things were moving so quickly….”
Verta-Ray continues, reflecting on where punk and 50’s folk/rockabilly met, mostly through awareness, taste and preservation.
“I remember when it was enough to be just into old music, like, that made you cool just ‘cuz you knew about some weird obscure thing. Also, back then, it didn’t have to be all that obscure to really seem obscure, like, if you knew about Eddie Cochran or John Lee Hooker, you couldn’t just google these guys on the internet, you had to be part of this elite club who knew about this crazy cool, partially forgotten music. A lot of the Cramps songs were other people’s songs that they put their own words on – which, that’s part of the long and honorable tradition of folk and blues. A lot of (the Cramps') edge was just knowing about all this crazy obscure stuff.”
“Most people back then, back in sort of the early punk days, were a reaction to the mainstream, which, was really watered-down and vapid, even by today’s standards, just 1970’s bullshit – so, it was so refreshing to have the punk message: you don’t have to do this, you don’t really have to know how to play, you just have to be aware and intelligent and keep your eyes open and all of a sudden you were a member of this really cool club that didn’t need the stamp of money or approval of any of this dinosaur rock stuff. I was a little young for the original punk wave, but it definitely meant a lot to me, the freedom that came with those manifestos still influenced how I operate.”
Until now, the duo would recruit “touring bands” or temporary players to join them, on record or for traveling performances. “It’s nice in a way to have different backing bands because you bring the same songs to a bunch of different people and they’re going to play them differently and bring different things to the music. The best strategy is to write songs that are close to your heart and then hook up with amazing musicians who you get along with. It’s hard to go wrong with that formula.”
Recently, however, on Midnight, they were joined by drummer Sam Baker and stand-up bassist Simon Chardiet and wound up really gelling. “We really settled into a groove with these NY guys,” said Verta-Ray.
Up next, the band sees much touring – including trips to Australia and Europe. Coming down the pike at NY Hed Studios is, hopefully, eventually – a collaboration that, once again, recalls Verta-Ray’s thoughts on the drawing power of similar tastes, when they’re joined by former freaked-up electro-doom-doo-wopper Alan Vega (of seminal NY art punk duo) Suicide.
Espers have been honing the balance of the mystical sound, be it woodsy, or cosmic, for their more-than-5 years together. On their III - the guitars scratch and moan, bend and sway, in that psychedelic space-rock manner, but are coated nicely with the ornate spill of a violin and the flickering strum of an acoustic guitar - as vocals wisp away in austere melodies ("Caroline"). With all this sepia-toned imagery, it's hard for me to avoid the word autumnal - the singing style, these sometimes breathless deliveries or dipping melodies, makes the words feel weary or chilled, like the early onset of winter - but given this trippy/dizzy vibe by the strangely scorched tones excavated via guitar on "The Road of Golden Dust," where the bewitching melody of the music is enough of a chorus, that it doesn't even need words.
Whereas this may be "psychedelic"-esque, it's never too weird or wavy, the key is their subtley and orchestral overlay of multiple guitars and measured percussive rolls with massaging bass. Musically, the septet is undoubtedly explorative (as some tracks reach and surpass the five minute mark) but somehow, none of them seem to go too far off the deep end. It is, also undoubteldy, a very folky-autumanl feeling experience - balanced enough by it's mysterious more rock-leaning side to appeal to both: the woods and the cosmos.
So Black Heart Procession is coming to town (11/6 - Crofoot) - and while I admittedly don't have a bead on how strong of a pull they are, singly, as a band, in the metro area - it would certainly make it more enticing to consider the line up of supporting locals includes Thunderbirds Are Now! (pictured) The Allen brothers have been busy all year - Scott with his project Big Mess and Ryan with a new Friendly Foes EP (and trading Rivers Cuomo solos with Allan James last Halloween, as Weezer).
Also on that bill are DC favs (and often, Crofoot favs) Prussia, who are steadily piecing together their next full length and seeming (judged from their most recent non-Velvet Underground set) to be as tight as ever whilst continually warping their own sound into interesting directions. If that's not enough for the local music crowd - why not include our consummate art-pop gents, Zoos of Berlin - purveyors of what many fellow musicians consider to be one of the most amazing albums of the year.
Making this a 5-band bill will be BHP's touring mates Bellini - a band I'm still just getting into, but they list darkhorse experimental/rhythm-heavy projects like June of '44 as an influence, as well as Battles, Fugazi and Jesus Lizard - it's that hard cutting angular indie-rock - I don't know - like the middle ground of the Breeders and Sleater Kinney - if they got together and listened to Trout Mask Replica. (Wow, that last one was such a blogger sentence.)
Now, later on in the month, (11/13 at PJs Lager House) if you're up for soulful indie rock by some serious players and passionate songwriters - then take a listen at The Strange (pictured), Patrick Davy and Brett Lucas - the first is a bluesy rock duo with three albums under their belt, the 2nd is a guitar-heavy 70's/90's-Brit-pop ringing rock trio and the third is the solo project of the guitarist from The Pickups.
Momentarily too tired and/or dazed to be articulate....
Suffice it to say - it was a strong night of performances at the Crofoot- but encapsulating - as I couldn't make it down to the Zombie Dance Party (which was persnoally heartbreaking) - even with that extra hour
Hope you all survived
Bars of Gold may have put on one of the top three performances of the year as Talknig Heads Cold Wave was downright heartwarming as Weezer
Silverghostis embracing their theatrical side more and more as DEVO
Prussiashould put "Venus In Furs" into their regular set
and I wish I had some photos of that Rage Against The Machine (ala Child Bite) set
but there were just too many damned bodies to get close after a while, especially for Marco Polio doing Yeah Yeah Yeah's in the very cozy lounge - and my photographer went home early.
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To celebrate the release of this Ferndale-based quintet’s debut LP (We Wish You Well On Your Way To Hell), they’ve invited space-rock set indie-rock group, Javelins (pictured), who blend some disarmingly beautiful melodies into hard-driving post-punk rhythms - on 11/14 - at the Northern Lights Lounge; rounding out that bill are the wonderkids from Prussia, who forge their love of Motown, reggae, West African folk and experimental art-rock into a dizzying rhythm-heavy display.
