Deep Cutz - [[Uncutz]]

Monday, February 20, 2012

Leap Year Addendum

Hiroshima from Alec on Vimeo.

BLOWOUT 2012-- Episode # 15
INFO -- more info -- and some more info

· AFTER DARK AMUSEMENT PARK AMOEBAS AMY GORE AND HER VALENTINES ARTIFICIAL AGENT AUDIOLOGICAL BAD PARTY BARS OF GOLD BEAST IN THE FIELD BEEKEEPERS BEFORE PICTURES BELLE GHOUL BENTHOS BETTY COOPER BIG MESS BLACK JAKE AND THE CARNIES BODY HOLOGRAPHIC BUTTER MADE RECORDS ALL-STARS BUTTERWOLF CHARLIE SLICK AND THUNDA CLAP CHAW!! CHILD BITE CITIZEN ZERO CITY LOVE COLD MEN YOUNG CONGRESS COSMIC LIGHT SHAPES CROCHETCATPAUSE DANNY AND THE DARLEANS DANNY BROWN DESOLATION ANGELS DESTROY THIS PLACE DETROIT 442 DJ ERIC ALLEN DOOP AND THE INSIDE OUTLAWS DUANE THE TEENAGE WEIRDO DUTCH PINK ELECTRIC FIRE BABIES ELECTRIC LION SOUND WAVE EXPERIMENT ESQUIRE ESTUARIES FACTORY GIRLS FAKE SURFERS FAWN FERNDALE ACID SCENE FLASHCLAS FRUSTRATIONS FUR FUTURE SLANG G.D. MCINTOSH GHOULIE GINKGO RECORDS SHOWCASE GLOSSIES GOLDEN TORSO GREATER ALEXANDER GROWWING PAINS HEARTBREAK DALLAS AND THE UNFAITHFULS HORDES HOUSE PHONE HUMAN EYE ILLYMACK INSTANT PARTY ITALIAN PICTURE FACTORY JEECY AND THE JUNGLE JESSE AND THE GNOME JOHNNY HEADBAND JOINT CHIEFS OF DETROIT K.I.D.S. KATIE GRACE KEEP ON TRASH DJS DANCE PARTY

Friday, February 17, 2012

Okay, ...couldn't resist posting (even after I just got done saying I wouldn't likely post this weekend... you should probably ignore me every time...if not most of the time...) The Eno fan, and the Acevedo-fan, in me, couldn't resist...

DeLeano Acevedo - Detroit singer/songwriter and dabbler in home-sound-production has put together a batch of songs, separate from his current band-framed endeavor (K.I.D.S.) and streamed them out there on the Internet in all their synthy, night-drive-facilitating, dream-pop glory...

K.I.D.S. headlines Blowout's Kick-Off Night - Feb 29th - at the Magic Stick.

...
oh, and there's also this...
Self Says - keep your ears peeled:

SelfSays - SomethingNew from Matt Barth on Vimeo.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Win Back All Their Fluttering Eyes

In the bottom two preceding posts, I interviewed two singer/songwriters at crossroads - one making a concerted effort with his latest efforts, a "big" swing, if you will, with what could be his "last band" and the other deciding that he needs to take some steps back to figure out to where, exactly, he should swing next.

Steven McCauley (of The Walking Beat) spoke about buckling down and focusing with this band - a course adjustment from his last band, Scarlet Oaks' having jumped out to play too many live engagements too swiftly, without shoring up some proper recordings.

Jesse Shepherd Bates joked over how some Facebookers wondered if he was "retiring" when he said he didn't want to just play around in bars anymore... but Bates, like McCauley, just wants to be that much more sure of things...of creative commitments...

...which is what I'm about to do with this Blog. I'd said this out loud about six months - that I was only going to come back up on this thing for special/epic/personal rants or profound interview/features - and I think now I'm ready to try that... taking a step back, for a minute, buckling down and making just that much more sure of all the other stuff.

Vague eh?

But anyway, those two interviews got me thinking is all...

In the meantime, you can find ramblings here...
Like this Cover Story on Ypsi singer/songwriter Matt Jones in the Metro Times...(seen above, stabbing an exercise ball with an authentic Medieval dagger...
...-Jones is putting out a new album in a matter of days titled Half Poison / Half Pure which is going to sound, to one extent, like this:

...or another playful rant revealing the newest works of Detroit rapper Doc Waffles - How To Shoot Quails.

Or there's more ramblings to be found [here] - where some way-west-siders (like, Washtenaw County!) share their favorite things about the Metro Times Blowout.

[Weird cosmic slap back down to keep my nose at that grindstone was hearing Pedro The Lion's
"Magazine" come on the radio mere minutes after I picked up a copy of that^... ...since Matt's getting a lot of shine, he and I both felt it would be proper to show a less flattering side of him... So, here you go, local music fans.]

But I'll be back up on this ol' thing likely -at-least once-a-week, unraveling mad musings on local music...

Until then...

[Photos above by Gregory McIntosh
Hot Dog photo by Shelley Salant]

Monday, February 13, 2012

JSB On His Own Terms

JSB: I think Jason (Stollsteimer)'s ready to get back into the swing of things...

Jesse Shepherd-Bates, local songwriter and perennial performer/collaborator, music-function facilitator, a familiar face... just joined the Hounds Below (fronted by Stollsteimer), in time for the recording of that band's first full length, at Big Sky Studios in Ann Arbor, with Geoff Michael.

Credits include: *Co-founding the Satin Peaches (who, if you haven't forgotten by now, released a 7" single back in December 2010 and left yet another would-be-recording unfinished before breaking up last year)... *Leading a band of inherently fluctuating-membership called the JSB Squad (which reached a zenith at Blowout 2011, with about 30-ish some-odd-people on one stage) and, most recently... *Writing and performing with fellow former-Peaches in Jesse & The Gnome.

His birthday's in six weeks. I've known him for one-fifth of his life and he's always had long hair, jet-black curly locks.

No longer. And that's just one change.

Milo: What are you ...ready for?

JSB: I have no idea... I've gone through some... ...I don't even know what the word would be... My views on music-making have evolved. I've evolved... ...I chopped off all my hair, (so), there's that much at least.

Milo: Tom (Bahorski - who also has a birthday in six weeks) said you were "....stepping...back."

JSB: I'm glad he put it that way. Everyone on Facebook was asking what was up with me retiring...

But all he'd said was he didn't want to play in bars anymore... ...it's that perennial ceiling that local musicians hit - what's beyond and how to get to it?

JSB: The day Jason called me, I was just about to follow up on an audition to play bass in a party cover-song band, like a Black-Eyed-Peas-type of music band...

Milo: Not a moment too soon, then...

JSB: And he asked me if I wanted to go to Europe...so, I figured that's a side of music I haven't explored yet.

So then... Jesse Shepherd Bates has now joined the Hounds Below and, essentially, put his most-recent project, - & The Gnome, on some kind of hiatus.

We should say: The exciting news here being that, if he's "retiring," he's going out with a blast - he'll be hosting a Birthday show for himself and Bahorski April 6th - featuring 16 bands (list below) playing 15 minute sets, blurred together, inside PJ's Lager House, on April 6th...

But back to the harder stuff... Suffice it to say that Bates came to that ton o' bricks realization that he'd put certain personal components of his life on hold for the chase of...

JSB: "...this 'dream,' if you will, thinking about the friends I've lost, the people I've ignored, the family I got detached from...I thought about when I was making music before, before I joined a band, with just me on a computer, that's really the last time it's been pure, and not tainted by money or alcohol or anything.

Singer/songwriter Steve McCauley admitted that he felt his newest band The Walking Beat, might be "his last band..." It's not uncommon for artists to take these turns, to take hard, eye-opening evaluations of their creative situations...but Bates, just like McCauley, will never stop writing and recording on his own... Both assure that they'll be continuing in that realm, even if its just them, a guitar and a tape recorder... (...or a lap top... posting updates on YouTube or busking out at ornate cafes).

JSB: This is just, like, taking control of my life again. The whole 'Peaches thing...
(In 2007, the barely-out-of-high-school band toured Europe, only a short time after Bates left the band...-though he would return again in late 2009).
...Almost getting there, getting the boot in the band right before all the fun stuff started, watching all that get going, and seeing that fall apart--then getting back in the band, trying to get that going again and then having it fall apart (again). Getting that close makes me think, that, what-?--do I have to try twice as hard or something? Really, it was more blind luck...

Bates said that his band, the Gnome, having gone through a series of spirited sets covering Radiohead, sufficiently messed with the grasp he thought he had on his own motivation - Their Halloween set at the Crofoot was, he said, the most fun he's ever had playing music - leaving him with this confusing (and he repeats the word later, confusing) deflated feeling, in the weeks after.

And then he comes to it... Not that this should sound as dark as it might be sounding, or ominous or bitter or jaded... No... he's quick to assure:

JSB: I still love everybody around here, I still am involved, I book shows now at Simon's downriver. This time away, I hope, is a way to bring people together that wouldn't normally be together...

That would be on a basis that isn't dependent on the 10:30-pm-ish schedule of a Friday or a Saturday in AnyBar, Detroit.

But, he comes to it... as any musician does, sometimes long after they turn 25... making music on your own terms. He uses the word "trapped..." and wanting to avoid that happening to one's musical pursuits, to avoid feeling like you're on a track in life. And to be wary of that gamble, that mad high musicians can get enchanted by, -really, the ticket-tearing, eye-bulging, sweat-beaded gamble...of "chasing that, if you will, 'dream...'" And whatever the hell that dream is...or is it some kind of answer?

JSB: Like you said, I should do it on my own terms. And it's cool to be in somebody else's band, this isn't my band. Jason is a ball of energy and these new songs sound great - no longer a 50's thing, very Two-Thousand-and-Twelve-ish...

In the end it's a positive trap...as JSB sees it...
JSB: I'm still stuck being completely in love with music.

Sweet 16 - April 6th - PJ's Lager House

Ungrateful Daughter
Sound and Fury
Pewter Cub
Ronny Tibbs and the 305's
Patrick Davy and the Ghosts
Citizen Smile
FUR
Phantom Cats
The Kickstand Band
The Hounds Below
The Ashleys
Lightning Love
Jesse and The Gnome
The Handgrenades
Good Cop/Good Cop
Passalacqua

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Word Stew [sic 002]

My body felt like it was leaning... a phragmite in the wind (my disheveled look wrought from self-applied shortenings of sleep patterns making me feel like nothing else but that same immortal weed)... the breeze of Phreddy was seeming to push my body to the side, like I was impelled to fall, like, in fact, I wanted to fall, onto the nearest desk's edge, gaunt wrists stabbing forth so that these purplish fingers could start tumbling away on the keyboard, merry marimbas...

photo: [sic]

Phreddy was pointing a gun to someone's head...with his pointer and his thumb...up near the front and his guttural growl into the mic mushed up to his lips felt like a gale. It was the music of words.

Every break in the paragraphs, here, I take another quick sip of the coffee. Can't let it go cold.

But see, I really wanted to just get up there and join in... stir the word stew with him up there - jam out a song of words...
...to pick up a rickety four legged wooden stand that was probably made by the hands of a carpenter who lived off his trade and fed himself with splintered hands and hammered his utilitarian treasures inside a factory that's either been closed, now, for a generation or has even been toppled by steamrollers...
AHH... I wanted to grab that small wooden stand and disregard my own befouling of its antiquarian essence by setting up the glistening, glowing lap top computer (that I use to write on before it died) and start churning away with him, letting myself get lost in the knotty, serif-prickled jungle of these taunting types, unwinding words snapping off like a disenchanted, cloud-hungry kite.

[Where did all that gristle over some imagined carpenter come from? That guy is everywhere. The ghosts of Detroit are watching us shuffle around and sometimes squat within the ruins of the world they used to operate inside on a daily basis...and here we are, now, inside the charming but hauntingly worn-upon ambiance of Omnicorp, listening to the beautiful assemblage of words, scraped up from diaphragms... ] Why am I fixated, so suddenly, on transience?

The mind goes a mile a minute listening to these words - but it doesn't help that I've downed so much coffee and that now I'm listening to some local music.

Phreddy read from his new Chapbook last night. So did Ivan Grass and Mike Lala. Brooklyn based poet/writer/spoken-word performers Amy Lawless and Allison Paty also came to read. This is part of [sic]'s Reader Series, an art and music -infused evening of words and disarmingly frank and funny and at points ferocious expression, hosted by the independent poetry publishers.

As the coffee runs out and as Phreddy's words still echo in my head (and still smolder next to me through the dozen printed pages of his [sic] published Chapbook (Estuaries) I come to some convoluted (and half-cocked) concretion of epiphany... or half-epiphany... coffee-deluded epiphany... I'm able to write about music because that's how these words, that I string and sew and saw through, off, and out onto the page, have always felt
beat
hook
weird droning noises modulated and reverberated
noise and bliss
sooth and spur
Writing has auto-tuned my horrible singing voice and perfected my ear for pitch - I'm some invincible, wait, no, brilliant...brilliant composer, here, when I'm making the music of an essay.

I only hope you've heard the melody. It's taxing to translate it, sometimes.

But the event last night blew me back down to these keys. It cleared away the slush on my windshield and I can see the flashing lights ahead again, coaxing me forth.

My head starts banging again and my fingers don't stop.

And, as of today, it's [sic]'s doing...

Find the four latest publications here or "...a bookstore near you."

Friday, February 10, 2012

Hold A Second (or Third) Time: The Walking Beat

Blowout is, well, essentially... upon us. For some bands, this is their first Blowout...for others, their 12th...but for others, yet, still...it's their first show ever...

Like, for The Walking Beat... -first show as-a-band, rather.

Singer/songwriter Steve McCauley whirled his way through a year's worth of collaborative experiments in the wake of his main project, Scarlet Oaks' dismantling after three solid years...and two EPs...and three bassists...and two guitarists...and... Before that, he was playing with his brother Patrick in Fifth Period Fever.

"This time," says McCauley, "I feel like this...might be my last real band."

I raise an eyebrow and take an inquisitive drawn out sip from the coffee mug, waiting...

"Eventually you gotta grow up, right?"

McCauley will always put music first. He's continued to write songs through the years, splitting time between special acoustic engagements (paired with guitarist James Anthony) and the sporadic recordings and performances of space-pop quintet Computer Perfection.

Here's one now...

...which gave birth to this new band, called The Walking Beat - featuring his longtime friend and drummer Daniel Kanka on drums, Jesse Paris Smith (of Belle Ghoul) on keys and Matt Van on drums.

It took McCauley this long to get another proper band to back his own songs because he was searching for that right mixture of people who were putting music first in their lives... A specific blend of folks that never settled together in Scarlet Oaks.

"If it's my last band, I wanted to do it right..." And that includes staid strings of rehearsing and focusing on recording some songs before jumping into the live-show carousel (another somewhat regret of his, back when he first sparked Scarlet back in 2007).

"My worst quality is impatience..." Or at least, it has been. Over coffee and tea, on a chilly gray morning, just three weeks before Blowout, McCauley is sounding more sure than he ever has - perhaps he's gotten some soul searching done over this past year of recording (Computer Perfection in his home studio) and the occasional guitar-slung stool strumming set at joints like Steak Hut.

The rehearsals and song development have had a nice flow, each member is respectful but not afraid to offer constructive criticism. "So far there's a good dynamic, no one gets offended..."

Cuz you're all adults?

"...hopefully. -All real musicians, at least. In Scarlet Oaks it wasn't about being prolific, there were great dynamics in it, too. I've always liked music to be simple--who wants to hear a drummer just doing a solo? I've always had more of a punk rock take, -simple, stripped down; that's how it was in ScOk, except for James, who could play circles around me, but he didn't...which was really nice."

Everyone in this band "has always put music first in their lives." From every aspect, whether that's diligent rehearsals, impassioned songwriting, or amassing (and, sometimes selling-off-for-scratch) stacks of audio equipment.

And that lifestyle, "that's hard to do...you have to sacrifice a lot in terms of comfort and wealth..."

"...there's no wealth in music."

Whereas Scarlet dabbled in a dusky Americana sound and whereas he's been jamming on more of a traditional country-twang thing with James at the Steak Hut sets, McCauley says that the Walking Beat's been taking him more into the realm of rock n' roll. That...and it's just great to have a piano, particularly the talents of Smith, intertwining with the rhythmic sensibilities of Van and Kanka.

"I'm actually like the worst musician among the band," McCauley lets an easy, self-deprecating chuckle tumble out. "Everyone in this group is a real musician and it's been amazing playing with people like that..."

--So you're technically the lead guitarist?

"I know...hehe...it's terrible. But, I've been practicing. I never wanted a guitar-heavy band, I wanted it to be -rock- but not super heavy electric."

How do you not wind up with a traditional rock n' roll vibe when you're name is somewhat inspired by a Bill Haley (and his Comets)'s tune?

"I find it hard to write straight kinda' songs, straight mid-tempo songs; but I gravitate toward that sort of walking-tempo, that slow-swing, it seems to be where I write best. Though I've been trying to defy that; one has his own conventions and you want to defy those with every new song you write, you have to learn new tricks, but not get too away from yourself. That's the trick. You have to constantly evolve but not sound like you're pandering... I don't even know what's hip, I'm still stuck in the 60's or something, I guess..."

Oh, Steve, what's hip anymore? Everything and nothing all at once is all hip now...

"It does seem that way. I see young kids dressed in flannels with long hair and laugh, thinking that's weird, that went out of style when I was in high school... Everything's just a sub-genre, broken up into tinier pieces, tinier stuff."

All of it spread out across this city...

"Yeah, a lot of different things, all going on at once around here. I don't know where (The Walking Beat) fits, though..."

But again - if this is your last band, then do it right...

So a 7" single will be out in time for their Blowout performance (Wednesday, February 28th, at the Magic Stick, early). And then, whilst keeping an eye to getting out onto the road, they'll set down to recording their first proper album...

Belle Ghoul will perform that same evening (2/29) part of the Blowout Launch Party (more info here)
take a listen:

Monday, February 6, 2012

We're All Here - Thoughts from Blaksmith

"I've never heard/seen anything like that before...."

Brent Smith (a.k.a. "Blaksmith") hear's this line at the end of many a' weekend's night - around 2 a.m., when he's stepping off a stage inside a local venue, sweat-speckled and breathless, having just rapped his head off via one of his two main performance outlets - Passalacqua or Cold Men Young.

And that's something the stalwart writer (and supporter of the scene) extends to many other local groups, including: Illy Mack, Sheefy McFly, The Ashleys, / Doc Waffles, / Ferndale Acid Scene, / Clear Soul Forces, / Pink Lightning, / Detroit CYDI

and...House Phone (formally known as James And The Rainbros).

When he got to that last band name, it triggered a poignant memory for Smith, who wrote to me earlier this morning, a bit from some of these bands/artists' backstory:

Blaksmith: "James (Link, singer--House Phone) and I met at a house party in Woodbridge in 2008...
One of those Democratic Society-Red Cup extravaganzas hosted by Michael Shallal, Katie Nolde and Aaron Petkov (now leading Occupy Detroit organizers). The basement was packed and the ceiling was low. James Linck, Ben Sturley on bass (Jessica Hernandez), Steve Kenzo on guitar (illy mack) and Dave Kenzo on drums...

Hear: James & the Rainbros - "Chase You"

...followed by a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" stunned me. Reggae, soul, a brazilian afro, white kids giggin' to Stevie Wonder like it was a black family reunion...a cultural explosion! I had never seen anything like this before.

On a side note... Noman also played that night. It was Ernie's first time on bass with the band..."

Ernie (Erno the Inferno) Guerra...current DJ (and recording collaborator) of Passalacqua.

Smith, at this time, was promoting monthly variety shows at 1515 Broadway. Newly inspired from the Rainbros set, he set to organizing Hoodstock '09 at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit "a musical melting pot to unite fans of all genres, with performers coming from cities ranging from Rochester to Riverview..." realized as an eight-hour long show/fundraiser promoting "the many sounds of Detroit."

Smith says that "...Sectarian discourse with other organizers of the show prevented it from happening again" in 2010. "That's when I became more focused with Cold Men Young and later Passalacqua- both groups strving off of a new overture...brand marketing expert Steve Stout calls it "The Tanning Of America".

Our dialogue was inspired, firstly, by the Mardis Gras celebration, coming Saturday Feb 11th to PJ's Lager House, spearheaded by the Detroit Party Marching Band... Smith was, at the end of the day, reflecting upon the need for promotion and further unification (in/throughout the scene) in that regard.

Preparing for a show like Saturday's, one that is inspired by the DPMB's ethos of expanding the special inspiration of spontaneous music, is, Smith said, always exciting.

Seeing/experiencing the explosive rock-n-roll-tinged marchers can be a unique experience. Co-founder John Notarianni spoke of breaking down barriers tied to how we typically perceive a live show. "There's the visual barrier...a band on the stage and an audience down on the floor..." which is broken down by DPMB's inherent tendency to roam the entire space, take it over, spill outside and going down to "crash" another venue. "Then there's the auditory barrier...the music goes through wires into amplifiers and out of PA's...but, with DPMB, having the music actually happening right in your face," (with a trumpet, a french horn, or sousaphone), "how that sound feels, right up at you, is very powerful. Sometimes people will be watching this as a passive audience, and you get right up to them, push through them even, while you're playing..."

People respond to this kind of energy... which includes the energy of the likes of Charlie Slick, Patrick Elkins, Run Jit...and Passalacqua (among many others)...

"I will walk away inspired," Smith exclaimed. "Bryan (aka Mister, of Passalacqua) will walk away inspired. More importantly, the people that Passalacqua'll bring out will see that in this scene there's an inclusive process..."

"...We're all here."

~

More notes on that Mardis Gras celebration (click here...) - there might be a fortune teller...there might also be burlesque... and there's definitely going to be free gumbo and jambalaya (at least when the doors open... - 9pm at PJ's Lager House - 2/11).

Split Infinitives - Shadow Puppets and Marching Band Masquerades - Feb 11

This Saturday, Detroit's notorious Party Marching Band will curate their own Mardis Gras in Corktown (cramming, with all their cacophonous glory, into PJ's Lager House, 2/11)...

Scan the freep this week for a, (hopefully), printed-out feature and brief interview with one of the group's co-founders, John Notarianni (a Q&A, I'll disclose, conducted over fancy, syrup-swirled tequila and magnificently mean gin-concoctions, from his day job at the Sugar House).

I first "met" the DPMB when they burst their way into the Belmont, during one of the nights of the Metro Times Blowout, 2010... Somehow, I became swept up in their mad, punk-brass riffing clamor, and began traipsing slowly behind them - as they, decked in their Craigs-list-catered uniforms (a present from a Tri-Cities IO high school) emblazened with gold olde English D's, trounced in, blurted, blared and musically-inhabited venue-after-venue-after-venue.

That's their thing - communicating the power of spontaneous music. More on that later...

What you need to know is: their Mardis Gras celebration involves a range of performers who embrace similarly provocative approaches to live performance - each on their own mission to shake things up for what traditional audiences might traditionally expect from a traditional ol' music bar...

One of them includes Ypsi/Arbor area conceptual performance artist Patrick Elkins - a blender of music and shadow puppetry whose written, assembled and performed a series of original shows as well as been integral in organizing that area's Totally Awesome Fest.

DPMB has played the Totally Awesome Fest in the past (this coming March effectively marks the 30+-member crew's third year anniversary) and Elkins took reverent note of their ability to conjure "amazing party vibrations." When DPMB co-founder/trumpeter John Notarianni asked Elkins to bring his quirky hybrid of surrealist puppetry and music to the Mardis Gras party, it was an instant yes. Making it even easier to say yes was that the line-up included Elkins' comrade (and former touring partner) Charlie Slick (with his funk-flared backing group Thunda Clap).

Elkins, noted not just for his songwriting (currently playing in Ypsi's Rainbow Vomit Family Band), but also for his creative puppet-characters and dark, dreamy, dazzling productions (some of which have gone on for 24-hours at a time), said that, for him, events that combine various mediums (DPMB's Mardis Gras will also have a fortune teller and burlesque) -have always appealed to him because they offer audiences the opportunity to experience things they don't normally get to see every day.

"I find," he said, "that audiences (and performers) seem to be more engaged throughout the event when they aren't watching the same type of performance the entire time. I think that variety and mystery are important elements in offering engaging public events...."

There's that, but also, Elkins said, "I tend to get bored with doing the same thing for too long. I'm always seeking out new spaces to perform in and ways to challenge myself through performance (i.e. such as the 24-hour puppet shows, organizing free all-ages events like the Totally Awesome Fest, Greyhound bus tours, etc.)..."

Elkins been in Michigan for most of his life, but he spent some of the early 00's in Olympia WA, and then, later, 10 months in Indonesia, both experiences having drastically impacted the way he thinks about live performance. Olympia brought him into contact with active artists organizing secret cafe shows, house shows and/or D.I.Y. benefits, while in Indonesia, he met native incredible native puppeteers, musicians and dancers ("as well as performance artists from all over the world who were there studying or conducting research in their respective fields..." all of whom "really broadened my ideas about the possibilities for creative expression and performance." He also, while there, wound up creating a form of puppetry.

Those two odysses, combined with his experience in Michigan's art scene and traveling the U.S., have informed his current fascination with shadow puppets. It also communicated "the potential for my participation with this medium. My goal with performing live, regardless of medium, is to offer people a unique and entertaining show that they won't experience anywhere else from anyone...."

"As I am interested in stimulating, entertaining, and engaging people, it always seemed like a safer bet to err on the side of the outrageous rather than the mundane when it comes to performing live." In this regard, he finds many, many brothers-and-sisters-in-arms, via the DPMB.

Elkins will be presenting a piece called "Split Infinitive(s)... an outer space/graveyard/ocean-themed story about a monster and a wandering star..."

Elkins recently toured the final chapter/installation of his puppetry/musical narrative exploration "Patrick's Weird Beard Goes Wandering," aided by puppeteer/voice actor/recording engineer Jason Voss. In the meantime, he's been preparing a new shadow puppet show: "Escape from the Return of the Night of Disappearing Pants", to be recorded for a forthcoming VHS-release.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Kit Oh Nine / Fri-Det & Fri-A2 / A Whole Buncha Rap

Some thing I'm digging through, Internet-wise, this weekend....

Former metro-area musician Ryan Milligan, from locals like the Hotwalls and early incarnations of Duende, alligned with Graham Pawluk of Ancourage and Nathan Lelandais-Miller (also of the Hotwalls) to develop a batch of his songs that strayed a bit further into feedback heavy noise-pop - the result of which: KON! LP -an album title acting as acronym for the trio's new group Kit Oh Nein - recorded wtih Eric Hoegemeyer at Rust Belt studios in Royal Oak.

These songs are up and highly charged, most of them in and out in two minutes or less; dazzling statcy-snow-sprays of distortion, weaving toe-tapping, strummy indie-pop songs out of strands of dissonant yarn. There's hints of ambient-space-rock simmering at the sides, spilling in during the drifty/droney b-section of their quasi-theme-song ("Cloud Nein"), where the vocals intertwine with the humming synth and guitar-reverb, the delay pedals affecting their best dreamy disorientation. We can hear splashes of strutting glam-rock here and there, but things are never far from keying-back up to a rattling rock n roll kick...

I find this track particularly exemplary and highly sample-able:

But this is the particular personal favorite:

Milligan might be calling NYC home these days, but that hasn't kept him from continuing his work with the Hotwalls...so hopefully locals can see a live version of these songs some day/time soon... Find more songs here - (cassette, vinyl and CD versions are out there, though...or, at least, on the way)

~

Make sure you're Friday's are properly planned, whether you're in Detroit, or Ann Arbor,

But...two weeks from now, there's what's been dubbed "A Whole Buncha' Rap..." ...happening at the Old Miami (Feb 18) - And, indeed, the line up's packed - DC-fav's Ben Miles and Eddie Logix will do a set, as will notables like Magnum Opus and Hugo Biggs / Chozen Few / and Scav D facilitating the wheels of steel.

MC Warren Peace rounds out this line up - a rapper distinguished by his conscious-heavy, world-weary raps that delicately toe the line of social commentary and dazzle with their literate word play (the dude's also an 8th-grade spanish teacher). He's got a new album coming eventually -a follow-up to his debut EP From Detroit to Darabougou - but this writer was asked not to stream any of the newness, as of yet - Instead, familiarize yourself with this track, as it'll likely be made into a video fairly soon.

Bolstered by the beats of Mr. Eddie Logix.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Ears are anvils (and I'll pound yours to scrap)

"You invite people to every show you have, but you never expect them all to actually show up..."

Ypsi singer/songwriter Matt Jones had a secret show last night inside Jim Roll's Backseat Studios... I was there with my sad-yet-noble digital recorder...but I won't have you suffer through its humble/shitty playback quality...

Flanked by the vibrant voice of Misty Lyn and the dynamic rhythm-saws and neck-taps of cellist Colette Alexander, Mr. Jones sung and strummed out a set that can only, quite unavoidably, be described as 'intimate...' what with its dangling christmas lights and the added air that we were witnessing some kind of steady unfurling, a blooming, an artist whose come to some profound re-realization, some rejuvenated muse...

The guy's falling in love with his songs again and he's putting out an album on March 1st -free, online - which will feature the full concert film produced/directed by Scott Allen, with Martin Thoburn, Adam Nelson and Doug Coombe...

Between self-deprecating banter suggesting that he'd already peaked on some fateful day back in 2007 when he wrote this song, this song and this song...all in one day, he charmed us with his cherubic chuckles and brow-drying head shakes that every song had some kind of mistake sutured somewhere between its spindly guitar plucks...

They even managed a cover of The High Strung song "Guilt Is How I'm Built," which was nice. But the most poignant moment came when he previewed the title track of his forthcoming album, airing the melodic confession:
"...there's something wrong in my mind / half-poison / half-pure... but not quite..."

"I know I should be having fun..." he sighs and chuckles after the third song... "and I'm so close..."
Slowly he started loosening up through the set...
"I definitely am (having fun) but it is very strange...but I'm liking it, I'm liking this a lot...

...and okay, moving on, this next song is called Jugulars, Bones & Blisters..."