Javelins, the Deep Cutz Interview

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(photos by Amanda Zee - taken at
the Blind Pig
last Spring,
for Detour)

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Local indie-dance/art-punk trio, Javelins (Matt Rickle, vocals/drums, Julian Wettlin, bass and Matt Howard, guitar/vocals) are featured as 2008's Hot Band in this week's Real Detroit Weekly. On July 26th, they play the Belmont, where they officially release their LP, Heavy Meadows on Suburban Sprawl Music. Read Ryan Clancy's write up here.

Heavy Meadows is a beautiful, dreamy, hard-hitting statement, a meloncholic musing dedicated to the outdoors, the humid air, the soft grass; something close to an escapism record, or at least a mesmerizing summer album; warm and arresting, like some majestic sunset viewing put to vigorous rhythms and punchy beats and ornate spaced-out-n'-jangly guitars. Javelins have gone the extra mile on all fronts, evolving their earlier style blending rough hewn post-punk with new millennia-indie-dance grooves into literate, orchestral pop heightened by their ear for whirling futuristic breakneck rock – the melodies are often mystic and mellifluous, ricocheting off of gorgeous tripped out bending guitars riffs and synth serenades.

Featured here is a bit of catching up, via a Deep Cutz interview, with singer Rickle.

Cutz Interview:
















Milo/DC: There's been a few other big subsprawl releases lately (Child Bite, Pop Project), did that add any pressure to step it up? how did you approach the record?

Matt/Javelins: Well! It wasn't so much that we felt the need to step it up, it's that being accepted into a fold of such other incredible musicians was inspiring. The SubSprawl crew was something we were fans of when we recorded No Plants Just Animals ('05), and they heard the record and asked to put it out.
We were pretty new to "the scene" and when we did that record, it was not so much a band with big aspirations as it was 3 guys making something we liked. But this time around it's obviously different! I guess in the writing process your mind sort of opens up when you know that something is available to you. For instance, we never would have thought of putting trumpet on our first record simply because we didn't know anyone who could play it for us. So! Things like that.
And I think there is definitely a bit of healthy competition within our SSM group as well, I can't even count the number of times there has been when we're showing each other demos and someone is like "Holy crap, i hate you."! But the hate does not exist. It's only love baby.

DC: "...flowers, heavy meadows, the earth, blue horizons,"... heavy lyrics...(finding homes in the trees)...what inspired the nature/environment bending themes, or some of the more unique turns for you like the synthy strings coming in and making it all feel light and capricious on the title track (and did all the collaborations happen in-studio or was it mixed in?)

MW: Well, with those two songs specifically, it's funny, because one is written to a friend saying, you know, be optimistic about life and relationships, and then the next song is about me being absolutely miserable about those 2 things. But that's just life sometimes. The nature themes, though, are related in being that I find wide open spaces and the great outdoors to be lonely, sad places......much like finding yourself on the receiving end of a breakup. Plus! It's fun to speak in metaphors.
Shawn Knight's cover for the record couldn't be more perfect. As for the synthy(and real!) strings, we have Zach Curd to thank for that. I had the idea of songs 2 and 3 running together with strings, and while I had a specific idea for the beginning of "The Pounding," i didn't really have any melody prepared for the end of "Heavy Meadows." I think [Curd] really nailed it too, it works perfect for the song, the lyrics as you mentioned are a bit heavy on that one, but at the same time there is a playful absurdity to them, and the ending helps bring that out hopefully.
Had we written the melody it probably would have came out bit darker.
But yeah! That's why it works. We aren't usually such a serious band(cuckoo clocks), and like to keep things lighter.... Collaborations! Well, Zach was the only person that we collaborated with while writing, the string parts in "El Dorado" and "Heavy Meadows" were all him and he came out to Key Club to record them with us. Everything else was written by us and we asked our friends to play them out, which they did back home at Hi-Bias Studio, and Our Leisure Studio.

DC: did you have a ben gibbard-over-self-analytical-what will the fans think- type moment? ...for instance, is this a No Plants sequel, or it's own creature? did you think this album could be, to some or many, a proper Javelins introduction?

MW: Well, like I said earlier, when we did No Plants it was just us making tunes with no one watching, that's the beauty of being a new band. No expectations from anywhere. Now that we have a few people's attention.......it's something that we're aware of, but it never has freaked me out to any large degree. Something we don't want to do is repeat ourselves album to album. We wanted this record to sound more cohesive, so there are different themes running through it, lyrically and musically. The hope is to continuously morph our sound as we progress, and so any fan of our band could easily recognize a song as a part of that specific album. But yes! I think Heavy Meadows is a great introduction to our band! Come one, come all! We've been working on it for quite a while and couldn't be happier with what it's become.

DC: ...what are you looking forward to, for the rest of 2008?

MW: I'm really excited to see people's reaction to the record! I CAN'T WAIT TO GO ON TOUR WITH COLOUR REVOLT. That starts in a week or so! They are a great band and even better friends, so it's going to be a blast. You should seriously check out their new record Plunder, Beg, and Curse if you haven't already. Jesse has an insane voice. SO GOOD!

































(photos: Amanda Zee)

Caribou: "...the genre is irrelevant really"

Deep Un-Cutz interview with Dan Snaith from Caribou


Our Love Will Make This Sound: Caribou
Jeff Milo

“…free jazz, hip hop, disco, psych pop and rock, soul, electronic music…the genre is irrelevant really…”

Dan Snaith has a PhD in mathematics; he speaks about creation, about “the process” of recording, yet also, about the feel of song and the search for melody. With his half-solo-project/half-full-performing band, Caribou, he is simultaneously interested in the technical a + b = c—connectivity of song production, and yet, in the soft swirl of his dreamy psychedelia, his melancholic late 60’s romantic-pop butterfly kisses, his visceral drum-n-bass percussion spurts or his smooth-crooning groove pop, he is undoubtedly in-touch, immensely so, with the more sensual experience of music.

Indeed, he is a premiere auteur of the bedroom-composer genre; a seemingly reclusive substitute-teacher-looking 30-year-old Canadian who’s been living in London ever since 2001, astutely constructing his last 3 major albums, all of which blend influences of veritable wonderlands of lush-psychedelic krautrock-bending pop; merged with this euphoric, dreamy sheen, almost lullaby-ish, with rumbling percussion and poignant builds. His most recent, Andorra, is a more coherent development of the expansive band-ready orchestral buzz-rockers he had formed on the Milk of Human Kindness (2005.)

“All my previous records,” said Snaith, “were made starting with a loop and playing different parts over top; building the song up in layers and then spreading the parts out into an arrangement for the track at the end. There was no writing and then recording - I just wrote as I went along. With Andorra, however, I realized that I wanted to write songs - compositions with verses and choruses and sections that led from one to another. I'd usually play bass and hum melodies over top until I came up with something I was happy with and then imagine the rest of the arrangement filling in around that until I had a pretty good idea of what the song would sound like…”

Snaith started in 2000 as Manitoba, releasing Start Breaking My Heart and in 01 caught the world’s attention with the momentous Up In Flames, with experimental electronica, heartfelt shoegaze and big booming drums. This breakout led to massive touring and the assemblage of his live band: “Ryan Smith [guitar] is an old friend from elementary school and has played with Manitoba/Caribou ever since we did our first gig. I met Brad Weber [drums] when his old band Winter Equinox opened for us in my home town of Hamilton, Ontario. Andy Lloyd was recommended to me as an awesome bass player and singer…they're an incredible band - great musicians and we get along really well on tour which is equally important in the cramped confines of a Caribou tour.”

But Snaith says he sticks to solitude in production, because “…it’s a pretty slow and laborious process for me - it took me a year working every day to make Andorra and there's a lot of trial and error that I don't think would work collectively. the only thing I’m looking for out of the music I make is that it moves me - that it gives me a physical feeling of excitement or jubilance or sadness when I’m making it.”
Caribou plays the Blind Pig on 7 / 18

Here’s more of the Un-Cutz Interview:











(photo: Jason Evans)










Milo/DC: Is there one facet of music or recording that intrigues you the most, like, say percussion, or something else?

Dan Snaith/DS: It's shifted over the course of the records i think. percussion was definitely top of the agenda for certain records but on andorra i was comfortable enough with making the percussive sound that i wanted, that i could focus on melody and harmony and being precise about the arrangement of the music. however, when we play live percussion definitely comes to the fore again. the physicality of it makes for a show that we enjoy playing.

DC: What draws you to this sunny softness of sound? what is it you want out of a song?

DS: I like all sorts of music that is not soft and sunny sounding but when i'm making music that's more often than not what I like. the only thing I'm looking for out of the music I make is that it moves me - that it gives me a physical feeling of excitement or jubilance or sadness when i'm making it. i'm also making music in a really drab little room and i think a lush sounding aesthetic is seductive to me because it draws me in and allows me to become 'lost in the music' to use a horrendous cliche.

DC: I'm sure people often name drop krautrock bands to you when they ask you about influences, how far is that from the mark and what are some of your more unlikely influences?

DS: ...stating that i'm influenced by krautrock bands is definitely right on the money - those bands (Can, Neu!, Faust, Popol Vuh, Niagara, and on into the more obscure ones) have made some of my favourite music. however, i'm definitely not influenced by them exclusively - i listen to all sorts of music: free jazz, hip hop, disco, psych pop and rock, soul, electronic music, ... the genre is irrelevant really. i just want to hear people having interesting musical ideas. that being said one unlikely genre that i like pretty much in its entirety is the euro pop trance thing - where they take a line from a rick james or michael jackson or aaron neville or bee gees or whatever song and speed it up and loop it for 3 minutes with a thumping trance beat and filtered synths underneath. i love pretty much all of those songs - they do exactly what they're supposed to ... make you happy!

DC: can you tell us a bit more about the musicians in the full band and how they came together for caribou?

DS: Ryan Smith, who plays guitar, is an old friend from elementary school. we played in our first bands together and has played with Manitoba/Caribou ever since we did our first gig. I met Brad Weber, who plays drums, when his old band Winter Equinox opened for us in my home town of Hamilton, Ontario. Then when our previous drummer couldn't come back to do the Andorra tour I thought of him and dropped him a line. I'd only met him that once at the gig in Hamilton before asking him to play with us. Andy Lloyd was recommended to me as an awesome bass player and singer by a mutual friend but I had neither heard him sing or play bass nor even met him for that matter when he stepped off the plane in London to start rehearsals. it's amazing how well everything worked out seeing how little we knew each other but they're an incredible band - great musicians and we get along really well on tour which is equally important in the cramped confines of a Caribou tour.

DC: In the last 9-10 years, has your creation been entirely solo? and if so have there ever been moments where you questioned/reconsidered the isolated approach?

DS: it has been essentially solo except that my friend Koushik (Stones Throw records) sung on and cowrote a couple tracks on Up In Flames and Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys) sung and cowrote She's The One on this album. however, i don't ever feel limited by this - if i wanted to make a particular with a band or other musicians i would just do it. the reasons i love making music by myself are that it's a pretty slow and labourious process for me - it took me a year working every day to make Andorra and there's a lot of trial and error that i don't think would work collectively. i can also record at home, work entirely to my own schedule. to this point i haven't felt like i've been limited by this way of working - there are still so many things to try.

DC: what are you currently working on, or anything down the line your looking forward to...?

DS: I haven't made any music for the last year. we've been on tour since last september and have done 200 gigs which is completely insane! now we're just playing a few shows over the summer and then we're done touring for a year or so, so i'm starting to think about making new music again which is very exciting to me. i work really slowly so i don't imagine i'll have much time to focus on anything apart from another Caribou record but as that record could end up sounding however i want it to i feel invigorated by a fresh start! i like that about taking such a long break from recording to tour - when i come back it's like starting from a blank slate. i have no idea what the next record will sound like!











(photo: Jason Evans)

The Roots That Will Weave: The Bowerbirds

(photo: Derek Anderson)

"You may not believe, but even we were scared at first.
It takes a lot of nerve to destroy this wondrous earth.
Were only human; this at least weve learned."

Hearing the Bowerbirds facilitates the illusion that there’s dirt under my fingernails, and it sets an irksomeness in me toward the electricity that’s running my computer and the gas that will sputter out of my car the next morning for a day-job trip over a paved road where a field or a swamp once was – the desecrated home of the birds and frogs and bugs.

The Bowerbirds signed to Dead Oceans at the start of the year and the trio (Phil Moore, Beth Tacular and Mark Paulson) recently reissued their moving, meditative work, Hymns For a Dark Horse, a candle-lit constructed collection of supremely woodsy, heart-filled campfire sonnets filled with deep-breaths in dewy wandering mornings, recorded in an abandoned school house in high-grass fields, hidden away from the sickening hum of wheels on the freeway pavement. Inspired less by bar scene romances or napkin jotted phone numbers, but, instead, by the cacophonus orchestral roar of nature and filled with more universal ruminations from narrators well aware that they are but a small spec in a beautiful set of nature's grander cogs. A sublte (and sometimes not so subtle) indictment of man's urban-sprawling homicide.

Collaborators Moore and Tacular, who currently reside in an AirStream trailer, living "off the grid" somewhere near Raliegh NC, put Moore's meandering poetry to the sublte instrumentation of airy acoustic guitars and the solemn hum of an accordion, with Paulson adding the light drizzle of a tambourine and the simple boom of a bass drum and mallet, beating like a distant thunder while their stirring harmonies enwrap in some windblown dance like a fire at the edge of the woods.

As Justin Vernon (who performas as/(with) Bon Iver) said in a recent Deep Cutz interview, after seeing Bowerbirds one night, at an Art Gallery in Raleigh, "I went home that night and I, literally, for the first time in my life, thought, I need to quit music...That's the only time that's ever happened to me." He was describing a time, a very fateful time for Bon Iver particularly, when his old band just broke up and he was contemplating what to do next with his life. He would, eventually, end up moving to a cabin and recording his brilliant debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago. But, it seems, seeing the power, the majesty, of the Bowerbirds was an offsetting moment for Vernon.

"Seeing Phil play those songs with Beth and Mark, I was like, I think I've missed my opportunity. I spent too many years being this emotive, non-hardworking songwriter that I've just becomet his joke to myself. Man, I was like, I have to quit, I can't even take myself seriously because that was so......good! It was so overwhelming."

Bon Iver has since been heralded with forming one of the most strikingly beautiful albums of 2007.

That said, here is the exclusive Deep Cutz interview with Phil Moore of Bowerbirds:

(photo: Ian Merrit)

"We're Only Human, This At Least We've Learned": Bowerbirds

Milo/DC: This is a powerful album for me to listen to-- are the themes you presented on Dark Horse continuing in the latest songs you've written? is themes of nature, escapism, enchantment, what you'd like to continue or return to?

PM: Thank you. I'm glad that you have gotten out of the album what we sort of hoped people would get out of it. I guess it's not just escape that we're after though. I mean, we definitely have feelings of anger and frustration for being enmeshed in the culture we are a part of, but if we were to just choose to run off to join an Amazonian tribe that still lives in harmony with the land, it wouldn't really work. Civilization, capitalism, and big corporations are going to wipe out that forest eventually, if we don't maintain some sort of connection to the destructive culture and try to change its trajectory.
So, Yes, I guess we still are passionate about these ideas and wish to continue to talk about them however we can.


Milo/DC: How do you balance a defense of nature vs. the risk of misanthropy?

PM: It is difficult to do unless you come at it from an honest place, I guess. We don't hate humans; we just hate the culture they are trapped in or feel they are trapped in. We are all affected by the current destructive culture that I, for example, am benefiting from and other people are starving from. It's a virus, kind of, or an addiction and less to do with choice than we all realize. I tend to just want to write about the beautiful things I see in nature and not talk too much about the horrible and insane things that we are doing that I read about all the time, but It's hard not to write about those things when they are constantly on your mind.

(Derek Anderson)

DC: do you still live in a trailer, "off the grid"? what is that life like...-- how is life lately, in general?

PM: We do still live in an AirStream trailer and use candles mostly at night and have a solar panel with a battery for other electricity. We love living this way. The blackberries are coming up right now and it's starting to get pretty warm in the evenings. We are in the process of building ourselves a small cabin, which is a lot of work, but very rewarding. We are leaving in a couple of weeks to go on tour for several months, which is a mix of sad and exciting.

DC: ...living in that schoolhouse must have had such an influence on the sound of the album and the writing......what has been influencing/inspiring what you've been working on lately... `

PM: Well, Our living situation now is pretty rad. There is a lot of space and lack of noise out here and it's easy to find time to be creative. If you are a person who creates art, a couple years of not having time to create that art and then finally finding that time will also inspire you greatly. This is currently happening and is wonderful and relieving.


DC: "we lay heavy on the earth" ...can you talk about where the two bonus tracks of the current rerelease of Dark Horse: Matchstick Maker and La Denigracion came from and what inspired them?

PM: Matchstick maker was inspired by my last few months living in Iowa before I moved out to North Carolina. I kind of hated those months but they were at least cathartic.
La Denigracion was written with the very first batch of Bowerbirds songs and was inspired by that time living in the school house. I was just feeling out how to write songs with this sort of theme but I still enjoy listening to this song.

(Derek Anderson)

DC: ...do you often get interviewers freaking out on you with grandiose questions...like, what's the answer?? how do we save nature? ...how do you deal with questions like that...

PM:That's funny. We don't get too many interviews with that question, but that did happen once in a telephone interview and I was just kind of dumbstruck and said something like, "recycle, reduce, reuse?"
It's a tough question and I'll give it a shot and answer it, vaguely. At this point it's all about community and education and everything is subject to where you live and subject to change, but I don't think technology (i.e. solar power, wind power, etc.) is going to catch up with the current amount of destruction in time to save the day.

The Bowerbirds play with Bon Iver, 7/21 at the Crofoot in Pontiac.

Nas: an un-cut(z) review by Thomas Matich

(Finally, we're getting a hip/hop perspective onto this site, thanks to a RDW writer and a prominent voice in music writing here in Detroit)






















NAS


“THE N MAN”


By Thomas Matich


Bored during a class in the 8th grade, my friend Matt and I made up a game to see who could name more rappers. We both had Nas high on our list. He asked me if I even knew the title of his debut album. “Illmatic,” I replied. “Name one song,” he asked. I couldn’t. My thirteen year-old ears had yet to hear the classic album. Soon enough I bought Illmatic from the mall and played it on my Walkman while walking to the bus stop.


I’ve seen Nas in concert twice, bought all the albums (even the flimsy Nastradamus) and even attempted to get an interview numerous times to no avail. In my book, he’s the greatest emcee of all time, a brilliant, controversial lyricist that can still sell a million records and always juggles commercial, street and creative appeal with a human hypocrisy. The first radio aimed single from his ninth album, Untitled, is “Hero.” Nas is my hip-hop Batman, his songs stimulate my brain with the thrill of a comic book: adventure, peril, riches, romance, politics, crime ─and much more, with New York’s rap world being just as intriguing, dark and wild as Gotham City.


A promotional YouTube video for Untitled supplemented the film The Incredible Hulk with “Hero,” blasting in the background. It’s a bit cheesy but when a musician declares himself a hero, what can you expect? The beat is produced by Polow Da Don, the man behind Rich Boy’s smash “Throw Some D’s.” Polow wouldn’t be my first (or 20th) choice for someone to work with Nas, but his sci-fi sculpted synthesizers pour through the speakers simulating some sort of IMAX film about the Hubble telescope, as Nas guides you through galaxies where evil forces are trying to silence this flashy defender of the universe.


“They lookin’ for a… hero/I guess that makes a… hero,” goes the token R&B chick (Keri Hilson, anyone?) sung hook. It’s an obvious commercial attempt in the vein of “Nastradamus,” but with enough edge (“Still in musical prison, in jail for the flow/ Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joel/ They can't sing what's in their soul”) and Hollywood (“Chain gleaming/ Switching lanes/ Two-seating”) that it beckons 2Pac’s Death Row material.

I grew up to become a writer, and Nasir Jones has influenced my prose, with his Queensbridge flair seeping into the swagger of my sentences. This new album has sprouted plenty of interest from journalists, media and fans since its original title was announced as Nigger last year. I was excited by the thought of a Nas album with rebellious political content reaching the echelon of Public Enemy and N.W.A. Looking back into his catalog, there’s always been social commentary sprinkled with thug theology, from the prison letter poetry of “One Love” on his iconic debut Illmatic to his personification of a pistol on “I Gave You Power” from It Was Written, the angry letter to the congressman of “I Want To Talk To You,” on I Am… to more blunt song titles later in his career such as “My Country,” “Revolutionary Warfare,” “A Message to the Feds, Sincerely, We The People” and finally naming his last album Hip-Hop Is Dead.


Being on the Nas beat is as exciting as covering Spiderman at The Daily Planet. From his epic battle with Jay-Z earlier in the decade to his recent quarrels with Jesse Jackson (whom he recently mocked as “Messy Jesse”) and Al Sharpton over calling his album Nigger, there’s never a dull moment, with the suspense of this pending project practically overshadowing the music itself. After a clash of the titans in 2001, Nas and Jay-Z joined forces in 2006 like the Justice League as Nas signed onto the Def Jam roster where Jay was the then-President. They recorded a dazzling duet in “Black Republican.” With Nas rapping, “I feel like a black militant takin' over the government,” it was foreshadowing his next move, taking on the corrupt demons that wish to rule the world.


The press and public often misunderstand superheroes. FOX News, especially Bill O’Reilly, attacked Nas when he was chosen to perform at the Virginia Tech tribute concert last September. O’Reilly twisted Nas’ violent lyrics and gun conviction as a reason to remove the rapper from the bill, failing to actually discuss his music with any journalistic accuracy and mispronouncing his name as “Naz.” With “Sly Fox,” Nas fires back at O’Reilly and propaganda pushing “news” networks over the crunchy guitar riff with venomous bites like “The Fear Factor got you all riled up/ O' Reilly, Oh really?/ No rally needed/ I'll tie you up” and “They say I'm all about murder-murder and kill-kill/ But what about Grindhouse and Kill Bill?/ What about Cheney and Halliburton?/ The backdoor deals on oil fields/ How's Nas the most violent person?”

For the past few years, Nas has been flirting with the concept of “The N,” be it for “Nigger” or “Nas.” On Untitled’s artwork, “N” is scarred onto his skin to resemble the lashings his ancestors once endured as slaves. But it does also brand him similar to an “S” on Superman’s chest. This time, Nas has chosen to fight in the name of “hip-hop,” taking on a legion of enemies who, behind closed doors, might not see his art as nothing other than “nigger shit.” To wit, there are several tongue-in-cheek tracks on Untitled that are equally hilarious and genius. Take for instance the Busta Rhymes assisted “Fried Chicken.” Regardless of Busta’s steroid induced megalomania, I admire his purist rebirth that started with his Aftermath debut, The Genesis, which featured Nas and every time these guys get together (see Street Disciple’s wacky “Suicide Bounce”) it makes for a memorable track. Riding a soulful, Al Green inspired bucket of boom-bap, Nas and Busta pontificate on their love of juicy, crispy KFC (or Popeye’s, Church’s or what’s made at the family cookout). The following track, “Project Roach,” is even more ridiculous and awe-inspiring, where Nas goes into an urbanized Charlotte’s Web tale of how niggers are roaches. The song features The Last Poets, who theorize that it’s silly to have a mock funeral for the “N word,” because like roaches, “niggers don’t die.”


However, Nas isn’t immortal and his kryptonite has always been his perceived inconsistency, be it lame attempts at making hits or bootlegs overshadowing packaged product. Surprisingly, Untitled finds a great balance. At first, I balked at “We Make The World Go Round,” with its cheesy keyboards and a teenybopper candy hook from Chris Brown. It could’ve gone the way of the Ginuwine/Timbaland club dud train-wreck “You Owe Me,” from Nastradamus. But, The Game kills his guest rap and this track bumps hard in my Thunderbird and captures a breezy summer aesthetic. I’d even argue that it should’ve been the first proper single to help Nas get the 106 & Park crowd hyped. The album’s pop underbelly reminds me a lot of late ‘90s, I Am…/Nastradamus era Nas, as the cuts “America,” and “Breathe,” work Swizz Beatz style loops. Fans of DMX’s first two albums will dig this record’s production


From a finished project perspective, Untitled does well here also. Nas released The Nigger Tape with DJ Green Lantern in June, serving as a preview of what was to come, featuring album tracks like the elegant, American Gangster infused DJ Toomp engineered “N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave and The Master).” The mixtape had me especially excited for the proper album, with concept records like “Legendary,” (about Iron Mike Tyson) and “Black President.” The latter made the final cut, and with a swift drum line marching beat and a clever 2Pac sample from “Changes” (“and thought it seems Heaven sent/ we ain’t ready to have a Black President”), Nas positively ponders the possibility of an Obama White House, all the while keeping a Black Panther edge, promising retaliation if he’s assassinated. It’s a shame “Legendary,” isn’t on Untitled, as it’s an exhilarating equivalent of “U.B.R.” meets “Momma Said Knock You Out.” However, the retail release features “Louis Farrakhan,” another stellar biography from Nas.
One of the first tracks to leak online, “Be A Nigger Too,” doesn’t make an appearance on the record, despite there being a short-film shot for it. Instead, Nas offers up “Ya’all My Niggas,” a 2Pac flavored slice of jazz rap where one message is that hip-hop culture has become so popular and global that we’re all “niggas.” Nas comes off more cocky and abrasive on “Be A Nigger Too,” spitting vibrantly over an epic, symphonic bell ringer: “I'm a nigger, he's a nigger, she's a nigger, we some niggers/ Wouldn't you like to be a nigger, too?/
To all my kike niggers, spic niggers, guinea niggers, chink niggers/
That's right, y'all my niggaz, too.” Pardoning Eminem for his infamous usage of the “N word,” and saying he’s my “wigga-cracker-friend,” one gets the impression that Nas is just getting a kick out of turning slurs into hyperbole.


“I’m not supernigga,” Nas recently told Rolling Stone. He’s neither The Man of Steel nor The Dark Knight. He’s more like Stan Lee, creating whirlwinds with his imagination. While Untitled doesn’t give me the same rush Illmatic did on my Walkman when I was 13, Nas is still here to save the day.

Download:
Nas “The Nigger Tape”

Nas “Like Me” (Untitled iTunes bonus track)

Night Shall Eat These Girls and Boys

Band site:

Ypsilanti based indie-dance and electro-folk pop trio (William t. Skillets - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboard, Electronic Drums; Alexander Lopez - Bass, Guitar, Vocals; Austin Hermann - Keys, Vocals): the subtle sophistications of this warm and fuzzy music collective is at once celebratory and cerebral, and somehow, at times, also danceable. Already with a masterful sensibility for beautiful bob-and-weave dance beats jubilantly bouncing under burning guitars, a cool careening hit-the-floor vibe tempered with more somber, sweet solemnities of unique nocturnal cricket-orchestras with synth and drum machines under soft stream of conscious lyrics, poignant and whirled. Currently a trio, but at one time (or even now) their member list is upwards to 15 members. Their currently on tour, but our back in town on July 31st in Romeo, MI, and then at the Corktown Tavern on August 23rd.














Check out their cover of Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go" at: myspace.com/thesegirlsandboys, and a current Deep Cutz favorite, "There Are Bigger Things."

Weekend Photo round up

I've spent most of this weekend running. It's been both hectic and rejuvenative. Chilling, boring, exciting, smelly and above all, adventurous. Being stuck at a cabin in Algonac meant I was unable to attend Saturday's Magic Bag show with Freer, The Oscillating Fan Club, The Sapiens and the Beggars.

Quick quotes from my brother, Mike, who was there to take these photos: simply that, "I went there with a fully charged battery in my camera, and by the end of the night--it was dead. the Beggars pulled out all the stops...the drummer jumped and sommersaulted over his set"

Here's the photographic evidence...

more posts, news and interviews to come on the horizon.

Check Motorcityblog for footage and reviews from the packed line up at the Crofoot, from Friday night's Phonotropic BBQ! (which included staggering solo performances from Daniel Zott (The Great Fiction, Manna and Quail), Josh Epstein (The Silent Years) and Ryan Spencer (Prussia)

Saturday Night, Magic Bag

Corrections, Weekend News, September News

corrections and disclosure:

Yes, there's articles about this in Real Detroit, but I had actually started working on them well before I found out I was DJ-ing. That said, you should still go.


Also, in the print version, I am credited with one or more photos - I did not take any of them. I will gladly repost the articles with proper credits, once I find out the correct photographer.

That said, --I also want to throw out a reminder that this DIY Street Fair festival is coming up, and most likely - still looking for vendors


Cheers

Death Set cancel Magic Stick show

Word coming down the grapevine has it that the Australian-Baltimore spazo-electric-punk duo The Death Set, will be canceling their appearance at the Magic Stick, Thursday. It's an all ages show, and the Mae Shi are still playing. You can check Mae Shi out here...

Pontiac: Phonotropic, The AC Rich, Millions of Brazilians

(Prussia at the AC Rich Building, photo by Mike Milo)

Pontiac

Having only been a year since the joint opened last September, I already have numerous enthralling memories connected to that big square building on South Saginaw, called the Crofoot. And, have since gravitated towards it's satellites of artistic churning - The ARC on 30 North Saginaw, the Phonotropic Fridaze inside Vernor's Subterranean Lounge (nextdoor to the Crofoot) and the hot-blooded revelry of a good, crowded, stomping loft show at the AC Rich Building (just down the street.)

So this week, in Deep Cutz and in Real Detroit - I slapped together a hurried, rambled reverence for (and I want to be careful about sensationalism here, but) the "Pontiac scene;" well, scene--for lack of a better word, because there is undoubtedly an invigorating energy up there, some kind of spurring electricity in the air.

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Deep Cutz
by Jeff Milo photo by Megan Lang

One night, ambling onto the Crofoot patio, resting my ears, I'm nestled in a magnificent vortex of sound; shouting over live music blaring simultaneously from the ballroom, the Pike Room and the ARC (interconnected like some musical jungle-gym) I discussed with Tom-just what the hell was happening in Pontiac lately. Tiptoing around grandiose determinations – we couldn't help saying: something like a scene onto itself.

True, it's a waaays up there, a 20 mile burn up I-75 through the corporate quaintness of Troy – but once you're there the air starts feeling electric, charged by this creative communal tidal wave: Phonotropic, a blazingly inventive artist's enclave and non-profit promoter, along with band-friendly AC Rich Building (home to Silent Giants printing co.) and a large venue with open arms to many touring bands as well as local favorites like Friendly Foes, Child Bite and Deastro. The indie/groove/reggae/pop quartet Prussia (pictured) has a strong following around town, plus the burgeoning bands from Waterford and Auburn Hills now have a more localized venue (Crofoot) to find listeners.

Come up and get a taste of the camaraderie – at Phonotropic's "Wicked Awesome Barbequed Musical Safari…Yesss!!!" this Saturday (Vernor's Subterranean Lounge, next door to Crofoot.)



PHONOTROPIC / the ARC




















Wicked Awesome

“It’s been the great romance of my life.” Phreddy Wischusen is a lightning rod of auspicious energy. Indomitable and blazing, the broad shouldered, glowing eyed, gray-stripe-bearded former restaurant manager (and former waiter) now helps manage the ARC (Artists Revitalizing the Community), located at 30 North Saginaw, in the heart of burgeoning Pontiac, an organization dedicated to providing a network (personally and professionally) for local artists, and to host weirdly exciting and inventive events. “A cosmopolitan utopia” working toward ending “intellectual attrition” that’s been driving so many young creative people out of this state.
“…finding a place where everything comes together,” says Phreddy, describing the whimsicality in which he and partner Adam Davis (of Manna & Quail) decided one night to obtain a building, specifically in Pontiac, “to start this art revolution…where artists are working in unity.” They obtained a space at 30 North around mid-06 and were soon put in touch with preservationist Blair McGowan, the owner of a new venue he’d planed to open in 07 called The Crofoot.
While McGowan tested the Pontiac waters with experimental club nights(into which Phreddy found himself hired as a pitch-man/man-on-the-street/word-spreader,) Dan indicated to the two stalwart art purveyors (along with their collective of friends/helpers) that they were hoping for a more stately, sophisticated night, that would feature art and acoustic performances instead of blaring house music.

“So we came up with ‘Phonotropic,’” said Phreddy,(located in Vernor’s Subterranean Lounge, nextdoor to the Crofoot), where “we get different bands to recreate their set” inside Vernor’s limited sound set up/space. “[To] do something a.) that will be fun for them, b.) that will work with the sound requirements and c.) give their audiences something different.” He recalls warmly Prussia’s resourceful utilization of sitars and djembes.

This Friday night, in the Crofoot Ballroom, Phreddy, Davis and Phonotropic present “Wicked Awesome Barbequed Musical Safari…Yesss!!” with Prussia, Manna & Quail, The Yachts, Daniel Zott, Silent Violet, The Codgers, Millions of Brazilians (see article), Chromos on Clouds, Vicious Cycles and more! “It’s our chance to be on the national stage, with local music and art [who’re] creating their own vibe.” Get to Pontiac. Doors open at 5pm RDWSafari urbane: myspace.com/phonotropic


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Screaming Guitars: Millions of Brazilians
J.Milo

Drummer Zoz jokes that he’ll quit the band if they ever write anything slower than 130 beats per minute. While their songwriting may not be confined to emphasize speed, the fact is that local trio Millions of Brazilians thrive on propulsion; a shunting, guitar-buzz-saw drive, barrel rolling with numerous pedals and feedback over dance-ready piston percussion. Locked and steady percussions lend to a kinetic force facilitating roller-coaster hooks from dueling guitarists Derek Borey and Nick Cicchetti (on vocals.)

MoB, fatefully, started as a joke between brothers Derek and Zoz (aka, Chris), “like a Fu-Manchu kinda stoner-70’s rock thing,” Derek recalled, “no bass, just screaming guitars.”
Nick adds jokingly, “We thought that was super pompous not to have a bass, because a bass was ‘an inferior instrument.’” But, Zoz surmised, “Then, I think our influences came through,” (which included blends as distinct as Motown to Fugazi) “and we were like, Okay…it was funny for a little bit…”

Staring in summer 07, the trio already have half-an-album recorded at Tempermill and have played some commendable, well-received shows throughout the year. The brothers form a solid rhythm vibe with Borey forming “the anchor” low-end guitar that allows Cicchetti to flex any crazy expressive solo that fits. “There isn’t a band leader, per se,” said Zoz, “We all write each other’s parts, everybody’s hands-on.”

Speaking at the CAID during Detour’s Rock City we began reflecting on “scenes” and each expressed awe at the expanse of talent. “It’s perfect timing for Detroit,” said Cicchetti, “We’re finally getting out of being pigeonholed garage-rock; right now it’s just up for grabs and everybody just seems cool with that and that’s how it should be… music has no place for competitiveness.”

The trio all grew up in Taylor and have set up camp around Woodbridge. They are currently working on their next recordings and hope to get either an EP/LP out soon.

It’s a reliable recipe: animated guitar styling powered by two pedal-pushed acrobatic guitarists and a drummer whose ‘business model’ for a live show is pure heart-stopping excitement, (quite literally, he once almost passed out at a Lager show.) MoB play Phonotropic’s Wicked Awesome BBQ Safari, a celebration of Pontiac’s undeniably burgeoning musical community, at the Crofoot.
7 / 11 Crofoot
http://www.myspace.com/millionsofbrazilians

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The Do’ers Find New Crossroads: The AC Rich Building in Pontiac
Jeff Milo
(photo: Ed Knight)

“We had shows steadily from February through November, 06,” Brian Larson, artist, designer, spearheading renter of the luminous/shabby shack/Shangri-La lofts known as the AC Rich building, (Pontiac’s underground live music beacon on Saginaw St.) is recounting the wild and extraordinary 3 years of his tenancy. “The lowest was 2 a month, sometimes every weekend, sometimes 2 shows a week.”

The 23-year-old artist, with roommates John, James and Adam, lives and runs this inspiring living space that doubles (once regularly, now occasionally) as a venue for live performances with local/touring bands on the second floor. “Some phenomenal acts came through here,” he marvels, standing at the “stage” area, now holding a printing press with which Brian is progressing his new project, a screen printing and design business called Silent Giants (with partners/designers Christopher Everhart, Edward Knight and Eric Mortensen, thesilentgiants.com/blog/)

Brian, (recently graduated - Art Institute of Chicago) started working/designing in Pontiac with screen-printing/embroidering company Earth to Earth, in 200. He moved into the second floor of AC in 04: “I loved this space from the first time I was in it, there's something special up here.” Soon he got the keys from the departing 3rd floor renters and claimed both lofts; moving upstairs meant more space downstairs and since he and his fellow roommates played in bands, (with PA and recording studio set up by John) downstairs – it easily facilitated the birth of this unconventional venue.

A solid year (06) of intense booking, ambitious line ups and a taxing amount of organization led to Brian relaxing a bit and now only opting for “special shows,” (often collaborated with Prussia’s Ryan Spencer as 3 of said-band’s members have many ties to Brian / and AC Rich.) “We never made money out of the AC Rich,” said Brian, “It was never about making money and we all had a hell of a good time doing it.” In August, AC hosts Prussia’s CD release show.

Phreddy Wischusen from The ARC/Phonotropic (at the Crofoot) (and AC neighbor), joins us, summing up the Pontiac scene, as artist’s collective: “Everybody’s down here creating, if I don’t do anything then I’m not gonna fit in…it’s organic peer pressure that pushes everyone a little bit more.” myspace.com/arthurcrich

Shows: The Sapiens, Freer, Oscillating Fan Club and Beggars, 7/12 at Magic Stick: Woman, with The Frustrations and the Pizazz, 7/14 at Corktown Tavern

Two tournig bands are coming through town this weekend, paired with exceptional local line ups.

The Sapiens from Chicago and Woman from Knoxville Tennessee:

Sapiens

The Sapiens are a flavorful, theatric, palpably-punk-leaning quintet also intent on driving pop odysseys, the kind of music that’s almost as much fun to play as it is to listen to…swaying rhythms and booming arena-rock vocals over broken spoke guitar hooks and shakeable rhythms. They’re coming into town from Chicago to play the Magic Bag Theatre in Ferndale with some locals: the 60’s Brit-pop/indie/surf-punk of The Oscillating Fan Club, the lovably crazy and charismatically bacchanalian Beggars and the soul-heavy groove pop of Freer.

The Sapiens are back in the studio recording a follow up to their Vs. The Hornet EP
Freer is also in the studio working things out on their second LP, hoping for a late 08 release
The Oscillating Fan Club is all wrapped up on their debut, and hope for a August or September release.

(Sapiens article from Real Detroit)

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Woman

Moving onto a current favorite, Woman: here's a review of their EP, "Mazes"

A -

Woman is a Knoxville-based quartet thriving on hollow hellraisers and rhythm-heavy primordial creepy freak outs that waver defiantly between conventional backbeats to intense polyrhythms, standard guitar hooks that mutate down into ear bending prickly pickings then rev up to pedal fuzzed tumblers. Their style blends metal’s screaming guitars with experimental/indie’s aptitude for embracing haunting yowled vocals and adding in post punks bristly hooks. This 4 song EP aptly opens with the spastic-percussive echo-slurred anthem “Not Quite Metal,” boosted by a steady guitar scrape and declarative bass grooves. Almost confrontational in their devotion to push the experimental rock envelope, this EP’s a fine statement of rhythm-heavy spook chants that always speed up into guitar torrents of fuzz-fucked glory.

You can catch Woman, along with the equally distinct punk styling of Detroit’s Fontana, and the art-punk leaning, organ-led quirk-pop of The Pizazz, at the skinny drafty laid back Corktown Tavern, down Michigan Avenue, on July 14th.