12/23,... the-night-before-the-night-before... the Magic Stick hosts the 8th annual Sounds and Spirits Olde Fashioned Holiday Spectacular, a massive line up of local bands crammed together like red-nosed, arm and arm in-laws, to spread good cheer and raise money for Detroit COTS, Coalition on Temporary Shelters -
Born in 2002 between musicians Dave Feeney and Thomas Trimble, the festival often feels like a studio-set faux-living room with hosts like longtime S&S players: country-rockers Blanche, American Mars and Sunshine Doray grinning at the cameras as they lean on the fireplace mantle with thick fuzzy sweaters, toasting egg-nog as they direct you between two main stages featuring a ping-pong give and go of bands whirling on and off stages to perform two or three quick songs (often holiday/winter themed) and, sometimes, offering priceless, hammy between song banter, perhaps from Blanche’s Dan John Miller.
This glorious send-up to Rankin/Bass claymation schmaltz and snow-dusted magic includes performances from: The Hard Lessons (pictured top), Silverghost, The Go, Outrageous Cherry, The Pop Project, The Hounds Below, Friendly Foes, The Satin Peaches, American Mars and many more. Head over to Motorcityrocks for more info - including line up updates like: The debut of Conspiracy of Owls, The Davidson Family, Sean Hoen Sleeps Til Dusk, and A Kroha Family Smithmas (with one member pictured, middle-above) More importantly, and on a downer-note, USA Today recently reported first-time homelessness on the rise, specifically in Detroit, so even if you don’t go that night to support COTS temporary shelter work, visit them online at: cotsdetroit.org
Nathan K is passionate, he can be very personal, and his folk-heavy debut full-length feels pure – it plays like a veiled autobiographical documentary, framing himself-in-song in third person set-ups as ponderous buskers dizzied by street shufflers or ruminating poets at sunrise, often calling out into various voids, questioning himself, his path, seeking it out in friends, in science, in nature or in Jesus. Over his golden sonorous acoustic guitar, warmed and blushed with pianos, bass drum booms or the spindly bleat of a banjo, Nathan K.(lages) coos out portraits of stretching highways you can feel under his wandering feet, or more ethereal pathways into the curiosities of memory; we are taken down the streets of his home in Ann Arbor, we discuss the explosion of the sun and what lies beyond, and we stuff our hands in our coats and arch our shoulders as we traipse into the forthcoming winter. His plaintive nasal voice and knack for dressing songs with such a pleasing elegance, yet so minimalist in layout – like the simple power of the backing players of prancing pianos, bending bass grooves or shimmering mandolins as in the title track, prominently, but then, also, balanced throughout.
Nathan K has been to Nashville and back and around the country and back again – his neo-folk style is that akin to a Mountain Goats, an Elvis Perkins or an Ann Arbor contemporary Chris Bathgate or Charlene Kaye, highly schooled in various genres, a taste for the orchestral and contemplative, and an ear for a nicely flowing acoustic-led folk style. It’s hard to tell if the highly inquisitive lyrics are naïve youth or a beyond-his-years preternatural philosopher, wherever he’s going, the passion is palpable here. more info - Current Magazine Interview ~ Major Stars - Return to Form (Drag City)
When veteran metal/psych-rock collective Major Stars came together in 97 to forge their unabashed wah-heavy hard trounced rock debut, they called it The Rock Revival and had the first two tracks (of only four) run nearly 20 minutes. While they draw the curtains, take a bow and throw some charming hooks and throaty barbs your way with the marching pound-popper “Better Stay Down,” they make that return with the staticy-howls and distorted roars of a staggeringly wavy and declarative solo that burns atop a jam-ready percussive roll for nearly more than four minutes, with the characteristically instigative vocals barely able to keep pace before things calm down just past the five minute mark, “We’re goin back, we’ve had our way / no end in sight, no final day,” incants singer Sandra Barrett over those insuppressible mutant-growling riffs from Wayne Rogers. Major Stars continue to be bent on the steady demolition of the soul via grimy metal riffs, blue collar garage rock hooks, guitar solos seemingly akin with the swirling heroics of area-rockers yet so transmogrified by those ear-piercing distortions and vocals dipped into the soul of blues balladeers. Much like 08’s Mirror/Messenger, they balance their sprawling, spasmodic, pound-fest dissertations with a, not-quite-poppier-material, but quicker hitting garage-rock leaning brevity. For better or worse, every song goes for broke.
Okay - most of the DC "best of" lists, albums, nationally and locally, of 2009, will be covered - eventually - over at Eat This City.
So, my own little attempt at an exlusive: favorite local songs... (note, the wording is key - 'favorite' not 'best')
I tried my best to rank these, even though I didn't want to..., the actual "ranking" maybe holds up towards the 13 or 14-mark, and then it just turns into a list... ...and of course, there was so much more - Lightning Love and Oscillating Fan Club and Electric Lion Soundwave Experiment all have new stuff that I just never learned the names of...
and, obviously, I didn't track down mp3's of all these bands - but just click those links and hopefully you can hear some stuff...
ah well - songs we all heard, either on records, or at live shows through 2009 - 'round Detroit:
This Saturday, the hallowed and gnarled cavern of Detroit rock and hip/hop - St. Andrew's Hall - will host Quest for a Cure a benefit concert spearheaded (and headlined) by Quest Mcody along with Stretch Money. The former is likely known by those of you who watch MTV - but I'm dubious of any readers of this site being tuned to that - regardless...I bring it up because of Mcody's other work with softening the societal blows of hunger, illness and poverty. Joining the bill on Saturday is K'Jon and Monica Blaire as they perform to raise money for experimental treatment to save 8-year-old Benjamin Martin, whose seeking not covered through our lopsided and ludicrous system of health insurance alternative treatment for a cancerous brain tumor.
Partnered with this fine hip/hop/soul line-up is an up-and-coming blues rock duo called The Bang-Ups, who are Michigan born and bred - coming over to us from the west side. The Grand Rapids pair (Joey Dornbos-singer/guitarist; Brent French-drummer) embrace that fast, freewheeilng, finger-pickin style of neo-country rock mixed and muddied by stripped-down traditional blues, with a little old Americana and folk...and some straight-forward boot-stomp rock for good measure. They've got a record out - and you can get a listen at their myspace or find out even more here...
good ol' yuletide debauchery. Freaks frolic the streets, crawling from bar to bar dressed in varying interpretations of Santa's red suit and white fur, be it in tuxedo version or skimpy cocktail waitress version or something completely outta left field. Travel in roving gangs, with dashings of elves here or there, or maybe a reindeer or two...
The point is, there's plenty of shows going on around then...and one notable stop includes PJs Lager House - where up-and-comers Karalavaraunleash their dark and smoky blend of metal and psychedelia - formed from members of The Kingsnakes and the Dirty Love Bites. They're joined by the confrontational-yet-catchy industrial-funk-rock, otherwise known as "bootycore," brought to you by the savy HafLife, and the bills rounded out by soulful power-trio, with their energy-suggestive name, The Stimulus.
Santarchy is on Facebook - go search for them and make them your friend. Or go here.
Or, head over to Motorcityblog to read a message from Santa, and find more info on a giveaway contest provided through MCB!
First - Mittenfest IV is coming (New Year's Eve at the Elbow Room in Ypsi) - there's a massive interview coming to this site soon, but, also, there's lots of info here - plus this quaint and heartening illustration (above).
Weekend?
Well, Friday night at the Majestic Cafe you can see DC's favorite psychedelic surf-rockers, DevilFish (pictured above) - joined by Croff Family Band
Saturday?
Well, even if stacked with lots of longtime local players, the-still-up and coming soul-pop collective, The Hounds Below, (pictured aare days away from properly releasing their debut 7" -recorded with Jim Diamond - Saturday the 12th.
The Hard Lessons The Satin Peaches Silverghost Friendly Foes The Go Hounds Below Mick Bassett and the Marthas A Kroha Family Smithmas Outrageous Cherry Allan James and Cold Wave The Mydols The Oblesons The Barrettes Fawn Duende! Amy Gore The Octopus Those Transatlantics Old Empire The Pop Project American Mars
So then...if you're looking for some up and coming acts to see on Wednesday the 16th -
If you're Detroit-bound, try the psyche-pop trio The Wednesdees (myspace) who blend brit-pop charm with American hard-punched soul and a wee bit o' that good hazy psychedelia
Then, if you're Ann-Arbor-bound, you can, instead, visit the Blind Pig, to see Theo Katzman (whose played with Vox Maui, Seth Bernard and Yo!Soul) step out from behind the drum-kit (where he usually plays, with orchestral electro-pop collective My Dear Disco) to present his guitar-strapped singer-songwriter solo material - more info
Via TMT - I spoke with Scott Kannenberg (founding member of Pavement and writer of such invigorating indie ballads as "Date with Ikea" and founder of the band, Preston School of Industry). Here, we discuss the Pavement reunion, and his rechristening of his solo-songwriting project, as his first nom de plume, Spiral Stairs.
Nearly a calendar year ago, ethereal tribal/electro-folk quartet Animal Collective released their 7th proper full length (and, then, juggernaut of blog buzz) Merriweather Post Pavilion – an album of synth-twisted roots reggae and ambient dub dressed upon their sanctimoniously howled harmonies, fuzzy flares and synthetic bass booms, it was granted almost instant messianic-status leading into their most lucrative/well-attended U.S. tour to date.
For the band once known for finding good loving outside, with press pictures disguising its players in animal masks, their earthy elemental-leanings remain incorrigible – particularly when, as lyricists, they reflect on the rigors of tours or try easing their vertigo, however denied/ignored of the bated-breath attention given them in the upside-down world of internet-hipster fame – as tackled on this record’s most invigorating entry, “What Would I Want, Sky,” where they sing of “feelin stormy, feelin foamy,” refraining “I start to worry / lost in the flurries,” where the river acts as metaphor for big tours/buzz-factor’s uncontrollable fame-force and the “Sky” as the last place to escape to, the most wide-open and freeing refuge to “float up” to…before it, like their schedules, “fills up.”
In a recent interview, AC’s Avey Tare admitted that “the transitional seasons” were his favorite and that Fall Be Kind was definitely not reheated Merriweather leftovers. “Will I get to move on soon?” he chants in characteristic AC wavering melody on the final track, to which the answer is the song’s title, “I think I can…”
Indeed, this is a documentary of transition for a band that many are watching; an experiment to see if this and future recordings will receive salivated cushioning of unquestioned golden eggs or will be torn down by inevitable knee-jerk haters sick of hearing every third person incant of the rapturous sway of hits like “My Girls” or “Summertime Clothes.” Whereas the two formers from Merriweather were warm and blushing affairs of closed-eye-ecstasy to dance barefooted in the cool summer eve’s breeze, tracks 3 through 5, two-thirds of this record, effectively kill the amber-hued lamps, douse the incense, and open the windows to let the chill of winter in – things get dark and sparse; the ambient fuzzy furls of synthesizers are still integral and their ghostly cooed vocals still massage the soundscape but tones are cold and clangy (“I Think I Can”), whispered vocals, fragile and bleary and distant feeling, like the foreboding gale echoing over the dead grass of moonless hillsides (“On a Highway”), or the monster’s breath-loop of the low buzzy bass in the background of “Bleed.”
Diary-esque indulgences like the nocturnal “Highway,” the back-to-their-roots atmospheric/woodsy dream-states like “Bleed” and the cathartic give-and-take between stressed/hopeful on the hand-clap bounce of “I think I Can” were not only necessary, but therapeutic for the band, artistically, and will likely strengthen (I’m sorry to say, haters) their next full length. But it’s not all band-therapy – “Graze’s” textured, soothing sunrise piano-pulled intro struts and stomps its way into a playful flute whirled jig, burning with bass surges; while the aforementioned treasure, “Sky” while ostentatiously slow to start becomes a grinning, easy-goin dancer minimalist piano ballad.
“What is the right way? / Stop daydreaming, dude.”
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