"Can't make it to Detroit this year? Well, here's something to console you: the entire official festival will be streamed online via Resident Advisor.

With the help of media players powered by Awdio, the sounds of the iconic electronic music festival will be broadcast live around the world. Streams run from noon until midnight each day, and there will be separate streams for all five stages, so you can hear every last moment of the action at Hart Plaza, from DJ Harvey's opening set on Saturday to Flying Lotus's closer on Monday. Have a look at the festival's schedule to find out when everyone's playing (and remember to adjust for Detroit local time). The players will be embedded on the event listings [here] once the festival gets started."

Sasquatch will be streaming this weekend too.

by Ryan Barkan

Super Bowl XLV (45): Dallas Cowboys vs...oh wait....The Green Bay Packers vs the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dallas' brand new, state of the art, big ass stadium. The Packers won, bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to small town America and less sales back to Wiz Khalifa. I wonder if Jerry Jones was faking all of those smiles? Enough of the sports talk. This feature is the return of the long lost "Week In Music Licensing" post.

The real winner tonight - Detroit. A town that has been down on its luck, due for something inspiring to happen. Well here you go. Laura R. Charron tweeted that "#Detroit area agrees that #Chrysler200 had THE BEST commercial." Decide for yourself:

Continue reading "music & commercials of Super Bowl XLV (Eminem, Jon Spencer, Ozzy, Bieber, Bowie, RAC, Kenny G & more)"

DOWNLOAD: The Dirtbombs - Sharevari (MP3)

"Nearly ten years after their acclaimed Ultraglide in Black helped kick-start a renewed interest in all things Detroit and rock-and-roll, The Dirtbombs are releasing the de facto companion piece, Party Store.

Ultraglide was a covers collection of 60's and 70's soul gems centred on the ideas of African-American identity and politics of the era (see Curtis Mayfield's "Kung Fu" and Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City"). All of the songs made an impression on a young, pre-musical Mick Collins as he listened to them on 45's in the family basement.

Party Store is an assortment of live band interpretations of classic Detroit techno music of the 80's and early 90's. These are songs Collins digested when they were originally released - at a time where he was already making waves with garage-punk legends The Gories. Songs that run the gamut of subject matter from materialistic future-disco braggadocio "Sharevari" (originally by A Number of Names) to cold, post-industrial isolation of "Alleys of Your Mind" originally by Cybotron) through the instrumental optimism of a worldwide house classic, "Strings of Life" (originally by Derrick May)... ALL these themes encapsulate the climate of Detroit both now and at the time of their initial release. Let it be said clearly...this is a record that addresses, at the same time, both the past and the future of Detroit." [Press Release]

You'll have to wait until February 1st to get your hands on Party Store via In the Red, but you can party with Mick Collins in Brooklyn tonight, New Years Eve, at Lady Jay's.

Download "Sharevari" off "Party Store" above. Watch the video for the same song, with more info on the full album with cover art, below...

Continue reading "The Dirtbombs releasing Detroit Techno cover album (MP3), Mick Collins DJing Lady Jay's on New Years Eve"

photos by Tim Griffin

DOWNLOAD: Tyvek - Underwater To (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Tyvek - 4312 (MP3)

Tyvek's new album Nothing Fits was released via In The Red on November 9th. Download two songs off that album above for free and catch the Detroit punk band live tonight, 11/20, at Brooklyn Fireproof as part of an exciting night entitled "The Return of Detroit." Also on the bill are fellow Detroit garage rockers The Mahonies, Terrible Twos, and Timmy's Organism. Timmy = Timmy Vulgar who also happens to front Human Eye who maybe you caught along with Sex Beet at Knitting Factory earlier this week. Last but not least, garage rock royalty, Mick Collins of Gories and the Dirtbombs, will be special guest DJ of the evening.

Some more unpublished pictures of Tyvek (playing the BV/Anso party at the Spiderhouse during SXSW 2010), the Brooklyn show flyer, new Tyvek album tracklisting and other stuff below...

Continue reading "Tyvek MP3s, live pics & a show w/ Timmy [Vulgar]'s Organism"

Jay-Z @ Coachella (more by Rachel Carr)

Jay-Z and Eminem appeared at last night's Yankees game in Detroit (we destroyed them) to announce co-headlining NYC & Detroit shows. They'll be in Comerica Park on September 2nd and Yankee Stadium on September 13th. The show will be the first concert in the new Yankees stadium. Ticket info TBA. A video of the pair on ESPN announcing the shows, and one from the first time Jay-Z performed at the stadium, is below...

Continue reading "Jay-Z & Eminem playing Yankees Stadium & Comerica Park"

by BBG

Negative Approach at Red 7(more here)

Why Be Something That You're Not chronicles the first wave of Detroit hardcore from its origins in the late seventies to its demise in the mid-eighties. Through a combination of oral history and extensive imagery, Tony Rettman proves that even though the Southern California beach towns might have created the look and style of hardcore punk, it was the Detroit scene - along with a handful of other cities across the country - that cultivated the music's grassroots aesthetic before most cultural hot spots around the globe even knew what the music was about.

The book includes interviews with members of The Fix, Violent Apathy, Negative Approach, Necros, Pagans, Bored Youth, and L-Seven along with other people who had a hand in the early hardcore punk scene like Ian MacKaye, Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson.

The book is definitely something I will check out, and the release has sparked a ton of interesting shows in celebration including (in my opinion) the whopper of them all in NYC on August 28th; look for the destructive Negative Approach to team up with Tesco Vee's Hate Police, Mind Eraser (who are playing dates with Slang), Off With Their Heads (who have a Knitting Factory show of their own), Hellmouth, and New Lows at Santos Party House! Ticket info is forthcoming.

Negative Approach will also be in NYC on June 20th to play Punk Island along with a ton of other notables. The final roster for that festival, and more dates in celebration of Why Be Something That You're Not are below.

Continue reading "Tesco Vee, Negative Approach & others playing Detroit hardcore book release shows & other dates "

DOWNLOAD: Death - Politicians In My Eyes (MP3)

Death of Detroit

Forgotten except by the most fervent punk rock record collectors... Death would likely have remained lost in obscurity if not for the discovery last year of a 1974 demo tape in [bassist] Bobby [Hackney]'s attic. Released [in February] by Drag City Records as "... For the Whole World to See," Death's newly unearthed recordings reveal a remarkable missing link between the high-energy hard rock of Detroit bands like the Stooges and MC5 from the late 1960s and early '70s and the high-velocity assault of punk from its breakthrough years of 1976 and '77. Death's songs "Politicians in My Eyes," "Keep On Knocking" and "Freakin Out" are scorching blasts of feral ur-punk, making the brothers unwitting artistic kin to their punk-pioneer contemporaries the Ramones, in New York; Rocket From the Tombs, in Cleveland; and the Saints, in Brisbane, Australia. They also preceded Bad Brains, the most celebrated African-American punk band, by almost five years. [NYTimes]

Just a few months after Drag City breathed life into ...For The Whole World To See, Death (not to be confused with the legendary Floridian death metal band featuring the late Chuck Schuldiner) was resurrected. The Brothers Hackney have scheduled three US shows over the last weekend in September in their former hometown of Detroit (they reside in Bulington, VT), Chicago, and Cleveland. They're also now confirmed to play Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest in November.

No word on who will fill the shoes of guitarist David Hackney (he passed from lung cancer in 2000), though odds are one of the Hackney's sons in Rough Francis will probably be elected. Rough Francis, who routinely cover material by Death, will provide support on all dates (minus Fun Fun Fun). Earlier this year they appeared with members of Death at Joey Ramone's 58th birthday show on May 19th at Irving Plaza. Videos of their performance are posted below.

Death's back story is an interesting one:

In 1975 at Detroit's United Sound Studios with engineer Jim Vitti, they recorded seven songs written by David and Bobby. According to the Hackney family, Columbia Records president Clive Davis funded the recording sessions, but asked the band to change its name to something more commercially palatable than Death. When the Hackneys refused, Davis ceased his support. The following year they self-released 500 copies from the session on the 7" single "Politicians in My Eyes" b/w "Keep on Knocking," on their Tryangle label, which eventually became a collectors' item.

"Politicians In My Eyes", a song that Jack White of The White Stripes/Dead Weather/The Raconteurs described as "ahead of punk, and ahead of their time," is available for download above (and in one of the videos below). The videos and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Death played Ramones gig, playing FFFFest & other shows"

Sad news to report from the Detroit hip hop scene....

Titus (Baatin) Glover, the Detroit rapper who co-founded the much-acclaimed Slum Village, has died.

The circumstances of his death remain unknown, [but] ...Baatin's body was found [Saturday] morning in the 14000 block of Anglin Street, said family friend Ty Townson, who was at the scene as Baatin's body was taken to the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office.

Glover's mother, Alberta Glover, said she didn't know anything about how her son died. She said she's waiting for the medical examiner to tell the family something either Sunday or Monday.... Funeral arrangements are not yet set.

Baatin, who turned 35 in March, left Slum Village in 2002, later telling the Free Press he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He continued to record and play occasional solo dates before returning to the Slum fold for the group's upcoming album, Villa Manifesto, due Sept. 22. -[Detroit Free Press]

Baatin recently performed with Slum Village in NY at Rock The Bells and was scheduled to perform at BB Kings with the reunited Reflection Eternal.

A memorial tribute was held Sunday night at 5 Elements Gallery in Detroit.

Videos below...

Continue reading "Baatin of Slum Village (recently reunited), RIP "