Summer Festival Time!
Anybody know of any summer festivals coming up?
St. Patty’s Day Approaches!
Well, the green beer will be flowin’ on Tuesday, March 17th and I was wondering if anybody was either playing any gigs that day or hitting up any cool St. Patrick’s Day parties anywhere. Please comment to this post with whatever you got goin on and we’ll post it on our calendar!
Detroit Indie Music Project Spring Update
Well, spring is just about here and we want you to let us know about your upcoming shows and festivals for Spring and Summer! If you know of any cool events going on soon in the Motor City, let us know and we’ll post it right here for everybody to see!
Spread the Word…. IMP: Detroit is here!!!
Something for you to put on your myspace… email to friends…. facebook…. whatever…. Fung sui your ears with web decor! : )
The weekend is over :(
My weekend in Detroit was a good one - Friday did the normal hosting Karaoke in Wyandotte, Michigan - the place was packed all night, I think the bar made more than it has in quite a long time. It was a good night for me!
Saturday went out to the CD release party for Broken Day Machine at Simon’s in Allen Park. This was a great venue for the bands, and they all put on a great show!
The first band to go on was Blackmail - a great rock/funk group that made me think of Living Colour a lot. They had some issues with the sound, but that was due to the main sound guy at Simon’s being on vacation. Other than that, they were crazy great!
The next band is the female fronted band, The Pilz. They started the show with 2 acoustic tunes which was a good introduction - but the rest of the show (with Kevin Kennedy from BDM fillin’ in on drums) rocked the place! Danni has tons of energy and is all over the stage! They even did a few covers too, a good rendition of ‘Horse and a Cherry Tree’! Their originals are great too - Nicotine was one song that stood out, and got the crowd moving!
Finally was the band we all came to see - Broken Day Machine! They played a full hour and 1/2, and played all the songs off their new CD, plus a good sampling of new tunes too! They sound as good live as they do on CD too! One notable song from the show was an incredible duet version of ‘Buried Alive’ where Danni from The Pilz came on stage - that version should be recorded soon as a “b-side”, it was incredible!
All in all, it was a great night, and I encourage you to check out these bands the next time they’re playing live! Pick up BDM’s new CD, ‘Tomorrow Ends Today’ too - it’s on iTunes and available from them directly!!
Just a little extra
So… I was basically a Loser as far as shows go this past weekend…. but I did manage to go see Radiohead in Cleveland on the fourth, which was absolutely amazing!!!! And was by far, the BEST light show I have ever seen for a band… so I thought I’d share some pics for you.
Oh, and Ps…. incase you were wondering why the guys didn’t play in Detroit…. it all had to do with good ol’ advertising! DTE, the only potential venue for the guys had too many corporate advertising on the venue, and Thom Yorke didn’t want to deal with it. You can click here for the entire article on the matter. Oh… and definately no advertisement at the Blossom Center in Cleveland… and you could bring in water, but caps had to be taken off, (per request of the band)…. guess Thom was a little paranoid about having bottles thrown at him as well. But all the less, when you’re as great a band as Radiohead, I guess you can afford to be picky!
The Blossom Center: Notice the advertisements that are blacked out at the top!
The set up… Radiohead is an all green band, so the ‘poles’ hanging are LED.
An amazing display!
Behind the LED lights, you can see the camera on the members of the band from different angles!
You will love me for this!
So, before their show at the Crofoot last Friday Night with Manna and Quail, I got the chance to meet the wonderful guys from Wild Sweet Orange, who stopped by the riff2 studio for a quick chat with Tre for the Myspace New Music Show. Here are the pics I got!
Here are the Pics from the show!!!! Both bands were FANTASTIK!!!!!!
and…… last but not least…. an accoustic version of Wild Sweet Orange’s hit… Ten Dead Dogs! enjoy and buy their cd!
Last night in Toledo…
Okay, I admit it - sometimes I go to Toledo to check out live music. Besides, isn’t Toledo just a Detroit suburb? I promise that it’s not that often! Well, until last night anyways!
What was last night? Well, I went down to Frankies Inner City down in Toledo to check out a great band from San Francisco, Thriving Ivory. Little did I know that it was a “low dough show” put on by 106.5 FM, so the cover was only $1(.06) - Not only that, there were 5 bands on the bill! Quite the deal!
If you haven’t been to Frankies, it’s quite a small club - but it knows how to bring in the good live acts. Bands such as Limp Bizkit, Goo Goo Dolls, The Dreaming, Smashing Pumpkins, and more have played there - Which is pretty crazy when you see the size of the stage!
So, getting back to last night - The first band up was a band from Chicago, Inept. They took the stage and rocked the carpet off it! This band has a great sound, fun attitude, and really interacts with the crowd well. I was able to get an interview with the guys afterwards, which I’ll have on an upcoming episode of Zaldor’s World
Following Inept was the band I was there to see, Thriving Ivory. I’ve been following this band for over 2 years, and had the pleasure of seeing them in the Shelter (where they are playing THIS SATURDAY August 9th) a few months ago. Clayton has a great voice and their songs are very powerful. Think Five For Fighting - These guys are much better though! It’s good to see these guys finally getting noticed, it’s well deserved. If you want to hear more, check out the interview I did with them.
The next band was supposedly the best one on the bill - but I really thought they were mediocre. City Sleeps, a band from Atlanta - and they have a good rock sound similar to Buckcherry and Hinder. However, they sound better recorded than live. The band was great live, but the vocalist, Ely Dye, didn’t really sound like the recorded version. The interesting thing about the show, Ely was kneeling/sitting during the entire set. Why? Well, he later told me that he did it because it was to commemorate their 420th show. He said that they didn’t do anything special for the 400th, so this was the next best thing. Let me tell you, he was a character - supposedly not on anything other than Cherry Coke (which the bartenders told me later that they don’t serve Cherry Coke!) - he was all over the place. I did get an interview with him, but unfortunately I think it might have been lost when I accidentally dropped the recorder at the end of the interview! ARGH! In any case, the band sounds good - maybe it was just an off night for Ely - check them out if you happen to get another low dough show for $1.
Next up was a crazy rap group from Dearborn Heights, Michigan - Intergalactic Ghetto Blasterz. These guys were all over the place, on stage - in the audience. What’s even better, they had inflatable pool toys (animals) they were hitting and swinging around! Not much I can say about these guys other than you’ve gotta see it to believe it!! I got a chance to sit with John and Vince after the show, great guys and a great interview.
The last band I didn’t really stick around for, I had to head home!
All in all, a great night in Toledo at Frankies Inner City - if you have a chance to go there to see a band, do it!
How was your weekend?
Amber and I are going to start giving a rundown of our weekends here on the DiMP - and we’d love it if you’d participate too! You can comment on our posts letting us know what you did around the “D” and helping us get the word out about Detroit Indie Music Project!
So, what did I do this past weekend? Well, not much regarding Indie music, unless you count Karaoke. I did have plans to meet up with Amber at the Manna & Quail show, but those plans didn’t solidify! Then I thought about going to see Thunderbirds are now! down at the Magic Stick on Saturday - and now I wish I had after learning that there were celebrities down there! Oh well, next time!
No, instead I did more karaoke.
However, this weekend coming up, I DO have plans to support local music! Saturday night I’ll be at the Broken Day Machine CD release party at Simon’s in Allen Park! Great band, in fact I just put out IR:Detroit #19 which features their interview and music from the new CD!
Hope to see some of you down there too - don’t be afraid to say “HI Les!”
FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY!!!
This will be the best duo of a show since peanut butter and honey sandwiches! (Jelly is WAY overrated!)
A. Let me give you the info on the bands:
Detroit’s very own Manna and Quail, a local band who have the wonderful melodic vocals along with that great “british” sounding keyboards to make a girl swoon after hearing the first 4 measures of the song. They are very poppy with the right amount of rock and ambient melodies that make you want to hear more and more. You can check them out at myspace.com/mannaandquail. My fave song pic for the band is Alabama’s ahem… The Layman’s Heart.
And secondly a band to play with the guys…. touring from none other than my very own home town (Birmingham Alabama)…. Wild Sweet Orange. These guys were recently featured on David Letterman, as well as a track played on Grey’s Anatomy. The guys have a Bright Eyes sound, with great lyrics that really stick after heard. My pics for this band are their brilliant single Ten Dead Dogs and secondly a wonderful more upbeat tune, Either Or.
B. Okay after I’ve filled you with wonderful knowledge music!!! The show is this Friday, (August 1st) at the Crofoot at 7pm! Tickets are $8 in advance, and $10 the day of the show. I will see you tomorrow at this wonderful show!!!! (If I haven’t exhausted myself from dancing to such great tunes!)
xoxoxox
Alabama / Amber
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