Michigan Indie Review

by Mitch Phillps Back in September of 2003, Maxim Blender came out with it’s list of The 50 Worst Artists in History. Usually I ignore such obvious ploys to sell magazines, but I decided to take a peek to justify what I thought I might find. As usual, I wasn’t surprised. No less than four bands I’ve enjoyed in the past made the list: Emerson Lake & Palmer (#2), Tin Machine (#12) and, to a lesser extent, Kansas (#6) and Asia (#7). What’s more, the virtual frat-house of quip-scribblers at that NYC glossy (it took no less than nine Blender-boys to produce the piece) managed to insult other top acts that fit the “progressive rock” label (even those not on their hit-list!) with the same lazy insults that have been regurgitated in the rock press for the last thirty years; Yes and Jethro Tull are described as ‘inexcuseably pompous’ and ‘appealing only to male sci-fi bores’, Kansas as ‘bereft of sex and emotion’, and ELP of ‘(shunning) blues-based rock in favor of bombastically reinterpr...

John Ludi is the latest persona of a local music veteran whose spent better than twenty years creating music both with bands such as "Pliny The Elder" and "Soft War" and as a solo artist.  After returning to Michigan three years ago, battered and bruised from a soul-searching trek across America, John Ludi turned his thoughts inward and began his latest, and perhaps greatest work, entitled "Rise Above or Fall Below". Artist: John Ludi Release: Rise Above Or Fall Below Year: 2005 Musicians: John Ludi (guitars, basses, keyboards, programming) Greg Kutcher (guitars on "The Way"), Ken Shaw (hand drum on "The Way") Additional Recording: Digital Vision (Wixom) Additional Engineering and Mastering: Michael Moore (No, not that Michael Moore) If you've been to his website, you'd know that John Ludi loiters on the fringe of popular culture: where undisclosed numbers of alien abductions and cattle-mutilations are covered-up to prevent...

From the "better-late-than-never" section, Mitch Phillips dusts off the old CD pile and comes out with The Bomb Pops 2002 release, "Things They Say" which features six tracks of pogo punching pop that'll make you wanna tear your t-shirt, dye your hair green and stick a safety-pin through your nose. Clocking in at a total of 13.6 minutes, this CD, unlike Mitch, wastes no time in getting to the point. Band: The Bomb Pops Release: Things They Say Year: 2002 Members: Tim Hervey (guitar) , Shawn Hervey (bass), Natalie Wegner (Vocals), Phil Bansen (drums) When I first saw The Bomb Pops several years ago at Club Bart, I remember saying that they were all substance and no style (Can you believe the arrogance? I blame the Vicodin). Anyway, here was a great power-pop band, but without a feature to set them apart from the dozens of great bands in the same genre in Detroit. I like to imagine they took my advice with 2001's addition of vocalist Natalie Wegner ,...