Michigan Indie Review

The Wrenfields at Memphis Smoke Royal Oak, Mi. Wednesday, March 28 2001 review by Mitch Phillips The Invitation A month and a half prior to my mid-week arrival I received an invitation from Noreen Novrocki, asking if I’d come see her alt/country/roots sextet, The Wrenfields. I received a three-song EP in the mail with the usual promotional materials and a nice e-mail complimenting my past work. (Sly move - always appeal to the writer’s ego when trying to get press. ) She even offered to pay for my drinks. (Very sly move - especially if you know the writer has a predilection for liquor but only a budget for beer.) I’d already agreed to cover the show, even if I couldn’t admit to the reasons. But then I played the EP. Then I played it again. And again. In fact, I played it so much I destroyed the disk. It won’t even cue-up anymore. I’m going to miss it terribly until the full-length CD comes out sometime this summer (so if you’re reading this Noreen, I really need an advanced copy ...

Blush / Sweaty Suede Lips / Atomic Numbers and Deathgirl.com St. Andrew's Hall, Detroit 3-24-01 Live music events are for voyeurs like me and, luckily, exhibitionists like the dozen or so plaid-skirted, knee-socked, pigtail-ponies who sauntered through the crowd and hovered over the balcony rails at St. Andrews Hall for the Blush / Sweaty Suede Lips / Atomic Numbers / Deathgirl.com show on Sat. March 24th. "School-grrlz" feigning pre-pubescent naiveté and bearing upper-thigh seem to have become a fashion (or is it fetish?) in Detroit, much to my delight. It makes you wonder what the next decade will bring to the crowd's dress - or lack thereof. Blush I missed Blush - again, which is a stupid shame. Not only was it billed as their CD release party, but they were to perform with a more electronic approach, having recently lost their drummer, Kelly, a former Stun-Gun-ner who's sold her kit to pursue her passion for sequencing. By all accounts, (even the oth...

A Disclaimer... Date: Friday, March 16, 2001 @ 23:25:58 EST Topic: Opinion Writer Mitch Phillips gets defensive about his sometimes brutally honest reviewing style. A Disclaimer.... by Mitch Phillips Recently I’ve been accused of taking pleasure in thrashing local bands in my reviews when I should be, by all means, promoting them. After all, this website exists for this very reason. So shouldn’t I do everything I can to make them look good? My response to this criticism was an emphatic NO. 'It does no good to be another yes-man in the local music scene,' I recently responded to a slighted bandmember by e-mail. 'Too often reviews are written by close friends and/or hangers-on who have nothing constructive or objective to say about a band's music or their performance which is of no use to anybody.’ Or they only go see the great bands who are already getting good press and leave the struggling, shitty bands to their own devices without any feedback. I don't ...

Robb Roy at The New Place Lounge Date: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 @ 05:46:18 EST Topic: Show Reviews Long working local band takes our reviewer from The New Place in Dearborn to a dance-hall on Telegraph where he proceeds to put Robb Roy's music to the "Booty Test." Dearborn Michigan May 20, 2000 review by mitch phillips Heavy Metal Dues I first met Graham Strachan on a shipping dock in 1990. He was hauling scrap metal for a salvage company with longtime friend Michael Kudreiko. Despite his being covered from head to foot in rust, grease and metal shavings, I knew instinctively this guy was a bandhead (poor guy with a pony tail - not exactly genius on my part). But like alcoholics, musicians are predetermined to find each other in any crowd. I told Graham I was gigging the club scene in my off hours and he told me he was the singer for a band called Robb Roy. "Yeah, I've heard of you guys, " I said with vague recollection; their name had already been ...

By mitch phillips at The I-ROCK, Feb 3, 2001 Although I'm not a balding, nostalgic metalhead and I'm too old to be a peevish punk, I found myself at the I-Rock anyway after receiving an invitation from Gary Jibilian to check out his new duo Jibilian/Glass. Exploited Youth•Mad City Pleasure Zone• Jibilian/Glass • Violet Skin at The I-ROCK, Feb 3, 2001 Worship My Stick Although I’m not a balding, nostalgic metalhead and I’m too old to be a peevish punk, I found myself at the I-Rock anyway after recieving an invitation from Gary Jibilian to check out his new duo Jibilian/Glass. “Fans of King Crimson, Gordian Knot and Dixie Dregs will love this music, but to be honest, every single person who hears these tunes genuinely loves it, “ Jibilian crowed immodestly in a recent e-mail. I was intrigued by the prospect of seeing anyone live up to that claim. I’ve been a staunch fan of King Crimson since their reformation in 1980 with studio legend Tony Levin holding down the bottom e...

The Monsters of Grrl Rock will chew you up and spit your out - with their merchandising alone! story by mitch phillips Club Bart, Ferndale Saturday, October 6, 2000 review by mitch phillips Broadzilla at Club Bart? Seems like an unlikely spot to catch a band hyped as the punk/metal monsters or Grrrrl Rock, but a cozy opportunity for me to catch this act for the first time. Club Bart, if you haven't been there, is more of a Woodward dinner bar that lets it's hair down once the gallery tourists have SUV'd back to the burbs. And it's sma..., er, I mean "intimate." I'd trucked down here a couple of time's before to catch an open mike night for a mixed bag of poetry, the acapella lounge stylings of Taria and at least one appearance by Bob the Singing Bass Player. But Broadzilla? I had to show up just to see if they'd shoot chunks of plate glass across the Woodward median. Napoleon K and I chew a couple Vikes for mood and arrive early as The Bo...

Killbilly's & Twistin Tarantulas at the Token Lounge "Punk-a-billy rockers throttle local reigning kings of swing" Token Lounge Killbillys/Twistin'Tarantulas Saturday, April 29, 2000 review by mitch phillips Who'd have thought rockabilly virtuosos, "The Twistin'Tarantulas" could be TKO'd on their own turf and in their own genre? But that's exactly what happened at the Token Lounge's Room #2 when warm-up surprise "The Killbillys" sucker-punched the kings of swing and wowed the crowd with their psychobilly siezures. There wasn't a still foot in the outhouse while this band dominated the stage with their unique brand of Ethel-pumpin' cow-punk. True, The Tarantulas tend to be more traditional, rockabilly with a hearty dose of upright bass - something the Killbilly's lack if only for its aesthetic value. But even the untouchable double-bass talent of "Pistol" Pete Midtgard and his infectious plank spankin...