Nightlife : Buzz

It's called "Two Worlds, One Sound," a followup of sorts to last year's benefit at Model D that also honored our building's rich history as Zoot's, a hotspot for local music in the mid-1990s. 

Here's the lowdown from Detroit Sound Conservancy founder Carleton S. Gholz:

LipCity and BMG never met until the DSC brought them together to organize around Detroit’s rich musical legacy in front of the Blue Bird Inn on Tireman. Both archivists, historians, writers, and sound-organizers, LipCity and BMG were raised in Detroit’s imaginative soundscape, schooled by DJs like Ken Collier and the Electrifying Mojo, and activated to embrace their communities. They will bring their two worlds together under one sound to raise funds for the Detroit Sound Conservancy who are working with the Detroit Public Library Friends Foundation to enhance the stewardship surrounding Detroit’s musical heritage.

Nicely said, but just who are LipCity and BMG? Regular peeps know them by their real names Curtis Lipscomb (yes, executive director of KICK) and Brendan M. Gillan of electro-space disco innovators Ectomorph.

This is quality talent performing for a quality organization. $10 (or more) donation suggested. Magic Stick is at 4140 Woodward Ave. in Midtown. Starts at 9 p.m. tonight, Tuesday June 18, goes til 2 a.m. (editor's note: and the after-party?)

Detroit, music city. Yeah man, we're all over that plain but huge matter of fact. This is the original (and only) home of Motown (c'mon L.A., stand down, please); the birthplace of the sickest garage rock (Stooges, MC5, Gories) and electro (Adult., Drexciya, Dopplereffekt) ever made, trailblazing hip hop (foremost Slum Village, James Dewitt Yancey aka J Dilla) and, of course, techno (Cooley High peeps alone -- notably Carl Craig, Mike Huckaby, Anthony "Shake" Shakir -- produced more talent than most Johnny-come-lately "dance music capitals" anywhere in the world, baby).

So, yes, we're well aware of our innovative sound heritage. This short film helps us understand part of what's happening now, in Midtown, Hamtown and other bars, and especially at next gen private house parties.

Check it out here.

Spring cannot be far behind once Paxahau begins teasing electronic dance music fans by announcing the first third of the program. The three-day event during Memorial Day weekend is May 25-27. 

Tickets are now on sale at the Movement.us website. Three-day weekend passes are $79. VIP passes are $199. Single-day tickets are available, although daily schedules for the Movement's five stages have not been released.

Last year, Movement notched its top attendance since becoming a paid festival in 2005, drawing 107,000 over three days.
Some of our top picks from the list of artists announced thus far:

Ben Klock b2b Marcel Dettmann, Brendon Moeller aka Ecologist, Carl Craig, Dave Clarke, Dennis Ferrer, Derrick May & Kevin Saunderson, Drumcell, George Fitzgerald, Mala, Richie Hawtin, Ryan Elliott, Silent Servant, Tensnake, Terrence Parker and the first ever Detroit appearance by The Bug.

Check out more here.

It might have been a bit noisy and bright at a video shoot last month at the Michigan Central Station (an elsewhere). But it was worth it, we reckon, when we saw the product featuring homeboy Eminem, and 50 Cent and Adam Levine of Maroon 5.

An excerpt from Curbed Detroit:

Remember how 50 Cent and Eminem woke everybody up with their helicopter last month? That was because they were shooting a music video for 50 Cent's "My Life," the third single off of his next album, Street King Immortal. Although the album won't drop until Feb. 26, "My Life" and its music video were just released this week. The footage features 50 Cent, Eminem, and Adam Levine (of Maroon 5) singing/running/sitting in various Detroit locales, most notably Michigan Central Station. Take a look at the video here.

And read the rest of the story here.

Yes, we have a lot of coverage of the Detroit Design Festival this week. But too much is never enough when you have a series of happenings this good. Here's one to clip and save from Kate Abbey-Lambertz in HuffPost Detroit.

Start reading here.

We take the business of Detroit music seriously here and devoted much of our July speaker series to that topic. This series of stories in Crains Detroit simply nails many of our concerns. Our kudos. Highly recommended reading.

Start here.

Full disclosure: we've loved Matthew Dear since we first started hearing his music and going out to see him DJ in the early '00s. Our gophers even dug up this feature penned by managing editor Walter Wasacz in 2004: here. 

Now living in upstate New York, Dear still holds Detroit, well, dear. An excerpt from Cool Hunting:

That's Detroit--it always makes you feel like it's on the verge of tipping toward being successful and booming. And that's what keeps people there. And when you're in Detroit, you feel like you own it. It's your city, you're there, you're the one bringing in art and events and doing shows. You're meeting people who are also doing their version of what their creative interest is. So there's this little buzz that's always in Detroit and no matter how big that buzz gets on the world scale--like right now a lot of people are talking about it--you hope that it does finally explode.

Read more here.

This is music to our ears, as written by John Gallagher of the Detroit Free Press: 

"There are traffic jams in the morning -- and after work on streets that were once abandoned after dark. New residents walk their dogs, buy coffee, get haircuts." He's talking about downtown and Midtown activity, of course.

Want to read more? Sure you do. Go here.

There's so much to see and hear at this year's Concert of Colors -- the annual summer event's 20th anniversary -- that we'll let you decide where you want to go and who you want to see this long weekend (Thursday July 12 through Sunday July 15) at three venues (the Detroit Institute of Arts, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Max M. Fisher Center) in the Cultural Center.

OK, maybe just a few recommendations: how about Don Was Detroit All Star Revue, Saturday at Orchestra Hall; or George Clinton and P-Funk on the same stage on Sunday night?

You can take the rest from here. There is plenty to dig into. It's all free, by the way. Have fun.

Some of you might have first attended the Hamtramck Festival, three days of urban fun in the Labor Day weekend sun, since 1980. That's a good, long run we want to see continue for decades to come.

The festival is under threat because of cutbacks in the city's budget. A solution not available 32 years ago is the best option to raise funds: Kickstarter.

Go here and throw a few bucks in the pot to keep the street party alive and kicking.  

Considering we're throwing a party this week that celebrates one important piece of the Cass Corridor legacy -- Zoot's -- this piece by Vince Carducci on the art and music scene got our attention.

An excerpt: 

My first encounter with the Cass Corridor came as a teenager in the suburbs reading Joy Hakanson Colby's multipage full-color spread on the scene in the now-defunct Detroit News Sunday Magazine.) The whole thing was capped off with a blockbuster exhibition mounted by the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1980 titled: "Kick Out the Jams: Detroit's Cass Corridor, 1963-1977." Legends grew up around the major players that echo to this day.

Read more here.

Chef Dave Mancini takes us on a tour of his favorite food places, including the Sunday Dinner Company on the East Side and Pupuseria Y Restaurante Salvadoreno in Southwest Detroit. Totally awesome piece in GQ. Go here for more awesome.

Yes, Movement is more than just a techno fest. The hip hop nation has been represented by Slum Village, Mos Def and others. Next week Public Enemy -- you heard that right -- takes the Main Stage. Kelly Frazier gives us a preview in HuffPost Detroit.

An excerpt: Back in the 1940s, Chuck D's grandfather drove trucks for Ford, and the fruits of his labor would afford him a Cadillac in the 1950s. As a result, police on 7 Mile Road in Detroit regularly stopped his grandfather. It was one of many bold lessons about Detroit and the world that Chuck D got to learn.

Read on here.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra got just what it needed: a young, international musical star. The Freep's Mark Stryker knows that's a very good thing, indeed. Read about it here.

We like this a lot, a brand new festival of contemporary art and light to be held in early October in Midtown.

The Woodward Corridor between Kirby on the north end and Mack on the southern border will be alight with art. Institutions like the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and the Max M. Fisher Center will have special programing.

And all you artists reading this can send your proposals for light-related works now through May 28. Get all the details on this brand-spanking new site.