When Model D signed the lease and took occupancy of this gem of a neo-Victorian manse in Midtown, we knew this day would come: the opportunity to marry the awesome history of the space to our own future in this great space.
So far so very good. We've held all sorts of serious and not so serious meetings, conferences, editorial advisories, publishers' retreats and other business-related stuff at the house. As you would expect. But we've not yet blown it out properly. Cass Corridor style. Zoot's style, we mean.
That'll change this Friday, June 22, with an event sponsored by the
Friends Foundation at the Detroit Public Library.
A few days into summer 2012 Model D will celebrate the heyday of Zoot's -- roughly 1994 to 1998 -- by bringing back some of the bands and DJs that used to attract lines around the block. To do that we've asked Dion Fischer -- who performed at the house in bands Godzuki and Princess Dragonmom -- to curate the night's entertainment.
And what entertainment! Here it is: Michigan space rock pioneers
Windy & Carl,
Little Princess (zoo trip performance in the yard),
Swimsuit (new group featuring Fred Thomas of Saturday Looks Good to Me and City Center), and Danny Kroha (a solo performance by a founding member of
the Gories). We're still working on DJs.
There will be at least one keg of Midtown craft beer donated for the event by our landlord Scott Lowell of
Traffic Jam & Snug. And there will be locally produced food. We're still working on something special.
While we honor the past, we also put our faith in the future by taking this opportunity to raise funds for a newly-formed group, the
Detroit Sound Conservancy. The group was founded by our old and dear friend Carleton Gholz, who wrote
this piece earlier this spring talking about the goals of the group -- in short, to preserve the sonic inspirations that were born and nurtured in Detroit.
A recommended donation that night to the sound conservancy is on a sliding $5-10 scale. If you don't make it that night but would still like to donate, we'll find a way for you.
And this just in: visual artist Davin Brainard, also a member of Little Princess, will hang some of his works that he may have shown at Zoot's, or pieces were inspired by those halcyon days. They will be priced to sell, with half of the proceeds going to the Detroit Sound Conservancy.
It starts at with DJ'd tunes 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.; live music will go roughly 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., and possibly later. Bet on later.
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