Detroit Underground

Chicago’s Umphrey’s McGee and Michigan’s Greensky Bluegrass played the Fillmore Theater on February 2nd.  If you’ve never seen Umphrey’s before, they are a mix of a bluesy, jazzy sound with electronic effects and heavy metal / hard rock influence. They played a great show with great energy and seemed to flow seamlessly from song to [...]

All Good Music Festival moved to Legends Valley in Thornville, OH for 2012.  The location was great being from the midwest with easy access to get to and from the venue. As usual,  All Good had side by side stages so music isn’t conflicting and you can catch more music. After a a few hours [...]

As a new resident of Corktown, I was very excited to hear about a new rehearsal and working studio for audio and visual artists opening in my neighborhood. I had no idea, however, that one of the founding members of the studio was Jaye Thomas from The Rogue Satellites, a band we have covered before [...]

My birthday is on Sunday. So continues the tradition of great music and cheddar bay biscuits from Red Lobster, at The Old Miami. About a year-and-a-half ago I found out about a fake twitter account that some hater made to mock me, under the name @djmeph1. Having seen this as proof that I had arrived [...]

White Shag was summarized to me as, “Queens of the Stone Age, but with a female singer,” on the ride over to the New Dodge in Hamtramck, Saturday night.  I immediately and viscerally turned up my nose; I am unapologetically particular when it comes to female vocalists in general, but especially female rock vocalists, as [...]

Halloween proper fell on a Monday this year, not exactly the most raucous night of the week, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when rolling into Small’s in Hamtramck sometime after nine.  The incandescently lit bar was near empty with just a few patrons casually milling about, chatting in hushed tones.  But this inauspicious [...]

During Michael Jackson’s memorial service, Madonna reflected on the memories of her friendship with Michael, and made it clear their relationship was purely platonic. If, however, Madonna and Michael Jackson had ever made love, their offspring would have been something similar to Tunde Olaniran. (@tundeolaniran) Babatunde is a visionary with a true bohemian spirit. Every [...]

It’s a Corporate World, the highly anticipated LP from Detroit local band Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr, was released today under the Warner Brothers label. (I guess it really is a corporate world) The LA Times uses the word “cute” a lot to describe them, and perhaps that is deserved. They aren’t exactly the embodiment of [...]

I recently got the opportunity to interview Mick Collins from The Dirtbombs, and we waxed poetic about Movement 2011, Detroit music, records and the flight risk of Detroit musicians. Being new to Detroit’s rock scene, I learned a lot from him, but I think even some of the most die hard Dirtbombs fans will find [...]

Congratulations to Tunde Olaniran (@tundeolaniran) who is MTV’s artist of the week! We think this is a great message to send to MTV, that we’re tired of all the same music, repackaged under a new pop icon, week after week. We want MTV to cover real artists, who are making real music, innovating and being [...]

Tunde Olaniran (@tundeolaniran) from Flint, Michigan, is not cut from the same cloth as your average MTV musician. His style is very raw, and while his beats have that electro influence that is prevalent in modern pop music, his music transcends any normal stereotypes. With a voice like Michael Jackson and his stylistic flow, Tunde [...]

Boston filmmaker, Erik Proulx, (@eproulx) wants to make a documentary film about Detroit, but his concept is much different from the docs we’ve seen from BBC and Chris Hansen. This documentary strays from the typical ruin porn that has been used by the media to perpetuate all of the negative misconceptions about the city. Instead, [...]

Ignite Detroit (@ignitedetroit) is back this year for its second installment, and this year’s event is looking to blow away the first one! The organizers of Ignite Detroit teamed up with Motor City Casino Hotel (@MotorCityCasino) to bring Ignite to The Sound Board, and have lined up some of Detroit’s best underground musicians to provide [...]

Experimental rock band Oblisk offers some of the hardest hitting ambient music that Detroit has to offer. Producing powerful vocals behind a wall of  sound, Oblisk is a truly unique outfit that captures a new phase of local Detroit music. With a myriad of bands exploring the experiemental side of the garage rock genre, a [...]

Classic and experimental rock blend perfectly in the Detroit underground incarnation known as The Phage. Consisting of three brothers and a drummer, the band incorporates multi-layered instrumental tracks laced with hardcore and classic rock elements to for a style that is uniquely their own. The Phage’s latest release Princess Magma offers listeners a rock album [...]