Avant-Garde/Experimental
Detroit Music Awards celebrates its 25th anniversary this Friday
Detroit will bring out its biggest names and most vibrant talent on Friday, April 29, as the Detroit Music Awards celebrates its 25th anniversary. Nominees will flock The Fillmore, vying for awards in categories including Outstanding Americana Artist, Outstanding Blues Vocalist, Outstanding Electronic/Dance Artist/Group, Outstanding National Single, and many more. The vast array of…
Detroit Free Arts Music Festival to showcase cutting-edge work
Fans of avant-garde music have had much to celebrate recently in Detroit, with the continued success of collectives like New Music Detroit and their annual Strange Beautiful Music marathon, MOCAD’s and Trinosophes’ diverse sonic programming, and the announcement of the first Trip Metal Fest, which will offer a left-field alternative to Memorial Day weekend’s…
“Musical swing” installation arrives in Detroit’s Cadillac Square
Detroit’s Cadillac Square is about to get musical. As part of a Montreal-based design firm’s traveling installation, Detroit will welcome the arrival of a “musical swing set” that allows users to create music as they swing. The 10-swing set creates real instrument sounds (such as guitar, piano, and mallet instruments) with different notes, which can…
Colin Stetson shares “I (Extract)” video from upcoming LP, SORROW
Ann Arbor native Colin Stetson is a virtuoso saxophone player whose past collaborations with artists such as Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, and TV on the Radio read as a veritable encyclopedia of experimental musicianship. After Stetson’s last solo effort, 2013’s New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light, anticipation for his…
Wolf Eyes — I Am a Problem: Mind in Pieces
“Cynthia Vortex aka Trip Memory Illness,” the final track on Wolf Eyes’ latest album, I Am a Problem: Mind in Pieces, is an eight-minute-long lysergic slide deep into a troubled psyche, punctuated with incomprehensible, garbled moans, droning subsonic bass frequencies, lurching guitar riffs, electronic slicing and dicing, and a forlorn flute solo. It’s a…
Third Man releases books by Wolf Eyes, Dirtbombs members
Jack White expanded his Third Man empire into the realm of print publishing back in 2014. This month sees the release of two new collections by a couple of veteran Detroit musical figures. John Olson is best known as a member of the experimental noise-punk trio Wolf Eyes. Life Is a Rip Off: Part…
Stef Chura and Molly Soda collaborate on “Slow Motion” video
Combine a giant teddy bear, smiley face balloons, a few snacks, copious amounts of silly string, and the UFO Factory’s notorious Pepto Bismol–pink women’s restroom and what do you get? Both a very bizarre party and the trippy music video for Stef Chura’s newest single, “Slow Motion.” The track, off of Chura’s upcoming…