Late in January, Ypsilanti-based songwriter Fred Thomas – best known as the leader of the lo-fi indie pop group Saturday Looks Good to Me – released “Bad Blood.” Dirty laundry, the airing of grievances, a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves – in Fred Thomas’ hands these grand statements of self-reproach and repentance…
He traces her shadow with his shoe… the swim instructor can’t quite pronounce his name so instead calls him “Subaru”… when he was three or four she left them behind at a video store: There is no lack of faithfully recalled memories on Sufjan Stevens’ seventh full-length Carrie & Lowell, but they can’t bring…
Madonna, over nearly three decades of Re-Invention, Blond Ambition, and Causing a Commotion, had proved untouchable when it came to pushing buttons – whether she targeted society, sexuality, or spirituality. Yet the past ten years saw her lose touch, in spite of her bids for relevance. It’s not completely her fault; after all,…
Growth can be a double-edged sword in rap. Even the upcoming N.W.A biopic can’t undo the damage of Are We There Yet? Sean Michael Leonard Anderson, better known as Big Sean, is a far way from Ice Cube’s gangsta-turned-family man fate, but he is growing up. A serendipitous meeting with Kanye West a decade…
Tecuciztecatl, His Name is Alive’s fourteenth full-length, sees the Livonia band expanding their conceptual aims. This “psychedelic rock opera” (their own description) builds on the chamber pop of prior records such as 1996’s nostalgic Stars on E.S.P. while moving to turf one step beyond the jazz madness of 2007’s Sweet Earth Flower….
Detroit’s hip-hop community is seeing renewed attention of late, owing in no small part to Eminem’s “Detroit Vs. Everybody,” which features Danny Brown, Big Sean, Royce da 5’9”, Trick Trick, and Dej Loaf repping their hometown on a track with all-star, chart-conquering force. Dej Loaf’s deadeyed delivery is minimized, however, to a catchy hook…
Without knowing where you’re headed, this music takes you exactly where you want to go. Detroit electronic duo Valley Hush create a sound that’s completely their own, though it’s certainly possible to hear influences as far-flung as indie-pop, trip-hop, and experimental rock. Lianna Vanicelli’s hauntingly beautiful vocals harmonize with Alex Kaye’s smooth guitar riffs…
Every newly announced LP from Black Milk promises to reveal another side of the Detroit MC’s idiosyncratic production, which has changed course several times across six albums. Before going electro on Tronic, Milk explored the Sound of the City and brought wax back by Popular Demand; he later incorporated live-band musicians on Album…
In 2001, at the peak of Detroit techno’s third wave, one half of the controversial duo Drexciya broke off to work on a side project. Transllusion’s The Opening of the Cerebral Gate, reissued last month, was a deviation only in name from what James Stinson produced with his former collaborator. In the album’s beats…
Though alternative hip-hop can break through to mainstream audiences, oftentimes it’s because the musicians have bent, broken, or completely thrown away the “rap rules.” Beyond the golden age of hip-hop and glossy radio rap, many sounds have tested the limits of genre and the patience of listeners: clipping.’s earsplitting sheets of harsh noise, Death Grip’s…