It’s no mystery why there’s always a big Detroit contingent at SXSW – we want to get the fuck out of cold Michigan and eat some BBQ. I hit town with Chris Bathgate and band  just in time to catch Danny Brown and his hype man Dope Head tearing it up/celebrating Danny’s 30th birthday...
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All you other photogs out there – don’t forget to add your shots to our Blowout 2011 flickr group.  You’ll find a slideshow of the group on our homepage and on the Blowout page.  Here’s my contribution from last night.  I’m also psyched to have scored a copy of Five Three Dial Tone Records‘...
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Detroit Soul heads around the world are anxiously awaiting  Dennis Coffey’s self-titled record coming out April 25th on the Strut label.  The album finds guitar legend Coffey returning to his trail blazing and innovative sounds of the late 60′s and early 70′s.  If you don’t think you’ve heard Dennis before you have.  That awesome...
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The Hard Lessons announced via their tumblr page some news: Korin and Augie are expecting their first child in July.  That’s impending rock ‘n’ roll maternity leave for HL fans. “To all who have supported The Hard Lessons over the last 8 years and 700 shows in 6 countries, we would like to share...
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Early this afternoon via their website The White Stripes announced the “band has officially ended and will make no further new recordings or perform live.  The reason is not due to artistic differences or lack of wanting to continue, nor any health issues as both Meg and Jack are feeling fine and in good...
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There’s no doubt that Will Sessions is the coolest thing in the Motor City at the moment.  Led by trumpeter/keyboard player/arranger Sam Beaubien, the band has recorded and played with a who’s who of Detroit hip hop and soul, including  Slum Village, Mayer Hawthorne, Buff1, Guilty Simpson, Phat Kat and Monica Blaire.  They recorded...
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Killer news via Fact, Juan Atkins is to release a three-track Model 500 EP via R & S Records in September.  You’ll recall that it has been 11 years since we last heard from the old M5.  The new songs can be heard in part at the R & S myspace page and includes...
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The latest gem to crawl out of Jim Diamond‘s Ghetto Recorders is Saline brother and sister duo the White Ravens.  High school senior William Bennett handles piano and writes the music while his college freshman sis Amy Bennett plays bass, writes lyrics and provides vocals. Their songs come on like Ben Folds and Billy...
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Sad news yesterday via Peoples Records owner Brad Hales: artist/song writer Hermon Weems has died.  As an artist, Weems created the cover for the legendary Temptations‘ album Psychedelic Shack, created the Funkadelic logo and painted signs for Peoples Records and other businesses throughout Detroit. Hermon worked with the classic Detroit  labels Ric-Tic and Golden...
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Two things nobody will dispute about the High Strung – they are arguably Detroit’s hardest touring rock band and they play a ton of libraries. So when I saw on their website that they were playing a library in Guantanamo Bay on July 30th, I thought it was possible…but most likely it was just...
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