BCE Blogs: BC Rocks

Local shows this weekend, local music news

A lot of places are closed for the Holiday Weekend, but here are some local shows happening this weekend:

• At Planet Rock: Closed on Friday; on Saturday, it's 5 Spite, Madwire, So Much For Simple and Pop Evil.

• At Stagecoach Barn: It's Larry's Holiday Jam, "All singers and musicians invited."

• At Bell's Eccentric Café: Closed Friday, Willamena on Saturday.

• At the Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival: The Frankie Ballard Band on Friday, The Nowhere Band on Saturday, The Edge on Sunday.

LOCAL MUSIC NEWS

Here are a couple of press releases I've received:

FILTER

Thursday, July 31
Planet Rock

FILTER is back and on the road for their first tour in nearly 6 years! Richard Patrick and crew will be making a stop in BATTLE CREEK on THURSDAY, JULY 31 at PLANET ROCK in support of their new album ANTHEMS FOR THE DAMNED.


Released on May 13 via Pulse Recordings, ANTHEMS FOR THE DAMNED, the band’s first CD in five years, was produced by Josh Abraham (Slayer, 30 Seconds to Mars, Velvet Revolver) and features such collaborators as guitarist/songwriter John 5, guitarist Wes Borland and drummer Josh Freese. The album features the song “Soldiers of Misfortune” and politically-charged new single “What’s Next”, which is currently building at radio.

FILTER (Richard Patrick, vocals; John Spiker, bass; Mika Fineo, drums; and Mitchell Marlow, guitar) recently traveled to Kuwait to participate in the Operation MySpace concert on March 10. In addition to tracks off the new record, fans can expect to hear such classics like “Hey Man, Nice Shot“ and “Take a Picture”.

Interviews, press materials, and review tickets are available so let me know what I can do to help advance this show!

For more information on FILTER, check out www.officialfilter.com.

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15th Annual Kalamazoo Blues Festival blasts off Thursday

KALAMAZOO--Right on the heals of the Fourth of July, the 15th Annual Kalamazoo Blues Festival explodes Thursday through Saturday, July 10-12, in downtown Kalamazoo.

The musical fireworks attract some 14,000 blues fans each year to the Arcadia Festival Site between Kalamazoo Avenue and Water Street to watch some of the top blues acts in the nation perform alongside a selection of some of the best local and regional bands. This year is no exception, as several of the biggest names in blues are set to roll out a wide range of tail-shaking music, from traditional, juke-joint blues, to swing, zydeco and incendiary blues-rock.

"This promises to be one of the best Kalamazoo Blues Festivals ever," says Dennis Massingill, president of the Kalamazoo Blues Association, the non-profit organization that stages the yearly blues music bonanza.  "National headliners like Tinsley Ellis, Roomful of Blues, Big Jack Johnson and Junior Watson are just a few that will take the stage. And, as usual, we will also have regional bands and many of the local favorites."

A preview of the musical pyrotechnics actually begins on Wednesday, July 9, at Kalamazoo's Mixer on the Mall. That event, from 5 to 8:15 p.m. on the Kalamazoo Mall next to the Radisson Plaza Hotel, will feature Battle Creek-based blues band the Wonder Boys, who will lead an assortment of area blues musicians through a traditional blues jam.

A day later, the festival fireworks begin in earnest with acoustic night from 5 to 11 p.m. Headliners for Thursday include boogie-woogie pianist and Mississippi Delta native Eden Brent, winner of the 2006 International Blues Challenge, and Devil in a Woodpile, an acoustic blues and ragtime combo from Chicago. Acoustic night admission is $5.

The festival goes electric on Friday night beginning at 5 p.m. Headliners include Chicago-based harmonica ace Bill Lupkin, whose blues pedigree goes back to the beginning of electric blues in the Windy City, performing with special guest and guitar whiz Dave Specter. Then it's on to Georgia blues-rock guitar slinger Tinsley Ellis and longtime swing blues band Roomful of Blues out of Rhode Island. Admission on Friday is $10.

The action starts at noon on Saturday and continues until the wee hours of Sunday morning. Saturday's headliners include roots R&B and Americana pianist Kelley Hunt, power-trio guitarist Kelly Richey of Cincinnati and Delta guitarist and longtime blues fixture Big Jack Johnson. The festival's grand finale comes courtesy of guitarist Junior Watson and harmonica virtuoso R.J. Mischo, who will deliver an upbeat, West Coast blend of electric blues. Admission on Saturday is $12.

But there's more to the festival than the musical performances. A number of educational workshops will be staged and include acoustic finger picking at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, guitar and blues jam workshops at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., respectively, on Friday, and beginner harmonica at 1 p.m., guitar workshop II at 2 p.m. and garage band jam at 3 p.m., all on Saturday.

And then there's fun for the kids, with a children's tent providing make-and-take souvenirs and other entertainment.

"Activities for children have become a Saturday afternoon tradition," Massingill says. "We really do have something for everybody at the festival."

More information is available on the association's Web site at www.kvba.org.

In today's WOW, multimedia

In today's WOW, you will find:

• This story on Designer Virus. Click here to watch a video of the band performing their song "Gas Chamber." Click here to listen to my interview with the band. Also, a (tardy) edition of The Cutting Room is coming tonight.

• This Rock Column: Live music and the love of my brother

• This week's Top 5: Top 5 songs my brother and I can jam to

5. "All I Wanna Do," by Sheryl Crow

4. "Next to You," by The Police

3. "Gimme Three Steps," by Lynyrd Skynyrd

2. "Gimme Shelter," by The Rolling Stones

1. "Father of Mine," by Everclear

 

Multimedia, local music news

• Finally, several days late, I was able to get the video on Dez Lotuss up and running. Click here to view the video. Click here to listen to my interview with the band. Click here to read the story.

• Also, I have a video up for Designer Virus, which will be featured Thursday in WOW. Click here to watch the video. Click here to listen to my interview with the band.

• This is a press release from the B.C. Downtown Partnership:

It's lunchtime in Battle Creek!  Come down to Festival Market Square for a little taste of Hollywood.  Mr Hollywood and the Fabulous Kickstands, that is!  This Wednesday, July 2nd , stroll over to Festival Market Square in downtown Battle Creek and spend your lunch hour with Mr. Hollywood and the Fabulous Kickstands as they kick off the 2008 Festival Market Music Series.   

The Festival Market Music Series, held in the gazebo adjacent to the Battle Creek Farmers Market at the corner of McCamly and Jackson Street, features live entertainment in July and August from noon to 1:00 p.m.   

This 13 member band came together in late 2007 when a group of musicians wanted to share their love of music at a departmental holiday party.  With rhythm, horns, and vocals, the group plays a variety of music including classic rock, country, rhythm and blues, and pop. 
Additional performers for the series include Nigel John Tropical Mix, MJ Bishop, Rene Meave, Lakeview Sax Quartet, Joe Ferguson, and String Cheese Trio.

Downtown restaurant Barista Blues Café will vend a selection of fresh and healthy snacks, while you can catch a free drink from Pastrami Joe's if you get a cup from a member of the Battle Creek Downtown Partnership staff who will be on site.  The Battle Creek Farmers Market will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., offering a wide selection of locally grown produce including fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs and cut flowers.

Festival Market Music Series is hosted by the Battle Creek Downtown Partnership. The event is free and held weather-permitting. Several picnic tables and benches are available at the site, and attendees are encouraged to bring their own seating and/or blanket if they prefer to sit on the lawn. Parking is within walking distance of the numerous downtown public parking lots, including the adjacent Hamblin Avenue parking ramp, which offers free parking for the first hour.

For additional information on these events, call the Downtown Partnership's information line at 269.441.1688 or visit downtownbattlecreek.com for a complete calendar of downtown events.

Festival Market Music        Wednesdays: July 9, 16, 23, 30 and August 6, 13, 20, 27
Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Festival Market Square
Downtown Battle Creek, corner of McCamly and Jackson Streets

Festival Market Music is brought to you by the Battle Creek Downtown Partnership, establishing downtown Battle Creek as a vibrant, livable urban center.

On Everclear, strange women and brotherly love Casual observations from Mt. Clemens

There's an axiom in this business about old news; something about how everything, except for the history-making type of occurrences, has an expiration date. I was at the Stars & Stripes Festival in Mt. Clemens on Saturday; and now, Tuesday, it's probably gone bad for any news value ...

But I've been very busy since Saturday and, well, this is the first I could get this out. So, to hell with it and here we go:

I took my brother to Mt. Clemens with me on Saturday to see Everclear, my favorite band since I was 10 or 11 years old, play live for the first time. It's a two-hour drive, three with traffic and bad directions from MapQuest, but we killed the time by listening to Everclear albums and talking about how they fit into our life, most of which do in oddly specific ways.

We got into town about 5 p.m., nearly four hours before Everclear was supposed to take the stage, but I didn't want to take any chances.

The festival is organized like this: Several blocks of downtown Mt. Clemens are cordoned off and the streets are lined with vendors. There was food of every description, novelty gifts of every make, the military was present, of course, by the Country Music Stage. There were three other stages, including the National Stage, where Everclear was to play.

We killed time by walking the vendors, admiring the arts & crafts, eating chicken wings, watching the smaller acts on the smaller stages, including a very fast version of Johnny Cash's "Cocaine Blues" from The Orbitsuns. I bought many beers at $5 each, only to support the cause of this free music festival, including two from a tent that supported Habitat for Huamnity.

Shortly after 7, we walked over to the National Stage to catch The Romantics. My brother, not normally a music fan, was intrigued about them after hearing a while back they'd sued the makers of "Guitar Hero" for using "What I Like About You" without permission.

We were about halfway back from the fence that separated the "VIP only" section, which was $45 a ticket, from the rest of us who'd gotten in for free. We were about 80 feet back off the stage, fronted by an overload of mostly Baby Boomers who'd come in to rekindle some early-80s courtship.

The Romantics played a good set, a much better band than I ever gave them credit for. Then the crowd split; the Baby Boomers shuffled out, with no interest to see Everclear play, and the younger crowd shoved forward. We got within four rows of the VIP fence, about 35 feet off the stage, to the left.

While we waited for Everclear to come on, the girl standing in front of me, who said her name was Candice, started a conversation with me. She'd followed Everclear from the "Sparkle & Fade" days, she said, though she had a hard time explaining it to her friends.

"They always say, 'Oh, that stuffs just so angry and depressing,'" she said. "I try to tell them, it's really not. If you listen to it, it's about making it out of hard times."

"I know," I yelled over the crowd roar. "'Father of Mine' is my life story. That song's probably literally saved my life more than once."

Finally, Everclear came on to the rushing heat and thrust of the now-swollen crowd. For me, it was 12 years' worth of life-memories flashing back with every song. They played many tunes from their "So Much for the Afterglow" album, including "Father of Mine," "Amphetamine," "So Much for the Afterglow" and "I Will Buy You a New Life." Also "Santa Monica," "Wonderful" and "Volvo-Driving Soccer Mom."

Each song has a very real memory associated with it for me: a girl, a friend, my mom ... And to hear it played louder than I could ever do and to see the smile on Alexakis' face, it made it more real than all those twilight hours I lay on the floor with my head to my stereo speaker trying to pound some hurt out of my head.

As the sun disappeared behind the hills, the stage grew a red tint and this giant cross on a Calvary Baptist building behind the stage was illuminated bright, fiery white behind the hell-red glow of the stage. An interesting image to partner with the band who sang "Culver Palms (Or Why I Don't Believe in God)" and dedicated their "Hater" video to Jerry Falwell.

Some drunk 40-something woman in front of us kept blocking our view by holding up and open a yellow jacket she'd stolen from one of the security guards. Candice picked a fight with her to get her to keep it down.

The band ended its set by invited about three dozen women from the audience up on stage, ages ranging from about 6 to about 50. Alexakis doffed his guitar and sang into a hand-held microphone their much louder, harder version of Tommy Tutone's "867-5309 (Jenny)" to much screaming from the crowd.

When the music was done, the band disappeared and so did my brother and I. We had no real interest in seeing Uncle Cracker play ...

Everclear set up shop at a Bigby's Coffee booth to sign autographs and take pictures with fans, but my brother and I decided not to stay in the long line, for my own odd personal reasons I'll discuss later. We went back to the car and headed home, satisfied.

I felt something like a cross between the kids in "Detroit Rock City" and that Band-Aid in "Almost Famous" who explains what it's like "to love some silly piece of music or some band so much that it hurts." I felt adolescent and dumb-happy and drunk on joy. That's what it's like to see your favorite band -- especially a band with whom you've connected very personally, whose music you've listened to get over very high and rough patches in life -- play live. To see their anxiety, their affirmation of all the words they wrote and to see that they really felt them, the way you did ... It makes the world turn one more day.

From Mt. Clemens ... The Romantics, Everclear

Spent the day yesterday at the Stars and Stripes Festival in Mt. Clemens.

Here are some photos of The Romantics and Everclear.

More notes on this later:

Local shows this weekend; local music news

Here are some local shows happening this weekend:

• At Planet Rock: Spiral Crush, Slap Maggy, Steel Kitty and 4 Stroke are on tonight; Foreground, Dez Lotuss (featured this week in WOW), Circus Asylum, The Jakals and The Universal Temple Of Divine Power are on Saturday.

• On Sunday at Planet Rock, it's the Rockoustihop Music Festival (See flier below)

• At The Corner Bar: It's Slowpoke & The Hiding Places Saturday.

• At Redrum: It's Reinventing Yesterday, Designer Virus (they'll be featured in next week's WOW), You Need New Glasses and Thief Thief tonight and Overheadspace on Saturday.

• At Bell's Eccentric Café: The Twistin' Tarantulas are on tonight; Four Finger Five are on Saturday.

• At The Stagecoach Barn: In Custody is on both tonight and Saturday.

• Also: don't forget live music Tuesdays and Thursdays at Gary Fields Comedy Club. And at Clara's on the River, it's live music Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

LIVE MUSIC NEWS:

The Battle Creek Downtown Partnership sent this press release:

    It’s lunchtime in Battle Creek!  Come down to Festival Market Square for a little taste of Hollywood.  Mr Hollywood and the Fabulous Kickstands, that is!  This Wednesday, July 2nd , stroll over to Festival Market Square in downtown Battle Creek and spend your lunch hour with Mr. Hollywood and the Fabulous Kickstands as they kick off the 2008 Festival Market Music Series.   

    The Festival Market Music Series, held in the gazebo adjacent to the Battle Creek Farmers Market at the corner of McCamly and Jackson Street, features live entertainment in July and August from noon to 1:00 p.m.   

    This 13 member band came together in late 2007 when a group of musicians wanted to share their love of music at a departmental holiday party.  With rhythm, horns, and vocals, the group plays a variety of music including classic rock, country, rhythm and blues, and pop.

    Additional performers for the series include Nigel John Tropical Mix, MJ Bishop, Rene Meave, Lakeview Sax Quartet, Joe Ferguson, and String Cheese Trio.

    Downtown restaurant Barista Blues Café will vend a selection of fresh and healthy snacks, while you can catch a free drink from Pastrami Joe’s if you get a cup from a member of the Battle Creek Downtown Partnership staff who will be on site.  The Battle Creek Farmers Market will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., offering a wide selection of locally grown produce including fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs and cut flowers.

    Festival Market Music Series is hosted by the Battle Creek Downtown Partnership. The event is free and held weather-permitting. Several picnic tables and benches are available at the site, and attendees are encouraged to bring their own seating and/or blanket if they prefer to sit on the lawn. Parking is within walking distance of the numerous downtown public parking lots, including the adjacent Hamblin Avenue parking ramp, which offers free parking for the first hour.

    For additional information on these events, call the Downtown Partnership’s information line at 269.441.1688 or visit downtownbattlecreek.com for a complete calendar of downtown events.

    Festival Market Music        Wednesdays: July 9, 16, 23, 30 and August 6, 13, 20, 27
    Noon – 1:00 p.m.
    Festival Market Square
    Downtown Battle Creek, corner of McCamly and Jackson Streets

MUSIC THE UNITER: Gene Adkins

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've started a new project. I've always believed that music, if nothing else, was one area where people who disagree on everything might find common ground. So, over the next several weeks (and probably longer), I'll do brief interviews with city, county, state, business and health care leaders about what kind of music they enjoy and why and share that with you. Maybe there's a politician you can't stand, but you find you like the same song. At least there, you can find something to talk about. Maybe. I'll compile some of this into a later Rock Column.

GENE ADKINS

AGE: 52

OCCUPATION:  Emmett Township Public Safety officer in charge, Republican candidate for Emmett Township supervisor

FAVORITE SONG:  "Anything Motown, or disco; I'm kind of old-school like that." 

BECAUSE: "I'm kinda hung in that era, kinda ... I find it very difficult to sit still when either of those two forms of music are being played. There's a lot of different things that happened during that era ... and I really enjoy dancing, I like to create dances and that kind of stuff. I throw a lot of energy into dancing."

THE CUTTING ROOM: Dez Lotuss

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Every week, I go out and interview a band (or two) and we usually speak for an hour, 90 minutes or more. I fill my notebook with scribbles and/or load up a voice recorder every time. Yet, with the confines of print media, I have to somehow scramble all of that down to about 1,000 words or less. Much of what doesn't make it into print probably wouldn't interest most readers, but a lot of it is interesting for music geeks like me. So, this is some of what didn't make it into print:

DEZ LOTUSS

Man, election coverage and the associated grunt-work has thrown me behind on just about everything else ... I normally like to have these Cutting Room entries up before the story runs, not the day of. Oh well. Selah.

Well, you can click here to read my story on Dez Lotuss, a Battle Creek-area band. And you can click here to listen to my full interview with the band.

There is one thing I want to highlight, though:

Guitarist Ryan Phillips said: "I think music is the one thing that every single person in the world, no matter what religion, background, anything, everybody has in common. Not a certain kind of music, but everybody listens to music. I don't know one person ... It's like eating, you know, or sleeping."

Vocalist Andy Bowman added: "It's the heartbeat of the soul," which of course played back to the 'Heartbeat of your family' comment at the powwow ...

The band spoke often and heavy about the uniting power of music and its ability to connect with listeners on deep, emotional levels. That is their primary goal, the musicians said, to write songs that ring even subconscious bells of recognition, to plant seeds deep in the audience's psyche that will make them feel the song sometime later.

I ask every band about their aspirations, and almost uniformly, the response is humble: We just wanna play music, man.

Dez Lotuss was the first band that expounded on that and said, "We wanna be able to speak to people." Playing music is how they hope to do that ... They're not after the big-time money contracts, just to be able to reach as many people as they can, they said.

I'm not sure what sort of difference that makes, but it did stick out to me. So, take it for what you will.

The band will be at Planet Rock Saturday.

NOTE: I shot a video for this band, but my time was hijacked by election coverage and then the computer holding the raw footage was hijacked by coworkers. As soon as I have access to that machine, I'll put the video together and get it out. JH.

In today's WOW, multimedia

In today's WOW, you will find:

• This story on Dez Lotuss. Click here to listen to my interview with the band.

• This Rock Column: An interview with Everclear's Art Alexakis

• This week's Top 5: Top 5 cover songs:

5. "Love, Reign O'er Me," by Pearl Jam

4. "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself," by The White Stripes

3. "Brown-Eyed Girl," by Everclear

2. "Turn the Page," by Metallica

1. "Dead Flowers," by Colorfinger

 

MUSIC THE UNITER: Eusebio Solis

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've started a new project. I've always believed that music, if nothing else, was one area where people who disagree on everything might find common ground. So, over the next several weeks (and probably longer), I'll do brief interviews with city, county, state, business and health care leaders about what kind of music they enjoy and why and share that with you. Maybe there's a politician you can't stand, but you find you like the same song. At least there, you can find something to talk about. Maybe. I'll compile some of this into a later Rock Column.

EUSEBIO SOLIS

AGE:  50 

OCCUPATION:  Attorney, Democratic candidate for Calhoun County Board of Commissioners, District 7.

FAVORITE ARTIST:  Al Green

BECAUSE: "It's timeless music. When you think of him, you don't really think of 70s music; he's just Al Green. I always tie (his songs) to ... I mean, I met my wife around that time, so ... I met her when I was 15, so ... (laughs)."