iSPY Magazine // September 2012

MAGAZINE

September 2012 // ispymagazine.co

The Wombats Saul Williams The Last Word 2012 Welcome Back

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

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September August 2012

Table of

Contents

Cover by

LAURE VINCENT BOULEAU

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The Buzz 06 07 08

Frontier Ruckus, Pink Lightning, Homegrown Festival 2012 MarkMaynard.com 10th Anniversary, Iron and Wine, Wild Nothing, Freshwater Musicon Bloc Party, Ben Harper, Dinosaur Jr., Ingrid Michaelson

Foodie 12 13

The Dish: The Last Word Adventures in Local Food #21

Scene 10

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24 Join Our Online Community!

www.ispymagazine.co

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Designers Tim Adkins

Publisher Editorial Editor in Chief Writers

Tim Adkins Amanda Trent

Amanda Trent, Tim Adkins, Stefanie Stauffer, Richard Retyi, Paul Kitti, Marissa Mcnees, Aimee Mandle, Mary Simkins, David Nassar, Jeff Milo, Treasure Groh, Jasmine Zweifler

Photographers

Bruno Postigo & Kristin Slater

Sales

[print + online] tim adkins / tim@pakmode.com

[business development] bilal saeed / bilal@pakmode.com

The Washtenaw County Events and Entertainment Guide 124 Pearl St. Suite 407, Ypsilanti, MI 48197 Phcne: 734.531.8939 Email: ispy@pakmode.com

The New Theater Project Retyi. Set. Go.: Welcome Class of 2016

Around You 16 September Events Calendar

Features 20

Saul Williams

22

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros

24

Art

In Progress - A Benefit for Creative Rights

The Wombats

Review 26

Rate it! - The Cut: Ruby Sparks, The Bourne Legacy, The Campaign, The Intouchables

28

Rate it! - Sounds: The Antlers, The Gaslight Anthem, Purity Ring, The Black Opera

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[Photos] August Festivals: Lollapalooza, Motors and Music, Stereoterra

Be sure to tune into Tree Town Sound hosted by Mathew Altruda on Ann Arbor’s 107one every Sunday at 6 p.m.. On September, 2. we’ll be live, on air discussing this issue and other community happenings.

© 2012, iSPY Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part granted only by written permission of Pakmode Media + Marketing in accordance with our legal statement. iSPY is free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. For additional copies you must be granted written permission, with a possible associated cost.

THE BUZZ //

Frontier Ruckus // The Ark / Sept. 6

BY PAUL KITTI

Pink Lightning // Woodruff’s / Sept. 7

BY JEFF MILO

Homegrown Festival 2012 // Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market / Sept. 8

BY STEFANIE STAUFFER

A VHS tape of “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” (anyone?) on their homepage is just one of countless reasons to love this folk rock band from our home state. Here are a few others: a musical saw and melodica are among their song-crafting tools; they perform best surrounded by trees and creeks without studio aid; singer Matthew Milia’s voice carries a warm, unadulterated quiver reminiscent of Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum, and the lyrics could stand alone as strikingly visual pieces of dark poetry. And we’re not the only fans – Paste Magazine, Rolling Stone and PopMatters have praised Frontier Ruckus for their clever songwriting and memorable performances.

Barely a season away from the release of a double album entitled “Eternity of Dimming,” they’ll be back in Michigan for double performances: first at The Ark (an ideal venue for their natural sound) and a night later at The Crofoot.

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i SPY SEPTEMBER 2012

Imagine trying to dance with five partners at once.

Fast, freaky, fun. That moment in the basement of the house party where you kinda just lost it, yanked off the tie or let your hair down as the drums keep hitting and suddenly you’re sweating – that’s Pink Lightning. Plenty of hooks and flared with a manic kind of sass, lead singer wobbling upon the breezed blast from the amps like a crooning/yowling kite, guitarist arching his whole body from his nose to his knees at one riff then bent backwards as he shreds blends of funk and garage-gut-punches, bass player looking keen and cool with a suave smirk as he grooves a shoulder-juking buoyancy that spurs on the wheezy wails of that exquisite rockready accordionist to his right and all the while the drummer, some agit-disco trundle with a wild-eyed, often shirtless rock-energy, madly intent on keeping kinetics up up up. That’s Pink Lightning. This Detroit quintet spent their summer crafting new tracks to follow-up April’s “Happy To Be Here” LP, but much of their September 7 set at Woodruff’s will be new to you since they don’t make it out to Ypsi often enough.

Opening will be Disinformants – the evolution of JWPP/Lizerrd, distinctly-Detroit-dented rock seeking a more refined musicality through a barrage of sound along with blues-punk duo The Wolfs and alt-reverent psyche-trio My Pal Val.

Between 6 and 10 p.m. on Saturday, September 8, the Ann Arbor Farmer’s market will be transformed into a free celebration of local food, drink, and community at the fifth annual Homegrown Festival. This year’s festival features food vendors, live music, locally-grown produce tastings, chef demos using local ingredients, seed planting, honey making, cider pressing, a silent auction, an artisan market and other farm to table-oriented activities for all ages.

Homegrown Festival 2012 also sees the return of the always popular heirloom Tomato ‘Taste-Off,” but this year is extra special since sponsor Project Grow is celebrating their 40th anniversary with 50 varieties of tomatoes available for sampling! Also back this year is the second annual homebrew competition and a garlic tasting with the Dyer Organic Family Farm/ “Dick’s Pretty Good Garlic” (back by intense popular demand!). In addition, Slow Food Huron Valley will be showcasing a little bit of Michigan’s food heritage with a display of over 30 types of heirloom vegetables grown locally for at least 60 years.

And, for those of you who like locally-made adult beverages to go with your locally-grown food, you’ll want to spend some time in the beer tent tasting the wide selection of Michigan-made beer, wine, cider, mead and kombucha available for purchase. You may even find yourself raising a toast to the best local food and drink that SE Michigan has to offer!

The Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market is located at 315 Detroit Street in Kerrytown. For more information about the festivities, visit http://homegrownfestival.org.

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// THE BUZZ

MarkMaynard.com 10th Anniversary // Woodruff’s / Sept. 8

Iron and Wine // Michigan Theater / Sept. 15

BY MARY SIMKINS

BY JASMINE ZWEIFLER

For those engaged in the Ypsi/ Washtenaw County art and political community, Mark Maynard is somewhat of a household name. For many, MarkMaynard.com is a regular in their daily web news rotation. Named one of the most influential political bloggers in Michigan, Mark Maynard was also a key player in the inception of popular Shadow Art Fair at Corner Brewery.

Says Maynard of his blog: “My original intent was to help build local community in hopes of affecting some degree of positive progressive change at the grassroots level.” Maynard’s site is a go-to for commentary on local

politics and social happenings, as well as a forum for others who care about the community to make their views known.

Maynard has been somewhat tightlipped regarding the details of his site’s 10th Anniversary Party, saying only that Minus 9 will perform a set and assuring us that “the night will be action packed.”

The five-dollar cover benefits FLY Children’s Art Center, specifically the organization’s work in Ypsilanti schools.

The festivities start at 7 p.m. For more information, check out the Facebook event “MarkMaynard. com 10th Anniversary Party.”

Wild Nothing // Magic Stick / Sept. 17

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years since Iron and Wine began.

Not the least of which was being named to the “Best of Daytrotter” list in 2001. His latest album is titled “Kiss Each Other Clean” and was released last year. Sam “Iron and Wine” Beam will be performing along with fellow beard-ophile and mellow fellow Glen Hansard at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor on September 15. Tickets run from $35 to $50 and are on sale now.

Freshwater Musicon // The B-Side / Sept. 22

BY DAVID NASSAR

BY JASMINE ZWEIFLER

Wild Nothing may not be an act that everyone is talking about…yet.

But they are sure to start soon. Jack Tatum is Wild Nothing. In the studio he’s flying solo, and on the road he brings along the band to paint the picture with him. With a voice and style is reminiscent of Morrissey as well as British Invasion bands but couched in ethereal indie jangle, this southern boy isn’t afraid to turn the synth and reverb up to 11. This handsome rogue is most definitely a young ‘un at the tender age of 23 and only two albums under his belt so far.

Iron and Wine is not just a recipe for disaster at the gym. It’s that band that feels pretty much just like slipping into a warm bath. The breezy vocals and hushed acoustic guitars lull you into serenity with a quickness matched only by valium. A little background first, Iron and Wine is really the stage name of singer/ songwriter Sam Beam. His talent for spinning delicate tales of wistful imagery and longing has garnered considerable attention in the 10

But his first effort “Gemini” garnered him mad love and acclaim, mostly through word of mouth promotion and his second album “Nocturne” was released on August 28 and promises even more sophistication and depth.

Wild Nothing will be coming up to visit us in the Mitten with a show at the Magic Stick on September 17 with two other noteworthy indie acts, Diiv and Obelisk, and we’ll get to see for ourselves what all the fuss is about. I think he’ll fit right in

Are you a young, local musician or artist looking for some sage advice on how to reach a larger audience and make your passion a career? The Ann Arbor-based teen center, The Neutral Zone, will host the second annual Freshwater MusiCon on Saturday, September 22.

The Freshwater MusiCon is a day-long summit for young musicians and artists to engage in local music scenes and learn DIY tips and tricks from industry professionals. This year’s summit features more than ten workshops and panel discussions on diverse topics ranging from computer music production techniques to marketing and social media.

Representatives from Flint Local 432, Detroit’s Groove Box Studios and even our iSPY’s own

publisher, Tim Adkins, will share their invaluable knowledge. The summit will include a keynote from one of the biggest names in the Ann Arbor folk scene, Chris Bathgate, as well as performances from a number of local youth bands and a feature performance from Michigan hip hop group, The Black Opera. Bathgate will also headline a benefit concert for The Neutral Zone’s after school music programs on Friday, September 21 at the Blind pig in Ann Arbor, along with Lightning Love and Nightlife.

The second annual Freshwater MusiCon is free for all, though donations are appreciated, and will run from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 22. For more information, visit Neutral-Zone.org.

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THE BUZZ //

Bloc Party // Royal Oak Music Theatre / Sept. 19

Ben Harper // Michigan Theater / Sept. 26

BY PAUL KITTI

BY DAVID NASSAR

What would your favorite best-keptsecret indie rock band sound like if they had stadium ambitions? Or what might U2 sound like if they had never left their garage, jamming their hearts out unaware that the whole world had their ears against the door? British rockers Bloc Party occupy that wonderful space in between new craze and hidden gem, reaching more ears with their 2005 debut “Silent Alarm” than any guitar-drums-bass indie rock act had any right to. Skilled songwriters, hardrocking and heartfelt, they’re still hot off

the buzz from that original chord they struck with fans as they emerge from a brief hiatus with a new album and a string of European, North American and South African tour dates. They’ve been exploring a bit – electronic, R&B and grunge influences creep into their new releases – and it’ll be interesting to see how their live performance has evolved.

If you don’t like his fire, then don’t come around …but something tells me you do. Yes, his long-awaited return to the Mitten State is almost here. Soon you will be able to join the man himself, Ben Harper, for an acoustic evening at the Michigan Theater. That is, assuming you’ve already purchased your ticket because they are long gone, aside from possibly being able to scrounge one up from your favorite online broker. Harper will be playing favorites from throughout his career,

along with tracks off of his latest album, “Give Till It’s Gone.” The tour, creatively titled, “An Acoustic Evening with Ben Harper,” kicks off in Virginia on September 4 and winds down with a show at New York’s legendary Carnegie Hall in mid-October. Something tells me we just might see that one end up on a DVD in the not-too-distant future.

Catch Ben Harper at the Michigan Theater Wednesday, September 26. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Ingrid Michaelson // Power Center / Sept. 30

Dinosaur Jr. // St. Andrews / Sept. 27

BY JASMINE ZWEIFLER

BY DAVID NASSAR Even by the time they hit it big back in the 90’s with their single, “Feel the Pain,” Dinosaur Jr. had already long established themselves as touring veterans and favorites of the underground scene. While they were never able to again crack the mainstream and have gone through numerous lineup changes, including a brief hiatus in the early 2000s, Dinosaur Jr. continues to record and tour regularly. Their upcoming tenth studio album, “I Bet on Sky,” is set for release September 18. The newest single, “Watch the Corners,” is pretty

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much classic Dinosaur Jr. in every way. A fuzzy, melodic riff that teeters between pop and metal, apathetically soulful vocals and a shredding guitar solo to close. Recent interviews with the band suggest the rest of the album will prove to be much of the same that fans have come to know and love. Catch Dinosaur Jr. at Saint Andrews on Thursday, September 27 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25.

i SPY SEPTEMBER 2012

Ingrid Egbert Michaelson (totally her real middle name by the way) crept into our subconscious when her song was featured in an Old Navy sweater commercial. You know the one. Anyway, it’s been years since then, and she has forged a name for herself as a sweet voiced chanteuse and talented pianist. Her tunes are catchy pop honesty and lend themselves so well to commercials and TV shows that they’re almost ubiquitous. Michaelson provides a welcome respite from a daily

barrage of pop stars behaving ostentatiously, as she lets her lyrics tell the story rather than the tabloids. But that isn’t to say that she isn’t creating a stir. She released her fifth album “Human Again” this year and is touring to bring it to life around the world from Singapore to Sydney and then to…Ann Arbor! Two weeks after returning from the land down under she’ll be performing at the Power Center on September 30.

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SCENE //

In Progress A Benefit for Creative Rights

BY JASMINE ZWEIFLER

I’d be surprised if any one of you reading this today doesn’t have a friend who is an artist. We have such a wealth of young and passionate people making music, creating art, acting and dancing all over Washtenaw county. But people forget that making art isn’t always as simple as putting pen to paper then having the public clamor for your genius.

That’s where Creative Rights comes in. They are a non-profit that seeks to offer free legal services and educational programs to artists as a way of empowering the artistic community. They basically want to inform creative types about the avenues open to them when they decide to make a living doing what they love.

Because Creative Rights is a non-profit, they rely on donations to keep on keepin’ on: enter In Progress. In Progress is a benefit event that kicks off with an opening reception at the riverfront building located at 1250 N. Main in Ann Arbor from 8 p.m. – 11 p.m. on the evening of September 14.

This reception is a guaranteed swank-tasrophe – we’re talking cocktail attire, a string quartet and

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i SPY SEPTEMBER 2012

a bevy of designers, professors, composers and artists to mix and mingle with. So, if you’ve ever wanted to feel super classy and important you can pay the 35 dollars (all of which goes to support Creative Rights) and be a part of this distinct preview event.

If you don’t feel like coughing up the dough or dressing up, then feel free to attend the actual show (Creative Rights’ first) the next day from 7 p.m. until the wee hours. Five dollars gets you into a veritable extravaganza of artistic expression, and the sheer amount of creativity that will be on display is almost beyond belief. The creative director of In Progress, Ben Stange, has made certain that the evening’s characterization of “art” has remained inclusive and stimulating.

The night will begin with extended performances that run the gamut from performance art to dance to excerpts from plays performed by some of the most talented people from Ann Arbor to Detroit.

As the night moves on, there will be live music from Hush, Love, Deastro and Portsman among others. There will, of course, be some truly mind-

expanding visual art on tap as well. Bri Howard creates tattoo style baroque visuals, and Rob Todd builds kinetic interactive sculptures while Justin Mast constructs architectural art pieces. These are just a few of the over 40 artists that will be strutting their stuff that night. It seems that In Progress features no two artists that work in the same style – a rare feat for any art showcase.

Steppin’ It unasked Ryan Racine & Gas Forwill Less To answerInthe question, there indeed be food, wine and beer available both nights to keep the interactions lubricated. We here at iSPY, along with Michigan Radio, The Ann and our friends at The Charlie LaCroix Art Brokerage have partnered with Creative Rights for this truly unique event. We invite the public to get to know individuals who are working tirelessly to make our community a little more beautiful and to get involved. To do just that, or learn more about the event or Creative Rights itself, visit creative-rights. org.

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// SCENE

The New Theater Project

BY JASMINE ZWEIFLER

The New Theatre Project is one of the freshest and most singular additions to the Ypsilanti arts and culture scene. They’ve been growing little by little ever since their inception in 2010: they’ve found a home tucked away in MIX in downtown Ypsi, pushed boundaries and refused to bow to the status quo. At the New Theatre Project they proudly “reject the notion that the audience is a passive spectator.” I can attest to this fact – the space in the MIX studio theatre is “intimate” to say the least, and it leaves the audience nowhere to hide from the performance.

The raw drive and talent has always been there at The New Theatre Project, but it hasn’t always been a walk in the park. Financial roadblocks curbed their enthusiasm last season, but, after some serious hustling and a successful Indiegogo campaign, their third season has been christened “Reinvention.” And it will demand that previously jaded and complacent theatre goers sit up and take notice. They will not be ignored.

Lead by creative director Keith Paul Medelis,

TNTP is slated to deliver four productions this season: “reinventions of two century-old plays, a complete reworking of one its most successful collaborations and a world premiere drama that takes coming of age reinvention as its theme,” according to the press release. Perhaps to brand Medelis the “leader” is a misnomer – the New Theatre Project emphasizes collaboration and non-hierarchical creativity, placing the actors, creators, directors and audience on equal footing.

This principle is at the forefront of the first piece this season “Woyzeck,” an interactive “theatrical haunted house” that opens (appropriately) this October. The theme of “Wozyeck” is an incomplete play, and each night’s audience will decide how best to complete that night’s show.

“Wozyeck” will be followed in December by “Wolf Cry Wolf,” which tackles the issue of what happens when a secret is kept or shared, of “the lies we tell ourselves to survive our shadows.” This is an entirely new production that will premiere at TNTP. But The New Theatre Project also delights in

surprising reimagining. Their production of “Edward II” is sure to be one of the most provocative they’ve done. The centuries old Marlowe play of banishment and homosexuality gets a thoroughly modern and erotic revamp, and the disclaimer “contains mature content” is sure to get my butt in a seat this winter! The season will be closed in March by a reworked version of last year’s stellar “American Crowbar Case,” a steampunk fable created by/starring local band Match by Match.

The New Theatre Project will also unveil a vibrant “basement series”: a calendar of readings and workshops of original work that serves as a valuable incubator for future New Theatre productions. The “basement series” is free and showcases works in progress. This year it will feature the first in its “educational new works series.” TNTP’s door and mind is open to nearly anyone with a desire to create works for the stage and is breathing fierce new life into the local theater scene. Even their website has been reinvented.

Check it out at thenewtheatreproject.org.

FrontierRuckus SEPTEMB E 8 PM R 7

FREE

with student ID 6 S. Main St w Ann Arbor w www.TheArk.org

FOODIE // THE DISH

BY STEFANIE T. STAUFFER

The Last Word

BY STEFANIE T. STAUFFER

Comfortably hidden below LIVE in the spot that used to house Goodnite Gracie’s in Ann Arbor, The Last Word bar opened quietly about six months ago. Their updated yet understated approach to nightlife compliments the almost antique, rustic charm of the place, accentuated by the candelight, the friendly and knowledgeable staff and the smattering of old photographs, books and reclaimed Michigan wood adorning the walls.

And it turns out that this relaxed atmosphere is a great backdrop for the real stars at the Last Word: the craft cocktails. All are made expertly from a wide array of ingredients both ordinary and extraordinary, and some of those ingredients are even made in-house. For instance, when we visited, I found out that they have been experimenting with making their own limoncello (an Italian lemon liqueur) that may someday be available to order.

Who knows? Maybe if you’re lucky the bartenders will also be able to read your mind and create a drink based on the flavors you like. In my

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PHOTO BY KRISTIN SLATER case, the drink I liked the best was the one I asked them to make for me with the flavors of ginger, cucumber and lemon. But you may not even need that luck since overall unique and surprisingly tasty combinations of ingredients abound on their drink menu, inspired by the core spirits used in each. For example, they showcase spicy, smoky Mexican flavors with many of their mezcal cocktails while nodding to Italy with lemon, rosemary and vodka, yet keeping it stateside with drinks once found in a speakeasy of the roaring 20s.

When we first glanced at the menu, it was as if we were mesmerized by the endless drink choices on offer at The Last Word. Yes, you can have a basic gin and tonic made with top shelf Hendrick’s gin, but here, taking a chance on something you think sounds odd may just pay off with something extraordinary. And, if not, you can always share with your friends!

They also have appetizers, small plates and desserts that are perfect for sharing, and I’m pretty sure we ate every last morsel off of the

plate. Whether it was the deliciously different fried chickpeas, the hummus, soft pretzels, the olives or the cheese plate, all the food was good, simple, with an elegant presentation that complimented the drinks well. And serious carnivores will rejoice over the selection of salted, smoked and cured meats available on the charcuterie plate.

From the atmosphere to the drinks to the food, The Last Word bar has a good thing going, so go check it out. It seems to be a welcome addition to Ann Arbor that you sooner or later may find yourself frequenting. After all, they describe themselves as “a lovely cocktail bar hidden a touch off the beaten path yet exactly in the right place,” and I think they may be right.

The Last Word Bar is located at 301 W. Huron Street in Ann Arbor and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 7 p.m. – 2 a.m. For more information, find them on Facebook and Twitter or check out their website at thelastwordbar.com.

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// FOODIE

Adventures in Local Food #21 Whose Food? Our Food!

ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY STEFANIE T. STAUFFER With all the talk of GMOs, California’s “Right to Know” labeling initiative and the subsequent boycotts against the global food conglomerates who have attempted to silence that conversation with cold hard cash, it reminds us all about the importance of knowing where our food comes from (and who we actually bought it from!). If you hadn’t noticed, it’s tough out there as a conscious consumer – especially since trusted, independently-owned, organic or “natural” brands have quietly become subsidiaries of some of the worst offenders of the industrial food system.

And unless you do extensive background research, you probably will have no idea whether or not that “natural” product you are buying at the local grocery store is actually owned by Hain Celestial (aka Cargill, a subsidiary of Monsanto).

In fact, I still remember the moment when I found out, to my horror, that one of my favorite kinds of non-local, organic tortilla chips are owned by them.

If we didn’t have the deliciously local Ann Arbor Tortilla Company here, I may have caved, given this consumer conundrum where many organic and natural brands out there are simply the newest marketing strategies for products actually made and distributed by Kraft, Nestle, Pepsi, General Mills, Unilever and the other major transnational

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food corporations.

Unfortunately, though, too often consumers do respond to this knowledge with apathy. In other words, some people come to feel that if trying to buy products (often at a higher cost) that are healthier, better for the earth and better for the growers still pads the pockets of the same corporations behind the problems with the food system, then what’s the point? Why not just shop for food at Wal-Mart? Fortunately, though, there are many others who have been inspired by this situation to boycott the products that would put negative pressure on those corporate pockets.

Meanwhile, however, more and more people have been challenging the industrial food system and the power these mega corporations have over what we eat by taking food cultivation and production into their own hands. Whether it’s in a container garden on your roof, a raised bed garden in your front lawn, chickens in your backyard or a one acre market garden on a vacant lot, each seed you plant, each egg you eat, each jar of pickles you make and each vegetable you bring to market has a positive impact.

As many gardens are currently in full swing, the impact of locally-grown and produced food is most apparent this time of year. I’ve been lucky enough

to visit gardens in Flint, Detroit and even Ypsi recently where urban farmers are using creative ways to provide food for the community, create more greenspace and perhaps even make a bit of extra income from the veritable fruits of their labor. In Detroit and Flint especially, gardens have seemingly popped up everywhere in the past year.

Whether they are school gardens, hospital farms or even fancy designer gardens created by software companies, the common thread is the excitement and action they inspire for both the participants and the community as a whole.

In this sense, it is really amazing how just a few short years ago local food was still somewhat of an abstraction or something just for “foodies,” whereas now it’s seen as basically a prerequisite for life. The magic of locally-grown food is that when a garden goes in, people stop feeling that unhealthy food is simply a given in our consumerdriven society and instead start to feel that healthy food access is a right worth defending. So if you haven’t already, plant that first seed – social change never tasted so good.

For more information on who owns which brands these days, the best source (in my opinion) is MSU professor Dr. Phil Howard: https://www.msu. edu/~howardp/organicindustry.html.

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SCENE // RETYI. SET. GO.

Welcome Class of 2016

BY RICHARD RETYI

If You Were a High School Jock God

Class of 2016, welcome to Washtenaw County. Whether you’re an Eagle, a Wolverine, a Cougar, a Cardinal or whatever depressing degenerative mascot is affiliated with Washtenaw Community College, welcome! Quick background on this publication: iSPY Magazine survived the Washtenaw County newsies war. Thus, we’re obligated to provide new arrivals with a guide to the area – to help ease the transition, acclimate you to our way of life and do everything in our power to make sure you stay away from the abandoned psychiatric hospital.

If You’re Musically Inclined

Michigan’s music scene isn’t much of a secret anymore. You’ll regularly see great talent any day of the week, from jazz to rock, metal, hip hop and whatever Charlie Slick calls whatever it is that he does. Your best bet for venues are the Blind Pig and The Ark in Ann Arbor and Woodruff’s in Ypsilanti, though you’ll hear good music (original and DJs) at places like Elks Lodge, Necto, LIVE and Rush Street on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Keep your eyes open for big events like Mittenfest (around Christmas), Sonic Lunch (each summer) and Totally Awesome Fest (spring).

If You Were Into the Theatre

Ah the theatre. Footlights, cast romances and always the chance that the ghost of John Wilkes Booth will appear. You little actors are in for a treat because Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti are packed with theatres and performing spaces, and I’m not even including Deja Vu (ba dum dum). In Ann Arbor, there’s the Performance Network Theatre, Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, Ann Arbor Young Actors Guild or the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase for you aspiring monologists.

In Ypsilanti there’s the Ypsilanti Youth Theatre, the Riverside Arts Center and the Dreamland Theatre, though that’s mostly puppets and hair from Patrick Elkins’ beard. Catch a play or audition for their next tour de force – the dad from Boy Meets World went to Michigan. Set those goals high, kids!

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We love us some athletics, but shockingly not everyone appreciates the ability to pick up the blitz or good fundamentals in the low post. To stay in playing shape, each school in the area offers exercise facilities of some kind (Washtenaw Community College is tops), and there are a smattering of gyms – chain and local – for you to choose from. You can also show your stuff at the sand volleyball courts at Elbel Field in Ann Arbor or play footie with the locals in Frog Island Park in Ypsilanti. You should be able to find all your usual supplements and shakes pretty much anywhere, but I suggest checking out the health section at Plum Market in Ann Arbor because they also have a Swirlberry. Jocks like Swirlberry, right?

If You’re From a Region That Prizes Barbecue

First, why did you decide to come to Michigan rather than attend UT Austin and wear shorts and calf-length cowboy boots 10 months of the year? The Gerald Ford School of Public Policy isn’t THAT good! Since you’re here, let’s make sure we point you in the right direction for your BBQ fix so you don’t end up shaming yourself with a rack of ribs from TGI Fridays. Try Satchel’s and Red Rock Downtown Barbecue to start or try the tucked-away Biercamp in Ann Arbor for great pulled pork and brisket sandwiches or Blue Tractor for a range of amazing barbecue and beer.

If your parents are in town or if you’re dating someone from a monied family, have them take you to Zingerman’s Roadhouse for some American classics. If you value quantity over quality, Damon’s in Ann Arbor has an all-youcan-eat ribs night that is actually quite good, except for the part where you fall into a meat-induced coma in the parking lot before you even get to your car.

If You’re Into Book Learnin’

College isn’t for fun and socializing and finding yourself and experimenting and falling in love and sleeping – it’s for straight hardcore book learnin’. Intellectual opportunities abound in the area, from the U of M Museum of Natural History (with planetarium!), the U of M Museum of Art and the Washtenaw Historical Society. For actual book book learnin’, things are a little trickier. With the fall of the house of Borders and the closing of Shaman Drum (now a Five Guys) and David’s Books (now a Japanese restaurant), you can shop at Barnes and Noble (blech) or one of two independent booksellers I recommend – Dawn Treader in Ann Arbor or the Cross Street Book Store in Ypsilanti. There are a number of smaller specialty stores in Ann Arbor as well like Aunt Agatha’s Mystery Bookstore and Nicola’s Books, all worth checking out.

If you’re into comics and graphic novels, don’t miss Vault of Midnight in Ann Arbor. They’re stocked with the latest releases as well as a whole shelf of locally produced publications and zines for cheap.

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9/1: • Big Show at the Joe, 7 p.m., Joe Louis Arena, Detroit • The Atlas Moth, 8 p.m., Magic Stick Lounge, Detroit • Com Truise, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor 9/2: • Charlie Wilson, 7:30 p.m., Chene Park, Detroit • Congress EP Release, 10 p.m., Woodruff’s, Ypsilanti 9/4: • Champagne Champagne, 7 p.m., Shelter, Detroit • Ruthie Foster, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor 9/5: • KISS and Motley Crue, 7 p.m., DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston • Get the Lead Out, 8 p.m., Majestic Theatre, Detroit • 2 Chainz, 9 p.m., Saint Andrews, Detroit • Jaill, 9 p.m., PJ’s Lager House, Detroit • Trevor Hall, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • Open Stage, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor 9/6: • The Rocketboys, 6:30 p.m., The Vernors Room, Pontiac • Chuck Mead, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Thompson Square, 7 p.m., Royal Oak Music Theatre • Black / Glow Party, Necto, Ann Arbor 9/7: • Shinedown with Godsmack and Staind, 1 p.m., DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston

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• Diggy Simmons with Omg Girlz and Jawan Harris, 7 p.m., Fox Theatre, Detroit • The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, 8 p.m., Magic Bag, Ferndale • The Handgrenades, 8 p.m., Magic Stick Lounge, Detroit • Pink Lightning, 10 p.m., Woodruff’s, Ypsilanti • Ann Arbor Soul Club, 9:30 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor

• Frontier Ruckus, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Jump Smokers, Necto, Ann Arbor 9/8: • ZZ Ward, 6 p.m., Shelter, Detroit • Metric, 7 p.m., The Fillmore, Detroit • Frontier Ruckus, 8 p.m., Pike Room, Pontiac • Ron Pope, 8 p.m., The Vernors Room, Pontiac • MikeMaynard.com 10th Anniversary Party, 10 p.m., Woodruff’s, Ypsilanti • Fareed Haque’s Math Games, 9:30 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • The RFD Boys & Friends, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Jump Smokers, Necto, Ann Arbor • Strange Ways Radio, Red Room at Necto, Ann Arbor 9/9: • ZZ Ward, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • Billy Joe Shaver, 7:30 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Amon Tobin – Isam Live, 8 p.m., Royal Oak Music Theatre • Icon of Coil, 8 p.m., Necto, Ann Arbor 9/11: • Frank Turner, 6:30 p.m., Saint Andrews, Detroit • Caspian, 7 p.m., Pike Room, Pontiac • Breton with the Big Sleep, 8 p.m., Magic Stick Lounge, Detroit • Saul Williams, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor

i SPY SEPTEMBER 2012

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• Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Krewella, 9 p.m., Necto, Ann Arbor 9/12: • Vernon Tonges, 10 p.m., Woodruff’s, Ypsilanti • Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, 9:30 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • The Fred Eaglesmith Traveling Steam Show, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor 9/13:

• I AM King with Assassins, 6 p.m., Pike Room, Pontiac • Fishbone, 7 p.m., Saint Andrew’s Hall, Detroit • Jason Aldean with Luke Bryan, 7:30 p.m., DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston • Marsha Ambrosius, 8 p.m., Sound Board at MotorCity Casino Hotel, Detroit • The Nuala Kennedy Band, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Highlighter Impulse Party, Red Room at the Necto, Ann Arbor 9/14: • Gabriel Iglesias, 7 p.m., The Fillmore, Detroit • Hot Water Music, 7 p.m., Magic Stick, Detroit • Mary J. Blige and D’Angelo, 7 p.m., DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston • The Royalty with the Class Acts, 7 p.m., The Vernors Room, Pontiac • Paula Poundstone, 7:30 p.m., Ford Community Performing Arts Center, Dearborn • Antibalas, 8 p.m., Majestic Theatre, Detroit • Joan Rivers, 8 p.m., Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, Warren • The Gaslight Anthem, 8 p.m., Saint Andrews, Detroit • The Paper Street Saints, 8 p.m., Magic Bag, Ferndale • The Soil & the Sun, 10 p.m., Woodruff’s, Ypsilanti • Prophet Massive, 9 p.m., Blind Pig,

Ann Arbor • The Second City, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor 9/15: • Tyga, 6:30 p.m., The Fillmore, Detroit • Gilbert Gotfried, 7 p.m., Magic Bag, Ferndale • The Jesus and Mary Chain, 7 p.m., Saint Andrews, Detroit • Donald Lawrence with Yolanda Adams, 7:30 p.m., Joe Louis Arena, Detroit • Smokey Robinson with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, 8 p.m., DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston • Clucked Up Comedy, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m,, The City Theatre, Detroit • Glen Hansard and Iron & Wine, 8 p.m., Michigan Theatre, Ann Arbor • Gilbert Gotfried, 10 p.m., Magic Bag, Ferndale • The Second City, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Bras for a Cause, 6 p.m., Royal Oak Music Theatre • Disco!, Necto, Ann Arbor 9/16: • GZA with Killer Mike, 7 p.m., Saint Andrews, Detroit • Laetitia Sadier, 8 p.m., Pike Room, Pontiac • Lightning Bold with Beast in the Field and Child Bite, 8 p.m., Magic Stick, Detroit • The Adicts, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • Todd Snider & Amy LaVere, 7:30 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor 9/17: • Rise Against, 7 p.m., Deltaplex Arena, Grand Rapids • Wild Nothing, 8 p.m., Magic Stick, Detroit • Todd Snider & Amy LaVere, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor 9/18: • Korpiklaani, 5 p.m., Harpo’s, Detroit

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AROUND YOU // CALENDAR • Powerman 5000, 6 p.m., Blondies, Detroit • Dropkick Murphys, 6:30 p.m., The Fillmore, Detroit • AWOLNATION, 7 p.m., Saint Andrews, Detroit • Gotye, 7 p.m., Fox Theatre, Detroit • Rush, 7:30 p.m., The Palace, Auburn Hills • Neil Hamburger, 8 p.m., PJ’s Lager House, Detroit • Delhi 2 Dublin, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • Steve Forbert, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor 9/19: • Alkaline Trio, 6:30 p.m., Saint Andrews, Detroit • Missy Higgins, 7:30 p.m., The Crofoot, Pontiac • Papadosio, 9 p.m., Magic Stick, Detroit • Stepdad, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • The Refugees, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Bloc Party, 7:30 p.m., Royal Oak Music Theatre • DJ Spider, 9 p.m., Necto, Ann Arbor 9/20: • Emile Autumn, 8 p.m., The Crofoot, Pontiac • alt-J, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • Lori McKenna and Mark Erelli, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Kendrick Lamar, 8 p.m., Royal Oak Music Theatre 9/21: • The Dirty Show, 7 p.m., Clutch Cargo’s, Pontiac • Lynyrd Skynyrd, 7:30 p.m., DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston • Meet Austin, 8 p.m., Magic Bag, Ferndale • The Heavy, 8 p.m., Magic Stick Lounge, Detroit • The Wombats, 8 p.m., The Crofoot, Pontiac • O-Villainz, 9 p.m., Pike Room, Pontiac • Skeleton Birds with Lawless Carver,

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10 p.m., Woodruff’s, Ypsilanti • Chris Bathgate with Lightning Love, 9:30 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • John Gorka, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Steve Vai, 7:30 p.m., Royal Oak Music Theatre 9/22: • Slash, 7 p.m., The Fillmore, Detroit • The Dirty Show, 7 p.m., Clutch Cargo’s, Pontiac • Michael Franks and Rachelle Ferrell, 8 p.m., Detroit Opera House • Angus Stone, 8 p.m., Pike Room, Pontiac • Fi Youm Wi Leila, 8 p.m., Music Hall Center, Detroit • Kevin Hart, 8 p.m., The Palace, Auburn Hills • Street Dogs, 8 p.m., Magic Stick, Detroit • Oddfellow Music Showcase, 10 p.m., Woodruff’s, Ypsilanti • The Bang!, 9:30 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • Gary Louris, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Battle of the Brains, 7 p.m., Royal Oak Music Theatre • Freshwater Musicon, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., The Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor 9/23: • Down, 8 p.m., The Crofoot, Pontiac • Michael Kiwanuka, 8 p.m., Magic Bag, Ferndale • The Soft Moon, 8 p.m., Pike Room, Pontiac • Deuce Illusive, 10 p.m., Woodruff’s, Ypsilanti • John McCutcheon, 7:30 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • National Theatre Live: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime, 7 p.m., Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor • Nightwish, 7 p.m., Royal Oak Music Theatre

9/24: • Julia Holter, 7 p.m., The Vernors Room, Pontiac • Beau Soleil avec Michael Doucet, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Zombie Day, Necto, Ann Arbor 9/25: • Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, 7:30 p.m., Royal Oak Music Theatre • Lord Huron, 8 p.m., Magic Stick Lounge, Detroit • First Aid Kit, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor 9/26: • There for Tomorrow, 6:30 p.m., Pike Room, Pontiac • Ben Harper, 7:30 p.m., Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor • Peter Gabriel, 8 p.m., The Palace, Auburn Hills • The Hood Internet, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • The Devil Makes Three, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor 9/27: • Dinosaur Jr., 7 p.m., Saint Andrews, Detroit • Joe Jackson, 8:30 p.m., Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor • Blood Red Shoes, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • Madcat/Manfra Blues Band, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor 9/28: • Anthrax, 7 p.m., Harpo’s, Detroit • Anthony Hamilton with Estelle, 8 p.m., Fox Theatre, Detroit • The Expendables and Iration, 8 p.m., Saint Andrews, Detroit • Ghosts of August, 8 p.m., Pike Room, Pontiac • Underground Soundz, 10 p.m., Woodruff’s, Ypsilanti • The Kid and Find Vienna, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Fashion Week 2012, 7 p.m., Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor • Jim Breuer, 8 p.m., Royal Oak Music Theatre

9/29: • Marc Maron, 7 p.m., Magic Bag, Ferndale • Comedy Explosion, 8 p.m., Fox Theatre, Detroir • Millie Jackson, 8 p.m., Detroit Opera House • Foam N Glow, 9 p.m., Saint Andrews, Detroit • Marc Maron, 10 p.m., Magic Bag, Ferndale • The White Ravens CD Release, 10 p.m., Woodruff’s, Ypsilanti • The Ragbirds, 9 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann

Arbor • Nanci Griffith, 8 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor 9/30: • Rose From the Ashes, 5 p.m., Pike Room, Pontiac • The Ravonettes, 8 p.m., Magic Stick, Detroit • Two Gallants, 8 p.m., Blind Pig, Ann Arbor • Peter Yarrow, 7:30 p.m., The Ark, Ann Arbor • Ingrid Michaelson, 7:30 p.m., Power Center, Ann Arbor

COmmunity

8/28 – 9/3: • Saline Community Fair, Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds 8/31 – 9/3: • Arts Beats and Eats, 11 a.m., Downtown Royal Oak 9/7 – 9/9: • Plymouth Community Fall Festival, Downtown Plymouth 9/8: • Homegrown Festival, 6 p.m. – 10 p.m., Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market 9/9: • Dawn Farm Jamboree, 1 – 6 p.m., 6633 Stony Creek Road, Ypsilanti 9/14 – 9/15: • “In Progress” Benefit Event, 1250 N. Main Street, Ann Arbor 9/23: • Ypsilanti Orphan Car Show, Riverside Park, Ypsilanti

SEPTEMBER 2012

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S S

FEATURE //

Saul Williams Get Inside the Mind of the World’s Greatest Slam Poet, Actor, Author and Musician

BY PAUL KITTI

Saul Williams is restless. As a slam poet, he can be kind, ferocious, funny, existential, dramatic and sensitive, all within the same minute. But even as he spoke with me from his home in Paris, I could hear a similar energy in his voice. Energy for everything he was talking about, be it celebrities, religion, hip-hop, politics… He had the sound of a man continuously searching and discovering, sharing and revisiting.

He is also prolific. When restlessness meets artistic ambition, boundaries become irrelevant.

He’s won the title of Grand Slam Champion at the revered Nuyorican Poets Café and competed in the National Poetry Slam, after which he was recruited to write for the movie “Slam.” He also assumed the lead role in the film, which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Cannes Camera D’Or at the Sundance Festival in 1998. He has four critically-acclaimed hip-hop albums to his name and recently released an innovative book of poetry entitled “Chorus.” It’s best if I allow him to explain the book… and everything else: Your upcoming tour is called “Chorus: A Spoken Word.” Can you explain what that means and what these shows will look like?

I have a book coming out on September 4 called “Chorus,” which I’m calling a literary mixtape. In more traditional terms, it’d be labeled an anthology. What I did is, through social media, I put out a call for poets to send me their work,

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and within a month I received 8,000 poems from which I chose a hundred poems and tried to piece all of them together as if they were one voice.

So, for all of the shows I’ve booked around the country, I’ve invited the poets that are in the book to come out if they live near the location. So the first thing fans can expect is there will be local artists collaborating with me probably in every city that I visit. It was a way for me to try to put an arm out to all the poets around who are looking to get published. Initially there was nothing I was looking for. Granted, there were poets that didn’t make the cut – not because they didn’t write good poetry but sometimes because, as I started getting through the first number of poems that touched me, I started realizing the theme. I became excited at the opportunity of taking the pulse of this generation and seeing what subjects naturally arose, but it’s hard to say what I was looking for.

What theme came out of this?

The recurring theme, I would say, circled around the questions of identity – whether it was sexual identity, racial identity, national identity, religious identity… I felt like I was hearing from a lot of people who were kind of fed up that they were born inside of some box and had to take it upon themselves to either break out of or define it for themselves.

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// FEATURE Can you talk about how growing up in New York shaped you, and how you got into both acting and the café poetry scene?

I grew up in a city called Newburgh, New York, which, if you look up online you’ll see is a pretty crazy city. It’s had the highest crime rate in New York state for like the past forty years, and it’s a city of only 40,000 people. So I grew up surrounded by a lot of drugs and violence, however, in a really strong family where those things were never a question for us. My father was a pastor of a Baptist church and my mother was a schoolteacher. I grew up with parents who were really gung-ho about education and the opportunities that were afforded us and about taking advantage of those. We made sure we went to the theater and participated in extra-curricular activities. So, even though I was surrounded by craziness and a lot of my friends were caught up in it, I kind of had a “Good Will Hunting” experience where my friends protected me from a lot of the craziness going on, saying “nah man, you’re gonna do greater things, don’t do this…” So I had lots of friends who were dealers and gangsters who were always looking out for me. I decided really early that rapping and theater were what I wanted to do, and I was supported by my family and my friends. So even though it was a violent community, somehow I thrived in it.

What is your writing process like? More specifically, your approach to writing hip-hop as opposed to writing poetry.

Well, I would say the first step in my writing process is reading. I really believe that good writing is often times reflective of good reading. From a young age, I’ve really been into a large variety of different sorts of literature, whether it was black nationalist poetry, Shakespeare, the Bible, the Qur’an, crime novels, romance novels, classic fiction, magical-realism in fiction, philosophy, nonfiction of many sorts… So, one, I think, I acquired an eye for what I thought was good writing over time. At first you just read stories then eventually you read someone like Albert Camus or Richard Wright and go “Wow, the way this was written is crazy!” And I started to appreciate good writing. So that’s what I feel is the first step in my writing process. As far as distinguishing between when I write poetry and when I write music, the main difference is that when I’m writing for music I write the music first, so then I’m writing to music.

When I’m writing poetry, I’m floating freely and not trying to fit something into a confined space, you know? When it comes to rapping, of course, I’m trying to fit within the confines of what’s available to me. So that’s the first big difference. Secondly, when I’m writing to music, I may put less weight on what I’m saying often times because I think

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music carries a weight of its own. Whereas when I’m writing freely, the music is in the writing itself.

In both cases I’m searching for a musicality and language, but I think when I’m writing poetry alone perhaps there’s a greater sense of musicality in the language because there’s nothing else for it to rest on.

You mentioned writing is informed by reading – who are some authors you admire?

Those names are always rotating, you know, but today I’d say Octavia Butler, Chester Himes, James Baldwin, Arthur Rimbaud, Craig Thompson, Bertolt Brecht, David Foster Wallace, Dorothy Carter, Runi, Charles Wright, uhh… there you go! (laughs). I read every day, it’s a part of my daily practice. I don’t see how people can practice sanity without it. It keeps me focused on what I’m perceiving and life and everything around me. I’m always in the middle of a book or two.

Do you remember the first poem you wrote?

The first time I wrote a poem, I was at Morehouse College in Atlanta. My friends and I decided to start a magazine, and for some unknown reason I decided that I was going to create a section that had a poem and then an essay. So the first poem that I wrote for that magazine – it was called “Red Clay” – was about the holocaust because at that time I was into etymology and I discovered that holocaust meant “the whole burned.” And I don’t really remember the poem at all. I think it was a poem where I was putting everyone that had experienced any sort of genocide, or what have you, within the idea of the holocaust. So Native Americans, African Americans, Armenians, Rwandans, witches that were burned… I was essentially blurring the lines between what we call the holocaust and the greater picture of all the tragedies of human history.

What inspired you to make a poem from those ideas as opposed to writing out your thoughts in an essay?

Because it wasn’t a school assignment, and I understood really well what the first paragraph was supposed to look like for an essay for school, but because it was something I was doing with my friends it became a form of shorthand for me. I was like “fuck it, you’ll get the idea if I just say this…”

You know? And so I found that when I wrote and it wasn’t a school assignment, that I preferred to write in some sort of shorthand. And if I shared that shorthand, it looked like what people call poetry.

I think it comes through when actors choose roles that have some significance to them personally. Like there’s a part of it you can tell that’s hard to explain.

Yeah, and it’s not to say that I have no interest in anything from superheroes to murderers. When I

first got into acting as a kid, I thought I wanted to be the black Jack Nicholson because I’d watched “The Shining” a million times and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and those films were favorites of mine. I just wanted to do horror films, that’s what I would practice at the house. I would scare the hell out of my sisters just standing and staring blankly in the middle of the night. Even a lot of the horror films I see coming out of America, they don’t scare me. But I look at some of the stuff coming out of Korea and say “oh, wow, that’s a horror film!”

A lot of times Hollywood is too clean for me. It’s become too pasteurized, homogenized, it’s just too clean, it isn’t thought-provoking. So, yeah, I started looking for stuff outside of it and what have you.

But I don’t remember your question…

I don’t remember either, but that’s all interesting. You really do have to look outside the states to find an effective horror movie, then Hollywood hunts them down and ruins them.

Yeah, you’ll see them in another language and be like “holy shit, this is so much better!”

This question takes us down a slightly different tangent, but how do you feel about where popular hip-hip is now? Given you’ve witnessed its birth and evolution within your lifetime.

Well, you know, I think hip-hop right now is exactly where America is. You could ask me what I think of popular culture and America and the direction that it’s heading… It’s the same question.

Which is to say that I used to feel that hip-hop went against the grain. That hip-hop represented the voices of the disenfranchised and of the people that you weren’t about to see on TV or in a movie – they represented the people who weren’t represented. And now people choose to represent wealth beyond aesthetic. Wealth and violence.

There’s a lot of stuff I like. I like Lil B, I like Soulja Boy, I like Lil Wayne, you know, but in general, there’s not a lot of stuff that I listen to on the level that I listened to the greats – whether in hip-hop or any genre of music. Like, I’d be far from saying that Jay-Z is becoming anything like the Bob Marley or Fela Kuti or Nina Simone of hip-hop… But I like some Jay-Z, too. But, you know, it’s the same way you can like great lobster and also like a great hot dog (laughs).

Looking past your upcoming tour, what’s in the future for you?

One, like I said, I have a film coming out in January. Also, I’m writing a play. Other than that… lots. That’s what I’ll tell you (laughs).

Saul Williams will be performing at the Blind Pig on Sept. 11. 18 and over; $15 cover.

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FEATURE //

“

You put 12 people together, and the alchemy of that combination is always going to be very unique each evening and very unpredictable.”

The Magical World of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

BY AMANDA TRENT PHOTO BY LAURE VINCENT BOULEAU

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// FEATURE

If you think Edward Sharpe is one of the members of the 10-plus member band called Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, you’d be wrong. Edward Sharpe is actually a fictional character created in the mind of group frontman Alex Ebert. Sharpe was the main character – described as being an almost “messianic” figure – in a fictional story that Ebert began to write years ago. And Magnetic Zeros?

That’s a form of mathematics that Ebert came up with that has “no known application.”

There’s no question that Ebert and his band of merry musicians are somewhat of a mystery to onlookers – a mystery filled with unusual and somewhat unexplained facts such as those mentioned earlier. But these types of anomalies are commonplace in the magical world of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. And, whether or not we fully understand the creative musings of Ebert and the rest of the gang, it’s clear that they’re doing something right because we’re still listening.

Their first album, “Up From Below,” reached no.

76 on Billboard 200, but their follow up release, “Here,” reached no. 5, while their infectious single “Home” hit no. 28 on Billboard Alternative Songs and has been played in a number of TV shows and commercials including NBC’s “Community,” The CW’s “Gossip Girl” and the trailer for the film “Cyrus.” It was even featured in 2011 NFL commercials and in Ikea commercials in Holland.

We got the chance to catch up with drummer Orpheo McCord in preparation for the band’s upcoming performance at the Royal Oak Music Theatre, during which he talked about life on the road and what it’s like being a Magnetic Zero.

Who are some of your favorite artists?

I love Velvet Underground. I’m really inspired by classic older composers. As for current bands, our friend, Aaron Embry, just came out with a new record. He used to play in the band. It’s not out yet, but I love it. He did it by himself. That’s been really inspiring to me lately. Black Hole Oscillators is a really great group. I really like He’s My Brother She’s My Sister. And that’s just a few of many.

I also really love African music – particularly northwest and eastern African music.

How did you come to be a part of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros?

I’ve been in it since the beginning of the band.

Basically Alex was in the process of recording the first record. The band developed as he was recruiting musicians to play on that record. He and I had met at a mutual friend’s (Aaron Embry’s) house (who was the first piano player in the band). We didn’t really talk too much, but we just kind of hung out and jammed. Then about a week or two later,

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Alex and I ran into each other on a trail in a park in L.A. He said he had been thinking of me and wanted to know if I would come in and play some percussion. He asked me to do the first out of town gig, which was in Texas. And I’ve been a Magnetic Zero ever since.

How many members are currently in the band?

For a while there have been 10 of us, but over the last two tours, we added on a couple of friends to join the group, so there are 12 of us now.

That must make touring pretty crazy.

It does. But there’s such a harmonious interaction between all of us. There’s a lot of laughing. There’s really no complaints of how it all comes together while we’re traveling.

Tell me more about the band name.

Edward Sharpe was a fictional character from a book that Alex started writing years ago. I think when it came time to put a name to this project, it was something that he thought could be an engaging name. He considered changing it at one time, but everyone really liked it. There was something catchy about it, something just whimsical and grandiose – which is kind of like our shows. It’s very much a spectacle sounding name that seems to be very fitting for the band.

Explain to me your Town of Songs website.

How did you get the idea for this?

Alex was interested in making some sort of interactive website, so it’s not just your typical run of the mill website where you just go to the home page. He wanted to do something interactive so each person could experience it in a unique way, so that’s kind of the idea and the principle behind it. It’s a work in progress. There’s a lot more we can do to develop it further. We can add more material to interact with as things evolve.

With your website, your music, how you present yourselves, different words come to mind that can be associated with you. There’s definitely a down home and earthy sense, but you guys also talk about things being “magical” a lot. Why is that something you emphasize?

I guess magic is something that occurs through the combination of intention and action. I think that the magic is just us coming together and setting an intention to make something pure and really like magic in the sense that it’s about love for us and expressing that love to each other and to whoever is there to engage in the experience with us.

What kind of change did you notice between the two albums?

I think after playing so many shows together, we were itching to do something new – record some new songs and collaborate. Everyone kind of brings

in some of their own ideas. The whole process of these new recordings (and there’s many more than were on the second record that we’ll release in due time) was pretty organic. It started with us figuring out where we were going to record. This beautiful studio opportunity arose near where I currently live, so we were able to build our own little clubhouse studio that became our safehouse where we could do what we want and have the space to be really creative and free. We ended up really covering a lot of ground in a few months.

I would imagine it would be hard for that many people to collaborate.

We’ve become pretty good at learning how to do it. We’ve had time to get the experience in.

Your song “Home” has done very well. If people only know one song of yours, that’s probably the one they know. Why do you think that song has resonated with people so much?

It’s kind of hard to get perspective when you’re so involved in the process of the creation of something. You sit back and think, “Wow. It’s amazing at just how effective it is on people.” I think it’s obviously the subject matter of “home is wherever there’s you,” and there’s something simple and beautiful and so true about that that it resonates with everyone who listens to it. Then obviously there’s the feeling of the song – it’s got a very dancey feel to it and very happy harmonic movement – and the duality of man and woman sharing their love in a song that really hits home for people. Songs that really get that popular, there’s something pure about them that anyone can relate to. We hit it with that song. It just sort of manifested itself. Alex and Jade had written that song together, and it naturally came out and from a very pure place.

What should audience members expect from your upcoming show?

It’s hard to know what to expect. We don’t even know what to expect night to night. It’s always quite an organic experience. We approach the songs slightly differently each night. You put 12 people together, and the alchemy of that combination is always going to be very unique each evening and very unpredictable. Definitely expect a good time and us giving all that we can and just a lot of love and good music.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros will perform at 7:30 p.m. on September 25 at the Royal Oak Music Theatre along with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. For more information, visit edwardsharpeandthemagneticzeros.com or explore townofsongs.com.

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FEATURE //

The Wombats Dan Haggis, drummer for The Wombats, talks of life on the road with England’s hardest-rocking marsupials

“I’d been to Disney World once when I was fourteen,” says Dan Haggis, who had always dreamed of traveling the globe. He’d get his chance – from Australia to Japan, all about Europe and coast to coast in the States – but he’d have to become a Wombat first.

Haggis met Matthew Murphy and Tord OverlandKnudsen in 2003 at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, where the three aspiring musicians were in a crash course on music technology and performance. It wasn’t long before – ok, you guessed it, they formed a band. “There was never a mastermind plan. It just seemed like the best way to get through hangovers,” laughs Haggis. Some people sink into the couch and slurp applesauce, others build an arena-worthy rock group.

Soon they were hungover all throughout Europe.

“I was supposed to go live in France and Spain as part of my degree, but I ended up dropping out of university to concentrate on the band,” Haggis recalls. “It was a lot of fun, and we didn’t really think beyond each gig and song. Things

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progressed and we started dedicating more and more time to it.”

For the first couple years, it was typical, offand-on, new-band-on-the-road bliss. Three chaps watching movies in the van, making the most of each visit to Paris, hauling equipment in and out of countless bars, honing their skills on stage while their peers did the same in classrooms back home.

“We were just trying to make it on our own,” says Haggis. “Then suddenly we had the support of a record company and a tour manager and a sound guy with more and more people coming to the gigs. We got caught up in this whirlwind adventure – that’s when we got in our stride and toured for a straight year and a half.”

That tour was fueled by their album “A Guide to Love, Loss, and Depression,” released in October 2007 to a responsive and quickly-expanding fan base. The Wombats became a regular name on the UK charts and caught the attention of NME when they released the single “Let’s Dance to Joy Division,” which Murphy wrote after a night he

spent drunk-dancing atop a table at a Liverpool night club with his girlfriend. The publication named the song “Best Dancefloor Filler.”

The album was a perfect execution of massappeal songwriting. The songs were quick to get loud, quick to get you moving and quick to be over, bursting with garage-band energy and youthful sentiment – the kind of songs that, unless you listened closely, you might think were protests against last calls at bars or rundowns of long summer nights smelling of smoke and vodka.

Song titles such as “Tales of Girls, Boys, and Marsupials,” “Patricia the Stripper” and “Backfire at the Disco” reflected the down-to-earth attitude and flippant humor of the band. It seemed these dudes were simply adding to the mix of poppy hangover rock that was being popularized by English brethren such as The Arctic Monkeys and The Cribs. But take another look at that album title – the reality that inspired it was littered all throughout these smiley-faced rock numbers.

The instant appeal of The Wombats is perhaps

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// FEATURE what made that first album so successful, but it’s their transparency that has kept them from burning out. Murphy, the lead singer and lyricist, battled depression and anxiety throughout adolescence and into adulthood. His struggles inform his writing, which is often easy to miss beneath the dance beats and hyped-up rhythm.

Murphy spilled this to The Guardian in 2011: “There were days when I thought about killing myself, but couldn’t because of family and friends.

I’d be on a bus or train and pray for an accident since I didn’t have the balls to do it. I thought I should have done better, I should have worked harder, but all I had done was work.” Upon being swept into the spotlight, the band simply continued to write about the things they knew. Take some lyrics from “Anti-D”: “Still I’ve thrown away my citalopram/ I needed more than what was in those 40 milligrams/ so cast away with the doctor’s plans.”

So if the Wombats seem like all fun and games, it’s because they embrace that aspect of their music. But for those willing to look deeper, they’ll find a group of musicians who are totally up front about who they are. “Although depression and anxiety are horrendous, they have shaped me as a person,” continued Murphy in that interview.

“And maybe I wouldn’t want to write songs if I wasn’t like this.”

So they continued to write, and play, through that hectic eighteen-month tour. “We became really tired and burnt out, and we realized that it was really taking its toll,” says Haggis. “We learned a lot from that first album going forward.”

They took a break to work on the pivotal second album, the stake that either pierces through bands’ hearts or helps them pick their way further up the mountain. Most immediately noticeable in The Wombats’ sophomore release, “This Modern Glitch,” is the introduction of synth and other glamrock touches that didn’t so much take their music out of the garage as it did coat the walls in metallic paint and string the ceiling with air fresheners. Its core was still made up of energy and angst straight from the gut – but with some added glitz that would make The Killers proud.

The first reaction came at a festival in Australia, which the band flew to directly from their recording space in L.A. after a year-long absence from touring. “We went onstage in front of 10,000 people having only had one rehearsal, and the reaction was totally unbelievable,” recalls Haggis. “It was the biggest confirmation we could have had. A lot of pressure left our shoulders after that show.” That

first new song they played was “Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves),” and it became their fifth Top 40 hit.

Lately, The Wombats have embraced an active pacing that balances their passion for traveling with the necessity of hanging at home, catching up with girlfriends and writing new music. They’ve been playing in festivals most weekends throughout the summer, a major highlight being an opening slot two consecutive nights for The Red Hot Chili Peppers in front of 50,000 people. “It was an experience of a lifetime for us,” says Haggis. “They got on stage and said ‘we’d like to thank The Wombats for making these cocks stand up and cheer,’ at which point I shat myself.”

They’ve got a new album in the works, which they’ve been working on throughout the summer and will continue to develop later in October after their upcoming tour. Haggis tells us they’ve been experimenting with brass instruments and string arrangements, “trying a lot of things, seeing where it takes us…”

The Wombats will be performing at The Loft in Lansing on September 8, and again at The Crofoot on September 21.

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REVIEW // THE CUT

“Ruby Sparks” is a rare bird, a movie that breezily strides the line that separates “cute” from “cutesy.” The plot is whimsical and engaging and shares space with a few great flicks – “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Harold and Maude” come to mind.

Calvin is a young author, played by a raw and vulnerable Paul Dano suffering from paralyzing writer’s block. I’m not spoiling anything to say that the character he eventually creates is named Ruby Sparks. She is Calvin’s dream girl, and she manifests one morning in his kitchen. We don’t know how it happens, it just does “because it’s love and it’s magic”!

We understand that Calvin was a wunderkind with a bestseller at 19 and in the film Ruby is a testament to his extraordinary writing – although she is really Zoe Kazan’s creation.

Kazan plays the Ruby Sparks of the

FILM: Ruby Sparks DIRECTOR: Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton 5/5 TOWERS BY JASMINE ZWEIFLER The Bourne series is back, but with a few changes. The most obvious, of course, is that Bourne is nowhere to be found in this film. Sure, we hear about him and might even see his photo once or twice, but that’s about as far as it goes. Instead, we meet the newest of Treadstone’s super-human agents – Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner).

When we first meet Cross, he is swimming shirtless in icy Alaskan waters and fighting off wolves with fire – not the kind of guy to be messed with. He is a standout – even among those in Treadstone – who soon finds himself hunted by the CIA in an attempt to shut down the program. He ends up teaming up with Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz) who is also the subject of a manhunt. They work together to survive by outsmarting, outrunning and outfighting the henchmen on their heels – which proves to be a pretty difficult task with the watchful eye of the CIA peering around every corner.

Director Tony Gilroy is behind the latest inception in the saga – which delivers a slight change of pace from Paul Greengrass’ style, but with all the suspense and heartstopping action audiences have come

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to expect from a Bourne film. Those who were worried that Mat Damon’s absence in the film would make it a bust have nothing to fear. Renner was the right man to pick up the torch and is just as engaging and believable as Damon while Weisz delivers a fantastic and compelling performance. At this point in the series, it might be safe to say that Bourne is the new Bond – as it’s all of the action and intelligence of the Bond films without the womanizing. In this film, it’s not just Cross that saves the day but also Shearing – a refreshingly independent and intelligent woman who certainly holds her own and, unlike the Bond girls, doesn’t need to use sex as a crutch.

Overall, this film answers a lot of questions behind the Treadstone operation – maybe too many at times, as the details get things off to a slow start and somewhat weigh down the plot. However, the suspense and action continues to build for the duration of the film, ending on a high note that begs for another sequel – perhaps one starring both Renner and Damon? We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

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title, and she fills her to bursting with wide eyed charm. (She also wrote the movie.) It seems like nowadays we’re inundated with hordes of “quirky girls” – implausible beauties that don’t know what a TV is and dress like six year olds. But because Ruby was never supposed to be a real person, she didn’t set off my eye roll reflex like the others.

Also, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t mention the always thrilling presence of Steve Coogan as Langdon Tharp, Calvin’s sleazy, insecure mentor/ rival. It’s the sort of scene stealer that Coogan does better than anyone.

The dark undercurrent that eventually overwhelms Calvin is what takes this movie from amusing to deeply affecting. The tagline for Ruby Sparks is “she’s out of his mind” (eye roll), but I would suggest “if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

FILM: The Bourne Legacy DIRECTOR: Tony Gilroy 4/5 TOWERS BY AMANDA TRENT

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THE CUT // REVIEW

rate it+++ It’s no secret that here in The States we love us a good buddy movie.

From “Lethal Weapon” to “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” to “Driving Miss Daisy” (yeah, I said it) we dig movies where two seeming incompatible people become thick as thieves. It’s a comedic well that has been plumbed with great success over the years and is apparently not dry yet with the release of “The Intouchables.” Now let’s just get one thing straight, this is not a movie starring Sean Connery about a ragtag group of Chicago vigilante cops trying to take down Al Capone…you’re thinking about “The Untouchables.” Great flick, but I’m talking about the French film directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano that is now receiving a limited stateside release.

There aren’t any tommy guns or speakeasies in “The Intouchables,” instead it’s an unselfconsciously joyful film about a wildly wealthy

FILM: The Campaign DIRECTOR: Jay Roach 2/5 TOWERS BY PAUL KITTI Election year. It’s like one big, bad comedy in itself, except without any of your favorite actors or the heart attack theater food (or the option of switching it off). But a 90-minute satire that scathingly and hilariously debunks the twisted, semi-comedic reality TV that is our political process?

Sign me up – the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Except, that’s not quite what we get with “The Campaign.”

Sure, no one was expecting something in the vein of “Dr. Strangelove” here, but this comedy nearly made me shed a tear for all the potentially brilliant material that went unused. The screenwriters could have plopped down in front of C-SPAN or Fox or CNN (pick your poison) with a notepad and generated a trilogy’s worth of material before their dinners got cold. Instead, they

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hand-picked a few relevant jumpingoff points (attack ads, sex scandals, brutally manipulated figureheads) and swamped them in sexual gags, potty humor and creative profanity in what plays like a series of hit-ormiss sketches. And with Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis facing off as opposing Congress hopefuls at the center of it all, it does score a few hilarious blips. A dog and a baby take slow-motion punches to the face, Dan Aykroyd clearly has fun as a political puppeteer trying to insource Chinese labor to smalltown North Carolina and Ferrell is pleasantly reminiscent of his sneering impersonations from his SNL glory days. But all the homerun humor sheds little light on the dark comedy awaiting outside the theater.

quadriplegic man Phillipe (Francois Cluzet) and the bond he forms with his caretaker Driss (Omar Sy). Phillipe is a middle-aged white millionaire, and Driss is a young black troublemaker from the projects – the plot would seem hackneyed if it weren’t a true story. There are certainly some predictable moments: Driss marveling at the palatial bathroom that is now his in Phillipe’s mansion, Driss opening Phillipe’s eyes to the restorative powers of a good joint and flirting, Driss getting fitted for a new tuxedo. We’ve seen this sort of thing before, but “The Intouchables” is acted so openly that it seems like the first time. Sy and Cluzet’s performances leave no room to doubt the depth of the connection that these two unlikely men forge.

(And the fact that Francois Cluzet looks exactly like a French Dustin Hoffman was an added marvel.)

FILM: The Intouchables DIRECTOR: Eric Toledano, Oliver Nakache 4/5 TOWERS BY JASMINE ZWEIFLER

SEPTEMBER 2012

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REVIEW // SOUNDS

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ARTIST: The Antlers ALBUM: Undersea EP 4/5 TOWERS BY PAUL KITTI Of all the bands to specialize in depression, Brooklyn’s The Antlers arguably make the best go at it. Their breakthrough, 2009’s “Hospice,” has the power to tug any willing listener into some kind of beautiful despair with its space-like atmospherics paired with Peter Silberman’s claustrophobic whispers and wails. Their follow-up came in last summer’s “Burst Apart,” which wasn’t so much a continuation as it was a trip down a slightly brighter tangent. It’s got its share of bleak matter – dying dogs, burning houses, failing body parts and crippling love affairs – but it also has a distinct warmth, an aura of comfort and safety, that allows you to sit peacefully in the flames.

Now, while more eyes are on The Antlers than ever before, they’re peeking their heads out of the studio with a 22-minute mile-marker of an EP that is very telling about the band’s focus and direction.

Entitled “Undersea,” with song titles such as “Endless Ladder,” “Drift Drive” and “Crest,” you only need some vague knowledge about their mastery in atmospheric soundscapes to realize that what they’re trying to do here is put you under water. But the surprise

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comes in how gently they take you there – you’ll spend stretches of time entranced by the rippling blue-green surface, cool liquid crawling down your ear canals, so, by the time you realize how deep you are, there’s no use flailing your arms around and trying to figure out which way is up. Panic and suffocation is in The Antlers’ blood, but they’re too smart to be super dramatic about it.

If there’s a disappointment here, for some listeners, it might be in the lyrics. While “Hospice” progressed in story-like detail and “Burst Apart” had imagery in its words that could seep into your dreams, Silberman keeps things as formless as water here, emphasizing distance and isolation through cryptic poetry. “Bathe underwater with me/ swim ‘til you’re half asleep,” he sings, at once hostile and alluring. What’s undeniably clear, however, is the musical unity between band members. “Undersea” finds them honing in on what makes them a unique band in a world where there are too many bands. The music soars and plunges without ever becoming too expansive or impersonal. They may be done telling stories for now, but they sure can take you somewhere.

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If you’re going to constantly be compared to other musicians, it could be a lot worse than Springsteen and Petty, especially if you’re New Jersey natives like Gaslight Anthem. Skillfully combining Petty’s pop-hook mastery with the passionate, anthemic delivery of Springsteen is no easy task. While these influences remain, the group’s fourth studio album, “Handwritten,” takes a turn from the Springsteenesque, “everyman” perspective of 2007’s “Sink or Swim” and build on the more introspective life-and-love musings of front man, Brian Fallon.

While the songs may be more personal than ever, that doesn’t mean the sound is stripped down.

The band recruited legendary producer, Brendan O’Brien, best

known for manufacturing pumpedup sounds and driving rhythm sections on albums by the likes of Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against the Machine and, of course, Springsteen himself.

Tracks like “45” and “Mae” are high points, sparkling with the magic reminiscent of the band’s breakthrough album, 2008’s “The ’59 Sound.” But, unfortunately, those high points are few and far between on “Handwritten.” While there are no complete lemons and you expect change to accompany growth, much of the album seems to meander in a world of mediocrity, trying to maintain or recapture glory rather than trying to reinvent it.

ARTIST: The Gaslight Anthem ALBUM: Handwritten 2/5 TOWERS BY DAVID NASSAR

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SOUNDS // REVIEW

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For all the mystery surrounding The Black Opera, the group’s reputation is fairly out there. The second installment of what they call “The Black Op: Era I Project” (the first was titled Overture), EnterMission is filled with hip-hop that maintains a grittiness that the genre is missing these days, but still manages to keep the lyrics and flow polished.

Kicking off the project is “EnterMission: Endro,” offering what might be expected from an intro to an album by a group name The Black Opera: operatic singing and a man’s voice juxtaposed with hip-hop beats.

The track may come off as slightly gimmicky, but thankfully, that doesn’t last long (just into the beginning of track two, “The Black Opera”). Sliding gracefully into “Manute Bol” (who played in the NBA and was an activist – knowledge!), which greets the listener with a forceful push forward.

The beat seems to pull the listener

ARTIST: Purity Ring ALBUM: Shrines 4/5 TOWERS BY PAUL KITTI www.ispymagazine.co // @ispymagazine

through the song, beckoning them to continue to hear the message. This sort of thing is seen throughout the album. Chants are aplenty, showing that the “We” the group identifies themselves as is alive and well.

And in reality, the message is what shines here. EnterMission (and the whole idea behind The Black Opera, really) hearkens back to a time when hip-hop meant more than it means to mainstream America today. It’s more than dropping countless F-andN-bombs. It’s more than big screen TVs, nice whips and women in hot tubs. It’s gritty, it’s raw and, from a few listens, it echoes Detroit. And for a group who is looking to form a movement with their music, that sounds like a mighty fine place to start.

ARTIST: The Black Opera ALBUM: EnterMission 4/5 TOWERS BY TREASURE GROH

Hats off to the power of the internet to occasionally bring the most exciting new music to the surface – even when it’s coming from mysterious sources. Back when Google searches for Purity Ring would only take you to chastity seminars, the male/female (producer/singer) duo from Edmonton released a single called “Ungirthed” into the destiny-determining gears of the web. It was followed by two other striking pieces of electro-pop. All said and done, the three singles were released over a period of fifteen months. So what we have is a band who emerged from obscurity to release one single every few months, somehow building considerable momentum in the process. Needless to say, these were strong songs. What’s more amazing is the album they’ve finally led us to: a 38-minute head trip through sparkling, electronic nightmare-pop entitled “Shrines.”

There are no new ingredients here – highpitched vocal samples, layers of synth, pulsing drum beats – but the manipulation of the standard inputs unites familiarity with the sense that something entirely new is evolving. The sweet, childlike

voice of Megan James floats through the songs like a ghost, subject to electronic contortion, keeping you entranced as she fills your brain with violent imagery.

The lyrics range from eerie to unsettlingly masochistic. “Grandma, I’ve been unruly…” she confesses on “Belispeak,” as if raising her voice through fog while sampled breaths rise and falter in abbreviated clips. “Drill little holes into my eyelids so I might see you in my sleep,” she later sings. The overall effect is something like eavesdropping on a dark celebration of love and contented loneliness, physical connection and mortal despair, with the untraceable knowledge that some danger is looming just ahead. But the climate changes slightly each time around – like a repeating dream, subtle but significant differences appear with each new trip that can lend new meaning to the experience.

So, as far as repeat value goes, this album can take a beating. And that makes sense – if Purity Ring could keep us on their hook for fifteen months with only three songs, then a whole album could take years to unpack.

SEPTEMBER 2012

i SPY

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