Another big thanks to Tyler Emrick for sending in some more great shots of Kalamazoo Music in action, this time for The Reptilian, Empire! Empire!, Pan, and the Binary Marketing Show, who pout on an excellent show a few weeks ago at The Strutt.
Once again, if anyone has photos from local shows and wants ’em thrown up here on DIT, you can send ’em our way at ditkalamazoo@gmail.com.
Do you like afro-cuban, electro-pop dance music with a horn section? Well if one or any of those things appeal to you, then you should probably be at the Strutt tonight when Rubblebucket gets down and dirty. These guys are loud, rowdy, energetic, and an absolute blast – I know I had fun when they came through the Strutt last year.
Plus, opening for these bad boys and girls is TY BEAT, a Michigan electronic player that kicks the jams and kicks them well. This will be a show to remember, or at least get down at.
Tonight, for those that enjoy getting down on Folk music, the Fletcher Collective is the place to be! Once in a blue moon the fine folks at Fletcher see fit to throw a show, and they always prove to be a great time. This time, I’m sure, will be no exception.
Coming in from AA-Way is the Appleseed Collective, a rag-tag old-timey Ragtime outfit. These guys come complete with a violin and washboard player, and some excellent excellent vocals.
Grand Rapids has two of their fine outfits on loan tonight as well. Soil in the Sun will be cranking their airy, rather experimental folk music. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve heard, and their live show comes highly recommended. It’s some cool tunes for sure.
Also out of GR, the relatively new group Patchwork will be performing. Sing-songy, happpy-go-lucky folk music for the masses. Come out and support these guys while they play and grow.
And finally, local yokels The Almanac Shouters will be bringing their punk-inspired folk music to the fore. They’ll yell at you, you can yell at them, and everybody will be yelling. Good times will be had by all. Plus, the Shouters just put out a new album. Grab you a copy or two!
Courtesy Suck it, Alex.
You like dancing? We at DIT certainly do. That’s why the most of us will be at The Strutt tonight, dancing away this St. Pattie’s like it’s going out of style. WIDR will be there too, as an extension of the ever-popular anual WIDR WEEK that’s occurring right now. They’ll be spinning the jams (House, Classic hip-hop, and Dubstep) and squeezing out the maximum amount of booty-shakeage sanction-able by law.
They’ll be taking 3 bucks at the door, all of which goes to fund WIDR and it’s various shenanigans (such as broadcasting commercial-free music 24 hours a day or throwing sweet music festivals). Plus, The Strutt is putting on some pretty excellent specials for the evening – $3.50 pints of ANY DRAFT. If that’s not a dangerously good deal, I don’t know what is.
18 and up for tonight’s festivities, sorry those of you that don’t meat the age requirement. For everyone though, be careful out tonight. Let’s have ahhhselfs a safe and swingin’ St. Patrick’s Celebration!
CLIPART
Last summer, I spent almost every Wednesday in the studio, with different friends of mine, with one important goal: To write and record music in one sitting, just to see what would happen.
Turns out, a lot of that music turned out in a big way (with no help from me, I might add). There are a lot of excellent musical talents in Kalamazoo, and I’m fortunate enough to be friends with a few of them.
Courtesy Jarab Selner
I am offering up the first piece of output (currently – and unceremoniously – dubbed Album A Week, Selner, Selner, Wesley, Duke) for FREE DOWNLOAD. This collection of four tracks features Kalamazoo’s own Jarab Selner and James Duke of Son Drop on bass and drums, Detroit Native Robert Wesley on guitar, and myself on sax.
There’s a little funk and a lot of jazz on this one. I hope you guys enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it.
Courtesy http://goodeveningmusic.com
This Thursday night, Louie’s is playing host to an evening of strings, voices and beautiful music as some of Kalamazoo’s best songwriters take the stage to support a most excellent group out of Chicago, called Good Evening (Not to be confused with Kalamazoo’s Good News, who played Louie’s earlier this week). These guys are a five-piece acoustic band with a varied instrumentation and a fantastic sound that reminds one of a spring evening. Smooth but somewhat bittersweet, Good Evening is reason enough to be at Louie’s Thursday.
Kalamazoo / Traverse City floating denizen Pat Carrol (Also – and perhaps better known – as Cat Peril) is performing a set as well, singing songs and telling stories with his acoustic guitar. If you’ve never heard Pat play in Kalamazoo, be sure you take this opportunity to catch him in the act. You will not be disappointed.
Fiona Dickenson, another Kalamazoo favorite, will no doubt be performing music off of her album Deunde, which dropped earlier this year and is a fantastic listen (PieEaterMann did a wonderful review of it). Beautiful, haunting and terrifying are three words that come to mind when listening to Fiona’s music, and her live performance is always top notch.
Finally, The Neu Spreitz’ Tyler Bassett is performing his own solo material under the moniker Silphium Blooms. It should be a blast for everyone involed, so hopefully we see everyone down at Louie’s tomorrow! I’ll be there for sure.
Tonight, the Strutt is hosting a night of folkie-rocky, singer-songwriter, electric-guitar solo madness – All native Michigan music too, I might add – and it’s going to be so good to hear it.
Jeremy Porter will be in town from the Upper Peninsula, and he’ll be bringing his new band, the Tucos, with him, playing an assortment of music from his new album ‘Party of One’. Guitar and vocals backed up by a full band and some excellent songwriting – A good way to spend a Saturday night if I’ve ever heard of one.
Joining them are Livonia, Michiganites Chris Richards + The Subtractions, who have also just released an album. Plus, local boys (and one of my favorite outfits) Birches will be out to support everyone while thoroughly getting down on some guitar-pickin’ rock and roll. They’re working on an album themselves, but unlike the other two groups tonight, it’s not out yet. Good things come to those who wait, though.
Courtesy Birches Myspace
It’s sure to be an excellent night of All-Michigan music. Doors open at 9, show starts at 9:30, cost at the door is 5 bucks. Come support local and semilocal jams all at once!
On behalf of DIT Kalamazoo, we’d like to issue a formal and ecstatic Congratulations to the peoples of Egypt, and a strong thanks for showing the world how it’s done.
If that’s not a Do It Together attitude, I don’t know what is.
Reuters/Emilio Morenatti
Tonight, a newer DIY Venue in Kalamazoo is going to open it’s doors and try something that other DIY venues rarely attempt: There’s going to be an open mic at the Revolution Cat House.
If you play tunes, rap, spit poetry, break dance, or just plain get down and want a place to do it, then tonight is your night. the RCH is doing it right, with a full backline for drums, bass, guitars provided, and anyone who’d like to jam, groove, rock out, or perform some other abstract-yet-identifiable verb is more than welcome, and in fact encouraged, to. The fun starts at 8:30 and runs to 10:30.
At 10:30, though, the party really gets going. Brown Cow kicks it off, and they promise with all their hearts and souls to tear down the house, and probably the houses next door, too. Check out ‘Michigan’s finest Slacker Rock’, and get your led out.
Thanks to Pleasant Drive's Myspace
Then, at 11:30, Pleasant Drive takes off and rocks out until the cows come home. Or the Brown Cows go home. Whichever happens first. Either way it’s going to be a cool show and an interesting experience. DIY Open Mics, after all, are some of the best things ever.
Though this has nothing to do with DIT, it is a technical drawing of the gearbox from a Lotus Espirit. Courtesy http://lotusespritworld.com
The last few weeks have been rather slow for DIT, but that tends to happen after such slews of good shows as have been had in recent memory. It does give a chance for us folks to recoup and rally ourselves so we can go on in to the future in a fashion better suited to doing what we do best: Supporting local and DIY music and art.
We’ve made a few minor changes to the blog itself in the last few weeks. Namely, renaming a few key features to make it easier for first time visitors and everyday readers alike to use. Hopefully this will make the act of locating shows and old articles that much easier to accomplish. Other improvements are also in the works, so stay tuned for those!
Courtesy http://inaustralia.org
DIT(K) Is also actively seeking out the use of other venues around town. Variety is the spice of life, after all, and it does become difficult for just a few part-time venues to handle every show that may pop up around this burg. Don’t worry about having trouble finding anything though: any new venue we start working with will be posted under the ‘Find a Venue‘ link at the top of the main page.
Finally, Already Dead Tapes and Records has made a running start, putting out Forget The Times’ new tape ‘Escape from the Planet of the Llamas’, thereby bringing their total product output to 4 releases by 2 bands. Those boys are adding new artists left and right, so if you’re in to slightly-off-kilter music, or if you have a slightly-off-kilter band that you think you’d like to make a tape with, check those boys out.
We’ll be keeping things more up to date as things crop up on dates, so keep checking back. There are some great shows billed already, and even more that are still in the works.
DITKalamazoo 