The Crane Wives, a Grand Rapids based indie-folk band, is coming to Bell’s Eccentric Café this Friday at 9:30 PM. The origins of this band can be traced to a Chinese restaurant that Kate Pillsbury and Emilee Petersmark worked at together. The duo would perform during their breaks and eventually teamed up with Tom Gunnels, Dan Rickabus, and Ben Zito. Officially formed in 2010, the band serves up heaping helpings of twangy, danceable melodies with a side of heart wrenching ballads. Their first album, “Safe Ship, Harbored”, was released in 2011 and garnered the attention of Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, who took of a picture of himself with the album after stumbling upon it at NPR. Their new album, Fool in Her Wedding Gown, is now available on iTunes and Amazon music.

Opening for Crane Wives is Steven Leaf, a singer-songwriter from Michigan. Leaf plays mostly relaxing acoustic tunes. After releasing his first album, We Are Ghosts, he spent some time in Korea teaching English. Just recently he has released a new EP, Queen’s Language, and is playing shows once again.

The Crane Wives: http://www.reverbnation.com/thecranewives

Steven Leaf: http://www.myspace.com/steveleafmusic

Tickets are $8 at the door. If you like acoustic music, this is definitely a show worth seeing.

Come and get your fix of blues, folk, and Jazz, this Wednesday, 9 pm, at The Corner Record Store in Kalamazoo, MI. Dylan Lancaster, originally from Traverse City, brings to Kalamazoo a heartfelt American Folk interlaced with indie rock and southern twang. Saxsquatch and Bridge Band unleashes a jazz saxophone explosion over a variety of deep blues and rock N’ roll. Arms Akimbo combines emotionally charged vocals with captivating yet mellow folk guitar.

Check out the links below to get a taste of the acts performing tonight.

Dylan Lancaster – http://www.myspace.com/lancasterdylan

Saxsquatch and Bridge Band – http://saxsquatch.net/

Arms Akimbo – http://armsakimbokalamazoo.bandcamp.com/

Admission is FREE but donations are encouraged.

Respect the bands, Respect the venue, and Respect eachother.

Broken-hearted brutally honest solo indie artist Paul Baribeau hails from south central michigan, so this Sunday he will be making a quick stop at No Fun House with Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good To Me, His Name Is Alive), Jason Anderson, and Gitis Baggs. All heart-wrenching, all angst, all supporting. I hope you are doing well with your break-up…

Paul Baribeau – http://paulbaribeau.bandcamp.com/
Fred Thomas – http://www.myspace.com/fredthomassongs
Jason Anderson – http://jasonanderson.bandcamp.com/
Gitis Baggs – http://gitisbaggs.bandcamp.com/

Saturday Looks Good To Me is a group formed in late 2000 by singer-songwriter Fred Thomas (former member of the 4AD band His Name Is Alive). The songs that the Ann Arbor based indie pop group creates can be thought of as a unique blend of the Beach Boys, Guided By Voices and 60’s era Detroit soul. The group has released 7 albums, the most well known being “All Your Summer Songs” which Pitchfork listed as one of the top 50 albums of 2003.

Their live act varies from city to city. Here is a description from Polyvinyl Records: “It wasn’t uncommon for SLGTM to show up in a town for the first time as a gentle chamber pop ensemble and come back a year later doing the same songs in a garage rock style with all new band members.”

The band will perform on Friday, September 21st at Louie’s Trophy House Grill as part of the Already Dead Family Reunion Festival. The show begins at 6pm.

Tickets are available for $7 in advance, or $10 at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased here: http://alreadydeadtapes.bigcartel.com/category/tickets

A documentary on local music that was shot in Michigan last year was selected to be screened at the Jaxon Film Fest on Saturday, September 29th at the Carnegie Branch Library in Jackson, MI. Documentaries screened at this location are FREE! More information about the festival can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/events/463828700316820/?ref=ts

I was told that Weekend Warriors II will be screened around 2 pm.

Synopsis:

The music scenes that are scattered across Michigan seem to be lacking the attention they once had. Several people will tell you that the ‘scene is dead’. This, however, is clearly not the case as you will see by this look into several of the music scenes you can find locally in Michigan and Northern Indiana.

The Weekend Warriors local music documentary series is set out to showcase the amazing music that is being made locally, show insight into what it’s like to be in these bands, show the differences in music scenes from different genres and cities, and to get the attention of people, showing them that there is good music being made locally and the only way for it to survive is for you to go to the shows and support the bands and venues. Most of these shows are cheap, ranging from free to $10, with anywhere from 3 to 20 bands on any given show. There are shows being hosted on a weekly basis in several cities performing any genre you can think of.

Weekend Warriors II focuses on genres such as hardcore, punk, metal, screamo, post-rock, pop-punk, indie, noise-rock, and more, spanning from cities like Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Muskegon, Lansing, South Bend, and beyond. This look into the local music scene not only provides you with a long list of bands that are continually playing in your area, but it gives you insights into the scene from the musicians themselves.

Band members explain how they became involved with music, what their (rather realistic) goals are for their bands, what it’s like to be a part of an ever-changing music scene, and how to deal with venues opening and closing. The bands also discuss topics such as whether they would like to stay local or become nationally touring bands and what their thoughts are on all ages vs. age restricted shows.

Some of the bands in this documentary are recently formed, while others have been together for several years. There was a first ever show (Chin Up!) and a [possibly] last show (William Bonney) filmed. The bands have proven that they are willing to play with bands that might not be the same genre, age group, or with the same number of fans; they just want to play their music and enjoy other bands as well.

The bands, music fans, venues, bookers, promoters, and local music zines are working hard to rebuild a music scene that has lost a lot of attention over the years due to the economy, lack of support, genres shifting, and other circumstances. This documentary provides a view into local music that should encourage the spectator to go out and see it in person and help be a part of the process of the rebuilding of live local music.

Music from:
Ackley Kid, analecta, Bars of Gold, Brothers, Chin Up!, Discerned, Dr. Device, Forget The Times, From The Ropes, Ghosts of the Great Lakes, Infinite Design, Jowls, La Dispute, Outrun the Sunlight, The Penguin Collector, Please Promise, The Reptilian, Sleepeater, Tall Tales, Their Teeth Will Be Of Lions, Three Mile Island, TimeLapse, Traitor, William Bonney

Interviews with:
Ackley Kid, analecta, The Ant Hill (Kalamazoo house venue), Bars of Gold, Brothers, Chin Up!, Discerned, Ghosts of the Great Lakes, Infinite Design, Jowls, No Fun House (Kalamazoo house venue), Outrun The Sunlight, Please Promise, The Reptilian,
Sleepeater, Their Teeth Will Be Of Lions, Traitor

*Festival version is 67 minutes. More bands are included in the 88 minute DVD version.

Credits:
Producer/camera/editing/audio mixing: Lisa Bridenstine (The Penguin Collector)

Narration written by: Ken Miller (Three Mile Island) and Zach Elmblad (Three Mile Island)

Narration read by: Ken Miller (TMI), Zach Elmblad (TMI), and Ben Boggs (Sleepeater)

Design and layout by: Joshua Davis (Discerned)

Additional cameras by: Ben Boggs (Sleepeater), Jared Koons (The Penguin Collector), Kasey Chaos, Steven Smeltzer

Live show audio: Jared Koons (TPC) and Lisa Bridenstine (TPC)

More information and links to the bands’ facebook pages are at facebook.com/weekendwarriorsdocumentaries

One of many artists performing the opening evening of the AD Family Reunion tomorrow is rural Pennsylvania’s own About A Million.  The band currently consists of two permanent members, Anthony and Jess (who just announced their engagement to marry this week, so don’t forget to congratulate them!), but live sets close to home also consist of other family members and friends, as seen in the video below.

AAM began as Anthony’s songwriting project when he started recording his own music as a teenager.  The project is very versatile in sound.  Releases over the years have had seamless transitions between twee, hip hop, indie rock, math rock, and folk sounds.  Currently, About A Million is a little more grounded to the indie and folk elements of their sound, as evident on their two most recently recorded releases, Things We Don’t Think About and Me + You.

About A Million is playing the AD Family Reunion tomorrow night (Thursday).  Night one is at the No Fun House and starts at six.  The suggested donation (for this night only) is $4, or you can get a pass for the whole weekend here.  More information about the Already Dead Family Reunion is available on the Facebook event.

The Snake Hole is located in The Bronco Club community. Be aware to not park in the neighborhood or you will be towed.

Straight to the point, here’s what’s going down.

Tall Tales
“Slut City, Michigan”
Kalamazoo Post-Hardcore/Rock
facebook page

Cultural Examination
“Hardcore from Ft. Wayne, Indiana”
facebook page

Serpents Tongue
Straight from Warsaw, IN
facebook page
bandcamp page

Mad Dog!
“Mad Dog is Mad Dog, and Mad Dog is music.”
facebook page

Timelapse
Rock & Roll from Battle Creek
facebook page

Fossil Eyes
Post-Hardcore/Progressive/Indie
-New project from The Penguin Collector vocalist Jared Koons
facebook page

Check Out the Event Page!
Snake Hole KZoo on Facebook

$6
Doors @ 5
Bands @ 5:30
All Ages
BYOB – 21+Drink w/ID

-Respect the Bands, Respect the House, Respect Yourself-

Saturday night, it’s getting creepy.

The aptly named Creepy Band from Chicago will be coming to Kalamazoo to play some coffin rock for you. It’s like Danzig meets Castlevania. They’ll be performing in support of their upcoming full length album, set to be released on Halloween day naturally.

The brand new Kalamazoo band, Statia, will be performing as well. Featuring members of hometown heroes Pan and Ackley Kid, I had the pleasure of witnessing their first show just the other night. Expect heavy doses of taut, well-orchestrated riffage over busy drums with tasteful keyboard accompaniment as well as a dual screaming vocal assault. It’s probably the best thing to happen to Kalamazoo in a while.

The show is going down at Shakespeare’s lower level Saturday night, doors @ 9PM. And it is totally free.