Tag Archives: kalamazoo

12/11: When A Lumberjack Falls In The Woods–High Dive, Our Lady, George Costanza, and Witchfingers @ Milhouse

When carousing on a Tuesday night in Kalamazoo, Michigan, some stroller-abouts might have trouble finding something “relatable.” More so if if they happen to be a straight, white, male.

You get weird looks in the bars, surrounded by hordes of glassy-eyes ogling your Levi’s and plaid, and all the restaurants have funny names for the drinks like “Rainbow Hobgobbler,” or “Jackie Gleeson’s Log Cabin Party.”  By golly it even seems like the way I wear the bristly spider hairs on my face becomes subject to public criticism; especially on Tuesdays.

It happens everyday. Taking over the music scene, too. Gays, lesbians, transexuals, transgender, all the Alphabet Soup Party members burst out the perfectly matched shutters, periwinkle closets, and checkerboarded picnic tables of the Vine Street Neighborhood, screaming and hollering indecipherable rants on “acceptance,” “tolerance,” “community,” and “identity” into the atmosphere, inevitably linking up to the hive minded stage over at the 411 Club also known as Metro.

Spinning off of these choruses and chasms is what can be considered “queer-core,”  what show-booker and house-venue operator Rory Svekric describes as a genre that askews “ ‘heteronormatively’ written” songs “that need to be fudged a little to be relatable.” They may or may not contain members of the overwhelming  majority that is the LGBTQA as well. That’s why she booked the Bloomington, Indiana queer-core pop-punk trio High Dive for her show tomorrow at Milhouse–and maybe for lead singer Toby Foster’s playful lisp, or the quick bursts of energy that surround their two-and-half minutes diddys about isolation, love, and suicide as angst ridden teens and twenty-somethings. Kissing boys is a major theme as well.

Who can possibly find themselves in these songs?

High Dive will be playing alongside the ever-changing power-pop-punk group Our Lady from Springfield, IL, and home-grown emo-indie acts Witch Fingers and George Costanza, the second of which may quite possibly be the most emo band name I’ve ever heard. Both of the home town groups share a spastic spittle ridden silliness in their sound, that in some way shape or form may be appealing those gruff young kids that have the same spastic spittle ridden silliness called angst.

Tomorrow night, Milhouse. 8:30 p.m. Donations for the touring bands would be more than tolerated.

Respect the house, respect the bands, respect the perspectives.

If anyone has comments, questions, or concerns, it is encouraged that they comment below, or email the writer at espontaneo.clark@gmail.com

WIDRAMA Kicks Off 12/7

WIDR fm, Kalamazoo’s local college/community radio station will be bringing a monthly local showcase to the 411 club. WIDR has hit some hard times, as much of their funding from WMU has been cut. To help supplement this loss, they’re doing rad stuff such as this!

This show will feature The Reptilian who have recently returned from a tour in the UK, and will likely be bringing fresh tunes as well as old favorites.

Also newer to the Kalamazoo scene, Onn will be bringing their brand of heavy, intricate, techincal rock.

Finally, Totally Rad – Kalamazoo’s finest lo-fi, twee, surf band will be making an appearance.

Doors open at 9, show starts at 10, and will have a 3 dollar minimum donation (for the good cause that is local radio that does not suck).

DIT Session #28 – The La De Les – “Too Small Of Hands”

DIT Session #28
The La De Les – “Too Small Of Hands”
DITsessions.com

http://ladeles.com/
https://www.facebook.com/theladeles

THURSDAY 11/29: Oreo Jones & DJ Action Jackson with DMA, Finaocardi, Beniam, Heart-Attack Zack, Deniro Swiper, and Kid Dew @ THE BLACK LODGE

Thursday night The Black Lodge will host several hip-hop acts from around Kalamazoo and abroad.

Oreo Jones and DJ Action Jackson are from Indianapolis, currently on their Behind the Lips tour. Oreo is a rapper of the absurdist tradition, evoking comparisons to other playful hip-hop outfits like Das Racist or Odd Future, with the same good-times-party bent of Digital Underground. Think a block party co-hosted by Dave Chapelle and Tim & Eric.

Finaocardi is a local MC whose party-ready tunes serve as a smokescreen to a dynamic lyricist with bombastic delivery and a fantastic lyrical bent. His body of work trojan horses pertinent social themes with songs about chillin’ at home and getting down.

Beniam is an up-and-coming rapper in the Kalamazoo area who explores unique territory other rappers don’t necessarily delve into. He talks about highly spiritual and personal topics, and touches on issues that will satisfy your cerebral cravings.

Heart-Attack Zack melds together a sense of whimsical humor and personal introspection. A Drake or Kid Cudi who is perhaps less self-serious and more apt to rap as much about life’s absurdities and it’s struggles.

Deniro Swiper  is a vicious female MC who takes the traditional aggressive machismo of Hip-Hop music and turns it on its head, essentially taking the bullhorn and demolishing all misogynistic haters.

Kid Dew and his brother Why J will be coming down from Grand Rapids to present their street level rhymes and beats.

Please bring donations to support the touring MCs and DJs. Show starts at 9 o’ clock. Respect the house (and respect Black Fabio).

TONIGHT: I’m William Cutting, Neqriem, and Lacerations @ THE BLACK LODGE

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Tonight The Black Lodge will be celebrating Black Friday right with a trio of metal bands the local Michigan area.

I’m William Cutting, soulful metal troubadours from South Haven.

Lacerations, Progressive Metal from Battle Creek.

Neqriem, Death Metal from Kalamazoo.

Show starts at 8 o’ clock. Donations for out-of-towners are suggested.

TONIGHT: Mehrunes Dagon, Bert, Statia, and Entropy Elephant @ THE BLACK LODGE

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Tonight The Black Lodge will host a docket of acts poised to scratch all kinds of experimental musical itches.

Coming through from parts outside the Kalamazoo sphere are two metal bands that are completely unafraid to dive headfirst into strange sonic territories.

BerT are from Lansing, weaving together the slow, rolling thunder of doom metal with experimental electronics to produce a highly unique sound that pricks the eardrums on several fronts. Using their metal instrumentation as a baseline, they build on it with noise music techniques to produce a peculiar yet highly entertaining hybrid beast that implements the best of both genres.

Mehrunes Dagon are a doom metal band from Grand Rapids who execute the traditional tidal sounds indicative of the genre. Listening to their music is similar to watching a combustion engine being built piece-by-piece, building their rolling guitars to exciting heights and crescendos.

They will be getting local support from Kalamazoo experimentalists Statia and ENTROPY ELEPHANT.

Statia has recently been making the rounds in the Vine Neighborhood, with a crunchy metal sound that borrows as much from contemporary metal as it does 70’s prog rock.

ENTROPY ELEPHANT is a new side project from local musical mad scientist Sid Redlin. Thrown together on the fly for a fill-in gig at Louie’s several weeks ago, Sid quickly realized that he had created a monster which he will be gleefully unleashing on The Black Lodge.

Show starts at 9PM. Please bring donations for the out-of-town bands!

TONIGHT – Nervous Passenger, Forget the Times, Johhny Foreigner, Jake Simmons & the Little Ghosts @ Milhouse

Nine o’clock tonight at Milhouse, two traveling groups and two local favorites will bring sounds to one of the Kalamazoo underground music community’s favorite basements.

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Johnny Foreigner, coming in all the way from the UK, is an energetic four-piece pop punk outfit with some experimental leanings.  They’re hitting up the east coast, as well as the midwest on this tour.

Swerp Records labelmates Nervous Passenger are out with JF.  They provide the type of throaty pop punk commonly brought to the Vine Neighborhood by Fat Guy House.  They describe themselves and their music by saying “…songs are about girls and/or friends and/or beer, and they’re super fun to sing along to.”

Local support for the night comes from experimental/noise rock favorites Forget The Times, as well as left-wing anthem singers/Ted Leo fanatics Jake Simmons & the Little Ghosts.  Donations will be accepted and are encouraged for the traveling bands.  Attendees should plan for a fun night, but also to be respectful of the space, the others attending, and the people organizing/helping out with/playing the show.

TONIGHT: Jerry Fels and the Jerry Fels w/ Boy Becomes Hero, Nick DeMott, and Neil Shah @ THE BLACK LODGE

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Tonight The Black Lodge will be hosting an acoustic night featuring Jerry Fels and the Jerry Fels, who is actually just one man. Currently on tour to celebrate his 2011 release “Evil is the Root of All Money,” Jerry is a solo acoustic performer whose music has both a poignant introspection and a wonderful sense of humor. With such songs as “Bad Bad Bad Bad Money” and “Girl You Make Me Want to Change My Number,” Jerry’s tongue is planted firmly in his cheek.

Supporting him are several local performers including Boy Becomes Hero, folk songs with a distinctly personal bent.

Nick DeMott, who veers through various topics with a whimsical appreciation for the American roots folk/ blues sound.

Rounding it out will be Neil Shah, best known for his involvement with several popular Kalamazoo bands like Ackley Kid, Witch Fingers, and Statia.

Show starts at 9PM. Please bring donations for the traveling troubadour.

10/31: Costumed Creeps Capture Crazed Captcha Writers, force them to scribble reviews–Millhouse’s House Venue of Horror

Happy Holidays

Gif, what gif?

Ever wonder what to do for Halloween? I don’t. I listen to music and go to shows. Occasionally I’ll dress up. Good thing I found an outlet for all of these extracurricular, all-hallowed activities–right in the vicinity of the Kalamazoo area. Like a damned miracle. Crawling into that inclusive concrete basement, pitifully preserving the tatters of my costume  torn-up by the zombified Misfits-guitar player, I expect to be thoroughly covered in fake-blood, real-sweat, and unidentifiable Halloween goo.

I want the music to be heavy in the air as the fleshy lips groaning it out.

Grimey as whatever demon-oozed concoction of booze and perspiration slime has covered the supports beams of the questionably stable house.

Maybe I want to be both things, too. But that’s another matter. A festive fistful of groups are incorporating all the corporeal functions of the holiday in both costume and music,  entertaining blissful escapism in the spirit of Halloween and gritty basement shenanigans.

Listen to the masquerading Misfits, and someone will tear out the Danzig face, then emblematically skull-bash the music right into auditory centers of the brain. Detroit’s Child Bite will be performing the procedure, with what can be assumed as a blood-gurgling tone that eventually curdles out of some heaving dark pit that got filled up with the bass-notes of Cage the Elephant or some other adequately psychosis/psychedelic fused induced rock-noise.

My description may not be perfect, so provided is actual music:

All for the continuing depravity and reckless behavior so attuned to show-going is Anybody But the Cops. The trio of instrumental-punk rockers are currently conquering the basement scene by blistering up a few 2 minute jams and skirting away before proper law-enforcement can nab them. One can only hope that eventually they will be stopped, before the lot of us are dragging ourselves through gardens of Miller 40ozs and fields poorly-costumed plaid to secure a fix of fuck-you induced fun.

I am trying to say they are addicting, fast, and out of control–and it might be fun to catch these shows while their sound is still developing.

But that is too easy. College interns should finish their upcoming DIT Session so viewers aren’t subjected to poorly lit rooms and questionable youtube videos to hear their music:

And if Rory Svekric wasn’t enough Rory Svekric for you, the Milhouser’s will be transmuting plasma sacrifices of party-goers to make a Rage Against the Machine reanimation for those too hip for underground music. Fuck you, don’t listen to what you tell me.

And who let Benji of Wearwolf, the Mushmen, and Lincoln Wars in on the show? Owes me shot of demon-rum for suggesting half of his musical genius. Surprises await, and with cohort Codi in tow, expect ultra-violence, or really anything because N0PARENTZ isn’t afraid of anyone, especially no parents. Or any musical explicative, because really the angst, sadistic humor, or plain insane zanity that is whatever Benji touches is sure to promote some sort of frothy, emotive response–ranging from raging to tearful.

Like the Reptillian? Bagheera is hoofing it to provide some “ex-tillian” entertainment. I can’t say much else. They’re new. Let’s be new together.

For those curious  the event is at Milhouse tonight, temporarily converted into a musical hall of horrors where all the ears can be mutilated, devoured, or otherwise horrifically effected. Only in the most pleasant of manners, though.

Donation, respectful, and starts at 9 p.m. Tonight. Halloween.

Dress up. Not as mandatory.

Already Dead Family Reunion Preview: Emperor X

Emperor X

With the days counting down to the second Already Dead Family Reunion, we here over at DIT figured we’d do an extended preview of sorts about a few of the artists that are near, dear, or just plain cool. On each day of this week we are going to be posting a new artist. saying  a little bit about them, and why they are going to make this year’s AD Fest just that much more unmissable.

Los Angeles-based artist Emperor X has only twice visited Kalamazoo in three times as many years (ADFR will be his third time to the city), but with a passion for touring and physical musical media, the Already Dead Family seems a proper fit. The dedication for the original, creative, and representation of physical music is so intuitive, that with the latest Emperor X release Western Teleport (2011), 41 purple cassette tapes were hidden around  North America as part of a meta-game which would unlock extra MP3s. Only 15 of them have been found.

While founder Chad Matheny first came to Kalamazoo years ago with a full band behind him, Emperor X has since simplified into a solo set that has toured all over the United States– it was a show in Willimantic, CT with Forget The Times that initially introduced Matheny to Already Dead Tapes co-founder and festival starter Sean Hartman. While designs for a 4-way split featuring Emperor X on Already Dead Records were thought up, they have since been changed to a normal split twixt Dan Doyle and the Hermit Thrushes, Hartman has assured that “we’ll get something with him eventually.”

Though reduced to the company of himself, Emperor X‘s sound is not by any means meager. The one-man-show is rounded out with loop pedals, multiple microphones, and song lyrics pumped full of  science-savvy terminology, geek-culture references, and heart-throbbing angst that provide oodles of experimental-pop sound. Everything is as catchy as fish-hook strung through Ben Gibbard’s upper-lip, and as hauntingly vexing as a Sam Beam solo set.

Those that want to sneak a peak at Emperor X can check out his song “Erica Western Teleport” from Western Teleport below.  For a more intimate feel, listeners and viewers can witness him live at Louie’s Trophy House and Grill, this Saturday from 10:30 p.m. to 11:15p.m.  as part of the Already Dead Family Reunion. Tickets $7 now,  $10 at the door, or $12 for the whole weekend.

Respect the Bar, Respect the Crowd, but don’t forget to enjoy yourself.