And so the Presidential Election has come and gone and …really, how much feels different?
Apparently we’re living on the edge, now, of a fiscal cliff, that is; the are now pundits pouncing on the new narrative of the same old characters gracelessly playing their all too familiar tug-of-war, this time over tax reform.
All the political-attacks and advertisements are behind us now and we can start looking ahead. Me, I’m flipping through my frayed rolodex of Vegetarian-friendly recipes to add meatless zest to my families table for this year’s Thanksgiving and penning in a few ‘Maybe’-s and full-on ‘Join’’s for Facebook-set events of upcoming local concerts.
The Michigan Winter’s upon us, readers. That means…before you know it…Mittenfest.
But…let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Dig this:
Wavy-bouncy bass lines and shimmying drums set the pop aesthetic a’-pumpin while the reverb decorously drenches out the anthemic-howled vocals and the guitar just spills its sunny guts out in tight, nervy riff-sized loogies. Mexican Knives is a Detroit-based left-field psyche-rock exploration started about a year ago by Zach Weedon (Lee Marvin Computer Arm / and even the Dirtbombs for a bit) and it’s evolved into an enticing blend of haunting desert-drifting dirges of layered-fuzz-oscillations and tribal stomps, coaxing riffs and eerie-sweet serenades.
I think they’d be a perfect match for Ypsi’s premier bare-bones punk-pop duo –The Secret Twins. Now, I say ‘Ypsi’s Secret Twins…since that’s where they local favor first flourished most brightly (and that was their base when they dropped their debut full-length) – but, the operatic lead vocalist and heartening local-punk-scene-proponent Dina Bankole now calls Detroit home – but you’ve still got the charming dry wit whopper of drummer Tim Thomas to call your own, locals…
Rounding out this bill is Isles of E.S.P. –who bring a jazz sensibility to an otherwise drone-aesthetic. Irreverent towards hemming structures and more bewitched by the capricious and invigorating possibilities to be mined via instrumental-autopsy – pure guitar storms – sporadic drums spills – and cool, dark, driving bass grooves.
Dig this:
Funny though, having just talked to main beat-bumping, sample-sorting keyboardist Joel Skene of Ypsi’s up-and-coming trip-hop quartet In Fact, -I had started this blog post fully intent on propping the exceptional presentation of contemporary ambient and spacey/surrealist hip-hop sensibilities set to perform in Detroit, at the Old Miami on November 30th.
That’s right… More weird, wonderful, fuzz-blanketed melodies all clattered up by experimental rhythmic approaches struck with underlying proclivities for marrying organic-and-synthetic timbres.
In Fact joins my current favorite local MC – SelfSays (a.k.a. Charles Vann) out of Detroit, opening up with the dreamy dance-pop orchestrations of duo Phantasmagoria. Rap’s sly n’ theatric re-inventers, Detroit C.Y.D.I. and DJ Frankie Banks$ will get things started – So, if you’re tired of the guitar-pop-status-quo and hungry for some sort-of-hip-hop-but-not-really-your-usual-hip-hop….then THIS is the place and THIS is the night. (Depending, I suppose, on whatever you consider to be ‘usual-hip-hop’ these days).
Certainly not more of the same…(which is what we can expect, so it seems as of this week, in our political realms).
Read more about In Fact in the December print edition of iSPY Magazine!
Info:
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http://www.facebook.com/mexicanknives
