Blog Post
Author Events: April 2017
by christopherporter
What does having an amazing university, a plethora of fantastic local independent bookstores, and a pretty slam-bang public library system (if we do say so ourselves) bring to a town?
Authors. Lots and lots of authors.
Authors big and small, renowned writers and first-time novelists, crafters of poetry, prose, fiction, and nonfiction often grace the Ann Arbor region with lectures, discussions, readings, and book signings. The fact that so many awesome authors want to come speak here and meet their southeast Michigan readers is a testament to how voraciously we devour books here in Washtenaw County.
In fact, so many authors pass through the area that sometimes it can be hard to keep track of who is speaking and when and where. To help guide you, Pulp curated a highlights list of April 2017 author events.
Agata Tuszyńska
➥ Sunday, April 2 at the Michigan League, 5 pm
In her latest book, Family History of Fear, Tuszyńska explores her family’s history in Poland during World War II, investigating her relatives and their mysterious pasts. This event is organized by U-M’s Copernicus Program in Polish Studies.
Desiree Cooper
➥ Tuesday, April 4 at Hatcher Graduate Library (Room 100), 7 pm
Cooper is a 2015 Kresge Art Fellow, Detroit-area activist and longtime journalist whose fiction deals with the complicated issues of racism and sexism.
Erica Westly
➥ Tuesday, April 4 at Literati Bookstore, 7 pm
Westly’s book Fastpitch: The Untold History of Softball and the Women Who Made the Game was a finalist for the 2017 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting and is told from the perspective of influential early softball players.
FRUIT
➥ Saturday, April 8 at Literati Bookstore, 7 pm
FRUIT is a space for writers representing the marginalized that takes place every second Saturday of the month at Literati. It is community-led and includes readings and discussion.
Margot Singer in conversation with Eileen Pollack
➥ Monday, April 10 at Literati Bookstore, 7 pm
Singer’s new novel is Underground Fugue, which tells the story of four characters affected by the London tube bombings of 2005. Eileen Pollack is a U-M professor who teaches in the Helen Zell MFA Program.
Elizabeth Kolbert
➥ Tuesday, April 11 at Ross School of Business (Robertson Auditorium), 6 pm
Kolbert, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction and Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change, is the guest at this installment of the Erb Institute Purpose to Impact Speaker Series.
Ibram X. Kendi
➥ Tuesday, April 11 at 100 Hutchins Hall (Law School), 6 pm
Kendi won the 2016 National Book Award for nonfiction and will discuss his new book, Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. A Q&A and book signing will follow.
Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
➥ Wednesday, April 12 at Literati Bookstore, 7 pm
The New York Times bestselling author of The Nest, the story of four adult siblings and the inheritance that has shaped their lives, will do a reading and book signing.
Elizabth Kostova
➥ Monday, April 17 at Nicola's Books, 7 pm
The New York Times bestselling author of The Historian will read from her new book, The Shadow Land, an engrossing story of the painful history of Bulgaria.
Bob Tarte
➥ Thursday, April 20 at the Ann Arbor District Library Downtown Secret Lab, 7 pm
Tarte spent most of his life uninterested in birding, but after spotting a rose-breasted grosbeak he became obsessed with learning about and finding birds. He’ll discuss his quest and his new book Feather Brained: My Bumbling Quest to Become a Birder and Find a Rare Bird On My Own, which appeals to birders of all ages and skill levels.
National Poetry Month Celebration
➥ Friday, April 21 at Literati Bookstore, 7 pm
Local poets Keith Taylor, Alison Swan, and Raymond McDaniel will do a reading at Literati to celebrate National Poetry Month.
Joel Berg
➥ Monday, April 24 at Literati Bookstore, 7 pm
Berg discusses his newest book America, We Need to Talk: A Self-Help Book for the Nation, which offers concrete ways that average citizens can make a difference in today's world.
Telaina Eriksen
➥ Thursday, April 27 at Literati Bookstore, 7 pm
Eriksen is the author of Unconditional: A Guide to Loving and Supporting Your LGBTQ Child. She is a professor at Michigan State University and the mother of a gay daughter.
Midwest Literary Walk
➥ Saturday, April 29, 2017, downtown Chelsea, 1 pm
Hear authors Peter Ho Davies, Derek Palacio, Heather Ann Thompson, Kwame Alexander, and Airea D. Matthews during an afternoon of readings and discussions in downtown Chelsea. This is the 9th annual MLW.
Elizabeth Pearce is a Library Technician at the Ann Arbor District Library.
Blog Post
Small Towns, Universal Emotions: Nickolas Butler at Literati
by christopherporter
“I couldn’t write about something like the New York City social scene, because I know nothing about it,” said Nickolas Butler frankly at his reading at Literati on Wednesday, March 8. Butler’s third book, The Hearts of Men, has just been released and it shares a rural Wisconsin setting with his previous two books, Shotgun Lovesongs and Beneath the Bonfire.
Butler himself lives outside of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, with his family and is able to brilliantly capture rural Midwestern life in his work, as only someone who truly lives it would be able to do.
“In part, I write about these characters and this setting because that’s what I’m familiar with,” said Butler. “Although I have a very nice house and a very nice property, it’s just a little bit down the road until I’m in what is essentially rural poverty. I go into Cleghorn, which is the nearest town, and there’s literally one intersection and there’s a bar and a taxidermy shop.” He laughed a little. “You can go in [to the bar], and you and four of your buddies could drink as much as you possibly could and there’s no way that you could ever run a tab up in there that’s more than $65.”
A lot of people don’t see places like this. Unless you live there or grew up there, there are not many reasons that one might find themselves in rural Wisconsin or Minnesota or even Michigan, for that matter. But this is the environment that Butler shares with readers and the people he has chosen to capture in his writing. And by doing it as well as he does, these gritty, unglamorous people that inhabit these small, cold towns in his books are given a special sort of grace.
The Hearts of Men spans over 50 years and tells the story of two Boy Scouts who find themselves back at their childhood Scout camp after decades away. One is a troubled Vietnam vet, the other a successful business executive. Butler uses them to explore, he said, “how well one can uphold the morality of an ancient American institution like the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, 4-H, [and things like that over the course of a life.” These men grapple with tough ethical decisions and, like anyone, are shaped by the small, tender, and terrifying moments that come together to form a life.
Butler is a no-frills, plain-spoken sort, and he read right from the beginning of The Hearts of Men. The book opens with a young boy, Nelson, waking up at Boy Scout camp, going through the motions of starting a fire and lugging water. Butler was a Boy Scout and spent weeks at a time at summer camp, and he expertly evokes the feelings of camping in his writing: the thrill of peeing on a tree, the bone-permeating chill of the early morning, the increased difficulty of every task that would have been so easy to do in the comforts of one’s own home.
From there, the book moves into the story of Nelson’s 13th birthday party, to which all the boys in the neighborhood have been invited, but none show up. There is little sadder than a child waiting expectantly for others to arrive at their birthday and no one coming, and Butler captures the crushing disappointment of this very well. Nelson’s staunchly Midwestern parents attempt to remedy the situation in their own way -- his mother, comforting; his father, harsh -- but the only thing that can lessen the blow is the eventual, belated arrival of a single neighbor boy, who gifts Nelson with a homemade birchbark basket.
Butler stopped the reading here, leaving listeners to wonder if this neighbor would become a main character in the book or just a passing emblem, but leaving no doubt in our minds that The Hearts of Men will be as thoughtful and heart-wrenching as Butler’s previous books.
If you think the literature world can be pompous, Butler is a breath of fresh air. He enjoys writing, he’s good at it, and he writes what he knows about. One attendee at the talk asked him about his writing process. “I’ll sit on idea for years,” Butler said. “And then I notice that sometime soon I’m going to stop receiving publishing payments or royalty checks and I say, 'Well, I guess I should write another book.’”
He admits that he doesn’t run in literary circles. “I don’t have a lot of friends in the publishing world,” he said. “Actually, I don’t have a lot of friends.”
Maybe the royalty checks dried up recently for Butler because on Wednesday he revealed his next book is about the relationship between a grandparent and a grandchild. He’s also stewing on an idea for a book set on a coffee farm.
“I won’t be able to write that until I up and move my family to Panama to live on a coffee farm for a year or two though,” he said, chuckling. “I have to go experience it.”
Elizabeth Pearce is a Library Technician at the Ann Arbor District Library.
Blog Post
Multiple Personality Music: Lake Street Dive at the Michigan Theater
by christopherporter
“We’ve been in Ann Arbor before!” announced Rachael Price, lead singer of Lake Street Dive, at the band’s performance Wednesday night at the Michigan Theater. “We played The Ark way back when -- was anyone here at that show?” One or two members of the crowd hooted. “That seems about right,” said Price with a laugh. “Because that’s about the number of people who were at that show.”
Since then, Lake Street Dive’s star has risen rapidly. The four-member band filled the Michigan Theater, and Lake Street Dive has been touring almost constantly for the past year and a half, simultaneously promoting its acclaimed 2016 album, Side Pony, and bringing some of their overlooked older work back to the stage.
Named after a street of dive bars in guitarist and trumpeter Mike “McDuck” Olson’s hometown of Minneapolis, Lake Street Dive has been together since 2004, after meeting at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Price, Olson, upright bass player Bridget Kearney, and drummer Mike Calabrese all dabbled in other projects while working on Lake Street Dive’s first, self-titled album, released in 2010. Afterward, they mutually agreed to commit more strongly to the band and touring, and the foursome spent much of 2013 and 2014 on the road, especially after the release of its 2014 album, Bad Self Portraits, which earned them increasing fame. It seems now that with every tour stop, Lake Street Dive is able to fill bigger and bigger venues.
Although Price’s powerful jazz-influenced vocals are the first thing anyone will notice about the band, Lake Street Dive does an excellent job highlighting each member’s talents in live shows. Calabrese, Kearney, and Olson all performed solos on their respective instruments at various points throughout Wednesday’s show. Kearney’s extended solo on her upright bass, fingers flying up and down the larger-than-her instrument, was a particular crowd pleaser (although this Pulp reviewer could have done without multiple people shouting “slappin' de bass!” over the course of it).
A noteworthy addition to Lake Street Dive on this tour is electric keyboardist Akie Bermiss, which allowed the band to play some of its songs more robustly than was possible only as a quartet.
Now with three albums under its collective belt -- and increased confidence in playing older songs that many fans aren’t familiar with -- Lake Street Dive's repertoire has expanded significantly since its early years. The Michigan Theater concert was a mix of songs from all three albums. Still, the band kicked off the show with fan favorite “Bad Self Portraits” and worked in lots of its most popular songs, including the danceable “Side Pony” and “Rabid Animal.”
“You Go Down Smooth,” “Godawful Things,” and “Saving All My Sinning” all allowed Price to show off her wildly impressive vocals. Before playing “Mistakes,” off Bad Self Portraits, Price revealed that she had started writing the song in Ann Arbor. Kearney jumped in: “It was my birthday and my mom had baked me a cake and sent it along with us on tour. After our show in Ann Arbor, Rachael found herself standing out in the cold at the back of the van just eating my cake by the handful.” Price laughed ruefully. “And that’s the origin of the line, ‘Look at my mistakes,’” she said as the crowd cackled.
Lake Street Dive has delighted fans for years with jazzy covers of popular, older songs like the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” and Hall & Oates’ “Rich Girl.” On this night, Lake Street Dive delved deep into the past to bring out its cover of Paul McCartney’s “Let Me Roll It,” off the band's 2012 EP of covers, Fun Machine. Price also taught the crowd the chorus of one of the band's early tunes, “My Speed,” so all could sing along with the final song of the encore.
One of the most fun things about seeing Lake Street Dive perform has always been how different each band member is and yet how cohesive and close-knit a unit they appear to be, both onstage and off. Frontwoman Price is often clad in something unique and glamorous; on Wednesday it was a pair of iridescent maroon leather overalls and sparkly platform shoes. Meanwhile, drummer Calabrese offers up the antithesis with a Springsteen-like sweat bandana, white T-shirt, and bare feet. Calabrese and Kearney invest their entire bodies into their instruments, along with extravagant facial expressions, and it's hard to tear your eyes away from them. Olson is almost comical in his opposition to all this -- audiences are lucky if he makes eye contact with them even once during a show, let alone cracks a smile. When introduced, his signature move is a slight wave and a subdued nod of the head, immediately turning his attention back to his trumpet or guitar.
Despite their differences in appearance and personality, the closeness that (ideally) comes with spending 15 years together is apparent among Lake Street Dive members. They’re friends first, bandmates second. In fact, they were planning what to do for Olson’s birthday before the Ann Arbor show. “I woke up to a text stream this morning,” said Kearney between songs. “Rachael had texted us saying, ‘It’s McDuck’s birthday tomorrow and even though he usually likes to be alone on his days off, I really think we should make an exception and plan a surprise for him since it’s a special day.’” She pauses. “The next text was from McDuck saying, “Um, I’m on this thread.’”
As the audience laughed, even Olson had to grin.
Elizabeth Pearce is a Library Technician at the Ann Arbor District Library.
Lake Street Dive continues its tour over the coming weeks, which began in Portland, Maine, and ends in Los Angeles at the end of March. The band will spend the summer playing various music festivals and jazz events. And perhaps Lake Street Dive will get a chance to break out that "Rich Girl" cover when it plays Aspen, Colorado, on September 1 with Hall & Oates.
Blog Post
Weird & Intoxicating: The Sixth Annual Ragtime Extravaganza
by christopherporter
If the American ideal is defined by the coming together of various cultures to create a unique whole, then ragtime is the country's first musical example of that worldly synthesis.
Developed in African-American communities in the 1890s, the music combines African rhythms and syncopations, European harmonies, marches, and a Latin tinge to create a sonic brew that the King of Ragtime, Scott Joplin, described as "weird and intoxicating."
Detroit loved that weird intoxication and was a hub for ragtime during the music's peak period in the late 19th and early 20th centuries before it gave way to jazz. In fact, the Remick Music Shell on Belle Isle is named for Jerome Remick, one of the biggest publishers of ragtime music. (Read a history of Detroit ragtime here.)
Now, a hundred years after ragtime's apex, and 47 miles east of the Remick Music Shell, the sixth the annual Ragtime Extravaganza aims to recreate the look, feel, and sound of the music's classic era at the Michigan Theater on January 21.
Extravaganza organizer William Pemberton has always loved ragtime music and founded the River Raisin Ragtime Revue in 2002. He’s served as its president -- and tuba player -- ever since.
The Revue has grown to be one of southeast Michigan’s most respected performance groups, featuring musicians from across the state, including professors from Central Michigan and the University of Michigan’s music departments. And the Ragtime Extravaganza is the Revue’s biggest event each year -- and by far "the most fun," Pemberton said.
“I love that it takes place in a 1920s vaudeville house," he said, "and the whole idea of it is to re-create a feeling of the golden age of American entertainment: the ragtime, the vaudeville, and the burlesque eras. And it’s just perfect and you can just feel the energy in the house.”
This year’s Extravaganza features a whirlwind variety of performers, including vocal quartet Three Men and a Tenor, U-M professor and bass-baritone Daniel Washington, pianist James Dapogny, tap dancer Bianca Revels from TV's So You Think You Can Dance, the chorus girl troupe Erin Morris & Her Ragdolls, and Miss Miranda, a top burlesque dancer from London.
Burlesque was an integral part of the ragtime era, and Miss Miranda choreographed completely new dances to fit the look and feel of the Extravaganza.
“One of the things that I love most about burlesque is how varied it can be,” she said. “You can express any kind of mood, any kind of character that you want, any kind of narrative that you want.”
Miss Miranda is particularly excited to put her own twist on ragtime burlesque routines.
“When I choreograph to period music I don’t feel that I have to stick to the type of dance that people would have done at the time," she said. "I kind of just go with the feel of the music and try and express emotionally what I want to do with it. It’s quite liberating in that sense.”
Erin Morris & Her Ragdolls, a chorus girl troupe that performs every year at Ragtime Extravaganza, actually got their start because of the first event in 2011. Choreographer and Ragdolls co-founder Erin Morris was out "cutting a rug" one night and Pemberton noticed.
“William Pemberton saw me out dancing at a jazz club and just said, ‘Hey, do you have a chorus girl troupe? Because I need one for this big theater show that I’m putting on. And I said, ‘Yes, I do,’ even though I didn’t yet and then I set about creating one,” Morris laughed.
The Ragdolls don't have any competition, either. “I think we are probably the only chorus girl troupe that dances to ragtime. Everyone else sticks to music that comes from the 1920s or later,” Morris said.
Like Miss Miranda, Morris also said, “I do really love the challenge of finding steps and movements that fit [ragtime]. I try not to choreograph typical flapper routines or typical Charleston routines. I try to make it look very fresh, and illustrate the music that is happening.”
Morris is dedicated to reuniting live music and dancers, which are rarely seen together these days but were inextricably intertwined during ragtime's heyday.
“There are a lot of areas in which those are used separately right now: you have a lot of dancers performing to recorded music and a lot of musicians performing music that was traditionally done with dancers and is now being played for audiences without a visual aspect,” she said. “It’s incredibly important to me that we’re reuniting these things and getting back to that old spirit. That’s sort of the lifeblood of the show.”
Morris gets some inspiration from watching old videos and viewing vintage photos of chorus girl troupes, but unlike the concert placement of those original dancers, the Ragdolls' performance at the Ragtime Extravaganza is a headlining act.
“The funny thing about the history of chorus girls is that these were background dancers,” Morris said. “These were routines that were going on while you were eating dinner, that if you happened to get bored and look around, you’d say, ‘Oh, there are girls in skimpy costumes on stage.’ They were supporting performers, so the phenomenon of making chorus girls an act unto themselves is a little bit difficult to comprehend sometimes because you don’t want to make too much out of it. That’s an interesting spot for me and I really enjoy the challenge of illustrating a song without taking it over. It’s not supposed to be a huge flashy thing in the historic sense of the chorus girls.”
But what was flashy were the outfits. Ragtime Extravaganza's costuming also strives for authenticity, which means bold, creative, and wild creations. While the River Raisin Ragtime Revue will be in tuxedos and formal wear, the Ragdolls' co-founder and costumer, Brittany Armstrong Moran, re-created elaborately fringed shorts for the troupe that she saw in an old photograph of chorus girls. And Miss Miranda is going to be wearing one of her many eye-popping, belly-baring outfits.
“There’s a wonderful fantasy element to wearing these really opulent costumes that you would never get to wear in everyday life and playing a character to go along with that,” said Miss Miranda, who has been making many of her own stage attire since she was 16.
It’s clear that everyone involved in the Ragtime Extravaganza finds it a delightful treat, whether it’s their first or sixth year with the show, in part because the event is so singular. Pemberton says that he’s sure there's nothing like it in the country.
“The diversity and level of programming is unparalleled,” he said. “There’s nothing like this in terms of quality and dedication to the re-creation.”
Get ready to be weirdly intoxicated.
The 6th Annual Ragtime Extravaganza takes place Saturday, January 21 at the Michigan Theater, 603 E Liberty St., Ann Arbor, MI, 48104. The doors open at 7 p.m. and preconcert entertainment by ragtime pianists John Remmers, Will Bennett, Eric Shore, and Jerry Perrine will be presented in the lobby before the main show at 8 p.m. Visit ragtimeband.org or michtheater.org for more info and tickets, which range from $35-$85. Please note: The show includes two burlesque numbers and is intended for mature audiences. Parental discretion is advised.
Elizabeth Pearce is a Library Technician at the Ann Arbor District Library.
Blog Post
Mittenfest: The Belle Isles
by christopherporter
See the rest of our Mittenfest coverage:
→ Overview of the festival with music samples
→ The Avatars interview
→ Blue Jeans interview
→ JUNGLEFOWL interview
The Belle Isles is a new band years in the making. The quartet features guitar, drums, bass and baritone sax, and is a fascinating conglomeration of long-time Detroit area musicians who combined have played in more than 20 bands, including the Detroit Cobras, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Viv Akauldren, Gore Gore Girls, Outrageous Cherry, Detroit Party Marching Band, and more.
The group’s sound is somewhere between gritty garage rock and grimy Detroit R&B, all played with the sort of party-rocking joie de vivre that will make for a great close to the first night of Mittenfest.
Pulp spoke with Richard Wohlfeil, The Belle Isle’s founder, lead singer, and guitarist about how The Belle Isles came to be, their plans for the future, and how Detroit has influenced their sound.
Q: The Belle Isles are a fairly new band. Can you give us some background on the members and how you all came together and started playing music?
A: We've been a band for just under a year. We came together rather quickly while at the same time taking years to come together, if that makes any sense. I started working on these songs/ideas back in 2009 or so, [and] even grabbed the Bandcamp page a few years before I even uploaded a song. I remember a Saturday Looks Good to Me tour about five years ago where I was on drums and Fred [Thomas, the lead singer of Saturday] asked if he could borrow my guitar for the tour, so we brought it, and before and after gigs on the road back then I would work out and practice some Isles tunes.
Fast forward to last year, a little while after I recorded a solo album [by] my buddy Connor Dodson -- we were talking and he said something along the lines of "When you gonna start your own band?" and I was like, “Well, I want to but ....” And he said, “But what? What do you need to play your songs out?" and I was like, “Just bass and drums ... maybe a baritone saxophone?” [Played by Nicole McUmber] And he goes, "Great, I'll play bass. Who do you want on drums?" I told him my favorite drummer ever was Deb Agolli, but I didn't know if she'd ever want to play with me and he goes, "Whaddya got to lose? Call her and ask her!" So I called her up and she goes, "Yeah! But what the hell am I gonna play? You're the drummer!” “Naw,” I told her, “I'm gonna play guitar and sing, you're playin' drums!” And that was that.
We booked a show a few weeks after our second practice, which forced us to come up with seven songs real quick for a set ... now almost a year later we’ve got just over 20 songs!
Q: How would you describe the sound and the feel of The Belle Isles?
A: That's a great question. I just want us to sound like a pile of my favorite 45 rpm records while at the same time providing a really good vibe for my friends and folks at our gigs. I love the “feel” of things that remind us of summer and of warmer vibes while we're stuck in the winter, and I love music I can dance to -- so those are the two paths in the band's sound, two paths that I worried might become divergent, but they're converging beautifully when mixed. We’re actively trying for that fine-line found somewhere between rhythm and blues, soul, and garage rock ‘n’ roll ... all the while never taking ourselves too seriously. It should always be fun -- keep it a party.
Q: How is being based in Detroit influenced the sound of your music?
A: Can I just check a box that says "all the above" for this answer? Not only is being in the city influential with its musical history, but the city's social and historical context down to the physical landscapes and architectures of Detroit and Hamtramck have some kind of influence on our sound and content. Some of the covers we do have some significance, even if they're just good old Detroit party records. Some of the originals I write range from commentaries on gentrification to strange tributes in honor of a specific vacant apartment building. Of course, some are just dumb break-up songs, but each has some context amongst us and our friends and expresses some aspect of our lives in the city.
And there's the lineage and influence aspect too -- the goal is to develop our own voice while participating healthily in the city's musical exchange -- be influenced by the bands around you, be it what TO DO or what NOT TO DO, current or past sounds and style, be influenced by the bands before you and try to find your place down the lineage of those you love, and most of all be reciprocal -- “You go to my show, I'll go to yours” -- and "patron the scene, man." Engage and be a part of your community while respecting and finding your place in it -- don't be no colonialist. You may be here, but here is not you -- here is all.
Q: You’ve released some demos. Are there plans to release an album at some point? Where is the band hoping to go from here?
A: Well, I made up all these nutty rules for the band which sort of work as guides, like parameters establishing ethos while developing an aesthetic. Regarding releases, we just want to release 45 rpm records -- every once in awhile we'll do a tape of demos here and there or something, some digital stuff whatever, but the goal is 45s. We also want to let anyone who wants to release a 45 of our band the opportunity to do so insofar as they follow a few rules: black vinyl only, large center hole, and other "traditional" sets. And we only want to release albums when we have enough singles to fill one up, like a "singles collection." What are most bars you go to? Singles collections. Bad joke.
Q: The sheer number of bands that play at Mittenfest makes for limited stage time for each one. What do you guys like about playing a short set like the ones at Mittenfest? How do you get into the atmosphere of the show in such a limited amount of time?
A: Back to those "nutty rules" of mine ... but this one might work in our favor if all goes according to plan. We have no preference about playing long or short sets, but we do have a couple rules about staging. We don't play stages. We've consented to play some in the past, but not anymore. We also bring our own PA. Our setup is small but effective. We're a party band and by virtue of this, we need to be able to play anywhere. So, hopefully, there's a spot off in the corner or the back of the room at Mittenfest where we can tuck into and play -- if I remember there was no "stage" but a floor last year, and we like that. That's our style. How long they want us to play is up to them; we're groovy with whatever. And as far as atmosphere goes, the scene is cool at Mittenfest, so chances are the atmosphere will already be "inviting" before we even show up.
Q: Mittenfest is a benefit for 826michigan, an organization that works with young people on writing and creative skills. Were there any organizations or mentors early in your music career that encouraged or influenced you?
A: I'm reminded of Rod Hicks. He was the bass player who, with George Davidson, backed up a bunch of Motown and other soul and rhythm ‘n’ blues artists on the road back in the '60s and '70s -- Rod played behind Paul Butterfield at Woodstock in '69. I was working sound for a Butterfield tribute night at Cliff Bell's the first year or so that place opened about 10 years ago. In between sets I was sitting at the bar, getting a drink, and Rod walked up to me outta nowhere and said, "Man, you can get real good playing in yer basement, you could be a real bad dude, but you ain't shit until you out playin' in front of people." I was freaked out and was like, "How do you know I play in my basement?!" and he goes, "Cuz I can tell, man. But you need to get out. You see, music is a PERFORMING art, and you ain't really gon' know what you doin' until you out PERFORMING."
It was a trip because I had never met this dude and somehow he knew that I had been making music for years secretly, privately, and never having the guts to play out, even when asked, either thinking I wasn't good enough or what I was doing might sound lame to people at a "cool" show -- but sure as shit, the next time I got asked by a friend to play out (and it was opening a show at a crummy bar with literally less than ten people in the audience) I said, "YES." And it was my buddy Jeff Fournier who asked me to open for his band Heroes & Villains just days after meeting Rod. Jeff had been an older brother and mentor to me since I was a teenager. Somehow they both knew what was needed to get me outta my shell ... whether they were working together, conspiring like angels to break a spell, or just a couple bass players looking for a good drummer -- either way they found me and provided a necessary step in bringing me right here to you.
Elizabeth Pearce is a Library Technician at the Ann Arbor District Library.
Mittenfest XI takes place December 29-31 at Bona Sera, 200 W Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti, MI, 48197. Music starts at 8:00pm every evening. $10 cover benefits 826michigan. The Belle Isles will play opening night of the festival at 11:45pm.
Blog Post
Mittenfest: Junglefowl
by christopherporter
See the rest of our Mittenfest coverage:
→ Overview of the festival with music samples
→ The Avatars interview
→ The Belle Isles interview
→ Blue Jeans interview
JUNGLEFOWL’s goal is to “redefine cock rock,” and the duo goes about achieving it with an extra fuzzy psychedelic blend of garage-rock and post-punk.
Comprised of married couple Melissa Coppola on drums and vocals and Stefan Carr on guitar, JUNGLEFOWL released its first EP, STRUT in 2015, and this year will play Mittenfest XI on New Year's Eve, just before the midnight champagne toast. Coppola and Carr have been playing music their whole lives and are both music teachers when they’re not blasting out JUNGLEFOWL tunes in their basement.
Pulp talked with the couple to get a feel for their sound and influences and to find out what’s next for the rock duo in 2017 after their year-ending Mittenfest show.
Blog Post
Review: HERsay at Pointless Brewery & Theatre
by amy
When Patti Smith emailed Pointless Brewery & Theatre Co-founder Tori Tomalia last year to find out if she could collaborate with the venue to hold HERsay there, she expected Tomalia to be skeptical, or at least questioning. But Tomalia was gung-ho for the event right away and the evening of storytelling, comedy, improvisation, theater, and visual art show’n’tell—all created and performed by women—debuted this past Thursday evening for a sold out crowd. Smith was inspired to create HERsay when she heard the story of a former SNL cast member who claimed “women can’t be funny.” She felt that women could most certainly be funny, and wanted to provide an opportunity for women to be heard with the HERsay event, which she now hopes will become an annual celebration of women and the art that they create. This year, half of the proceeds from ticket sales were donated to Planned Parenthood.
HERsay featured twenty different women performers with a range of ages, backgrounds and experience. The best part of the event was the diversity of performances and the emotional ups and downs that each performer created with their work. Jenn McKee delighted the crowd by reading excerpts from her middle school diary, in which she “got in touch with her early nihilism.”
Patricia Wheeler, local coordinator of the Ann Arbor and Detroit Moth StorySLAMs, followed McKee with a heartbreaking story of her fiancè’s suicide that left much of the audience in tears.
Artist Debra Golden displayed her gorgeous paintings of a single street in northeast Detroit, near Martin Park. The houses on the street ranged from multimillion dollar mansions (some now in disrepair) to a tiny 900-square-foot ranch at the end of the block. As Golden shared her memories of Detroit in the 1960s and 1970s, many audience members nodded along, shouting out memories of their own, of roller coasters on Boblo Island and of the Lodge slicing neighborhoods in half.
Later in the evening, Jean Leverich performed a riveting piece about a woman dying of cancer who tries marijuana for the first time in an attempt to ease her pain. She’s delighted by the experience, and Leverich’s stunning depiction of the joy and sorrow that the woman experiences was heart-wrenching.
This writer also particularly enjoyed performance poet Callie McKee, who performed two of her pieces for the HERsay audience. Her witty turns of phrase and animated stage presence were captivating. Her first piece, about preparation, left the audience smiling with the final message that there are some things we simply can’t be prepared for, no matter how hard we try. Her second—and very timely—piece dealt with a “distinctive lack of Hillary,” in the days after the election. Omnipresent in the news in recent months as she ran for president, McKee talked about her surprise after the election when she woke up and Clinton was virtually gone.
A multitude of other storytellers, comics, and artists performed at HERsay, coming together to create a warm, welcoming and positive environment for both the audience and the performers themselves. Pointless Brewery, which opened earlier this year, offered an intimate, friendly venue for the show, the only drawback being its small size—tickets sold out quickly. If the success of Thursday’s show is any indicator, Smith’s dream of HERsay becoming an annual event will surely come to fruition, perhaps on an even grander scale next year.
Elizabeth Pearce is a Library Technician at the Ann Arbor District Library who is much too mortified to revisit her own middle school diary.
Blog Post
Preview: Isaac Levine's CD Release Happening at Arbor Vitae
by amy
Local musician Isaac Levine is hosting a record release party for his first album at Arbor Vitae—a unique music-and-performance-oriented loft on State St. where Levine and five others reside—on November 4. The album, Nothing Shocking, is one he’s worked on for over a year, and he’s recruited a multitude of local performance artists, storytellers, and musicians to help him celebrate its release. For the first few hours of the event, attendees can immerse themselves in two different performance spaces: a storytelling stage and an improvisational group area, and beginning at 11:00pm, Levine will play his solo set. This free event is a great opportunity not only to hear Levine’s music in an up-close-and-personal venue, but also to get a taste of some of the more obscure, younger local talent in the city.
The diversity in performances at the event is impressive. The Shade Brigade, a local sit-down comedy group comprised of Demario Longmire and Thomas Kratofil, will dialogue on child birth and more. Kit E. Parks will read samples of her work, complete with tongue twisters. Of Parks, Levine says, “She manages to approach the tragedy and comedy of her life in a way that shares the joy of living.” Evicholas Nolpe will read stories about “moseying around,” while Katie Brown and Noor Us-Sabah will perform their piece “TOYS.”
Levine’s music is a little bit early Andrew Bird-like, trippy and shadowy without being overly synthetic. He juxtaposes his slow “How Not to Break Someone” song with a video of real worms wrestling gummy worms, the shots moving in and out of pixilation. This writer hopes that he will find a way to play the video behind him when he performs at Arbor Vitae, if only so that the crowd there can enjoy the unsettlingly disgusting experience of seeing live worms wrestle candy ones.
Arbor Vitae in and of itself is a reason to attend the event on Friday. For over 50 years, the loft space has housed an eclectic group of students and performers. Concerts, art show openings, and other performances are held there regularly. Created by world traveler Richard Ahern in the 1960s, the loft was originally intended to be an architects’ studio, but the offices inside gradually got converted into bedrooms and artists and musicians began calling Arbor Vitae home during the Peace Movements of the 60s and 70s. Now, six people always live in the loft, navigating their lives around instruments, art pieces, and whatever past residents have left behind. These have included, at various points in time, an impeccably organized collection of VHS tapes, a piano, and a drawing that reads simply “Hella Taco.”
Overall, Friday’s event offers a cool (and free!) chance to check out what the young people of Ann Arbor are up to these days, most notably musician and host Levine, whose passionate enthusiasm for his music and the talents of others will surely make the evening a fun one.
Elizabeth Pearce is a Library Technician at the Ann Arbor District Library.
Isaac Levine hosts a release party for his record, Nothing Shocking, from 9pm-12am on Friday, November 4 at Arbor Vitae, 336 ½ S. State St. No cover.
Blog Post
Preview: Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers at the Blind Pig
by amy
Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers were just in Ann Arbor a couple months ago to play a rousing show at Sonic Lunch, and they’ll be making the trip across the state again to play the Pig on October 21. Spread out all over Michigan, from Kalamazoo to Lansing to metro Detroit, all the band members have day jobs and then travel together most weekends to perform. It makes for a hectic lifestyle, but they don’t seem to mind. In an interview this summer, Hertler poked fun at the popular phrase, “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” “It’s bullshit,” he said. “We work our asses off, and it's hard work, but we think it's worth it."
The band boasts of their ability to “make a sprightly young groove doctor out of anyone,” and with their folksy, funky, Motown-like jams, it’s a promise that they can uphold. The seven-man band traces their roots back to 2008, when lead singer Joe Hertler dropped out of music school at Central Michigan and started trying to put together his own band. He met guitarist Ryan Hoger and bassist Kevin Pritchard in Lansing in 2010 and with that, the Rainbow Seekers began to assemble. Saxophonist Aaron Stinson, violist Joshua Holcomb, and drummers Micah Bracken and Rick Hale all felt the pull of the rainbow and joined the band over the next four years.
Joe Hertler et al believe in providing their audiences with a true “experience,” which is why they don’t only play songs from their albums, the most recent of which, Terra Incognita, came out last year. Instead, they play a mix of old and new material, and improvise on stage, too. Typically dressed in bright clothing and costumes—Stinson sometimes puts a giant sunflower in his sax—Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers instill their infectious energy and good cheer into the audience, often accompanied by a giant inflatable rainbow that they drag on stage with them. Audience members are always encouraged to dance, clap and sing along. “Having a good time is contagious, and we try to spread that,” Hoger said earlier this year. At their Sonic Lunch performance this summer, they got almost everyone up to the front of the stage to dance to “Future Talk,” one of the best songs off of Terra Incognita.
The band is planning to release as-yet-unnamed new album, which Hertler claims will be their best yet, in early 2017.
Elizabeth Pearce is a Library Technician at the Ann Arbor District Library.
Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers are playing at The Blind Pig on Friday, October 21. Doors are at 9:00 pm. Tickets are $15. Ages 18+. For more information, visit http://www.blindpigmusic.com/ .
Blog Post
Review: Detroit Public Theatre's Murder Ballad Slays
by Sara W
The Detroit Public Theatre hit the ground running less than a year ago, after the vision of creators Courtney Burkett and Sarah Winkler finally came to fruition. The DPT shares its home with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, in the Max M. Fischer Music Center in the heart of Midtown. Now in their second season, the DPT offers audiences four new plays, all new to Michigan and all, the company believes, relevant to Detroit audiences. The first of these, running from September 28 to October 23 and directed by Burkett, is Murder Ballad, a rock musical about love, lust, rage, passion, obsession, and jealousy that got its start at the off-Broadway Manhattan Theatre Club.
Described as “a dark thriller with a razor’s edge,” the musical stars Arianna Bergamaschi as Sara, a broken-hearted New Yorker trying to rebuild her life, only to have her former love, Tom (Rusty Mewha, a current Resident Artist at the Purple Rose Theatre) continue to haunt her dreams and ultimately, her reality.
The play opens ominously: as the audience takes their seats in the small Robert A. and Maggie Allesee Hall where the DPT shows take place, a single spotlight shines down on a pool table at the center of the room with a baseball bat lying across it. A live band, comprised of Shawn Neal on drums, Mike Shriver on bass, and Jeff Sufamosto on guitar, is set up at the back of the stage and starts the show off with a crash of rock music. It’s great fun to see the band throughout the whole show, and they offer a dramatic backdrop to the scenery in the foreground.
The main conflict takes place quickly: Sara and Tom are in love (demonstrated by a series of sexy scenes where they crawl around on top of a bar and a pool table), but he breaks her heart. Stumbling home drunk and devastated, Sara meets Michael (Eric Gutman), who comforts her and the two eventually marry and have a child (This child, “Frankie” is invisible throughout the play, although the characters engage with it frequently, which is mildly off-putting.). Sara can’t get Tom off her mind though, and the two reconnect years later with disastrous results. Hint: the baseball bat makes a reappearance.
The highlight of the show is actually the nameless Narrator, played by Arielle Crosby, who takes audiences breath away with her hugely powerful voice. Fed up with all the other characters, she alternately encourages and discourages their actions through song and movement, wielding the baseball bat as a prop, although the others rarely interact with her. Bergamaschi also has a strong voice, although her attempts to mask her native Italian accent seemed ill-advised, as they somewhat affect her ability to sing to her full potential and it would not have detracted from the show for her character to have a non-American accent.
Overall, Murder Ballad is a fun performance to watch despite its somewhat predictable storyline and a lack of truly memorable music. The excellent set design and choreography keep the show moving, and the buildup to the climax of the show is well-executed, with everything concluding in a neat 75 minutes. And of course, who doesn’t love a little murder, passion and rock’n’roll?
Elizabeth Pearce is a Library Technician at the Ann Arbor District Library who only likes to use baseball bats to play baseball.
Murder Ballad runs from September 28-October 23, 2016 at the Detroit Public Theatre in Detroit. Tickets and more information are available at their website. DPT's second season will continue with Dot, running November 16-December 11, 2016, The Holler Sessions, running February 1-26, 2017 and The Harassment of Iris Malloy, running May 3-28, 2017.