Friday Five: The Nuts, Kodama, Tension Splash, Battle of the Bits, Skinned Knees
Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.
This edition features indie rock by The Nuts, drum 'n' bass by Kodama, grunge by Tension Splash, another chiptunes comp courtesy of Battle of the Bits, and a moody indie rocker by Skinned Knees.
Friday Five: Fred Thomas, Studio Lounge, Jonathan Killstring, G.B. Marian, Battle of the Bits
Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.
This edition features a double album by Fred Thomas, demos from Studio Lounge, power-pop by Jonathan Killstring, spooky season synths by G.B. Marian, and chiptunes on the Battle of the Bits compilation.
Heart to "Heart": The Dirty Ol' Men Hip-Hop Collective Channels Loss and Grief On Its First Album in Four Years
The hip-hop collective The Dirty Ol’ Men unexpectedly lost three members in 2021.
“Fourteen of us met in Memphis in 2021 and eight got COVID,” said Rod Wallace, an Eastern Michigan University alum and member of The Dirty Ol’ Men. “One of the variants was going around and we found out about it while we were preparing. The majority of us were vaccinated … but one of us—Blacmav [aka Mario Blocker]—passed away. Later that same year we lost two other members, Tasherre Risay and Chenika Bowens, who was also known as ThatBlessedGirl. One of our members, RTO Beats, had a heart transplant.”
The grieving remaining members channeled their emotions and experiences into writing and recording a cathartic album, Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled, during The Dirty Ol’ Men’s annual retreat two years later.
“It took a lot out of everybody,” Wallace said, “but we got back together in Charlotte, [North Carolina] in 2023. We created a bunch of music and I executive-produced and put the album together along with the producers.
“The music that we were making spoke specifically to the trauma that we had experienced in losing our friends. It wasn’t with complete intent to make an album that was about Black men and trauma, but it’s what came out of what we were creating.”
Friday Five: Nick Collins Sextet, Same Eyes, microplastique, Good Man's Brother, Pluot
Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.
This edition features jazz by the Nick Collins Sextet, synth-pop by Same Eyes, experimental jazz by microplastique, grunge by Good Man's Brother, and twinkling math rock by Pluot.
Ann Arbor Pioneer: Local musicians celebrate the music and legacy of Jay Stielstra at The Ark on September 28
Some knew Jay Stielstra as an activist who ran for Ann Arbor City Council in 1964 and served as a board member of the Washtenaw County chapter of the ACLU.
Others knew Stielstra as an athlete who attended the University of Michigan on an athletic scholarship. He played football, basketball, and track and became a Big Ten champion in the long jump.
He also was a public school teacher who introduced Black history into the curriculum at Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School and coached the football team.
Stielstra also connected with others through his creative pursuits, including novels like Meet Me at the River, musicals like North Country Opera, poetry collections like In Drought Time: Scenes From Rural and Small Town Life, and a revered catalog of music.
As a singer-songwriter, he brought all his passions together. He wrote songs about the devastation of war, social justice, the passage of time, drinking in taverns, the beauty of Northern Michigan’s woods and waters, finding and losing love, and getting old.
For over 50 years, Stielstra—who died March 1 at age 90—performed these songs on stages large and small.
“He walked through so many different communities in the course of his life,” said Barbara Schmid, Stielstra’s widow.
To celebrate Stielstra’s legacy, Schmid and Ann Arbor singer-songwriter Judy Banker are hosting a tribute and benefit show September 28 at The Ark—a place that nourished Stielstra and was one that he loved.
Celebrating the Music of Jay Stielstra will feature a lineup of Michigan musicians performing his songs in acoustic styles from blues to bluegrass. It also doubles as a fundraiser for the Ann Arbor folk and roots music club.
Friday Five: Gostbustaz, Rabbitology, Pet TV, Do We Have a Problem?, The Missing Cats
Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.
This edition features hip-hop by Gostbustaz, atmospheric folk by Rabbitology, fuzzy power-pop by Pet TV, outsider folk by Do We Have a Problem?, and live jazz-world fusion by The Missing Cats.
Breakneck Speed: Mark Jewett Follows Life's Hectic Pace on "Too Fast" Single Featuring The Accidentals
This story originally ran March 27, 2024. We're republishing it because Mark Jewett & The Strategic Advisors perform on Saturday, September 22, 6:30 pm at the Ann Arbor District Library, 343 South Fifth Avenue.
These days, Mark Jewett moves at warp speed.
The Plymouth singer-songwriter maintains a frantic daily pace on his latest single, “Too Fast.”
“It was more of a general feeling of being closed in and trapped and things just coming at me faster than I could deal with them,” said Jewett about the folk-pop track, which features a collaboration with Sav Madigan and Katie Larson of The Accidentals.
“One day, I just took a break at my desk, and I picked up my guitar. I started doing this chunking rhythm like you hear at the beginning of the song. I was drinking coffee, and I thought, ‘I need some energy,’ and the line just popped into my head.”
That initial opening lyric was “I’ve got a thousand watts of black coffee / Pumpin’ through my veins,” but Jewett upped the ante to “Two thousand watts of black coffee” instead.
“Kyle Rasche caught me between shows up at Nor-East’r last year when I was in the merch barn. He said, ‘Man, that’s a great line,’ and he thought I had said something about ‘8,000 watts,’ but it was originally, ‘I’ve got a thousand watts,’” said Jewett, a University of Michigan alumnus, who started writing the track last spring. “I thought maybe there was too much there, so starting it with 2,000 [watts] just punctuates it right at the beginning.”
Friday Five: The Nuts, Post-Ford, Carlos Taboada, Annie Bacon, Lovepark
Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.
This edition features indie-gaze by The Nuts, post-everything by Post-Ford, modern classical by Carlos Taboada, remixes of Annie Bacon songs, and electro-pop by Lovepark.
Friday Five: Geranium Red, Golden Feelings, Evan W, Panto Collapsar & Cyrus Pireh, Ness Lake
Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.
This edition features emo-tinged punk by Geranium Red, yoga music by Golden Feelings, electronica by Evan W, improv and electronics by Panto Collapsar & Cyrus Pireh, and indie-tronica by Ness Lake with DJ FLP.
Friday Five: Magoose, Caly3r, Billion Dollar Mind, Vonsiwel, Otherseas
Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.
This edition features three electronica artists from the Sunbabe Records stable—Magoose, Caly3r, and Billion Dollar Mind—along with R&B from Vonsiwel and more electronic beauty via Otherseas.