By Art Michalski, on May 6th, 2012
 Reptar makes their way to the Crofoot on Saturday, May 11th. You gotta give a band a lot of credit for picking a band name that people are going to think are bad- well, except Hoobastank- because no one know what that band was thinking when they dreamed up that name. But for the guys in the Athens, Georgia based band Reptar, the name of a character on the TV show “Rugrats” was only the second worst name they could think of, according to their bio. But where they lack in a super killer band name, the band makes up for very intriguing and offbeat indie and dance music with their debut EP “Oblangle Fizzle Y’all” and with their debut
album, “Body Faucet”, out on May 1st.
Lead by the versatile vocals of Graham Uliciny, Reptar’s music bounces back and forth between Paul Simon/80’era-African influenced pop music and more contemporary indie dance music, Reptar takes a cue from many different eras for the tunes on the new “Body Faucet”. With the 80’s new wave bounce of “Houseboat Babies” to the pounding rhythm section lead “Sweet Sipping Soda”, Reptar’s music is accessible, quirky and diverse all at the same time.
Continue reading Y’All See Reptar in Pontiac
By Art Michalski, on May 3rd, 2012
 Trivium rips up the Machine Shop in Flint this Saturday. Since the release of their latest album, “In Waves” last August, the guys in Trivium have been seemingly on tour and haven’t really stopped. Their first tour on this cycle was opening for the prog-rock titans Dream Theater, followed by a support gig for In Flames that brought them to the Royal Oak Theater in January. Now with those high profile opening slots past them, the band is doing their first headlining tour behind the release and fans can get a larger dose of the Orlando based band.
Since the release of “In Waves”, the band has decided some mixed feelings about the new album, with some fans groaning about the polish and sheen of the new album. But those fans don’t realize that no Trivium album has sounded truly the same. In the past couple albums, the band has went from 80’s Metallica-esque anthems on “The Crusade”, got their metal fully on with the crushing “Shogun” and change up the pace a bit on “In Waves”. It’s an album that fans of any of their albums should be able to pick an favorite, whether it’s the more melodic title track to the pounding “Dusk Dismantled”. It’s another solid effort for a band that has become a staple in the metal world for the past several years.
Continue reading Trivium Debuts In Flint
By Art Michalski, on May 3rd, 2012
 La Dispute brings their honestly refreshing punk to the Magic Stick this Saturday. Anybody that follows the hardcore/punk/metal scenes here in Michigan know that there’s a burgeoning scene, borne out of the rage and anger that people have when living in an economically depressed state like this. But showing some hope from the west side of the state is Grand Rapids’ La Dispute, who’s been making some noise and popping up on some pretty big tours over the past couple of years.
The band is out promoting their second full length, “Wildlife”, which was released back in October. According to the band, the album is a concept record, but they wanted to make the theme open enough for many different interpretations. What you can hear clear as day is the caustic and authoritative voice of lead singer Jordan Dreyer, who is easily the emotional center of the band’s music and definitely gives a unique storytelling aspect to the band’s music. Whether it’s pining over the way things are in Michigan, or something more personal- Dreyer’s lyrics hit a critical mass on “A Departure” and “Edward Benz, 27 Times”.
Continue reading La Dispute Get Wild Away from GR
By Art Michalski, on April 25th, 2012
 Fresh of the mega critical buzz he got last year, Danny Brown plays his first Detroit area show at the Emerald Theater this Saturday. In Detroit, hip-hop breakout acts have been few and far between since Eminem blew up and the demise of Slum Village. But 2011 was a sign that Detroit’s hip-hop scene may be ready to give the country it’s next big superstar. In case you were living under a rock in this area last year, odds are that you heard about the rise of Danny Brown and his “XXX” album.
Everybody in the the critic world, including Metro Times and Spin Magazine gave Brown some of the highest marks of the year. When listening to “XXX”, it’s really easy to see why Brown is getting all of the attention that he is. Shunning the typical stories that popular hip-hop has run into the ground time and time again, Brown’s rhyming style and stories of drug use and harsh life events is indicative of the town he comes from on tracks like “Party All The Time”. But he’s not afraid to borrow sometimes non-linear and obscure song structure on tracks like “30” and “Radio Song”, in which his frantic rhymes gives fans of hip-hop some hope for the future.
Continue reading Danny Brown Gets XXX in Mt. Clemens
By Art Michalski, on April 25th, 2012
 The airy and profound School of Seven Bells hits the Magic Stick on Monday, April 30th. The sub-genre of Dream pop has been quite the commodity over the past several years, with many from the indie world giving the quiet and serene art form a valiant try. But one of the groups doing it the longest and probably the best is the New York duo of School of Seven Bells.
Releasing their debut “Alpinisms” in 2008, the team of Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis and vocalist Alejandra Deheza have been creating a lush landscape for it’s fans to crave throughout their three album. The group’s latest, “Ghostory”, was released in February and the theme of the album revolves around Deheza’s metaphors related to how ghosts follow us at every turn. On songs like “Reappear” and “Show Me Love”, you get a good idea of Deheza’s vocals shape the texture of the music. On a song like “Love Play”, electronic inflections help give the already strong vocals an even bigger shine. “Ghostory” is the group’s first album Deheza’s identical twin sister Claudia and it doesn’t seems like the group has skipped a beat on the new material.
Continue reading School of Seven Bells Tell a Ghostory
By Art Michalski, on April 25th, 2012
 Keenan Mitchell's soaring vocals lead Fort Lean to the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor on Saturday, With the guys coming from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, also home to indie darlings MGMT and Das Racist, the guys who form the quintet Fort Lean seem to have their sound moving in a different direction than the previously mentioned group.
With the music from their self-titled EP from last year and a new single, “Sunsick” out, the guys in Fort Lean come from a similar aesthetic, Fort Lean goes for a more epic and louder approach with their material. With the songs from the EP last year like “Beach Holiday” and “High Definition”, the music develops into a far more expansive yet accessible direction. Lead by the soaring voice of singer Keenan Mitchell (who from first glance looks more suited to front the Darkness or something than fronting an indie rock album), he knows how to temper his acrobatic vocals to fit within the range of the music and is the highlight of the material heard.
Continue reading Fort Lean Sunsick in Ann Arbor
By Art Michalski, on April 21st, 2012
 Coming straight outta Kansas, Origin brings the tech metal to Harpo's this Wednesday. Taking their cues from the golden age of death metal in the early to mid-90’s, the guys in the Kansas based band Origin has toned their technical death metal over the past 15+ years. Coming from a scene in Topeka that seemed stronger than most outsiders thought, Origin started to build their reputation on their earlier albums and has kept the blast beats and growls well into their fifth album, 2011’s “Entity”.
With vocalist Jeremy Turner leaving after the release of their last album, “Antithesis”, vocal duties for the record fell upon guitarist Paul Ryan and bassist Mike Flores. But with their work, the lyrical stylings for the material on “Entity” was probably their most varied in the band’s career.
With the “Entity” out for a little while now, the band has been touring extensively since the release. The band is out on the road with Decrepit Birth and recently signed Detroit metal guys in Battlecross. But before the tour got started, I had a chance to talk with the bassist Flores as he was trying to enjoy a quiet Friday night before hitting the road. Mike and I discussed the band dynamic shift in the vocals for “Entity” and the overall themes of the new album.
Here’s my interview with Mike:
Continue reading Interview w/ Mike Flores of Origin
By Art Michalski, on April 19th, 2012
 Battlecross makes their first apperance on a major metal tour opening for Origin at Harpo's April 25th. If you’ve been around the Detroit metal scene for a while, the guys in Battlecross are a fixture of the scene. Whether they were on one of their numerous opening slots at any venue in town, or just hanging out at shows- there aren’t too many bands that did the legwork that these guys have done over the past few years.
But unlike many bands in the scene that end up not going beyond that stage, Battlecross caught a major break last year when the band was signed to Metal Blade Records. Being the first time in a while (or ever) to be signed by Metal Blade from Detroit, Battlecross has garned some attention quite quickly. Taking material from their “Push Pull Destroy” release, some of those songs were used for their debut, “Pursuit of Honor” and was released last summer. The track for “Push Pull Destroy” became an immediate hit at Sirius XM Radio, where the song owned the Devil’s Dozen on the Liquid Metal station for several weeks.
Continue reading Battlecross Show Honor For Detroit
By Art Michalski, on April 19th, 2012
 God Forbid bring some modern metal balance to the Overkill tour, which hits Blondie's April 24th. Things in the camp for the New Jersey metal band God Forbid look a bit different for the release of their newest album than it did three years ago when releasing their 2009 album “Earthsblood”. Shortly after the release of the album, founding member and guitarist Dallas Coyle left the band, severing a decade plus relationship with the band, which including Dallas’ brother Doc. After leaving their longtime label at Century Media and with the changes to the band, the band was at a crossroads.
But after gaining some pretty strong exposure for “Earthsblood” and plenty of high profile tours, God Forbid never hesitated to move forward. Enlisting former Himsa guitarist Matt Wickland and signing with Victory Records, the band moved into the next chapter in their career as they recently released their sixth album, “Equilibrium” at the end of March.
With searing cuts like the opener “Don’t Tell me How to Dream” and “Move On”, it proves even more that there’s no let up with this band. To celebrate the release of the album, the band is out with the godfathers of New Jersey metal as they team up with Overkill on a tour through May. But with the tour starting up soon, I had a chance to speak with founding member and drummer Corey Pierce. Pierce had a chance to speak with him before a tour rehearsal and we chatted about the current state of the band, as well as Corey’s latest venture into podcasting.
Here’s my interview with Corey:
Continue reading Interview w/ Corey Pierce of God Forbid
By Art Michalski, on April 17th, 2012
 Finally! The long awaited grudge match between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans takes place this Saturday. Has it really been seven weeks since the last major UFC pay-per-view event? I swear, it felt like an eternity for me and many other fight fans as we have waited patiently. We sat through the UFC on FX’s and the UFC on Fuel TV shows (well, I didn’t because me and 90 percent of the country doesn’t have Fuel TV). But there has been a major void since the February 26th show in Japan in the UFC world and life gets back to normal this upcoming weekend with UFC 145.
UFC 145 will feature one of the biggest grudge matches in the promotion’s history as former teammates Jon Jones and Rashad Evans hit the octagon in a Light Heavyweight title match. There has been a lot of talk- especially from Evans’ camp- about the situation that lead to Evans leaving trainer Greg Jackson’s camp and moving to a new gym. Finally, this long awaited and delayed match up will take place and will be the first of many high profile UFC fights in the spring and summer schedule.
Also on the card is a heavyweight matchup between Brendan Schaub and Ben Rothwell, which will keep someone’s longshot title hopes alive. But most eyes will be on the Light Heavyweight title match as the UFC makes it’s return none too soon.
Here’s the breakdown of the those major fights going on at UFC 145:
Continue reading UFC 145 Preview & Fearless Predictions
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