The cast of The Rocky Horror Show during rehearsals at EMU’s Legacy Theatre. Photo courtesy of EMU Theatre.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the Ann Arbor District Library’s Pulpblog.
In April 1993, I took my first step into the world of Rocky Horror.
I went with three high school friends to see a midnight screening and shadow cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the State Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Upon arrival at the theatre, I was greeted by one of the shadow-cast actors fully dressed in her costume. She walked over to me and asked, “Are you a virgin?”
Somewhat taken aback, I asked, “Who wants to know?”
The actor just laughed and said, “You’re my very special virgin.”
Being a naïve, clueless teen and new to Rocky Horror, I didn’t get the reference at first. I thought the actor was nosy and wondered why she asked me such a personal question.
Her question didn’t click with me, though, until the start of the show. As the emcee, she made some announcements and invited me to join her on stage as the “Very Special Virgin.”
From left: Isaac Berkowitz, Chris Bota, George Falk, John Nowak, and Taylor Watson of Desmond Jones.
Ten years ago, Isaac Berkowitz and George Falk developed a fascination with squids.
The Desmond Jones bandmates sought inspiration from the mollusks after Berkowitz watched a documentary on them.
“When we lived in East Lansing, Isaac watched a six-hour-long Nova special on squids and called me to start writing something on that subject,” said Falk, who performs with Berkowitz in the Grand Rapids, Michigan jam band.
“We started with the title, mashed District 9 together with The Abyss, mixed in all the PBS [shows] that I watched as a child, and started writing guitar parts.”
Not long after that, Falk (saxophone, vocals) and Berkowitz (guitar, drums, vocals) penned several squid-themed songs with Desmond Jones’ Christ Bota (guitar, vocals). The trio then shared the songs with bassist Taylor Watson and drummer-vocalist-guitarist John Nowak.
“Once we started writing and playing the first song, we started adding to it pretty quickly,” Falk said. “We have a strong tendency to link our songs together anyhow … and we enjoy the idea of a concept album—the sillier, the better.”
What resulted is a fun, quirky concept album called Squids, which features a sci-fi storyline about alien squids wanting to leave Earth and return home to space.
The otherworldly creatures spend eons living in the oceans and question their purpose while adapting to life on Earth. Over time, the alien squids become weary of terrestrial life and prefer a more peaceful existence in the stars.
“Seeing super-sophisticated behavior out of something that bears so little resemblance to ourselves is fun to think about, especially with some of the bigger octopus species,” Falk said. “They’re up there with the most intelligent species on the planet, but their bodies and lives are very strange to our eyes.”
The album’s five tracks explore the alien squids’ journey through storied lyrics and spirited instrumentation. Infectious elements of prog rock, experimental pop, ambient music, and jazz sonically shift listeners from one track to the next.
To learn more, I spoke with Falk and Nowak about Squids ahead of a February 7 show at The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Tree City’s Kyle “Silas Green” Hunter, Jacoby “DJ Cataclysmic” Simmons, and Evan “Clavius Crates” Haywood in 2013. Photo by Cy Abdelnour
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the Ann Arbor District Library’s Pulpblog.
A mature tree blooms every year. Fruit trees can take two to five years to produce. It took Tree City 13 years for Pure Levels to flower.
The Ann Arbor hip-hop group spent that time shaping and defining the album’s tracks before releasing it late last year.
“It’s a time capsule, and it’s a good chunk of our personal evolution as artists and as a group,” said Evan “Clavius Crates” Haywood, a Tree City MC and producer, about the group’s first collection of new songs since 2010’s Thus Far.
“It’s exciting that it’s finally at the point where we’re happy with it and we felt like it was ready. We did not want to release it when it was just good enough. We wanted to release it when we felt it was something really timeless, something that would hold up to repeated listens, and something that would hold people’s interest.”
Pure Levels features Tree City’s four MCs—Clavius Crates, Silas Green, DJ Cataclysmic, and Cheeks—rapping candid rhymes about broken relationships, aging family members, systemic issues, and capitalism alongside fantastical space-themed wordplay over sci-fi-sounding beats by producer Michael Dykehouse and several others.
“Over the years, I feel like we’ve always believed in ourselves as rappers, but working on these songs, we came to the realization that we’re good at what we do,” said Jacoby Simmons, who performs as DJ Cataclysmic. “And who doesn’t want to feel the feeling of accomplishment when you work on something for a long time, and you garner that success?”
And with that success comes a 15-track album that explores living life in another dimension while facing real-world challenges and everyday struggles.
“The theme of the album is—on one level—about space, and it has these space travel themes,” said Kyle Hunter, who performs as Silas Green, and is now based in Houston. “But on the other side of it, space represents growth and expansion and challenging yourself.”
To learn more, I spoke with Tree City’s MCs about the inspiration behind the album.
The Ypsilanti, Michigan indie-rocker embraces that mindset while exploring the need for connection and community on their debut album.
“That has been the journey of my life because I’ve always been a very independent person and a person who’s not good at asking for help,” said Mer Rey, who performs as Premium Rat, about Stranded on Land.
“This album tells the story of me learning that lesson—that no person is an island—and I can’t do it all myself.”
Premium Rat follows that story arc throughout Stranded on Land’s 12 tracks, which were curated against a backdrop of multi-genre sounds.
“The idea of Stranded on Land is starting the album feeling very disconnected from the world and people around me, feeling like I didn’t understand or belong in the world, and feeling very isolated and alone with that feeling,” said Rey, who features elements of pop punk, indie rock, dance-pop, indie folk, and Broadway music on the album.
“As the album goes on, it tells the story of me finding community, finding other people who also felt that way, and realizing, ‘Oh, I’m stranded on land, but so are a bunch of other people, and we’re actually stranded together.’ And that is how we [find] our way out and claim our freedom—by doing that together.”
The Metro Detroit singer-songwriter follows his instincts and keeps the detractors at bay on “Don’t Let Them In.”
“For me, last year was so nuts with the election and everything. It’s easy to get swept up in all of that. In some ways, it connects back to us,” said Trager about his latest indie-folk single.
“I was thinking about the single and the meaning behind it and staying true to your own beliefs and behaviors. It’s easy to get swept up in the media, and we have so much access to things. You can lose yourself and lose the things that matter to you.”
In response, Trager pledges to keep himself grounded and focused on “Don’t Let Them In.”
Backed by earnest acoustic guitar, cello, and Mellotron, he sings, “They will give you a thousand reasons / And you’ll be tempted to believe them / But all their conviction is just a fiction / Oh please, don’t let them in.”
“I had had enough distance from the song that I needed to hear the message,” said Trager, who recorded the single in 2021. “It’s not letting anything stop you from doing whatever you want to do.”
To learn more, I spoke with Trager ahead of a February 8 show at Trixie’s Bar in Hamtramck, Michigan.
Marty Gray features a guitar-driven rock and shoegaze sound on “Disassemble.” Photo courtesy of Marty Gray.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the Ann Arbor District Library’s Pulpblog.
Marty Gray empathizes with loved ones battling dementia, depression, and other personal challenges on his latest album, Disassemble.
“The whole album is autobiographical, it’s just about the people around me,” said the Ann Arbor singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. “It’s rare that there is a song about me, but I’m telling you how I feel about these people throughout the whole record.”
Gray explores that fragility and the observations of a concerned bystander on Disassemble. The album’s poetic lyrics, ethereal vocals, and cinematic instrumentation convey the emotions he encounters while witnessing family and friends decline.
“There are some songs about my friends and the things that they’re going through,” said Gray, who studied opera at the University of Michigan. “There are friends in my life that are losing the battle with depression. I have a couple of songs about my grandparents; I have one about my opa and one about my [late] oma … and my oma’s dementia and seeing what happened with her brain, her mind, and her life.”
Gray ventures into new sonic territory on his fourth album, too, trading his previous pop sound for guitar-driven rock and shoegaze.
“Part of this story is me falling in love with guitar,” Gray said. “And I’ve never been a fabulously talented guitar player. With shoegaze, you don’t have to be a ripper. If the story calls for it and if the story wants it to be big shoegaze with lots of reverb, lots of distortion, lots of everything … [then] let’s go for it.”
To learn more, I spoke with Gray about Disassemble ahead of a January 8 show at The Blind Pig.
John Eagan explores a range of electronic sounds on “Signal.” Photo courtesy of John Eagan
John Eagan creates an immersive sonic experience for listeners on Signal.
The Toledo, Ohio multi-instrumentalist and producer invites listeners to slip on a pair of headphones and absorb a spectrum of electronic sounds on his latest album.
“Everything I ever make is intended as headphone music,” Eagan said. “It’s not something to put on while doing the dishes. Some things are ambient—and in that sense—there are some things that people would label with the ambient term.”
As part of that electronic music exploration, listeners encounter six instrumental tracks that range from atmospheric to contemplative to chaotic to cinematic.
“I make music for people who are paying attention. It doesn’t even matter if it’s exactly matching whatever idea I might have. For that matter, sometimes the idea in my head is vague or nebulous,” said Eagan, who plays keyboards and percussion on Signal.
“I like a bit of ambiguity in music—it doesn’t have to be all spelled out. You might come up with something different than I had in my head and I’ll think that’s cool. It’s food for your imagination.”
To learn more, I recently spoke with Eagan about his background and the creative process for Signal.
Detroit’s Jeremy Porter offers a fresh take on Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Colorado Christmas.” Photo – Noreen Porter
Two years ago, Jeremy Porter discovered a hidden Christmas classic in a collection of 7-inch vinyl singles.
The Detroit singer-songwriter and guitarist flipped over a “Mr. Bojangles” single for the Nitty Gritty Dirty Band and found “Colorado Christmas” on the B-side.
“Their version is solid, of course, but it was the B-side, ‘Colorado Christmas,’ that really caught my ear,” said Porter, who also fronts The Tucos. “I’m always looking for a good Christmas song to cover. I actually spent a Christmas in Colorado as a kid, so it just seemed like a natural choice.”
Porter decided to record a rendition of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Colorado Christmas” during the studio sessions for his latest alt-country album, Dynamite Alley, via GTG Records.
On “Colorado Christmas,” the protagonist longs to escape Los Angeles for a snow-filled Christmas in Colorado.
Surrounded by somber banjo and pedal steel, Porter sings, “Now the sun is setting in the California sky / And I can’t find the spirit anywhere / So I think it’s time for me to tell Los Angeles goodbye / I’m going back home to look for Christmas there.”
“The lyrics exploring the contradiction between winter in the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles traffic and palm trees was the icing on the cake,” Porter said.
“I was shocked and embarrassed about how many mistakes I made in listening to others,” said Moore, the band’s vocalist, keyboardist, and guitarist.
“However, I was truly flabbergasted at how badly everybody else I was around at the time was. It helped immensely and allowed me to be a more empathetic human being.”
He also embraced that mindset while writing the title track for the Detroit prog-rock quintet’s latest five-track EP, Listen.
“I think writing music and lyrics is cathartic,” Moore said. “I’m happy to sneak in my self-expression as therapy with the music, and if people don’t pick up on the details, then I’m at peace with that. I have a Buddhist sensibility when it comes to the goals of making music.”
On the title track, Belling The Tiger attempts to help someone who’s on a destructive path before it’s too late.
Alongside Moore, bandmates Duane Harvey (drums, percussion), Andrew Harvey (bass), Ani Balalau (vocals, various instruments), and Nick Geiersbach (keys, trumpet, flugelhorn, various instruments) provide a melodic mix of serene and fearless instrumentation.
Moore sings, “Follow me if you can linear / Thoughts unforgiving and twisting / Speak to me if you can honestly / Unafraid of what we are.”
“The song is about a particular person—however—that person turns out to be a stereotype,” he said. “Therefore, it can have a universal application to others.”
I recently spoke to Belling The Tiger about its EP ahead of two Metro Detroit shows this week.
Bryan Frink, Steve Taylor, and Carey Weaver of The Steve Taylor Three. Photo courtesy of Steve Taylor
The passage of time weighs heavily on Steve Taylor’s mind.
The Metro Detroit singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist ponders new beginnings and closed chapters on The Steve Taylor Three’s new album, Temporary Heart.
“The songs were all written in the same period, so there were certain themes that were on my mind—certainly aging,” Taylor said. “I’m 51 now, so turning 50 was a big deal from an age standpoint.”
Alongside bandmates Bryan Frink (bass, guitars, keys, vocals) and Carey Weaver (drums, percussion, vocals), Taylor explores changing family dynamics, fluctuating relationships, and childhood memories on the trio’s fifth release.
“A good friend of mine that I grew up with got married very young and then got divorced,” Taylor said. “That’s what the song, ‘Anymore,’ is about and love comes with age. I keep saying that the topics that are most on my mind right now are aging and the weather.”
On Temporary Heart, The Steve Taylor Three features a dozen heartfelt tracks bursting with rich harmonies, ruminative lyrics, and vibrant Midwest Americana instrumentation.
While the songs reflect on the fleeting nature of change, the album’s universal themes and infectious soundscapes remain deeply embedded in our hearts and minds.
To learn more, I spoke with Taylor about Temporary Heartahead of the band’s November 29 album release show.
The Stratton Setlist 