Tag: Outer Limits Lounge

Forever Young — Issac Burgess and Friends Pay Tribute to Sam Carroll and Matt Szakal at “Samstock” Memorial Concert

Issac Burgess. Courtesy photo.

Issac Burgess wants to pay tribute to two dearly missed friends.

The Detroit singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is hosting Samstock, a memorial concert for Sam Carroll and Matt Szakal, on November 2 at Outer Limits Lounge.

Both Carroll and Szakal passed away unexpectedly this summer.

“A group of about eight to 10 of us have kept in close contact since the boys left us,” said Burgess, who’s also curating the event. “We all wanted to put a show together of some sort because we know that Sam and Matt would have honored us the same way.”

Samstock will feature a lineup of Hamtramck and Detroit-based acts, including Burgess and his band, Boy Blue, Mars and the Satellites, Electric Bug, Josh Lutey and Friends, Rose St. Germaine, Sancho, Fishfly’s Nick Vasseur, and Cinquex.

“We reached out to all of the bands the guys had liked, and those that were available are ecstatic to participate,” Burgess said. “We booked who we could, and then I spoke to John [Szymanski] at Outer Limits about the idea. He was very supportive.”

The show will include a mixture of live music and speeches to honor the lives and contributions of Carroll and Szakal.

“We are planning a straightforward show,” Burgess said. “We’ve all got a few tunes we’re going to play for everyone, and we will probably say a few words. Our friend Mir is making bracelets for everyone. We’re going to keep it simple.”

I recently spoke with Burgess about Carroll and Szakal, as well as his latest music releases, ahead of Samstock.

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Beyond the Limits — Widetrack Tests Emotional Boundaries on “Galatea” Concept Album

Widetrack features suspenseful lyrics and haunting instrumentation on “Galatea.” Courtesy photo

Widetrack explores the emotional limits of an evil man and his heroine redeemer on Galatea.

The father-son duo combines elements of horror movies, psychological thrillers, and Greek mythology to create a compelling narrative for its latest concept album.

“We love all the classic books and movies, like Red Dragon, Psycho, and The Silence of the Lambs,” said Ron Tippin, Widetrack’s vocalist and drummer. “It’s not so much about the shock and gore, but more about the psychological aspect of it.”

On Galatea, a man is caught in a destructive cycle while searching for the perfect woman to love and possess.

“What I started seeing with a lot of these books and movies that I was reading and watching is this person who overcompensates for feeling uncomfortable in his own skin,” Tippin said. “He desires these women, but he knows he doesn’t stand a chance with them.”

After dating and discarding many women, the man finally meets his match in Galatea. Inspired by Pygmalion’s ivory statue and Madeline Miller’s short story, Galatea sees beyond the man’s controlling nature and falls in love with him.

“The actual album is about this woman who doesn’t give into his control and ends up making him see himself for who he really is,” said Tippin, who’s based in Waterford, Michigan.

“It’s a composite of all these movies [and books] we’ve liked and talked about. It’s a tribute to horror movies, a tribute to strong women, a tribute to the power of redemption, or the question, ‘If you can’t be redeemed, then what’s the next best thing?’”

Tippin and his son, Zach Tippin (guitar, bass, keys), examine that question across eight tracks on Galatea, which features suspenseful lyrics and haunting alt-rock/prog-rock instrumentation.

I spoke with Widetrack about Galatea ahead of a May 23 show at Detroit’s Outer Limits Lounge.

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Dig Out – The Idiot Kids Mine Past Struggles and Make Room for the Future on ‘Chapels’ Album

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The Idiot Kids’ Nicholas Zambeck, Jon-Mikal Bartee and Andrew Maslowsky search for acceptance on “Chapels.” Photo – Jackleen Diana Eve

For Jon-Mikal Bartee, a new album with The Idiot Kids allows for a deep exploration of the past and a clear pathway for the future.

The lead vocalist-guitarist of the Detroit garage-punk trio mines personal experiences, thoughts and emotions related to sex, identity, addiction and trauma on Chapels. In turn, those excavations create more space for relief and renewal.

“That’s kind of what the whole album is about. Through trauma and addiction and all of that, trying to find acceptance. That’s just what it kind of turned into. It’s not like we sat down and said, ‘I want to write an album about my childhood,’” Bartee said.

“For me, listening to artists like Elliott Smith, Thom Yorke, Bob Dylan and people who talked about very personal things—sometimes in a more abstract way and sometimes a little more literally—that’s what I connected to. Just from hearing people talk about what they’re dealing with didn’t resonate in the same way as like putting it to a melody or a rhythm.”

Alongside bandmates Nicholas Zambeck (bass) and Andrew Maslowsky (drums, vocals), Bartee adopts that refreshing approach on Chapels, which features a dozen tracks filled with candid lyrics, earworm choruses and turbocharged punk-rock instrumentation.

“This is the kind of stuff, as a kid and as a teenager, I didn’t hear anyone talking about. Luckily, the world has come a long way in the last 20 years. But, at the same time, with more visibility, there’s also more hatred, so it’s kind of like this battling force back and forth,” said Bartee, who grew up in a religious family and came out as an adult.

“These are the songs I wish I had heard as a teenager or a young adult, and I was dealing with that internalized homophobia and religious trauma and whatnot. That’s why I ended up calling it Chapels because it all kind of went down to that.”

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Right Now – pia the band Feels Grateful for Today on ‘I Have Everything’ Single

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pia the band feels hopeful about the present on “I Have Everything.” Photo – Zach Nahshel

pia the band is right where she needs to be.

The Detroit indie-rock singer-songwriter shares that realization on her hopeful new single, “I Have Everything.”

“I think at first glance over and maybe with intention when I first wrote it, you can look at the song as definitely being inspired by loss. Maybe bigger than that … that sadness or loss you feel when things don’t really pan out the way you expect them or hope at the time,” said Pia-Allison Roa, aka pia the band.

“As everyone knows, life doesn’t always go as planned, and usually it goes in a way better than you could have imagined. That realization and affirmation that you have everything you need at this moment in time are what I hope people can reflect on to move forward and let go of what their expectations were.”

Backed by soft drums, thoughtful bass and determined electric guitar, pia the band sheds those past expectations and embraces the present as she sings, “I’m trying not to bum you all out / But every time I open my mouth / I convince myself believe / I have everything I need.”

“By the end of the song and after the huge instrumental, I repeat that phrase [‘I have everything I need’] again a couple of times, and to me, it’s a confirmation of ‘Yes, I actually do believe that I do have everything I need,’” Roa said.

“I find myself so many times being in situations with good friends, or being at the beach on a nice day, or even as silly as eating a good burger and being like, ‘Whoa, yup, I have everything I need right now.’”

Continue reading “Right Now – pia the band Feels Grateful for Today on ‘I Have Everything’ Single” →