Music Risky Business: The Education of Jeff Risk

June 5, 2009 - 3:08 pm

Jeff Risk Interview

As Jeff Risk, Detroit producer/artist/DJ, found out, never delete your junk mail before you see what’s in it. Because sometimes, buried amidst the spam, the porn and the diet drug solicitations, there’s an email in there that might change your life.

Risk, whose taste in music is as impressive as his ten tattoos, cut his teeth listening to everything from Liz Copeland on the Detroit radio to punk rock, hardcore and death metal. Then he fell in love with drum ‘n’ bass and became a DJ. But while he loves to DJ, he’s not the guy who sends out demos and is intent on elbowing his way up the food chain. Instead, he thought his reach would be no farther than his friends.

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Music The Rhythm & Wisdom of Afrika Bambaataa

June 5, 2009 - 3:08 pm

Africa Bambaataa Interview

A wise man once said, “The biggest crime when [Afrika] Bambaataa plays is not to dance.” Actually, King Kurmanji, the international spokesperson for the Zulu Nation and Bambaataa’s right hand man, said that a few hours before Bambaataa’s set on the Red Bull Music Academy stage on Monday afternoon in a hotel lobby when he was actually on the right hand side of Bambaataa, firmly planted in a rather comfy chair. “When you dance, you lose your stresses and your worries,” continues Kurmanji. “You wash that negativity away when you release it, breathe it and move that behind.” Heavy words that are certainly not to be taken lightly — just like the political persona that Bambaataa encompasses in his large frame, and just like the cameo-packed performance he brought to the stage. “We just don’t want any wallflowers,” coolly adds Bambaataa.

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Bars/Clubs Botanica Bar – A Dive for Wandering Souls

June 4, 2009 - 10:11 am

Botanica Bar New York

Nestled in a non-descript location in downtown Manhattan’s kitschy Nolita area, on the cusp of the overpriced SoHo area is a bar called Botanica – a dive bar that gives all dives a good name. After walking through Nolita’s narrow (and expensive) side streets and coming across charmeuse blouses and wine lists that cost more than most outpatient surgical procedures, it feels great to enter a dimly-lit, affordable,  no-frills spot that takes things back to the true basics.

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Music Busy P & the Art of Electro-Boutique

June 4, 2009 - 10:11 am

Busy P Live

Musicians carry a fraction of diva within their core. It is one of those unwritten laws that no matter how down to earth (or buried within) they may seem, there resides a chunk of entitlement in their bones that screams “gimme this” or “double wrap that.” As long as we don’t have to endure it constantly (read: be Kanye West’s personal assistant), it’s easy to push on the back burner and let it cook — considering it slightly, but never holding such pretenses against the artist. Busy P broke these rules on Monday evening when he slammed his designer headphones (and then his microphone) at the beginning of his set when something went wrong with the sound, and proceeded to scream in a mixture of French and English at the crowd and also at that poor, unfortunate sound guy (who seemed relatively unaffected by the whole ordeal).

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Film Gallery Damn it Janet! It’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

June 4, 2009 - 10:10 am


Words and photos by Zoetica Ebb

The most notorious of all midnight movies, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a rock-opera-comedy that was released in 1975 and is still played in countless theaters internationally. The plot is, shall we say, complicated – check out the Wikipedia page to get some idea of what the hell happens. Involved stage productions are acted out as the film is played, with cast member-created costumes and props to match ones used on-screen. These scandalous performances require constant audience participation – skimpy attire, water guns, and shouting insults at the screen are encouraged [but not required].

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Music VJ Culture Mixes the Movies in My Mind

June 3, 2009 - 11:33 am

VJ Culture Video Jockey

As the sun shined through the massive square windows of a downtown Detroit hotel on Memorial Day, Grant Davis, aka VJ Culture,  is picking his way through a “delicious” vegetarian meatloaf. In the true nature of his role as one of the most sought after video jockeys in the game, he is quick to use nutritional visuals to describe (somewhat abstractly) how his job works. “The broccoli connects the wires to the meatloaf, which is the screen,” laughs Davis, “and here is me” — pointing to the mashed potatoes with his fork — “feeling a little mashed after last night.”

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Music Kevin Saunderson: Triple Blessed

June 2, 2009 - 10:22 am

Kevin Saunderson Saves Movement

Anyone who loves techno owes Kevin Saunderson for three things: co-inventing techno, coming up with the anthems, Big Fun and The Good Life, and being the unsung hero of Movement, stepping in at considerable cost to save the festival when its future was bleak.

The year was 2004, and the festival, which had been free to the public for the first four years, was in deep trouble. The city approached Saunderson, a well-liked presence in the Detroit community, and begged him to come in and take charge. “I had never run a festival before, but I knew how much time it would take to do it  right. So I agreed on the condition that they officially back the festival by September,” he says.

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Music The Human Nature of RJD2

June 2, 2009 - 10:20 am

RJD2

Everyone and their furry boots were ready for RJD2 on Sunday afternoon as the sun began to set on the second day of Movement ’09. With a stack of records cleanly categorized behind the turntable traditionalist, RJD2 quickly shuffled through his funk, soul and lightly rock ‘n’ rollified collection of tracks — pulling heavily from fan favorite albums Deadringer and Since We Last Spoke — smoothly worked up the crowd with his charismatic microphone moxy. “So, what do you guys want to do now?” jokingly inquired RJD2 halfway through his set. “Should we just go home?” And, like sweaty clockwork, the droves of funk frenzied fans declared, “No!” in what seemed like perfect unison. “Let’s get to work then,” quipped the man with the plan before mashing up The Cars’ classic Let The Good Times Roll with his own hip-hop influenced creation of distorted guitars and bouncing beats.

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Film Hellion Cat: A Crispin Glover Interview

June 1, 2009 - 8:53 am

Crispin Glover Interview

Crispin Hellion Glover is perhaps best known for his whimsical roles in films such as Back to the Future or Charlie’s Angels or his creepy roles in movies like The Wizard of Gore.  But when his bizarre charisma is not being utilized in front of the camera, Crispin is hard at work on his own film projects.  In fact, his fans who know him from mainstream movies might be surprised to learn that he has spent more than a decade working on a series of art films that have played film festivals worldwide and been seen at special screening events.  He prefers to screen his movies in a special setting in which Crispin may read his poetry or provide a performance art piece.  The first feature was What is it? and featured a cast comprised mostly of actors with Down’s syndrome.  The second in the series, It is fine!  Everything is fine! stars cerebral palsy-afflicted Steven C. Stewart who provides a welcome charm within the film’s strange series of events.

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Music The Perfect Storm: Z-Trip Takes Detroit

June 1, 2009 - 8:51 am

Z-Trip Interview

Zach Sciacca, better known as Z-Trip, founder of the mash-up and one of America’s most influential DJs, is stoked. In less than an hour, he will walk on to the Red Bull Music Academy’s stage of Movement. Although a fixture at festivals like Bonnaroo and Coachella, he’s never played this one. And he can’t wait to get it started. “Musically,” he says, “you can get away with murder in Detroit. They are so enlightened here that you can play whatever you want and they’ll go along with you.”

But before he goes on, there’s an interview to do. An intensely political person, he had talked last summer, at Electric Daisy Carnival, Los Angeles’ big summer rave, about the election, whose outcome was not yet a foregone conclusion, and how nervous he had been about the outcome. This time around, I wondered if he seen the trickle-down effects of hope filter into cities like Detroit yet.

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