Wild Bill Ketelhut provides the "blog" to this anti-blog
He has a radio program on WXOU out of Oakland University
Wild At Heart
It looks to be an exciting week coming up and what better way to celebrate the week by winning some concert tickets. Starting off, I have a pair of tickets for the band Better Than Ezra who put out their first album in 1989 though didn't hit it big until the release of 'Deluxe' and the single “Good” which peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. While they wouldn't crack that chart again, they had a number of modern rock hits with “King Of New Orleans”, “At The Stars” and “Extra Ordinary”. To win a pair of tickets, email me at doramu13@yahoo.com. First come, first serve to see them at the Emerald Theatre on Wednesday, July 15th.
Next, we have something for you rap fans. You can win tickets for the upcoming Asher Roth/Kid Cudi at the Royal Oak Music Theatre on July 18th if you respond now and send me an email at doramu13@yahoo.com. Asher Roth hit it big this year, 2 years after being found on myspace and signing with Schoolboy, with his hit single “I Love College”. He is joined by Cleveland's Kid Cudi whose single “Day N Nite” has reached #3 on Billboard. They are joined by 88-Keys and B.o.B..
There are a couple of big events coming to town this week so let's start with the Henry Ford Museum and the continuation of Rock Stars, Cars and Guitars. If you haven't gotten down there yet, this is the week to do so because rockabilly/country star Wanda Jackson will be performing there on July 16th. She had her first success with the song "You Can't Have My Love," a duet with Billy Gray, which was released as a single in 1954 and reached number eight on the country charts. Jackson asked Capitol to sign her, but was turned down by producer Ken Nelson who told her "girls don't sell records.” so she went to Decca. It was early touring with Elvis Presley (who she dated briefly in 1955) which got her to sing rockabilly songs like "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad," "Mean, Mean Man," "Fujiyama Mama" (which hit number one in Japan) and "Honey Bop". In the mid-sixties, she was exclusively a country artist and had hits including “Tears Will Be the Chaser
for Your Wine", "The Box it Came in." and "My Big Iron Skillet" (a top 20 hit which threatened death or assault for cheating on a spouse). She found a new lease on life in the 1980's when she toured the European circuit. She was inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame this year under the category of Early influence after two previous failed attempts. Go to www.thehenryford.org for more info.
For fans of the blues, you need to go to Windsor this week from the 16th to the 19th to catch some of the greatest blues artists of our time. The first Bluesfest was in 1995 and draws about 30,000 fans each year. This year's highlights include the Funk Brothers (they provided the sound of Motown in Detroit backing everyone from Diana Ross & The Supremes to Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, etc. The Funk Brothers played on and helped create more #1 records than The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys combined), Los Lonely Boys (three brothers from Texas who had a megahit in 2004 with their song “Heaven”), Mick Taylor (at 16, he filled in for Eric Clapton during a John Mayall Blues Breakers UK show and later replaced Peter Green as a full- fledged Blues Breaker. In 1969, he replaced Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones for their biggest albums Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup, and
It’s Only Rock & Roll), Detroit's own Howling Diablos, Steve Earle (a great singer songwriter who has won two Grammys and has recorded with legends such as Johnny Cash and Patti Smith) and Johnny Winter (what needs to be said about him). You can go to www.thebluesfest.com for complete lineups and info.
The last big festival is the Concert Of Colors which is a two-day event this year but still brings in some big names. The 17th Annual concert which is designed to promote diversity has always been one of my favorites due to the diversity of musical acts they bring to the stage. Saturdays headliners include alt-rock favorite Yo La Tengo (The band's name comes from a baseball anecdote involving the 1962 Mets. It turns out shortstop Elio Chacon didn't speak English so center fielder Richie Ashburn learned to say "¡Yo la tengo! ¡Yo la tengo!" which means "I have it" in Spanish so they could avoid colliding in the outfield when going for fly balls) and another Don Was Super Sessions which will include performances by Question Mark, Blanche, Gorvette, Amp Fiddler and many others. Sunday will see performances by soul legend Aaron Neville and Malian singer Vieux Farka Touré (a rising star in Mali's music scene). Other performers include Candy Band,
Roots Vibration, Joe Reilly, Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas and Dick Siegel.
On the concert calendar, there are a bunch of other cool upcoming shows starting with Tuesday (7/14) where you can see punk rockers Green Day w' the Bravery @ the Palace Of Auburn Hills. Wednesday (7/15) is a good day for classic metal fans with Judas Priest, Whitesnake and Pop Evil @ Pine Knob or Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst & Mystic Valley Band @ the Majestic. Friday (7/17) is an amazing day with a lot of diversity starting with classic rock fans dream of Alan Parsons & Orchestra (with members of ELO I & ELO II @ Pine Knob, the ever wonderful goth rocker Peter Murphy @ Clutch Cargos, funk fans can delight with George Clinton & War @ Chene Park, the great singer/songwriter Lyle Lovett @ Meadowbrook, Serena Ryder is supposed to be playing somewhere in Ann Arbor, detroit rocker Kid Rock w/Lynyrd Skynyrd and Robert Randolph Band @ Comerica, the Coldcock reunion w/ Gorevette @ the Magic Bag, Irish punk rockers the Briggs @ Small's and the eclectic Amino
Acids @ PJ's Lager House. How does one decide!!! On Saturday (7/18) Kid Rock repeats with new back ups Alice In Chains & Cypress Hill @ Comerica while Windsor's Ashes of Soma play @ TNT's Bar & Grill. Sunday (7/19) sees rockabilly great Chris Isaak @ Meadowbrook. Don't forget next Monday (7/20) with Adrian Belew @ The Ark and the megagroups Yes & Asia @ Pine Knob. It will be a very good week for music fans if you can make tough decisions on who to see.
If you prefer the movies, you have a couple of new choices starting with the new Francis Ford Coppola film “Tetro” which is set in Argentina, and follows the reunion of two brothers. The older brother, now named Tetro moved to Argentina to write a book and to escape the shadow of his famous father, conductor Carlo Tetrocini. Bennie tracks down his brother and tries to get him to open up and to fill in some blanks about his past. Tetro remains resolute not to open that path but Bennie finds his brothers notebooks and finishes his brother's book against his wishes. We get a good look at the harm family rivalries can have on the sanity of it's participants. Maribel Verdu (of Pan's Labyrinth's fame) is wonderful as Miranda, Tetro's girlfriend but while Coppola creates an emotional script, the narrative is often uneven. The film is in B&W with splashed of color in a film that feels like it belongs in the late 70's. I enjoyed the journey Coppola
sets up this time around but not as much as films like “The Conversation” which is why I will give this film a grade of B. It tries hard and delivers enough for fans of Coppola to give 2 hours to enjoy this film.
While I missed the press screening of “Moon”, I made sure to check it out this week. This is the film debut of Duncan Jones (the son of David Bowie) and stars Sam Rockwell who we saw last year in movies like 'Choke' and 'Frost/Nixon'. This is a very intelligent sci-fi script which sees Sam Bell Rockwell) as an employee of Lunar Industries which is on the dark side of the moon to extract helium-3 which is necessary to solve Earth energy crisis. His only contact during his 3 year contract besides delayed recordings from his wife and kids is the robot Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey). Two weeks from his extraction date he starts to hallucinate which he believes is just fatigue but he is becoming sick and during a routine fuel extraction from one of the harvesters he crashes. Believing Sam to be dead, Gerty activates the next clone of Sam Bell, who awakens in the infirmary and is told that the shuttle that brought him for the start of his contract
crashed, damaging the harvester. Overhearing Gerty talking to Earth, the new Sam goes out to the harvester and finds his clone which he brings back to the base and the two Sam's explore the mysteries of the Lunar operation. However, the first Sam is close to death when the second Sam tries to figure out a way to Earth before the harvester repair crew arrives. While slow-paced, I applaud the work of Rockwell to bring this performance off and for Jones not to make a big budget splashy film. This reminds me a lot of movies like Silent Running which caused the viewer to think and not just be popcorn entertainment. If that appeals to you, check out this film. I give it a grade of a solid A. This is hardcore sci-fi and it's best and the film even premiered at NASA.
The weather is looking nice this week so I hope everyone enjoys it. Take care and see you next week.
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