Promote your event / Contact MCB

YOU HAVE REACHED MOTORCITYBLOG.
email us anytime motorcityblog@gmail.com



2/15/10

She_is_Sara (SIS) - 2/15/2010

"She is Sara" is the latest blogger to join the ranks of MCB
She digs fashion - music - thrift stores, peotry and Detroit
She works in Downtown Detroit
and is a full time student at Oakland University
pursuing her English major.
Saturday was quite an adventure for me in downtown Detroit.

With plans to check out the Winter Blast, get something delicious to eat, hang out with friends and to meet up with the band One eskimO, we had high ambitions for the day.

How to begin?

What isn’t a better way to start then a cool 50cent pint at the Grand Trunk at noon? The Grand Trunk is my personal favorite bar downtown. It used to be the old ticket station and the inside of the building is immaculate. All of their food is supplied from Eastern Market, and they have a ridicules selection of Michigan brewed beer. If you need another reason to visit the Grand Trunk, I would say it would be because of “Uncle Pauly”, soon to be your favorite bartender. He will great you at the door on the nicest manor, joke around with all the customers, and then ask you which cartoons you would like to watch out of his supply. “Danger Mouse” can be pretty enjoyable.

The next stop was to venture outside to see the happenings of the Winter Blast. There was $3.00 ice skating going on all day so the rink was packed. There were warming bins set up to keep fingers toasty and elephant ears to munch on. The ice sculptures were pretty awesome, especially the chairs, but my friends became a fan of the “snow mounds”. A huge mound of snow, complete with a snow machine to create more, for snow ball fights. Of course two minutes after two grown adults entered the area, most of the kids cleared out.

After checking out the winter blast, and taking random pictures of buildings downtown, we decided that we were pretty hungry. We headed down the street to Jacoby’s a German biergarten, where it was pretty crowded, a lot of people were trying to warm up from the Winter Blast as well. We had some delicious German food and beer and stayed warm inside the cozy bar for awhile.

We then decided to head over to the Compuware Building to see the band One eskimO.

When we got there the last band was just finishing up

so I had time to check out these little homemade hats that event planner Marla Swartz from Howell, MI creates in her spare time.


All the while as the stage was being set up for One eskimO,

the building became more and more full.

The band began to play and every seat was being taken

people were crowded around the stage to hear them play.

The fact that they were inside a huge building put a question to my mind as of the quality of the sound to the audience, but it was no trouble at all, the music poured off the stage and into the ears of the audience very well. The audience interaction was great, everyone standing had a little sway to them and almost everyone bobbed their heads to the sound of One eskimO.

After each song, there was a great deal of clapping and cheering, but when “Kandi” was played the cheering was heard throughout the song and many audience members were mouthing the lyrics along with the music. After the show, the kind members of the band stayed and autographed each and every fan’s CD that was waiting for them, and took numerous photographs, and best of all they thanked them all repeatedly for coming out to see them.

After the show I was assigned to get an interview with the band for MCB and I was pretty nervous talking to a group of such well known artists. However after some small chat with guitarist Peter Rinaldi, I realized just how laid back and kind these guys were and when I got to my interview with front man and the bands brainchild Kristian Leoniou, I was more than excited than nervous to get a few questions from such a talented individual.

SIS: How did one Eskimo come to be, and where did the name come from?

OE: “We were looking for a specific style of sound and a lot of simplicity. The band started with just me and Adam, then the others joined and we worked out of London for four years. The name One Eskimo developed naturally.

SIS: What inspires your music?

OE: “Loads, the album is inspired by Hendrix, Pink Floyd sound, Bob Dylan lyrics, but we really get inspiration form everywhere.”

SIS:Where did the idea for the animated videos originate from and who came up with the characters?

OE: “The idea came from the songs, sketches were mentioned and we got funding from Warner Brothers and naturally doors opened for us as the band developed. I came up with the main characters, but the others were pulled together from different places.”

SOS: You guys just finished a tour with Tori Amos, how was that experience?

OE: “Great, we played at the Opera House, and we’ve played back in Detroit. It was a great way to start, when we started the tour we had no label, it was very nice to get a label, then we got the animation, and it was all very natural and nice. Great experience for us.”

SOS: If you could choose anyone to tour with (dead or alive) who would it be?

OE: “I am sure the other guys would say something different like Hendrix, but I would love to tour with Bjork, also the Doors, we are influenced lyrically by the Doors, and also Radiohead would be another that I would love to go on tour with.”

SOS: You guys just released your album “One EskimO” in September, is there anything new that you are working on?

OE: “We are working on songs, there was a Motown one for today, but we are always working on new stuff.”

SOS: And lastly, if you could describe your music in one word, what would it be?

OE: “This is a hard question, we always get asked “what does your music sound like, or how do you describe your music?” I would have to say our sound is ambient-electro-acoustic. That is not one-word though, so if I could choose one word it would be “magical”, because we are going for dreamy, someplace to escape to.”


"HOLES"

Adorned with a pretty disaster
Forgotten in your face.
We scatter around in realization
That we have time, space.

If there is beauty in the forgotten
And if there are holes that lie,
The stranger will come around
And he will know that we still try.