Of the many things made in Michigan that have become part of the fabric of American culture — the auto industry, Motown — punk rock is often overlooked. In 1967, years before The Sex Pistols performed incendiary anthems, Iggy Pop and his band The Stooges created an explosive new sound in Detroit that would influence generations of musicians.
Last summer, Shirley and Carney were setting up some science and technology workshops at the Nazaré orphanage in rural Brazil when the director of the orphanage mentioned in passing that there was a room full of unused instruments.
As the old saying goes, "everything old is new again."
Case in point, the cassette tape.
Those of us who were music consumers in the 70's and 80's remember those cassettes rattling around in your glove compartment.
They were so much smaller than those clunky eight-track tapes and no skipping or gunk on the needles like your vinyl records.
Many people went through the cassette era making their own mixes, working from a dual-tape unit and sharing them with friends, family and significant others.
Then came the CD, into prominence in the mid to late 80s. It was great to be able to jump right to the spot you wanted -no more fast forward and rewind.
Soon after the CD, the mp3 became popular and that is when the cassette tape became, for all intents and purposes, extinct.
But recently, the cassette tape is being revived and a Michigan-based recording label called 'Already Dead Tapes' is right out in front of this revival.
The label is run from Kalamazoo by Sean Hartman along with his Chicago-based partner Joshua Tabbia.
Sean and Joshua have said they don't think of Already Dead Tapes as a business because it's a "passion project."
Here is a video of Already Dead Tapes via the Chicago AV Club:
We’ve all heard the term “comfort food”. Well how about some “comfort music”?
Red Tail Ring is a duo from Kalamazoo serving up American roots music that harkens back to gentler days, and it’s music that soothes and wraps around you like a shawl.
Red Tail Ring is Michael Beauchamp and Laurel Premo and they join us here in the studio.
This weekend an international heavy metal conference for academics and researchers is happening in Bowling Green, Ohio. It's called "The Heavy Metal & Popular Culture Conference," and organizers say it's the first of its kind in the U.S.
It will feature presentations by heavy metal scholars from around the world about race and gender in the genre, and about its growing popularity in places like Finland and Puerto Rico.
“The Superintendent is receiving calls from arts groups all over the state saying, ‘Why are you cutting the arts?’” says district spokesman Bob Kolt. “But it’s just not true…we’re contracting out those services to community artists.”
Kolt says the district will bring in about 10-20 “contractors” to help elementary classroom teachers with art, music and gym instruction.
When you think of good bluegrass music and good bluegrass musicians, you might think of folks coming from the mountain hollows of West Virginia or Kentucky.
That is where bluegrass began - taking the music brought by Irish, Scottish and English settlers - maybe mixing in some elements of African-American music - and producing a wonderful American music.
But today we met some pretty incredible musicians who can serve up some great bluegrass and lots of other styles of music.
They come from all corners of the Great Lakes State.
This is Bluegrass Michigan-style as served up by Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys.
Husband and wife Lindsay Lou and Joshua Rilko joined us in the studio today. Lindsay Lou is a singer/songwriter and Joshua plays mandolin and sings.
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