Milo's Trip: Ferndale Does Dally

As you amble through the alleyways outside Wayne State this weekend, scoping makeshift shoppes of wonderful wares from local crafters/designers, sipping motor city microbrews and waving through a sea of particularly provocative people-watchable fare, make sure to slide up to one of the four main performance stages at this annual culture fair to support some of your neighbors. 

Excitingly (at least for this obsessive frequenter of local rock stages), Dally features the reignition of a few bands whom I've not seen, regularly at least, in a while:

Alley Stage

Allan James & The Cold Wave - A different kind of 90's-rock revivalism; not some guitar-goring fuzz refresh or breezy-rollicking sunsoaked-pop thing, but more an alt-folk trip, heavy on heart, lyricism and tone, A.J. Sherman looks up to the bittersweet balladeers who softly cradle the heart right before punching you in the gut, (i.e. David Bazan, Elliott Smith and maybe not too far from a Lou Barlow). The Cold Wave often given enough room in a song to let it breathe, don't confuse it with saccharine hooks or feedback storms, let the guitar and voice do the talking, make your points, poignantly.

Deadbeat Beat - This band had an album completed back in the spring of 2011 and then, for the life of me, I'd started worrying they'd "broken-up," but alas! Having mixed their self-titled debut album locally, the band's main songwriters have since moved back down south of 8-mile. I'd recommend checking them out: Shoegaze-dashed surf-punk, ardent rhythms and iridescently reverb-splashed guitars. Best Coast used to be somewhat of a reference point for them, but perhaps they've evolved since...? We'll see...

Duende - Loving Touch's monthly music showcase hosts will be flaring their fresh tunes (featured on a forthcoming full-length album tentatively titled Murder Doesn't Hide The Truth). The electic rock quartet are in the midst of what singer/songwriter Jeff Howitt considers their most inspired and highly creative phase of songwriting and that energy will likely transmit to the stage as they jangle out a jumble of wiry, fiery odes where psychedelic-punk strummers upset the classy charms of country-western warblers. 

Garden Stage

Oscillating Fan Club - A band recently brandished (just last week) in this column, I'm not sure I need-say-more... Suffice it to say, they dig the raw-pop of the Kinks as much as the spindly rhythmic flourishes of Os Mutantes; guttural, gritty charmers, these...

Forest Stage

Electric Fire Babies - Dance-party Paella, dash in techno-pop, archetypal hip-hop swagger, torrid garage-pop, and a raw funk-inclination wrung like tie-dye into syrupy neo-psychedelic atmospherics. Anthemic, too! They'll get you to move...

Pink Lightning - Not exactly locals; but their bassist attended Ferndale schools and their singer co-manages Found Sound record shoppe in downtown, so... Anyways, I'm going to let this danceable rock quintet's streaming MP3 do most of the talking:

Stream: Pink Lightning - "Dancing On The Ceiling" (MP3)

Speaking of Found Sound ~ The store was recently featured in a promotional video (viewable above) - Stopped in yet? You can find vinyl recordings of more local acts on their shelves, like Child Bite, Pupils, Passalacqua and many more. 

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In other news, here's another new band to start scoping, as they have an aggressive show-schedule set for this early autumn: Michael Mars & the God Particle. Electro-entranced punk-pop, a bit of grime, a bit of glisten, a bit of shakeability, this duo sparked at the end of last Spring (just in time for the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle).

Observe them at tonight's Duesneday music night, hosted at the Loving Touch along with the aforementioned Duende, also with: Savage Seven and Zombie Jesus & the Chocolate Sunshine Band - Music starts at 9 p.m.

If you miss the God Particle Wednesday, then maybe happen upon them outside of Noir Leather in Royal Oak on Thursday evening, (more info here). 

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Next Week: DIY preview featuring a chat with the W.A.B.'s Chris Johnston. Also, SelfSays and Jeecy & the Jungle.