Local Band Prussia, California's EMA To Play At The Loving Touch

Local smorgasbord-soul-pop quartet Prussia has had the qualifier "forthcoming" prefacing their album Poor English for 7 months. Toward the end of August, they'll finally be releasing what is, to date, their most elaborate and impressive recorded work via three volumes, on 10-inch vinyl.

This Sunday, they host a free concert at The Loving Touch, opening for Oakland, CA-based EMA, a poetic psychedelic punk project headed by singer/songwriter Erika M. Anderson.

Songwriter Josh Epstein of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. and the Silent Years, who was touring with Anderson as DEJJ, organized the evening. Epstein knew EMA would be driving through Detroit on the way home from the tour's final date in Toronto.

"I felt like it would be a waste for them not to play here," Epstein said, having originally planned a modest barbecue with his new friends.

Epstein, who also helped produce Prussia's upcoming album, said Ferndale felt like the best spot for this show because shows at The Loving Touch have been well attended.

"We didn't have much time to set it up. I didn't want them to be stuck in a big venue with nobody being aware of the show," Epstein said. "The Loving Touch is easier to do more off the cuff stuff at, I feel."

EMA's current LP, Past Life Martyred Saints has music blogs buzzing and is turning heads at bigger publications such as SPIN, while Prussia recently rubbed elbows with psychedelic-rock royalty by opening up for the Flaming Lips in Madison, WI.

"It was crazy," Prussia singer Ryan Spencer said. "We got to dress in costumes and dance on stage with them. I nerded up pretty bad. Talking to (Lips singer) Wayne Coyne changed the way I think about music and recording."

While Prussia has flown in an unnerving holding pattern through 2011, awaiting the attention of prospective record labels, they selected a handful of featured tracks for a digital EP titled, fittingly, Four for Attention.

The band leaves for tour after Sunday's show, performing two weeks along the East Coast with Los Angeles-based rock duo El Ten Eleven. In addition, culture documentarian collective Single Barrel Detroit is in the post production stages of a feature music video filmed for the band's current single, What Am I Gonna Tell Your Mom? and hopes to debut it this autumn.

If you go

• The concert starts at 10 p.m. Sunday at the Loving Touch. There is no cover and pool is free all night.
• The High Strung also will perform Sunday at The Loving Touch, hosting a "barbecue" from 4 to 8 p.m., to celebrate the vinyl releasing their latest LP, Dragon Dicks, via New Fortune Records.
• Ferndale's own Betty Cooper and the Electric Fire Babies also will perform. Check out that story .