Clothing Swap in Ferndale This Weekend to Benefit School PTA

Second annual event raises money for John F. Kennedy School PTA.

A group of Ferndale parents are bringing a unique fundraising idea back for a second year this weekend with the second annual Clothing Swap to benefit the John F. Kennedy School PTA. Krista Johnston, the PTA's fundraising chairperson, came up with the idea for the ladies-only event as a chance for attendees to liven up their winter wardrobe and have a fun night out all while benefiting local students. The event will be held from 6-9 p.m. on Saturday at the Loving Touch. Guests bring currently fashionable, new or slightly used ladies clothing, accessories, shoes, and purses to the event, and volunteers will arrange the donations while guests indulge in desserts and receive free mini spa services. Guests will then shop the clothing donations…

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Tonight: Release Show at the Loving Touch

Release show for local band FUR's 'Image on the Reverse' to be held Saturday at the Loving Touch in Ferndale.

Milo's Trip

Benefit Show in Ferndale to Support South Oakland Shelter

It's the time of year to think of your fellow man, the spirit of good will and peace and philanthropy should prevail. This weekend sees just one of many notable benefit shows in the area.

What: Benefit Show for South Oakland Shelter with Will Sessions, Misty Lyn & the Big Beautiful and Matt Jones & the Reconstruction. Minimum donation $5. Where: The Loving Touch in Ferndale. When: Friday, December 14th – Doors @ 9 p.m. This Friday, Ferndalians can come listen to music and contribute to the South Oakland Shelter, a homeless prevention center dedicated to providing shelter and supportive programming to help individuals and families live independently. Friday night’s music splices some dusty strums of grainy Americana onto the glitzy grooves of funk-fired dancefloor fare. Yes, twangy indie-folk ruminations meet up with exquisite soul rattlers as a consortium of Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti-area guitar-groups (Misty Lyn & the Big …

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3rd Annual Run Like Hell 5K to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

Run/walk through the spooky, moonlit streets of Ferndale today.

Milo's Trip

Milo's Trip: Ferndale Sound-Sculptor Finds the Notes That Aren't There...

Mike Ross's "slippery" musical canon will be showcased via a DJ set and live musical performance next Tuesday at the Loving Touch.

Michael Ross isn’t interested in the musical notes that are already there; he’s set off to root around in the more cacophonous corners of song-crafts workshop to find the notes that aren’t there. Too many set out to reinvent the Beatles, but this local sound-collagist (or, experimental songwriter, if you will) has always sought to reinvent something else, what other fixtures, vents or pipes could be installed to bring some fresher, weirder air into the dusty, tired, systematized workshop of music. It helped that Ross spent much of the last decade working at The Record Collector, flourishing his appreciation for under-the-radar avant-gardists like The Fall, Captain Beefheart and, of course, Sonic Youth. This punk-rabbler, noise-dabbling, …

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Milo's Trip

Ferndale's Scotty Hagen Hooks Himself a 2nd Record Label

Two singles out in early October for Hagen's flagship record label signal no sign of slowing down.

The first music column I ever wrote was about Scotty Hagen so I’ve got a soft spot for the Ferndale-based musician and music store manager’s candy-themed record label. Not that I have to make this all about me or my five-year-old blurb, no - but I identify with Hagen. The same way I consider myself merely a humble fan with means to sound-off, Hagen considers himself a music fan...merely with means to put out records (ideally, ones that he would likely go buy, himself). That keen sensibility for crate diggers (or, if you will, frequenters of record stores), has aided his flourishing of Royal Oak based UHF Records, as store manager, as well as informing his decisions as head of Bellyache Records, which celebrates its 32nd proper release next…

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Milo's Trip

Milo's Trip: Found Soundz: - Wildcatting / Electric Six / Doop and the Inside Outlaws

Ferndale-based band Duende will perform Saturday at The Loving Touch, plus find out what's planned for Pig and Whiskey July 14.

Duende are upping the ante. The Ferndale-based quartet of psychedelic-outlaw-blues-benders are feeling on fire (in a good way) after wrapping an inspiring recording session at Tempermill Studios. They've got a whole album's worth of new material coming out later this year, with one song's session involving a half-dozen different musicians specializing in various genres and ranging in age and unique backgrounds harmonizing for a rousing collaborative effort. Now they're bringing that amped energy to their monthly "Duensday" music nights; adding more bands to what's typically been a two-slot line-up and shifting their regularly-scheduled shindig from Wednesday (a holiday, this week) to the inherently-livelier time of Saturday night! Yes, …

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Milo's Trip

Milo's Trip: The Best Song(s) Ever Told

Summer in the City and no drought of dynamic live music: Thornbills, Phantasmagoria and more.

Hot days and loud nights, friends. The Modern Lovers' playful poet Jonathan Richman once sang out his love for "those hot nights, when a T-shirt feels right / You stay up later when everything's outside."  Venues will keep their doors open beyond the 10 p.m. mark and let the marvelous rock-splattered, melody-sweetened thrums of local instrumentalists air out into the muggy night, soundtracking these smiling evenings.   Embrace it. Stay up later.  And ya know, it's good bike-riding weather; why not pedal a couple miles north into Berkley and check out some Ferndale friends who host a monthly residency up there in preservation of their record label-collective, Axis Mundi. --June 29, at the Berkley Front Axis Mundi (a collaborative cluster of…

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Milo's Trip: New Local Albums, Plus More Music in the Loving Touch

This next installment in my local music column spins a new album from Ferndale's Fawn, checks in with Chris Johnston of the Woodward Avenue Brewers and looks ahead to new music from The Blueflowers.

First things first: A couple of album reviews from local bands: The Blueflowers - Stealing The Moon The Blueflowers have this swooning, twanged-out, heart-thumping sound, the kind of bittersweet balladry that stops bar chatter, turns heads, tames savage beasts and dims the party lights for a rustling, reverb-soaked rumination. You sip this kinda sound, slow, let it warm you up. It breathes, it sways, it stirs... The trilling vibrato of those airy/achy vocals, the exquisite wheeze and rumble of organs under shimmering surfy guitars, the hay-fluttered breeze of acoustic strums and the distant rolling thunder of bass and drums all around you. This is an album that seems to open things up, push walls away, slide sheets of stars across your …

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Ferndale Business Owners to Put 'Fun' in Fundraising at JFK Event

The John F. Kennedy Elementary School PTA is inviting ladies age 21 and older to attend a clothing swap event 6-10 p.m. Saturday at the Loving Touch.

Throwing an event is second nature to Krista Johnston, co-owner of Woodward Avenue Brewers, the Emory and the Loving Touch. So when it came time to get involved in her children's school PTA, she decided to forgo volunteering directly in the classroom and use her skills to help raise funds for the school. And she does it in a creative way — no pizza kits or pencil sales involved. “This is the way I can contribute to the school in my comfort zone,” said Johnston, fundraising chair of the John F. Kennedy Elementary School Parent Teacher Association. She has planned several events for the PTA, including a wine tasting last year. The next fundraiser is set for 6-10 p.m. Saturday at the Loving Touch. The ladies-only, 21-and-older event involves …

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