Music :
Featured Stories
Patrick Dunn
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Ryan Santangelo is what folks in the biz call a serial entrepreneur. First he launched the firm Dynamic Media. Then Secure Media Systems. His latest effort is SafeToSleep, which is bringing infant monitoring into the new millennium. And all three businesses are thriving in Sterling Heights, a place he calls the Silicon Valley of Michigan.
Walter Wasacz
Thursday, October 18, 2012
The Hamtramck Neighborhood Arts Festival features bands on porches, a studio crawl and a chance to navigate the streets of arguably Michigan's most walkable city on foot. Get all the details inside FilterD.
Amy Kuras
Thursday, March 08, 2012
From jingles to mash-ups, family-owned Yessian Music in Farmington Hills has been creating soundtracks for commercials, theme parks, movies, and high profile events for 40 years. This year's Super Bowl, which boasted five different ads with their work, demonstrates the ever-growing global reach of this homegrown firm.
Nicole Rupersburg
Thursday, November 03, 2011
From metal culture to metal creations, Speedcult brings together a trifecta of Detroit values: do-it-yourself ingenuity, risky engineering, and a need for speed. Metromode's Nicole Rupersburg watches (and imbibes) as National Geographic shoots an episode of Mad Scientists in the team's backyard "abusement park".
Tanya Muzumdar
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Ben Sharkey leads a truly 3D life. A designer at visualization tech firm Real Time Technology, he moonlights as a honey-smooth jazz vocalist. Okay, so he sings on the side, you say. Still, how many part time jazz singers do you know that boast YouTube fans in the hundreds of thousands?
Metromode Staff
Thursday, May 26, 2011
What would the summer be without outdoor concerts and fireworks? We're giving away tickets to a DSO concert at the Ford House. Jazz or classical, the winner gets to choose. Sign up inside!
Jon Zemke
Thursday, May 12, 2011
There's little doubt about Metro Detroit's place in music history. We are a bottomless cauldron of rock n roll innovation and invention. And Movement is part of that...er, well, movement. Metromode chats with producer Jason Huvaere about electronic music's role in that legacy and the business of making it part of our region's future.
Concentrate Staff
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Five stages. A hundred techno and electronic music artists. Crowds that swell to nearly 100,000. A whole lotta sweat. The Movement Festival hits Detroit May 28-30th and we want you to be there! Find out how inside.
Kim North Shine
Thursday, March 31, 2011
From a short-lived deal with Mercury Records to an ancho BBQ burrito locals crave, Steve Zuccaro is not your everyday average Metro Detroit success story. After a teenage stint as a dishwasher, the Grosse Pointe rocker vowed to never work in a restaurant again. Today he owns three popular eateries.
Nicole Rupersburg
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Everyone and their granny has a blog. But how many web-based wordsmiths know how to earn a buck for their efforts? From blog-based record labels to Internet journalists to movie deals for embarrassing text messages, some Metro Detroit bloggers are turning their passions into paychecks.
Walter Wasacz
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Whether you're a techno veteran or a newbie, it's hard not to notice Detroit's notoriety for beat-matching talent. But how to encapsulate a music scene that we export all over the world? Metromode offers an A-Z primer for those who are looking to wrap their heads around the sounds that make us spin round.
Walter Wasacz
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Metro Detroit does Halloween right, but how about you? Metromode offers up an extended installment of FilterD, pointing you to the best in outre spookiness and insider ghoulishness for All Hallow's weekend. Read on, go out, have fun... if you dare!
Walter Wasacz
Thursday, September 23, 2010
To establish a successful creative scene you need a critical mass of topnotch artists and performers, a dedicated local audience and savvy event promoters. Metro Detroit's got plenty of the first but struggles to effectively attract the second because there are only a few of the third. Or so says Walter Wasacz, FilterD's editor and Metromode's cultural connoisseur.
Tanya Muzumdar
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Metro Detroit's indie rock labels aren't after gold and glory (though both would be nice). They're pressing vinyl, booking shows, and producing CDs because the local music community is what sustains and inspires them. This is lo-fi entrepreneurship with heart, a real rock effort to seed the ground with Motown's next generation of bands.
Constance Crump
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
He penned Patti Smith's "Dancing Barefoot," played with Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and Blondie, and thinks Metro Detroit is the perfect place for him to write his music. Rock icon Ivan Kral chats about the region's rock scene, reminisces about the past, and previews his newly remastered punk rock documentary, The Blank Generation.
Jon Zemke
Thursday, July 01, 2010
When someone asks why young professionals matter for Metro Detroit's future, think of people like Jake Sigal. The 28-year-old Ferndale resident took his love of music and penchant for entrepreneurship and not only helped invent the USB turntable for DJs, he started Livio Radio, a company that employs 15 people and has attracted support from Michigan's largest VC group.
Kate Rose
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Throw a stone in the air in Ann Arbor and if you miss a student or
professor you're bound to bruise an entrepreneur. Writer Kate Rose decided to seek out a few of the city's young start-up types
to better understand what drives them to succeed and how they turned
obstacles into opportunities.
Nicole Rupersburg
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Oh, the weather outside is frightful... but inside it's sweaty, sexy and shakin'. Welcome to Metro Detroit salsa dancing, a nighttime dance scene that's pulling in locals of every class and color. From clubs to classes to a vibrant web-based community, Metro Detroiters are discovering the fun of becoming a fierce hot mess.
Tanya Muzumdar
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Yo, listen carefully and you'll understand her name isn't a repeat or skip of the record. Detroit DJ Lisa (Lisa) Orlando mixes law and lyrics in a double shift – and has the duplicate names to prove it.
Jeff Meyers
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Metro Detroit is big. Really big. And not all scenes are created equal. Finding the right restaurant, the right nightclub, even the right place to buy naughty underthings can be daunting. Metromode feels your pain. That's why we created our Insider Guides. Come on in and we'll explain it all to you.
Chris McCarus
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Michigan is not exactly known for its multi-culturalism, but in this Obama age, stereotypes can be broken. A jazz and pop master from the Ivory Coast is playing Dick Odow’s Pub in Birmingham Friday night. He also played in a 14 year old kid's basement in Birmingham this week. Michigan Now's Chris McCarus was there.
Amy Kuras
Thursday, January 08, 2009
There's a lot going on in Metro Detroit but it's not always easy to find. Raji Bedi wants to solve that problem. Boasting insight that corporate websites can't match and software that gets smarter as users search for their favorite scenes, Bedi's 313rd.com points 20 and 30-somethings to the best of the region's nightlife while offering club owners badly needed tools to schedule and promote their events.
Ryan Allen
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Thursday is the new Friday. Or was that Tuesday? In Metro Detroit it doesn't really matter. Great local music can be had every night of the week. From punk to pop, electronica to jazz, hip-hop to hard rock, Metromode offers up seven nights of tried and true sonic scenes.
Dennis Archambault
Thursday, November 13, 2008
As corporate radio blands out the airwaves with lowest common denominator programming, local college radio remains the last bastion for original and ecclectic soundscapes. And with the Internet, these student-run shows are finding listeners all over the globe.
Ryan Allen
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Someday Ferndale will erect a statue to Chris Johnston. Or better yet, replace the police officer in Woodward Avenue's Crow's Nest with his likeness. Entrepreneur, bar owner, restaurateur, rocker and driving force behind downtown's resurgence, only one question remains: When does he sleep?
Amy Kuras
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A standard bearer of culture and world class performance for 65 years, the Society may be located in Farmington Hills but it still calls Detroit home. Heck, it's in the name, ain't it? From educational outreach to an uncompromised approach to mission, there's a reason this classical music society thrives even as other cultural institutions struggle.
Ryan Allen
Thursday, August 14, 2008
It wasn't what Gil Scott Heron envisioned, but the revolution just may yet be televised. As YouTube becomes the place to be seen, Metro Detroit's savvier rock bands are using Internet video to create their own scene.
Shannon McCarthy
Thursday, August 07, 2008
They say music is a language common to all humanity. Enter Sean Forbes and D-Pan, his Ferndale-based organization dedicated to bridging the gap between the hearing and deaf world via music videos.
Chris Handyside
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Despite the all-encompassing digital age, vinyl has gotten its groove back, filling a high-end niche that CDs and MP3s just can't seem to scratch. Metromode crunches the numbers, charts the trends and points you toward Metro Detroit's best (and still thriving) LP peddlers.
Amy Kuras
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Come on feel the noize! Detroit's School Of Rock And Pop not only teaches adults to pump up the volume, they help them find bandmates to jam with. Whether it's power chords, bubblegum pop, head banging or groovin' to a funky bass line, think of it as rock and roll night school.
Jennifer Andrews
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
This
is what happens when you mix silver paint, noise and lots and lots of
cardboard. The UFO Factory produces some unusual sights and sounds in
Detroit.
Walter Wasacz
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The times they-are-a-changin', and 8 Days in June shows that the grand old DSO is still kickin'. The innovative festival is still classy, still quality, but it will challenge your perceptions of what an old guard classical music institution should and can be.
Terry Parris, Jr.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
The difference between just selling stuff and building a community is loving what you do and where you work. For the owners of Green Brain Comics and Stormy Records, being a part of Dearborn's downtown is a vital component to their success.
Amy Whitesall
Thursday, April 10, 2008
From Halo to Hummer, Ann Arbor-based Ghostly International may be musical tastemakers to the world but founder Sam Valenti IV is really just preserving his legacy as the cool neighborhood record-store guy.
Tanya Muzumdar
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Wunderkind Chris Rizik gives new meaning to the word, "multitasking." From his simultaneous careers as an entrepreneur and financier to the writer and publisher of the most popular soul music website in the country, this Ann Arborite's life has hit one high note after another.
Tanya Muzumdar
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Cancer research, rock & roll and scones. You might say that none of these things is quite like the others. And you'd be wrong. Meet Aliccia Berg Bollig and Bob Zabor. Leaping from left brain to right in a single bound, this talented pair is metromode's latest dynamic duo of dual careers. Heck, they've even got aliases.
Melinda Clynes
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Run for the border! It may not have the allure of Canada's bigger cities but our Ambassador Bridge and tunnel buddy is well worth the hour of international travel. Melinda Clynes takes you on a whirlwind tour of the city's hoppin' and happenin' hotspots.
Jon Zemke
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Southeast Michigan is alive with the sound of music... and the silence of mimes. If you want a barometer of how happening your neighborhood is, check out who's playing on the corner. More than just local color, buskers are a leading indicator of downtown vibrancy. After all, when's the last time you saw a drum circle at the local stripmall?
Dr. Ron Suarez
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Dr. Ron Suarez is our guest blogger this week. Ron is a serial entrepreneur and Arbor City Councilmember and founder of
Promovuz, a company offering digital music promotion, statistics and sales.
Check back here each week day to read Ron's thoughts on media, technology and how to do your own podcast.
Melinda Clynes
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are." Clearly the man loved his polka. metromode offers up a Summer Music Festival guide worth singing about.
Maud Lyon
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Our guest blogger for this week is Maud Lyon. Maud is the founding director of the Cultural Alliance, and a consultant for numerous nonprofit organizations.Check back here each week day to read Maud's thoughts on the state of arts and culture in Michigan.
Kimberly Chou
Thursday, May 31, 2007
When we talk about quality of life issues, who considers the region's sizable teen population? Ann Arbor's Neutral Zone is setting the bar for teen community centers, making use of the latest technologies and trends while nurturing the kind of homegrown talent Michigan desperately needs.
Walter Wasacz
Thursday, March 29, 2007
From Parliament-Funkadelic to the Stooges to the entire stable of Motown artists to today's techno pioneers, metro Detroit isn't the next anything, it is a musical force of nature. Panelists at a recent MOCAD event waxed poetic about our region's reputation for revolutionary sound.