Music
Born to preach, Brother Ali brings his rhymes to the Blind Pig tonight
By: Sharon Jacobs
With songs that tackle tough issues like homelessness and drug abuse, Brother Ali doesn’t like the oft-used term “positive” in reference to his style. But his ultimately hopeful message makes Ali one of the more uplifting messengers from the underground rap world.
The enigmatic Devendra Banhart hits The Ark tonight
By: Jasmine Zhu
When I spoke with Devendra Banhart, he was in front of a kitchen table in Los Angeles while Rodrigo Amarante of Little Joy fame played guitar in the background. Banhart was in the process of getting ready to go on tour to promote his new album, What Will We Be. He'll be playing at The Ark tonight at 8 p.m.
Hip hop's hardest rapper can't cash in
By: Jeff Sanford
In case you don't know by now, 50 Cent is hard. Curtis “Fiddy Cent” Jackson is the hardest hard-ass around and he wants you to know all about how hard he his. In fact, he’s going to tell you over and over again exactly how hard he is.
The Flashbulb brings groove to UMMA tomorrow
By: Joshua Bayer
At a creatively throbbing 31 years old, bipolar electronica artist Benn Jordan has pumped out a whopping 14 LPs in just the last decade. His most prolific pseudonym is the Flashbulb, the label he’s deciding to wear when he plays at the UMMA for free on Saturday night.
The Macpodz get their weird on tonight at the Blind Pig
By: Kristyn Acho
Tonight, Ann Arbor's own the Macpodz are "landing their dance-party mother ship" at the Blind Pig. Or at least that's how they put it.
Circles of epic boredom
By: Jeff Sanford
Unfortunately, Russian Circles’s most recent effort, Geneva, is neither inspirational nor poignant (whatever that means), and it's only occasionally sprawling.
Josh Bayer: Why do-it-yourself is do-it-worse
By: Joshua Bayer
But today, with Garage Band and the advent of laptops as portable, do-it-yourself recording studios, the “lo-fi” aesthetic has mutated into a bandwagon of egalitarian mimicry and massive carrying capacity. Anyone can be a musician now. And as much as I love free artistic expression, the increasingly rapid rate at which genuine ingenuity is flung into the populist meat grinder for mass reproduction is dizzying.
The B-side
Herb David: Crafting Ann Arbor's musical legacy
He's made guitars for Eric Clapton, Sonic Youth, the Byrds and Jerry Garcia, hung out with Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Iggy Pop and Jimi Hendrix and lived near the center of Ann Arbor's once-blossoming countercultural music scene. He's also one of the country's best instrument maker and he lives right around the corner.
Video
The Cypher: Keeping hip hop real
The Cypher is a student hip-hop collective dedicated to perfecting the art of both spoken and written word. It is bringing hip hop back to its roots.
Join us
The Daily is always looking for students interested in writing, journalism, photography, multimedia, business or Web development to join its staff. Everyone is welcome.
