Kristi Kates | Author
’80s Redux! Get Retro in St. Ignace
July 28, 2018
You might be hard-pressed to find a person who waxes nostalgic about ’80s hair and makeup. But press play on an album of ’80s hits at a wedding, and stand back and watch a group of otherwise upstanding 40- and 50-somethings get down like they’re reliving t...
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Pop and Underworld Team Up for Dub Tracks
July 28, 2018
Punk Detroiter Iggy Pop has teamed up with futuristic electronic/dub outfit Underworld for a collaborative single called “Get Your Shirt,” which can be found on their equally collaborative EP, Teatime Dub Encounters. The massive seven...
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Cinema Soundtrack: Live Music at the TCFF!
July 28, 2018
The live music before each film screening at the Traverse City Film Fest is a lot like the soundtrack to a film: It sets the scene, defines the mood, and absolutely elevates the audience experience.
That’s why performers are hand-selected to match the films, explains TCFF Mu...
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Bay Burrito Co.
July 21, 2018
What’s missing in Suttons Bay?
To Seth and Jenn Friedman, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan natives who keep a second home in the petite Leelanau Peninsula village, the answer was Mexican street food. So they took matters — and tacos, and burritos, and quesadillas — into ...
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Gorillaz Tour to Hit Toronto and Chicago
July 21, 2018
Gorillaz’ much-anticipated brand new album, The Now Now, just hit stores a couple of weeks ago, and the band is already racking up the tickets sales from fans clamoring to hear tracks both old and new. Led by frontman Damon Albarn (also sin...
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Djawadi - Westworld: Season 2 Music From the HBO Series – WaterTower
July 21, 2018
Season two of Westworld has arrived, and along with it Djawadi’s approach of combining original compositions with player-piano-festooned-saloon covers of alternative, hip-hop, and pop tracks. The drawling piano chords serve as a link between the futuristic world and the vintage spac...
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McCartney Stops at Egypt Station
July 14, 2018
The Beatle is back — Paul McCartney is returning with a brand new studio album, Egypt Station. He said its concept is illustrated through the album itself, which starts on one song (station) and then stops at each subsequent song to follow....
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Mackinac Cottage Tours
July 14, 2018
Moira Croghan knows Mackinac Island right down to its roots. Her family has been there since the 1800s. Although she was raised in Washington, D.C. and later made her home in Richmond, Virginia, she’s spent most every summer of her life on Mackinac.
Once she retired, she mad...
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The Orb – No Sounds Are Out of Bounds – Cooking Vinyl
July 14, 2018
The English ambient/EDM pair are back for album No. 15, and for this one seem to have decided to throw a collaborative party, considering that Roger Eno, Andy Cain, Youth, Jah Wobble, Roney FM, Guy Pratt, Gaudi, Brother Culture, and more (whew!) show up to throw vocals into the ring. Emma...
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Two Guys and their Food Trucks
July 14, 2018
Entrepreneurs Ben Crow and Syker Nelles have been friends since junior high school, when a chance accident turned the pair of classmates into lifelong pals.
“Ben broke his leg at football practice, and I was the one who v...
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Sail the Sweetwater Seas
July 7, 2018
Avast, ye landlubber! Want to get out on northern Michigan’s sweetwater seas, but don’t know a sheet from a sail or an anchor from aft? No problem — hop on board one of these sailboats plying the lakes, and choose between riding in style as a guest, or learning the ropes...
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Alpenfest Music Amps up the Alpenstrasse!
July 7, 2018
Gaylord’s Alpenfest is rich in tradition — and it’s also poppin’ with music — and not just the kind made by an alphorn. Each year, the summer festival offers up a diverse slate of live performers, with 2018’s roster spanning everything from the crooners...
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FourScore
July 7, 2018
The Record Company – All of This Life - Concord
What do you do after releasing a Grammy-nominated debut album? You go seek out a top-notch mixer and try to top your last collection of tunes, of course — and that’s exactly what TRC did on th...
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Bon Iver, National, Staples, Headlining Mo Pop
July 7, 2018
The Mo Pop Music Festival is heading back to Detroit, specifically to West Riverfront Park for this year’s outing (July 28–29), where they’ll be cranking out the jams right across the river from Canada. In a festival setting full of a wide variety of foo...
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Watch the Waters
July 7, 2018
Roger LeLievre was practically born a boat nerd.
The editor and publisher of the Know Your Ships field guide to spotting freighters on the Great Lakes got a very early start in the hobby that would become his authorship.
&...
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Beastie Boys Get Bookish
June 30, 2018
The Beastie Boys are the subject of a new print memoir that will finally hit stores this fall, after much anticipation from their fans and much effort from Mike D and Ad Rock, who have been working on the book since 2013. The tome tells r...
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Puppet Master Darci Lynne Farmer
June 30, 2018
A singing female rabbit, a mouse from Motown (who has a crush on Mel B., aka Scary Spice, from ’90s girl group the Spice Girls), a granny carrying a torch for Simon Cowell, and a yodeling cowgirl.
These are just a few of ...
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On Your Mark, Get Set, DUCK!
June 30, 2018
The athletes are poised for action at the starting line, their coaches behind them for one last pep talk, their competition lane before them.
The air vibrates with the sound of the starting horn, and all webbed feet and wings su...
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FourScore
June 30, 2018
Dawes – Passwords – HUB Records
On its sixth album, Dawes stretch out a bit, pulling song topics from internal matters to those about relationships and communities, which makes the overall record more widely appealing than previou...
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The Best Lil’ Festival You Never Heard Of
June 30, 2018
Looking for a smaller, quieter way to celebrate your Fourth in the North?
Try on the Manistee National Forest Festival for size. A truly down-home tradition that started eight decades ago as a homecoming event for Manistee nativ...
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