More good stuff in September from GTG bands and friends! As always we’ve got a wide variety of stuff at The Avenue Cafe in Lansing (9/10 features The Hunky Newcomers):
Jeremy Porter has a solid solo acoustic run in the Midwest:
The Stick Arounds are also getting some Midwest action in:
See you there!
Local Lansing folk will probably be hip to this now, but GTG is more-or-less booking and promoting the majority of the music at The Avenue Cafe these days. Here’s what we’ve got for the whole month of August:
That’s a good run there, eh? We’ve got the first full-length show by The Wild Honey Collective, the first public Lansing shows from Cavalcade and The Plurals in at least 18 months, a record release by the Cartridge Family(?!?!??), GTG Fest familiars like The Ryne Experience, LVRS, and Marsha, Mike Reed from Small Brown Bike… great stuff all around!
Shows are getting to be a little more commonplace – on top of the above listed we’ve got The Plurals playing Taste of Michigan City (Michigan City, IN) the afternoon of August 7, The Wild Honey Collective play from 5-9 at the Beer Garden at Horrocks Farm Market in Lansing on August 21 as well as an afternoon slot at Sundried Music Fest in Mason on August 28, and then The Stick Arounds take the Horrocks stage themselves on August 28 too. All of these events are free and promise great times. We need ’em! Stay safe out there everyone, masks are still a good thing!
Posted in Cavalcade, GTG Activity, Jeremy Porter and The Tucos, Lansing, Live, The Plurals, The Stick Arounds, The Wild Honey Collective
Tagged Americana, August 2021 Live Music, Cavalcade, Horrocks Farm Market, Indie Rock, Jeremy Porter, Lansing Music Scene, LVRS, Punk, The Avenue Cafe, The Plurals, The Ryne Experience, The Wild Honey Collective
On Friday July 9 Matt Carlson (the ol’ Harborcoat and Stick Around man himself) and Johnny Aimcrier will be playing at Brickhaven in Grand Ledge, MI. Tommy and Danielle from Wild Honey Collective will be joining them for a few songs and to do a couple of ours too.
Saturday July 10 will see Cavalcade play the first show at Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids since early 2020. Way to go, boys! Somehow, GTG-affiliated acts are weirdly ushering in the return of live music to the, er, weirdos of the Midwest. Case in point….
Saturday July 10 is also the let’s-not-overstate-it-too-much return of shows to the Avenue Cafe in Lansing, featuring The Hunky Newcomers, Foxgrave, and Jeremy Porter. Geez! That feels good to say. No cover, 21+, 9 PM, just… come and watch! Wow! There’s shows every Saturday in July at the Avenue, and they’ve all got a GTG flavor to them: Saturday July 17 RK Andrews from No Skull opens up for our friends Bloody Butterflies and Bubak, Saturday July 24 Nicholas Weltschmerz opens up for the debut show of the latest Josh David fronted band Frowntown, and on July 31 the Wild Honey Duo will open up for a night of music featuring Michigan mainstay Jen Sygit. Something for everyone, you’re welcome!
The extremely excellent new Waiting For The Click EP by The Stick Arounds features four songs, and the band has made videos for each of these songs. Check them all out below and get the EP directly from the band at bandcamp! These guys really know how to make the best out of a crummy year!
And don’t forget about their rippin’ cover of The Realists from This Must Be The Place!
Incoming Sticks…
In their 10 plus years as a band, Lansing Michigan’s The Stick Arounds have never shied away from the music that inspired them. Three full-length LPs and a dozen singles later, the influence of the songcraft of bands like Sloan, Teenage Fanclub, Big Star, and other power pop luminaries is as evident as ever on their new EP Waiting For The Click.
“We’re Not Even Close” is the painfully familiar tale of failed relationships, told in the most midwest way possible: through rock bombast akin to bands like Cheap Trick and The Replacements.
“Redtail Hawks” couples that same energy with a bit of straight vintage swagger reminiscent of T. Rex, and handclaps directly inspired by Motown records.
The vocal harmonies that have become part of the Stick Arounds signature sound are immediately apparent on “Easy To Take”, as is the Byrdsian guitar approach that harkens back to some of the band’s favorite classic country records and early country rock. Gram Parsons would have loved this.
Simultaneously a call for help and call to arms, “Ode To Kid Marine” is an open love letter to drowning your sorrows in a few beers and a favorite record. Named for a terrific solo Bob Pollard record, this track epitomizes the glory and inherent regret in blasting an album and drinking to make it through the night.
Four tight and taut songs make up this ten minute trip rooted deeply in harmony, threadbare honesty, and the enduring power of rock and roll.
Pre-order the thing at The Stick Arounds bandcamp.
Posted in The Stick Arounds
Tagged Indie Rock, Lansing, Michigan Music, Powerpop, The Stick Arounds, Waiting For The Click
We’re very excited to be hosting This Must Be The Place: Quality Hits From Lansing, a new 24 track compilation of Lansing-area artists performing some of their favorite covers, a project that was spearheaded by acclaimed music writer Rich Tupica (of the definitive Big Star book There Was A Light fame). Lots of old friends here! It’s a little glimpse into what us creative types have been up to with a year of no shows. From the GTG family we’ve got The Plurals, Cavalcade, The Wild Honey Collective, RK Andrews (No Skull/Red Teeth), Counterpunchers (members of Narc Out The Reds), The Stick Arounds, Isaac Richmond Vander Schuur (The Hat Madder), Jennifer Toms (Scary Women), and Disappointed Dad, plus lots of old friends throughout like Crystal Drive, Frontier Ruckus, Dylan Rogers, Rodeo Boys, Nonbinary, La La Delivery and plenty more! 24 tracks! Free download!
Here’s what Rich had to say about the project:
“This Must Be the Place: Quality Hits from Lansing is a totally free download of Lansing, Michigan bands performing select songs by artists they love. This is meant to serve as a fun stop-gap between now and the (eventual) return of live shows. So, please: Listen. Download. Repeat. There’s a wide range of covers here because each band/artist chose whichever song they wanted for this collection. The reason? Every band has a good cover in them—perhaps one they’ve always wanted to tackle, but never had a proper reason to. So, the “art of the cover” was fully realized here. With no limitations, it left the tracklist up to them and it made for a bizarre, yet somehow cohesive blend of genres.
Aside from a long roster of area fixtures Like Frontier Ruckus, Cavalcade, Rodeo Boys, The Plurals, Wally Pleasant (and many more!), there’s also new solo tracks and fresh side projects featured here from Lansing vets: RK Andrews (of No Skull, Red Teeth), Jennifer Toms (of Scary Women), Counterpunchers (members of Narc Out the Reds), Dylan Rogers (L.U.V.S), Isaac Richmond Vander Schuur (The Hat Madder), Seth + Modern Sadness (features Seth Rentfrow of Way to Fall, Kyle Daniel), Myron James (Edible Intention), and The Wild Honey Collective (a new GTG super group). Scroll through the selection, and you’ll see plenty of familiar names. Enjoy!”
Posted in Album, Cavalcade, Disappointed Dad, GTG Activity, Lansing, Narc Out the Reds, No Skull, Red Teeth, The Hat Madder, The Plurals, The Stick Arounds, The Wild Honey Collective
Tagged Cavalcade, Conspicuous Bystanders, Crystal Drive, Frontier Ruckus, Indie Folk, Indie Rock, Lansing, Lansing Music Scene, Michigan Music, Monte Pride, Punk, Quality Dairy, Rodeo Boys, Scary Women, Silktail, The Plurals, The Wild Honey Collective, Wally Pleasant
The whole darn thing, GTG Fest 2020! A great time and still a fest, as weird and not-in-person as it was. Thanks to all who played and all who watched!
You didn’t think we’d let COVID take away GTG Fest did ya? The 13th annual GTG Fest will be coming to you SATURDAY OCTOBER 10, following you on your mobile devices, lurking in the corner of your home on your smart TV, somehow popping up on that confusingly not-discarded Windows 98 Gateway tower that hasn’t been connected to the internet since 2001… EVERYWHERE!
Did I make watching a livestream briefly sound a little exciting? Well, we’re gonna do our best to bring some of the magical GTG Fest chaos to the streams. This thing’ll be streaming live from 4-10 at the GTG facebook page AND on the GTGRecordsTV youtube channel for all you fellow facebook haters out there. The show must go on!
SATURDAY OCTOBER 10
4 PM-10 PM EST
SCHEDULE:
Wild Honey / Drinking Mercury 4:00-4:30
The Soods 4:30-5:00
Raymond Strife 5:00-5:30
Narc Out the Reds 5:30-6:00
Jeremy Porter 6:00-6:30
Marsha 6:30-7:00
Honah Lee 7:00-7:30
Hunky Newcomers 7:30-8:00
Invisible Cartoons 8:00-8:30
The Stick Arounds 8:30-9:00
Erotic Novels 9:00-9:30
The Plurals 9:30-10:00
That’s a fest, eh? Well, it’s what we’ve got! Just like Joe Biden. Hey, I kept this apolitical until now, that’s good for 2020, right? Vote for Biden on November 3rd or else you’re part of the problem of social regression, racial injustice, natural destruction, and general being a fucking asshole.
xoxo – see you next Saturday!
