From the National Affairs Desk-
Well, it has come to this.....
The JCM has been asked to headline Night One of this July's Corktown Summer Fest. The Corktown Summer Fest is a 2 day, or maybe 3 day music festival on July 7th, 8th, and maybe 9th. Right now only the Friday lineup is set and can be found via a search button. But the most important part of the Friday lineup has just been added. The JCM has been locked into the headlining spot at Lager House at 12 midnight on Friday July 7th. This will be our first show in a year, and second in 4 years.
The Corktown Summer Fest is a festival that benefits something called "Girls Rock Detroit", which I promise to look up before my official festival preview. I checked out the announced acts thus far and was impressed. With all of my festival previews, all I do is whine about how the same acts perform every time, but after viewing the 80+ bands listed for this I can say that I am not familiar with the majority of them. That could be a good thing. New blood. The local scene has been dead for years, and the same bands that play every fest have done nothing to energize it. This is a great opportunity for newer acts to get out there and plant their flag. Time to put the artifacts to sleep.
And that is where the JCM swoops in. I was talking to my valuable assistant Sebastian Owl, and I made a comment that aside from national/label acts, there is no other local act that has maintained the level of interest and notoriety by doing so little as us. I've said it for years, you have your boyfriend with the bad tattoos and even worse beard practicing every week, trying to make a difference, all for the same results, zero. And for (lucky) 13 years, the JCM has come out of hibernation and just given people fits. And we have been consistent. Our first major show was Blowout 2009, all hype. Our last show was the changing of ownership at the New Dodge 2022, packed.
So it has come to this. We will give the rub to all of the newer acts playing this festival by actually promoting it outside of FB event pages. Plus it benefits a great cause, Girls Rock Detroit, which I promise to look up soon. I will also have an official preview once the lineup is finalized.
One final note is that this show will coincide with the release of my second book, "Make Up Something," a thriller focusing on submissions from local artists, musicians, and writers. It's beautiful that some of them are actually playing at the Corktown Summer Fest. The book features over 12 short stories, essays, poems, or songs all tied in to a group of strangers, all with a secret, at a writer's retreat. I hope to have it available during the festival. I work....deliberate. Anyway, here's the first flyer! Buckle up, and I'll leave you with my favorite line from the upcoming book, "Sometimes things end up like they are meant to be."
From the Iceman Commeth
The Boy Next Door
Dr. Bryan Metro