Singer-songwriter Ryan Allen has never stopped, literally. The metro Detroit-based multi-instrumentalist has never stopped writing, recording and performing.

Even when his primary band, Extra Arms, is on hiatus, he’s at it again with a new solo album that drops this weekend, capped off by a show at Bowlero Lanes Lounge on Friday. Allen and I go way back; we were both scrappy music journalists in our early 20’s when we first met — albeit even back then it was something more of a side-hustle, but I digress…

You can hear Allen and I not only talk about the broad subject of nostalgia, but also hear us drill down on how it informs and inspires the music we love and the music we write! Allen’s new album, “Livin’ On a Prayer on the Edge,” taps into that singular exhilaration we all felt as teenagers when we were discovering the music that would come to define us, while also ruminating on the way music can sweetly sculpt our memories of those formative days.

I am a nostalgic person,” Allen said, “as much as I wish sometimes that i wasn’t. But I’m not someone who wishes it was like the old days…”

As mentioned during the interview, there’s an underlying theme of enduring, that prevails throughout the album, and what better to endure than timeless music?

“Like Teenage Fanclub and those other ’90s bands like Matthew Sweet records, which all had that kinda jangly, open chord, big sounding poppy rock sound, that was what I really was drawn to as a teenager,” he said. “Just something about that warm blanket of distortion and melody — that is that sweet spot for me musically. And [“Livin’ On a Prayer on the Edge“] definitely is an homage to all of that stuff!”

While Allen was hanging out with me in-studio, he also performed an acoustic version of “When I’m Gone,” off his new album!

Along with Allen’s interview, I also premiered lots of new local music — particularly leaning in to indie-rock vibes with Zastava‘s “Truth,” a lead single from their forthcoming album; and Gloomco, with ‘Wake Up,’ the second single from their forthcoming release, “Nothing Left to Say.”

Another local group with an album out this weekend is the dream-pop/shoegaze ensemble Origami Phase. I premiered a new song from their EP “Ostara,” which has its release party this Friday at Small’s in Hamtramck.

But wait, there’s more! We also heard from Ann Arbor folk/Americana/jazz singer-songwriter Jess Merritt, who has an album release show this Sunday at The Ark.

Another reliable facet of MI Local is that you’ll hear from artists based all around the state of Michigan, including The Charlie Millard Band, who came out of the “northern” part of the “lower” peninsula — they have a new album out soon titled Pilot Boy, and we heard their new single, “Wedding Bells.”

See the playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

MI Local Playlist for May 13, 2025

• “Wake Up” – Gloomco
• “Fake Lives” – The Messenger Birds
• “Wedding Bells” – Charlie Millard Band
• “Lakeside” – Jess Merritt
• “Complicate Me” – Outrageous Cherry
• “Truth” – Zastava
• “I’m Team Edward” – drive safe!
• “Lilith” – Origami Phase
• “Sober” – sock jock
• “I Should (But I Don’t Really Wanna)” – Ryan Allen
• “When I’m Gone” – Ryan Allen (live in WDET Studios)
• “So What Who Cares” – Ryan Allen

We love having local musicians hang out in-studio during MI Local, and this week I have to appreciate how Elisabeth Pixley-Fink made the late-evening drive in from her homebase of Ann Arbor so that we could talk about her new album, “Heartskin.”

Pixley-Fink is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, band leader and poetic lyricist who, on her latest album, has woven together a particularly scintillating swath of guitar riffs and cathartic phrasings that taps into seminal riot grrrl energy, mixed with ballads that dynamically soften the sonic terrain with poignant lyrics sung in versatile vocal ranges that draw inspiration from queer Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, which we discuss during our live on-air interview!

Next Friday, May 16, at the Outer Limits Lounge, Pixley-Fink performs for an album release show that also features Kalamazoo-based indie-rockers The Go Rounds. Speaking of Kalamazoo, that’s actually Pixley-Fink’s original hometown; she’s been touring in, around, and outside of the state of Michigan over the last decade, and released her first recorded music back in 2012.

Pixley-Fink said “Heartskin” has been in the works for eight years.

“The process of making an album is the process of learning something,” she said. “So I took a long time writing the songs on ‘Heartskin’ and getting them to a place I wanted. Meanwhile, I have a day-job I work to support myself, and I think that’s an important part of myself as an artist: it’s cramming art into my daily life — having it be part of every day.”

Regarding the inspiration for the album, Pixley-Fink said she came across a collection by the late poet/playwright while she was living in Mexico City.

“I fell in love with (Lorca) as an artist,” Pixley-Fink said, “and felt a connection through time as a kindred spirit. There’s a poem called ‘Corezon Nuevo,’ that says ‘…my heart is like a serpent that has shed its skin / I hold it in my hands / heartskin of honey and wounds…'”

Just before we played Pixley-Fink’s title track song live on the air, she said “…it was the last song I recorded for the album and it just summed up the whole point of it — of looking at the beauty and the pain and the gooey goodness and the wounds, and I’m singing about all of that on the record.”

Speaking even further on the sense of “shedding,” Pixley-Fink posited that it ties in to a sense of recovery, “…of going through a lot and making sense of it — making sense of your part in it and accepting yourself, accepting all parts of yourself and not through someone else’s eyes.”

Among many other facets of the record, including a touching track titled “The Coffee Is Cold,” we also touched upon how many talented collaborators — all of them Michigan artists — contributed to the making of “Heartskin.” Even that, Pixley-Fink said, tied into a sense of shedding, perhaps “any protectiveness” that she may have felt, about the nature of opening up to collaboration, and the rewarding results that were rendered because of it.

Read back to a previous feature, when WDET premiered the music video for Elisabeth Pixley-Fink’s “Fearless & the Pure.”

Per usual, MI Local strives to deliver a sonic tour of the state, and this week we took listeners over to Grand Rapids to hear the latest from indie-rockers Low Phase, with their new single, “Reason,” which will lead into a forthcoming full-length album later in the summer. We also heard new music coming out of Kalamazoo, with songwriter (and librarian) Jay Alan Kay, delivering an EP of stripped-down acoustic ballads regaling nostalgia that’s endearingly tied to professional wrestling. Kay has a show this Thursday night at the Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids. Speaking of live shows, you can see indie-art-punk singer-songwriter Henry Walters live at Ziggy’s in Ypsilanti this Friday — we heard a new song by Walters titled “Don’t Care.”

Another big premiere, this week, featured a new-ish Detroit-based indie-pop trio, Pretty Island, featuring Linda Ann Jordan, Lauren Milia, and Dina Bankole, each talented and harmonious singers and respectively songwriters who initially joined together a year go to flesh out solo songs by Jordan.

See the playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

MI Local Playlist for May 6, 2025

• Reason – Low Phase
• Country Girl – Greet Death
• Put Me Over – Jay Alan Kay
• Don’t Care – Henry Walters
• Wild Child – Pretty Island
• Remnants – Lester
• 400 Horses – Death By Lions
• Stupid Luck – Addicus
• Get Back Up – TY
• What Were We Thinking – Tyvek
• Heartskin – Elisabeth Pixley-Fink
• Coffee is Cold – Elisabeth Pixley-Fink
• Those Were The Days – Elisabeth Pixley-Fink

Singer-songwriter Valerie Salerno started her ambient noise-rock/alt-country solo project — Dick Texas — about five years ago, building up to this Spring’s release of her debut full length LP “All That Fall“ (on Fred Thomas’ LifeLike Records). Salerno visited WDET Studios to talk about the new album and her upcoming show at Third Man Records next Saturday, May 10, with Winged Wheel.

Prior to Dick Texas, Salerno was in the Grand Rapids-based alt/noise-rock group Sojii (which recorded its debut album with the late Steve Albini). Salerno started Dick Texas when she moved to Detroit in 2019.

“Catharsis is in almost everything that I make,” Salerno said, remarking upon one of the most distinctive qualities of “All That Fall” — which involves reverb-splashed guitars that go from resonant twangs into purposefully dissonant crescendos. “And that’s what draws me to a lot of the music that I like. I think in this project — and especially what comes out on this album — my biggest goal as an artist is to just write better and better songs…and I think a lot of that came out in my guitar playing.”

“All That Fall” certainly has some elements of alt-country-conjuring twang to it, and a proclivity toward some grittier textures, but I’m hooked by these primal and honestly satisfyingly abrasive circuitous guitar phrases that singe the edges of each composition. Most of all, the album attains its radiance from the subtle yet spellbinding lead vocals of Salerno, weaving gracefully through those stormy guitars.

Put succinctly, Salerno said: “I do like exploring the extremes of dynamics…”

But we also asked about how these songs, in the best way, seem to take their time — following slowed tempos that stretch tracks into the six-minute mark. “I have low blood pressure” Salerno said, following with a self-aware chuckle. “And I think that slow…it’s a good experience to explore. And if you listen to my old band, Sojii, it was hard and fast and intense, and I think that was a big energy to my early 20s. And, now, I think life in the last few years, I dunno, this slow universe has been really nice…”

Salerno was joined in studio by band member, multi-instrumentalist/audio-engineer Adis Kaltak, who added more anecdotal exposition about the recording process, particularly the vocals for a track we listened to, “Flies,” from “All That Fall.” Stream it for the full interview.

Along with an interview with Salerno, we premiered a lot of new music by local artists this week (as we often do, on MI Local). We started the show with the brand new single from Grand Rapids-based indie-pop ensemble Phabies, along with the Detroit-based alt-country duo Neu Blume, who have a release party coming up on May 31 with Bonny Doon and Conor Lynch at UFO Bar.

Speaking of new releases, we heard the latest from indie-rock/power-pop auteur Ryan Allen, who has an album release party coming up on May 16 at Bowlero Lanes Lounge, and the four-piece ’70s-tinged psych-rock band The Dusty Rose Gang also premiered a song on this week’s show — they have an album that’s also out on May 16 titled “A One from Day One.”

And that’s not all! We heard a new industrial-leaning goth-shoegaze soundscape from Stormfeldt, the latest dream-pop ballad from the duo known as Bluhm, and an indie-rock cut from the band My Time In The Arctic who — like so many other locals of late — have a new album out in the world!

See the playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

MI Local Playlist for April 29, 2025

• “Bloodletting” – Phabies
• “Cold Strange” – Neu Blume
• “Preybirds” – Rabbitology
• “Take It Back” – Jake LeMond
• “When You Come Over” – Bluhm
• “Eastern Palace Identity Crisis” – My Time in the Arctic
• “Lost in a Daze” – Ryan Allen
• “Low Animal” – Stormfeldt
• “Person of Light” – The Dusty Rose Gang
• “Flies” – Dick Texas
• “Long Dirt Driveway” – Dick Texas

Singer-songwriter Carmel Liburdi joined me in the studio this week during MI Local to talk about her busy Spring, full of upcoming live performances, Tarot and more!

Liburdi is a crafty wordsmith with a knack for dynamics and vocal inflection, along with a sensibility for uniquely toe-tapping alt-indie-folk arrangements; she’s been writing, recording and performing around the local scene for more than a decade (she got started in high school!) and has released several albums since then, including last year’s “Linwood.”

But Liburdi, like so many creative residents of metro Detroit, is a multifaceted artist who works in more than one medium; she’s also an artist, particularly in illustration and graphic design, and she’s one of 22 artists featured in an upcoming group show inspired by the mystical divination of Tarot!

The House of Tarot is an immersive art installation featuring the work of 22 artists, each offering a unique representation of one of the 22 Major Arcana Tarot cards.​​ The opening reception is this Friday night, beginning at 5:25 p.m., hosted at Building 7 within the Herman Kiefer Complex, featuring the recently opened Container Globe performance space. Visitors to the House of Tarot will receive a reading upon arrival and set off on a unique Fool’s Journey through the works, from room to room across four floors. It is an invitation for reflection, disorientation and reorientation.​ The formal art reception wraps up by 8:30 p.m., but live music will proceed throughout the night until at least midnight.

I was also joined by Tim Price, who’s been around and passionately involved in the Detroit art and music scene for decades. He’s currently working with a number of organizations, like Passenger Recovery in Hamtramck, and the Detroit Music Conservancy. Price described his role in The House of Tarot as one of wearing many hats, but predominantly fitting under the banner of production manager and “guy behind the scenes.” Both Price and Liburdi shared a lot about what to anticipate at The House of Tarot this Friday; find more info here.

Another treat during this week’s show was Liburdi’s live in-studio performance of “Hell’s Bathroom Floor,” which, as you’ll hear during our interview, has a connection to Tarot.

I also premiered brand new music from Detroit-based four-piece punk-rock group FEN FEN, from their upcoming full-length vinyl LP “In Yer Sights,” but that energy was mixed with the softer folk vibes of other premieres from local artists like folk singer Anthony Retka!

I also gave a spotlight to two big local music events happening this weekend, including the Detroit X Detroit showcase at the Loving Touch in Ferndale, where local bands perform cover sets of any artist that came from Detroit, be they contemporary, or past legends!

It’s going to be a busy weekend! Have fun out there!

See the playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

MI Local Playlist for April 21, 2025

• “Shellshockt” – FEN FEN
• “Seeing Double” – C.A.D. & the Peacetime Consumers
• “Cool Guy Walk” – meek
• “scry” – Fling II
• “Something” – Vaega
• “MasonJars” – The Vig Arcadia
• “Realities” – James Simonson & Blair French
• “Disappearing Things” – The Codgers
• “Grateful” – Anthony Retka
• “First Day of Spring” – Carmel Liburdi
• “Hell’s Bathroom Floor” – Carmel Liburdi
• “Ceti Alpha Six” – Disc System

What a loud, fun, gnarly night! Several members from a wide array of local punk bands stopped by the studio during my night shift to talk about the upcoming Spring Stunr Fest, happening this weekend at the Lager House!

This is the third annual Spring Stunr, and now that you’ve seen me write it stylistically twice, you’ll know it’s not a typo. But it’s going to be quite the “stunner” for sure when groups like 3 The Hard Way, Wild Shape and Lansing-based Rot Knot take the stage for this “DIY Femme-Punk Bonanza!”

I was joined, in full, by members of nearly every band on the line-up, including 3 The Hard Way, Meek, Sea Hag, Pillow Princess, and — driving all the way in from Lansing — Rot Knot; Wild Shape didn’t make it in-person but we did play one of their songs to close out the night.

On the show, organizer Jenny Lees described Spring Stunr as “an intersectional femme-punk fest showcasing Michigan femme-punks and anyone who supports them, and everyone is invited! It’s a really great event for anyone who is femme, or punk, or who loves them and who wants to support the scene.”

There will also be vendors, as well as all of these aforementioned bands, nestled into the Lager House, this Friday night, starting at 7 p.m. Find more info here. You can also follow Spring Stunr on Instagram.

Along with all of my special guests, I also looked ahead to the upcoming Corktown Music Festival, which will be hosted next weekend inside of several venues throughout the Corktown neighborhood, and particularly along  Michigan Avenue. This three-day festival showcases a wide spectrum of styles, with everything from punk to folk with a splash of country and a big helping of rock, indie, punk and beyond. Initially founded in 2022 with intent on filling what-was-then a bit of a void in the local music calendar, this ongoing fest has continually donated proceeds to a nonprofit, and this year ticket sales will benefit Passenger Recovery!

Other special tidbits on this week’s MI Local were premieres from local punk groups like Gerber & the Babies, the latest from longtime local rockers Mystery Math, and  new shoegaze and dream-pop from Ann Arbor’s Petalwave.

See the playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

MI Local Playlist for April 15, 2025

• “Attention” – Gerber & the Babies
• “Convenience Over Destiny” – Mystery Math
• “Vagabond” – Vampire Cowgirl
• “Secrets” – Kat Steih
• “Heat Dome” – Doogatron
• “Tightrope” – The Boreouts
• “Nothing to Say” – Fen Fen
• “Decomposer” – The High Strung
• “Wreck Lanes” – The Casper Fight Scene
• “If You Get Lost” – Petalwave
• “blight” – meek
• “Melted Numb” – Rot Knot
• “eventually” – 3 The Hard Way
• “Girlfriend” – Wild Shape

MI Local is the show where you can literally meet the local music scene! Each week, I’ll premiere new tracks from artists based all around metro Detroit and the greater Michigan music scene, but I love having the opportunity to invite songwriters into the studio for interviews!

Ann Arbor based singer-songwriter Lauren Blackford made the drive over to Detroit this Tuesday to visit the studio and talk about her recent EP, “The Loft Sessions” — the stripped down acoustic renditions of her debut EP, “One Too Many Times.”

Blackford is an up-and-coming singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who began performing around the scene a little more than a year ago. Her effervescent blend of pop and indie-rock ballads produce tracks that bounce from pared back acoustic strums to glitzy electronic flourishes, all while bolstering dulcet vocals that soar into punchy choruses threaded with sweet melodies sure to get stuck in your head for weeks.

Blackford studied music production while in high school and taught herself guitar after graduation. Back in February, she performed an album release party for her debut at Ziggy’s in Ypsilanti, and just this week she’s celebrating her latest release, “The Loft Sessions.”

Blackford joined MI Local in-studio to perform one of her songs live for WDET listeners, titled “Reset Button.”

She told listeners about how her drive to teach herself not only how to play guitar, but also how to start DIY at-home production, to begin recording the songs for her debut release. She’s been singing and playing music (starting on piano) for much of her life, and started writing songs as a teenager.

Now, fresh out of college, she’s essentially hit the ground running when it comes to making her way into the Michigan music scene.

Along with sharing stories behind some of her candid, heart-aching lyrics, Blackford also shared the anecdote behind the titular “loft” where she recorded songs from “One Too Many Times,” live. Speaking of live, WDET listeners were also treated to a live performance by Blackford, in-studio, during MI Local, performing “A Good Thing,” on acoustic guitar.

Blackford will be headlining The Blind Pig in her hometown of Ann Arbor on Thursday, April 24; she’ll also be performing, as Madonna, at the annual Detroit X Detroit showcase happening on Saturday, April 26, at the Loving Touch in Ferndale.

Along with this feature, we played the latest from the Detroit/LA-based indie-pop duo JR JR, and the newest song from Detroit/LA-based pop-singer-songwriter Chloe Moriondo.

We also explored some more eclectic flavors, including some new electro-space-jazz musings from Justin Walter, and the latest from Detroit-based electronica artist Darren Shelton.

Plus, we sampled some folk songs from Detroit’s own Mike Ward, who performs this Saturday at the Trinity House, and a new song from Ann Arbor folk singer Ananda Murari.

Oh, and if you stick around for the whole show, you’ll find out what my favorite White Stripes song is…

MI Local Playlist for April 8, 2025

• “Back to the Land” — JR JR
• “Abyss” – Chloe Moriondo
• “When We Were Young” – Justin Walter
• “Quangarang” – Okra Veer
• “Ego” – Darren Shelton
• “Crooked Road to Truth” – Ananda Murari
• “The Heart Must Pay the Price” – Mike Ward ft. Tery Birkett
• “White Hot Vision” – Sun Astros
• “Enzuiguri” – Swanton
• “Blue Orchid” – The White Stripes
• “Grandy’s” – Kamau Washington
• “Reset Button” – Lauren Blackford
• “A Good One (live in WDET studios)” – Lauren Blackford
• “Games” – Lauren Blackford

David Lynch is one of my favorite filmmakers of all time, and I know I’m not alone in that regard. In fact, WDET’s own Amanda LeClaire joined me in studio, along with musician/artist Renee Willoughby to discuss the late director whose name has been adapted into its own aesthetic adjective, because they’ve organized a multifaceted tribute show, happening at The Ghost Light in Hamtramck this Friday night!

• “In Your Life” – Same Eyes
• “I Cry” – Johnstonsons
• “West Branch” – Strange Witch
• “Powerstation” – Jonathan Weier
• “It’s My Day” – The Goings Gone
• “Collecting” – Spencer LaJoye
• “Knots” – Kyle Joe
• “Zopilote” – Marbrisa
• “Cloud Platform 8” – Deastro
• “Prime” – Mike List
• “Chance Encounter” – Magdalene
• “The Theme” – Justin Walter
• “On Train, On High” – The Glass Path
• “Grief” – Renee Willoughby
• “Mind of the Ocean” – Gwendolyn Dot